Chapter 16
Reith opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the wooden panelling of the ceiling. A faint light, cast from a small oil lamp illuminated the room, extending the shadows to twice their original length.
"Where am I?" she mumbled. Her head was throbbing like someone had lodged an axe in it. What happened? Had that been a dream? It was too real to be a dream…Serina? Orha? Who are these people?
She sat up on the small bed, pulling her legs in close to wrap her arms around them. She was scared, scared of what had happened, of what she had seen. Who was she?
"Reith!" the door opened and Justina walked in. She was more glad than she had ever been in her life to see another person. A person she knew she could trust and rely on.
"Justina, what happened?" she sobbed. The priestess sat down on the bed, placing a reassuring arm around her shaking shoulders.
"It's alright. Part of you're memory just came back for a while. It's ok, you're safe now…" Reith looked up to see the warm face of Dr. Alex entering the room.
"Now young lady, how do you feel?" he asked.
"I think she's a bit shaken," Justina replied. The doctor rubbed at his chin, staring down at Reith.
"It seemed quite a drastic memory," he said. She nodded.
"I…It was awful! Everyone was dying…there was fire…Blood stained every inch of the ground!"
"Calm down, Reith. It was only a memory,"
She tried to steady her breathing. Only a memory…only a memory. But memories were once real, as real as the air I breathe now. How can such an important thing be dismissed?
"Did you see yourself, Reith?" Alex asked.
Myself? The lady in the long dress…The girl and that man…Those words she spoke, why do they sound so familiar?
"There were three people…Two women and a man…and…"
Calintz…wasn't he mentioned? Calintz…Fuget…There was a connection somewhere…"I met him as a child in Fuget…"
"Fuget…" she murmured.
"What was that, Reith?"
"She said Fuget…" The doctor clapped his hands.
"Well, now we have a lead!" he said triumphantly. Reith looked at him puzzled.
"Is there anything else you remember?" he asked. She closed her eyes, concentrating hard.
"A plan…A crimson moon…"
Doctor Alex concluded that Reith's amnesia was more complex than he had first thought. He told her that the only way she may rediscover her memory was if she followed the clues from her dreams and flashbacks through the maze of her amnesia. Perhaps by going to Fuget, he suggested, she would remember something associated with the place. However, it seemed farfetched to Reith. Everything was muddled, everything a mess. How would she ever know who she was? With each passing day, the fear inside her grew, like a black wave on the peak of consuming her. It was an urgency, an intuition of something she must do. If only she knew, if only she could remember.
They said their farewells to the good doctor, bought some supplies in Notia and then continued their journey towards Fuget. Things were going smoothly. They had encountered few monsters and for once Reith thought they might reach their destination before nightfall. She had hardly uttered a word since they left the city, afraid of any more questions being hurled her way. But Justina seemed content focusing on the route ahead, rarely speaking as was her nature.
They had no sooner crossed the Erestine bridge than she heard the sound of voices; gruff, male voices and a rather cocky sounding female.
"I wonder what's going on," Justina mused as they approached the arguing assembly. Three men surrounded a rather strong and solid looking woman. She stood with one hand on her hip, the other, brushing back a stray strand of blonde hair that had escaped from the tight buns on her head.
"I ain't going to warn you one more time," she said.
"You think you could take us out? Ha!" one of the men mocked.
"I'll send you to the gates of hell!"
"Haha! I just love feisty women!"
"You freak!"
Reith walked up to the cluster and cleared her throat. Immediately they stopped and turned to stare at the timid girl.
"Yes?" one of the men growled.
"Let her go!"
"Reith! You don't know what you're doing!" Justina said, coming up to her. It was true, she didn't know what the situation was, however, she did know that the tall woman was being harassed. She couldn't just walk away and ignore it.
"Bugger off and mind your own business!" the second man spat, turning back to face the blonde woman and unsheathing his knife.
"Stop it!" Reith screeched. The first man turned, his face ablaze with anger.
"You want it that way, you can die too!"
"That is enough!" Justina butted in. The trio eyed her up and down like predators.
"A priestess, eh? What would you be doin' all the way out here?"
"That is none of your concern. As it is my duty as a priestess of Amabat to prevent injury and death, I command you to unhand that woman," Justina was as cool as ever, not a hint of fear in her crystal clear voice. Reith admired her courage.
"Pft! Get back to you're temple and pray!" A streak of rage flittered across Justina's icy eyes.
"If that is how you choose to speak to a priestess then you will suffer the consequences,"
Reith was ready with her rod, casting a barrage of ice shards onto the first man. A kick from behind impaled his head upon the sharp boot of the blonde woman.
"That'll teach 'em!" she smirked. Already the other two were upon her, knifes stabbed towards the killed. A flurry of punches and sweeping kicks saw them disarmed in an instant. Justina summoned an ice crystal around the two men, letting it shatter into a thousand razor edged pieces. They screamed in pain, blood coating the thick grass like newly spread paint. Reith reeled back from the sudden shock and change of events. She wanted to heal them, no matter how evil they were. But she was too late, they fell down dead before her eyes.
She knelt down beside them, checking their pulses for any hope.
"Reith…They're dead…" Justina said softly, laying a hand on her shoulder. They stood in silence for a few moments, taking in the solitude of the place. Eventually, Reith got to her feet. There was nothing she could do.
"I'm sorry, honey…I didn't mean to get you into this mess," the woman said. Reith looked up at her and saw she was older, perhaps in her late twenties. She frowned, her eye's showing a life Reith had never lived.
"It's alright, it wasn't you're fault," she said.
"But still…"
"Really, it's ok," Reith smiled at her.
"Thank you for helping me nonetheless. I'm so sick of being hounded by that bunch of halfwits!"
"Hounded?" Justina asked.
"Yeah. You see, my husband is a half-Yason. Many consider it illegal and disloyal to our country to have an affair with someone from the opposing side,"
"Oh…"
"I don't see the point though. I mean, love is love, isn't it? It doesn't matter what country or nation someone is from – they are still a person, a human being, right?"
Reith pondered the woman's response. She was right. People were people, were they not? Yason or Human, they still had feelings? Why was this world so opposed to difference? Why could people not just be left alone to live their lives?
"You are right. I don't see the point in all this fighting over differences…" she said. The woman smiled.
"At last, someone with some common sense!"
"So what is you're name?" Justina asked.
"The name's Rianna. And how 'bout yours?"
"I'm Justina and this is Reith,"
"So where you headed?"
"We're on our way to Fuget,"
Rianna's eye's brightened and a smile cracked her face. "That's where I'm off to as well! You see, I'm searching for my husband. The last I heard was that he was going to study Chi at the ruins of Fuget,"
"Well, why don't we all go together?" Reith said, clapping her hands in front of her chest. A look of irritation crossed Justina's normally stoic face.
"I don't know if Rianna will want to come. We might be a burden," she said.
"Oh, don't be stupid! Anyway, it looks like you could use a good fighter like me,"
Justina sighed. "Well, I suppose you are right. If we're going to go we should get moving or night will set in soon,"
"You seem to have you're head set on the mission ahead,"
"I do not wish to deviate from the plan,"
Rianna shrugged. There was tension between the two, Reith could tell. Her intuition told her it wasn't going to be a hassle free journey.
They arrived at Fuget at sundown. A flooding, crimson sunset saturated the land, stretching out from the ruins like beckoning fingers. The bird's twittered in their evening song as they sat atop the trees that stood still in the dying breeze. So this was Fuget. Fuget…even the name sounded familiar. It had obviously once been a magnificent building with arched roofs and intricate columns. However, now it stood in disgrace and decay, debris scattered like victims of a holocaust. Reith walked through the skeleton of a veranda, the charred remains of the wood crumbing at her touch. What had happened here? Something terrible…
"Do you recognise anything, Reith?" Justina asked. Reith shook her head. Nothing was coming to her, not even a hint.
"Doesn't seem Astal is here either…I guess I was too late…" Rianna said, staring out at the sunset.
"Do you know where he may have gone now?"
Rianna shook her head solemnly. "It was the only lead I had…He could be anywhere now…"
Reith wandered away from the two, towards the back of the compound.
"Someone has to take the blame," She wheeled around at the voice. There was no one in sight and Justina and Rianna were at the other side of Fuget.
"Who's there?" she called out.
"I met him as child…" The voice seemed to come from all around, as if the land was attempting to converse with her. But there was no one present, no one at all.
"I don't understand…help me!" she cried.
"The book was written by my father before he died…he ran into the woods beside Fuget…that's where they killed him…"
"Dad! What's wrong?"
"Amila, take you're sister and go to your mother,"
"Why?"
"Do as I say!"
"Where are you going? Daddy!"
The sun was setting, casting a red hue over the land. My father left that evening. He ran towards Fuget, towards the woods that concealed it. I never followed him, sometimes I wish that I had. Sometimes I am scared of what I may have found.
Serina came in at that moment. She picked up the thick bound book he had been working on seconds later. I told her to leave it but she refused.
"I want to keep it safe for daddy!" she screamed. I saw the men coming, their shadow's making them appear even larger than they were. I grabbed her hand and pulled her out the back door, placing my hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. I was frightened. It was a fear that gripped me like a burning thread from within. A fear like I have never felt before.
It took us two days to reach Epentar, we were nearly dead when we stumbled into the courtyard. Mother looked down on us, she didn't even ask what had happened. A moment later the maids took us away to be cleaned up and seen to.
I was never fond of Epentar. It reminded me of mother, her cold glare and her impassive expression. She ignored us most of the time. I came to the conclusion she never even cared for father as she never sought after him or even bothered to give his body a proper burial. I despised her. Perhaps that is what hardened me to life. I do not want to resemble her, I want to be everything she was not. But…at times I think I have failed on that one wish of mine. Why? Why does the past always catch us up?