COF 2: The Soul Spells

2 | Run (I)

2412 Strilaxis 9, Reshpe

Reeca's wings flapped in the dimming light. Every time she flexed her back muscles, pain shot off to her shoulders. She cursed.

Since she left Cardina, her wings started throbbing. Two days later, it didn't register how much the landscape had changed, from beige, barren fields to green, dense layers of trees. Her memory contained just one word over and over—pain.

She looked back without thinking and eyed the tear dangling at the corner of her wings. The blue seemed out of place against all the green around her but who cares about that? She groaned as she flapped her wings to soar higher. As usual, her temples throbbed in sharp, searing pain.

Before she left the human territory, she had examined the arm-length tear and decided it wasn't much to worry about. Her wings were fine. It was just a little tear.

Jokes were on her because two days after that, her wings became the most uncomfortable thing she ever carried on her back. Basic wing care and she neglected it. Nice going there, Reeca.

She had tried mending it using weaving magic but the tear only got worse. So she let it be.

She had no choice. Not when she had to use her wings to fly the fastest she could to Oaksham, the Varichria's trading and livelihood capital. Reeca recalled cursing audibly as soon as she killed off Rhys's message on her trailwhisperer a few days ago. Of all the places her brother could choose a rendezvous point, it was the Weaver's Capital.

Not only was Oaksham noisier than Reeca would have liked, it was also where the rest of the Varichriais were. The chance of people recognizing the both of them was not only high, it was the only outcome Reeca could imagine out of this situation.

But Rhys called her to say that he had discovered something. Knowing her and her brother's propensity to never stay out, Reeca knew she had to get to Oaksham as fast as she could.

Now, she was flying past the border between Cardina and Narfalk. In just a few hours, she would be inside Narfalk. Reeca sighed as she craned her neck to look at the dimming sky beyond her. After so long, she still found herself back to where it all started.

The sun set over an hour ago, giving way to the second sphere in their timetellers. Crozal, the Crimson Mother, shone from somewhere in the atmosphere, raining her rays on people below. Nestled among the clouds and countless stars and their constellations lie both Murco and Aravid, contributing their meager light to turn the sky into a dark shade of olive.

Reeca sighed. These moons' presence didn't assure her the slightest bit. Cold wind blew her hair off her forehead as she flew above the trees' crowns, the color of sky deepening their multicolored hues. Had these trees been this tall?

She scoffed. She sounded like a mother fussing over her children except those children were trees.

Reeca shook her head and she angled her body. The cold, night breeze slapped her cheeks harder as she dived lower into the forest, tearing through the canopies. Her wings refused to carry her higher, no matter how hard she flapped them, so she had to drop closer to the ground. Even when it meant people seeing her more than she expected or liked.