Chapter nine: Visits From the Weak and Strong

Once we felt that Vensen really did disappear, the four of us made our way to Erekinxon. Ruus let Reina and I ride on his ousada, Mueimma, as he ran beside us since we took on more toll than he did. As the sun begins to set I can see the walls of the nearby village just barely over a hill.

Some men from the gate jog their way up to Ruus bewildered. They begin to ask him questions about the battle this morning.

The dim lighting from their lamps makes it difficult to see even with the moon gleaming well enough, and they're too far off for me to hear them, but it's pretty obvious that they're talking about the event.

Ruus runs up to us half panting and asks me, "What did you do to piss that guy off anyway?"

What should I tell him? I'm not even sure I know what I did. "I'll go through the process with you in the morning, but for now, we should rest."

Ruus pauses for a moment before he responds, "I understand, I'll go find you a place then."

Reina makes a quick notion, "I can walk with you, besides, it should do my legs some good."

Ruus nods and motions Mueimma to kneel down.

The ousada does so and lets her slide off safely.

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Ruus guides us to someone's doorstep. He says that the man doesn't live too far from the gates. "I would group you two with your families like everyone else, but it's getting late."

"That won't be necessary," I say while wobbling back and forth on Mueimma's saddle.

Before deciding to reply, Ruus holds his lamp up to the wooden door. He reads the note that's nailed to it and then grumbles to himself, "Damn it, they still haven't come back."

"Ruus?" A voice comes from the night. A young man and two young women come up with their own lamp. "Is there something I can help you with?" His thick brown hair flows down his back to some extent in a tie as it tries to point outward. The lamp he wields reveals some of his bulky structure that's underneath his red shirt and green vest. His semi-dark skin blends in with the luminosity. I'd say that he has a good amount of muscle on him, but not too much, so it actually makes him look fit instead of overpowering.

Ruus smiles and walks closer up to this person. "Ah, Zaru, you came back just in time!"

"Nice to see you again as well," the man named Zaru replies casually with a blank stare from his thin green eyes. He looks over to me on top of Mueimma and then back to Ruus. "Is she the reason why we're standing here?"

Ruus nods and stands by for him to open the door to the inside of the dwelling. "I'll explain briefly for now since it's late in the night."

"Go on."

Once Ruus and I went through what happened back in Kai in a fast-paced manner, Zaru remains calm and quiet. Not even the surprise of how Vensen took out the troops makes him quake.

Zaru just slightly nods and replies, "You're sure there was no one else who survived?"

Ruus is astonished at his collectivity. "Zaru, this guy turned everyone to bones and ash! We were the only four who managed to walk away with our lives!"

The man just sighs and then speaks again, "I'll patch these two up for the night real quick, and yes, they can stay at my place until further notice."

Ruus stutters a little from his keen sense of helping the needy and then signals Mueimma to kneel down again. He holds out his hand to keep me steady as I come off of her.

Meanwhile, Zaru goes over to his door and unlocks it. "Come inside, we'll get the place ready for you two."

Reina and I give our gratitude towards Ruus and then walk into Zaru's house.

The two girls follow in after us and come close to Zaru.

"Zaru," the blonde one speaks to him in a hushed tone, "That guy Ruus was talking about sounds like a serious threat."

He immediately pulls her into a headlock to shut her up and says, "Go get the mats ready, we have guests." Zaru then lets go of the little blonde and attends to me. "Please sit down, you two must be exhausted."

Reina and I do so on his couch.

He comes up to me first and begins to examine me with his eyes. "Tell me, where does it hurt the most?"

I slowly move my arms out of the way from my gut and have my hand there. "Right here."

He puts his hands up towards my torso, "Excuse me, I just need to feel around and get an estimation of the damage. Let me know when it hurts too much." He gently places his hand on my gut and pushes on it.

A sharp pain suddenly hits me. "Ouch!" I cry while squinting.

Zaru pulls his hand back quickly. "Sorry about that, this is more serious than I thought. I'll have to take you over to the examination table." He helps me to my feet and keeps me balanced as we go over into another room. "You're not pregnant, are you?"

"No," I mutter out with embarrassment. I understand why he would think that, what with the pain around that area, but I don't think there's any blood coming from... I'll stop talking about this. The pain in my torso makes it difficult to sit on the surgical table that he has in his house. "Just how bad is this?" I try to ask him as the pain grows worse with every movement.

"Enough to have immediate care, but it shouldn't be too hard to fix."

"Alright."

"Now, I need to be able to feel your bare skin; do you think you can get your dress off?"

Some blush appears on my cheeks. I try raising my arms higher than before, but a sharp pain attacks me, so I slowly put them down again and shake my head.

"I see; would you mind if I cut your dress open?"

"Now wait a minute," Reina comes in to stop the operation, "How do we know you really are an expert? Pervert!"

"Haru," Zaru calls to one of the girls standing by. He doesn't seem to care much about Reina at the moment. He's a pretty focused guy.

The little blonde kindly takes Reina by the arm and escorts her out of the room as she speaks to her, "Don't worry Miss, my brother may be young for a doctor, but he's still the best I know!"

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Zaru rolls his eyes from hearing this and brings his attention back to me. "Well Vila-kan, may I?"

I nod.

He whips out a pair of sterilized scissors and starts cutting into my dress from the bottom hem. "You know," he says trying to make some small talk, "She only says that because she only knows a few doctors that are still alive." He gets up to my pelvis in a slick manner with those scissors of his.

I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable right now, but as long as he's doing his job, I guess I don't mind too much.

The sharp blades reach the middle of my chest and he finally puts them down to begin. "Alright, I'm ganna feel for a more exact diagnosis, so I need you to sit up straight and lift your arms a bit if you can."

I do as he requires of me with more effort than what is usually needed.

His warm hands gently touch my torso as he closes his eyes. "Just take slow and semi-deep breaths," he says calmly.

As I do this, he smoothly feels around my ribs. He does it in such a tender way that it causes me to relax some.

After a minute or so he stops the examination and opens his eyes to bring me the news, "Well, you have some fractured ribs and I noticed the big scrape on your back, but the rest is minor, like little cuts here and there." Without taking his eyes off me he calls to his other assistant, "Caru, will you help her keep her arms up?"

Caru does so.

"Now, I'm about to use a special technique that I've been practicing in Catherr for a while now, please don't freak out, it's very tedious work, and don't forget to breathe."

"Okay," I utter slightly.

He places his hands on my rib cage again with his eyes closed and messages the area.

I begin to flinch from the disturbance on my ribs but bear with it as much as I can. A strange feeling gradually flows through my body that takes rhythm with my breathing and his messaging.

I'm not sure how long this process lasted, but at a point, Zaru stops and gives me some room. "That should be good for now, I'll go ahead and patch up the scar on your back."

As he says this, I begin to notice the pain in my ribs is gone like nothing happened. "What did you do?" I ask as he walks around the table to take care of my back.

"I told you," he replies with a more cordial tone as he gently slides the rest of my magenta dress off, "It's an old technique from Catherr. You do know that little island has amazing medical history, right?"

"Well, that island between Ridjia and Garmul has a lot of history to make it famous; do you really expect me to keep track of it all?" I answer him jokingly to end some of this awkward feeling.

I hear a chuckle come from the two as they stand behind me.

"I guess that's true, but I believe the most important one would be D.U.A.H.E." Zaru rubs a burning liquid on my flesh that makes me flinch as he speaks.

"Duahe..." I mutter to myself once the sting dies a little.

"Yes, Duahe, my sisters and I are actually members of the group." He suddenly stops himself and rewinds his sentence. "I'm sorry, I guess I forgot to introduce my family in the midst of taking care of you." He slightly pushes the brunette to my vision and begins. "This is Caru, my main assistant and one of my little sisters, and that little blonde who's tending to your friend is my youngest sister, Haru."

Caru bows out of politeness, "Nice to meet you, Vila-kan." Her murky yellow eyes are strangely calming and tell of her kind personality. The brown hair that encompasses her scalp is lighter and shorter than Zaru's but is still kept in a tie high up on her noggin. A simple black dress compliments her fair skin and modest personality.

I bow my head and respond with a smile, "Same to you."

"Now then," Zaru interrupts as he slams his hand against my patched up back with some force, "You should be resting now while I go take care of your friend. Caru, you can show her to the guest room."

The sting he gave me from that impact hurts like hell, but he is kind enough to help me off the table.

Reina didn't have too much concerning wounds, so we went to bed pretty quickly after her examination. I'm not sure why, but as exhausted as I am, I don't really feel like sleeping right now. I guess this new life will take some time getting used to...

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Reina stands around in a dark void. "Now where in Fupum am I?" She inquires to herself.

"The void my dear." A familiar and unpleasant voice echoes around her.

She turns to see that awful man with the grey skin.

"Hello; Reina is it? My you look ravishing." A look of guilt befalls his face as he soothes her with his words, "I have to apologize for earlier my dear, that was quite uncivilized of me." His toothy grin exposes itself to her as he bows to introduce himself, "You may call me Vensen dear."

"You better stay away from Vila; you hear me monster!?" She shouts at him.

Vensen chuckles a little to her passion. "That's exactly why I came to see you, dear. I wanted to do a little negotiating with you."

"Negotiating?"

Vensen notices her slight interest in the matter and allows his grin to widen a little more. "Yes, indeed, I have something you want." He steps to the side to reveal two men in a state of slumber as they float in the darkness.

"M-Melek... Arikon?..." Reina barely mutters these words from her lips. "I-Ithought-"

"Oh, did Vila tell you they were dead?" Vensen interrupts in a sympathetic tone, "I guess it's not her fault for misinterpreting what happened. You see dear, I just simply sent them off into this place and casted a spell on them, they only seem dead. Do you want them?"

"O-of course I do!" Reina exclaims as she comes closer to them. An invisible wall impedes her abruptly. She stands there desperate for them as she cries out, "Please give them back to me!"

His dissembling sympathy escalades enough for him to change facial expressions accordingly, "Oh my dear, I would love to-if it was that simple."

She turns to him again with tears starting to form in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

Vensen strives to find the words that will explain it best to her as he brings emotion to them, "Well, you see, as powerful of a sorcerer I am-I still don't have full control over my own spells, there's still a price to meet in order to cast and break them."

Reina knows exactly where he's going with this. "Alright then; what's the price to get them back?"

Vensen suddenly becomes reluctant to answer her with a long pause, "Are you sure you want to know?"

"What do I have to do?"

He begins to elongate his phrase, "It's not easy-"

"Tell me!" Reina is becoming impatient to know from his stalling.

The shadowy creature closes his eyes and lets out a brief sigh before he replies, "It will take a couple of human sacrifices..."

Reina pauses to think this over. "How many is a couple?"

"Only two my dear, that's all, and they don't have to be anyone in particular."

"No one in particular?"

"Yes, it can be someone who no one cares about, or if they're about to die. They can even be an old couple with no offspring to miss them, that way they can die together."

She takes a few more moments to think it over. Morality swirls in her heart as she contemplates on weather she should even consider this. "Alright-I'll take it."

"Ah," Vensen's demeanor becomes more professional, "This is where we make a deal, my sweet Reina." He reaches out his hand to proceed, "All you need are two human souls."

Reina looks to her family and thinks it over some more.

Vensen begins to sense the doubt in her hesitation. "I've tried to find another solution, but this was all I could conclude dear. Either you accept it, or never see them again."

Her eyes peer at Vensen before grabbing his hand. "Only two, like you said."

His smile returns in a casual manner. "Only two."

A sting pierces the inside of her hand and she quickly releases her grip on Vensen to see a symbol form into her palm and then fade into her skin to hide.

"Just place that hand onto the person and think of the spell you want to break, it's that simple."

Reina looks to him with a morose stare and hesitates to have a few more words with him, "I hate to ask more of you, but, I would like to make another deal with you."

He raises an eyebrow with curiosity. "Oh, and what would that be?"

Another pause impedes her before replying, "About the others, I want to know that you won't hurt anyone else in or from this village."

Vensen is content with her condition, "Alright-"

"Including what's left of Kai village and Vila," she cuts in.

His smile drops quickly into a frown by her interruption and then brings it back with a sense of pleasantry. "Alright, but you do understand that in order for that to work, I need to give you my demands as well, and they must be met."

Her voice becomes monotonous, "I do."

"Then you realize the extent of the compensation?"

"Yes..."

Vensen becomes reluctant to tell her his side again. "Well, in order to spare a village, one must sacrifice another."

Her eyes drop to look at the floor from a silent shock. "Another village?"

"Indeed my child," Vensen replies in a sorrowful tone.

More minutes pass as Reina is intermittent between contemplating and looking to the two men who mean the world to her. "I choose the spot or no deal..."

The smile returns to his dark lips. "I can manage that. So which one then?"

Reina's thoughts rush through her head to quickly think of the alternate sacrifice. A name pops in her mind. "How about a village in Zuthalili*, the exile island? That should be enough."

A look of content shows on Vensen's face. "That sounds about right, I can work with that." He puts out his hand again.

This time Reina doesn't take a moment to grab it and makes the deal set.

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Zuthalili- Located around the Archive Islands West of Aishy, this island is where people who have done unspeakable crimes against the Aishin Empire are sent for exile or simply go there out of free-will to escape the law. No one is recorded going there and were heard from again which is why this is the place for exilement.