Chapter 7

The healer continued to look out to sea, unimpressed by the question. Now he behaved the same way towards her as he did with Sasha.  It seemed as if he didn’t pay attention to Cheyenne at all, but she stubbornly stood next to him until he finally answered. “You’d do well to curb your curiosity, honey… Why do you ask me these things if you don’t believe me anyway, I could tell you anything… You wouldn’t be able to filter out what the truth is. I know what your problem is, with this whole thing. You are insecure and do not trust me, although I have freed you from your misery, several times even… But your doubts are reason enough for you to think it possible that I could not be your ally, but your enemy, right? You’re accusing me of having something to do with the knights again, just because they know me? I beg you… Hehe… You have to decide for yourself who I am in your eyes… I wonder what you would do if you thought I was one of the ‘bad guys’. Would you kill me with an arrow too, chosen one? Like the knight earlier? A very precise, merciless shot in the head and a life is extinguished. You’re really good at aiming, and you even manage to look pretty when you kill, my Angel of Death…” Cheyenne flinched. How could he say such things? She had previously managed to push aside her remorse for the terrible offense, when he reminded her of it again. Why is he so mean to me? I had to kill the knight, otherwise Glaczio would have died. He should be grateful to me! He knows exactly that I’m blaming myself… and is doing this now on purpose… Just like before… He probably wants me to leave him alone… and don’t ask him these questions… And to get me out of my concept, he says these mean things that hurt my soul… Just so that I leave him alone… But why? What have I done that he is now suddenly so mean to me… If he continues to behave like this… he should just leave us alone and leave… Neither I nor Sasha would miss him much…

Agitated, Cheyenne turned around, there was no point in trying to talk to the healer any further. His words had hurt her and made her even more insecure and she didn’t trust him one bit anymore. He might as well be one of her enemies and might use a careless moment to kill her. At least that was the impression she had of him now. On the other hand, it was Glaczio who constantly protected Cheyenne and helped her. He had told her not to die. So why would he want to kill her? The fact that the knights and Atropax would rather see him dead than alive would also speak against it. But Cheyenne just couldn’t be too careful. She didn’t want to be robbed of life and it seemed as if in the future she would have to pay attention to every instinct she possessed and every little feeling. Everything in her cried out to be careful. If Glaczio was able to change his character from one second to the next, it is possible that he could do the same with his goals. Sasha had already indirectly mentioned that he always acts in his favor.

The girl was extremely confused and did not know how to assess the healer. It was more likely that he was her ally, but his behavior bothered her. Such a sudden change, which works against one’s own comrades, simply seemed strange. On top of that, he was always telling her lies, just to hide the truth at all costs, or distracting from the topic, which of course made the whole situation even more suspicious. In addition, Glaczio hadn’t pulled a straight face during the conversation and Cheyenne slowly realized that in addition to the friendly, helpful side, he also had one that was shady and unpredictable. He used his intelligence to be inscrutable. The girl could no longer tell when he lied and when he told the truth.

Simply leaving without a word, however, was out of the question for Cheyenne at that moment. “All right… I get it… Sasha is right. I should just not trust you and better ignore you. In my opinion, it would be better if we went our separate ways from tomorrow…” Without wishing him good night, she went back to her friend. The girl was glad that Sasha didn’t ask how the conversation had gone. Cheyenne sat down next to Adocaz on the ground by the fire and supported herself with one hand, stroking the fairy wolf with the other. She stared thoughtfully into the glowing flames. The young woman noticed her depressed mood and seemed to understand. “As I said… Be careful with him. You should try to get some sleep now, we have a long journey ahead of us. I’m going to keep watch at night and I’m not trying to dissuade myself, yes? Hihi. I’m sure you’ve already noticed that I can be stubborn, like a donkey. And don’t worry so much, tomorrow the world will look completely different again. So, at least until you’re really awake after waking up, after which reality catches up with you again. But at least it’s light again and we can see something. Sleep well.” Cheyenne snuggled up to Adocaz. Sasha had once again managed to get her mind off things and she even had to smile a little. Well, at least she is telling the truth directly… When I wake up, the worries return, that’s true… Hm, it’s really funny. She always and everywhere seeks out the optimistic part.  “Good night, Sasha… Thank you.” However, the girl was not tired at all and found it accordingly unfair that she should now sleep and the friend stayed awake because of her. But it was true that Sasha was stubborn, like a donkey and probably preferred to keep watch herself. In part, perhaps, so that she could keep an eye on Glaczio. Cheyenne closed her eyes and tried to calm down on the hard, sandy ground. After a while she fell asleep.

The flames of the fire danced soothingly and cracklingly. Glaczio stood about two meters away from the heat source and did not seem to intend to get any closer to it. He looked at the Chosen One of Darkness in her restless sleep and without turning away from her, he spoke to Sasha. “Hey, Sasha mouse, your eyes are already closing. I kindly volunteer to take over the night shift for you. You can thank me later.” The young woman rejected his offer. “And what do you dream of at night? As if I would just entrust Cheyenne’s life to you. Who knows what you’ll think of again… I really hope that the knights will get hold of you soon, because if not, I’ll kill you with my own hands, I swear to you… By the way, you did a great job earlier, you know she trusted you.” Glaczio closed his eyes and crossed his arms. “Hey, baby, get your act together. Shouldn’t it actually be in your interest that she no longer sees me as trustworthy? Now you have what you wanted… She will also become more cautious now, which is very beneficial for all of us. Oh yes, I almost lost sight of the actual topic. Basically, I have no particular interest in whether you leave the night watch to me or not. You’re so tired you’re going to fall asleep anyway. But don’t worry… I’ll take care…” Sasha narrowed her eyes and made a threat. “Remember these words, idiot, because you will hear them so often in the near future until the meaning of them enters your, oh so pretty, head. If you harm Cheyenne in any way, you have forfeited your life. I swear to you. I will not allow you to hurt her under any circumstances. Is that clear?” Glaczio was silent and sighed. Sasha knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with her tiredness for much longer, because last night she hadn’t slept a wink and watched over the girl and her health. Alone. Glaczio had been gone and only reappeared in the morning. The young woman was sure that he had spent the time of his absence with the pink-haired girl from the inn. She yawned and looked at the flames again. “In case I fall asleep, which certainly won’t happen: Dare to put out this fire. You can also keep night watch from up front.” The healer sat down and after a while his theory worked out and Sasha fell asleep.

The next morning, Cheyenne was woken up by Adocaz. He licked her face lovingly and woke her from her restless sleep. It was already beginning to get light, a pale colorful glow of the chromastars moved over the country and a new day dawned.

The fire was out and the girl looked around. Sasha was with the horses and tightened the saddle belt.  Glaczio walked further away along the beach. So he’s still here… “Oh, good morning, I hope you slept well. Although it looked more like you had nightmares, but that’s no wonder with what you’re going through at the moment. I tried to get rid of the idiot, but unfortunately he really wants to continue to come with us… I hope we manage to be in Wacoralis by tonight. This is a small beach village in the far west of Luminastrelle. From there a sand passage starts and when we cross it, we come to northern Halonia. At trot pace it is about a day’s ride from here, which means that we will be galloping for most of the distance, the faster we are there, the better. It’s really lucky that we got these horses, or rather stole them, because on foot we would probably die of thirst out here before we arrive in Wacoralis. Unfortunately, we have nothing to drink or eat… Ok, I’m done right here. So… I really hate to ask it, but could you go get Glaczio? We should start slowly.” Cheyenne nodded, apparently Sasha had been waiting for her awakening and had already made plans for the day in the meantime. The girl was now a little embarrassed to have slept so long. She made her way with Adocaz to the healer. Argh… Now I even have to go get him because he is unable to just stay here and help Sasha. Hm… Or maybe she sent him away. She said she wanted to get rid of him, so there was probably a fight… Well, I don’t really care what happened.

Cheyenne trudged through the fine sand and the fairy wolf ran a little way in front of her. Glaczio was now only a few meters away from her when she was suddenly pulled backwards, lost her balance and fell to the ground. However, the sand cushioned her fall and she landed reasonably gently. In front of her stood a tall man with dark blue, shorter hair and cobalt blue eyes. He appeared to be around forty years old and had a water elemental weapon. However, it was not a simple sword, but something the girl had never seen before; Two gigantic water blades were connected by a handle in the middle. The man was very muscular and radiated a strange calmness. He also spoke to Cheyenne with such. “Be so good as to let yourself be killed without resistance, chosen one. That makes it easier for both of us.” The tall man had spoken to her in the most polite manner, and even seemed to have respect for his victim. In his eyes, Cheyenne could see that he seemed to feel sorry for her. In addition, he gave the impression that he himself doubted his intention to kill her. Then he lifted the double blade and let it smash down on his victim, Cheyenne was able to turn away at the last moment and escape death. Her heart was racing, but she tried to stay calm and think clearly. She had learned that anything else would not help her in such a situation. The man raised his weapon a little again and narrowed his eyes, but not because he was angry. He had compassion and seemed sorry that he wanted to kill the girl. At that moment, Adocaz jumped at the blue-haired enemy and dug his teeth into his muscular arm. The tall man moaned in pain for a moment, but then he threw the fairy wolf away from him and the four-legged friend landed whining on his back, a few meters away from the fight site. Cheyenne took advantage of the distraction and took some sand in her hand and when the enemy turned back to her, she threw the fine pale yellow grains in his face. He seemed to have gotten some of them in his eyes, but raised the double blade again. Although he didn’t see where his victim was, it was guaranteed that the blow wouldn’t go nowhere. Cheyenne closed her eyes anxiously. But instead of feeling pain, she only heard something hit the enemy’s blade and shatter on it, but had enough strength to stop the attack. The girl opened her eyes and saw splinters of ice lying around her. Whatever had hit the man’s heavy weapon had been strong enough to make him stagger and he almost dropped the double blade. The sand didn’t seem to bother him anymore, because he had his eyes wide open and attacked again. The enemy seemed to want to kill Cheyenne at all costs, even if he was sorry. She closed her eyes again and made herself small, she would certainly not be so lucky again. The girl was already preparing for everything to be over and saw part of her life pass by in her mind’s eye. Hadn’t she intended not to die because of this Chosen Cause? So in the end she couldn’t escape her fate after all.

Then she felt a tremendous cold near her, but no pain. Is this what death felt like? But then she heard something hit the enemy’s blade again, but this time it didn’t shatter. Cheyenne opened her eyes and saw where the cold was coming from. Glaczio stood protectively in front of her and blocked the attack of the big man with all his might. It had been the icy air of his elemental weapon that she had felt. The ice sword was a lot smaller than the huge water double blade and the healer was nowhere near as strong as the muscle-bound enemy. The elements in the weapons also started a fight, because Glaczio’s ice blade kept freezing the water tool at the point where they met, but the water in the double blade moved in wild waves and steadily freed itself from the frost. Cheyenne was sure that the healer’s defenses would no longer be able to withstand the big man’s attack, and if he didn’t come up with something clever quickly, the enemy would crush him before the girl could get up to help her protector. Glaczio defends me again… I just don’t see through him…  Is he friend or foe?

Suddenly, the strength of the attack diminished, and the tall man opened his squinted blue eyes wide.  He seemed to realize that someone had stopped his attack and it looked as if he knew his counterpart. This reaction was the healer’s luck, because he would not have been able to maintain his defense for a second longer. Cheyenne had already noticed that his legs were giving way under the weight of the double-bladed blow, and if that had happened, the enemy would have had an easy time. He would then kill her and possibly also her protector. But luckily it didn’t come to that. Glaczio used his only chance to his advantage. His ice sword suddenly began to glow enormously bright blue and had become a lot colder again, as more cool air sank to the ground than before. The blade seemed to be more powerful now and the healer managed to completely repel the attack of the blue-haired, seemingly baffled man. Then the sword returned to its normal state. Has he transferred some of his power to his sword, or why is it so strong all of a sudden? Was this an elemental attack from the Ice Weapon, triggered by Mental Power Transfer? Hm… This is quite possible, because unlike Sasha’s pistol, the sword does not have a controller with which you can switch between attacks. If I ever have an elemental sword, they will probably explain it to me. I’d like to know earlier, but I really don’t want to ask Glaczio at the moment whether my assumptions are correct. He may have defended me now for some reason, but I’m sure he’s still in the same mood as he was yesterday…

Cheyenne hurried to get up, then grabbed her bow and unfolded it ready for battle. As she did so, the enemy’s voice sounded again, but this time not calmly, but angrily. “You… Miserable traitor!” He stood about two meters away from her and the girl saw that he was staring at Glaczio in anger. The enemy’s body radiated pure anger, but the girl could also see sadness in his eyes. This man… What is it about him? Aren’t anger and grief actually contradictory? And why did he feel sorry for me when he actually wanted to kill me? Either this guy is just weird, or he has a really hard life…  Glaczio tilted his head, looked at the enemy and asked him a question in his usual unimpressed and arrogant way. “Hm. Should I know you from somewhere?” The man clenched his free hand into a fist and gritted his teeth in a rage. Cheyenne feared that the healer had overdone it and that this statement could have disastrous consequences. The enemy was already raising the double blade again, whose calm water had meanwhile turned into stormy waves, and was about to attack with all his strength, which was now also strengthened by his rage. I know that Glaczio can fight really well, but maybe he underestimates this opponent… The knights he has defended me against so far were nothing compared to this man… He might still be able to cope with the strength, after all, he can dodge really quickly, well and even elegantly, but I don’t really know if this strategy can work with the guy. The double blade is huge, it must be really hard to dodge… Why did this idiot provoke the man?! And why does one of our enemies know him again?  

Cheyenne was annoyed with the healer, but he just stood there calmly, didn’t prepare for an attack and seemed to be waiting. She didn’t understand what he was up to. But then she heard footprints in the sand that were quickly getting closer. The girl looked around for the sound and discovered Sasha, who came running to her and stood next to her. Glaczio put away the ice sword, closed his eyes and crossed his arms. For a few seconds he remained in this unimpressed, disinterested and dismissive attitude. Cheyenne wondered what he was up to. But then it slowly dawned on her when Adocaz, who had picked himself up and seemed to be unharmed, came to her and growled menacingly. The enemy took a step back, for it was now four against one. So that’s what Glaczio was up to… It was his plan to wait for Sasha and Adocaz, because he knew exactly that this man would think twice about attacking us again or not, because we are definitely in the majority… The healer’s intelligence still left Cheyenne speechless.

In the meantime, the tall man was steadily retreating and was about to flee. “We will meet again, chosen one… And then I’ll make sure that no one protects you anymore.” Then the enemy fled in the direction of Saraley, but he seemed to have problems walking, because he was not very fast and limped from time to time. Nevertheless, his last words crept coldly down the girl’s spine and frightened her a little.

Sasha did not want to accept the attacker’s escape and aimed the pistol at him. “No, you can’t escape me! I prefer dead enemies to living ones. Especially when they look like they belong to the rulers among the knights.” Despite all that the enemy had said and done, Cheyenne did not agree with her friend’s plan. After all, the man had taken pity on her and seemed to have doubted his plan very much. Because of this, she wasn’t even so sure if he was actually one of the knights. The enemy had also promised her a reunion. If their paths crossed again, she would try to overcome her fear, not to die in the process, and hope to find out more about him. The blue-haired man was a very strong opponent and if he really doubted himself and his actions, it would be possible that the girl could convince him to change sides, because she would rather see him with the shadow servants so that she wouldn’t have to fight him again. His strength was breathtaking and he was a really serious and dangerous opponent. They would have a huge advantage over the knights if he joined one of the clans and was their ally. Cheyenne would only have to be convincing enough and survive until she had persuaded him. Hm… that’s very easy… I’ll make it… Oh, I’m so dead if I try to do that… But I just have to try, if the Shadow servants had him on their side, they could hold their own better against the knighthood. But if he’s a knight, it’s going to be really hard to convince him… Hm… he has called me the chosen one… Well, I don’t know for sure if that’s really me, but even if I should be, maybe I can evade my tasks in this way? By simply finding strong people for the shadow servants and thus they will surely win the war and everything will be fine. It is also in my interest that the knights are defeated, so this would be a possibility. But on the other hand… the clans could also do this on their own. To get new members, you don’t necessarily need the help of someone who seems to have been blessed by some goddess… That would happen automatically over time anyway if the knights continue like this… I just don’t get it… What is the point of the chosen ones? 

Cheyenne sighed and shook her head to put an end to her train of thought, because Sasha was about to shoot at the man running away. The girl turned to her friend, but before she could say anything, the gun was lowered. Glaczio had stepped next to Sasha and held her hand with the pistol to the ground. He looked after the fugitive and justified his action. “Hey, Sasha mouse, keep it easy. Although you always look so damn sexy when you kill, I think that in this case I could do without this breathtaking sight for once. If you were to use your mind instead of your instinct for a change, you might be able to see that this guy is not a ruler. He wore neither a cape nor any special armor and did not carry any troops with him. Nor can he belong to the knights. They are not allowed to possess elemental weapons so that the rulers can distinguish themselves from them in power and strength. A decidedly useless demand. What I can imagine as very likely, however, is that he is an outsider, but who is still on the side of the knights. He could also be a mercenary, because whoever kills the Chosen of Darkness first gets a huge reward from the Knighthood of Light.  Besides, this guy didn’t even know what he was doing and was apparently quite desperate. Baby, you should feel sorry for the old man and not shoot him just like that. Hehe. Take a closer look at it. He even limps. I think he has already received his punishment, enough for many more sins that he will commit. Since all these reasons are guaranteed not to satisfy you, I want to give you another one. You have… incredibly good instincts, so you should feel that somehow it doesn’t seem wise to kill him. He could still turn out to be useful, don’t you think? Anyway. Ah, yes. As for you, my angel of death… The next time someone attacks you, you don’t play the scaredy-cat anymore and do something. I don’t want to protect you all the time anymore, behave like the chosen one and fight. Yesterday you weren’t so squeamish either.  So what’s your problem? Who is afraid is weak, do you know that? Especially if you’re chosen.  You’re a disgrace. The gods must be crazy or enormously stupid if they have chosen you of all people. You will never be able to save this world from the sinister plans of the Knights of Light. It’s really sad that they chose you. I wish we had never crossed paths, then at least I would have been spared this misery…” Cheyenne lowered her head. She was shocked by his words. She tried with all her might to fight the tears, but she couldn’t do it and so a few rolled down her cheeks to the ground and were clearly visible in the sand. The girl hadn’t expected him to finish her off like that, on the contrary. She had hoped that his behavior would be a little better today, just as the wound on his face had almost healed and disappeared. But apparently she had been terribly mistaken. Adocaz nudged his owner, but when he realized that it didn’t help, he bared his teeth and growled at Glaczio. The latter did not deign to look at the fairy wolf and looked after the man. Sasha stood there and seemed shocked and incredulous about what her old acquaintance had just said to her friend. She freed her hand from the healer’s grip with the pistol and gave him a strong slap in the face. Then she took a step back, holding her gun in his face. The young woman trembled with anger and wouldn’t think twice before doing something that couldn’t be undone. She almost couldn’t find words, she was so horrified, angry and speechless. But then she made a threat that was more of a death sentence. “How can you… How dare you make her cry, why do you say such things? You’re such a miserable bastard! I can’t find words for it anymore! I warned you… If you ever hurt Cheyenne in any way, you’ve forfeited your life and now it’s time! I don’t watch it anymore! Not Cheyenne, but you are the shame here! My life will soon be enriched by so much when you are no longer alive! Say ‘goodbye’…” Sasha loaded her gun and was ready to fire the fatal shot at any time. Glaczio, however, stood in front of her and didn’t move an inch, only his beautiful, light blue hair played in the wind. He looked at the young woman with half-open eyes and showed no emotion. He didn’t seem to care that she was about to kill him.