Chp 7 One Step Closer

When I black out from the pain and blood loss I find myself in the Gate of Truth. I see Morte standing next to my gate. I walk over to him. I ask him “Am I still alive?” I want to know because if I really did die here Maeno would have nobody to protect him. It tears me up inside to think of the pain he would go through if I were to die. “I want to see him again” I say.

Morte says, “One of the paths you may end up taking might result in death, but your fate is not to die here.”

“Does that mean I can see him again?” I ask with desperation.

“Most likely yes. However, you need to tread carefully” Morte says callously. “You need to know about part of your power. If you are near death, but don’t end up dying your magic usage and power will be increased by half of the current amount” he says.

“You are the God of Death right?” I ask.

“Yes, I am the God of Death” Morte says laughing at me

“If that is true then don’t you have control over how strong I am?” I ask

“I do to an extent, but even a god has to follow the rules. Think of life like a string. Everyone's life is a string with a certain length. People's actions determine where the knot in the string is. The knot represents where your life ends. There are many knots along the way, but there is a very big knot at the end. The little knots can be avoided and removed depending on your actions, but the big knot can’t be undone. It would take a force greater than a god to change one of the big knots. Once a string hits a big knot I have to cut the string no matter who the person in question is” He says.

“So I can avoid certain potential deaths, but if it hits the big one I die?” I ask him.

“That is correct” Morte says calmly.

“Can I see my string” I ask him with a bit of anxiety.

“Morte says, “Ritsuko I can show you your string, but I’m not sure you will like it.”

“I want to see it” I state blatantly.

Morte grabs a ball of twine and reaches into the center of it somewhere. He searches around in it for a moment and then pulls out a red string. The string from start to finish has nothing but knots in it. There is a little bit of room at the start of the string and then the rest of the string is filled with knots ending at the big knot.

“What the hell is this?!” I ask with disbelief. “Are you telling me that from now on I could die at any second?” I ask with fear.

Morte says to me “Unfortunately there are some very strong forces that would oppose Maeno. Your protective nature will get you in a lot of trouble. It is very likely you will die before you ever reach the end of the line” He says sullenly. “However everytime you overcome death the reward is the power you seek to protect your beloved Maeno. Your life string fits you perfectly since you will need strength to protect Maeno” Morte says with slight anticipation.

“That means he needs me right?” I ask.

“More than you know” Morte says with assurance. “You are going to be saved from your fate, but you should treat this all as a dream” Morte says.

“What do you mean” I ask cautiously.

“Talking about this incident in the future will later cause great strife among you and your guild mates. Consider this as advice from a friend. Treat all that happened as nothing more than a dream and you’ll be fine” Morte tells me.

“Why will it cause problems?” I curiously ask.

“I can not tell you in detail, but this incident in particular could forever ruin your relation with your future guild” Morte says, his voice wanning. The Gate of Truth is starting to become hazy and the next time I open my eyes I’m awake in the real world.

The first thing I notice is that I am no longer in pain and all my wounds are healed. There is no blood where I coughed up. I feel energetic and there is a magical surge of energy rushing through my body. I look up and see Maeno sitting at my side. I roll over onto my back and reach up to touch his face. I’m so happy to see him that I start crying. I wanted while I was dying to see him again and I have gotten the chance to do just that.

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I open my mouth to start speaking and Maeno says to me “You were exhausted from the trip and fell asleep here.” I know this isn’t the truth. I know I fought a beast to save his life. I know that he knows that this isn’t the truth and knows what actually happened, but I play along.

I say “Maeno I had a terrible dream.” I go into depth about it. I tell him how I fought a monster to save him along with my ribs being broken.

He tells me”Ritsuko it was just a dream nothing bad would ever happen to me.” I know this is also a lie because my life is filled with dangers as is his. I smile at him though because this partially comforts me. I look around the camp and see a shadow and a water pike inside of a water bubble. These must be Zere and Lucci. Lucci is definitely the fish so Zere must be the shadow. Maeno doesn’t introduce me to them though.

Maeno walks off and starts talking to Zere about something. After the conversation ends Zere heads off into the forest. I study Maeno for a second because something seems off. I know he isn’t an illusion, but he is acting a little weird. He didn’t even really try to comfort me. I am curious, but I decide to ask at a later time. I look over towards Lucci.

Lucci is a water pike with silver scales. The light that refracts off of the water bubbles glistens on her scales. She has a slender body so I’m guessing she is still pretty young. I look at Lucci and say “Aww your so cute.”

Lucci makes a grr sound similar to that of a dog and says something I don’t understand. Whatever Lucci said sounded like a different language. Even if I knew what she was saying the gurgling sounds of the water mostly cut out what she says. I hear Maeno laugh at this. I do wonder what her relation is with Maeno, but I don’t need to ask right now because it will be revealed soon enough.

I see Zere return and walk over to Maeno with lots of branches which he uses to start a fire. He says something to Maeno in the same language that Lucci spoke in and then he walks off back into the forest. He returns a few minutes later with branches and leaves . He throws them into a pile. He puts the branches in position and then casts a spell to cause the leaves to form a casing outside the tent. Maeno says to Zere “That’s amazing.” Zere nods his head once.

Zere says something to Maeno that once again I can’t distinguish and then Maeno starts laughing and says “I just think you’d look good in a suit.” Zere says something and then Maeno becomes excited and asks “Really!?” I have no idea what they are talking about so I decide to leave them be. I start thinking about Maeno.

I know Maeno is hiding something from me, but I don’t know what it is. I don’t want to pry because that’s insensitive of me. I also don’t know what his familiars are saying because they speak a different language then I do. I’m not sure what it is considering I’ve never heard it before, but it could be the language of the gods. I’m not going to ask Maeno about anything tonight. I will wait til tomorrow before I talk to him.

Maeno walks over to me and interrupts my train of thought. He says “I’m heading off to bed” and then walks towards then tent and crawls inside. I want to follow suit and go to bed with him, but I can’t sleep in the same tent as him. If I did I wouldn’t get any sleep because I would want to watch over him and make sure he is safe. I wait about five minutes before I go and check on him. I wanted to go sooner, but I don’t want to appear clingy.

I walk over to the tent and see Maeno rolled over to the left. He could be exhausted, but i don’t know if he is actually awake or asleep. I ask “Maeno are you still awake?” He doesn’t respond. I glance at his face to try and see if e is awake, but since I don’t want to go all the way in the tent I don’t worry about it. When I look across his sleeping face I get a strong urge to kiss him. I resist it and pull my head out of the tent. I say “Sleep tight dear” and walk over next to a tree and sit up against it.

Lucci is to my right in her bubble, but she isn’t moving. She doesn’t appear to be sleeping either so maybe she is meditating. That’s a strange thought though. A fish meditating is just really weird to think about. I look around for Zere and he is nowhere in sight. I get the feeling he probably left. Lucci on the other hand is probably here because she is protecting the campsite. Since she is protecting us I decide to go to sleep. I pull my cloak close to my body and let myself drift off.

I awake in the morning and Maeno is already getting ready to leave. “Ritsuko get ready to go I’m excited to start training today and I want to get there early” he says when he notices I’m awake.

I get up, grab my bag and start walking over to him. “I’m already good to go” I tell him with a hint of excitement. “So your familiars are Zere and Lucci right? Which one is which?” I ask curiously.

“Lucci is the water pike and Zere is the shadowy one” He responds.

“Do you know what they say when they speak. I don’t understand them at all” I state.

“I can teach translate what they say until you can understand them” He says assuringly.

I smile at this and remark “Thanks Maeno.”

Maeno looks to Lucci who is still in a trance and tells her “Put out the fire Zere created.”

Lucci uncurls inside the water bubble and goes over to the fire. She spews a small stream of liquid onto the fire. Maeno is standing over by the fire so I stand next to him and watch her put out the fire. The stream she is spitting is super small so it's barely having any effect on the fire. Maeno says “Lucci come on hurry it up”

Lucci chants in her language something and then closes her mouth. She then quickly opens it and with the force of a flood drowns the fire and us. The water quickly knocks us over causing us to fall under the water and then dissipates as it soaks into the ground. Maeno gets up and says half serious “Lucci come on was that really called for” and then proceeds to start laughing.

Maeno summons out Zere “Open Light Gate Third Star Zere come forth. Zere can you get us some towels to dry off with please?” Zere nods his head and from shadows pulls four towels for us to use. Maeno says to Zere “Could you also dry our clothes after we change?” Zere nods again.

I Walk off a bit into the forest to change clothes. I remove my armour and cloak. I feel a significant breeze since I am soaked with water. I don’t have a change of underwear unfortunately, but I am going to make a trip to the city tomorrow to buy clothes. I use the towels Zere gave us to dry off. I am going to need more clothes since I only have one other pair. I change into a white dress. The dress goes down to my knees and has frills on the bottom around it as well as on my chest next to where the buttons are..The frills on the dress are black. It buttons up the center where the lace would normally be.

After I change I head back to camp slowly as to make sure that my dress does not get snagged on any branches or the like. I get back to camp and see Maeno in a regular black shirt and pants. He looks up at me and says “You look nice Ritsuko.” I try to hide my blush, but I am unable to. He starts laughing and says “That’s nothing to get upset about Ritsuko.”

“I wasn’t upset” I say defensively.

“Sure looks like it” Maeno says while trying to contain his laughter.

“Shut up idiot. Lets get go start training” I say.

“Race you” Maeno says. He bolts, running down the path through the woods.

“Maeno” I yell. “Maeno get back here.” I start running after him through the forest. As I am running I am also trying to make sure my dress doesn’t get caught. This slows me down considerably. Eventually I lose sight of Maeno. I know where the training spot is even though I don’t have the map, but I wonder about Maeno. I slow down to a walk and head towards the training site.