The Oracle

Chapter 41: The Path of Heart

SORA

"How do you know Nikita will be willing to help us?" I ask as Sander, Kit, Shae, Isabella, Miroslava, Evory, Darius, Gambit, Sekai, and I head through the jungle, having gotten there thanks to Isabella.

"Nikita has a kind heart and a strong perseverance," Miroslava says. "She'll see our true intentions and where our hearts rest."

"Who exactly is Nikita?" Sander asks.

"Nikita was employed by Aria in a similar sense that I am," Miroslava explains. "She used to work in her own private apothecary as an alchemist and make potions and herbalist mixtures for Aria. She would stop by twice a week to drop off her latest creations, and they would in turn give her one item from Aria of her choosing."

"Anything she wanted?" Isabella asks.

"No," Miroslava shakes her head. "It had to be something within reason, but she was able to get more powerful powders and mixtures that way to help strengthen her potions and such. Over time, Nikita gathered enough to complete her own personal private project, and she stopped visiting Aria because they prohibited her work. The only reason she was never taken into custody was because nobody could ever reach within her domain, so they simply left her be because she never really bothered anyone."

"Taken into custody?" Sander furrows his eyebrows. "What did she do?"

"She found a way to mend life threatening conditions with essence from the nightmare creatures," Miroslava says. "It should be clear to all of us here that not all things that hail from a dark place are actually bad, and that is what Nikita believed as well. She never believed things were so black and white. Light can be good or bad, and darkness can be good or bad. That's the way she always saw things. She always looked to the heart of them, because that's what truly mattered."

"It sounds like she was just trying to help people," Isabella frowns.

"She was," Miroslava nods. "Sadly, Aria didn't recognize that."

"Of course they didn't," Sander grumbles under his breath.

"So, Nikita is the one who healed Reverence, right?" I ask. "Reverence said an alchemist imbued nightmare essence into his heart, and when we met with Nikita, she recognized him."

"I'm assuming so, yes," Miroslava nods.

"But, then..." I trail off with a frown, thinking of Nikita's words towards Reverence.

"What is it, Sora?" Gambit frowns worriedly, glancing over at me.

"Then, why did she act like he wasn't allowed to see her again?" I ask. "She told him she warned him of what would happen if he came back."

"That does seem rather troubling..." Gambit furrows her eyebrows.

"Maybe she'll talk to us about it?" Shae suggests. "If we ask her and she ends up trusting us, we could learn more about what really happened to Reverence. I mean, she was the one who treated him after all. And maybe then we can figure out a way to save him."

"Maybe..." Gambit nods, lost in thought.

"It would be next to impossible to heal Reverence," Evory frowns. "When I treated him, I realized that we would need to gather all of the runestones in order to attempt to heal Reverence. That's why I thought that Carmin wanted them so badly, to heal his brother. Not to..."

Evory trails off and shakes her head while Darius squeezes her shoulder comfortingly, dropping his hand then to take hers in his. As we're walking, Isabella begins to glow a bright white color and she gasps as she looks at her hands and drops to her knees, her eyes wide as she cries out.