Chapter 3: Guilt

After a couple hours of traveling, I started to see small villages through the open back and front of the carriage as we passed by. The farm workers that were close enough to our carriage tried to wave, but while some of the group saw their courtesy. They couldn’t bring themselves to act as if everything was alright.

The villages were built on long flowing rivers, the farms were spread out across the grassy hills. A few animals were running through the hills and some were grazing the grass. It seemed peaceful.

We were far enough away from the villages and farmers that the only sound I could hear clearly was the wheels of the carriage running against the ground. Fae fell asleep on Tristen's lap as he was driving. Everybody else was in the same position as they were when we left the ruins.

I wanted to try to cheer them up, but I didn't know how. These were the first people I met and while that’s all they were to me, I could tell that’s not all they were to each other. It seemed like instead of a group member, they lost part of their family. Looking at the body I try to feel what they’re feeling, but it’s hard.

I don’t have any way to relate, the closest thing to family I have is an oversized plant. Trust isn’t something I had with them in the first place, we have no real connection. Still they saved me, so I want to at least try.

Even if I don’t really feel anything, I want to try to show that I do. They came into those ruins for something and found me, they didn’t harm me nor force me to do anything. I can’t help but feel like Amy’s death was on me.

“I’m sorry.” I muttered.

Boris and Jace looked towards me as I was fidgeting with my hands. Jace let out a sad sigh while looking at his feet.

“It’s not your fault kid, it’s ours. Don’t think otherwise alright? This kind of thing happens a lot. Usually not to us, but it happens.”

I thought about what he said for a few seconds and nodded.

“Actually I wanted to ask, how did you make the creature stay in place like that? None of us can do that.” He asked after bringing his head up to look at me.

“Gravity magic.” Boris joined in. Jace looked stunned after hearing that.

I turned to Boris confused.

“What’s gravity magic?”

He paused for a second before continuing.

“You saw us all use magic right? My fire and lightning, Jace's bow and arrows made of ice, Fae’s wind blades. We all have a magic affinity towards a specific element or type of magic.”

“There are more elements and types than what we can do though. One of those types is gravity magic, which allows you to control gravity in a given area. Good gravity mages can control gravity in a large area and can control it how they want. What you used was gravity magic, some pretty strong gravity magic at that.”

Boris sighed.

“I’ll tell you more about it later but tattoos on a person, like the one on your arm, and the yellow one here on my face, usually show what your affinity is.”

Looking closer at Boris’ tattoo I noticed something I didn't before. The tattoo was about an inch thick and looked like a streak of lightning, it went straight down the left side of his face until it reached a little bit above his mouth. The mark was only interrupted by his left eye, besides that it was a straight shot down his face.

“Although you don’t need to have a tattoo to have an affinity, every person has one regardless if they have a tattoo or not.”

“While it’s kind of rare, you can have more than one affinity, but usually your tattoo doesn’t show both. That just means your affinity towards one element or type of magic is stronger than your other affinity.”

“So I have an affinity for gravity magic?” I asked while I looked down at my tattoo.

“It seems like it, but you shouldn’t. Purple is the color of a tattoo that shows the gravity magic affinity.”

“What does black mean then?”

“That’s the weird part, there was only one other person with a black tattoo. He didn’t have any elemental affinity though, instead he was the only mage that could use pure mana. Which is still magic but without any affinity towards an element or a specific type of magic.”

I paused to think back to when they first found me. Remembering what Jace said in the room before the plant opened, if I remember right.

“Is that mage Zephyr?”

Boris' eyes widened before he spoke again.

“How do you know about Zephyr?”

“I heard Jace say the name when I was in the plant. He said ‘maybe this plant is the next Zephyr.’ Then you said to not make dumb jokes.” I said while pointing to who I was talking about, Boris and Jace looked dumbfounded.

“You could hear in that thing?” Jace interjected with his eyes wide.

I nodded.

“I didn’t hear anything until you all came though.”

Boris and Jace quickly looked at each other before Jace spoke again.

“Were you always in there? Like is that plant your mom or something?” His voice hastened, almost like he was excited to hear about it. Although Boris looked a bit annoyed by the questions.

“I don’t know. All I remember is being by myself for a while, it was warm though.” I added and smiled lightly realizing these two didn’t look as sad anymore.

“That’s interesting, can you tell me more about it? How did you breathe in there? How did-” Boris raised his hand to cut him off.

“He’s not a subject, Jace.”

Jace seemed a bit embarrassed, he apologized with a bit of a chuckle.

“Sorry kid, he gets a bit excited with things like that. He’s a researcher before he’s a mage, and admittedly your case is pretty odd. Still you don't have to answer any questions you don’t want to.”

“It’s okay, I like talking about it.” I said, Jace smiled a bit and his eyes glowed with joy before starting a long line of questions.

Boris couldn't help but give a defeated sigh. Although over time he seemed to be interested in hearing what I had to say too. After talking for a while about how it was inside the plant, they fell asleep.

I didn’t feel tired though, so after they were asleep I looked back at my left arm. The markings on it were three thick lines connecting and spiraling up my whole arm. The tattoo began at my wrist and went all the way up.

I peeked inside the cape covering me to see the part of my chest. Once it reached my shoulder the lines started to be more spread out and it broke off from three lines into many, like sharp flowing tendrils. Even though the markings were still, to me it felt like they were somehow alive.

Hours went by, soon it was dark outside and I couldn't see much. The carriage stopped suddenly, then I saw Tristen get up and slowly lay Fae down. He came to the back and was surprised to see me still awake.

“You didn’t sleep?” His voice was hoarse as the last time I heard him talk.

He still has his mask on, now that I get a better look at it I can see it's a black mask with red lining. Two black horns were protruding on the top of the mask, on the left and right sides. The eye sockets were covered by a black mesh.

I want to ask him about it but I’ll leave it alone for now.

“I wasn’t tired. Is Fae okay?”

After coming in the back and sitting down across from me, next to a snoring Boris, he took a breath before he answered.

“Not really. We’ve all been adventuring with each other for years so Amy was family to us, but Fae has it worse than the rest of the group. They really were family after all.”

I looked down, I can’t help but think about how she feels. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I'm responsible for what happened. I know that creature wasn’t there when they entered the ruins, did it show up because of me?

“And good job distracting these two as well, they’ve had to deal with a lot of death. Usually they beat themselves up over it even if it wasn’t their fault, so thank you for not letting them get lost in their thoughts.”

“Also I could hear the conversation you guys were having, sorry for eavesdropping. You don’t seem older than 5 maybe, but it seems like you understand stuff pretty well. I’ll say this now so please listen, don't blame yourself.”

Even through the mask and his rough voice I could hear his sincerity. It was nice to hear, but it didn’t change how I felt. I nodded anyway just to acknowledge what he said.

“Are we in the kingdom now?” I wanted to change the topic.

“Yes actually, that’s why I came back here. It’s time for us to go meet the king.”

“He’s awake right now?” From what I could tell it’s the middle of the night, no one should be awake.

“We are pretty important people to the king, and some of the guards saw the carriage when we were coming in. They’ll alert him and come out to let us in soon, also take this.”

He handed me a long thin cloth.

“Use that to wrap your arm, for now it’d be best if the guards don’t see your tattoo. Otherwise the guards might freak out at the sight of it.”

I nodded and wrapped the cloth around my arm to hide the tattoo. After I did that I heard a loud slam, and footsteps started to come towards us.

“Speak of the devil, I guess it’s time to go. Oh and don’t tell the group I talked with you. I know it sounds weird but I usually don’t like to talk much and while I love this group, they would not stop pestering me if they found out I talked this much.” He let out a sigh.

“Why are you talking to me this much then?” I couldn’t help but be curious.

“Because you're like me.” He said, tilting his head. It sounded like there was a bit of a smile under his mask.

Before I could ask him what he meant, a guard turned the corner and showed himself by the open back of the carriage. He was wearing metal plated armor on his chest, arms, and legs. The same insignia on the sides of the carriage was on the guard's chest plate.

“The king will see you now.”