In which Lethia accompanies Megan and Pyralis

Chapter 15 of The Time-Teller

Chapter 15
In which Lethia accompanies Megan and Pyralis

 

Megan shook Pyralis awake. He stood up swiftly.

 

“What is it?” he asked.

 

“I don’t know,” Megan said. “There was a crash as if someone…or something fell out of a tree. I’m not sure. I couldn’t make out any shapes. The night is too dark.”

 

“I’ll go see if there is anything out there,” Pyralis said. Megan nodded. Pyralis wandered off, feeling the way with his staff. Megan sat down on the softest looking patch of moss and waited patiently. She had no doubt in Pyralis’ ability to take care of whatever was out there. However, Pyralis was no longer able to protect Megan as he was otherwise preoccupied. Megan sighed deeply and shook her head in silent confusion.

 

“Why do I need Pyralis’ protection,” she whispered to herself. “Why can’t I be as strong? What am I trying to prove anyway?” Megan pulled her knees to her chest and wept. She wept for her mother, for her father and for the predicament that had prevented her from saving them, but what could she have done about the curiosity that had drawn Megan toward the flickering Pyralis on that fateful day.

 

“Megan?” a soft voice spoke in Megan’s ear. “Megan, things are not always what they appear to be. Surely, you must have learned that by now, little one.” Megan turned sharply in the direction of the voice, but only the dense trees returned her gaze.

 

“Who are you?” she whispered. “I recognize your voice.”

 

“You will learn in time, young girl. You will learn in time, but first, you must find us. You must. We need you to find us. We need you!”

 

“Why me?” Megan asked.

 

“Because he can no longer see the way,” the voice replied as it faded slowly into nothingness.

 

“No longer see the way?” Megan asked, suddenly picturing Pyralis’ blind eyes. “I don’t understand. I-I don’t get it. Which way?”  Megan twisted herself into a ball. She felt hopeless and lost, not just because she knew they were no closer to Gethin than when they had first started out on this journey. Megan wanted to avenge her parents’ loss more than anything else in the world. She felt tears trying to force themselves out of her eyes, but she dared not cry again. She did not want whatever had disturbed her watch to see her tears. She didn’t want anyone to see her tears. She didn’t want anyone to feel her pain, and so she wept silently inside her heart and her mind until Pyralis’ return.

 

    ***

 

“Who am I?” the young woman woke up slowly, stiffly. “Why can’t I remember my name?” She stared down at her tattered, bloodstained clothing. Her left side ached and she had some difficulty sitting up. Her face was badly bruised, and she could feel that both of her eyes were black. “What happened?” She vaguely remembered the events of the previous day, but the images, although they were vague, haunted her mind. She had awoken with her hands tightly clenched to a log as she drifted about in a swampy patch of water near the shore of this place. She could make out the blue water of the ocean past the marsh in which she had been floating. The woman closed her eyes once more, remembering.

 

“That man,” she whispered.
As she had slowly paddled towards land, a man had appeared. He’d seemed to be wounded and had been cursing fervently. “Why did he attack me?” The question stung her mind as she tried to recall exactly what had happened.

 

“Hello!” she remembered calling out. “Are you well enough to help me? I don’t think I can make it to the shore.” She had been aching and soaked to the bone. The man had looked up at her, pausing in his stream of curses. Then, he had floated up into the air and drifted toward her.

 

“You’re a wizard!” she’d said. The man had nodded and reached out his hand as if to help her. She had grasped his hand and immediately been lifted from the murky waters. Then, she remembered feeling something as if her stomach was burning from the inside and the man had said something inaudible, punched her several times then thrown her to the bank. There, she lost consciousness.

 

“But… what before that?” the woman asked herself quietly. She could not remember one thing from her life. She could not even remember her own name.

 

She brushed her hand through her muddy hair, which was so filthy that she could not even make out its color. She glanced down at her tattered garments and then up at the dense forest behind her. Slowly, she stood up, clutching her left side with one hand and a tree branch with the other.

 

“Can anyone hear me?” she tried to yell, but the words came out as a coarse whisper. She was glad for the density of the forest, for as she walked, she was able to grab onto tree branches for support. Thus, she maintained her balance. The day grew darker as she journeyed further into the forest. A bird sang somewhere in front of her, and the sound of waves seemed very distant behind. She walked on, dreading what might be hiding behind each and every tree.

 

“Will I die here?” she asked as her arms and legs began to lose energy and her body was overcome by hunger. Something hissed menacingly behind her.  The girl looked around and stared into the eight giant eyes, long hairy legs and oozing pedipalps.

 

“What the…” she tried to scream. Hairy legs surrounded her and began spinning her around as she was carried into a sticky nest in a tree. She closed her eyes. The image of a boy with intense blue eyes and wavy hair came into her mind. I wish I could remember who I used to know, she thought. Then, she heard voices. She could not make out what they were saying, but the spider suddenly began writhing as if in incredible pain. The girl squirmed and squirmed, managing to kick the tree with one free leg again and again. She did not know how long she did this, but eventually she fell to the ground, hitting her head on the stump of a tree.

 

“Ow,” she whispered. Then, tried to stand up, but she was half bound with white sticky ropes.

 

“Are you alright?” a thick, drawling voice spoke above her. The girl squinted in the gloom.

 

“No,” she whispered. “I… I…” her breath would not come to her.

 

“Can you walk?”

 

“No.”

 

“I’ll carry you to where I left my things. I can heal you there.” Pyralis bent down and took the girl, swinging her over his shoulder with his free hand. Then, he used his other arm to feel the way with his staff.

 

“Pyralis!” Megan sat up, startled. “Who is that?”

 

“I don’t know,” Pyralis put the girl down on the ground. She was breathing heavily and covered in a stringy, sticky, unidentifiable substance.

 

“My name is…” the girl began. “My name is… My name… I don’t know.”

 

“You cannot remember your name?” Pyralis bent down and felt the girl’s forehead. “Give me your hand.” She handed Pyralis her right hand.

 

“You are most likely a noble,” Pyralis said, as he felt her fingers. “These hands have not seen much work.”

 

“A noble?”

 

“We can’t very well leave you here. When I finish healing you, you can borrow our blanket and get some sleep. We’ll call you Lethia, if that is all right with you. We need at least something to call you.”

 

“Leth-i-a?” the girl smiled and closed her eyes. Pyralis reached into his bag and began to work on the newly titled Lethia. Megan lay down and began to doze. She smiled slightly as she heard the astonished gasp out of Lethia, knowing that Pyralis had probably healed her almost completely. Then, she slept.

 

 

“Megan!” Megan felt Pyralis’ hand on her shoulder. “Megan, it’s time to continue. Gethin is still moving. We have to hurry.”

 

“Who?” Lethia spoke drowsily.

 

“Ah! I forgot to mention that to you,” Pyralis smiled his strangely distant smile, and turned to face Lethia’s direction.

 

“We are on a mission to find the wizard, Gethin. He is a dark wizard and at the moment is wounded. There is no better time to put a stop to his evil than when it is at its weakest.”

 

“You’re…” Lethia started.

 

“Yes, finding a dark wizard,” Pyralis drawled.

 

“Blind,” Lethia finished.

 

“What? Oh, I’d forgotten about that,” Pyralis stared at Lethia. “Of course, I’m blind. Otherwise, we would have found Gethin by now in the state he’s in. Luckily, I have my assistant to be my eyes.”

 

“Assistant?” Megan flinched, but did nothing else to object.

 

“Well, now that you’re healed, we should get you cleaned up,” Pyralis closed his glazed eyes.

 

“Tay purgo et ahbluwo. Fimay raiceday!” Pyralis said softly. All of the dirt and grime that had clung so desperately to Lethia floated up and then disappeared into the ground.

 

“You look familiar,” Lethia looked at Pyralis closely.

 

“Well, I wouldn’t recognize you,” Pyralis spoke. “I’m sorry.” Lethia took a piece of her hair and looked at it. It was blonde, and looked as though someone had chopped it off with a dull blade to just past her shoulders.

 

Walking had become so normal for Megan that her legs rarely felt tired or numb anymore even when the whole day was spent walking.

 

“Pyralis,” Lethia said as they walked. “Does the wizard you mentioned have stringy kind of messy black hair and purple-tinted eyes?” Pyralis stopped at once and turned to Lethia.

 

“Yes.”

 

“I saw him!”

 

“You what?”

 

“I saw him. It’s the only memory I have. That… and floating in the mucky water.” Pyralis’ eyes grew wide.

 

“Then, we are closer than I thought! He wouldn’t have happened to touch anything of yours?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“He did! It will be much easier to catch him if we have some of his aura.”

 

“He touched my hand… and he punched me several times.

 

“He punched you…” Pyralis raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound like Gethin. Why would he do something like that.”

 

“I asked him for help because I couldn’t swim to shore. He picked me up out of the water and… and I thought he would help me, but…”

 

“Give me your hand,” Pyralis said. Lethia lifted her hand and let Pyralis take it. Lethia’s hand began to glow with a blue light.

 

“Megan, is there a light?”

 

“Yes,” Megan answered.

 

“A light?” Lethia seemed confused. “I don’t see a light.”

 

“I didn’t expect you to.” Pyralis said. “Gethin didn’t either. Is the light anywhere else.”

 

“Yes.” Megan said. “Just under and beside her right knee and on the top of her right arm. No where else.”

 

“So, he implanted those memories. Obviously he was carrying you, but it was someone else who wounded you.”

 

“Carrying me?” Lethia touched her hair in confusion. “If… if those memories were implanted then… then I don’t know anything about myself!”

 

“He obviously doesn’t realize that I have someone else with me who could see magic although my eyes are gone.”

 

“No longer see the way…” Megan whispered to herself.

 

“What was that?” Pyralis turned toward her.

 

“Nothing.” Megan looked around and saw at the top of a distant mountain, a blue light.