We take a break by a small river to fill our gourds with water once more, as Leah approaches me.
Leah: Jòn I would like to have a word with you, in private.
I knew this was coming. I've been expecting it ever since we had that discussion about my stat device two hours ago. She barely spoke a word to me after that, and the look she's been giving me for the past hour has been sending chills down my spine. Whatever is the reason for her sudden change of attitude towards me, I can't let things go on like this. We need to clear things up, one way or another.
JÒN: Alright, lead the way.
Leah goes ahead, and I start to follow her, but before I leave, Damien grabs me by the shoulder.
Damien: Remember, Jòn... three taps.
The look in his eyes is dead serious. I realize he's talking about the magical transceiver he gave me last night which is in my pocket. He told me to tap it three times in case I'm in danger. I guess he must have also noticed something's was wrong with the way Leah was acting for the past two hours.
I nod to him and he lets go of me. I then go on to follow Leah, who is heading deeper into the forest. We walk in silence for about a minute.
JÒN: How far are we going exactly?
She gives me no answer and continues to walk forward. After about another minute, she finally stops and turns to me, with the same cold look in her eyes that she's been giving me ever since we fought the dragon.
JÒN: Are you planning on telling me what--
Leah doesn't let me finish my sentence and suddenly makes an ice dagger appear in her right hand, which she then almost immediately puts to my throat, and I can feel drops of blood running down my neck, as my back is being pushed against a tree's trunk.
Leah: If you make any kind of noise, I will slit your throat here and now. Do you understand?
I tap the magical transceiver three times through my pocket, while I answer Leah's question in order to distract her.
JÒN: I understand.
Leah: Good. Now, I want you to listen to me carefully, and answer my questions. Tell me, where are you keeping Gwen?
JÒN: ... What?
The coldness in Leah's eyes is starting to get replaced by anger.
Leah: Don't think you can get away by feigning ignorance like you've been doing until now. I know who you are. I'm asking you again. What have you done with Gwen? Where are you keeping her?! Answer me!
JÒN: I have no idea what you are talking about. Who is Gwen?
Leah (crying): Damn you! Damn you to hell! I trusted you! Both you and Rachel! Was this all part of your plan to recapture me? We're you trying to get close to me so that you could catch me off guard? Is Rachel working with you too?
JÒN: What... No, listen to me--
Leah: Where are the other thackeray?! Are they waiting to ambush me as we speak? Are they all just waiting for your signal?
JÒN (to himself): She thinks I'm a thackeray? The race that built the dragon trap? What's wrong with her? She isn't making any sense.
JÒN: Damn it, Leah, I don't know what's gotten into you, but I'm not a thackeray. Do you think I'd be wasting my time here trying to become a mage if I had the ability to build magical traps and devices?
Leah: You're lying! You're lying through your teeth! Humans could not survive with such a weak magical energy, and there's no other race that looks exactly like humans and possesses so little magical energy.
JÒN: Even I am somehow a thackeray, that doesn't deny the fact that I've been raised by humans and have never met these guys who captured you. Does this have something to do with the Institution of Truth? I'm not working with any of them. Please, trust me on this!
Leah (crying): Why?! Why should I trust you? What makes you any different from the rest of them? Why should I believe that you won't simply betray me, like everyone else I've met in my life?
JÒN: Leah, I would never do anything to hurt you...
Leah: You LIAR! Did you think I wouldn't notice? Do you take me for a fool? Damien's been slowly getting closer to us from the moment I put my knife to your throat. He's moving quietly, and trying to suppress his magical energy, but I can still sense him. You called him here, didn't you? You were planning to have him kill me!
JÒN: I didn't call him here to kill you
Leah: Shut up! I don't believe a word you're saying!
Suddenly, a layer of ice forms itself around me and it freezes me to the tree.
Leah: This ends now!
She pulls her dagger back from my throat, and prepares to stab me right in the heart.
I desperately try to free myself from the block of ice, but the only part of my body that I can still move is my head.
JÒN (to himself): Damien, where are you?
Leah: This is for Gwen, you bastard!
She swings her ice dagger towards my chest.
Her arm stops a few inches from reaching me, and her hand holding the dagger starts to tremble.She looks me straight in the eye and tries to move her arm forward, but she can't bring herself to do it. Her rage slowly fades away while she looks at me, and her eyes are beginning to water up again. As she stands there with the knife in her hand, the grip she has on the weapon starts to weaken, and eventually it drops to the ground, along with a stream of tears flowing down her face.
Leah: I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... For everything...
Damen: That's enough, Leah. Surrender now, and I won't have to hurt you.
Damien reveals himself from behind a tree.
JÒN: Damien, wait--
Damien: I'm sorry, Jòn, but now that it's come to this, I can't just let it slide. She's too dangerous to be left alone. I'm going to purify her.
Leah wipes the tears from her face, and regains her cold look, as she turns to Damien.
Leah: Don't sound so disappointed, Damien. We both know that you've been waiting for this moment ever since you first laid your eyes on me. And we both know that surrending is not just in my nature.
Damien (curtly): As you wish.
He then rushes towards Leah, with his sword in his hand
Leah conjures a platform of ice beneath her, and she uses it to raise herself into the air, and out of Damien's reach.
Damien: Come back here and fight fair, damn it!
Once she reaches a sufficiently high altitude, she starts raining down swords of ice upon Damien, while he defends himself with his shield. His defensive barrier seems to be holding up a lot better than it usually does against normal weapons. None of Leah's ice swords are getting through even though she's attacking him from all directions.
Damien is now raising his sword in the air, and moving it in a steady circular motion. As his sword moves, I can see the air starting to spin around it at great speed. Once he stops rotating his sword, he slashes powerfully at Leah, generating a strong gust of wind that blows her off her ice platform.
She manages to quickly conjure an ice slide below her, and immediately she lands on the ground, she turns towards Damien with her palms pointing at him. A beam of ice shoots from her hands and heads straight for Damien, who is now holding his sword in front of him. The beam hits the sword head on, but instead of getting frozen, the weapon absorbs the attack and starts radiating a cold magical energy.
Damien then slashes his sword at Leah, which sends the ice beam right back at her. She manages to get out of its way in the nick of time and attempts to retaliate, but Damien, who already reached her, slashes his sword at her left ankle, making her drop to one knee. She tries to attack him with a beam again, but all she manages to do is point her palms at him, while the ice refuses to come out of her hands. The block of ice she trapped me in is also starting to melt away.
Leah (surprised): No...
Damien: I'm afraid that won't work any longer, Leah. You won't be able to cast any kind of magic for the next thirty minutes. I already told you, I specialize in dealing with elementalists. My shield protects me from most magical attacks, my weapon can absorb the elements, and I have a sword technique that can temporarily severe your link with the magical plane. You never stood a chance to begin with.
Leah tries to get up, but she realizes she can't hope to outrun Damien with her wounded leg. Defeated, she does not say another word and she bows her head, looking at the ground as would a convicted murderer while awaiting their execution.
Damien: Come now, Leah. Don't be like that. You should know better than anyone that the purification ritual has almost no chance of failure. Once we deal with the Cortana within you, will be able to keep traveling together, just like before.
Damien says an incantation and he readies his sword, which starts glowing with a bright white light.
JÒN: Damien, NO! You promised!
Damien stops his sword upon hearing my words.
JÒN: You promised that you won't try to purify her until you saw her turn into a Cortana!
Leah raises her head and looks at me, with a mixture of sadness of sadness and regret visible in her eyes.
Damien: I can't believe you, Jòn. She almost killed you back there, and you're still saying things like this?
JÒN: She wasn't going to kill me. But if I'm right about her not being a Cortana, then you were the one about to kill her just now. Please, give me a few more minutes with her. I'm sure if we talk things through we can still fix this.
Damien: Have you gone mad?
JÒN: Why's that? You said it yourself. She can't cast magic for the next half an hour, and she's not running anywhere with that leg wound you gave her. I won't be in any danger.
Damien lowers his sword and grumbles, but he doesn't find a good reason to not grant me request.
Damien: Fine, you can have her. But she'd better have a damn good reason for all of this.
He gestures at Leah.
Damien: Well, you heard Jòn. Go with him.
Leah gets up and tries to walk all the way to me, but she falls due to her leg injury. I rush over to her in order to grab her before falling, and then we both start to head deeper into the forest. As we walk, Leah is holding my left arm with both her hands, in order to keep herself from falling again. She does not say a word to me while we distance ourselves from Damien, but she's holding my arm very tightly, even though she hasn't tripped once since we started walking.
Once we've put enough distance between ourselves and Damien, I help Leah lay down with her back against an oak tree, and she simply stares at the ground, still not saying anything.
JÒN (sarcastically): This isn't what I imagined saving a damsel in distress would be like.
Leah lets out a sniff and smiles sadly, while still looking at the ground.
Leah: You really are one of a kind, aren't you?
JÒN: I don't know what you mean by that, but I'm going to take it as a compliment.
I take off my bag pack and reach inside of it with my right hand. It looks completely empty from the outside, but once I focus on the image of the pack of biscuits I'm looking for, I can immediately feel it materialize in the palm of my hand. As I take it out, I grab one of the biscuits and hand it to Leah.
JÒN: Here you go. You must be hungry after all that fighting.
She looks at me confused for a second and then decides to accept my gift.
Leah: ... Thank you
JÒN: I got these from a shop near my house. They always had the best biscuits. It's too bad that I didn't know Damien back then, though. If I had a bag pack like this, I would have stacked it with hundreds of these delicious--
Leah: Jòn...
Leah interrupts me as she lifts her head and looks me straight in the eye.
Leah: Why did you save me?
JÒN: What do you mean? Why wouldn't I?
Leah: Because I almost murdered you in cold blood a few minutes ago.
JÒN: Yeah, yeah, sure. You can act all tough now, but when it came right down to it you didn't have that guts to follow it through, remember?
Leah: You... (She grabs my shirt)
When she sees me smiling, she calms down and lets go of me, leaning her back against the tree behind her.
Leah (looks away from me): I understand now... I understand that you're the one that's been keeping me safe ever since we met yesterday. It all came to me in that one moment when I tried to kill you. Why did Damien never look at me as if I were human if he was the one that came to the conclusion that I wasn't a cortana? Why did you and Damien have a secret way to communicate in case I turned against you if he trusted me so much? There was only one way it could have all made sense. I just didn't want to believe it.
She turns her gaze back to me.
Leah: Jòn, if you hadn't been there to stop Damien from killing me yesterday, I would have paid dearly for my foolishness. And yet, I have repaid your kindness by putting a knife to your throat. Can you ever forgive me?
JÒN: Hey, now your making it sound a lot worse than it actually was! All's well when it ends well, right? What's important is that no lasting harm was done, and once Damien heals your leg and your powers come back, everything can go back to normal.
I pause.
JÒN: So... Are we still friends, then?
Leah (shocked): Friends?
She looks at me, trying to figure out whether I'm serious or not.
Leah: Are you completely out of your mind?
JÒN: Of course I am! Surely, you must have realized this when you found out the true reason I joined the tournament.
Leah: How could you even still consider travelling with me after what has happened? Don't you understand that you're putting yourself in danger by just being around me?
JÒN: So what? How would travelling with you be anymore dangerous than having to fight a stillborn and a dragon in the same day? At least if you're coming with us, I'll feel safer, knowing that you're watching my back.
Leah pauses, and looks at me hesitantly.
Leah: Are you sure about this?
JÒN: Yes, yes, I'm sure! Now, come on. Shake my hand, already! My arm is going numb.
Leah smiles faintly, as she grabs my hand and squeezes it firmly.
Leah: You're an idiot.
JÒN: I know. Now, come on, we should get going, if we stay here much longer, Damien will surely think that you found a way to attack me again or something. I'm sure I can find a way to smooth things over with him somehow.
Leah: No, wait... We can't go on like this. I owe you an explanation for everything that's happened.
JÒN: Did any of this have anything to do with the Institution of Truth?
Leah: Yes... This has everything to do with the Institution of Truth.
She pauses
Leah: The Institution was... an orphanage, of sorts. They took in children from all over the continent and offered them shelter and free meals. I was born in Avalon, and abandoned as a child, so I was sent there at a very young age. The Institution was run by a handful of very influential thackeray at the time, who had deep ties with the Avalonian royalty. Unfortunately, the true purpose of that orphanage was not to shelter children who had no home, but to exploit them because they had no family members left to ask about them. Through repeated experimentation, the thackeray were trying to find a way to turn regular humans into mages.
JÒN: So, what you're saying is that you got your powers as a result of these experiments?
Leah: I did... Although, the methods they used had an extremely low chance of success. Forcefully injecting magical circuits into a human body is not only a very risky procedure, but also... particularly painful. Of the thousands of orphans that were kept in that Institution, only a handful of us survived. Due to the lack of results on their part, the thackeray eventually stopped receiving funds for their projects from the royalty, and they were forced to shut down the Institution.
JÒN: So, uh... did they just let you all go after that?
Leah: No, they didn't. I was part of the rejects. Their prolonged experiments had somehow failed to kill me, but my magic was so weak at the time that I could barely conjure a snowflake. They had no need for rejects, so they just dumped us on other continents. They used their teleportation magic to transport each of us in various remote forest across the world, with nothing to our names other than the clothes on our backs and some knives to fend for ourselves. I was twelve at the time.
Leah's eyes shift to the left as she talks and her gaze becomes more distant. She must be reliving those moments from long ago as she's telling them to me.
Leah: I spent weeks in that forest, hunting small animals and avoiding predators in order to survive. When I finally managed to reach civilization, I was greeted with terrified screams and people running away at the sight of me. It didn't take me long to find out about cortanas, and to understand that there was no longer a place for me in society. As time passed, I started encountering cortana hunters and white mages that wanted to have me purified. Luckily, by the time I started meeting them, my magical powers had increased considerably and I became able to defend myself.
JÒN: What happened to the other rejects?
Leah: The others... didn't make it. They were all much younger than I was when I was thrown into the forest, so they couldn't survive on their own, even with the daggers provided by the thackeray. I spent the first few years of my new life trying to track down the other orphans that were set free, hoping that at least some of them survived, but in the end, the only thing that I could for them was to give them a proper burial.
JÒN: And Gwen?
Leah was somewhat surprised by my question. I guess she forgot that she had already told me her friend's name.
Leah: Gwen was... my best friend, and the only reason I decided to return to this hellhole. She was one of the very few that reacted positive to their experiments. She and her brother were by far the most talented of all the mages that had been created in that facility. Because of which, she became one of the thackeray elite task force and often served as a personal bodyguard to the highest ranked members of the group.
JÒN: Wait, if they became so strong, how come they didn't fight back?
Leah: The thackeray had some collars that they used to prevent the mages from using their magic against them. The spells are somehow similar to those spells preventing us from attacking locals. I'm sure that all the artifacts used for these spells were made by the thackeray.
JÒN: I'm starting to get confused. Just who are these thackeray, exactly? My initial understanding of them was that they were some ancient race from this continent that were extinct a long time ago.
Leah: Yes and no. They are indeed the oldest race on this continent, which is why most people simply refer to them as "the ancients". However, even though their civilization fell hundreds of years ago, there are still small groups of thackeray here and there, staying hidden and trying to influence events from the shadows. As far as I know, no one actually knows why their civilization fell, but it's commonly believed that their own arrogance was somehow the source of their undoing. Their banner is after all an eagle holding a baby with its talons, where the eagle represents the thackeray and the baby represents the gods.
JÒN: Wait a minute, I recognize that banner description. You're telling me that Theo wants me to transmit his message to remnants of some long forgotten race?
Leah: Yes, this is what I'm saying, I have no idea where he knows this people from or what the meaning of his message is, however. I was under the impression that most people do not know the thackeray exist anymore. They are very secretive, and also very isolated from all other races. They have their own villages hidden from the world, and they are only allowed to marry other thackeray. This is why I'm very surprised you're unaware of your own heritage.
Damien: Hey, Jòn, can you hear me?
I hear Damien's voice coming from the magical transceiver.
Leah takes a short glance towards my pocket to see where the noise is coming from, but she doesn't ask me any questions. She must have realized that this was how I managed to secretly communicate with Damien earlier.
I tap the device once and answer him.
JÒN: Yes, Damien, I can hear you loud and clear. What is it?
Damien: I really hate to interrupt you and all, but if we want to get any kind of shelter before the sun sets, we should get going right now.
JÒN: Alright, we'll be right there.
I tap the transceiver again in order to deactivate it, and we start heading towards Damien.
>>>End Of Chapter 8<<<