"You can't leave me!"
"You told me you were done with that life!"
Reiden groaned into his pillow. A faint click sounded from the direction of the door.
"Please, just listen. I had a debt to pay. I'm done now, it's all over. Please, Laryssa," he whispered her name with a reverence he'd never before used with anyone else. "Meet me tonight and everything will be just like I promised."
Another click. His dream shifted.
"Don't you leave me!" his brother cried. "Don't you dare leave. Please, brother, please. I'm sorry and I—I don't want to be alone."
Light from the hall hit his eyes.
He snapped awake, jerking against the cuffs on his wrist. A silhouette stood in the doorway. The form was small, female, but there was something...
The light hit her face as she stepped inside and he knew her. The woman's hair was cut short and her compassionate gaze that he remembered now appeared deadened inside her tired eyes. Still, a hundred years wasn't enough time to forget who had been there when he'd woken up nameless and forgotten.
"You," he said, somehow knowing she would know what he meant.
She did not step further in the room. Those tired eyes fell to his cuffs and something like embarrassment made him want to tuck his wrist under the blanket.
"Who are you?" she asked.
He opened his mouth to answer, but the words from his dreams choked out his own. "I'm not sure anymore..."
Her lips thinned. "Who do you want to be?"
He licked his dry lips. Who did he want to be? At first, he'd wanted to stay Reiden, the simple dockworker who could daydream about a family or a lover without fear they would be unreal. Then he'd wanted to be Dormaeus, the man who loved Laryssa and had a—a brother. Someone who had missed him.
The pain-drenched cry of that healer when Desden had blasted him reverberated through his head.
"You're a wizard... And you're going to act like a wizard." Desden had said that. He'd tried to go along with it, but now the image of that healer's burnt leg stood against those words, a warning of what path he was walking down.
"I'm not sure about that either," he answered finally.
The woman let out a puff of air. "Do you want to stay locked up with the healers, or...?"
"I thought you were a healer."
"No," she corrected through grit teeth before slowly releasing the fist that had coiled at her side. "I'm not. And I'm not a mage either." A noise echoed down the hall and her head snapped to it. "Look, if you stay here, they're going to wipe your memories again. Do you want that?"
"No!" he answered quickly. That was maybe the only thing he did know. After everything that had happened, he couldn't just go back to how he'd been living before. He couldn't go back to forgetting and being forgotten. And he couldn't risk forgetting her.
"Then you need to come with me now," she said, venturing a glance down the hall. "Your brother's going to end up hurting a lot more people if someone doesn't stop him and I need your help to do that." She held out a hand.
"I... I remember knowing a woman. Laryssa. Desden promised that he could help me find her. You have to do the same." He rose to his full height, now towering above the small woman.
She wavered, hesitating. Another noise came from down the hall. "I'll do what I can." She extended her hand again and he put his own bound ones into it. The cuffs clicked open and the woman tucked them into a pouch at her waist. "We need to hurry."
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Feyla."
She dragged him down the hall and said nothing more.
Dragging an amnesic wizard who didn't understand the meaning of stealth down a guild house hallway was not how Feyla had wanted to spend the days following her engagement. Her stomach twisted at the thought of Dormaeus's request. Jaerick had cautioned using the memory wipe spell on Dormaeus for fear his strong connection to his brother might seep through. Why was Laryssa one of the few things he remembered? How strong was the connection to the girl he'd killed?
Feyla tucked that bit of info away to think on later and continued to drag Dormaeus along behind her. They ducked behind a wall hanging, her hand flying up and covering his mouth while a healer probably back from a late-night patient passed by. They both held their breath. Feyla counted the footsteps until the healer was gone.
"The exit is this way," she tugged him out of their hiding place and toward the stairs.
"Why are you doing this?" he whispered behind her. "I thought you were part of the healers."
"It's complicated," she answered. "And this isn't the time to talk about it."
"If I'm following you then I think I should know something," he insisted.
Feyla paused just for a moment. "The healers and the mages have been competing over who can catch you and your brother first. Let's just say that the best case for me is that neither of them does. Now come on." She pointed at the stairs just ahead. "If we hurry, we can get out before anyone—"
"Sees you betraying us?"
Feyla whipped around, shoving the tall ex-wizard behind her protectively. "Delia—"
Delia's jaw clenched in the dim light. "You're really going to do this."
"I can't do this anymore, Delia. I didn't want to rejoin in the first place."
"What about Jaerick? My healing house burning? Does none of that matter to you? I thought you were my friend," Delia said the last part in a pained whisper.
"I'm always your friend." Feyla braved a step closer. "And I'm going to catch Desden but I can't do it while fighting against Sedgewick. I hurt him, Delia. I hurt him and I don't think I can heal it. But I can at least stop being his enemy."
"By siding with the mages?"
"By siding...with myself."
Delia stared at her for a long moment. Feyla took another step closer. "I don't want to be your enemy either. You have to understand, Delia! Would you want to work against Jaerick?"
At the mention of her husband, Delia paused. "Jaerick's never liked Daydrel's plan. He thinks he's in over his head." Her eyes narrowed at Dormaeus behind her and her hands rose into a battle healer's stance. "And I have a feeling that you're getting in over yours."
"Maybe," she answered honestly. "I definitely will be if I have to fight against you too."
"But you're willing to."
"I won't hurt him anymore."
The silence in the hallway stretched so deep that you could have heard the flap of a bird's wing from down the hall. Feyla forced herself to breathe, ready to drop into her stance and fight past her friend the moment Delia made a move. She took in her old friend, the determined cut of the woman's chin, the way her shoulders were always flung back like she was preparing to lead the charge through whatever problem was in front of her, the way those eyes of hers softened at the mention of her husband. And she watched as Delia dropped her stance.
"You really love him, don't you?"
"More than anyone." Her voice cracked with relief as Delia took a step closer as well. The next moment, the two women were embracing, tears running down both their faces.
"I won't follow you," Delia promised, clasping Feyla's hand in her own. "Jaerick was asking me to pull back anyway. He doesn't like the path Daydrel's taking and I'm—I'm not sure I still support it either. It feels like all we did was make a bigger mess."
"I'll fix this," Feyla promised. "Don't you worry."
"If your mother asks, I never saw you."
"Thank you." They hugged one last time and Feyla sapped every bit of comfort she could from it before letting go. She touched Dormaeus's arm and tugged him with her. He'd been looking away, the only way he could give her and her friend some privacy.
"Feyla!" Delia called out in a half-whisper.
She turned and Delia gave her a half-smile. "This doesn't mean I like that mage of yours."
Feyla grinned. "I can live with that."
For the first time in his life, Daydrel was struggling to find a way he could work with this.
He'd woken half an hour ago in a closet and after him and the guardsman had broken the door down and sounded the alarm, Feyla and Dormaeus were long gone. No one had seen them escaping, or at least no one had admitted it.
She does have a way of being persuasive, Daydrel admitted. A bitter, burning sensation had slipped into his stomach the moment Feyla had left him drugged and unconscious and unlike the sleeping serum, it hadn't subsided upon waking. He took in a breath of fading night air and leaned his head back against the outer wall of the guild house. Dawn peeked through the buildings in the distance. Not much longer and it would be driving away the stars and bringing back the heat of summer. He'd have to go back inside soon and find some way of convincing Arilla that he hadn't let her daughter ruin his plans and slip through her grasp. Some way to make this work to his advantage.
No ideas were forthcoming.
Daydrel heaved a sigh and pushed himself away from the wall. That feeling in his stomach fed its way through his veins. He clenched his hands at his side at the memory of her voice, always so sweet, hinting at one of the things he wanted most in the world before jerking if from his grasp. He'd expected to receive a mocking letter from Alverdyne by now, but for some reason, she hadn't returned to the Magic Ministry with his victory.
What are you working at, Feyla?
Something cold scrapped the back of his neck. The sensation of oil and death crawled across his skin and stopped him in his tracks.
"Healer." And Daydrel didn't need to turn to know who was holding the staff swirling with black magic to his neck. "Been waiting a long time for this."
"What do you want?" Daydrel's arm muscles went taut. He calculated the distance between him and the wizard's neck. "Dormaeus isn't here anymore."
"Already know that. She's messing up your life too, isn't she?" Daydrel could practically hear the grin in his voice. "But then from the look I took inside your former lover's head, she's always been good at spoiling your opportunities."
"What is it you want?" Daydrel asked again, his teeth clenched tight.
"Like I said. I've been inside Feyla's head. I understand her. But not just her." He pressed the staff closer. "Take me to Arilla. Unlike her daughter, I think she'll appreciate our similarities."
*******************
Author's Note: Sorry this is going up so late, guys! I hit a block while writing it and didn't push through until yesterday and today. The good news is that I feel like I finally worked through some plot kinks that have been worrying me for months and I feel SO MUCH better now. I can finally let myself get excited about what coming next, mwahaha...