Branches - Two Fates. One Tale

Fate's Design

"Noooo!" Somebody screamed. It took him a while to acknowledge it was Sayo.

He leaned over the broken window's sill and looked outside. In the narrow light of the moon he saw two figures lying on the ground. Motionless from what he could see.

Squeezing his eyes to slits he sharpened his gaze.

He clenched his teeth together while he stared at the silhouettes on the ground.

After what felt like forever one of them moved. Relieved he leaned back again and released a puff.

"What are you doing?"

Shimon turned right to look at his sister standing where the chair had been. The chair she had tied the boy to was gone out of the window like the boy himself.

He also wondered what he was doing. He could have killed them both and fulfill the legend for good. Instead he had hesitated. Instead he had been overcome with fear watching her drop out of the window and relief upon watching her move.

Not only was he unable to kill her, he was concerned for her well-being, when he should actually be more interested in ending her life. Why?

Had the gods spread this threat between them from the start? Was this how he was supposed to feel for the last of Amawaka?

These emotions were odd and disturbing. For the first time, he questioned his mission to reclaim his soul, all thanks these awakened feelings.

It was almost as if he became more human the closer he was to her, as if his soul was caged inside his body, reacting to her proximity and raging against its restraining bars.

"Shimon! What are you doing? Why aren't you sending men to chase after them?" Sayo addressed him again, this time in an insistent tone.

There were quite a few things he ought to do, instead of brooding over this. He did behave oddly. But he couldn't explain the reason why, neither to Sayo nor himself.

A sigh left him and he leaned through the window, avoiding the shattered glass.

They were gone. If there was an emotional reaction, which should settle in, it would be him getting angry or frustrated. Yet, it didn't. He felt easier than before.

"Shimon?"

No matter what any of this meant, he still needed a plan. He need to shake out of this state and he needed to find her again. He would deal with however the play turned out then.

Looking at Sayo, he told her, "They belong to this village. We'll find them."

The question was how. He could let his henchmen flip every stone in the village but something told him they won't be inside the village. Earlier this day Mayura had said something about belonging to an orphanage. He just needed to find it.

Like a puzzle a plan formed within his head. "We'll ask the other prisoners. They should know where they are hiding."

"You want to interrupt the feast?" Sayo looked at him wide eyed and shocked. Gone was her playful and childish attitude. Right now she reminded him of the old Sayo; the sweet and kind girl who always had told him in a calm voice, that he needed to let her go. If it hadn't been for her and his inability to obey her request, they'd both wouldn't be here. Their corpses would have rotted away a long time ago, leaving only bones behind. None of this would have happened. Yet, of all of the things he could regret, saving her life he would never regret. Even though he'd exchanged the nice girl with the bloodthirstiest of them all.

She was right to be shocked, though. Controlling a bunch of bloodgorgers was hard enough. Ripping them from their prey was another thing. Whether he'd fathered them. However, he needed to see Mayura again.