Not good.
Kitaya tugged on Kaza's reins for the umpteenth time to keep the horse on the path. Alvere was getting testy too, and Aldeheid was being forced to give him more guidance than usual. They were feeling it, Kitaya knew. The same feeling she'd gotten in the Phantom Orchard.
The familiar itch in her feet set her nerves on edge. The sensation had overcome her the moment they set foot into the port city of Ragna, and Kitaya found herself unconsciously reaching for her blade, her eyes darting around at every sound or movement.
The marketplace that ran the length of the city sat bare and neglected. Empty stalls lined the cobblestone road, some filled with dust, others a whisper of a breeze away from toppling. The click-clack of the horse's hooves echoed off the stone buildings. Most of their windows were boarded; the rest hung open and banged in the ocean breeze. The spindly branches of saplings grew in between the cobblestone as nature moved in to reclaim the land.
Kitaya glanced at Aldeheid to see how well he fared. He held Alvere's reins in a white-knuckled grip. His posture was one of rigid tension and his lips were pressed into a thin slit.
Just a little further, she thought, gazing up at their destination. To most it appeared to be a part of the landscape, a rock outcropping of sorts. And she guessed that was intentional. Konians hated unwanted, uninvited guests.
"Kitten, where are we going?" Aldeheid asked. His voice was a low whisper as though he were afraid someone was eavesdropping.
"Remember I told you we were going to meet some people who may know where Mellidius is?"
His face lit up like a kid with a basket of sweets. "Who are they exactly? Do you think he may be with them?"
"We'll be meeting our altori, Eriani and Kemah of Kon. And I'm not sure if Mellidius will be there." With the revelation of Shara's death, he couldn't be. Mellidius and Shara had been the quintessential duo – a glowing example for all magicians and capes to aspire to. Kitaya could only imagine what his cape's death had done to him.
"Ah, yes. Mellidius spoke of them briefly in his journals. Although he preferred to call them his parents."
Kitaya rolled her eyes and snorted. Those human terms again. Magicians and capes weren't born, but crafted by the hands of the gods and sent to Magika as babes. They didn't have "parents."
They exited the market, winding up the steep, overgrown path. As they got closer, the features of the house became clearer, the stone lions, the circular windows and the small balconies on the upper floor.
As the rode up to the wooden doors that marked the entrance, the apprehension she'd been feeling since they entered the city vanished. She breathed a sigh and jumped down from Kaza's back. Not home, but it sure felt like it.
"This place is warded." Aldeheid said, oblivious of the magician who'd materialized behind him. He was too occupied admiring one of the stone lions that flanked the entrance.
Kitaya had to hold back her grin as the magician winked and placed a finger against her lips.
"It is," the magician said, and Aldeheid startled, stumbling back into the door.
"Genora." Kitaya grinned and embraced the woman. "It's been a long time. Where's Edolyn?" Genora looked almost naked to Kitaya without her cape on her shoulders or hanging off her arm.
"Ah, she's upstairs recovering. We may have had a little too much to drink last night." She shrugged. "But it's not every day you all come for a visit."
Kitaya made a tisking noise. "She could never hold her liquor, poor thing."
"Indeed." Genora brushed her dreadlocks from her face, her dark gaze shifting to Aldeheid. "Who is this you've brought with you? And why is he carrying Melidius' sword?"
"This is Aldeheid. Mellidius' apprentice," Kitaya explained . "Aldeheid, this is Genora. She and her cape watch this house when everyone is away."
Genora walked up to Aldeheid, who was looking at her as though he expected her to bite. "You're quite the skittish bunny." She stepped around him, her eyes roaming him from head to toe as though he were a piece of art.
"Uh... Hello," Aldeheid said, looking like a cornered rat. "It's nice to—" His words were cut off when she gave his earring a little tug. "Do not put hands on me, woman."
"Genora stop scaring him," a voice came from the house.
Kitaya's head snapped towards the door. "Kemah!" She ran up to her altori and greeted him by clasping forearms and touching her forehead to his.
"It's good to see you, child. You look well." The smooth baritone of his voice was a familiar and welcomed sound after so much arduous travel. "This must be Mellidius' apprentice." He nodded to Aldeheid. "Aldeheid, correct?"
"You know him?" Kitaya and Genora chimed in unison.
Aldeheid scrunched his brow. "You know me?"
"Tall, unsure, with eyes like Mercy. Mellidius described you perfectly. Well, that and you're carrying his sword. Although, I'm surprised to see you travelling with Kitaya of all people."
Kitaya scowled at her altori, and she could feel Aldeheid's curious gaze burning through her.
"What did you mean by that?" he asked. "Mellidius told you about me? Is he here? Who is Mercy? Wh—"
"Aldeheid. . ." Kitaya pinched the bridge of her nose, and Genora broke into a fit of laughter.
"Eriani is going to love him," she said, a devious glint in her eyes. "You all should head inside. I'll take care of these beauties." She stroked Alvere's neck and winked at Aldeheid. "Enjoy your stay, bunny."
"B... bunny..." Aldeheid blinked.
Kitaya clapped him on the shoulder and steered him towards the house. Any longer with Genora, and she might cage him up and keep him like an actual bunny. As they walked into the familiar interior of the house, she inhaled deeply. Honeysuckle and wildflowers filled her lungs, welcoming her home. She trailed her hand along the stone mantle of the hearth as they rounded the wooden furniture.
She'd spent a long time here after leaving the Etheria Bastion, and within these walls she had reached a turning point in her life.
The mouth-watering scents of roasted meat and vegetables drew them into the dining room. A grand spread was laid out on the low stone table -- roasted meat, vegetables, unleavened bread, tankards of ale and goblets of wine.
Eriani stepped in from a room adjacent carrying a basket of fresh fruit. Kitaya locked eyes with her altori, and for a long while they stared each other down.
Eriani had a certain air to her that made strangers either wary or outright terrified. Everything about her screamed: stay away. The small scowl on her painted lips, the way the light from the opened windows danced in her dark eyes and cast shadows across the sharp angles of her face, framed by the black braids that fell from her head. They had a silvery cast to them, not a single strand spared from the iridescent shimmer.
"Eriani." Kitaya stepped forward to greet her, arms extended and palms up.
Her altori scoffed and walked by, setting the basket of fruit on the table before taking a seat on the opposite side.
Kitaya dumped herself onto one of the sitting mats and took a breath. This was going to be a long lunch. She could feel it.
"Darling, this is Aldeheid," Kemah said, gesturing to Aldeheid. "Mellidius' apprentice."
"This?" Eriani said, as though she'd been handed something mediocre. Her gaze raked over Aldeheid. "And here I thought I'd raised Mellidius as a man of standards."
Kemah cleared his throat loudly and opened his mouth to speak but Aldeheid beat him to it.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. But at least he is a man of tact."
Kitaya couldn't help the laugh that escaped her, so she hid it behind a fit of fake coughs. It seemed she was rubbing off on him. Which would make her partly responsible if Eriani decided to rip his head from his shoulders. She took his hand and pulled him down to the mat.
Eriani narrowed her eyes at them both. "I see Kitaya neglected to tell you whose company you're in."
Kitaya rolled her eyes as Eriani brandished the gaudy ring on her marked hand. "He's from the far north Eriani. He doesn't know anything about us."
"Then allow me to give him a proper introduction. I am Eriani, Queen of the Nation of Lions."
Aldeheid gaped. "Kitten, you're royalty? And Mellidius too? Why didn't he ever tell me?"
Kitaya took a gulp of wine before answering. "Because this is earth, and our titles mean nothing here. The humans have their own royalty." She wasn't one to flaunt her title. Even in Magika. The most it could earn her was envious scowls or fake respect.
Kitten," Eriani repeated, wrinkling her nose. "You allow him to demean you so?"
She shrugged and they lapsed into silence. An uncomfortable soul-sucking silence. The kind of silence where everyone had something to say but no one wanted to speak. Only the clinks of their cutlery served to fill the void left behind.
"Kitaya. Where are you headed next?" Kemah asked.
"Across the water. To Aiisha." A chilling silence fell over the room. There was something out there in the water. They all knew that, and they'd put off seeing what it was for long enough.
His eyes flicked to Aldeheid before settling on her again. "He doesn't know."
"Know what?" Aldeheid drew his brows together. "Is there something you need to tell me, kitten?"
"In time." If she told him everything, he'd ask questions, want to get involved. Back when she'd been as lost and hopeless as him, she'd jumped at any opportunity to make herself useful. To be relevant. There was no doubt in her mind Aldeheid would do the same, and that was not something she could subject her conscience to.
Kemah shrugged and heaved a sigh. "Very well, I trust your, judgment and your strength. Are you prepared?"
"I am. He isn't." She looked towards Eriani. "The enchantment on his armour is nearly burnt out."
Eriani was silent for a long moment before she nodded.
Kemah placed a hand on his magician's shoulder, and one bright flash later, he was a heavy cape of midnight blue.
Good, Kitaya thought. With an enchantment from Eriani, Aldeheid would be better protected from whatever was waiting for them out on the sea.
"Hold still." Eriani told him. Her marked hand was extended. Magic thickened the air as she began reciting the spell. The ancient words rolled off her tongue like thunder, and the room became warm. When the spell reached its crescendo, runes danced across the surface of Aldeheid's gear.
Watching Eriani spellcast was always a spectacle. Her strength was evident each word she spoke and every wave of magic that crashed through the room. And that was only an enchantment. Kitaya had seen what she could do otherwise and counted herself fortunate that the Konian Queen was her altori.
"Give me the sword," Eriani said when she was through with the enchantment.
Aldeheid took it from his belt and placed it in her waiting hands. "Is there something I should know? Are we in danger?"
"Not so long as you're with me, angel eyes." She gave him a smile that she hoped was reassuring.
"Where are the gems?" Eriani asked, cutting in.
"I... don't know what you're talking about..."
She turned the hilt towards him. "The lion's eyes are missing."
Indeed there was nothing in the eye sockets, but Kitaya had thought that was normal. Why would Mellidius give him the sword but not the stones? To make some cryptic, metaphoric point perhaps -- that would be very much like him.
"The enchantment in the stones is stronger than that of the blade. Without them, the sword is nothing." She gave it back to him. "I supposed Mellidius still has them."
Aldeheid looked down at the lion's head pommel. "Do you know where he is?"
Another bright flash lit up the room as Kemah returned to his normal form. "The last time we saw Mellidius was a in Kon, twenty-five years ago." He grimaced and picked up his tankard of ale. "He told us what happened to Shara. Haven't seen him or heard from him since."
"And why did nobody tell me?" Kitaya asked, narrowing her eyes at them both. "I had to find out from a stranger."
Eriani's face contorted into an expression of rage but Kitaya remained unfazed, even as the air seemed to crackle between them. "This would have never happened if you all had listened to me." Her voice was quiet, yet held the foreboding quality of violent wind and booming thunder. "I told you all when you left Kon, when you left Magika, to stay together."
Kitaya scoffed. "Mellidius is his own man, and the last time I checked, I was neither his caretaker not his altori. He was your golden boy. If anything, this happened because your teachings weren't enough."
"You will not sit there and speak to me with such disrespect!" Eriani slammed her fist on the stone table.
"Fine." She rose to her feet. "Angel eyes, we have a boat to catch. Eriani, Kemah, I hope you both have a safe trip home."
And with that, Kitaya walked out of the room and the house, not stopping until she reached the back yard, where Alvere and Kaza had made themselves at home. She didn't realize she was being followed until she felt Kemah's presence at her side.
"She hates me."
"Eriani does not hate you, child. She worries about you. As do I." He gave her a look that held both disappointment and sadness. "You disappear for decades at a time, no one can see or hear from you, no one knows if you're alive or dead. It's almost as though you've forgotten about us."
Kitaya let his words sink in. She had been isolating herself from everyone else more and more as of late. But it wasn't because she didn't care. She'd been absorbed with the thin spaces and all the dangers that came with them. Still, that wasn't an excuse to neglect her family, or her home.
"You're right," she finally conceded. "I'll try to make time to come home. Take a break for a bit."
"Nothing would make me happier."
They fell silent and stared out at the sea. It was flat and calm, welcoming even. But Kitaya knew there was something sinister lurking beyond its illusion of tranquility. She'd felt it when she entered the city.
"This Aldeheid fellow. What's his story?" Kemah asked. "And why is he travelling with you?"
Kitaya shrugged. "He got kicked out of the Bastion. He wanted to look for Mellidius but... I'm taking him to Aiisha. Maybe Gebarro can find something for him to do."
"Ah, guiding lost souls, are we?" He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Good luck out there. May the gods favour you."