Keeper of the Lost Cities: Rebuild [COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirty-Seven - MARELLA

She says she's sorry, but she has denied your request to aid in the Human Reinstatement Program.

She has denied your request.

Sorry, but she has denied.

Denied.

Denied.

Denied.

Marella hated that word. In fact, it was the bane of her existence. She hated it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns—which sounded like something that Level Two from the Matchmaking Office would say.

Marella didn't care if she was being overdramatic. She hated "denied" like she hated nothing else.

"This isn't a huge loss," Sophie said to them as they waded through a swamp. None of them knew what swamp it was; all they'd been given was a leaping crystal that would reportedly take them to the trollish capital. "Queen Hylda is still giving us her troops. Plus Nubiti told her messenger to specifically tell us she's not prohibiting the dwarves from helping the elves. She's letting them make their own choice, and for those who don't want to help, they don't have to."

But the dwarven population wasn't very big—and if only a fraction of them were going to join the effort... it wasn't much. Marella was too exhausted to say this, though, so she didn't. Instead she trudged... and trudged... and trudged. The mud clung to their legs, slowing them down, not to mention they had to keep ducking beneath the crooked branches of whatever trees thrived in this forsaken place. Fog and darkness prevented Marella from seeing any farther than a four foot radius. Their location was nowhere in sight—if they even had a location to be at, that is.

"Tam, is there a way you can clear these shadows?" Sophie asked after a while of depressing silence. "The troll said to keep going until we reached a crater in the ground, but I can't see anything."

Marella couldn't help but be reminded of just an hour ago, when Tam had admitted to her what was really going on with his shadowflux. I know I control them, or that's what everyone thinks, but I don't. I've tried to, but they're slowly overpowering me. And... it scares me.

It scared him. What would—no, could—scare Tam Song?

Himself, she thought. His powers. The shadows. Losing control.

She stopped herself before she could read too much. She wasn't perfect at understanding people, much less him—and besides, her skills had been lacking as of late. What if she assumed something about him that was wrong? He would know what she was trying to do, then, and hide himself behind that wall of shadows.

All because she'd told him she liked reading people. To be honest, she was a little embarrassed he knew about that. It had felt right at to tell him at the time, but in hindsight she felt stupid. What had she sounded like? A know-it-all? That was what Sophie had called her.

That doesn't mean Sophie was right.

"Wait, stop!" called Sophie, before Tam could do anything to the darkness that surrounded them. "I think I see the crater."

Marella took her cue and lit up her palms with fire. She'd been saving it for this moment since the humid environment made it difficult to hold the flames for long.

Sophie's foot was halfway on the ground; the other half was positioned over a deep, curved hole in the middle of the swamp. Blue and purple foliage draped over the edge of the crater, disguising it from any unsuspecting creatures. The crater itself didn't look too dangerous, though—while the edges were definitely formed with dirt, the center of it looked like translucent orange goo.