Moirai

I walked back towards Loni’s house, barely paying any attention to the route my feet were taking me because my thoughts were running at light speed. I didn’t know what to think. A loud part of my mind was screaming that Kasanda and this whole situation was absolutely mental, and that, if by chance what she said was true, I should have no business with it. Me; a person with their own aura, their own magic. The very thought made my head spin with fear and loathing and the possibility of this all being a dream arose again as my mind fought to rebel.

But there was also a part of my mind that somehow managed to be just as loud, Kasanda’s words repeating over and over in a mantra of persuasion; your destiny…no choice…

The words sent shivers down my spine, because of the feeling that accompanied them. It was like my very soul was pulling me back towards Kasanda’s house, urging me to accept this fate. I didn’t understand the feeling – as all logic favoured the voice that told me to get back home – which frightened me even more.

I looked up to realise that somehow I had not gotten lost, though I had been paying only the tiniest bit of attention to where I was going; the sight of Loni’s front door greeted me. Surely I didn’t know the way that well? There were a lot of twists and turns…yet I made it back. I stepped inside the house in a daze, greeted by Loni and her mother, who was cooking. Her father was out at work.

“What did she tell you?” Loni asked.

I didn’t want questions, or advice, or discussions. I just wanted to go back to the room that I had been given and go over my meeting with Kasanda again, for I had a very important and serious decision to make.

“Everything.” I murmured, before going into the spare room that had been set up for me. To my relief, she did not follow and no-one bothered me to come down for dinner.

As a result of spending most of that night thinking and worrying, I woke up far later than usual. My mind just couldn’t pull itself away from Kasanda’s words. I mulled them over in my brain throughout the next day, even while I told Loni and her parents as much as I felt was necessary. Half the time I would be developing more and more reasons as to why I must just forget about it and go back home. The other half the time…I would be trying to come up with an argument as to why I should go to Kasanda’s house in two days…and I didn’t know why.

“Alright, Alnya, Kasanda will be expecting you tomorrow. Have you made your decision?” Loni’s father asked me on the third night since my visit to the Dryad’s cottage. Loni must have informed her parents of the food that was eaten by people in the outer world, as tonight’s meal was a fairly average roast. I was glad, as I didn’t need strange medieval food added to my list of concerns.

I froze in the act of taking a sip of my drink. What would I tell them? I hadn’t decided.

Or had I? Surely the very fact that I was hesitant meant that I didn’t definitely want to go home. The very fact that there was doubt had to be telling me something.

In that moment I knew. As unbelievable as it was, I did want to go to Kasanda’s the following day. That revelation kept me silent for almost a minute as a strange excitement and nervousness flowed through me from my toes to my head, and I quite seriously questioned my sanity. But then I realised something else; Kasanda wasn’t stupid, she wouldn’t send a seventeen year old on some quest without any training. Maybe this mystery third companion would be the one to teach me what I needed to know. I contented myself with focussing only on the journey, refusing to think about the end.

Now I literally would be living one of the stories I loved so much.

“I have.” I answered quietly, looking around at Loni, her mother and her father, all of whom stared straight back expectantly. Loni was the only one of the three who would truly understand why my decision was what it was. “I will go. I must go.”

A great sigh went around the table, though of relief or anticipation I couldn’t tell. Amber, Loni’s mother, was staring at me with concern, and I got the sense that she was filling in for my own absent mother. At that thought I felt a jolt of panic; would my mum approve of my decision? Would she ever know of it? Too late for thoughts like that, now.

“Well, that’s that, then.” Roald, Loni’s father, said abruptly. “I wish you the best of luck, Alnya.”

Amber started. “What? You…you’re just going to…let her go? On this journey to somewhere on the other side of Renenta? Roald, she’s too young for this, not to mention untrained. I thought Kasanda would have at least let her stay for a year before sending her off.”

I frowned, deciding to voice my concerns. “A year? What about my family in the outer-world? They’ll be worrying about me for however long this takes, but a year?”

Amber started in surprise, as though she had never considered the question, then looked at me with a strange sort of anxiety. “Well…t-time freezes in the outer-world while you are here, Alnya. Well, not freezes exactly but moves very slowly. You could spend months here and only an hour passes above. Thus, my point stands.” Her voice was strangely hesitant, but I pushed my confusion at it to the back of my mind.

“Look, Kasanda’s got someone else coming with us, who I think is going train me as we travel.” I said, but this comment only seemed to make Amber more exasperated.

“’Else’?” she gasped. “Who is already going with you?”

This was the part I was worried about. “Well…Loni is. Kasanda herself said so.”

Outrage followed, from Roald as well as Amber, and the night was left in a confusing mess with Loni demanding they at least speak to Kasanda the following morning. She wanted to come. Despite everything else, she was still the Loni I knew; timid most of the time, yet when she needed to be she was as brave as anyone else, and braver than some.

I went to sleep that night disappointed and still confused over why I even wanted to do this. I wasn’t changing my mind, however, whether Loni was allowed to go or not. The next morning, sunny and clear-skied, I saw a backpack at the foot of my bed, which I discovered contained a dagger, two bottles of water, a map of Renenta and a change of clothes. They must have been Loni’s, but they fit me perfectly, even though in the outer-world she was a size smaller. I presumed Kasanda would provide blankets or a tent…and food…on the off chance that we couldn’t find anywhere to stay the night.

Another shiver rolled down my spine as I wondered again exactly what I was getting mysDryad in to. I was no stranger to camping or ‘roughing it’, but this would be very different from going on a weekend trip where civilisation was just an hour away.

The atmosphere in the kitchen was tense. Amber’s mouth was a thin hard line, while Roald instantly informed me that he had gotten the morning off work in order to accompany us. Loni sulked in a chair, throwing her parents annoyed looks and only smiling at me. We left as soon as the last crumb had been eaten.

The four of us arrived at the cottage and I stepped forward and knocked. I expected Kasanda to open the door with a grin of relief or joy or to usher us in with excitement. However, when the door did open, it was to reveal a more-than-mildly scared Kasanda, looking behind us nervously, before beckoning us inside.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her, noticing the stark difference.

“They’ve discovered.” She said, her eyes wide with anxiety. “They know that I’ve told you and that it’s all going to start.”

“Who?”

“Indina’s spies. She knows of my vision and has had spies in Nerome for years, waiting for you to arrive.” Kasanda suddenly seemed to realise my entourage. “Oh, where are my manners? Hello, Loni. And Amber, Roald! How nice of you to come and see them off.”

Both parents looked stunned, both at Kasanda’s strange behaviour and the bright way she had greeted them. It was clear that they did not know her very well at all.

As soon as they were in the door, Amber and Roald began protesting Loni’s part in the trip. Kasanda listened patiently, though her eyes kept darting to the door as though she expected Indina hersDryad to burst into the room, before beckoning them further into the house, shooing Loni and I away when we attempted to follow.

It was only then that I realised there was a sixth person in the room. A young man sat on a chair that was at a right-angle to the fireplace. He was looking at the fire in a sort of daze, his gaze piercing and deep. I wondered what he could possibly seeing in those twisting tongues of flame.

His hair was of a medium length and was dark brown or black – I couldn’t tell which because of the firelight – falling around his face in an almost deliberately messy way, accenting his pale, almost washed-out blue eyes. His features weren’t angled like Kasanda’s, but softer; it gave him the allusion of being child-like and innocent, something which the intense look in his eyes contradicted. He was clean-shaven and had an olive tone to his skin and I wondered whether that was from exposure to sunlight or place of birth. There was also a darkness to his eyes; something had happened to this man, something that left his eyes full of regret. I wondered briefly what that could be.

He wore a long dark brown coat over the rest of his clothes, which I could tell were chosen to be suitable for travelling, and the coat added to the air of mystery surrounding him.

For some strange reason, my heart seemed to shiver in my chest when our eyes met. His cloudy orbs glazed over me to Loni and then back to the fire, but I felt as though they paused on mine a second longer than Loni’s.

I was distracted from the young man by the others approaching again. Both parents looked resigned, as though they’d accepted something that was necessary, but distasteful…like nasty medicine. I felt the thrill return as I realised that somehow, Kasanda had convinced them to let Loni go.

Amber sighed. “She’s given us no choice, Loni. You have to go, seeing as you’re willing. But Kasanda has also said that Mayran, who’ll be accompanying you, can contact her on a regular basis.”

It took me a moment to realise that ‘Mayran’ was the man sitting on the chair. He had turned away from the fire now and was looking at Kasanda expectantly, as though waiting for instruction.

I wondered how he could contact Kasanda, considering that we will be far away from Nerome soon. I saved that question for later as Kasanda introduced the rest of us.

“Nice to meet you.” Mayran said, nodding and smiling in turn to Loni, her parents and I. The haunted look had gone from his eyes, replaced with an excitement that I was surprised at. His voice was smooth, slightly deep and had a tiny hint of an accent, but it wasn’t strong enough for me to pick whether it sounded like anything from the outer-world. Kasanda then beckoned us to a table where she had a map of Renenta laid out.

She pointed to the large dot which read ‘Nerome’. “From here, you’ll be heading through the centre of Renenta towards Flowerage, going through Okanto.” She pointed to each of the places on the map. Flowerage was in the forest to the south-east, while Okanto lay nearly in the direct centre of the map. The map seemed curiously familiar, although it was the first time I’d been shown one, as I hadn’t yet had a chance to look at the one that was in the backpack. I figured that it must be similar to one of the countries I knew, but I couldn’t pick where. “Indina dwells here.”

I looked at where her finger indicated now, nearly as far away from Nerome as the map showed in the bottom right corner of Renenta. A tiny picture of a castle marked the place instead of a dot, right on the edge of the forest. There was no name and the nearest reference point was the tiny town of Druge, which had a note next to it: Abandoned. Abandoned why?

“Alnya!” Kasanda said and I suddenly realised she had been saying my name several times.

Dragging myself out of my thoughts – which had been taking a dark turn as unbidden scenes of ruin and destruction flashed in my mind – I looked up and murmured, “Sorry.”

She frowned, and that sympathetic look from the other day was back in her eyes. “No, it is I that should be sorry. Believe me, Alnya, if I could prevent you from having to go through this, I would.”

I nodded. “I understand.”

“Why do we have to go to Flowerage?” Loni asked.

“Good question.” Kasanda smiled. “There are some among the Dryads I would like you to meet who will help you to do what you have to. If all goes well, I will meet you there. Mayran can let me know when you arrive.”

I wanted to ask how, but suddenly a loud banging echoed in the room. It echoed in the instantly quiet room.

As one, we turned towards the door.

“Kasanda, we know you’re in there!”

“And the girl, too!”

The two voices were deep and rough and sounded, somehow, not quite human.