Kindred Spirits Pt 2

Siiyan's eyes cracked open. He saw the wooden ceiling of whatever room he was in, dimly lit by a lamp in the far corner of the room. A sliver of light came through a gap in the curtains, which slowly became bigger as someone opened the curtains, letting the daylight flood into the room.

He tried sitting up, but a sharp stab shot through his ribs, causing him to grunt in pain, and fall back onto the bed. The person in the room walked over to the bed, pulled up a chair and sat beside him. Siiyan looked up at them. He was expecting Meg, or Rancour, but he was pleasantly surprised by who he saw.

Long red hair flowing down over her shoulders, neatly held back by a green and yellow headband. The headband matched her green top and grey skirt. She looked down at him with soft blue eyes.

"Ariane" he said.

She said nothing, just stared down at him, unblinking.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"In Canifis" she replied curtly, "In the Hair of the Dog Tavern."

He began sitting up again, fighting through the pain and pushing away Ariane's hand as she tried laying him back down on the bed. He sat on the side of the bed and looked around the room. It was a basic tavern room. A bed, a table and a wash basin, nothing more. He looked at Ariane, but she ignored his gaze, instead standing and returning to the window.

"Where are the others?"

"They've gone. Major Rancour was needed back at Burthorpe, and Meg, just left. We did what we could for your injuries, at least until we get you to a proper healer." she replied, not moving her gaze from the outside. Siiyan looked down at his torso. His chestpiece had been removed and was sitting on the table, along with his shirt. Instead, he was wrapped in bandages, that had been soaked in some sort of restorative property. He felt around where his broken ribs had been. They didn't seem to be broken anymore, but there was still intense bruising around his chest. It probably wouldn't go down for a week. Ariane noticed what he was doing and spoke up again.

"I used some magic to heal the worst of the damage, but theres no more I can do with it. You'll just have to heal naturally from now on."

She looked back through the window, out into the swamps of Morytania.

"What is it?" he asked her.

She turned to face him. "Excuse me?"

"Something's bothering you, I can tell."

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous" she turned back to the window.

"You've barely spoken a word, and any you have spoken have been somwhat curt."

"Did I make it too obvious." Irritation was rising in her voice.

"I won't know if you don't tell me" he pressed.

"There's nothing to tell, so stop trying." Her voice was rising higher.

He stared at Ariane for a moment, analysing her body language. Her back was still turned to him, but her arms were crossed. Well, less crossed, more like she was hugging herself, and her shoulders were tucked in, like she was trying to hold something back.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked.

She whirled around to face him, showing the tears that were thrreatening to spill from her eyes, and harshly throwing her arms out in expression.

"Of course I am!" she shouted at him, "You could have died!"

She took a step back and looked away ever so slightly. She quielty sobbed as tears fell down her cheeks. Siiyan stood up from the bed, ignoring the pain in his ribs and walked over to Ariane. He put both hands on her shoulders and brought her into an embrace. She buried her head in his shoulder and let her tears fall. He put one hand on the small of her back, and used the other hand to gently stroke her hair, soothing her.

This continued for a while, until Ariane had calmed down enough to speak again. She pulled away from him and used her hand to wipe the tears from her face.

"Meg sent me a message saying you'd been injured. She didn't say what happened or how badly you were hurt, but I hadn't prepared myself to see you like you were. When I came in, you were unconcious on the bed, blood and bruises all over your body, and your head. It was like you'd been run through by a herd of Acheron. We managed to get you healed enough, but I was so afraid. Afraid that it wasn't enough, and afraid of what did this to you. Meg and Major Rancour left soon after without explaining anything." She let out a trembling sigh. "What happened to you?"

Siiyan's face darkened as the memory returned to the front of his mind. "It was Sliske" he said, "Sliske held us all hostage and forced us through a set of twisted games. Eventually things didn't go his way, and he wasn't happy about it. So, he took it out on me."

Ariane looked him in the eyes and pressed her hand up against his cheek. Tears returning to her eyes as she was at a loss for words.

"But that's not the ony thing. Sliske, I think he took part of my soul."

Ariane blinked away the tears. "Your soul? How is that even possible?"

"He has the Staff of Armadyl, and the Stone of Jas, there's probably not a lot he can't do. If he did take part of my soul, I have no idea what he could do with it." He walked back over to the bed and sat on the edge again.

Ariane turned thoughtful. "I would definitley say your soul is unique, especially given your immunity to divine magic. Maybe theres part of somthing only you have that he wants?" she theorised.

"Yeah, maybe." He had another thought, and if the others didn't tell her anything, then she didn't know this. He had to tell her.

"There's something else," he said, "It's about Linza."

"Linza?" she queried, "What about her?"

"She was there with us, but as you could see, she didn't make it out."

Her blue eyes widened with shock. "Did ... Is she ..?"

"No," he replied, his voice turned icy, "It's worse than that. Sliske turned her into a wight."

Ariane brought her hand to her mouth and gasped, "Oh Gods."

"Linza went to Sliske for protection. She stole some things from the Dragonkin, and, being afraid of the backlash, she went to him." He sneered as he thought of Sliske, and everything that had just transpired. Siiyan buried his forehead into his palms and rubbed his eyes.

"I would have helped her. Why couldn't she have realised that? I would have hepled her." He sighed deeply down to the floor. "I would have helped..."

Ariane walked over to the bed and sat beside him.

"Linza made her choice. And the consequence caught up with her. But, if anyone were to save her, I know it would be you." She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I will save her. There's nothing Sliske can do to stop me."

"Did you learn anything else about Sliske? Or his plans?" she asked him.

Siiyan paused before answering. He did learn a lot from Sliske's secret room, but if he told her anything, if he told anyone anything, they were in danger from Sliske's wrath. He couldn't risk her safety like that.

"No" he lied.

She looked at him. He gazed to the far wall, not meeting her eyes. She knew he wasn't telling the whole truth, but she didn't press it.

"Just promise me you'll stay out of trouble for the next week. You can't push yourself or you'll never recover properly."

He made a small, wry smile. "I promise I will try to stay out of trouble for the next week" he said.

Ariane chuckled slightly. That would be the best she would get out of him.

"Thank you."