Chapter 21: Invitation
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“H-Holy crap. I can’t believe I did it…”

Avice hadn’t smiled as brightly as she did now in her entire life.

She tapped her feet joyously and eventually sprang into celebratory jumps. Leaping up and down, she pumped her fists into the air, giddily laughing to herself and whispering without stutter ‘I did it. I won. No freaking way’. 

A couple of tears dripped down her cheeks.

Avice nervously wiped them away, her heart quivering from her success. To her, the immense weight bearing down on her heart had lightened up just a little bit. She had managed to kill the physical manifestation of one of her deepest fears. She would’ve continued to quietly celebrate her victory if it weren’t for the pained scream behind her.

Oh crap, she thought.

Avice swiftly turned around, her gaze centering on Dall’s collapsed figure. “That last attack I did might’ve hit him…” She anxiously ran across the clearing. As she approached closer to him, the sight of blood became ever clearer to her. It appeared that something had happened to his abdomen, be it a previous attack or Avice’s, for he had his hand firmly planted against his stomach.

“Gah, dammit,” he muttered. He let it loose, and once Avice got closer, she understood what he was doing. Blood drenched his clothes around the area. The red, thick liquid seeped through, making his shirt wet and sticky. Sweat dripped down his cheeks, and he inhaled through gritted teeth.

“D-Dall, what happened? Are you okay?” Avice asked. He merely shook his head in response. 

Maybe the Spirits can help.

she tore her eyes away from his disgruntled figure, hurriedly looking towards the air around. Avice had seen firsthand what the Green Spirits can do in terms of healing ability, so she was confident that Avice could Pull them to help her out. However, despite her hopes, not a single one could be seen around her.

What the-

She closed her eyes and whispered, “Children and Spirits of Gaea, please lend me your strength.” Avice had confidence that they would appear before her, but to her chagrin, nothing did. Just as before her fight with the Spider, it seemed like no Spirit would listen to her. A fit of deep anger swelled in her stomach and she punched the ground. “Where the hell did they go? Why won’t they listen?”

Dall’s pained groan brought Avice back to attention. She got down on her knees next to him and threw her hands on top of his. He raised his head weakly, his eyes half-open and bloodshot. “What… are you doing…?” he muttered.

“I’m trying to help you. C’mon, Avice, think…” This was a situation her father had beaten into her: stopping someone’s incessant bleeding. Avice grit her teeth as she ran through the steps in her head. “Alright, Mr. Dall, you gotta chill out okay. I have to take your shirt off.”

“You take it off… I bleed to death,” he grumbled.

“Not if I’m fast enough," she said. “Trust me, I can stop the bleeding.”

“That’s good… because I don’t,” he said as he nudged her away with his elbow. “I’ve got this. I don’t need your help.”

“Christ. I’ve done all of this crap to get you better, y’know. I won’t let you die from idiocy.”

Dall scowled. “Better that than-”

“Congratulations, my Dear.”

Achaea, still donning her long, silky robes, appeared before the both of them. Avice smiled at her arrival, while Dall glared at the suspicious ghost in front of him.

“It appears that you can finally use The Pull. I know not what your method is, but I'm proud of you nonetheless. Now, you can count yourself among the ranks of the Aldrian Nobility.”

“Th-Thank you, Achaea.” Avice grinned.  Her smile fell within seconds, however, when she remembered who was next to her. “Hey, so, this guy right here.” She patted his shoulder. “He’s hurt. Badly,” she said. “I’d heal him myself, but I can’t see the Spirits anymore. Do you know what happened?”

“I don’t,” Achaea responded bluntly. “But I believe that’s for the best.”

She put her hand on Dall’s head and closed her eyes. Without even moving her lips or fingers, a faint green glow shimmered around Dall. The cuts and bruises on his skin from the last couple of nights slowly closed and healed themselves up. The exhausted look on his face disappeared as well, and when he lifted his hand from his stomach, he noted that the pain in his stomach had completely stopped. 

“Whoa…” Avice whispered. 

“Indeed. The mysterious, yet powerful powers of Mother Gaea instill amazement in me even to this day,” Achaea said. “But, yes, my dear, healing someone with this amount of damage would have been incredibly difficult for you. Anyone who had just grasped the power of the Spirits could easily smash rocks as you had, but manipulating the energy and force inside a living body? I’m afraid you could have killed him instead.”

Avice gulped. Then Achaea cupped Avice’s cheeks.

“And this is for you.” The same green glow shone around Avice. A strange, yet warm sensation coursed through her veins. It felt like she was taking an extremely comfortable shower, just without the water. All of the pain in her body was gone in an instant. 

“Thank you again, Achaea.”

“No issues whatsoever. I suppose I should be thanking you myself.”

“What do you mean?” Avice asked.

“I mean… that you’ve earned the right to claim your reward.”

“Y-You mean it?” 

“Of course, my dear. Our deal will finally be completed. I will be waiting for you,” she said. “Both of you. Safe travels.” Achaea’s image dissipated, leaving a purple mist where she stood. 

Avice turned her attention back to Dall, who had a wide and wild look in his eyes.

She wants me to bring Dall? But… why?

Avice’s eyebrows curled and she bit her lip. There was next to no reason why Achaea would’ve extended that invitation to him, but when a booming, gut-wrenching roar touched her ears, Avice realized why.

The barrier, the only thing that protected both of them from an external attack, was completely gone. As far as Avice knew, no other place could’ve been safer other than her destination. 

Her fingertips went cold. Avice glanced down. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek and plopped down on the grass. This feeling, she thought. No. Stop. Nothing's wrong. This is important. You have to trust Achaea now.

“What the hell?” Dall blinked and rubbed his eyes. He patted himself up and stood up. He jumped twice and swung his arms side to side. “I’m okay? What?!”

“Chill out Dall.”

“’Chill out’? What just happened? Who was that?!”

“Just calm down and list-”

A chill ran down Avice’s spine. She tilted her head in confusion.

“Huh…?” She couldn’t really put a finger on what she felt herself. Was it fear? Bloodlust? She couldn't tell. But her thoughts were put on hold when a familiar green orb appeared out of nowhere. “Elyu.”

“Milady,” it whispered.

Its voice and the way it floated ticked something off on Avice’s radar. She narrowed her eyes looking at it. Before she could say anything about its different attitude, Elyu said,

“Congratulations on overcoming the beast. I thank you for rescuing my brothers and sisters.” It hovered closer to her. “You Pulled us wonderfully. You have done well."

"Thank you Elyu," Avice said with a wry smile.

"Now, to business.” It floated in between Dall and Avice. “I am to be your guide to Mistress Achaea’s place of residence.”

“’Mistress Achaea’? You’ve got that much respect for her, huh?”

Elyu remained silent.

“Hold on a minute,” Dall interrupted. “What’s going on here?”

Avice locked her eyes with his.

After so many years of practice, she was quite confident in her ability to judge how people were feeling purely in their eyes. But, when she watched Dall, she couldn’t tell what was going on inside of him.

There was confusion, for sure, but anger, sorrow, disappointment, fear, anxiety… all of the tells that she could usually extrapolate from were jumbled together to make a gigantic mess of emotion. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

A strange feeling pushed down on her heart. Just looking at him made Avice feel something she’d never felt before. And after thinking on it for a few moments, she figured it out.

“Dall, I…” she sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Really.” Avice bowed her head so low that her back was parallel with the ground. Mark this two things she never expected to experience in her life: victory, and empathy. “I said some messed up stuff to you, and I’ve just gotta apologize.”

“You… what?” Dall said flabbergasted.

“Ever since we got into this strange forest I’ve had this nagging feeling on my side. It was… terrible. Voices screamed in my ears and I wanted to do things I never would’ve wanted. I felt… dirty. Not to mention I was seeing things, too,” Avice confessed. “And I’m sure you felt it too. So how about it? You feeling any negativity towards me right now?”

“Yes, I am,” he said without hesitation. “You destroyed Fora after all.”

She bit her lip and sighed. I didn’t, first of all, but whatever. “Is it enough to tell me to die?” 

This time, Dall paused. His eyes twitched for a few and he shifted around. Then he shook his head. 

Avice sighed again, “Well that was probably a dumb question considering you could’ve felt that way in the first place.” Then she clapped her hands. “Well, thanks for that, though,” she said with a smile. “It’s good to know that I can leave this world without someone wishing me a brutal death.”

“Stop, stop real quick, please,” Dall said as he lifted up a hand. “I need to get all of this straight. First of all…” he peered at her eyes. “You… why did you lie to me?”

“Which lie?” Avice said nonchalantly.

“Your name. Avice, why did you call yourself Ava?”

She glared at him, the air around them chilling. “How do you know that?”

“Well, you said it yourself. When you were saying all of that ‘messed up stuff’.” Avice stepped back, a surprised look on her face. First, she seemed confused, but then she nodded, remembering the fact that she kind of lost it in front of him. “Why did you fake your name? If ‘Avice’ even is your real name.”

Avice shook her head. “No, no, it is. Sorry.” She sighed. “Back home, everyone knew my name. Apparently, my bullies and teachers would talk to the whole town, and the town would talk to the cities. I honestly don’t know how or why, but my name spread around. Even if I had never met the person before and I reveal who I am, I’d never be able to get a conversation out of them. They’d tell me to ‘piss off’ and to ‘never approach them again’.”

“Is… that so,” Dall mumbled.

“Mhmm.” Avice smiled sparingly, her eyes tired and wary. “And when I appeared here in God-knows-where, I played it safe. I thought I was being set up again. Who knows what those bastards back at home would pull to get me in a dangerous place.”

“Okay,” Dall said. “Then were you the one who took down that massive Spider? You did all of that magic stuff?”

Avice grinned awkwardly and nodded. “Yup, I did.” A small chuckle escaped her lips. 

“You did," Dall repeated, stepping back. He blinked a couple of times and pursed his lips. Then, he shook his head and sighed. "I'll ask about it later. What the hell was that ghost, too? How did it use magic?” Dall asked. “As far as I know, ghosts are a part of the group of monsters that can't use magic.”

“You mean Achaea? She’s the one who taught me all of this,” she said. “And she’s also the one who’s invited you to wherever she is.”

“What? Why should I go?”

“First of all because Achaea asked you to. Second, you owe me a lot.” He scowled at her as she said that. “Listen, I’ve done so much crap to save you, you wouldn’t believe it. I fought and killed this giant rabbit thing, survived an encounter with two people who wanted to kill me, and then I managed to get away from a giant flesh monster. I think you owe at least a dinner to me.”

“Why did you do it? Why save me?” he asked.

“Because I wouldn’t know how to get out of this damn forest without a native like you guiding me around.” She paused. “And besides… you were nice to me.”

Nice?" Dall scoffed. "You’d save a stranger because they were nice?”

Avice nodded. “From the garbage I’ve seen, you were at the very least genuine. I can tell."

Dall pursed his lips. He crossed arms and furrowed his brow. He shook his head and muttered,

“Well, thank you. So if you needed me so much to get out, you’ve got me now.” He nodded. “I think I have an idea of where we are, so I can do at least that for you. I don’t want to waste any more time than I already have. Father needs to know about what’s happened at Fora.”

“Y-Yeah but-”

“Avice, do you need my help or not?”

She stood there for a moment. More than anything, Avice was worried about just letting Dall go out alone. She believed he was still too weak, especially if he had just recovered. She scrambled to put her thoughts together to think of a way to convince him to come with her when Elyu floated in front of her and said, “Miss Achaea asks for your presence as well, Mr. Dall.”

Dall blinked and took an immediate step back, throwing his arms up in defense. “What the hell is this?” he said with a quick breath. 

“Elyu? He’s a Spirit.”

“A Spirit…” Dall muttered. “Wait, what?! How?!” he suddenly yelled. Dall quickly lowered his arms and got down onto his knees. Wincing from the sudden movement, Dall bowed his head. Avice backed up. “I-I’m just a mere human. Why are you showing yourself to me, oh Spirit?”

“Mistress Achaea is allowing me to. You are invited to the feast, Mr. Dall.”

He glared at Avice. “And how are yo-” He cut himself short. “No. That’s right. Garnell called you an Aldrian. Same with that Achaea lady.”

“I can. And please don’t call me that around other people, Dall. People would get pissed for some stupid reason.”

Dall nodded and stood back up. “Great Spirit, I must apologize. I have to return home. There’s no tim-”

“Dall Greatsword. You will participate in the feast.” Elyu said, its voice thicker and deeper. The ground beneath Dall shimmered green. It shifted and morphed resulting in him swaying unstably. 

He waved his arms in panic and fell on his butt. Avice glared at the glowing green orb. Something’s not right, she thought.

“U-Understood,” Dall said as he stood back up. “I’ll come, but for one day only. I really have no time.”

Avice nodded. She took a quick glance over him and put a hand to her side. Her eyebrow shot up and, with a quick turn, sprinted towards the center of the clearing. She approached the Spider’s melting corpse and grabbed something from the ground: Dall’s sword.

She had dropped it when she lifted her arms to celebrate. Avice returned and held it out to Dall. “Here,” she said. “You can definitely use this better than me. I’m sorry. Again.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” he muttered. He tapped his stomach and stretched uncomfortably. His expression twisted and he groaned. “Hey, is there, like, a river nearby?”

“Yeah, why?” 

“I need to wash down. I can’t walk like this,” he said as he gestured towards his stiff, bloodied clothes. “I’ll be back.”

“I’m coming with you,” Avice said.

Dall narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“I won’t have you jump ship on me,” she said out loud. She moved closer to him and whispered in his ear, "Something doesn’t feel right. C’mon, I know where it is, just follow me.” Before he could deny her, Avice turned to Elyu and said, “We’ll be back soon, Elyu.”

Dall reluctantly followed behind her as Avice nonchalantly marched into the forest. They moved swiftly, not a word exchanged between them.

Soon enough, they came upon the same river Avice had crossed on her first mission.

Upon seeing it, Dall smiled and, as quickly as he could, tore off his shirt. He delightfully leaped into the river and immediately washed off the blood and grime off of his toned body. “Damnn, I needed this.” He cupped the water and splashed it against his stomach. “Gods thank water for existing.”

Avice, who sat on the bank watching him, said, “Gosh, what's with you? Fall in love with the river or something?”

He turned and glared at her. “Water’s just that great. Don’t make fun of me.”

She hung her head. "I took a shot at breaking the ice, but... Yeah, yeah, okay, that's done. Just listen,” she said.

Avice rubbed her hands together and rested her elbows on her knees. A freezing chill ran through her veins, a common tell for her that something was going wrong.

“I… I don’t wanna say it, but Elyu’s attitude’s worrying me. It feels like something’s off.”

Dall, seemingly not paying any attention to her, dunked his face into the river, then eventually his whole body.

Avice groaned and impatiently tapped her foot.

He rose back up and turned to her, water dripping from his chin. “I was listening. Go on.”

“I’m grateful to Achaea and all, and I really, really want to trust her. She’s… she’s been the best to me. Better than anyone ever has, excluding my friends of course. But my instincts are screaming at me that something’s wrong. I can feel it. I can’t trust this.”

“I don’t trust you, Avice,” Dall replied. “For the short amount of time we'll be together, I'll at the very least assure you that I will try to cooperate with you. As soon as the day passes, however, I’m immediately leaving.”

He turned his gaze downward and clenched his fists.

“Those Eldred bastards… I always knew.” Avice rubbed the tattoo on her right arm, the smoothness of the black ink churning her heart. “Our Empire’s in danger, and I have to put a stop to them.”

Avice nodded. “Agreed. But right now, right here, I think we need to join forces. Watch each other’s backs, at least for now. We got a deal?”

Dall, who had begun to dry himself off, stared at her outstretched hand.

There was nothing he wanted more than to just get away from this girl and return home. He almost wanted nothing to do with her. That deep, unforgiving desire to avenge the Foran citizens and end her life right this instant nagged at him from the inside.

Kill her, end her, get revenge.

This time, however, those words did not come from mysterious voices singing in his ears. They came from his own heart. He shook his head.

No. She saved me. I owe her at least this… 

“It can’t be helped. Avice, Ava, whatever your real name is, we have a deal.”

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