That night was an awkward one. Syllis regretted what she had said to Aura. ‘It was necessary.’ She told herself, over and over within the confines of her own mind.

Though another part of her wondered if that was the only way. Maybe there was some way that Syllis could have persuaded Aura without saddling her with guilt far greater than she felt for Korman. If there had been, then she regretted discovering it.

Fwoosh! The slight fire rose to life. Syllis had torn the cloth that the legion members wore, revealing their grotesque figures underneath. Then, she had arranged it into a small pile, surrounded by semi-pale and scorched stones.

It felt slightly inhumane, tearing their clothes from their bodies. But Syllis found it to be less intimate than she was expecting due to their lack of recognizable features.

More uncomfortable was how she tore the knife through that grotesque flesh, cutting it into sizable chunks. They had not demonstrated intelligence. Any semblance was much lower than that of even the taran that Syllis had fought at the foot of the wall. Still, their vaguely human form was enough to place knots at the base of Syllis’ stomach, weighing her down and causing her to vomit a couple of times.

Eventually, through enough perseverance, there were a few sizable chunks of meat resting in front of Syllis. They were wrapped in a couple of glow-tree sheets and tied together with thinly cut strands of another—it was more than incredibly useful.

“Aura, could you place them into the fire?” Syllis asked, kindly. She wanted to apologize to the woman, but that could bring consequences.

‘It’s better to keep my distance. I wouldn’t want her to think that I’m trying to dismiss Korman’s death. I need to show her that it affects me…’ It was a difficult act for Syllis to maintain.

They were friendly, and only that. She was as close with him as she had grown with Clyde and Aura before they entered the fable. Ironically, Aura—who had disliked the entirety of her after she met Clyde—had been the one she felt the most in common with.

So Korman’s death was not too important to her. Syllis felt sad, but when weighing that with her own survival… it was what she needed to do and she would do it again.

“Sure,” Aura said, commanding her ephemeral creature to head away to stand watch from a distance.

Its flame had brought the fire to life, and the creature was then to keep them alive, from unknown threats. Clyde was more in demand of this service. So the crow loomed over his icy-blue box.

The woman, only slightly recovered from her mental break, gently took the wrapped meat. She set them down in the very center of the flame. The ephemeral, green flame shifted hues to a typical, red-orange color. Without the ephemeral bodies of Aura’s nightmarish creatures to waft from, these flames would always glow as normal.

Syllis watched Aura set the meat into the fire. Her resilience was commendable. She felt envious. It was clear that Aura’s bond enabled her a more than slight resistance to the heat. To her, this sounded like a much better advantage than her own resistance to the cold.

Her mood waned further when she wondered. ‘Will my weakness to the heat grow once I transfigure another anathema?’ It was a scary thought to have. She shook at the furthering of this idea. At the possibility that after transfiguring enough anathema within her, that she would need to live in the arctic. ‘Perhaps I will stay on the Meshin Kismet?’

Syllis made a half-smile as she turned to look at Aura. She had taken her seat on top of a rock, similarly to the one Syllis herself sat on. The secare nymph had made the effort to excavate a couple of mostly flat seats from the piles of ash they walked over.

Ordinarily, the fire would have long gone out, but it was being supplemented. Aside from the cloth, bits of legion members were littered throughout to maintain the flame. Syllis did not know which bits. Aura had done the job, after all.

It was their first time having a fire in the fable on their crossing of the sky chasm. Syllis criticized Lurgica inwardly. The main idea from her class on surviving in fables was that fire was of the utmost importance, it was scarce. In this fable though, it was everywhere. There was so much that Syllis wanted it to be gone entirely.

“Could you check on it, Aura?” Syllis asked. She looked at the woman, hugging her own legs.

Aura silently nodded, patting off her bottom from ash and moved to the fire. “Hot!” She hissed, dropping the bundles of meat, wrapping in glowing sheets against the ash below.

Syllis did not mind. They were wrapped tightly enough, no ash would make it through the sheets and affect the meat. She was just thankful that Aura had the ability to take the meat from the fire.

Otherwise, she herself would have needed to put out the fire, solely to check whether the meat was done.

‘Why is even the most mundane task so damn complicated? If only Clyde was not in need of constant surveillance… then we would be able to roast it much easier.’ Syllis sighed. She could not even move the icy coffin closer as the fire would tear at its structure. This, in turn, would drain her sanity much too quickly.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

At the moment, she was slowly gaining sanity, the box did not require too much maintenance. But that was only for the moment. ‘Once the coffin is set in the pocket, the heat from both mine and Aura’s body in the confined space is sure to have an impact on my mind…’ She resolved to save as much space in her mind as possible.

“Do you need me to cool it down?” Syllis asked Aura.

“No,” Aura said, “it’s alright. The heat dispersed into the surrounding ash. Although, I wouldn’t be opposed to you opening it with your dexterous fingers…”

Syllis did not answer. She rose, taking a seat next to Aura.

The wafting of the flame was slightly irritating. It reeked of molten flesh. Whatever bits had been used to solidify the flame’s state were now entirely merged together. A single, coherent, amalgamation of each of their sins.

The secare nymph reached for the bundled meat and nearly hissed at the sudden heat. “I thought you said it was fine!”

“It is…” Aura said. “Here, let me hold it.” She picked up the bundle of meat and held it towards Syllis like an offering to a god.

Syllis warily extended her fingers. She only grabbed the very edges of the glow-tree strings that bound the bundle. Carefully, they were unraveled to keep the meat from falling out.

Then, a divine smell seeped into the air. It was absurd, vastly too great to be smelt within the confines of a fable. Especially one with the level of horror that Syllis and Aura had experienced.

The secare nymph formed a slight knife. ‘Well, perhaps this could be a needle…’ She thought, holding the sewing tool in between two fingers. It gracefully slid into and out of the meat. Though the outside was smokey and unassuming, the inside was a bone-grey color that oozed red liquid. This same liquid, blood, pooled at the bottom of the bundle. Where the meat shrunk, the blood took its place.

“Is it done?” Aura asked.

Syllis scrutinized the piece of meat for a moment. “Probably, but you’ll have to be the one to test it.” She peered into the woman’s eyes.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Aura said. “Three days,” she added.

“Then, have a taste.” Syllis handed her a small slice of meat for her to try out.

Aura grabbed the piece of meat from Syllis and dangled it in the air, letting any blood fall to the ash below. Then, she examined the cut for a second before eating it whole.

Syllis waited for the woman to swallow and give her opinion. She could feel the tug of her stomach and was urgently waiting for the verdict.

“So, how is it?” the secare nymph asked.

“Worlds apart from taran meat,” Aura said, “in a good way.” She smiled, taking another piece of meat.

They kept the fire going, despite it already having served its purpose. The light was comforting. Much more so than the almost useless, dulled lanterns they carried around.

Syllis picked up the other bundles of meat—which had cooled sufficiently—and un-tied them. She then sliced the meat into reasonably sized pieces and handed a second bundle to Aura.

“Here, have another,” Syllis said, pushing the bundle close to her face.

“There’s only three, you should have the second…” Aura said, looking down at her first bundle, already dug into.

“I refuse,” Syllis said. “You haven’t eaten much recently. You know the methods Clyde and I have had to resort to for you. So, eat.” She swayed the bundle slightly in front of her face.

“Fine.” Aura grabbed the bundle, setting it down at her side.

“Eat quickly, there’s around an hour before the sky burns.” Syllis looked up at the four suns, or where they would be. The first was fully risen, overtop the chasm. Only half of the second and third were showing.

Syllis and her companions had quickly discovered that these suns were unique, shortly after entering the sky chasm. They did not rise from one side of the sky and exit on the other. Instead, they entered on the far side and exited the same way. It was peculiar and enthralling. Syllis found herself thinking about it a lot.

They both ate, in relative silence. The only sounds in the air were the hurried chewing and tearing of meat. Occasionally, one of them would dip a hollowed thick-root into a jar of water.

‘It’s not like we have to particularly worry about the water problem anymore…’ Syllis glanced over at Clyde’s coffin.

“Do you really think Edward will be able to bring him back?” Aura asked, worriedly.

Syllis took a deep breath and exhaled. “I don’t know… maybe?” Her eyes flicked to Aura. “Aren’t you a better person to judge that? Surely you’ve seen Edward perform his fair share of miracles.”

“I won’t say he isn’t an exemplary anathemic doctor…” Aura said. “I don’t think he’s ever been confronted with such a daunting task before though. Typically his patients are… alive? Just on that line at the worst.”

“There’s a chance though, right?” Syllis asked. If it was really pointless then she would dismiss the box. There was no point lugging around a pointless corpse.

“Sure,” Aura said, “there’s always a chance where anathema are concerned. There could even be hidden parts to his bond that we don’t know of. I doubt it though. With his reputation, how could he possibly have even greater methods available to him?”

Syllis shrugged and returned to eating the meat. Its rich taste provided her mind another way to distance itself from their humanoid form. Still, she nearly gagged at times.

“So it’s really only three days?” Syllis asked.

“Three days,” Aura said, “then I’m done.”

Syllis let out a sigh and moved her rock a little closer to Aura. “How did this fable deteriorate so quickly? It was a rough start but we pulled it back!”

“Well, generally when someone kills another person it falls apart.” Aura looked forward with a forlorn expression.

“Come on, Aura,” Syllis said, dragging her words. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Aura said. “Three days.”

They both rose, put out the fire and began to move everything into the abyssal pocket. First the jars of water, then Clyde, then themselves.

Syllis found herself pressed against the side of the pit. Aura was already fast asleep next to Clyde’s coffin.

The secare nymph needed to stay up. The coffin needed constant maintenance. ‘I’ll give her maybe… two thirds of the four suns’ rise.

‘Can we really make it out in three days?’ She cursed her arbitrary number that she had thrown.

They would be able to make it to the entrance of the second abyss tomorrow. But what would they find in there? Syllis wished she had convinced Aura to agree to a week or two instead.