Tyza caught up to Anilee outside of the maze, before a perfectly preserved massive mosaic. Glassy tiles formed a picture of a woman in an ornamental fox mask and shiny blue robes laying across a lavish granite divan. Her straight, long hair flowed into her dress, the color matching her robes, which gently fell to the steps beneath her. Her fair skin and enviable physique drove men to kneel on the steps in desperation, offering gifts of flowers and clothes, gold and gemstones, and platters of delightful cuisine. Yet her gentle mouth and outward gaze displayed pure apathy. Atop the divan sat a fox with a pompous smile, a fox of similar appearance to the one which had been tormenting them. Further in the background was a grand amphitheater, pristine gray granite columns ascending indefinitely into a bright, clear sky. Above the mosaic was a phrase written in an ancient language.
Tyza hesitated to reach out and comfort Anilee. “Ani, are you okay- eh- well, I suppose that’s a dumb question.”
Anilee’s tone felt venomous for a moment, snapping at Tyza. “A foolish question by a foolish woman. If foolishness is what you bring, then I’ll have none of it.”
Tyza wanted to smack Anilee, as she frequently desired, but she tried to remain calm. “Ani, what is this about? You’re hardly as wounded as us. Is it your dress?”
“Is it your dress?” Anilee mocked Tyza, then took to yelling. “Did you not see your brother forcing me toward the wall of thorns?! Have I lost my mind in being afraid of such a deceitful man?!”
Tyza sighed, “I’m sure if you talk to him about it, he’ll-”
Anilee wasn’t listening. “But yes, my dress is shredded and torn! My hat all the same! I’ve bled onto my clothes and I almost died in there!” Anilee’s breath quickened, her freckled cheeks puffing in and out rapidly, her dark eyes rolling as she lost balance.
Tyza caught Anilee before she could fall and guided her to sit. “Just breathe, Ani, you’re fine now.”
Illus caught Tyza’s brown eyes flicking between Anilee and him, casting an exasperated expression at him.
Sator spoke to Illus, out of earshot from the other two. “I thought watching her struggle through the woods would be more lighthearted fun, not this.”
“All at my expense.” Illus pinched the bridge of his nose.
“For what it’s worth, thanks for doing whatever you did to make that fox laugh. We were lost to no end.”
“All at my expense,” Illus repeated.
“She’ll get over it.”
“No she won’t.”
Illus crossed the empty plaza, where the mosaic and women were.
“Ani, listen, I-”
She shot up, ready to tear into him. “You were about to feed me to the thorns, Illus! Did the fox steal your mind, or do you really hate me that much?!”
Anilee shook like mad, heartbroken, and confused. Illus couldn’t keep his eyes on her, and replied remorsefully. “I- am sorry. I never meant to actually throw you in there. It was a ploy to keep the fox laughing so the other two could find us.”
“You thought feeding me to the roses was funny?!”
“The fox delights in torment,” Illus gently reached out to Anilee, but she pulled away. “I meant nothing by what I did. At the ravine, I noticed it laughing, howling upon seeing you in such distress at its mirage. We were unable to call for Sator and Tyza in the maze, but I thought if I could use the fox, then we would be safe, and-”
Anilee slapped Illus across the face. “You used me! You used me because you’re too stupid to think of a better solution! You were going to throw me away for a gamble!”
“I was most certainly not going to throw you away,” Illus shook his head. “Ani, I made a poor decision at your expense in a life or death situation, but it was the decision that got us out alive.”
“Look what you did to me!”
“Are you dead?!” Illus yelled back. “Are you dying?! Are you strangled by vines?! Broken at the bottom of a gorge?! My entire prerogative is to escort you safely to and from these ruins as your father has charged me to do. I only want us all to return from this alive. If us living means pushing your boundaries then I will gladly do so, but I will not put you in any more danger than is reasonable and necessary. You mean more to me than anything else!”
Anilee scowled. “Not your sister and Sator.”
“It was a joke! A fib! A ruse! A trick to make a fox laugh! I sincerely feel terrible for putting you through that, but I would rather have my sister and best friend alive than dead and I made a hasty decision which I will apologize forever for putting you through!”
She scoured his face for the truth, but came to her own conclusions. “So am I not your best friend?”
Illus rubbed his face with both of his hands, heavily sighing into them while trying to not drive his fingers into his eyes out of frustration. A brief moment of clarity came to him, and he calmed down. “What do you think you are to me?”
Sator and Tyza watched on from the sidelines in amazement, nodding at how Illus managed to dodge that question so effectively.
Anilee pouted, her face growing more red, a total shift from only a moment ago. “You treat me nicely because- because you’re…” she mumbled too low for him to hear.
“I’m a what?”
“You’re a-” she stammered, “another suitor, aren’t you?”
Illus’s face fell flat. Being another suitor was bad enough to hear, but still being unaware of his feelings after five years and being so close left him in silent awe. She was willing to share a tent with him, to spend so much time with him, but she had no clue of his feelings toward her?
Tyza and Sator stared at the spectacle in profound amazement, embarrassed second hand for Illus, who was coming to his own conclusions.
“Another suitor?” Illus asked in monotone.
“I thought…” Anilee was embarrassed for completely different reasons. “Was it not my mother who charged you with courting me after the party when we met?”
“This whole… five years, you were under the impression that your mother was in my ear forcing me to do all of this, so that is why you allowed me in?”
Anilee silently nodded.
Illus’s heart dropped. “And ‘another?’ You have more suitors and you have yet to tell me this?”
“My… my mother informed me that more are in line should you decide to cease.”
“But… you believed I saw you as my best friend, despite knowing that I was courting.” All the embarrassment had left Illus in place of a hollow numbness.
“H-” Anilee choked on her words, “How am I supposed to know your feelings? I am not ready… not to be courted properly. But I- I- the last thing I wanted to do was hurt you.”
“Will you ever be ready, or have I given you five years of my life for naught, Anilee?”
“Of course- of course I will be ready, in time.” She couldn’t look Illus in the eyes.
“What if I said I was done waiting?”
She didn’t answer.
Illus gazed at the mosaic of the woman behind her. “Perhaps this would be a good place to rest while you sketch and record this… wonderful piece of history. Welcome to the ruins, I suppose.”
Anilee weakly replied. “But…”
Illus wordlessly walked up the staircase next to the mosaic where Tyza and Sator had snuck up to.
Tyza put her hand on Illus’s shoulder and whispered. “Give me the word and-” she dragged her finger across her neck.
“Hah hah.” Illus’s monotone voice and blank expression cut deep. Tyza wanted to rip out on Anilee, but she decided to separate herself from it all and sat down where she could keep Anilee in sight like a mother watching her child.
Sator pulled Illus along. “Come now, I figured we could celebrate our month-long trek to the ruins, so I brought this,” he revealed an expensive bottle of wine from his bag, “but you seem like you could use something stronger.”
“I think a part of me just died, Sator.”
“That’s just your will to live. Is this your first break up?”
Illus pondered existence. “This is a skosh worse than a break up. This is a wasted, unrequited pursuit.” His eyes scanned the dull sky. “Have I been used? Getting here? All of this research? Was she dangling a carrot before my eyes to get here? Or was she a moron leading a blind man off a cliff?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“No use questioning it now,” Sator blurted out. “Do you still have feelings for her?”
“How could I not? Feelings cannot simply die. They dissipate. Arising faster than lightning and leaving slow as a mountain erodes.”
“Illus, wooing women isn’t so simple as you may think, especially ones like her.”
“My sister is the opposite of Anilee, and I would rather not know how you wooed her.”
“Illus, Illus, do you still care about her or not? Do you want to be with her?”
“Yes and I am not sure. But I’m not going to sour the expedition with some foolish, childish drama that she propagates because she won’t be clear about anything.”
“No drama necessary. Do you know why she’s been taking advantage of you for so long?”
“She’s pathetically incapable and unwilling to grow, Sator. I truly appreciate her for who she is and who she can be, but if it’s not me, it’s a butler, and if there’s a butler then it’s weird because there’s an old man watching us the whole time.”
Sator slapped him on the back. “Now is the perfect time to change that. Show her the side of yourself that you would show if you weren’t courting her. Put a different face on. Make her fend for herself a little. There are no butlers in sight.”
“I have tried,” Illus scratched his head, slowly falling out of his misery. “She is persistent. Annoying, even.”
Sator seemed like he was about to say something, then tilted his head. “Why do you even care so much if she’s as hopeless as you make her seem?”
Illus shrugged. “Probably because I have hope that she can grow. Have I been going about it the wrong way?”
“That seems like the obvious conclusion.” Sator popped the wine and waterfalled some into his mouth. “However, now you have confirmation that acting so servile is pointless. You have no reason to be that way anymore. You’re not at the part of the relationship where you’ve agreed to stay together, you’re still negotiating terms. She’s playing you. Think like it’s blackjack and she’s the house. She says you can win the pot, but you never do because she only lets you play if she knows you’ll lose. Leave the game. Play a different one where you don’t need cards.” He passed the bottle to Illus.
Illus sniffed the wine, shrugged, and took a small sip. “Gamble on the other men courting her? You think I outvalue them in her eyes?”
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. But nothing’s stopping the bird from flying away.”
“Aye, true,” Illus moped, “but when the bird in hand is an idiot, then what is to become of him when she fools him yet again?”
“Then leave her. Her father is right and well with that, yeah? You said so yourself.”
“It’s been five years, I-”
“And it’s not gonna change for a lot more years unless you do something.” Sator pointed the bottle at him, “you made all of this possible, and even if you didn’t, you were there the whole way for her. Uthman has nothing to blame but his daughter at this point. I think he likes you more than his own daughter. Sad for sure, but good for you.”
“All the more reason not to disappoint.”
“Well, you have yet to disappoint. Maybe Anilee only needs some distance, some apathy, and some fear of losing you to know if she loves you back. Make a woman up. Competition for her. She’ll get possessive. It always works, but you have to stay firm. If it doesn’t work, then you’ll know she’s a lost cause.”
Illus furrowed his brows and turned to Sator. “I thought you despised Anilee. And why is the advice good? My sister was never like Anilee.”
Sator smirked. “Brother, most men have been with women like her at some point. It’s often a fruitless endeavor.”
A dreary tone befell Illus. “Fruitless, yes. Endeavor may not be right. It feels like more of an expedition across a frigid, unfeeling tundra.”
“Yeah, welcome to it.” Sator slapped his shoulder and corked the bottle as he heard footsteps coming up behind him. “Oh, I thought we would have more time to drink.” Anilee and Tyza walked side by side. Tyza seemed like she wanted nothing to do with Anilee, whose face was petrified.
Illus decided to take matters into his own hands. “I see a structure over there worth investigating. Let’s put that squabble behind us, shall we?”
Anilee nodded and walked past him toward it.
Sator side-eyed Tyza, an air of mischief about his carefree demeanor. “We need to treat our wounds, so we’ll set up camp.”
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Illus knocked thrice on a dark wooden door in the bustling office building.
A plaque next to the door read “Colonel Raymus Uthman.”
“Enter,” Colonel Uthman declared from inside.
Illus stepped into the office and saluted, then stood at attention behind the chair across from the Colonel’s desk. The room was orderly and warmly lit, but a bit overpacked. Awards and foggy black and white photographs were framed on every wall. Illus recognized his group among them. Him and Sator in one group with a hundred other boys, and Tyza in a group of girls to the right of them, all standing at attention toward the camera.
“Be seated. At ease.”
At a proper posture, Illus sat and awaited his orders.
“Lieutenant Hayshon, yesterday evening at eighteen hundred hours, my daughter came to me requesting sponsorship for an expedition to the lost temple of Imahken. However, she requires military presence on this expedition to receive resources from the military. I assume you anticipated this, no?”
“Yes sir.”
“I worry. Not as a Colonel, but as a father. So far as prior ventures have it, the region is largely uncharted and potentially hazardous. To mobilize enough resources, support, and troops to accompany the expedition, it would have to be pushed back several weeks, which would further delay the expedition due to the climate of the region.”
“Colonel, if I may,” Illus procured a notepad from his back pocket. “The railroads, if we departed by tomorrow at dawn, would carry us to the edge of the prairie in two weeks. From there, approximately two week’s northward trek through the forest, with no notable geographical dangers nor wildlife which a rifle could not deter, I believe a probing expedition could be in and out before the rain begins.”
“Reasonable, but what of your resources and company?”
“My sister’s husband, and good friend of mine is a former soldier and experienced fur trader. Sator. Our navigation skills together would suffice, and less bodies will require less resources. I believe that is where the former expeditions failed. All of the recorded ones were large parties requiring heavy resources. As you said, I anticipated this, so we are ready to depart at a moment’s notice.”
Colonel Uthman sighed. “Illus, what of Anilee, though?”
Illus’s tone grew slightly more stressed. “This expedition need only be a probe, a glean into the necessities for future work should the ruins exist at all. Her safety will not be threatened, nor will I allow her to be put in harm’s way as much as I can in a forest.”
Uthman let out a single chuckle, as if Illus was missing the point. “My wife tells me that you intend to marry Anilee.”
Illus’s composure cracked, an awkward smile creeping up his cheek. “If it pleases Anilee, I will do anything for her… but yes.”
Colonel Uthman furrowed his brow. “So I have seen, but having fathered her, I worry for you.”
Illus’s face fell.
The Colonel continued. “I wonder if she humors your presence because of who you are, or because of what you have done for her.”
“Colonel…” Illus lost his train of thought. “What are you implying?”
“You are one of the brightest men I have trained, and in a way, raised. In the same manner I wish to see Anilee happy, I would like to see the same for you. My daughter can be reclusive, stubborn, and difficult, as I know you know. Tell me, Illus, do you know Anilee’s mind?”
Illus hesitated, humbled with a dash of embarrassment. “I do not. The watchful eyes of serving staff and her aloofness has been a hurdle I wished to overcome through a proposal, to spur on a discussion she cannot push off any further.”
“Do you believe that granting her this mission, her life’s wish to find these ruins, will be enough for her?” The question had a rhetorical tone to it.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then be cautious. Learn her mind, Illus. Her care need only be yours should she reciprocate. And should she, you have my blessing.”
“Thank you, Colonel.”
The Colonel smiled proudly. “I assume you have the ring already?”
----------------------------------------
Anilee walked stiffly, afraid to look back at Illus. He glanced into his palm, a single-cut white sapphire gemstone atop a silver band. Her favorite gem and her favorite metal. He felt like such a fool, though he was glad he never told Sator or Tyza about it. Any more pity might kill him. He tucked the ring back into his pocket, buttoned it shut, and proceeded.
Anilee’s eyes rose to a covered bridge before them, more carefully carved columns and granite. The triangular roof shaded dozens of people, quite short across the board, in robes made of silk. They carried gilded vases and other offerings toward the bald mountain on the other side. Domesticated moose pulled carriages full of goods and people. Beneath the bridge flowed a gentle river, pearlescent fish hopping from the clear water. The worn stones beneath their feet became square tiles with geometric designs of roots and branches guiding them to the bridge.
They stepped forward, taking in this glimpse into the past of these people, all well-groomed, pale complexion, with an array of hair colors from blonde to red to black, their robes often bright colors or white. Short, wavy hair and full beards belonged to most of the men, and the women wore their hair up in headdresses of glittery gold, ivory, and flowers.
As awe-inspiring as the scene was, Illus couldn’t stop himself from staring at Anilee. Her dark brown eyes were like windows into her world, reflecting her sights as if she were in a dream, like she was somehow seeing everything so much more vividly than everyone else around her. The way her eyes slanted up in the inquisitive glances she took. Her mouth slightly ajar, full lips and a smile creeping up her freckled cheeks. She pushed a flowing curtain of black hair behind her ear and gazed up at a mosaic on the ceiling of the bridge with such wonder.
Her infectious wonder bled into Illus, a vicarious victory in his eyes.
Anilee pointed up and stepped onto the bridge, but her foot caught on something invisible and she tripped. Illus, having his eyes locked on her, grabbed her arm in an instant, pulling her to his side, watching the false bridge shimmer and fade. The roof had fallen in, but the bridge was still standing after all that time. Only one support column near the other side had given out; a small portion of the bridge with it. The channel beneath the bridge was now a deep gully overgrown with trees.
Illus released Anilee, still unable to take his eyes off of her despite an unemotional expression about him. He played it off with a casual smile.
“I thought your father, being a colonel, would have taught you self-preservation. We’re in ruins, Anilee, you have to be careful. Especially with our foxy friend dabbling about.”
He stepped onto the bridge and glanced over the edge, into the canopy below, then followed the path with his eyes. Across the bridge led to a decrepit staircase of granite that ascended the mountain.
“Will it be safe to cross?” Anilee stepped up to Illus, glancing over with him.
Illus turned away from her, walking further down the bridge. “I’m not dead yet.”
“Perhaps…” Anilee started, following Illus uncomfortably, “this would be a good place to stop? I would love to draw that mirage.”
Illus halted and leaned against the hip-high wall of the bridge.
Beneath them the bushes stirred. Obscured by the canopy, neither Illus nor Anilee could see Sator and Tyza lurking, who spied Illus and Anilee through the leaves. They had circled around the lower area, searching for a way to stalk the quarreling couple. On the dark forest floor they hid, watching and devising a plan until a voice startled them from behind. A raspy but spry voice like an old man eager to cause mischief.
“Eavesdropping, are we?” The fox cackled, emerging from a tuft of foliage obscuring a dark passageway in the wall.