Mwyr - Chapter One

[lady_mab]

Chapter One - 

Chan struggled for air -- lungs starved to the point of bursting. He urged his horse on faster, faster, c’mon we’re almost home girl. Almost home. His fingers cramped around the worn leather reins. 

He leaned forward in the saddle, wind-chapped lips turning the phrase into a mantra Almost home. Almost home. 

Wings beat the air, a barely audible pulse under the mare’s hooves thundering over hard packed earth. Ancient magic rode heavy on the wind as it whipped past. It left a strange metallic taste on his tongue whenever he sucked in a breath. 

The branches of a tree grew closer by the second. The old limbs twisted toward the sky, covered in thick, dark leaves. Clouds, heavy with the threat of more rain, blocked the three moons and the stars from sight. 

He was close. He was so close. 

A lone figure came into view as he blinked to keep his vision focused. It remained frightfully still as he raced closer. Brown hair and pale skin -- a flash of color when everything else was a dampened grey. 

A woman, several years younger than himself, stood at the edge of the road. The protection from the tree didn’t extend that far. Her dark hair sported tiny drops of rain. 

Chan pulled up short, staring down at the top of her head as he struggled to bring his horse under control. She didn’t respond as he sat there, gasping for the few precious seconds it took to finally say, “You need to go.” The faint drizzle plastered his red hair to his forehead. He raked it away with an angry swipe of his hand. “Do you understand me?” 

Then she looked. Then he saw the flash of dark blue, cold and lost and confused. The droplets on her cheeks could have been tears. 

It was her face, though, that knocked the air right back out of his lungs. “Tallah?” The name escaped his mouth before he could even think to hold it back. 

Her eyes came into focus. Every single muscle in her body tensed -- coiling in on itself as she retreated a step. “Who are you?” 

And what had he been expecting? For her to smile and cry and say I’ve missed you I’ve missed you so much? He wasn’t an idiot. 

His horse whinnied and pawed at the ground. Her huffs of breath created bursts of fog as her head tossed from side to side. Chan’s grip tightened and the cramps returned to his fingers. 

He could taste the magic before he heard the wings. The air currents shifted, blowing straight into his eyes. They had mere seconds at most. Not enough to get away. “Can you defend yourself?” 

“What?” 

He leaned over and tugged a thin sword from the sheath attached to the saddle. It had been his younger sister’s before she died. After a moment’s hesitation, he offered her the hilt. “Stay out of the way.” 

“I can use a sword,” she said, more to herself -- an attempt to explain away the look of confusion she wore. Her hands jerked up, stiff and awkward. Like she hadn’t moved for a long time. He tried to ignore the twist of unease in his chest as her fingers curled to fit perfectly around the metal. 

A cry ripped the silent evening to shreds. Chan yanked his battered sword from his saddle and struggled to keep his horse under control. “It’s caught up.” 

“Who?” 

“I don’t know.” Which wasn’t entirely true, but it was the best he could understand. “Someone I thought I knew.” 

Her brow furrowed. When she took a breath to speak, her shoulders hitched with a hiccup. So she had been crying. “Like you thought you knew me?” 

The words of a response sat heavy on his tongue. But when he looked into her face, he saw someone else staring back out through familiar eyes. “No.” 

The inhuman cry came again. His horse bucked in surprise, and he fought to hold on. 

She stumbled away from the hooves, feet moving with uncoordinated skill. “What was that?” 

“Something that isn’t supposed to exist. Now get back!” He dismounted, yanking the reins to bring the mare to heed. 

Her eyes flickered over his shoulder, back down the path he had come. A bank of low-hanging clouds hid the distant mountains, dark with all the rain. 

He closed his eyes and made an effort to calm his breathing. Maybe he was imagining things after all. A day fraught with emotion and memories better left buried -- it would be no wonder if he made up the hum of magic in the air. 

But even as he tried to convince himself, he could still taste the metallic tang heavy on his tongue. It was here.

The young woman yelped in fear, the sound strangled against a closing throat. His sword hand moved before he even opened his eyes. 

The reptilian creature stood as tall as a man with a wingspan to match. Its entire body was covered in scales, and a flat, lizard-like face. It gave gave a mighty beat of its wings to take them out of reach. One muscular arm pulled against her neck. A clawed hand yanked her hair, drawing another strangled cry, and it pressed a talon to the curve of her throat. “Not another step.” Its voice growled from deep within its chest. 

Chan froze, struggling against his horse and his own lungs refusing to work. “Let her go.” 

“I can’t do that. Master Loki has been wanting to get his hands on the Goddess for some time. Didn’t expect her to be so late.” The common language rolled thick and awkward from reptilian lips. 

He bit back the growl in anger when he realized that the creature made a similar sound. “Where is he?” 

A pinpoint of pressure ticked against his spine. He knew without having to look that it was the tip of a sword. “Right behind you. Never a good idea to turn your back when you’re on the run.” 

Chan dug in his heels and pivoted in the mud, bringing his sword around in a wide arc. “You’ve got the hired help to call you Master now?”  

Loki stood his ground and deflected the attack with a casual flick of his wrist. He was just as tall and lean as he had been two years ago, though he possessed more sharp angles than before. His skin could have been bone-white in the growing darkness. “Were you off paying your respects? Guilty conscious on this auspicious date?” 

This time, he couldn’t hold in the growl and lunged at the figure. 

His form dissolved into shadows, leaving behind a twinge of laughter. “Have you forgotten already? I always have been better at tag than you, brother.” 

“You have no right to call me that,” Chan shouted, whirling about to try and pinpoint the voice. “And this girl has nothing to do with this. Let her go.” 

“Nothing?” Loki appeared at her side and circled the beast that gripped her. “You are lying to yourself if you think she has nothing to do with any of this.” 

She struggled against the grip, but it only pulled tighter. A strangled sound escaped her lips as a thin hand reached for her face. 

He caught her jaw before she could jerk away, forcing her head in Chan’s direction. “Don’t you think she looks just like Tallah? Our darling little sister?” He released her face with more force than necessary. 

Before he could get the chance to protest, to say no, she’s not, don’t say that, the young woman’s grip shifted on the hilt. 

She flipped the blade toward the earth and stabbed it down on the creature’s scaled foot. In that moment’s distraction, she forced it back against the tree and wriggled free. 

Loki turned to find her advancing on him with sword raised and anger in her eyes. He deflected her aggressive lunge with the flat of his blade. “Well done, Lady! The Goddess needs a bit of a bite.” 

“I’m not your Goddess,” she snarled. 

“Not yet, no. But you have been, and you will be.” Loki held up a hand, halting the beast as it approached. “I look forward to my part in your progress.” 

Her cry of rage that rent the air was laced with the same power that came with each beat of the monster’s wings. Light flashed in the young woman’s eyes and she jabbed the sword in his direction. 

His image folded in on itself. The tip of her blade passed harmlessly through the cluster of shadows that he used to be. “I’ll keep an eye on you, Goddess.” 

“Bastard!” She stumbled a pace, the energy that had kept her going no longer there. She used the sword for balance. 

From behind, the scaled monster reached a clawed hand for her. 

Chan sprung to action, throwing himself in the way with his sword. The eyes that met his were eerily human. 

It hesitated, then shot several feet into the sky with a mighty pump of its wings. It passed into the darkness over the mountains in a handful of seconds. 

He wavered in his spot, sucking in gulps of air. It tasted cleaner without the magic staining it. He made several attempts to slide the sword into its scabbard before he realized it wasn’t on his belt. 

Chan used his free hand to shove his hair back away from his head. The drizzle hadn’t let up. He turned to find the young woman crouched on the ground. 

She held her head in her hands, shoulders heaving with labored breaths. “What the hell is going on?” It took several long seconds before she looked up at him. 

Unsure of what to do, he knelt down alongside her. This close, he realized that her skin was ashen. The smattering of freckles across her face stood out like dark stars. “I wish I knew what to tell you.” 

“Where am I?” 

“We’re about ten miles outside Wellfox... On the southern border of Erimed.” Her look of confusion didn’t clear any despite his attempt to clarify. “Northern kingdom of Stoam...?” 

A strange expression pulled the corners of her face. “You’re just saying words and I can’t figure out what you’re trying to tell me.” Her dark eyelashes fluttered over her cheeks, and she sagged with a gasp. 

Chan held her up with a hand on her shoulder, the second one going to her forehead. “You’re burning up.” 

“Surprised this rain isn’t putting me out.” 

He opened his mouth, snapped it shut, then let it drop open again. Her eyes hadn’t opened, and her breathing became uneven. Of all the people to find. “Can you stand?” 

She hesitated, muscles tensing. “No.” Even that sounded like an effort to force out. 

“Pardon me, then, Lady.” Ignoring the swords, Chan maneuvered one of her arms around his neck and scooped her up into his arms. 

“Arika,” she said, though her voice was distant and fading fast. “M’name is... Arika.”

Name? The Goddess wasn’t supposed to have a name. Still, not wanting to be rude, he replied with, “I’m Chan.” He clicked his tongue and whistled to get the horse’s attention. 

The mare trotted back, eyes still wide and wary. 

“We have to hurry,” he said to no one in particular. With as much care as he could manage, he eased the young woman into the saddle. “You have to hold yourself up right, or lean against her neck.” 

By sheer force of will, she kept her back straight even though her chin remained tucked against her chest. 

Swords fetched and returned, he swung himself back into the saddle as well. It would take almost three hours to walk the horse back to his farm, and they couldn’t afford that. Not right now. 

One hand taking the reins, the other awkwardly holding her in place, he nudged the horse in the sides. 

He’d figure out what to do later. 

#

Sera paced around the kitchen, smacking a wooden spoon against the flat of his palm. It wasn’t his kitchen, but he knew the flagstones under his feet almost by heart. 

This was the first time he was in the farmhouse by himself. 

The rain had picked up within the last half hour. He lit the lamps on the porch and by the stables earlier. Now, he had a hard time making out the weak flickering light in the inky darkness. 

Down the hall, a large black dog stood at attention with his nose pressed to the front door. He had been there since Sera came back inside. 

Nothing could be heard over the pouring rain, but the dog picked a sound and started to bark. 

Sera jumped, then flung the spoon in the direction of the counter and rushed to the front door. He barely had the chance to pull it open before the dog weaseled his way outside and bounded down the porch steps. 

“Shit,” he hissed, following after. “Luka! Luka, get back here.” 

A horse whinnied, and the jangling tack reached his ears a beat later. 

He yanked one of the lanterns down from by the door and stepped to the edge of the porch, squinting into the rain. “Chan? Is that you?” 

“Sera, give me a hand.” The man’s deep voice rumbled beneath the splattering drops, but it was enough to hear the urgency. 

He plunged into the darkness, feet stumbling over the familiar path toward Chan’s voice. The light sputtered in the rain, but held steady. “Where have you been?” 

“I got held up, sorry.” Finally, the horse came into view. Chan was still astride, and in his arms was an unconscious girl. 

“Is that--” Sera’s stomach dropped, and his jaw followed an instant later. “What the actual--” 

“It’s not what you think--” 

“Did you go and fucking dig up her body?” 

“Goddess, no. It’s not Tallah.” 

This time, his stomach launched itself upwards. He choked on the sudden block in his throat. “Stop. I’m not going to listen to this right now. Pass her down.” 

She groaned as Chan shifted her. Through a combination of swearing and ‘careful, careful!’, he transferred her into Sera’s arms. 

He didn’t give himself the chance to study her face, afraid of what he would see. He took a few steps away before his feet turned to lead. “Where... is she going to stay?” 

“Tallah’s room.” Chan had dismounted and snatched the lantern from Sera’s frozen fingers. The light swung wildly between the three of them. For a moment, he saw Chan’s haggard expression in the glow. “Go. You need to get her inside. She has a fever.” 

Struggling under the sudden weight of the words more than her body, he hurried back to the house. The single pinprick lantern on the porch beckoned him closer, more like a will o the wisp than a comfort. 

His feet started to drag as they hit the first wooden step. It was like repeating the events of two years ago in reverse. Carrying her out of the house instead of in. Not a sound coming from her lips, instead of-- Was she saying something?

He bent his head closer. Words in a thick, unidentifiable accent spilled out of her mouth in an endless stream. And when he breathed in, he could taste magic. 

Sera jerked back, almost lost his grip on her, and surged on. Despite the determination to get out of her presence, to put the distance of the house -- the entire town, even -- between them, his feet weren’t fast enough. He waded through a mire to reach the room that remained closed. 

A part of him wondered if the door was locked. Or if they should use his guest room versus Tallah’s. But his fingers wrapped around the brass knob all the same. Still worn and familiar despite the two years it had been since he pulled the door closed. It eased open when he pushed. 

A breath of stale air rushed to meet him. It was warm, untouched. The bed was still made in light summer bedclothes. 

He tried to ignore how much he shook as he laid her out on top of the blankets. 

She wore strange, thick trousers made of some kind of blue canvas, and a dark navy sweater. An embroidered insignia in white and red rested over her heart. Her flat-soled boots laced up, making them easy to remove. 

Unsure of what else to do, he eased her under the blankets, and pulled out an extra quilt. The other drawers held dry clothes, but they would worry about that when she woke up. For now, it was important to get her warm. 

He heard heavy footfalls climb the stairs of the porch. Chan’s deep voice rumbled through the halls as he spoke to Luka. 

Sera backed out of the room, not once looking at her face. He closed the door as softly as he could, and took a steadying breath. 

Then he let the anger boil over. Not giving a moment to consider how soaked he was, he stormed down the hall and back into the kitchen. 

Chan was attempting to dry his hair off with a towel. He ducked his head as soon as Sera entered, obscuring his face with the light blue linen. 

Sera stoked the fire and swung the kettle back into the hearth. His hands still shook, and not from the cold. He felt her weight in his arms, though he couldn’t be too sure if he was remembering it from two years or two minutes ago. 

“How... is she?” 

“Nope. I am not having this conversation with you right now.” 

“Sera--” 

“You’re insane.”

“I don’t want to hear that coming from you.” 

Sera scoffed, pinching his temples between thumb and middle finger. “I can’t believe you thought it would be a good idea to just scoop up a random girl.” 

Chan lowered himself onto one of the wooden benches at the dining table. “She’s not random,” he said, slow and thoughtful. “She’s the Goddess.” 

“The Goddess!” He almost shouted this and had to force his hands to stay still at his sides. “I doubt the Goddess, of all possibilities, would be standing on the side of the road in the rain.” 

No reply came for a long moment. And just as Sera thought his message got across, the sound of a heavy sigh eliminated that line of thought. “You would agree with me if you saw what I saw. Heard what--” 

“What? What did you see? What did you hear?” He gave in to the urge and tossed his hands in the air. “Enlighten me.” 

Chan’s mouth fell open, and then he jerked his head from side to side. “I can’t. Not yet. I’m still -- I don’t really believe what I saw.” 

“You believed it enough to drag her all the way out here.” Sera bit the inside of his cheek and took a breath to steady himself. 

It didn’t work. 

“Sera... it’s her. It’s the Goddess. You saw her face. You know that it’s her.” 

“All I know is that it is a girl that looks like Tallah. I don’t know. Maybe it’s her twin sister.” 

It was Chan’s turn to scoff. “Tallah didn’t have a twin--” 

“Yeah? And how would anyone know that? She was dropped off at the orphanage, same as you. Maybe the Church was wrong this whole time and we just--” 

“Listen to yourself,” he said, his voice sounding as exhausted as Sera felt. “What is more logical? That girl being Tallah’s mysterious twin sister, magically reappearing by the side of the road... Or the Goddess, arriving to walk on Mwyr as the Church predicted--” 

“Two years late and way the fuck off course.” Sera cut a strip of muslin from the bundle on the counter, fiddling with it between his fingers. “How far away from town were you?” 

“About ten miles. She never would have made it. Not in this weather, not how I found her.” 

Sera groaned and scrubbed his face with a hand. “We should alert the Church. They’ve been waiting for the Goddess to arrive for two years. They’ve got preparations to make. She’s got business to attend to. Doling out blessings and whatever else--” He watched Chan, studying his face for some sort of reaction to use as justification. “I’m right and you know it.” 

“I’m right and you know it.” 

They glared at each other from across the kitchen for several silent moments, each willing the other to break the first. The rolling bubbles of the kettle interrupted them, and Sera turned away in a huff. 

He moved through the kitchen with far more noise than necessary. He banged the tin box of tea onto the counter and knocked the spoon about inside. 

“Stop that. You’re doing it on purpose.” Chan could hardly hold himself together. His voice was muted -- out of exhaustion, frustration, or something else altogether. 

“Then let her smite me should I make too much noise for her holy ears.” Sera tied off the ends of the muslin tea bag and dropped it into a ceramic mug. He used the tongs to pull the kettle out of the fire. “Wouldn’t one naturally assume that the sound of life would be music to her soul?”

“I’m sorry, your words of sincerity are lost in your sarcasm. I thought... I thought you looked forward to her walking among us during our lifetime. I thought you respected her.”

Sera used every ounce of self control not to slam the kettle onto the counter -- more out of fear of the scalding water than anything else. His hands twitched as he set it down. His face twisted in a scowl. “I respected her until she elected to take my best friend from me.” 

“Goddess,” Chan swore, running a hand through his hair. Sera immediately choked on the wave of regret that came on the tail end of the single word. “How do you think I feel? She took my little sister from me. I was so prepared to denounce her if she appeared before me wearing Tallah’s face. I thought I would spit at her feet if the Church paraded her around town the day after the funeral. I had no room for pity or faith in my heart. And yet, when I saw her by the side of the road...” 

“You stopped.” 

“I stopped.” 

Sera pressed his palms to the countertops and ducked his head. “I hate this.” 

“I know.” 

His breath caught in his throat. “I don’t want to forgive her.” 

“Neither do I. But we will. Because she’s our Goddess.” 

Sera dragged himself into an upright position. “We should sent a letter to the Church as soon as we can. It’s... probably best if she stays here for the time being.” 

“Alright,” Chan agreed without any sort of emotion. He chased stray crumbs across the tabletop, somehow managing to make his tall, muscular form appear hunched and forlorn.

He fished the teabag from the cup with a spoon and tossed it into the fire. His eyes studied the flames as they hissed and spat. “Where were you today? I came by because I wanted to check on you, but you were gone.” 

Chan squashed a crumb beneath his forefinger. He only looked up when Sera put the mug on the table in front of him. “I was clearing out the shed in the back and found some of our old clothes and toys. I decided to take them up to the city to donate.” 

“To your old orphanage?” 

He hesitated, then nodded. His fingers curled around the mug and pulled it close to his chest. “We never went back after our parents died. So they didn’t know anything.” He laughed, once, and Sera winced at the sound. “They asked me how Tallah and Loki were.” 

Sera’s stomach flipped and he gnawed on his lower lip. Sometimes it was easy to forget that what went on in their tiny little village didn’t fill every corner of the world. Not everyone knew that a girl from Wellfox was going to be the next avatar for the Goddess -- that one of her brothers, someone she had known for years, would go off the deep end at her death. “And? What did you tell them?” 

Chan shrugged and cracked an empty smile. “I lied. I told them that they were fine.” 

Something in his expression told Sera that he wasn’t telling the whole truth. “You’re a terrible liar,” he said, letting the double-meaning remain unspoken. “It must have been all over your face.” 

“Whatever they imagined couldn’t be worse than the truth.” 

He couldn’t disguise his wince in time. 

A heavy groan escaped Chan as he pushed himself to his feet. “I’m going to check on her. I should be there when she wakes up.” 

Again, Sera knew that Chan was keeping something from him. Against any better judgement, he held up a hand to stop him. “I’ll do it. You’re exhausted. A lot happened today. Go get some rest.” 

“But--” 

“No, I’m serious. I’m not nearly as tired.” He hesitated, then forced a smile into place. “I’ll get you if anything happens.” 

Chan’s mouth hung open, brow darkening with the hint of a frown. He wanted to argue, but no words came. Instead, he let his shoulders slump forward. “Thanks.” 

“I’ll see you in the morning.” Sera ducked his head and held in the sigh until he heard Chan’s footsteps fade down the hall. 

He visualized all his frustration leaking out of him with a slow and controlled breath. It didn’t quite help, but at least he could trick himself into thinking it did.