Beyond the Void

Chapter 81, The blades

AERIN

Five moons and two tens since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

Aerin led the man around Narris' Citadel, through greater Ironcourt. She could not shake the feeling that perhaps she was being led around tonight. An icy hand held a chain that something had wrapped around her neck.

The outlander had not said a word since they had left his sanctuary and Aerin was left pondering what the man had said. Many questions were right on the edge of her tongue, but she could not find the courage to ask them now. Behind her, the man kept constantly whispering and making clicking noises with his mouth.

"Didyoumeanit?" She breathed in one go.

"What?" He did not sound happy.

"I said, did you mean..."

"I understood that part. What did I mean?" He interrupted Aerin.

"Are you a god? Are you really one?" She could hear the outlander audibly sigh. He did not like that question. 

"I think it's best to say I am beyond many humans that are alive now. A god should be something more. It is not just power."

"What you can do, looks god-like to me. Appearing from one place to another in an instant. What you did to all my friends... I've never seen anyone catch a blade bare handed."

"What about your battlemages? Can't they do that?" The outlander asked.

"They burn down houses." Aerin said with a bitter voice.

"But they used to be able to do things like me? Once upon a time?" A sudden curiousness appeared in the man's voice.

"It's what everyone believes." Aerin shrugged.

"I thought you would know better." The outlander said after a while.

"But." Aerin would not let up now. "You said you were not from this world."

"I did." Came a curt reply.

"Is it true then? The story that crazy people tell? That humans come from another world?"

"Sure. I can tell you stories about things you have never seen. I could show them to you. What would you gain from that?"

"I just want to know what you are. Why are you here, in this form?" Aerin stopped and turned around to face the outlander. She was growing angry.

"When I think I finally have an answer someone or something else comes along and shatters my understanding of where I stand. The idea of crossing worlds is not that exciting." For a moment, Will's face flashed over the outlander's. It faded quickly. Maybe she was hallucinating.

"You said something about the Guardian Deities of the North." Aerin ventured.

"Are you looking for a friend? Why do you keep asking me all these questions? I am not this Will you keep talking about."
Aerin felt hurt. She turned around again, and the outlander followed in silence.

"You were the one who told me all of that nonsense. Of course I am curious." She hissed in anger.

"I am not the only one guilty of spouting nonsense." Another curt reply came.

For a while, they walked in silence. Aerin glanced behind her from time to time to make sure the man was still there. He followed, but his head was constantly looking somewhere else. Aerin could not figure out what was so interesting. It was the middle of night.