Blood & Shadows

Fourteen

Orange and crimson light threads through the trees, casting their warm rays upon camp as violets and blues creep in the darkest reaches. Still, Faeriel prays and pleads to Cerys, as she anoints Geraent's corpse. Vrythien watches her carefully with that look of ennui ever-present. Our kiss from earlier lingers on my lips still and the truth he showed me with it that he cannot speak aloud.

Whether or not I've loved so deeply I do not know. But I want to offer words of comfort, but I cannot find any. The more I take in her desperate form the more I catch myself wondering if the Bard spent time like that pleading for me. It's possible of course. Or at least he said as much. Then Faeriel, Geraent, and Vrythien killed him. Shaking my head, I snatch up the book from the tomb, willing my thoughts away from the bard and that drawing and book I have tucked away in the saddle bags.

Turning my back on the sight of Faeriel's desperation, I open the tome and flip through the pages. A strange sensation of familiarity floods me and a half hazy memory of the scent of the sea and the cry of gulls rings in my ears. A flash of that memory of sitting at the cliffside cafe with Razeth across from me. It's the book. It's my book.

Shutting the tome I toss it away from me. It lands cover up. It's a taunt. Pity for them, I don't remember who I was, so I only half understand it, but there is no doubt in my mind finding this book is a taunt. Geraent lost his life over a petty taunt.

There's no enjoying Vrythien tonight. Not after this. I could get both of them killed over slights from a past I don't remember. Who was I to warrant such a reaction? Someone who once smiled like a lover at the man who inevitably caged them. And played distraction to a slave instead of freeing them. The thought alone is enough to make me sick.

I stand and turn, only to smack into Vrythien's hard chest. He could die, too. The thought rips a sob from me, and I step away.

"I have to go for a walk," I explain, shaking my head. I can't be here.

"It's dark already." He states, as close to saying that he's worried about me as he'll ever get.

"Yes, and I'm half-elf. I see just as well in the dark as you do." I walk away, and he lets me, never mind that I can practically feel his need to have me close. As I storm off, flashes of me standing over the bard and weeping over Vrythien's body come to mind. Another troubling thought comes to mind... what would happen to Vrythien if he lost me? Losing me would snap that tenuous hold on emotion for him. He'd go back to his life of terror and subjugation.

And I would be the cause of it. No. I can't have that.

#

Silver moonlight streams through the trees, alighting everything in that bluish-cool tint, which leaves me cold. Before me stretches that black lake, the same one we crossed days prior. The Ladies' Lake. I feel the magic this time, taste that crackling power on my tongue. It's a facade. All of it. Nothing around me is real, and it all shimmers with an edge of starlight as though it's begging me to tear away the illusion created for benefit.

"I know you're here," I call out, my voice echoing off into nothingness. In a swirl of that sickly purple smoke, they appear. The one with the crown holds a gleaming phial containing a shimmery liquid with its own light. "Is this the part where you offer me a potion? One that will bring my memories back in exchange for some cryptic price that is only designed to cause me, and those around me pain?" Geraent was so certain the ladies could help. They didn't help at all, the only people they help are themselves--if they're even people at all still.

"Imagine it, feeling whole once again. Knowing who you are, having answers to all the questions about yourself you have at any moment. All your memories intact." She smiles, flashing white teeth that glimmer in the moonlight, a stark contrast to those dark vines that weave in, out, and around her flesh. There's an air of superiority with how she looks at me flanked by her sisters. "We did you a favor. The spell doesn't work on an incomplete set. We did exactly what he asked for, which is more than we usually do. The three of you no longer fit into Razeth's plans." She grins, her smile just a touch too wide. "And for you, we offer you what will help you access your true powers, we offer you knowledge." The others mimic that grin that makes my blood run cold.