"Shej, hurry up!" Twyn hollered.
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to find my other sneaker," Shej said as she came running down the stairs, shoes in hand. She sat on the couch and quickly slipped them on. "I still had them in a storage tote otherwise I would have had them by the door. Why are you in such a hurry anyway?"
"One of the shops in the market is having a really good sale for prime cuts of boar. I want to make sure we get the best offerings for the Week of Giving."
"Have fun you two," Leena said, sitting down on the couch and propping her feet up, a book in hand. "Take an umbrella, it's to start raining again later today."
"Thanks," Shej said with a smile, kissing the top of Leena's head. "We'll be back soon."
"You sure you don't want to go spend this down time with Ily and Arwen?" Twyn asked as Shej went out the door.
"I think I just want to enjoy the quietness of being alone for a little bit. I won't have much of that once motherhood comes."
"True. Well, send a bird if you need anything."
Leena waved him away and Twyn left, running after Sheja who was already a ways down the path.
"So, what else do you want for dinner? Bean casserole? Yams?" Twyn asked as they approached the marketplace. He smiled as Shej's arm was wrapped around his, walking slow together side by side.
"Everything sounds delicious. I mean, there are seven nights, we can make a little of everything," she said.
Twyn laughed heartily. "That's a lot of work, especially since we're the ones having to do the cooking this year. I'm not letting either Ily or Leena off their feet."
"They're worth the effort though," Sheja said softly, smiling as she reached out and briefly picked up a peach, inhaling it's sweet smell. "Plus, this is the first year we're all really excited about the Week of Giving. Let's really have a go at it and make it memorable."
"Yeah, I suppose you've got a point," Twyn said as they continued to walk around.
Shej stopped in her tracks and looked around, Twyn stopping just after and looking back at her.
"What's up?" Twyn asked quietly, noticing Shej looking slightly troubled.
"I feel it again."
"Like you're being watched?"
"Yeah."
"Actually, you're not wrong. On your six," Twyn said softly.
Shej slowly turned around and saw a young woman on the other side of the plaza staring straight at her. She realized neither her nor Twyn would have noticed her if it hadn't been for her piercing blue eyes that stood out like a beacon. Her heart thumped hard in her chest.
"Should we say something to her?" Twyn asked.
Shej stayed silent as the woman broke her stare and turned, walking away from the plaza.
"Let's follow her," he said, taking Shej's hand and pulling her along. At first Sheja hesitated but it didn't take much to get her to move along with him. "This is the best chance that we're going to get for some answers."
Both Shej and Twyn broke into a jog to try catch up but after just a few corners, the woman was gone.
"There's no one here, she couldn't have just vanished!" Twyn said, doing a full circle, looking around.
"What does she want with me? I just want answers!" Shej yelled out loud in anger. She let out a growl, slamming the side of her fist against the nearby wall.
"Hey! Whoa!" Twyn said, grabbing Shej's hand and looking it over. "You're going to hurt yourself if you let yourself get angry like that."
"Sorry," Shej said. She sighed heavily before a sharp pain seared down the full length of her back and she let out a loud cry.
Twyn turned and saw the woman standing directly behind them, a blade in her hand lightly coated in red and her eyes glowing a practically unnatural blue. As Shej leaned against the wall with one hand touching her lower back, Twyn jumped at the woman, grabbing her wrist with one hand to try wrangle the blade away from her, swinging the umbrella at her with his other.
She let out a growl and spun herself into Twyn as if they were dancing, but the force knocked a little bit of wind out of him and set him off balance. He had let go of her wrist and she pushed him back, sending a kick into his stomach just as he reached the right distance away from her.
Twyn toppled backwards, his head hitting the pavement hard as he landed.
"Twyn!" Shej yelled, seeing her best friend motionless on the ground as he was temporarily knocked out. Her heart raced as her nightmares of Twyn lying dead on the ground tried to blind her but she shook her head, shaking away the images before she bolted at the woman. Just as she was about to tackle the woman, the woman flung around with one arm raised above her head.
"You die!" the woman yelled, her eyes wide and full of danger.
Silver shined in a flash as the woman slashed quickly down toward Shej, Shej letting out another agonized yell as the blade sliced her arm. She panted as the searing pain ran across her wrist and down the full length of her forearm, but she knew it was that or get stabbed in the chest if she hadn't thrown her arms up in defense. "What the fuck is your problem with me!?" Shej yelled, the rain starting to fall heavily as the sky opened up the floodgates.
"What the fuck is your problem with me!?" Shej yelled, the rain starting to fall heavily as the sky opened up the floodgates.
The woman didn't answer but instead lunged at Sheja again. Shej grabbed her and side stepped, using all of her weight to throw the woman down on the ground and straddle her. She watched as the blade flung several feet away towards Twyn.
"Twyn! Help!" Shej called seeing him starting to slowly sit himself up.
The woman threw a punch straight up and connected with Shej's jaw, instantly making her see stars. She pushed Shej over, trying to turn the pin on Shej but Shej threw her legs up, grabbing the woman around her face with her ankles and slamming her backwards.
There was a sudden loud ringing in Sheja's ears and she could hear her heart pounding. She laid on the ground with her eyes wide, trying to come to her senses as the dizziness set in. The woman slowly started wriggling again but as Shej's sight started to tunnel, she realized she couldn't move anymore. She panicked, not understanding what was wrong with her, not realizing she was quickly losing consciousness from her wrist bleeding profusely.
As the woman got to her feet, she swung one foot into Shej's side. Shej curled into the pain naturally, coughing and gasping from the impact.
"Now you die," the woman said, rolling Shej onto her back again and kneeling one knee down on Sheja's chest. She cut Shej's cry of pain short as she wrapped both hands around her neck and began to squeeze tightly.
Suddenly the woman's grasp released and she yelled out in pain almost like a banshee, Twyn having gotten to his feet and stabbed the woman in the shoulder with her own dagger.
At all the commotion that had only lasted a few moments, three guards finally came running around the corner. One grabbed Twyn and pulled him away while the other two quickly grabbed the woman as she tried to turn on Twyn again.
The woman screamed in anger as they restrained her, the blade still sticking out of her shoulder though she acted almost like she didn't even know it was there. She seemed out of her own mind as if she was kind of self-destructing.
Twyn stood wide eyed as he watched them subdue her. He looked over to Shej and his heart sank seeing her on the ground and barely moving. He pushed away from the guard and knelt next to her, looking her over quickly. His biggest concern was the laceration along the length of her arm as it was deep and her sliced sweater was soaked in blood.
"I can't help her with this, I need to get her over to the hospital. She's lost a lot of blood from this cut," Twyn said to the guard who had pulled him away at first. As he finished tying a tourniquet tightly around her upper arm and picked her up, he felt the warm wetness along her back. He threw his head back to focus himself, knowing that even though the rain was falling hard again, Shej had not been laying in a solid puddle of water. He also knew that even if she had been, it wouldn't be this warm. He looked back down at her as she had gone limp in his arms, the color from her flesh fading as the blood still trickled to the ground from her wrist, "We had this discussion, Shej. You don't get to die. Not like this."
Cerno rushed into the whitewashed and sterile looking hospital lobby. He saw Twyn sitting with his head hanging almost between his knees in the corner, alone. "What happened!?" he asked, concerned. As Twyn sat up to look at Cerno, Cerno could see the dried blood streaking down his face from an abrasion he had sustained and his clothes splattered with blood. He quickly assessed that his head had already been healed and sat next to him.
"Chick attacked us," he started. "Shej felt watched and we had noticed her. She was being suspicious so we followed her to try ask her some questions, but she got a jump on us and sliced Shej a few times. The one she sustained on her back was superficial, but the cut on Shej's arm was pretty deep." Twyn stopped to take a few deep breaths and collect himself. "Shej's been in healing for her arm, they said it might take an hour or two cuz the bitch sliced Shej's wrist open. Cer, if I hadn't gotten her here any sooner, the blood loss from that wound would have been too great. I've...I've never seen that much blood before..." he trailed off as he looked down at his clothes before leaning over again.
"And the woman?" Cerno asked softly.
"Two of the guards apprehended her," Twyn stated, reaching up slowly and touching his head. "She's here too. They're removing the dagger I planted in her shoulder."
"Should have killed her, she'll die by the hands of my justice anyway," Cerno growled.
"Actually, she has passed away, Sir," one of the guards said softly, bowing as he approached.
"What?" Twyn asked, looking up in shock. "I hit nothing vital!"
"The Healers don't know what happened. She started seizing and foaming at the mouth. They have determined either she committed suicide, or had an underlying condition that was triggered by the fight. They're leaning toward the first suspicion though. You're not to blame for her death, Mr. Sherson."
"No, but if she's dead I wish I was!" he growled. "Suicide is a cowards way out! And her being dead means no answers. Getting answers was the only reason I didn't kill her!"
"Twyn, we will still get information," Cerno assured. He turned back to the guard again. "Please have Madeleine come, I would like her to use her source on the deceased woman."
"Right away, Sir."
"Twyn, Madeleine will look into the woman's past and see if there is anything to tell," Cerno said. "Now, how about you? Have you been completely evaluated?"
"I have a concussion from my head slamming into the ground. They were able to heal the cut though and stop the bleeding quickly for me." Twyn growled angrily as he sat in thought.
"Twyn, you need to calm yourself and relax. I know that's difficult to ask of you right now but the stress raises your blood pressure, and that's not something you need with a concussion."
Twyn clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles turned bright white, but after a few seconds he relaxed them, letting out a heavy sigh.
Cerno tried to comfort Twyn by rubbing his hand across the back of Twyn's shoulder.
"Have you told the girls yet?" Twyn asked quietly, his face facing the floor again as he sat with his eyes closed.
"Not yet."
"Not telling them is just going to piss them off," Twyn said.
"It is better to let them be ignorant to the matter instead of having them aware and let them be full of worry. I myself would rather be angry and forgive, rather than sit and be scared."
"You have a point."
"Mr. Angevin, Mr. Sherson?" a Healer said softly to catch their attention as he approached. "I am happy to inform you that we have closed all of Sheja's wounds. Right now she's finishing a transfusion from how much blood she lost, but she's awake and I can release her within the hour."
"Good," Cerno said, standing. Just as he got to his feet, Rose and Madeleine both entered the lobby. "Oh Madeleine, thank you for making it on such a short notice," he said, walking up and taking her hand, kissing it politely. He turned back to the Healer once more. "Doctor, while we wait for Sheja to be released, I would like my Timekeeper to examine the body of the woman who tried to kill her."
"I can allow that," he said. "This way."
"Are you up for this, Maddie?" Rose asked as they walked.
She nodded.
The Healer led them to a cold room that was full of steel. The woman was already laid out on one of the steel tables, covered in a white sheet up to her shoulders, her dark wavy brown hair freely fanned out beneath her.
As Madeleine reached her hand out and placed it on the sheet above the woman's chest, she noticed the temperature of the woman was a strange in-between. Not warm, but not yet cold. It was hard for her to process that this woman was alive just a short time ago.
Twyn wrapped his arms around his chest. The woman looked so much smaller now that he wasn't in the middle of fighting for his best friend's life.
Madeleine sighed softly and pulled the sheet back just enough to place her hand in the same spot but directly down onto the woman's flesh. She closed her eyes. "She's been scavenging around the city for months, I can see pictures of Sheja all over her house. There's someone there but I can't see their face and I can't hear any voices."
"Has that happened before?" Cerno asked.
"No, but I haven't used my source on a corpse before, I haven't had the chances to practice my Timekeeping like this. This might be her memories slipping into an abyss and I can't grab them as strongly as an experienced Timekeeper could," she said, continuing to focus and replay the last several months, processing what she could. "But as I search for things about Sheja, the person I can't see might just not be pertinent, maybe just an unknowing family member." Madeleine went silent for a moment before continuing again. "She's younger than me, maybe 14? Her name is...her name is..." Madeleine furrowed her brow and groaned.
"Madeleine? Are you okay?" Cerno asked quietly.
"I'm fine. I'm having trouble getting her name, she doesn't want it known. Sala...Sala...shai? Salashai? That seems too different, or too random."
"No, I think that's it. I remember passing through a town," Twyn said, sounding heartbroken, "and there was a missing poster for a 13 year old girl. Of course, missing children are no laughing matter, but I remember Ily laughed at it because she first read it as salsa. She wondered who would name their kid that. The more I look at her face though, the more I remember of that poster."
Madeleine focused further back into the past. "She's a runaway. Wait, no...I see she had caring parents who protected her because she's a Taboo, but someone kidnapped her and dumped her in the middle of nowhere." Madeleine started sobbing softly, leaning over the girl.
Rose immediately came up and wrapped her arms around her sister. "You don't have to do anymore, you've done a great job."
"That's not it, Rosie. She was a Seer, a Reader...she could see thoughts. That's why I couldn't hear voices. They weren't talking. And I can see the person who kidnapped her. I can see his thoughts, and I can see all of him." Madeleine took her hand off of the girl for a moment as sorrow filled her chest knowing this girl met a fate too many Taboos had. She looked down at her face and instantly screamed, falling backward into Rosalie who held her tight. Salashai's eyes were wide open and staring straight at her.
Everyone in the room jumped at the sudden terror filled scream, both the doctor and Cerno rushing up and checking the girl. Her flesh was still cooling and she still had no pulse—there was no reason for her eyes to have opened like they had. Her eyes were still such an extravagant blue that it was like they would glow in the dark, but there was no shine, no life in them. Cerno ran his hand over her face, closing her eyes once more.
"How the hell?" Rose asked, standing back up straight as she had been hunched over her sister.
Madeleine shook her head, stepping back from the girl. "I can't continue to read her, I'm sorry."
Cerno stepped over to Madeleine and rested his hands on her shoulders. "If you do not want to continue, then I will not force you to. Thank you for helping me as you always do."
Rosalie escorted her sister from the room and the doctor followed behind them. Cerno stood quietly, looking down at the girl. Twyn cautiously walked around to the other side of the table.
"In the midst of fighting her, I didn't realize how young she was. She had a hood up during most of the fight, and she was pretty skilled."
Cerno's hands grasped tightly on the edge of the table and he hung his head.
"What's running through your mind?"
"Didn't you hear the last thing Madeleine said about her? She could see 'all of him' when she referred to the kidnapper."
Twyn flinched. "He tried to break her, left her for dead?"
"I think so."
"Even knowing that, we're still no closer to knowing why she attacked Shej. Maybe we can ask Shej or Leena if they ran into her on their travels before they came to Saorsa."
"We can definitely ask, but you know what? We might be closer," Cerno said, looking up at Twyn. "There's one person Madeleine couldn't see. Why?" Cerno asked.
"Because they weren't pertinent to Shej?"
"But neither was the kidnapper, and she saw him just fine. Too fine."
"How do we know the kidnapper isn't in any way pertinent?" Twyn asked.
"Hmm, I guess you have a point. We'll have to ask Yaya if she knows anything."
"Ask me what?" Shej asked softly, the doctor leading her into the room.
"Oh god, you're okay," Twyn said, Cerno rushing in to get the first embrace from her though.
"Yeah, thanks to you, Twyn," she said softly. "The doctor told me you were the one that rushed me here. You look horrible."
Twyn scoffed, putting his hand up to his head. "I landed pretty hard. She was pretty powerful for being so tiny."
"I thought I recognized her from somewhere when we first saw her. She's a missing girl, right?" Shej asked, walking over to her.
"Yeah, she was kidnapped. So you've never ran into her before?" Cerno asked.
Shej shook her head. "No, I remember her missing poster because of the blue eyes. It was from one of the first towns we traveled through. I think the poster said she was only 12 at the time. I don't remember her name."
"Salashai is what Madeleine said," Twyn said. "And if you've never ran into her, then it most likely has nothing to do with her kidnapper then either."
"Salashai..." Sheja looked back at Twyn. "Did she die by your hand?" she asked, curiously. "I know I was too busy losing consciousness from her cutting my wrist open," she said as she held her wrist tightly.
"No. The Healers are thinking she somehow committed suicide."
"They also mentioned potential for preexisting conditions triggered by the fight," Cerno added.
Twyn scoffed again at the thought.
"Did she die out in that alley, or here?" Shej asked.
"Here, while removing the blade I stuck in her shoulder."
"I'm not so sure for either of those theories then," Shej said softly. "What if she was murdered?"
"Murdered?" Cerno asked, wondering how this theory came about.
"Yeah, to tie up loose ends. I mean, if I was going to commit suicide because I didn't want to be caught, I would have done it as soon as I was apprehended. I wouldn't wait to be in a hospital where they could potentially save me, and I certainly wouldn't give myself the time to talk myself out of it."
Both Twyn and Cerno stared at Shej.
"What?" she said, turning around and noticing them.
"I don't like you talking about suicide," Cerno said sternly.
"I'm just saying, if I were in those shoes," Shej argued, shrugging. "Also, why couldn't Healers save her?"
Twyn shrugged.
"If she was murdered, Madeleine would have seen it in the last few moments of Salashai's life," Cerno replied, folding his arms across his chest.
"Also, if she didn't kill herself, that would mean she wasn't the only one after you," Twyn chimed in.
"If this is in fact the case, I wonder if that leads us back to the person Madeleine couldn't see," Cerno said, deep in thought again.
"Person she couldn't see?" Shej asked.
"There was one person Madeleine couldn't see when she looked at the girl's past."
"Did she frequently come and go from Saorsa? To a home with a Shadow in it?"
"Not that Madeleine mentioned, no," Cerno answered.
"Okay then, are there any registered Shadows in Saorsa?"
"None."
"Well, I think there might be one here that somehow slipped in then, that's the only possibility. And if I am right, Madeleine only saw a Shadow by accident looking through Salashai's life."
"I've heard of Shadows, but I've never really heard what they are," Twyn admitted.
"If they're powerful, you could look through a lineup of just five people and look right past them every time if they had their source in use," Cerno said. "They could be five feet in front of you and you'd still miss them."
"But the magic of the wall should have kept them out unless they registered their source at the gate, right?" Twyn questioned.
"That's the gist of it," he replied.
"Unless even the wall didn't see him," Shej mentioned.
"No, not possible," Cerno defended immediately.
"Why?"
"Because it also detects life in general," he answered. "There isn't a way for anyone, Shadow or otherwise, to slip in."
Shej sighed a defeated sigh. She covered the young girl completely with the sheet out of respect then turned back towards the men, rubbing her arm as it ached.
"You okay?" Twyn asked, seeing Shej's discomfort.
"Even though I'm completely healed, they said my arm would ache for a few days with how deep the cut was. Let's get out of here and let Salashai rest in peace," she said softly. As they stepped out into the hallway, Shej groaned.
"What?" Cerno asked.
"Twyn and I still need to finish our shopping."
"I'll take care of that," Cerno said.
"Thanks," Twyn said, very appreciative. He had had enough excitement for the day.
"By the way," Sheja started, sighing irritably, "I don't want to see the inside of this hospital ever again."
"What about when Leena goes into labor?" Twyn asked.
"She'll have a home birth. I mean it, I never want to be in this building ever again."
Cerno chuckled, "Then stop getting hurt, Yaya."