She’d once been afraid of heights, before she had to get comfortable with them in order to perform. A story she’d heard once about moving shadows had terrified her, until Insith showed her the trinket he’d paid good money for to keep them away from the shows. But this new fear of fire she had a feeling wouldn’t go away; it brought up more memories than she would’ve liked, more scenes than her peppy character would allow. No, she wasn’t going to think about all of that. Not anymore. It was all behind her and nothing like that was going to happen again.
All she needed to do was to convince the three of them that, so that she could find the others and they could keep going like nothing happened at all.
“I swear I’m fine!” Sukeena insisted for what must’ve been the tenth time during the one conversation. Zach was looking at her smaller cuts while Camecia and Umi worked together to sort herbs the former had just arrived with.
One of the first things Zach had first asked Sukeena to do when they met was to focus on something brighter. So, she’d given them all mental introductions, ones that changed slightly as she got to know them over the next couple of weeks:
Zach is from here in coastal Jaden territory. He’s got some extreme talent for Life magic and wings—but no one believes me on that part for some reason. When I bring it up he nervously laughs but Camecia and Umi both think I’m hallucinating. Camecia is his assistant, I think they’ve been working together for around four years now. She’s from a family of doctors in Qizar… but I haven’t seen her use any magic. She usually just collects, sorts, and mixes herbs for Zach. I still don’t know who Umi is, really. He was the first to find me and bring me back here, but he hasn’t known Zach and Camecia much longer than I have. He knows Life magic, too, and was traveling for a while. He has all the makings of a future troupe member! If he’d like to join us.
Sukeena glanced at each of them to see if her plea had worked. It didn’t. Actually, they all kept doing what they’d been doing as if she hadn’t said anything at all.
Then, rather casually, Camecia remarked, “You know, she hasn’t really gone outside much since she came here. She should probably get some fresh air.”
“I have a feeling that if we let her out of our sight she’s not going to come back,” Zach responded more cautiously.
“I’ll come back!” Sukeena said quickly. “I just want to see if everyone else is okay! Then I can come back if you want me to.”
They’d probably assumed she hadn’t heard them that night, when apparently an official report was released; from the sounds of it, it didn’t seem like there was a lot to be hoped for. But she still had to see. She convinced herself that she was going to hold on to every fragment of hope she could until it became clear she couldn’t.
Umi seemed about ready to sigh, before his indifferent gaze met Sukeena’s confident glare, and his expression softened. “I can walk with her—drag her back if it takes too long or we go too far. I doubt it’ll take us longer than an hour.”
“Because we’re going to find them and bring them back to thank you three personally for helping!” Sukeena added, a part of her desperate for the idea that the inclusion implied, even if it just earned her careful looks from them.
“I don’t think they’re all going to fit here,” Zach mumbled instead of whatever he actually thought.
“There’s probably not many of them left to host,” Umi remarked. Apparently he wasn’t too fond of beating around the bush. There was a moment of silence, then he sighed. “Sukeena, I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news here, but think about it. What are you going to do if it turns out that you’re the only—”
“Can’t we at least try first?” She didn’t want to hear it. Why did it seem like such a bad thing that she wanted to believe there was a chance of something other than the worst? “For all you know, they’re all perfectly safe, right?”
“With Vriuh, maybe.” His tone, it seemed, was what might have crossed the line, since it earned him a nudge from Camecia.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“With, uh—Qizar doesn’t have a god of life, do they? That doesn’t matter! You get my point!” Sukeena insisted. “They’re all alive and safe unless you can specifically prove otherwise!”
It looked like, if Umi had been any more interested in following Camecia’s guiding nudges, he would’ve stayed silent. But he didn’t. “You seem like the kind that’s good at eavesdropping, especially when you’ve more or less had nowhere to go for a while. You’ve probably heard us talking about the report by now. The initial report stated that there weren’t any bodies. One a few days later announced there being at least one. You know a middle-aged guy who was wearing a flashy suit?”
A face and its owner’s voice popped into her head almost immediately. Then she imagined that smell of smoke, the uncomfortable warmth of fire, and she stood up and vigorously shook her head. “They’re all safe somewhere,” she repeated. She, with surprising confidence, despite still getting used to it, strode to the door to leave—ignoring any half-hearted attempt from Zach or Camecia to keep her here.
She gave one last look at them. “I’m going to prove you wrong.” She didn’t let herself consider the other option, because she convinced herself that there was a chance it wasn’t true. She was so busy trying to keep herself convinced that she didn’t stop Umi from trailing behind her.
In fact, she always looked back at the memory and was grateful that he’d cared enough to follow her… even if, if she’d been any less distracted in that moment, she would’ve thought of him as the cause of this mild panic.
Now, if Sukeena was going to be completely honest, she had no idea where she was going. Her half-conscious state that night—one that had turned completely unconscious by the time Zach and Umi found her—kept her from recalling any details. She could’ve pointed to the spot of the show on a map, but she didn’t know how far she was from that location now. Eventually she found herself following Umi, who wandered towards a town—though they didn’t need to actually go there in order to find familiar faces.
Right there, with determined expressions and a hushed conversation, Orith and Natharie were looking too.
Sukeena forgot most sense of reason—and didn’t question the absence of a third person she’d been expecting to find—and nearly tripped over herself in her rush to get to them. She didn’t care that Umi was so far behind her by the time she must’ve startled them both with a hug.
Natharie immediately shoved her back off, but it was out of care; she looked over Sukeena as if she might disappear, like every single cut proved that she was real. Then, when Natharie was satisfied in the fact that this wasn’t a dream, she pulled Sukeena in for a tighter hug. “Thank the gods you’re safe…”
“W-well, for the most part, but we can talk about that later…” Sukeena gently pulled away and asked the question she was beginning to fear the answer to: “Where’s everyone else?”
“At an inn in town,” Natharie replied. It seemed like she didn’t want to acknowledge the full truth any more than she did. “But… it’s still not all of us. Insith—”
When she simply stopped there and didn’t say anything else, Orith took up for her. “Whoever they were and whatever they thought they were doing, they had a goal in mind. Almost everyone from the troupe was able to get away without getting hurt. But you were missing for a little while, and they… killed Insith.”
Sukeena knew what he said and the way they all cautiously looked at her. But, somehow, at that moment, she didn’t think about it. That time would come once she actually let it sink in a few hours from now. “What are we going to do now?”
“Most of the troupe will leave once they know you’re alright—that’s the only reason we’re all together, with Insith gone.” Natharie went on to have a more panicked tone, though it seemed like she’d thoughtfully considered what she said. “I think we should go somewhere far away in Qizar. No one will question your magic there, we could say your parents were children of Fleyw Bresh and no one would think differently. We could live normally…”
“I don’t think that’s what Dad would’ve wanted,” Sukeena pointed out slowly. “I’m in charge of things now if he’s gone, aren’t I? I don’t think it matters if everyone else wants to leave—that’s their decision. But I know you and Orith will stay with me, and I think Umi could probably help, too. Dad wouldn’t have wanted us to give up. He’d tell us that everyone had their calling and ours was performing. I don’t want to run away to Qizar. I want to give people the shows they didn’t realize they were missing.”
“You know I’m with you,” Orith remarked with a grin.
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Natharie sighed. “You’re just like him. But… I’ll do anything for you.” She glared at Umi, who had just been silently watching the whole thing. “Once you explain who he is and what he’s doing here.”
“That’s Umi,” Sukeena explained. “He, Zach, and Camecia were who I’ve been staying with. I can introduce you to Zach and Camecia, too! Umi, these two are Natharie and Orith. And… I probably should’ve asked this a little earlier, but would you like to join our troupe?”
He seemed honestly amused by the suggestion. “I’ve got nothing better to do—I was wandering anyway, might as well give it some kind of purpose.”