He turned and began walking.
Shiva stared at his back, then at the grilled fish still giving off thin smoke at the edge of that rock. Her mind moved fast, weighing several things at once, and in less than five seconds she had made a decision.
Her feet leapt from the tree root and ran around Ash, stopping directly in front of him with both hands slightly spread to the sides.
"Yes, this is indeed your fault." Her voice came out in a tone more firm than she had planned.
"You forced yourself on me last night and I couldn't do anything about it. And you think it's acceptable to just leave me after all that?"
Ash stopped, his expression unchanged, but his eyes looked at Shiva with something behind them that was difficult to read.
Shiva held her face at the saddest and angriest expression she could produce in that short time. Inside her head, Shiva cheered, feeling she had a reason to make Ash stay.
"I can't control it," Ash said finally.
"It will definitely happen again. The best decision is for you to stay away from me if you don't want to become a victim again." Ash stepped trying to move around Shiva.
"You have to take responsibility for protecting me." Shiva blocked Ash again.
"What if I lose consciousness again?"
Shiva raised one eyebrow. "Have you forgotten how you came to your senses last night?"
She pointed at herself with her thumb. "Me. Only I can calm you down in a condition like that." Her tone shifted to something more serious, not for the drama of it but because this part was genuinely true.
"If there's no one who can stop you when you lose control, everyone around you is in danger. That's not a threat, that's a fact you saw for yourself."
Ash was quiet longer than usual. His eyes moved to the trees around them, to the broken marks on several trunks not far from where they stood, before finally returning to the front.
"I'm going to take a path that not many people travel." He began walking again, passing to the side of Shiva.
Shiva raised both hands, palms open, and her lips began moving while looking at Ash.
Ash took two steps before his head suddenly grew heavy, a dizziness he hadn't invited came from within his own skull, and an unreasonable drowsiness for the morning struck his consciousness from every direction at once.
His knees bent on their own, his hands reached for the nearest tree trunk but not quickly enough, and he almost fell before the chant stopped.
That heaviness in his head eased in a few seconds, the drowsiness receded, and his consciousness returned intact.
Ash stood again, slowly, with one hand still on the tree trunk. His head turned toward Shiva.
Shiva stood with both hands still raised, her face satisfied to a degree of satisfaction she made no attempt to hide. "Well, how about that?"
Shiva lowered her hands with a motion made to look casual. "That's what I did last night. Not too hard to understand, is it?"
Ash stared at her for several seconds without speaking.
Shiva took a short breath, then stood more upright, her chin lifting slightly. Her tone changed, more formal, heavier, like someone who had been thinking about these words in the last two minutes.
"Because you have dishonored me, you are obligated to escort me back to the kingdom to go through with the marriage." Her eyes looked directly at Ash. "If not, a lifelong curse will be placed upon you."
Ash stared at her.
One second, two seconds.
"I'm not leaving to get married." His voice didn't rise, didn't fall, remained the same as it had been.
"I'm leaving to hunt down the person who killed my wife." His eyes didn't blink. "And if you can do what you just did, I shouldn't have been able to touch you last night at all. Let alone dishonor you."
Shiva opened her mouth, then closed it. Opened it again. The logic was sound and she hated that the logic was sound.
"Unless," Ash continued in the same flat tone, "you wanted it too."
Heat rose to Shiva's face faster than she could stop it. "Hey!" Her voice came out higher than she had planned. "I'm not that kind of woman, you know!" She pointed at herself, then at Ash.
"Not that I don't, hey but we only just met! How could I want that from you!"
Ash had already turned and walked away.
"Hey, I'm not done talking!" Shiva clenched her fists at her sides, staring at the man's back that kept walking without slowing its pace.
Her cheeks were still warm. "Hey don't leave me here alone!"
The only response she got was the sound of footsteps on dry leaves slowly moving further away.
Shiva stood in that spot for three seconds, drew a long breath, then glanced toward the small fire that had nearly gone out among those tree roots.
The grilled fish Ash had left was still there, four skewers, still warm, still giving off thin smoke. "At least let me fill my stomach first."
She walked there, picked up one skewer, bit into it, and began walking in the direction Ash had gone while chewing.
In front of the Blackridge city hall, that morning was different from usual.
Twelve people knelt in the front yard with hands cuffed behind their backs, their tactical uniforms dirty and torn in several places, some with wounds already dried on their faces and arms.
City security forces stood to the left and right of that line with hands on their respective weapons. A flatbed truck entered the yard, stopped abruptly, and three people in the same Aegis uniforms were roughly shoved out from the back.
One of them stumbled and almost fell before a security officer gripped his shoulder. "These are the last ones, Mayor."
The security officer standing at the side of the steps reported upward. "What we found in the forest. The rest, only pieces of bodies."
***