Defying Equilibrium

Chapter 26: The call of the void

Dakora could feel it, deep down in her bones. She couldn't describe the feeling, it was something between nausea, revulsion and the feeling you get when looking over the edge of a cliff. You want nothing more than to turn and run from the edge, and yet there is something irresistible about the danger that a few steps in front of you.

She wasn't the only one who could feel it either. The horses were distinctly jumpy and on edge, like they too could sense what lay ahead. The malcontent that seemed to scent the air. They say that smell is the sense most closely linked with memory, and Dakora definitely remembered this smell. The smell of what had once been her home. What had once been her prison. And it was making her sick. Ahmed gestured for them to stop, and they all halted their horses.

They were getting close, she could feel it.

“Dakora,” began Ahmed, turning to her. “I am grateful for your assistance in leading us this far, but you need not come any further. I understand that you have no desire to go back to that place.”

That place. He didn't say its name, it didn't have one, but the ominous way he said those two words conveyed the meaning enough. That place. The place of so many memories, the places that haunted her to this day. Dakora grinned. What better way to rid herself of her fear than to run headlong into it? Into the void?

“I've come this far,” she shrugged. “I might as well ride this journey to the end.”

“You sure?” teased Dare. “It could be dangerous.” he laughed.

She winked. “What part of 'dangerous' do you think is going to change my mind?”

“Is that a smile I see, Ahmed?” Dare laughed, surprised to see the stoic man show something so sincere. It was probably the first genuine smile that Dare had seen Ahmed show. Indeed, he was smiling. He too was glad to have Dakora coming with them.

Oscar smiled too. He was so glad to see that Dare had risen from his grieving stupor. He knew that his friend wasn't going to get over his brother's death so easily, but he was trying. And that alone was a good enough reason to smile. He had his best friend back.

Sansu could feel something too. It was not the same as Dakora felt, not the feeling of familiarity and the memory of the events of long ago. No, it was the feeling of not a familiar place, but a familiar person. As a twin, she had an innate ability to sense when her sister was near. Liana was close, and Sansu could not wait to be reunited with her. They were like two halves of a whole, and she could not wait to be whole, complete. So she smiled too.

They decided to abandon their horses there. After all, no sound was more conspicuous than the sound of approaching horses, whinnying and hooves pounding. Oscar was worried about leaving them unguarded, after all what passerby would pass up a couple of horses with no riders? As they left, he stroked Belladonna's muzzle, and promised to return. Not unlike the promise he had made to his sister.

The Xalin Forges. It is not like they had never heard of the place, like it existed outside of common knowledge. It was as if they had hidden a tree in the forest. The forges were so deeply rooted in the history that they had been taught that it seemed so odd to know that it was a place of depravity and of despair, of corruption and of mistreatment. If what Silas had said was true, a place of torture. Unlike Dakora though, the young boy had no qualms about returning to this place. He would have come back earlier if he had known the way.

Dare matched stride with Silas, who was walking with a limp. His broken leg was getting better, but still had not healed completely.

“I mean to ask you,” Dare began. “Riess told us that your family never survived the journey on the East Road. Can I ask you... What happened to them?”