She woke sometime later, soaked in her own sweat. Her eyes could barely open they were so heavy, and everything in her body felt like it was on fire. Neal and Zev were crouched over her working with their Gifts. Arie opened her mouth to ask what was happening when fire seemed to scorch her throat and very little in way of sound came out. Zev finally noticed she was awake and aware.
"Arie, you have to let go of the power, it is killing you." Zev looked afraid, not something Arie saw that often.
What power Arie tried to ask. But she was already drifting back to sleep.
She heard another voice demand, "Can't you do something? She's dying!" Lerant, Arie realized was also in the tent. That thought died as her mind drifted away. For a while she just drifted not really sure where she was until she heard a voice in the distance.
"Your child is going to die." It was an old woman's voice, one that was not new to Arie. "Not even a god born can take your power without cost. She's only half."
There was no reply, but it seemed the old woman hadn't really expected one. She sighed. The next thing Arie knew she was standing beside the old woman. Arie studied her and noted her body was bent so that she needed a knobby cane to keep from falling over. A grin spread across her wrinkled face when she saw Arie, flashing the few teeth she had. Lastly the eye patch completed the look. Beside her was a cloaked figure, the Dark God.
"Little sister," the Graveyard Hag addressed her.
Arie bowed just enough to be respectful and tried to hide her smile. Her half-sister had come to see her not long after her mother had passed away, to 'check' in on her. But Arie had very much enjoyed learning to throw dice from the goddess. Arie now turned to the Dark God and bowed deeply.
"Father."
The Dark God remained silent, which didn't surprise Arie too much, even the few times he had shown up he hadn't spoken.
"How is mother?"
Her half-sister nudged her. "You know he can't tell you tha-."
A deep voice answered, "She misses you."
Arie blinked, she hadn't expected him to answer much less tell her the truth, and it could only be the truth. Again, she bowed to her father.
"Thank you."
The Graveyard Hag cackled, "Guess you can bend the rules."
The Dark God turned to his elder daughter. Arie could feel him give her sister a look. She merely cackled and waved him off.
"If you have something to give her, do so now. It is getting harder to hold her."
Arie was about to ask why then her chest heaved painfully. Her sister patted her on the shoulder.
"Can't stay dead while you are alive too long."
Arie's eyes widened. "How am I-?"
Her father held up a hand to silence her. Then he grabbed the hem of his cloak sleeve and ripped a strip of the fabric. Quickly he wrapped the strip three times around Arie's left wrist and put the two ends together. They fused together making a strange bracelet. Arie stared at the thing; her chest had stopped heaving.
"That should protect you, my child." Then he turned and walked away, vanishing.
"Wait!" Arie called after him. Her sister chuckled beside her.
"He's already gone."
Arie gently touched the fabric. It felt like wool, but she could feel magic in it, making up its very existence.
"Now I think it's time you went back. That young man of yours is getting worried." She winked at Arie. "I expect an introduction."
Arie snorted. "Not on your life." she said firmly. The Graveyard Hag cackled and swatted Arie with her cane.
"You've got fire. That might get you in trouble soon."
Arie grunted she had more important things to worry about. Like how she got here or what was going on. "What is going on?"
The crone looked the way her father had gone.
"You said something about me taking his power, how is that even possible?"
Her sister shrugged, "I don't-."
"Horse dung. You know something." She added as an afterthought, "You're too smart not to know something."
Her sister turned and eyed her with her single good eye. A crooked grin spreading up her face. "Flattery Arie?"
Arie kept her gaze locked on her one free eye.
The Graveyard Hag chuckled, "Not the only one who's smart." She sighed, "We don't know how you are doing it." She raised her cane smacked Arie's forehead when she opened her mouth to protest. "He knows only that you are taking his power." She pointed her cane at the dark ribbon now wrapped around her wrist. "It won't stop you from taking his power, just slow it down." She eyed Arie and waved her cane close to Arie's nose. "Heed it's warning. "I won't pull you back a third time." Her older sister looked at the ribbon warily. "It will probably do other unpleasant things, things from him tend to do just that." She suddenly cackled. "Like me and you."
Arie was about to give her a rude gesture when she thought about what her sister said. Her explanation did not explain why she sounded so bleak. "What aren't you telling me?"
The goddess looked down at the ground not quite guilty, but something close. "Arie-."
"Tell me." There was silence between them for a long time, but Arie didn't ask again. Either her sister would or would not tell her, and no force on the earth would make her do so any sooner than she chooses to.
"Those that have died from this can't move on, not those infected and not those who die at the hands of the infected. Not even his," she scoffed. "Creatures can hold their souls."
Arie's eyes widened. "But the pigeons-."
"Not even they can, we don't know why, it just is." She glanced around. "Time to go."
Before Arie could say anything else her sister's cane knocked her across the head. Arie sat up in her tent and gripped her throbbing head. She sat there and swore for a few minutes before she realized she had company. Jess sat in the corner of the tent trying to look small. Her lower lip quivered and she looked like she was going to break into tears.
"I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. "I-."
Arie pulled the little girl into her lap and gently rocked her back and forth. "It's okay sweetheart, it's okay." Arie could feel the tears falling on her chest. "I swear I won't let him do that to you again."
Little arms clung to her and squeezed her with all their might. "I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't-."
"Hush little one. I know, I know you didn't want to do any of it. You are safe now, I swear it."
Jess sniffled and wiped her puffy red eyes with soot covered hands. Arie reached down to grab the hem of her tunic only to discover she was wearing only her breast binding. So, she grabbed the edge of her blanket and wiped the little one's tears away. Once Jess had calmed down Arie asked,
"How long have I been asleep little one?"
Jess blinked and thought about it. "One night. Just like me."
Arie wondered, only a night? Before she could ask if Jess was sure the tent flap opened. Neal entered. He looked ragged, tired, and thinner. Him and Zev must be working overtime. He blinked when he looked at them, as if he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Mithros, don't scare us like that!"
Arie cracked a smile. "I'll do my best." She leaned forward and adjusted Jess so she would sit more comfortably on her lap and also cover her body better. "What happened?"
Neal scrubbed a hand through his hair. "You passed out Arie." He shrugged. "You showed all the symptoms of using power that was beyond you. But-." He paused and Arie could see he was very confused by what he said. He was muttering to himself about her symptoms.
"But," Arie asked when it was clear Neal was going to answer, he was so lost in his own thoughts.
"It was only your Gift that you used and you never did anything that you hadn't already done."
Arie wouldn't correct him in the last part. No one needed to know Jess had been a puppet. Though she had the sinking feeling that she would have to be honest about certain things very soon. The ribbon around her wrist seemed oddly heavy. A reminder that her father was watching her.
"Well, I don't think you'll have to worry about it a second time."
Neal looked at her like he couldn't believe what she was saying. "We have no way of knowing that," he burst out.
Arie sighed inwardly and the ribbon warmed against her skin. Grudgingly she lifted her arm that held the piece of her father's cloak.
"I was given a token. It will warn me when I approach a similar problem."
Neal eyed the ribbon curiously and reached out to touch it. "Who gave it to you?" he asked taking her hand in his and turning to her wrist so he could get a better look at it. He was so distracted with studying the strip of cloth Arie wondered if he'd even hear her response.
"The Dark God."
Neal's fingers froze just before the touching the ribbon. Carefully, he let go of her hand and took back his own. He eyed Arie as if she might be crazy.
"Did you just say-?"
"Yes." Arie sat there and watched as the young man's brain fought to understand what she had told him. She could feel his Gift color the air between them and warmed against her skin. A warning that Neal needed to stop poking and prodding the magic in the ribbon. He took a deep breath before demanding,
"Any other surprises you plan on springing on me?"
Arie laughed, she couldn't help it, the look on his face was priceless. Jess hid her face against Arie's chest, but she could feel the small child laughing right along with her. Good, Arie thought, she could use a distraction from everything she had been through. Neal glared at them both.
"You're laughing now, but I'm the one who makes your medicine."
Jess stopped laughing instantly and looked back at Neal horrified. Arie did her best to smother her own laughter but she couldn't.
He growled, "I hope he bites you."
Arie stopped laughing long enough to ask, "What are you talking about?"
A smile still pulled at her lips, but now Neal smiled smugly, "Your horse."
That wiped the smile off Arie's face. She knew SandStorm would be furious with her.
"You stopped breathing and he went berserk. None of the people here would interfere with your horse. Something about him being too smart. Lerant finally managed to calm him down while I was working on you, I think he might still be with your horse."
Arie read something in Neal's expression that he wasn't saying. "You kicked him out." She had remembered hearing Lerant's voice for a little bit.
Neal snorted, "Kel grabbed him by the scruff before I could kick him out. Idiot wouldn't stop hovering and demanding I do something." Neal muttered something under his breath that Arie didn't quite catch.
Arie leaned over Jess and so she could look her in the eyes.
"Will you let Neal look you over again? I have to go check SandStorm."
The little girl nodded and crawled out of Arie's lap.
"No, you can't-."
Arie gave him a look. "You can try and stop me; I'll call Zev in here to treat your exhaustion." Zev could be a shameless flirt too, and this uptight young man would have no idea of how to deal with her friend.
Neal gave her a sour look.
"Fine," he growled, "See if I-," he was cut off when Arie threw the blankets off her to reveal she was just in her underwear. He quickly covered his eyes and pointed to the far corner of the tent. "Clothes are over there."
Arie gratefully went over to the pile and pulled on her clothes. "Weren't you treating me? You've clearly already seen me as I am." She could see the blush across his face. Was the sardonic knight truly this pure hearted? Like a maiden. Arie resisted the urge to chuckle.
"I am a happily married man, and this is very different."
Arie snorted. Once she was dressed, she patted him on the shoulder. "You're a good man. Even if you are a noble."
He gave her another attempt at a sour look when he dropped his hands. Slightly red cheeks ruined the look, Arie noted.
"Go before I change my mind and make you stay in bed."
Arie chuckled and opened the flap of the tent. Outside the air was cool. The sun hadn't risen yet, but the beginnings of dawn were moving across the distant horizon. Everything was eerily still, like the calm before a storm. She turned to look at Sea King and nearly gasped. Gathered not far from her tent was a crowd. They were mostly insubstantial beings. Wisps that vaguely resembled humans. Only their faces were clear. Mand the farm hand, the widow Tara, Angie and Ray the blacksmith's two children, the Miller and his family, the tavern owner, the woodsman, and his family, the soldiers Arie found in the field, and so many others. Their names whispered across her mind. She bit her lip and locked her knees together. This was the cost of her pride.
"I'm sorry." Tears started in her eyes. It was the Miller and his wife who moved toward her. Their ghosts hugged her. It was Marcy who spoke, her voice distant like she was hearing it from far away.
"This is not your fault child. We choose our path. Now you must choose yours."
Arie swiped the tears from her eyes and looked to Marcy and Tim. They had offered many times to let her stay in their home. Their kindness had been a brightness when Arie's mother had died and now she knew she would do whatever she could to help them move on.
"I swear, I'll stop him."
Marcy and Tim nodded.
"Then we will help you, daughter of the Dark God."