Important:
Remember Chapter 2 was included on my first published chapter. So this second entry begins with Chapter 3.
From now on, chapters realeased will be one chapter ahead of the entry's number. That, until I get to a chapter long enough to be divided in two so I can make the chapters and the entries numbers fit with each other.
Thanks for reading!
Questions? PM me. If there are any frequently asked questions, I'll answer them on my next entry, which remember, will be Chapter 4.
Ch. 3
I cleaned the wound and somehow managed to take the fragment out of my leg. It hurts like hell but at least it compensates the inner pain I've been feeling ever since Annelise's vanishing. It's late and I'm lucky tomorrow is Saturday… I'm not feeling like going to class after all that's happened. I hear a knock on my door.
-"Keira? Love… are you alright?"- I hear my mom say. –"Yes… I'm just tired…"- That's all I'm able to say. She opens my bedroom's door and comes to my bed, where I'm lying. Then, she sits on the bed's corner and looks at me, I notice her eyes are swallowed for crying so much. –"I'm sorry you have to go through all these, K… I'm not sure what will happen from now on… but you have to know that no matter what, we will find your sister."- I nod. She disappeared in 10 minutes… I highly doubt we'll ever be able to find her. But knowing how fragile my mother's mind was, I decide to smile and give her a look of trust, I know she's trying her best to be strong for me and I can't just ignore her efforts. She smiles back at me and leaves me to give myself into the tiredness I'm feeling and I fall asleep.
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When I first woke up in this world, I was covered in blood, my head was bandaged and the first face I saw was Vyell's rough face. Between all the pain and weakness, my body ignored many signs that I would eventually discover after I was already recovered from the most severe wounds, and I've noticed how the pain in my leg was persistent enough to prevent me from walking more than 500 meters straight. I look at my leg and find a tiny wound near my calf, it was swallowed and red. –"oh? What are you looking at so much, Fayre?"- I jump. Adstan was looking at my leg from above my shoulder, I jump over my feet and hide the minimal wound. –"What? Is that thingy the reason you make us stop every 5 minutes?" – "Uhg, shut up Adstan, you have no idea how it hurts!"- I reply, annoyed at Adstan's constant insensitivity. He rolls his eyes –"You know, you shouldn't assume so much. I do have a little wound that's been bothering me ever since I woke up here, look"- He shows me the back of his hand and I can see a big, large wound. It surprises me, how can he move the sword so well if he has such a big wound on his palm?! He laughs at my obvious startled face –"It's nothing, I don't cry over every little thing"- and like that, he leaves. It honestly does surprise me. The wound he has is not only big but it's also quite deep. But he keeps practicing with the sword like he had nothing at all… no wonder he curses so much and fails at using it so frequently.
Vyell makes a sign to me and puts his hands together in front of his chest. I come close to where he's standing, Astrid is sitting next to him reading a book about the basics of lesser magic. He looks at me and makes a sign for me to imitate him. I put my hands in front of my chest and look at him half curious and half refraining myself from bursting out laughing. He then, closes his eyes and both his hands, extending them towards me and opening his eyes at the same time. Then, he opens his right fist first and I can see a blue orb of energy shining on his hand. Right after, he opens his left hand and from it appears a red coloured energy that emanates warmness. I look at him and wonder what he could possibly mean by showing me these powers. –"He wants you to choose, kid."- Nikaia says from afar. I look at her, then I look back at Vyell and then I go back to his hands. His right hand obviously held a freezing power while his left hand held the power of fire. –"I thought Jivete told you to teach us just the basics of lesser magic?"– I ask -"Yeah, but I don't see why you can't learn a bit more about magic, who knows? Maybe you can be my apprentice."- Jivete replies. Her look isn't a happy one, nor it's an inviting look. She's testing me. If I'm not able to do something for my life, I doubt it'll hurt her to make Nikaia kill me, and Nikaia would clearly have no doubts to finish me…
I look at Vyell -again-, his face shows concern, but his abundant beard hides it quite well from Jivete and Nikaia's sight. Now I'm more curious about why Vyell has stopped talking… I turn my gaze to where I'd seen Astrid reading about the basics of lesser magic and notice she's hypnotised looking at Vyell's hands. Right… apparently, I must choose between what kind of magic I want to learn now.
After learning how to create a magic shield I thought Jivete would make us test the effectiveness of our magic, but instead, I'm forced to choose between two dangerous kinds of magic, which I have never had any sort of contact with before this moment and not even having tested my previous spell before starting with a new kind... this is not a good idea… -I sigh- and decide for the hand with the firebolt. In that moment, Vyell takes my hand and puts his left hand on mine, passing me his firebolt, not letting go of it, he holds my hand with both his hands now and looks at me inviting me to get a hold of the orb of magic with my own will. I focus on sending all my energy into my right hand, in that moment the orb of fire starts flickering, its intensity starts vanishing and, in a moment, it extinguishes on my hand. Damnit! It's harder than I thought.
Vyell and I spent the rest of the evening practicing with the fire spell, but I don't seem to be able to dominate it. Astrid kept practicing her shields with Jivete and Nikaia fought Adstan, his sword couldn't win against Nikaia's hammer. I go wash my hands to a nearby river and sit down on a rock. I sigh. I'm so tired, I haven't been able to sleep well in the whole two weeks I've been in this world and have made little to no advances concerning my lost memories. I put my hands on my face and stay there for what it seemed like an eternity until footsteps start coming closer my way.
-"Hey… are you alright?"- I rise my head from my hands to find Astrid leaning towards me. –"Yeah, I'm just tired. How are you doing?"- She sighs –"Good, I guess… my lesser shield is growing stronger at least. Jivete says I will be able to learn how to use a hammer soon."- She smiles. –"A hammer? But that's a two-handed weapon, how will you do it with the lesser shield if you need to use both hands?"- Astrid shrinks and starts drinking water from the river. A hammer, huh… Nikaia is a strong dwarf, but will Astrid have the strength to deal with a heavy weapon such as a hammer to defend herself? I'm worried.
–"What do you want to learn besides magic, Fayre?"- She asks. I look at her in distress, I don't know what kind of weapon I want to use, Jivete has imposed me to learn lesser and destruction magic, but since I have no idea of what my possibilities are, I haven't really had much problem with it. –"I don't know, Astrid… Did Adstan learn the art of the sword by his own will?"- She stares at me with a confused look –"Adstan? Uhm… I don't know… when I got here he was already learning it and since he's not much of a talker…"- She stops talking and starts caressing her finger. I immediately experience a way too familiar feeling and ask: -"Does it hurt?"- She looks at me and smiles –"No"- she replies.
We go back to the others. Vyell was grilling a piece of meat, while Nikaia and Adstan were making a camp. Jivete was cutting wood for the fireplace. We brought some water with us from the river and start boiling some in an iron pot. Suddenly, I notice Astrid pulling the sleeve of the old dress Jivete had lend me when I first woke up here and I look at her –"I want to take a bath…"- She said with sad eyes. Oh God… a bath? That was going to be a bit of a problem… but… I think by this time we all needed one… unfortunately for us, now wasn't the time to take one as we aren't near any village, night is falling, and the cold is starting to hit us strong. After dinner, we all came inside the improvised tents and went to sleep.
A loud scream wakes me up middle dream. It was a horrifying heartrending scream that made me jump out of the leather mattress. The stars are still covering the night sky but the fireplace's already long dead by now. I look for my groupmates, but no one was on their tents when I woke up. Fire was spreading nearby, I could see the orange aura decorating the night sky from the camp place. I run towards the screaming and see riot everywhere. People's running in panic, children are being left behind, pets are hidden in the budges and a strong loud roar scares my soul.
The earth trembles under my feet, my wound starts to hurt more and more, people run in my direction to get away from whatever was attacking their small town, but I can't see any familiar faces. Suddenly one person that was escaping from the mess pushes me so hard I fall and… that's when I see a tall man wearing a tunic, staff on hand and a hood covers his head. The man was looking right at me, my head starts to spin, my ears hear nothing but the far noise of a screaming tumult and a ringing that disorientated me even more. Right in that moment, a flashing, orange light comes my way. The pain on my leg, my head spinning, and all my senses being left useless, leave me immobile on the floor, target of the reed of fire that was coming way too fast to my encounter. The man takes his staff and moves it in a certain way before the flame hits me, creating a force shield in front of me and preventing the incredible power from hitting my body. -"Move!"- He screams. I immediately stand up, ignoring the pain coming from my leg and run towards my saviour. He leaves his position and pushes me under a cottage's floor –"What are you doing?! Do you want to get yourself killed?!"- I look at him scared. No… of course not, I just wanted to find my… can I call them friends? Well -friends- but at this point that answer would sound… quite stupid, to be honest. He rolls his eyes at my silence. –"Don't leave this place until the buzz is over."- And so, he leaves. I lye there trying to understand what just happened. I bite my finger, there's something way too familiar about this situation… and about that guy. I know I've seen him somewhere I just can't remember where. I stand up, I can't keep staying here safe while my friends could be in danger. At least, Astrid and Vyell… I hope they're alright.
I go out and see guards everywhere, the guy who just saved me was nowhere to be found but I can see Adstan fighting a… a… a WHAT?! The giant thing roars strongly and spits fire right after its strong roar. The fire hypnotises me… I can hear Adstan scream something to me, but I can no longer understand what he's screaming. I climb to the highest, tallest building and get close to the big animal causing heavy damage, I reach out to touch it, the lizard stares at me and I can hear…- but in that moment I feel something pulling me backwards and I fall over someone.
Astrid.
-"Fayre! What on earth are you doing?! That dragon could have killed you!"- She screams. Somewhere not so far away I hear Jivete's screaming and that new animal -I just found it's called a dragon- roaring. They were clearly fighting it. –"What were you thinking, Fayre?!"- I nod. –"I don't know… that… dragon… it kind of…" – "It talked to you?"- I look at her in surprise. –"What...?" – "I heard it too…"- She says looking down to her hands –"You… you heard it talk too?"– I ask. -"I heard it talk to you. It called out to you, Fayre."- She states. Astrid says it called me, but I didn't hear anything quite like that. Actually, I didn't understand what it said at all, all I could understand was that the dragon was talking… but the language it was talking in… wasn't one I knew or even heard of before.
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Few months have passed since the dragon incident. I still hear it talk inside my head, but I haven't been able to traduce what I heard into what Astrid said she heard. Maybe we imagined it? I mean… it could be just our imagination… in between all that chaos and mess, the stress and adrenaline would have make us lose our minds in the heat of the moment, literally.
These past few months Jivete has been teaching me how to use her daggers, she got me a pair of my own and we frequently practice together. She also has Astrid and Adstan practicing with their own weapons. Jivete made Nikaia teach us how to use the bow so we could be useful at something and start go hunting for lunch and dinner, every now and then, but it isn't as easy as it is for my two amnesiac partners to kill animals for me and that makes Jivete quite angry. I can tell I'm not Jivete's favourite pupil or person… but I don't really mind since she doesn't quite like anyone. Anyone, except from Nikaia, they both get along very well.
-"Alright, we're here" - Jivete said, leaving her bag on the floor. I can see Nikaia throw a small, kind of evil smile at Vyell, who evades her stare and puts on a sad face. Is he afraid of Nikaia?
- "Fayre, Adstan, come here please. I need a word with both of you" – Jivete says with a mysterious look. We get close to her and I accidentally step on Adstan's foot – "Uhg! God fucking damnit woman! Why you gotta be so damn clumsy?!" – I was about to reply, but Jivete throws her bag at him, which lands right on his face. I can't hold my laugh. – "Tsk, you're both so childish" – He says, rolling his eyes. -"Listen kids, we're going on a mission in three days time, you're going with Nikaia and with me so you better prepare for it, you're going to be our distraction."- I look at Adstan, who's as serious as ever, and then I look back at Jivete. D-distraction? Me? Bloody hell… we. Are. Screwed.
Jivete then, handed me a way too sophisticated dress and a royal tunic to Adstan. We both look at each other in disbelief, what kind of mission was one that included expensive clothing?
-"Kids, I declare you now husband and wife. For as long as we're on this mission you must act and impersonate a couple of love birds and I need- No, you MUST look real, unless you want to face the consequences"- Jivete told us with a way too serious look on her face. She was directly looking at me, as if she was still mad about what happened back in Helgen. Fine, I get it, I messed up. No need to still remind me of what happened back then every time something important comes up. –"Fayre, I hope you know this is your punishment for what happened back in Helgen. You won't fail me on this mission, you heard me?"- sigh… she will never let go of what happened.
When Jivete told Adstan and I we had to start behaving as a married, loving couple for this mission she wasn't jesting. Ever since that moment she's made me and Adstan wear uncomfortable sophisticated equipment, preventing us from moving freely and from behaving normally… -"Fa- Uhm… *coughes* l-lo…ve… could you give me my sword, please? It's time for my practice…"- Adstan asked me with difficulty. Everytime he calls me like that I can't help but messing around with him since I know he doesn't like me too much to begin with plus, he hates it, which makes me enjoy it even more. –"Oh, honey what did you say? I'm sorry I didn't quite hear you!"- I reply, mischievously. He rolls his eyes and gives me an annoyed sigh, I can see him looking for help at Jivete but she's enjoying it as much -or even more- than I do.
Annoyed and feeling quite humiliated, Adstan decides to go for his heavy sword himself. That's how the last two days have passed. Me annoying Adstan, him making pranks on me, Astrid getting worried over Adstan's way too violent pranks on me, Vyell studying a weird book and Jievete planning strategies with Nikaia. I wonder what kind of mission they're getting us involved in…
-"Don't forget your invitation."- She says, Adstan rolls his eyes. –"Also, you must be convincing. Astrid will be waiting for you a few miles away from the place once you get Nikaia and I inside the building. Adstan…"- Jivete gives him a warning stare I can't decipher. –"It's all set up, mind your steps and act like you actually love each other for the love of Mara!"- I sigh. What a pain in the…
I start walking towards the guard standing in front of the castle's door when I feel someone grabbing my hand. Adstan was already in character. I panic, my heartrate goes crazy and I feel how my hands are getting sweaty. Oh God, I can't do this. They'll find out we're not actually invited to this wedding! Wait… who was getting married again? A chief of something? Or was it a Jarl? What if they ask me who am I related to? I don't know anyone! I forgot the couple's names! And… What were we?! OH MY- Suddenly I feel Adstan giving me a reassuring squeeze on my hand –"Calm down, I'll do the talking. You just smile and look cute as always"- I'm finally able to breathe. –"Good, you're pink again, I'm no ghost's husband"- He says. I look at him confused, why is he acting all nice now?
We finally reach the guard, who asked for our invitation. I remember Jivete gave it to me a few moments ago so I look for it on the dress' hidden pocket… it's- it's not there! I panic again and give Adstan a concerned look, he stares at me with a neutral face, but I can see he's thinking what to do at all speed when suddenly I see someone moving on the corner of my right eye: Vyell was there acting like a servant giving the guard the infamous invitation. How or when did he get here? We get inside. The room was big and it was full of people, I could see how another guard closed the door and locked it behind us. Great! What are we going to do now? –"Adstan, we have to create a diversion… the guard locked the entrance door…"- He smiles –"That's fine, using the entrance door would have alerted everyone. Jivete wants us to open that door, see it? It's right in the back, no one's even in that part of the hall room"-. I really admire how calm he is considering we're trespassers pretending to be invited to these people's wedding.
We dance and share some drinks, but I can't stop questioning what kind of mission could include us creating a diversion so two people could stealth their way into a building… it's just way too… -"It's time"- I hear Adstan say. He grabs me closer and whispers into my ear some nonsense to make it look like we needed some privacy. A guy that was sitting next to us stands up and gets closer to us –"If ya pay meh a bit o' coin, I can get ya folks a room"- He grins I give him a disgusted look, but Adstan smiles at the stranger widely. –"Can you create some sort of diversion for some extra coin so we can sneak our way there, nice sir?"- the man looks at him in disbelief –"Well o'course I can mate! Anythin' for the sake of love"- He winked at me and stretch his hand out waiting for Adstan to pay his fee. Once he was paid, the man took a long swallow of ale and started acting -or maybe not- like a drunk man and making a scene right in the middle of the room. Adstan and I take our chance and go straight to the bar, where -suprisingly- Astrid was already inside, dressed as a chef, waiting for us to get the back-door's key that would allow Jivete and Nikaia to sneak inside the building. I take the key and head towards the door I'm supposed to open. I doubt. Should I open it? What are Jivete and Nikaia going to do if I do open this door? What's this mission all about?
In that moment someone grabs my hands and make me unlock the door in front of me. It was Adstan, who was behind me all that time. I look up at him, as he was way taller than me and notice his bad mood. Great, I made him mad again. We opened the door and Nikaia was already waiting outside. I notice two guards. Immobile, on the floor next to her… wait, did she…? –"Finally! Took you long enough!"- she said, right after, she whistles like a bird and Jivete comes out of the shadows wearing quite a dark looking armour, both daggers on her sides and while she gets closer, her grey eyes look cold and penetrating, enlightened by the moonlight.
They get inside, while the drunk man was still moving as if some sort of demon had taken possession of him and we sneak into the kitchen. –"Fayre, Astrid, Vyell is waiting for you outside town with three horses, you're done here, thanks for the help."- she says, hands on her hips. In that moment I see Adstan taking off his outfit and taking his armour out of a trunk hidden behind a shelf. –"Wait… Adstan…?"- I begin to say but he pushed me and Astrid out the room before I could say anything else, closing the door behind him.
