I Am Seer - Book 3

Chapter 12 - Messages In The Wind

Ayan refused to be tied down by the Eighth physicians no matter how much they pleaded. Try as the rest of us did to convince him that he needed to rest, nothing we did and no locked door seemed capable of keeping him in bed. As if he were possessed by some crazed notion that he needed to get as physically strong as possible, he "rested" for the first day and a half by walking purposefully around the fortress and drinking as much broth as he could stomach to help him prepare for real food again.

By the end of the second day, he wanted to start strength training and coerced Martimus and Bohai into helping him. The words he'd spoken that day on the balcony seemed far too real for him, and it set the rest of us a little on edge to see him so prepare so fiercely for whatever we would face Below. Whatever else we had to do, he seemed to think we were going to need every last ounce of strength we possessed if we had even the slightest chance of surviving, and since he was the only one of us who had actually been Below, we had no reason to doubt his convictions.

I watched him work with an ever-increasing sense of anxious impatience broiling within me. Hawking his every move, I searched for the signs that he was regaining some of his health the Eighth physicians sought before they would allow us to leave. All I could think about over the week and a half that passed were the awful things happening Below that I could do nothing about. My nights became so filled with bloody nightmares that I could no longer separate them from reality, and surrounded as I was by friends, inwardly, I felt desperately alone as if I'd been abandoned to face all of this on my own.

By the time we were halfway through the second week, I could no longer convince myself that sleep was a better option than exhaustion. Waking after less than a half hour spent half asleep in rigid horror, I stumbled onto the balcony outside my room with Kotaro's ragged screams still echoing in my ears. I had to get out of here. I had to stop them. I couldn't wait any longer—for Ayan or anyone else. The thoughts pulsed through my brain on repeat as I struggled to calm to the erratic beating of my heart.

"How can you still be so convinced this is the correct choice when you look like this?" I started at the sound of the voice.

The Wind had been strangely absent since Ayan returned. At first, I had enjoyed the relative silence, but that hadn't lasted for very long. I had quickly grown tired of being left to wallow in my damning thoughts, but there had been nothing to distract me from myself in those moments of alone time.

"Where have you been?" I said tersely.

"Around." The Wind replied simply. "You didn't listen to me when I tried to talk, so I thought you'd decided you didn't need me." It actually sounded offended.

"Then why are you back?" I said.

"I wanted to see you." The Wind said.

"Oh." I sighed, unable to think of anything else to say.

"So?" The Wind drew nearer. "Have you changed your mind yet?"

"I don't want to talk about this." I shook my head, half turning to go back into my room as if that would enable me to escape the formless Being.

"I do." The Wind lifted me off the ground before I could cross the threshold. "Because if you go there, he will take you and kill you. It's not worth you losing your life to save that man. There are plenty of other men in the world that you can have. I could bring some to you."

"Put me down." I growled. "I'm not in the mood for your games."

"Because you know I'm right." The Wind ignored my command. "You will die, and none of your little friends will be able to save you."

"What am I supposed to do then? Sit around and pretend everything is fine?" I grunted, continuing to struggle despite knowing how ridiculous my efforts were.