Chapter 13 | The Red Forest

   János Bella has lived in the port of Belmasse all his life. His father and father's father and their father before established a well-to-do trade within Hempholme. He knew the town inside out and the people who lived there.

   But within a week, all that has changed.

   János stared blankly at the woman, he met not long ago, nursing the cut on his wrinkled forehead, a cut he'd gotten while trying to outrun those things.

   "We call them infectus 'round here, child." A healer was heard answering the youngest survivor.

   "Why?"

   "Because they're infected by an unknown virus."

   "Why?"

   "Jojo, please. Let them do their job."

   "It's quite alright, sir. Her Lady told us to help you as much as we can."

   "Where is Lady Asena?" 

   The Chief stretched his neck so that they may see him. His beard had grown twice in length in one week’s time. It swayed with every movement.

   "No, not the Dame. Her Ladyship, Lady Denica is here in person to deliver the duke's message."

   "If not for her ladyship, we wouldn't be welcoming anyone in."

   Jojo fidgeted while the healers all around bustled about the room, tending to the wounded or the fatigued.

   A burly man cleared his throat.

   The healer tending to Rufus apologized. "It's m'bad, sir. Ya'll didn't look human when you first arrived.”

   "Were you the one who shot him?" Lonán laughed from across the room.

   "Yessir."

   János tried to get up from his assigned bed for the third time and was pushed down by the healer. "Where are Lady Denica and Lady Asena?"

   "Who's looking?" Rusen closed the large doors of the town hall behind him.

   "Sir Rusen!" Rufus shot to his feet, surprisingly excited to see a knight of equal status and ready to relinquish his babysitting card. No offense to János, of course.

   Two other knights jumped to greet the commander.

   "Oh! Rusen." The Chief waved off his healer as he got up. "Good, you're here. Lady Ase–"

   "Who are you?"

   "This is Chief János, sir?" Rufus presented the aged man.

   "No." Rusen shook his head. "János? 35-year-old János, son of Chief of Port Ferenc?"

   When the old man nodded vigorously, Rusen was forced to believe.

   "You've... aged... a lot."

   "The curse of my family, ya?" János sighed. "You know, when we use our magic, it depletes our lifespan for some time."

   "You've lost this much...?"

   "Let's go for a walk, hmm.” The Chief nodded to Rufus and guided Rusen out of the town hall. “I will make the report."

   Just outside was a crowd with familiar faces.

   "Not here," he pulled Rusen away from the entrance, abruptly turning in an alley as he did. "We can't have everyone hearing now."

   "About what?"

   "How I aged in just a week. There were still a bunch of us, healthy and following her lady."

   His story started like Hempholme’s, but the losses were closer to home.

   János was now on his own without his father who’d walked him through everything. His father was a dyadya to the Spiros siblings. Rusen couldn’t imagine Belmasse without Dyadya Mór. Then again, there was no imagining Belmasse as it was.

   3 days ago.

   "I see it!" Jojo shouted from a knight’s shoulder. "The forest of fire!"

   Marrens Eve could be seen from a hill-point and was more like a city from afar, with buildings mimicking skyrises. Like its forest, the city was painted in shades of reds, oranges, and yellows—an eternal blaze.

   "Well, I'll be," Lonán whistled at the sight before him.

   "Keep moving," Asena instructed those who'd stopped walking. "We'll make camp within the red forest!"

   Asena hadn’t minded the complaints, busy with her thoughts centered around the mechanics of the infection.

   Rufus looked back, examining their pack. "The people are tired, Dame. Let them rest." 

   "We will rest when we are within the protection of the red forest. Plus, they did not welcome us."

   "I'm hungry."

   "Can't we at least have lunch?"

   Variations of the same plea echoed behind Asena and Rufus.

   "We're almost there," Rufus tried to settle the people.

   The people continued to be agitated with every passing minute.

   "The kids–"

   Asena abruptly turned around to address the 40-something people who looked to her for guidance. She gave her attention to the children first.

   "The children may eat while we travel. The elderly too. When–” she quieted her raising voice, impatience, she recognized, “when we get far enough into the forest, we will set camp and eat a full meal then. We are moving targets for anything that decides to come at us. I don't just mean the infection."

   Asena then nodded at Rufus.

   "This path is home to forest sprites. They have allowed us to safely pass through, but we cannot stay for long. Know that we are doing our best to get you all to safety."

   As he spoke, the people finally noticed the sparkling lights between the leaves and trees.

   "How come, Lady Asena never explains?"

   The two knights guarded the back of the line. They could see how the people's strengths have waned over time better than anyone else.

   "I think," the one-armed knight began, "she just doesn't know how to."

   The knights were discussing their commander when a loud commotion.

   A man, consumed by his growling stomach and anger, grabbed the nearest person to him and slammed them against a tree. "But I'm hungry!"

   The wind picked up and sounds of displeasure filled the air. The spirits hissed, flying more invisibly around the group.

   "Appa..."

   Jojo's appa brought her to his chest.

   "You promised not to hurt us! The blood, the blood!" A voice screamed into Asena's ear.

   She winced in response.

   The voices were shouting in anger. “We let you in as you are one of us! But they are not! We left half-breed only as promised.”

   "I'll handle–"

   "No, I will." She cut off Rufus. "Keep walking! Come on now." 

   Asena made her way to the back, egging people to walk on as she did.

   Some who'd seen the man turn to spontaneous rage struggled to recollect themselves.

   "Go on now," she instructed them.

   Her voice felt soothing, pushing their fear and shock to the back of their mind momentarily.

   "Both of you as well."

   The two young knights hesitated, staring at the crushed skull of the woman who'd been slammed into tha tree trunkThe incident had left a cavity.

   The man, the perpetrator, was shaking on the ground. He stared at his trembling hands and then at Asena. His eyes were clouded, but he had no pustules she could see.

   Like Jerome when Asena first laid eyes on the infection, this man still had bits of his wits about him.

   "I was just hungry. I-I didn't mean to."

   A murderer, but not a criminal.

   "You're infected." The man rejected her conjecture. "You can either wait for the infection to fully take hold of you before I release you from this life or release yourself."

   "Kill him. Kill him." The sprites cheered.

   "The lady must remember her promise when she first stepped into our domain." A calm voice interjected.

   "Choose quickly," Asena instructed the man.

   He felt the void of emotion in her voice. His sense of self dwindled with her calmness.

   The spirits grew impatient and cheered louder. Even the calmest spirit joined in.

   "B-but I... I really didn't mean–" The man twitched, his hunger pangs and the jeers getting the better of him. "I said, I didn't mean to!"

   He lunged at Asena, barring his teeth and pinning her down. He growled at her, losing control of his own body. He wanted to scream, but all that came out was saliva and more growls.

   Like an animal lost in its instinct to feed, he focused on her weak spots. He pushed down at the arm and hand she'd placed between them.

   She was tired too, but she hadn't known that until she was on the ground, unable to push the man completely off her. She tried to pull the last of her mana and maybe just a little bit from the ground.

   "Do not test us, Solum!" A sprite warned as she tried to pull mana from the forest.

   The forest rustled, the animals were eerily quiet, and the voices of the sprites became even more menacing.

   "Hnggg." She grunted as she desperately kept the large man at bay.

   Desperate, that was new.

   Never out of power, magic, and tricks, the situation called for something that she could not muster.

   Angered even more by her attempts, the man, turned beast, swiped at her. And when that didn't work, he went for her neck.

   "Asena!"

   A blast of water forced the man to grab at Asena's shoulder. His nails dug into them as he tried to keep his prey with him.

   Without losing any momentum, the water mage that came to Asena's rescue drowned the man.

   "You have to behead him." She managed to instruct Lonán between ragged breaths.

   Lonán's hand trembled before ripping the head off using his magic.

chapter footnote:

1. Infectus: People who are infected by the infection (yet unnamed during this time in the story) and are considered dead.