Rivers of Reverie

Prologue

Water streamed down the edge of her sword, as if it wanted to wipe out its violent past. The warrior looked up to the cloud cover and smiled in resignation. A hundred of such rains would not have been enough to wash away her memories.

How long had it been since the last time she had set foot in this forsaken land, this corner of the world hidden behind the Great Barrier? As far as she had found out, that holy ground was now prohibited, and all of her people were forbidden from accessing it.

But what does it matter now?

Seen with the eyes of a normal person, the barren path leading to the foot of the mountain looked just like this – a stretch of empty wasteland where not even the forest trees dared grow. However, the warrior's gaze had no trouble discerning the sealing spell guarding that place. Her hand lit up in a blue light for a few instants, as her magic easily shattered the sigil.

I belong to no people, now.

A sudden noise made her take cover behind a rock, her sword drawn without a conscious thought. By now, these gestures were little more than a conditioned reflex to her. But there was nobody out there under the pouring rain. No noise, no breath, no desperate crying. The warrior shook her head. 

When blood cakes, not even the heaviest rain can wash it away.

The warrior sheathed her blade and quickly set off again. The violation of the sigil would not have gone unnoticed. If she did not hit the trail as soon as possible, her blade would end up slick with fresh blood.

   ***

Her journey in the forbidden land had been going on for several days. The warrior never stopped watching her back, but it seemed nobody had followed her. Most likely, the guardians thought it was a false alarm, since no one who had ventured into the forbidden land had ever come back alive in any case. The warrior smiled bitterly.

It's like I have died once already, anyway ... Can one get used even to death itself?

Within a couple hours of eerie silence, she reached her destination. The dark water of the lake lay still before her, a mute reflection of the surrounding environment. The warrior scanned the shore in search of the right place. It would have been easier to meet somebody in the cruel deserts of the east than on this bleak mountain. But she grew so accustomed to being hunted that she would have never given up on such precautions, not even if she was the only living creature left in the world.

Eventually, her eyes located a cleft among the rocks, sheltered enough from winds and prying eyes. As soon as she set foot in the little cave, she realized it was even deeper than she had first noticed. However, part of her resisted the idea of leaving her equipment there.

Why?

Like all sisters, she had sworn that she would have never touched those waters with clothes which could offend the spirits of those places. It was just an old custom of her people, the same people to whom she was dead since time immemorial. However, even if her sisters forgot about her, she still had an oath to fulfill.

The warrior started undressing, leaving her clothes and her armor on the hard rocky floor, but she hesitated upon parting with her sword. Once again, her combat reflexes fought fiercely to stop her from parting with that blade, which saved her so many times in battle. But after she stumbled for a bit, the warrior shook off her last doubts and left her weapon next to her other clothes. Seeing her equipment piled up before her gave her an odd feeling. It was like she left there her life as an exile and went back to when she was a young priestess, who knew nothing about the world beyond the Great Barrier. This thought unexpectedly warmed her heart.