Twelve Realms

Chapter 17

Lucia

I cross "abandoned houses" off my list of potential places the Thief could be hiding. I won't say I'm not disappointed. It may have been unrealistic to expect him to just be sitting in the middle of one of the houses twiddling his thumbs, but I thought I'd at least find something beneficial- an old piece of clothing, some remnant of the Thief, a person who's seen him- anything to help. Instead I'm right back where I started, and even saying that is generous, because I've made barely any progress at all. 

Aerid doesn't seem surprised by this, or maybe he just doesn't care. He should. I don't think he realizes how important this is. What part of "I'm on a mission assigned by a goddess" does he not understand? It's not like there's nothing in this for him.

He refused to help me look at all, but seemed to have no problem wandering around outside the houses. It's almost like he's trying to irritate me. 

The sun is setting by the time we make it back to the house where we've set up camp. The first floor is dirty and insect-ridden and neither of us particularly want to sleep down there, so we both end up on the second floor as far from as each other from possible.

But neither of us actually go to sleep. I light a candle and flip through my notebook and my map, trying to think of where else we can go. Aerid has his back to me.

Truly, I'm stumped on where to go next. Locals won't talk to me, nobles won't talk to me, these abandoned houses were no use. Is the Thief hiding in a tree? Has he buried himself underground? Short of wandering aimlessly through the forest looking under anything human-sized, I've exhausted all of my options.

I can't help but feel like a failure. Not only have I disappointed Dea, I've let down the Temple and all of my friends there, who are all expecting me to come home successful. I've let down everyone in the Twelve Realms, who will all no doubt continue to be punished for the Thief's wrongdoing and my failure to bring him to justice. I don't want to give up. No, I can't give up. But I'm honestly and truly just stumped. I have nowhere else to look, unless there's some hidden secret to this Realm that the map isn't showing. 

Honestly, there could be. It's worth asking. 

I open my mouth to ask Aerid if there's anywhere else we should look when he stands up abruptly. I close my mouth, confused.

His face still to the wall, he says, in a strangled sort of voice, "I'm going to the river to get some water." 

"Alright," I say, a little nonplussed. 

Great. Now even Aerid doesn't want to give me any help. I know that he's just going to the river and then coming back and I can ask him then, but it feels like everyone is giving up on me.

I glance down at my wrist and see my Mark of Dea and realize I have one option left. 

I start to prepare the things I need, most of which I thought to bring with me. I paint a thin line of mud down the center of my nose, a mixture of dirt from home and from this Realm. I light two more candles and stick my head directly over the flame, letting the smoke sting my eyes. Blinking back tears, I pull out the last and most precious ingredient- eternia petal dust. It has none of the effects that the eternia flower is known for, but it is still a powerful magical ingredient. I only have a little bit of it, so I need to be sure not to waste any of it.

I carefully scatter the eternia petal dust in a circle on the ground, and then lie in the center of the circle. I've never tried to contact Dea by dream before- she's the one who sends me dreams, it's always been that way. It feels a little bit like cheating to ask her for help, but I have no choice. 

My eyes still sting from the smoke, and I can't seem to fall asleep. Does Dea not want me to communicate with her? Am I truly out of options?

I lie on the floor for a little while longer before forcing myself to admit defeat. I open my eyes and am assaulted by a wave of white light. 

I'm not in the abandoned house in the Realm of the Forest anymore. I'm curled up on the top of the steps of the Temple of the Winter River, right outside the entrance. I scramble to my feet. Did Dea transport me home? 

I climb down the steps. Something is not right. It's absolutely silent. Not a single noise but my footsteps. I must be dreaming. The Temple is never this quiet. 

The moment I step off of the stairs, a noise begins. It's not very loud, but in this silence it is deafening. The rushing of water. The river.

I go to the river. In past dreams I've received the river has been frozen over, but in this one it's flowing, quietly rushing along as it normally does. A bed of willow boughs comes into view, the sort that we place those who have completed all twelve segments on. But there is no one atop this raft. It floats, lazily, almost ominously, and stops right in front of me. 

I kneel down to examine it. Nothing sits on top of the raft, nothing but a single, unmistakable petal- from an eternia flower. 

I reach for the petal but a gust of wind breaks the still air and blows it away from me, high up into the sky until I can't see it anymore. The raft begins to move again, and the river begins to flow faster, faster and faster until it's racing, the once calm waters churning and frothing and splashing, throwing flecks of water into the air, roaring and screaming as the water grows more and more turbulent, rushing over rocks and sloshing against the riverbanks. 

Frightened, I go to move away from the river but find my feet frozen to the ground, unable to move. The wind begins to pick up as well, stirring up the soft snow on the ground until it whirls around me, whipping my hair in every direction, making it hard to stand, to move, to see, to breathe. 

A particularly strong gust of wind catches me off guard, sweeping me off my feet, sending me tumbling into the river.

The water seems to calm the second I touch it, but again, I find myself paralyzed, unable to move, to do anything but sink silently into the water, the great expanse that once was a narrow river and is now a boundless mass of water. 

I do not breathe. I don't seem to need to, down here. Gradually, the light begins to fade, making it impossible to see anything around me, but miraculously I can somehow still see myself plain as day. 

My feet touch ground. Somewhere. It's quiet again. 

I hear a voice, but not with my ears. I feel the vibration of sound around me, yet I hear nothing, and somehow words still appear in my head as if spoken to me. 

Come to me in three day's time at the stroke of midnight. 

Dea's voice. I'm sure of it. 

Suddenly the darkness changes, and I realize I'm staring at the inside of my own eyelids. I'm back in the Realm of the Forest. It's warm in here. Warmer than it was before.

Too warm.

I open my eyes and I'm surrounded by flames.