A Forest On Fire

Burn

Softly, silently, Ballast landed on Lydia's shoulder and folded up its wings with a grind that was painful to listen to from afar, much less right next to her ear. As Lydia bobbed subtly up and down with the horse's strides, Ballast crouched and fell into a state as close to sleep as a creature who can't sleep can manage. "Lazy thing," Lydia whispered. "Can't even deliver a message, if that's what its even here for. Perhaps you just came to bum a ride, hm? Well, that's why you have wings, and you should consider yourself lucky. Not many things have wings, and not many things can go on flying for days without stopping."

And, before Lydia began to think herself non compos mentis for talking to a hunk of flying metal, Ballast jumped up with a terrible screech and flapped its wings wildly. It cut Lydia's cheek with the sharp edge of it, and she brushed him off her shoulder. She heard the small clunk of Ballast hitting the ground and smiled. The carriage continued on without it. However, less than a minute later, Ballast landed on her shoulder again. This time, he did deliver a message, and it was this:

"Blackwater, this is a warning," the Governor's voice was serious, grave. "If you know where I am, which I am sure you do, you know who I am with. We have stopped already, but we are not in the city. I am not sure where we are. One of the hunters allowed me to record this. I have a feeling something is going to happen, but this entails the warning: do not come. As much as you think you can handle them, as strong as you think you are, you cannot, you are not. I repeat, do not come. They will kill you, as they are readying to kill the telé. You know how it works."

        The message ended. 

Lydia was going, anyway. She had made up her mind before she had even left Axel's home to find the Governor. The message had as little of an effect on her mind as a fly resting on the back of an elephant, even if, like Elliot had said, she knew how it worked. She knew how they kill telé. It is the same as everything else. To truly kill it, to truly erase its existence, one must burn a monster. Of course, there were other ways depending on the creature, but one way always remained dependable, unchanging, without fail: fire. For telé, it is silver and fire. For witches, it is drowning and fire. For tudemé, it is hanging and fire. For those like Lydia, it is decapitation and fire. It is fire for all because they are afraid of pain; why would they become a monster? To avoid pain. Could one think of a more painful death? The slow burning of the flesh, starting with the feet, crawling to the head, before the boils burst open and spill forth blood and fat and the skin sheds itself by the layers. If not that, slow suffocation; the smoke from the flames floods the lungs, and, as the victim struggles to breathe, breathes in more.

The thought of it struck Lydia with more fear than death itself. But what struck in Lydia more fear than death, more fear than fire, was loneliness, so she went forward.

In fact, the message only spurred her forward. It gave her more resolve than ever to seek out and save the Governor, if not to spare the Governor from witnessing such a terrible thing, then for herself and for Ruth and for Abraham and for Jeanne, the small, frail, mourning wife of Francis. Certainly the hunters would not harm Elliot, especially since they now knew she was a governor, which they must, Lydia assumed, because they knew who she herself was, as Elliot had said, and no one had been seen with the Governor of Fluie more than Lydia. The only question was this: they knew who she was, but how did they know what she was? This, Elliot had not explained.

"So you're not as much of a loafer as I thought," Lydia said to the bird.

Ballast settled back down on Lydia's shoulder.

"Alright," she gave in. "You may rest, but, when we return, you must be off."

Where had Officer Leo taken Elliot and Merlin? He had taken them to the forests of Fluie, which is where the carriage crash had taken place. Elliot did not recognize it as of yet. He had intentionally taken her back to her province. But why had he taken them to Elliot's province? Why not someplace else? Because he wanted to show her that he had power of her, that he could get away with whatever he liked. It was not until later when Elliot realized where they were that he would find himself gravely mistaken.