Russel saw the volcanic hell disappear from his vision and the forest materialize. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his comrades open their eyes. Just like last time, Russel remembered everything. But this time he was worried that Rachel and the others wouldn't have recollection of him losing control.
"We're alive…" Elizabeth sighed in relief.
"Can you remember anything?" Russel asked the group.
"Nothing… Though I feel like I accomplished something." Oliver shrugged.
"Only… Screams… That's it." Rachel scowled.
Russel looked at the group and noticed that Fredericks body was missing. He looked sadly at the place the merchant had been sitting with them and cursed.
"Frederick didn't make it out…" Russel said sadly.
The others looked over and saw the empty spot. Elizabeth and Oliver looked on sadly while Rachel turned to address Russel.
"What makes you so sure? Are you sure he isn't just somewhere else around here?" She asked.
"I'm sure… I remember the state his body was in… The beasts in the illusion mangled him, though I don't remember what they were." Russel told the half-truth convincingly.
Rachel punched the ground and cursed while Russel stood up to look for the other survivors. He looked around quickly and saw that only five other people remained with them. He scowled and clenched his fist in anger.
"Whoever is casting these spells… When I find her, she is as good as dead." Russel vowed.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned his head to find Elizabeth standing behind him. He smiled sadly as he turned his attention back to the other survivors.
"Only nine of us left…" Elizabeth said somberly.
"I don't want to believe it… All these people suffered from what happened in Eastcliff, and now they are losing their lives to some crazy sorceress." Russel scowled.
"They would've been better off staying at the camp outside the forest…" She said softly.
"I swear… When I get my hands on the woman who did this... She will die like a dog." Russel told her, obvious venom in his voice.
He felt Elizabeth squirm uncomfortably against him. Russel looked over at her and raised an eyebrow.
"You ok?" He asked.
"I'm just cold is all…" She lied.
She grabbed his arm and cuddled into him. Russel blushed slightly at first but squeezed Kathleen's ring to get himself back under control.
"What are you planning on doing once we get to Southbeach." Elizabeth asked.
"I'm not sure." Russel sighed. "I may just get up and leave, I may take a while to get some rest and earn some marks… I lost all of mine back in Eastcliff."
"Thats unfortunate." Elizabeth said coldly.
"Yeah it is." Russel laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" She giggled.
"I'm not sure, the fact that we are able to talk so calmly at a time like this is funny to me is all." Russel smiled.
"I guess it is. If you look past the fact everyone keeps dying." She sighed.
"Exactly." Russel agreed.
Russel's stomach audibly growled, causing him to groan. Elizabeth giggled as he ran back to see if there was any food left to eat. He found that everyone was getting into the back of the carriage that would be pulled by the one horse that was left.
"Guess we are going then." Elizabeth said from behind him.
"Better now than later I guess. Sooner we can get out of this forest the better." Russel said.
Russel hopped into the back of the carriage and sat across from Rachel who had a loaf of stale bread in her arms.
"Do we have any more food?" Russel asked.
Rachel tore the loaf in half and tossed part of it to Russel who greedily caught it. He quickly consumed the bread, leaving him with a dry mouth from the unfortunate fact the bread was stale having been cooked over a week prior at minimum. Regardless, Russel was just happy to finally have some food.
"So Russel, how did you learn how to use a sword?" Rachel asked randomly.
"What's with the random question?" Russel said with a mouthful of bread.
"I'm just curious is all." She shrugged.
"Fine…" Russel sighed, swallowing his food. "You know when that royal caravan came to Eastcliff on their tour of Order Of The Dove monasteries and churches hoping to find the crown prince a suitable bride?"
"Yeah I remember. The crown prince stayed in my masters estate." Rachel confirmed.
"Right… I forgot you served Oliver's family…" Russel chuckled. "Anyway over their stay that was like what? Two weeks or so? Anyways, one of the knights took a liken to me and started teaching me how to use a sword and did some basic sparring against me. From there I just honed my skills in the slums."
"So it wasn't some noble purpose that you would defend people in the slums?" Rachel asked.
"Of course not, I was just doing it to hone my skills. It always ended in me killing someone anyway… There is nothing noble about that, even if they were bad people." Russell sighed. "What about you? Serving the Eastcliff nobles must have been nice."
"Yes… It was. I was bought as a little girl to take care of my lord, Oliver's father. They treated me well and taught me basic combat to defend myself. When Oliver was born I was assigned to protect Oliver, though you ended up doing a better job than me." Rachel confided.
"He claims I saved him, but I got in so many fights I honestly don't remember him." Russel said, pursing his lips as he tried to remember.
"It was the night his parents died. The mansion had been attacked by angry citizens if you remember… It was after the scandal where he stopped supporting the slums and effectively declared them to no longer be part of the city." Rachel started. "I got Oliver and brought him outside, per my master's orders. However, as we fled the city we were attacked, and I was useless up against multiple opponents. That's when you came in and ended up saving us… Though your methods involved simply killing all of them."
Russel smirked as he began to remember the events of that night. He remembered he couldn't get blood out of his clothes for days and Kathleen thought he had been in a terrible accident and insisted on caring for him for over a week even though he had no injuries. At this memory he burst out laughing.
"Laughing is not a reaction one would normally have to remembering killing people." Rachel observed.
"Sorry. I just remembered the scolding my fiance gave me when I got back that night…" Russel sighed and he looked down at Kathleen's ring.
"Fiance? So you were engaged?" Rachel asked eagerly.
"Yeah…" Russel said uncomfortable at her eagerness.
"I apologize." She said, composing herself. "I was in service to my master my whole life and never had time for things such as romance, and Oliver never had any relations with women."
'Isn't he sixteen… Of course he wasn't…' Russel thought.
"I proposed to her the night of the attack, she said yes. But then… Everything happened…" Russel spoke, images of Arthur killing Father Edward and taking Kathleen flowing through his mind.
"I'm sorry for your loss…" Rachel spoke.
"She's not dead." Russel snapped. "She can't be."
"Well then… I wish you the best of luck finding her…" Rachel said honestly.
"Thanks…" Russel said quietly.
The two became silent and the only audible sounds was the creaking of the carriage wheels and the horses hooves.
"Well that became a quite dreary conversation…" Elizabeth complained.
Russel looked over at her sitting at the other end of the carriage, he had honestly forgotten she was there.
"Not every conversation is cheery Elizabeth. We were discussing adult things that a kid like you wouldn't understand." He provoked.
"You must be joking." Elizabeth scoffed. "You say you were engaged… Does that mean there is no chance for me?"
"There never has been." Russel smirked. "I'm devoted to one person and one person alone."
"Damn you fate…" Elizabeth scoffed.
Russel and Rachel began to laugh at the girl's frustration. Russel calmed down and smiled as he looked forward and saw Oliver passed out at the reins. He sighed and climbed over and took the reins from his sleeping hands.
"I'm awake…" He stirred.
"Then go back to sleep. You won't be getting any tonight." Russel reminded him.
"True… But after you reminded me of that I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep…" Oliver said honestly.
"You're hopeless." Russel sighed.
"Then what does that make you?" Oliver fired back
"Fair enough…" Russel chuckled.
"Do you honestly not remember anything from the illusion?" Oliver asked.
"I remember some things…" Russel said uncomfortably.
"Like what?" Oliver persisted.
"That when we went toe to toe with the monster that was its weak point you thought you had killed it and almost got yourself killed because of that." Russel smirked.
"Oh… So that sense of accomplishment I had…" Oliver trailed off.
"Well you still did do the majority of damage on the thing, I just killed it. To be fair I would've thought throwing a horrible injured beast into lava would kill it too." Russel laughed.
"It seems you remember quite a bit!" Oliver laughed.
"As I said I remember certain things. I remember the final fight and the fact we were in a volcano. That's it." Russel lied once more.
"Fine, I'll believe you. Though I'd like you to tell me more about this beast we faced." Oliver smiled.
"If you really want to know…" Russel caved, beginning to explain the final fight of the illusion in the volcano.
Russel explained the entire altercation in great detail. Oliver seemed to make sense of all of it without a second thought or question, which was surprising to Russel.
"You believed all of that quite easily." Russel observed.
"Well if it's true then there is no reason not to believe it." Oliver shrugged.
"Fair enough." Russel chuckled.
Russel started to see a bright light at the end of the path and smiled widely. He stood up on the drivers bench, almost falling off.
"Is that the exit out of the forest!?" Russel said excitedly.
He started to squint as they approached but the light was too bright to focus in on anything. The carriage eventually reached the light and revealed a large bluff looming over the ocean below.
"The ocean?" Oliver wondered.
"I think so…" Russel mused.
"Not quite. It's Redwater Bay. It connects to the Western Sea." Rachel corrected them.
Russel stopped the carriage and hopped off, going to look over the bluff. He looked down to see that it was a straight fall down at least three hundred feet. Russel sighed and started back, only to see the others approaching him.
"What were you thinking about?" Oliver asked.
"If it wasn't high up we probably could've made a raft or something to get out of the forest." Russel mused.
"Why can't we?" Elizabeth asked.
"That drop would kill us instantly." Russel explained.
"Oh…" Elizabeth realized.
"Needless to say certain death is not the preferable option." Russel shrugged. "I'll take my chances with the illusions."
Russel continued walking back to the carriage before Rachel grabbed his sleeve and tugged him back.
"What is it?" He questioned.
"This would be a good place to say a proper final respect for those who died…" She reasoned.
Russel sighed and turned back around, approaching the edge of the cliff once more. A soft breeze started blowing, making his hair flow with the wind.
"Frederick, everyone. I'm sorry. I couldn't help any of you in the end, I wish you all the best of luck on your way to the divine realm." Russel said without thinking much.
'Father Edward always taught that every soul walked a path in death that would either lead them to the Divine Realm, or Oblivion. Based on the choices they made along the way… No judgment passed on their previous life… I wonder if that's really true… If thats what happens to humans, dwarves, elves and orks… What happens to me when I die? Are demons souls just claimed by other demons like in the old stories?' Russel wondered.
"You ok?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah I'm fine… Just thinking is all." Russel sighed.
"What about?" She asked.
"What happens when we die…" He trailed off.
"As I see it, that's not a question the living need to concern themselves with." She said honestly.
"What do you mean? It seems pretty relevant to me." Russel questioned.
"What's the point of living life if you just think of it as marching towards death? I'm speaking as someone who never really got to enjoy life in a traditional sense." She sighed. "I think that's one of the reasons I have sympathy for Oliver… He was always tied down and never really got to make his own choices. I see that in you as well you know."
"I don't think it's that cut and dry with me. Besides, when I have to make my own decisions it just ends up with people dying." Russel scoffed.
"So change that. When you make decisions from now on don't make ones that end up in death." Rachel reasoned.
"For me that'll be mere impossible, I'd wager." Russel said sadly.
"You're still human. You can make your own destiny." She smiled, turning to leave.
'I wish I could still believe that…'