Chapter 17- Reunion
Zanas paced the square shape of her room, restless. She had expected the crazed emotions that she felt to pass quickly, but days went on and still the unease continued. Her blood burned within her and she craved action. Her team members found her waiting for them impatiently each time they began a hunt, and she overfilled her quota on meat. But still the burning raged within her.
Her pacing continued, her bare feet scratching across the glossy stone floor. Her hair was in a loose mess, her eyes wild and dilated. Maleek had been staying clear of her, roaming the deep corridors of the earth.
Zanas was usually the quiet reserved one. Her sister was the bold charismatic one. Nevertheless, something flowed through her veins that made her love the wild craziness of it. Something stirred in her that had remained dormant and quiet for far too long, something yearning to be wild and free, with no reservations.
Finally, she could stand it no longer, she needed to get out. She combed her hands through her hair, letting free the knots that had developed. It still fell in a loose wave, so long in a braid that it naturally curled to the dimensions. Her eyes were still smudged with a dark shadow. Zanas left the door slightly ajar as she left, not knowing when Maleek would return, or how long she would be gone.
Stalking the long corridor of the third floor, she caught glimpses in the rooms of other Pursuers, their belongings coloring the white walls. Zanas passed other wanderers, meeting their eyes for a moment, each so unique and yet exotic in the same way. She was reminded of Maleek’s mother, a sleek huntress who yearned to hunt alone. Pursuers were a solitary bunch when not hunting in their teams. They seemed to gather willingly only for fights and dancing. The glimmering eyes of Pursuers followed her in the hallways, or turned to look at her as she passed by their doors.
Zanas exited the door and walked up the final flight to the fourth floor, the high roof the chamber was covered in Ulwahi. Looking back, she could barely make out the bottom, the entrance to the stone city.
She made it to the final floor, walking to the large door that opened up to the fourth level. The floor was quieter than Zanas had seen it. The hallway, which wound in between the large rooms that lined it on either side, was silent and empty. She passed the fighting hall and noticed a few Pursuers seated, talking quietly among themselves, lines glowing softly in the darkened shadows.
Zanas passed by the waiting room to the course, noticing a group of Pursuers, pulling arrows from their bodies. One of them had a dark red stain where an arrow had pierced his thigh. A female team member grabbed hold of the arrow, pulling it out with a mighty yank. The girl lifted her eyes to Zanas’s, her eyes flashing a brilliant green, as Zanas continued on.
There was a strange pulling on her, as if a rope were attached to her stomach, leading her toward an unknown source. Zanas didn’t question it, just accepted it, and walked on. She came to end of the game rooms; the last one was a high cavern for climbing, and beyond lay the secret entranceway to the above.
But, she was not being led to the above. She was being led to the young Pursuer boy who stood in front of her, disconnecting himself from a rope, his skin was dusty, scratches on his face and shoulders. Zanas came to a stop in front of him and he dropped the rope to the ground, his eyes to her.
“Oh,” he said letting out a small gasp, his face turning pale. He tried to swallow, reminding Zanas of a fish out of water, gulping in a desperate attempt at speech. She gave him no time to recover, instead she grabbed him by the arm and half led, half dragged him out into the hallway. She could hear the whooping jeers from his team; they misunderstood why she wanted him.
“Way to go Jesster!” one of his teammates hollered, laughing.
Out in the dead-end hallway Zanas shoved the boy against the wall, her hand closing on his throat. He stared at her, his eyes aglow with fear. Strength flowed through her, and she felt as though she could crush his throat if she chose to. Squeezing just a little harder, she watched as he began to thrash slightly. The hallway took on a red hue and she heard the purring growl that escaped her lips. Her teeth began to burn as they extended and she lowered her mouth to his throat. She could almost feel his flesh against her lips; taste his blood in her mouth…
“Please… I can take you to your sister,” he gasped out. Zanas felt her hands go slack and her legs began to shake. Dropping to her knees, she closed her eyes, fighting the roar in her ears. She felt the boys hand on her shoulder.
“Are you all right?” he asked tentatively. Zanas felt a surge of fury at his touch and she looked up at him growling. “Wooah...” he said his eyes looking concerned. “ You got it bad, maybe now is not the time to be wandering the halls…”
Her reply was more of a howl than words. “No! You will take me now,” she said slowing her breathing and gathering her control. It took all of her might, but she was able to fight off the aching urge to squeeze the life out of him.
“Okay, okay, I’ll take you,” he said in a slight whisper, darting one last weary look toward the opening of the climbing wall. None of his team had noticed anything amiss. They were still meandering around, checking equipment, and climbing up high on the walls. He sighed slightly, and then turned back towards the main hallway, leading the way at a fast pace.
They said nothing as they walked. Zanas was in no mood to be social and the boy seemed to be at a loss for words. He led her to the long winding staircase, the air becoming cooler as they stepped farther and farther down the stone steps. Jesster led her to the tunnel that she recognized from the first time she had entered the Pursuer hold.
“We can go in through the pledge hall. They don’t really bother with guards, there is no need to. Nobody ever wants to go to the Dreamer hold…” he said with a weary glance at her. “We didn’t hurt her you know… we made her come, but we didn’t hurt her.” He glanced at her again and then cast his eyes down.
She had always known that it had been the Pursuers that had taken her sister. They were the only clan that dealt with the mysterious Dreamers, the only ones that would go topside to capture a valuable prize for them. Zanas was surprised when she felt comfort at his words, although deep down inside, she had already known it to be true, she always knew when her sister was hurt. Once when Zanas had been little, she had fallen to the ground screaming at the pain in her arm. Her mother had been terrified and called their father, only to find out that he was rushing Asenya to the hospital. She had fallen and broken her arm.
They traveled down the dark musky corridor until they came to the final cave that held the pledge entrances. Each one seemed like a gaping open mouth. He chose the tunnel on the far left, which meant the middle tunnel was the entrance to the Alchemist’s hold. She knew very little of their clan, they lived a life of solitude, locked in their stone holds, exploring the mysteries of the body. They hungered for knowledge, she had heard whispers of experiments that were being conducted, but Zanas knew nothing further.
She could tell immediately that this tunnel had a sharp downward slope. The Dreamer hold was deep within the surface. They started to run, Zanas slowing down slightly for the young man. Jesster seemed to have gotten over the majority of his fear, but Zanas could still sense a tension from him. He did not wish to enter the Dreamer hold, especially uninvited.
The tunnel began to narrow, pressing in like a dark cocoon. Steps appeared, seeming to have been formed by the earth itself, twisting and turning in slow lazy curves of rock. The walls were now so close, her shoulders brushed the stone face, a soft scratching of the skin. She imagined what it would be like for a Dreamer pledge, about to be birthed into a magical new world.
They emerged into a huge cavern, the ceiling of the cave glittering brightly with sharp, deadly looking spikes. It was like being inside a giant geode, the bluish hue of the ceiling even resembling one Zanas once held in geology class. She saw a slight movement, a quivering of jagged skewers.
“Best not to linger,” Jesster whispered, giving a fleeting glance towards the roof. They q
uietly walked up the enormous stone steps that lay ahead of them. Huge ornamental pillars were cut out of the rock, high archways looming overhead. The glittering of the blue shards shined down upon the elaborate entrance to the Dreamers.
They walked up to the door that hung on giant hinges, a large handle rested on its side. They grabbed hold of the handle, and with all their strength pulled it open a few inches. The door creaked loudly, the high-pitched sound echoing in the open expanse. Noise from the ceiling drew her eyes, the roof alive with movement. She glanced at Jesster and her feelings seemed echoed in his eyes.
Turning their attention back to the door, they pulled even harder, opening it just wide enough to squeeze through. Jesster moved through the opening, disappearing into the shadows. Zanas paused for just a moment, staring at where Jesster had been, and then she gave one last look at the roof of the cave.
The blue spikes of the cave moved in an undulating fashion, the blue color circling the areas. She watched as one group of spikes detached from the roof and started to fly in lazy circles, a gleaming beak visible. More and more of the spiky winged creatures began to drop from the sky. Her heart began to pound as she thought of how many there must be to cover the roof of the mammoth cave, and then she felt the hand of Jesster pulling her through the door.
Grabbing the handle, she struggled to pull the door closed. A crooning sound had begun in the cavern, streaks of blue light visible in the gap left in the door. Jesster reached out and pulled with her, both of them putting their might into the motion. The door gave one final mighty groan, before settling into its resting place. They stood there for a moment and gathered their breath, the sound of the flying animals echoing through the thick door.
“I thought you said there weren’t any guards…” she said looking at the Jesster, he shrugged and flashed a sheepish grin. The silly boy she had first met returned for a moment, and Zanas momentarily felt bad for the rough way she had treated him.
They were in the inner tunnel of the hold, dark and cold. Zanas was once again thankful for her mutated eyes that allowed her to see the twists and turns, leading to a long cavern. Ulwahi covered the ceiling in the brightest radiance that she had ever seen, illuminating the grand hall of the Dreamers. The room seemed to have been cut from the whitest marble, so clean that Zanas could see her soft reflection in the floor below her. This is what she would imagine the hall of Zeus to look like, elaborate and mystically beautiful.
Their steps echoed as they moved across the smooth floor, a single chair resting at the far end. A face flashed before Zanas’s mind, an old crooked man, his blue eyes milky. He had pretended not to know her when she entered the pledge house. There was no way that he had not; her sister was a part of his hold.
There was movement behind the chair and Zanas expected to see the ancient man slithering across the floor towards them. Instead, she found herself looking at a far younger man. His arrogant eyes stared down at them, traveling over Jesster and then flickering to a stop on her, widening for a moment. His lips pursed, annoyed.
“Wonderful, another one of you,” he said with a perturbed sigh. “What are you doing here, Pursuer?” he asked, adjusting his blood red robe, the fabric of the garment soft and luxurious. She smiled for a moment wondering how her sister, always in black, was responding to the red. The man’s eyes narrowed on her and she met his boldly.
“I am here to see my sister, and I’m not leaving until I do,” Zanas said.
He didn’t answer, but instead seemed to be examining something on the floor by his feet. His silence began to anger her, and she felt her blood grow hot. He moved his eyes from the floor and met hers with a smug smile on his face.
“Temper, temper girl,” he said raising an eyebrow, his eyes cold. “Why don’t you follow me?” he said turning and looking at Jesster. “Go home little boy, least your family misses you.” Zanas watched as Jesster stiffened.
“I am no boy…” Jesster growled. “I am Pursuer, I have no parents that I answer to,” he spat out angrily.
Zanas knew that the arrogant Dreamer knew this already. It was quiet obvious that Jesster was a Pursuer, all anyone had to do was look at him. The anger that Jesster was exhibiting seemed to amuse the man and he smiled, his lips a line across his face. Zanas could feel the tension in the boy’s muscles building and she placed her hand on his shoulder.
“Thank you Jesster for showing me the way. I can find my way back,” The boy said nothing for a moment and only stared at the man, his eyes flashing in anger. Then he turned to Zanas, giving her a slight nod and headed back down the hall. He made his way across the floor, his small shoulders hunched slightly. The Dreamer had hurt the small Pursuer’s pride, and this brought up a burning anger inside her. She turned her eyes on the Dreamer and he looked back at her with a bored expression.
“Well…” he said, turning and walking towards the door that stood behind the throne chair. Zanas followed him, keeping her anger under wraps, which was something she found herself having to do more and more as the day went on. She hoped that her hormones would stabilize soon; it was growing tiresome fending off the rage.
The long hallways of the Dreamer hold reminded her of the Pursuer hold, with one main difference. There were no torches lighting the way in these halls. A stirring moved through the room; it felt almost as though the air was being sucked out. Zanas almost jumped when a pop resounded in the air, and a vibrant blue orb appeared before them, a hovering ball of energy. He made no motion to watch if she trailed him, as he followed the floating ball of blue.
Zanas watched as another orb approached them from further down the hall. As it came closer, Zanas recognized that there was a woman walking behind the light, but unlike no woman that she had ever seen before. Her hair was braided and looped all over her head. The time that it must have taken to arrange this elaborate style shocked Zanas. But that was not what shocked Zanas the most.
Her face was painted in bright vibrant colors. There was a glitter quality about the paint and her face sparkled like a diamond, as the blue orb cast its light upon her. She was dressed in the same red robe as the man, yet hers seemed to float behind her as she walked, an eerie sparkling ghost floating by. She said nothing as she walked by, only passing her icy blue eyes across them. The hallway seemed to darken slightly as the light of her orb left with her.
They passed more sparkling red Dreamers. Not all of them wore the red robes of the man, but red dominated their elaborate wardrobes. The majority of the Dreamers had their faces painted in shimmering designs, including the men. All of them directed a glowing blue orb as they walked down the dark hallways. Zanas wondered for a moment why the man had no such decoration when he stopped at a door, bringing his hand sharply to its surface. There was silence for a moment. Then Zanas heard her, and the musical way that she spoke.
“Come in,” her sister called out.
Zanas turned for a moment and looked at the man. He rolled his eyes, sighing in annoyance and made an impatient gesture for her to open the door, then turned and left, his glowing orb casting its brilliance ahead of him.
... … …
Zanas pushed the large door open. The room was draped with black velvet, resembling the den of a giant spider. She saw the shape of what looked like a bed with high posts, covered in flowing folds of black. Blue orbs floated in multiple places throughout the room, casting eerie shadow webs on the walls. Then Zanas saw her.
Asenya was seated at a chair, her hand holding a brush, sparkling with Dreamer makeup. Her black hair fell loose, straight and silky to the floor. Her eyes, heavily smudged black, were smeared like smudges left across paper. Her lips shimmered in sparkly red, pouting slightly as she looked to see who entered her room. Her eyes no longer the black they had once shared, but instead, the sapphire blue of the Dreamers.
The majority of her sister’s outfit was the same velvet material as her room, a jagged black swath of material jutting here and there across her slim form. Another color splashed
her features, the vibrant red of the Dreamers flowing in the black.
Neither of them said anything for a moment and simply stared at the other. They seemed even less like twins, although Zanas resembled the old Asenya more than the one standing before her. Then her sister was floating across the floor and pulling her into an embrace.
“Zanas!” Asenya sister called out. “What took you so long?” she asked her red lips drawing to a smile. Zanas held her sister close, taking in her words for a moment, and feeling confused.
“What do you mean what took me so long?” Zanas asked pulling away, looking into her sister’s blue eyes. They suited her face, the blue a stark contrast beside her jet-black hair. Zanas caught herself staring at the lipstick that covered her sister’s lips. It sparkled like diamonds, and for a moment her eyes seemed like just two more.
“They told me when I arrived, that it had been foreseen that I would come, and that eventually you would follow,” Asenya said with a shrug of her delicate shoulders. “The elders do a lot of mumbo jumbo like that, poking their noses into the futures of people…”she said with an exaggerated rolling of her eyes. Zanas found herself smiling at the usual sarcastic nature of her sister. She was happy to be back in her presence finally, and to able to hear the sound of Asenya’s soft voice.
“How have you been…”Zanas rushed out. Asenya’s face grew serious; her blue eyes seemed to darken like a cloudy storm.
“At first I was furious,” she began. “because I had been taken against my will. But they explained to me that they had to, in order for you to come as well,” she said her voice getting quiet as she got further and further to the end of her sentence. Asenya looked down, staring at Zanas from the corner of her eye, as if unsure what reaction Zanas would have. “They could never have brought you below by force,” she continued.
“Although they were unsure what house you would pledge. It seems, they could not get a clear reading on that issue,” Asenya said with an amused smile. “Some of the elders saw you choose Dreamer and some of them saw you choosing Pursuer. It was some big drama,” she said rolling her eyes once again. Asenya tossed herself on her bed, so like she use to do, that it made Zanas’s heart ache.
“I told them it was just because they didn’t know my sister, you weren’t deciding what you were going to do until you were ready,” she finished with a big grin. Her smile vanished, and her eyes returned to being serious once more.
“Zanas, I cannot explain the things that I have begun to learn. The things that I am capable of learning. I’m just into training right now, but I know that I can go further than they have ever gone.” Her eyes were flashing now, it seemed as though the clouds had turned to lightening. “I feel as though I am where I was always meant to be…” Asenya finished with a terrified look in her eyes.
Zanas was once again confused at her sister’s reaction; not understanding why Asenya would feel terrified. Then it dawned on her. Asenya was terrified that Zanas would hate her at the statement. Asenya was happy in the life that she was currently in. A life away from her sister.
“They told me I would see you again, Zanas,” Asenya continued, her eyes brimming with tears. “They told me you would be fine, and that whatever you chose it would be your heart’s desire. There is no other way in the pledge house. Some say that it is the Alchemist’s that make it so, but no one really knows.” She paused for a moment, breathing deep. “I have always been different than other people. No one ever understood what I was going through, they all just thought it was some psychological issue. I am finally with people that understand and can teach me… I’m finally where I belong.” Zanas felt sad for a moment, coming to the realization that she understood exactly what Asenya meant. Zanas felt the same way, she was destined to be a Pursuer.