In a heartbeat, the teleportation ended, and Ethan found himself standing in a forest. Still, it was no longer night and it was a very different forest. The sun hung high in the sky, its golden rays filtering through the dense canopy of leaves overhead.
He blinked, momentarily disoriented by the sudden change in time and scenery. The air here was different, crisp, and cool, carrying with it the scent of pine and damp earth. He took a deep breath, letting the freshness of the forest clear his mind.
The trees around him were tall and ancient, their trunks thick with moss and their branches heavy with needles that whispered in the gentle breeze. Jack realized he had traveled far.
He looked around him, but there was no sign of a settlement in the direction the compass pointed to. The tree should have teleported him to the closest tree around his brother. But there were a lot more trees in the way he was supposed to go.
Ethan suspected a barrier was put in place. Much like the one he had done, Gabriel had always been better at theoretical magic. Just like his, the barrier prevented people from teleporting in and obscured the senses from what went in within.
He could also feel the magic emanating from the barrier, but that was not all. The land itself was steeped in magic, old magic. Spirits and phantoms that were obscure to the average eye were visible to him. And they too sensed he wasn't ordinary either. A pale blue boy stood on the branches of a tree and stared at him in fear.
A few others were hiding behind trees and stealing fearful glances at him, but he ignored them all. Finding his brother was all he cared about.
"Bullocks," he said to himself, realizing he wasn't sure how much he was going to have to walk. He poked his head through the barrier and looked at the other side. It was pretty much the same with the outside. But the faint wisps of chimney smoke were visible a distance away.
The landscape was rugged, the ground beneath his feet uneven and covered in a thick carpet of fallen leaves and pine needles. As he began to walk, the soft crunch of leaves underfoot was the only sound that broke the silence, save for the occasional call of a distant bird. The temperature seemed to have dropped because his breath came as a cloud of vapor.
Most people and creatures would not have been able to walk through the barrier as casually as he had. Barriers were set to deter and prevent entry. But there were very few things that could stop Ethan Blackwood.
The landscape soon became hilly, the trees thinned out slightly as the terrain began to rise, the gentle incline leading him higher into the hills. But his compass assured him his path was true.
It was only when the hill started to feel level again did he realized he had found it.
In the distance, he could make out a stone cottage some degrees smaller than the one he had so recently lost.
There was a tall slender woman in front of it tending to a small lovely garden. From where he stood, Ethan could make out cabbages and guessed what the other plants were by their distinct colors.
As Ethan got closer, he realized something that made him quicken his strides. The woman in the garden was familiar, painfully so.
"D-daciana? Is it really you?" he asked in unbelief.
"Hi, Ethan. I didn't know you were visiting," she chirped.
She was tanned and had dark flowing hair that swayed around her hips. She was beautiful with bright pearly teeth and brown eyes with a captivating smile. Daciana wore a short tunic-like sleeveless shirt that stopped above her navel, showing off her hard stomach, and a long flowing skirt that played in the soil around her. That was the outfit Gabriel liked to see her in the most.
She had three rows of necklaces around her neck. Some were beads, and metal trinkets and a few looked like hand-carved bones. She also had similar bracelets on her wrists and on one ankle. She was barefoot.
"How is this possible?" Ethan asked as a memory of her lying closed eye on a muddy ground with blood oozing out of her nose and mouth flashed in his mind.
"How is what possible?" She asked tilting her head slightly to look at him curiously. Her smile never left her face.
"You forgive me?" Ethan asked a subtle hint of desperation he failed to hide audible in his voice.
"What for?" she asked as she returned her focus to the garden. She still had her accent.
Ethan knelt beside her and reached out to touch her face. It was warm.
She looked at him quizzically and touched the back of his hands. "What has gotten into you?" she smiled.
"Y-you're not real, are you?" Ethan asked.
"No," she answered bluntly. "I am an image of Gabriel's memory. He doesn't remember me as having a grudge with you, so there's nothing to forgive," she said.
At that moment the door of the cottage opened and a crossbow was aimed outside at Ethan.
The wielder must have recognized who he was because he immediately pushed the door the rest of the way open and scowled at the intruder before lowering his weapon.
The man looked identical to Ethan. Same black hair, same dark eyes. The only difference was Gabriel was slightly taller and had cooperated a full beard onto his face compared to Ethan's stubble.
"So it was you who tripped off the alarm?" he said with that same scowl. "How did you find me?"
Ethan nervously raised the compass in response.
"Leave," Gabriel said and turned to head back inside.
"I need your help," Ethan said pleadingly.
That made Gabriel flare up.
"No," he spat with rage as he whirled around. "No. You're Ethan Blackwood; you've never needed anyone's help. Unless, of course, you intend to drag us into another disaster. Do you even remember what you did? The blood on your hands, the life you extinguished—does it haunt you at all? Or are people just pawns in your endless game of reckless ambition? I won't be your accomplice again, Ethan. Not when your 'help' comes with a price we can't afford to pay twice."
Gabriel turned back to the door and shot over his shoulder in a sad and broken tone. "How could you ask me for help again after seeing her?"
He turned to face his brother again. "How much more can you take from me?" he asked and for the first time noticed the abject sorrow on his brother's face. He looked like a beaten dog.
A chancy wind blew at that moment and Ethan's coat flapped.
"You're covered in blood?" Gabriel said in a tone that could have either been a question or a statement.
"It's Aisling's," Ethan said slowly in a breath of vapor.
Gabriel's face dropped in shock and concern while Daciana dropped her garden basket with a gasp as they both stared at him.