Chapter 48
Ruthvien
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I opened my eyes with difficulty as if my eyelids were heavy.
The first thing that pierced the fog enveloping my consciousness was the sound of Kayyan calling me: "Thay... Thayron, wake up!"
The call was repeated insistently, like a needle piercing my brain.
I tried to move my head, but a sharp headache like a hammer struck the back of my head. Images slowly began to clear, like a painting revealing its details. I remembered everything: the attack by the unknown assailants, the crash of the vehicle, my desperate jump... and the moment I left Kayyan behind.
"What's going on here?" I asked, my voice hoarse, barely audible. The sounds around me were strangely intertwined, a noise I couldn't understand.
I looked at Kayyan, scanning his body for any sign of what we had been through. He was standing in front of me, healthy and unharmed, without a scratch on his body.
How did he survive? I was supposed to have lost consciousness from the impact of the ground, so why did he look completely unharmed? This thought created a whirlwind of questions in my head.
Then I followed his hand, which was pointing behind us, where a fierce battle was raging among the tangled trees in the forest. There, amid flashes of blue light resembling lightning, I saw the man in the silver mask.
He was fighting three attackers at once. His movements resembled a dance of death, smooth and deadly at the same time.
Each movement of his silver weapons was followed by a burst of blue vital energy, which lit up the faces of the attackers before they fell to the ground.
"The man who was with us is fighting our attackers," Kayyan said in a low voice as if those words were enough to explain the chaos around us.
But they weren't enough. I felt a strange coldness running through my veins, not the coldness of the weather, but the coldness of doubt that was beginning to invade my heart. Kayyan was looking at me with frighteningly empty eyes, devoid of any emotion. This look made me ask the most important question: "How did you survive the crash?" I asked him again, this time unable to hide the doubt that had crept into my voice, which was now explicit.
"The man in the silver mask asked me to find you."
Kayyan's answer seemed calm, and cold, as if it were normal, but his words struck me like a thunderbolt.
The man who attacked us, who dragged us into the vehicle, asked Kayyan to look for me. That didn't make any sense. It was like someone setting a house on fire and then coming back to put it out with water.
"Why?" I said, trying to sound calm while my eyes scanned his face intently, looking for any sign of a lie, any tension in his facial muscles.
"Let's stay together until he finishes his fight, then we'll escape together," Kayyan said in a suspiciously clear tone. His voice seemed completely devoid of tension.
I kept watching him. I looked for any sign of deception, any hesitation in his eyes, but he stood completely still, watching the fierce battle as if he were a spectator waiting for the show to end.
I began to piece together the puzzle in my head. Kayyan was unharmed after the fall. The masked man seemed to care about my safety. Did he know something about me? Had he figured out who I was? More importantly, what did Kayyan have to do with all this?
My alertness rose immediately. Did the masked man want to keep me here using Kayyan? Was Kayyan part of his plan? Was he watching me now? I felt like I was in a spider web whose threads I couldn't see.
"Let's run away," I said suddenly, quickly getting to my feet. "Kayyan... Let's go now!"
Kayyan grabbed my hand, his grip suddenly tightening. "Run away?" he said quickly, his eyes widening slightly. "What are you saying? We have to wait for him! Why are we running away now?"
I pulled my hand away from his grip and took a step back. "Why? I'm leaving this place! Don't forget that man grabbed us by force earlier and we don't know what he would have done to us! Let's go, Kayyan!"
Kayyan seemed surprised by my response. His calm smile suddenly faded, replaced by a serious expression I had never seen before. Something had changed in his eyes, something dark and suspicious.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice deepening.