I let out a soft groan. “Yeah, that…”
Chuckling, my childhood friend replied, “Thank you,” before turning back to watch the sun set.
Memories of the last time I had talked to Tess came to my mind. It wasn’t that long ago but she seemed so different now—more mature, like she said.
That’s when I realized. The feelings of elation and joy as soon as I saw Tess today wasn’t because of Sylvie’s emotions flooding into mine… because I still felt it even now.
I reached into the inside pocket of my mantle where I kept the charm I had bought earlier with a realization in mind:
I liked Tess.
I probably always liked Tess.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I was born with memories of my previous life as an adult, I might’ve confessed to her long before.
But what would her feelings toward me be if she knew my secret? Would she react the same way as my parents? Would she feel disgusted like I had when I first realized I liked her?
Doubt weighed down on me, and suddenly, the tiny little charm in my hand felt like a lead anchor.
“Thank you for showing me this place,” Tess said as she looked afar. “I always considered the Beast Glades to be such a dangerous and bloody place. I didn’t realize how beautiful it looked.”
“It was actually the same for me as well,” I admitted, my hand still gripping the charm. “Although I love the view here, this place is tied to a bad memory, so I thought coming up here with you would make it better.”
“I see,” she uttered. “Has it? Made it better, I mean?”
“It has,” I said as I finally summoned the courage to pull the trinket out. It was a simple silver charm of two leaves laid over one another to make the shape of a heart. “I got this for you.”
“It’s so pretty!” she said, holding the charm in her hand. “Is this, perhaps, for the great tour service I gave you today?”
“No.” I let out a breath. “It’s because I like you.”
“Oh… wai-what?” Tess eyes widened, more out of disbelief than out of surprise. “Did I hear you wrong? I swear I thought you said—”
“I like you, Tess,” I finished with more conviction, pushing down the doubt still growing inside me.
Tess stood up. “What do you mean by ‘like’? I swear, Arthur, if you say you like me as a friend or as a sister, I’m going to...”
I got up as well and reached for the hand holding the pendant. “I like you as a girl. And what I mean is that I wish to start a relationship with you and that I hope that you feel the same way.”
Tess’ lips were trembling as she tried to contain her emotions. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
She sniffled. “Yes, you are.”
“Do you want me to be?” I asked with a slight smile.
“I-I don’t know,” she said, her head down. “It’s just, I imagined things going differently.”
“Differently, how?”
“That I’d have to get stronger and prettier and older to wow you and swoon you off your feet,” she said, hitting me in the arm.
I chuckled. “Can I still look forward to you swooning me off my feet?”
“It’s not funny!” she snapped, finally looking up so I could see her two tear-brimmed eyes glaring at me. She held up the leaf pendant up to my face. “Put this on for me.”
I took the pendant from her but rather than undoing the chain clasp, I clicked together the two ends of the leaves. With a ‘click,’ the heart shape that the two silver leaves had made became undone into two normal leaves.
Removing one of the leaves, I wrapped the silver chain around her neck. “Here. Let me keep the other one.”
Tess stared down as her fingers clasped the single silver leaf hanging down just above her chest. She then pulled out a long leather string that had been wrapped around her arm and took my silver leaf.
“Here, turn around,” she ordered as she weaved the leather string through the silver loop that made up the stem of the leaf pendant.
She put the new leather necklace around my neck and tied it so that the leaf dangled loosely over my chest as well. Before I could turn around. however, I felt Tess’ arms around my waist as she embraced me from behind.
“I like you too, idiot. But we’re at war. We both have responsibilities and people that need us,” she said in a solemn whisper.
“I know. And I have things I want to tell you as well, so how about we make a promise?”
“What sort of promise?”
“A promise to stay alive… so that we can have a beautiful relationship and a family that our entire country can come together to celebrate.”
Her arms trembled, but she answered firmly. “I promise.”
Tess pulled her arms away, but I didn’t turn around. I stared off at the Beast Glades, almost missing the cloud of dust approaching behind a large hill a few dozen miles away.
“Arthur?” Tess’ voice sounded from behind.
“It’s… too soon,” I muttered. Whatever peace and warmth I had finally managed to grasp, fell apart.
Tess saw it as well as she gasped.
The reports were wrong. They were coming. Less than a few hours away, from the pace they were approaching. The beast horde was coming.
Chapter 213: Enemy Territory III
CIRCE MILVIEW
Alacryan
I ran. It seemed all I had been doing these days was running through this cursed forest. Low-hanging branches scraped my cheeks and arms while thorny shrubs tore through my clothes and legs.
I sprinted in the direction my magic guided me. Without it, I was blind. Even if there was a moon tonight, I doubted its pale rays would be able to penetrate the dense canopy and fog above.
Every so often, I would see flashes of light from Maeve’s magic behind me, illuminating the trees and casting eerie shadows on the forest ground.
Maeve. Cole. Please make it out safely, I prayed to Vritra without breaking stride.
I continued to run, making sure to lift my knees high and step with my heel first while kicking off with the ball of my feet. This was the best way to run in the uneven terrain filled with broken branches and knotted roots.
Running until the magical flashes of battle were barely visible, I skidded to a stop and crouched beside a thick shrub. The thorns and prickly leaves pressing against me gave me comfort from the open. I covered my mouth as I gasped for breath, afraid that I’d be heard.
Paranoia had long since set in, filling my mind with endless doubts and hopelessness. Choking back sobs, I tried to calm myself.
You’re okay, Circe. You’re doing great. I wiped away at the stream of tears that didn’t stop flowing.
I have to survive. For my brother. For Seth. I recited this over and over. It was my mantra. It was what was keeping me going.
After finally catching my breath, I ignited my crest. Immediately, I could sense the location of the closest three-point array I had formed. Unfortunately, it was farther away than I hoped.
Unable to even curse aloud, I grit my teeth in frustration. With this much distance between the rest of the arrays, just using mana wasn’t enough.
Digging a small hole in the soft ground with my hand, I bit down on my thumb until blood was drawn. Carefully, I let my blood drip into the hole while instilling the mana from my crest.
It was by pure luck that I had found out that using my blood as a medium for mana would amplify the effects of the array. Perhaps finding out why might even one day evolve my crest into an emblem.
After my mana-infused blood had seeped into the small hole I had made, I covered it up and moved onto a nearby tree.
Taking out the small knife that Fane had practically forced me to keep, I began carving a small hole underneath a low branch.
I was about to put my bleeding thumb up against the hole when a sharp snap made me whirl
around. I held the knife with both hands, pointing it toward the source of the sound as I activated my first crest.
My senses expanded, covering a twenty-yard radius, only to sense that it was just a small forest critter. I lowered my knife, frustrated at my own pathetic self. I was trembling, my back up against the tree, with tears in my eyes.
All I wanted was to curl up and cry, but unfortunately, I didn’t have such luxury. Not if I wanted to live.
I knew that the noise had been caused by an animal but I couldn’t focus. I was wasting time, but for some odd reason, I really didn’t want someone to kill me from behind. It was odd to think, but I’d rather look at my killer as I died.
***
After several minutes trickled by, I let out a sigh and turned back to my task.
If someone was here, they would’ve killed me already, I said to myself. It wasn’t a very comforting thought, but it was true.
I was a sentry. Widely respected and valuable but severely defenseless compared to strikers like Fane, casters like Maeve, and even shields like Cole.
After the second point had been finished, I moved to the final tree to finish the three-point array. I knew that using blood as a medium for the array would take its toll, but I was still surprised by how weak I felt after the final point had been finished. Despite the brisk winter air that seemed even colder within this fog, I was sweating and my knees were close to giving out.
Got to move. Almost there, I said to my legs. Without bothering to mask my mana trail, I moved on to the next point.
Fortunately, with the three-point array imprint that I had just finished, I wouldn’t have to use my blood again. I just needed to make sure I didn’t set the next imprint too far away.
I managed a half-jog while panting. I didn’t think it was possible, but the forest seemed to be getting even darker. The low hanging branches snagged at my tattered clothes. Without the strength to just shrug them off, I had to stop and pull off the branches, costing me precious time.
I stumbled more times than I could count on the roots and tree limbs that seemed to be growing more in numbers, but I finally made it.
This location should be okay.
Falling forward on my knees, I got to work once more. Igniting my crest, I began trickling mana into the first point of the array when something crashed into me from the side.
Without even the chance to be surprised, I was suddenly looking at Fane, who was on top of me. Fane wasn’t looking at me, but out in the distance—his face contorted into a fearsome scowl. It was dark but even then I could make out how bloody he was.
“Can you run?” he asked, pulling me up to my feet. His eyes were still surveying our surroundings, searching for something.
“I think so,” I stuttered, my gaze shifting down at a glimmering arrow buried in the ground… right where I used to be.
Fane ignited his emblem. His entire body glowed and visible gusts of wind surrounded him, lifting him off his feet. In his hand was a spear, its length about twice my height with a sharp point that spun like a drill, sending gales around us. “Then run. I’ll hold them off.”
Without even the chance to greet my teammate, I turned and ran. I didn’t know who the ‘him’ that Fane was referring to was but from the way he had immediately ignited his emblem to its full power, I knew he couldn’t be good.
It wasn’t long before I could hear the echoes of battle behind me. The ground shook and the trees seemed to shudder in sorrow and pain for their brethren caught in the fight. More than once I was almost blown off my feet by the gales but even then, I resisted the temptation to look behind me. I could only pray to Vritra that Fane would be okay.
Again, I ran. I continued to run in this forsaken forest until my legs felt like lead. Every step seemed harder and harder to make, as if I was wading in a pool of tar.
No matter how desperately I wanted to keep moving, my body had had enough. Barely able to lift my feet off the ground, my toes got caught on a gnarled root.
I toppled forward and I soon tasted the dirt and foliage of the forest in my mouth.
Fane’s silver chestplate kept me on the ground like an anchor. Giving up on the thought of getting back up, I rolled to my side and ignited my crest. With the distance I had gone, I knew it was safer to strengthen the array with blood.
The wound on my thumb had already scabbed over, but as I wiped my mouth of the dirt, I was able to make out a streak of red.
What my sleep-deprived and crazed brain conceived as ‘fortunate’ was the fact that the fall to my face had torn open a wound on my lip.
Perhaps the most unladylike action I had performed in my entire life, I spat a mouthful of blood on the ground and dipped my fingers in it to imbue mana.
If I can’t run, I might as well create one more imprint for the army waiting. Maybe this will be close enough for them. Maybe they’ll still save Seth.
The crest on my back began burning—a telltale sign that I was overexerting myself. It didn’t matter. My legs couldn’t even carry my weight. I was prepared to die.
“Idiot! Didn’t I tell you to keep running?” I never thought Fane’s rough voice would sound so pleasant, but I was wrong.
I spotted Fane’s figure rushing toward me with a sphere of wind surrounding him. Without stopping, he picked me up by the chestplate and held me under his armpit. That’s when I saw it.
“Fane. Y-Your arm!” I huffed, wide-eyed.
“Not important,” he snapped. “I need you to focus on guiding me.”
I had so many questions for Fane, but now wasn’t the time. Pointing in the direction that True Sense had shown me, I directed the veteran striker through the fog-infested forest.
***
Fortunately, the sun was coming back up. We had been running non-stop throughout the whole night and it was evident that Fane was close to collapsing. He had concentrated much of his mana on the stub where his left arm used to be in order to keep blood from spilling out. The rest of his mana was spent on maximizing our speed.
“We’re almost there!” I said excitedly, pointing at an opening in the woods a few dozen yards away.
“Just a bit more, and you need to focus everything you have on the three-point array. Do that and our mission is a success,” Fane huffed. “Can you do that?”
“I can.”
We skidded to a stop and Fane dropped me on the ground. I assumed that the striker wanted me to start on the array—I was only half right.
I could see Fane’s emblem glowing brightly underneath his shirt as he stood in front of me. The spear once again formed in Fane’s hand as he aimed it at the elf slowly approaching us.
Even at first glance, I knew who he was. It was the same elf that had spotted us up on the tree. It was the same elf that Maeve and Cole had stayed behind to fight against.
“N-No. That can’t be…” I muttered as the elf named Albold continued closing the distance between us. He looked injured and tired, but he was alive. And if he was alive, that meant…
I heard a faint whistle but before my brain could process what that noise meant, Fane’s wind spear had already moved. The arrow that was meant to take my life lay on the ground.
“Damn it, there’s more of them. We need to run,” Fane hissed. “Now!”
Fane lifted me up to my feet and pushed me back. “Go!”
Even with the strength I gathered while Fane had held me in his arm, I could only manage an awkward stagger. Fane continued to push me towards the opening in the woods, towards what I assumed to be one of the entrances to the elven kingdom.
I tensed every time I heard a sharp whistle but by the fact that none of the arrows had managed to hit me, I knew Fane was doing his job.
I still had to finish mine.
Igniting my crest mid-stride, the imprints of the three-point arrays lit up like a map in my head. The closest one I had imprinted was too far away though. I needed time, which was something we didn’t have.
“We’re close enough. Set up the array!” Fane groaned behind me.
I dropped to my knees and began setting up the first point in the array. While doing so, I took a peek behind me.
Fane towered over me just a few steps behind with shafts of multiple arrows jutting out from his body. A trail of blood leaked down the corner of his mouth.
“Array!” he snapped without looking back.
I nodded frantically and ripped open another wound on my thumb.
The muted hum of weapons clashing startled me, but I refused to look back.
Another whistle from behind.
Fane let out a groan.
My hands trembled as I started the array.
Damn it! It’s not strong enough.
I tried to imbue more mana but, out of the corner of my eye, I could see the trees around us swaying.
Another pained grunt resounded from behind, but it wasn’t Fane’s voice.
The sharp pain radiating from my crest grew more and more unbearable as I imbued more mana into the small pool of blood that had gathered on the ground in front of me.
I heard another whistle but almost immediately after, I was knocked down as a pain shot up my arm like fire. My head exploded with a blinding whiteness. I could barely get back up to my knees, dizziness overwhelming me.
Despite my brain screaming at me not to, I looked at my injured arm. It was mangled beyond recognition.
“The… array,” Fane’s voice croaked from behind.
“I… I can’t,” I mustered. I couldn’t even think straight as it felt like every inch of my right arm had been jammed through the skin with serrated blades.
I watched, dazed, as blood began to pool beneath me.
I knew it wouldn’t be long now until I died. I almost wanted to die, but in this near-dead state, I couldn’t help but think of Seth. He was waiting back in Alacrya in a hospital bed.
He was almost dead as well. Even if I couldn’t live, shouldn’t he be able to?
TBATE Volume 7 Page 15