************Ron POV************

As Ron finally managed to wake up, he immediately knew there was something off. For one thing, Fliour was giggling like there was no tomorrow, and he had not seen her in that kind of mood since the first year he had gotten to know her. Secondly, he felt no pain in his side anymore, but no matter how hard he tried there was no way for him to move.

The last main issue that was on his mind, was the fact that he couldn’t remember anything about the past 8 months or so. He couldn’t even remember why it was he had felt pain in his side earlier.

“Fliour, what’s going on? Why are you in my room?” Ron asked in deep confusion.

“You had fallen off the roof of the cabin and into that pile of logs you keep on the side of the house. I had the nurse come and check up on you, and she told me it would be best for me to stay with you. You may be god-like in many ways, but in the end you still ended up knocked out like any of us would. How’s your head?” Fliour asked.

Ron attempted to sit up but instantly stopped when he felt a sharp pain race from his spine to his skull. He layed back down carefully and rubbed his forehead with a groan as he tried to come up with any memory of what she had just said. He couldn’t bring up anything of what happened, but what Fliour didn’t know was he could tell there had been a block placed on his mind.

It was a simple but powerful spell that Ron himself knew how to cast. It was taking it off that was difficult. Ron had the ability to fight it and time to do so was what he needed. He was incredibly suspicious of Fliour at this point, but he decided to go along with it to see what her intentions were by her actions.

“I’ll go get you some water. You need more from the pond, so I’ll go and retrieve some,” Fliour said in a sing-song voice as she jumped off the bed and pranced off.

When she left, Ron spread his sense out all along the island to figure out what in the world was going on. To his complete shock, not only did he find a large riggolete on his land, but a woman he both didn’t know, but knew at the same time. No name came to mind, but for some reason his heart and soul yearned for her to be by his bedside.

He decided to continue to search and watch the woman, for he could also see Analicia with her. His suspicion for something being wrong grew as he sensed Fliour heading for them instead of the water hole like she said.

************Emily POV************

“Do you think we can go back yet? It’s been seven hours,” Emily whined. She was hungry as well as worried about Ron. There had been no word from Fliour nor Ron, but since Analicia was with her she felt no reason to really worry.

“We need to wait until we are told to go back. Unless you want to walk in on something you’ll regret?” Analicia teased as she finished making another flower crown. She had been making multiple crowns from the small flowers around them for three hours now, and the pile was growing.

“What are you going to be doing with those anyways?” Emily asked as she ignored her growling stomach and crawled over to Analicia to watch again.

“In about three weeks, we are having our annual Spring Celebration festival. We celebrate not only spring, but when we were saved from our whips and chains all those years ago. I normally make flower crowns for all the children in town, but I decided to test and see if these would work better than the violets I usually make them from,” she explained as she placed one on Emily.

The two women laughed and worked together for another thirty minutes until Emily froze. Cahal seemed to be panicking for some reason, but she couldn’t tell why. She was too far away to be able to talk to him, but he was flying towards her at an incredible rate until she could hear him.

“Emily, grab Analicia and run away as fast as you can! You’re in danger!” He cried in her head. Emily jumped up as soon as she heard those words and dragged Analicia up as well.

“What are you doing?” Analicia cried out as she fell to her knees from the hard pull Emily gave her. She only placed her hand over Analicia’s mouth and made a motion to keep quiet. Analicia understood immediately and followed silently under her orders.

One part of Emily’s training was a type of fighting style that used techniques assassins were known to use. The first thing she did was run a few miles ahead until Cahal caught up with them, then she placed Analicia on his back.

“Take her back to the village. Stay there. I will take on whatever it is that you speak of,” Emily spoke to him mentally. Cahal did as he was told and took off with Analicia giving her a look of worry.

Once the two of them were out of sight, Emily took to the trees and hide. She could hear someone running quickly but heavily, as if they were quite heavy. Emily immediately recognized the footsteps as Fliour, and as relief flooded her she stepped back out into the clearing to try and save Fliour from whatever was coming for them.

Then she saw the crazed look in Fliour’s eyes.

They looked bloodshot, like she was sick and dying. Her face was red from running and from how she looked at Emily, there was an expression she recognized all too well.

Fliour was heartbroken. Emily remembered when James’ ex-girlfriend Terra had snapped in the same way and how her brother had dealt with it. He ended up fighting Terra to get her emotions back under control, but in the end she still left the guild in an angered fit.

This seemed to be the same situation in a way, but this time the heartbroken one was wielding a sword. Emily went back into a fighting stance but portrayed a calm atmosphere to try and talk her out of it first.

“Hey, are you ok? You look tired, almost sick. You need to sit down,” Emily coaxed. Fliour only glared at her without moving a muscle.

“You’re my friend, Fliour. Please, don’t do anything you’ll regret later,” she said as Emily tried a different tactic. At that point, Fliour started to laugh.

It was painful to hear her laugh like that. It only made Emily want to hug her, she hated to see people in pain like that. It was filled with more than just anger; there was a deep pain that was rooted in her past, and it echoed through the woods with the scream of anguish that darted through the leaves of the all trees above their heads.

“Regret? Oh, you young, innocent, poor girl. Regret is something that died with my child. I don’t feel such a thing anymore. You are the one thing Ron loves; not me but you! You stole the one thing from me that mattered, and you talk to me about regret?!” Fliour screamed at her.

It was no use. Emily knew she would have to fight Fliour, and the odds of winning was low in her case because of how less experienced she was at close combat. She decided the best thing for both of them was to take her down as quickly as possible without killing or causing damage that not even Emily could heal.

“Please, I’m going to ask one more time Flio-” Emily was cut off as Fliour took off at a speed that could match Cahal’s. She barely managed to dodge in time as Fliour’s blade cut her side.

Without another word, Emily created her own sword from the ground and faced her opponent. The atmosphere between them was filled with both anger and a hint of remorse. Emily had truly tried to make friends with Fliour, but there are always times where the wounds in a person’s heart is too deep to allow themselves to open up when the issue comes to love.

The two women fought in silence, Emily carefully dodging Fliour’s strong attacks while trying to come up with a spell that would knock out a person of her power. It was just as difficult as she thought it would be, dodging to the side and out of the way with each swing while building up energy.

At one point, Emily didn’t move out of the way in time to escape the blade. A long, shallow slit broke open her shirt she was wearing and created a bloody mess. The only thought Emily had when it happened was how upset Analicia would be when she saw it, it was one of her favorite designs. The pain didn’t kick in until Emily rolled to the ground and stood back up.

Emily winced as she got back to her feet and blocked another swing with her own blade. Fliour had tears streaming down her face as she continued her onslaught viciously, and it clicked in Emily’s head that she was capable of being saved.

“Fliour, that’s enough!” Emily yelled as she suddenly thought of a spell that was perfect. She threw her blade towards Fliour, catching her off guard as Emily dropped to her knees and brought the palms of her hands together. Keeping her eyes in Fliour, who was still confused as to why Emily got rid of her weapon, she shouted out the words to contain the woman.

Fliour realized too late what was happening. She screamed in anger and rushed forward, but by then the octagon-shaped barrier had come together around her. She ran straight into it and fell backward, rubbing her forehead where she had hit herself on it.

“If you kill me, you’ll regret it! Nobody in the village will care about you, you’re nothing but a freak! Abnormals have no place in this world!” Fliour was screaming as Emily ignored her words and continued to chant the containment spell. It didn’t take long to finish it off, and once it was set Fliour knew she wouldn’t be able to escape. In magic, Emily exceeded her in all ways.

“I wouldn’t kill you, even if I wanted to. I don’t kill people unless I’m given direct orders from my guild. And if I do end up with those orders, then those whom I’m sent after don’t know they’re dead until they go down,” Emily said with a smirk. Fliour was breathing heavily and held herself tense as Emily walked towards the border of the barrier.

“So what, are you some kind of badass? You don’t seem like one, especially how easily you go down when it comes to your feet,” Fliour hissed as she slowly calmed down to speak clearly.

“I don’t like to think so. But there’s a reason why I rarely go out to battle.” Fliour scoffed at this and raised her sword to attack the barrier.

“Why is that? Scared of fighting others face to face?” She cried as she started to slam her sword against the barrier. Emily only grinned as she placed her hands on the barrier and stared Fliour in the eyes as her own eye color changed from her normal blue to a deep gray.

“I’m more powerful with magic than the oldest witch in my guild,” Emily whispered as she created a vortex of sound that vibrated only on the inside of the octagon-shaped prison.

Fliour’s eyes went wide as she saw the vibrations start at the top of the barrier, a full seven feet above her head. Her mouth slowly fell open in shock as it hit her hard, forcing her to her knees as she tried to scream. No scream came from her mouth, but the sound entered her body and shook her insides.

It was almost humorous to Emily at how hard Fliour tried to fight back. She wasn’t lying when she spoke of her magic ability. It was why she only trained in her physical abilities when it came to working with others, nobody else could compare to Emily in magic. Even her brother stayed away from her when she would go to her room to meditate.

It took a full fifteen seconds for Fliour to lose consciousness. When she went down, Emily released the barrier and vibrations. When they were gone, Emily brushed her hand over Fliour’s head and sent her into a coma-like state to be certain she wouldn’t wake up without Emily’s permission.

Slight guilt crept into Emily’s heart as she walked with Fliour in her arms. She decided to place Fliour into the cage that had been built for Cahal, since it had the bars close enough to hold her in it while being too strong to pull apart by brute strength.

As she carefully placed the heartbroken woman onto the metal bottom, she heard footsteps behind her. Emily turned to see Ron walking towards the two of them. Emily opened her mouth to ask what happened when she noticed the different look in his eyes.

“Are you ok?” Emily asked in a whisper. She could feel magic building up around her, and she managed to create a new barrier around her before Ron attacked.

The jolt of energy that raced from the ground towards Emily luckily bounced off the new shield, but it was still strong enough to knock Emily off her feet. She fell backwards and slid across the ground before she hit a tree.

“What the hell, Ron?! What was that for?” Emily yelled in both anger and fear. She knew she was strong, but nowhere near his power.

Her words seemed to catch him off guard. He stopped walking towards her and cocked his head to one side as he stared at her. Emily glared at him until she noticed the change in his attitude. She slowly stood to her feet and took a cautious step towards him. He took one back and continued to look at her in confusion.

“D-do you know who I am?” Emily finally asked.

“No...no, I don’t.” Ron whispered. Emily felt pain in her throat, as if tears were trying to escape but she forced it down.

“Ron, what are you doing! Stop!” Analicia yelled suddenly. Both Ron and Emily turned to her, and it seemed Ron was relieved for her to show up.

“What’s going on? I woke up, and it’s like everything’s going wrong,” Ron demanded. Analicia stopped running and caught her breath.

“Fliour attacked Emily, I don’t know why but she did,” Analicia explained as quick as she could before she went back to trying to adjust her breathing. Ron looked back at Emily, then to the cage where Fliour was asleep.

Emily didn’t have time to react when a cell of her own shot upwards from underneath her feet. Tightly wrapped vines and what looked like thin trunks shot upwards and curled around each other above her head. Out of the two women, Analicia was the most shocked.

“What’s wrong with you?! She did nothing wrong! What are you doing?!” She screamed as she ran forward to where Emily was staring in shock at the cell she was in.

“Until I figure out what’s going on, the two of them will stay where they are,” Ron said firmly as he turned back and walked to the cabin. Analicia watched him leave in utter shock before she turned back to Emily.

“What happened?” Analicia whimpered as she fell to her knees. She reached into the cage and took Emily’s hand. Emily only smiled sadly.

“He doesn’t know who I am,” she said. Analicia only stared at Emily in disbelief, but after another glance at the cell she seemed to force herself to accept what was said.

“Don’t worry, we’ll help you the best we can,” Analicia promised as she stood up. Emily watched her as she started to run back to the village, most likely to get help from Jessica. Tears started to stream down Emily’s face as she walked to one end of the cage and curled up with her knees to her chest.

“I wish you were still here mom...I messed up again,” Emily hiccuped. She drifted off to sleep with the image of her mother’s warm, smiling face in her mind.

************Ron POV************

He wasn’t sure why he felt so bad about putting that woman in a cell. He assumed Fliour only attacked her because she was an intruder, but he couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling in his heart that something deeper was that cause. It was why he didn’t just kill the woman like he had planned.

As for Fliour, she was the only suspect to his problem in his head. The only thing that hadn't changed where Ron's emotions, and looking at Fliour caused his heart to sink out of fear and hurt. The only issue was he didn't know why. Ron didn't want to punish her without knowing what she did just in case he was too sever or not bad enough.

With the other woman, he felt like he knew her, but he wasn't sure what it was that happened between her and Fliour to make them fight the way they did. Since she didn't kill Fliour when she had the chance, he decided to just keep her there since the other cage was a good distance to where he could go and check up on the two women in an instant.

When Analicia had showed up and had put her two sense in, Ron automatically knew that the woman, Emily as she was called, was not there to cause harm. From how Analicia had spoken to him about her it seemed he was supposed to know who she was but he couldn't tell why he didn't recognize her in any way but emotionally.

It seemed she had known him for awhile now from the way she spoke to him, but the only person he had ever had speak to him without calling him 'sir' or 'lord' was Fliour, so as he worked to try and remember just her the pain lashed back through him more intensely than he had expected. He immediately stopped at the pain in his head from it.

Ron sat back in the kitchen and rubbed his head as sharp pain raced through his mind when he tried to think of the day before, or even just sometime in the past few weeks. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but after a few attempts to think of anything he finally gave up and decided to ask around for help.

‘4 years’ was the only thing that rang out in his head. He didn’t know what it stood for, but it was something at least. After a few hours of contemplating what to do next, he gave up and walked back to bed. Before he reached his room, he glanced out the window to check up on the women. Both were asleep in their cells, but it seemed the intruder was having a hard time sleeping.

He couldn’t understand why, but he felt an urge to take her out and curl up with her in his arms in his bed. The urge took him by surprise, and the shock from it made him run into his room and slam the door shut. Shivering, he walked to his bed and pulled the covers over his head.

He laid under the blankets while he forced the thoughts of the woman out of his mind, and instead worked on trying to break the block he had in his mind. The only way he could break it was to try and think about the past. This in of itself was difficult, as well as painful, for each time he tried to force his mind to get through to the past a jolt of sever pain raced through his head.

This was incredibly unusual, and caused worry in his heart. It was supposed to be easy to break it for him, but as he worked at it for almost three hours he realized the magic placed on him was much stronger than he had thought. The more he worked at it, the more he realized he was wrong about how simple the spell was. This one was fortified with a magic not even he knew of, so it had to be discovered fairly recent.

After another ten minutes or so, Ron stopped fighting the block. It was late, and he had a throbbing headache. Uneasiness filled the room as he searched the room for any kind of magic that would be left over to hang in the air if a spell was cast on him to place this block, but there was nothing.

He had no clue how Fliour would have been able to do such a thing to him, but it was obviously going to be harder than he thought, and possibly much longer as well. With the headache growing as an effect from the mind block, he decided to sleep and work on it in the morning before the pain made him pass out instead.

It took Ron a good hour to fall asleep, and as he slept all he saw was images of the woman run through his mind.