WHEN he opened his eyes, everything vanished. The waves of tranquility which had embraced him dissipated into nothingness. His muscles, devoid of the recent sense of ease, felt tense and sore. And his mind, still plagued by its usual worries, failed to hold on to the fleeting moment of blissful thoughtlessness.

Instead, his mind buzzed with the new information Gema and Marcela had given him using the Waters of Time.

His eyes met the evening sky, a near-crimson masterpiece painted by the fading rays of the setting sun. When he sat upright, the first thing his eyes and ears simultaneously picked up was Salome.

The young girl sat on the ground with her knees drawn up to her chest, rocking back and forth and muttering to herself.

When his eyes left her shaken figure, he met nothing but dead trees and a few white leaves on the ground.

"Where's Karyn?" he asked.

Her muttering and rocking continued.

"Salome!"

Her head snapped up, revealing red-blotched eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. "Oh, thank goodness! It's been hours and they've not come and—"

"What happened?" He calmly interrupted. Salome quickly narrated all that had happened while he was asleep.

"And Karyn?"

"I didn't realize she wasn't with me until I stopped running."

Jamie closed his eyes and released a frustrated sigh. With the information Gema and Marcela had given him, he should have Karyn under close inspection. There was no way Zack would know what to do if—

"We have to find them." Salome's words cut through his thought process as she stood up.

He was about to voice his agreement when she winced. His eyes drifted down to her feet and found her right ankle wrapped in a blood-stained bandage.

"Let me see that." He rushed down from the wagon and guided Salome to sit on it. He crouched beside her and raised her foot, but Salome let out a sharp cry once his hand touched it.

"It's still bleeding. Did you clean it well?"

"I... I couldn't. I don't know."

"You don't know?"

The firmness in his voice only made Salome's tremble more. "I... I couldn't focus. What if the SiatJan came again? What if it snuck up on me? What—"

"You need to get this properly looked at."

"Now?"

Jamie gave her an incredulous look. "Yes! We need to get out and get you proper help!"

Salome's eyebrows shot up far into her forehead. "What of Karyn and Zack? We can't leave them here. They have no food, no water, no tent. What if they didn't survive? What if—"

"Salome!" He shot to his feet and clasped her shoulder. "We can ask what if from now till forever, but it won't change anything. You've got a cut and if we don't treat it well, it could get infected. Do you remember how you got here?"

Her lips parted to speak, but he didn't let her. "No, because you only thought about getting somewhere safe."

He saw her face crumble and caught the tears in her eyes before she cast them to the ground. "Searching for them in this unending forest will worsen your injury. And first aid will only go so far. You need ointments and proper treatment."

"But what if we don't get out of the forest in time? Won't it be better to search—"

"What did I say about what ifs?"

"It won't change anything," she said in a small voice.

"Look."

At his one word, she raised her head and followed his hand to the white leaf he pointed at. Her eyes came back to him with a question in them.

"And there. And another."

Despite following his hands, Salome couldn't follow his thoughts. "What does that mean?"

"All Cathurvan forests lie in the north, so the deeper you go, the worse the magic drain. We can tell we're almost out of the forest because there are more white leaves. All we have to do is head south and once we're out, I'm sure we won't have to walk much further before we find the nearest town."

"But how do we know south? The sun has almost set and we can't use the shadows anymore."

"Look at the leaves again. What do you see?"

Salome's eyes went back to the leaves, but her frown only grew. "I see... leaves," she stated, her voice dripping with uncertainty.

"But how are they positioned?"

More silence, which Jamie soon broke. "White leaves only fall with their tip pointing south. Almost as if they're showing whoever's in the forest the way out."

He saw the realization dawn on Salome's face but didn't give her time to speak.

"Now come on," he said and gathered the rucksacks, wearing them all with two on each arm. Once they were secure, he gently placed Salome's arm on his shoulder and lifted her off the wagon.

"What of the tent bags?"

"It's too much for us to carry," he said and began moving.

Yet Salome continued her protest. "But we can put them in the wagon."

"We don't know how the people would react to magic. We're taking no chances."

They moved with the heavy silence as their companion until Jamie spoke.

"I know you're worried, but let's get emotions out of this and think. There are three options. One, they're already out of the forest. Two, they have gone deeper. Or three, they've been seriously wounded and are stuck," he said robotically.

Salome gasped, and he stopped abruptly, forcing her to do the same.

"What did I just say about emotions?"

"Oh." She visibly swallowed, and her shoulders slumped under his harsh gaze.

"Option three seems the least likely, considering Zack has powers and his affections for Karyn wouldn't let that happen. The chances of option two are also little because Zack says he knows his way around."

"Could they be out of the forest?"

"Could be, yes. Or they're on their way."

"So we should just trust them to make it out?"

Was that what he was doing? Trusting them.

He'd trusted them when he'd accepted Gema and Marcela's call and that got them split up. If he'd been awake, if he'd decided not to trust them, they would have handled the situation better with him being there.

But again, if he had done that, he wouldn't have known what he now knew about Karyn and her powers.

Trusting them now was another risk. Either he'd got it all wrong and something worse had happened to them. Or he was right. There was no way he could know until he made a choice.

He clenched his jaw. As much as he didn't want to say it, he had to, because there was no point denying it. "Yes, we have to trust them."

Not long after they left, the ground rumbled. Rising steadily, a SiatJan emerged and went round the wagon. It sank the same way it rose, and soon it was gone, taking the wagon with it.

♛ ♛ ♛

ZACK spun toward the shed, finally looking away from the forest. He'd been considering how they could find Jamie and Salome when he heard a distant thud come from the shed.

Seconds after Karyn had gone in with Loralai, Vesper had followed them, muttering an excuse Zack hadn't cared to listen to.

Now he frowned at the shed, as strange as its owner. No matter how he tried to answer the questions he had, they all pointed to something wrong. Resolving that they would leave, he forced his feet toward the shed.

Was it a risk, leaving the shelter of the shed and venturing back into the depths of the forest? Yes, he agreed. But remaining in the shed, despite his lingering distrust toward Vesper, posed another risk. The question was, which risk was greater?

He found the inside dead silent, dimly lit by the dwindling candle. The door to the bedroom was slightly agar. Had Karyn fallen asleep with Loralai?

Before he could get to the door, a creak echoed behind him, causing him to twist around, only to find Vesper standing a few steps away. Half of Vesper's face was bathed in the candle's glow, while the other half remained shrouded in shadows. Yet he could discern the twisted half of Vesper's smile glimmering ominously.

"Where's Karyn?" he asked with a suspicious glint in his eyes.

"You two think you can come here and ruin all I have been doing for months. Would Loralai be joining us?" His voice went various pitches higher at the last question.

Although Zack maintained his poker face, his heart raged in his chest. He subtly scanned his surroundings but stopped when Vesper spoke.

"You won't find anything you can use."

"Where's Karyn?" he asked again, warning filling his voice.

"She's where she would be useful to me, and I won't have you to bother me."

Vesper lunged right after his words, but Zack's quick reflexes allowed him to dodge the knife Vesper brandished. Acting on instinct, he seized the arm that held the weapon and used his other elbow to slam it down. Vesper groaned but refused to let go of the knife. Zack sent a punch that made Vesper stumble, giving him the chance to charge at him.

They crashed to the floor, entangled in a chaotic struggle, with the knife clattering away from Vesper's grasp. Zack's fists clenched around the neck of Vesper's shirt as he demanded answers, "What do you want with her? With both of them?"

But the man only smiled, infuriating Zack even more.

Vesper's voice trembled with excitement as he spoke. "I want what we've been looking for. They're both special, but Karyn..." He interrupted his sentence with a moan, closing his eyes and letting a dreamy expression overtake his features. When he opened them again, a manic gleam overtook his gaze. "There's something about her that's bigger than all I've been peddling with, and I'm sure she'll be enough for—"

Zack interrupted him with a punch, forcing blood out of Vesper's mouth. "I swear, if you have done anything to her, I will kill you!"

He threw another punch, but Vesper evaded it, retaliating with a vicious blow that sent Zack staggering backward. With a sickening thud, Zack crashed into the table and knocked the candle over.

What started as a small flame grew rapidly, licking at the wooden floor and stretching toward the walls. Consumed by their rage, neither of them bothered about the fire that threatened to devour everything in its path.

♛ ♛ ♛

WHEN she came to her senses, she raised her hand to her head with a hiss, wishing for the throbbing pain and constant hum to relent. She pried her eyes open but shut them once a bright yellow light blinded her. Forcing herself to sit with the support of her hands, she tried again. This time, no bright light ambushed her, and she had the chance to take in her surroundings.

Around her were four walls marked with varying symbols, but it was not only the horrid smell that sparked nausea within her. It was the deep red in which the symbols were drawn, almost as if they were bleeding. Something about it and how it trailed down in dry streaks made her skin crawl.

She forced her eyes away from the walls and spotted the ladder some steps away. A lone pole stretched from the ceiling down to the floor where it had ropes tied to it. She followed the rope to find it tied around her ankle. Panic set in as she tugged at the rope, but her leg remained trapped.

She closed her eyes and dug into her memories. The last thing she recalled was the urgency in Loralai's plea. Her eyes shot open, and darted around, only to rest when she spotted Loralai sitting in the corner with her head slumped and shoulders trembling.

"Loralai."

The girl snapped up and rushed over to hug Karyn. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I should have never allowed him to bring you here. I—"

"Hey, hey. Look at me." Even if she already guessed the answer, she still asked, "He isn't your brother, is he?"

Loralai shook her head. "He took me from my family because he thought I was special. He's been the one taking girls from our town. It's been so long and I miss my family."

She reached out to raise Loralai's chin and asked, "There are other girls?"

"Yes, but they're all gone now. When he brought me, there were five in this room, but he kept taking them one by one and they never came back." A single tear rolled down her face, leaving a trail of sorrow in its wake.

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here. He must have locked that door," she stated with her eyes on the door the ladder led up to. She recalled the carpet she had found underneath the bed. Was this what the carpet was covering?

"No, he didn't."

Karyn whipped her head toward Loralai's dejected face.

"He never locked it because he made sure we weren't able to leave."

Both pairs of eyes fell to their ankles. Just like her, Loralai had one leg bound to the pole.

Despite the situation, Karyn smirked. "I can take care of that."

She closed her eyes, making quick work of her mind's drafting skills, but when she opened her eyes, she met a mesh of threads with pointed edges.

"You have magic!" came Loralai's whisper, etched with undertones of excitement and fear. "But they'll kill you if they find out!"

While Loralai's face was a portrait of fear and relief, Karyn's shined with confusion.

What she expected was a knife, strong enough to cut through the ropes. So why had she come up with pointed threads instead? She closed her eyes and tried again, but only came up with slimy mush, even worse. What was happening?

"You're bleeding," Loralai pointed out.

She followed the little girl's gaze to her shoulder, where she found her dress smudged with blood. She raised the sleeve to find the spot where the SiatJan's blood had scorched her now bleeding.

Despite the pricking sensation, she hissed. "It's nothing, and who will come after me?"

"The red guards." Loralai's voice had dropped so low, that Karyn took a few seconds to realize what she had said.

She smiled at the little girl. "Then we have to make sure they don't find out."

After a few more tries and more threads, she abandoned her hopeless drafting and dug deep into her knowledge of spells. She recalled when Zack had taught her how to heat a bowl of soup, and soon her lips muttered the same words he had done while her hands hovered above the ropes.

Suddenly, the stench of smoke stung her nostrils forcing her eyes open. When she did, she met the ropes the same as they were moments ago. So what was burning? Her eyes shot up and she remembered Zack, who was now alone with their kidnapper. Fear sparked within her like stone striking on stone.

Forcing her mind to remain still, she hoped Zack would know what to do. Soon, the ropes had melted enough for them to pull it off their legs. She rose to her feet and helped the girl up, but raised her hand to her head with a groan.

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," she reassured. "You go up the ladder first, okay?"

With a nod, Loralai ascended the ladder while Karyn looked around, her eyes falling back on the symbols in the shadows.

What was he doing here? Why was he taking girls and bounding them in this room? What were the symbols and why couldn't she use her powers? She knew the only way to the answers was to get to Vesper, so she followed Loralai up the ladder, but before Loralai could reach the top, someone yanked the door open.

♛ ♛ ♛

BACK above, Zack had grabbed Vesper and shoved him to the burning wall. Without waiting to see the outcome of Vesper, Zack turned away and headed toward the bedroom, but a searing pain shot through his right thigh, stopping him in his stride and forcing him to cry out.

He fell to one knee as Vesper emerged from behind him with a limp in his stride and one side of his clothes scorched. But Zack was determined not to let him through. He held onto the man's leg and pulled him, dragging them both to the floor. Vesper turned and drove his leg backward, connecting with Zack's jaw.

The pain and the smoke choked him, and his vision blurred. He vaguely caught Vesper shifting a carpet and pulling a door open. A high-pitched scream came after as Vesper pulled Loralai by her hair before he slammed the door back in place. He heard a banging on the door and hoped it would be Karyn.

He pushed himself up with a groan and threw himself at Vesper. This broke Vesper's grip on Loralai, who rushed to open the door and helped Karyn get out.

A wave of relief overcame him as he turned around and saw Karyn emerge through the door. But before he could even process the emotion, Vesper's elbow came swinging at his face. In that moment of disorientation, Vesper shoved Zack onto his back.

"Run!" Zack yelled. If they could make it out safely, he wouldn't mind laying there as pain burned through him. He knew better than to remove the knife buried in his thigh, as that would worsen his bleeding, but what other choice did he have?

"Let her go!" he heard Karyn yell.

"And ruin all I have been doing. No! Who do you think you are?! She's mine now and soon she'll be for—"

A slicing sound cut through the air before blood went splattering over Karyn's face.

"Karyn, let's go!" Zack yelled through gritted teeth as Vesper slumped to the ground with a thud. The fire roared behind them before the roof came clattering down. The girls jerked back and further into the bedroom.

"How are we going to... get out?" Loralai said between coughs.

Zack's chest heaved when he coughed. "The window," he said, and Karyn and Loralai had to move around Vesper's lifeless body.

"Loralai, you go first," Zack said, helping the girl out. Once she had landed, he turned to Karyn. "Now you—"

"No, you're bleeding. I'll help you out."

The commanding tone in her voice left him with no choice but to obey. With Karyn's help and his immense effort to fight through the relentless pain, he made it out while the shed groaned within the flames.

He stretched out his hand to grab her, but Karyn spun and her body went rigid. What was she staring at?

"Karyn, come on!" he yelled and saw her jerk in response. She turned back to him and disregarded his hand, stepping onto the beam and jumping out without his help. As she did, the fire spread, reaching up to the walls of the bedroom.

Zack let her take his hand and put it around her shoulder while her other hand held onto Loralai's hand. They made it meters away from the burning shed before they found two figures heading toward them, coming from the forest. While one ran, the other staggered.

"Jamie!" she yelled. Zack never knew that name could bring him as much relief as it did at that moment.

"What happened?" Jamie asked once he reached them.

"This creep," Zack grunted. "Must have kidnapped this girl and—" He couldn't finish his statement as he let out a groan instead.

"We have to stop his bleeding," Karyn said before she guided him to the floor.

Jamie dropped the rucksacks before digging into one to pull a shirt out. He knotted the shirt around Zack's thigh, forcing another groan from Zack. "Now we have to get out of here."

"There's a golf cart somewhere around here," said Karyn as Salome finally reached them, but Jamie was already moving around the burning shed.

"Hey, I'm Salome. What's your name?" Zack heard and closed his eyes while he rested back on his hands with his legs outstretched in front of him.

"Don't worry, Loralai, we'll get you out of here. Do you remember your house?"

He opened his eyes in time to see Loralai nod in response to Salome's question.

"That's good. We'll try to get you home, okay?" Salome assured.

The sound of an engine came next, and all heads turned to see Jamie driving what looked like a golf cart.

"Oh, this! It's a threader," Salome said as the four of them made their way into the vehicle.

"Threader?" Karyn questioned.

"It runs on threads, but I can see how it looks like a golf cart."

Zack noticed the puzzled expression Loralai cast toward Karyn but no words voiced the little girl's thoughts. After assisting him into the threader, Karyn got inside and placed Loralai on her thighs.

Only when they started moving, did the little girl ask, "How do you not know what this is?"

"I, uh, lost my memories."

"Sorry for losing your memories," said Loralai.

Karyn let out a soft chuckle, the sound sending waves of ease through Zack and momentarily taking his focus away from the pain in his thigh.

"Don't worry. I'll get them back," she said.

"How?"

"Haven't figured that part out yet."

Loralai hugged Karyn, catching her off-guard. Despite the shock on her face, she smiled and wrapped a hand around Loralai.

"Thank you," came Loralai's voice, muffled by the fabric of Karyn's gown.

Zack reached out and gently wrapped his hand around Karyn's. As their eyes locked, he could feel the frantic thumping of his heart fading into a rhythmic beat. The rollercoaster of emotions he had just experienced had left him breathless, but one emotion remained constant through it all.

Fear.

It had been such a long time since the emotion had seized him that it almost felt alien to him. The last time his heart had raced like this was when he stood in front of her. When she had explicitly told him if he didn't do as she instructed, he would never see his parents. Even then, he had schooled his expressions, desperately hoping she couldn't see through his facade.

His grandmother, a topic that had somehow slipped under their radar. Or perhaps they concluded that was a lie, too.

But when he struggled with Vesper, his mind kept racing. Who was this man? What had he done or planned to do to Karyn?

The emotion had rocked him to the core because he didn't understand how Karyn, being in potential danger, could elicit such powerful emotion from him. Years of suppressing his emotions had made him forget what it meant to truly care for someone.

He knew what all this meant, but he didn't want to believe or admit that his fear for her life stemmed from something more, something that had been stirring within him ever since he first laid eyes on her.

He recalled that fateful moment and how her beauty had blown him away. The way her brown hair fell in waves onto her shoulders, the light her eyes held when she smiled. A light he could see in her eyes as clear as day, even under the dark sky, shining back at him.

He let himself bask in the feeling her gaze brought over him, whatever it was. But he knew it was only a matter of time before she, like everything else he had cherished, would get ripped from him. Such had been the cruel reality of his life, and he knew not to expect anything different.

♛
*A/N*

It was a bit tough to put this chapter together as I wanted to capture everything happening at the same time but also show continuity. But I think it came out well in the end. What did you think of this chapter? Did you also have doubts about Vesper?

♛
ITNC: The group becomes heroes when they reach the nearest town. Karyn reveals her dreams to Zack and Jamie discloses the next step.

♛

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The Sparkling Authoress,
Mis-A
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