An Immortal's Favour

Gale- Re-Emergence

*

From my hut, I collected all I'd need: the money, the vials of blood, and so forth, for the journey back and left as quickly as I'd come. I swept past my locality's hub, where all immortals were required to proffer the details of their comings and goings to and from Danso.

After some time, I launched into the air, putting as much distance as I could between myself and the bordering mountains to the back of me. The Passage loomed closer as the hours passed, leafy trees giving way to lifeless ones.

My heart slammed against my chest, and coupled with the sting in my shoulder, I could hardly breathe. Jumping from one spot to another, my eyes threatened to tear out of my head. Finally, the green glow of an access point seeped through the naked branches. I swooped down for a closer look.

It wouldn't take me to Dorem; I knew this as the access point to the city had always been blue, but I'd be dropped off nearby, not far from Lindima's borders. As I neared the portal, something curled around my leg, and brought me down a few inches over the ground. I dangled in the air, clutching hard at my travelling bag.

Three figures loomed over me. The whispy spirit of a skyweaver hovered behind Akaze, who bared his teeth in his typical sly smile, and Apparis. She threw a parcel to the ground. I groaned, unable to reach for it.

"Take this. I can see your determination knows no bounds."

The skyweaver wrapped its second tail over my waist, pulling me up, and propped me against a tree. It blew Apparis' parcel into my hands, snatching away my travelling bag before I had the time to reflect upon the action. I pulled back the parcel's old paper to reveal a black leather box, inside of which two small vials had been nestled. The brews inside them both were translucent.

"These are weak," I said.

"And they're what I could spare," Apparis snapped. "Be grateful." She rooted through my bag, taking out a waterskin filled with the last of my sacred water. The creases around her eyes faded by a fraction.

"So that's why," I said. "After all of this, you still depend on me for something. You're afraid."

"Of course I'm afraid," she said. "My charges are dying of the plague, and I lose more by the day."

I bit back a retort, hung my head in shame.

"You're a selfish creature, Efua. You no longer deserve to be an immortal," she reprimanded, stealing a glance at Akaze. He looked between the two of us with bemusement. "First him, and now you. Where they find you new immortals, I don't know."

"Please don't bring Eddie into this."

She continued, her hot words fuelled more by my plea, "If these brews aren't good enough for you, I'd be happy to have them back."

Tears stung the corner of my eyes, and my face heated with the anger of having been caught sooner than I would've liked. "I'll take them."

Apparis nodded, latching one of her hands over Akaze's wrist. "We'll have a discussion about this when you return," she said. "I expect you at my home within the following week. Until then."

They both disappeared, leaving me. I looked up at the skyweaver that'd been left behind. It stared at me for a second, it's green, reptilian eyes shining, and then swerved through the branches, melting into the shadows.

With not much else to do, I stood up and tucked the box beneath my arm, bracing myself as I passed through the portal.

Little time passed before a glowing opening tore ahead of me, through which I hurtled, into the mortal world. My body collided harshly against the floor of a wooden bridge. A man, who'd been whistling to himself, whipped his head around, and his mouth fell open, just as I scurried away.