Guardian of Elements

Chapter 38 - Argument

As Kate said, the fire was still burning when the three woke up. Arneia was quite surprised by it, but she went over it quickly and sat next to it along with the two Guardians to get some warmth.

The meadow was covered in hoarfrost. The Sun was shining down through the fog and the atmosphere was making Kate want to go to sleep again. But she forced her eyes to stay open and like the girl, she leaned against Eriana, whose wolf coat was giving her much better protection against the cold than Kate's silky fur. She looked at her.

"You know what you promised me yesterday, right?" It surprised her how she couldn't stop her voice from shaking, just how her body was.

"I know, but now it's too cold for you to go. Just stay here for several hours, I'll scout ahead meanwhile." She stood up and grass was cracking under her feet as she went to the edge of the clearing.

"She left again..." said Arneia, sad.

"She goes out like this often?" asked Kate.

"Well, more than I'd like her to."

Kate remembered what Eriana said about having to maintain her responsibility to both her domain and her goddaughter. She couldn't help but to think about Tawarthion. What a great sacrifice he made to raise her.

The Sun dissipated the fog and most of the hoarfrost melted. To Kate's surprise, flowers on the meadow were still blossoming. When she asked Arneia about it, she explained that they always do, that hoarfrost preserves them, like a blanket. She didn't know that, in her forest all flowers died every winter and were replaced by new ones when spring came.

Arneia then went for something to eat, while Kate hid herself from her in the forest for a while. She had to test something. When she was sure that the girl can't see her, she reached deep into her chest, her gem, and just for a brief moment, she let the power flow through her body. She had to know how much of it had recovered since her last adventure, when she used every last bit of it. Those few seconds were enough for her to learn that she had some of it at her disposal, but it was far from the amount she felt when she lifted the four pillars in Lerinth's forest. She hoped that Tawarthion's power was recovering at least equally as fast as hers.

But that emptiness she was feeling wasn't only from the lack of her power. From the beginning, every time she drew on it, it was harder and harder to reach it, to pierce the barrier in her gem that was stopping it from flowing out constantly. It was the distance. Her domain was on the western shore of the continent. Now she was in eastern forests, farthest from it she could ever be. She had been away for several weeks. How it must've felt for Tawarthion for three long years...

"Kate! Where are you?" Nei's shout woke her up from thinking. She went back to the clearing.

"Don't worry, I was just exploring," she told her when she arrived back at the den.

"I wish I could be like you sometimes," Arneia said, eating with a thoughtful smile.

"What do you mean, an animal?"

"No, I meant... free."

"Free? You are the only human I've met so far that has a chance to be free, in a way."

"You haven't met many friendly people, huh? No, I meant that you and Eriana can go wherever you like, whenever you like. I've spent most of my years here." She didn't sound troubled, only sad.

"Eriana has never let you go outside, right?"

"Yeah... I know she's been doing it to protect me, but I can't help but feel that there's more to the world than just this meadow and surrounding woods."

"You have no idea..." Kate imagined how amazed she would be by otherworldly creatures that had been created by Tawarthion's tenders or how would her meeting with spirits go. Or just seeing her making a simple rock levitate.

"Hey, listen, Eriana won't probably like it, but we're planning to go to your village today, so what if you accompanied us?"

"What? Do you mean that I could go with you? To see things outside? I really could?" Arneia's mood changed from thoughtful to excited in a blink of an eye.

"Wait, calm down, I don't think that Eriana will approve it anyway."

"But still, just the chance..."

"I told you, don't have any high hopes, it's not up to me to decide. Now, will you show me how you make that wooden stick sing like a bird?"

*

The Guardian of Minds returned in the afternoon. She found Kate snoozing on Arneia's laps, while she was playing her flute. But even from afar, she knew something was different, both from feeling the girl's excitement and from the quick and happy melody she was playing. When she reached them, a quick peek into her mind told her everything.

"Kate, may I speak with you?" she introduced her arrival. Arneia was, however, eager to talk to her too.

"Eri, we were talking and she..."

"Later. Come," she said resolutely and nodded at Kate. She led her farther away.

"Why Kate? Now it will take me hours to restore her memory so that she would stop asking."

"What do you mean, restore her memory?"

"Cleansing it of those hopes of going out." She said it in such a casual tone that it was enough to open Kate's eyes.

"You've done this before, haven't you?"

"What?"

"This is not the first time she wants to go out in seven years. Every time she wanted to, you manipulated her to not ask, right?" She could see the Guardian of Minds plainly now.

"What is this supposed to mean?"

"That you've imprisoned her here!" she shouted. "Why haven't you told her who we are? Why haven't you told her what's happened to other humans? Why is she trapped in this golden cage?"

"I've done it to protect her! If I let her outside, she would be in danger, you know that very well!"

"You'll be keeping her here for her entire life, then?"

"This is only to keep her safe, until we deal with the human situation."

"Be honest, when this began three years ago, you had no idea whether it even would resolve, much less when. If it weren't of the Guardian of Wisdom, we wouldn't even know that you've found out how to block the plague. You've known it since the first day! We could've stopped all this from happening! Does he even know about her or had you kept her hidden even from him?" Kate pressed her attack.

"Is this about Arneia or me?" Eriana said angrily.

"Both. You, her, me, the other Guardians, the entire world. You can't see that everything is intertwined. Your love to her has blinded you indeed. Just open your eyes! You have to see that worrying about the girl made you make bad decisions!"

"And who are you to question my decisions??" shouted Eriana.

"I am her! Just like her, I'm here because of violation of rules. Just like her, I've been raised without knowing my true parents. But Tawarthion knew when to tell me the truth. He gave me a happy childhood. Does she look happy? You should know it better than anyone else! She pretends to be happy on the outside, but inside, she wants more than to just sit here and play her flute."

"But you know as well as I do that what she wants might get her killed, or even worse!"

"We are two Guardians, we can protect her from any danger before it comes close. Let her come. She deserves to know the truth." Kate went to Eriana, speaking in a kinder tone. She looked back at her.

"Fine. But you must swear to me that you'll protect her, no matter what."