Almost lovely

And here we are. We were finally gone for good. As my breath was steady I forced myself to think that my wonderful friend was doing well. I needed to do this to find the strength to continue.

Me and Yriane mingled with the crowd with empty eyes, who, not caring about anything anymore, poured their misery into their habit, or pretended to be part of it. We saw the rogues spying on every movement of the people, observing every corner, checking every house without letting a single one escape them. Ours must have already been searched, but they would find nothing there except the reminiscences of a bygone past.

The bridge was further away than I thought, and it was still necessary to cross it. The station was on the other side of this bridge, at the exit of the city, a city of a rather impressive dimension.

But finally, we could reach the bridge, enormous as I expected it and whose imposing size made me a little discouraged, because only the thought of the time necessary to cross it, succeeded in making me dizzy. Not to mention that we would undoubtedly be spotted. But there was no way back, and Yriane had put all her last strength into this escape. So we should not allow ourselves to fail, not to mention that it was me who had encouraged her to try her luck, and the fact that I didn't need to insist much to do it, won't change anything to my responsibility.

During the crossing, I kept looking from under the bridge, wondering what was there. My curiosity overcame my vow of silence.

- Yriane, what's under that bridge? The mist is so thick that I can't see anything.

- Before this curse touched my kingdom, a river flowed there.

- A river?

- Yes. But not just any river, the river that symbolizes my entire kingdom - the river of forgetfulness.

She showed a brief expression of nostalgia.

- I remember that its color was peculiar, so peculiar, that it looked like a painting, abstract and bottomless. There were even these strange and bewitching sounds that emanated from its sacred waters

- The river of the oblivion... but let's pass, I continued by concentrating again on my advance. You have to find the sovereigns and talk to them about you, you will be safer if you go directly to them.

- The king and the queen?

She looked at me as if I had gone mad, while her face turned pale. I doubted my own words, thinking I had mistakenly translated my thoughts.

- Did I say something wrong, Yriane?

- It's not that. But why are you still talking to me about the royal family?

- Well, I know they're rather demanding but they're generous, so you have nothing to worry about.

She looked at me more and more lost, I was as much as she was under her indecisive look.

- But what are you talking about, Dania? Our rulers died three decades after the beginning of this curse in our kingdom.

I let out a muffled exclamation as I stared at my friend as if she were the one who had lost her mind, even excusing her by remembering that she had spent the last ten years of her life in a house, imprisoned by evil and solitude.

- But they are still alive, they received me and Seiran - the prince of the flying kingdom.

- No, that's impossible," the beautiful blonde challenged with a confidence tinged with regret and sorrow. They were taken away by this curse, that's why no one can leave this kingdom anymore. When the lineage of the rulers dies out, it means the end of a city.

It is then that I understood my mistake. Again, I was wrong. My ignorance led me astray. Always.

- Yriane, in which realm we are?

- In the kingdom of Orios !

I shook my head.

- Of course, silly me, I must have been accidentally brought to another kingdom when I crossed the wall, buried under these piles of corpses. The supernatural borders of Orios must have been inevitably weakened at the beginning of this tide of black magic and the disappearance of its rulers have definitely broken them.

- I am no longer surprised by the name of this river. For Orios must surely mean "Oblivion", isn't it true?

- Exactly, she smiled. But I don't know anymore if it has kept its supernatural powers. This river is, as its name indicates, famous for making people forget any memory attached to the objects thrown into it, whether it is voluntary or not, and even the beings too. And those who jump into it never come back.

- I see...

- But there was a time when the water in the river had turned a sunny red and then an inky black for some reason. It had lasted only five days but nobody ever forgot it, so much the sensation which was released from it, was disconcerting.

Lost in my reflections, it took me some time to realize this tingling in my neck. I slowed down after having noticed it, Yriane who continued her way nevertheless forced herself to turn again towards me, the informal question reflected in her glance of azure.

Question to which she obtained immediately answer to the expression of my face, and like it, hers became of a distressing pallor. Then slowly I turned over towards the place where were those who made me feel this ignominious sensation. They afflicted me once again the mirror of their interior world. A world of dirt and decay. I knew what I had to do.

So without worrying about the rest, I took Yriane by the arm and started to run away.