Sunlight: Part Three: Trust
Bright, alien dance music filtered up from the cavern below. It was almost harp like, but... damper. Rua scoffed at this description, but lacking a better one, had to think of it that way. She had seen the instrument earlier, it was a large round frame of a tough kind of underwater wood, strung in an intermeshing pattern of thin sinew.
Rua leaned back against the wall of the cave. She had given up on waiting for the Cajun to wake up and gone off to find her a quiet place to sit and think. She didn't know why she cared about what happened to him. The Amphi - as she had come to call the amphibians in her own mind - would take care of him. He was their new hero. She should just take the opportunity to disappear again. There was a chance that Zaine and the others would loose her trail in Necromel's village, and give her time to increase her distance. Despite the fact that they were hunting her, she didn't like the idea of Necromel getting his hands - or teeth - into them. They had been her family for a very long time, after all.
And hopefully, with the Pemdrias gone, Zaine would regain some semblance of sanity. Her hand went up to her neck, suddenly worried that she might have lost it in everything that happened, but the pendant was still there, hidden under her tunic. The Pemdrias was the symbol of everything bad that had happened to the guild over the past year. The gem at the pendants center, which changed color in the light, resembled the guild perfectly. And the eternal knot that held the gem showed exactly how long it would go on this way.
Rua heard the soft squelch of Amphi footfalls approaching the cave, and she opened her eyes, waiting. Sure enough, it was Shells, the Amphi who had taken possession of Remy's staff. As the time that she had sat near Remy's bed waiting for him to wake stretched past several hours, Shells taught her to play an Amphi game involving pebbles and shells. This is how she had come to think of him, since the Amphi had no spoken language she could understand. In the process of playing the game, they also had worked out a primitive method of communication through gestures.
Shells entered the cave slowly, looking at her. "There is change," he gestured, "with man-of-light."Man-of-light was the name they had for Remy, for what he had done. The gesture for it was hands, palm outward, forning a triangle with pointers and thumbs, the other fingers spread and closed twice.
Rua nodded, and stood, following Shells out of the cave, and back down the cavern to the cave where Remy had been laying. The Amphi, of course, had no concept of fire, so it was dark in the back of the cave where the bed was, where the light from the crystal did not reach. Shells stopped at the entrance, and grasped her arm to stop her from going in. She could see his dim figure, crouched low and holding his staff, his eyes glowing red. She looked at Shells, and the other Amphi who had gathered, and gestured for them to leave. Shells looked at her, reluctant to go, and she gestured again. He nodded, gestured ,"carefulness," and led the others away.
"Remy? You feeling ok?" she asked, stepping into the cave. The Cajun advanced on her with a growl, and she fought the urge to draw one of her blades. She took another step, bracing herself for an attack. "Remy-"
The next few movements happened in a flash. He lashed out at her with the staff, which she ducked under, nearly getting hit. She managed to kick his knee from the back, throwing him off balance momentarily, giving her enough time to grip the staff with both hands. They struggled for control of the staff for a moment, but he forced her backwards, and she lost her footing on a pebble. This gave him the upper hand, and he slammed her into the wall, the staff against her throat, the red eyes narrowed, and a rather frightening snarl on his face. It was all she could do to keep it from crushing her windpipe, but it was still cutting off her air. This went on for about a minute, and just as her vision was beginning to black out, he shook his head, as if coming out of a trance, and the staff disappeared. He moved quickly to the other side of the cave, his head in his hands, and she turned, staggering out of the cave, using the wall for support, trying to stop gasping for air.
"Rua..." his voice came softly behind her, a voice of recognition. She didn't stop - she had enough people trying to kill her without adding another. They were both free to go on their separate ways now. Their alliance had only been a temporary one, lasting until they had escaped Necromel. However, the memory of him trying to keep her from drowning surfaced as part of that escape, and her pace slowed, and then stopped. She turned, but said nothing.
He was leaning with one hand against the cave wall, looking at her. His eyes stilled glowed in the darkness, but not with the same empty fury that they had a few moments before. "I'm sorry 'bout dat, chere - I know dat sorry don' mean nothin' to you - but Remy is sorry... sometimes I jus' can' control it-"
"I'll keep that in mind," she said dryly, glaring at him.
He clenched his jaw, looking angry again, and she turned to go. There was no reason for her to take the risk of staying. She had taken maybe three steps, when she heard him sigh. "Rua?" he said hesitantly, and she turned again, her own jaw clenched. "Why did you - stay here-?"
Rua knew he that he wanted to know if she had stayed because she was worried about him, which she had. But she had made up her mind to walk away. She shook her head, and turned again. "Sorry, Cajun. You missed a nice party while you were taking your nap."
She had taken five steps this time when she felt a rapid movement behind her. She spun, producing her concealed dagger, and taking a defensive stance. He had been making a move to grab her, and he withdrew his hand quickly, backing away. "Rua -"
Remy stood there with his hands held apart, looking at her helplessly, trying to find something to say. After a moment, he gave up, finding nothing, and looked at the floor, dropping his hands to his side in frustration. She lowered her dagger, relaxing her stance. "They had a real big celebration while you were out, I wasn't joking about that. There's still music -" she paused, and he looked up at her, then towards the opening of the cave and listened. The damp instrument was still playing, this time a soft tune that made her think of tides.
He looked down at his hands, taking on a tranced look again, and when he spoke, his voice was quiet, and full of pain. At the sound of it, she put her dagger away, walking a few steps towards him. "De crystal's ok, den? After I let go of it, I started thinkin' it broke, and dey were all dyin', because of me - I've destroyed so much, chere - I didn' really t'ink dat dis would be any different."
"That was just a dream, Cajun," Rua said, not sarcastically, but not quite kindly either. "You're a hero."
"I ain' no... hero," he replied, barely able to say the word. "I don' expect a good chere like you to understand... but dere are terrible t'ings dat people do - an' Remy's one of de people dat does dem -"
"Don't say that, Remy -" she began, but he cut her off.
"You don' know me, chere. You don' know what I am."
"And you don't know me," she growled, suddenly angry, though whether it was at him or at herself she wasn't sure. She didn't know what it was about him that made her keep finding reasons not to walk away, but it annoyed her. "You don't know what I am. I guarantee that I have done more of 'dose terrible t'ings,'" she said mockingly, "Than you have even dreamed of."
His eyes blazed again, looking at her, but he said nothing, instead going to sit on the kelp bed. By the time he had turned around to look at her again, the fierceness was gone from his face. "Come sit down, chere."
"No," she replied, her jaw clenched.
The Cajun held out one hand, and said, "You wanted to know what Remy was... I'll tell you, if you still do..."
"I don't care anymore. Why should I? You tried to kill me. I think that would have ended any sympathy I might have had for you, don't you?"
Remy dropped the hand, looking at the floor. "Den why are you still here, chere? If you don' care about Remy no more? Dat is - if you ever did at all -"
She didn't answer him because it was the same question she had been asking herself. This was the first time - the second, she chided herself - that she had let something like an attempt on her life go unpunished. She had certainly killed men for less in the past, and she didn't understand why it was impossible for her to do so now, or with Zaine.
"I could see dat you got t'ings that yoah're hidin' from, an' runnin' from... back when you first woke up in de pit," he said quietly, looking down at the floor. "Don' be upset - I didn' read yoah mind - I can jus' feel people's feelin's, an' you got de feelin' of prey runnin' from a huntin' dog - an' I guess I t'ought dat maybe you might understand me a little..."
"So... you are an empath. Is that how you understood what the Amphi wanted?"
"De Amphi?" he asked, looking puzzeled for a moment. "Oh - de amphibians. I see. Yeah. Dat's how I understood."
Rua nodded, seeing what had been keeping her from leaving. Fighting together, and escaping together, and saving each other's lives had eased some of the hopeless loneliness she felt since she ran from the guild. She had gotten the same sense about him, but it was from years of well honed instinct, not empathy. She still didn't quite trust him - after all he had nearly killed her - so she sat down on the floor where she was. He looked at her for a moment, then nodded, acknowledging that this was all the compromise he was going to get.
"I am... not from Llyrya " he began, then hesitated. "I come from off de island - a whole 'nother world, really. I was a human den... but when I came here, somet'in' in me jus' - changed." He looked down at his hands, and she could see he was broaching a very painful subject. "I was always bad inside, but it was like someone saw dat badness an' pour a whole lot more in - I got dis power - dis way of takin' energy and makin' it do what I want it to - and dis darkness inside of me likes to make it destroy t'ings."
Rua felt from his hesitation that he was concealing very much of the story, and she rather suspected that the someone was more than a vague reference. However, thinking of her own deeds as a mercenary, she scoffed at him. "What could you possibly have done that was so terrible?"
"I killed people - I destroyed a few mountains jus' because I -" here he hesitated again, and she knew his next statement was a complete lie. "Jus' because I t'ough dat it would be fun."
It took a second, but a memory of destroyed mountains surfaced in her mind. There had been a small group of costal mountains in Faeryrn that had mysteriously crumpled into the sea, killing almost all of the Toketi, the tribe of dwarves who lived there. She shuddered. It was rumored that Arawna, the dark sorceress of Faeryrn, had been responsible for it, because the dwarves had fought back against her rule. Since that disaster, all of the dwarves remaining in the country served the sorceress. Rua, however, did not press the issue directly. "You - destroyed Toketia -" she said, letting that thought carry the emotion she was feeling. She had dealt with empaths many times before, and she knew that trying to stifle an emotion was the fastest way to show it. It was better to make the words fit the feeling.
"Yes," he said sofly.
"If you have this - power - why didn't you just destroy Necromel when he attacked you?"
"Because if I did - de darkness would find me again... everytime I use it to hurt t'ings it takes over more and more of my soul..."
Rua stood, and he looked up at her. The look on his face was one of expectation met; he thought she was leaving, and this time, he wouldn't call after her. Instead of leaving, though, Rua crossed her arms and looked down at him. "Tell me something, Cajun - it's a yes or no question, just answer it straight - are you running away from this darkness? Are you trying to loose its hold on you?"
He sighed, looking back down at the floor of the cave. "Yes," he began, "but I don' t'ink -"
"Then you shouldn't talk," she said, with a grin, teasing him. He looked up at her, confused for a moment, until he saw the smile. She shrugged. "The person that destroyed Toketia and the person who saved the amphibians isn't the same person. Look at it as a personal victory." She turned, walking out of the cave.
"Yoah're leaving," he stated, with no doubt in his voice.
"There's still plenty of food around. You need to eat," she stated, and disappeared.
Remy sat alone in the cave, staring at the floor, not really believing she would return, though his empathy told him otherwise. Rua had been right in her guess, but he didn't know it. The sorceress had brought him, and others, somehow, from his world with her dark sorcery. Most of them had been turned into half-human creatures in her experiments. Arawna had taken a personal interest in him. His lifestyle as a thief had left him fit, athletic, and agile, and he was not unattractive. That lifestyle had also left him alone - no family, few friends and none of them real - and she had easily seduced him with promises of love and power. And he had enjoyed it, for over a year, until he was replaced.
The new fascination was a mage, even darker than Arawna had been. Her own thirst for power was immense, and she saw this mage as her only real equal. She had cast Remy aside. She had still given him a position as a general in her army, and they had spent the occasional night together, but he had realized that it was nothing more than a source of amusement to her.
This gave the voice inside of him the chance to be heard, and he listened to it. There was a line, and he had crossed far over it. So he left Arawna's castle, wanting nothing more than to die, but lacking the courage to end his own life. He disguised himself, and vowed he would never use his powers again.
A vow he had just broken. He put his head in his hands, and this was the way Rua found him when she returned, carrying a kelp basket full of food. "Headache?" she asked coyly, to which he responded with a shrug. She sat the basket down in front of him, and took a seat next to him on the bed. "Eat. You'll feel better."
He looked through the basket, but said nothing, and took nothing.
"Don't worry. It's safe. And it's not too bad," she said, pulling out a kelp wrapped piece of raw fish - the same fish the sinew for the Amphi harp came from. She made him take it, and she pulled out a second, which she took a bite out of.
"I'm not hungry."
"You need to get your strength up, Cajun, so we can get out of here."
Remy shook his head, looking at the fish-wrap. "What you mean by we?" he asked.
"Eat," she commanded. She glared at him till he took a bite.
After chewing and swallowing, he seemed to process the taste. "It taste like chicken," he said at length, "Cold. Mushy. But Chicken."
Rua nodded, then she thought about his question. What had she meant by we? "I suppose since we've come this far we might as well stick together till we get into the sunlight again," she finally settled on as a response. Even though he had discovered an unfounded trust in her, she still wasn't about to place much faith in him. The moment she saw that look in his eyes again, she would slit his throat and run.
Looking at her, he could sense that she wasn't planning on sticking around. He finished off the fish wrap. "Till sunlight, den..." he said with a sigh.