Chapter 30-
The afternoon light poured in through the windows of the bar. Susarion Horace sat at the counter, staring down into the ice cubes of his drink, thinking about the various ways the water inside had frozen and bent. He was now fifty-six years old, though his dirty blond hair wouldn’t have given it away. He generally stood with a slouch, earned after years toiling away at farm work. He wore a tan leather jacket over a white dress shirt and suspenders, and his eyes seemed tired.
“You ready to head out?”
The voice came from the young man standing next to him, Dion Eumenides, who was approximately thirty years his junior. Dion’s fiery red hair seemed more muted in the shadows his face cast. He was wearing a thin leather vest, of which he kept the top few buttons undone, and neatly tucked into his jeans. The shoulders of the vest spiked out into flaps that tapered off, giving him a slick, V-shaped silhouette.
“I’ll be good in a bit,” Susarion replied somberly.
“You alright?” Dion asked pensively.
“I’m fine, overall, I always am, really,” Susarion couldn’t hide the touch of sadness in his voice. “It’s just that, if Eroh really had to attack the target…”
He stopped for a moment, struggling to get the words out.
“Then that means Fars… didn’t make it through.”
Dion looked at him blankly.
“You don’t think he got lost or something?”
“No,” Susarion was sure of it. “He might have seemed like a- a live one, but if he wanted to find someone, he was going to do it…”
Dion answered his elder’s words with a relaxed, unimpressed expression.
“Oh, God…” Susarion was upset, but he tried to chain down his emotions as best he could. “What a shame… What a damn shame…”
Without warning, the glass in his hand shattered; shards littered the counter as his drink spewed out. The ice cubes inside remained undisturbed, only floating around in the thin layer of liquid that soon dripped to the floor.
The sound hung in the air of the bar, which was mostly empty.
“Sorry,” Susarion apologized to Dion, who was now tilting his head curiously at the mess. “I guess I just forgot to control it…” He stood up and reached into his pocket, pulling out an extra fifteen dollars, placing it down on the counter. The older man turned to the shocked bartender, who was walking up to where the two of them sat, and offered a modest “Sorry for the mess.”
With that, the two of them headed for the door, throwing it open to breathe in the fresh afternoon air.
---
The second day of travel was underway, and Mount Dement was in sight, maybe an hour away by foot. The tall cedar trees offered ample shade for the four of them, the sound of birds chirping danced around the forest.
When they’d set off from camp, Gallow had noticed that Sonsee looked pale. He’d asked her if she was feeling alright, only to be met with a weak assurance from her that she would be fine.
Gallow had looked at her for a moment longer; behind him, Janna and Bleech were playing with some sticks and rocks they’d found nearby. Sonsee tried not to return his gaze, only drinking more water. After a brief pause, she spoke.
“Gallow, I feel like I’m going to die soon.”
His lips parted and his eyes widened by a hair. Her voice was so grave and somber, he was unused to hearing this kind of thing from anyone, least of all from someone so vivacious as her.
“It’s like there’s this heavy weight all through my body…” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “It’s this awful, dark feeling, it isn’t like any other sickness, it’s just…” she tried to find the right words. “It feels like my life is being sapped away, my head feels light, this poison is killing my soul…”
Gallow’s heart sunk. “We just need to get to Dement and you’ll be fine!” he grasped at reassuring her.
“How do we know that?” she had responded bitterly. “Not even Ansel knew who this woman was!”
“Sonsee…”
She shivered on the ground.
“I just… I don’t want to die like this… I don’t want to die without talking to him again…”
Gallow absorbed her words.
“You mean your brother?” he asked carefully.
“Yes… I don’t want to die knowing that he’s still… so angry…”
“Sonsee… It’s going to be alright…”
She looked up at him, almost tearing up.
“But I don’t know…”
“We’ll be here, okay?”
His words had a strange kind of comforting effect on her. She took a deep, labored breath, and slowly stood.
“Let’s go, then.”
---
The forest broke out suddenly, into a huge clearing. The only thing that lay between the four of them and their destination was a great meadow.
“Oh, wow!” Janna exclaimed. “I love flowers! Don’t you?”
“I guess, they’re alright…” Bleech replied meagerly.
The girl ran into the field and knelt down to examine the different varieties of flora growing. There were great swaths of different colored tulips, daisies, roses, buttercups, pimpernels, and bindweeds. Bleech soon joined her, standing beside her to admire the sight with her.
Sonsee slowly walked forward to join the two of them, but lost strength in her leg and almost tripped to the ground. Gallow caught her and helped her up; she slung her arm around his shoulder and walked with him to the children.
“You okay?” he whispered.
“I’ll make it,” she said doubtfully.
Janna looked back to see the young woman weakly trudging towards them; Bleech followed her gaze.
“Can I just… sit down for a moment…” Sonsee requested.
Gallow helped her down and she found a seat on the ground. She planted her hands into the ground to keep herself sitting up. Sonsee took a few deep breaths while Janna and Bleech walked a few paces over to her, obviously worried.
Gallow watched her silently, remembering the first time they’d met. They were both wanderers in the desert, looking only to survive with faint dreams in their back pockets. He had fallen down under the blistering heat, and she’d taken him to shelter, nursing him back to health for the next two days. Before he left, she’d given him the Navigator sigil as a parting gift, a kind of good omen for finding the right path. Now, their positions had been flipped in the strangest way, but he couldn’t help feeling compassion for her.
They were all quiet as the wind passed over the meadow; the sea of flowers bent and blew in the breeze, resembling gently rolling waves.
…
…….
………
“Where I grew up, we never had so many flowers like this,” Sonsee explained quietly. “In the Atamape language, we call them ‘tiffa.’ I’ve never seen ones with colors like these…”
The sky was a clear and vibrant blue, a few white, puffy clouds floated on by in the high altitude.
Sonsee clutched her chest.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful yellow…”
The strength in her arm gave out, and her body fell to the ground.
“Sonsee!” Gallow cried, holding his hands out in shock.
He immediately rushed to her side and picked her up.
“Is she-?” Janna asked, terrified.
“No,” he assured her. “I can still feel her soul, but the poison is filling her up.” His voice was focused and intense.
“How far is it to the mountain?” she continued.
Gallow grit his teeth.
“As close as I need.”
He tightened his grip around her body, his sigil sparked with energy, and he took off. Bleech and Janna were left to look at each other in disbelief, before breaking into a jog behind him.
---
“How many years ago was it?
That I met the Tiger?
When I was a much younger man…
Who knew so little, despite having so much?”
“Susarion?”
The older gentleman looked up from his seat at his companion. Their ferry was proceeding swiftly down the Daniel River towards the closest town to their target’s predicted destination.
Dion was leaning against the railing of the vessel, his red hair and bright blue eyes complemented the clear sky behind him, from which sunlight streamed down.
“Sorry?” Susarion replied.
“You look upset, is something wrong?”
“No,” he sighed. “I’m just getting a little introspective.”
Dion laughed.
“Introspection’ll be the death of you, y’know?” He turned his head to the right and looked off in the direction of the ship’s bow. “People like me have no time for things like that,” he whispered.
“Dion,” Susarion’s voice was deep and thoughtful. “Young people like you either learn to be introspective, or you die lost.”
The young man cast only his eyes back to peer at his companion from the side.
“I understand.”
“Old men like him just need to hear their own thoughts pointed back at them… It makes them feel like they were right all along… But still, why do I even bother agreeing?”
Dion looked out at the passing landscape, closing his eyes.
“Whatever…”
---
A woman reclined in her chair, watching the clouds pass by far above. This was an exercise she’d committed herself to doing, which she dubbed “Physical Existence Studies.”
“The shade offered by the porch is refreshing as ever,” she noted. “And the sky is a lovely shade of blue today…”
In the distance, she saw a shape appear on the horizon.
“Hm?”
It was bipedal, but approached her far quicker than any other animal on Earth of that description should be able to. In a minute’s time, the shape had gotten close enough that she could make out what it was.
“Is that a man? Carrying something...?”
She leaned forward in her chair, the anticipation of something significantly interesting rose within her.
---
Gallow’s boot slammed into the ground, he raised off the ground again once more, bounding into the air for another few seconds, his breath was sharp. He was straining Navigator’s enhancement to the most of his ability, allowing him to pick up more speed than a normal human, as well as the strength to carry Sonsee while maintaining that speed.
He spied a cabin in the distance, and, through the blur of motion, could make out somebody sitting on the front porch.
“I just need to make it- before her life runs out!!”
He grunted and panted as the ground raced beneath him.
Finally, he landed with both feet at the steps of the cabin, kneeling down.
“Please- I need you to heal this woman!”
The person he’d first seen in the distance stood up and walked to the top step. She was a middle-aged woman wearing an orange plaid dress, over which was draped a dark green cloak. Atop her head she wore a large pointed hat in the same mossy green shade.
This was the woman at the base of the mountain.
“Is something the matter with her?” she asked calmly.
“She’s poisoned, it’s a spiritual poison, please, cure her!” Gallow begged the strange woman. “Please, you’re a Vocation-user aren’t you?”
“Vocation?” the woman replied. “I don’t have anything like that.”
Gallow felt a pit deepen in his stomach.
“W-what…?”
This couldn’t be happening, he’d come all this way just for Sonsee to die?
“This is impossible, I- I-”
The woman picked up a tall wooden staff from beside her chair.
“What is she doing?”
She proceeded down the wooden steps of her cabin.
“I don’t have a Vocation,” she continued, reaching the bottom of the stairs. She extended her arm and let it rest on Sonsee’s unconscious body.
All of a sudden, a brilliant light shone from the end of the staff touching the native woman. The refulgence enveloped her body, and small green bubbles filled with black smoke arose from it.
“... Because I am a power far beyond that.” Half of her face was illuminated, defining her features more strongly; her sharp nose and chin, her thin eyebrows. Her eyes were a deep shade of red.
The light faded, and Sonsee’s eyes opened slowly. She struggled to rise up from the ground, but collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
“Is she-?”
“She’ll be fine,” the woman explained. “She just needs a little rest.”
Gallow carefully picked Sonsee back up, examining her with spirit sight to find that Disintegration had entirely vanished from her body; there was not a trace of black smoke left in her spirit. The strange woman showed him inside, where he laid Sonsee on a bed to rest.
The woman opened her mouth to speak, but Gallow beat her to the punch.
“I have some friends on the way, they should be here in twenty minutes,” he informed her. She closed her mouth and simply invited him to sit out on the porch, which he gladly accepted.
The instant Gallow sat down, the exhaustion staved off by his intense burst of adrenaline finally hit him. His breathing was heavy as his heart tried to get enough oxygen to match how much blood it was pumping, sweat had formed on his brow, and his legs were a little sore.
Bleech and Janna came running up to the cabin after Gallow and the woman had sat in silence for some time. Panting and out of breath, the first thing out of both of their mouths was, “Is she okay??”
---
A short time later, the three travelers found themselves situated in this cabin, it was quite roomy, and had three separate rooms apart from the main living space and kitchen.
“Now,” announced the woman. “Let’s all get to know each other!” She clapped her hands together excitedly.
She sat in a large, padded chair while Gallow and the children gathered on a couch.
“Who wants to start?” she prompted, looking cheerfully at their blinking expressions.
“Well,” Gallow began. “All three of us kinda know each other already, we’re trying to get to Hilltop, and we’ve been travelling for a few days now,” the woman was in rapt attention. “And, well, I’ve known Janna and Sonsee for almost a year now,” pointing behind them, to the sleeping woman.
“Oh my,” the woman of the mountain exclaimed. “That’s really something, isn’t it?”
“Something feels off about this lady,” Gallow thought. “Everything she says sounds kind of forced and… duplicitous?”
“Hey,” he shot back. “You haven’t told any of us your name yet, who are you?”
She thought for a second, pressing a finger to her chin.
“I guess it wouldn’t do any harm to tell you my name, if that’s what you’re after,” she replied. “My ‘name,’” she made air quotes as she spoke. “Is Melty Green!”
“Melty… Green?” Bleech repeated.
“Affirmative!” she confirmed in an overly enthusiastic way.
“But who are you really?” Gallow pressed. “I don’t wanna be rude, but you healed Sonsee like it was nothing, and you said something pretty strange back there, Ms Green.”
Melty mulled over his accusation, and came back with a proposition.
“Well, I can see that the two of you are Vocation-users, as is that woman,” she motioned to Gallow and Bleech. “However, you, young lady, do not have any such power,” pointing to Janna. “So, if you can discern who I really am, then I’ll let you stay for the night! How’s that sound?” She smiled simply, like a child.
“What do you want me to figure out?” Janna asked cautiously, shifting around in her seat.
“It’s already begun, little miss,” Melty responded.
“Huh?” Janna looked to Gallow, only to realize that she was no longer in the cabin, sitting on a couch, but in a dark void.
“W-what the-” she abruptly fell from where she had previously been sitting, as there was no longer anything beneath her.
Janna’s eyes widened as she seemed to fall infinitely, yet float in space at the same time. She was trapped in a strange metaphysical state. All around her was a stretch of blackness, there was no sound. She knew that in the absence of sound her ears should have been ringing, but try as she might to focus in on that innate noise, there was nothing. Nothing to touch, nothing to smell, no air whipping past her.
“Is this what death feels like? Is this being dead?”
Her heart was pierced by icy spikes of fear, she couldn’t stop her thoughts from contemplating the scale of death.
“Is this what dad felt…?”
Janna caught hold of her mind and desperately reeled it back in; she began to think of her situation analytically. The only reason she could tell it was actually darkness and not her closed eyes was the fact that she could feel the muscles of her face tightening to keep her eyelids open. With this in mind, she tilted her head downwards to see if she could look at herself. What she saw was not her body, but the sky.
“I-?”
Janna looked down from the sky and understood that the ground below was a battlefield. Little specks on the ground flew back and forth, running about and falling over. She thought it was strange that so much chaos could exist while above it was peaceful and undisturbed.
The war below was so insignificant to the sky.
She felt a rush of some great force, like she was rocketing to the ground; it felt as if her ribs would be crushed by the sheer magnitude she suddenly felt bearing up on her. Something was falling through her body, up through and out of her sky.
Janna looked back up at the void, but it was no longer a void. She knelt on the black, shapeless ground, surrounded by small flowers. She gazed at the vastness around her, noting the otherworldliness of the flowers; they were no species she could recognize. Their petals were a bright blue color, but they were shaped like roses, with thorns covering their stems.
Janna reached out and touched the blue rose closest to her. When her finger touched its thorn, it pricked, and she drew her hand back again. Small drops of blood dripped from her finger, she felt the echo of the pain from the cut. Looking back at the flower, she was astonished to see a trickle of golden liquid emerging from the center of the petals.
She reached out once more, dabbing her other finger in the liquid; It was thick and sticky.
“Like honey…?”
Janna tasted it off of her finger, and it was indeed sweet like honey.
“Janna Halloway?”
It was the first sound she’d heard since she fell into this void, and it shocked her senses. Janna looked to the source in response. Standing beside her was Melty Green, gazing down wisely at the girl.
“M-Ms Green?”
The older woman gazed at the flower.
“You want to become a doctor?”
“How did you-?”
“When you pricked your finger,” Melty cut her off. “You bled a little, but the flower made some honey.”
“Yes?”
“Which was more intense?” Melty’s face didn’t betray any emotion, this was a question she wanted Janna to answer truthfully. “The pain on your finger? Or the sweetness of the honey?”
“T-those are two different things,” Janna argued. “One is touch, the other is taste, I can’t compare them!”
“But they’re both part of the flower, aren’t they?”
Janna stopped herself for a moment and looked deeply at Melty, then back to the flower.
The golden honey, and her scarlet blood.
“You only think they’re two different things,” the woman added. “Because your mind tells you so. Things aren’t so simple here.” She looked from Janna to the flower. “You haven’t closed your eyes since you got here, have you?”
“No, I don’t think I have,” Janna cautiously answered.
“Try to understand the two of them with your eyes closed,” Melty instructed.
Janna shut her eyes and breathed steadily.
“There’s two of them, the pain and the sweetness…
The honey is the sweetness, and the blood is the pain…
No…
The blood isn’t the pain, the blood is proof of the pain, so what’s the pain?
It must be the cut on my finger. It’s not a fatal cut, it’s quite small, actually.
I’d take the honey over the cut any day, but… but the honey doesn’t come out unless I prick my finger…”
In her mind, she was able to understand and see, not with her senses, but her thoughts. Her consciousness itself perceived what she was staring at.
“The honey is part of the flower, the blood is part of me, but the flower isn’t a flower at all…”
Indeed, she realized it now. The flower was not separate from her at all, she had created the blue rose, it had come from her sky, all of them had.
Janna’s eyes opened slowly.
“Have you thought it over already?” Melty asked, patiently.
The girl smiled.
“It’s a kind of trick question, isn’t it?” She gazed up at the woman. “All those people on the ground, they’re all suffering, but at the same time, their hearts are overflowing with honey, they’re completely equal.”
Melty raised an eyebrow and smiled back wryly, saying nothing.
“Even if it hurts, I can risk myself to bring that honey out,” Janna stated with a strong gleam in her eyes.
“If you hurt yourself for sweetness, you’ll just break even, won’t you?” Melty replied coolly.
“Not if I can share that sweetness with everyone.”
Melty peered out over the void filled with blue roses.
“Is that your conviction?”
Janna nodded, even though the older woman wasn’t looking at her.
“Then prove it.”
“Prove it?”
Melty returned her gaze to the girl.
“Every one of these flowers, draw honey from them, ” she challenged.
Janna’s eyes widened, looking out at the sheer number of flowers.
“But there must be thousands of them…”
Melty came back even stronger in her words.
“How many people do you want to help when you become a doctor?”
Janna said nothing, but stood up.
One by one, she wandered from rose to rose, at first using her right index finger to draw blood. When that finger became full of wounds to the point of being unusable, she switched to her right thumb, then middle finger, and so forth, pricking them on thousands of flowers to draw both blood and honey. Eventually, she began using her left hand, and continued on for what felt like a day and a half.
Melty Green watched the young girl silently proceed from one flower to the next. Each time her own blood dripped out she winced, but still, Janna persisted. Honey flowed forth from the buds of every rose, until the inky black void of the ground was slowly covered by the golden substance.
Blood seeped from each of the small cuts the thorns tore into her. Her soft, slender hands were covered in red, it dripped from the palms and the backs; the blood dried only to be covered by yet another wave, which itself dried to create layers and layers of her life. After an incalculable amount of time had passed, both hands were rendered unusable, but Janna looked out at how many more roses there were, and marched on.
She used her wrists, her forearms, her legs, her feet, her face, all covered in small wounds. She broke major arteries, but still she continued. Not once did it cross her mind how long she’d been there. It could have been twenty minutes, it could have been hours, days, weeks, but she didn’t question it, nor did she have any interest in that. This diligent drawing of blood and honey to share with the world was all she needed.
Melty observed this with a kind of awe and curiosity.
“This is a death by a thousand cuts- no…” she pondered. “This is joy by a million sacrifices… Simply fascinating what they’re capable of…”
Finally, Janna returned to Melty, limping weakly as her vision blurred. She had lost an astounding amount of blood, but as she came back, it was over a sea of honey.
The girl fell to her side, barely sitting up. She gave the older woman a kind, innocent smile, full of earnestness.
“Look how much we have to share now…” Her body was covered in layers and layers of dried and drying blood, which dripped and mixed with the honey around her.
Melty knelt down and dipped her finger into the pool of honey, bringing it back to her lips.
“It’s delicious…” she commented softly. “Sweeter than anything I’ve ever tasted…”
They remained together for some time, silently watching the other, until the woman of the mountain broke the silence.
“So,” she began. “Who do you think I am?”
Janna closed her eyes and saw with her spirit.
“You’re just like the Spirit in the Garden of Armony, aren’t you?”
Melty smiled.
“Indeed I am. Congratulations, young lady, you’ve just learned the technique of spirit sight.”
Almost as suddenly as she entered the void, there was a sound like a great rushing of air, increasing sharply over a single second, until the world popped around her.
…
“Janna?”
She looked over at Gallow, who was still sitting next to her on the couch.
“Are you okay?” He asked before turning his attention to Melty.
“Hey! What the hell did you do to her?!”
Janna interjected.
“No, Gallow, it’s okay, I’m alright.”
“What happened to you?” Bleech questioned from her other side.
“Well, I just-” she looked down at her hand only to realize that it was as clean as it had been when she entered the cabin, not a drop of blood to be found.
“You went into a trance,” Bleech explained. “And there was this weird kind of bubble around you fro a second- your whole body.”
“Just a second?” she asked.
“Well, it was maybe five or ten seconds, but y’know?” he clarified.
“What happened to you Janna?” Gallow asked once again. “What did you do??” he pleaded to Melty.
“Gallow, nothing bad happened to me,” Janna assured him. “I just learned a new talent.”
“What do you mean?” Gallow was confused.
“Can you bring out Navigator?” she requested.
“What?”
“Just to show you,” she wanted to clear any doubt in his mind.
“I guess I could…” he conceded.
“[NAVIGATOR]!” His spirit body burst forth with a rush of crackling energy. It had grown to take an appearance separate from his own, now resembling a kind of featureless, semi-translucent blue figure with thin white eyes from which wisps of energy cascaded.
“Now,” she instructed. “Move it somewhere in the room.”
“Okay…?” he agreed confusedly, positioning Navigator to stand above the table that stood between the couch and Melty.
Janna closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and tunred her head to the exact direction of the table. She pointed directly at Navigator.
“There it is!” she claimed excitedly.
Gallow was taken aback.
“You can…?!”
Bleech noticed his shock, and realized it with him.
“Yep,” Janna confirmed happily. “I just learned spirit sight!”
“How in the hell…” Gallow muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” A voice came from behind them, a familiar one.
The three of them, as well as Melty, looked back to the open door of the room Sonsee was sleeping in. The young woman stood in the doorway, right over the threshold, leaning against the frame.
“Sonsee!” Bleech exclaimed.
“You’re up!” Melty celebrated. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon! You know what this means?” She looked at the three others.
“N-no?” Gallow responded cautiously.
“It means it’s tea time!” she was ecstatic.
“Tea… time…?” he repeated.
“Yep, yep, indeed!” She jumped up from her seat and hopped to the kitchen.
“But you didn’t tell us who you were- oh whatever,” Gallow conceded.
“Janna, little lady?” she called from the kitchen. “You can explain who I am once we’re through with tea time, because business shouldn’t happen over tea!”
“Business shouldn’t happen over tea?” Gallow copied. “Isn’t tea more of a Hope custom? Where is she getting these things?” he was speaking more to himself than to anyone in particular, deciding to simply go with the flow and join in on tea time.
---
Dion and Susarion landed in Peet, the nearest town to Mount Dement. The older gentleman landed on solid ground, followed shortly by his younger companion. They first set about scouring the town for an inn to rest for the night, as they didn’t anticipate their target to be moving so quickly that they would be untraceable if given a night.
When they finally came across an inn that wasn’t already full of travelers, Dion impatiently waited outside while Susarion booked a room. As dusk descended across the sky, they set their things up at their own beds, going about business as usual until something landed at the window.
Dion looked over.
“Hey, pops, it’s the bird.”
Susarion gladly invited the bird into the room, its single gold feather made it unmistakable to members of the Fang Team at this point. He pulled out a map of the area and set it on a table.
“Okay, now just point to where abouts they’re settin’ up,” he directed the bird.
It hopped over and pecked at the spot on the map that denoted Mount Dement.
“They’re holeing up by a mountain? Kinda odd,” Dion commented.
“She’s a trustworthy bird, Dion,” Susarion lectured. “And it’s important to put faith in trustworthy friends.”
“Yeah, I know,” he agreed, secretly dismissing the advice.
“We’ll take off first thing in the morning,” Susarion proclaimed.
“Okay, sounds good,” Dion agreed unenthusiastically while standing up and stretching. “I’m gonna go out on the town a bit, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t be up too late, rest is important,” the elder warned.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’ll be fine…” the fiery-haired youth insisted.
As Dion closed the door behind him, a smirk grew across his face.
He was going to have some fun tonight.