Chapter 4

Setsunai woke up to a pounding in her head. She moaned in discomfort as she turned her head away from the light.

"Good, you are awake. Sit up." said the voice impatiently.

Setsunai blinked rapidly as she righted herself and tried to focus on her surroundings. She was still in the Otherworld but it seemed different somehow. The small shrubs that dotted the landscape didn't look as stunted or diseased. There was more vegetation on the ground as well as some sort of stubby grass that grew in clumps around the outcropping of rocks. She turned her head to the man who held her captive.

"Am I allowed to talk again?" She asked in a careful voice, attempting not to anger him.

"If you wish to. Just keep your high opinion of your husband to yourself."

He had made a camp of sorts. It was shielded on three sides by rocks and shrubs. A fire pit was dug deeply into the ground and next to it a pile of wood, grass, and twigs waited to be used. She looked at the man who was crouched on a rock looking off into the distance. He looked like a predator in waiting. His lean body looked like it was ready to spring into action at any moment.

"I can feel you looking at me." He said in a cold voice. He looked over his shoulder in tilted his head in a reptilian manner. Setsunai felt her skin prickle with unease. "Memorizing what you see? That way the nightmares of your dear husbands death will be more... vivid." He looked up quickly as a loud boom sounded in the distance.

He swore under his breath as he sprung off the rock. He muttered an incantation and flicked his hand in the direction of his hostage. A blue warding circle appeared underneath her. He looked at her with soulless eyes as an angered crease formed between his brows. "Just because he survived one trap does not mean he will survive the next one I have set for him. Do not get your hopes up. You will either be a widow or dead by the time we are done here." He stalked away from camp pausing for a moment to look over his shoulder at Setsunai. "Break that circle you are in and the goblins will find you and eat you alive. I will be back." His body shimmered for a moment then disappeared.

Tears welled up in Setsunais eyes. "Hieronymous... Pleas save me." Her voice quivered with fear.

She tried to think of all the positive things she could to keep the fear at bay. He was her rock in the middle of a raging river. His face when he was amused drifted into her thoughts. That stubborn set in his jaw when he wanted to smile but would opt to only lift the corner of his mouth. The fact there was always a book in his hand or on his person at all times. That floppy gray hat. His voice haltingly saying in a surprised tone "I don't dislike you.". His hand gently tilting up her chin as he softly touched his lips to hers. She drew strength from those thoughts, the tears drying before they had a chance to fall.

Hieronymous scanned his surroundings as he cautiously moved onward. Following a lone set of footprints winding between shrubs and boulders. He heard a muffled cry that made him stop dead in his tracks. At the base of a rather large shrub someone was curled up on the dirt sobbing. Sliver-blonde hair matted with dust and blood caked to her head. Soiled and torn pajamas stuck stiffly to her body. Slowly he walked towards her stopping several yards away. His body screamed at him to run to her and comfort her. His mind on the other hand was thinking just the opposite, it was telling him to run away.

He placed his hand on the hilt of his grandfathers sword. Took a deep breath and cleared his throat. She stilled, the cries stopping suddenly.

"Hieronymus?" Her voice croaked, her head swinging this way and that trying to catch sight of him. "Where are you. I can't see you."

"I am near." He said in a low voice, slowly moving to a different location after speaking. His mind screaming at him to run.

She struggled to get to where his voice was, feebly dragging her body in the direction it came from. "Help me." She sobbed as she collapsed into a heap.

There was a good fifteen feet between them. "I will reveal myself after you tell me how we met for the first time." He said in a low and steady voice. Her head snapped in the direction of his voice her eyes narrowing. Her fingers sinking into the soil taking great fistfuls of red earth as she began to drag herself toward him again.

"We met at Iris."

The back of his neck began to prickle. He knew now that this was an imposter. Setsunai would never forget how she ran headlong into him in the courtyard, knocking them both over in the process. Earning demerits for being reckless before you set a foot in a classroom is something that would stick with you for life. Especially after the way he talked to her about being a wildseed.

Odds are that the imposter was a Changeling of sorts. He wouldn't know what sub species until it revealed its true form. The only way to make it reveal itself would be to fight it. Then depending on the bone structure, he would know how to end its pathetic life. If it looked like a fair elf after the change he was in for a tough fight. Those Changelings were of a tainted elvish lineage that were able to wield magic and only physical combat would be the end of them. If it was of the demonic lineage... he shuddered inwardly. They looked like the stuff of nightmares and excelled at physical combat and did not have a lick of magic other than their shape shifting. Anything would kill them if they took enough damage. The problem was letting them near enough to do any serious harm to begin with.

The silenced stretched on and he grew impatient. "WHERE in Iris did we meet?"

"We met in your Red magic class." She said in a desperate voice.

"Wrong answer!" His voice boomed as he darted towards the creature on the ground, drawing his sword. She let out a shrill wail as she leapt to her feet, charging at Hieronymous with sharp claws extending from her fingertips. He slashed the imposter across its stomach, black blood welled up from the deep gash. The momentum carried him forward several feet before he turned to face it again. It had reverted to its true form while his back was turned.

Waxy gray skin clung to a boney body. Dirty rags tied to its hips. Slitted snake eyes looked at him through deep sockets, clumps of silver-blonde hair hung off of its scalp. It snarled at him showing a mouth full of pointed teeth.

Hieronymous drew a hissing breath through his teeth as his arm began to sting. "You scratched me, Changeling." He said in a neutral voice. Blood began to drip off of his elbow has he held the sword at the ready.

"I will eat your heart and leave the rest of you for the harpies!" Its voice rasping and gurgling on its own black blood.

"I highly doubt that." He smirked and threw a spell that hit it square in the chest teleporting it one hundred fifty feet into the air and letting it fall with a sickening crunch onto a pile of rocks and shrubs below.

He walked up to its crippled body and plunged the end of his blade through its heart, ending its life. Black blood was running between the rocks to pool on the thirsty earth. He flicked his sword in an attempt to remove some of the blood that was clinging on the edge. Huffed when the attempt failed and burned it off with some Red magic.

The sound of clapping drew Hieronymous eyes away from the broken Changeling. He turned to find his worst nightmare standing on a rock cheering him on, his breath caught at the sight.

"Good show! I see that the years have made you much more ruthless." Rubbing his hands together with glee. "I remember your first kill like it was yesterday. You actually shed a tear for that banshee and your softness almost got you killed."

"You." Hieronymous growled through clenched teeth.