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Hejira: Crystalline Hall

By Mantrid Brizon

Episode 14: She Who Fights Everyone

Several days have passed since Kelly and Faye escaped the three bear's clutches. Every day they hike throughout the day, and well into dusk, stopping only when it is barely light enough to see without tripping, or falling off a cliff. They march through the pass, following Marcella's trail clear over the top and down the other side of the mountain range. Just as Marcella said, they clear the mountains in only a few days.

On the other side of the mountains, the trail from Marcella's pass winds through the forest. exiting in a clearing. In the distance, a wide and well-traveled path can be seen. They pick up their pace and make it to the path. It is so thoroughly trampled, and the dirt so tightly packed, that it could almost be considered a genuine road. Using the position of the sun, they discern north and continue walking. Within a couple of hours, they see a village in the distance, very similar to Marcella's, but considerably larger.

They approach the village, but as they enter, no one seems to greet them, or care that they are there. Having limited food left, and very little water, Kelly takes most of the coins, agreeing to meet Faye elsewhere, after he buys supplies for their journey. To Kelly's dismay, Faye promptly heads for the nearest tavern. Faye disappears into a building with a wooden sign that displays a hand carved ale cask. Kelly walks through the town, looking at the various signs hanging above the shops.

He comes to a cul-de-sac with booths lining it, all selling various wares. Knowing that they need food to last the journey, he examines the wares of a dry goods booth. He purchases a considerable quantity of a dry, crackeresque bread, assured by the shopkeeper that it would keep for at least a week. He purchases scores of long strips of dried fish and beef as well, wrapping them in cloth and packing them tightly within his pack. He purchases dried berries and salted pork from another booth.

With enough supplies to hopefully last until the next town along the road, he walks back to the first gate, retracing his steps and returning to the tavern. He pushes the heavy wooden door open, looking around the room. It is lit by dozens of candles, and the few plate glass windows that are built into the stone walls of the structure. Faye sits on a simple wooden stool in front of the bar, an empty seat on either side of her. He approaches and sets his pack down between them.

“Well, I have what we need. Ready to get going?" He asks.

“Have a drink. Unwind." Faye says in a dry monotone.

Kelly looks to Faye, who turns her eyes toward him. Her blank face gives him a chill down his spine. Though he wants to leave, he decides to placate her. He turns to the barkeep and orders a pint of ale. For the first time in his life, he consumes alcohol, sitting beside Faye. He is barely half done with his pint when a strange, redheaded girl approaches him. She takes a seat beside him and smiles.

“Hello there." She begins.

“Hi." He says as he looks her over.

“You're new here, aren't you?" She asks.

Kelly nods silently in response. She looks him over and seems interested in what she sees.

“So, what brings you here?" Kelly asks.

“I live here." She answers. “You look like you could use some company."

“Well, technically I have company, but she's out of order at the moment." Kelly quips, pointing back to Faye.

The girl giggles and reaches out, taking a hold of his hand.

“I'm much better company anyway." She says as she pulls at him.

“I bet." He murmurs.

He gets up from his stool, following her lead. He turns back to Faye, who stares at the two. To his surprise, the girl walks towards the staircase that leads to the tavern's bedrooms. She begins climbing the stairs, pulling him up behind her; he doesn't hesitate to follow. A few minutes pass as Faye finishes her pint, before grabbing Kelly's unfinished mug. Faye asks the barkeep for another. He sets the mug of ale down onto the counter. She chugs Kelly's leftover ale, before taking hold of the new mug and bringing it to her lips. She is approached by a man who takes a seat beside her, claiming Kelly's stool.

She doesn't seem to notice him, paying him no attention. After a moment, he leans closer. As she drinks from her pint of ale, he whispers something into her ear. Her eyes grow wide as she blushes. She grits her teeth and becomes angry; the rage is building.

“I'm not interested." She grumbles as she turns to him.

“Alright then. How about ten if you just show me your breasts." He asks, holding up a small coin purse.

“No…" She says through clenched teeth.

“Come on. It's easy coin, and I won't even touch you. I just want to see how good those big things look." He pleads.

“I'm not a whore." She says to him.

“Are you sure?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.

Faye is offended and enraged. She turns her body to face the man and rests an elbow on the table, flattening her hand as she faces her palm towards him. Her fury is at its peak.

“Bye." She says with a sinister grin.

Upstairs, in one of the tavern's rooms, a bed creaks and shifts as the redhead gasps and groans. Kelly kneels atop the bed near the footboard. Situated behind his lover, with her on her hands and knees before him, he holds onto her hips tightly. He moves his pelvis back and forth with considerable force. She gasps and leans forward before moaning loudly into a pillow.

“Oh shit…" He grunts as sweat beads on his forehead.

Suddenly the room tremors from as a loud blast comes from below. The candle on the nightstand tips over and dies; wax runs down and drips onto the floor. Kelly and his lover both lose balance.

“Shit!" Kelly yells as he pushes away from her.

He struggles to pull up his pants as he falls off of the bed, landing on the hard floor with a loud thud. He climbs to his feet and pulls up his underwear and pants, quickly dashing out of the room and back down the stairs towards the bar. He looks around, desperate to see what has happened. Faye stands before the bar, her stool tipped over as a man lies before her, writhing in agony on the ground. Using an aura push on him, Faye has broken his nose and popped his eyeballs like balloons. Patrons gather around her as Faye cracks her knuckles in preparation, a wide grin on her face.

“Well?" Faye asks the crowd.

A man rushes her as she reaches out and uses another aura push, crushing his ribcage and heaving him across the room. He slams into the stone wall; blood spews from his mouth as he struggles to breath. Several more patrons rush her, but Faye reaches out with her other hand, throwing an aura flame at them. She sweeps the inferno through the crowd. Kelly watches in horror as Faye seems to enjoy burning the unarmed barflies. The barkeep hides behind the counter, cowering in fear. Hearing his pathetic grumbling, Faye turns back and snickers. She reaches over the counter, smiling at the terrified man.

“Hello there." She says, waving a palm.

“No! Stop!" Kelly cries out as he rushes down the stairs.

Faye blasts the man with flames from her palm. Kelly stops at the foot of the stairs, while the barkeep gets up from the floor. He waves his arms wildly, flailing about as he smacks into a wall and rolls over it, before falling dead onto the ground. His body singes and turns the color of charcoal, as pieces of his skin and clothing flake off, landing as ashes on the floor. Faye laughs aloud as she holds the flame on his body.

The few remaining patrons have since escaped, pushing their way through the heavy wooden door, leaving it open. Faye turns to Kelly and aims a hand in his direction. He ducks down and puts his arm up before him, creating a translucent, cobalt blue aura shield.

“Faye! Stop! It's me, Kel!" He yells at her.

Faye moves her hand, and Kelly can hear the screams of the redhead that he was sleeping with only moments earlier. He turns just in time to see Faye's push slam her into the wall, crushing her chest, and splitting her flesh at the sides. Organs and entrails spill out from her open wounds as she collapses dead on the ground. Kelly looks at the gore and turns away, vomiting violently over the side of the staircase.

“You're just upset because you didn't get to finish." Faye laughs.

He looks to Faye, seeing the expression on her face. He now realizes that Faye truly enjoys killing people.

“She was a whore anyway. I saw her head upstairs with two other men before you came in." Faye adds.

“She never asked me for money." Kelly comments, wiping his bottom lip with his shirt sleeve.

“Then she was either a stupid whore, or was giving you a freebie. Either way, you won out, but if I were you, I'd get myself tested when we get back home." Faye smirks.

Faye turns around and casually walks out of the tavern, passing through the open doorway. Kelly stumbles down the stairs, trying to keep up. As he approaches the doorway, he sees soldiers armed with bronze swords, clad in leather armor surrounding Faye.

“You need to come with us, and answer for your crimes!" A soldier demands in a stern tone.

“I'm sorry, officer. Did you need to shackle me?" She asks with a suspiciously innocent voice.

She extends her wrists out before her, as though surrendering. Kelly immediately pushes the heavy wooden door shut, hiding behind the wall, next to the door and opposite the hinges. He presses his back to the wall, just in time for Faye to perform a powerful shock-wave. The men all scream, and some of them sound as though their voices become quieter. Simultaneously, the heavy door is blown from the hinges, flying across the room, and striking the wall on the other end of the tavern. The plate glass windows shatter as glass flies through the room. Parts of the wall crumble from the force of her shockwave. Gray and tan dust fills the tavern.

Kelly looks around the corner to see that Faye is standing alone. Many of the soldiers are dead, having been flung into hard surfaces. Other soldiers are simply gone, having been blown dozens of meters away from her. Soldiers from nearby buildings and the village watchtowers fire arrows at him. They merely assume that he is in league with her. Kelly has no choice now but to escape with Faye or be killed. He brings up his shield and grabs Faye by the arm, pulling her back inside.

“We have to get out of here." Kelly gasps.

“Yes. I figured that out on my own." Faye smiles.

“We need to move through the town and keep heading north." Kelly adds.

He takes his pack from before the bar counter and looks to the man who's face Faye had mangled. He is still alive and gasping for breath. Faye looks to him with a blank expression. Kelly stares back at her in silence.

“Kill him." Faye suddenly says.

“What?!" Kelly looks at her in shock.

“He is clearly suffering. Put him out of his misery, or I will." She continues, pointing a palm at the man.

Kelly looks down at the man who struggles to back away, visibly terrified. Kelly takes a deep breath and forms his aura blade from only his palm, something he had never tried before. He swings the blade at the man's neck. To his surprise, it bends like a whip. The flexible blade glides across the poor man's throat, swiftly decapitating him as arterial spray flies out; a brief crimson geyser leaves them both in awe.

Faye chuckles at the sight before turning away and walking for the open doorway. A part of the wall begins to crumble as a fire slowly consumes the interior of the tavern. Kelly takes a final look at the carnage before shaking it off and rushing out of the tavern, staying close to Faye. They fight their way through the town. Faye keeps soldiers at bay with her aura push and flamethrower, while Kelly guards them both with a large aura shield.

They soon reach the edge of the village on the north end. As they head for the gate, they see a child crying over a corpse of one of the soldiers; Faye had killed the little girl's father. Kelly approaches the child slowly, but she backs away. She turns her head to look past Kelly, only for another push to throw her into the stone wall several meters behind her, snapping the girl's neck and spine on impact. Kelly spins around to see Faye holding out her hand, a twisted smile on her face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Kelly screams at her.

“She was an orphan now. I did her a favor." Faye rationalizes.

“WHAT?! You don't know that! She might have had family! A mother, and brothers or sisters!" Kelly cries.

“Oh…" Faye rubs her bottom lip with her index finger. “I suppose you're right. Well, I'll just go find them real quick." She says as she turns back around.

“No! We're leaving right now!" Kelly yells.

He dashes toward her and grabs her by her arm, pulling her back toward the open gate. Faye laughs, as though this were some sort of game. The soldiers and villagers have since stopped attacking them, seemingly content with allowing their adversaries to leave peacefully. Kelly drags Faye down the road and away from the town, moving as swiftly as he possibly can. Faye suddenly knocks his hand away from her and stops.

“We should go back and take care of them." Faye says as she looks toward the town.

“What? No. We're going to keep moving. Do you think this is some kind of game or something?" He demands.

“Something like that." Faye smiles.

“Faye…" Kelly sighs as he steps in front of her view. “What about Naomi? Don't give up on finding her." He tells her in a soft and comforting voice.

“Naomi… Right… I can't leave her in this nightmare." Faye mutters as she looks down to the ground, a solemn look on her face.

She turns back to the road and follows it. Kelly walks a distance behind her, watching her closely. He feels horrible for the villagers, but also for Faye as well. He knows that after this, she may be completely lost. Is she redeemable? Does she even realize what she has done? They hike down the road, exiting a fork that turns into a single, large and well-traveled path. This path moves almost directly north. As they hike, dusk approaches.

While looking for a place to camp, a horrible stench fills their nostrils. Approaching the source of the pungent odor, they find the corpse of a Sahvorai. The maggot infested body is difficult to identify, but it appears to be a rabbit-man. His body is mangled beyond recognition, but Faye notes a bullet hole in his skull. Realizing that Gareth must have killed this man, she stands and turns to the road.

“We're right on their trail!" Faye exclaims.

“Are we? He has been dead a long time." Kelly points out.

She runs down the road ebulliently, as Kelly struggles to keep up. She completely ignores his logical statement.

“Faye! Slow down! You're going to lose me, here!" Kelly cries out.

“I'm sorry, Kel. I'm just so excited. We aren't far behind. Naomi is over there somewhere, and so is Gareth. Then we can escape, and I want to wake up!" She exclaims.

Kelly hasn't seen her so excited since before they left for the temple in Belize. She slows her pace, staying close to Kelly, and the two continue to hike north. Though they soon set up camp, Faye keeps her eyes on the road, smiling pleasantly. She can't wait to find her sister. Kelly sits away from Faye, watching apprehensively. She is still the same girl that he grew up with, in body, but her mind has morphed into a stranger that he cannot trust. He wonders if it is even safe to sleep, lest she hurt or abandon him during the night, but he doesn't have any other choice.