When Embers Grow

Chapter Nineteen: The Art Of Knocking

"As you all know, something's been going on with the Fai in the castle and the local villages. Their features that make them Fai have been... Enhanced. More noticeable, does anyone know what caused this change?" Iels now black eyes scoured the crowd, searching for an answer. Briefly pausing at Ivy and then carrying on.

"Could it be the Council in London?" Someone shouted.

"Could it be Roman?" Someone else yelled.

Sound erupted from all around the room. Arguments and cries. It was chaos. Iel tried to calm the crowd but that only made them louder and angrier.

"It was you!" Suddenly, the frail old woman was standing in front of Ivy. Her yellow teeth bared and her pasty face sweaty.

"Roman wants you, doesn't he?" She pointed a inhumanly long finger at Ivy, accusingly.

"Yes, he does. He's doing this because of you." The woman hissed and spat, her breath wreaking of death.

"Me?" Ivy didn't know what else to say, though she was beginning to understand why those men had sneered at this ragged woman. Not out of manly pride, but out of disgust.

"Yes, he wants you on his side not these fools. Maybe you should go! Over to the dark side!" The woman was cackling and ranting like a fool.

"I think you should go-"

"See that streak that goes through your hair? That's a sign that you are not meant for this place! You have lost your destiny! You could end up anywhere! The Gods will not guide you. They never have!" She laughed and laughed until tears spilled down her wrinkled cheeks and two men escorted her out.

The room was silent, whispers and accusations echoing around her. She felt dizzy and cold, looking between the faces of the Fai that surrounded her.

"You do realise that you're letting the ramblings of a mad-woman get to you?" She asked incredulously, glancing between the crowds faces.

"What are you on?" She'd had enough. With a huff, she stormed over to Iel and informed him that she was off to do the mission, whether he liked it or not. With a smile that made her blink, he let her go and started reasoning with the merciless crowd.

She rounded the corner and made her way through the empty halls until she got to her room. The sky was long dark meaning that their time was ticking by faster than ideal.

"Alex," she waisted no time and hoisted him up, patting down his shoulder. "Time to go. Wheres India?" India was in her own room getting ready apparently. They waisted no time with the art of knocking and barged right in, thankful to find her ready.

Thus, in no time, she found herself pulling her hood up and watching India's back retreat into the darkness. Alex prowled around the side of a brick wall, following India. Once India was fully out of sight, Ivy jumped up onto the wall and started to do what she had once adored. Climbing was a hidden talent of hers, she was rather skilled at it. In a cat-like manner, she wound her way up the houses and over the roofs, until she was far ahead of India and whatever their next victim was called. She sat cross-legged on the stone wall and waited for them.

It took a while, so long in fact that she began to worry. Though, they did come, it wasn't how she had assumed they would. A hulk of a man held India's hair taught, dragging her behind him. Poor girl was crying and screaming. "Shut up!" He hissed, backhanding her.

"That's going to leave a mark." Ivy pondered aloud, twirling her dagger around her hand casually. The man jumped and turned to glare at her figure. She chuckled, glad for the moon's lighting, and jumped down from the wall. She sauntered over to him and backhanded him so hard that he let go of India's hair and staggered back a few steps.

"Not nice is it?" She asked, subtly waving for India to go, now. She examined her blade and then looked up at the monster before her. No waisting of time, she though, and twirled. This time when she faced him, his body crumpled to the ground in a dead heap. But not quite before she saw her reflection in his salmon pink eyes, she looked about as dead as he was.