A few yards stalled them from sailing into the foggy thicket. Reva navigated their vessel against the gritty gales. The layer seemed tamer—tamer than the legends she'd heard of, at least.
"Of all his apprentices, you had to choose me?" patience drowned in her scornful glance. "The faggots I loved told me this was the only way I could fulfill my dreams and desires. To hell with that! They sold my blood before, so why leave the flesh and bones to rot behind? That royal bastard came with a hefty offer that my parents drank his piss."
"What was your price, Reva? Come on, tell me. How much does your master pay you?" Sagel asked, beaming.
"None of your goddamn concern!" She grabbed his collar, ripping him towards her soft, baronial breasts. "I've had a mouthful of your trash, and I don't want my ears to decay like my soul."
"I wouldn't have accepted this behavior if I had a leash around your neck." He shifted his voice to a stronger, more dominant tone.
A slit sliced through her face. The answer was ready to speed from the incision; however, she only puffed.
"You yearn for the truth, right?" Tears dribbled over her rubicund cheeks, the black, straight bangs masking parts of her face. "Leave yourself in my skin for a night and see how it feels to get fucked in the ass and choke on his dick."
She slogged him back and shed some of her clothes, as she faced her back at Sagel.
"It seems like fate stitched our faithful encounter together," Sagel said, inspecting the patchwork of scars decorating her. "Would you feel any better if it occurred to your only child, too, right before you? The Ghoul ignored my contract, even when they poured hers down my throat."
Sagel's luster faded. As he appraised the scars one last time, ensuring he captured all the minute details, he jerked. A cunning symbol camouflaged itself within the chaos. It resembled his brand of twin dragons and was engraved on the near end of the spine, just above the plump hips. Instead of a duo, it consisted of a miniatur trinity of the scaly titans, tattooed in rust.
The fog suffocated them both, impeding her reflections. She caught up on a gas and touched the deck with her palms. As they glowed, the fog scampered.
"Sagel, where are you?"
No response, neither the slightest of echoes nor the humming of the vile wind.
"Sagel, where the hell did you go?" She twisted in all directions. Her pulse quickened, bathing her in a cold sweat. "Sagel?"
A steaming rod of amber seared through her back, dawdling inside and melting the spine and her tolerance.
"I'm right behind you." He retracted his smoky finger, "Don't worry, you won't die or feel the pain of death, not this time, at least."
Her eyelids drooped, descending into darkness.
****
Sylun sewed his expectations in threads of patience, but couldn't time have postponed her death? Why now? Why at the moment of such a dire crisis?
He glanced at the cracks that permeated her skin like a drought. The skin shriveled into a leathery hide and clung onto the slender bones.
He repelled the sand using his vortexes and dug a hole. He dragged Mara's corpse and dumped it in, smothering her in a heap of sand.
"What… Why am I…" he sniffled and rubbed his bleary eyes as some teardrops leaked.
He departed. A coruscating, brilliance of green impaled the dull cannibals of colors. Sylun turned around. The blinding radiance of the beacon cut through the black mound. An explosion followed.
Sylun entombed his eyes in a swift reflex of the arm, foraging for a breath in the maelstrom.
As the sandy clouds waned, a panting silhouette emerged.
"Hey, what's your head filled with? Swine shit?"
"Mara?" his consciousness doubted.
"Who else? Can't you wait for a while?"
"I thought you were… dead."
He relaxed his stiffened muscles.
She trudged, plowing her left along the path until she observed her reflection in his eyes.
"Your death was evident. I checked your breath, and the pulse was far from reach." He said. "But look at you now, it's like those furry maggots, or whatever they were, never pierced your skin and binged on your flesh."
She smacked her palm against her head.
"You came to the rescue; how heroic. Just admit you're after draining my sins and the Auralum in my blood. Be honest."
Sylun discovered the answer to the ache boiling in his brain.
"Yes, I guess I did." He shrugged his shoulders and gawked at the sky, evading her searing gaze. "Why else would I check on some worthless pile of limbs?"
"I really don't care what your intentions were, but you have my gratitude for now." She tilted her neck, eyes shut, and cracked a pair of knuckles. "But being a half-blood Auralum user is a bane. I don't have full control over these powers yet. They might poison me and always delay my healing."
Sylun nodded, barely. "I thought Auralum users utilized their willpower to manipulate matter and aura. I've even heard they can alter abstract entities like time and space."
"That's true if you're pure blood, but only a handful can." She corrected him, "Auralum Alloys like myself are viewed as imitations of the Elemental user, an inferior species. We threaten the pure with our ability to channel power from emotions, something they can't."
The obscure horizon stepped into a treacherous dark tint like the skies.
"We have to find Derod."
"I think we'll be fine without him." He said, trusting the whispers of pride and hatred.
"You don't understand; without his blood, I'm utterly useless, and thanks to the leaden skies, my blood potency is reduced. And without my blood as the antidote, you'll be just a cadaver. The more sins you commit and harvest, it's more likely they'll poison your blood."
Sylun frowned and pondered, resorting to his conscience's assistance.
Should I trust her words? She did save me once. Maybe I should repay my debt. Maybe she had no choice but to dance like her father's marionette. The thoughts blinded him from the light of any further decisions.
"Whatever you say, princess."