From The Ashes [#NaNoWriMo16]

Chapter Twenty Three - Kida Delwen

That following night, they arrived at their final camp destination. It was on the shore, looking out across the vast ocean that led to the shrouded island of Kron where the immortals were hiding away, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. You couldn't see it in the distance, but Kida knew it was there. She could feel it. She could feel the energy that radiated from it, basking the sky in a dark, unearthly glow. It sent shivers up her spine.

"This is where I leave," Helio announced when everyone had set up camp. They all looked up, watching him silently. "I should be back by morning to transport you all there. Be prepared, for anything can happen. The ships should be here by morning as well; Kida, you should talk to your brother and tell him to wait. If I am not back when he is back, you must not go through with this plan."

"We'll sort it out," Kida replied, her hands clenched into little fists at her sides. "You should go, quickly. Before it gets too late." So Helio nodded to everyone before vanishing into thing air. Kida let out a defeated sigh, rubbing her forehead as she felt an intense headache coming on. Her stitches were annoying her, but there wasn't anything she could do about that.

She sat on the sand that night, with the wind blowing through her thin clothes as she faced the ocean. She breathed in its salty scent, trying to calm her thoughts. But she was so close... the feeling was unreal. She could finally get her own revenge on the bastard that turned her into what she was. And there was no going back now; as soon as Helio returned and Kieron's ships made it to the shore, they would be on the island in no time, and be able to see how big the threat was. If it was too great, then Helio could report back to the Adranian Council with the information and get a whole lot more soldiers to face off against them. It could work.

For the first time in a long time, Kida thought about her sister. She died basically as soon as they got on the island; Kida didn't have time to mourn, because it happened so suddenly. A knife to the heart, was what she remembered. That was how Kida wanted to kill the Kron leader, but she later realised that he was immortal, and that wouldn't kill him. Perhaps cutting his head off was a little more efficient? That was definitely an option.

Her thoughts then drifted to her parents. They had changed when Kida left; she didn't realise, but they had. And when she returned from Kron, she went straight into hiding; she didn't even think about her family. She just wanted this bastard dead, and the only way she knew she could do that was getting help. Not from her parents. Not from her brother. From a complete stranger. All that time on Kron, when she felt abandoned; that couldn't even begin to compare to how Kida's family must've felt when she was gone.

"Stop thinking," a voice ordered from behind her, and Kida didn't need to look up to know it was Ryia. The assassin came to sit beside her on the beach, the wind passing gently through her dark hair.

"Can't help it," Kida replied dryly, dragging her gaze along the edge of the horizon.

"You're making the shadows antsy," Ryia told her, and Kida glanced around before realising that Ryia was right. The shadows were swimming slowly across the ground and up the nearby trees, swirling around each other in mad drift of anger. She breathed out deeply, and the darkness retreated back to its usual position. Kida returned her gaze to the ocean.

"Why are you here?" she asked, her voice quiet so as not to give away what she was feeling. But Ryia knew. She knew a lot that Kida thought no one knew.

"I wanted to talk," Ryia replied smoothly, and Kida glanced at her suspiciously.

"You?" she scoffed. "Talk? Yeah, that'd be the day."

"I'm serious," Ryia grumbled, lifting her knees up from the ground so she could rest her elbows on them. "I wanted to talk about what happened in Adrana the other day. In the sewers."