The Chaos Of Knowledge

Chapter 23

Three weeks passed before Nomas' eyes. The world was a blur of movement and pain as he began recovering from his wounds. He never left the infirmary other than to get a few minutes of sun each day. He felt more like a prisoner than a patient as he was treated.

His fever never felt like it would go away and he was tied to the bed each night from recurring nightmares. It was torture, and he needed out. The afternoon was cooled by the coming Autumn, and the leaves that fell from the trees made the world seem like it was in a constant state of flux.

His tail moved slightly as he stood at the edge of the fence sighing. Selene stood beside him leaning against the fence. "It's beautiful." She said with a smile. "During the fall all the farms are chopped down to harvest."

"Yeah, I love it. All of Adorea is like this during the fall. Trees nearly a hundred feet up, and thousands of branches full of leaves. When you looked out into the city it was nothing but a sea of reds, yellows, and oranges. I love it. It is was beautiful.

Both stood a long time before Nomas hopped the fence with a smile. "Let's go see more."

Selene gave him an odd look, "You know you are supposed to be bed ridden, right?" She asked with a frown.

Nomas just waved it off with a smile. "If I think I can handle it you should trust me." She smiled at him before hopping the fence and following him down the dirt road. They both moved slowly along with a smile shared between them.

Both of them looked out into the path as the leaves fell along it. "Dani is well right?" He asked kicking a pebble into the shrubbery.

She nodded crossing her arms, Nomas copied the motion. "Yeah, she's been fine. The giants have been taking care of her while I've been here or working. Dani's been teaching Andrew to speak through hand gestures."

Nomas laughed slightly, "Yeah, I might try picking that up. It could be useful when we need to be quiet." He said looking up at the sky. A few clouds spotted crisp blue in the afternoon sun. "When are you going to start teaching me again?" He asked with a frown his gaze going towards her bright green eyes that seemed to glow in the warm background of leaves.

Selene frowned letting herself look up before sighing loudly. "Oh god, Nomas. I keep telling you, we can't do anything until that's better." She said motioning to the still bandaged stomach.

He let a sigh looking at her with a frown. "Selene. I am worried about my mind." He admitted looking at her. "I..." He paused looking back at the small path to ensure they hadn't been followed. "I was the one who killed my father. Ouroboros forced a poison down my throat and it set me off. I changed completely because of it. We fought, and I won." He said looking at her with pain.

"Nomas..." She said shocked at the revelation. "I... I... I'm sorry." She managed to look at him with pain in her eyes. "I had no idea."

"No one does. I haven't even told Boris. But especially not Flynn. If he knew about this... he's leery about me already, if he knew that I was on the verge of breaking..." He said motioning to himself. "He would kill me on sight. He said so."

Selene looked down with a frown, "Alright. I won't tell anyone. And we'll start training as soon at the bandages can be safely removed. But listen. This is going to be hard, believe me. I won't go easy on you just because I like you." She said offering a hand.

"Thanks for saving me." She said before hitting him hard in the arm. "And that's for assuming I needed help," Selene said before she smiled and began walking towards the path back towards the settlement.

Nomas took a moment rubbing his arm before frowning. Watching the young woman run ahead of him with her tail wagging quickly as she enjoyed the autumn air. But as he stood there he could feel there was something wrong. He knew something was wrong. Digging into the back of his mind. 

He stood for quite some time watching her feeling his stomach feel like it was being crushed. Selene barely noticed anything until Nomas leaned hard against the side of the tree. She came up to him too quickly offering a hand.

"I'm fine." Nomas lied quickly looking up towards her, but Nomas felt his sight go dark as he let his weight lean against it. It was a feeling he had never felt before, agony beyond comprehension. He almost felt like he was dying. All he could see was the body, the blood, the cold hollow eyes of his father. 

He looked back towards the woman and motioned her off. "Please, I'll catch up." He said after a moment and could only assume she walked off hearing the crunching of leaves leaving him alone.

Deep down though Nomas knew he wasn't going to catch up soon. There was something wrong and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to even return within an hour. His heart was pounding in his skull, his legs were weak, and he dropped into the leaves in pain.

It was nearly two hours before Selene's worry got the most of her. Returning to where she had left Nomas she returned with her rapier in hand approaching the tree she had last seen him beside.

The large pool of blood looked fresher than she liked.

"Nomas." She called quickly. The rustling of leaves not far off made her look with her weapon pointed at ready. Skulking from the bushes the large orange fox came up towards her with a deep face of regret. There was pain in its eyes as she dropped to her knees. "Nomas... What happened?"