by Riley Tune
After a few moments of silence, he spoke again. “Okay, okay, two silver.” “Better,” I said as I dropped two silver yolars in his hand. I snatched the cloak and put it on right then and there. “You really need to wear it now?” Vida asked. “The orbs aren’t even falling anymore.”
I took a deep breath. “Besides you, having my cloak on is one of the few things that calms me so I can think.” She smiled at this and bumped into me with her hip. Then, surprisingly, she took hold of my hand and didn’t let go. I raised a brow, but didn’t say anything. Instead I just enjoyed the moment.
“I just can’t figure one thing out,” I said as I rubbed my hurting stomach with my free hand. “It was clearly Ember. I know that face anywhere, but when I tried to find him through our bond, I couldn’t. It was like he wasn’t there.” I shook my head. “Something, has changed.”
“I’m sure he’ll show up again,” Vida said. “I didn’t know Ember as well as you, but I get the feeling he won’t be found if he doesn’t want to be,” She was right about that. I pushed down the thoughts of Ember in my mind. Somehow, I just had a hard time letting go that he was alive and well, on a killing spree apparently, and didn’t contact me.
“Lox. Vida.” I heard a voice yell to us over the surrounding crowd of people in the market. “Well look at that, by The Keeper he made it after all.” Vida said as she smiled a little. I looked at her. “Easy. People are going to think he’s your friend if you smile when you see him.”
Vida shrugged. “He did save my life.” “Good point,” I said as I rubbed my stomach some more. The pain was increasing again.
“Funny finding you two love birds here.” Craydon said as he swaggered over, joined by Halo. “Hello again.” Halo said as he looked around with a slight grimace on his face. “Glad you made it to shore, Craydon,” I said as I looked at Halo.
“Me too!” Craydon said as he pointed to Vida. “Girly here abandoned us there when your other warper friend turned up. Lucky for us, I’m a man of many talents.” He pulled Halo in close and put his arm around his waist. “Plus, it was almost romantic to have some alone time on the ship.”
Halo smiled, but still looked around at the market place with tight lips. “You okay?” I finally asked him. “Yes. It’s just a lot to take in. So many people.” He turned his head to look some more. “I’ve never been off of Rewling, and we don’t have such places for shopping and interaction.”
“You’ll learn to love it,” Vida said casually. Over the next few moments, the three of them engaged in a casual conversation, that I didn’t pay any attention to. Clearly the time they spent fleeing Rewling together had made them close. I nodded my head here and there, to appear as if I was listening, but, in reality, I was thinking of what to do with Craydon and Halo.
Halo had some gifts of his own, and Craydon, as much as I hate to admit it, had helped us out even though it could have posed some risk to himself. Him going back to Rewling after being chased away was a risk many wouldn’t have taken.
With Grimsby Glen free, we needed as many friends close as possible if we were going to keep the Kingdoms safe, and prevent me from becoming his vessel. “Craydon,” I said abruptly. Judging from the looks I got, nobody expected me to randomly speak. “When you and Halo finish here, pack your things and head to the palace.”
Craydon’s brow raised. “To the palace? For what?” “We have some things to catch you and Halo up on.” I paused for a moment. “Then, I think it’s best that you two live there with us for a while.”
Halo and Craydon looked at each other, and then back to me. Vida remained quiet for a moment but shook her head. “Good idea,” she finally said. “With what’s going on it may be best they keep close.”
Still confused, Craydon slowly shook his head. “I could see the perks of living in a palace.” We all looked at him. He shrugged. “I’m still owed a painting at least. King’s promise is all I’m saying.”
The pain in my stomach made me slouch over somewhat. “You okay there, Warps?” Craydon asked me. I shut my eyes tight as the pain swirled in my stomach. “I’m-” before I could even get my lie out, the pain increased and I dropped to my knees, and screamed. People in the market began to turn and look in our direction as others, who were walking began to avoid us.
“Lox,” Vida said as she placed her hand on my back and shoulder and tried to lift me to my feet. My stomach had been giving me issues for some time now, but never had the pain felt so bad. It was as if something inside me was pulling on me.
I tried to catch my breath and push myself to my feet, and then I noticed a shimmer in front of my eyes. With a burst of pain from my stomach, I was suddenly crashing down on a building in Thera.
I had warped. Somehow. I was no longer in the market place. I don’t think I was even close to it. My heart fluttered as I tried to gather myself, and then the pain exploded inside me again, and once more, against my control, I was pulled into a warp with an unknown destination.
This time the cold dirt street was what stopped my fall. My body hurt from hitting the ground, but oddly enough, my stomach was no longer hurting. I stood up and looked around. I appeared to still be in the Prime Sovereignty, but I was no longer in Thera.
The street was littered with trash, and the buildings around me were mere huts, when compared structures in Thera. Only one kingdom was this poverty stricken, Kameace. “How did I get here?” I said to myself in a low voice. I could do a lot of things, but to warp directly from one kingdom to another wasn’t one of them.
Just then I realized I could hear heavy breathing behind me. I turned so fast that my cloak kicked up some of the street trash around me. I reached for my daggers and realized they were hidden on my legs still from when I went to the speech not long ago. I touched my power to warp the blades to me, but then I stopped.
The heavy breathing was coming from a young girl. She was maybe fourteen. Fifteen at the most. She had a sharp rock in her hand that was stained with dripping blood. Her long black hair clung to her face as it, and her tattered brown clothes were also soaked with blood.
Judging from the scene, the blood was from the man lying on the ground at her feet. He had on a Noble’s clothes, and from what I could see from what was left of his face, was an older man with olive- colored skin. The dirt around his body had turned to a burgundy mud texture as the blood continued to pour from skull.
Still breathing hard, the girl looked at me. “He. He. He wouldn’t stop,” she said between breaths. “I told him no. That I didn’t want to. But he didn’t stop. He kept touching me.” Tears began to run down from her eyes.
I suddenly stopped feeling bad for this man, and began to think maybe he deserved his fate. If he was guilty of what she said, then his actions were his downfall. I stepped closer to her and she flinched.
“It’s okay. It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” I said as I raised my hand up. It was odd. What was once pain in my stomach, began to feel like something I had felt before as I moved closer to her. What was going on here?
“He knew. He said he’d tell if I didn’t let him,” she said as more tears ran down her face. Then she screamed and slammed the rock on the dead man's face several more times. “He’s dead!” I shouted at her. “Leave it.”
My scream seemed to bring her rage to an end. She dropped the rock and then backed away from the body and looked at her blood- soaked hands. Her chest began to rise and fall rapidly, and then I felt my eyes widen as my mouth opened. She warped. Not far, though.
Actually, she warped from where she was standing to about three inches to her left. Still she warped. I had thought warpers were rare, but after finding out Cloud was one, and then this girl, I was starting to think I was wrong.
Then everything I had been feeling began to make sense. “It won’t stop.” she yelled. Her cries echoed around the streets as several men came walking into view. They had weapons, but no armor Each man carried a somewhat rusty sword.
; These were the guards of Kameace. As the poorest kingdom, they couldn’t afford the fancy armor that other guards were used to. Instead these men all simply wore their normal clothes, and had a black cape on their back to signify their membership to the guard. They paused as they looked in our direction.
They then each looked at each other. It was no secret that Kameace guards were the most fearful guards in any kingdom. It was ironic really, because Kameace, due to the level of poverty, had more issues with theft and violence than anyplace else.
One brave guard, the tallest of them all, stepped forward with his sword raised. It was shaking in his hand. “What. Uh, is everything okay here?” he asked in a voice as shaky as his hands were. Even from here I could see sweat on his brow form and he was looking everywhere except for at the body on the ground.
Try to avoid it as he might, there was just too much blood. “Leave us,” I said. I kept my voice stern and steady, trying to command dominance in a situation I had no control in. Still breathing heavy, the girl looked at both ends of the street, from myself to the guards and then back to me. She swallowed as she backed up closer to a wall of a building.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that,” the guard said. While I kept my tone strong, his tone betrayed his true fear, and as Ember had always taught me, fear made men weak. His sword hand was shaking more and more now. I touched my power warped their weapons away. Each man screamed in shock.
The girl turned to me with eyes wide. Still holding my power, I warped from my end of the street to theirs and grabbed the lead guard by the neck. His fellow guards ran, not caring what happened to their friend. “I said, leave us.” I repeated as I looked into his eyes. Now that I was close to him, I could see the thin layer of dirt on his face.
He shook his head vigorously and ran as soon as I let him go. I turned to face the girl but she was no longer there. I looked up, and found her looking down on me from a neighboring building. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. The look on her face said it all. A mixture of confusion and fear was waging a battle on the surface.
I felt the feeling in my stomach pull me to her. I knew now why it felt so familiar. It was our bond. Just like the bond I felt, and shared, with Ember. All this time. The stomach pains, the uncontrolled warping, I was being pulled to her. The bond had taken hold of us, and I never knew it. Ember had never had gone into detail on how he knew to look for me, and for that matter I never asked.
In an instant, she began to run. Jumping from building to building. I could only guess that she didn’t know how to control her power, otherwise why would she run instead of warping. I felt hollow inside as I watched her move out of view. She was a warper, and she had killed already. She had taken a life, and sealed her future in blood.
The curse had her now, and she would grow fond of killing, just as I had. She needed me. Her teacher? Master? Friend? I could barely see her now, but I needed to catch her to tell her she wasn’t crazy, and she wasn’t alone. I put up the hood of my cloak, reached inside myself and took hold of my power once more. Then, I warped.
Lox, and his crew, will return to fight for the Prime Sovereignty one last time in…
WARPER: LEGACY