I had to admit sleeping on a boat was much more soothing than sleeping on a plane. The way the waves rocked our boat with a mother's gentle touch was more relaxing than I originally thought. So much so that I had fallen asleep much earlier than I wanted to, only to be awakened by what sounded like five smacks followed by the loud crying of Sarah. I got up from my sleeping bag and had to investigate what had just happened. From what I could tell from my vantage point beside the door to the war room, as Dr. Silva called it, Emily was cradling Sarah close to her chest. The table was a mess of papers and a pile of bloody tissues that came from when Sarah overused that great mind of hers. I had told her to stop before I went to bed but I had been met with a very pouty and attitude filled. “Leave me alone!” So I left her alone to deal with the wrath of Emily.
And it seemed that wrath had come as judging from the way Sarah was tenderly rubbing her backside. I think Emily might have finally lost her temper and actually spanked the youngest of our group. Maybe that would get her to behave a bit more. Sarah had been pressing her luck with Emily for a long time. I watched as Emily lifted Sarah up into her arms, she started to sing and sway around the room. Her steps as soft as the snow, her voice as sweet as honey. It was almost memorizing, like watching a mother sooth her child who had just had a bad dream. It reminded me of my adoptive mother who had done something similar with me on the first night I spent at my new home.
I quickly fled back to the room we were sleeping in and covered myself up as Emily came walking our way. A moment later I heard the rustling of a sleeping bag, and heard a soft snoring from Sarah as she was laid down on top. I kept my eyes closed as Emily sat on the couch, I doubt she would have been upset if I saw her moment with Sarah. However, I thought it would be for the best if she assumed I was still asleep. As I waited and even tried to fall back asleep myself, I could hear Emily talking to herself. I think she was also speaking to Bonnie who seemed grateful that Emily had put a stop to “big” Sarah as she called it. I knew who this big Sarah was, I had seen it in the underground library a few times. It was when the real and older Sarah came out while she read or studied. That also brought out that irritating attitude of hers, an attitude that only Xaiver seemed to be able to truly get rid of from what he called his little sister.
As I lay there, I heard Emily start to pray for Sarah but then she stopped before saying in a voice sadder than I had ever heard from the girl up to this point. “How can I take the sprinter from her eyes, if I can’t even take the wood from mine.” I knew the phase she meant, she thought she was being a hypocrite for some reason. I didn’t understand why, nor did I understand her last statement of. “Go away, Winter.”
Ten minutes passed before a new snoring sound began to fill the air around us. One I recognized as Emily’s and as I sat up to see if she had gone to sleep. I found her curled up in the small couch of this room. Her stomach rising and falling with each breath she took, she looked more peaceful while she slept. My theory that everyone looked at ease while they slept was starting to become more of a fact. I silently crept out of the room and went to stand on the deck of the ship. I shivered as it was a bit colder out at sea than it would be on shore. I heard the crashing of the waves against our ships. The moon’s reflection could be seen out across the water. I looked out towards it as I kept replaying the last words Emily had said. “Go away, Winter.”
I could have sworn that I had heard that word from her before. However, I didn’t know what she meant by that. Could she be worried about cold weather? That couldn’t be it since from the way she said it, Winter, was a name and not a place. I know some theories on hell said part of it was very cold, maybe she was worried about that. However, again the way she spoke of it tore that theory apart, Winter seemed to be a person.
Maybe this person was responsible for that dark and more cold feeling I got from Emily sometime. A hunger for war and fighting that was stronger than sometimes her love for God felt.
Before I could understand that a bit more. I heard an annoying buzz of some insect starting to fill my ears. No matter how hard I tried to swat at it, it wouldn’t leave me alone. I could see something out of the corner of my eyes, a fly from the sound of it, but as I spun around to face it. My hands clasped around my mouth as a muffled scream left it. I had never seen a wasp this big before, maybe the size of a shoebox or bigger! It took a moment for me to realize this was not a regular wasp, it was made of a dark violet aura. From the way it was sitting on the wall, I could see one long crack that ran across its hard exoskeleton. One that made me sick just looking at it as I knew what was the cause of it. There was only one group that left permanent marks on their animal spirit.
“My master, wants to speak to you.” It’s voice was like the woman I had met the other night, just a bit lighter and had a bit of a buzz to it. I had stories of the dark order’s animal spirits. However, this didn’t look as bad as what I had been told. The scars that were rumored to cover every last inch of their body, was only one and even now that I look at that one scar. It was not as big as some made them sound like or as deep. “Follow me please.” With that being said it took flight making its way towards the shore that was about 20 miles away from us.
I hesitated for a moment as I knew this might be a trap. Maybe a way to separate us so that she could capture and torture me for what I knew. However, I always trusted my gut, if it said run, I would run for my life. If it said stay and fight, I would fight till my last breath. It was that gut feeling that made me go and see Sarah so long ago about the quipu I wore proudly around my neck. It had not been wrong so why would it start now? So I leapt off the side of the boat and summoned my large wings, one flap made the water surge a bit before I was following after this violet light. Each flap produced that sound of thunder I loved.
It was not that long of a flight as I came and landed on the long white sandy beach of Rio Grande, Brazil. A beach I had run across in order to escape a fate worse than death. I could hear the crackle of a fire coming from nearby and sitting, a short walk away from the water was that woman. Kiara Kassab. She was wearing a red and white striped romper, a strap tied around her waist that shared the same color. Her feet were dug into the sand, as she reached into a bag to throw more coals into fire in front of her. A picnic basket rested beside her and two glasses had been waiting. Her dark caramel skin looks shiny probably from some kind of lotion, her hair waved a bit in the cold breeze. She was reading a book, the title in a language I could not read. She did not look like the evil members of the dark order that I had heard about from my friends, the people that Daniel would always hate. She looked pretty normal, like a mother or a teacher would be.
She closed her book as I approached her. “I am glad to see you again, Unique.”
“T-Thank you, Ms Kassab.”
“Respectful, I like that.” She praised as she motioned towards the empty spot on the white blanket she had been sitting on. “Come and join me by the fire if you don’t mind. It can be so chilly at night here, an odd difference from its otherwise warm weather.” She spoke with a soothing voice, no signs of evil or signs that she meant harm to me. I knew that if I needed her I could summon Fortune from her gemstone in a moment.
So I hesitantly sat down on the opposite side of this blanket from her. The roaring fire being right between us, providing us with a nice warmth from its purple flames. She had probably used her own jepei as the spark to light it. She reached into her picnic basket and took out metal skewers and then three plastic containers. One had veggies of all kinds, one had lightly cut steak and the other had my favorite of all meats, shrimp. My stomach growled a bit as we mostly had been eating snacks on board Dr. Silva’s ship. She was gonna treat us to dinner tomorrow.
She let out a warm chuckle and my cheek warmed a bit as she probably heard my stomach. “Please help yourself, I told you I wanted to have lunch with you one day. However, a late dinner is just enough.” She then pulled out a dark amber bottle. “Tell me, has your mother shared a glass of wine with you before?”
I had just finished putting together my first skewer and had it resting inside of the purple flames. Mine being mostly shrimp with some veggies on it to not look rude to the woman for all of the stuff she had brought. “No ma’am.” I answered, however I then stopped and looked at the calm woman who had started to pour two glasses of dark silver liquid. “You didn’t poison any of this? Did you?”
Kiara laughed a bit. “Come on now, I don’t waste my poisons on food and especially not on wine. Besides, if I wanted to poison you, I would have had my prized wasp do it before I brought you all the way out here.”
My eyes locked onto the wasp spirit who was resting off to the side of us. Its long legs buried deep into the sand, its wings fluttering lightly. I was suddenly drawn towards its very large stinger. She came a bit closer to me and handed me a half filled glass of wine. She tapped her glass against mine before beginning to drink first, I supposed a way to show that it was not poisoned. I took a few sips but then made a bit of a face as it tasted weird, like very bitter juice or something like that. “How do you drink this stuff?”
“As you grow, so will your taste buds and what tastes bitter will suddenly taste sweeter than honey.” She swirled her glass around before setting her own skewer into the first. She brought a small grid like object with us that rested atop the firepit and we were able to put our early morning dinner on top to roast. “Can you answer me something, Unique.”
“Depends on the question.”
“A smart reply.” She took another sip from her wine and asked. “Can you tell me what you and your friends are doing out on a boat?”
“Exploring,” I answered. “The youngest of our group, Sarah wanted to try scuba diving and well it is hard to say no to her sometimes.” Technically that wasn’t a full lie at least.
“Interesting, and did you join in this activity?”
I shook my head before holding up my hand, sending a bit of twisting lightning crackling up my arm from my aura. “Kinda hard to swim when your jepei has lightning in it. I can control it but if I get scared or worried it might hurt my friends.” I rotated my kabob on the fire before asking her. “Why are you up so early?”
“Well,” she began as she hummed for a moment. “I had originally planned to stay inside, however my partner has come to the conclusion that it is time we leave. We have gotten all that we can get and it is time to go home.” I had feeling what she meant by that, the stone slab that she had taken in broad daylight. She didn’t even seem worry that she had been caught on camera, a confidence was on her that I only wished I had. “I than remember my promise to go and have lunch with an interest little.” She paused for a moment and smiled fondly at me. “I should say, a interesting young lady, you are not a little girl anymore.”
“What makes me so interesting?” I asked. “You are probably more interested in my animal spirit than in me.”
“While your spirit animal, the uncrowned queen of the skies as some might call her, is very interesting to me. I am more interested in the owner of that psirit animal than the spirit itself.”
“Why are you interested in me?” My hand came to rest on the quipu that was around my neck.
She looked at my movements before waving a hand at me. “Do not worry, I am not after that thing around you neck. It has value that only you could truly understand, that is not my expertise.”
“And what is your expertises?”
She reached out and flipped her own kabob onto it’s side. The wonderful smells starting to fill the air as she seemed to have marinated the steak and shrimp before she came here. “I am known for my knowledge in egyption history. An interest that lead me here to find something kinda special. Something that might be best in the hands of a king rather than the paws of a dog.”
“You mean Lord Blackthorn the 15th?”
She laughed a bit at that. “You can just call him Lord Blackthorn, I don’t understand why people on the island choose to add the 15th to his name.” She looked at fire for a moment, her eyes softening, her lips curling into a lovestuck smile. One that I my mom back home would give my dad. “He is a strong man who can use the information we are gonna find to do amazing deeds. Not just keep it locked away in an underground library for the eyes of those who are more powerful or skilled, or smart for that matter.” I had a feeling she knew why we were really out on our boat. My thoughts were only confirmed as she asked in a very calm and collective voice. “So let me ask you again, Unique Fullmoon, why are you and friends really here? And I would respect you so much more if you told me the truth.” She reached out and then flipped my kabob as I was too stunned to do it myself.
“I can’t tell you.” I said holding my ground. I was ready to summon Fortune just in case she tried to come and attack me. I was ready for a fight but my gut was also telling me to run if it came to that.
She didn’t move, instead she just sighed and looked at me with a disappointed frown. “I see no reason why we cannot work together on this task. I am not your enemy, we share different ideals on who should be in charge of our people, we make our money differently, we do not hide from the world, we just rule it in a different way.” She set her dark violet eyes onto me and then said. “Sisi ni sawa.”
“What does that mean?”
“We are the same, little one. I want no war with you, what you island dwellers want with the tower of babel is for you.” My blood ran cold as she said the name of the tower we were here for. “I would have loved to actually find it but we are leaving this city, so I wish you good luck in your research.”
My mouth felt dry and I could barely speak after what she had just. “A-And you're not gonna hurt me for information?”
“Trust me little one you have said enough already.”
I felt a pout start to cross my lips as I mumbled. “So now I am a little one, I thought I was a young lady in your eyes?”
“You were but you lie like a little girl.” This woman reached out and took off my skewer and handed it to me. “You need to get better at your poker face, no matter how good your half truths are, no one's gonna fall for them if you can’t sell it.”
“What are you after?” I asked as I hesitantly began to eat my kabob, after all I was still kinda hungry. “What is your goal as a member of the dark order, and why did you join them? Why not come to the island?”
She chuckled her dark violet eyes looking into the flames that shared a matching color. “I will answer one of your questions, since you technically asked me three of them.” She took a bit of her own kabob before taking a long sip of wine. “What I am after is knowledge, and knowledge leads to power and power makes us stronger. Because I am tired of our people being so weak, so stupid to the outside world. I am tired of our boys being sent into war because of the power in their blood. I am tired of the girls being assaulted, and raped because some sick fucks in this world think that jepei users are better in bed cause of our animal tendicties.” She looked up at me with a fierceness in her eyes that scared me but also made me feel oddly stronger. “I don’t want what happened to me, and what almost happened to you, to happen to anyone else. I can get that following one person, then I could, hiding on an island and hoarding information. I will follow one man into this war, instead of following five rulers into peace. Cause peace does not set our people free, war will make them respect and fear what they have tried to destroy for years!”
She leaned back and began to swirl her drink around again. I looked down at my own dark silver wine before taking a long sip of it. She had said a lot and I found myself agreeing with most of her points. I ate my kabob in silence. The silence was not uncomfortable as it should have been, it was welcoming just being near this woman was relaxing. “Can I ask you one more question?”
“Depends on the question?” She answered with a smirk exposing a pair of pearly white teeth.
“Why the scars on your animal spirit, why leave them with permanent harm?”
She poured herself another glass of wine and started to fix herself another kabob. “Well, we believe that our spirit animals are weapons, the scars sharpen that weapon and it also helps get rid of a bit of our weakness. Some cover their animal spirits with so many scars that it is sickening. I never had to do that, my own animal spirit is still a weapon but one I am very fond of. I took care of a part of me that I thought was too weak to keep going.”
“It is still terrible.”
“In your opinion, I suppose that is where we differ in our ideals. Because something tells me whether you want to believe it or not. We share more ideals than you think, Sisi Ni Sawa.”
I hated that I couldn’t disprove what she had said.
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“Goodbye, Mi Amor.” I said before hanging up on Daniel as fast as I could. My heart would not stop beating in my chest, my smile grew bigger, as did the warmth in my cheeks and in my chest. I was stunned when Daniel had called me out of nowhere. I was glad to hear his voice and I was even more glad when he accidentally let it slip that he loved me more than a friend. If only he was willing to act on it more. We had spoken for a very long time, my eyes still keeping track of my party as we ventured deeper into the amazon rainforest in search of this last piece of the tower. I needed to be higher to get a better signal. I had learned that my friend was leaving Sparta and heading to Egypt. I was happy to hear that he was doing good with Olive and Xaiver. That he nearly killed a member of the dark order over there as well. They were on a race to get what they before the dark order found it first.
I also was reminded about Daniel’s hatred for the dark order and I wondered if he would hate me if he knew I had had dinner with one of them. It felt like a betrayal in a way, Kiara Kassab was not a bad woman in my eyes, she just had differ ideals and she was doing what she thought would make the world better for our people. However, her side still killed and injured a lot of our people over the years. They funded slave trades across the world, they were the runners of the black market and funded wars that helped them get more territory. Which when I thought of that made it so much harder, to know that I truly did agree with many of her points last night.
I finally flew down towards my friends and landed in front of them. My wings kicked up leaves and dust off this path we were following. Sarah looked at me, her small face forming into a smirk as she pressed her hands together. “Did you have fun talking with your boyfriend?” She lightly teased before exploding into childish giggles.
“Can you still sit after getting your ass beat from Emily?” I countered, making her face turn bright red as she then pouted.
“Enough you two,” we both looked over at Emily who was hiding a laugh behind her hand. She was dressed in tight jeans that hugged her body in all the right places. She was wearing hiking shoes instead of boots like me and Sarah. Her shirt tied back exposing her strong stomach. She was walking beside Dr. Silva who had quickly become a great traveling friend. The older woman in cargo shorts and a brown shirt and vest. Her boots went up to her knees. “Sarah no more teasing about Unique talking to her friend… who is also a boy. And Unique please stop teasing Sarah about our small chat the other night. I did not and I quote, beat her ass. Just gave her.”
Sarah quickly interrupted. “No one gets to talk about that night ever again!” Me and Emily looked at each other before sharing another laugh between the two of us.
We had been hiking since early afternoon, going at a brisk pace as we carried large packs filled with camping gear and other supplies. I was gonna miss taking my daily shower for a while but it was worth it. Sarah had created a map from the paintings in the tower under the sea, and we were gonna follow it to the last place these people had settled. I could only hope that whatever they had made was still there, and judging from the research from Sarah. They had built something using a part of the tower that had been thrown in this direction so long ago.
After about another hour or so of hiking. Dr. Silva held her hand up prompting us to stop as the sun was starting to get a bit more orange as it began its descent from the sky. “We will make camp here.” She said as we reached a pretty good clearing. “We can get the tents up and then we can get a fire roaring once that is done. I can wipe us up something pretty nice for our first meal on the road.”
We all nodded before doing our part in getting our stuff ready to go. As we worked, I couldn’t help but keep looking at Sarah for some reason. Earlier today, Emily had told me privately that according to Olive, there was a woman named Helena Blackthorn who they were racing against to get this knowledge. That knew who Sarah was, she told me that we needed to keep an eye on her and protect her at all times. They were worried that if anyone in the dark order knew who Sarah was they might bring her to Helena again. And I could not live with myself if I let that happen.
However as we woke up that next morning I heard Emily let out a cry one that seemed to echo through the trees, as suddenly I understood what Kiara had meant last night when she told me I had said enough already.
“Sarah, where are you!”
Did I accidentally just get Sarah captured?
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