ONE YEAR LATER
For the first time in her life, her body had gotten stronger in the passing year. Her arms weren’t just limp noodles anymore. There were biceps and triceps and broader shoulders. Her legs didn’t wobble like they used to. Her mind was sharper and her optimism was greater. The road had been paved with many setbacks—bouts of recovery in which she would be bed-ridden for days after a grueling workout, or the occasional wound inflicted by Olivia. It was always an accident, but it still took twice as long to heal than anyone else.
Olivia was the greatest. She didn’t hold back no matter how much Remi pleaded. It was annoying in the moment, but it had reaped great rewards. She was actually forming thoughts about the future now.
Yes, the future.
And not just about surviving from one day to the next either. She envisioned beating the proverbial cancer that riddled her body. She envisioned defending herself against the great armies and dangers outside of her town. She might even be able to grow to independence someday. Or find love. It was a notion she had barely considered while growing up. Reality told her that she would die before she even hit puberty, and then when puberty passed, she knew she wouldn’t reach adulthood. And now that adulthood had arrived, she figured…why not? Why couldn’t she have a normal life?
She could find someone that she could laugh with and grow even further along with. Maybe have kids. Wouldn’t that be something?
Remi smiled to herself as she stood in front of the cracked mirror. She knew what her parents would say—that she should still be careful. That she could relapse at any moment, and though her body had gained a little muscle, it didn’t mean the inside of her was any better. Logically it had gotten worse. Her heart was working harder and her organs were dying every day, but wasn’t everybody’s?
Remi clenched her fists as she raised her head high.
She was beautiful.
She didn’t care who thought otherwise. She was formidable. She was impressive. She was a beast. She was powerful. She was underestimated and all those who thought her weak would learn in time.
They would learn.
Remi sighed and pressed the palm of her hand against her chest, then she reached up and ran her fingers through her hair. Her eyes scanned her from head to toe, taking in who she was and how she was seen. She might make some changes to her hair. Not because she cared what anyone thought or that she was covering something up.
Just to reflect the confidence within her.
She would ask Olivia about it. Again, she appreciated her brutal honesty.
Remi smiled one last time in the mirror, and that’s when she saw an arm rise from the cot in the background. Her eyes widened in alarm as she spun around.
There was someone in the room! But she squashed the fear in an instant, dismissing it like a servant. She thought she had been alone when she walked into the infirmary, but she had been so excited to see how she had changed in the past year that she hadn’t taken in her surroundings.
Whoever it was, they were covered by three thick blankets in the corner of the room. Another arm rose and fell, and then suddenly, the wounded sat up and faced her. She recognized the face instantly.
It was the only Quietus face she knew.
“Uhhhhh,” he said as his eyes darted around the room. She noticed him clenching his right fist tight. He was ready to attack her if she got in his way. But little did he know that he had nothing to worry about.
“I’m not going to say anything,” she snickered, turning back around to face the mirror. Within it, she could see the Quietus raising an eyebrow and looking over his body for wounds or scars. She still kept watch over him, but at least the mood in the room had gotten lighter. She had spoken to him so casually that it had instantly put him at ease, not to mention that it spoke volumes about who he was.
He wasn’t a cold-blooded killer, at least not innately. Her words shouldn’t have taken him off guard so easily, no matter how friendly they sounded. She played with her hair, seeing what it would feel like in a braid or a ponytail while he watched her curiously. She was feeling especially good now. Since she had always been weak physically, she had focused much of her effort on improving her mind. But now that she had gotten a little stronger, she could only imagine what she could do once she combined body and mind.
“Why wouldn’t you say anything?” he asked, and she shrugged her shoulders. She turned to face him as he threw the blankets off of him. He winced at the amount of sweat that came off his body. “Ugh, I’m surprised I can even stand right now. Is all of this from me?”
“They aren’t very good caretakers in this town,” Remi replied. “They threw the blankets on you to keep you warm during the winter, but they didn’t bother taking them off once it got hot. It’s summer now.”
“Summer…how long have I been out?”
“A little over a year,” she said. “We’ve been waiting for you to wake up for a while.”
“We?” he scoffed, cautiously swinging his legs over the side of the cot. He groaned at the ache. “Good I can heal or I would have died for sure. Did anyone even feed me?”
“Not much.”
“No wonder I’m sore. If my nutrition had been kept up, I wouldn’t be feeling it.”
“You need some help getting on your feet,” she asked, and he looked at her suspiciously.
“Who are you?” he inquired. “And why do you care?”
“I’m Remi,” she said, opting not to extend a hand out for him to shake. Though he seemed innocent enough, she wasn’t stupid. “And I care because you might have something I want.”
“Oh?”
“I want to leave this place. For good. Before you came, my friend and I said we were preparing to leave in a year’s time, but since you’ve seen more of the outside than I have, we decided to give it another month or two and see if you would wake up. You might be able to steer us in the right direction.”
“I’m Kace,” he said, with no expression on his face. She blinked.
“That’s a weird name.”
“And Remi is a boy’s name.”
“Not always.”
“Never met a girl named Remi.”
“That’s a lie. You’ve never met anyone named Remi, and besides, it’s not my fault that my parents wanted a boy.”
“I don’t know why you’re talking to me like this,” he laughed to himself. “I could be your enemy, you know.”
“I’m aware.”
“And you’re not afraid?”
“Should I be?”
“You should,” he said darkly as he planted his feet on the ground. She smiled.
“You’re the one that got knocked out so hard you were asleep for a year.”
He brought his hand to his mouth and laughed. “You got me there.”
“So can we talk about the outside?”
“And after you get what you want, what are your intentions? Going to turn me over to your leaders?”
“Nope. You’re free to go once I’ve gotten what I want. But we can’t talk here.”
“Wouldn’t it be worse if your people find out that I disappeared somewhere?”
“Not really. They would assume you left town so they would start looking elsewhere. They love going out for raids anyways so it’s like getting two tasks done at once.”
“Lead the way,” he said and she began walking to the door. He followed behind her slowly but she was watching him the best she could out of the corner of the eye. Now his friendliness was beginning to bother her. He couldn’t be that easy-going. Of course, the raid group had knocked him out, and they were terrible so…she wasn’t sure how to feel about him.
“We’re going to the roof,” she said, taking him behind the infirmary.
“That’s it?”
“Yep,” she replied as he began crouching down behind her. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll meet you up there.”
“Wait,” she pleaded but he had already leapt up into the air. His leap was
so impressive that she stood there gawking like a dummy for half a minute, wondering where he had suddenly got the energy. Wasn’t he weak a few minutes ago?
Remi climbed the back of the infirmary as quick as possible, using the grooves and loose boards to propel her upward. Once she was half-way up, she noticed Kace sitting over the edge, dangling his feet and watching her as she continued. She didn’t like being in a vulnerable position, and so that he wouldn’t get any ideas, she suddenly willed herself to transform.
It sounded like a giant had clapped his hands together. A shockwave of wind and sound thundered from where she was and suddenly she was on top the roof, back in her hooded, white robe. She landed on one knee and then let the robe disappear. Kace remained where he was sitting, leaning back onto his hands with wide eyes as she stood to her feet.
She had gotten her message across.
“What was that?” he asked and she crossed her arms. Transforming didn’t take as much of a toll on her as it used to, but she was still trying to shorten her breath. Her heart was racing so fast that she was sure he could hear it.
“Transformed,” she said matter-of-factly, as if it was a common thing. Kace scratched the side of his face as he looked at her closely.
“Can everyone here do that?”
“What does that matter?”
“What’s wrong? You don’t trust me?”
“Give me a reason to and maybe I will.”
“Hmm,” he said, turning to look over all the roofs of their town. “I don’t have any reasons. And I really don’t care if you trust me or not. I’m thankful you didn’t tell anyone about me waking up, but that’s where my trust in you ends. I think I’ll be going now.”
“Wait,” Remi pleaded, breaking the façade of bravery that she had built up. “Why did you wait for me on top of the roof if you’re just going to leave?”
“You caught my interest,” he said, flashing her a smile. She smiled a little herself.
“And I assume I’ve now lost it?”
“No, just that I have better things to do than play games. If I’m smart, I’ll take off and put as much distance between me and this town as I can.”
“But I haven’t gotten any information out of you yet. I’m allowing you to escape so you could at least give me that.”
“What do you want to know?”
“We can’t get it all out now. Why don’t you stay here a couple more days in one of the abandoned houses near the entrance? The raid group should be out of town for a few more days. You could get a little more time to heal and feel more like yourself.”
“I feel fine now,” he said, thumping his chest. “The Quietus can heal fast.”
“What is a Quietus anyways?”
“You’ve never heard of one.”
“No.”
“They’re a warrior race, made up of…are you serious about leaving this place?”
“I am. Whether I went with you or not, I’m leaving.”
“You don’t even know me. Why would you go with me?”
“I have to make friends somehow,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I can’t be afraid to open up out there.”
“You should be very afraid,” he said ominously. “There’s a lot of good people out there, but I would say that most are deceptive. With the whole Paragon and Cimmerian war looming, everyone is looking at each other suspiciously, wondering who’s on who’s side and where the spies are hidden. Plus, you make one wrong move, and you’ll be killed, and we all know what happens after that.”
“I don’t fear death,” she said and he glanced at her in surprise.
“But you will cease to exist afterwards. There’s nothing left to look forward to.”
“In a way, I feel like ceasing to exist is better than the alternative. Say I had died before the worlds collided and I ended up in Cimmerian against my will, I would have rather not felt anything.”
“That’s not how it works though. In the past when someone died, their soul would gravitate to what their personality is most like and where they would strive most. It was about survival not punishment. Those who went to Paragon desired peace and relaxation. Those who went to Cimmerian desired conquest and battle. Neither could be seen as being pure or evil if you think about it. It was merely about what they would prefer. If you think about it, for those who went to Cimmerian…it was kind of like their Paradise. The problem now is that all the worlds are connected and those from Cimmerian can go into Paragon and vice versa. That’s the problem. Everyone’s so scared that they’re not even thinking of peace. It’s like three major continents being next to each other, all with different views on how to live and what to believe in.”
“Who do you belong to?”
“My people live on Terra on the edge of Cimmerian. My people like to hunt for sport so we often go into Cimmerian to test the extent of our strength. I guess it’s similar to what your raid group does. I was out stalking my dinner when your people took me by surprise. They were ruthless.”
“Yeah, they’re not the talkative types.”
“Anything else you want to know?”
“I barely scratched the surface. Why? What’s the hurry?”
“Listen, you seem like a nice girl. But I’ve got to get going. I don’t feel comfortable hanging around here where I can easily be captured. Quietus don’t like being cornered. So if you want to learn more, you’re going to have to just come with me.”
“How can I trust you? What if you’re bringing me into a trap?”
“You’ll have to take that chance.”
“We leave tomorrow,” she said firmly and he scoffed at her demand.
“No, we’re leaving tonight.”
“I have to get some rest before we go, and besides, we have to bring my friend, Olivia. She comes too.”
“Another person?” he laughed. “I don’t even know who this Olivia is.”
“You don’t know me either. Adding one more person won’t make a difference in our travels. More protection if anything. Just stay one night.”
“You must be sheltered if you think I’m just going to stick around.”
“Maybe I am,” she admitted. “And that’s why I need to get out of here. The only things I know about the outside world is what the town talked about. But it’s all oral stories. There’s no history written down in text. There’s no relics, or heirlooms, or markings from old battles. I just have to take their word for it, and based on how they live their lives, I now have to be cautious with what I decide is fact. Even if I die out there while exploring the new world, at least I would have seen more than this dusty ghost town.”
Kace nodded and then turned to face the entrance. “I’ll be right outside the town gate. I’ll give you an hour. Take some time to talk to your friend and then decide what you want to do. If you show up in an hour, then we’ll go together. Otherwise, you’re on your own.”
Before Remi could try to convince him otherwise, he leapt from the roof to the ground below. He started taking off the moment the tips of his toes touched the dirt, and in seconds, he was gone. She sighed and closed her eyes. For all she knew, he was gone for good. But like she said before, how was she going to make friends if she didn’t put a little faith in others? She would trust that he was giving her that hour.
Either way, she was leaving.