"Wait!" Nu yelled as the Umbra's tendrils began to creep slowly across Van's face. "Please stop!"
The Umbra stopped it's advance and looked at her expectantly.
"Nu, don't," Van warned, but her mind was already made up.
"I'll go with you," she said. "I won't fight back. Just please, don't hurt him."
The Umbra grinned horribly. "Ah, foolish girl. You actually think you can resist me?"
Van wrapped his hand around the tendrils and yanked them off of him, only to have more tendrils wrap around his wrist tightly.
Nu grabbed her tooth and held it between her breasts, over her heart. "Caecius would not be happy if I'm hurt. Or worse. Leave Van alone."
"Nu, stop it!" Van snapped.
"Or you'll what?" The Umbra asked, but Nu could see concern in its eyes. "You'll kill yourself?"
"I would rather kill myself-" she nearly choked on the words, surprised she was even able to say them at all. "-and get you in trouble than let you hurt him." She hoped the Umbra couldn't see her shaking. The tooth's enchantment was gone, thankfully, but the point still dug into her flesh painfully.
The Umbra glared at her and released it's hold on Van. "Fine. I suppose we'll have to continue this later, marksman. Duty calls."
"Nu..." Van said as the healer dropped her tooth and her water stone to the floor.
"I'll be okay. I'm sorry, Van," Nu said as she walked outside, the Umbra following close behind her.
Nu opened her eyes cautiously, unsure of what happened. She didn't remember passing out. Perhaps the Umbra had knocked her unconscious? Her head ached.
She shifted to discover she was lying in a soft bed. The cushioned mattress and silken bedding felt so inviting. She was so tired...
The gravity of her situation sunk in quickly, however, and she shot up from the bed, looking around the room. It was a standard-sized bedroom with a desk and a dresser and a small lamp beside the bed. There was a sliding door that was slightly open, looking like it would lead to a closet. Nu could see the fabric from dresses poking out from behind it. The main door was shut, and Nu instantly ran to it to try the handle.
"Damn it," she said, seeing it was locked. She ran her fingers around the edge, looking for a weakness in the frame she could exploit to force it open, but she found none.
Wringing her hands, she paced around the room. The Umbra had said someone was dying to see her, and Nu could only assume it was Caecius. He and his Fire-Warrior friend had burned Nu's village to the ground to find her, after all, Caecius's Air abilities amplifying the other man's flames.
Granna had tried to warn her about Caecius that day, when Ike had found the Earth Spirit. They went straight to the old storyteller, and her face went white when she saw them. She said if the Spirits had returned it was due to the Aether affinity that Nu held, and it signaled great danger.
But what did Caecius want with her? Her affinity was useless, despite what he thought. Nu couldn't bring people back from the dead like she's rumoured to be able to, or Mama would still be alive. And Nu herself would still be alive...
With a groan of frustration, she fell back down on the bed and thought of her friends back at the funeral home. Nu hoped Van wasn't upset with her for giving up so easily, but she couldn't fight such a powerful being as the Umbra, and Van was already hurt enough from their last encounter. If Nu hadn't been there to heal him, he probably would have bled out, and then...
No, she forced herself to stop that train of thought as she lay back. Not fighting is the right choice. The next time Van fought the Umbra, it would have to be on their terms to have any chance of winning.
Could Jayden and Senshi be in this place too? Maybe they were being held prisoner like she was. She shook her head immediately after the thought, though. Jayden, maybe, but Senshi? Nu was sure they had something far more sinister planned for Senshi, and she hoped the spitfire would be okay.
Her thoughts inevitably traveled back to Van, and she hoped he wouldn't try to rescue her. Running headfirst into the bad guy's hideout sounded like something he would do, and they'd be able to track her with the doll they had found. Part of her wished he would come rushing in, shooting down anyone that got in his way and save her, but she was so worried about him. And without her water stone, Nu was next to useless.
In the end, all Nu could do was sit and wait to see who showed up to find her first.
ns 15.158.61.23da2
