Memoirs of a Fallen God

Chapter 26

She looked at me very strangely, then. As though she were weighing and measuring me, and the tally left her downright confused. “And how did you follow me? Even if you can somehow…” She stopped herself, shaking her head. “Even if you saw me, it’s still dark, and you soldiers aren’t allowed to wander about and learn the lay of the town. And yet you tracked me like a dog with a scent. How?" 

I opened my mouth to explain, then quickly decided that telling a girl you had followed a girl by her smell, however pleasant, was likely not a great method to gain her favor. “I…I guess I got lucky and took the right turns." 

She barked a laugh. “As if I'm going to believe that. Do you have any idea how preposterous you are?" 

“Vaguely,” I said, trying for a smile and probably not succeeding.”

She shook her head, setting waves of dark hair shimmering in the torchlight. “You truly don’t. You shouldn’t have noticed the way I was staring at you in the tavern. You shouldn’t have seen anything at all. Look,” she said, pointing at the ground where our shadows played across the road.

Or, I should say, where my reflection played. Though we stood mere inches apart, of her shadow there was no sign, though my own was perfectly clear.

“That, I said,” as I stared at the ground, “is very strange. You really are a ghost, then?” For some reason, the revelation would not have surprised me in the slightest. In fact, it fit her perfectly. Yet I didn't really believe it. Standing so close to her, she seemed far too alive for any ghost.

She laughed. “A ghost?” She stepped closer to me and my heart picked up the pace. “Do I look like a ghost to you, soldier boy? 

My breath quickened, my brain took a turn toward mush, but bravado demanded a more measured response. “Well, no. But how would I know what a ghost looked like? In fact, you may have taken on this form just to lure me into a dark alleyway. To steal my soul, or something like that. Whatever you ghosts do to noble, well-intentioned young soldiers." 

She grinned a dazzling grin. ”I think, were I the seducing, soul stealing sort of spirit, I would have picked a form a little more likely to entice." 

No,” I said, shaking my head and giving my eyes just the slightest slack to roam. ”No. I think you chose perfectly.”

And wonder of wonders, she blushed. 

She rallied a moment later, though, obviously annoyed with herself for the blush. “I am no ghost. What I am is an Adept of the Veil. And right now I shouldn’t be visible to…well, to anyone. Not a glimmer. Not a hint. And yet here you are, following me in the near dark without a second thought.” She glanced up at me, brushing hair from her eyes. “Why do you think that is…and what is your name?”

An Adept? Well. It certainly made more sense than a ghost. Adepts were magic users; I'd never heard of one able to turn invisible, but that meant almost nothing. My ignorance on the subject was profound.

I shrugged at her question. “I’m Telth, and I have no idea. I’m just a soldier, and not even a very good one. What’s your name?” 

“Myara,” she said absently, obviously still trying to figure out what to make of me. After a time she sighed. “For now, I suppose there’s nothing for it but to have you keep on following me.” 

“Follow you?” I asked. That sounded well enough--but instincts of survival warred with standard sixteen year old male hormones. Following her could either be very good, or very, very bad.

For once prudence prevailed. “I won’t just follow you because you’re pretty and you ask me to. I’ll need you to tell me where we’re going.”