The spike went right into Owen's shoulder like it was made of butter. It made Apo shiver. The voice of Em inside his head went, Wish I could curse him again.
Apo laughed to himself. Emmy's mind-reading occasionally went both ways. And sometimes on purpose.
Emmy prepared to heal Rasbi. Apo was still fascinated with how she did it. She would open her hand, and a circle of light would fly out of someone's mouth. In this case, it was Rasbi's. Her's was a pinkish-maroon color, and when he looked at it and focused hard enough, he could feel Rasbi's emotions radiating from it.
Emmy caught it in her hand, signaling Apo to jump down to his lost friend. He picked her body up and dragged it off the poison spikes. The others jumped down after him.
"What the-'' Daisy whispered, fingering the poison on the jagged edges of the bamboo.
"What?" Apo asked.
"This is basilisk poison! Poison so strong that if mixed properly, can kill in minutes. So powerful that using magic to remove it is exceedingly risky," she said, worriedly.
"What does that mean?" Apo cocked his head to the side.
"It means that if I heal her and put her soul back she might die anyway. And it means Owen will almost definitely die." Emmy said, a hint of delight in her voice at the last sentence.
"No it doesn't." A voice from behind them said.
They turned to look at Mohwee, who was fidgeting with his boomerang.
Emmy stared at him, a look of slight disappointment crossing her face momentarily.
"I found a bottle of something in the dark maze. I tossed it to Owen before I 'died'," Mohwee made finger quotes, "and it read Griever Immunizer. I think they might've found a cure for it. Owen drank it after they exited."
"No," Daisy said, very matter-of-factly. "It isn't as potent on mortals. As in, Owen being a full blood human, they probably found a simple cure for humans only. They most likely just added a basic health potion to the poison or something. Even if we find it, it probably won't help her. And Owen will probably survive."
At that moment, a small rivulet of lava sprouted up from the floor.
"Or, we could just let the watchers kill him." Mohwee said, backing away from the lava that was slowly growing and catching the spike trap on fire.
"Guys, I think he's waking up." Apo said, surveying Owen's slowly increased breathing level.
"We need to go." Emmy grabbed Daisy's hand and re-opened the portal. She, Daisy, and Mohwee leapt through.
Apo sat with Rasbi's body on the other side of the growing lava river.
"So, y'all just going to leave me here? Great, guess I'll say hi to Owen for you."
Daisy laughed nervously. "Sorry."
Daisy leapt back out, and helped Apo carry Rasbi across the lava. While they were struggling to get Rasbi in the portal, Apo wandered over to the open night sky, exposed since Rasbi had fallen through the trap. He weighed his options, and climbed up into the forest. He looked around at the familiar trees for one last time, closing his eyes, and remembering amazing memories. Memories of people who hated him.
"Apo!" a loud whisper called him back to the present.
Apo glanced back to the hole where Emmy was waving him back to the portal. He prepared to jump back down, when more lava sprang from the floor, blocking his exit. He looked at Emmy with worried eyes.
She tossed him an invisibility potion.
"Meet us at the usual spot. Don't let anyone see you." she nodded to the potion in his hands. "That'll give you around 15 minutes, 20 at most. Doors open in six minutes. Use that time wisely. I'll meet you there." And with that she closed the portal, and Owen started coughing.
Apo drank the invisibility potion, feeling the sensation of the potion run through his body.
And then he ran. He ran through familiar areas, and not. He dodged trees, and jumped over streams. He realized there was no danger in people seeing him, so he started walking instead. He came to a large, open area. There was a depression in the ground in front of him that had a large campfire in the middle, and a girl with split blue/brown hair was sitting on the ground by the fire, sadly studying a stick with a marshmallow on the end.
Magic, Apo thought.
A girl with long, purple hair, and a golden halo on her head joined her by the campfire. Apo recognized her as Ayngel. An angel. Man, her parents must have been creative, Emmy thought inside his head. He chuckled. He realized he shouldn't be making any sound, and backed further into the trees.
"Rasbi not coming?" Ayngel asked.
"Well, she hasn't yet. She said she would, though," Magic responded, determination hinting at her voice, as if she were reassuring herself that Rasbi would come. Oh Magic, Apo thought.
Ayngel must have been thinking the same thing. The wings on her head fluttered closer to her hair.
That reminded him of something. What had he read about angels? Apo figured it wasn't important.
"Well, even if it's just us, which it won't be, because I see someone else coming, it will be nice just to spend time alone with you, Magic." Ayngel said, softly.
"Really? Where? " Magic asked, ignoring the second part of her sentence and clearly hyped to see if it was Rasbi, looking around wildly. She couldn't see anyone.
Ayngel pointed right at Apo. And suddenly Apo remembered what he read about full-blood angels. They could see people no matter what effect they had on them. Including invisibility.
Magic squinted into the darkness. "I don't see anyone."
Ayngel squinted at Apo, who was frozen in place in the trees. "Come to think of it, I don't exactly recogni-" she stopped short.
The sky grew a foreboding shade of red-orange, and Apo, to his relief, heard the doors open. So he ran.
He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, to the doors, with the levers. Apo twisted his body to the side to fit through the still opening doors, and he could hear Ayngel chasing him and Magic chasing after Ayngel.
Magic stopped chasing Ayngel when she ran through the doors. Great, Apo thought to himself. Lost one of them. He decided to take a shortcut. Or a long cut, as he was trying his best to shake off Ayngel. He zigged around corners. They jumped expertly over walls, and raced through jungles. He stopped, listening for footsteps.
No Ayngel.
He started walking towards the dead end where the passage was. Apo kept his senses alert for if Ayngel did follow him. He put his satchel on the floor and opened it, reaching down into the large compartment. Apo ended up putting his whole arm into the seemingly shallow bag, thanks to Daisy's room-expanding charm-thingy and his bad organization skills. He shuffled around the mess and finally found the charmed stone, the one he used to open portals.
As they pulled it out of the bag Emmy's voice went, Or you could've used your spirit charm.
Wait, that'll work?! You never told me that, Apo thought back.
Yep.
Thanks. Also, you could've told me sooner. That took forever to find.
Emmy responded with a laugh that told him she probably intended for that to happen. He dropped the rock back into his bag, and picked the bag up off the floor again. He was about to reach for his necklace when he heard a soft voice behind him.
"Apo?"
Apo whirled around unsheathing his sword and holding it between him and his unexpected guest. Ayngel looked back at him, purple eyes sparkling with fear, making a sound that sounded a lot like a mouse. She jumped back from the sword at her throat. After seeing who it was, Apo breathed out a breath of relief, and re-sheathed his sword. He gave Ayngel an apologetic look.
"Sorry, adrenaline and zombies," he said, looking down.
"You're alive?" she paused. "I knew you were alive. I knew it!"
Somewhat, Apo said inside his head.
Ayngel started raving about how sorry she was about the incident, and hitting him with questions so fast he didn't have time to answer.
The watchers must think she's going insane right now, Emmy whispered.
Apo laughed to himself, still trying to pay attention to Ayngel's questions in case she expected him to answer one.
R.I.P. Apokuna. Lived a short life. Murdered many. Died of emotional damage from not remembering his facts. Emmy giggled with delight at this.
"Shut up," Apo said aloud. The moment he said it he could feel color gathering at his face.
"Did you just tell me to shut up?" Ayngel asked, clearly offended.
"No!" Apo shook his head desperately, while Emmy laughed further in his head.
"Then who were you talking to?" she asked, clearly not believing him.
"Um, my... voices?" Apo said, hoping she'd believe him.
She did, thankfully. "Oh. What were they saying?"
"They were taunting me. About not knowing my humanoid mimortals. And about being ignorant. They're very annoying. They're almost like a little sibling. Caramel M&Ms." he said, loudly saying the last part, trying to get Emmy's attention. It worked.
A hissing sound echoed off the maze walls. Ayngel jumped, but Apo stayed in place, triumphant.
Ayngel recovered quickly, asking her next question more cautiously this time. "Are you coming back to the clearing?" she asked.
Apo turned to her. "Why would I do that?"
She looked at him, with guilt dancing in her purple eyes. "Because, well, I think Owen misses you."
A dark shadow passed over Apo's face. "No he doesn't." he said, not even trying to hide the anger and sadness in his voice.
He heard something pop behind him. He turned to look at Emmy, who was peeking her head through the portal.
"Time to go," she said.
Apo glanced back at Ayngel. He walked toward her. She turned to run, but Apo caught her by the hand and pulled her back to look at him.
"You need to listen to me. Things aren't as they seem in the clearing. When the fire comes, we'll be there to pick you up. But I need something from you." Apo reached in his satchel again, pulling out a quill-pen. "You need to protect everyone with everything you have. So when it happens, write... I don't know, 'banana' on some paper with this quill. We'll be there to pick you up." Apo handed the quill to Ayngel.
"We're running out of time!" Emmy said urgently. Apo could feel the potion effects draining.
"We're counting on you. Don't let us down," Apo said, leaving Ayngel with the quill and jumping through the portal.
* * *
Apo raced down the path. Up a hill, through the arch, on the bridge. He kept running, onto the ship, down the ladder, through the hallway, past the kitchens, past the bunks, and into the sickbay.
Apo's heart sank. Rasbi was laying on one of the beds, paler than ever. Her eyes were closed and the blood from the trap was still there. Daisy was hooking up a feeding flower to her and Emmy was pouring what looked like some kind of potion into it.
Emmy looked at him with the same blank eyes. Apo met them.
"Let's leave them," Emmy said, quietly.
Apo could see Daisy was about to protest, but then she looked up, and saw who it was. She nodded, and walked out of the room with Emmy.
Apo was alone with his old friend. He knelt down next to her, watching the flower growing on her arm slowly drain its contents into her system. He could tell she wasn't breathing on her own. Every few minutes or so, she would take a deep, heaving breath gifted to her by a small whirling contraption on the table beside her.
Apo didn't know what to say, or even do. His last interaction with her had been their conversation in the prison. The one where he told her he thought it was better if they stopped being friends. The look on her face told him she didn't understand why, despite the fact that she had just told him all about how people didn't trust her because of their friendship.
Apo's mind dug itself into a bigger pit. What if she hates me when she wakes up? Will she be the same? Will she ever trust me again? Will she wake up? Thoughts like this circled around in his mind, over and over.
You can find out, Emmy suddenly whispered in his head. It made Apo jump.
What do you mean? Apo thought.
As soon as he thought this, he remembered. Emmy had told him a while ago, when he was confused about feeling unexplained things when Emmy removed Guts' soul. You're a deathling, she had told him. A mimortal. Half immortal, half mortal. If you were a full immortal, you could feel that on command. But you're not. So you have no control over when you do. But if you focus hard enough, I think you can do it.
Apo looked down at Rasbi's motionless body. He closed his eyes, and tried to focus on Rasbi.
Nothing happened. He opened his eyes again and slumped against the wall, defeated. Tears threatened to roll out of his eyes.
He would've just layed there for a while, if not for Em's voice suddenly ringing in his head.
It said, Meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting!
Apo rolled his eyes, and reluctantly got up from his place on the floor. He took one last look at Rasbi, and left the room.