We Go Down Together [ ENGLISH VERSION ]

1. Archer

The nightmares were the worst part of the night.

That's why Jade avoided sleeping as much as she could.

She didn't need to rest that often, not like humans, but still, her body that had lived for so many years still needed to recover from months of no rest.

Jade dreamed of Kit, of her death, most of the time, and sometimes it was all so messy and full of blood that Jade woke up sweating in her bed.

It had been almost five and a half decades, and she still hadn't found Kit.

Maybe this time it was for the best, Kit deserved to have at least one life where she would not die an early and painful death, where she could grow up and grow old with someone who would be safe for her, who would not bring her so much suffering as Jade had done in so many past lives.

Jade gets out of bed, walking around the room dragging her feet, she approaches the window and observes the city outside, the modern Tir Asleen glowing like thousands of access fireflies, the long buildings so tall and narrow they looked like needles piercing the sky, so different from the view filled with medieval castles that once existed, so many centuries ago.

The only good thing about being an immortal vampire was that there are many people paying to hide her from society, so Jade has a savings account full enough to guarantee her a luxurious life for at least another century, which gave her the access to such a good building.

Not that she was proud of it, she always hated being a vampire, the eternal bloodlust would never leave her, and she would never age.

And she would remain that monster until the day someone was brave and merciful enough to end her life.

She never wanted that, her creator believed he was saving her from leprosy, centuries ago, when Jade was a young adult.

It was not in that life that she met Kit, she lived 3 decades before she met the young woman and future love of her life, she was in medieval Gallador, living as a merchant of swords, and Kit was a young peasant girl destined to marry a man she never loved.

It wasn't long before they both fell in love and fled the kingdom, going to live beyond the known kingdoms, in the Wildwoods.

Then they met the young Bavmorda, the princess of Tir Asleen, she tried to convince them both to join the Order of the Wyrm, and when they refused, Bavmorda hunted them all over the continent, relentlessly, she was obsessed with Kit and finally cornered them in the middle of the Shattered Sea, two years later, where she managed to wound Kit badly.

Jade remembers it like it was yesterday, her running down the beach with Kit's inert body in her arms as she breathed her last, leaving her forever.

Or so Jade believed.

Years later, she found Kit again, but she couldn't remember Jade, she didn't even know who she was.

It was then that Jade realized, Kit had been cursed to return after death, in a different life and country, but with the same face and the same name, and no memory of their past life together.

This process was repeated many times, for many centuries.

That is why Jade decided that she would give up Kit this time, she could not watch her die one more time, her heart was already in so many pieces that she feared it would fail her and finally stop, no longer needing human blood to irrigate it.

Losing Kit so many, many times had destroyed Jade, she couldn't go through that again.

+++

The capital of Tir Asleen was Kit's nightmare.

Born outside of before was the barrier, she could never understand how anyone would choose to live in that city, with all that noise and light and buildings and polluted air.

She had only agreed to come because she got a great one-time opportunity to learn magic.

Growing up in Wildwood, Kit and her family had noticed Kit's gift from an early age; she could perform magic, but never really learned how to control it or use it to her advantage, so when news broke that the institution of magic in honor of the great wizard Willow had opened new positions for people from outside the city, Kit wasted no time.

Kit goes over the steps of the institution quickly, she is late for her first class and she is sure that her teacher would choke her if she didn't arrive on time.

She was in such a hurry, she couldn't even see the people she was bumping into, but at some point, as she turned the corner of a hallway, she bumped into a woman, staggering several steps to the right and almost smashing her face into the window glass.

Strong, steady hands prevent this from happening, pulling her toward them and supporting Kit on her feet.

- Pardon me! - She says quickly, awkwardly, - I'm in a hurry, forgive me.

The words fade from her lips as her eyes meet the woman holding her, who is simply the most beautiful person she has ever seen in her entire life, the woman is not much taller than her and has voluminous curly red hair and a face full of freckles and beautiful brown eyes.

But what surprises her most is the woman's expression, as if she is horrified, or disturbed by something she has seen.

Kit instantly feels unsettled, trying to remember whether she had combed her hair before leaving the house or was walking around with a bird's nest on her head.

- Are you all right?- Kit asks, trying to feel calmer - you look frightened...

- I'm fine- Woman says quickly, releasing Kit and taking a long step backwards, she avoids Kit's eyes, her voice heavy with a strong accent.

- uhm... Okay, I have to go, I'm sorry again - Kit says before hurrying off to her classroom.

Even though something inside her, something deep inside, is pulling her in the opposite direction, towards the mysterious woman with the red curls.

Who was she? And why did she seem so frightened of Kit? Did she dislike contact with people, or did something about Kit scare her?

She had so many questions, and although this sudden obsession was appropriately foreign to Kit, she couldn't get the woman out of her mind throughout her day.