Chapter 18
After Death created her Godling, the other four Gods had to follow in suit. It was the only way to create balance within the world.
—- The book of Tevye
Airess
“I’ll be right back,” Taryn said as he dismounted his horse, gripping the waterskin he intended to fill at the well.
Airess nodded, peering at him from under her cloak hood.
It was the first time they both had ventured out anywhere public since the incident inside the caravan, and she was especially nervous being around other citizens in the daylight.
Upon their waking this morning, Airess made it clear to Taryn she didn’t want to talk about what he had seen in the dreamworld.
It was intrusive. It was intimate. He had seen more of her than anyone else in such a short time.
Of course, he didn’t press the matter further, which she was thankful for.
Airess dismounted, stretching her legs before another traveling sprint.
She rested her hand on her horse’s mane and stroked it for comfort.
She had begun to grow fond of the horse that had carried her nonstop for three days now.
Airess blinked her Sight forward, entranced in the warm oranges and yellows that made up the horse's aura. The energy of an animal was always light, always pure compared to other people’s –
A cluster of hooves sounded from behind her, ripping her out of her thoughts.
She turned, heart dropping as she took in the group of Luciena guards, their golden armor glistening in the daylight.
Airess’ heart almost stopped beating entirely when she saw her and Taryn’s wanted posters gripped in their hands as they neared.
Oh, Gods.
She turned back around and faced her horse, keeping her hands busy with the contents inside her bag, hoping to appear casual enough for them to ignore her as they approached the well Taryn was retrieving water at.
Taryn returned as they neared, approaching his horse calmly and stuffing the waterskin in his bag.
“It’s okay,” he said, his voice a low whisper. “Don’t make any sudden movements.” They both mounted their horses in unison.
She grabbed the reins hard to keep her hands from trembling, seeing one guard on horseback approach them in her peripheral vision.
“You two, drop the hoods, then you can be on your way. We’re searching for a couple of fugitives that could be in the area.”
Words lodged themselves in Airess’ throat.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Taryn replied innocently, but the smirk Airess glimpsed on his face under his hood said otherwise.
She swallowed. She had seen Taryn’s attitude towards the guards when they were locked up, his persona full of spite and stubbornness. She hoped he wouldn’t say anything irrational.
“There won’t be any trouble if you aren’t who we’re looking for. We’re interrogating everyone in this town. Drop the hoods,” the guard commanded, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
“Go fuck yourself,” said Taryn.
Oh, Taryn.
The Guard drew his blade and charged.
Gods, why did he have to say that? Airess was starting to realize Taryn had a reckless tendency, his stubborn, arrogant behavior always landing him in an even worse position.
The smirk on Taryn’s mouth deepened, and Airess tried her best to ignore the physical reaction she had to seeing it, her body heating at his wicked mouth.
With a flick of his wrist, Taryn sent a gust of wind barreling towards the guard.
The guard fell off of his horse with a thud.
Taryn titled his head back and laughed–a stark contrast to Airess’ growing anxiety.
“Windborne Fae!” the guard cried out as he landed on his bum.
Taryn looked to Airess with a satisfied grin.
“Time to go.” They nudged their horses forward into a sprint.
The other guards quickly caught onto the commotion and chased after them.
As the horse surged forward, a gust of wind tore her cloak hood back.
With her white hair exposed, her cover was blown.
Airess let out a strangled cry as they sprinted through the woods. She heard the guards behind them yell out, “It’s her! Airess Haeleth!”
A streak of blackness shot towards Taryn, followed by a hissing of whispering voices. He banked left and missed it narrowly, the blackness landing on the ground and seeped into the soil like a dry cloth soaking up a puddle of liquid.
Confusion and fear settled in her chest. Were they Shadow Wielders?
She didn’t have enough time to think further as terror gripped her by the throat, the possibility of them getting caught scaring her more than anything, and growing more real by the second.
The fear grew, fueling her usually muted-power, traveling down her arms and sizzling underneath her palms.
Gold power began to glow at her fingertips, dripping off her fingers like she had just dipped them in a bucket of glowing starlight. She stared at her hand gripping the reins before whipping it backwards towards the guards in a moment of instinct, hoping that she could make use out of her Magick.
She looked back for a split second, catching a glimpse of a guard falling off his horse–a glowing hole burned through the chestplate of his armor. She turned to face Taryn’s back as he rode. He pointed forward and shouted, “To the forest!”
Beyond them was a forest of hundreds of skinny, gray trees cloaked in a sea of darkness, the thick treetops blocking out the sunlight entirely.
She kicked her horse to go faster as another bolt of darkness swam toward her.
Airess veered left but the shot narrowly missed its mark, grazing the top of her shoulder.
She expected to feel hot pain, but instead she felt an icy sting that crept into her veins, spreading through her body like a sickness.
The voices of whispering spirits filled her ears before fading away, just as her body began to slow.
She tried moving her arm, the motion feeling heavy.
Her vision blurred with patchy blackness, like someone had dipped her eyes in ink.
“Taryn!” she called out in fear.
“Almost there!” he said as they neared the forest. She looked behind her one last time, and to her utter surprise, the guards on horseback had reared their horses to a stop, watching them ride into the black darkness that was the forest, fear evident in their round eyes and parted mouths.
Daylight vanished as they crossed into the forest. She reached out to Taryn on her horse as her vision began to blur completely to black.
“Something is wrong,” she said. Her grip on the reins slackened, her body sliding from the horse as everything went dark.
Airess woke to an eerie silence.
That, and a damp cloth resting atop her forehead. She stirred, her hand instinctively reaching for the cloth, when she heard a shuffling. When she opened her eyes, Taryn was hovering over her with a finger pressed to his lips. He mouthed a Shh and removed the cloth from her head.
Her eyes shifted beyond him. It was night–pitch black, even.
She had expected to hear the soft hum of crickets and the crackling of a fyre, but to her surprise, it was complete and utter silence.
There was no glowing light from the usual fyre they lit every night.
There was a chill in the air, much colder than it should be for this time in Luciena.
“What happened?” she croaked. Taryn reached for her elbow, his hand resting softly on her lower back as he helped her sit up.
“You got hit with Shadow Magick. You fell unconscious when we passed through the threshold into The Twins. That was hours ago.” Taryn spoke in a hushed whisper, eyes darting around to look for something in the forest beyond. “You’ll want to keep your voice low here. We don’t know what's lurking.”
As consciousness settled within her body, she finally took in her surroundings–horror settling in the pit of her stomach as she focused on the trees.
The trees around them weren’t just gray from light-colored bark, they were covered in pale skin. Purple veins traveled underneath the thin membrane, the veins pulsing as if it were alive. The leaves were a dark red, almost black, as if they were filled with thick, clotted blood.
She could only see the trees closest to her. The rest of the forest was pitch black, besides a glimpse of light that reached through the leaves towards her. They currently sat near the patch of light, the only source lighting up Taryn’s worried features.
Not a single soul existed here. Airess’ blood turned cold. Every instinct in her body screamed that she did not belong here.
“What is this place?” she whispered, noting the horses bedded down closer than they normally would.
Taryn’s silvery gaze slid to hers. “The Twins.”
“The what now?”
“The Twins,” Taryn repeated. “The only forbidden forest in Luciena.”
Airess shook her head. “What do you mean forbidden forest? That sounds like something from a bedtime story.”
Taryn snorted. “I wish. This forest is ancient, supposedly filled with dark spirits conjured by Bas, the Death God. No one ventures in, not even the guards.”
“Dark spirits?” Airess asked, horrified.
Taryn waved a hand. “Only according to folklore. I personally don’t believe in ghosts, and doubt we will find anything of the sort.”
“Such a skeptic,” Airess said, rolling her eyes. “I wouldn’t go doubting a notorious spirit, you might provoke it.”
“Ha! I’d like to see it try.”
Taryn stood up, brushing off his trousers before extending a hand to Airess.
As he helped her stand, she realized he was quite the gentleman.
He barely knew her, yet had never failed to help her mount her horse or light their fyres.
She glanced at the wet cloth that he had placed on her forehead during her unconsciousness, and wondered what type of person raised such a gentleman–well, that is, besides his crassness.
“What about the guards?” Airess asked, remembering they could very well be waiting for them beyond the treeline.
“We will deal with that when we get there. Let’s just… get out of here.”
Airess cackled, folding her arms as she looked up at him. “Are you sure you don’t believe in ghosts? I would think such a strong Fae male wouldn’t be deterred by such folklore.”
Taryn’s head snapped towards her, a sly grin gracing his pretty mouth. “You think I’m strong? That’s quite the compliment, Haeleth.”
“Just get on your horse.”
They mounted, riding back in the direction they’d come from. Their horses walked slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements. Spirits or no, there could always be a wild animal lurking nearby.
The darkness of the forest reminded Airess of the Magick the Luciena guards had wielded against them. She knew the Elven people could wield energy–hence how she is able to wield light, but she had thought Shadow Magick was a rarity these days.
“Those guards were wielders,” Airess said, the sentence coming out more like a question.
“Shadow Wielders,” Taryn confirmed.
“I thought they were extinct.”
“I thought so too, until I got hit by one.”
Airess' head snapped towards him. “You have? Did you pass out as well?”
Taryn shook his head. “No, but I was severely lethargic. I could barely control my body, but I didn’t lose consciousness.
Each person reacts differently. Shadow Magick, in a way, is more lethal than a stab wound.
It incapacitates you, renders you unconscious or weak, making the opponent’s fight much easier for them. ”
She thought back to her vision, blurred by black splotches when she got hit by the Shadow. Her body felt uncontrollable, her reactions slowed. If she had gotten hit by it on foot, without Taryn, her situation could have been much worse right now.
Yes, Shadow Magick was definitely more lethal than a blade. One hit could bring an armed soldier down. Multiply that by twenty and they could take down entire armies. The fact that some Shadow Wielders still existed in the present day made her stomach drop.
The real world was not only full of excitement, but horrors. Like this forest, though unnerving, possessed a certain beauty of its own. Bad things could be beautiful too.
Airess had begun to realize the duality of life, the good and bad coexisting together in an endless cycle of rebirth.
Life and death. Sun and Moon. Sorrow and joy.
“I had always learned about Shadow Wielders growing up, but never thought I’d live the day to experience one.”
“There won’t be any of that in Rune,” Taryn assured. “Darkness doesn’t dwell there. Only Elements.”
After ten minutes of trekking forward, Airess began to doubt they knew where they were going. “Shouldn’t we have reached the edge by now? Surely we didn’t stop that far away from the treeline.”
Taryn pursed his lips. “It can’t be much further.”
They kept riding until Taryn came to a stop, scratching the back of his neck.
“We should have been well out of the forest by now.”
Airess bit her lip. “Let’s try another direction.”
Surely it couldn’t be that challenging to find their way out of the forest. But as time passed, doubt crept in. They rode through the forest, silent and alert. They saw nothing, but endless trees scattered amongst the darkness.
Airess couldn’t help but feel as if she were being watched. As if something were keeping them there. Lurking. Waiting.
They never found their way out of the forest that night.