"What happened to the Caeli board?" I asked.
My weary eyes scoured our surroundings, looking for a wooden board, but the grass concealed nothing. Art hadn't yet answered me, but his pained expression said more than enough.
"I had to send it off to mislead the Durrakals," Art said as he gently pulled me to my feet. "It carried enough of your scent to deceive their noses as I teleported us away from there.
His words pierced my heart.
The board was gone — lying at the bottom of the endless sea or strewn across the wandering mountains in bits and pieces.
It may have been nothing more than a training board, but it had saved my life and possibly aided countless others before me. That era of history has now come to an end.
"Stay seated while we fly," Art said, placing me in the passenger seat of the Zephyr. "The more you move, the faster the poison spreads."
I nodded without uttering a single complaint.
Every bone in my body ached when I moved, so sitting still would be the least of my worries.
We took off and headed further into the enchanting landscape of the Wandering Mountain. They did, however, feel different from when we first arrived. The magic that had previously enthralled me was missing.
They were still majestic and more wondrous than anything that could be found beyond the Graveyard, but I no longer felt inclined to explore them. I winced every time we drew close to a mountain shrouded in anything resembling a mist.
Nothing had yet come close to resembling the mist that had engulfed the Poisonous Haze, but my mind was still anticipating a pair of wings to emerge at any moment.
"Are you sure the Templars are our best option?" I asked, pinching my darkening arm to make sure I could still feel it. "Doesn't the Mist Region have a healer?"
I almost couldn't believe the words that came from my mouth. Art was offering me the chance to meet the Templars — ten of the most powerful Air Wielders in all of Heliac — and I was trying to persuade him to turn around.
"The Templars are your only option, Willow."
I froze. He wasn't saying that just to silence my doubts about his decision. The tinge of worry in his voice convinced me it was more than that.
"You'll need a specific kind of healer who is currently under the protection of the Templars."
"Didn't you say I needed a pure healer?" I asked to downplay the growing pain in my shoulder. "I figured you meant a white-blooded Iridis."
"You'll understand once we arrive," Art said. "Stay still and save your strength. It won't be long now."
It wasn't a straightforward answer, but I'd learned to recognize which fights were worth picking, and this wasn't one of them. Nothing would be able to make him change his answer.
Sweat had begun dampening the flesh of my nape. My body felt feverish despite the cool air that swept over me as the Zephyr pierced the winds. I couldn't tell if it was because I was still in shock after being hunted by the Poisonous Haze or if the poison had begun working through my body again.
I forced my eyes to stay open. Nothing good would come of surrendering to the alluring darkness.
The mountains had changed. They were no longer as lush and diverse as previously, and their shape was taller than the mountains closer to the Graveyard — as if the sky and the sea had been warring for the right to claim the mountains as theirs since the first mountain separated from the Mist Region.
"Is that it?" I whispered.
Five elongated mountains floated in a unified formation, arranged in a circular structure as if they were guarding something in the space between them.
"Announce yourself and your business here!"
I flinched in my seat, startled by the abrupt loudness of a voice that came out of nowhere.
Pain struck my arm like lightning, and I bit my tongue to keep from screaming, resulting in a muffled grunt escaping through my gritted teeth.
"I announce myself as Arthur Maximillian Pavo. My apprentice has been wounded, and we've come to seek the Templars' assistance."
Maximillian?
I never knew he had a middle name.
"Arthur!" It was the same voice that had startled me earlier, but he sounded less threatening now that Art had announced us. "You've returned sooner than we expected. Come in!"
"Put this on." Art handed me a cloak.
"Why?" I asked, forcing my sore fingers to grab the heavy fabric.
Art had to be bothered by my endless questions, but he didn't let it show.
"Raatak wasn't supposed to awaken for another month at least. The sight of your arm will cause panic among the residents, wasting more time than you have. We need to take your matter to the elders before we can let anyone else find out."
I gulped. He was talking as if I only had hours left to live.
Art steered the Zephyr toward the largest of the five mountains. I managed to cover my arm with the cloak before a massive gate concealed in the mountainside opened before us.
"Arthur!"
A woman with a broad smile came running toward us.
Her blond hair was twisted back into a tight ponytail that swayed hypnotically behind her. She was dressed in a uniform that roughly matched the attire Art had decided to wear today.
"Coralyn. What joy it brings me to see you back here," Art said and jumped out of the car to greet her like an old friend.
"What brings you here?" she asked.
I did not want to be left behind like forgotten baggage, but the Zephyr had no doors, making it difficult to exit gracefully with only one functional arm.
In the end, I reasoned that my only option to get out was to use a sliver of my powers to gently push myself from my seat and over the side of the car.
Closing my eyes, I conjured a wind strong enough to accomplish the task at hand but controlling it without using both hands proved more challenging than anticipated.
I gasped as I unintentionally released the concentrated wind before its time. A deafening explosion resonated between the cave walls, and I was flung into the air with nothing to catch me.
My mind panicked, anticipating me to break my neck as soon as I landed, but my body reacted on its own by some divine miracle. Like some pro athletes, I used the wind to adjust and turn my body, allowing me to land on my feet rather than on my face.
I exhaled heavily, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Adrenaline masked the pain in my arm, but I could still feel it pricking at my skin. If Art and I had been alone, I would have burst out laughing. Instead, a smile stretched upon my face. I'd stared death in the eyes twice today, and I'd cheated him both times.
"I'm sorry for the disturbance, Art; I—"
I fell silent and stopped moving as I turned my head toward Art and his companion. We were no longer the only three people in this dimly lit cave. Two men had joined us, and they were all staring at me with eyes of disbelief.
"Is that peculiar specimen of an Air Wielder the reason you had to leave us, Arthur?" The man with long, luxuriant hair rudely pointed at me as if I was a rare artefact.
His nose was slender and pointed, matching his thin lips. The mane spilling over his shoulders like a peaceful waterfall had the same golden color as our sun, yet his beauty seemed to be restricted to his appearance.
I never got a chance to retort before he disappeared from beside Coralyn and reappeared behind me.
The rush in my stomach spread throughout my entire body as I felt him raise my hair and examine me.
"I feel she holds great power, but she wields it with the mind of a novice."
That was pushing it too far. He knew nothing about me, so why did he think he could talk about me as if I weren't here?
"How dare you—" I turned around to mark his face with my palm for touching me without my permission. He stepped back, dodging me with ease.
"I like her," Coralyn remarked before I could shout a string of venomous insults at the rude man.
"Be careful with her, Raymond," Art said, chuckling as though the situation amused him. "She will scratch your eyes out if you're not careful with your words."
Damn right, I would.
I squinted my eyes at Raymond, sending him a message of warning.
Raymond appeared to be unfazed, but I wasn't sure. I couldn't tell if he was amused, afraid, or simply didn't give a damn.
"I've never seen anyone dare challenge Raymond off the bat like that," the man with orange curls added, laughing deeper than the others.
His voice had an oddly calming effect on me. I turned around to see what he was up to.
"Willow," Art said, drawing my attention to him. "Let me introduce you to my oldest friends: Raymond, whom you've already had the pleasure to meet; Coralyn—" the woman waved kindly at me "—and Elio, the reasonable."
Elio smiled radiantly as Art described him. "Is that really how you see me?" he asked, wrapping his arm around Art's neck.
"It is your title," Art said, freeing himself from Elio's grip with ease. "Anyway. These are all part of the Ten Templars."
I froze. My left arm suddenly felt a lot heavier than a few moments ago.
I was standing before three of the Ten Legendary Templars, and I'd just tried to slap one of them.
"Don't worry," Elio said, chuckling at my terrified expression. "We aren't as traditional as the generation before us. Those old fools have now joined the ranks of the elderly. Or, to put it another way, most of us aren't as traditional as them."
Elio pointed bluntly at Raymond, who was still standing behind me.
"We can't all be as carefree as you, Elio," Raymond said, stepping forward with more grace than even Alia. "I was named Raymond, the wise, for a reason."
I wrinkled my nose, finding it hard to believe that someone would be inclined to call him wise.
Wisdom entailed more than just knowing things and upholding old customs. Wisdom was the ability to grasp, or at the very least attempt to comprehend, individuals who were not in the same situation as themselves. And Raymond's character did not suit that description.
Why Art would associate himself with someone like Raymond was beyond me.
"But, Arthur," Raymond continued, ignoring my sullen face as he passed by me. "Is that commoner really the reason you aren't beside us today? Is she why your brother called for you days before the inauguration?"
"Stop it, Raymond," Coralyn said, stepping in front of Art. "Arthur had his reasons to deny the opportunity to become a Templar. And I'm sure his brother wasn't the only one."
I couldn't suppress the gasp of surprise being forced from my lungs.
They all looked at me again, and I saw Art's eyes close in dismay. I was no longer in doubt about what I'd heard.
"Didn't she know?" Elio asked.
Art corrected his uniform. "No, and she never would've known if you knuckleheads would stop bringing it up."
I couldn't believe my ears. I'd been completely honest about my past from the beginning. I'd told him everything down to the last humiliating detail. He even knew about Knox. I'm not sure why I had expected him to do the same, but the rage was rising in my gut like a fire.
I might not have told Art about the recent encounter with Caiden or Tarkan's nasty plot to have me thrown out of the competition, but all that was still too new for me to fathom. Information like this should've been shared the moment he told me he'd previously lived in these mountains.
"You were supposed to be a Templar, Art?" I whispered, pausing before I inhaled to power my voice. "And you gave that up for what? Me? What, in the five realms, were you thinking!"
"Careful of how you speak, child!" Raymond hissed. "You're talking to Arthur the Great. You should consider yourself fortunate just to be in his presence, let alone to be his apprentice."
I snorted. "I'm talking to a descendant of the Pavo bloodline too. A golden prince!"
I'd had enough of today. I'd had enough of secrets. I couldn't take it anymore, and all of the emotions I'd previously tried to contain flooded over.
"I couldn't care less about his title. I thought you were my friend, Art!" I shouted, looking at Art instead of Raymond. "I thought you trusted me. I told you everything!"
A laugh replaced the choke of words stuck in my throat. Tears would soon flood my eyes, but I wouldn't let them. Not yet.
"Stop moving, Willow," Art said, his voice rumbling low. Not that I cared about anything he had to say right now.
"I never asked to be part of this stupid competition. I never asked to fall in love with Caiden! I never wanted to leave my family, yet here I am. And the one person I thought might understand that seems to have been lying to me—"
I stopped talking the moment I saw Art's eyes widen. I'd passed a line, and it was not something I could take back.
"Caiden?" Elio asked. "Isn't that Arthur's nephew?"
My face turned pale. I'd never been so embarrassed in my entire life — not even during the time I entered the wrong dressing room and found Caiden half-naked.
I'd planned to tell Art eventually if I didn't manage to shake my feelings first. But now, with all these strangers listening— It was not how I'd planned for him to find out.
A pain suddenly arose in my shoulder. It was unexpected, and I felt like a thousand claws were ripping my flesh into shreds.
The blood Art had forced me to drink must've only stopped the bleeding. My muscle still felt torn, but the intense pain could only be from the poison.
I screamed and fell to my knees, clutching my shoulder as if I hoped I'd be able to heal myself.
Two hands were on me immediately. "She's burning up, Arthur!" Coralyn said, feeling my forehead. "Didn't you say she was wounded?"
"We have to take her to the elders," Art said, pushing his way past his friends to get to me.
"The elders? Why?" Elio asked. "We have healers."
"That won't do it. We need Kaoru."
"Are you insane, Arthur?" Raymond shouted.
My arm was burning, yet the rest of my body felt cold as ice.
Coralyn leaned me back to lay in her lap while the men argued over what to do. Art seemed reluctant to tell them about my arm and our encounter with the Poisonous Haze, but I couldn't hold on to the cloak.
The fabric slid down a bit, revealing my blood-soaked uniform.
"What, in the name of the ancient spirits?" Coralyn whispered.
"Coralyn! Wait!" Art shouted, but Coralyn had already fastened her grip on my cloak.
She ignored Art's warning and pulled the fabric from my injured arm before she backed away from me with a gasp.
I whimpered as my hand limply hit the ground. The pain had stolen my voice, and my throat refused to utter anything but noise.
"Call for the elders, Raymond," Coralyn said, crawling back to me.
"This is outrageous, Coralyn—" Raymond said, but he also turned speechless as his eyes found my wound.
"Stop being so stubborn, Ray!" she shouted again. "Go tell them that Raatak is awake."