The Last Goddess

Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Dark Woods

Aryan

I can't see a damn thing.

The second we stepped into The Dark Woods, a shadow so black devoured us. I gripped Samara's hand tightly, not risking a chance that we could be separated. Especially since it would be impossible to find her if we did.

I put my free hand out, blindly feeling for any sort of tree or creature that might be lurking in this forest. I could feel Samara's curiosity getting the best of her. It was almost laughable, really. Anyone else would be freaking out. I mean, for the love of Seraphina, she was trapped between people trying to capture and kill her, and a forest that has gained a reputation for being unsolvable. Meanwhile, she's probably wondering about what might actually be inside The Dark Woods.

"Aryan," she called me slowly.

"Yeah?" I asked, still trying to feel around and not trip over—what I hoped—was a large tree trunk.

"Why can't we see anything?" she pondered innocently.

"Because it's The Dark Woods." I shrugged as if she could see me. Then, stopped and sighed, knowing that wasn't going to be enough of a response for her. "This forest was created by Colton. Supposedly it was a place he created as a gift for Zenaida. As far as I'm aware, anyone who has come in here has never made it out."

"Why not?" Samara asked, and I swear I could perfectly picture the way her eyebrows pulled together in that moment.

"Seriously?" I asked, pulling her closer to me, just to prove that no matter how close you were to anything in The Dark Woods, it didn't matter. The darkness just swallowed everything whole. "Does that fact that you can't see me in front of you give it away at all?"

"Fair point, but what I meant was, why doesn't anyone just use a light." The moment she said that her hand lit up with a flame.

She brought the warmth of the fire between us, but it didn't matter. All we could see were our faces dimly lit up, but nothing else in our surroundings. And after a minute, the darkness began to swallow that light too.

"See?" I said once we had returned to the dark. "The Dark Woods blacks out all light."

"Hmm..." Samara thought, her fingers slowly slipping away from mine.

"Don't." I told her, grasping her hand again. "If we lose each other, we may never be able to find one another here again. This place is a maze of darkness."

"Why doesn't anyone just make a beeline right back to where they entered?"

It's said that people may lose their way here. Also, from what I've heard, there's only two proper exits. The one we came through, and the entrance to Willow."

"That is troubling." I could hear the pout in her voice. "Well, we can't just stand around here though." After a few more seconds, she said, "Oh! Oh! I got it!"

"Got what exactly?" I asked skeptically.

"I can see in the dark!" she exclaimed.

"What's that now?" I raised an eyebrow in what I remembered was her direction.

"Remember when we first came back to Arcanum?" she tried to remind me. "We were hiding from Soren's soldiers, and it was too dark to see?"

"Right..." I said slowly, vaguely recalling the memory from weeks ago. "Somehow we made it to that watering hole..."

"Yes!" her emotions displayed true excitement for the first time since we entered the World Below. It was nice to feel a lighter emotion from her, truthfully. "You said before that Zenaida is the goddess of light, right?"