Colorless

5 - Gray Between

[Picture of Cyran...obviously]

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Cyran dug the grave. His weapon shaped into a blue shovel for the job, and he worked quickly. A thin layer of sweat covered his torso when he was done, but other than that, he didn't seem to have spent much effort in digging a hole five feet deep.

As Cyran worked, Kin spoke up. "They were too weak." He scrubbed at his swords to remove all of the thick blood. "And clumsy and untrained."

"You're worried about them being weak?" Raleigh asked. "It doesn't concern you that there are so many of them now?"

Kin made no outward signs of annoyance, but Nell could hear in his voice that he was trying not to snap at her. "Of course it concerns me. All of it does. I've worked as a guard for nine years, and I've never seen anything like this."

Kaden was the only one who seemed amused by the conversation. He sat next to Nell with an ever-present smirk on his face.  He tugged on Nell's hair to get her attention when she tried to ignore him. "Do you think we should tell them?" he asked in a low voice.

Nell's heart dropped to her stomach, and she whipped around to stare at him. Panic clawed at her throat. He was going to tell about Ianthe. "You said you wouldn't!"

Kaden laughed again, and when he spoke, he addressed everyone. Nell tensed for the words she thought would come. "Someone's building an army," he drawled.

Only Cyran and Nell looked surprised at the information. Kin nodded like he thought the same thing, and Raleigh made no visual signs of agreement but expanded on what Kaden meant. "Over the course of this year, we've seen twice as many of those creatures as we have in past years put together. They're weaker and more abundant like their being created quickly and with more a focus on quantity than quality. There's no way this is happening on its own. Something or, more likely, someone is behind this."

Nell thought immediately of the man Ianthe spoke to but kept her mouth shut about it as they pondered. It made sense he would need an army to protect those he promised protection.

Thinking of Ianthe brought a familiar tightness to her chest. It was the same feeling she got when she thought of her parents. Not even a day on her own, and Nell already missed her sister.

Nell didn't hear Kin approach, so she flinched when her knelt before her. His robe and hat were still on the ground, but his swords were tied securely around his waist with a couple long pieces of cloth. His eyebrows shot up again when she flinched. "Am I really that scary?" he asked.

"You sneak up on me," she accused, narrowing her eyes into a glare.

Kin gave her a sly smile that, when accompanied by his wandering eyes, made her skin crawl. "I'll try to be louder next time." Then he held out a small loaf of bread. Nell hadn't even realized she was hungry, but upon seeing the food, her stomach made a small noise of longing that went unnoticed by Kin. He was probably too busy staring at the leather armor over her chest to hear it.

"'Ey, Kin! What are you doing molesting that poor girl?" Raleigh called to him.

"'Ey?" He laughed. "Raleigh, your Islander is showing." The way Kin said it made it sound dirty, but Nell realized he was referencing her accent. From the way she talked, it was obvious she was from the Sapphire Islands where the people all spoke funny: cutting off the beginning and ends of their words and speaking far too fast to be understood. Nell thought her accent odd when they first met because Raleigh spoke uncharacteristically slow, but once Kin pointed it out, she found the accent of the Islands easy to recognize in her words. The people there were referred to, often degradingly, as Islanders. They were beautiful and colorful islands as Nell remembered from the few months she and Ianthe spent up there, but the people were odd and refused to slow their speech for Nell to understand.