Say The Words

⭑ · · ᯓ 𐃈 ᯓ · · ⭑

“She was right here, I swear…”

Kite’s face told the whole story as she inspected the spot she had last seen Elora, beside a boulder west of the village. It wasn’t a matter of believing Kite or not as Felix noticed the disturbed grass, but what perplexed him was how she’d been moved in the first place.

“What happened?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t really know.” Kite crossed her arms. “One second we’re walking around, looking for something suspicious, and the next, she complains about her head and snaps at me out of the blue.”

Felix suspected there had probably been at least one insult exchanged beforehand, but he kept that observation to himself.

“Ahhh, I knew I should’ve picked her up and brought her with me, but I didn’t know where you were, and I panicked…” Kite tapped her talons and tussled her hair, looking a little guilty. “…also she’s heavier than she looks.”

“It’s not your fault.” He reassured her, kneeling to take a closer look at the grass. “I know you found me as fast as you could. We’re right beside the village, so she shouldn’t have been disturbed by any monsters in such a short period of time.”

“Do you think a person carried her away then? A villager, maybe?”

“It’s possible, but we should check for prints first to be sure.” Felix looked around as he spoke. “I found out that Chief Andres was the first afflicted, and that he fell ill beside the old forge up the mountain. His condition was similar to the others, but he also tried warning me about the volcano. Also mentioned a man…”

“A man?” Kite raised an eyebrow. “Did he describe the guy at all?”

“No, not really. Why?” Felix asked. “Did you see something?”

“Yeah… Something strange, if that’s the right word for it.” Kite explained. “Some guy, a human out for a stroll in a white tailcoat and top hat. Just… walking around the perimeter like we were, but in the opposite direction with his cane.”

“Well, you don’t see that every day...” Felix agreed. “But it’s not like we haven’t met some funny characters before. Everyone seems to have their own fashion nowadays.”

The storyteller immediately came to mind in his jester’s uniform, purple and red, and Crow didn’t exactly fit fashion norms either in his all-black ensemble—to say nothing of the other Black Court assassins.

“The weird part wasn’t just his clothes, but the timing of it all,” Kite said. “He flashed a creepy smile at us, so I figured he was just some kind of pervert, but not even a minute later, Elora passed out on top of me muttering about something or other. Same hazy eyes as the rest.”

That changes things a little.

“Hold on, there’s prints here…”

After looking around the area, Felix discovered a boot print with a heel wedge pressed into the mud a few steps away from the boulder. It was pointed toward the treeline of the surrounding woods. The trees were knotted close together, obscuring their vision much farther beyond that.

“She got back up?” Kite noticed just as well as Felix did who the tracks belonged to. “These are from her boots, don’t you think?”

“Looks like it,” Felix replied. “And I don’t see another set of tracks, either.”

It wasn’t just the one footprint, as several others led away from the safe reaches of the village. If nothing else, it was clear she wasn’t heading in the direction of her two companions. It was strange, indeed.

“So she’s sleepwalking, or she miraculously healed herself, which I doubt.” Kite scoffed. “Just great. We show up here to solve the mystery and get paid, and become part of the problem. Where do you think she went?”

“Hey, no one said it was going to be easy.” Felix reminded her. “The tracks go into the trees down that narrow trail; we should follow them. The gold pieces, the reward, none of that matters if we don’t find Elora.”

“I mean, it matters a little…”

“Kite…”

“Just saying!”

Felix sighed, exasperated.

Just where have you gone?

According to Elora, she had been made to search for Felix for over a year without respite, until she finally found him in Windia’s Adventurers' Guild. Now, the shoe was on the other foot.

. . .

They followed a path through the woods, through a tunnel of gnarled trees. Though they would lose sight of the footprints for a time, the thickness of the woods left little room for a person to pass through, let alone small animals. They were certain she couldn’t have made a turnoff.

However, there was something weird about the path itself. The underbrush was thick and wild with growth. Plants and knotted tree roots littered their way forward. Kite didn’t wear shoes, so she had to be extra nimble so as not to step on thorns or a passing venomous animal or insect.

“Nobody seems to use this trail at all.” Felix almost tripped over a rock. “Or at least they don’t maintain it well.”

“Call me crazy, pal, but I don’t think this is a natural trail at all,” Kite suggested. “Look at the way the trees bow outward, and the path hasn’t curved once. The elf did say nature and water magic were her thing. I think she cut directly through here with magic.”

That’s right, Felix remembered. Champion Class nature and water magic together would make carving a path through living growth trivial for someone like Elora. However…

“But those are in the main element groups.” Felix rubbed his chin. “Unless she has the same divine blessing as you, Quickcasting, she’d have to be chanting incantations… in her sleep...”

Is that even possible? Casting spells requires almost unbreakable concentration, but I wouldn’t put it past someone who’s Champion Class in two magicks to break the mold.

“I hope she isn’t a quickcaster.” Kite huffed. Felix thought there might be a good reason for her saying so, until she followed it up with: “Let me have one thing, dammit.”

As Felix opened his mouth to reply, his head pounded with a sharp pain. Bringing up his hand to rub his temple, it happened again—only stronger this time.

“HRK—!” Felix staggered. “What the…”

“Hey, buddy?! Arrrreeee youuuuuuu alriiiiiiiiiiight…………”

Kite’s form wavered, her voice lost in the depths of his mind. Darkness clouded his vision, along with the awful scent of residual madness. It could be nothing more foul, as it forced the acid to rush to Felix’s throat.

He focused on the leaves underfoot, not wanting to close his eyes to avoid throwing up, but when they began to change colors, he was forced to. That’s when he heard a series of voices; first, a man’s he didn’t recognize. It echoed with a convincing ring.

“What if I told you that I could return everything to you?” He said. “Everything you’ve lost. Friends and family, money, even time, you see.”

“I’d call you crazy.” Felix managed to reply through the searing pain. “Now get out of my…”

“You’ve been chosen, Felix.”

The voice made his blood run cold. And it wasn’t just what Felix could hear as he opened his eyes again.

Standing over him was a broad-shouldered figure. Curly black hair fell to the man’s shoulders, streaked with the sort of grey that came with experience, not stress. Modest robes hung from his body, hardly befitting his station, but that’s how he liked to live. He cast a gentle smile downward.

“When the battle is won against the Mad God—and you return—I beg, humbly, you take care of young Dante for me.” Archmage King Dynas said. “My time approaches, and I fear he will need your example now more than ever.”

…Dynas…?

“Now, go, and achieve what I could not. Win peace for the free realm. I know you can do it, my son.”

The tempter’s voice came back as it had before.

“Dante was brilliant, but you cast quite a shadow over him, Hero.” The man chuckled. “You could see it too, couldn’t you? Excelling in his studies, magic, and politics. And yet who did the king show favor to, time after time after time? Perhaps envy has a way of growing, you see.”

“Why are you telling me this??” Felix gritted his teeth. “I know what you’re trying to do… I won’t…”

“—Deep down, you suspect your brother sent those assassins, don’t you?” The man sneered. “And that he locked you away to save his skin, unbothered with the decency even to kill you. And yet, you’ve pushed away any thought of recourse.”

“No, you’re wrong!” Felix exclaimed. “Dante would never! He—! He…”

…Would he?

When Felix looked up, Dynas was gone, and he was on a battlefield. Human, beastman, dwarf, and elf corpses littered the amber-tinted grass, along with countless numbers of horrid creatures. Charred, mutilated, and dismembered. Whether friend or foe, they shared the same end.

His helmet and his axe discarded, tears poured down Felix’s face as flames raged on, the rest of the scene blurring into an amalgamous picture of death and destruction.

“Pick it up!” A knight barked at Felix coldly from atop his horse. “The battlefield is no place for cowards.”

The scenes felt real enough to hit Felix where it hurts, but uncanny, too. He questioned whether what he was seeing were memories, or the manifestation of his hopes and doubts both. Yet, the voice continued.

“Think of the time they took from you, Hero. And after you did their dirty work. Years with your mother and sister, with the king and your adoptive brother before duty pulled you apart.” The man’s tone lost its bite, gaining an air of sympathy. “I could snap my fingers and bring it all back, you see. Are you certain you wouldn’t at least consider my offer?”

“I couldn’t possibly, I…”

“You only need to say the words ‘I want to remember’, and all your wishes can come true.” He gave his final pitch. “Say it with me, now. I… want…”

“I…” Felix repeated hesitantly. “I want to…”

“SNAP THE HELL OUT OF IT!”

A fist connected with Felix’s face, sending him crashing to his side with a heavy grunt. Kite loomed over him with her hands on her hips and an angry expression.

“Kite…” Felix rubbed his slightly swollen cheek. “What happened…?”

“What ‘happened’ is that you almost lost yourself and left me alone! That’s what happened!” Kite’s rage softened into worry. “The voice spoke to me too, but there ain’t a single thing in my past I want back. And you?”

“The past…”

That stuff about Dante… What was that all about?

“You could use some answers, I get it. I really do, but don’t let anyone or anything pull you backwards.” Kite extended a hand, her voice firm. “I need you here in the present, Felix.”

Felix had spent too long looking backward lately. Hearing Kite say it aloud made him realize just how close he had come to getting lost in it. The nostalgia…

“…You’re right.” Felix accepted Kite’s hand with a smile. “And thanks. I don’t know what came over me just now.”

“Just make sure it doesn’t happen again, alright?” Kite suddenly got all bashful. “And, it’s not like I care, but the elf would be pretty sad too if you went and gave up on yourself…”

“That’s probably true, Elora would…”

Elora.

“We’ve gotta keep moving!” Felix exclaimed. “I sure hope we haven’t lost her trail…”

“We must be close already; it reeks,” Kite said, pinching her nose.

“Kite, that’s not very—wait, you can smell the aura too?!” Felix tilted his head, puzzled. “Since when?”

“Since like right now.” Kite shrugged. “Probably has something to do with that bastard voice I heard. Can’t say it’s something I ever wanted though.”

Interesting…

They followed the stench down the path as it grew almost blindingly strong. At the end of the path, in a clearing stood Elora, her back turned and palm pressed against a red stone obelisk. The runes on its surface glowed at her touch as she funneled magic into it.

“Elora!” Felix shouted, Kite pacing close behind. “Thank goodness, it’s you!”

As she turned around, the same empty look in her eyes as the villagers betrayed the huge smile that spread across her face. She removed her hand from the pillar as it crumbled into dust.

“Felix, you’ve arrived just in time!” Elora beamed unusually. “He told me you’d come here if I removed the seal, and here you are! Now we can be together forever…”

Felix and Kite shared the same uneasy look. The too-bright smile on her face, her open posture, the sight of aura radiating from her thin silhouette. Those things and more gave them pause as Felix spoke up.

“What do you mean, seal?” He asked. “Elora, you’re under some sort of spell. Come with us, so we can get to the bottom of it. Whatever that man in your head is telling you, he’s lying.”

“Hey, Felix…?” Kite’s voice oozed concern.

“He told me you’d say that.” Elora’s smile vanished. “If you were a fake, that is.”

“Felix?!” Kite gasped.

A clang rang out, scaring away a flock of birds.

. . .

“Elora….” Felix held back the force of her spear with the flat of his axe, narrowly missing his heart being punctured as she shot across the clearing. “It’s me… Felix, remember?”

His feet slid backwards, the jewel in the center of his axe glowing purple.

“No…” A murderous glint shone in Elora’s cloudy gaze. “That’s not right at all.”

“Huh?”

. . .

“You’re not him.”