Numaran were known for their physical strength, and that was something Pho learned quickly. Though Pho wasn’t sure if it was that or sheer will that kept Soliene moving as long as she had. Once the girl had finally collapsed, rolling an unconscious Reonda off her back, they were far, far away from the scorched clearing. None would be able to find them in the thick forest, and the only thing that kept Pho and Soliene on a straight path was Teolus’ guidance. Not that they actually knew where they were going.
With the flurry of events that had taken place, Nyal’s plans had fallen apart. Even though she was currently dead, that much had been made clear the moment they had all run into the woods. None of them, from Pho to Soliene to Reonda, could have guessed just how bad it would have gotten. The fact the only real casualty was Soliene’s depth perception and a soldier was a miracle. It left the phoenix asking itself one question that it had no answer for: what now?
For all that she had been conscious to hear, for all the knowledge she had, Pho’nix’ea had been nothing but an observer for the longest time. She had just as little idea what to do as the Numaran she was with. The calm, collected front she had been trying to keep fell away for just a moment as she tried desperately to think of something. She quickly recomposed herself, smiling as she tried to give off an aura of wisdom that was only half real.
“This should be far enough. Let's rest here till she wakes up,” Pho said. Soliene nodded and got herself into a more comfortable sitting position, Teolus landing next to the sleeping form of Reonda. “I’m guessing you have no idea where to head either, right?”
“You don’t?” Soliene asked. Pho could make out the raised eyebrow the Numaran was giving her under her hood. That was followed by her hanging her head and letting out a sigh. “Figured you Oracles were all-knowing.”
“We only know as much as the vessel we share our body with,” Pho explained, sitting down across from the Numaran. The Oracle raised her wing to her face and smiled. “Our personality, our knowledge, and so much more about us are shaped by that mortal. Though that does leave the odd question of how I know Acamese.”
Pho silently mimed that last word, unable to help but feel odd about it. The word sounded wrong to her, no matter how much she told herself it was correct. She shook her head and pushed it to the side, deeming it unimportant. What was important was the fact she somehow knew Acamese despite Nyal not knowing it. Perhaps, given how different Reonda and Il’jan’i were, the Oracle wasn’t a one to one copy of the vessel.
“Honestly, knowing Acamese doesn’t worry me as much as… her,” Soliene said, the terror in her voice as she directed the oracle’s attention to Reonda clear as day. The Numaran tried her best to not think of what the girl, or the oracle inside her to be exact, had done to Julius and had nearly done to her. “I should have known she wasn’t being truthful. If that beast is how she truly is then…”
Soliene did not want to think of the specifics, feeling her heart beat faster as she thought of exactly what she was sitting next to. As if it would do any difference in the end, she shuffled away from Reonda for what she justified as her own safety. After all, one couldn’t trust a Perciple and that had been proven very true. One look at Pho, however, read that her thoughts did not align with Soliene’s. If anything, she looked more concerned then scared of the Acamian sleeping next to them.
“She had plenty of time to kill Nyal and I, but she didn’t. Honestly she probably would have succeeded where the knight failed if that had happened,” Pho told the Numaran, closing her eyes.“Nyal trusts her, and if she does then I will too.”
“Nyal doesn’t even know who they are, does she?” Soliene asked. When Pho didn’t give an answer, the Numaran stood up and pointed at Reonda aggressively. “Do you even know what she and her family are responsible for? They’re responsible for the murder of hundreds of you and Nyal’s kin, and would do the exact same to any of my people too. That is nothing to say of the Eternal War, started simply over hatred of their own kind siding with what they see as monsters,” She gritted her teeth as she thought about all the horror stories she had been told. “They may be called the “Ministers of Military Affairs”, but even more than that they are Acamus’ judges, juries, and executioners. If something is against the Prime Minister’s “purity”, they will be the last thing you see.”
“Nyal got to know her for a couple more days than you, and what I saw is not an executioner,” Pho’nix’ea replied, standing up and looking at the on guard hawk on top of Reonda’s back. “What you describe would not have a hawk for a familiar. What you describe would not have offered help to a lost harpen. No, even if she was once an executioner it is clear that there is truth to her story.”
Pho turned her eyes towards Soliene, the Numaran returning the stare. After a tense minute, Soliene broke eye contact and tried to spit on Reonda in disgust. Said spit was blocked by Teolus, who cawed and postured threateningly at the action. Soliene went to turn around and walk back to Makaus, but quickly remembered that she no longer could. Letting out a yell, she stomped the ground, turned around, and marched until she was nose to nose with Pho.
“You’re an oracle! A fucking all powerful oracle! How the hell can you be so incredibly stupid that you can’t understand the danger of having her with you?!” Soliene screamed at Pho. Despite her immense power, the phoenix was still a child, and the sight and sound of the angry Numaran before her left her very afraid. “That girl is a murderer! Leave her with you long enough and you can bet your ass that you will be added to the souls she will have claimed. Do yourself a favor, leave her here, and forget any good she ever showed you because you can be damned sure she won’t show i–”
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
Teolus squawked as he heard Reonda speak, flapping off the Acamian and landing in front of their face. Soliene whipped around, watching as the subject of her words slowly got to her knees, head held in her hands. Her head felt off, her vision felt blurry, and her entire body felt ready to collapse back down. It wasn’t the first time she had felt this, for it happened anytime Il’jan’i forcibly took control of her. The fact she was awake as soon as she was was the oddest thing about it all.
“Hey Teolus. Good to see you got out okay,” Reonda said to the hawk. Teolus tilted his head, the Acamian giving him a very sloppy pet on the head. “I’m… I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
As her vision started to clear and her body regained its strength, Reonda looked up at the Numaran and harpen looking at her. Soliene gave her an unpleasant look, refusing to move her eyes off the girl. Pho instead gave a small comforting smile and wave to the Acamian, Reonda looking at the harpen confused. It took her a long time to realize that the body Pho had was Nyal’s, and she knew very well what that meant. Her mouth hung open for a second before closing and looking to the ground.
“You’re… Nyal’s oracle, aren’t you?” Reonda asked, getting a nod from Pho as she did. Reonda didn’t need to see the nod to know what the answer was. “Then that wasn’t a nightmare, and that means that… that I…”
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Not caring for how Reonda would respond to her words, Soliene finished what they were trying to say. “Killed a man, nearly killed me, turned into a bloodthirsty lizard. All true.”
“I’m… I’m sorry you had to see her. Il’jan’i hasn’t taken the last few months with me well,” Reonda said, nervously rubbing her right arm with her left. Her bangs fell in front of her face, hair hiding her eyes from the harpen and Numaran. “She desperately wants me to go back to how I was. Il’jan’i is a monster, and one my parents are responsible for making.”
“I. Am. You.”
Reonda recoiled as she heard Il’jan’i speak in her mind, shaking her head and mouthing “no'' in response. The sound of footsteps caused the Acamian to look up and swipe her bangs out of her way. She tried her best to hide any sign of what Il’jan’i said to her as she looked up at Soliene, standing over her with a look of pure hate. A hate that manifested into action as Soliene grabbed Reonda’s shirt, forced the girl onto their feet, and brought them so close all the Acamian could see was Soliene’s face and eye. The sight of the Numaran’s empty eye socket left her speechless. The last thing she had remembered before Il’jan’i took over was Soliene screaming in pain.
“You think your apologies mean anything?” Soliene asked her, voice harsh and quiet. “You think I want your damn forgiveness? My life had already gone to hell in the past few months. I don’t even wanna be here in Reine, but at least I had the ability to get food for myself,” Her grip on Reonda’s shirt tightened, her rage quickly increasing as Reonda got more and more afraid. “Now I don’t even have that. I don’t know where my dad is, I don’t have a home, or food, and now my vision isn’t even fully their and it is all your fucking fault you monster!”
In a desperate bid to save Reonda, Teolus flapped till his beak was as close to Soliene’s ear as possible and cawed. The result of his actions did indeed cause Soliene to let go of Reonda, but it had driven the latter over the edge. In an uncontrollable rage, the hand holding his master let go and flung right out towards him, the hawk unable to get out of the way as it connected fast and hard. A pained squawk left Teolus’ beak, Reonda looking at her familiar in shock and fear, watching as the bird fell to the ground from the force of the blow.
“Teolus!”
“That bitch! I’ll skin her and display her corpse on a branch!” Il’jan’i called out. Reonda subconsciously agreed with the dragon to some extent, though reminded herself that the thoughts were very, very wrong.
That was not her main focus, however, instead shoving Soliene to the side and rushing to Teolus in fear. The hawk got back up quickly, looking to Reonda to wordlessly tell her he was okay. It did not stop the Acamian from using her light magic to heal any pain and harm that Soliene had done to them. The Numaran watched it all with a look of disbelief at both her own actions as well as Reonda. A stray thought tried to tell her what she had done was wrong, but she shoved it away and allowed her anger to take center stage once again.
As she tried to step forward, a wing blocked her path. She looked for it at Pho’s face, noting the Oracle seemed to be just as angry at her as she was at Reonda. There was a pinch of fear in her visage as well, but she did her best to hide it as she stared Soliene down. Pho only ever looked away to check on Teolus, for despite knowing they were not hurt badly she couldn’t stop herself from worrying. With Reonda by the hawk’s side caring for whatever damage Soliene’s hit had done, Pho would do her best to make sure no more harm was brought to the Acamian and her familiar.
“One step further, and I’ll see to it you lose more than just an eye,” She threatened.
She scolded herself on the inside for her choice of words, but the effect they had was clear. Having seen what the phoenix could do earlier and with a grimace on her face, Soliene stepped backwards and turned her head away. She hid any remorse she had for her actions under the excuse that Reonda deserved it, and while a portion of her wanted to leave a part of her didn’t want to. As soon as Pho had turned their back to her she looked to the Pheonix, her eyes specifically landing on their tail. She hadn’t noticed till then that it remained unchanged from how it did in her bestial form, the four ribbon looking sections of it dragging on the ground like a peacock’s tail. It had a faint glow to it, now that she noticed.
“You good, little one?” The phoenix asked Teolus. The hawk gave a nod as Reonda picked them up in her arms as if they were a puppy instead of an avian. “Glad to hear. I was nervous the strike may have broken a wing.”
“If it had, it should be mostly healed now,” Reonda reassured Pho, giving the hawk a pet on the head. Teolus let out a reverberating trill at the feeling of it. “Still, considering how weak my healing abilities seem to be, you probably shouldn’t fly for a day or two. We are lucky I can fix them at all; Am’a’ros told me bird wings are fragile.”
“The same goes for us Harpen. We aren’t as delicate as most avains, but if one breaks a wing, they won’t ever fly again,” Pho explained.
Reonda gave a disapproving glare to Soliene, who immediately turned her head so that she could not see the hate in the Acamian’s eyes. She wouldn’t admit it, but watching Pho’nix’ea and Reonda interact made her nervous. It was clear that both Pho and Nyal trusted her, and she couldn’t help but believe they were being led along by someone waiting to kill them. She wasn’t entirely sure how killing an Oracle worked, but from Pho’s earlier words it was a very real thing that could happen. No doubt another Oracle like Il’jan’i would know how to kill one of their own, and with that knowledge came the very real possibility of the future Oracle of Death dying.
She could stop that. Soliene doubted that she could kill Il’jan’i herself, but she was certain that when Reonda showed her true colors to Nyal and Pho she could save them. If it came at the cost of her life, so be it; her life had been a downward spiral for the past year and at the moment she didn’t care. Despite all her best efforts, she couldn’t help but care for Nyal just a little, and if saving the life of an Oracle was how she went out then she was fine with it. It never crossed her mind that these were not the best thoughts for a twelve year old to have, instead smiling at the thought of showing the phoenix and harpen she was right.
“So, any idea where to head?” Soliene asked the Vessel and Oracle, hiding the smile as she looked at them both. Both seemed puzzled by the question, which made the Numaran give a confused expression. “What? The three of us can’t go back to Makaus, and whether I like it or not there is safety in numbers. We can split ways at whatever our destination is, but until then it would be best for us to stay together.”
“While I will point out there isn’t that much to worry about safety wise for Reonda and I, you have a point,” Pho said, closing her eyes for a second. When she opened them, her vision fell on her scaled feet, pawing at the ground. “I still have no idea where to go though. We could try one of the other dukes. As long as Soliene’s fur isn’t noticed we should be fine.”
“I… have a better idea.”
When attention turned to her, Reonda felt a way of pressure on her that she hadn’t felt in a long time. A part of her wondered if she had the right to make such a decision after everything that happened, and she could tell by a glance at Soliene the girl didn’t trust her. Then she turned to Pho, and it hit her that it would actually be very important for the young Oracle. Taking a deep breath, holding Teolus in one hand and grabbing the book holstered to her waist in the other, she spoke.
“Before I met Nyal, I was with the Oracle Am’a’ros in the southeast corner of Reine,” Reonda explained. Her expression grew grim as she continued. “That was where she had taken me to hide after… horrible events happened in Acamus. I had been in the middle of a city-scale massacre and only escaped thanks to her,” She heard Il’jan’i huff in discontent at her recounting, but ignored it. Instead she focused on the looks of shock and terror that was on both Soliene and Pho’s face at those words. “I stayed hidden there for some time, but Am’a’ros told me to find someone. Someone very important apparently, but other than their location that is all she told me.”
“That is where you want us to go?” Pho asked, getting a nod from the Acamian as she did. “Where are they?”
Reonda took a deep breath, and then gave her answer. “The holy city of Pierzé, where Originism – the worship of the lower and higher Oracles – was said to be founded over seven hundred years ago.”