First Contact (2)

4

Kyritus gripped Tiber tight, trying to ease her crying.

"Brother! I'm scared."

"It'll be okay," he said, not believing his own words. Since his father opened Hestiafern when he was five, Kyritus had seen his fair share of deaths. He had seen brawls, mobs, and duels. And he had seen the tavern turn silent when royal guards walked into it. But he had yet to experience a situation where a fight silenced the adventurers. That meant that whoever was there was a ranked—and a high one. "I need to go—"

"No!" Tiber gripped his arm.

"They're looking for me. If I show up, I can do something about it. If I don't, it'll put you in danger." That was a fact, but five-year-olds didn't listen to facts.

"Please…" she sobbed.

Kyritus felt like someone was hanging him with his own intestines. He was scared, too. He didn't want to go. He just wished that whoever it was would just go away and—

Knock! Knock! Knock!

His heart thrummed in his chest, taking away his breath. He listened in horror, trying to find the words to answer the person on the other side of the door.

"Kyritus?" a soft, conflicted voice called out. It wasn't from a burly adventurer or a guard. It was the voice… of a girl. Somewhere around his age. She sounded… sick. Or about to be. As someone who had spent most of his life cleaning puke from a bathroom, he knew that sound. "Yes?" he asked.

"I have… fuck me. Three minutes? Two? I need to speak with you. Please open the door."

Kyritus looked at Tiber and found her… calm. The little leeta was damn near an empath. When she hid from someone who walked in, the adventurers kicked them out. Those people were usually jailed, hanged, or ran out of town within a year. The opposite was true of other people. If someone was good, she opened up immediately. It was strange how calm she was.

"Okay…." Kyritus swallowed and opened the door.

What he found on the other side… wasn't what he was expecting. It was a young blonde around his age, and even through her hood, he could tell she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met. Perfect even. And the way she was blushing and cringing, biting her lip and gripping her fists as if she was embarrassed and angry at herself… was cute. That shouldn't be the reaction he was having toward the woman who just wrecked his tavern and silenced a house of adventurers! "Ummm…. Can I help you?"

She developed a wry smile. "Ummm, yeah? I mean, yes. God. This isn't how I was expecting this meeting to go. You know? I had a thousand scenarios in my head, and wrecking your bar and…. God damn it. I don't have much time, and I'm not very good with words, so I'll just say it." She looked him dead in the eye. "Marry me."

5

Fuck. That was the first thought that Sara had after making her request, and it's the only thought that elegantly captured 100% of the situation. Having her first statement to Kyritus ending with a blunt marriage proposal was a humiliation born in the First Terrace of Purgatory, where people go to atone for pride. It was sickening. Somehow, given another chance to make a better impression, she found an introduction far worse than puking on his shoes. Yeah, "fuck" summed it up.

Still, she couldn't help it. When she saw him, she just kinda lost it. He was younger and clean-shaven instead of sporting his sandy-colored beard, but it was still him. And, after eight months of absolute hell, fighting a demon army, killing Agronus, and getting everything stripped from her, she just wanted him to hold her again. But that's not how it worked. Now, her cheeks were burning, and she was regretting it.

"Are… you okay?" Kyritus asked. "Please, come sit down…."

"I… can't," Sara said. "As I said, I have three minutes. No, I wasted one, and I need the other two. So listen to me, Kye. You don't know who I am, and that makes me really, really bitter. But I know you, and more importantly, I know your sister. And I…."

A violent wave of nausea hit her, ordering her to puke up everything in her stomach. Natural response, given that she purposely ate one of the most notorious poisons on the entire fucking planet. But she refused her body's defense mechanisms, swallowing down the acid to save herself from embarrassment, even though that should be the least of her worries. Any moment now, she would break out in hives and start convulsing—that was the point.

Sara didn't want anyone to know of Kyritus and Tiber's existence, especially King Escar—a king with a track record of jailing heroes—and Jason—a man who hunted her, Kyritus, and Tiber down in her last life. That's why she set up a scenario where she could make contact with them without anyone even realizing she had left Edico's watch. The problem was that she needed a great fucking excuse for why she walked into Alexbrook Tavern, handed a bartender a plant worth a couple thousand griffins, and then didn't say another word to him. Running away to hurl her fucking guts out from tista poisoning was per~fect. But right now…

"Seriously, you don't look good," Kyritus said. "You can't—"

"I just said…. Fuck. Here." Sara pulled a package covered in a silver bag, unprofessionally tattooed with arrays. When she opened it up, Kyritus's body swayed, jaw slack, gasping for breath as he accepted it. In his hands was a beautiful jar filled with a hypnotic glowing plant sporting white leaves with blue tips. "This is—"

"Silver…." Sara coughed. "…moon bloom. Yes." Originally, she planned to clip part of the first plant off because it didn't take much to cure tyrexis, but she found two. When Edico left last night, she woke up, thankfully, and forced herself through the woods outside Edico's sphere of perception and clipped it before returning. It drained her, but she pulled it off. "It's legitimate. I picked it last night. I'm going to have…." Sara's body convulsed, and she gripped her stomach.

"Hey! Let me help you!" Kyritus said. He tried to reach out, but he panicked, realizing that he was holding the flower.

Sara folded over, thrusting out her hand while taking deep breaths. "For the love of fucking God, please listen."

He stopped moving, hearing the seriousness in her voice.

"Keep that bag on it at all times. Otherwise, that thing's gonna shine like a fucking star under a divination spell. It will get stolen." Suddenly, her body broke into cold sweats. "If Tiber… gets really sick…. she can eat a petal… but the moment… you open that jar, it'll die. So don't do it… unless necessary. I'll…." Sara took deep breaths, feeling strange distortion moving up her limbs. "Get someone out here… to make the medicine."

Kyritus's eyes trembled. "I don't understand. I couldn't possibly—"

"This isn't about you," Sara snapped. "That's for Tiber." Her eyes glided into the room, and her heart skipped a beat. Tiber was staring at her with wide eyes, sitting up on her own. Even pale and sickly, Tiber looked better than she did on a good day when Sara met her. Four years in the future, she only spent two hours outside her bed a day—four after Sara cured her. But in this life… Sara could cure her almost completely. There was hope, and that made her well with emotions as she looked at Kyritus again. "She doesn't know me, but… I love her… too. So don't question… my motives here. That would make me… sad." At that moment, the depth of her loss felt boundless, and she felt like she'd never be able to fill it again.

Kyritus gripped the silvermoon bloom to his chest, deep emotions cutting lines in his face. Just the look made Sara wince. It was time to go. "Wait for the apothecary," she said. "It'll take… a while. Probably a year." With those instructions, she flicked Kyritus a golden griffin, and when he picked it up, both hands full, she rushed down the stairs as fast as her sick body could carry her, stumbling past the silent, watching adventurers as she reached the door.

Kyritus was faster than expected. Somehow, he found a safe place to put the plant (God knows he'd protect it with his life) and rushed down the stairs, yelling, "Where'd she go?" right as she was shutting the door.

"She left," Jant replied. "That's where. Hey, wait! Don't go after her. Are you crazy, boy?"

"Get out of my way! I need to see her!"

Sara froze. Part of her wanted to stay, praying for a fairytale ending where he came out, making declarations and saying something cringe-worthy like, I don't love you yet, but I will try my best! The other part was afraid he'd come out and accept her marriage proposal, not because he loved her, but out of obligation. "I owe my life to you" mentality. Just the thought of that…. Sara started pushing through the crowd, trying to fight past the spins. Withdrawal was kicking in, and it felt like ants were crawling up her arms. This wasn't the time to think about love.

Sara rushed into the crowd, shielding herself behind a couple just as Kye shot out of the tavern. "Wait!" he yelled. "Please wait!"

Suddenly, there was a pause, slow and pervasive, passing through the lives of the bustling citizens. They all stopped walking in unison, first checking if he was talking to them and then waiting for what he'd say. Sara swallowed, her heart pounding, keeping hidden behind the crowd.

"Come back for a meal!" Kye yelled. His voice was younger, but it was still the same. So similar yet distant, there yet unobtainable. He was saying exactly what she thought he would say, but not to her. The Kyritus from her last life would've never asked her to come back for a meal. She just did. It was an expectation. An unspoken truth.

"I… want to meet you!" Kye yelled, freezing all her emotions on the spot. "I may not know who you are, but… I want to. A lot…."

Sara felt a hot tear streak down her cheek like a meteorite, hitting her chin and curving down her neck to her collarbone. Suddenly, the next three days of hell felt worth it. "Okay…" she whispered.

Then she disappeared into the crowd, rushing toward Alexbrook Tavern, praying that she didn't break down halfway and start convulsing in the streets.