The Witch of Storn

Chapter 12

Rey stared at the man in grey leaning against a tree. All the while her mind was working furiously. He knew her name? It wasn't an impossibility— there were so many ways for him to have learnt it. However she and Malra had been cloaked and were hooded, how did he know she was the one he was naming? Her eyes fell on Malra.

"What did you do to her?" she demanded. He had already gotten her where he wanted; there was no need to be courteous.

"Oh, nothing really." He spoke in a distracted manner, like he had something more important on his mind. Rey's fists curled up into a tight ball. Her chest burned with indignation. Who did he think he was? She sighed and released her fingers, forcing herself to be calm. Anger was not going to help her get out of this, whatever it was.

She tried again, this time with a more cordial tone.

"Is she going to be alright?"

"Hmm?" He looked up, blinking at her. Rey had never before been so eager to hurt any human being. Was she actually supposed to believe he had forgotten her presence?

He pushed off the tree into an upright stance, twirling the knife in his fingers again. Finally the fear returned to Rey. She had somehow managed to delete the fact that he had a knife from her thoughts. She watched him like a hawk as he stepped closer to the still frozen Malra. He waved a hand in front of Malra's eyes. Unsurprisingly there was no response. He nodded to himself and stepped around her, jumping over a gossamer thin string that Rey was now seeing for the first time. She stared as he weaved around the strings and the pieces clicked into place.

Malra had walked into a web.

Even as she watched him approach she took large steps backward. She stopped when she almost fell backward, hitting her heels against a root. She righted herself and looked up fearfully, at constant alert. Then she frowned. Where did he go?

Something made her look over her shoulder. She jumped with a shriek, quickly turning round and backing up. Her eyes refused to leave the smug smile of the man who only seconds before had been beside Malra. She placed a hand over her thudding heart, trying to contain the frenzied beating. It wasn't working. She had never felt such terror in her life, not even during the trial.

All the while that smug smile never changed. He just stood there, watching her shake and smiling. Finally Rey couldn't stand it. She refused to let him play with her emotions like a cat would to a mouse.

"What do you want? And what did you do to Malra?" This time she didn’t care about her tone. He already showed that he didn’t come with good intentions, so there was no need to be polite.  At her words he stood a little straighter. Rey could feel the seriousness in his manner. At last they were getting down to business. She clenched her fists to keep them from trembling and stared him down coldly.

He looked over his shoulder at the petrified girl. “Oh, her? She’ll be fine in a while...that is, if nothing comes along to eat her before then.” He chuckled and carried on. “She’s just caught in my web, that’s all."

Rey’s relief on hearing that Malra would be fine was abruptly cut off by the words that followed.

“As for you...” the words were accompanied by the point of the knife staring her right in the face. “You won’t be so lucky.”

He advanced towards her with the knife menacingly directed at her. She didn’t need to be told to run. Unfortunately as she dashed through the trees she could hear him following, hot on her heels. Before long there was a shrill whistle and Rey dived as quickly as she could, grimacing as she felt a swift gust of wind pass over her head. A second later there was a loud thunk as the knife embedded itself in the tree in front of her. Rey stared in shock at the hilt that poked out of the thick tree trunk before coming to her senses and getting to her feet. She began to run again, thanking her luck. If the knife had hit her she would have been dead for sure.

The chase went on like that for what felt like an eternity to Rey. She would run for a few moments, and the next thing a knife would be whizzing millimeters from her face. It became a vicious cycle and soon Rey was panting heavily. She wanted to stop so badly. If only she could get just one moment to sit and rest her aching legs, to calm her furiously beating heart. Luck didn’t seem to be on her side in this new world though. A sound registered in her mind and Rey threw herself to the side a moment too late. The pain in her cheek told her the knife had finally made contact with its intended target, and on bringing a shaking hand to her cheek her fingers came away bloody. Rey didn’t even bother berating herself for the momentary lapse in alertness. She just picked herself up the best she could and ran.

From that point on the knife never missed. The cycle had started again. It began as usual with Rey running. The next event would be the knife grazing any part of her body it happened to fly past. The last thing that would happen would be Rey falling and picking herself up again to start the cycle all over again. After a few repetitions Rey finally caught on. The cloaked assassin was just playing with her.  He could have killed her anytime he wanted, with that unearthly speed of his. For some sick reason he was drawing it out, making Rey wear herself out. She almost wailed from the pain that gripped her heart upon realizing this. She was so scared. She absolutely wanted to cling to whatever life she had left, but she was getting fatigued. She was so tired of running and falling and doing it all over and over.  Maybe that was why her cuts were getting deeper and deeper, and her clothes were now wet and sticky with blood.

Finally, as she stumbled out of the trees and onto a cliff, the knife came at her again. Even if she tried, there was no way for her to dodge. It dug into her back, drawing a sharp scream of pain from the girl. She fell forward from the force, landing with her face a few inches from the edge of the cliff. Her eyes made out a rushing river below her before she turned away, gasping uncontrollably as she tried to get to her feet. She only got to her knees before the pain made her collapse. This time she didn’t move. She just lay there, curled up like a foetus, staring through her dimming vision at the pair of boots that walked leisurely up to her. They stopped in front of her face.

Rey closed her eyes and took a deep, painful breath. Why? She wanted to ask. Why do you want to kill me? However she wasn’t given the chance to do so. There was a powerful kick to her abdomen and Rey was falling. She landed with a splash as the water washed over her.

Rey knew no more after that.

******

High above the world, in a space not unlike one Rey had visited once…

He lounged in his throne, moving his eyes over a piece of paper. Then one of His eyebrows was raised as he observed the words written on the paper. They were rapidly changing and rearranging themselves, finally settling into a paragraph that made Him nod in satisfaction. Things were finally going back to normal. As He set it down on the table before him He failed to notice that the letters were active again. New letters appeared at the bottom of the page, and later he would stare in frustration and confusion at the words that changed everything for a certain soul.

Rhaenar Aera il Tsaen [anima lacuna].