The Fog of Airyll COMPLETE

Chapter 23

Hello everyone!

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The next chapter will be posted on August 30th. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Chapter 23

She tightened her hands in a fist. Tightened harder. And harder - until it started to burn. Until her nails cut into her palms making them slippery with blood.

She was Elle? That didn't make sense in her head - if Elle was so in love with Lord Alastair, how come all she felt when she looked at that man's face was fear, disgust... and rage? It didn't make sense! Even if she didn't remember any details, shouldn't she at least have a good impression of him? A good feeling?

Mabel said their love story was the stuff of legends. That it was like a fairy tale - why didn't she remember then? Why hadn't Lord Alastair himself told her this fact? He hadn't told her anything - in fact, he hadn't given her a single hint about whom he had once been to her. Wouldn't he want her to recover her memories of their love story?

Her heart started to beat faster, pounding against her chest almost as if it wanted to escape. Her head followed the fast rhythm, the pain behind her eyes so strong that she wanted to cry out. Out of nowhere, she noticed little bright spots surrounding her as she blinked, and before anything else could be said or done, she found herself losing consciousness once more.

"No." Her voice was low, a little bit above a whisper. "I can't faint."

She couldn't, in fact. She had to get out of the house, she needed to be safe. If what she had heard was right, Lord Alastair intended to lock her up inside of the healer's house and then he'd marry her, whether she wanted to or not.

For the Lady's sake, she couldn't allow that to happen! Until she found out more about her past, until she understood why Lord Alastair hadn't told her who she was...

No, she couldn't allow the man to imprison her. She wouldn't.

Taking deep breaths, Nephelle pushed away the pain and forced herself to focus on her surroundings. From the place where she was standing she could catch a glimpse of Lord Alastair and Verbera arguing in what she imagined was the living room. She couldn't see a door or a window, but maybe... Maybe if she went back, if she returned to the room she had woken up into... Could she escape using the window? Would she dare?

Or should she wait until Lord Alastair left?

There was Verbera, Nephelle pondered, and the fact that she was an unknown factor. Was the healer on her side, or on Lord Alastair's? After all, despite arguing with him - and she did argue quite a bit - the woman wasn't exactly mad at him. She seemed to disagree with him and yet, it didn't look like she'd be brave enough to help Nephelle escape or even to turn a blind eye her way.

She couldn't take the risk.

Once inside her bedroom, she headed straight towards the window and studied it with care. Beside her, the creature - it had said his name was Wygar, hadn't it? - floated around her as if wondering what she was doing.

Testing the wood from the sill, she grimaced. It broke on her hand, letting her know it was mostly rotten. On the bright side, the glass was long gone, the only thing covering the hole being a large and heavy curtain.

Could she escape through here? She fit the hole, Nephelle decided after analyzing it, but the rotten wood might not be able to stand her weight - if it broke under her it would make for painful wounds. Also, there were some shards of glass stuck here and there that would hurt a lot if she had the bad luck to pass by one of them.