That morning, before the rays of the sun could even pass over the horizon, Kekoa woke up. She didn’t feel the grogginess that usually dawned on her when she woke up; she felt weirdly awake as if her mind was telling her that something horrible would happen if these children left the tavern. Kekoa sat up on the side of her bed and put her feet in her slippers. The sound of her wife rustling around in the sheets and mumbling something about her dream took her out of her worries for a moment. Kekoa stood up and put on her embroidered shawl before washing her face.
“Good morning Tai Hou,” said Tao, her voice still full of sleep.
Kekoa smiled and chuckled at the nickname, lifting her worries for a moment.
“You don’t have to call me Queen every morning, my love,” she answered.
“Can’t help it,” the sun elf said as she hugged her wife from the back. “I’m in front of royalty.”
Tao kissed Kekoa on the cheek, making her wife chuckle once again. Kekoa turned around to Tao, never breaking the embrace.
“Hello to you too Darling,” she said before kissing her.
“You’re worried about the kids,” noticed Tao.
“I just feel like everything is going to go awfully wrong. I mean, they don’t even have a plan and they got so little training.” she answered.
“Don’t worry,” said Tao while rubbing Kekoa’s back lovingly, “They’re Cecilia’s wayward kids, they’re going to be just fine with the training I gave them. Plus, they won’t be all alone; Billie is going to take care of them for the last part of their trip.”
“I hope you’re right.” replied Kekoa.
Jesse stretched out all his limbs,his body sore from sleeping on the floor and the short training they just had. He opened his mismatched eyes to see Vagraad with suitcases under their eyes above him. They were stretching their hand toward him as if they were about to wake him up.
“Good morning, my Liege,” said Jesse with a cocky smile on his face.
“Oh my Gods,” whispered Vagraad under their breath, “You’ll never leave me alone with that, will you?”
“Nope.” said Jesse with the brightest smile on his face.
“Then stand up and start packing, filthy servant.” said Vagraad with false condescending in his voice.
“Right away, my liege.” said Jesse, a happy smirk on his lips.
The hlêg chuckled and walked away. Jesse sat up and saw Darya putting on her boots and gloves, Leo was putting everything back in the bags, and Vagraad was waiting by the door with their trusty jacket on and their mohawk tied down into a braid that went all the way from their forehead to the back of their neck and then a few inches longer. The young demon stood up and packed everything and then put on his shoes and his cloak. The group took the bags, made sure nothing was left, and walked downstairs where Tao and Kekoa were waiting for them with tea, breakfast, and extra bags.
“We thought you’d get hungry, so we packed some more food for you.” said Kekoa, as she was serving tea to each of them.
“Thank you,” replied Darya as she brought the teacup to her lips.
The group took the road a few minutes after, right as the sun graced the sky with its warmth. The horses had finally been able to fully eat and rest for three days and were now filled with energy. Jesse felt lulled by the movement of the horse, as if the night hadn’t brought him the rest he had needed. It was the falling sensations that made Jesse fully wake up. He shook his head and forced himself to stay awake. Apart from the sleepiness, the young demon couldn’t help but feel a small ball of worry and anxiety forming in his stomach. What if they had misjudged the phases of the moon and they were there too late? What if his worst fears were genuine, and they all died because of him? What if Cecilia-
He shook his head to make the thought go away, but they stayed stuck to his mind like stubborn shellfish sticking to a ship’s hull. Jesse wasn’t the only one to have a lot on his mind; Darya couldn’t tear her eyes away from her right hand. She felt disgusted by herself, her mind constantly going back to the night where she saved Jesse; the sickening sound of a crashed skull echoed throughout her head. She should have lost her connection to Elephtheria for that, and yet she didn’t. How could she ever feel worthy of being at the service of the goddess of healing when she had done something so horrible?
Leo guided the group. From what Tao and Kekoa had told her, the road would take them first to a dwarven village and then to the port town where they could find a certain Billie, captain of the Kraken. Tao had said that they owed her one and, therefore, could help the group get to Ravenwood without being taken prisoner.
Vagraad had their eyes on the horizon, but their mind kept wandering elsewhere. They could feel the atmosphere charged with heavy worry, and it made them uncomfortable.
“I spy with my little eye…” they started, garnering Jesse’s attention.
“A wonderful sunrise?” proposed the demon, his mind fogged by sleep and worry.
“...something blue.” finish Vagraad.
“The sky.” said Leo.
“Nope.” answered the hlêg.
“Your skin?” asked Darya,
“Yep,” they answered, “Your turn.”
“Okay,” she started, her soft voice slightly quivering, “I spy with my little eye, something brown.”
“A tree trunk?” asked Vagraad,
“A horse?” asked Leo.
“Leo’s cape?” asked Jesse, slightly more awake now.
“Bingo Jesse!” exclaimed Darya, in a happier voice.
“I spy with my little eye-”
“You know we are on a dirt road that won’t change until we get to Karme, right? After a short time, we will have done everything.” commented Leo, somewhat annoyed by the game already.
Leo’s remark didn’t deter the others from playing it, anyway. After a few rounds, they changed to races, then to animals, then to flowers, to which Darya had all the answers and even though she was trying to keep her flower simple and well-known, the others still had trouble guessing which one it was. Leo had played the game too, as staying outside of it and hearing them play it was more annoying than participating.
“We should stop and eat. The horses must be tired.” proposed Leo after a while.
“I agree,” said Darya.
The group found a place off the road to stop and eat quietly. They sat in a circle, as they usually did. This time, no fire was needed and Vagraad distributed the food Kekoa and Tao had made for them. After a few minutes of eating in silence, the atmosphere felt rather awkward.
“Do you think we’re going to do it?” asked Vagraad, looking at their barely touched food.
The other three looked at him before looking at each other, an anxious look in their eyes.
“Of course, we’re going to,” reassured Darya, “We have to.”
“Do you want to make a reasonable plan?” asked Leo, “Because I’ve been thinking of one.”
“We already have a plan,” said Jesse, falsely offended.
“I don’t think sleeping with the guards is a good plan, Jesse.” said Darya with a little voice.
“You just can’t recognize my genius,” said the demon, imitating a posh accent.
“We can’t just barge in and free her, the guards will kill us in less than 5 minutes.” reminded Leo.
“We don’t even know what the inside looks like or how it is run.” said Vagraad, defeated.
“I do.” said Jesse, a lightbulb lighting up in his head.
“What do you mean?” asked Leo
“I spent most of the 50 human years of my life listening to veterans of the Uprising telling me how they executed and tortured demons in Ravenwood.” he answered, as if it was common knowledge.
“That must have been horrible to hear,” sympathized Darya.
“It becomes normal after a while,” said Jesse, shrugging.
“Wait.” interrupted Leo, “You had this information the whole time, and you didn’t even think about telling us?!” she shouted.
If she could have jumped to Jesse and punched him, she would have done it.
“I thought you all knew,” said Jesse, taken aback by Leo’s reaction. “These guys were always drunk and talking about it.”
“We weren’t even born yet-!” Leo cut herself at the last second and let out an angry sigh.
She stood up and rushed away, leaving her food on the ground.
“Leo, wait!” called out Darya as she stood up and followed Leo.
“You’re really stupid sometimes, you know that, right?” they asked, staring at the young demon in disbelief.
Jesse said nothing, his mind too occupied to keep away all the condescending voices he had ever heard.
“I’m sorry,” Jesse said in a small voice.
The young demon stood up and walked in the opposite direction Leo had gone in to isolate himself, leaving the hlêg alone with the horses and the food and equipment.
Jesse walked for a bit, or at least until he found a tree large enough to hide behind. He leaned against it, the place where they had all sat down a few minutes prior, now behind his back. Jesse let himself slide down the tree and sit down, his breath becoming more and more labored while his chest felt tighter by the second. Everything came back to him like a snake slithering around his mind and his throat. All the ‘you’re so worthless’, ‘is that what a demon is? Pathetic.’, the laughs, the kicks, the punches, the smell of burnt flesh. Jesse truly found himself pathetic, he had made a mistake. He knew his reaction was overblown and pathetic, yet he couldn’t help but feel like he deserved worse than them being angry at him. Jesse felt the guilt of having all of them here, despite Leo’s words from the night before. The silence and few words coming from them hurt worse than anything. He wished they had berated him, screamed at him more, or even punched or kicked him.
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Tears flooded Jesse’s eyes as he tried to take back the control of his lungs. The young demon shut his eyes and grabbed at his chest, shakily breathing in and out, slowly. After a few minutes, he regained his cool, his head propped against the tree, and his lungs were now properly working.
“Jesse!” tore someone’s voice through the trees.
Jesse’s ears perked up at the sound of Vagraad shouting his name. The young demon stood up and ran towards them.
“Leo, wait up!” yelled Darya as she tried to keep up with Leo’s angry pace. “He didn’t realize-”
“He could’ve told us that a week ago!” Leo shouted. “We could have a well-thought plan by now, but no, he had to not say a fucking word about it!”
Darya looked at Leo, surprised. Leo calmed down at the sight of Darya being unsure of what to say. The young woman sighed.
“The worst is that last night he said he felt guilty that he was probably bringing us all to our deaths, yet he had the means to prevent it and didn’t even think about that.”
“What can I say? He seems to not really think sometimes..”
“Not to think?! He magically forgot he is 25 years older than us!” replied Leo.
“Well… His body feels time twice as slow as ours. He might think we could’ve had the same experiences as him.” softly, said Darya.
“These veterans were dead before we could even have a comprehensible speech, Darya!” Leo stopped and took a deep breath. “It’s as if he doesn’t want us to survive that mission.”
Leo thought for a moment before bringing her eyes back to Darya.
“Darya,” she walked up to the young Eastern witch and took her shoulders in her hands, “I don’t think he is stable.”
“I know,” answered Darya, unsure about what Leo meant.
“No, you don’t,” she said. “I don’t think he even expects to come out of Ravenwood.”
Darya’s eyes widened, the words of her Ma echoing through her mind with Leo’s. If Leo was right, she would have to be forsaken by Elephtheria and resign to a miserable life.
“Get away from me!”
“Tell us where the demon is!”
Voices echoed through the woods, cutting off the two women from their thoughts. Without wasting a second, they ran towards the little place they had set camp for noon. When they arrived, they saw three soldiers, in partial armor and with their helmets on their marked horses. One was rummaging through the bags on the horses, one was checking around, and the last one was trying to pin Vagraad to the ground.
“Darya,” asked Leo, “Do you know how to use your plants to fight?” Darya fumbled her words, uttering a ‘maybe’. “Good.” said Leo before charging toward the soldiers.
Darya couldn’t help but stay frozen in place.
“Fadey! Get the girls!” said the one pining Vagraad to the ground.
Darya’s heart beat faster as the one who was checking the surroundings lifted his head and ran towards Leo. He was maybe a head taller than the young woman and was so sure he was going to catch her easily that he didn’t unsheathe his sword and tried to hold her with his hands. At the last moment, Leo ducked under his arms and stabbed him in the groin, where he had most likely forgotten to put his protection. The man bent in half and Leo kicked him behind the knees, forcing him to fall on his knees. The grass quickly turned a dark red with blood and the man’s scream scared birds that were resting nearby.
“Darya! Plants! Now!” she shouted as she ran towards the one who was rummaging through their bags.
Darya’s mind raced, she reached in her seed bag and took one out, searched in her brain for the sigils for ‘binding’ and ‘person’ her Ma had taught her and traced them in the air over the seed, and quickly kneeled to put the seed in the ground. In less than a few seconds, the glowing combined sigils appeared on the ground in a soft golden light and the seed underneath her hand felt like it was growing at the speed of light, burying itself underground to emerge around Fadey to imprison him in a tight cage of roots, pinning him to the ground.
Leo was almost at the second soldier when the one above Vagraad left them, unsheathed his sword, and ran behind Leo. The man swung his sword and slashed through her cape and clothes, deeply breaking the skin on her back. The young woman fell to the ground at the feet of the second soldier in a cry of pain.
“Thanks, Lyuben,” said the soldier who was searching through their bags.
“Look,” chuckled Lyuben, “that street rat even stole the princess’s dagger.”
Lyuben kicked Leo’s dagger far away from her. She stretched her arm to get to it with a painful groan, convinced she could still stab one of them. The soldier chuckled at the sight of it and buried his heel into her hand, forcing a yelp of pain out of her.
Darya stood by, still somehow frozen by the situation, tears rolling down her face as she watched Leo’s clothes turn red from her blood. She could hear the two soldiers talking to each other as if they were much more distant than they actually were.
Vagraad opened their eyes slowly, their eyelids feeling like they were made of lead. Their shoulders were hurting despite their arms being on either side of them. The first thing they saw was Leo, lying on the grass, her back full of blood. A surge of adrenaline went through their body as they remembered what had happened before they fainted. Vagraad lifted their eyes to the two soldiers, now visibly talking about someone else and pointing at them. They turned their head and saw Darya, frozen in place, terrified. As soon as the soldiers ran toward the young eastern witch, Vagraad quickly grabbed one of the soldier’s feet, causing him to fall to the floor.
“Jesse!” screamed Vagraad while the soldier he had grabbed cursed and kicked the young hlêg in the face repeatedly.
Vagraad’s call broke Darya from her frozen state. She fumbled through her seed bag while intently watching the soldier who was running up to her and took out a chamomile seed. She drew above her hand the sigil for ‘sleep’ which glowed a faint golden light in front of her. The soldiers had taken his word out, ready to strike her, but right before he could lower his blade, Darya blew a powder in his face and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Darya saw a purple flash in the corner of her eye. She recognized Jesse as he ran, faster than she had seen him run from the soldiers in Outer-Alvoort the day they departed. The young demon had a thick branch in his hands and clubbed the soldier in the face with it while he was getting up from Vagraad’s loose hold on his foot. The force of the impact made the man fall on his back and without skipping a beat, Jesse kneeled over him, abandoning his stick, and punched the soldier repeatedly. The soldier tried to fight back and defend himself, but Jesse had already put too many punches in for him to react properly. Jesse’s only thought as Darya screamed at him to stop was that this man had hurt Vagraad and Leo. All he could feel was his knuckles being numbed out by the hits. All he could see was Leo’s blood pooling on her cape and Vagraad’s face full of bruises and cuts.
The young demon only came back to himself when Vagraad tried a second time to pull them by his shoulders and caused him to fall on his butt. His vision cleared, and he saw the soldier moan in pain, his face swollen, bruised, and bleeding profusely.
“Darya!” called out Vagraad, their speech impeded by the pain in their face. “Go see Leo!” they ordered.
Darya nodded, she looked at the man sprawled on the floor, before tearing her eyes off of him and running up to check on Leo’s wound.
“Jesse.” called Vagraad. The demon didn’t answer, his eyes stuck to the soldier’s face. “Jesse.” repeated the young hlêg, this time tearing Jesse away from his daze. “I want you to stand up, get the bags, and prepare the horses.” they ordered slowly and calmly.
Jesse nodded. He stood up quickly and went to the bags to follow what Vagraad had asked him to do. Vagraad stood up, his legs light from fainting, and crouched next to Darya, who had pulled up Leo’s clothes to see the extent of the wound.
“How is she?”
“The wound is pretty deep, but she will lose a lot more blood if I do nothing.”
Darya had her hand deep in her seed satchel, fumbling around for two specific seeds. She took one out, drew the sigil for ‘healing’, and planted them on the ground. A beautiful rose bush grew in a matter of seconds with fully opened roses and a yarrow stalk.
“Could you get me my bag, please?” she asked.
Vagraad nodded and stood up to get her bag off of their horse and gave it to her. Darya plunged her hand into her bag and got out her gourd, a stone mortar and pestle, and bandages. Darya picked the flowers from the yarrow and the petals from the rose and put them in the mortar, added a little water, and ground them with the pestle.
“Can you clean up the blood from her back while I do this?” asked Darya.
Vagraad nodded again, swallowing back down a deep urge to vomit because of the amount of blood. They took Darya’s gourd and a piece of cloth from her bag and cleaned away the blood. Leo laid there, patiently waiting for Darya to patch her up and for Vagraad to finish cleaning her up. She felt her eyes become heavier and heavier. She fought against them, knowing that if she closed them, she might not open them again.
After a minute, Darya had ground the flowers into a thin paste, which she applied to Leo’s wound, causing the young woman to hiss in pain. Darya bandaged Leo, trapping the paste on her wound, and pulled her clothes back down. Jesse walked around them, taking Darya’s bag once she had finished and putting it back on the horse, having completed what Vagraad had told him to do.
“They’ll find us…” mumbled Leo, trying to stay awake. “We have to go…”
“Jesse, can you help me get her up on the horse?” asked Darya.
Jesse didn’t even respond and promptly helped her to put Leo on her horse’s back, not without causing her to moan in pain once again. Jesse mounted the horse behind her, keeping her upright and taking the reign in his hands. Darya and Vagraad quickly mounted their horses as well, with a fourth horse galloping behind them. They rode at high speed for a little while, or at least until they were sure they were very far from those soldiers. After that, they continued at regular trotting speed for the rest of the day. Darya could feel her head falling by itself from time to time, her body begging for her to take a break and rest. She had never cast so many sigils in such a short time; she was used to a few of them over an entire day, and never had to grow the plant so rapidly since she always had all of them on hand, be they dried or fresh. Healing people on the fly wasn’t as easy as having a couple of them with sore throats from time to time. The group stopped riding only once the sun was setting on the horizon and they had found a suitable place to stay relatively hidden for the night. Jesse still felt helpless and the stone that had formed in his guts as he had woken up from his blind rage was still weighing on his chest. His knuckles still hurt from the impacts and still had the blood of that soldier on them.
“Should we light a fire?” Darya asked whoever could answer.
“I don’t think so,” Jesse answered, whisked out of his thoughts. “The light could lead them to us,”
A groan from Leo drew Darya's and Jesse’s attention to her. Jesse had almost forgotten about the young woman sitting in front of him on the horse. Leo was heaving, and pearls of sweat ran down her forehead. The sight of it surprised Jesse, who had been too lost in his thoughts the entire ride to understand that the shaking wasn’t only the horse moving.
“Shit,” Darya murmured under her breath. “Get her down, I need to check on her!” exclaimed Darya, a rush of worry in her voice.
Darya dismounted her horse and ran up to Jesse. The young Demon helped Darya to get Leo down and lay her on the ground while Vagraad took it upon themself to take care of the horses. Darya lifted her blood-soaked clothes. Her worry grew as she saw that the blood had flowed again and that the cataplasm hadn’t held the ride. She cursed under her breath as she hurriedly took two seeds out of her satchel. This time, she drew the sigils for ‘healing’ and ‘anti-infective’ before planting them. The same bush of roses and stalk of yarrow grew out of the ground at a rapid speed.
“Darya, what is happening?” asked Jesse, trying to keep his calm. The young witch made the cataplasm as she had done before without acknowledging Jesse’s question. “Darya ?” She didn’t answer. “Darya!” he repeated with more insistence.
This time, the eastern witch reacted.
“Her wound got infected because, like an idiot, I didn’t write the right sigils.” she ranted, anger in her voice.
At the sight of her state he glanced at Vagraad who looked back at him, worry also painting their face. The young hlêg shrugged their shoulders. Jesse decided to not probe her further and let her take care of Leo. For the next twenty minutes, Vagraad and Jesse took care of setting up a camp while Darya made another cataplasm for Leo, changed her bandages, and kept a damp cold rag on her forehead to keep the fever down. Darya kept worrying more and more at each groan coming from her. The young woman had fallen asleep, sweat covering her skin, while her eyes visibly went from side to side underneath her eyelids. Her eyebrows seemed to have been knotted into constant sadness and fear, and her heart raced as it had hardly ever done before.
Leo was dreaming about that night. She was sleeping soundly, the stress of her day finally wearing off. In the middle of the night, her servant Julia woke her up, a look of terror on her face. She had no time to explain. She asked the princess to take her burlap cloak, her dagger, and run away through the servant’s passages. As soon as Julia had closed the door behind the princess, Leo heard soldiers busting in her room and slaughter Julia. Leo stood frozen as the blood of the woman that had raised her pooled to her side of the secret door. She swallowed a scream before she ran away through the narrow passages. Her legs felt awfully light as she ran to her eldest sister’s room. Rage and pain filled her heart as she took in the sight before her. Alexandra had always been the wisest of the three: she had a gift for military strategies and could very well apply them to court life if she needed to, which made more than one wary of her. She had never been one to dress herself up, she always kept her wardrobe simple and efficient. Leo could never forget the image of Alexandra’s beautiful long beaded braids covered in blood. She was lying on the tiled floor of her bedroom, three guards killed by her side and her trusty sword still in her hand. When Leo saw her, she first froze before thinking about her second sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth had a way with people Alexandra and Leo never had. She always seemed to know what to do in any social situation and spent some time with Leo, climbing trees, discovering secret passages in the palace, and taking care of Lizzie’s scales and terrarium. When Leo ran to her room, she had felt like flying through the narrow corridors, and yet her legs had felt as if they had been made of lead. She arrived once again too late in her sister’s bedroom. Elizabeth’s blood covered her lavender colored silk bed sheets, her face, and her night bonnet, in which she kept her natural hair safe, turning them into a deep red. The sickening look of pleasure she had seen on her uncle’s face that night as she stayed hidden behind a door from the servants’ shallow passage into Elizabeth’s bedroom, was burned into Leo’s mind forever. His eyes were gleaming with pride as he was watching his niece’s corpse emptying itself of its blood, her last gurgles leaving her body. That night, it felt like a piece of her died with her sisters.