Thalia

I massaged my arms methodically, my fingers digging into my stiff muscles in my effort to loosen. I kept my eyes closed since they were still burning from the last poison fog attack. Lines of pain ran down my dry throat when I inhaled sharply after reaching a particularly sore spot on my arm. I heard my sister shift beside me and place her hand on my shoulder.

“I’m alright,” I croaked. I tried to swallow, but my mouth felt like a pot left too long over a fire, its liquid evaporated leaving the metal to burn. I reached for my water skin then hesitated when my fingers met the dusty seal skin. We were out of water and I didn’t trust the waters in the demon’s territory.

My sister pressed her own skin into my hand, but I shook my head. “No, keep it for yourself. I’m fine.”

“Shut up and just drink it!”

I shook my head again. “Don’t need it, I’m fine.”

“Hounds wounded liar,” she muttered under her breath. I chuckled as I began to massage my arms once more. I cracked my eyes open just a little to see my sister try to stealthily switch our skins. I let her do it, I would just give it back to her later.

I began to roll my shoulders as I listened to the woods around us. All I could hear was the creak of boughs and the shush of leaves as the wind moved through the tree tops. The chirrup of insects and the call of birds had been left behind at the boundary of the demon’s territory. All of the plants, including the bark of the trees had taken on a yellow color, as if coated in a thin film of miasma. Black, vein like threads also marked the plant life as corrupted.

What would Naomi look like when we reached it? Would the people still be alive, or would they have fallen to the demon’s poison influence?

Damia tapped on my shoulder. I opened my eyes all the way. She pointed to her throat and then her lips. I ground my teeth in frustration as I realized that the sound of the woods had faded away. I moved into a crouch as my eyes darted around the small clearing we had found in the middle of a bush patch. We had taken shelter here when a thick fog had rolled in, obscuring our vision. The afternoon light was still bright enough that I knew that evening was still hours away.

Damia was also crouching, a spear now in her hands. Her brow was furrowed and her lips pulled back into a snarl. Her white hair, speckled with leaf fragments, seemed to glow in the light as her eyes darted back and forth. I flinched and turned my attention to the bushes around us, looking for any odd movement. I moved so that we were back to back and raised my dagger in a defensive stance.

A gust of wind rolled over us. The leaves of the bushes shook wildly then the sound abruptly returned.

“Thalia?” my sister whispered.

“Still here,” I replied.

“Goo-.” My sister’s voice cut off in a gurgle and another gust of wind rolled over us. I turned my head in time to see a large pale hand gripping her entire body. The hand pulled up sharply and I followed its movement upwards and stared into the round face of a giant young woman with yellow hair that looked dipped in tar. Her irises were blue, but the sclera around them were black. She smiled gleefully as she lifted my sister’s head to her lips and blew a thick yellow smoke into her face.

“Heh,” the giant muttered and stood up.

“Let her go, harpy!” I screamed. I closed my eyes and focused on my power within. My skin tingled as it moved over it like a cascade of water. My limbs elongated and swelled until I gained my own giant form. My fist connected with the woman’s jaw.

I immediately regretted my decision.

I felt the bones in my hand shatter. Pain flowed up my arm in invisible rivers that connected to my chest and caused my lungs to constrict then still. I coughed, expelling the last breath of air from my lungs. I struggled to take a breath, but the woman was belching more of the foul poison yellow cloud. I clenched my teeth reflexively and leaped backwards.

The woman laughed as more smoke spilled from her mouth and obscured the trees around us. My chest heaved as my body tried to force me to breathe. I grabbed part of my Grace and used it to cover my mouth and nose.

“If you don’t want this one to get hurt, change back,” the woman said. She shook my sister slowly side to side.

“Not a chance!” I growled through my Grace.

The woman’s arm swung so fast that I couldn’t track the movement. Her fist, still curled around Damia, collided with a nearby tree causing it to shake and leaves to fall. My sister’s head snapped forward and hit the bark too. The woman pulled back her hand as I leaped toward her.

“Tempest!” I screamed. The nails of my good hand scratched the woman’s arm as she shielded herself from me. Bright crimson lines ran down her arm where my nails connected.

The woman growled and lifted Damia’s head to her lips. My sister’s head rolled limply onto the woman’s thumb. “If you don’t listen I will kill her now!” she said quickly. I lowered my hand as she backed away from me. “You’re not the first demon I’ve killed.”

I laughed. “Demon? Us? We were sent to kill the abomination by the Mistress!”

“The Bone God? It makes sense that demons would follow a god of death.” She shuffled a step back, clicking her tongue.

“Let…her…go,” I growled.

“No.”

I knew I had two options, try and attack this woman with my one good arm or run away. She seemed stupid if she thought that threatening to kill my sister would get me to comply with her wishes. A new thought formed in my head. Why had she taken my sister alive? What did she gain by not killing her immediately? If it was as I thought, to bargain, then that would be a failure. If my sister died, she would lose her bargaining chip. We were warriors, and we knew the cost of our mission would be paid in blood; ours and the enemies’.

Was she meant to bring us back alive? She had managed to take us unaware, but didn’t kill Damia as soon as she struck. Did she lack training as a warrior?

“If I do as you say, what will happen to my sister?” I was just curious to know what the woman’s response would be.

Her mouth broke into a wide grin and she dropped her fisted hand slightly. My sister’s eyes fluttered.

“If you come with me quietly, I won’t kill her.”

“Try and kill me,” Damia said. Her hair began to glow and lengthen rapidly. The woman’s eyes widened in surprise as she tried to squeeze my sister during her transformation. Damia head butted her as soon as their heads reached near equal size. The woman cursed and stumbled back. “Thanks for buying me time,” my sister said with a wave of her hand before she clenched it into a fist and squared her shoulders. “I’m going to kill you,” she said in a low voice.

She leaped forward and kneed the woman in the chest then brought her right elbow down on her shoulder. The woman grunted and put up her arms to deflect the flurry of strikes that followed. I kept part of my attention on the fight while scanning the woods around us to make sure we weren’t ambushed again.

I began coughing and doubled over in pain as it felt like shards of glass were slicing their way out of my lungs. I couldn’t get enough breath to yell when I felt something heavy land on my back. I turned my face to the side to see another giant woman who looked similar to the other, but older. Where had she been hiding? Had the miasma fog been a smoke screen?

A heavy set man joined her holding a large spear. As he raised his hands above his head I tucked my left leg beneath my chest and used my right leg to turn around underneath the woman. I elbowed her in the chin before grabbing her head and head-butting it. The woman looked dazed as she slumped forward.

The man paused in his swing to avoid hitting the woman as I moved her torso to act as a shield. He circled around us, looking for an opening when my sister kicked out his legs from under him while I tossed the woman to the side. As soon as I gained my feet I brought my heel down on her throat with enough force that a depression formed in the dirt below.

I turned my head in time to see my sister forcing the spear into one of the man’s eyes while her face showed mild irritation. She twisted the shaft for good measure before looking up at me. “You alright?” she asked. I nodded as I felt the new sharp aches along my spine.

“I’m fine. You?”

“Perfect as turd ball.” She grinned and I could see clotted blood staining her teeth. “That one’s still alive.” I look to where she pointed and sighed. It looked like my sister had broken both of the first woman’s arms and the right ankle. The woman’s yellow hair was stained with dark blood and breathing was shallow.

“What do we do with her?” Personally I wanted to kill her and be done with it. The fact that she and her accomplices had managed to ambush us and hurt us, caused my anger to rise like an unchecked flame; we were warriors and we let some fools sneak up on us.

“Keep her alive. She might have some useful information for us.”

“I’m not carrying her,” I growled while cradling my wrist. I wished we had the ability to heal quickly, but one of the disadvantages of serving a death god was a shortage of healing abilities.

“We’ll make her walk. Don’t worry about it. Just help me grab out stuff.”

I grumbled under my breath as I gathered what could be salvaged from our camp. Our captive had returned to normal size, so we did as well. When we were down packing, I kicked her in the stomach with a fraction of my strength. The woman grunted then began moaning. I rolled my eyes then stepped on her forearm causing her to squeal. I crouched and placed my face in hers. She shuddered as I blew into it and she sucked her lips in while digging her head into her chest and rolling her shoulders forward.

“Listen here algae brains. We are going to keep you alive as long as you listen to us. Open your eyes and look at me,” I said as I poked her in the temple. Her eyelids fluttered before opening. The whites of her eyes were no longer black, but her eyes remained blue. I snorted as she met my steady gaze with her shaking one. Did the abomination lack in warriors? “We’re going to Naomi and you’re going to show us where the demon is hiding.”

“You’re looking for your demon kin?” the woman said in a breathy voice.

I smacked her face and to her credit she did not make a sound. “Don’t be smart with me. Waterfolk aren’t demons, but the master you’re serving, is.”

“I don’t serve any demons let alone help them!” she growled. “I serve an old god who was betrayed by his kin. When he is free all of you kind will be eradicated from the world!”

I rolled my eyes, stood up, and then dug my heel a little harder into the woman’s forearm until I heard a snap. She screamed, but I ignored her as I walked away. My sister sighed then stuffed some cloth into the woman’s mouth and then slung her over her shoulder. “Was that really necessary?” she hissed at me.

“Quite,” I said while showing her my swollen wrist. “Let’s go.”

SOL

We sat in a circle inside an abandoned barn while the last of the sunlight faded from the sky. My mouth was sour from vomiting after tearing apart the green eyed man. Each person that I had killed before had been from self-defense. This man was incapacitated and I had torn him apart like a petulant child pulling off the arms of their doll.

Was I a monster? Did I have any right to serve the Bone God or would she condone this death? I felt dirtier than when I had crushed Vael between my fingers. At least then, I had not been in control of my body, but this time I was. I could have let him live, I knew that, but I hadn't.

All I could remember was a white heat in my mind when I had seen Melinde laying on the ground lifelessly. I had promised myself that I would protect her when I had failed Ryaa. I wanted to continue my mother's work and save the woman she'd died to save. Melinde was the champion of the Bone God, her life was more important than mine. I needed to stay by her side and make sure that something like this never happened again. I owed it to my mother, and I owed it to Ryaa.

Ryaa sat close to his sister and had his arm draped across her shoulders. It seemed that Melinde was practicing control with her new ability. Her control over it was better than her healing abilities. Could the effectiveness of them be tied to her desires to use them?

Lasaro sat cross legged on the floor with his palms resting on his knees, and his eyes closed. His breath was shallow while he meditated next to his father, Lord Luciano. My mother was standing guard outside the barn. I wanted to spend more time with her, but my limbs felt too heavy to move.

Head to toe, my body ached despite Melinde using her spear to heal us. Was it possible the spear used our own energy to heal us and not divine? And what of the spirit within it? What other powers did she possess, but was unwilling to tell us of?

A sigh escaped Lasaro's lips and we turned our attention back to him. "Lady Melinde, how are you feeling?" he asked after opening his eyes.

She chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. "Like shit," she said.

"Eminence Sol?"

"Do you have to be so formal?" I snapped.

Lasaro's eyes widened. "Do you have a problem with the way I address you?"

"You're always so formal. We've spent nearly a week in each other's company and we're practically marching to our deaths, but you insist on being formal. It's like you don't give a flying fish about us." I gritted my teeth. Was I being unfair to him again?

His lips thinned as he smiled at me. "It's a habit from working with my soldiers."

"I get it, you have more training us. You don't need to rub it in." I felt a hand on my knee and looked at Melinde. Her brows were down in a scowl as she glared at me. I felt the heat that had been rising in my stomach simmer down.

"Enough! We shouldn't be at each other's throats."

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"You begged me to come on this mission, and I agreed. What I didn't agree to is fighting amongst ourselves." She pulled her hand back and folded it into her lap. "He used his sword on you, I get it. I would be angry too, but now's not the time to fight about it." I noticed that her hands were trembling in her lap. My eyes stung as my face heated in shame. Here I was, fighting over titles while she was still recovering from her near death experience.

I wished that I could be as strong as her. She wasn't a warrior, but she was willing to walk into danger with complete strangers just to protect her family. I didn't pretend that she was doing it for the people. She did not have a people, at least not anymore. She had chosen love over her people.

As for me, I wanted to protect my people and destroy the wrongness that the demon caused. I wanted to bring Landwalker and Waterfolk together, but at this moment, I just wanted to keep Melinde safe. I owed it to Ryaa and my mother. Was this why the Bone God had made me a hand maiden? Did she know that I would develop a sense of duty toward one of her champions?

"I'm sorry," I said again. "To both of you."

"I hope you mean it," Melinde said. I nodded my head as I balled my hands into fists.

Lasaro sighed again. "I've been wondering something," he said in a low voice. He shook his head as if responding to an unheard question. "Do you think we're being set up for failure?" he said. Everyone stilled and watched him closely before looking around the barn for hints of a divine presence.

"What do you mean?" Melinde said in a voice so soft that I, with my superior hearing, could barely hear it.

"Think about it," he said throwing his arms wide. "We weren't told that our most powerful weapons are actually alive. Your'e not a warrior and can barely use your weapon," he said pointing to Melinde. "And you aren't even a fully trained warrior. Besides myself, only my father and Dorotea have any full training and warrior experience."

It was true. We were like blind children given a stick too big to carry and told to fight a lion. If we were children, then Neara would be an infant. Our whole mission was a divine joke. Would anyone fault me if I decided to abandon it? The Gentle God was the patron of Waterfolk, not the Bone God. Even as I thought that, I knew that I couldn’t abandon my duty as long as Lemuete continued to exist.

“That’s true,” Melinde said bowing her head. Her fingers gripped her torn skirt. “We’re very pathetic for a group of people supposed to kill a demon.”

“Does this mean you’re going to abandon this mission?” I asked.

“It would be foolish to defy The Mistress,” Lord Luciano said. “Even if this mission seems foolish itself, angering a god, especially a god of death, could have unforeseen consequences.” He rose a little higher into the air so that our attention was drawn to him. “I believe that there is a reason she sent you here, though unprepared. One: she’s simply out of time to launch an attack before the abomination grows any stronger, or two: Lasaro and Melinde are not her only champions.”

I felt my brow arch as I stared at the ghost. “Gods only have two champions,” I said.

“Why? Where is it written that they only have two?”

“Well…” I looked to Melinde and Ryaa for help, but they both only shrugged.

“Any good strategist has more than one plan. If there is a rule that they can only have two champions that does not preclude the existence of champion successors.”

“So, my sister doesn’t have to be a champion?” Ryaa said. He was leaning forward staring at the former lord intently.

“Ryaa,” Melinde said with an edge in her voice. She picked up Fix in a reflexive action.

“If you don’t have to be a champion, if someone can take your place, you can go home to you husband and son!”

“Even if I gave up being a champion, there isn’t a guarantee that the demon will just let me walk free.”

I felt my heart beat rapidly in my chest. Was there a way for me to get Melinde home safely and take her place? Was I meant to be a stand in? A sharp pain shot through my chest and back. I flinched and sucked in my breath before it faded. I remembered the scar on chest, a reminder of the blow Lasaro had given me when I had been possessed. Why couldn’t I be the champion? Why Melinde and Lasaro?

“I’ve already come this far, I’m not turning my back on the Mistress,” Melinde said firmly. “We should go to sleep. We all need it.”

Ryaa looked like he had more to say, but his lips remained closed. He darted from his sister’s side and disappeared through a wall. Lord Luciano said good night and went to the doors of the barn to stand guard.

“Good night, Melinde, Sol,” Lasaro said. He turned his back to us and laid down in the straw. Melinde place Fix on the ground and rubbed her arms vigorously.

“It’s cold in here. Don’t you feel it?” She asked me.

“Not really,” I replied.

“Must be one of those Waterfolk things. Arno never seems to get cold.” She pulled a blanket from her pack and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Please…don’t think of me as a burden,” she haltingly. “I do want to be here, even though it feels like a mistake…”

My words stuck in my throat so I patted her on the shoulder. She smiled sadly then laid down.

RYAA

I found it strange that my stomach could turn even though it no longer existed. To be more accurate, rotting in a hole in the ground. When it was just Sol running into danger I hadn’t been as bothered, but now that it was my sister, I felt a stronger desire to keep them both safe. My sister’s greatest chance for survival was with her.

Was it fate that had brought us three together? Sol’s mother had saved my sister, Sol had saved me, and then I saved her. If the pattern continued, Sol would save my sister.

I rested on the top of the barn listening to the wind as it picked up around the abandoned farm. The farm house was only a shamble of rotted timber and cracked stone. The unkempt grass was higher than my waist and was a dark brown in the dying sunlight.

I wondered what kind of family had lived here. Was there a hard working father? A loving mother? Children. Were they happy or did they fight constantly until their bickering drove them apart?

My hands balled into fists.

I would never be a father. I would never marry Claire. I had made the decision to save Sol, I knew that my life would be at risk, but maybe I hadn’t really understood that at the time. I thought that death was for other people, not me. I thought that I would outlive my father and see my own grandchildren.

I never expected to be a ghost metaphysically tied to the woman that I had saved from death. Even though I lacked a body, I could still feel pain. It felt like pressure making the hollow space within me taut as it pressed against my shell.

For the millionth time I wished that I could apologize to Claire. Hopefully she would find someone better than me. Hopefully she would be able to move on and find happiness. She could have the six children that we had always joked about. And I, I would find a way to move on.

When the sun finally set, I poked my head through the roof of the barn and looked down on the three sleeping forms. I could see Melinde shivering beneath a blanket while Lasaro and Sol were sprawled out seemingly impervious to the chilly creep of fall. The mornings had become foggier, a sign that the winter rains would be coming.

I saw twin greenish orbs watching me and ground my non-existent teeth. Sol was still awake. While my sister wouldn’t be willing to hear of my misgivings, but maybe Sol would.

I floated to the ground and sat by her shoulder. “Hello, she whispered to me.” I stretched out beside her and she rolled onto her side to face me.

“Hey, how you feeling?” I whispered back. She shrugged.

“I’ve had better days.”

I wondered if the days ahead of us would be worse. We hadn’t faced the demon yet and they already looked exhausted. What chance did they have with a fallen deity?

I placed my through Sol’s and her face scrunched up. “What is it?” she asked. I wondered what she felt when my shell touched her skin. All I felt was a tingling sensation that spread through my arm.

“I don’t want Melinde to fight the demon,” I said. “I don’t think she can do it. She’s not a warrior.”

Sol stared at me silently and I wondered if I had upset her. She chewed on her lip before responding. “I think so too,” she said so softly that I almost didn’t hear her. I scooted closer and she placed her mouth near my ear.

“I’m worried about her. I’m scared that she’ll die…”

Like me. She was afraid that Melinde would die in front of her like I had. I could only imagine what had been going through her mind when she had seen my sister impaled on the ground. I had felt powerless. Was it a cruel cosmic joke to bring my sister and I back together only for her to die?

I had wanted everything around me to burn. The demon, his minions, everyone who had a hand in killing her. Then I had felt relief flow through me like a cold stream to douse my anger. She had lived, but it looked like her encounter with the green-eyed man had left a scar on her soul. A scar I only hoped he suffered for.

“You should take Fix, become the new champion,” I whispered. Sol shuddered.

“I want to, but I don’t think I can do it.” She pointed to her chest and I remembered the scars that had been left there by the divine weapon. I cursed silently. The Mistress may not forgive her a second time. Still, there had to be something she could do.

“If we enter a battle and it goes sideways, promise me that you’ll protect her. Even if it means letting the demon walk free.”

“I…don’t know if I can promise that. I want to protect her, but if I let the demon go free others will be killed. You saw what they did to Neara’s village.”

If I still had a stomach I would have emptied it much like Sol had. The people looked like they had been crushed and systematically decapitated. The carnage left behind had reminded me of the cats in the neighborhood that would play with the field mice and birds before killing them and leaving them on doorsteps. That slaughter was supposed to send a message to whoever found it; your life is worthless.

“Please, you owe me.”

A pained expression passed over her face and she buried it in her arms. I immediately regretted my words, but didn’t take them back. I needed her to help me. I was powerless to protect my sister, I could only rely on Sol and Lasaro to keep her safe. Who knew that I would need help from Waterfolk when I once hated them?

“Okay,” she replied in a thick voice. The pressure in my chest lightened.

“Thank you,” I said then floated to her other side so that I could lay near my sister. I thought I heard a sob on the edge of my hearing range, but convinced myself that it was only the wind.