Walking Delusions

a/n: Sorry for the long wait! I lost my internet and was therefore, unable to post. But I have it back now and hopefully, won't lose it again.

Big thanks to all the readers and comments I received in my lengthy absence. I really appreciate it. Especially to Miss. Curroption and Mistress Submission, who left wonderful and lengthy reviews. Enjoy the update!

Chapter Fourteen: Whispers in the Dark

A flitting mist of dancing trees,
Seething hatred following on my feet.
History rewritten and relived time again,
A power kept hidden from those in sin.
His claim is made; my path is staked.
Secrets revealed in disappearing hate,
My desires unbidden rise again.
I cannot hide from his morning sight,
His revile no longer my fright.
I welcome each passing glare,
And the beast stirs without a care.

I could distinctly hear Vincent following me quickly, making faster progress over the huge, somewhat jagged rocks than I did in my clumsiness. But I was determined and he was not going to stop me. There was something in those trees, some presence, some person that could help me understand something. Of this I was certain. I could feel it in my bones, in my marrow.

The dream of the night before reverberated in my mind, recalling the chilling creature wrapped in white robes. But the shape I had spied briefly did not fill me with the same dread so I steadfastly continued. I headed towards the thickly leaved evergreen trees, their longest branches dangling over into the river, but their nearly naked lower trunks creating a tunnel of sorts along the riverbank. If I had been thinking in terms of aesthetics, I might have seen it as beautiful.

I was careful not to slip on the extremely slick rocks, visions of falling into the chilly water and drowning enough to keep my caution. A breath of cold air washed over me when I finally reached the edge of the forest, peering into the dim gloom with its winding and tangled bare branches hanging overhead. I couldn’t see much for the mist and knowing my sanity, there was a possibility that I had imagined the thing.

Nevertheless, I was determined to enter. Taking a deep breath and ignoring Vincent behind me, I ducked and entered into the cove-like tunnel of trees. It was calm within, peaceful almost. The fog here did not fill me with dread as it had in the other forest, but it was chilly, a distinctly wet, clammy sense to the air. I shivered slightly, wrapping my arms around my upper body as I peered around.

“Hello?” I called out. “I’m not dangerous, I swear.”

Though I doubted they would believe my words alone, I hoped that I could get whatever I had seen to trust me. I needed answers and I wasn’t leaving until I received some.

My eyes flickered over the underbrush. Thick green, leathery leaves on spindly dark brown stems, towering well over my minimal height and sparsely laden with green and purple berries crowded upon the path, brushed at their trunks with wispy, feathery ferns that grew to my knees. The trail beneath my feet was nearly wiped clean, as if many others had consistently trod upon it, and ran parallel to the course of the river, barely visible through the profusely woven drooping branches.

It smelled fresh here. Untouched, like most of the rest of Tears and unlike home. I was used to garbage and smoke, cigarettes and tar, exhaust and any number of foul stenches that the human race sought to invite upon our only home. Funny, but not in the laughing way, how we have but one place to live yet we spend every day of our lives poisoning the hell out of it. But what did we care? We only had seventy or so years to live. It would be the future generations to suffer.

Like I said, selfish, pernicious beasts. The Brobdignag’s had it right all along.

I shook my head to clear my self-reviling thoughts and peered into the misty trees, shifting my attention away from the river and closer to the inner collection of trees. I saw nothing that resembled the flitting shape that had caught my eye earlier, but that did not deter me in the slightest. I stepped up the pace and walked swiftly down the path, the small silence, despite the rushing waters unnerving.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” And that would be Vincent, disturbing my otherwise pleasant walk.

I ignored him; however, more concerned about the shape that I knew held the answers. I had very little evidence save my intuition yet that seemed to be enough for me. And I was still very much pissed at Vincent and I feared that I might do something reckless, like attack a man that’s several times stronger than me who wields a sharp sword. Yeah, not very smart.

Frustrated with my lack of success on the path, I finally hiked up my robes and leapt over the small hedge of brush, into the untrampled woods beyond. Luckily, it wasn’t one of those forests with brambles everywhere, and the ground was easy to walk on, if not a bit squishy. I supposed it was rather wet in the area, probably from the overflowing riverbanks during floods.

I knew Vincent was following, even if I couldn’t hear his almost silent footsteps, and just contented myself with the knowledge that I had an angry and annoying shadow. Peering into the gloom and mist, rubbing my hands along my arms when the chill gripped me, disappointment began to settle when I saw no sign of any other living person.

My recent lack of sanity notwithstanding, I had always been a reasonable person with a rational state of mind. Surely I had not been imagining things. There was no way an apparition or illusion could fill me with so much hope. Then again, perhaps I had already crossed the line into Looneyville. The possibility was highly likely.

Suddenly, before I could even register what was happening, two hands roughly grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved my back against the rough bark of the nearest tree, succeeding in knocking my breath from my head. My head slammed against the trunk and I gasped, seeing stars as my vision dimmed for a moment. I was too stunned to do anything but freeze up for a moment, fearing the worst as my entire body began to ache.

It took a moment for my senses to return to me, and then I looked up into furious golden eyes, set above a jaw clenched with tension. Vincent, of course. Well, that made all the confusion go away, only to be replaced by anger. My hands balled into fists at my side but before I could even speak, his fingers clutched tighter to my shoulder, digging into the flesh. I knew I would have bruises there, probably to match the ones on my hips from Melath.

What’s a girl to do?

“You overestimate my patience,” he growled dangerously, a low rumbling echoing deep in his chest. If I weren’t half-scared out of my mind and furious both, I might have found it sexy.

Vincent wasn’t altogether unattractive, it was just his personality that turned me off. Even then, he had the allure of the dangerous, the motorcycle punk that pissed off your parents. Or the hazard in dating the school bully, that kind of thing.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to will away the pain in my shoulders. He was pressing so tightly, I doubted I would have been able to get away. I didn’t even bother to try. I liked my limbs attached to my body, thank you very much.

“You don’t have any patience,” I snapped. “And you’re pissing me off.”

He grunted, a purely animalistic sound that wasn’t at all enticing. Nope, not in the slightest. “You’re a fool!” he snarled. “Playing with fire only gets you burned!”

I laughed. Don’t ask me where I got the nerves to do such a thing considering the reality of my situation, but something about it struck me as humorous.

Unfortunately, he didn’t find my hilarity the least bit amusing. He pulled me off the tree only to slam me back again with even greater force and this time, I cried out with the pain, some sharp branch remnant digging into my spine and causing my legs to jerk as if I were tripping on some bad drug.

“Melath. Is. Mine.” He gritted out each word as if it were a separate sentence. And I swore to some deity that existed somewhere that his eyes lit up with fire and I saw the demons of Hell cackling merrily along the way, pitch forking poor souls in the ass.

“You stay the fuck away from him!”

Possessive little bastard. Not that I could say anything aloud. He was damn near suffocating me with his greater strength. And that was when he chose to kiss me. No, that would be the wrong word. He shoved his lips against my mouth and violently shoved his tongue inside with enough force to draw blood. Our teeth knocked together in a jarring motion as he pressed his body against mine and the tree, causing the branch to dig even more painfully into my back.

If I had even a shred of sense on me, I would have kneed him in the groin or bit his tongue but as it was, I couldn’t do anything but moan helplessly under the relentless onslaught of his devouring. It was intoxicating, plainly put, nothing at all like what it had felt like to kiss Melath but just as addictive, if not more.

A heat spread through my body so fast that I felt like I had jumped into a volcano and an urgency with the speed of an aphrodisiac attacked me. I wanted more than just a simple kiss. At that point, I didn’t care if he pushed me to the ground and tore my clothes off so long as he did something to ease the ache that was steadily throbbing between my legs. And he wasn’t unaffected either. I could feel the proof pressing against my belly.

I voraciously returned the kiss, with enough fervor that I bit his lips in return, the sweet taste of his blood flavoring the violence and making it all that much more ardent. I could feel that beast inside of me rising with the scent and smell of the copper fluid, but I fought it down even as I savored each drop, jabbing my tongue into Vincent’s mouth and putting up very little resistance.

It was a kiss meant to punish that lasted far longer than I think he ever intended. He meant to frighten me, he meant to scare me away from Melath, but all he did was ignite lust unlike anything I had ever felt before. Perhaps it was true, what they say about rivals and those who constantly argue and fight. Hatred is just a thin line from sexual desire.

He was pure fire, blazing heat that seared at my sanity until there was nothing left in my consciousness but every press of his body against mine and every taste of his tongue. I couldn’t even feel the branch digging into my back anymore. It was all lost on a haze of lust and longing. It burned with an ache so fierce that I clenched my hands even tighter to prevent myself from further embarrassment by grabbing onto him and yanking him even closer. I was eager to taste more of him, drink more of him, lap up every morsel of that delicious blood.

I felt dizzy, intoxicated, and completely swept away. My body started to go limp and then suddenly, his lips were gone, he stepping back into half-shadow and half-light. Vincent had gripped my shoulders so tightly that I still felt the indentation from his strength in them and before I knew it, my knees had turned to jelly and I slid down the trunk of the tree to the ground. My entire body shook like a frightened child and I gingerly pressed one shaking hand to my mouth, feeling swollen lips and the wetness of blood.

I looked up, eyes wide with surprise to find him staring down at me with something that was a mixture of shock, disgust... and fear. Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth, down his chin, but he made no move to wipe it away. He only backpedaled slowly, clenching and unclenching his hands as if he were surprised by their movement.

He opened his mouth to speak, shut it and glared, eyes wide with something akin to fright before he forcibly shook his head. “Stay away from him,” he hissed, though the wavering of his voice did nothing to assure me of his determination, “If you value your life.”

With that, he turned on his heels and vanished into the mists, not waiting for any confirmation on my part. Not that I would have been able to speak or do anything more than stare at him dumbly. I was still too shocked by the force of that kiss. I gulped and suddenly was able to breathe, drawing in huge, shaky breaths as I frantically scrubbed a hand over my face to regain some sort of composure. My hands were trembling, my legs felt weak, and I could tell with just a touch, that my face burned with heat.

How...? With just one touch...? He left me a shaking, shuddery mess with thoughts flying about in so many different directions that I couldn’t even grasp onto one of them. I slumped against the tree as if I desperately needed its support, and a nervous, almost maniac laughter bubbled up from my lips. This goddamned place was making me lose my fucking mind. One moment he was my enemy and the next I’m devouring his mouth like he’s a sundae buffet at Dairy Queen or something.

I groaned, rubbing both hands across my face and yanking my hair in aggravation as I closed my eyes, pulling my knees up close to my body. It was beginning to frustrate me, understanding so little. It seemed everyone else knew what was going on but me. I couldn’t take it anymore.

And Vincent had just basically threatened my life if I dared come near to his property again. Never mind that the truth of the matter was that it was the other way around. There was something more between he and Melath than simple slave and master relationship. There had to be. No way someone as strong as Vincent would willingly submit himself. None.

I growled low in my throat, feeling tears of helplessness and frustration prickle at my eyes. I was overreacting and perhaps acting a bit childish, but I felt that my minor freak out was warranted. I wanted to go home, if that was indeed home. I wanted to return to my normal, boring and recurring life and forget I had ever heard of the land of Tears and its strange inhabitants.

I pulled my lip between my teeth, struggling to stifle the oncoming flood of tears, and that was when I felt it. A strange curling in my belly and a shiver down my spine. Wind whispered through the underbrush, tickling the back of my neck and raising the hair on my arms.

Swallowing thickly, I slowly slid my hands down and looked up. My eyes widened in shock as I laid my eyes on the ghostly figure of a woman and I scrambled to my feet, pressing my back against the trunk of the tree as if it would protect me. She stood there, dressed in an outfit reminiscent of ancient hunters, her entire form bathed in light and shades of cream, almost glowing in the dim underbrush.

Her eyes were miserable pools of grey, though I can’t really say what the color was considering she seemed to be a complete ghostly pallor, although her hair was indeed some dark shade. She merely stood there, silently, hands lax at her sides and calmly running her eyes down me.

“W... who?” I stuttered, my palms pressing against the tree behind me as I edged myself closer to it, contemplating screaming for bloody murder, not that I thought anyone would come to rescue me.

She tilted her head to the side as her lips parted. “You have him but not his power,” she said, her voice light and airy, probably due to the fact that she had no body and therefore no lungs and no need to breathe. “Why have you come here?”

“It was not my choice,” I quickly blabbed, though a small hope began to rise. She, at least, seemed to have some semblance of knowledge about me. Perhaps, this was the figure I had seen earlier. She certainly seemed to fit the description.

“Who are you?”

Her gaze shifted and a faraway expression replaced her melancholy. “I was once priestess to a great tribe long ago. This land was ours and we lived in peace, serving our brethren as our fore families did before us.” She sighed then, a small shudder wracking her body as her gaze returned to me. “But then they came and he had no choice but to flee.”

I furrowed my brow. “Who had to flee? And why?”

“Because of Ixion’s Jewel,” she replied. “His power, his bloodlust and terror, we couldn’t allow it into their hands. Tears would have suffered greatly.” She paused, her breath hitching as her arms came up, wrapping around her body and she shook her head. “I would have come earlier but he... he was not as he used to be. Not anymore.”

I was getting increasingly confused. For every question she answered, several more cropped up until it became a confusing jumble of facts and queries that crowded in my head, making very little sense. I raked a hand through my hair, yanking a bit in frustration.

“Who was not as he used to be?”

Her eyes welled up with tears then, and her voice came out little more than a whisper. “The cursed one, marked and promised, fated to be alone until the day of the runihura’s arrival.”

I sighed, rubbing a hand across my forehead. “You’re making no sense. What do you want me to do? Who are you?”

She was silent for a moment, chewing on her lip in thought as her eyes filled with tears, though she did not let them fall. I sensed, somehow, a great sadness and regret around her, along with the feeling that she was a very old ghost, probably wandering these forests for centuries. Her presence no longer frightened me, though I did feel a little... insane, for lack of a better word, for carrying on a conversation with what was obviously a spirit.

Then she took a step forward, making no noise despite the leaf covered ground, and reached out a ghostly hand for me. “I will show you,” she explained, begging me with her eyes to trust her. “And you will see.”

I looked from her to her hand twice before I shakily stood up straight and held out my hand, half expecting it to pass right through hers. I didn’t know where I drew the courage to do so, but I supposed it had to do with my desire to finally know something.

The moment my fingers touched her cold, misty ones, I felt a great sucking force, as if someone had turned a huge vacuum on me. I blinked and opened my eyes into an entirely new place, a new world, where I was no longer in the forest touching the hand of a ghost, but in the midst of a battlefield.

I could hear screaming, frantic cries for help and desperate reactions of fear and despair. The scent of blood and ash was thick on the air and bright yellow flames rose up into the night sky all around me. It felt like Donnil all over again.

I swung my head from side to side, shocked at what had occurred. Where was I? Or was the true question, when was I? Someone bumped into me then, shoving me to the ground rudely and I fell forward, automatically throwing out my arms to catch myself. They landed in a warm, sticky mess and I stared down with horror into the lifeless eyes and gaping mouth of a male human, blood spattering nearly every inch of his body.

I scrabbled backwards, shrieking in terror. Another person tripped over me and the boot to the ribs stole my breath. Choking and sputtering, I struggled to rise to my feet lest I be trampled, casting my eyes around me. There was so much smoke and haze; it was difficult to find anyone or anything. I vaguely registered that I was in a village of sorts and bodies littered the ground around me. I vowed to spend as little time looking down as possible.

“The mountains! Head for the mountains!” A woman’s voice, strong and sure, rose above the din of screaming and crying and came from directly behind me. I whirled around only to come face to face with a familiarly painted individual.

They were the same as had attacked us just outside of the Great One’s forest, the Rajab tribe. I quickly ducked the swing of the axe he aimed for my head, stomach clenching at the madness and desire for blood that I saw swirling in his eyes. He wasted no time in pressing forward to attack, and I could do nothing but turn around and run, tripping and scrabbling for purchase on the blood-slicked ground and around the corpses strewn about.

Gods, so much death and destruction, the air literally reeked of it. I choked and gagged but didn’t dare look back; too frightened for my own life as I struggled to comprehend how and why I had been sent back to this battle and this place. It was important in some way, but I didn’t yet understand. And then, unexpectedly, I burst free from the smoke, body careening forward out of fear and desperation alone, nearly colliding with a dark-haired woman and her shining jade eyes.

She reached out with one arm and shoved me to the ground as she pulled a blade fluidly from the sheath at her right hip, intercepting the attack from the Rajab that had been chasing me. I rolled to the side as I watched with wide eyes when their blades met with a fierce clang. Her teeth gritted as she violently pressed forward, retracting her blade and slicing across his chest in a move so quick that I barely caught it, only able to register the spray of blood as it launched into the air.

The axe fell from nerveless fingers, sinking deeply into the stained, soaked ground as the Rajab crumpled, eyes vacant with death. It sickened me and I felt the sudden urge to retch violently, the bile rising up in my throat as my chest began to dry heave. Fingers grabbed my shoulders, pressing into already deepening bruises from Vincent’s brutality, and instantly grabbing my attention.

“Are you all right?” the woman who had saved me demanded, her voice fervent and rushed.

I nodded dumbly, unable to answer coherently as she yanked me to my feet, her eyes never ceasing in their constant scan of the battle field. More bodies rushed past us, diving for the cover of the forest and the safety of the trees.

I saw men, women and children, all frightened and smoke-stained, many sporting wounds already, every single one of them crying in some shape or form, even the men. Their clothes were ragged; they hadn’t even had time to grab any possessions. And they fled to what they hoped was safety... secure from the marauding and bloodthirsty Rajab. But why had those savages attacked?

The woman patted my shoulder. “You should head into the woods,” she suggested, giving me a thin smile as she turned, probably planning on heading towards the village to save more of the people.

A voice rang across the din of screaming and rushing flame as a body came running towards us, waving his hands wildly. “Maya! I cannot find Guren!”

Maya! I knew that name! It was from my dream, the one that seemed more like a reincarnated memory or something. This was the girl whose thoughts I had shared, her pain and sadness? I missed whatever it was they were talking about, my eyes widening in shock as my gaze raked over the swordswoman. I never got a clear picture of her in my mind but then, I recalled her voice. It was the same.

I darted forward, interrupting their heated discussion as I grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face me. Answers! I needed answers! “Is Tai here, too?” I questioned fervently, my eyes already searching for the man whose face I knew all too well.

She frowned, a deeper sadness instantly etching into her face. She shook her head sadly. “Tai has been gone for weeks.” Then her brow furrowed as she appeared to take a closer look at me. “Who are you?”

Weeks? Had that memory happened that long ago? Then the ghost in the forest was Maya and she was dead? What had happened? And what was the damn jewel they were trying so hard to protect? What did this all have to do with me? So many questions swirled in my head that I couldn’t seem to pick the right one.

“What was Tai carrying?” I asked urgently, tugging on her arm again. “Why are the Rajab here? Where is here? Please, you must tell me!”

She shook her head, clearly at a loss at what to do with my ranting demands. Her emerald gaze shifted to the young man that had approached her not but a few seconds earlier. “She’s delirious. Take her to the secret way, Orlos. I will find Guren and--"

“No!” I interrupted vehemently.

I was not crazy! At least, I hoped I wasn’t. I needed her to understand and I needed her to answer. I needed something. I couldn’t keep on like this, walking around in a delusional haze of incomprehension. This world was going to make me go mad if I didn’t find any answers soon.

“Maya and Tai!” I asserted wildly. “I know you... and the bridge! Yes! What was that gem? What was it?” I shook my head wildly, grasping onto my arm as if she were my lifeline. “Please! I have to know! It’s the answer, I just know it is!”

Her eyes widened in shock, mouth falling open. She clearly had not expected me to shout out those words. And then, the memory began to fade; I could sense it. There was a swirling of grey around the corner of my vision. Sound was dimming, and the smell of the fire and the burning less intent. I screamed and fought against it, straining mightily against the flow of time as tears threatened to burst from me. I was so damn close.

“No! I’m not done yet!”

“No!”

I blinked, finding my voice echoing loudly in the silent trees around me. I had fallen to my knees at some point, my breath caught in my throat. I still held one hand up, as if I were clinging to Maya’s arm even then. I looked up, through red-rimmed eyes at the outline of the spirit, standing there silent and solemn. I knew now, her identity, and it pained my heart. She had died, back then. I didn’t know if she had managed to save her people, but what Tai had predicted had come to pass. She had fought valiantly but in the end, it was not enough.

‘They’ came. And ‘they’ were the Rajab.

“You... you are Maya,” I whispered, quietly withdrawing my hand from its useless dangling in the air. It fell limply to my side as I gaped up at the spirit.

She nodded slowly.

“And the gem?” I questioned. “What is it?”

Once again, her ghostly expression was filled with that look of wistfulness. It was a painful topic, considering she had lost Tai and her village because of it. She probably felt that she had failed both in some way, even if she had tried her hardest. For some reason, I knew this about her. That she suffered from regret and loneliness, from feelings of failure and unworthiness. I didn’t know how long she had haunted the forest outside of her home, but I assumed it had been for an extensive time.

“It is the physical containment for Ixion’s power. We were to guard it.”

The creature inside of me, the one that spoke to me in my dreams and unconsciousness. The one who claimed me and craved blood and destruction, that was what he had named himself: Ixion. And he had said that Constance took his power from me. My hand involuntarily went to the spot in my chest where there had once been a huge gaping hole. Had it been there? Had that been the reason for the archbishop’s treachery?

Was that demon’s power the reason for Maya’s death and the slaughter of her people? That beautiful and sinfully attractive jewel seemed to promise only fatality for those associated with it. Why had Ixion’s power been stripped from him? Who was he? And why had it ended up in my body? How, for that matter? And again, that was what the world boiled down to, slaughter for the sake of power, for the sake of annihilation. It sickened me.

By we, I could only assume that she meant her and Tai were to guard the jewel. From the Rajab’s, I supposed. Yet, they seemed like primitive peoples who would know nothing of magic and authority. Why would they seek the mysterious power contained in that jewel, especially if it only promised obliteration?

I searched my mind. I had to know how the jewel ended up within me. What had happened to Tai? “Where is Tai?” I asked her, struggling to rise to my feet. Yet, my legs felt like rubber and I stayed grounded, using the tree behind me for support. “Is he in the mountains?”

She shook her head negatively. “I don’t know.” Maya’s body shifted, her gaze rising until it seemed she was looking above the trees and towards what I guessed to be the range of mountains. “There is nothing there, nothing but death where there was supposed to be security.”

“Why haven’t you moved on, Maya?” I questioned quietly. “Why do you stay here? Alone?”

The pain she felt was so clear to me, ebbing through my body as if it were own. Perhaps in her ghostly state she could emanate her feelings and I was merely intercepting the fall-out, I couldn’t say. But I did know she was terribly lonely and depressed.

“It is my fate and my purpose,” she sighed. “I loved him even though he was meant for another. That was my sin.”

By him, did she mean Tai? Was he engaged to another woman? I didn’t see how that made it her responsibility to suffer alone in an abandoned and forgotten part of the globe. “Sin?”

She fell silent, however, refusing to answer that question. Her head drooped and she looked at the ground, hands clutching at her ephemeral robes as if she was struggling to keep herself together. That I could understand. Coming to this world, to Tears, made me feel as if I were falling apart piece by piece, steadily into madness. And I was laughing and holding hands with the devil the whole trip down.

I realized that she wasn’t going to answer. “Never mind that,” I sighed. “What did you mean by cursed one?”

Maya shook her head, her appearance flickering slightly as she raised her gaze, eyes locking intently onto mine. “Choose wisely, runihura din. Choose wisely so our suffering was not in vain.”

I gritted my teeth and slammed my fist into the ground in irritation. “Why does everyone call me that?” I growled. “What does it mean, damnit?”

“Head to Yesa. Perhaps there, Tai will be revealed,” she responded by way of answer, her body beginning to fade away. I could see the trees through her now, her expression filled with sadness.

I hastily rose to my feet, despite the strange weariness in my legs. “Wait! No!” I pleaded, fearing that she was leaving. “I need more answers! I need-- Damn!”

She was gone. And I was yelling at an empty forest.

I growled angrily, turning and slamming my fist into the trunk of the tree out of sheer frustration alone. It wasn’t the trees fault however, and I could hear its hum of discontent, to which I murmured an apology. But I felt the urge to destroy something, anything. I couldn’t take it anymore. I considered stomping my feet and rolling on the ground kicking and screaming.

I just wanted to tear my hair out and holler at the top of my lungs but instead I settled for clenching my teeth and resisting the urge to kick the tree and physically assault it again. I tried to reason out what I had discovered in my head.

The jewel in the past and from my dream was Ixion’s power. Ixion was now inside of me and his power had been taken by Constance. Never mind that I didn’t understand how that happened, I tried to keep it simple in my mind, lest I injure myself. Somehow, the Rajab tribe, those that had attempted to attack us twice already, were involved with the events of the past. Okay, I understood that much.

Yet, Ixion had claimed that Constance wasn’t after his power but mine. I didn’t have any power. And what the hell did ‘runihura din’ mean? And who the hell was the cursed one? Why had she been afraid of Vincent, aside from the fact she probably witnessed our rather violent altercation.

So many questions and honestly, there were too many questions. I was no better off now than I was before. For every answer, came three more queries than I had before.

“Miss Anne?”

I sighed, instantly recognizing the voice. It was Ryou, of course, and no doubt, he had been searching for me from the moment he woke up. Then again, I didn’t know anything about survival on my own. He was probably worried sick. It only made sense.

“Miss Anne?”

“I’m here, Ryou!” I called back, turning in the vague direction of the path earlier.

I could hear him crashing through the underbrush and knew that at any moment he would be arriving. I cast one last glance at the empty and silent forest before moving to intercept him. No need for both of us to get lost in this accursed place. I silently hoped that Maya had been or would be able to find her peace.

I emerged from between three trees, managing to somehow stumble onto the path and directly in front of Ryou, my left foot entangling in the thick root of a tree. I would have embarrassed myself by crashing flat on my face if he hadn’t caught me. I managed a discomposed smile as I slowly righted myself, shaking my ankle to release the clinging root.

“There you are!” he greeted warmly, smiling broadly. “I thought you had tried to run off on your own.”

I shook my head, frowning balefully down at my robes, still blood-stained from yesterday and desperately in need of a needle and thread. “I think I’ve learned my lesson on that matter. I can’t survive on my own. Did Melath send you out here?”

He laughed lightly, rubbing the back of his head with his hand as we turned back towards the campsite, following the much clearer path. “I volunteered. Vincent returned and seemed quite agitated. Did you guys argue again?”

I tilted my head in thought, blushing hotly as I remembered the punishing kiss and the shameless way I had reacted. “Something like that,” I murmured, it coming out more like an embarrassed mumble. There was no way in hell I was going to tell Ryou the truth. I was ashamed of myself enough as it was.

“How is your wound?” I questioned, desperate to change the subject as my eyes automatically looked to his side.

He pressed a hand to the hidden injury. “It’s fine,” he assured me, a faint blush staining his cheeks. “Nothing that will kill me.”

I sighed gratefully. “That’s good. I should have helped you.”

Ryou waved dismissively at me. “Nothing I couldn’t handle on my own.” He paused, seeking to change the subject. “Why were you in the forest?” he continued, looking around us. “It’s kind of... quiet, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “I thought I saw something.” I paused in consideration. “Ryou, do you believe in ghosts? I mean, spirits, you know, of the dead?”

He laughed, his staff knocking a steady beat against the ground. “I’d be a liar if I said no. When you have an ability like mine, you learn to believe in the things no one else does, including ghosts.” He turned to me, brown eyes curious. “Why? Did you see one?”

Truthfully, I wasn’t quite sure. She seemed like a spirit, but I could touch her. Maybe it was more like a fading memory. “I don’t know,” I replied honestly, patting him on the arm. “But when I figure it out, I’ll let you know.” I figured I owed him at least that much. He was the only one who had been kind and he never asked for anything in return.

Ryou nodded. “Agreed. Now let’s return to the camp before we get left behind.”

It didn’t sound like a bad idea. I was certain we could take care of ourselves, but rather than risk a potential argument, I merely nodded my head in agreement. I wasn’t a fool. Five were better than two, especially in a world where it seemed danger was around every turn.

*****

a/n: That's all for today. More to come soon. I'll do my best to remember. Probably on Sunday since I work nonstop Wed through Sat. See ya then! And I look forward to your comments!