“Remi,” he said, grabbing her arm. “I love you.”
A few months ago, she would have believed him, because she wouldn’t have known any better. But now she had plenty of time to observe. She had seen other students spend time together. She had seen the way James and Catherine looked at each other, and most of all, she had seen how Kace preferred his time with others over her. It wasn’t that he had to spend more time with her than them. She didn’t even need it to be equal in her favor. But at the very least, when they did enjoy each other’s company, she preferred not to talk about what new jokes Chad had come up with, or how cool Berto was, or all the great things he was going to do with them the next day.
She wasn’t a part of his life, as much as he would say to the contrary. The actions were speaking louder than words, and at the end of the day, she was only a nice person that was willing to kiss him on the lips from time to time. Nothing more.
Well, no more.
“I want to break up,” she declared, and Kace’s face nearly cracked.
“No, Remi,” he cried, squeezing her artificial arm harder. She yanked her arm away from him and rubbed it. She didn’t want him leaving an impression.
“I’m not trying to be mean,” she said softly. Now that the deed had been done, there was no reason to make him feel any worse. She still wanted to be friends.
“Then why are you doing this?” he growled, covering his face with one hand.
“Because it’s what’s best for both of us. It may not feel like it right now, but it’s true. I can’t force you to come with me, and neither would I want to. I just…I thought we both wanted this. I guess I was wrong and I placed expectations on you that weren’t fair. For that, I’m sorry. But hey,” she paused to take his hand away from his face. The tears she saw rolling down his face nearly broke her heart. “We’re still friends…and I’m still there for you when you need me. Okay?”
“I’m sorry I can’t go with you,” he whispered. She hugged him and squeezed him tight.
“No apology needed.”
“You still should go back to the Academy though,” he sniffed. She broke off the embrace and stared into his eyes. Already she could see him getting over it. Sure, they would lose some comfort and companionship in the process, but what else could they gain?
“I know,” she said, looking behind her. “But…I really think I might just head out.”
“That doesn’t sound like you,” he said, wiping his tears away. “You know how dangerous it can be out there.”
“Yeah, but I’ll make it,” she said. “You have to have more faith in me than this.”
“If anyone can, it’s you,” he said, pointing to her artificial arm. “How you were able to keep fighting against those odds…after I find out what you did, I knew that you were so far away from me in determination that I had no hope of catching up. I hope it all works out for you.”
“I hope so to,” she whispered, fighting the lump in her throat. “And tell everyone I said good-bye, won’t you?”
“Definitely,” he said, bending down and giving a tender kiss on the cheek. “By the way, I love the new haircut.”
“Thanks,” she said with her face getting warm.
Kace spun around and began running back toward Paragon’s gates, slowly transforming with each stride. Remi took a deep breath and then turned to face the bridge before her.
It was nearly transparent. There were two white stone pillars on each side of the massive divide, with thick ropes and boards making up the bridge itself. Though it seemed weak and fragile, she knew the truth though. She had heard plenty about it from the other Sages.
The bridge responded to one’s thoughts.
Meaning, as soon as she placed her foot upon it, it would change to best accommodate her. It might become a bridge of rope, or a brick road, or possibly a cobblestone street like those she found in Virga. The bridge itself was made of pure energy, and therefore, it could never be cut down, no matter how hard one tried.
And many had, attempting to keep the worlds separate once again, but it was to no avail.
She stepped onto the bridge and was taken aback as it instantly changed shape, becoming a bridge made of vines and plants. There were tiny flowers sticking out of the sides and it reminded her of her stroll through the forest leading up to Virga.
She took another step, and she nearly giggled at how squishy it felt underneath her feet. She bounced on it a bit and the bridge shook, but it showed no signs of breaking. She jumped harder and she was nearly tossed into the air.
Okay, she thought. Maybe I shouldn’t do that.
Carefully, she made her way across, looking over the edge as she walked. It was like a bottomless pit underneath. A black, endless void with no signs of life or light coming from it. She wondered if anyone had jumped down, curious as to what lay in its depths.
When she reached the end, that was when the anxiety hit. Because she was now in foreign territory. Back in Allay, she had been rendered unconscious, and so she wasn’t awake for the trek into Paragon. She had no idea of what direction she should head in.
“I probably should have gotten some supplies,” she muttered as the wind picked up. Why make the journey harder than it had to be? There was no point searching for the Sorcerers if she died of starvation a few miles outside of Paragon.
Ian would know where to look for food, she realized.
Since he was a scavenger, he had to have seen a great deal of meal options in his travels. But she wasn’t sure if she should go back for him. Even when she said that they could leave together, she was only half-serious. He was interesting to say the least, but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to keep her end of the bargain and protect him.
Her feet crunched against some dead leaves, and immediately, she felt the icy chill of Terra. She had forgotten how intimidating it could be. The freezing nights. The starvation. The thirst. The wild creatures hunting for blood. Although she had only been in Paragon for a short while, it had already put her at ease. She had to rediscover her fighting edge.
“Okay,” she huffed, beginning to shiver. “Which way?”
There was nothing interesting ahead of her or to her left. To her right, however, there were a few shadows running her away. Hopefully they were a few animals scared of her presence and nothing more, but she was sure she hadn’t gotten that lucky.
“Crap,” she said as the shadows became illuminated under the dim natural light. They were an entirely different kind of animal than that she was used to.
Langorans.
Remi darted to the left and started running as fast she could, gritting her teeth as the biting cold nipped at her damp clothes. She glanced behind her and saw that they weren’t slowing down either.
Wait. Why was she running?
Remi stopped in her tracks, spun around and unsheathed her eidolon, letting it burn brightly as to ward off her pursuers, but it didn’t deter them. They picked up the pace.
“Come on!” she shouted, beginning to summon her white Sage robes. But before they had covered her half-way, something leapt on top of her from the trees high above.
Her chin slammed into the ground and she could already taste blood. The footsteps got closer as the one who leapt on top of her grabbed her wrists violently and forced them behind her back, making her shoulders ache. She could feel a rope being wrapped around her arms as the other Langorans surrounded her, making sure that she didn’t try to escape.
“Is this it?” one of them asked.
“Yes. Look at the mark,” another replied. “And,” he paused to sift through his cloak pockets and he pulled out a small blue stone. “Yep. She has the signature. This is the one we’ve been waiting for.”
“Took you long enough to come outside,” one of the Langorans bent down and whispered into her ear. Remi growled but she made no attempts to move. So Kace was right. They were literally waiting for her by the gates. She hated being wrong.
“It’s a long way back,” a Langora
n said. “You think she won’t cause any trouble?”
“Not if she’s unconscious the entire time,” another replied.
“Wait!” Remi shouted, gaining their attention. “Why would you idiots bring me back to Cimmerian when I’m actively searching out the other weapons? You think you’ll be able to find them without me?”
“We found you,” someone said.
“That’s because all three worlds knew where I am. This is different. Besides me, when was the last time you saw one of the Sorcerer weapons? I’m willing to bet it’s never.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“—I’m not done talking,” she snapped. “Can someone tell this brute to get off of me? I’m no good to you dead and my spine is about to crack in two.”
The Langoran on top of her took his knee off of her and the rest of the group gave her some room.
“Thank you,” Remi huffed. “Now…if you were smart, you would follow me. Let me go, let me find the other weapons, and then take us all.”
“We do that, and you’ll team up with the other weapons to fight against us.”
“You could always retreat and come back with reinforcements.”
“Yeah, but it will be having to choose between bringing one back for sure, or possibly losing both.”
“I thought the Langorans were tough. What happened?”
“We’re more like the, uh…scout group.”
“Good to know,” Remi said. She willed her eidolon to shoot out of her back with the blade facing up, cutting through her binds instantly. As the Langorans backed away in shock, she rolled over in the dirt and leapt up to her feet, grabbing the hilt of her sword in mid-air.
Before her captors could react, she swung the eidolon over her head in a circle, fatally wounding five of the six Langorans. They cried out in unison, clutching their chests which now had a severe cut running straight across it. The sixth Langoran tried to run away but Remi threw her eidolon into its back, and once he fell face first into the dirt, she willed it back to her side. It vanished from his back and then reappeared on the left side of her hip. She grasped the hilt and yanked it from her waist.
“I won’t kill you,” she said to them as they writhed in the dirt. “But I do want a message sent. I’m not playing around. All I want is to be left alone, and if that’s not good enough, then I’ll have to start taking heads. I will make it my personal mission to find out where the Langorans have their headquarters and I will run it into the ground. Everyone understand me?”
All she got were groans, but that was good enough for her.
“Excellent, now I’ll be heading out.”
As she jogged away from the scene, her eidolon hummed, letting her know that there were two more people nearby, and they both had familiar signatures.
“I sense you!” she yelled, and she heard a rustling above her. What was with people and hiding in trees?
Before she could call out again, Catherine and Olivia jumped down in front of her. She was sure it wasn’t for a heartfelt good-bye.
“Here to wish me well?” Remi asked.
Olivia didn’t smile back. “No, I’m afraid we’re here to take you back, by any means necessary.”
Chapter 27 – Family
“You’re serious?” Remi asked as her face softened. “By any means? Who gave you that order?”
“I decided it on my own,” Olivia said. “And I asked Catherine to come with me because we’re in agreement. You can’t go out here by yourself.”
“Then come with me,” Remi nearly pleaded. “Both of you.”
“We can’t,” Catherine said, her curly locks sticking out of her Sage hood. “Paragon needs us, and it needs you too.”
“No, it doesn’t. It wants to use me.”
“That’s not true.”
“James said I was free to go after the Sorcerers!” Remi shouted. Catherine looked around her, trying to sense if there were any more Langorans nearby. “Remi, I would keep it down if I were you. There’s a second scout group only a few miles from here.”
“I took down the first one by myself. What makes this one any different?”
“They’re a lot stronger.”
“And what does that matter? If I’m supposed to be this all-powerful weapon, so powerful in fact that I can’t even leave Paragon, then why should I be worried?”
“We don’t know the full extent of your powers, or what being a weapon of the Sorcerers actually means.”
“And you won’t be able to unless you do tests, right? Poke me. Prod me. Treat me like an experiment. Like one of Thorn’s things.”
“Which we will never do.”
“You are right now,” Remi said, casting her eyes toward the ground. “Everyone in Paragon can come and go as they please. But the moment I try, a retrieval party is sent. I don’t understand.”
“You do plenty,” Olivia said. “Come on. You know how important you are to us.”
“I think…I think I know why the other weapons can’t be found. Or…or why they don’t show themselves in public. Because they’ll be used as weapons, and not treated like people. Just because I was born like this…it doesn’t make me any less of a person than you.”
“You are equal to us,” Catherine replied but Remi shook her head furiously.
“No, I’m not. And if you force me to come back with you, I’m going to leave again. And again. And again. Until you have to treat me like a thing. You’ll have to restraint me and use me and you’ll have to deal with that burden every day. Or, you can do the right thing, and let me go.”
“That’s not going to—” Olivia began, but Catherine put a hand on her shoulder.
“Let her go,” she said, and Olivia scoffed. She opened her mouth to retort but then decided against it.
“Fine,” she muttered. “But remember that you’re turning your back on us too, Remi. No one’s going to be so quick to let you back in if you leave like this.”
“I know,” she said. Catherine reached behind and under her Sage robe and presented a backpack to Remi.
“Here,” she said, throwing it at Remi’s feet. “A little bit of food and some clothes. It’s not much.”
“It’s more than I have,” Remi beamed, happily picking up the supplies. “So this is it?”
“If it’s what you want,” Catherine replied. “Though I have to say that we could really use you here. James and many of the others are about to head out on an adventure of our own. We’re hoping to find reinforcements for what’s to come.”
“Hope it works out for you,” Remi said sincerely, throwing the backpack over her shoulders. “And…I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”
Catherine nodded and Olivia walked over and gave Remi a hug.
“Take care of yourself. I’m not there to keep you warm at night.”
“Somehow I’ll survive,” Remi replied, breaking away from her. “Farewell.”
She left the two behind and she could feel them still watching her even when she was a mile away. They had to be following her still. Making sure she was safe.
Remi wasn’t having it.
Okay, she thought to herself. How do I ditch them?
Remi took off running, sure that they wouldn’t be so eager to make chase for fear of being caught. She allowed her eidolon to stick slightly out of the top of her shoulder so that she could read her surroundings. She couldn’t sense Olivia or Catherine, but that didn’t mean they weren’t near.
What was near, however, was a family of three, traveling by wagon through the forest. That was something she didn’t see every day.
She decided to head toward them, and while she ran she practiced her smiles and recited pleasantries with her voice. She only had one shot to make a good impression.
“Excuse me,” she called out when she was still several yards away. The father and husband was sitting in front of the open wagon with reins in his hand, yoked to an elderly biulo. How he was able to get one all alone and tamed must have been quite the story.
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The woman and young boy in the wagon had been lying down, but now they shot their heads up and stared at her as she approached. The man pulled back on the leather reins, stopping the biulo in its tracks. The creature began picking off leaves from a nearby tree with its mouth as the man leaned back in his oak seat.
“What can I do you for, young lady?” The man was in his mid-forties and bald. He was rail thin and his wife and child were just as gaunt, and yet, they didn’t seem unhealthy. The little boy was actually jumping up and down at the possibility of having someone else to talk to.
“I was looking for some companionship during my travels,” she said, still keeping an eye out for Olivia and Catherine.
“Where are you headed?”
“Not sure. I’m exploring.”
“You’re welcome to accompany us as long as you like. We’re heading to Cimmerian.”
“Really?” she asked in surprise. She had heard of Paragons leaving their homes to go to Cimmerian but it was quite a rare sight.
“Yeah,” he laughed, waving a hand over his thin body. “We’ve been weaning ourselves off the food around Paragon in preparation for the journey. It hasn’t been easy.”
“I’ll join you for now,” Remi said, climbing into the back of the wagon. The woman shuffled over to give her room.
“My name is Zaiya,” the woman said, extending a hand out. Remi shook it and smiled once she saw the little boy.
“And what’s your name?” Remi asked.
The little boy shook his head and then burrowed himself into his mother’s side.
“He’s shy,” Zaiya laughed. “This is Ben. We found him abandoned in Terra during one of our travels a few years ago.”
“Oh,” Remi said. “Do you know what happened to his parents?”
“Not a clue,” she said. “We were out scavenging for food—you know, to get better accumulated to Terra’s produce, when we found him crying in the forest all alone. He was dirty and bit by some of the woodland creatures. We did look for a guardian of his, but after a couple of days we cleaned him up and took him back home with us. He’s been with us ever since and although he’s not my child by blood, I treat him as if he is.”
The Complete Seven Sorcerers Trilogy Page 26
