After leaving Tripoli, Eden set a rather leisurely pace. They continued to travel close to the coastline with rather small, rocky and wooded mountains to their left, rivers occasionally running through them.

"The terrain here sure changes a lot," Arielle mentioned, "if it's not hard packed earth, then it's dry grasses, sandy beaches, stony hills, now wooded mountains..."

"Are you complaining, duchess?" Eden asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No... I'm just making an observation. I was just somehow expecting lots and lots of... sand... in the desert."

"Well, I'm sure the Levant begs your forgiveness." Eden said in jest.

"Do you like it here, Eden?"

"Truthfully, I'm more of a woods kind of lady. I'd take the forest over oceans of sand any day."

"Ah, yes. The birds singing, the trickle of water, the sunlight filtering through the trees. Yes..." Arielle mused.

"Yeah, something like that." Eden added with a slight roll of the eyes.

"You forget that I'm a bard, warrior." Arielle pointed out cheerfully.

"Oh, that I could never forget."

"I can just imagine our two versions of the forest." Arielle said, a smile crossing her face with the images in her head, "I'm thinking of babbling brooks and trees swaying in the wind, dark green grass or moss cushioning my feet, and that light, sweet smell of blooming flowers while you're probably imagining chasing down some terrified rabbit with your sword swinging overhead... Eden?"

Eden had frozen still, staring out in front of her. Arielle stopped beside her and turned her gaze in the direction of the warrior's. A sleek, black, hooded figure had seemed to rise out of the middle of the path and now rode towards them leisurely. Arielle wondered over the familiar blackness of the figure. As he approached, Eden felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and a strange tense, tingling sensation spread over her right arm. She flexed her right hand in slight confusion, but the sensation wouldn't go away.

"Who is that?" Arielle asked Eden quietly, feeling a sense of foreboding deep in her gut.

"I don't know." Eden answered in the same tone, which only made Arielle more fearful.

Eden then noticed that darkness and shadows clung to the rider in a way they shouldn't have in the bright day. She turned slightly to Arielle.

"Listen to me," she said in deadly seriousness, feeling the charge start to make her heart beat more powerfully, "I don't like this. Stay close behind me. And stay quiet. If anything starts to happen, ride up into those mountains as fast as you can. Run away and don't look back. Understand?"

"But, Eden, I-"

"Do you understand?" Eden repeated in a tone that showed that it was not up for discussion.

Arielle swallowed and simply nodded. Eden nudged her horse forward a little which left Arielle partially shielded behind her when the figure approached.

* "Assalamu 'alaikum." the rider called, raising his right hand.

"Dominus tecum." Eden returned, mimicking the action.

"Ah, a Christian..." the rider noted, his voice slithering out and causing a chill to go down Arielle's spine.

The rider removed his hood. Arielle gasped quietly, seeing a man whose black hair and black eyes stood in stark contrast to the white teeth he bared in a demonic grin that spread across his face. Eden tensed as the midnight eyes bore into her own as if he was trying to run her through with them.

"You are far from home, Christian." he noted.

"Just on the way to the Holy City." Eden answered calmly.

"Ah, yes, you are of the pious sort, no doubt." the man sneered.

Eden said nothing, her gaze never leaving the man as his never left her. Her heartbeat grew stronger with his every word, the tingling in her arm never leaving, the bizarre calm tension mounting in her muscles.

"You shouldn't be here." he finally stated, his irritation growing.

"Neither should you." Eden chanced, switching slowly to her complete warrior stance as she realized both who she was dealing with and how much she would have wanted to avoid it at the moment.

"Ha! You are arrogant, Christian! These are my lands." he cried, sweeping the area around him with a black gloved hand, "They belong to my god. You are the trespasser."

"Your god and mine are the same. So neither of us trespass."

"La ilaha illa Allah!"

"There is no god, but the one true God. Of all things. By any and all of His names."

"How dare you presume to speak for Allah, daughter of Christ?!" he howled, causing Arielle to flinch back.

"I presume to speak no more for God than you, son of Muhammad." Eden fiercely retorted.

The irritated man spun his restless, midnight horse around in a circle. He studied the warrior confidently, calmly seeking out and choosing which weakness to aim at so as to evoke the most damage. He began to stare her down again.

"You recognize this color, don't you, blasphemous Christian?" he asked coolly, his feral grin returning.

Eden began to feel the weight of his gaze and him trying to enter her mind, probing through her thoughts and memories. Her grip on the reins tightened and Arielle noticed it.

"Ah, yes... The color represents something you know well. Something deep in your heart, in the center of your spirit..." he hissed.

Eden began to tremble, the rider digging further and further into her mind. He brought back things long buried and the images flashed in her mind as if they were happening right there in front of her.

"Yes... you know what I speak of. And you craved it, didn't you? The smell of blood and smoke, the clash of metal, the sound of chaos..."

Arielle watched with growing horror as Eden's body grew rigid, her shaking hands holding the reins so tightly that her knuckles were a ghostly white. The warrior trembled, her gaze locked onto the man who was piercing her with his coal eyes, her breathing growing shortened and irregular.

"Oh, how lovely. You even took upon yourself the burden of all that was done to you..." he hissed, leaning slightly forward with an evident evil satisfaction.

At that, Arielle watched a bright, red blood suddenly begin to trickle down from cuts on the warrior's brow and lip, which the bard would have found curious had the circumstances been different. She could hear Eden's tense body and ragged breathing making hardly noticeable pleas that were barely escaping through her clamped jaw.

"Oh, so much horror and pain that some of us experience in this life. I would pity you even... But I won't."

Eden was slowly losing control of her own body and spirit, but continued to fight with all her strength against the rider. She frantically scoured her memories, trying to find the good ones, the warm ones, the ones filled with light. And though few and far between, she held on to them desperately, like a drowning mariner clutching a plank on an angry sea.

"Leave her be, infidel!" Arielle suddenly cried.

But before she could make any move, he simply raised his hand and she froze. She felt an invisible, iron grip around her throat, clamping down mercilessly and she struggled, but in vain.

"Let's see how much she is worth, shall we?" he suggested to Eden and constricted his hand more and they both heard the blond cry out in pain, "Ah... that hurts you too, doesn't it?"

He sensed the hurt Eden felt through Arielle's pain and sneered at it. The memories Eden was holding on to were beginning to fade away, not strong enough to fight against the encroaching darkness and the weight of her guilt and sin. Just surrender, you're not strong enough, let it go... No... Arielle's struggling cut through her thoughts, her ears ringing with the sound of the bard's gurgling and whimpers.

"You could make this stop." the man noted so that both women could hear, "you could make this all go away. Peace, calm, quiet, isn't that what you really want? Call down your god, Christian! If it is like you say, then Allah will help you."

Eden said nothing and the man approached closer.

"Save yourself, pathetic follower of Christ." he snarled angrily, "Call down your benevolent god from your pristine heavens to save you from my grasp. If it is how you say and if are so much in his favor then he will save you. He will banish me and all this that I call mine will be yours and you will live your life like you desire. Just think, Christian, that which is of value to you will finally be yours. No more pain, no more fear. Just speak the words..."

Eden could feel a haze slowly covering her brain. In a last desperate attempt, her mind suddenly attached itself to the charge. All of her life force lurched at it, fusing with it, sustaining itself on it. Her heartbeat grew slower, but stronger, her breathing the same and her body fought against the rigidness. She took a breath. Faith.

"Do not test the Lord, your God." she whispered painfully and enraged the man.

"Say it! Say the words! Bring down your god from the clouds and save yourself! You will have all you want and you will have it now! Otherwise die!" he screamed in fury, his eyes drilling deeper into Eden and tightening his grip around Arielle who was now yelling breathlessly.

"Vade, draco maledicte." Eden whispered through her teeth, tasting her blood in her mouth.

"Ghazi?" the man said in sudden amazement and that moment was enough.

His hold weakened by his surprise, Eden took advantage of it and in an explosion of desperate strength, unsheathed her sword and swung at him. He managed to evade her swing, but dropped his hand which released Arielle. Eden turned to her in the few seconds she knew they had before the demon came charging at them. She cupped the bard's face with her hand, watching her gasp for breath.

"Arielle," she said in low, but calm voice that made it seem like she was almost about to speak holy words and looking straight at her, "run now and don't look back. For anything."

"Eden..." the bard tried to protest.

"Go!" the warrior shouted and slapped Xanthus' side and the horse whinnied, turned, and galloped away.

"I see the treasure now, ghazi!" the man yelled and set to chasing Arielle.

But Eden cut him off, Arion standing defiantly in the way, causing the other horse to shirk away and having the demon nearly fall off his horse. The demon spun around, enraged. He brought his blade crashing down on Eden, but she was prepared. They clashed fiercely, nearly matching each other in power and skill. The rider finally took an underhanded swing at Arion and Eden reared back at the last minute to evade it. The demon took advantage of it and sprinted forward after Arielle. Eden took off right behind him. The horses grunted and their nostrils flared, the ground becoming steeper as they wound their way up through the mountains and in between the trees. Eden held the reins tight enough to let Arion know that they were on dangerous terrain and he responded with controlled force. The mountain became rockier higher up and cliffs appeared that plunged in some places straight down to the river below. Stones, boulders, trees, vines, protruding roots, and bushes made the ascent rough, but Arion was powerful and Eden determined and they stayed right on the demon's heels.

Xanthus appeared in the distance, standing next to some old ruins of a long forgotten castle. Arielle was standing right beside him. The demon caught a glimpse of her and urged his horse forward. Arielle saw them a few moments later and broke out into a chaotic run. The demon leapt off his horse and ran right after her, gaining quickly. Eden also leapt off her horse, knowing she wouldn't be able to take advantage of Arion's speed in all of the knots and tangles of the terrain.

Arielle ran as fast as her legs could take her, stumbling every once in a while over larger rocks, roots, or bushes. She turned her head around and saw the demon reaching out to grab her and she couldn't even find the voice to scream. Eden... And then Arielle was gone from the demon's sight. A loud shout and groan and the rush of tumbling rocks and earth registered in the demon's mind quickly and he locked his legs, leaning back and to the side and slid towards the cliff, stopping at the edge in a cloud of dust. He peered over and saw the blond down below, hanging onto a root for dear life, her legs dangling in the air, the only thing below her being the river.

"Such a shame, fajr," he called out to her, "for even I can see Allah in you. But it will be a pleasure to see the torment in your defender."

"No! Eden!" the bard yelled.

A somersault through the air could be heard and the demon found two, blue, fixated lightning storms suddenly facing him.

"Growing sentimental, are you, ghazi?" the demon hissed lowly, his lip curling.

Eden replied with a sharp swing of her sword that sent the slightly surprised demon stumbling backwards.

"Hold on, Arielle!" Eden cried down to the bard.

Eden turned her head back to the demon just in time to see him bearing down on her, his sword overhead. He hit her ready sword with a ferocity and strength that pushed Eden back a little and down to one knee. Arielle felt stones and earth falling down on top of her and she looked up to see Eden kneeling on the edge of the cliff, it giving way beneath her.

"Eden!" she cried.

The warrior waited patiently for the slightest wavering in the demon's push, trying to balance herself on the crumbling cliff. Finally, she sensed the moment and drove her arms upward, up against the demon and pushed him back enough to be able to regain her footing.

"You are a challenge, Christian whore. I'm glad for I've spent so many centuries bored." the demon chuckled and they both heard Arielle scream out Eden's name again and some stones roll down the cliff, "Oh, such a difficult spot you're in. There's a price for friendship, have you forgotten?"

Eden closed her eyes and took a deep breath. For the outside world it seemed but a moment, but for her, time seemed to slow down. It was true, she hadn't forgotten. To her it almost seemed that she had been paying prices all her life, often not even knowing what for. And they had been hefty and high, leaving her dispossessed of nearly all the things she had. But this time it was a price she was asked to pay and she had accepted it. She had never asked Gabriel to take Arielle away; she had surprisingly never even thought it. No, there were some prices paid that left you with more than you had to begin with. Faith. She opened her eyes, revealing a clearer, sharper blue.

"I don't have time for you." she stated.

The warrior unleashed a barage of thrusts and slashes that the demon had a hard time dodging or deflecting. He was a good opponent, but Eden had fought and sent many greater than him to the dust before. Each movement began where the last ended, no energy or moment was wasted. A sudden overheard strike brought her to her knees. Yet, seeing her chance, she let his momentum drive her down a little into her heels and then, at nearly the last moment, when his driving momentum dissipated, she exploded upward from her heels, driving his sword nearly over his head and exposing his middle. She quickly flicked her wrist, bringing her blade downward, and drove it into his chest.

"Humiliare sub potenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt." Eden chanted, looking into the fading eyes of the demon, black blood spurting out of him, covering them both.

He slid down and fell dead to the ground. The face now looked peaceful and Eden shook her head. She then ran back to the edge of the cliff and peered over.

"Arielle?... Arielle!"

"Eden, help me!" came the tired cry.

"Hold on! I'm coming!"

Eden raced over to Arion, took a rope out of the saddlebags, and rushed back over to the ledge. She tied the rope around a large boulder and then tied the other end around herself. She grabbed the rope and lowered herself down until she reached the blond. Arielle was hanging on fiercely, but was also exhausted, pale, and terrified. The warrior maneuvered over to where Arielle was hanging, supported herself somewhat by resting one foot on a mound of earth and wrapped one arm around the bard.

"Come on. Grab the rope." Eden coaxed, but Arielle didn't move, "Come on, Arielle, that root can't hold you for much longer."

She pulled the bard a little closer and it somehow stirred her into action and she slowly moved her arms from the root to the rope, placing her hands right above the warrior's.

"There you go. I've got you." Eden said, not letting her go.

They hung there, swinging slightly, looking at each other. Yet, the warrior noticed a puzzling sound and looked up. She hadn't noticed the sharp edge of a rock jutting out just near the edge of the cliff and now the rather thin rope they were swinging on was being cut and beginning to fray quickly.

"Damn." Eden muttered.

She turned her eyes to the bard and looked at her with stony seriousness.

"You're going to have to climb up the rope." she stated.

"Eden, I can't... I'm tired... I can't..." the bard protested weakly, giving a pleading look.

"Yes, you can. Climb."

"No, I-"

"Damn it, princess! Climb up that rope before we plunge to our deaths. Move!" Eden yelled and it startled the bard enough to almost make her lose her grip.

Arielle gave her a frightened and hurt look that Eden made herself ignore by trying to push the bard up faster. Slowly but surely, Arielle climbed upwards. Yet, Eden could see that Arielle's climbing was causing a lot of movement of the rope, rubbing it against the sharp edge, fraying it even more.

"Climb faster, it's not going to hold the both of us!" Eden yelled when she saw the bard stop.

Arielle started climbing frantically causing more movement of the rope. Eden looked down around her and then looked back up to the bard. She then took out her dagger, cut the rope, and let herself fall. Arielle heard sounds of the shifting cliff, but was so focused on getting up and off that cursed rope that she turned around only when she had climbed safely onto the ledge. Eden was nowhere to be seen.

"Eden?" Arielle called out tentatively.

Silence. She glanced at the rope that had nearly frayed all the way through. She then saw the cut end dangling in the air.

"Eden?" she called out louder, "Eden?... Eden! Eden!"

Arielle threw herself away from the cliff in the terror of a realization forming in her head. She scurried away backwards on all fours until she reached the boulder the rope had been tied to and rested her back against it, thankful for its solidity. Her mind frantically tried to find a solution or explanation, but came up with nothing. Eden had fallen, cutting the rope she was on to save her. Just to save her. The thought caused her to draw up her knees to her chest and she wrapped her arms around them and rocked herself lightly back and forth.

"No, no, no." she practically chanted to herself, feeling the tears forming, "This can't be. It's not true. No, no, please God, no."

She rested her forehead on her knees, letting the tears fall silently, keeping the thought of the death of her friend at bay by repeating over and over that it simply wasn't so. Her lips silently spoke to anyone who would listen that she couldn't agree to this, that this had no right to happen.

"Well, I've had enough of rock climbing for a while." she heard a familiar voice say off in the distance.

The bard raised her head to her left and saw the warrior walking towards her up a path from the edge of the mountain.

"Eden?!" she asked in utter bewilderment, not noticing herself get up.

She watched the warrior walking, dusting herself off a little here and there as if she was just coming back from milking cows. And a sudden realization struck Arielle and her bewilderment shifted into a fuming anger. She stomped off towards the warrior with a vengeance.

"Eden!" she yelled when she reached her and pushed her with all her might.

"Hey! What?" Eden exclaimed, stumbling back, unprepared for the assault.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?!" the bard continued to yell, pushing Eden with every statement, "Why did you cut the rope? Why didn't you tell me?"

"The rope was fraying, there wasn't time." Eden tried to explain, but felt her voice rising with every push she was reluctantly allowing the bard.

"You could've told me! How dare you do that?! How dare you?!"

"How dare I?" Eden replied, feeling the anger rise in her now and halting her retreat, "I asked you to stay quiet, but you couldn't. I asked you to run at the moment of trouble, but you couldn't. You had to get yourself into trouble again. I was only trying to save your life!"

"Well, I am so sorry that I tried to help you. Yet when you yelled at me to climb, I climbed! But you just cut the rope!"

"I saw a way where I could land-"

"But you didn't tell me! You didn't say a single word!" the blond yelled angrily.

"I was trying to keep you alive!" the warrior yelled.

"And I thought you were dead!" the bard screamed out, pounding Eden's breastplate with her fists and Eden just gazed at her, stunned, "For me! I heard you fall! I thought you were gone! I thought you were lying dead somewhere at the bottom all because of me, you stupid, stubborn,-"

Arielle was cut off by the warrior's sudden embrace. Her first reaction was to tear herself away and she realized that her hands found their ways to the sides of the warrior and kept punching her in despair.

"It's alright. It's alright now. Calm down." Eden said quietly, letting the bard hit and curse her until she finally stopped, exhausted.

Eden pulled Arielle away to arm's length after a while and looked at her. The bard's face was covered in tears and dirt and she sighed tiredly, looking up at Eden.

"I could hate you," she sniffed.

"I know." the warrior said simply.

"You're lucky I don't." the bard added, giving her a soft pound to the shoulder with her fist.

"I know that too." Eden replied and they both smiled faintly.

Eden turned her head to the dead man lying on the ground with her sword still sticking out of him. She let Arielle go and walked over to him and Arielle followed her.

"He seems so... peaceful now." Arielle observed.

Eden said nothing, reaching over and neatly pulling her blade from his corpse.

"What is that stuff?" Arielle asked inquisitively, gazing at the blade covered in an almost black liquid and her curiosity caused her fingers to find themselves touching it.

"Don't touch that!" Eden exclaimed, grabbing Arielle's hand and pulling it away.

"Why? What's wrong? What is it?" the bard asked, a little confused.

"It's dangerous. It will... It will..."

Eden's voice trailed off as she looked at the bard's fingers covered in the black blood. She should have felt a searing sensation by then, the dark eating away through her skin to find its way into her soul. But Arielle felt nothing and the blood showed no reaction.

"That can't be... Unless..." Eden whispered in wonder, examining Arielle's hand, turning it over and back again.

"Eden, you're starting to scare me a little."

"It's just... strange." she said, looking up at the bard, still perplexed.

She wiped the bard's fingers clean with a cloth and then did the same for her sword and sheathed it while Arielle simply looked on in silence. Eden shook her head to clear it.

"Come on. We could both use a bath and I know just the spot."

They led the horses down the path Eden had come up from until they reached the river. There was a small spot where the riverbank widened and was nice and sandy and the river ran by strongly, but calmly. They stopped there, brushed down their tired horses and let them graze, taking their gear and placing it in a large nook in the cliff that formed a type of cave. They took off their armor and Eden took hers with her to the river's edge to clean. Arielle waded into the river while Eden first wiped down her armor, placing it out on the sand to dry. She then also waded in and began to wash her own dried blood from her face. Arielle noticed the distance Eden always kept, especially when they were bathing. It seemed to her almost that the lack of armor made Eden feel helpless and vulnerable and she compensated for that with physical distance. It amazed her how someone who risked her life for her without a second thought would then grow so bashful and fragile standing there in the flowing water.

"I think we'll just make camp here tonight. We won't make it back to the road before dark." Eden said while they sat on the sand, drying.

"We won't?... Yeah, I guess trying to escape from an angry demon makes you move a little faster than normal." the bard noticed and it got a small grin from the both of them.

They sat there for a while enjoying the rare quiet and calm of the spot. Unbeknownst to them, they were thinking the same thought. The silence isn't as heavy and deafening as it once was. It's becoming quite... comfortable.

When they had dried, they dressed, made a fire and sat down to eat.

"Who was that... man?" Arielle finally asked, chewing on a piece of smoked fish.

"That was a jinn. Of a really nasty sort it turned out." Eden replied, tearing her bread into smaller pieces and tossing them in her mouth.

"What did he want?"

"What any evil spirit wants. To be evil." the warrior replied with a shrug.

"For no reason?"

"It's their nature. But this one was a lesser demon. He simply tried to trick me into showing that I had no real faith and was spurred by greed and selfishness."

"A lesser demon?" Arielle repeated. "There are... worse?"

"Much worse." Eden answered quietly.

"What did he... When he was staring... What did he do..." Arielle tried to ask, her voice dropping and slowing.

Eden sighed and rested her forearms on her knees and looked out down the winding river's path. If some things could just float away like that, never to be seen again.

"Different spirits have different abilities. This one dug up my bad memories, bad deeds... He made me relive them again, drowning me in that darkness..."

"I saw the wounds..." Arielle said gently.

She saw the warrior visibly stiffen and realized that she had hit a very raw spot.

"You know, when he had me, I couldn't see much of anything." the bard said, trying to shift the subject a little, "I just saw these screaming, blinding flashes of... white."

She turned to Eden and saw the warrior regarding her carefully, but remaining silent.

"Tell me how to kill a demon." Arielle said all of the sudden, giving the both of them a little bit of a shock.

"Well, it's the same as fighting a person, but demons will always test your faith using trickery and deception until you surrender to them in some way." the warrior replied.

"So sometimes you can fight a demon without even raising a sword?"

"Arielle," Eden responded, her voice becoming serious, "I would rather you avoid demons at all costs. Don't talk, don't fight, just run."

"But-"

"You are no match for one, Arielle. Please..." Eden interrupted.

Arielle nodded and looked out onto the river, disappointment settling on her face as she started throwing pebbles into the water with frustration. Eden sighed internally. She wanted to tell her. She wanted to explain to her that the war with demons was one that went on forever, that took its toll on heart and soul and was something never at all to be envied. She wanted to tell her that she didn't want the bard to end up like her. You shouldn't ever lose that light of yours. The world is dark enough already. But, in the end, she couldn't find the words.

Eden stretched herself out on the sand, resting in the slowly sinking rays of the sun, looking up at the sky. The effort of the day began to draw attention to itself in her muscles and she stretched, pulled, and squeezed them into ease. Arielle had given up her pebble throwing and was resting her chin on her bent knees, staring out over the river.

"You know," the bard began quietly, a little grin starting in the corner of her mouth, "I'm going to have to start borrowing from other kingdoms to make sure you're properly rewarded."

"Well," Eden snorted lightly, "that's what happens when no one listens to me. Kingdoms go bankrupt."

The bard chuckled softly and turned to Eden.

"Eden, I'm sorry-"

"Don't be." Eden countered, turning her gaze to her, "You're safe now. You're alive, we're both alive. That's all that matters now."

Eden could see that there was something more that the bard wanted to say, a feeling that what had been said didn't do the day justice. But the warrior didn't have the strength to say any more, she simply couldn't.

"Do you like swimming?" she suddenly asked, getting a bit of a perplexed look from the bard.

"Well, I'm not very good at it. I never actually learned really." the blond replied a little sheepishly.

"Well, that's not good." the warrior observed, getting up and standing next to Arielle who looked up at her, "Let's go then."

"What? Swimming? Now? But I don't know how."

"Then it's about time you learn. It's useful, especially when you're hanging off a cliff over a river."

"But, the current... What if it carries me away?"

"Well... isn't that what you have me for?" Eden asked with a small grin and raised eyebrow.

Despite her hesitation, the bard gave off a smile at the comment and got up. They dressed down to their underthings again and waded into the river until they were about waist deep. Eden found a spot where the bottom was solid and she felt well grounded and began to teach the blond how to swim. Arielle was nervous at first, feeling the strong pull of the water, but she felt a stronger and more secure hold on her from the warrior and soon she relaxed and began to even enjoy herself. Eden patiently gave her instructions and reminders, observing with satisfaction how fast and attentively the bard learned. After some time, the blond was swimming against the current with a reasonable amount of effort and a huge grin. Eden smiled lightly and folded her arms over her chest, her eyes never leaving the bard. Arielle turned her head up to the warrior, beaming happily in her success. She then noticed Eden's arms and realized that the warrior had let go of her and she had been swimming all by herself. The realization stunned her and she suddenly stopped swimming and the current took over, starting to pull her downstream. Before she had a chance to shout, she felt her body abruptly stop, a strong hand wrapped around her wrist. She turned her head and saw Eden standing in the water with no intention of giving up the bard to the river. She pulled the bard towards her through the flowing water until Arielle was able to get her footing and was standing across from her, dripping wet and smiling. Arielle noticed that Eden's tanned skin took on a unique softness in the last of the setting sun and she considered the twofold nature of the warrior. She stood there like a pillar against the relentless water, unmoved and unimpressed by its attempts to sweep her away. But there was the other side to her, the side that was bathed in the golden red light of the sun, letting little, playful sparkles dance in her eyes and her skin absorbed the light and turned the pillar into something soft and warm that Arielle simply wanted to wrap herself up in. Which is your truer manifestation? A little, shimmering bead of water on Eden's brow drew the bard's attention to the small wound that remained. Arielle cautiously drew her hand up and lightly touched it and saw the warrior's jaw muscles tighten. But she kept her hand there still in an indescribable urge to just touch the wound and heal it, to fix the pain, to make it all disappear.

"Tell me where this is from." she gently requested.

"From a long time ago." Eden sighed, looking down at the water and hanging her head, breaking their contact, "It's getting dark. Let's go get dry."

Arielle simply stood there for a few moments, watching Eden return to shore, slouching under the burden of her sadness. Then she joined her.

*- Peace be upon you.
- The Lord be with you.

- There is no god, but God!

- Go away, cursed demon.
- Guardian?

Fajr- dawn, early morning.

- Be humble under the powerful Hand of God, tremble and flee, when we invoke the sacred and terrible name at which those down below tremble.