"what did you do to me?" Although everyone knew the sea tried to drown Wara, they did not understand why it was Pax's fault.
The wolf stood up and began to growl at Wara but Pax stood and sighed. "We need to talk. I knew you would remember something eventually after meeting her but I didn't expect it this soon."
Cloelia titled her head and sat on her hind feet, wondering what was going on. Did Pax actually do something to Wara?
Wara immediately turned around and started walking back into the cave. Nak did not miss how her legs shook slightly at the knees.
Pax followed, and as she entered, she saw Yhra leave the cave and her eyebrows furrowed.
She knew Yhra was not normal and knew the extent of what she could do. If she was that pale then...
Oh dear. Pax thought.
Whatever had transpired inside the cave must have unlocked a particular memory Pax desperately hoped to keep locked.
And that memory could cause a whole lot of issues for them.
***
Wara sat atop the platform she had been lying on previously, her expression vacant.
Pax stood a distance from her, ready to run at any given moment.
"I guess I should explain." She began. When she received no reaction from her, she continued.
"I am not from around here. I don't belong here, but I came here because of you. I met you in a forest when you were around ten. We lived with the Faeries. They were searching for you so I hid you in the forest. We eventually found a man named Frenvír. I trusted him because he was Āsimati, just like me."
"We stayed there for months and slowly moved back in to a small town where the King then barely visited. When people questioned us, I pretended Frenvír and I were siblings with you as a slave. No one questioned us again because slaves were quite common and you somehow behaved like one. In fact, everyone knew you were one."
Pax stopped as Wara's hands tightened and a strange purple mist surrounded her. It soon vanished and her fist relaxed. Pax took that as a cue to continue.
"You eventually grew into a fine young woman and this particular duke's son wanted us to sell you to him. He was quite infatuated with you. All through the seven years we'd lived there, he'd come to play with you, talk to you. But no matter what he did, you never returned his feelings. He decided to resort to trying to buy you so atleast he'd own you. But by then, you already resented your slave status and would lash out at him anytime he called you one."
"People did not like that, and anytime you lashed out they would punish you. Eventually, they began to call you a witch because your wounds always healed when they were done. That, and the fact that you slowly became quite aggressive and would fight back. Faeries are not quite fond of witches and slaves, you being both was irritating to them."
"Then one day, the Duke heard of you and called for you. There was nothing I could do. He locked you in a room with his son and told him to get over his infatuation. By the time Frenvír got there, the deed had been done. There was blood everywhere and although yours was there, it was mostly the boy's. That was the first time you used cursed magic."
"The main reason for the boy's infatuation was the fact that he had discovered you could use essense which is true magic, without sacrificing anything. You never lost your mind, or your hand or eyes or a plant or anything. Nothing died when you casted spells. He wanted that. Luckily, he kept that secret to himself and died with it."
"Frenvír carried you out of the place and ran away with you. You had gone unconscious. It so happened by chance that there was a ship leaving Sìthiche that day. The Faeries had recently found a way to leave the veil, although it sacrificed alot, they were the first to finally break free of bondage but they were still cursed."
"We got on that ship and left before the Duke knew what had happened. Frenvír and I parted ways then. He saw you as his daughter and I had a few things I needed to do. Eleven years later, we met again and you had not aged a single day from the last time I had seen you. Frenvír said you had used the cursed magic to lock yourself in a cocoon because you found out you were pregnant."
"When I met you. You had no memory of what had happened. Not even of who you were. We stayed in the forest for two years, but during. those years, you never showed any signs of pregnancy, rather, you started showing an addiction to cursed magic. Your eyes used to be grey. Your hair was always brown. But then it started turning purple, so did your eyes. The worse your addiction got, the more you changed. Your entire personality changed. You became hard to control. We had to do it. We sacrificed the child in your womb and locked you in a cage until your addiction could calm down."
Pax gulped as the purple mist flooded the cave, making it hard to breathe. Warning bells rang loudly in her head and she knew the only reason Wara had not lashed out yet was because she needed answers.
"Six years passed, and you still remained the same. No, you got worse. You kept trying to break out. Creating illusions in our heads to force yourself out of the cage. It was like you were learning more spells instead of forgetting everything. And it seemed like you were still pregnant but was stopping the child from growing any further. You kept bleeding monthly, tricking me into thinking you had no child. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and after a long while of planning. I managed to force you into slumber. I don't know what exactly that did, but then the pregnancy you had been surpressing finally started growing and no matter what I did, you never woke up."
"You stayed in that same state until the moment you gave birth to Zola. You woke up with no memory of who you were and I knew this was a third chance I had been given. I and Frenvír convinced you we were on the way to a new home. I hypnotized a dying man into mating me, bore his child and he soon died afterwards. Frenvír simply took on the appearance of an old man and we slowly fit into the Āsimati village.
"We made sure to keep a secret that you were not Āsimati and we told you to always hide your hair. Frenvír came up with something that allowed people to always see your eyes as brown. We managed to supress your aggressive nature and you became as obedient as you once were. I then left you in Frenvír's care"
"We convinced you, you were only twenty three but by then, you were thirty six. We taught you magic was bad and that the forest was dangerous. For six years you listened until you rediscovered magic during the Dies Lucis. You questioned and we told you the half truth."
"As soon as you tried magic again, you started dreaming of the past. I tried surpressing them but you became curious. Everything we had done, in order to not sacrifice a great deal, the price was that you would never cross a veil or everything would slowly reverse. Then your magic started pushing you towards the veil. Pushing you. Everyday you got closer to finding it was a headache for me. Then Zola started showing signs of using cursed magic. We hid it from you and always surpressed it. But one day he used it on you and fully unlocked your magic."
*The dies Lucis came early and the next day I came to tell you about him but you were gone. You met her and the rest of the story, you know."
Pax saw the mist suddenly become dense, then it formed itself into a large cloud that pushed her away.
"Go away." Wara's voice was small as the mist pushed Pax away.
"Go away before I kill you!" Wara yelled and Pax knew it was time to go.
***
Wara did not want to believe anything of what Pax had said but the voice that had whispered to her when she tried to kill Pax the first time told her it was true.
It also whispered to her that there were things Pax had intentionally kept from her which made her even angrier.
It was irrational. Why would she suddenly trust a random man in the forest? Although Wara had forgotten she had done the same thing when she had met Nak, she still questioned it.
What did Pax leave for eleven years for?
Who was Frenvír?
Why was she the only one who could use essense without dying or going insane?
As soon as Wara asked herself that question, the magic arround her suddenly became quiet. The mist disappeared and so did the question.
Then it put a thought in her head to find Zelda.
Although Zelda seemed like someone she could never trust, Wara needed answers. So she left the cave.
Now that she was not blinded by fury, Wara took in the time to admire where exactly she was. It was the shore of the ocean, with mountains behind them. There was a waterfall nearby where she had seen while looking through her son's eyes.
The cave behind her was directly beside the waterfall, it was completely made of hardened sand and was unnaturally smooth as if it had been made by a living creature and not nature.
The trees were not as tall as the forest near the Āsimati village but were thicker.
As Wara looked closer, she realised that those were not trees but plants growing off the side of the mountain.
Something nudged her foot and she looked down to find a wolf that was as high as her waist, nudging her.
Her eyes stared at Wara warily as Wara studied her fur.
Wara could not recognise the colour of the fur of the wolf. Wara knew that if she had not crossed the veil, she would not have even recognised what a wolf was.
Cloelia's fur was a mix of all dark colours with no one in particular standing out. It was a perfect blend for the darkness.
Then suddenly Cloelia began to sniff Wara, rubbing her head on the thigh. Wara felt extremely uncomfortable and tried to kick her away when a calming sensation abruptly invaded her senses.
It was foreign and almost immediately, Wara snapped her head up to glare at the approaching woman dressed in tight clothing.
"This is strange and alien to me. Take it away." Wara immediately demanded as soon as Zelda was within earshot.
The calming sensation left her body, filling her with relief. Instead of replying her, Zelda asked instead.
"You want answers do you not? I have a way to get them without sacrificing anyone but yourself."
Wara knew Zelda was not someone any sane person could trust, but lately she had found herself going insane because of the circumstances surrounding her missing child.
"I want answers." Wara replied firmly, her mind made up. "Whatever it takes."