A Mirage Of Milk And Honey

Chapter 8 - New Plan

Honey lay in Aedis' bed, safe with the fur blankets tucked up to her chin.

"She can't go on like this." Chip said from where he stood at the foot of the lavishly decorated bed.

"You shouldn't have told her." Aedis ground out from where he sat by the fire.

"And- what?" Chip replied with a harsh shrug, "She deserves to know! She was doing well, controlling her powers. We can't keep everything from her Aedis, nor can we go on acting as though she is going to get her memories back. It has been two months!"

"She will!" Aedis responded, "She will remember!"

"You don't know that!" Chip snapped.

"She has to!" 

"You need to accept that Yvette is dead, Aedis!"

The room stilled, but Aedis and Chip only glared at each other.

"Is there no way to find out? Whether she could get her memories back?" Zemira asked meekly from where she sat on a chair beside Honey, gently stroking the hair from her pale face.

"You know I've been researching, but... Mortvi are old, not to mention a crime against the Seven Queens." Chip said, referring to the Queens of the Dark Witches. "The old scripts were destroyed in The Burning centuries ago."

"I know. I know." Zemira whispered, familiar with the story of how they'd burnt the manuscripts and research on Immoral Beings. "But surely... there must be something that could tell us more. Another Mortvi, perhaps?"

Aedis was silent, his glare focused on the other man. At the sight of Chip's scattered gaze, Aedis' eyebrows shot up.

"There is, isn't there." Aedis said, appalled that Chip had not mentioned anything sooner.

"No, there isn't." The Dark Witch replied firmly.

"I can tell. What is it?" Aedis pushed, brows furrowed. Chip mirrored the expression—his face stone cold and stiff with a practised mask.

Zemira stood quietly as she watched the two—Aedis on the offence and Chip's defensively hunched shoulders.

Shaking his messy black hair only to run a hand through the dull onyx locks, Chip sighed. If there was one thing he knew about Aedis, it was that the other man's stubbornness exceeded his own—which was an impressive, if not concerning feat.

"There's a-" He cut himself off with a defeated sigh, "There's a seer." He said warily, "In the Quarter Peaks."

Immediately the stillness of the room dissipated and hope filled both Zemira and Aedis.

"Why didn't you say so sooner?" Asked Aedis, leaping up to grasp Chip by the shoulders.

"Because Seer's are not the easiest to handle and even I do not know whether she could give us the answers we seek." Chip snapped defensively.

Zemira pursed her lips thoughtfully. "There must be something she knows? If not whether Honey can retrieve her memories, perhaps why she was brought back? And by whom?"

Chip almost let out a growl. They refused to acknowledge the logical side of this predicament—that not only was her having the answers a long shot, but that the Seer, being what she was, deserved a certain amount of choice in the matter. A certain amount of respect. Concised creatures such as her—beings born with an abnormally high amount of Ether—had been abused in wars for centuries. Especially Seers and Soothseers, their abilities to view the future being far too valuable.

"I'll weave to her, bring her here and demand answers." Aedis declared, pulling away as though ready to take his leave.

"No!" Chip opposed, "If you use Ether to find her, she will vanish. She will see you coming."