Chapter 5. Poison

"No !!" I screamed.

Aysa turned her head to me, just in time. She and Teru looked at me startled. I had just done a BIG mistake, screaming like that. Teru MUST now know that something is wrong.

"Tuarwen, what might be wrong ?" Aysa asked, frowning in worry.

I quickly glanced at Teru.

"You need to come with me right now." I said, my voice tight and hard.

"Have you found anything about the sickness ?" Said Teru, a hopeful expression on her face.

Lies, lies, lies.

I have. "No, I haven't- Aysa, you must come with me right now." I said, shifting my gaze back to Aysa.

"Why, what happened ?" She asked anxious, though not moving from her spot, by Teru.

"We need to find Merrylin and Lilyona." I quickly said, inventing an excuse.

"Oh, they're right upstairs if you wish to speak with them- I already have." Said Aysa.

Goddammit !

"Um, yes, but that is not what I wanted to speak with you about..." Teru wasn't showing it, but I knew she was finding me more suspicious by the second. "...I believe our master has spoken to me in a vision." I said, my expression grave.

At that, Aysa's eyes widened and without hesitation, or questions, she quickly walked to me and gave the little bottle back to Teru. Good riddance.

"Excuse me." She said to Teru before exiting.

...

I led her back to our resting place, as far away from prying ears as possible, and made sure no one had followed us and checked that no one was spying on us. Aysa stood still, watching me confusedly the whole time.

"What might be so important from our master, for you to be so agitated ?"

"This is not about our master."

She frowned. "But you said-"

"I lied. I had to find a way to get you away from Teru."

"Teru ?" She repeated. "What reason would you have to do that ?"

"Aysa...I think...I think she is a suspect." Culprit, would be a better word. Her eyes widened in shock. "I have found clues that lead right to her- listen to me carefully. When I was questioning the elves earlier, I asked them very specific questions. They told me that when the very first elf got sick, Teru was very dedicated to make him feel well again, and to make sure that nobody fell to the sickness too, she made concoctions of plants, and made them drink it even BEFORE they had any symptoms, apparently to protect them."

"I don't see how that could make her a suspect."

I raised my finger, telling her to wait. "Before Lucinda collapsed, Teru had given her that same concoction as she seems to give everyone, and apparently, she seemed to know about the discovery Lucinda had made. Not to mention, the elf who had woken up from his coma, and had then spent the whole night alone under the care of Teru, before he mysteriously died- in the same night Lucinda collapsed ! Don't you think that's too much of a coincidence ?"

"What do you mean ?"

I grabbed her shoulders. "Aysa...every single being who has drank her potion...has not ever survived. They all succumbed to this illness. If it's really one."

Her eyes widened in shock, before she took a step back and 'thought'. After a pause, she said, "You could be very right. But you could also be very wrong. It could either be a lead, or it could just all be a big coincidence."

"Yes. Maybe she is telling the truth, and her plants are just not working anymore...or she has been the cause of everything, lying from the very beginning...poisoning her own kind." I said, my eyes fierce.

"I almost drank that potion..." She said, shuddering.

"It's okay now. I won't let her hurt you." I said.

She smiled. "Nor I, you." She said, returning the gesturing.

"So you believe me ?"

"Yes. I will walk all the way with you, my friend."

I smiled, nodding.

"We need to gather proof if we want to stop this madness."

"What I don't understand however, is just WHY she would do such a horrible thing to her own kind ?" I said with disbelief in my voice.

"I don't know. We must find out more before any more damage is done."

I nodded in agreement. "I will get those potions from her, and try to clear any doubt that she has over me."

"Okay. Keep her away from her house long enough for me to find some clue."

I nodded. "Got it."

And like that we parted ways.

I walked back to the inn, searching for Teru, but she wasn't here. The bottle she had given Aysa was also gone.

I walked between the sick elves who where all unconscious, either in a coma, or hallucinating from their fever.

I went uptsairs looking for Lyliona and Merryna, but what I saw, was not what I had been expecting.

Both of them were unconscious on the floor, unmoving. A gasp of shock and fear escaped my throat, but before it could form into a scream, a pain connected in the back of my head, and everything went BLACK.

To be continued...