~Chapter 5~
Joel
Corissa was adamant that I keep spying on that woman of light. I was relieved I didn't have to hurt her, but I knew that day would come quicker than I would like. She moved quickly through the woods, but I immediately noticed when I followed the girl how the surroundings changed. It was still clearly a forest, but this was different and I could tell. Corissa was being surprisingly honest about other places beyond our own to discover. I wasn't privy to what her end game was, but I couldn't have an opinion on the matter, I was her Huntsman now obeying her every command.
The woman took out a small black box and began talking to it as she walked along, I thought this odd, but I was mystified when a voice from the box talked back to her and unfortunately I learned her name. Noella.
I kept to the trees as we made our way through the new forest territory. I maintained a safe distance, but she occasionally looked back behind. Did she sense my presence? Just ahead there was a huge wall of thorns. There was no way forward except for maybe scaling the cliffs and going around the thorns that way, but that was a fool's errand. To my surprise, Noella pushed her way through pricking and cutting herself many times on the thorns. How stupid was she? She got through though far from unharmed. I watched her walk far ahead enough for me to start hacking my way through the thorns myself, but unlike her, I wasn't bleeding. She went into the castle on the other side and I opted to wait for her outside. In the meantime, I summoned Corissa in the mirror she gave me to give her the update on Noella.
"She made it inside Stefan's castle." I told her.
"That wretch...she should be finding the next barrier. Besides, I cursed everyone inside Stefan's castle. It's pointless going inside."
"Wait, she's coming out and she's not alone."
"What? Let me see." Corissa insisted.
In order to remain undetected, I ducked behind some shrubs. From my hiding place, I directed the mirror facing out toward the entrance Noella came out from.
"Aurora survived." Corissa growled, "How is that possible? That curse was to remain for all time."
"Maybe our target, the source of light, is more powerful than we gave her credit for." I shrugged.
"You fool. She is only a young woman and easily dealt with, but I still need her to break down the barriers. I'll have to wait to deal with Aurora until this other wretched girl is out of my hair for good once the barriers are taken down. Then her life is mine. Continue spying Joel those are my orders for now."
"You know, Noella has a horse. I highly doubt I can keep up with just trailing behind."
"Your resourceful Joel, figure it out and don't fall behind."
Corissa ended the connection to the mirror abruptly and Noella took off on her horse now wearing different clothes than before. I waited a bit before running after her. I was getting a lot of exercise keeping up with this girl.