Zaelyane froze in disbelief and asked, "What did you just say?"
Rion took the leather pouch from her hand and answered with a smile, "I didn’t fail."
She frowned and mumbled under her breath, "How is that possible? No one can let go of all of their regrets so easily."
Tkk! Tkk!
He knocked at the table to pull her attention towards himself and said, "It doesn’t matter if it’s possible or not, I have passed that trial of yours and now have the method to help my squad... but before we do that..."
He stepped closer and breathed, "What are you?"
She looked into his eyes for a few moments before she questioned in her usual flat tone, "What kind of disrespectful question is this?"
He didn’t react; he already knew that she wouldn’t just tell him, but he was determined to get the answer from her.
Even so, he understood that asking the same question over and over again wouldn’t lead to better results, so he asked something else.
Something far more important than her race.
"What do you want from me?"
Her eyes stirred as if a tremble within a spider web, and she muttered while forcing herself to keep her composure, "What... are you talking about?"
He took another step and came face to face with her. Both of their eyes stared into each other, and he questioned, "You can’t do it again, can you?"
Her sorcery allowed her to send anyone within the trial of regrets, but if she could use it without a limit, everyone within the tribe would’ve already gone through it.
The trial allowed them to move on from their regretful past, after all.
Yet, he had never heard about it, which meant that there was a limit to how many times she could use it, and after considering several other factors, he concluded:
She could only use it one time.
She didn’t reply and stepped away from him.
However, her silence alone was enough of an answer for him.
"Why did you use it on me?"
She took a puff out of her smoking pipe and said, "I can’t tell you."
He frowned, and the pent-up frustration began to rise as he stammered, "What is wrong with this place?!"
He pointed his finger at her and exploded, "All of you hide things from us, yet you still expect us to follow your rules!"
She frowned and asked with a confused expression, "What are you talking about?"
Instead of answering, he took a deep breath and said, "Forget it. Let’s focus on the medicine instead of wasting our time in useless chatter."
She furrowed her brows and nodded as she also didn’t want to continue this chatter of theirs.
He took out the herbs from the pouch, placed them on the table and asked, "What am I supposed to do?"
She walked over to the table and said while puffing out the smoke, "Cut the Cliffroot Sinew, Ghostly Peagrass and Solebright Flower into three parts and the remaining into two parts."
He nodded and began to cut the herbs.
About an hour passed as Zaelyane continued to provide the guidance, which he followed without a single error.
Seeing him handle the herbs with such finesse surprised her.
Rion had never worked with them before today, after all, and this otherworldly talent only strengthened her belief that he was the prophesied one.
Yet she couldn’t tell him about what he truly was.
A few minutes later, Rion let out a shaky breath and stared at the four pills placed before him.
She pointed her pipe at the pills and said, "You’ll have to feed them without them having any knowledge of it."
Confusion dampened his face, and he asked, "Why?"
She answered while walking towards the door, "As you will be putting them into the illusions of their self, they’ll be much weaker, so you’ll need to surprise them with it."
"Oh..." his eyes nodded in realisation, and the sound of the creaking door reached him.
She pointed towards the open door and said, "Leave."
He picked up the pills and placed them into his leather pouch before making his way towards the door.
He reached the door and stopped beside her.
She frowned and asked, "What’s wrong?"
He turned his head towards her and asked dejectedly, "Can you not tell me what you are?"
She shook her head and answered while tapping his head with her pipe, "I’ll tell you when the time is right."
He nodded reluctantly and stepped out of the hut.
Woosh!
Silver flames flickered around his body before he took a step and dashed towards the campsite.
Zaelyane stared as he got farther away and mumbled after he disappeared from her vision,
"It’s still too early for you to leave this place..."
She stepped back inside and closed the door behind her.
Her eyes shifted all around the hut before they stopped at Haden, who was sitting in her chair with an unreadable expression.
She took a step towards him and asked, "You still don’t think that he is the one, do you?"
A shiver ran down her spine as he looked into her eyes and said, "Your one wrong move could waste everything your ancestors have done till now."
Bright green aura flames appeared around her as she pushed away her fear and answered, "Why can’t you believe him being the person that you were waiting for?"
Haden heaved a heavy sigh and mumbled, "Rion can’t be him..."
She furrowed her brows and pressed further, "What do you mean?"
He rose from the chair and answered sombrely, "They didn’t just place a single curse on our souls..."
Zaelyane’s eyes widened, and she muttered in disbelief, "I-It c-cannot be!"
He nodded darkly and said, "A Dhaevrak can’t kill Them because the second curse won’t allow us... Otherwise, one of them would’ve already reached hell by my spear."
Thud!
She fell on her knees, her eyes were hollow and the hut descended into silence.
Only if they knew.