With the sun coming down, we had a few hours of precious daylight to explore our destination. Edna's presence somewhat disappeared when we reached the village's entrance.
By then, my body had stopped radiating the weird aura, though it still numbed me to everything happening. I almost didn't want to let the darkness go as it shielded me from the agony that I would've felt without it.
When I got off Alijah, he shifted back when I stepped toward the ruins that used to be Locrium. No traces of the fire had claimed this village, as nature had won the battle. The evergreens that were home to Allora had retaken the fallen home, as it was early magical.
My wolf's gaze felt heavy on me as I strode into the abandoned village without looking back. Though, unlike the capital, this place didn't have a giant tree.
Birds chirped around us as rodents and other bugs were seen around. Sadly, I was in no mood to take the scenery. After all, every word that I had said to my wolf was coming back to haunt me.
How... just how and why did I say those things? Ah… right…
Even though we were walking through dangerous territory, I only thought about what happened before arriving. It wasn't a demon that took over me, but my negativity and the dark magic that was stuck within me because of the curse.
It's the second time I've ever… Lost it like that. I might've made Alijah genuinely hate me.
It should've been good, but I was miserable. I have been living in agony since the ghost woke me from the dreamland. I should've been paying attention to how weird our surroundings were. No one was walking out or doing anything to stop us.
The ghost said witches were trying to bring someone back, but no one could be seen.
No, a witch or elf...
There was nothing but empty decaying buildings here. The only thing that startled me was Alijah kicking a rock right through one building. He was in an awful mood but stayed quiet instead of saying anything since he probably didn't want to trigger me further.
His words weren't reaching me, yet that was the least of our concerns. I could feel Edna's presence everywhere I stepped, yet there were no physical traces of her.
Have they left? Did we miss them?
Everything was fine and dandy until Alijah kicked another rock. This time, a scream came from where it went through. Instinctively, I ran towards the collapsing building while he followed, not far behind.
Whoever had been in that building had probably been crushed or trapped by the debris.
"God damn it, Alijah! You've crushed our only lead!" I snapped at him as he shrugged without saying another word.
Though he never took his eyes off me. I didn't know if it was because he was cautious of me or because he was scared I would get hurt.
Probably the first option after what I had said to you.
Instead of starting another fight, I tried to dig into whoever was down in the rubble. Slowly, I pulled out clay blocks, which led to a barrier behind the wreckage.
That's—Alijah almost killed an elf. If they rat us out, it will bring unwanted attention!
The urge to leave them there was strong, but knowing what they saw was even more critical than getting reported. Shaking my head, I focused on getting more rocks out of the way. I was so close to Edna and finding Lilith's soul that I couldn't back down even if I became more of a criminal.
Sorry, Dad and Mom, but I can't stop now!
"Are you okay?" I yelled down at them, hoping to get no response.
"I don't know! This just came down on me!" A weak voice said.
"Leave them." Alijah rolled his eyes as I couldn't help but scowl at him.
"If you aren't going to help, then stay quiet!" I growled, steadily removing enough rocks to reach them through the barrier.
My Lycan blood allowed me to have some magical resistance. However, pushing past it in my humanoid form bothered me somewhat. The human within me was repelled by their barrier, and I couldn't hope to control my wolf form when I could barely keep my anger in check.
The beast was too strong for me to conquer.
"Reach out to me, and I'll pull you up, but don't dispel the barrier, or all the other rocks will crush you," I yelled, hoping my resistance would last long enough.
"Okay!" They voiced as I took a deep breath before reaching down towards the barrier, which instantly stung to pass through,
A soft groan left my lips as I pushed past the pain, hoping they would reach me in time.
Luckily, I felt a warm hand on my arm as I clasped onto theirs. Before I knew it, Alijah suddenly yanked me by my shirt, allowing me to lift the elf out of their predicament easily. He clicked his tongue, letting go of my shirt before moving towards the side.
The elf almost slipped from the sudden jerk, but thankfully, they emerged from the rubble relatively unscathed. At first glance, it was apparent that it was a woman as her slender body and soft hand that still clasped my arm made damn sure I knew it was one.
She wore silk white clothes with purple circles scattered around. The dirt that had fallen on them had made them slightly dirty, but otherwise, she appeared fine. A hood covered her face, preventing me from seeing her face.
She gazed down, brushing the dust that had gathered on her clothes. From how her hand appeared, I could tell her skin was tanned. Moon elves usually had greyish skin but came in tan and dark skin variants.
Luckily, when Alijah drew me, he helped me to my feet.
"Ah... Thank you so much! Who would've thought that building would've come down like that? How can I ever repay you for saving me?" The mysterious woman suddenly announced, catching me off guard.
I tried to clear my throat as I didn't expect her to be so friendly, especially after suddenly having an old but sturdy building fall on them.
The air here is thinner than in other places. Could it be because we climbed a bit earlier?
I wasn't paying attention when Alijah ran here. No, all I cared about was ripping into Edna, a plan that had failed miserably.
"I-It is f-fine. You're j-just lucky we w-were passing by." I stuttered, glancing at my wolf, who appeared to have eyes fully opened as his brows rose and jaw dropped slightly.
Ah… What's up with you?
Not wanting to deal with his nonsense, I gazed back from him and onto the woman. She slowly straightened herself but didn't let go of my hand. A soft hum left her as she inspected my hand, which had no lingering effects of the barrier on it.
And just what are you doing?
"Actually, if you don't mind, I-I would like to ask you something about what h-happened here. I-If you saw anything, I mean." I stumbled to say.
The woman's fingers touched my palm. They felt gentle on my skin, but somehow, they also sent shivers down my spine, which wasn't the good kind.
"Oh, I'm not the right person for that. I know little of this place anymore." The woman informed, pinching her fingers on my palm, prompting a tiny bit of my dark aura to sprout where she touched.
"What?" I stared at her, bewildered by what she was doing.
For a moment, the unknown elf cocked her head before shaking it a bit.
"You're cursed by a powerful witch who used an elven artifact and a Lycan soul, right? I can feel the hate that went into making one." The elf suddenly announced, leaving me dumbfounded.
Just who is this woman?
"H-How did you know?" I questioned, retreating my hand out of hers as she lifted her face to meet my gaze.
By the gods, she was beautiful. Her grey eyes matched her perfectly silky lavender hair. She had purple facial tattoos, usually done for moon elves at birth. They usually had them all over their bodies, too.
She also had signature ears that were bigger than mine, who had legit ones. Usually, people would confuse me for a peredhil instead of the luma I was, unless my tail gave me away. Unless they were Lycans, my scent would give me away if that were the scenario.
However, whenever I was in a village, I had a disguise. One of the many wigs I wore was what I had today, along with my tail, which was neatly tucked away.
This woman's beauty was out of this world, though. If I were into women, I probably would've fallen in love with her the moment I saw her. Even though her splendor was one thing, the fact she knew about the curse freaked me out a bit.
Not only that, but why do you seem familiar? Argh… Why do you remind me of Mom?
Ryker and Amara, along with every other race of elves that tried to treat me, could only theorize that an elven artifact was used to create the curse that infected me, but they never said for certainty, as this woman did.
They also had to do intensive testing to detect it. Even Mom, the most powerful witch in the world, had a tough time attempting to see it.
"I was a medic once, long ago. Maybe some of my old techniques can help you with this as a thank you for saving me from the rubble." The elf smiled, prompting me to take a step back.
In response, she removed her hood, revealing her magnificence to everyone else.
"I doubt you can help me. Many have tried and failed." I mumbled, feeling creeped out by this woman who wasn't normal.
Once the hood was off, the resemblance to my mother was uncanny. I took another step back only to bump into Alijah, who was stiff as a rock. My gaze shortly met with him to see he had gone pale, almost as if he had seen a ghost.
"Ali—" he didn't let me finish his name before he spoke.
"Impossible… Lilith?" He called out to the woman, who hadn't peeled her eyes off me until then.
What?
Shock washed through me, only to realize that it could have happened. We were late, after all.
Crap! Is this a trap?
It didn't matter. She tore her eyes away from me when her name was mentioned before spotting him. The elf's expression changed to pure bliss, beaming a bright smile as she ran towards him before launching into him.
"Ali! You came to me! I knew you would!" The woman declared.
They left me right where I was stunned by the truth of her identity. It was almost as if my mind could barely process what was happening anymore. However, one thing for sure was the vacancy that my chest became when she touched him.
It was almost as if something had swallowed everything up. Even though this wasn't right, something was off, and my mind couldn't keep up.
Huh? It's over, isn't it?
So... I went on autopilot.