"You haven't eaten anything since this morning," said Thesyl, sitting on the back of the ship.
"I'm not hungry," Sanya replied laconically, her eyes staring at the surface of the river.
"It's the same thing you told me yesterday night, too. I don't think Liryl would be happy to know that her friend starved to death before finding her."
The mere notion of her friend's name made Sanya wince. She did not say a thing, but Thesyl had little trouble guessing what was going through her mind in those moments.
"Sanya, you shouldn't blame yourself. Besides, we don't know if anything serious actually happened to her. Maybe she just left on her own initiative and ..."
"I know she left on her own initiative," Sanya interrupted her. "Ever since we came back from the Spring Mountains, I'd been having this feeling that Liryl was hiding something from me. If only I had acted then, maybe I could've stopped her ... but I'd rather think I was wrong." The girl barely suppressed a sob. "It's only my fault."
Thesyl sighed. "Have you forgotten what I told Liryl, about other people's choices? The same goes for you too, Sanya – there's nothing you could do to stop her, if she had it in her mind to go alone."
"Do you think she's still ... alive?" Sanya asked hesitantly, after a short silence.
"Liryl is a smart girl. I'm sure she's all right, no matter what happened to her. Don't get me wrong," she hastened to add, "you really did the right thing to go back to Fys Espyr as soon as you found out she was gone ..."
"Before coming to ask for help, I looked for her all over Fys Narhal," the girl told in a broken voice. "I was so anguished, I felt I would die."
Thesyl smiled and wrapped her arm around her. "When this is all over, I'll take you out with me and Rheya to dance – both you and Liryl. Okay?"
Sanya looked at her with watery eyes, then nodded.
"Good," Thesyl said in an affectionate tone. "Now go eat something, or we'll really have to begin worrying."
The girl nodded again and, albeit reluctantly, went looking amid the supplies for something to fill her stomach. Thesyl turned her eyes towards the sentinels, and the two priestesses who came with her to help her in the search of the disappeared novice. On the horizon, the shape of Mount Esper started emerging from the forest.
Liryl, please be still alive.
***
The sun had already set a while before, when the ship moored in the vicinity of Fys Narhal.
"We'll begin our search here," Thesyl explained firmly to the rest of the group. "Sanya and the other sentinels will question the villagers to try and find out any clues, while we priestesses will attempt to commune with the spirits of this place."
The other nymphs nodded unquestioningly. However, as soon as they walked into the village, Thesyl ordered the group to stop.
A strange transparent layer covered the houses and the surrounding land. Some bodies were lying on the ground, while other were still kneeled or crouched, looking like statues. Thesyl walked up closer to inspect the weird substance.
"It's frost," she acknowledged in surprise. "How can this be?"
"What is it?" Sanya asked, perplexed.
"Frost is a substance which forms when water reaches very low temperatures," she explained. "Sometimes it forms on the mountains to the north, during winter. But at this altitude it should be impossible. Moreover," she noted, looking around, "it seems that only the village is covered by it."
"What does this mean?" Sanya asked with a concerned expression.
Thesyl shook her head. "I have no idea. Let's check inside the houses, maybe there are survivors."
The rest of the nymphs nodded and started splitting to search, house by house. She took Sanya and two sentinels with her before entering one of those. The inside was frozen like the outside – the frost covered everything. A few small items and food were lying scattered on the ground along with other debris, as if they had been swept by a gust of wind.
The nymphs started rummaging through the mess in the small house, hoping to find something which could help them understand what happened. Sanya gladly took part in the search, focusing with the objects scattered on the ground. None of these looked suspicious, though, other than a blanket lying near the wall. Intrigued, Sanya approached it, while Thesyl was examining a few empty vials piled in a corner. Then, the scream of the younger girl echoed in the house.
Thesyl and the two sentinels turned, startled. Sanya was cowering against the wall, shivering in fear and staring forward. Puzzled by her reaction, the priestess unveiled the blanket which the girl was looking at, uncovering the frozen corpse of a nymph, her eyes and mouth still twisted in a suffering expression. Thesyl shook her head and covered the body again with the blanket.
"Let's go," she told the others, struggling to keep her composure. "We must keep looking."
The two sentinels nodded and left the house. Thesyl stopped to help Sanya, still in shock, to get back on her feet.
"I'm sorry you had to see all this," she murmured. "If I knew what awaited us, I would've left you on the boat."
But Sanya shook her head resolutely. "No ... it's alright. I just want to find Liryl, now."
Thesyl nodded and walked out with the girl. Once they were outside again, however, one of the two sentinels ran up towards them.
"It looks like the others found a survivor," she reported.
Thesyl started. "What're we waiting for? Let's go!"
The four nymphs hurried to where the rest of the group had converged. A young girl was lying still, sitting on her knees amid the frozen land. She was very pale, but she was still alive. As soon as Sanya was close enough to recognize her, she jumped and hugged her in a rush.
"Liryl ..." she murmured, unable to hold back her tears as she held the friend she was afraid of having lost. After a few moments, though, Sanya backed off and looked into her friend's eyes, as if she had sensed something wrong.
But Liryl did not do likewise. Her gaze was staring ahead, as if neither Thesyl nor the other nymphs were present.
"Liryl, what's happened to you?" Sanya whispered in a trembling voice. "Speak ... say something ..." But the girl did not speak, did not say anything.
"Liryl, have you seen what happened here?" Thesyl asked her, just as much concerned by the absent reaction of the girl. "Do you know who or what caused all this?"
Liryl's empty eyes turned to meet the ones of the priestess. The words which came out of her mouth sounded chillingly apathetic.
"It was me."
***
Thesyl gazed up at the night sky. The stars were twinkling, faint and distant, but no moon was there, on that night, to light up the darkness. She shook her head and turned her eyes towards the two girls.
Liryl was curled up in a corner, her forehead leaning over her knees, her arms wrapped around her thighs. Ever since they left for Fys Espyr, she had not uttered a word. With difficulty, Thesyl and Sanya had managed to make her drink some berry juice, but any further effort to learn something from her had been in vain.
Even Sanya had withdrawn into silence for quite some time. At first she had done her best to try and make her friend speak, or even merely to get a reaction from her. But in spite of her dismay, in spite of her despair, in spite of her shouts, Liryl had never answered her pleas. Now she was sitting down, staring at her friend as if she was waiting in silence, for a word out of the latter's lips which was not coming.
While Thesyl was lost in thought, one of the other priestesses called her. "Has the girl said anything yet?"
She shook her head. "No. She's been silent ever since. Probably she's still in shock."
The other priestess looked towards Liryl. "This doesn't change the fact that, once we're back into Fys Espyr, she will need to be brought before the queen."
Thesyl reacted to those words with an astonished face. "The queen? How come?"
"You too heard what the girl said," the priestess reminded her. "If she has a responsibility in all this, she'll have to answer to the queen."
Thesyl clenched her fists to hold back her anger. "How can you take anything she said when we found her seriously, Umel? She wasn't herself."
"Would it make any difference, if she actually was guilty?" Umel asked her in return.
"Look at her!" Thesyl blurted out, pointing at Liryl with a wide gesture of her arm. "She's just a young girl, do you realize that?"
Umel sighed. "Yes, I do. But I also realize that over a hundred sisters lost their lives in that village. And if the girl knows anything, it's better for everyone if she starts talking. Even for her own good."
Thesyl could not muster an answer, also because deep down she knew that Umel was right – anybody in her place would have considered appropriate to bring the girl before Queen Alythe. Hearing it from a person who spoke of Liryl without calling her by name even once, however, left Thesyl with a bad feeling.
***
Liryl watched in silence as the sentinels led her through Fys Espyr, until they reached a majestic palace. Built to resemble an ancient white tree, its pale branches glimmered amid a thousand silvery torches. The girl thought for a moment that, just a week before, she would have found that place wonderful, but now the thought barely touched her at all. In her mind, the images of Fys Narhal were still so vivid that she had trouble taking notice of what was happening around her.
"Go in," the sentinel's voice snapped her out of it for a second. They had come before a door of white chiseled wood.
Liryl complied without saying a word. She heard from Thesyl that she would meet the queen. She also heard Sanya's repeated protests, but none of these triggered a reaction from her. The only thought which fleetingly crossed her mind was the memory of the golden-eyed ambassador, and of that comparison with the queen which had made her blush so much. The same queen she now was about to meet.
The inside of the hall was large, but overall bare. A few silvery torches were glowing, weak but bright enough for the Liryl's eyes to see clearly. Two of the sentinels which had led her there entered alongside her, while the others waited outside with Thesyl and Sanya.
Sitting on a wooden chair, its back standing almost a dozen feet tall, was an austere-looking nymph. Her appearance did not give away her age, though she was surely much older than Liryl. She was wearing a long vest, similar to the ones worn by priestesses, which covered her limbs down to her thigs and her thin wrists. Amid her light blue hair, knotted behind in a long ponytail, she wore a glinting jade flower, supported by a wicker circlet which surrounded her head from one temple to the other.
"Sit down, girl," she said, in a gentle voice. Liryl nodded and kneeled on the carpet before the chair.
"What is your name?"
"Liryl," she replied, laconically.
"Liryl, can you tell me what happened?"
To her surprise, Liryl realized that now she did not have the slightest trouble to talk. Perhaps it was the absence of people she knew, or perhaps it was the time passed by. Whichever the reason, Liryl started telling. About her journey, about what she had discovered in Fys Espyr and from the myrri, about her decision to climb Mount Esper, her meeting with the flying creature and what had happened after that. She only glossed over the presence of the warrior who saved her life, she herself unable to understand the reason behind her own refusal to mention it.
After she had listened to her tale, the queen waited for some time before speaking.
"Were you aware that what you did – climbing Mount Esper – is strictly forbidden?" she asked, spelling out her words carefully.
Liryl nodded in silence.
"And are you aware that it was your decision to ignore this prohibition which led to the deaths of the people of Fys Narhal?" the queen asked again.
Liryl nodded again. More moments of silence followed.
"Is there something you would like to add, Liryl?" asked Alythe.
Liryl hesitated, before answering.
"I ... would have a question for you, Queen."
Alythe agreed with a slow nod of her head.
"Did you know about the existence of that creature? That it was the anger and the loneliness of that creature which caused the nightmares I and the others had been having for these two months?"
The queen nodded again, without saying anything more.
"Why, then? Why did you do nothing to change things?"
Liryl's direct question triggered a reaction of silent shock from the present sentinels. The queen, by contrast, did not look fazed in the slightest by those words.
"The fact that a problem persists does not mean that its solution is simple, within grasp, or even merely that it exists," she explained, unperturbed. "Your inability to recognize this fact was the cause of the fate suffered by the people of Fys Narhal."
Liryl accepted Alythe's words in silence, even though she did not look away from the queen's gaze for a single moment.
"Rise, now," Alythe said, sighing. As she got back up, the queen rose as well from the chair and walked towards her, stopping just a step before her.
"Close your eyes."
Liryl did as ordered. She felt the queen's hand touching her forehead, and a cold sensation spreading over her skin. She stood still like that for roughly a minute, until the queen walked back to her seat again. Liryl opened her eyes, unaware of what had happened. Then, her eyes glanced at the polished armor of one of the sentinels, and she saw her reflection. Right where the queen's hand touched her, there was now a strange violet rune, barely visible on her skin.
"I am sorry, Liryl," the queen said, while she was still staring at her own mirror image, "but your actions betrayed the trust of your people. For this, and for the consequences of those actions, you shall be forever barred from setting foot on the soil of your sisters and your ancestors. Within an hour, the sentinels shall escort you to the border. May the spirits have mercy of your soul."
***
Once Liryl came out of the hall, Sanya and Thesyl walked up to her with a mix of anxiety and expectation in their eyes. The faint smile of the young priestess, however, faded as soon as she saw the rune scribed on Liryl's forehead.
"No ..." she murmured, incredulous. "Tell me it's not real ... I beg you, Liryl, tell me it's not real ..."
Liryl would have rather not spoken, not listened, not seen. But she knew that this was no longer a possibility. Soon, those people would never see her again, and they deserved one last reply from her.
"I'm sorry, Thesyl," she apologized, mustering her courage and meeting the priestess's watery eyes. "I'm grateful for all you've done for me, but ..."
"Stop it!" Thesyl screamed in return, though, starting Liryl, Sanya, and the other bystanders. Then, she turned towards one of the guarding sentinels. "I want to speak with the queen, now!"
"That's impossible," the requested sentinel answered, shaking her head. "I know what you're thinking, but the queen's decisions are ..."
"She's just a child, damn it!" Thesyl replied, desperately. "You can't send her dying out there!" Her forces failed, as she fell on her knees weeping. "You can't ..."
The nymphs looked in silence at the young priestess, crying out her sorrow helplessly. Then, one of them kneeled down and hugged her from behind. Liryl.
"I promise you that I'll be fine, Thesyl, no matter what happens," she whispered. "Also thanks to everything you taught me."
The priestess remained on her knees, speechless, as she pulled herself out of the embrace with a kiss and rose up again. Then, as she turned, she met Sanya's eyes. The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds.
"I thought we'd end this story together," Sanya murmured.
"I'm sorry," Liryl replied, shaking her head. "I had no choice."
"Really?" the other nymph asked, raising an eyebrow. "And what stopped you from waking me up and having me come with you, that night?"
Liryl did not expect this reaction from her friend, but she confronted her gaze and her question unflinchingly.
"If I brought you with me, that night, now you would be dead. And I would be exiled anyway. What would I have told to Eris and the other sisters? That you died at my whim?"
"And, rather than having me die, you thought I would prefer to see my lifelong friend exiled forever?" Sanya replied, struggling to keep her cool but unable to suppress a sob.
"I'm sorry for having taken this decision in your place. Maybe I've been selfish," Liryl admitted ruefully. "Hate me if you want, but know that I took that decision because I love you."
A stronger sob cut Sanya's voice off for a moment.
"I wish I really could hate you, now," she whispered then, as the first tears started streaming down her face. "but I can't." Then, unable to say anything more, she clung to her friend's neck and cried her eyes out.
Liryl herself felt a lump in her throat, as her best friend was crying desperately on her shoulders. She would have wanted to let go, weep with abandon, beg for Sanya's forgiveness for having betrayed her like that, but she forced herself up and endured it. Had she given in to despair as well, the time of separation would have been even harder. Thesyl and Sanya both comforted her in her moments of weakness. Now, it was her turn to be strong.
Gently, Liryl slipped out of that embrace, too. She glanced one last time at the young priestess, still on her knees.
"I know you'll have to go back to Fys Dhara, soon," she said to her friend, "but as long as you are here, could you ... stay near her?" she asked, pointing at Thesyl with her eyes.
Sanya nodded. "Good luck, my friend."
Liryl returned that goodbye with an affectionate smile. She was about to leave, when she heard her friend calling her again.
"Liryl!"
She turned, puzzled by that call.
"If you find yourself in trouble again, out there," Sanya said, with a firm voice despite her still-misty eyes, "promise me that you'll accept the help of anybody who's close to you, whoever they are. Got it?"
Liryl stood speechless for a few seconds.
"I swear, Sanya. You have my word."
***
Liryl spent most of the journey to the border resting, crunching on cocoa beans, and reading the map Eris left to Sanya and her when they left Fys Dhara. Despite her protests, Sanya had insisted that she keep it.
Judging from the map, they were coming close to Fys Kharia, a village at the base of the Great Barrier. The last community of nymphs she would cross, before leaving that land behind forever. Liryl looked around, staring at the supplies, the map, and the few other things which had kept her company during these days.
So, that's how it is? Is that how the rest of my life will be?
Suddenly, she heard the sentinels who were escorting her stopping the boat to speak with somebody.
Have we got there, already?
As soon as Liryl looked up, to see who the sentinels were talking with, her heart skipped a beat, and her eyes widened out of surprise.
It can't be.
"Are you sure, priestess?" one of the sentinels asked, perplexed.
"Fys Kharia is just a few hours of walk from here," the priestess explained. "I will lead the girl there."
The sentinels exchanged a long look, then they nodded and moored the vessel. "Get down," they told Liryl.
Liryl jumped down from the boat with a confused look on her face, staring at the priestess as the sentinels' ship slowly disappeared from their sight.
"Let's move," Eris told her novice. "I'll explain everything on the way."
***
"How did you find me?" Liryl asked, straight out.
"Three days ago, a priestess named Vemel came to see me, telling me that you and Sanya left for the Spring Mountains," Eris told her.
"Three days?" Liryl repeated, perplexed. "But it takes over a week from Fys Dhara to Fys Espyr."
"Yes, usually, but since I was in a hurry to reach you, I summoned a spirit of water to help me get to Fys Espyr faster," the priestess explained. "Actually, I was not sure that the spirits would help me, but it looks like I have been in luck."
"What do you mean?"
"Spirits don't care for our mortal motives." Eris's eyes wandered across the landscape before her. "They don't accept to be offended, but beyond this, nobody knows for sure what moves them. Even the most learned among the priesthood always has to negotiate again, every single time, her relationship with spirits – and their favors."
Liryl had heard a similar speech years before, during her training. But what she had learned during the last few weeks allowed her to see a new meaning behind those words.
"At any rate, I came to Fys Espyr, and Sanya and Thesyl told me about what had happened meanwhile. So I left again to try and reach you before it was too late." The priestess smiled. "It seems like I have arrived just in the nick of time."
"In time for what?" Liryl could not feign her puzzlement. "Do you actually want to ... hide me somewhere? Help me to escape?"
Eris peered at the girl. "What if I do?"
Her question took Liryl by surprise. Ever since the queen had condemned her to exile, the girl had not even considered the idea of escaping that fate. Even Thesyl and Sanya, in the end, had to give up the possibility of contesting that decision. Now, instead, Eris was openly offering her exactly that possibility. However ...
What could I actually do?
Wherever she went, the mark left on her forehead by the queen would identify her as an outcast. She would need to live alone, finding food for herself in the forest. Not that she was unable to do so, but was this the life she wished for? Or was a life as a hermit, in her own homeland, still preferable to dying in an unknown land, abandoned to her own fate?
"No, I'm sorry, Eris, I cannot accept," Liryl replied at the end of her reflections. "If I lived here, I would forever be a fugitive, and that's not the life I want. Maybe an even worse fate awaits me out there, but I'll never know until I try." A faint smile crossed her face. "And besides, maybe the world out there isn't really so awful."
The priestess smiled as well. "I agree. And anyway, this is not why I wanted to meet you."
"What?" Liryl uttered, even more confused than before. "But then, why ...?"
Meanwhile, the two of them had come by the shores of a small lake, hidden in the depths of the forest.
"There, this should be a suitable place," Eris acknowledged, peering at the pond.
"Suitable for what?" Liryl asked, impatiently. "Would you care to explain what you have in mind?"
The priestess sighed. "Have you already forgotten, then? The promise I made you before you left with Sanya?"
"What promise?" Liryl asked, uncertain. "I don't ..."
But something subtle in Eris's gaze recalled in a flash those distant words to her mind.
Liryl's cheerful eyes misted up.
"You're late."