Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Thirty Two: The Boy With Her Face •EDITED•

October, Year 483
Forest of Lacau
State of Nicia
North

The forest was quiet. Too silent to be real but too physical to be nothing but an illusion crafted by the whispering night.

There were no chirping birds or screeching insects crawling along the forest floor, every creature seemed to be invested in a slumber that would never end.

The fog was a haze that swamped the sound of nature until it was inexistent, deafening. The resulting silence was eerie, almost tangible as it wrapped around everything that needed to breathe.

Then there was the darkness. If it had a color it would be a blurry white, but there was no such thing as color without light to reflect the absent hue. And there was no light, not anymore.

The moon was gone, like a candlelight snuffed out by midnight when morning was sure to come at dawn.

Esau felt like it would go on for an eternity. But light would always come back in the form of the moon, the sun, the countless stars that should dot the sky with twinkling rays—if they still existed somewhere, out in the universe. It was a fact.

He hoped it was.

In a way he was thankful for the emptiness around him. It masked his failure with a suffocating sense of claustrophobia. The silence pressed hard against his lungs, the darkness scratched his skin uncomfortably. . . It distracted him.

Failure wasn't something Esau faced very often.

He couldn't breathe, and he didn't really want to. The night was over. . . there was no way to leave Lacau today. Everything that he and Edythe did today was worthless; they hadn't gotten far enough into the forest to stay and continue the next day.

They had to go back to the workshop, but he had no idea where Edythe was and he couldn't leave without her.

He had no idea where she was.

The thought frightened him more than the darkness.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" a quiet voice whispered from in front of him and Esau tried not to jump at the sudden noise.

"Great Ali, just scare me to death." Esau hissed and swiped at the air by his face.

Ten minutes ago Esau had tried to convince himself that it was a coincidence that the forest had been shrouded in darkness the moment he and the fake Edythe were about to attack each other. And that it was a greater coincidence that less than a minute later the fake had stopped trying to kill him.

Sadly, Esau didn't believe in coincidences. Something must have happened.

"It's Aleron Alun," the voice hissed back with a serpentine twist to it's words, "say it right."

"Can you please stop wearing my sister's face now?" Esau said with a hint of annoyance and let out a huff.

"I haven't gotten any orders not to."

"Have you gotten any orders to continue?"

A snort replied Esau's question. "You can't even see my—her—face."

"Al—"

"Aleron Alun."

"Sorry, I can't pronounce that, and each time I try you shout at me. How is it spelt?"

"It. . . What is spelt?"

Esau paused and hit his palm on his forehead, this was incredulous. They were supposed to be trying to kill each other, not discussing names and other trivialities. But still, he couldn't help but keep talking. "Al, what should we do now?"