Page 71 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 71 – BAZ

I waved my hands frantically in front of the Healer.

“You can’t…go in there!” I half-yelled, half-whispered at him.

We were standing outside Nemina’s tent.

Although his face was covered, I could see the frown at the corner of his lips. “Why?” he asked.

“She doesn’t like visitors. Or anyone to be quite honest. But that’s…I mean…she doesn’t want you in there.”

The Healer stood there like a tree, its leaves gently blowing in the wind, calm and rooted, firm and unperturbed.

“She requested that?” he sounded indifferent.

“Yes…yes,” I replied regretfully.

The Healer glanced at the tent’s entrance for a moment then turned around and leisurely walked away.

“Where are you…is that it? Are you leaving?” I called out after him.

“Where’s your tent?” he asked me.

“My…my tent?” I replied. “It’s next to hers…you’re walking the wrong way, if that’s where you want to go.”

He only nodded.

I gestured for him to come towards me, then strolled into my tent with him.

We had long since left Audra and were now hiding within Kalnasa. Despite our reservations about being here, there was no way we could linger in Audra after what had happened.

Going to Audra had been a mistake. Nemina had been very right about that. All we’d managed to do was to nearly get ourselves killed, alert Audra to our existence, and get Nemina badly wounded.

But here, in Kalnasa, it was only a matter of time before we had to leave.

Although we were staying in the outer plains, and had even scaled up Kalnasa’s mountains to find shelter, the brief moments we did spend in and around the larger villages, were horrific.

There was no way to find food here, no way to sustain our survival.

It honestly felt as if we were jumping from one disaster to the next. I wasn’t even sure Yaseer had a plan anymore.

I settled down. A chill breeze slapped against the tent's fabric. The Healer sat opposite me.

“So…you wanted to talk?” I put to him.

The Healer nodded again. Not the speaking type, I had noticed, which wasn’t exactly ideal.

“About….?” my voice rose in pitch.

“How far along are you, in mastering your abilities?” His voice was deep, but cool, and gentle.

I puffed out my lips, the air escaping them in a sigh. “Not far. I mean what happened in Audra was just desperation, I guess, but then, you know, I passed out afterwards, so I’d not exactly say I’m very good at it.”

The Healer had one of his legs crossed over the other, looking down at his own legs as I spoke.

“What you saw…” he started.

I tensed up.

Yes, what I saw, what he showed me.

“I won’t tell anyone.” The words tumbled from my lips.

The man only nodded again.

I wanted to, I wanted to tell her but…

I didn’t even fully understand what I had seen…only…partially.

“Will you?” I asked him, “Tell her?”

The man shook his head.

“But—"

The harsh slap of the tent opening sounded from behind me.

“I need some of your—"

I spun around. The Healer looked up over my shoulder.

Nemina had entered the tent.

Well, hobbled in.

Her hand was over her abdomen, her face pale, a purple smudge under both her eyes.

She slowly turned towards me, her eyes filled with confusion.

“What? You said I shouldn’t let him in your tent, not mine!” I protested.

The Healer stood as I defended myself.

“You are ill,” he stated.

Nemina straightened up, but it was obvious she found it difficult to do so.

“I’m not ill.”

I winced at Nemina. “You do…look ill.”

She looked at me in vexation.

“Your injuries have not healed?” the Healer asked.

“Wasn’t it you who healed them?” she replied, raising an eyebrow.

The Healer remained silent.

“I can’t sleep, that’s all,” Nemina explained, casually.

Seeing an opportunity to divert the topic in the silence, I turned back to the Healer.

“Have you seen Yaseer?”

“I have not.”

I stood. “I’ll get him for you.”

“Don’t”

“No.”

Nemina and the Healer both spoke at the same time, looking at each other after they did.

I stood between them, my head turning from side to side, unsure of who to direct my question to.

“Why?” I ended up saying to the air.

The Healer and Nemina both glanced at each other, wondering who would answer.

“I’d prefer to keep this between us,” the Healer explained.

I sank back down.

“What about Ullna, she knows who you are doesn’t she?” I peered at the Healer.

The Healer didn’t deem my question worth answering.

“Why did you kill him?”

“How did you do that?”

Nemina and the Healer both asked each other a question at the same time, again.

They stared at each other.

“Don’t you two know how to have a conversation?” I asked them.

I raised my eyes to meet theirs. Looking at them both, I realised, the answer to that question was obviously no.

“Wait,” I realised what they had both said, “What did you do?” I turned to Nemina.

But it was the Healer who answered. “She manipulated blood.”

Nemina’s jaw clenched, and she gulped slightly. “I thought that was you.”

“It was not,” the Healer stated.

Nemina let out a slow breath. Her eyes fell to the ground, but her face was still tense, her eyes shifted around as if trying to make sense of everything.

“I don’t know how,” the fatigue in her voice was clear. “I don’t even know how I used divination. I don’t know anything.”

The Healer tilted his head watching her. “Have you told them?”

“If he doesn’t know,” she pointed at me, “Do you think they do? Besides, I just said… I thought it was you.”

“Blood manipulation is an Acciperean ability, not a Darean one.”

Nemina seemed unbothered, “I didn’t know that either.”

“Seriously?” I looked at her. “I mean…it’s manipulating blood.”

Nemina gave me a displeased look. “Right, thanks.”

“But you can manipulate blood, I mean that’s…”

Nemina looked at my face, clearly wishing for me to stop talking about the blood.

“Anyway…you killed someone?” I squinted at the Healer.

But Nemina answered for him.

Speaking over each other, answering each other’s questions. These two were beyond help.

“One of those soldiers,” she added, “As soon as they saw his face.”

“Then you know why I killed him,” the Healer said sedately. “It is the way it has to be.”

Nemina frowned, but she knew he was right. So did I.

“So…urrr…does that mean, if we see your face, you’ll kill us instantly too?” I asked.

The Healer was silent.

“Really?!” I sputtered out.

“It is the way it has to be,” Nemina repeated his words, imitating the unfeeling way in which the Healer had uttered them.

The Healer’s mouth twisted into a mixture of a smile and a sneer.

“If you are going to do it, make it as quick as you made it for him,” she requested.

I raised my hand tentatively. “I’d truly prefer you didn’t do it at all. I mean, you know I can keep my mouth shut so…”

Even though I couldn’t see his face fully, the demeanour and body language of the Healer warned me to shut my mouth, now.

Nemina didn’t notice anything strange, fortunately.

“What did you need?” I asked her, trying to alter the topic.

“Leave it,” Nemina said dismissively.

“So…is that why you didn’t want to see him?” I asked Nemina, pointing at the Healer. “Because he killed someone? I really didn’t think that you, of all people, would have a problem with that so…”

Nemina let out a sharp sigh and turned to me.

I raised my hands up. “I just think that if we’re going to work together that we should… you know…get everything out there and…you know…be honest with each other.”

The Healer was watching me confusedly.

“He’s like this, just ignore it,” Nemina told him.

“That’s not fair! It worked on you, didn’t it?" I smiled and raised an eyebrow.

Nemina tutted and looked away.

“You didn’t say no!” I laughed.

She shook her head, but the corner of her lips turned up slightly.

“My thigh,” she said softly. “It’s not fully healed.”

“Is that it? You didn’t want him to know? Seriously? He can heal it for you and—"

Nemina shook her head. “It will heal itself eventually…but…” She looked up at the Healer. “If he tries to heal it again, he’ll use all his energy. I’m sure he’s already exhausted it the first two times without saying anything. He can’t just keep doing that over and over again. I can’t take it all for myself.”

A long stretch of silence passed, during which the Healer and Nemina stared at one another.

“You think I would have given it all to you?” the Healer asked, his voice tinged with genuine curiosity.

“I don’t know.”

“Ah, yes…you don’t know anything,” he smiled.

“That’s a really ridiculous reason for—" I started.

Nemina side-eyed me.

“Why were you even standing all this time?”

“I get it! Alright!” she exclaimed.

“Don’t know anything. That’s true,” I mumbled. “You don’t know how to be sensible either.”

“I’ll leave now,” she said, moving away.

The Healer stepped forwards. Nemina noticed and turned around.

Will he? Tell her?

She searched his half-covered face from side to side. “Yes?” She pressed.

He took something out of a place deep inside his cloak and held it out to her.

Green, glowing, bright, two of them,

Enoliths.

Nemina glared openly at his gloved hand.

“Why?” She sounded truly taken aback.

“In case a situation like Audra repeats itself.”

“What… and you’re going to stop whatever it is you’re doing and answer my call instantly?” She smiled to herself, eyeing the Healer curiously.

The Healer was silent a moment before he replied.

“Take it.”

Nemina wasn’t foolish, she would, I knew now, do whatever she needed to do to increase her chances of survival. She didn’t care about pride and so, she gently took the stone from his palms. Then without sparing him a second glance, walked out of the tent.

“Don’t I get one?” I asked the Healer once she left.

He looked over his shoulder at me.

“Forget I asked, forget it,” I cleared my throat. “I get it…she’s…you’re…”

The Healer said nothing.

“You know…I already know—"

“I do,” he said before I could finish.

I already had a very vague sense of his appearance. I had seen parts of it when he had shown me his memories. But since they were from his perspective, I hadn’t actually seen his face, only his hair, or his reflection in a sword.

But here I was, still alive.

“You just said you’d kill anyone who saw your face.”

“Did I?” The corner of his lips curled up.

I frowned and thought back on the conversation. He was right. He hadn’t. Nemina had just assumed it and he had…remained silent.

“You didn’t correct her though. Why? Don’t you want her to see your face?”

“No.”

“Really…but—"

“It is not necessary,” the Healer stated.

“Not sure that makes any sense…it feels…very important to me.”

The Healer took a breath in and returned to his original position, sitting down.

Then, he raised both his hands to the sides of his face, to his hood. They halted there for a moment, as if he were unsure.

And then, he drew it back.

It was one thing to see glimpses of his appearance in vague and hazy memories and another to behold his face in reality.

He didn’t even look human. If the Gods did exist, I imagined they would look exactly like him.

No, they definitely would.

The same colour as the enolith he had just given to Nemina, two large but slightly slanted green eyes met mine, framed by hair that had been hidden away.

Hair so long that it touched the floor.

Hair, tinged with a hint of gold, but so pale.

His face so delicate and long, just as his hands were.

He does have a presence. Even Nemina wouldn’t be able to deny it.

But I couldn’t even tell her.

And he didn’t want to show her.

He took off one of his gloves and held his hand out to me.

I was still stupefied by his beauty and didn’t even spare his hand a glance.

“Who are you? I mean…I don’t recognise you…so… who?”

He chuckled and drew it back. Then, with his iridescent gemlike eyes still fixed upon my dazed ones, he replied.

“My name is Raviel.”