Auther woke to pain before sound. He hadn't slept much and it showed, his left hand hummed with simmering pain.
It was a dull, persistent ache radiating from his left side, sharp enough that breathing wrong sent needles up his shoulder and into his jaw.
He cursed himself for doing something so stupid, the adrenaline at the time made the aftermath inconsequential, a light fall could be ignored for ten minutes but now he dreamt that the world to take this ugly pain away.
So he hadn't dreamed the toad. Lana did not know of it's existence to Viola it was inconsequential.
The camp was quiet. Too quiet for a forest that had tried to eat him the night before. He was so afraid of the grass in the camp that he burnt it down the moment his veins could carry more mana.
He pushed himself upright with his good arm and immediately regretted it. The world tilted, then steadied. Someone had splinted his arm with bark and cloth—cleanly done, if roughly. A faint herbal smell hung in the air.
Lana stood a few paces away, crouched near the water's edge. Far away from the camp, she heard he was injured and went searching for herbs.
Her hands were clasped together, knuckles white, eyes fixed on the surface of the pond like she was waiting for it to answer a question it hadn't agreed to hear.
Nothing happened and she went back to camp, finding him in such a pitiful state she had to ask.
"What happened?" she asked suddenly, with a caring look on her face. She had noticed Viola but she was not a problem to how she would behave.
Auther blinked. "…Long story."
She finally looked at him. Her eyes flicked to the splint, then away again. "Short version?"
"The forest tried killing me."
"More like a giant toad tried swallowing him whole." Viola replied as if peeved and Lana. Her shoulders shifted—just a little. Guilt, quick and sharp.
"Why do you look like that you know something about it?" He asked half not expecting an answer and if he did a negative one
"No how the hell would I know about that maybe the spirits are mad at you." She nervously sad twisting her pink hair.
Viola's voice cut in from the other side of the camp. "Spirits died centuries ago. Killed by the dragons."
Auther hadn't noticed her sitting there, back against a tree, arms crossed. Awake. Watching.
Lana didn't rise to the challenge. She didn't even look at Viola. "It." she paused thinking her words through. "was a joke..." she trailed off.
Viola knew she had reacted too fast but did she apologize no, she just turned and looked the other way.
Auther exhaled through his nose. The word spirit sat wrong in his head. He remembered how he'd pictured them before arriving here—gentle, benevolent, nature-loving abstractions. Was it really them and if it wasn't was the forest conscious.
Viola's gaze slid to him. "Are you actually considering that, even if one were to be alive why would they want to kill you. There is nothing worrisome about you."
"Can't rule it out, the things that kill you are those that you cannot predict." He answered weakly the pain came back, it came back in session that's what kept him awake.
He regretted leaving to follow the fireflies he should have stayed with the group. His face soon contorted to mirror the pain from his bone shearing against his muscles.
"I can make a healing potion," Lana said quickly. "It won't fix everything, but it'll help. I already have the herbs."
"No," Viola said flatly.
Lana stiffened. "Why?"
"So he remembers this," Viola replied. "Carelessness should hurt."
Auther let out a short laugh, half disbelief, half pain. "I got chased by a twelve-meter frog and broke my arm. I think the lesson landed."
Viola ignored him. "Pain teaches faster than kindness."
Lana stood then, hands shaking. "It's better to have everyone functional," she said. "Even if you think they're useless."
Silence snapped tight.
Viola rose to her feet in one smooth motion. "I am the only reason either of you are still alive," she said coldly. "And likely the only one who will matter in this forest. You're spoiled children—both of you. Less than half my age, pretending ideals keep you breathing."
She turned and walked away, grabbing her spear. "I'm finding food."
The forest swallowed her steps.
Auther stared after her, jaw tight. "She has a talent for exits."
Lana didn't answer. She was already moving, gathering leaves and vials with quick, practiced motions.
By the time the sun climbed higher, Viola still hadn't returned. Lana took Auther to the pond, she could not leave him alone. Though she could not defend herself if it was who she talked to she had confidence.
Auther watched Lana kneel by the water again. This time she spoke aloud.
"If you're really there," she said quietly, "answer me."
"Who the hell are you talking to?"
"My first friend."
The surface rippled.
Auther's breath caught.
A voice—not sound, exactly, but pressure—pressed against the air.
Would you kill him for me?
Lana didn't hesitate. "No."
Then leave.
"Why do you want him dead so much?" Lana questioned.
Auther could not hear the spirit's responce but from how Lana was talking she knew this spirit wanted him dead, he would not forgive that.
The boy is an anomaly who will bring death to all things.
"Are you talking about the double soul thing?" Lana said.
Child no being has two souls I'm talking of his destruction god title. How can the God of magic bring destruction. He is an abomination.
Lana started to understand things a bit better one of his souls had a normal soul title the god of magic and his other the destruction god. A hypothesis formed in her mind.
"Are they in a binary lock where one has to accommodate the other and from nineteen years of binary development they could be both God seeds if he had awakened later he would have been much stronger." She hypothesized no idea if wrong or right.
"I cannot let you kill him and if you lay a finger on him I will never talk to you again." Lana threatened Auther wondered why she thought it would work.
You will forget friends for they are many but I will always be there in wind water fire nature or air.
"He is not just a friend he is a lover and I cannot live without him." She swallowed hard hoping it would believe her.
Lover how dare you lie to me child.
Lana kissed him just a peck no saliva no anything, she hated it, she never thought she would kiss a man she escaped it fast
Five days after that nothing will stop that boy's death.
"Thank you Gia, five days is more than enough."
The water stilled.
Auther looked at her confused bewildered in fact but from the conversation he knew she had done that to deceive the spirit.
The kiss felt like nothing, with Viola it was magical ad overwhelming but now it felt strangely distant.
"Thank you for doing that for me." He said
"I can't let my friend be killed by a psychotic spirit can I?" Lana joked
They both returned to camp pale but steady. She finished the potion, knelt beside Auther, and held the vial out to him.
"I'll help you drink it."
"You can talk to spirits?" Auther asked as he forced the medicine down his throat.
"You actually think it's a spirit aren't they long dead?" She teased, he viewed that that kiss broke a wall in their conversations. She wasn't even shy just selectively extroverted.
Now she could even tease him, or was it a coping mechanism for not telling him earlier.
"I don't decide things based on Viola," he said. "I decide them myself."
Something in her expression softened. Sad, but relieved.
"I'm jealous of that," she admitted. "That clarity."
Auther took the potion, grimaced as he drank. "I'm jealous of your innocence."
She smiled faintly at that.
They sat in silence for a while, broken only by the water and distant birds.
"So how did you meet Gia it's obvious you two have history?" He pushed
"When I was younger," Lana said at last, "I could see mana flows. That's how I met her. Gia."
"My papa lived in the woods that's why I can identify medicinal plants so easily." Lana shook off a chill and pushed through. Something was wrong about that statement.
"Gia was like a little sister to me, though I know she maybe be multiples of my age back then just a little sister. So you can imagine how bad I felt when my father said we were leaving the forest, I apparently had to learn like the other kids my age."
"Let me guess it was not easy letting go?" Auther asked hand almost going to her hand, but she backed off shaking off the intimate moment.
"No Auther she asked me to run away with her, I told her I could not but would come back on holidays, next thing I know papa is dead. I ran away as far as I could when I figured that out."
Auther listened without interrupting.
"But you know I didn't know she would follow me until I somehow told her that f she does not leave me alone I wouldn't continue being her older sister. She left I assumed guilty but now we meet again."
Auther saw a pattern this time much sadder his mother had lost his father and her old friends. Viola abandoned as a baby and Lana chased by a psychopathic sprit
When she finished, he said quietly, "This world is… scummy."
She huffed a weak laugh. "That's one word for it."
"But it's only half the equation," he continued. "The other half is what people do inside it."
She looked at him then, really looked.
"A person once told me," Auther said, choosing his words carefully, "that you're only as strong as the chains that constrain you." He shrugged slightly. "If such a stunning young lady doesn't like her chains… she should break them."
Lana blinked. Heat crept into her cheeks. "…You're flirting."
"Observational encouragement," he corrected.
She shook her head, smiling despite herself. " It's not cool waiting for a person's weak point to flirt don't do that."
"Noted." He felt it sting he felt scummy he took such a traumatic time and tried advancing on her.
"I'm sorry."
"For the flirting?" Lana questioned
"No for the traumatic past I can't imagine how hard it was for you."
Lana paused, her expression softening for a real second. She let out a breathy laugh. "Now that was better. Stick to the empathy, Auther. It suits you more than the 'observational encouragement' does."
As she walked away, Auther leaned back against the log, staring at the canopy.
Five days.
Chains or not, the clock was already running.