Chapter Twenty - On the Road (Part Two)

Two weeks later, Arette’s nerves were surprisingly alright.

Zenon had continued to nag her for four more days after the beginning of their journey, driving her absolutely crazy, but after she’d almost knocked his teeth out, he was quiet.

It wasn’t as if Arette didn’t understand him at all.

He was nervous and scared of rejection, she got that, but she didn’t think that turning around and runng away like a kicked puppy would solve anything.

Better be rejected and be done with it than agonizing over what could’ve been if only he’d done something. She’d told him that quite often over the last days and by now, on the last day of their journey, he even seemed to believe it.

Honestly, she always thought that Zenon was quite cool and manly, but those last days of anxiousness had made him worse than a whiny little girl.

He still fought like a pro though.

Every night, Arette had insisted on a sparring match between the two of them, with Nex’ warning of her daily needed dose of sword practise. Even though Zenon was an Ascendant of Strength and more used to hand to hand combat, his skill with a sword was still leagues better than Arette’s.

Every night, she was miserably defeated.

Their first battle had lasted for two glorious seconds - one longer than her initial bout with Nex, at least - before Arette had been flat on her back with Zenon’s sword pressed into her throat.

Their second battle lasted a whole of a minute before his foot pressed her into the dirt.

She was pretty sure he took his frustrations out on her, which was fine with her, since she was both the cause of them and because it prevented him going easy on her.

Even though every defeat was a blow to her pride, it also served to fuel the determination in her heart. It made her run faster, push harder and fight better and so she welcomed every defeat with a bitter grin.

By now, two weeks’ worth of practise later, she could hold her own against Zenon for all of ten minutes. She’d observed him in their matches and adapted herself to his strategy, which was the only reason she was able to stall him now. Her biggest problem was her body.

Even after her training, it was still painfully...mortal, at least as mortal as an Immortal could be. Compared to Zenon’s century-honed muscles, she was a child that could only weakly swing her sword through the air. She hated it - hated her own weakness more than anything.

But she still hadn’t lost hope.

One day, she would be strong. Stronger than Zenon, than Nex, than Leesha. Strong enough that she wouldn’t have to fear the world, strong enough that she could avert any disaster that waited for her in the future.

In her head, Merin’s words were still present. Murderer. Monster.

No, she wouldn’t become a monster. She would become strong, strong enough to stay true to herself, to weather the storm that was going to come. She had to, a part of her knew that very well.

Last evening had probably been the last time she’d been sparring with Zenon.

If everything went according to plan - a plan she hadn’t yet devised, but she hoped for divine intervention in the last second - Zenon would be happily together with his true soul companion soon enough.

She was a bit sad that she was going to lose a friend, but if he was going to find happiness, it would be worth it.

At the moment, they were approaching a huge city by the name of Gera, one of the largest cities of the Province they had entered, the fifty-fourth Province of the Plane of Gods.

They’d left the fiftieth Province, of which Fall’s End was the capital, on the fifth day of their travel, briefly crossed the forty-eighth and were now in the fifty-fourth, a slightly more advanced province than the one Arette and Liz were used to.

Mining was apparently a big thing here and unlike the rural atmosphere of the fiftieth Province, the life of the fifty-fourth was concentrated into big cities.

That much was obvious as soon as they entered Gera.

For one, the city was multiple times larger than Fall’s End. That did mean something, considering Fall’s End stretched on for miles and miles - Gera topped that easily.

When they approached the city, Arette wasn’t able to see the end of the houses that were sitting tightly, pressed against each other with only narrow streets in between.

The houses were different from what she was used to, as well. Instead of wood and stone, they were built from red brick, some of them spewing smoke out of little rectangular things on their tops - chimneys, as Zenon called them.

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Arette didn’t really like it.

There was a pungent smell of smoke and dirt in the air and even though Fall’s End didn’t exactly smell like roses, it was still a different, penetrating kind of stench that Arette found completely off-putting.

Thankfully enough, Gera was not their final destination. They were only passing through, aiming for a mountain range not far from the city where, according to Zenon, the current residence of his true soul companion was located.

Entering the city was easy as they didn’t exactly bother with controls, but making their way through took more time than Arette would’ve thought.

The combination of narrows streets and lots of people was...annoying, to say the least. They had left the carriage at an Inn, whose owner happened to be an acquaintance of Zenon’s, and were now clawing their way through crowds of Immortals.

Zenon seemed like he’d done this hundreds of times, but Arette and Liz had more trouble. Arette was far too distracted by everything around her - she had to stare at people, at the small shops in the houses, the carriages that sometimes whooshed past, some of them levitating above their heads.

It was all too miraculous for her, who had never seen anything like this before, and her lack of focus caused her to easily be pushed off track.

Liz meanwhile looked downright terrified. She kept trying to dart out of other people’s ways, but ended up crashing against more than she would’ve otherwise. By the time the three of them managed to reach a wider place that looked like a central square, Liz was in tears.

But before Arette could say anything, she was yet again distracted by the view in front of her.

In the middle of the square was a huge door. At least Arette suspected it was one - she couldn’t be sure. Easily five meters tall and two broad, a strong metal frame like that of a door was erected. Yet, she wasn’t sure whether it was supposed to be open or closed.

Because the empty space inside the frame was...not quite translucent. It was shining, gleaming with a multitude of colours that fell down like a veil. They blurred and twisted, sometimes fading, sometimes multiplying. Arette couldn’t take her eyes off it.

Suddenly, a person walked straight inside the door...and disappeared. Arette’s eyes bulged as she watched it. The person certainly didn’t come out on the other side! What the…

Gaping, she tugged on Zenon’s clothes, without turning her eyes away.

“Zenon, what is that?” she gasped and Zenon turned to her, first a little annoyed, but then amused by her enthusiasm.

“That’s a teleportation gate. Every bigger city has one. You just step through it and announce your destination and it directly takes you there. It feel pretty weird though,” he shrugged as he explained it like it was common knowledge. Liz didn’t seem surprised either.

Arette turned around and stared at her companions with disbelief.

“Now, can either of you tell me, why by all blazes we just travelled two weeks on a freaking cart when we could’ve just teleported here?” she exclaimed, glaring at the two of them.

Zenon and Liz looked at each other, both smiling uncomfortably.

“Well, you looked so excited about travelling...I didn’t want to mention it…” Liz said and blushed, head hanging down. Arette rolled her eyes, then turned to Zenon, who looked equally troubled.

“Uhm, I kind of hoped if I nagged you for a while, we’d be able to turn around and you’d stop this entire madness…” he grinned awkwardly.

Arette groaned loudly and threw her arms in the air.

“You’re useless! Both of you!” she exclaimed, “We’re so teleporting back, just so you know!”

She glared them down and they both nodded like obedient little lambs, making her smile smugly.

She wasn’t really angry - travelling had been fun after all and she did enjoy it a lot.

But honestly, teleportation gates! That is so cool.

After another wistful glance at the colour-swirling door, she sighed and motioned to the others to continue their journey.

Three hour later, they reached a small town halfway up the mountains that was, according to Zenon, the current home of his true soul companion.

Zenon had grown even more nervous the closer they got.

For the first time in days, he’d tried to get her to turn around, but Arette remained hard. As if they’d turn around now.

Liz had told her a lot about soul companions on the way - honestly, Liz was like a walking library at this point - and the knowledge only made Arette more hopeful about the ending of this plan.

Speaking of a plan - they still didn’t really have one.

For now, Arette was counting all on the surprise factor. Everyone loved surprises, don’t they?

At least...she could hope. Well neither Liz or Zenon had much of a better plan, so they were just barging in there head first. It couldn’t be too bad.

Wandering through the rows of houses that were a weird mix between the houses at Fall’s End and the ones at Gera, they finally arrived on the other end of the town, where a small cottage was bordering on the woods.

Zenon shrank behind Arette, eyes darting around in panic. Arette sighed and walked straight to the door.

She swiftly knocked, without a shred of hesitation, boosted by the need to be proactive when both of her companions were whimpering and trying to hide behind her.

After her third knock, the door opened to reveal a petite woman with a head full of golden curls and a sweet smile. She was at least a head shorter than Arette, but she didn’t cower in front of her, even though, as a Sovereign, she was naturally intimidated in the presence of an Ascendant.

“Are you Elea?” Arette asked friendly, a smile playing on her lips. Now seeing it in real life, she took a liking towards the woman’s flame. It was filled with light and joy, but also contained a determined ferocity that she couldn’t help but admire.

The darkness though was still there, slithering tendrils of doubt, self loathing and hatred winding themselves around her happiness. Arete didn’t like it, at all.

The woman frowned at her question.

“I am...but no one has called me like that for years. How do you know that name?” Suspicion flashed over her face, but Arette was glad enough that there wasn’t an attack on her life that followed that question. It did happen before, after all.

“Well, there’s someone here to talk to you. He grew a bit shy, but I assure you, he’s all here for you,” she laughed and stepped aside, giving Zenon a strong push into Elea’s direction.

Elea’s eyes widened enormously when she saw him, mouth standing open.

“Zenon?”