Jacinth
Landing on the other side of the platform, my lungs screaming for breath and my muscles aching, I turned back just in time to witness the lion dissipating into smoke. I shook my head, taking a deep breath as I turned my head back to face the new challenge before me.
I was so close. I just had to push myself a little further, but dammit if that run hadn’t taken a lot out of me. I haven’t run so fast in years. Not since the time I had to outrun the guards in Emerald after Ula’s contact betrayed us.
The rock wall before me looked mostly normal, but I’d learned not to take anything for granted in this course. I chanced a look toward the royal box but brought my eyes back to the wall the second they met the amused ruby-red ones of Casaan. The man made my skin crawl, not like the blue-green gaze I could also feel raking over my form as I lifted my hand to the first hold and gripped it to pull myself up the wall.
I found a hold for my legs, and lifted my hand for the next hand hold, only for the rocks to start shaking under me. I sighed in exasperation and watched as the rocks began to shift, moving left and right, up and down. I was forced to move quickly to accommodate the shifting rocks as the ones I was standing on began to shift, too.
It was all I could do to keep finding new handholds and footholds, not making any progress up the wall, but in fact barely managing to prevent myself from ending up further down. I rolled my eyes, huffing and just so done with this—I didn’t evenwantto marry this damn man!
Maybe if I stopped thinking of it as winning the coveted title of wife to that monster, and more as a chance at winning the opportunity to kill him, it’d be better.
More accurate, at least.
Even if a distinctly uneasy feeling brewed in my gut now at the thought.
I brushed that feeling aside immediately. It was nothing but weakness, and weakness was to be mastered; any thief worth their salt knew that. I was getting caught up in comfy beds and noble friends, a dream life lost long ago, and that would be my downfall if I didn’t get ahold of myself.
Reaching a hand up to grasp another rock, I quickly swung my feet as the rocks moved out from under me, grappling for another foothold higher up until one finally presented itself. I had to move fast, my hands and feet shuffling forward and backward as the rocks moved constantly. I felt like I’d barely made any progress in getting up the wall at all.
So instead, I examined the rocks, finding imperfections that would help identify them quickly. I moved when necessary, but kept my eyes on them, trying to find a pattern in their movements. It took two full rotations for me to see the way they were shifting and begin to anticipate them.
Right, down, down, left, up, up, left, up, up, left, right, down, down—on and on they went.
Knowing the pattern, I was able to figure out where the hand and footholds would appear, and was able to finally start making my way up the wall. As I neared the top, I heard the crowd behind me going wild, screaming my name and cheering.
A small smile took over my face, proud, despite myself, at what I had achieved today. As I reached the very top and pulled my body all the way up, I found what looked like an enclosed slide, something I would have to throw myself down into, facing the dark unknown.
They’d said this course was only the first half of this trial, and whatever was waiting on the other side wasn’t going to be conquered any faster by waiting around.
I turned back to the cheering crowd and lifted my arms in celebration, which they seemed to love, and took the time to blow a sarcastic kiss to Azurill. I could still make him out from here, but not his expression. I enjoyed imagining it anyway, the eyebrow raising, the smirk growing, and took the image with me as I slid myself down into the slide before me.
I shot through the darkness, sliding down and down and across what felt like the entire city until I eventually was spat out—literally, as I tumbled out of the blasted thing, my knees hitting the dirt with an echoing thud.
“Oh thank Veritx!” Faiza’s relieved exclamation had me blinking in confusion, and I looked up to find her rushing over to me. Her leathers were dirtier than when I saw her last, but she thankfully looked fine otherwise.
“Are you alright?” she asked worriedly, looking me up and down as she helped me stand.
“I’m fine, how about you?” I asked her, somewhat distracted as I took in the forest around me. The gloomy wood’s treetops prevented any but the barest hint of light from shining in. The shadows seemed to dance around every tree, and a foreboding feeling was heavy in the air, causing chills to break out across my skin.
“I’d be better if we were anywhere else,” she admitted, crossing her arms and holding her elbows as she shivered, looking around the area we’d been dumped in.
“Where are we, exactly?” I asked, unsure what was so bad about it despite the weird feeling it gave me. While my instincts said something was up, it seemed innocuous on the surface. A little darkness was fine, sometimes even preferred, as long as the space was wide open.
“The Forest of Discontent,” Faiza answered, her face set in a frown. Her turquoise eyes were frightened, and even her brown skin had paled to a lighter shade as her eyes jumped around.
Fuck.
The Forest of Discontent, of course. I should have considered it, but I’d largely forgotten about the place. I hadn’t heard much of anything about it since I was a child, when my parents had taken me with them to the capital.
The forest was shrouded in mist, but this wasn’t normal mist. Whoever was unlucky enough to get caught in the mists, the forest would make its prey, hunting those who roamed it. The forest was a cranky bastard, for sure. Getting caught in its mists put a target on your back, as if the forest could see you once you were enshrouded in its mists, and it would reach out its spindly wooden branches and shrubby roots to attack.
“Okay, so we just need to avoid the mists and get back to the palace as fast as possible.” I rationalized, looking around to see if any path seemed more likely than another to lead back to civilization. “We need?—”
“No,” Faiza said suddenly, stopping me mid-sentence. I looked back at her, my mouth still hanging open until I closed it with an abrupt clack of teeth.
“No? What do you mean by ‘no’?” I asked her, confused at what else she expected us to do. I was surprised when she grabbed onto my arms, looking me in the eye quite seriously.
