Vagraad woke up first that morning. They groggily stretched their tired muscles, and they yawned silently. Their body felt finally rested after sleeping on the cold hard floor of the forest and valleys they had been traversing for the last two nights. In their life, they had been used to sleeping on hard cold floors, be they dirt, stone, or even the dusty wood of an attic. Traveling from their little town on the southern coast of Dobrin had been difficult, but they had to. No one was waiting for them back there anymore. Of course, some mornings like this one, they had the fleeting impression of still being home and were waiting to smell the delicious fish cakes that their mom had made downstairs. Vagraad didn’t want to admit it and rarely, if ever, talked about their feelings, but the person they missed the most was their mother. Vagraad missed her loving words and gestures, but her obsessive anger and willingness to follow the rest of the village after first announcing their change of name, was what made them understand one thing: she didn’t love them. She loved who she thought her child was. It had been the most hurtful thing for Vagraad; understanding how invisible they truly were to their mother’s eyes. With a big breath in and out, Vagraad forced themself to think about more positive things, like their relationship with Jesse and the home they had found at the inn. A place where no one would reject them simply for existing. Vagraad’s eyes scanned the bedroom. They observed Leo sleeping soundly; her face was more relaxed than it ever was. Her hood was finally down since she hardly ever took it off, and her peaceful breathing sailed her body. Their eyes then fell on Darya’s empty bed. They started to panic, fearing something bad had happened to Jesse, but as their eyes went to the young demon, they found Darya laying down far from Jesse. Vagraad let out a sigh of relief, but their heart tightened when they saw their hands still touched in an almost impossible stretch. Vagraad chuckled at the sight. Jesse looked to be sleeping soundly, but Darya seemed to have a look of worry on her face. Vagraad forced themself to think about the worst that could come from an eastern witch as a slight sign of empathy towards her appeared in their mind.
“You should stop being such a jerk to her.” said a sleepy voice next to Vagraad.
The young hlêg turned around, startled by the voice, and came face to face with Leo, her eyes open yet still full of sleep. Her voice hadn’t been angry or scolding, but it had been rather soft, softer than Vagraad thought they deserved. They lowered their eyes.
“You care about Jesse, right?”
Vagraad nodded.
“Then you should recognize that Jesse isn’t stupid enough to replace you with her.”
Vagraad’s eyes stayed stuck to their hands. Their mind was remarkably blank and yet filled with a million thoughts at the same time.
The door suddenly slammed open, putting every person in the room on high alert, waking both Darya and Jesse in a gasp.
“Kekoa has let you sleep enough. It’s training time!” shouted Tao, a proud smile on her face.
Someone behind her sighed heavily before peeking their heads from behind Tao.
“Breakfast is ready downstairs, it’s small but it’ll fill you up.” Kekoa said softly, “Sorry for the scare.”
Kekoa took Tao’s arm and took her away before closing the door behind them. They heard Kekoa’s affirming voice through the heavy door, saying that kicking doors was worse than shooting the ceiling.
“Did you guys sleep well?” asked Darya, putting her green skirt back on her hip-length chemise.
“Not as well as you and Jesse,” mumbled Vagraad
“I would’ve slept much better with you by my side, my Liege!” teased Jesse as he faked a sob.
Vagraad blushed furiously while Jesse stood up, put his blouse back on and straightened his necklaces. Everyone put their clothes back on as well as their shoes before they walked downstairs and were met with plates for each of them, with a few slices of bread and different jams on the side. Each sat down in front of a plate and ate while Kekoa poured them some herbal tea in their cups.
“So, you were talking about training?” asked Jesse as he munched on a piece of bread.
“Yep,” answered Tao, “I’m not letting you guys go in there without it, it would be suicide.”
“What do you want to teach us?” asked Leo.
“Well, basic self-defense to begin with and then, if we have time, how to kill.” she answered.
A cold sweat ran down Darya’s back as she looked at her hands.
“Can I,” Darya stuttered, her voice shaking, “Can I skip the killing?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” replied Kekoa with a soft, motherly voice.
Once everyone had eaten, Tao took them outside and taught them how to defend themselves without being slashed or killed. Even if the situation wasn’t as stressful as an actual fight was, Vagraad still had to vomit behind some trees before coming back for more practice. All of them took the exercise seriously, Leo more than the rest; she was so good at it and kept her calm that she slightly scared Tao. She suddenly reminded her of how her wife used to act when they went on missions together before they ran the Snowball tavern. Jesse didn’t miss the occasion to make a few jokes, but was mostly focused. Darya was too shy and unsure of herself to go full force on Jesse, but once she did, she laid him flat on the floor. The young eastern witch immediately apologized and asked if he was okay. Jesse dismissed his painful bottom with a joke and stood back up, ready to train more. After one more day of intense training, Tao taught Leo, Vagraad, and Jesse how to use different weapons to kill their opponents. Leo and Jesse had chosen simple and discreet daggers while Vagraad went all out with an ax, despite fainting when they first picked it up to train. For one more day, they trained from the first lights of the sun until the stars went up in the sky. The moon reminded them of their purpose, hanging like a clock in the sky. During that last day, Kekoa and Darya cooked for them, both learning herbal remedies from each other and picking up herbs together. From their conversations, Darya learned that Kekoa and Tao had met a little like she and Jesse had, except she had found Tao almost unconscious by the side of the road next to the shack she used to live in, swearing she could still fight those mysterious men. Their bond had formed while she was taking care of her and had grown from there.
“You know, I thought you would be meaner since you’re an eastern witch.” she stated out of the blue.
Darya stopped making her bundles of officinal sage and looked straight up at Kekoa. Her heart was beating hard in her chest.
“I thought of myself as open-minded, but I still had some prejudice after all.” she continued, still making her bundle.
Darya’s eyes fell on her own gloved hands, the top failing to cover the little sliver of green tint her wrists had.
“I finished my bundles, where do you want me to hang them?” asked Darya as she rapidly stood up.
“By the kitchen, there are some others that should be done drying by now.” answered Kekoa, still focused on hers.
The young witch stretched her gloves and took her bundles before mechanically hanging them on the wooden beams.
“Do you need me to take the old ones off?” asked Darya, her voice betraying how uncomfortable she was.
Unlike Jesse, she could never get used to the cursing, the whispering, and the rumors. She couldn’t find in her heart any hate for anyone, even less for people who didn’t know what they were talking about and had just been fed lies all their lives. She could get annoyed at the inexactitudes of the rumors, but never got angry like her Ma would have wanted her to be. The best Darya could try to do was hide the green markings from her vow and ignore what others might say about her and her people.
The evening went by rather slowly. The group had decided it would be time for them to go the morning after and take one more horse so that they would finally each have one. Darya suddenly felt that weirdness around her. As if the world was but a screen, a play she hadn’t learned she was acting in. All her friends saw the empty look on her face, but none knew what to do. For Jesse it was all too familiar, he could not get away from it, so how could he help her? For Leo, she too had felt it lately, but she could not help her without putting her feelings out in the open, and that she could not bear. Vagraad wanted to help her even though they did not know how to; they figured that a little talk in between themselves should be enough or at least a start. That night, once everyone went into the bedroom to sleep, Darya excused herself to go outside and take a last look at the horses, pretending to be too anxious to sleep. Vagraad followed her outside, unsure and their throat tied in a knot.
“I can tell that you followed me Vagraad.” said Darya as she stroked the forehead of one of the horses.
Vagraad’s throat tied even tighter. They tried to open their mouth, hoping the start of a word would come out, but nothing did.
“If you’re here to mock me again-”
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“I’m sorry.” The words were small enough to have passed their lips and instilled a surprised silence. “I’m sorry I treated you like I did. I had no right to do this, and you have every right to be mad at me forever.”
Darya turned around; her green eyes fell on what she had, until this very moment, considered an adult. She saw the child: the 16-year-old that had found themselves in Cecilia’s inn, their head bent down, fidgeting with their fingers, and their round black eyes darting around the place, never settling on anything.
“I accept your apology.”
They didn’t move.
“I’d like to know what eastern witches are really all about.” they blurted out after a few seconds of hesitation. They had felt the words turn around in their head and had wondered if it would be appropriate to make them real. “I’ve only ever heard of your people through my old community and, well, they weren’t the most open people…”
For once, Darya was surprised by how mature Vagraad sounded. After a second of not moving, she sat down in an empty box and gestured for them to sit next to her on the warm hay. Vagraad walked up to her. They stopped, unsure of how far or how close to her they should be seated. Seeing their trouble, Darya patted again next to her, where Vagraad sat awkwardly.
“We used to live in the far North-Eastern region of the Oldeon continent.” Darya stopped herself, seeing the confusion on Vagraad’s face at the word ‘continent’. “Do you know what a continent is?” she asked.
Vagraad was full of shame. They avoided her eyes and shook their head softly, their face turned towards the hay. Darya let out a small sigh. She knew not everyone knew as much as her, but the difference had never dawned on her this much before.
“My people came far from the Eastern regions, far over the limits of the Dobrin Empire.”
She saw a flash of comprehension flash in Vagraad’s eyes, and that is all she needed.
“My Ma says that the first of our people came from the love between a fae and a human and that as they had inherited the magical abilities of their fae parent, so had their descendent, no matter how many generations had children with other humans. My ancestors used to live with the humans and used their powers to help the community, but the Crow’s influence got to the humans around us and my people had to flee westward to save their lives.”
Darya stopped as if she had said too much too fast and it had hurt her. Tears formed in her eyes. She remembered the one she had shared with her Ma when she first told her the story of their ancestors. When she had explained to her the meanings of their songs and chants.
“Didn’t the Crow become evil and kill a bunch of people?” asked Vagraad, trying to take Darya away from her thoughts.
“They did.” she answered, drying her tears with the corner of her sleeve. “Because of that, the Gods took back their gift and all the magic that was accessible to humans was taken away. My people kept a bit since they were descendants from the faes, but from that point on, our powers stopped working after our 16th birthday, the day when faeries become adults. Therefore, my people made a deal with each primordial Gods-”
Once again, Vagraad was lost. Darya smiled softly.
“There are five primordial Gods. Rupu the dragon God of Fire, Zashi the troll Goddess of Earth, Muir the sea monster God of Water, Illea the harpy Divinity of Air, and finally, Mother Anima, the Goddess of life and death who rules over all others.”
Vagraad looked even more confused for a second, trying to piece together their knowledge and Darya’s at the same time. She let them think for a bit, until they looked up to her, that same flash of comprehension in their eyes.
“They made a deal with Anima and the other Gods, that when eastern witches would reach the age when their powers would go away, they would have a choice: they would lose their powers and live as humans or they would have to vow to serve a God, whether primordial or any other Gods, for the rest of their life. If the vow was ever broken, the witch would get cursed by the divinity and their powers would only be decay and suffering for others and for themselves.” finished Darya.
Vagraad nodded, taking in what she had said. They looked over at their gloved hand, above which the green of her hand showed.
“Who did you vow to?” they asked.
Darya looked down at her hands, fondly looking at the green that marked up to her wrist. A soft smile drew itself on her lips.
“Elephtheria, the nymph Goddess of plants and healing. I can still remember how warm and at peace I felt when I vowed my services to her. It just felt right.”
“If there are Gods of multiple races, is there a human God?” Vagraad asked out of the blue.
“Well, I don’t remember being any, but the closest there ever was, was the Crow.”
For an hour, Vagraad asked more and more questions about the Gods and her culture. Darya didn’t have all the answers, but she was happy to share her knowledge with a willing ear eager to learn and understand more of her people.
“How about you?” Darya asked, “I’ve only heard rumors from your community.”
Vagraad looked away from her for a second, a pain still too fresh coursing through their heart.
“I’m from the Earendil community, up on the shores of the Crystal Sea.” They took in a big breath, “They believe that others from our race have lost their way and that the only one is to listen to the Word of the Prophet.”
Darya laid her hand on Vagraad’s shoulder, gently stroking it to ease the pain in their voice.
“I had a big family: two sisters and a brother. Everyone’s name has to be linked to the ocean, and any member that isn’t as blue as the sea or as white as sea foam, is thrown out.”
Darya’s hand stopped rubbing their shoulder at the sound of pain in his voice.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s okay,” they replied, “It’s too much for me right now. I’ll tell you more, but later.”
Darya nodded, and a soft smile stretched her lips.
Not so far from them, behind a large wooden beam, stood Leo. Her hood was up, and her cloak still wrapped her up. She had heard in this conversation things the books in her family’s library only regarded as inferior tales and primitive views of the world. Her brows knitted as she tried to piece things together. She had trouble knowing who the Crow could be, although she understood how each side could tell their own truth. The name reminded her of an evening she had spent with her older sister, she had spent the entire time speaking at great length about a society that used a crow as an insignia and made terror reign in non-humans.
“It’s not very polite to eavesdrop on friends, your Majesty.” murmured a voice near her.
Leo whipped around toward the voice, muffling a scream of surprise. She stared into two different colored orbs. Jesse smiled, proud to have scared her. Her expression changed to one that was meant to be neutral, but her very annoyed attitude betrayed her. Leo tightened her cloak around her and walked away from her hiding spot to the garden, Jesse on her heels.
“I’m guessing you can’t sleep either.” he observed as they reached the small garden.
Leo nodded. She sat down on a bench with a bullet hole in its back that had been put there years ago by Tao as she tried to prove to Kekoa that, yes, she could indeed use guns just like she did, and instead of shooting the target suspended from the tree, she shot the bench. After this, she kept herself to her staff and martial weapons, while Kekoa kept her guns in a safer place when she wasn’t using them.
Jesse sat down next to her, leaning his head back to observe the stars and the faint drawing of the galaxy left across the night sky.
“Jesse,” said Leo, her mind still stuck on Darya’s stories.
“Yes, your Highness?” replied Jesse.
“What did the Crow do exactly?”
Jesse straightened himself up, now looking at Leo who seemed lost in her thoughts, eyes gazing into the night, waiting for an answer from him.
“Well…” Jesse started, “From what I gathered at brothels and taverns, they were human. In the olden times, around a millennium ago, humans were in much smaller numbers and felt threatened by other races, so they prayed to be saved by the Gods. They answered by giving magic to one of them and after that, they became mad with greed and power and started trying to annihilate other races. After a few years, the Gods took back their gift and cursed the Crow with eternal life. I hear they’re still around but the people I’ve heard it from couldn’t even agree which gender they were or even what they looked like, so I’m not sure about the eternal thing.” he said.
Leo hummed softly, deep in her thoughts.
“I think my father met her.”
Jesse’s brows furrowed in disbelief.
“That’s impossible.”
“But I’ve seen it, it’s written in the royal records.” assured Leo, “My family, if not humans, worship her. We call her Saint. She’s been counseling rulers for centuries.”
“It is?” asked Jesse, trying to wrap his head around it.
“Yes!” exclaimed Leo, annoyed by Jesse’s attitude.
Leo sighed and leaned back against the bench. Jesse and her watched the stars some more, still sitting in that comfortable silence. What kind of God gives eternal life as punishment? Why not kill the Crow as soon as things started going south? Jesse had grown up listening to Cecilia’s stories about the Gods and how fallible they could be as only the primordial ones hadn’t lived a mortal life. And if they were so powerful and sentient, why wasn’t the world a better place? Why did he have to pray to the emptiness of the sky every night, only for the worst to happen to him? Jesse’s heart felt heavier by the second as different thoughts went through his head, none of which he ever wanted to think about, but something in sitting with Leo under this starry sky made him feel safe enough to be thinking about them.
“Do you believe in the Gods?” Jesse asked out of the blue.
“No, not really.” she answered. “Why?”
“I figured royalty would be quite religious or something.”
“My grandfather was quite religious. Fearful even. My father wanted my sisters and I to know more about the world and its dangers before we studied religion.”
“Your father sounds like a good man.”
“He was.” she let out in a strangled voice. “He was doing what he could with what he had. Ruling is difficult when you are facing a league of madmen.” her voice had come back to its usual flatness, even though Jesse could hear some hidden anger in it.
“Are they the ones who…?”
“My uncle.” The man’s mention made her spit out her words. “He was the ugly guy with mismatched hair and beard.”
The young demon looked over at Leo. She was already looking at him, and her glance froze him to his very core. Suddenly, Jesse realized she was far from the little girl who had braided his hair that night. The glint of mischievousness in her eyes was gone, he could only see a deep pit of anger.
“You’re not going to-”
“He deserves it entirely.”
He looked down at the grass in front of him. His anxiousness seemed to dissipate a little as a small smile graced his pale purple lips.
“You know, for a while, I thought I was just leading you all to your deaths.” he chuckled, his smile turning bitter. “I’m glad to know I wasn’t the reason you came.” he turned around to her and tears threatened to fall.
Leo hesitantly put her hand on Jesse’s shoulder and took a deep breath to give herself some courage.
“We’re all here for different reasons. Darya has been asked to come by her Ma. You have someone you could call Mom about to get executed, and I think Vagraad is in the same case as you.” Jesse found a footing in the sea of his emotions as he heard Leo’s voice become more assured as she spoke. “We all know we have a chance of dying, yet here we are” Leo stood up and presented her open hand to Jesse. “How about we go get Darya and Vagraad and go to bed? We leave at dawn tomorrow.”
Jesse nodded and took Leo’s hand, still surprised by the contrast between his light purple skin and her dark brown one. Leo helped him to get on his feet and they walked to the barn where Vagraad was still listening to Darya’s stories on the Gods and her people and flooding her with questions that became more and more philosophical and to which Darya could barely answer most of the time. Darya welcomed Jesse and Leo’s interruption and gladly went to bed as Vagraad’s questions had tired her beyond what she thought was possible.
Jesse laid awake in his bed for a good part of the night. The thoughts he’d had earlier went back to wreck his mind. He looked over at his friends and thought once again that he had no right to bring them here, knowing they could all die. Jesse looked back at the ceiling, trying to wall off the thoughts as he fell into a deep slumber to keep the tears at bay.