The Forgotten Zodiac

"Nothing at all," Sylas shook his head, holding his smile. "It's fine, really. Just...just worried, is all. About Werr." He lied, sighing slightly. "I thought he might pay a visit to Kaislun before heading out to the war, but Titus said yesterday that he was already gone. I dunno. It just bugs me. He could be dying, and I wouldn't have any idea...I suppose that's something I have to deal with, though."

Leo stared at him, then nodded and said "My sons are out there too. But I'm not worried, because I know they're kin to me. And it takes a lot to kill something as tough and bull-headed as I am!" He chuckled, but he saw a strange look pass Sylas' eyes at that. He didn't question it, however. He stood, pushing at Sylas gently with a huge paw. "Come on," he said. "Let's go fishing."

"Right," Sylas nodded, smiling a bit. He didn't hesitate before following Leo out the door, eager to get a move on and catch some fish. He put aside his cares and worries, deciding to enjoy the time he had with Leo, however short that was. No, don't think like that, Sylas quickly corrected himself. I'll make sure he stays alive. I'll do whatever I have to.

"These are pieces of a soul," Titus said the second the orb shards were placed in his hand from Galai's. "I'm not surprised they're just now appearing. Sometimes it takes years for these things to work their way back here." He examined one of the shards, shaking his head. "They aren't whole, at that. It's just a part, broken beyond repair..." He slowly set aside the shards, taking Galai's hands into his. "The soul part belonged to Cern. I've been worried about it over the past month...he's performed a taboo, whether he wanted to or not. He moved his soul to a body not his own. As punishment, his memories, a vital part of his soul, was broken. He remembers nothing...absolutely nothing of what he used to be. That soul piece will grow back in due time, but...it will never be the same. Half of me wants to hunt him down and slay him for everything that he's done...the other half of me needs to know why and how he switched bodies. I'm unsure of what to do at this point, Galai..."

Galai caressed his fingers with her own, sighing. "I don't think he meant for this," she said. "But who can say, when one has no memories of their actions? I would first like to know how it happened so we can prevent it from happening again." She tilted her head back, nuzzling under his chin and breathing in his scent. "All we can do is prepare for the worst and pray for the best," she said softly.

Titus sighed heavily, running his fingers through Galai's hair. "Currently, Cern is...in Bulliete. That's no secret to me. If he has no memories of them, Werr and his group will likely be left alone by him. Currenly, though, Cern has scraps of his old memories...none of them enough to make his way back here, I'm sure, or he would have done so. I just don't know..."

Marion strolled into the infirmary. She just...walked right in. Of course, the healers didn't bother her. She was allowed to be in here. She sat herself down next to Dmitry. "Hey," She said gently, shaking him slightly. "Wake up, Dmitry. I need you to do something," She said hurriedly. "We only have a few minutes, so wake up, and hold your breath, okay?"

He slowly stirred, wincing in pain and clutching his broken legs. He shook his head, trying to clear his pain-fogged mind, then looked up at her and said "Wh-what are you d-doing here? I-I told you..." He coughed weakly, feeling so dreadfully tired and exhausted. He recalled her words, however, and held his breath, wondering through his haze what she was going to do.

Marion just smiled at him before pulling a white cloth mask up over her mouth and nose. Then she dropped something on the floor, which released a dark grey smoke that quicklly filled the room. There were several thumps nearby as Marion leaned forward, scooping Dmitry up into her arms. She pulled the window open, dropping down without a second glance; there were armored guards below, waiting with a stretched-out, large cloth. Marion landed on the cloth, which tore under the combined weight of her and Dmitry, but it spared her from more than bruises.

"Thanks, you two. Keep things running smoothly as best you can, alright?" Marion smiled, tossing them a bag that probably held money. The Naga was far from above bridery, clearly. She hoisted Dmitry up in her arms, smiling sadly down at him. "Sorry about your legs, I won't be able to keep from hurting them for a bit..." She said, then darted towards town.

Before long, they were behind Yemara's Temple. A few raps on the door there, and it was unlocked, Marion scrambled inside, filled with relief.

"Plans work out?" Allie said, before realizing who Marion was holding. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you didn't tell me you were kidnapping the prince!"

"What's it to you?" Marion snapped. "He's my friend. I told you I was saving a friend, and here we are. You okay, Dmitry?"

"I...I'll live..." he said weakly, then gasped and whimpered as his injuries throbbed. "A-ah...it hurts...so b-bad..." He put a hand over his mouth, feeling like he was going to throw up. Once it passed, he slowly said "Thank you...M-Marion... I knew I could...c-count on you..." He breathed out softly, trying not to think about the pain he was in, then looked sideways at Allie and said "Wh-who are you? You...have my thanks as well..."

"My name is Allie Waest." She said quietly, turning back to her drawers. "You need some painkillers. One moment," She said, turning back to her desk and rummaging around for a second. She pulled out a small glass jar, and said, "Catch." Before tossing it.

Thankfully, Marion was a good catch. "Drink this," She said gently, bringing the bottle up to Dmitry's lips and helping him drink it. "Allie is one of the servants that I've...made friends with here in town. She's a bit of a chemist--"

"A bit?"

"And she depends on a group of other servants who offered to help her out when she needed it. I'm one of those servants. Do you remember catching me sneaking out food? That was me trying to help her in the way that I could. Now...she's helping us." Marion sighed. She remembered something and reached up, locking the door. "Can we use your bed?" She questioned.

"Go right ahead," Allie nodded towards a long couch to their left. Marion blinked at it, then lifted Dmitry and set him up on the 'bed'. "You might want to go out and get him splints, or his legs won't heal right," The girl said with a small smile.

Marion nodded, moving to the door. She would be fine still; she doubted anyone would have noticed the missing prince yet. "Just...keep him sane." She left before Dmitry could say anything.

"Right." Allie shrugged, fixing her eyes on the prince. She didn't say much, though, letting him rest for the time being.

For a long moment, the wyvern simply laid still, breathing in and out softly as the painkillers took effect. Once he felt better, he seemed to grow a bit more lively. He weakly pushed himself up a bit more, glancing all around as if studying all he could. He then fixed Allie with his stare, blinking and tilting his head at her. "Do you have...any paper I c-could write on?" he said, clenching and unclenching one hand at his side. "I...need to write down my thoughts."

"Yeah," Allie said, pulling a clipboard from her desk and clipping a pen onto it. She set it in her lap and pushed her chair out; it was a wheelchair, a recent investment that was working rather well. But it immediately revealed to Dmitry that she was missing the limbs required to walk. She didn't care too much, clearly.

She dropped the clipboard and pen onto Dmitry's chest, staring at him for a moment more before pushing herself back to her desk. "If you had any questions, I suggest you ask them now, while that girl is out. I don't trust Nagas...you'll likely defend her, if she's your 'friend' and whatnot, but I don't care. I said what I said."

He shrugged and said "You don't have to like her. I will, however, ask that you treat her kindly. She's means quite a lot to me." He began scribbling notes onto the paper, writing so fluidly and quickly that the girl scarcely had to time watch. "Yes, I have a few questions," he said, not looking up at her. "First of all, why are you here? Second, why are you helping us? Third, if you didn't trust Marion, then why did you let her help you? And fourth, what do you plan on doing now?"

"I wasn't going to mistreat anyone. I'm not in a position to do that. Trusting, however, is a different matter entirely." Allie said quietly, then thought for a moment. "Those are quite a few questions. I'm going to answer them out of order. To answer the second one, I'm helping you two in order to repay my debt to Marion. I'm not about to turn down help from anywhere. She kept me from starving for a couple years now. You do tend to accumulate a small debt when people do things like that for you. I have a couple friends who do simple tasks for me when I need it, but they weren't able to bring me very much food. Marion was...beneficial to that. In return for food and whatnot, I provide money, medicine, and plans. That entire escapade was orchestrated by me. The sleeping gas, bribery gold, all of it. I had you brought here because no one is allowed to forcefully take you from here unless they have a warrent.

"As for what I'm doing now, I've already sent for a carriage. You and Marion need to find king...Welk, do you not? You may not have noticed, but he was kind of...taken. Where, I know. He was taken to the warzone, on the border of the controlled areas. Between the Bluffs and the Lowlands. As for why I'm here...that's a long story and I don't wish to repeat myself. I don't think I've told Marion yet...I suppose I owe her that, as well. We can wait until she returns. Before that, any other questions or--"

"Back," Marion slid into the room once more, holding a bundle of wood planks, bandages, and rope. She got to work at once, fixing Dmitry's broken legs into place.

He held as still as he could while she worked, trying not to move. He couldn't help a flinch here or there, once in a while. It still hurt, despite the painkillers. Once she was finished, he rested his head against the arm of the couch, still feeling a bit like he needed to throw up. Instead, he reached out and gently took Marion's hand, finding comfort in the simple movement. He was older than her by a single year, but it didn't seem to matter to either of them. It was such a short distance, after all. Once she was sitting quietly by him, he looked to Allie. "Perhaps you would tell us your tale now?" he asked.

"It's a long, drawling story," Allie sighed. "And I don't like telling it twice, so listen up and pay attention. It started a few years back. I was just a simple girl in a simple town. Nothing much to it, right? Things were going fine, but that's when it has a tendency to go south. Not everything stays happy. All good things come crashing down sooner or later. That's just the sick truth of it. I lived near the woods, I had a few nice friends, and one of which by the name of Alison. Poor Alison...she lived deep in the woods. She lived with her parents, who tended to her as best she could, but...she was ill. Both physically, and sometimes mentally. I did see her often, but when I did, she would play outside with me; I was never allowed in her house. I never actually saw her parents...it was odd. I should have suspecting something was strange from that, but...I was a fool. I didn't think twice about it.

"Then, there was the fire, one hot summer night...I escaped, but my mom and dad stayed behind to try and put out the flames. I ran...I had to warn Alison, after all. She would be in danger if the fires reached the forest. I did what she told me to never do...I went inside the house. It was huge...and terrifying. I spent what felt like days crawling through that house...I swear, it was trying to kill me. That was the scariest thing I've ever..." She trailed off, covering her eyes with a hand for a moment. Then she sighed, looking up at Dmitry again. "It was bad, okay? Terrifying. I'm not going to revisit those memories for you, sorry. At any rate, I found her room after a long while. When I did...I didn't like what I found.

"Blood everywhere. For whatever reason, Alison...s-she had killed her parents. Stabbed them with a knife. Straight through their hearts. Then...she had sawed her own legs off. Just cut them right off...gouged out her own eyes, too. It was horrifying...th-then she started to say something. I don't even know what, but when I woke up...I was in her body. This body. Power...Alison was a witch. I know that now. This body..it's powerful, I know. But it's not my power...I had to beg and plead with it to get it to grow my eyes back and stop the bleeding. It hurt so much, it was all I could do to crawl pathetically after her. I was desperate to have my body back. Desperate...I caught up to her in the woods. She stabbed me with the same knife she had used to kill her parents...right here," She pulled her collar aside, revealing a jagged scar that had clearly been caused by a knife, right along her collarbone.

"I could barely speak, it hurt so much...a-and then my father came. He had been searching...searching for me. He took one look at Alison and pulled her into a hug, then glared at me...I remember it like it was yesterday. He called me a monster. All he could see was the blood on my sawed-off legs, on my face, on my hands...I tried to tell him who I was. I tried to call out to him...'dad'. That's all I wanted to say. But I couldn't manage even that...he hit me with two arrows. One in the chest, one right here," She tapped her forehead. "The only reason I'm alive was because of Alison's powers. It grew skin over my leg stubs, and healed my new wounds to the best of its ability, focusing more attention on the fatal ones. That's why there's no scars here. But...it left after that. I only have scraps left. I can make potions and concoctions out of the chemicals I can get my hands on. Any of them, and all of them. And...I can talk to bugs. That's how I know so much about the outside world, even after being in here for so long...

"See, Alison ratted me out. Or rather, her body out...I murdered my parents, in the eyes of the peacekeepers. I was chased out of Herrace and I wound up here...a servant to the temple." She touched her collar, closing her eyes and letting out a heavy sigh. "It took me awhile before I was able to control my...urges. Like I said, Alison's mind was ill sometimes. And now mine is. The priests...there aren't many left. There used to be lots. But I killed them, one by one...I don't even think the remaining ones know about that, but the city guards know. They just can't do anything about it, because I'm hiding here...I hate hiding. It's boring."

Silence. Marion stared at her, but when Allie gave her a sour look, the Naga turned her gaze down at Dmitry, wondering how the wyvern would react.

Dmitry covered his eyes, really looking sick now. He had followed her emotions a tad too closely... "Th-that..." he said softly, then steeled himself. "I sense you wouldn't want my pity," he said. "And I'm not sure really what to do. But a wrong-doing like that cannot go unpunished. If you'll allow, I will make a priority out of finding that witch and ending her. I...cannot see such an injustice done to an innocent girl. I swear it." He sighed, closing his eyes and pressing Marion's hand to his forehead. He glanced up at her through bright blue eyes, then looked back to Allie and said "Will you remain here once the carriage arrives? Perhaps I could convince you to come with us? In my other form, I can carry you anywhere you need to go. Though...that might be dangerous. The choice is your own, of course."

"No, I don't want your pity. It's not a sob story. You asked who I was, and I told you. I don't care about revenge, but I'm not going to object to this 'justice' of yours. As for going with you..." Allie considered it for a moment. "That...is the second time someone has asked me to come with them. You...you're going to the same place the first one is currently at." She thought for longer, falling silent again. A strange glint emerged in her dull eyes. "You're the prince. You can order soldiers to back down. You can do all that...fine. You'll be taking me with you, whether you want to or not."

"You're not very good at hiding what you want," Marion snorted. "Nor are you very good at being aggressive."

"I know," Allie sighed, looking a bit saddened by the statement of her weaknesses.

He nodded, then said "I wish I had more time to recover, however. My legs...my physical state...both are things working against us. I'm afraid that I could only carry you in my wyvern form, and that attracts attention in ways you wouldn't understand. Currently, there are a mere three wyverns that are recorded as alive. Me, my sister, and our father. We make up the only remaining family of wyverns left alive since the great Dragon War. There was also our mother and unborn sibling, but..." He closed his eyes, then said "I feel as though I should rest, but I know we have not the time. Would you like help gathering up anything you would want to bring with you? Anything you'll need?"

"No. Like I said, I've been asked to leave once already. He was taken away before he could come back. Now I have to hunt him down, and you're going to take me there. I already have everything I'll need packed." She shrugged, opening a drawer and unlocking a safe, pulling out a small leather bag. "Food and water has already been packed onto the carriage. We just have to be careful on our approach. This wheelchair can be attached to the back of the carriage, and I can sit up front. I know how to drive horses, so you two can just sit in the back and let me take care of it." Allie paused as a moth fluttered into the open window. She watched it for a moment, then sighed. "It'll be a little while longer, though. I guess th-that means I have time to cry for a bit..." She wrapped her arms around herself, fighting it off. There was no need to cry, she didn't want to cry, but the memories were coming back to her in flow. The mansion...gods, the cursed mansion.

Allie suddenly wailed, seizing a small marble figurine of an angel off her desk, watching as it shattered against the wall. Then she seemed to slowly calm down, focusing on breathing. In, out. In...out. A few long minutes passed, and a fly whizzed inside, buzzing around her head. "Yeah...whatever. Shoo," She waved it off. "The ride's here now."

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door, and a little boy entered. "We're here! Are you goin' with these people, Allie?"

"Yes, I am. You've been so good to me, all of you...give my regards to the others, alright?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's get your new chair on the carriage, yeah?" The kid grinned, not even looking at Marion and Dmitry. He glanced down and purposefully stepped on the broken head of the angel statue that Marion had thrown.

"Yes, lets." She wheeled her chair out, looking at Marion. "You know, he can ride in my chair, if you help me get into the front of the carriage..."

"Deal," Marion shrugged, moving to do so.

Before long, they were on their way. To the warzone.

Dmitry tried his hardest to stay awake as he curled up in the back of the carriage. He was so exhauted, however. So utterly exhausted. It wasn't long before his eyes began to droop. Before he allowed himself to sleep, however, he slowly dragged himself up and looked out one of the windows.

The air. The crisp, clean air. The scent of the wind. The sights, the sunlight. It all hit him at once, overwhelming his senses. This was what he had always wanted. This outside experiance. With a sudden chill, he realized he was somewhat free. Sure, Izan still had the papers saying how he owned Dmitry, but that didn't seem to matter anymore. He was leaving the castle. The castle where he had been doomed to die.

Free.

Tears flowed down his cheeks in a brisk wave, and he slumped back down into his chair and cried. Not our of sorrow or pain.

Joy.