The Tragedy of Renya

5.3 Second Time

"We have to get out of here" Nick said, as he pulled Erica along behind the buildings. Behind one of the uninhabited farms, underneath a large pine tree the two sat down. Erica panted from the sudden movements and then felt a nausea raising up. She got up and vomited in one of the rosebushes.

"There goes the worth of this house." Nick joked. Erica sat down again and was handed a flask of water.

"Thanks." She gasped. After a few minutes she felt better again. Then everything came back to her. The white street, with the white buildings, and now the sun going down again.

Time travel? She asked Nick. He looked away and nodded.

"To where? Is it tomorrow?" Erica asked. Nick signalled her to wait. After about half an hour she heard footsteps walking towards them.

"Got them engaged too? Sent them out of this city?" A voice she'd never heard before said to the person the woman was talking to.

"Nothing important." Erica recognised the voice who answered.

"Nick?!" she whispered. He put his finger in front of his lips. The footsteps stopped on the square. A few minutes later other footsteps also appeared.

"Professor?" the female voice asked. Erica suddenly realised that had to be her voice.

I can't sound that childish? She thought. Somehow the embarrassment over that single fact overshadowed everything that had happened.

She listened with Nick to the conversation that followed, and inevitably to the professor taking out his gun.

That had happened, Erica realised. It hadn't been a dream. The professor, professor Sother, who'd always looked out for her, had pointed a weapon at her with the intent to kill if she hadn't handed over Nick.

Not that handing him over or not had been her choice. Nick had decided for himself that he wouldn't go to Professor Sother. Erica hadn't asked him why. Not that she'd been given a chance to ask yet.

"What the hell?" Professor Sother's voice went through the area. Erica wanted to ask Nick if their hiding place was safe, but when she went to look at him again he was gone. She looked around the corner to the square and saw Nick sneaking to the professor. Within a few seconds after reaching the professor Nick had tied him up. With a smile he pulled Sother along and locked him up in the house they'd been hiding behind. Then he came back to pick up Erica.

"Why did you do that?" she asked, "that could count as kidnapping! That's illegal!"

Nick laughed.

"We need to see those brothers, right? I'd rather not have him trailing behind us."

Erica nodded as she realised that made sense. Nick turned around and headed to the centre of the city, and she quickly ran after him.

"Nick what was that place? And what did you do?" she asked.

"You noticed?" Nick sighed, "Time-travel. I took us out of there and to the past."

"So why did we have to run?"

"Did we encounter ourselves at that square? That's why. You can't change what happens. To do so is a strong violation of Wyndri rules."

Erica looked at the buildings the two of them passed as she thought about that.

"Didn't you say you'd changed the past already?" she asked, "with the engagement?"

"True. It's also a taboo to take a human through time. On the other hand, had I not done that I would have changed history more than I already have."

"What does that mean?"

"You're the one who will break Renya's curse. My original plan was to take you out of the picture, solve it myself and let you take the honour. That didn't work."

"Because I ran away from the engagement?"

"Because I can't enter Renya."

Erica looked at him, wanting to get more of an explanation, but she didn't get it. All Nick said was that the brothers would explain it.

The brothers lived in a small house on the far side of town. Nick explained that the two of them had wanted to live as far away from Renya as they could have. Yet they couldn't leave the big cities; like their great-grandfather they were merchants.

In the current financial climate that meant that they could only make enough money to have one of them go out at a time. The other would have to wait at home.

The house of the two brothers was made of brick and, like all houses in the city, had a giant garden. A few apple trees and some bushes with fruits grew in the garden, and between those was a path of white stone that led to the front door.

"I'll wait here." Nick said, as he stepped behind another building, "You'll get more answers without me."

Without understanding why, Erica knew she had to enter the building on her own. She walked over the path and knocked on the door. A small window in the front door opened with two brown eyes peering through it.

"Who are you." A voice, belonging to the same person as the eyes, said.

Erica quickly introduced herself, stating she was from the university of Ostia and that she was doing research on the city of Renya and Wyndri and had heard from Professor Fieldsten that there was some crucial information that only the two brothers knew about, so if she could ask them some questions.

"There's only me here," the man said, and the window shut again. A moment later the door opened to reveal a man with dark red hair and a tan complexion. He showed Erica in so she went inside.

The inside of the hut was cheaply decorated. Two chairs around a table, a desk with a large book, and a small kitchen were all that were in this room. There were two doors that would lead to a bedroom and a bathroom. Erica and the man sat down on the table and he told her what his great-grandfather had seen.

A woman with bright purple eyes and a gem on her chest had entered the city just as the man had left it. Then a sound as if from an explosion came from the city. The man had rushed back home but he found he could not enter the city. Inside the gates there was nobody, as if with the explosion all the people had disappeared.

And that was all the man had told them.

"That woman you talked about," Erica said, "was a Wyndri, wasn't she?"

"I don't know," the brother said, "I always thought they were myths. Then again..."

Erica waited for the man to continue and after a few minutes he did.

"I'm not sure if this is related, but after Professor Fieldsten came over, another man appeared. My brother had just left on his travels with our merchandise. This man... he hid his eyes, had no special appearance, but he forced me to tell him everything."

"Forced?"

"Nearly killed me. I had to say everything I knew or he'd kill me. People from the city have since seen him hang around Renya. Looking for something."

"What do you think caused it?"

"That man?"

"Renya."

"The woman. As soon as she went through those gates everyone disappeared."

After a few more questions Erica left the man, thanking him for his cooperation.

Outside she was joined by Nick as soon as the man couldn't see them.

"He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know."

Nick raised an eyebrow.

"The person you're doing it for is like you, right? A Wyndri? Your friend?"

"She's more than that to me. Much more."