Saya
Konella has been taken by one of Diva's chevalier barely two days ago now. Haji has been pacing the room without anyone catching on to his worry while the others continue their search for Diva's crate. I've been wondering for a while now…but why are they unconcerned about Konella if she's supposed to be my chevalier like Haji? And his reaction to her capture has been strange to say the least.
"Saya, you alright?" Kai and Riku peeked around the corner to see me moping by the window overthinking everything. "Want to grab something to eat?"
"…I'm not feeling too hungry Kai."
"You haven't really eaten since that day we left that abandoned mansion with the children."
"I'm still trying to figure out how you and Riku got there!" Scolding them for being in danger when they left them somewhere safe to begin with, Kai seemed on edge.
"Look, Saya, I know with Konella not being here and all that's happened you might be confused…David and the others are not worried since—"
"That's just it Kai, why aren't they worried? She was taken by a chevalier belonging to Diva! I was right there and I couldn't do anything to get her back!"
They both took a step back while Haji came to check on me for my outburst.
"My head hurts remembering what happened and I'm just so angry at myself…"
"Saya…" Riku came to comfort me but I shrugged him off and got up to walk away from them.
"I'm sorry, please just leave me alone so I can think."
Stepping outside to the veranda and overlooking the small town we're staying at made me realize just how small I felt knowing nothing. Between my memories and all the lives that were lost for the lack of fight I have, it's no wonder David and the others tell me nothing.
"Saya…"
Haji was quiet in his approach, concerned how I spoke out on my brothers perhaps. But he was no better than anyone here. Keeping secrets and not telling me anything I want to know.
"Can I ask you something about Konella?" Being careful as not to give him any means of escape, he was hesitant.
"What do you wish to know?"
"Traveling with you and Konella has opened my world to so many dangers and confusing memories, but no matter what memories I've seen for myself none have been of Konella. At the school she seemed so different to me. She was scared and confused of something while we were there finding the phantom but the moment she met Diva's chevalier at the ball it's all come apart! Why was that man so keen on having Konella who is supposed to be like you—my chevalier as you've claimed. Why do I feel no connection to her as I do to you? Can you explain that to me?"
Quiet and not giving any reason that he would speak, a sigh escaped him when he closed the doors behind him so no one could hear him.
"As you've seen, Konella is different than I am. A chevalier is dedicated to their Queen no matter the distance. My purpose is to remain by your side…"
"…she doesn't feel that, does she?" Having felt that several times considering her actions being so different compared to Haji's, I didn't want to admit it being a possibility. "But she's like you though. The enhanced ability, never aging, being able to heal and everything else that you're capable of doing." He seemed defeated when he looked at me and before I could say anything else he stopped me to speak.
"During your slumber is when I met Konella." Stating it rather quickly, it was shocking, and I wasn't quite expecting him to say that. A little taken back, he had me sit down to listen to his tale.
"Along my travels back to Russia I came across a strange sight…"
O~O~O
That winter was no different than others, but when I was traversing through an open path to an old abandoned town I came across a woman half-buried in the snow. I thought her to be dead considering her skin was gray and her body lifeless.
"I should not bother with corpses from this village." Passing by without a second thought, my hearing caught a subtle heartbeat from the woman. Disregarding my own statement and unburying the woman to press against her chest to hear her heart truly beating, I quickly picked her up and ran to the closest building that remained intact.
Finding decent kindling for the fire and getting the woman close to the warmth, it was daunting to find her wearing a wedding dress?
"Was there a celebration somewhere?" Having not seen anything on his travels but noticing a strange tear in the back of her dress, I slipped off the soaking garment and proceeded to undress her to put a dry blanket around her instead. "I do hope she is not the type to hit before questioning…" feeling that she was not getting warm quick enough and undressing myself to apply skin contact, her body began to flush color, relieving me that she was going to be alright.
I was at a loss to what I could do for this woman if she were to wake up and ask what had happened. There was no event close by that I could find to return her to. Apart from the gown she wore and depicting that she was perhaps a bride, it was strange to find her alive buried in the snow the way she was. Since I did not require sleep I was able to regulate her body temperature in a couple hours and monitor her through the night. She was a small woman with delicate features, a trait not found in Russian women.
"Mmn…"
Her small voice a mere whisper, it was enough to invoke relief she was waking up.
"Mmn…" stirring more and more as she propped herself up on her own, her eyes fluttered open to reveal a startling green color that glowed in the dim light of the fire. "Where…" her voice cracked and forced to cough when I stumbled to stand and cut myself on the pike to stoke the fire. "!"
Her head snapped to my direction, eyes glowing bright as she got on all fours and begin crawling towards me.
"What is happening?" Questioning her movement as she lunged, her body on mine and a fierce grip on my arm, she tore the bandages off my chiropteran arm and began licking the blood. "Chiropteran?!" I spoke out and tried throwing her off me when I found I was useless doing so.
She drank deep gulps of blood from the cut, biting onto my arm and opening the wound to retrieve more intakes before I was capable of removing her off me. An alarming strength. Though if she is a chiropteran I have to kill her before she completes her form.
"…who are you?"
Her sweet words the first to be spoken, I sensed no danger from her and saw her eyes stop glowing and become normal. Confused to what transpired, carefully wrapping my arm and moving to the side slowly to not provoke her, she was staring at me with a blank stare.
"That would be my question for you…" taking precaution and reaching for my cello case where I held Saya's katana in, she groaned while holding her head. "Do you know what you did?"
"…not…really…" cringing in pain as she looked at her hands, there was doubt in her expression? "What happened to me?" Asking herself as she stared at her bloody hands, she didn't scream in terror nor did she think it was strange either.
A complete anomaly.
"You attacked me…for my blood." Answering her as she looked back up in my direction, she only cocked her head to the side. "This," showing her my arm and believing she would shriek seeing it as a monstrous thing, she did nothing?
"I'm sorry…"
Taken aback from her apology, no longer reaching for the case, I stared at her with perhaps hundreds of questions.
"Are you not scared?"
"…why would I be scared?" Honest answer, her heart rate steady to reveal she wasn't lying, I was disoriented by her. "Do you know why I have no clothes?"
Only considering it now that she was nude I recovered the blanket and wrapped it around her with embarrassment
"The dress you wore was soaked, thus I removed it to get you warm." Explaining myself quickly before she thinks anything else, she looked at the dress I had thrown in the corner and approached it.
Watching her carefully as she picked it up she seemed rather confused by it. Her fingers caressed every seem, running her hand down the lace, yet her eyes showed nothing to why she wore it.
"Were you getting married?"
"…I don't know…"
At a loss, she continued to stare at the dress and would sometimes hold her head as though remembering was painful.
"Do you know your name?" I asked.
Taking several minutes before answering, looking back to me with a blank stare at times, she gave an uncertain answer.
"Konella?"
Sensing no danger from her as she placed the dress down and sat by the fire, I approached quietly and sat beside her to see if I sensed what I did earlier of her being a chiropteran.
"My name is Haji…do you remember anything else?"
Shaking her head and staring at the flames, it wasn't noticeable at first but when I looked back at her to ask her something else she was quietly crying without realizing it.
"I feel empty…" speaking sadly as she quietly cried, I could only listen. "Haji, I feel so alone for some reason…hallow…I wonder why I don't remember anything?"
"…perhaps it will come back to you in time."
"I hope so…"
I didn't know it then, but as we stayed in the house for a month trying to discover herself and see if she recalled anything by returning to the tree where I found her, we were both reliant on one another. As someone who walked countless lands on my own while waiting for Saya to awaken, it was comforting having someone to speak with and explore the countries with. Konella was still a woman of mystery for me for the time I grew to know her. She required food rather than blood unlike when we first met. Sleep was certainly a strange request though she showed no signs being completely human. Rogue chiropterans we've found would lung to attack her, identifying her as an enemy rather than a comrade. I personally trained her after fighting several chiropteran encounters. Not once did she rebuke my teachings or the way my arm looked each time I unveiled it to fight.
O~O~O
"You see Saya, Konella and I shared the last 28 years together as I awaited your awakening. Though it was early that you awoke from the cocoon, to find you as an innocent girl with no memory of your past was rather confusing for me."
He seemed so hurt speaking of his past and how he found Konella that I didn't know what to say to him. She was found in the middle of the snow and has only known Haji this entire time. What did she feel when meeting me? Did Haji think she would come to accept me and call herself my chevalier with confidence not knowing who she was?
"Did she even want to be my chevalier?" Realizing I spoke out loud and seeing Haji's eyes widen, it was enough of an answer to see him turn away. "Did she not want to at all?"
"There were doubts…Konella seemed eager to meet you at first, but when she did she seemed more troubled than before and wanted to know you from a distance."
"Then those times I rejected her…how I tried being friendly with her at the school, she was confused of me?"
"I believe so. Though I do think it was her memories trying to come forth each time she spent close to you that harmed her in a way."
"Then why would Diva's chevalier want with her and call her his? You found her in the middle of nowhere in Russia, not once making contact with him and now this happens?"
"Konella is different from a chevalier…" he admitted.
"Explain it to me." Demanding this from him, needing to hear why she was so different, he seemed troubled.
"As the years passed, few occurrences would happen that made Konella seem somewhat like you."
"What?"
"…she needs to eat but not as frequently as you. Her body cannot regulate temperature as I do and feels the elements just like any human. That power she used against you—"
"How does she do that?" Interrupting him, he shook his head not knowing. "I remember her using it on me before…her eyes glow and then I can't remember anything that's happened."
"It is a unique trait of hers, but it comes with consequences and inflicts harm."
"She gets hurt?" Unaware of that and asking for more details, he didn't want to say more about it. "Haji, if Konella isn't a chiropteran or a chevalier, what could she possibly be?"
"I have my theory, but I don't believe it to be possible."
I wanted him to continue, but he seemed to be done speaking and walked away. My mind was filled to the brim with questions and wanting to speak with Konella. Though she was with the enemy, so I believe her to be, I wanted her to be ok.