Page 53 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 53- NEMINA

I didn’t know what it meant, when Ullna and Yaseer looked at each other as if they had just heard the world was about to burn, when Baz, even Baz, looked mortified.

Noxstone. It must have been the material the Prince’s daggers were made from, the ones that looked different from other blades. The same steel I had used to kill Karl.

That must have been why, why this wound couldn’t heal, why the blade had broken into my skin.

That damned silver haired, sandy skin toned Captain.

“You must…be mistaken,” Yaseer said, almost hopefully.

“I am not mistaken,” the cloaked man replied.

“But there’s no way—" Baz began.

“Anyone could survive,” Yaseer finished.

“Noxstone in her back, severe burns to her face, a surge of powerful energy in the Palace,” Ullna spat out each fact.

“There is only one individual who would own Noxstone in that Palace,” the cloaked man said.

“The Vulture,” the braided woman said. She hacked some saliva into her mouth and spat into the sand as she uttered the words.

Ullna came towards me with venomous intent. She had been warning the man to stay away from me, yet now, she charged towards me. I wasn’t afraid of her, but I wasn’t pleased at her approach.

“You foolish girl! You’ve risked everything. How did you manage to cross paths with that man? Does he know why you were there? What happened?”

The Prince was a ‘man,’ but I was a ‘girl’? Weren’t we around the same age?

As she grew closer, the cloaked man stood.

“Ullna. If she fought the Prince and lived, if she took a blow from Noxstone and lived—" Yaseer began.

“Then what? What does it matter if the Vulture is coming for us now?”

“It matters a great deal. I have never seen someone survive a blow from those blades. This is highly unusual,” Yaseer insisted.

“This goes beyond your curiosity. Our safety and security are paramount. She is a liability.”

“You were the one who sent her there, Ullna,” the cloaked man said.

“No…that was Yaseer. I always said it was a mistake.”

“Nevertheless, this is not something we can ignore,” Yaseer ignored the accusation of his error.

“It is certainly something the Vulture will not ignore either.”

“He doesn’t know,” I said. “He doesn’t. He’s still alive. It’s only that I…found something.”

They all turned to me.

I glanced at Baz, who understood immediately.

“What? What did you find?” Ullna asked.

Baz asked me. “You confronted him?”

I didn’t answer.

“Deliberately?” Baz sounded alarmed.

“You sought him out?” Ullna asked, growing increasingly angry.

A deep shame sunk in my chest. I had acted on emotion, and I had not thought about these people’s safety or security.

I had only thought about those guttural screams.

“He will not talk,” I tried to reassure them.

Yaseer rubbed his forehead, exasperated.

“You…spoke to him?” Ullna sounded furious now.

The cloaked man sighed. “Perhaps you should let her explain, rather than asking her so many questions.”

“Please…do. Explain,” Ullna drew out her words.

“I found information about the draining centres in Audra.”

I explained the contents of the message. It wasn’t hard for the others to figure out what I had meant when I had asked Baz if ‘it was true.’ He was looking at the sand the whole time I spoke.

They were all startled, silent…waiting for me to finish. All of them were likely as nauseated, shocked, and terrified as I had been when I had first read the note myself.

“It was signed with the Prince’s name. I went to confront him, thinking I could extract more information, but there was a complication…there was…another man.”

Ullna interrupted, “Another man? Who? And you did this without informing us? Without asking?”

I continued the story regardless. “We fought and I…accidentally, touched the other man’s skin and then—"

“The surge,” the cloaked man stated. He and Ullna looked at each other. Ullna turned to Yaseer.

“What did you see?” Yaseer asked.

How does he know…that I saw anything.

“I…it was a battle. It was in Kalnasa, and it was a slaughter. There were people cutting down and killing the children, the adults, the animals, and laughing. They were…” I thought about the vision. “I couldn’t see their faces. I didn’t…know if it was real.”

“It may be,” the cloaked man said, “In the future.”

“Divination,” Yaseer said.

My ability, divination. That was, class two. I was…class two.

“So that was the future?” Baz asked.

“A version of it,” Yaseer answered.

“That letter, it mentioned Kalnasa,” I remembered.

“I should have anticipated this,” the cloaked man said, sounding frustrated.

“The Vulture has always been beyond our understanding or surveillance,” Ullna tried to reassure him.

“It’s not him,” I said, sure of that fact now.

“But you said it was signed with his name, you and he fought—" Baz asked.

“It’s not him. Someone used his name purposefully.”

“Of course, he would have you believe that. That man is a liar,” Ullna stated, as if she knew him personally.

I shook my head. “After I saw that vision, I wasn’t able to fight. He could have killed me then, but he didn’t.”

“He let you live?” Baz asked, surprised.

“How…bizarre,” Yaseer said.

“He must be planning something,” Ullna concluded.

“He was investigating the centres. While I was there, setting up those traps, I met him for the first time. He claims he discovered something was amiss about them and wanted to find out what it was. If…”

I suddenly stopped talking, grabbing my chest, the pain in my back grinding deeper.

The cloaked man fell to his knees in an instant. “She needs to be treated. Now.”

“She hasn’t finished explaining,” Ullna said coldly.

“She will not be able to finish if she dies.” The man placed his hand on my back and another on my arm, holding me up.

He turned towards me. “N…may I call you by your name?” he addressed me.

I could barely look up. I didn’t answer his question.

“It…it’s…it hurts.” I was trying my best not to sob. How I had been able to speak up until this point was beyond my understanding.

“I can imagine so. Nobody has survived a strike from Noxstone, so the agony of that is…undocumented,” he said.

“Please…get…it…out,” I begged him. A moment ago, I had been asking him to remove his hands from me, now I was imploring him to place them wherever he needed, as long as the agony would stop.

“It will be painful.”

“This is painful,” I couldn’t help but snap.

He didn’t say anything, he only held his right hand out.

“Hold it.”

I glanced at him questioningly.

Holding hands, touching my face. This was all becoming far too intimate.

“You’ll need to hold onto something.”

“I…agghhh.” I bent forwards further as the pain intensified. It was as if the steel was digging deeper into my flesh by the second.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard.

It was soft, and warm. A glow emitting from his palms radiated a soothing heat. It was green, and gold, like the colour of leaves in the morning.

I stared at that glow, I focused on that light, as he placed his left hand on my back and began to apply pressure.

I couldn’t contain it.

The cries that escaped my lips sounded as if they had been choked out of my throat with a thousand clawed hands. I kept screaming.

Over and over again.

The sound of someone crying reached my ears like a distant echo. It was the woman Baz had come with, I realised.

Why the fuck was she crying? I was the one in agony.

My body trembled. I was sweating. My stomach was turning. I was squeezing the man’s hand so tightly. I could hear, could feel, as I began to crunch at his bones.

And then, a wet crack. The sound of them breaking.

The man only took a sharper breath in and continued.

Ullna however, was not pleased. “Your hand!”

“Be…quiet,” he grunted.

It felt as if it went on for an eternity, as the shards were dragged through muscle, sinew, blood, and tissue.

But eventually it was over and I, trembling, placed both my palms onto the sand, and hurled up the contents of my stomach.

Drips of water darkened the sand, falling one after the other. I had started crying.

The man’s palm rested on my back still. He placed his arm around my shoulder slowly.

To heal an injury like that, must have been exhausting for him.

I couldn’t help but think about the fact that if he hadn’t been here, I would have died.

He must have been one of the only Darean Healers in existence, and yet he was here, now.

I looked over at his hand, which he had brought to his chest. I wiped the sick off the back of my chapped lips.

“Your hand—"

“It will heal.” His voice sounded softer and weaker.

It wasn’t healing.

“Healers cannot heal themselves,” Ullna explained.

“Class one abilities are not without cost,” Yaseer added.

“Why…didn’t you say?” I looked up at him.

“We need you to live.”

“Need me to live,” I repeated his words in a mumble.

“We also need to discuss what we came here to,” Ullna reminded the others.

The cloaked man whose hand was still around my shoulder, said, “I no longer have the time.”

Ullna laughed bitterly. “Yes, well, that’s hardly surprising.” She glared at me.

“I’ll return when I can.”

“But that means—" Baz began.

“You will need to remain in Audra for a few days,” the man confirmed.

“Is that…wise?” Baz said.

“We have no choice but to now,” Ullna informed him. “Let’s discuss.” She motioned for the other two women to follow her. They did. Yaseer and Baz followed her slowly, but lingered behind, waiting for me, I presumed.

I turned to look at the man. His face was close to mine.

“Your…hand,” I muttered, repeating myself again.

His lips stretched in a confused half smile. “You need rest.”

“Why are your hands soft?” I asked him.

A frown replaced his tentative smile.

“Only the rich have soft hands,” I spoke. “Who are you?”

“I’m a Healer,” he said softly.

“No… you’re"— I shuddered, suddenly feeling a deep chill — “someone important. You’re someone powerful.” Since the shards had been removed, I’d regained some of my strength, and my ability to think, and talk.

Yaseer was standing far away but frowned, as if he could hear our quiet voices.

Of course he could hear them. He had taken my sight.

He was a Sense Transformer, I realised.

I reached for the cloaked man’s hand. He tried to pull away, but I grabbed his fingers.

“You won’t see anything, if you touch my skin.”

“How did you know I was trying to?”

“Why else would someone who dislikes being touched, touch someone?”

“Why can’t I see anything if I touch you?” I asked him.

“Can you stand?” he answered with an unrelated question.

I tried to stand, but failed, miserably. My legs were still shaking.

“I…I’ll wait a while.”

“You cannot stay here,” the man said, looking at me intently through his hood.

“Neither can you. You said so. Your disappearance might be noticed?”

He ignored my attempt at uncovering his identity.

“You are more than they said you were,” he said, removing his hand from my arm.

“Than who said I was?”

“They’re afraid of you,” he told me.

That seemed obvious to me, but still I asked.

“How do you know?”

I moved my neck so that I could look at the bottom half of his face more clearly.

“Healers can sense the emotions of others.”

I suppose that made sense, since Healers could mend the mind as well as the body. But it was only usually ever temporary when they soothed the mind, from what I had heard.

“So, you can sense mine then?” I looked at his chin.

“I can.”

“What can you sense?”

He didn’t answer.

I laughed, but I could hear the despair in it. “If you can sense my emotions, then you can sense…that I am afraid of myself.”

His hand had fully moved away from me now, but he was still crouching beside me.

“I will return soon.”

Why is he telling me that?

“I will try to return as soon as possible, so that you do not have to stay here for too long.”

That's why.

“I was here for twenty years.” I laughed. “What’s another twenty days?”

“I know,” he said.

My eyes searched his mouth and his neck, having nowhere else to focus. “They told you?”

He didn’t answer.

“I need to go.”

“Back to your Castle?” I remarked, sarcastically.

Why had I said that? This man had just saved my life.

Maybe that was exactly why.

He hesitated as he moved away from me, then chuckled. “If you say so.”

He stood, then Baz, noticing that he was leaving, walked towards us. Yaseer had already disappeared.

“How long were you a Vessel?” the man asked Baz suddenly.

“Seven years but…I—"

“Have been assimilated?”

Baz nodded again.

“How long was she?” he asked him.

Baz looked at me confused. I didn’t move. “Twenty…” he said warily.

The Healer was checking. He was checking to see who knew certain information.

Just as he was about to leave, the Healer crouched beside me one more time, and came very close to my ear. He spoke directly into it, “Do not tell anyone anything, apart from this man.”

I looked up at him, eyes wide with confusion. “Why?”

He seemed to be smiling as he replied, “You broke my hand, you owe me this much.”

I frowned. That had been unlike anything the man had previously said.

“You don’t trust them,” I realised out loud.

He remained bent forwards.

“Why should I trust you?”

The man reached out cautiously for my chin again, with his unbroken hand.

I didn’t back away this time. What would have been the point? He’d already touched my face multiple times.

Witnessing the fact I remained still, the man leant forwards and put his first two index fingers very lightly under my chin, lifting it up slightly again.

“I already know you do,” he said quietly.

I jerked my chin away and let out a sound of irritation.

He closed his two fingers into the palm of his hand, smiling slightly as he stood.

That was a lie. He couldn’t tell something that wasn’t true. I didn’t trust him. At all.

“Distrust has a distinct feeling,” he stated proudly.

“You mustn’t be looking for it correctly.”

He held his broken hand in the unbroken one.

“With you, there’s plenty to see.”

I stood very slowly and felt instantly dizzy. My ears rang, and my vision flickered. Baz grabbed my elbow.

“How are you going to explain that to your noble acquaintances?” I asked, nodding at his hand. I could feel Baz’s eyes on me, probably wondering why I had assumed this man had any.

The man smiled softly. “Are you concerned?”

“Wouldn’t you be able to ‘see it’ if I were?”

He tilted his head to the right. “You’re concerned about much. It would be impossible for me to tell.”

“And didn’t you say you were in a hurry?”

Baz cleared his throat, sounding like he was hiding a laugh.

The man looked at Baz and me. “Are you together?”

“Are you leaving?” I replied.

Baz looked down, pressing his lips together harder. He obviously found this amusing.

The man pointed at Baz slowly. “He cares for you a great deal.”

I was beginning to wish I had lost consciousness when I had been healed earlier, if only to avoid this conversation.

“I know that.” I staggered, I needed to lie down.

The man took one step towards me. I held out my hand to stop him.

“Go. The sooner you leave, the sooner we can get out of this place,” I said.

He nodded, beginning to turn around.

“And…thank you,” I said, quickly, before I could change my mind.

The man turned around slightly and spoke, “It was nothing.”

I broke his hand. I probably drained his energy enough that it wouldn’t return for hours, maybe even days. How had it been nothing?

And knowing that, why had I been so insistent on speaking to him so harshly?

I knew, I realised, it was because I didn’t trust good intentions without reason, without ulterior motives.

The man moved away and walked towards the Teleporter. He vanished with her, behind a blue wall.

I sank to my knees as soon as he left.

“Why did you stand up?” Baz asked.

“I don’t know,” I grumbled. “Who is he?”

Baz shook his head. “Only Ullna knows, apparently.”

I huffed. “So, we’ll never find out then.”

“Not unless he takes that cloak off.”

“We’ll just have to come up with a scheme to make him.”

It felt nice to speak with Baz again, I supposed, even if I was reluctant to admit it.

“I missed you.” The words slipped out of my mouth. I turned away from him as I realised what I had said.

Baz appeared in front of me. His jaw dropped slightly, then he smiled brightly.

“Don’t say anything,” I tried to stop him.

“I knew you loved me.”

“I’m just practicing for our act when we get back.” I avoided eye contact with him.

He laughed and then, much to my surprise, picked me up.

“Ughhh…no…what—"

“I’m just trying to make sure the act is believable.”

I was once again, too exhausted, and too tired to argue.

“Your gifts?” I said. “Put me to sleep?”

Baz nodded. “Yeah.”

“Class two,” I mumbled.

“So are you. Can’t say I’m surprised.”

“A Healer…they’re class one, aren’t they?” I asked.

“Uh-huh. I can’t believe he actually exists.” He sounded in awe of the man.

“He’s not a God.”

“He’s the next best thing.”

“Leaving me for him?”

He giggled. His laugh always sounded like a giggle. “First chance I get.”

“That’s it. You should use your telepathy to make him remove his hood, then you’ll get to see his face.”

“What do you think he looks like?”

I huffed. “I don’t know. Normal.”

“Normal?”

“What do you expect me to say?”

The Prince’s in-depth description of the Captain suddenly came to mind, for no understandable reason.

“I bet he’s beautiful. He has that…look,” Baz said. We were getting closer to where Yaseer and Ullna were waiting now.

“What look? You can’t even see his face?”

“A presence then?”

“A presence ?” I rolled my eyes.

“Oh, come on. He’s the tallest man I’ve ever seen. He’s all smooth voice and long fingers.”

I furrowed my brow and raised my upper lips in a scowl. “He’s rich, whoever he is.”

“Why did you say that thing…about noble acquaintances?”

“His hands were soft,” I explained.

“Oh really?” He looked down and raised an eyebrow.

I tutted. “No. I mean…they weren’t calloused.”

Baz understood but still said, “Anything else about his hands?”

“You were the one analysing them.”

“I can’t see his face, what else am I supposed to do?”

“Avoid looking at him at all.”

“It’s impossible…it’s his—"

“Presence?”

Baz nodded mockingly “I knew you’d understand.”

I sighed. “He told me not to trust anyone but you.”

Baz nodded and his voice became more serious. “He thinks there’s a traitor here.”

“How do you know?”

“He was here, after the attack. He told Yaseer, Ullna, and I.”

“So why doesn’t he want me to speak to them?”

Baz shrugged and I moved in his arms as he did. I winced in pain.

“Sorry! Sorry,” He grimaced apologetically. “That Prince is a vicious shit, huh?”

I thought about the Prince and shook my head, “He’s vicious, but he’s—"

“He’s what? You’re not defending him, are you?”

“He was never there Baz. Not once.” He was never in the draining centres.

“And? He can’t have been completely unaware of what they were doing.”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“If you’re a Telepath, can’t you tell who the traitor is?” I asked him.

“Not yet.” His voice dropped to a whisper as we approached the others.

He dropped me to the ground lightly. There in front of us stood Ullna, Yaseer, and Faina.

And there was another individual with them. Someone I didn’t recognize.

He was slender, tall, his chestnut hair stood out from under a cap, a white one. In fact, he was dressed completely in white.

I recognised that uniform instantly.

He held out a tanned hand in introduction.

“The name’s Vykros. You can leave your energy surge to me.”