Requiem Run

Katie had been smart enough to clutch to me when we went through the portal, so this time she was able to stay on her feet, though she looked a little green when we got where we were going. Meanwhile, I took a look around, realizing we in a valley between two huge mountains.

“Hey, there’s something on the side of that one!” Rhys said, pointing to a series of wooden platforms on the side of one of the mountains, really high up. Just straining my neck to see what was up there was causing me to be a little nauseous.

“Looks like we’re going to have to get up there.” said Felice, “I hope you guys aren’t afraid of heights.”

Katie glanced at Felice like she wanted to slap her, but Daniel spoke up before anyone else could say anything.

“Where the hell did you come from?” Daniel said, eyes shooting right over to Felice. I realized we hadn’t had the chance to explain anything to him yet, and Felice must have shown herself to him without really thinking.

“Uh, soul-join, she helps Riley fight, she’s good. I think that explains it?” Katie said.

“Eh, close enough.” said Rhys.

“Not really!” said Daniel, “But, look, we don’t have a lot of time for you to explain everything to me. For now, we have to keep moving, the temple might be up there, and we have no idea where the wolf-man will come from.”

“Good point, he’s probably already sniffed us out.” I said, “We should find the way up there, see if we can find that damn temple.”

“Let’s get moving, then.” said Daniel, “Tarron had me join you since I’m more familiar with this region of the island.”

“Cool, we have a guide.” said Katie. Daniel gave that ghost of a smile again, and then we started trekking forward at the base of the mountain, the only sounds besides our squelching in mud was the raging river besides us that was a little too loud for us to talk through.

“Don’t you think Xelsa would be able to sneak up on us?” Felice asked. Somehow, her normal speaking tone was able to be clearly heard over the sound of the river - another thing to add to her ghost powers.

“We should be fine, thanks to the mud!” Daniel shouted, just barely able to be heard over the water rushing, “Xelsa’s gonna have trouble sniffing us out thanks to the smell of the mud.”

“God, I hope so,” said Katie, who I had just realized pulled out the spellbook, a small brown book bound in leather, and was perusing through it, mouthing out words I assumed she didn’t understand, since her brow kept furrowing. Rhys kept glancing over at the book as well, occasionally also furrowing her brows, as if she didn’t really understand the book either.

“Getting anything useful out of that?” I asked.

“Kinda,” said Katie, “When we get a chance, I’d like to try and practice with this stuff. Daniel, did you pack extra mana?”

“Extra what?” Daniel asked, “Oh, you mean Elixir, right? Yes, I packed a few dozen bottles.”

“Good, I’m gonna need some of those when you get the chance,” said Katie, “Hopefully I can get some of these spells down before Xelsa rears his ugly ass.”

Rhys snorted at that. I could swear I even saw a hint of a smile on Daniel’s face. It almost felt like things could be normal, like we were just a bunch of friends going on a hike together, not fighting for our lives.

“Here, the way up is over here.” said Daniel, motioning to a wooden pathway that started up the mountain and twisted out of sight. The height looked downright terrifying.

“You’re not good with heights, are you?” Felice asked me in private.

“Not really, no.” I said, “This is gonna suck.”

“Do you need me to walk you up?” Felice asked, “I could take over and give you a break?”

“I already get nauseous when you take over my body,” I said, “You taking over my body and me up in heights? I’ll be puking all the way to the temple. No thanks.”

Felice chuckled, but she stayed out of my body as we started taking the wooden path up the mountain. I drilled my eyes into the back of Daniel’s head so I wouldn’t look down and freak myself out. Rhys seemed to notice something was up with me, since she stepped forward and took my hand, which did calm me down a little. I shot her a look of thanks, and I swore for a moment she blushed again, though that was probably just wishful thinking on my part.

“Hey, mind if I join the hand-holding party?” Katie asked, “My balance is kinda non-existant. I wish I knew how much it would suck to lose an arm.”

“I gotcha.” I said, taking Katie’s hand and sandwiching myself between her and Rhys. Daniel was still ahead of us, keeping a hand on his sword and constantly looking around, keeping an eye out for danger.

“Hey, check it out!” said Katie. Up ahead was a platform on the side of the mountain with buildings built, a small town jutting out of the mountain.

“This is one of the many abandoned locations on Menap Island,” said Daniel, “We suspect that people lived here a long, long time ago.”

“What happened to them?” I asked.

“Either forced out or killed.” said Daniel.

“If this place hasn’t been maintained in a long time, doesn’t that mean the structures could fall at any moment?” Rhys asked. I paused for a brief second, as though the whole place would come down just because she said that.

“We send people up here on occasion just for that reason,” said Daniel, “The place is kept up and running, at least for now.”

“Well, that’s good at least.” I said. We made our way into one of the buildings on the edge of the platform - an old house from the looks of it.

“We’re going to have to make camp,” said Daniel, “As much as I’d love to find that temple and get this over with as soon as possible, Xelsa’s going to make his move sooner rather than later.”

“We’ll be ready when he does.” I said, “So what do we do in the meantime?”

“I’m fairly certain these buildings have heating,” said Daniel, “Up here in the mountains, it’s going to get cold.”

“I’m already getting chilly.” said Katie, shivering a little as well. I could feel the chilly air on my skin. Rhys didn’t seem bothered by it at all, even giving a cheeky grin at the two of us as we shivered.

Daniel made his way over to one of the buildings - the least shanty one - and opened the door, motioning for the rest of us to follow him inside, which we did. Fortunately, the inside of the building was much warmer than the outside.

“I’ll get a fire going.” said Daniel, walking over to a fireplace on the other side of the room, “Girls, you can get comfy, as much as you can in a dump like this, and we’ll get moving once we’ve gotten our bearings.”

“Gotcha chief,” I said as I made my way over to a couch that was right in front of the fireplace. Rhys and Katie quickly joined me, and Katie pulled out the spellbook.

“I hope you’re not planning on trying to launch fireballs in here!” said Rhys.

“Oh god no!” said Katie, “Last thing I need to do is burn this place to the ground… for now.”

She winked. With Katie, it’s hard to tell when she’s joking or not, so I made a mental note to keep an eye on her.

“Hey, Daniel?” Rhys said, “Mind if I ask you what your story is?”

“My… story?” Daniel echoed as he dumped some logs into the fireplace, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, how did you end up joining Redemption?” Rhys asked, “Also, what did you do beforehand? Were you just another villager that got screwed over by the emperor?”

“Uh, no.” said Daniel, “I came here from a different country, Rasnor, and -”

“Rasnor?!” Rhys suddenly interrupted, “Mama’s from there!”

“I shouldn’t be too surprised,” said Daniel, hinting another smile, “If your ‘Mama’ is who I think she is, then we’ve met before, a long time ago when she was on a temporary leave from the emperor’s services, though I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Well, that sounds like a story.” said Katie, “And we do have some time.”

“Eh, no thank you.” said Daniel, “I don’t really like talking about that time of my life.”

“Aw, come on!” said Katie, “It can’t be that bad, can it?”

“Katie, please.” said Rhys, “Daniel doesn’t have to tell us his life story if he doesn’t want to.”

Katie backed down, and Daniel shot Rhys a look of thanks just before he managed to get the fire started, almost instantly warming up the entire room.

“Xelsa can’t just break into the building, right?” I asked, “Something about not being allowed inside buildings, right?”

“The Runners aren’t allowed in any building that constitutes a sanctuary,” said Daniel, “Of course, they can do whatever it takes to get us out. But they are also forbidden from attacking during certain hours of the night, bar the Run go on for a certain amount of time.”

“Wow, so they can just change the rules on us when they want us to die quicker,” Katie muttered, “That’s so fair, right?”

“I don’t think anything about this thing counts as fair.” I said.

“You’d be right about that,” said Daniel, “The emperor wants you dead, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you die.”

“Why?” I asked, “Why do they want us dead? Is there some kind of endgame to all of this?”

“He probably just gets off to watching us suffer.” said Katie.

“No, there’s more than that.” said Daniel, “A lot more. We aren’t completely sure, but we do know that the emperor does have some kind of endgame for the Requiem Run, but we aren’t sure what it entails.”

“Oh, so there is a point,” said Katie, “Cool.”

“It gets worse,” said Daniel, “The emperor is getting closer to his goal. Our insider told us that he’s been preparing for… something, though they’re not sure what. He also referred to you and Katie as… ‘the final maidens,’ whatever that means.”

“Final maidens?” Katie echoed, “Interesting. So as long as we’re alive, whatever that asshole wants to happen won’t?”

“Correct,” said Daniel, “He’s determined to make sure both of you die.”

“Well, that’s not gonna happen,” I said, “We already took one Runner down, and it’s only a matter of time before the rest fall with them. In the meantime though, we need to keep an eye out. Xelsa still has a couple of hours before he has to play nice for then night. I’m going to patrol outside for a bit.”

“Uh, maybe you shouldn’t go out there alone?” Rhys said, motioning so she could get up if she had to, “I’ll go with you, if you’d like?”

“I’ll be fine alone.” said Daniel, “I have a flute on me, if anything happens, you’ll definitely hear it.”

“Good to know.” I said, “All the same, be safe Daniel.”

“No worries.” said Daniel as he went for the door, and then he was gone.

“So, he seems nice.” said Rhys as she laid back down on the couch and stretched a little.

“Something’s... odd about him,” said Katie, “Like he has seen some shit.”

“I mean, he’s been with this rebellion for a while,” I said, “Maybe he has seen some things. I think he’s got a whole story he doesn’t like to talk about, considering what he said when you asked about it.”

“Good point,” said Katie, “I’ll get it out of him one day.”

“Don’t push him,” said Rhys, “The last thing we need is him freaking out on you when he’s supposed to be protecting us.”

“What do we do for now?” I asked, “Maybe we should get some rest?”

“Sounds like a good idea,” said Rhys, “You two get some shut-eye, and I’ll take over for Daniel when he comes back in.”

“You better be safe.” I said, “I - we, don’t want anything bad happening to you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” said Rhys as she winked at me before I laid my head back so I could close my eyes. Out of the corner of my eye, right before I blanked out, I noticed Katie giving me a knowing smile - again.

I didn’t dream this time. Instead, it was almost liked I blinked. As soon as I opened my eyes again, Rhys was pulling me to my feet and Katie was scanning the pages of Kydro’s spellbook, and Daniel had a sword pulled and aimed at the door.

“Wha… what’s going on?” I asked as Felice took over my body and we pulled our sword.

“We’ve been compromised!” said Daniel, “Xelsa found out where we are, and he’s out there!”

“He is?!” I said, “Hey, why don’t we just fight him and get this over with right now?”

“On a platformed village on the side of a mountain?!” said Daniel, “More likely you’ll just go over the side, and let me tell you, Xelsa will live, and you won’t! We need to find a way…”

Daniel was interrupted by a shaking of the floor. A really, really violent shaking.

“This whole place is gonna come down!” said Katie, “We gotta get the hell out of here!”

“Xelsa’s still out there,” Daniel said, “We’re going to be walking into a trap!”

“And if we stay here, we die!” said Katie, “So let’s go spring a trap!”

Katie made her way to the door with us right behind her. The building collapsed just as Rhys and I made it out the door, followed by some of the platform, taking several of the buildings with it in loud, crumbling fashion.

Xelsa was watching us, leaned against a tree, smiling at us. The four of us took stance, Felice with our sword, Daniel with his sword, Rhys with some magic fireballs at the ready, and Katie hiding behind me.

“Low-key, I was hoping the collapsing building would have saved me the trouble,” said Xelsa as he pushed off the tree and stretched like what he was doing was the easiest thing in the world.

“Well, tough shit puppy, now you’re going down!” said Katie.

“Oh we’ll see about that.” said Xelsa as he bared his claws and teeth, then charged us faster then any man I’d ever seen. To be fair, Xelsa wasn’t technically a man.

Rhys was already on top of things, blocking Xelsa’s attack with a shield spell - at least that was what I thought it was, I still wasn’t too sure how magic worked. Xelsa took a couple steps back, and Rhys took advantage of it, launching some fireballs at the man while he was trying to recover, just like she did with Kydro.

Unfortunately, Xelsa wasn’t Kydro, and he proved that by immediately dodging the magic Rhys tossed his way and snaking up to her, grabbing Rhys by the neck.

“You’re not even a part of this crap,” said Xelsa, “I don’t know why you’re trying to fight me.”

“Get away from her!” I yelled as Felice charged in with our sword. Xelsa slammed Rhys into the floor, and I saw red. Felice’s attack on Xelsa - a simple swipe that wouldn’t cause too much damage normally - was doubled by my own strength with hers. Xelsa yelped, stepped back from Rhys, and looked down at his chest, which was bleeding from my swipe.

“Don’t you ever touch Rhys!” I yelled, “She’s more powerful than any of you assholes combined!”

Xelsa was still looking down at his chest, barely paying attention to me, trying to stop the bleeding with his hands, then giving up on it and looking up at us with murderous intent.

“Then she can die alongside you bitches!” Xelsa roared. Then, much to my shock, he turned and ran, disappearing around a corner, into the trees.

“Come back, you coward!” Katie yelled. Naturally, Xelsa didn’t come back.

“He must be coming up with a plan,” said Daniel, “The fact that he ran tells me he didn’t expect to get injured that badly, that quickly.”

“Next time’s going to be the last time.” I said as Felice sheathed our sword, “I’ll get that gem off if I have to skin his pelt to do it.”

“Riley, relax.” said Rhys as I felt her place a hand on my shoulder, “We won’t let him get away next time, and we’ll get that gem off him.”

I did my best to control my breathing and calm down. I turned to Rhys; her red eye was calming enough to me that I was back down to earth, for lack of a better term, within a couple of seconds.

“Are you good?” Rhys asked.

“I’m fine.” I said, “Don’t like that he got away though. I thought he’d stick around even if he got injured.”

“He probably never expected to get hit,” said Daniel, “Guy’s pretty fast under normal circumstances, from what I’ve seen. He’s underestimating you.”

“Well, that’s his loss.” said Katie, “Hopefully he keeps doing it so it’s easier to bring him down.”

“Don’t count on it.” said Daniel as he put his sword away, “Xelsa’s not an idiot - most of the time. He’ll be prepared next time to attack.”

“And we’ll be ready for him,” I said, “In the meantime, can we get to that temple, so we can deal with Xelsa and cleansing all at once?”

“Sounds good to me,” said Daniel, “Follow me, we’ll head straight to the temple.”

We did so, walking away from the half-destroyed platform of what was once a living area. As we started to turn a corner, I noticed Felice seemed to linger on the fallen building.

“Anything wrong?” I asked.

“Uh… kind of, actually,” Felice said, “I don’t know, I just… there’s this weird feeling I’ve been happening for a while now, like all of this is somehow familiar to me. I don’t know.”

“Try not to worry about it,” I said, “Your memory is probably still coming back to you.”

“… Maybe you’re right.” said Felice.

She sure didn’t sound convinced.