Immortals | ✓

18 | aethera

It was then that I felt each of my limbs come back to life. I had them under my control after what seemed like days but had been merely few hours. 

"You know what will happen if you choose to run the other way," she warned me and in the absence of a single soul around, I complied. As if there was anything else I could have done. 

For whatever reason she had bewitched me long enough to take me away from Art and everyone else, it was imperative that I should survive this and her. If she had to kill me, in the lack of my powers, she would have done it long time back. Moreover, what choice did I have left except to follow her inside the cabin?

"Is it too soon to question you?" I asked as I cautiously took my first steps inside the minimally furnished home. 

She took a seat on the old chair by the fireplace, an ideal setting for her. She fireplace was blazing within seconds as she continued to ignore my existence. Her eyes, which had been fixated on me for a very long time, were now blazing in the light of the fire. I calculated my steps, I watched her as fixatedly as she had watched me before. It felt weird to sit opposite to her in a companion chair, willingly allowing myself to be in her company. 

"They have swindled you enough," she said, small smile playing against the corner of her lips. 

"Who has?"

"The ones with you, who claim to be like you. I don't blame Art, the poor fellow is as clueless as you but my God, does Rubyn work his magic fast," if it made any sense, at the mention of Rubyn, her eyes were gleaming with the kind of anger I had seen in Art when the attack had happened and as if on cue, the scar around the eye was lightly illuminated too. Maybe it was my eyes, playing a trick on me but something in her had finally shifted. 

"So, that's it? You abducted me to turn me against them? What is this, divide and conquer?" I asked, trying my best to not walk right into her trap and get killed. Whoever she was, whatever her motive was, she was powerful enough to restrain me again and who would that serve?

"You're naive, but I don't blame you," she whispered, the smile wiped off her face as her eyes refused to meet mine. "How long did it take you to find them? And after everything, how long did it take for them to trust you? They knew who Art was all along. They trusted him, helped him. Clarissa, right? I heard she has been training him all along while you were locked in your room."

"My powers haven't -"

"Excuses," she muttered, annoying me further. 

"How is that an excuse?" I pressed ahead in my pressed state. 

"If and when you meet Rubyn again, do me a favour and direct these questions to him," her eyes finally turned to face me and I knew she wasn't bullshitting. How? Let's just call it intuition. 

"He claims you're rare, he claims that you are of Primordial blood, just like him and yet for days, knowing your capabilities, he beats around the bush and doesn't help you at all, because trust me, he could have. He drags you across the continent, preserves you next to Art and in fear, doesn't even bother to travel next to you, while warning you of safety concerns," she chuckled, getting up from her seat to pour herself a drink from the rather elaborate bar for two. 

"What's your point? Because I don't see how he could have helped with my powers, I don't see how any of this builds up to any point that you're making," If I am pressed, I am pressed, "He did not kidnap me, like you. I walked up to him. I was patient, I am still patient."

"And will this patience make you the greatest Athanatoi ever?" she asked, sipping her drink. 

"I don't want to be -"