The Broken Ones

Chapter 4:3 -Confessions

The company travelled throughout the day without any trouble. Though Soi wondered if the others knew about what had happened that night, if Ana had told them that it was Sam who had wounded him. Sam- who was supposed to be dead.
Soi himself hadn’t given it much thought. How could he be alive and why did he attack him? Wasn’t Ana and Sam friends, even if Ana herself had said otherwise her behaviour so far proved the opposite, they were close friends. Just as Nebelius had said.
Then why had he threatened Ana? She had been on the verge of tears when Soi had found her. And even in this strange world raising a dagger to attack is not the proper way to greet a friend. Soi was dumbfounded by everything that had happened in the last couple of weeks, it was more drama than he had ever lived through before on his home island. He tried to ask Ana about what had happened but the timing was never right, she seemed to avoid him.
In the afternoon they arrived to a lake with clear water. It was small and the setting sun reflected its warming light on the lake’s surface. It looked like a golden coin.
-When we reach the other side of this lake we’ll set up camp for tonight, Ana instructed the rest and walked off before the other got to complain.
Nibbles sighed deeply and stretched his stiff back. He hadn’t once left the back of his roan stallion, not even during the lunch break. He had persisted on staying mounted and had seemed anxious to get moving, unlike the other days when the breaks were the essential part of the day. Even his horse acted up, he kept stepping nervously and several times had the stallion rush away as if something had bitten its rear end. But now as Nibble yawned, the stallion relaxed as well. Nebelius turned his tired eye to Soi who led his mare. He looked at him for several minutes and Soi got a bit nervous.
-You seem a lot better than I would have expected, Nibbles said at last.
-I heal fast.
-Yes, extremely.
It was as if Nibbles eye bore a hole into Soi, who desperately tried to think out a way to escape the pressure.
-Considering that it was Ana who treated you, it’s a miracle that you survived.
Nibbles slowly smiled broadly.
-What do you mean? Soi wrinkled his eyebrows.
An arm was flung around his neck. Soi turned his eyes to the left and met Sassa’s cheeky eyes.
-She’s not, what ya call, caring, she said with a low tempting voice and looked deep into Soi’s black eyes. –But you sure look otherwise.
-Oh, he is the most caring guard of Ana’s I’ve ever met, Nibbles chipped in, not really helping Soi in the upcoming situation.
Sassa’s arm pulled Soi closer to her and her hand begun to stroke him a bit freely. He was caged.
-You don’t say, Sassa said seductively. –Tell me more.
-Well, as I connect things it looks like Ana tried to escape him in Sofara but Soi persistently hang on to her, which of course saved her life when she was attacked by a monster and Soi cut its stomach.
-You killed a monster? Sassa seemed actually surprised.
-It’s not certain that it died… Soi tried to get through but was interrupted by Nibbles who practically hung out of his saddle to be a part of the conversation.
-Oh yes, he killed it! And saved Ana, can you believe it? It’s not like she needs to be protected, really.
-Then what was she doing at the time, if she had to be saved?
-She was sleeping!
-No! You’re kidding me! She couldn’t be! Not Ana. Sassa was very thrilled by the mere thought of Ana sleeping, her face was one big sassy smile. -Oh, this Sam-business is more serious than I could have imagined. Oh, happy day!
She clapped her hands and made a little jump, like a five year-old.
-What happened next? What happened next? Tell me, tell me!
-Oh, we met up in that little village and the same night Soi was harassed by a dreamer so Ana gave him…, Nibbles voice declined dramatically and were barely a whisper. -Her ring.
Sassa gave a screech and covered her mouth with both hands.
-You mean, Sam’s ring, she whispered back equally dramatic, her eyes glowing in excitement.
-Yes, the exact one.
-Oh my, my, my. And she said that there was nothing between them, isn’t she a good liar.
Soi was left out of the conversation, completely forgotten and was equally happy to be so. It didn’t seem to be more than gossip in his ears. Apparently Ana was a big sensation among the brokens.

By nightfall they had reached the other side of the lake and they set up camp. Soon a fire was sparkling and they all gathered around it, eating in silence. Or rather, Soi would have wished it was silence but Sassa and Nibbles seemed to have found each other and sat with their heads together. Tittle-tattling and laughing by turns. Sometimes they looked up and watched either Ana or Soi or both, and burst out in annoying giggles and pointed their finger in the others direction. They acted like a pair of extremely silly girls, which could have been an amusing scene as Nibbles looked nothing like a little girl with his one-eye pirate look and hat and gloves. But as Soi knew that their gossip was about him and Ana it was more tiring than funny.
The day had been long even though Soi was completely healed the mental wound hadn’t healed yet. Sassa’s poor muscular guard seemed quite at lost what to do now that Sassa wasn’t constantly touching him in inappropriate places and he looked lonely. And Ana was lost in her own thoughts, at least that was what it looked like. She didn’t react to Nibbles and Sassa’s childish sniggers and just looked out to the lake. Perhaps it was an act to avoid any unwanted questions from Soi. But they had to talk sooner or later, Soi thought. He stood up and took Ana’s hand. She looked confused up to him
-We need to talk, he said which created another wave of giggles and oohs from the two most silliest brokens in the camp.
-What are you going to talk about? Sassa called after them and Nibbles cried with laughter.
Soi dragged Ana away from the camp and closer to the lake, and she followed unwillingly. By the shore he released her hand and turned to face her. Her eyes were their usual shade of grey but didn’t have the same edge as they usually had.
-So what do you want to talk about? She asked grumpily.
-Explain to me how Sam, who you swear is dead, end up trying to kill me? Why? No, how, no why, no how?! How come he isn’t dead?!
Soi’s frustration welled up and his words cut through Ana. She lowered her head and looked down to the ground. Her answer was merely a whisper.
-He is dead.
-He clearly is not! He tried to kill me! Unless he can live through dreams in some sort of miraculous magic way.
-He is dead, just not the usual way.
-In what other way can you be dead, I wonder, up-side-down perhaps?
-Don’t be mean. He isn’t Sam anymore, that’s what I mean.
Ana’s eyes filled with tears and sat down on the ground.
-So when Sassa asked if he was dead-dead or just dead…
Soi looked closely at Ana. He folded his legs beneath him and sat down opposite Ana.
-Sam’s considered dead-dead in terms of brokens, he’s not a broken anymore.
Ana cleared her eyes and tried to be matter-of-fact.
-What happened, I mean, he must have used magic to get you into his dream so he isn’t powerless, mustn’t he?
-No he’s not powerless, but the magic he’s using now isn’t the natural kind. He’s not a natural broken anymore, Ana said and added silently. -If he ever was.
-A natural broken?
-Didn’t Nebelius explain this to you? About the broken ones?
-Magic as a compensation for different injuries.
-Exactly, but he probably left the bad side of the story, Ana said and bit her inner lip in worry.
Soi wrinkled his forehead and looked at Ana with worried eyes as well. Worried about what was to come. Ana sighed, apparently she had decided to tell the whole story.
-The good side in the magic world are the broken ones. They have obtained magic the natural way, through injuries caused by accidents- you were born blind, you tripped and broke an arm or someone smashed your leg, Ana’s smile was strained and Soi noticed it silently. –The bad side or the evil magic is obtained from injuries you have caused consciously- you took a rock and crushed your hand, you cut off a finger.
Soi looked at Ana with fear.
-You mean they hurt themselves to get to the magic?
-Yes. But this kind of magic isn’t just called evil because the people who obtained it are stupid enough to hurt themselves but because the power they obtain is destructive for both themselves and their surroundings and the magic is addictive. Once you start to cut off a finger to get to that little rush of magic, you can’t stop. Your body will, over a period of time, transform beyond human form.
-They’ll become monsters.
-Yes.
-As the ones following us.
-Yes
-How long have you know?
-I found out just before I came to Sofara. The thing is that they only become monsters when the sun goes down. During daylight they look like us… I think. Another thing is that they only attack brokens, not normal people. This is new information for me. But I have to go back to the Academy and report about this, there is something bigger behind it all. I think there is a sect trying to create brokens that they later control.
-By create, you mean…
He wasn’t sure wanted to know the truth, but he met Ana’s eyes steadily.
-I know you have seen my leg, so you know it’s not natural, I wasn’t born this way, someone made me this way. For all I know, I have limped since I was a baby.
She hit her leg in anger.
-You mean someone… Soi was sickened
-Yes, someone smashed my left leg to pieces when I was still an infant.
Tears begun to trickle down her already tear swollen cheek, but her voice was steady and unaffected.
-That’s horrible.
She blew her nose and brushed off the teardrops. She faced him with a serious face.
-Yes, but in this world of magic some are willing to break rules and bones to get their hands on the most powerful forces. Like it was with me, they take an infant and damage it some way.
-That’s disgusting, to injure small children just to possess some magic.
-It is. But it isn’t just any kind of magic, you know that the earlier the damage is created the more powerful the child will become later in life. If you could possess someone like that you could rule the world the world if you wanted to. So far, I don’t think anyone has succeeded to create a real broken. Anyway, Sam…
-Sam’s a monster, Soi realised.
-Yes, but I don’t know for how long yet.

To be continued...
By J.L.Frick