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Chapter Nineteen:
The Return; Did They Make It In Time?
Marium and Cadillac
strode toward Burmingham’s inn, Rest Up, a light spring in their steps. They’d
gone to the mage village of Riano and gotten all the herbs they needed. It took
them about two days to get there and back to Burmingham. They were exhausted,
but glad that their quest was over.
Halfway up the stairs,
Marium noticed a tall, fully cloaked figure leaning against the hall leading to
the room Faede was in. Marium was about to run to Altaire and embrace him, when
she heard a loud yell, one that was filled with pain and anguish. Her hand went
instinctively to the snake ring on its silver chain and she started to run
toward the door.
But Altaire stepped in
her path, abstracting her view of the door. She clutched the vial of bright red
liquid close to her, and glanced up into Altaire’s hidden eyes. “What is it,
Altaire? Did you find the doctor?”
“Marium… I just, ah-“
suddenly a young man exited Faede’s room. His eyes were unusually narrow and
closed. The right portion of his bangs jutted out in the air, and the left
portion was slicked back behind his ear. The rest of his hair was pulled back
into a thin ponytail at the nape of his neck. She also noticed the bizarre
shade of hair that he sported. It wasn’t everyday that you saw someone with
blue hair.
The man approached
Altaire, then saw Marium. “Oh, hello! Who are you, little one?”
Marium smiled, this man
had a good heart, she could tell. Then she finally took in his clothes and
understood who he was. “I’m Marium Tomo. You must be the medic that Altaire was
sent to get. Oh, I’m so sorry that we took so long, here are the ingredients.
The only one that we actually had to work for was the silver cahlot’s blood…”
Quickly, Marium handed
the man the crystal vial, thankful to have completed her task. Another scream
filled the hall, coming from Faede’s room. “Faede!”
Side stepping the two men
that had blocked the entrance to the room, Marium finally made her way inside.
Faede was biting his lower lip to keep from screaming again. As soon as Marium
knelt down beside his bed, his body eased a little.
Shakily, Marium laid a
pale hand on Faede’s forehead. His skin was hot, burning to the touch. His
mouth moved in phrases, but no sound came out. He was unconscious, but somehow
he was still in pain. So much pain…
Suddenly, Faede’s eyes
were open, and he was gazing up into Marium’s. A strained smile forced its way
onto his lips for Marium’s benefit. “I-I’m glad… you came back, Marium. I- was
afraid, you were gonna… leave me alone- like my mom did. Ugh…”
He flinched in exhausted
pain, and then just stopped. He wasn’t moving. At all. “F-Faede? Faede!! No,
wake up Faede!”
Her frantic cries brought
Altaire, Cadillac, Jonah, and the medic into the room. She was feeling for a
pulse on Faede’s neck. Nothing. So, she did the only thing she could think of.
She gave him CPR and rescue breathing.
It wasn’t working,
nothing she could think of would help. Finally, she just dropped to her knees,
tears streaming down her cheeks. “Stupid… you can’t die. I didn’t let Cad, and
I won’t let you! Too many of the ones I love are dying! I won’t let you go!”
Slowly, she reached up to
grab the necklace he’d enchanted for her. Cadillac gasped as she yanked the
ring off her neck, breaking the thin, silver chain that protected her from the
pain of the tie.
She was hit full force by
the pain and cold blackness Faede felt. It was like a vacuum, a cold, icy
vacuum of nothingness. And Faede was trapped, alone and scared, in this place
of ice and darkness.
FAEDE! Marium
called out to him as he waited in this lonely, terrible place to be led out by
someone. Anyone at all, but when he saw Marium’s tear streaked face crying out
for him in loss and sorrow, he all but ran, arms outstretched, toward her. As
soon as he reached her, he was snapped back to harsh, agonizing reality.
The biting throbbing was
eased by the hand that was intertwined with his own. Faede saw Marium
sniffling, hand in hand with him, a broken necklace on the ground. His smirk
was as corrosive as ever. “Fool, I told you not to take the ring off.”
“Shut up! Don’t you ever
do that to me again! All of you!” Marium turned to the rest of her companions.
“Don’t –ever- try to die on me! Cad almost got mauled by that giant silver
turkey, and Faede…” her anger was mixed with relief at reaching the end of her
harrowing quest to save Faede. “I don’t know why I even bother with Faede,
you’re a terrible mage-brat. You’re too much trouble for me, guy.”
Faede’s grin was as
painful as it was easing at the moment. The medic had left and was now
returning with a small tea cup and a new vial of some interesting purple
mixture. When he poured the potion into the cup, Marium’s eyes shone with
anticipation. From the smell of the cure-all antidote, the flavor would be
something like a pile of garbage mixed with a day old fish. She reveled in the
thought of Faede having to consume such a foul concoction.
The man handed Faede the
elixir. The mage looked from the medic, to Marium, to Cadillac, then back to
Marium, because her smile was MUCH too happy for the occasion. “Perhaps the
priestess Yin would like to try this first?”
Marium shook her head,
hard. “No way! This is your punishment for putting me before yourself! Never
risk your life for me again, got it?”
Her words hit a nerve.
Faede didn’t like that near death experience much, and he wasn’t planning on
trying it again any time soon. But he would do it in a minute, if it was to
save her the pain. Her voice brought him back to reality. “So just plug your
nose… and swallow! Hehe!”
Faede frowned and closed
his eyes, moments before her poured the putrid antidote into his poor, abused
mouth. His face contorted in horror at the intrusive taste.
The look that he was
sporting made Marium jump three feet in the air, cheering and spinning around,
full of energy. “Ha! This is great! Cad, we did it!”
Altaire, Cadillac, and
Jonah all watched Marium’s cheerful display with smiling faces. “Yeah, of
course we did, Marium. The good guys are supposed to get rewarded in the end!”
Then, Marium was kissing
everyone, still happy and relieved that she’d come back in time to save Faede.
Even the bewildered doctor got a healthy smooch on his cheek.
“It was my pleasure to
help a fellow warrior of Yin in need. Priestess, I am Placid Cardinal, the
warrior of the Goat. It is an honor to see you so happy with the results of my
power.” Placid stated, his naturally smiling face beaming at her. Marium stood,
awestruck.
“Mr. Placid, you’re one
of my warriors? Wow. And, and, Cadillac said that I’d get to meet one of them
soon, too! How wicked!” Marium turned to Cad. “You were right, squirrel-boy!”
Cadillac seemed baffled.
“Marium, I didn’t have any clue you’d meet him. I was talking about-“
Faede doubled over in a
coughing fit. Marium looked at him in concern, and felt the burning pain that
he was feeling in his throat. “Ow…”
“Put the ring on,
Marium.” Faede said, gasping between coughs. The priestess bent over and got
the snake ring she’d discarded earlier. She was about to put it on, but Faede
sat up and snatched it from her. Then he gently slid it onto her ring finger.
“There. You can’t take it off until I’m completely healed. Understand?”
She nodded, and she did
understand. But she still didn’t see why he was trying to protect her from the
pain he was feeling so much. Some guys like to be shrouded in mystery, she
guessed.
“Alright! What’s our next
move, Cad?” Marium demanded, ready to take on the entire sorcerer’s guild by
herself. She was quite surprised when Cadillac sprawled out on a bed, and
snorted in fatigue.
“We rest. My feet are
killing me.”
“Aw… you can’t mean that!
We still gotta go and crush the sorcery guild for what they did to Tasae and
Sachi! And do all that good stuff!” Marium whined. “And I’ve only found TWO
elemental dragons!”
Cadillac groaned inwardly
and glared at her. “Go away. You’re too excited.”
She put her hands on her
hips and whistled. The feerpt that had been hiding in a corner rushed to her
side. “I’ll take Little Weasel for a walk, how’s that? It’s almost as good as
saving the world.”
Faede had been resting
his eyes the whole conversation, up until Marium whistled. He saw the little
rodent and yelled, loud. “It’s a weasel! Get it away!”
Marium turned to him.
“Aw, not you too. Faede, you’re scared of mice AND weasels? But LW doesn’t hurt
anyone.”
“Liar. He bites hard when
she’s not paying attention. If you’re not careful, you might wake up and find
you’re noseless.” Cadillac yawned, rolling over. The fear in Faede’s eyes was
real.
The high priestess Yin
turned to the neglected men in the room. Altaire was standing in the doorway
with Jonah and Placid. “You’re not scared of him, are you?” Placid smiled and shook his head. “He’s
quite cute, actually.”
The feerpt made a ticking
sound and backed away from Placid. “LW? What’s wrong? Placid’s nice, don’t be
afraid of him.”
Altaire scrutinized the
tiny creature from behind his bangs. “I’m not afraid of the feerpt… But
something about it does not seem right.”
Marium glanced at
Altaire, and then giggled. “Oh, what can one little weasel do, huh?”
She lifted LW up in her
arms, and he scurried up her arm to rest around her neck. “You’re a spy for the
sorcery guild, aren’t cha LW?”
Marium giggled at the
stupidity of it, and walked toward the door. “Don’t worry, I won’t go out of
the inn. And if I do, I can take care of myself, mostly.”
She passed Altaire,
brushing against him as she did, on purpose. No one else could tell, though. “Hey,
can I talk to you later?”
“You can send your
thoughts back now? Interesting.”
“Of course. I’m not a complete idiot. Meet me on the balcony upstairs
later tonight, kay?” she wasn’t
showing any facial expression beside her normal happiness as she passed him. “I’ll take your silence as a yes! Hehe!”
It
made him wonder if he’d just imagined her saying that. Sighing, he turned to
the occupants of the room again. Surprisingly, he saw Faede from his place on
the bed, glaring at him. Jealousy was very evident in Faede’s death stare.
Could he have heard…?
No, only Marium can hear your thoughts. Don’t worry about it, Faede’s
always been strange, the glare probably means nothing.