Chapter 20 - Synorok and Johavanon

Orin's eyes widened as he realized Sye had no sight. It all fit together. He hadn't seen the ruby when Tess revealed it to Orin until they had said something about it, and his blank, distant stare made it even more obvious. The marks around his eyes showed they had been damaged long ago.

"Blind…" said Orin. "I…"

Sye smirked a bit and held his twalar, or curved sword, at his side as he prepared to strike.

"Indeed. But don't let that make an impact on your fighting. I'd rather not feel to bad when you die if you fight valiantly." said Sye.

"I can't fight a man without sight…" Orin whispered to himself.

"Fool. Then I'll kill you in an instant if you won't defend yourself." said Sye, and without hesitation he bolted at Orin.

He was almost like an animal, his speed inhuman, and he reached Orin in the blink of and eye, and slashed his twalar across Orin's chest. Blood spattered onto Sye's blade and onto the ground and Orin was tossed backward by the blow, and lay sprawled out on the ground. He cringed in pain and held his chest as Sye approached slowly.

"What a pity. And the general spoke somewhat highly of you. He was wrong. You are no challenge…" said Sye, his bloody blade on his shoulder. "Your blood though…it smells very sweet."

Orin looked at Sye strangely through tearing eyes, the pain in his chest was excruciating.

"Why…why does blood interest you so…?" asked Orin, as he strained to sit up.

"That's not for you to know." said Sye, as he readied his blade to finish Orin. "Son of King Granseal, I'm sorry to have to kill you and give you no honor, but you are General Niro's final obstacle."

Orin tried again to lift himself, but it was no use. The pain was going strait to his head.

"Goodbye" said Sye, as he held his blade back over his head, preparing to thrust it into Orin's chest.

"No…" said Orin through gritted teeth as the blade came down.

But the path was obstructed. Orin's mind was blank with fear, his blade still gripped in his hand as he still tried to rise, his eyes closed awaiting the blades piercing pain. His eyes opened wide, and Sye had gone. Like a ghost, he had disappeared, and as Orin finally sat up, he called see him bolting off to meet with the still approaching Niro.

"What…why…" groaned Orin, as he propped himself up with his blade and finally got to his feet.

His chest was still bleeding furiously, the ground below him had grown as red as an oceans setting sun.

Niro reached Orin within a few minutes, as he walked briskly, and now Niro drew his blade with Sye at his side.

"Synorok. You have done well, though I thought maybe you were going to ignore my orders and finish him yourself." said Niro from under his mask.

"Please, I'm Sye, my lord. I was almost caught in the thrill of battle, is all. I'm very sorry." said Sye, as he sheathed his still bloody blade.

"No harm done…Sye." said Niro, and his eyes began to grow wide while his pupils became small. "Now, Orin. I'll finally be able to kill you."

Niro looked like his old insane self again, his mouth wide with a strange smile, and his eyes wide and manic.

"Niro…why don't you stop…" said Orin.

He had lost his will. He hadn't eaten in a day or two, besides the occasional medical herb. His lack of sleep was also taking it's toll on him, and this new bleeding gash across his chest was what had finally broken him.

"Why are…you trying to kill me. Why did you kill Shale." said Orin, still looking pained.

He still had tears in his eyes, partly from the pain, and partly from his emotions. He couldn't hold out too much longer. His royal blood meant nothing, even though he knew it never had and never would make him any more or less of a good person. He wasn't ready to die, but he wasn't afraid for himself either. As he stood there, the only thought he could recall was his father's eyes and his mother's tears.

"Don't try and play your pity card, scumbag. You'll have no mercy. You removed me from my castle, and killed dozens of my soldiers." said Niro angrily, his smile still wide and his eyes still crazed. "I killed Shale because he was a nuisance, as are you. If I hadn't been merciful before, I would have killed that bitch mother of yours and there would be nothing more to drive you!"

"You're wrong." whispered Orin, as he strained to keep his footing.

He could hear the distant cries of his comrades as they watched him standing in pain, but they would probably arrive too late for him.

Sye lowered his eyebrows, showing his first signs of anger. He took a step in Orin's direction, and this caught Niro's attention.

"What!? You feel sorry for this dog!?" said Niro angrily.

Sye turned to face Niro, and gritted his teeth.

"You told me Granseal was your kingdom…" said Sye, his hand on the hilt of his blade. "You said the villagers rebelled against you, and that you had been the heir to their thrown since birth!"

Niro's eyes widened more than ever.

"You told me this boy was the son of the man who led the rebellion, and that they were out to assassinate you." said Sye, his voice becoming very loud.

'Y-yes." stuttered Niro. "That's right…"

"Liar!" Orin managed to shout.

Niro turned to Orin and bolted forward at him to finish him, but Sye stepped in and knocked the blade from Niro's hands in a flash.

"If your words are true, why would you kill an innocent man? Why would you threaten to kill his mother before the so called rebellion had begun?" said Sye, his sword pointed against Niro's chest.

"Dirty bastard." said Niro, realizing he had cornered himself and let loose the truth he had not revealed to Sye.

"A word of advice, my dear general. Never lye to a spy and not expect him to put two and two together." said Sye, as he pushed his sword slightly harder against Niro's chest. "I thought your cause was just, you sick, sick boy. I see now you are nothing but a confused child with nothing to show but rage and a flashy blade."

"Traitor." said Niro, as he jumped backward.

Sye just stared into the distant and sheathed his blade.

"It's best you go now before I decide you deserve no mercy." said Sye, as he turned his back to Niro and face Orin.

"Watch, Synorok. You'll die with the rest of them soon. Just watch." said Niro as he grabbed his blade from the ground and took off toward the hills.

"You…" said Orin as he fell to his knees.

Sye grabbed him under the arms, and hoisted him up off the ground.

"You need to be healed. That wound could be fatal." said Sye calmly, as he carried Orin in the direction of his still approaching friends.

"Orin!!" cried Ikara when she had reached him.

Sye looked at her and smiled somewhat kindly.

"Do you have a priest in your party?" said Sye, as he marched past Ikara and toward the rest of the approaching group.

"…Y-yes. Vahn, the one in the robes." she said, a bit surprised at the man's kindness.

Sye approached Vahn and laid Orin to the ground at his feet.

"He needs to be healed badly." said Sye. "I must be on my way."

Vahn looked at Orin, but knew he still had little power left to heal any. He hadn't had any rest to recover his magical strength.

"…I see." said Sye simply, as he kneeled down and pulled a satchel of healing seeds from his belt, and poured a few into Orin's mouth.

Orin chewed them and swallowed weakly, and opened one eye and tried to speak.

"You can't leave." said Orin. "You saved my life."

"No thanks is required. I have to be going." said Sye as he stood.

"Then…what is your name?" said Orin weakly.

"Syno…Sye." he said, and with that he turned away from Orin and headed toward the distant mountains.

"Please…" moaned Orin, before he finally passed out from exhaustion.

Sye stopped and looked at the ground.

'I don't feel sorry for him. It's not in my nature.' thought Sye as threw his blank gaze to the ground.

"For the night." he said reluctantly, and turned back to Vahn, Ikara, and Orin, and the now approaching Keith, who had Tess in his arms.

He realized only soon after that he couldn't stay past midnight, or this group's lives may be in danger if he remained with them for too long. He planned to leave after they had all fallen asleep.

The demon-girl approached them slowly, her ears perked up as she walked toward them.

"What do you want!?" yelled Keith when he noticed her creeping up on them.

She looked at him, but she seemed innocent, almost like a curious cat.

"Go away! You've got what you wanted!" he called to her.

The girl stopped in her tracks and peered at Orin, who still lye passed out on the ground a few yards away. Keith joined the group that surrounded Orin, and laid Tess to the ground near him, her wounds beginning to heal because of Vahn's previous spell. The girl turned to the forest, her head looking back over her shoulder as she walked off.

Sye stood from Orin's side and looked out over the field to see the devil-girl creeping off to the forest and to her home. He could see nothing, but there was a fient smell of something strange in the air.

"Who was that you were talking to, boy…" said Sye, not turning from the direction the girl was walking.

"Her? She's a hybrid of a human and a devil." said Keith. "We had a bit of trouble with her the other day, so I'm not too fond of her hanging around."

Sye sniffed the air a bit, and Keith raised an eyebrow.

"Smell something…" said Keith, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Her scent is…" started Sye, but he stopped in mid-sentence. "My nose is keen because my eyes have gone. It helps me identify people…"

Keith looked at him strangly and his eyes widened a bit.

"So that's it." said Keith. "Your eyes. They've been damaged…"

"Yes. But that's nothing to worry for now." replied Sye as he pushed past Keith and walked a few steps toward the girl in the distance, as she grew slowly closer to the forest. "What's your name?"

"Keith." he replied. "And this is Vahn."

Vahn lifted a finger to identify himself, but Sye simply faced him and blinked hard.

"That's Ikara, and that's Tess." said Keith, as he pointed to each of the members.

Keith looked around, and then at Sye.

"Oh…I guess you wouldn't know where I'm pointing, huh?" said Keith, slightly embarrassed.

Sye simply lowered his eyebrows, a bit annoyed.

"Don't try and make me sound like a fool just because I cannot see. I know who you're pointing to." said Sye in a gruff voice.

Keith looked at him strangely again, and then looked around for Duran to point him out. He then realized they'd left him behind.

"Woops!" said Keith loudly, as he ran off toward Duran as fast as he could.

Sye turned back to where the girl had been, but she had disappeared into the dense forest in the distance, and his nose could smell her even less now. He turned his blank gaze in the groups direction, and tossed his hood back over his head.

"I'll be back. Something irks me." said Sye, before he turned back toward the woods and bolted toward them, and disappeared within less than a minute.

Keith returned with Duran now in his arms, and his axe tightly strapped to his back alone with his bow and quiver. He placed him on the ground next to Orin, seeing as Tess had finally been able to get to her feet and move on her own. It was about noon and the sun was beating heavily upon the plains. The group was tired and hungry, so Keith started a fire as soon as he could, and prepared to cook something up for the group. Their rations were small now, having consumed more than they had originally intended when they left Granseal about a week ago.

Ikara mended Duran's wounds as best she could with bandages, as Tess also rapped Orin's torso in bandages. The both of them were sweating heavily under the heat of the sun. Tess looked at her shredded shirt that Pholey had sliced through.

"Looks like a needle and thread would be a bit handy right now…" she said, as she examined the torn area across her stomach.

----

"Wait." said Sye.

He had caught up with the girl as she approached the mountains, and as she prepared to take to the sky and fly to the entrance to her cavern, which was high above the ground.

"Wha…who are you??" she said, as her wings folded back over one another, and she turned to face him.

He looked eerie under his cloak and hood, and his appearance started even her.

"You're of both human and devil blood, are you not?" asked Sye, his gaze set on the ground.

"Who are you!? Get away from me!" she yelled as she readied her claws.

"We're similar. You intrigued me." he said calmly, as he took a step toward her.

"Similar…" she said, as she let her claws slowly drop to her sides, and her eyes glimmered with the sun. "How…is that?"

"My blood is also tainted. It was of my own selfishness that I am the way I am though." he said. "You, on the other hand. You did not choose to be born so."

His voice was strange. It was not gruff, but soothing, and he had a convincing tone. His appearance made him ever more mysterious.

"What's your point." she said, trying to sound uninterested.

"You witnessed the attack by the Exile army unto those travelers, did you not?" he asked. "They're in need of aid."

"They killed my friends." she said, both angry and sad at once.

"Maybe your 'friends' attacked first." he said, as he lifted his hood and dropped it onto his shoulders, revealing his face.

His eyes, gray, gazed at her, and she felt a kind of pull to him.

"And if they did? They still…" she said, but stopped before she could finish. "No. They weren't my friends…"

Sye's eyes thinned and his gaze bore into her even further.

"I was their hunting dog, not their friend." she said, as she looked away from him and to the ground. "I should even go so far as to thank them for freeing me from them…"

"I see." said Sye, as he took another step, and outstretched his hand to her. "They need help. You can see it, I know you can. A human heart and mind shows guilt and pity, emotions devils do not have."

Her eyes widened and she took a step toward him, and outstretched her hand to touch his. He pulled way his palm and threw his hood onto his head.

"Come now. You can be they're aid, if you wish." said Sye, as he turned his back to her. "Or you can go back home. The choice is not mine to make."

Sye slowly moved off into the woods, leaving the girl with her head held out in front of her. She lowered her eyebrows and outstretched her wings.

"Maybe a human can accept what a devil cannot." she murmured, and took off over the woods toward the group that sat in the field under the early noon sun.

----

"Food!" yelled Ikara, as she grabbed up one of Keith's poorly made biscuits.

Tess did the same and Keith smiled happily as they gobbled them down. Vahn grabbed one as well and chewed it contently. Duran had since woken up and looked and his bandages, but had enough strength to sit himself up. He grabbed a biscuit and gave Keith a wink.

"Thanks." said Duran as he took a small bite and chewed it weakly.

Keith simple smiled back and grabbed one of the biscuits for himself, and placed the rock they had been sitting on down next to the fire.

Sye crept from the forest a few minutes later and approached the group slowly, the sun and his warmth of his cloak didn't seem to make him too hot.

A figure emerged in the sky and swept by overhead, and the girl landed a few feet from the flames of the fire.

"You!" yelled Keith.

Vahn grabbed up his rod and stood ready to battle, and Keith grabbed his bow from his back.

"No." said the girl as she looked at them. "I'm not here to start a fight."

Keith and Vahn looked at her with surprise, but kept there footing.

"He asked me here." she said as Sye walked up to them from behind.

Both Keith and Vahn turned to looked at Sye, and almost fell backwards because he had come up so close behind them without making a sound.

"Would you like to explain…?" said Vahn as he moved back to let Sye past.

"She can help you. Trust me. I wasn't assigned as a spy for nothing." he said, as he took off his hood and sat down in the grass, his legs folded over one another.

"Help…?" asked Tess as she eyed the devil-girl. "She tried to kill us yesterday!"

"No. I was wrong to have attacked you. I'm sorry." said the girl, sounding somewhat sarcastic.

"We're supposed to believe that?" asked Keith. "You're dangerous."

'I guess humans are just as bad as devils…' though the girl.

"Then I'll be off if I'm not wanted." she said, unfurling her wings.

"N…no…" moaned Orin, who had been listening.

He opened one eye and looked at the girl.

"We can't go on alone. We…could hardly hold…off a few soldiers. We've been…graced by the will of the god's thus far." said Orin weakly. "If not for Gerhalt, Slade, Kazin, and Sarah,…we'd have been dead...a long time ago. Everyone here…has done something to help us along, but we won't be…able to hold up forever…"

They all looked at him, a bit surprised. Even Sye was a bit wide-eyed.

"Aye." said Duran as he patted Orin's shoulder.

"Well…" said Keith reluctantly. "We'll have no problem with having you if it's what Orin wants. He's the leader."

"I'm not the leader…" said Orin. "Stop…saying that."

He was quite from there on, to weak to talk, and now he could only listen to what else would happen.

"As long as you're all in agreement." said Sye.

They all nodded one by one, and Orin looked at them and smiled a bit.

"Then I'll…" started the girl. "I'm called Johavanon…but Jo is simpler." she said. "I've not been called by my name in years. It's a surprise I've even remembered it at all."

They all introduced themselves, most of them still feeling reluctant, but maybe they would grow to know her better.

----

From a distant hill Niro looked at them with angry eyes. He was hiding well atop the hill, but out of sight. Suddenly, a man crept up the side of the hill along the mountains. It was Commander Pholey, his face covered with blood from the top of his head, but apparently, he'd survived the blow Vahn had given him. Niro caught sight of him, and grew even more angry. He crept across the hill toward his commander, who seemed to be watching the group in the distance carefully to make sure they didn't see him fleeing. When Niro grew near, he noticed him, and he smiled a bit.

"Lord Niro!" he called out, but not too loud.

Niro looked at the commander sternly, not a word passing his lips as he approached the commander.

"They're stronger then they look, sir. I wonder they are." he said.

"They're the ones from Granseal." said Niro as he reached his commander and looked him in the eye.

"Oh! They've lived!?" he said loudly. "They are a challenge, just like you said, my lord."

"Yes…" Niro was growing more and more angry as he gazed out at the group on the plains, and he drew his sword as he looked at them.

"Sir…don't go out there alone…" said the commander with worry in his voice.

Niro looked at Pholey with his teeth clenched and his hand tightly around his blade.

"It's not them that worries me at this moment, commander." said Niro.

The commander looked at him strangely.

"My Lord? Where…where had Synorok gone…" he said as he looked around, and then he turned his gaze back to Niro.

Pholey's eyes widened as he peered through the mask and into his general's eyes.

"He hasn't…he was loyal…" said Pholey, barely loud enough for Niro to here.

"You trust means nothing anymore, Pholey." growled Niro. "Your word is worthless, and you're no longer needed."

Pholey back against the wall in fear.

"This is your punishment." said Niro.

And with that, Niro thrust his blade into his commander's chest, allowing the blood to splash down to his feet as Pholey's body fell limp.