Moirai
Chapter 4

I walked back towards Loni’shouse, barely paying any attention to the route my feet were taking me becausemy thoughts were running at light speed. I didn’t know what to think. A loudpart of my mind was screaming that Kasanda and this whole situation was absolutelymental, and that, if by chance what she said was true, I should have nobusiness with it. Me; a person with their own aura, their own magic. The verythought made my head spin with fear and loathing and the possibility of thisall being a dream arose again as my mind fought to rebel.

But there was also a part of mymind that somehow managed to be just as loud, Kasanda’s words repeating overand over in a mantra of persuasion; your destiny…nochoice…

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

I looked up to realise that somehowI had not gotten lost, though I had been paying only the tiniest bit ofattention 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 andturns…yet I made it back. I stepped inside the house in a daze, greeted by Loniand her mother, who was cooking. Her father was out at work.

“What did she tell you?” Loniasked.

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

“Everything.” I murmured, beforegoing into the spare room that had been set up for me. To my relief, she did notfollow and no-one bothered me to come down for dinner.

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

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

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

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

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

Now I literally would be livingone 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 straightback expectantly. Loni was the only one of the three who would truly understandwhy my decision was what it was. “I will go. I must go.”

A great sigh went around thetable, 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 formy own absent mother. At that thought I felt a jolt of panic; would my mumapprove of my decision? Would she ever know of it? Too late for thoughts likethat, 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’rejust going to…let her go? On this journey to somewhere on the other side ofRenenta? Roald, she’s too young for this, not to mention untrained. I thoughtKasanda would have at least let her stay for a year before sending her off.”

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

Amber started in surprise, asthough she had never considered the question, then looked at me with a strangesort 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 monthshere and only an hour passes above. Thus, my point stands.” Her voice wasstrangely hesitant, but I pushed my confusion at it to the back of my mind.

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

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

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

Outrage followed, from Roald aswell as Amber, and the night was left in a confusing mess with Loni demandingthey 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 nightdisappointed and still confused over why I even wanted to do this. I wasn’tchanging my mind, however, whether Loni was allowed to go or not. The nextmorning, sunny and clear-skied, I saw a backpack at the foot of my bed, which Idiscovered contained a dagger, two bottles of water, a map of Renenta and achange of clothes. They must have been Loni’s, but they fit me perfectly, eventhough in the outer-world she was a size smaller. I presumed Kasanda wouldprovide blankets or a tent…and food…on the off chance that we couldn’t replaceanywhere to stay the night.

Another shiver rolled down myspine as I wondered again exactly what I was getting mysDryad in to. I was nostranger to camping or ‘roughing it’, but this would be very different fromgoing on a weekend trip where civilisation was just an hour away.

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

The four of us arrived at thecottage and I stepped forward and knocked. I expected Kasanda to open the door witha grin of relief or joy or to usher us in with excitement. However, when thedoor did open, it was to reveal a more-than-mildly scared Kasanda, lookingbehind 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 allgoing to start.”

“Who?”

“Indina’s spies. She knows of myvision and has had spies in Nerome for years, waiting for you to arrive.” Kasandasuddenly 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, bothat Kasanda’s strange behaviour and the bright way she had greeted them. It wasclear 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 listenedpatiently, though her eyes kept darting to the door as though she expectedIndina hersDryad to burst into the room, before beckoning them further into thehouse, shooing Loni and I away when we attempted to follow.

It was only then that I realisedthere was a sixth person in the room. A young man sat on a chair that was at aright-angle to the fireplace. He was looking at the fire in a sort of daze, hisgaze piercing and deep. I wondered what he could possibly seeing in thosetwisting tongues of flame.

His hair was of a medium lengthand was dark brown or black – I couldn’t tell which because of the firelight – fallingaround his face in an almost deliberately messy way, accenting his pale, almostwashed-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 theintense look in his eyes contradicted. He was clean-shaven and had an olivetone to his skin and I wondered whether that was from exposure to sunlight orplace of birth. There was also a darkness to his eyes; something had happenedto this man, something that left his eyes full of regret. I wondered brieflywhat that could be.

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

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

I was distracted from the youngman by the others approaching again. Both parents looked resigned, as thoughthey’d accepted something that was necessary, but distasteful…like nastymedicine. I felt the thrill return as I realised that somehow, Kasanda hadconvinced them to let Loni go.

Amber sighed. “She’s given us nochoice, Loni. You have to go, seeing as you’re willing. But Kasanda has alsosaid that Mayran, who’ll be accompanying you, can contact her on a regularbasis.”

It took me a moment to realisethat ‘Mayran’ was the man sitting on the chair. He had turned away from thefire now and was looking at Kasanda expectantly, as though waiting forinstruction.

I wondered how he could contact Kasanda,considering that we will be far away from Nerome soon. I saved that question forlater 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 hadgone from his eyes, replaced with an excitement that I was surprised at. Hisvoice was smooth, slightly deep and had a tiny hint of an accent, but it wasn’tstrong enough for me to pick whether it sounded like anything from theouter-world. Kasanda then beckoned us to a table where she had a map of Renentalaid out.

She pointed to the large dotwhich read ‘Nerome’. “From here, you’ll be heading through the centre ofRenenta towards Flowerage, going through Okanto.” She pointed to each of theplaces on the map. Flowerage was in the forest to the south-east, while Okantolay 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 chanceto look at the one that was in the backpack. I figured that it must be similarto one of the countries I knew, but I couldn’t pick where. “Indina dwells here.”

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

“Alnya!” Kasanda said and Isuddenly 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 destructionflashed in my mind – I looked up and murmured, “Sorry.”

She frowned, and that sympatheticlook from the other day was back in her eyes. “No, it is I that should besorry. Believe me, Alnya, if I could prevent you from having to go throughthis, I would.”

I nodded. “I understand.”

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

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

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

As one, we turned towards thedoor.

“Kasanda, we know you’re inthere!”

“And the girl, too!”

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