Fear Among The Shadows

Chapter XVII - Terrible Strength

After that, they flew in silence. While they knew that it was the Master of Blood who had unexpectedly saved them (or destined them to a worse fate), they didn't know much else. Letitia constantly patted her pocket, making sure that the vial of venom was still securely there and trying to feel some sense of pride or joy at the fact that they completed the mission. But she couldn't. She couldn't feel pain either, or grief, or sadness. She wouldn't allow herself. Those were the feelings that stole away your heart, your resolve, your stability and whisked away with you off to lands of nothing but thunderstorms and hurt. They were like finding oneself atop the Great Chasm in the Depths of Despair, and finding yourself swimming down and down. You keep going as the pressure rises and your skin squeezes your bones, and your lungs begging for air, and you feel anything but yourself, but you keep going because coming out to breathe feels like a betrayal. No, she would not let herself go there. Eric's decision was his own and I will not be held accountable for it.

Eric's choice was his own. And that is the tragedy, my friend. The tragedy that your feeble little lives are so fragile and weak that just the smallest, insignificant decisions can make the greatest altercations. You are not to blame, oh sweet, stupid humans. But what else can you do but berate yourselves? What else can you do when your lives are so fickle and short and so very painful? Oh, how I pity you.

The night crawled ever so slowly as they glided over scattered groups of buildings too small to even be considered villages. There was no greenery, no fields, everything destroyed and scavenged and from what little light the moon shed and the lit torches down below, they could see the people did not fare better than their surroundings. They looked as broken down as the buildings, as scavenged as the fields, empty gazes not even bothering with a glance up at the marvelous beasts flying overhead as though they had seen the beautiful and thought it was overrated. That was when Letitia spoke,

"They know nothing but the rule of the Shadows. They cannot remember the time before they were at her mercy, although it wasn't that long ago. The cold has pierced their bones. They are no more alive than ghosts."

Adilah stared at her. She didn't know what to say to that, but she tried anyway,

"I think I can understand you better now. You grew up here. That couldn't have been easy. Not to mention whatever you did to piss off one of the craziest people I've ever met."

Letitia cracked a smile which encouraged Adilah to continue,

"You're a lot braver than me. You have the Brave One's spirit. To stand up against someone as powerful as that, not only once, but twice? After everything she's put you through? To have the courage to leave? I can never match your strength."

"I'm not strong."

"Don't be ridiculous. I was unhappy with my father. He was incompetent and crude, but I still never left."

"You couldn't leave your sister."

"Of course," Adilah's heart lurched as it did every time, she remembered her little sister, "but I could've taken her with me. I could've found us a new home, a place where I wouldn't be called a savage for the color of my skin and she wouldn't be called an abomination for her...condition. There's a Rasan community in the capital; if I'd done I'm sure I would've found some help. But I didn't. I was too scared."

"You should've been. It wasn't easy those first few days, wandering the streets alone. There is no law in this land, but strength. Anyone can do anything to anyone, if they were strong enough. I didn't know where I could possibly go. The thought of going to another land was just as frightening. Who knew what kind of lawlessness they had there? Eddie found me though. He brought me to Lord Jonathan and convinced me to stay."