CHAPTER 2

I smell the roast of a wolf, and I jump up awake.

Simas back turned to me, Valha reading a book in his dark corner, Lezion sharpening his tools and Emmanuel… his hands are covering his face, his blade coated in my blood. The wound is left now covered, a scar, I smiled.

“It looks good on you,” I said. They all turn startled faces to me, except sima. “The scar I mean” I pushed myself up, almost falling in the process.

“Don't you think Sima?” I said slyly, nudging the beautiful figure. She smiled back. And I hugged her tighter than ever. “Your training is more efficient than ever.” She kisses the top of my eyebrow and I smile, holding on to her forearm. “Did you hear that?” I said in a sarcastic shocked tone. “She complimented me” I leaned against the wooden table and giggled. Sima smiled, but they didn't, he didn't. “You could've died.” Emmanuel back to slumping in the position when I awoke, I sighed. “You put me up to it, it was a lesson and I took a risk. So what?” I shrugged. “Right Sima?” I jumped back to her side. “I disagree with your approach, but you did a great job.” She placed her cheek onto my head, Valha speechless, Lezion stiff, and emmanuel… “I called you. I know you heard me. I told you to swim up, you didn't listen. You never listen.” He banged his fist against the dining table, it broke it half. “And if an enemy was to ever call for me to swim up, would I just convey his words?” I argued. Lezion grinned and threw a loaf toward me, I smiled as I bit from it. “Simas correct I don't either agree with your approach, however you made it, using strategy.” Valha jumped in, Lezion winking alongside him. “Don't encourage her foolishness, you're better than that Valha.” Emmanuel again, opinionated as always.

“You know I don't either agree with the almost drowning, nor the baskets of blood you filled the lake with, but it was indeed smart against a weapon that tracks blood.” Lezion said, scrubbing my ruffled head. “Emmanuel is only furious because of the scar you got on his supposed beautifully clear body” Lezion jokes, I giggled. “You know if there was an enemy, we should place a bet on who can get there first.” I clasped a hand against Lezion, his strength showed no bounds, the bulkiest man I've ever seen. “There won't be an enemy, there won't ever be an enemy!” He repeated. “Risks like those dont grant you leeway to escape, that dagger trick, the provoking, the chances you took. You swam into a lion's den diving into the water, against a water wielder? You are a fool like the rest of your mortal lineage.” I tried not to basket the pain and hurt but I couldn't, a tear slipped my eye. I stopped in my tracks. His eyes gleamed with regret, “Evelle I–” I didn't let him finish, I pulled off my navy blue hood , boots and dagger and ran out.

The forest was bright and lit up, the night was befalling and the starlight that branched inside the Sevia river looked like dancing stars. The Sevia River connects into a large lake, where I sit in front. You are a fool just like the rest of your mortal lineage. His words constantly repeating in my head. Right, I'm just a mortal. The river beneath begins to swirl. “Mortal girl…” It whispers. “Water spirit” I reply. The water spirit that guards these rivers is named Vivienne. Sima told me her story, her pitiful story, how she became trapped inside the waters to guard the river she drowned in. The Sevia river ends at a waterfall at the end of the land, where Vivien the water spirit now named Sevia, drowned. She once danced upon the mortals decades ago, beautiful hair extended to her hip, her eyes blue like every lagoon combined. But the selfish mortals only want one thing, her valuable skin, they wished as they tricked her to stand at the end of the waterfall. Tying ropes around her as she danced. Her dances consisted of ropes and strings, those very ropes and strings that strangled her underneath the bottom of the fall. “Mortal girl. You know my name.” Her waters showed wary, starting a current. “Trust is a beautiful thing.” I whispered, swirling my hands in little waves. “It is a shame my kind tore that of you.” I brushed my fingers inside, deep enough to feel her, the river was her. I've never been so close without Sima Emmanuel Valha or Lezion, they would hide my scent with theirs. They say Vivienne's trust was stripped and she despises mortals. Murdering them is her hobby, my foolish father tainted the rivers when he crossed, scared of the legend of the river. “I sense familiarity in your blood, mortal child, your scent is unkind to me.” She spoke in an accent similar to Simas, traditional, elegant, and wary. “My lineage poisoned your waters as they crossed, I apologise Sevia.” I lifted a hand fill of water. “Your water is truly beautiful.” I smiled. Her current calmed back to the peaceful star light. “You're one of Simas.” I halted as she continued “The hidden mortal she so desperately hides, you don't own a humankind scent, but I know you are mortal.” The waters arose and a pure liquid light shone on the beautiful watered version of herself. A beat passed, the silence shivered my soul but I couldn't find it in me to feel free. “Sima is a strange one. Ruslka despises mankind, and yet she travels with three of the worst.” Judgement. Resentment. I know those words. Vivenne was Valhas bride to be, she drowned decades ago and Valha never once took interest in how his dead bride was… to be. Emmanuel attempted to seduce the beautiful spirit, but failed every single time. And I heard Lezion was a brute, no respect for water spirits once so ever. “Sima never despises anyone. She is the beautifulest type of strange.” I smiled. The water spirit seemed taken aback. “You're troubled.” she said. “It seems Emmanuel's mouth has done more worse than good. It's not surprising of course” Her accent is so elegant, soft and with a warning tone. This is her forest, of course she knows. “Tell me mortal child, what is it you desire? Truly.” Unbothered, uninterested, she must not have anything to do. But it's getting late. No. It should be fine. “What do I desire?” I repeated. “A library…” Her hand stopped spiralling in circles. “A tower filled from the very top to the bottom, all kinds of books, novels on every shelf. And a long staircase, able to reach every single one.” If those nightmares of the bloody sword taking lives were not troubling my sleep, I'd dream of this particular library. “It was accented gold and black, the staircase wood and the shelves cobbed with webs. Old and ancient. Beautiful. Two white pillars held it on the edge of a mountain.” I closed my eyes, memorising the beautiful dream. “A vine towering to the very top, if anything I desire this library.” I held the image to heart. “You're a strange mortal girl.” She figured. Her hand swirled and the image began to film in the waters. “I–I can't… what did you do?” Her eyes closed struggling to render the image out of the blur. “Nothing?” I causalling dismissed. “Is this one of Valhas tricks? Emmanuel’s illusions?” She panicked “I see everything, why…” The image disappeared. “I've never vaguely seen it, the watery vision is the same dream I hold on to. Black and gold accented colours, vines and webs, making out little details took years” I shrugged. “Even if what I desire is to have a glimpse of this image, this dream, I'd cherish it.” It could have been the brightly shined lights, or the bits of splashing water, but my eyes teared up. “I was mistaken, you've been worse than troubled. You mortal child, I pity you.” I held myself in my own arms, wishing for the worthless tears to go away. Mortal, foolish, helpless, weak. My past cornered me at the end of the lake, tortured, bled, scars, pain, constant pain.“I’ll grant you this.” She lifted her arms to me, bright star light coming from it. “A gift. For the astounding show you set for us spirits to watch.” she passed to me a floating light, I stared into the core of it. “It is the gift of the Sevia rivers, a power of your own,” I could feel her smile, but I couldn't see it. “The defeat of Emmanuel was gravely exciting, he desperately needed it. And you, a mortal girl, not in spite of weakness in her bones, put a scar in him.” I could feel the pride in her tone. “You do not understand how long I've waited, decades since I've encountered him, to see him bleed, scream, and rage.” Her voice made me tremble, shaken and limpy I listened. “ Little splashes of water and hundreadths of thousandths of times attempting to drown him, and a mortal girl with a mortal mind shattered him. With his own weapon in fact.” She laughed, bursted out laughing. I remember all the times she's attempted to murder Emmanuel, too many in fact. I accepted the white light, it engulfed my body. “You’ll stay mortal, but you'll move and fight just like a water welder whenever you please. This was a gift granted by the water spirits. Never forget it.” My body felt odd, unfamiliar senses causing me to almost puke. But then I realised. A debt. These spirits are tricky, debts, bargains, you steer clear. Once a debt to a being of magic, is a life sentence bound to be returned.  “Thank you, water spirit, thank you.” I bowed another thanks, and her blankless face seemed to tilt. “Vivienne.” She smiled. “Evelle” I smiled back. Her question is shallow in my mind. “Then. What is it you desire?” I asked her. She froze. The silence was impenetrable to pass, the tension in the wind becoming cold and dreary. “Desire? Me?” Her head swung  to the sky. A long— very long pause. “I wish to dance… Again…” Her hand draped onto her heart, I could see the memories flash to her in an instant of her past. “Then I wish that you can dance again, freely, happily, with your heart.” I lift myself off the dirt. “I thank you again. Vivienne.” I turn. And I begin to walk. “Wait.” She stops me. “The library. I've heard of it. I've seen it” A sparkle gleams in my eyes and I jump. “You have?” scepticism tried hard not to brush my voice. “In the northeast end of Ludta, it lies there. The tower is supposed to be trapped beneath the hatred of a monster. Locking the library to rot.” She sighs. “Watch your back, Evelle, creatures, various creatures than the water spirits have heard about Sima and her boys for a while. Keep hidden. Trust no one. Especially not yourself.” Vivienne warns. I now turn to face her, I watch her skin her fingers through the peaceful river. I wait for her to carry on, she doesn't, but she wants to. She wouldn't stay in this form otherwise, it's too dangerous to have the guardian of the rivers in this valuable form. “What is it that you mean?” I finally ask. “Sima is a Rusllka. She's a deathly soldier, former general of the waters alliance with Barvak. Decades of knowledge of fighting, creatures, old to new beings. Her three men are raiding commanders. She's been hiding in my forests for peace, and lately the water hasn't been as peaceful.” She admits. “I see everything. I know the ways the current moves, my current moves. Soldiers are stationed hidden beneath my waters, and you murdered seven of them.” She chuckles. My heart deepened at the words, I murdered seven soldiers? She probably read the horror in my experisson. “Mortal child, it is a good thing. I would've done it myself, but I never would have known you’d do something as reckless as diving head first into the mud. The soldiers were ready to attack, when they noticed the blood you so willingly tainted all through my green waters. You were blinded, yet you continued. You stabbed your sword into the dirt and waited for Emmanuel's hostile weapon to haunt towards you. Three heads made it so close even the spirits began to beg me to assist you, I refused. one of the soldiers raised to cut you but it was only your ankle that received the less fatal blow. When you jumped and the blade sliced clean off three heads, the spirits cheered.” she laughed, I stayed jaw dropped, horrified. My face paled, and I retreated back to my seat, listening in. “The remaining four soldiers cowered at the bottom of the river, we thought the fun had ended. But then you dropped down again and the entire forest began watching you. As lovely as it was watching a struggling human fighting death, I must say it took a handful of strength to not get involved and I'm very glad I didn't. Or else my neck would have met a similar fate. When your vine wrapped dagger assisted you to rip out his blade and throw it back, the spirits applauded you. A blade made to sense blood, a river filled with it, the best entertainment in centuries for us. It wasn't the satisfaction of the soldiers' deaths that enlightened me. It was The second I heard Emmanuel scream as his own weapon jabbed through him. I may or may not have given you a push out of the muddy pit.” full of light and excitement the once bored and unimpressed spirit vanished. But her words made no sense, until they did. I figured the river was ecstatic and fast because of Emmanuel's power, now it made sense why he was so mad. “I'm glad my near death experience enlightened you.” I said sarcastically, holding myself in my arms. “What happened to the last four?” I asked. “Sima ruined my fun, she murdered them before they reached the fall. It was quite a show, not as interesting as yours.” Her words still hint of laughter and excitement. “Mortal I have seen many things, but today, by far the best.” A little pride gleamed up when she said that. “Soldiers stationed… Why? What are they after?” I asked. And the laughter disintegrated. Silence. “I can only say so little.” Was all she replied with. She's now humming a song, ignoring my question. “And you can say so much, what is it they are after?” I repeated. She paused her hand that swirled and swerved, not meeting my eyes. The tension growing in the waters, the forest not at a stop, she feels threatened. “They are after her, there is a war coming, the mortals involved on a side. Sima is a warrior, and her skills and knowledge are what Barvak needs to win. Water spirits no matter how far we hide, no matter the many lakes, rivers, oceans, or seas there's always an end. We can only hold out for so long.” She sighed. “You share a lot of it. You share the knowledge of three legends and a general, and you're a mortal. Wisdom lost to the rest of the world. So stay hidden, do not be discovered, or you'll become a pawn in a game of chess.” The waters caged surrounding us, the tension growing alongside her rage. “I am thankful for your gift, your anger is quite unnecessary though.” I shrugged with a welcoming smile. “Goodbye great water spirit, wish mother and hope to you spirits as well.” I said to nothing in particular. The spirits aren't noticeable to the ***** eye, but with this unknown power I sense them lurking. “I’d suggest you run.” She finally said, if she was about to murder me after gifting me i'd be pretty upset. I laid a hand on my dagger. “They're in danger.” She tilted her head one last time and disappeared, sinking back into the current of her waters. I didn't wait a second before I leaped and ran. I found myself faster than I'd ever been before, I glided through the trees in seconds…

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