Sunkissed Feathers & Severed Ties

by Kellie Doherty

  While most of the Laidly Nemora attended to other work across the lake and on the edges beyond, three rose from the water, their seafoam-green eyes and bright-blue hair shimmering. One taller than all the rest came closer, giving them a slight twist of his hand as if he was flourishing a cape.

  “Anoc-suna, travelers. My name is Ural. How may we be of assistance?” His voice was deep and soothing as the dark-blue waters.

  “Anoc-suna, Ural. My name is Misti, this is Dylori and Arias, and these are Dis and Zora, our companion animals.” She pointed to each one in turn. “We’d like passage across your home.”

  Ural tilted his head, his long blue hair spilling over his shoulder as easily as water over a fall. “The others may pass over our waters, but you may not.”

  Anger spiked in Misti, tightening her jaw. “Why not?”

  “You carry a brightness on you. One that I cannot let pass over my Grove.” He replied in a gentle tone, but his words were firm.

  “A brightness?” Arias came forward and put a hand on Misti’s shoulder.

  The gesture was probably meant to calm her, but it only made her angrier. If they didn’t cross the Laidly Grove Lake, it would take much longer to get to their destination. It meant more chances for the pendant to go off, to kill them even. And she’d be the one responsible for the delay.

  Ural merely nodded.

  Arias frowned. “There’s no chance we could cross at all? Even if we don’t touch the waters? I’m sure we can build a boat.”

  “I cannot let that brightness near my home. It may bleed out of her, and this Grove is far too important.”

  “That’s a load of wyvern shit!” Misti yelled, shrugging off Arias’ hand and stepping forward. She was so close to Ural that she could see the thin, pale spiral patterns on his skin, the flecks of white in his eyes, the wrinkles around his lips. The fool was causing even more trouble than she had anticipated, more trouble than he was worth. Her fingers slipped the dagger out of her belt and held it to his neck before she could think. Ural frowned, seemingly calm, but spirals of water had risen behind him, their tips pointing directly at Misti. The spiral pattern on his neck glowed brown. If she did anything, Misti was sure he could kill her with those water spirals.

  Luckily, Dylori caught her hand. Pulling Misti backward, she stepped between them and gave Misti a furious look. Clenching her teeth, Misti forced herself to look at the sand.

  “Go stand by Dis and cool off, okay?” Dylori said. “We’ll take care of this.”

  “Fine,” Misti bit off. She turned on her heel and stormed over to Dis, glaring at the ground. She kept the dagger out, since the cool feel of metal against her palm seemed right. Zora flew over to her and nudged the side of her head, but she shooed her vulnix away. It wasn’t fair. She had the pendent around her neck. She was absorbing the vile power to protect her friends. She should be the one talking to Ural. If she angled herself just right, she could at least eavesdrop on their conversation.

  “I’m sorry. We’ve had a rough couple of nights,” Dylori said.

  “Why do you carry such a brightness?” Ural replied. The water spirals dropped back into the lake, creating gentle ripples.

  “It’s not by choice,” Dylori said, her voice taking a sharp defensive edge that made Misti grin. That’s right, she thought. Tell him off.

  Ural’s reply came gently, so gently Misti had to strain to hear it. “I never suspected it was. The brightness is not healthy, for her or for you.”

  “We’re trying to fix it. Can we go around the lake?”

  The conversation swayed back and forth like this for a long time, much longer than Misti cared for. Her anger washed over her, erasing the conversation, erasing anything but her fury. Far from retreating, it seemed to be growing stronger. Snippets of words got through—fish and underwater plants, safe passage around the lake, something about meats—but it didn’t really register with her. She wanted to hear more, so she forced herself to listen, glaring in their direction.

  “How did you sense it? The brightness, I mean,” Arias said.

  Ural spread his hands. “I am a Nemora.”

  Misti scoffed and turned away. As if that answered the question. They had seen Nemora at Ingo and none of them mentioned a brightness. She had heard tell of the Laidly Nemora, and somewhere in her mind she knew that she had always wanted to meet them. She had wanted to make a good impression, but she shouldn’t have worried. They seemed like arrogant fools.

  Both Arias and Dylori thanked the Nemora and headed back to Misti. Dylori led Dis back the way they came, on the path through the salttrees. Arias opened her arms to Zora, who flew into them, and followed. Misti stomped behind them, no longer caring if she stepped on a few of their precious crystalized leaves on the way.

  Once they had left the salttrees and were back on the sand and pebbles, Dylori swung them around south once more, arcing around the lake. They passed by some Laidly Nemora having a quiet conversation with another traveler, focused on trade. Once they were out of earshot of that group, Dylori turned on Misti.

  “What the ass were you thinking, Misti?” Dylori’s voice snapped through the air.

  “They should’ve let us pass,” Misti replied, just as loud. “It’ll take another crescent for us to get to Rok now.”

  Dylori pointed back to the lake. “He was only trying to protect his people. You threatened him.”

  “I had good reason to! Do you think it’s easy carrying this thing around?” Misti pointed her dagger at the pendant.

  “No,” Dylori replied. “No, I don’t. And I understand you’re scared. And confused. And probably frustrated. But it doesn’t give you the right to bite my head off when I ask what’s wrong. And it certainly doesn’t give you the right to shove a dagger in a Nemora’s face!”

  “It gives me every right,” Misti snarled.

  Dylori gave her a furious look and extended her hand. “Give me the dagger.”

  “What?” Misti pulled the dagger back to her chest. “No, it’s mine.”

  “It’s clear you’re not fit to carry it anymore, waving it around like that.” Dylori looked pointedly at the knife as it sliced through the air when Misti threw up her arms in exasperation. “I’ll give it back once you calm down.”

  “Fine,” Misti snapped. She threw the dagger into the sand and stalked after Arias and Dis, ignoring the confused look on Dylori’s face and shaking off Zora when she tried to land on her shoulders.

  That night, when the orb went off again during a break, she absorbed it. But this time she forced herself to stay awake a little while longer than usual, trying to see why she was so upset and wondering if the orb was the origin. That’s when she felt it: the anger stirring in her mind, the annoyances building up again once by one, the exhaustion leaching into her body. That’s when she knew. Containing the pendant’s power was keeping her friends safe, but it was doing something terrible to her.

  ***

  They decided to travel during the day again to make the trip faster, so when Misti awoke from a short rest, she noticed a sudden shift in her friends and in Zora. Dylori and Arias weren’t talking or smiling as much. Zora hadn’t kneaded her awake like she often did and all but ignored her, preferring to sleep on Dis’ head. The only one who seemed happy to see her was Dis; he huffed at her in his usual greeting. Are the others simply tired? Angry about how I’ve been acting, perhaps? The next thought struck Misti like a wall of water. Is the pendant affecting them despite my best efforts?

  “Are you guys okay?” Misti asked tentatively, shading her eyes from the rising sunlight to look more closely at her friends.

  “Are you?” Dylori snapped back, slumping down on the gravel and poking at the leftover vegetables. She opened her pack and dumped the contents out—containers of dried fruit and crunchy leaves, followed by a charcoal drawing of her family and a smaller pouch filled with trophies of the suncreatures she killed. Dylori muttered about something jabbing her in the back and set to reorganizing, tucking ev
erything back inside her pack.

  Misti assessed herself. Her annoyances from before had since disappeared, but new ones slowly wove their way into her mind. Like how Dylori pulled on both boots before tying them. How Arias pulled her hair into a bun for the third time that crescent. How Dis chewed so loudly it sounded like he was eating gravel instead of leaves. She knew they were petty annoyances, stupid things that didn’t really matter, but they were enough to get the anger building again.

  “I was asking about you. You seem tired.” She looked at Arias. “You both do.”

  “You certainly had a bad day yesterday.” Arias replied, rubbing the back of her neck and wincing. “Are we not allowed to have a bad night?”

  “You are. I mean—”

  Dylori didn’t allow Misti to finish. “Look, I’m tired, okay? Like I attacked a wyvern and didn’t win.”

  “I’m exhausted as well, but it’s more like I’ve spent the entire night on a supply run and didn’t find anything I needed.” Arias let out a shaky laugh. “Gussia,” she cursed, the Eluian word dropping from her tongue. “Is this the pendant’s doing?”

  Dylori stared at the pendant. “I dunno. Misti?”

  “It probably is,” Misti said, chewing on her lip. “The pendant seems to be sucking your energy, like a Blood crafter can. But I thought Divus used that energy to heal themselves.” She remembered how sick she felt when the banished Blood crafter sucked some of her life-energy and how the banished one’s cut healed soon after, stitching itself up in white.

  Dylori nodded. “That’s one way they use their crafting.”

  Misti sighed. “But if this pendant is supposed to be based on the Blood crafter’s abilities, why don’t I feel better?”

  “You seem worse, actually.” Dylori frowned at her.

  Arias winced at Dylori’s frank tone. “I haven’t known you as long as Dylori, but you do seem a bit…angrier than usual, Misti.”

  “I am angry.” Misti folded her arms. A strange part of her didn’t want to tell her friends that she was drawing in the orb’s power, but she also knew not telling them would be wrong. They should know. “I’ve been trying to protect you two.”

  “How?” Arias sank down next to Dylori, patting the gravel.

  Misti sat as well. “By absorbing the pulses the pendant gives off.”

  “What?” Arias yelped, hand flying to her chest.

  “Are you crazy?” Dylori shouted, slamming her fist into the gravel.

  “I’ve been trying to protect you,” Misti repeated. She had been. She wasn’t going to let them make her feel bad about that.

  Arias took a deep breath and closed her eyes, pushing a hand to her temple. “How do you…absorb…the pulses exactly?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?” Dylori said.

  “I don’t. I just didn’t want it to hurt you, so I imagined that I absorbed the power, and it worked.”

  Dylori grabbed her arm and shook her a little. “Well, stop it, you sunbaked idiot!”

  “If she stops, the pendant could kill us,” Arias muttered.

  “If she continues, the pendant could kill her,” Dylori rumbled.

  Arias shook her head. “How long have you been doing this?”

  “Since we left Ingo.”

  Arias sighed. “It can’t be good for your body to keep doing it.”

  Misti shrugged. “But I will.”

  “You shouldn’t,” Arias insisted, and Dylori shook her head.

  “But I will.” Misti glared at them. She’d protect them to her last dying breath. “And you can’t stop me.”

  ***

  A crescent passed as they traveled harder, now. Sleeping in shifts so one could keep watch while they moved, traveling both day and night and only stopping to rest when Dis needed it. Arias taught Misti the basics of the bow and arrow, how to hold the bow so it wouldn’t scrape her forearm, how to shoot a moving target, how to fletch an arrow. Misti listened intently and learned as much as she could. Maybe when this was all over, she could become an archer. Maybe. It was something to shoot for, at least, after all this was over.

  She kept absorbing the pulses and getting angrier. Arias and Dylori continued to grow weaker, though they tried not to show it. Zora was so weak she no longer flew, spending the day sleeping on Dis. He seemed unaffected by the pendant thus far, perhaps because he was so big. At least that was something Misti could be happy about.

  One night a suncreature attacked. Everyone else was sleeping when it happened, even Dis. Misti noticed the suncreature in the corner of her eye the way one would notice a speck of dust in sunlight: seeing nothing at first, and then suddenly there was something there. The suncreature lurked by a particularly dense section of salttrees, its sleek white body partially buried in sand. Misti moved closer to it, mainly to get between it and her friends but also to figure out what kind of suncreature it was. Many beasts had long, narrow bodies—ashrays, mizuuchii, uncegs. Even eneeraa could make themselves appear thinner. But what is this? Besides maybe a fight would help her calm down, let some of this anger out instead of directing it toward her friends.

  Misti stepped closer, holding her dagger aloft—Dylori had given it back to her a few nights before, making her promise not to use it recklessly—and narrowed her eyes. The suncreature slithered closer, and she didn’t have to dip into her crafting to see what it was. A belly-crawler. Only an unceg suncreature could slide its legless serpentine body through the sand as easily as water. Its scales shimmered an unworldly white in the moonlight. It lashed its tail, curling the end around its body and displaying its red spikes. An attack stance. The suncreature glowed as if with an internal flame, making it an easy target. Perhaps that’s why they tended to stay away at night? Misti didn’t know and at the moment, she didn’t care.

  Be quick. Misti held the dagger tight and darted toward the creature, using her vulnix sprint to get there faster than it could respond. Go for the eyes. She slashed, and one eye popped, yellow-orange blood gushing.

  The creature hissed and spat a dark stream of poison toward Misti in return. She sidestepped, and the line of fluid sizzled on the sand. It drew in a deep breath and spit another stream, this one spraying out like a fan and forcing Misti to roll back and out of the way. She rose to her feet just in time to see the suncreature coil its body and release like a spring, lunging right for her. Its maw—filled with rows and rows of orange teeth—gaped wide enough to engulf her head. Fear engulfed her instead, and her breath caught. Yelping, she slashed with her dagger, catching the creature on the side of its face and somehow angling the terrifying maw away from her. But the suncreature reacted fast, swinging the back end of its body into her. The strike knocked the wind out of her and pushed her into the sand a few paces away. Stars sparkled in front of her eyes for a moment, and agony sliced through her each time she tried to breathe. Get up, she told herself. Move.

  The unceg lashed out again. It spun in a quick circle, using its momentum to strike with its spiked tail. Misti was sure she was far enough away from the creature that its tail couldn’t reach her. Some of the spikes detached and flew toward her like knives. Ponuriah’s ass! She rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding hits to her head and neck. The spikes sank deep into the sand beside her like pins in a pincushion. Better the sand than me.

  The unceg hissed, but frustration rippled through Misti. This creature was quick, too quick. She was exhausted from the long day’s travel, the mental effort of pushing back her anger, and her constant worry about her friends.

  The suncreature coiled and leapt again but Misti shoved herself to her feet and darted to the side. The unceg crashed next to her and a part of Misti cheered before she realized that the suncreature simply disappeared into the sand. Of course. It lives in the sand. She tightened her grip on her dagger, trying to think of a solution as the suncreature moved within the sand. She could wake up her friends, but they were already so weak, she was afraid they might be hurt or killed trying to help her. B
esides, she’d defeated suncreatures by herself before—once.

  The ground rumbled beneath her feet and she dove to the side again as the suncreature burst from the sand under her. The suncreature landed with a thump and lashed out with its tail again, swinging it toward her head. Misti saw it just in time, dropping to the ground. She thanked her vulnix bloodline for the speed that saved her from getting a spike to her temple. Rising to her feet once more, she scanned the area, dipping into her crafting. Can any beasts help me? A quick look around told her no. The salttrees were empty, the Laidly Nemora probably too far away. I have to take care of this myself. A plan formed in her mind.

  The unceg drew back its head, spitting another fan of poison toward her, but this time Misti was ready for it. She skirted around the unceg, using her speed to catch the creature off-guard as it sucked in a breath after its attack, and plunged her blade into its neck. The suncreatures thrashed, throwing Misti to the sand. It slammed its tail down, narrowly missing Misti’s head as she jerked herself away, but the tail raked through the sand to her, and she threw up her arm to cover her face. Thin lines of pain seared down her forearm. Gasping, Misti loosened her grip on her dagger. One of the spikes caught her knife and when the unceg pulled its tail back, the weapon flew with it, glinting like a falling star as it flashed through the moonlit air.

  Dread sliced through Misti at the loss of her blade. The creature was coiling around for another attack, hissing, its one good eye flashing in the moonlight. It reared its head once again, this time for a killing blow when she realized: Maybe the dagger isn’t my only weapon. The pendant can kill, right? Out of sheer desperation, she concentrated on the pendant around her neck. It answered almost immediately, sending searing heat pounding three times through her neck and chest.