Chapter Seven #2
Before Matea could do more than open her mouth to speak, a whistle came from the front of the cave.
“You almost look like one of us, Aviva,” Rayven commented.
I dropped the hand that had already been reaching for my nearest dagger.
“She is one of us, you idiot,” Matea responded, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Of course, I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant, Rayven, don’t worry,” I said, throwing Matea a scalding glare and taking a step towards the spy.
“Can I use your cloak? I have an idea.”
Soon, I’d donned Rayven’s cloak, pulled the hood up to help hide some of my face, and took a deep breath.
This next part was where the concentration came in.
I reached out with that shadow zirilium that felt like pure darkness in my veins, searching for a small piece I could latch onto and keep.
It didn’t take long for the deep shadow of a small rock to form a connection with me, and I tugged it towards me.
The shadow raced across the cave ground towards me, and I flung out a hand to direct it to where I wanted it.
A few heartbeats later, the small shadow hovered over my right eye—the green one—and remained there. It felt warm and cool against my skin at the same time, but this shadow was quiet. It didn’t whisper against my skin like some of the others seemed to do.
It was waiting, following my lead.
I reached up and shifted my bangs to help conceal my right eye, too, and once I was satisfied, I looked back towards Rayven.
The shadow made my vision slightly darker, but I adjusted fairly quickly, likely thanks to my Northern blood.
“Well?” I asked when Rayven didn’t immediately say something. “Did it work? Can you tell about… about my eyes?”
Rayven, whose jaw had fallen slightly ajar, quickly recovered and said, “Yes, it most definitely worked. You can’t even tell, and if you keep your head down, it’ll blend in perfectly with the shadows of the cloak hood.”
Matea, who had come to stand beside me and Rayven, nodded her agreement. “Plus, that was a crazy cool move for a newbie to pull.”
Smiling slightly at my welling pride, I took a second to be grateful the two of them were at least agreeing on something for the first time this entire journey.
“We’re going with you, but it’ll be just like what we did during the battle, alright? We’ll stay in your shadow, and we won’t intervene unless you give us the signal,” Drayven said.
Before I could utter a word, Matea added, “Don’t argue, because we’ll just follow you into Genisyn no matter what you say.”
Sighing, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to shake them both. Plus, it would be comforting to know that if I needed them, they were there.
“Alright,” I agreed. “Then let’s get moving.”
***
The breeze blowing down the dirt road I walked along caressed the feathers of my wings like an old friend. As if the wind and sky were asking, Why are your feet still on the ground?
I didn’t have an answer.
I longed to give into the urge to launch into the sky and fly freely, but this wasn’t Hollis, the Tower City, where each winged fae flew to where they needed to be.
It was Genisyn, which I was ready to call the city of mud as the slight heel of my boot sunk into the ground below me with almost every step.
Genisyn, or at least the section of the outskirts I’d found myself in, was nothing like the North’s capitol.
Where Hollis was all cobbled roads, towers, and pristine buildings, Genisyn was the opposite.
Made up of uneven dirt paths and stout, seedy looking structures, every hair and feather on my body was standing on end.
I’d never left Hollis growing up—I had been fortunate if I were allowed to leave Gatlyn Castle.
I had no idea that so many of my Northern people were living in such conditions.
I’d never given it much thought, what the North was like outside of my hometown.
I’d always imagined each Northern city was like Hollis.
Oh, how wrong I had been.
The fae here matched their surroundings—unclean and sad. Some, I found, were even underweight with sunken in faces and hungry expressions.
Was the entire city like this?
Hollis was rich in more ways than one, and my father had been wealthy enough beyond his wildest dreams.
So why were my people suffering to this extent?
Did Dimitri know?
Overwhelmed with the guilt I felt for what I could only assume was my father’s greed and inability to supply his people with bare necessities, I bent my knees and leaped into the skies for a better look.
I felt Matea and Rayven leap with me, sticking to the shadows of my cloak and wings, but they knew this hadn’t been the plan. Rayven had given clear instructions to not draw any attention to myself—and in a city where almost nobody else was making use of their wings, I most definitely stood out.
Not to mention that without my naturally light-colored wings—which were now stained so dark they looked nearly black—I stood out against the sparsely cloudy sky.
Not only that, but true black wings were fairly rare in the North, my father having been one of the few with that precise coloring.
White, gray, and brown wings made up the majority of the population.
Once I was high enough over the nearby buildings, I could finally see the city as a whole. It was large, I’d give it that—it simply stretched on and on, nestled here within the rocky mountains.
From what I could see, it appeared that the closer you got to the center of the city, the better the living conditions were.
There, the buildings grew cleaner, taller, and more sturdy looking.
Some of the pathways were stone or cobbled instead of only packed dirt, and there was at least one fae flying into the town, from what I could see.
A small part of me took comfort in knowing that not the entire city was living in unclean conditions.
But it did little to ease the guilt.
Taking a deep breath, I refocused on why I was here in the first place. We needed a supply refill.
Since I was already in the air, I decided to make a small circle of the area. It was as I was doing so that I heard it. Carried on the breeze, the hustle and bustle of a market met my ears.
The sound of people bartering, grumbling, and yelling out advertisements.
Perfect, I thought.
Following the sounds of the people, I descended, landing at the edge of the market. A market that was so close to the edge of the city, it might as well have been outside of the settlement.
It wasn’t a terribly large gathering, but there would be more than enough supplies there for myself, Matea, and Rayven.
Loosely tying the hood of my cloak into place, I double checked that the shadow I had taken from the cave was still in place over my eye. Satisfied with how I could only assume I appeared, I reached into the shadows near me until I felt Matea and Rayven—who were sticking as closely as they could.
Heading down the dirt road with my head down, dozens of makeshift booths made of scrap wood lined either side of me, each with their own vendor, shouting about their latest deal.
The items themselves being sold reminded me of other markets I had been to—baked goods, fabrics and clothes, weapons, dried meats, and gems.
It was as I was heading over to the dried meats, following their smell, that I nearly tripped over the leg of a small fae female.
At first, I thought she might’ve been a child.
It wasn’t until I righted myself and went to apologize to her that I noticed she wasn’t—she was simply malnourished.
She was likely a few years younger than me, maybe fifteen.
Her clothes were in tatters, her skin was ashen, and even the brown feathers of her wings looked dull.
When her eyes searched my face, I couldn’t stop the way my heart cracked a bit for her.
Kneeling next to her, I reached into the inside of my cloak and pulled out as many silver coins as I could grab in one go. Taking her hands into mine, I passed them from my hands to hers.
“Take care of yourself,” I said softly.
Her sunken, gray eyes widened, and she began to tear up as she looked at the coins in her hands. There was a mixture of disbelief and hope that danced in her eyes at the sight.
“Who… who are you?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
“Somebody who will come back to help someday. I promise,” I vowed, forcing my own emotions down so as not to get choked up.
“Hey! You there!” a gruff voice called out over the sounds of those around us. The market seemed to still and go silent at the sound of this male’s voice.
Before turning to face the male, I locked eyes with the female before me. “Run,” I whispered.
Her eyes widened as she clutched the loose coins close to her body.
Slowly standing and turning on my heels, I did my best to keep my head down. “I-I don’t want any trouble,” I said to the male.
It wasn’t the various weapons strapped to his body that made him scary, or even the menacing scars that littered his arms and face. It was his expression that had my stomach dropping. His eyes, so full of jealousy and hate, had my heart racing.
What had I just gotten myself into?
“Is that right?” the male asked, his shoulder-length blonde hair swaying as he took a step forward. “You go around my market flashing coins like that, and you don’t expect a little trouble?”
The chuckle he let out sent a chill down my spine.
At that sound, I felt the female behind me turn tail and flee.
“Hey!” The male turned to another fae a few feet away and motioned towards the fleeing female. “Get her!”
The second male nodded, but when he made to follow her, I stepped into his path, giving the malnourished female more time to escape.
Even though I knew it might cost me.
“You seem to think you’re so tough. I think it’s about time we teach you a lesson,” the second male said, while the first grinned wickedly.
It was in this moment that my panic began to overcome me. I came to this market on a simple mission, and just wanted to help one female. How did that spiral out of control so quickly?
Was I truly about to fight two of my own people?
The moment the first male unsheathed one of his many blades and I felt Matea and Rayven stir, my racing mind cleared. I signaled subtly to the two shadow wielders to stand down.
A crowd had gathered around us at this point—all the fae who had been at the market to shop today had come to watch whatever was happening. There were dozens of citizens, so I had to play this safe.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t defend myself.
I tilted my head up slightly, just enough to see part of the blue sky from in between the clouds. Sliding my left hand into my cloak pocket, I tightly gripped the gloves Byn had gifted me. In a matter of seconds, I secured my connection with the moon stone I wanted.
Then, the sky began changing.
Often, I found it easier to shape the elements around me when I moved my body along with whatever I was wielding. It was a display of incredible power and control to be able to wield and connect with the world around you without moving.
And right now, I wanted to show that side of myself.
As I willed the clouds to darken and come together overhead, I worked on strengthening my connection to the weather. I imagined it as a cord between me and the sky above, the power thundering through my veins.
As the second male gasped at the shift in the sky, I took a step forward.
“Maybe,” I said with gentle malice, “I should teach you a lesson instead.”
As my connection with the weather doubled, then tripled in strength, the wind picked up, stirring the dirt below our feet and whipping my cloak in the wind.
“You don’t scare me, crid,” the first male said just before he lunged, blade raised.
Instead of dodging, I bent my knees slightly, holding my position. I caught his wrist before he could get too close, then twisted swiftly, causing him to release the knife.
“Perhaps I should,” I said, and with that, the rain and hail began pelting us.
At that point, the majority of the crowd ran for cover, and merchants frantically packed up their goods so as to not to ruin them.
I pushed the male back, releasing his wrist and putting distance between us. Though, it seemed instead of instilling fear in him, I’d simply angered him even more.
It wasn’t until then that I noticed the second male had slipped behind me, and I was now stuck between the two of them.
“Oh, you’re going to regret that,” the first male spat.
“I really don’t think I will,” I responded flatly.
Still gripping my gloves in my pocket, I focused more energy into one of my sun stones, forcing a connection with more than one stone at once. With that sun stone, I could feel through the ground below as the male behind me began to charge.
With just enough of a warning from my earth wielding, I quickly manipulated some of the hail on the ground to wrap around the second male’s foot and ankle. He cursed as he found himself unable to take another step forward.
“You’re… a multi-wielder,” the first male breathed.
“And you’re a greedy, selfish bully of a male,” I said, matter-of-factly.
The effort it took to maintain solid connections to multiple different elements at once was beginning to get to me as my hands began to shake in my cloak pockets.
“I think we’re done here,” I said with a wink, hoping my faux confidence was enough to hide the exhaustion overcoming me. “Follow if you dare.”
Before the anger could return to the scarred male’s face, I did to him what I’d done to his lacky, freezing him to the ground below. At the very least, I’d get a head start in my escape.
Before he even had time to curse at me, I launched myself into the sky, dropping the connection I had on my earth wielding and replacing it with a swift bond to my air zirilium. I used that burst of energy to swoop down over a food cart, grabbing an arm-full of snacks and dried meats.
It would have to be enough.
Using the air around me to create a solid protective bubble around me, I flew back up and into the heart of the storm, two shadows sticking close to my wings. I tried my best to ignore the way they both seemed restless. I couldn’t imagine they were very happy with me.
As my wings carried me straight into the storm, I knew myself and my zirilium well enough to know I was safe.
But the males below did not share the same comforts.
Once I was far enough away, I let go of my connection with my ice zirilium and the shadow over my eye, but I wasn’t worried about the males following. They may have been bullies, but they didn’t seem stupid enough to fly into my storm.
As I headed back to the small cave we had set as our base earlier, I couldn’t help but wonder what else I didn’t know about my homeland.
Was each Northern city in such unfortunate conditions?
Could I even do anything to change things?