Rosalea had not come back. She had said she would. Nauru tried crying about it, but most of the wolves here intimidated him. They ended up ignoring him anyway. Sasha was the most pointed about it, hobbling her way outside for the night and leaving him alone.

The next morning, Rosalea did not come back. He sat in the doorway of her home, and he did the only thing he could think of at first. He waited. He sometimes tried calling for her, as if it would summon her back to him, and then he waited.

He napped.

He got hungry.

He waited. The wolves were trying to get her back, and several of them had left. He didn’t understand conversations, exactly, not fully yet, but he was getting better at it. Since Rosalea took him in and held him and fed him and loved him, things had become slowly clearer. Things had become more defined.

He felt like there was an imperceptible shift in the world. It was not that it smelled or looked and sounded different. It was that it felt different. As he looked at the water fountain the mystics drank from, he felt as though it had a pale blue shine to it. When he studied that shine, he started to see aspects of brown gold. It was an aura around it.

He could not be sure, but his instincts told him that seeing this was one of the things that his sister could do, that he could not. He longed for Rosalea, if she was here, he felt certain that she would somehow help.

Still, he was alone. She was not back yet, but he felt a sense of reassurance that she was definitely out there somehow.

He wanted to sleep all the time she was gone, but he was not tired. The fountain looked interesting, but also confusing. He felt a pull on him and he tried to get up and follow it, but it did not alleviate the sensation. The pull was inward, and not outward, somehow. So he curled up in a ball right where he was as if he could wrap himself around the pull on himself.

Slowly, he found if he relaxed, he could somewhat follow that pull. He drifted downwards internally until he found a place where he seemed to be standing near a black lake, and from it flowed a black and tangled river.

“Hello there, my Desired one, how did you find me?”

He looked around, aware that the place he was now was not a physical place, but one within himself. When he found Rosalea, he could not see her, he could only sense that she was there. He also sensed that she was not really Rosalea; she did not sound or feel quite like Rosalea, but someone very similar. Still, “When… are you… coming back?” each word was uncertain, he had never used them before, they were clumsy in his mouth.

“Very soon!” The feeling of this person seemed to be reaching out to him, even though he could not see anyone here with him, only the river, only the lake. He leaned into that reach. When he pressed into it, he could see more, beyond the river and lake, he had a sense of his physical self… no that was not quite right. He was sensing himself through her eyes. Through her eyes, he could see the tethers that the Gods had over him: he was bound by the heart and mind. “One day, I want to cut you free.”

He felt a sense of her letting him go. “You… are coming… back soon?”

“Yes… and I want to give you a gift that will help you. Does that sound good?”

He agreed right away! He had a feeling that it was the first step of being free and being with the only person who wanted him.

When he opened his eyes, he perceived the auras even more clearly in his environment. Floating near the old wolf, there was a rose with a dozen petals. Near the fountain was a rose that looked more like a bud. I can see how strong things are?

Then, in the lower right of his vision, he saw symbols, which that not-quite-Rosalea voice said, Grace of Language.

***

Kartowen felt things shift. His world lit up in a way he had almost forgotten about with information in his environment. The deep magic is no longer being filtered?

He looked around, at all the forgotten symbols that he had not looked at in a long time. Did Mahale change his mind about what is allowed? Or is he looking for us more seriously now?

He reached into his tunic and withdrew a mirror surrounded in filigree gold feathers. He focused on the surface, words in characters only he could read appear, What are you seeing right now?

It took some time for there to be a response. He sat with his back to a tree and pet over a little mystic mouse that cautiously came up to him and sat upon his knees. The mirror warmed, and he saw new words across the surface. I think that it might be Rayale, and I am afraid for him.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Kartowen sighed, but he agreed. He had no idea what to do about it. They were no match for the unified Myajac. But if there is one person in this world that I feel like could do something… But he did not even dare hope about that.

***

When Rosalea awoke, it took her a while to figure out where she was. At first, she thought she was still in the cell, it was dark, and she was surrounded by the earth. Then she realized she was lying down. Then she realized she could feel the furs against her skin – and there was at least one thing breathing near her. She was back in the makeshift home of the wolves. The thing breathing against her body was Nauru. Best of all, when she moved, there was no rattle of metal and chains.

She went to lift her right hand to pet him and found it would not move. She felt a surge of panic, and with great pain, she was able to sit up. Nauru instantly awoke, barked, and turned to face her, wagging his tail excitedly.

Rosalea’s middle was bound with something, and as her eyes adjusted to the dim fire that had been lit in her stove, she realized it was actually vines. She frowned and looked at her right arm. From the elbow down, she could not move it – it was also bound in vines, though there was fresh cloth beneath it. She could now see the blood… and smell infection on her arm. She used her left hand to touch it – and was glad to feel it. Nauru felt her move and immediately was up, licking at her face. She gave him an awkward, left-armed hug.

“I am sorry, Nauru, I did not mean to leave you so long and scare you. It is all right,” she promised, squeezing him close.

Amalia sat up as soon as she heard Rosalea, “You! I am so cross with you!” She sniffed over Rosalea’s face and neck and huffed several times like an irritated dog.

Rosalea could not help but smile about it, even though it was a little silly. “Well, I got a lot of time to think,” she said halfway apologetically. “I have to confess that I am mostly just really glad to be back here. I am so grateful you all came when I called. Especially for whoever got me back out of the river.”

“That was Nakai,” Bazil’s voice said from outside her shelter. “He has been hiding because of your arm. Shall I try to get the Uryan boy up again?”

“Is he all right? What about his horse?”

“The horse is better off than you, actually, since he is a good healer. I think we best let him rest though,” Amalia said, laying down near Rosalea and putting her big heavy head on Rosalea’s chest and belly. “His magic is needed, and it cannot recover if he does not sleep.”

“My arm feels like I cannot move it?” Rosalea said uncertainly.

“I am pretty sure the shoulder is dislocated, but I am not all that good at human anatomy,” Amalia fretted a little bit. “There might be breaks. I am hoping when the Uryan wakes he can help.”

“His liana is sick though,” Bazil said. “He has a darker green variation of the mark that Raisa has. Rosalea… did you learn anything about what they are doing?”

Rosalea breathed in deeply and out slowly. “No. I got to the greenhouse they have, and I got an introduction to Beryn, the leader of the town. The dragon… doesn’t follow normal rules. Branded people like me are not supposed to mix with people without them, and I am sure the dragon is a little paranoid just from that alone. I did not learn… well, anything. It was a waste that put a lot of people at risk.”

“Where did the Uryan come from?” Amalia asked.

Where did he come from? It was terribly convenient that he ended up being where he was. “I can at least guess that his liana knew that I needed to be saved. I am not sure why he was out here, but… I can guess, perhaps, that it was because his liana is sick, like you said?”

“The Moryshin should normally be able to heal, but, not any more,” she heard Nekana’s voice. The big white wolf put her face into the shelter. “None of us can speak with him either, so we will have to wait until his liana awakes. He is clearly from some other clan than the ones that live here.”

Rosalea tried to imagine multiple forests like this one with all these forest gods and conflicts with humans. I feel like despite all the time I spent learning, I learned nothing at all. I did not really know about dragons until it was much too late. I am learning more about mystics every day, and they are actually part of my heritage.

The feeling from the prison stayed with her: that she was selfish, reckless, and self-centered. She wanted to be something so much more than that. If she was going to live, which it was plain she was, then surely she could do something meaningful with the life she had been given. She breathed out, “I am really sorry I could not find something actually helpful. I heard from another mystic that they seem to be making the poison out of some sort of herbs they are growing. I thought if I could get them, then someone like Mere might know something about how to counteract them for Sasha and Raisa.”

“We all know what you thought,” Nekana said a little flatly, “but we all knew that it was likely not to succeed. You are exceedingly lucky that this man happened by to save you. We all worried, and Nauru cried for hours. We would not have even known where to start looking right away, except Sasha told us what you were up to.”

Rosalea nodded. “I know. I want to do better.”

Nekana sighed. “Well, you best stay here and get recovered and show us that you can be cute after all, yes? Extra good behavior, please?”

It was the most… almost motherly thing someone had said to her, coercing her gently like that to improve her behavior. She felt a strange sense of warmth in her chest. “Yes. I will not do anything reckless like that again. I… can do better.”

She did not know how she would do better from here, but she knew that she would. She squeezed Nauru again, reassuring him as he whimpered at her.

“I’m thirsty, can I have a drink? And… if someone sees Nakai, I think he should know that he did a good job grabbing me out of the river. I will be fine, I am sure of it, especially with help here.”

Nekana seemed mollified and would bring her bowl. Amalia helped her to sit up; Nauru immediately claimed her lap.

Rosalea looked at her shoulder, and she saw it wasn’t her shoulder that was at the wrong angle, but her elbow. Her arm was wrapped, and she could feel, but not see, that it was really painful. Her other wrist was chafed and ugly looking from the manacles she had been wearing, and there was a little burn mark from Amalia removing the manacles.

Her ankles felt pretty bruised, so she tried to remove her boots, but it did not work with just one hand. Amalia ended up helping, and Rosalea breathed a soft sigh of relief as the pressure eased.

Amalia had her eat some of the dried food stores she still had, and after a few bites, Rosalea found that she was tired again. She cuddled Nauru and Amalia and went back to sleep.

I feel like I know the man who saved us, but I cannot remember him. Is it time, or an erased memory? She felt a bitterness once more toward the Ieshans… and a little bit, Ulric, even though she was still mostly sad about him. I will find out when he wakes up, she reassured herself. She hoped it was time. It was always awkward to find out she just forgot someone entirely that knew her. It was a little rock of anxiety that followed her into her dreams.