"You're sure that this is okay? It doesn't change the timeline?"
"For the hundredth time, no, it won't change the timeline. In fact, it may even aid it."
Dee and I are perched on branches of a tall black tree, watching as the redhead and healer speak quietly to the female assassin in the Inferno Clearing. We can't enter the charred grounds, so we can't very well hear what they're saying, but we know the gist of it.
Dee found me a few cycles after we lost the Mater Natura saying that there was something we needed to do. Me having been already fed up with her and Willa's grand plan of doing fucking nothing, I was more than anxious to do something.
She misted to the cabin and I followed without a second thought. I paused time at her command, the sun not yet rising but close to it. She gave me a piece of parchment with a protection rune on it and told me to find some rocks and form the symbol on the western side of the cabin. Seeing as it was the protection sigil, I didn't refuse. Then she told me to burn the trust sigil on the northern side. She got Mak to shift into a macaw and form the loyalty sigil with a string she had Tanith make for the unity symbol, tying branches together with twine or breaking them. She made the lines thick enough so that they would allow the light to shine down on the eastern side, but not too thick to where someone would look up and notice it.
The traitor symbol had to be done using Willa's blood. She's the only one with the bloodline and power to keep Sibella from revealing her location to Xaxias. Three small sigils surround it, all done in my, Dee's, and Mak's blood. They ensure that Sibella will never see the traitor sigil, leaving everyone else to see it perfectly fine. They can't, however, see the smaller sigils, but that's only because if the healer saw them she may be able to touch them and track where we are, and Willa's blood is too strong for her to do that.
For cycles, the healer has kept her discovery to herself, and when I found her showing the redhead, Dee practically leaped with joy. She misted here twenty minutes ago, nearly making me fall off of the branch that was big enough to hold me, but not both of us. I had to mist onto the one above it to keep it from snapping. She didn't seem at all concerned about the fact that we both nearly got ourselves discovered, and seeing as I'm now banned from taking a shift to watch over Darius, this is all I have left. I wasn't happy about it, but I bit my tongue. Hard.
"What's the timeline?" I ask, trying to keep my mind off of the splitting headache I'm beginning to get from being near the Inferno Clearing for so long. I still have six hours left of my shift.
"If I told you, there'd be no timeline."
"So you're saying that if we fuck this up the world will end."
"Or something awfully close to it." The silver in her eyes flickers, but they don't fully set.
"Seems rather dull."
"It's a possibility of the future Rohana, it's always rather dull."
"So then your power is dull?"
"You're dull."
"You can say that again."
She gives me an exasperated look, and I stick my tongue out at her, scrunching my nose in a way that she doesn't like because it's childish. Rolling her eyes, she stands casually on her branch and expertly balances on it as she walks to my side. I'd be concerned about one of the women below spotting her, but I trust her to know that none of them will look this way. She folds her arms on my branch by my hip, settling her chin on top of them. I always thought her tan skin, brown eyes, and light brown hair were rather basic, but she always makes the features look like an effortless beauty. I envy her for it.
"Yesterday was only the start of the beginning, and as far as I can see, the end is not so close as you're hoping." I sigh, having already assumed as much. "From now until then, our days will be filled with everything but dullness. That I can tell you without changing the timeline."
"I still hate you and your riddles, you know that?"
She gives me a knowing smile, her silver ring around her pupil shining with amusement. "I know, but that wasn't necessarily a riddle."
"Semantics," I sigh, waving a dismissive hand through the air.
She laughs, and I can't help but smile at the sound. I always love hearing my sisters laugh or smile or argue playfully. Every time they do so, it reminds me that despite what I may think – despite the poor decisions I've made, I've done right by them. Well...almost all of them, but none of us saw that coming, not even Dee. She said it was one in a thousand possibilities she saw, and she could never see past it, so she dismissed it. No one holds the weight of that decision more than her, but none of us could've done something to stop it from happening. That much I know, and I don't need to be a seer to do so.
She taps my leg twice to gain my attention since my eyes have fallen shut. "I'm sending Tanith and Nilsa here in two hours."
"For my company? How generous."
"You know why, Ro, but you can think of it as company if you'd like."
"How dull," I retort in a flat tone. I crack open an eye to see her smiling again. Then pokes me hard in the side, causing me to involuntarily cringe. She mists before I can push her off her branch, and I'm left shaking my head with an all too pleased smile.
When both Nilsa and Tanith are needed at the cabin, it's never good. They're the only ones who can keep the redhead from killing herself. Nilsa isn't just our champion, she can warp your reality to make you think that it's real. She's the one who changed Katarina's reality so that every tree she saw had a thorn bush in front of it. With Tanith having the ability of mind control – she can also induce dreams but doesn't use it in this case, - she can tap into Katarina's mind and ever so slightly alter a few things so that she can't tell the difference between the truth, and the false. We keep the tweaking to a minimum, that way the healer doesn't get a hint from her own power that we're near.
Still, every now and then they'll need me to freeze everyone else in time so that they don't see or hear anything. It's a frustration for the girl to be difficult, but Vanya lost a sister to depression, and we'll be damned if we put her through that memory of seeing what someone's mind is capable of. We can't obviously outright change her thoughts without changing a part of her personality, and then the healer would notice and go poking around until she found Tanith. It's a risk, and one Dee told us to stay clear of.
My head hurts like a bitch. It's like being stabbed in the skull with tiny little swords. I'm going to drive myself crazy if they don't get their asses moving. I could freeze time and take an hour or so to get rid of it, but then I'd still have six hours before I could leave. Speeding up time would do the trick, but Dee would be back here within seconds, arguments and screams already leaving her lips. So I'm stuck here trying not to pass out on a tree branch.
I send a thankful prayer to the Gods and their Saints when the women walk out of the clearing twenty minutes later. It was a long ass twenty minutes, but it could've been far longer, and I would've never survived that.
We make it back to the cabin and I tearlessly cry as I realize that I'll need to mist up into a tree to stay out of sight. I can't tell, but I have a vague sense of swaying as I stand a few trees from their clearing. I don't want to, but I put my hands out in front of me in preparation, and then pull up the power. I barely catch myself against the trunk when my vision goes dark. My nails dig into the frail wood, my thighs clenching to keep me on top of the branch as my eyesight slowly returns.
I'm happy when I find that I didn't fall, but then two high-pitched screeches echo through the air and I close my eyes tightly at the pain that the sound brings. I hate those two children with nearly every fiber of my being. They're fun to watch and all, along with the older teens who entertain them, but I'd rather hear the sound of them taking an hours long nap at the moment. Even the twin babies are quieter than them, and they're babies, they're supposed to wail and cry like their lives depend on it.
Gods even thinking hurts. I'd never thought I'd say this, but I'd give anything to have Willa give me a dose of Nightsweet. It's a strong sleeping elixir, capable of giving you a dreamless sleep and a worry-free night. It's normally used to keep people unconscious while a healer tries to mend a more fatal wound that will take a long time, but I just need some sleep. She probably has something that will get rid of my headache in a few minutes, but I haven't been sleeping properly, so that way I get the best of both worlds.
Pulling my cloak hood lower to block out the annoyingly bright sun, I try and watch over everyone without squinting too hard. That also hurts. They're playing another game, one that seems to involve a small red ball. I recognize the game from one I saw a group of young children playing in Histra one time. It's decently fun. I even had my sisters play it one time and called it "training." Of course, we took it way too seriously for a childhood game and ended up with bruises because we'd throw the ball too hard.
Or was it not hard enough? I can't remember.
The game is pretty simple. One person stands in the middle of the circle formed by the other players, holding the ball in their hands. That person will then throw the ball straight up into the air, and everyone will take off into a sprint away from the ball. When the ball reaches its peak, the person who threw it up will call out a number. Whoever was assigned that number out of the group, will then have to run back and get the ball. Once they have the ball in their possession, they yell out "Spud!" and everyone else must freeze in the midst of their running.
The person with the ball will then throw the ball at a person of their choosing. If they hit their intended target, then the person who got hit receives a letter in the order of the game's name. The first time they get hit they receive an S. Second time they get a P, third a U, and fourth a D. Once someone has received all four, the game ends. If the person who caught the ball misses, then they become the next person to throw the ball in the air and call out the number.
Hence why my sisters and I took it more so a competition than a playful game. We're all competitive, and it often results in Willa having to scold and punish us because we have the biggest of egos she's ever seen. She's not wrong, but it still bothers me when she says it. Out of everyone under Hollis Mountain, she's the most competitive. She's just more of a quietly competitive person. She won't always outright challenge you, but rather wait until you've turned your back or left to beat your odds. I hate it. Sometimes.
I catch sight of Roseia who's sitting on the lap of the less annoying assassin. He's sweet and kind to her, always keeping her company as she reads her books on foreign languages. I'm fluent in about nine languages, sketchy on another two. There's a lot of time in my immortal life that I had to fill, so I did as she's doing now. He seems to be helping her with this particular tongue, though I can't make out the cover of the book, and it hurts to squint to try and get a better look at it.
She still looks pale and red-nosed, but at least the smell of her stomach contents hasn't been one to plague my day yet.
I knock on the wood beneath me before my thoughts get me into another shithole.
The smell would probably worsen my headache, and that's the last thing I need. I was sitting by the Inferno Clearing for two hours, Dee was only there for thirty minutes, likely minorly affected and now perfectly fine. Once again, I envy her.
We haven't seen anything like what was in Tanith's memory since, but there's no guarantee that it won't happen again. The child's power is one to fear, and we've been keeping two eyes on Sibella ever since. She would've felt what the girl has, what she holds. It's only a matter of time before she tries to take the girl and run. I'd be happy to put that wench into a dark cell deep underground where no one will hear her, but Dee has also shot down that option until such a time comes – if it comes. Which, according to her, isn't the strongest of possibilities. Still, we've learned from our past mistakes.
The witch is now currently running away as the obviously Thralian slash fake Vandarian Captain of the Guard throws the ball in the air. He calls out a number as the ball comes to a slight slow in the air, and I grin madly when she turns around, cursing as she chases the bouncing ball before picking it up, and yelling the game's name. I'm tempted to freeze time to go down there and launch her throw back at her face, but that would surely make me faint to hold the power steady for the amount of time that would take. Not to mention that all nine of my sisters, plus Willa, would be here within the minute to give me a black eye.
Vanya brought news four days ago from her shift on watching the Pater Princeps, and since then we've added checking the western border of the forest that touches the coast to our shifts. This headache better be gone before then, or I'm going to steal the pretty horse sitting by the porch and take her to the coast. The jolting movements would probably be more agonizing than mist dizziness and blackout that may not last too long, but I'm keeping my options open.
Speaking of the duplicate demon, black smoke temporarily blocks my vision as she mists in front of me. I keep my eyes on the people below, but I don't miss her scrunched face as she surveys me. "You look like complete shit."
"I'm not a mirror Vanya, stop talking to me like I am." I wince at the gruffness of my voice. I haven't sounded like this since...
"Ungrateful wench," she snaps harshly. "I came here to finish your shift."
"I'm perfectly capable of finishing it on my own."
"Tell that to your head."
"Shhhh, stop talking, you're making it worse."
"Gods Ro, you seem so mellow. You clearly need to get fixed up." I can hear the grin on her lips.
"Fuck off."
"So you don't want that Nightsweet you were wishing for earlier?"
I don't answer, knowing all too well that she knows she had me when she told me she was here to finish my shift. I hate that as Lady One I should be showing strength and right now I'm showing anything but. The little orphans scream again, and Vanya has to catch my shoulders to keep me from falling.
"No one's going to shame you for wanting some rest after going near that hell hole of a piece of land. Besides, they're too busy shaming you for your horrible shield reinforcements to care."
I shove energy into my eyes to glare at her. "Gee, thanks."
"You're very welcome. Now, drink."
"Shhhh. Talk quieter," I whisper. I can already hear my words starting to slur together. It sounded more like "tallwhieter."
"Oh, you poor baby." She puts a vial to my lips, and I let her pour the Nightsweet into my mouth. It starts off tasting super sugary honey-sweet, hence the name, but it has a horrible metallic aftertaste to it. Luckily, the elixir works quickly, pulling you into sleep before you can fully process it. I barely feel the pain as she mists us back to my rooms. I want to tell her that though it'll take seconds for her to mist back, a lot can happen in those seconds, but she probably has one of her duplicates watching while she deals with me.
The last thing I remember is my pillow and then grateful darkness.
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