Chapter 9

DAWN had broken. The sky had begun to lighten as the sun peeked slightly over the hill in the distance. Much progress had been made within the village. Buildings had been resurrected and the villagers were up and about again. Joining the sun in time for their own morning labour.

Nyla was fixing the saddle on her black horse before she patted his neck with a sigh. She had a feeling she and her new horse would become the closest of companions on this long journey ahead of them, the thought of which made her wish she could bury her head in the sand, but unfortunately, all she could do was let out another sigh.

“Oh, so gloomy, Petal,” Rowan said as he walked up to her, the reins of his horse clutched in his hand.

“Oh, so annoying, Sybil.” Nyla took the reins of her horse.

“I have a name you know, you can drop the Sybil title. We’re friends after all.”

“Mmmhmm.” Nyla rolled her eyes and walked away.

“Charming, Rowan.” Enid came up from behind and walked past, leading his own horse. Rowan and Enid were probably the closest among all the Sybils as their fathers would visit each other often. Nyla assumed it was because stupidity and pessimism go together. They seemed to bask in each other’s arrogance and ignorance. Therefore, Rowan and Enid spent quite a bit of time in each other’s company too.

“Patience dear Sybil,” Rowan said, following after Enid.

Enid turned to face him. “If there is one thing I know about Nyla, it’s that she’s not a very open person. I don’t think time’s gonna cut it.”

“You underestimate me.” Rowan puffed his chest.

“No, I think you overestimate yourself.” Enid clicked his tongue, “Nyla is like a shell, a very intelligent, lethal shell. She’ll chop you up like a butcher with those axes before you get the chance to make a move.”

“I like dangerous women,” Rowan smirked.

“That’s disturbing,” Ezra muttered under her breath as she walked past the two boys. Enid raised his eyebrow at Rowan with a smirk before going to join the rest where Lilo, Oriel, and Nolan waited.

“A Guarde from Kesmet brought your Token of Passage.” Lilo said, “It will allow you to move between the borders of the regions.” Rowan reached for it and tucked it inside the safety of his robe.

“I trust you’ll have each other’s backs,” Oriel said as his eyes slid over the five Sybils before him.

“You can trust us, Preator.” Enid said, “We’ll end this.”

With Enid taking the lead, the rest of the Sybils followed behind him as they began their journey through the forest. Their journey would take them to Kesmet Valley first. Upon discussing their plan of action, the previous evening, Enid revealed that he believed the piece hidden in his region was the most at risk as it was hidden in a place that was not well protected, therefore they had decided that Kesmet would be their first stop. Where in Kesmet they did not know, Enid refused to reveal the location for fear that the thief could be listening in, a very rational decision in everyone’s opinion. They agreed to keep all the locations a secret up until the last possible second. The Sybils of Melgaesia had no intention of helping the thief find the pieces before they did.

With the sun at its highest, the group of Sybils neared the border of Sage, distinguished by the hill up ahead beyond the thicket of trees, where they would take a rest before carrying on their way. The beat-down path before them, paved by the frequent travellers, was barren and rocky. Small white and pink flowers littered the edge of the path.

Nyla closed her eyes to enjoy the sun's heat as she imagined families travelling through like she had with her parents. Since young, Nyla was not the type of person to sit down in a carriage, and often would jump out and run around chasing wild butterflies and the like. Of course, her parents could demand that she get back in the carriage, but they enjoyed seeing their young daughter laugh and smile on their otherwise boring trips across the country. Such trips haven't happened for the past few years as Nyla didn't have the time or will to travel long distances, she felt it was unnecessary when everything she needed was already in her hometown.

“Why can't we just teleport?” Rowan swatted a bug.

“Because all the barriers are up.” Enid explained for the third time, “The Token allows us to pass through them but any form of teleportation or transportation using magic will not make it past the barrier.”

Rowan blew the hairs from his face in frustration.

“Got a problem with riding, Sybil?” Nyla asked.

“On the contrary, Petal, I love to ride,” Rowan replied with a cheeky smile. Nyla squinted her eyes at him as she regretted her question. He chuckled before humming a tune.

“I must say,” Ezra said, “this is my first time out of Sage Mountain doing anything other than meeting up with Magistrates.” Everyone looked over at Ezra in shock. “It’s rather exciting.” She smiled.

“Of course it’s exciting,” Rowan said disgusted, “How do you survive only leaving the palace to meet up for tea, for Jude’s sake.”

“You don’t meet up with Magistrates for tea,” Enid said.

“I was being sarcastic.” Rowan looked at him blandly. His head cocked to the side in annoyance.

Ezra smiled. “The women of the Sage clan are members of Healers, we don't do conflict.”

“Don’t worry, my Lady,” Rowan said smugly, “soon you shall see all the excitement that comes with being in the outdoors.”

Haggard groaning could be heard from the trees that now surrounded the Sybils. In the distance, Faite began to stagger and wobble towards them. Their raspy breathing sounded as though they were speaking through torn vocal cords and on their faces were expressions of anguish and torture as they neared. As though every step took effort. As though they were being controlled. Forced to approach them. Their twisted bodies, consisting of skin and bone, were pale and grey, stripped of all natural colour. Hair was torn from their heads, done by the pain they felt when turned into the mindless creatures they were now.

“You just had to speak,” Kai muttered.

“It’s not that bad,” Rowan said as more Faite began to appear, “Just a little morning exercise.” He jumped off his horse and reached for one of his swords that was strapped behind him.

With a sigh, Enid joined him on the solid ground. He took his short staff and twirled it. It extended it into a staff, slightly longer than him. Nyla shared a look with Kai before they too dismounted their horses, leaving a hesitant Ezra to slowly dismount herself.

Nyla noticed how unsteady Ezra stood on her feet before she grasped her axes that were fastened against her back. “Don’t worry Ezra. Just stay behind us.”

“I can fight.” Ezra tried to steady her voice as she opened the fan in her hand. A seemingly harmless object, or so Nyla thought.

The Faite began to wobble faster until they broke into a run, or what constituted as a run for misshapen creatures. Ezra threw her fan, like a boomerang, from her hand towards the oncoming Faite, and watched as it sliced through their throats like a knife through butter before returning toward her outstretched hand.

“Well, damn Ezra.” Rowan’s mouth hung open.

“I said we were Healers. I didn’t say we didn’t know how to defend ourselves.” Ezra tried to smile through her fear.

“At least leave some for me.” The enraged Faite attacked with more ferocity and charged toward the Sybils in anger.

“This is not a joke, Rowan. These are actual people.” Nyla deflected an attack before plunging her axe into the Faite’s back.

“Look who’s talking.” He retorted as he disembowelled three more Faite.

Enid imbued his magic into his staff before ramming it into the ground. The shockwave of the blast killed the Faite that approached him.

Kai twirled gracefully with his blade against his forearm as he, like a bladed tornado, sliced through his opponents before twisting, and shifting his blade’s position, to pierce another through its chest.

After the short battle, Nyla glared at Rowan. “Next time, Rowan, don’t say a word.” Rowan made as though he was zipping his lips shut and proceeded to throw away the key.

Enid twirled his staff, making it shrink again before looking toward his companions and beyond them. “Well, it seems we’ve lost our horses.” The Sybils looked behind them to discover that their horses had fled. Nyla replaced her axes behind her and huffed.

“That’s alright, Willow village is not far from here. I’m sure we’ll find more horses there.” Ezra said.

“Where did these Faite come from?” Nyla asked as she approached one of the fallen creatures. Her fingers stroked the torn shirt. Silk. “They’re Jade villagers.” She looked over at Kai. “Lilo said there were villagers unaccounted for.”

“This is disgusting.” Enid paced with his hands on his hips. “They were ordinary people just living their lives. They were stolen from their homes and experimented on.” He sighed in frustration. “This thief, whoever he is, is evil. We have to stop him before things get worse.”

“I’ll send word to Lilo.” Nyla stood. The discomfort in Kai’s eyes spoke volumes of how much it pained him to see his people hurt. And killed. He turned away and began to walk down the path they would lead them to the nearest village. She sighed as she looked at Enid. “I’ll cleanse the bodies. Will you go and be with Kai?”

He nodded. “Come on, Ezra.” He led her away by the elbow.

“You’re gonna cleanse the bodies?” Rowan asked.

“The Faite may be dead, but the Althea magic is still inside them. It could seep out, contaminate the area. Or worse, possess travellers passing by.” Rowan nodded.

Nyla opened her palms. Magic flowed out toward the bodies before her like a blanket. Black wisps began to rise from the bodies, swirling in the air like smoke. With a wave of her hand, Nyla’s magic began to wrap itself around the black smoke, trapping it in a cage of green. The two magics seemed to fight each other, one for freedom, the other to distinguish. With a snap of her wrist, Nyla’s magic whirled and compacted the black wisps before returning to her. She closed her palms, extinguishing her magic.

“Well, that was interesting.” Rowan said. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

Nyla smiled. “Maybe one day I’ll tell you.”