SEVENTY-FIVE: AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE EYE OF SOLACE
Sky had gotten her first artifact after such a long time. In a way, it was even better than the cloak of invisibility. It was better than the cloak of invisibility with all the properties that it had.
" you're so lucky," I said to her. I could still sense Hassan's gaze on me which made me wonder if he could sense my jealousy towards the new item.
But she deserved it. This was her first official fight and she did very well in it.
When she was done with checking it out the armor vanished and taking its place was her winter cloak and gloves.
"That was fast. How did you do that? " I said. I had no idea that it could be done like that
" The same way you can take stuff out of your inventory," she said, her voice showing signs of exhaustion.
It was vague but still, somehow I understood what she said.
"We should get going," Hassan said.
That was necessary. As much as resting was beneficial to us we needed to move out of there because of the way the security in that space had been compromised.
It was also time for me to dismiss the eye of solace back to the inventory. It was starting to feel uncomfortable. Initially, it didn't feel like anything.
But as time went by I started to feel as though an invisible weight was pressed on me. There was no other explanation for the strange feeling except that the cause was the eye of solace.
As I dismissed the eye of solace into my inventory I felt guilty towards Sky. She didn't know how she strangely got over the fear that had her frozen in place earlier. And who knew what would happen once the effect of the eye of solace wasn't activated?
"Argh!" Sky screamed just as I dismissed the eye of solace into my inventory.
She started to breathe heavily and tears rushed out of her eyes as she coughed vigorously. She must have been feeling all her anxiety rush into her all at once.
She wasn't the only one being plagued by an excruciating feeling... There was a horrible feeling that surged in deed in my chest and head just as I stopped using the eye of solace.
It made my knees buckle and almost sent me to the ground.
What was the use of the eye of solace if it only saved the anxiety for later?
At that point, I couldn't tell which one was worse; the eye of Psion or the eye of solace.
"Sky" Hassan rushed to keep the pale girl from falling.
Her face was already pale from the fear rushing back to the surface from wherever the eye of solace had made them go.
She clutched her chest tightly as she bent down with Hassan holding her close to him.
"Hey, Sky. What's wrong with you?" he asked but got no response.
When I got a hold of myself I said to him. "it might be the effect of the fight. I could get the snow sled to carry her"
"Isn't it too risky ?" He asked.
Since the serpents were around there was a high possibility that other creatures of the forest had already slowly filled the forest so it was dangerous to let the sound of the snow sled attract unwanted attention.
" Can you walk?" I asked her, knowing fully well that she was being incapacitated by her surprised fear.
She still bent down and held her hand tightly against her chest as if there was something that was going to jump out of it.
"I don't think she can. I used a buff on her "
"What do you mean by that ?" he asked his eyes flashing furiously. I hadn't even explained what it was that I did and he was already acting up.
"It's something that makes you calm when you're anxious. I used it to calm her when she needed it during the battle. It was so she could clear her quest"
I didn't need to explain anything to him but here I was explaining while he gave me a stink eye. As if I was the bad guy. As if I was the one that sent all of us here...
I could've exploded into bursts of anger but I didn't. I chose to remain calm even though I hated the silent accusations that his eyes screamed at me.
' What is wrong with you, Hassan? ' I thought to myself as I tried to keep my anger from spilling out.
" Thanks, Jess," Sky said. It sounded like it was forced.
"Don't speak, Sky"
Hassan didn't protest because even he couldn't deny that what I had done was the necessary evil.
I made the snow sled materialize out of the inventory. It was long done with charging and was ready to go on for another 3 hours.
As I helped Sky into the snow sled I made sure to avoid Hassan's gaze. Looking at him irritated my core so I just looked away each time my gaze accidently fell on him.
"Hey. I'm sorry" He said.
" Why are you apologizing?" I asked. My voice rose a little in its pitch betraying my facade of appearing chill.
"I acted out of place"
"When? " I asked but got no answer.
I could've been wrong and could have misinterpreted his actions earlier but the fact that he was apologizing was proof that my hunch wasn't wrong.
He doubted me and somehow thought that I had some dubious plans against them. If I had something evil against them why didn't I just ditch them when they were unconscious?
"let me drive the snow sled".
"Okay," I muttered as I went to rest near Skye in the snow sled "Where are we going?"
"I don't know. Where do you think we should go?" He asked as he climbed into the snow sled.
"The same direction we have been headed toward. We have already started so we might as well continue in that direction since we don't have any particular place to go to"
Immediately he held the snow sled and mentally willed it to start a noise shot out, echoing into the forest.
The snow sled sped through the spaces that were left in the trees. Hassan was increasing the speed of the snow sled as if we were being chased by something.
He maneuvered through the corners as if he were a master driver in a race with other cars. It made me wonder what he couldn't do. Sometimes when the car sped over a bumpy part causing us to be shaken around the car vigorously he turned back to apologize to us.
Hassan had a calm nature; the nature that he had let us know since we had been in the cold Lands with him and didn't doubt the authenticity of the character that he presented because that was what I had first thought of him back then in the corridor of the hospital that I work in (Work or worked? That all depended on whether we would be leaving the Cold Lands)...
But his actions when push came to shove negated his calm nature and it seemed as though he was letting out a part of him that he always locked inside him.
And this was one of those moments when he seemed to let loose.
A few moments later Skye had gotten her composure and raised her head.
"Hey," I said raising my voice.
The wind blew past us and with the speed Hassan moved even snowflakes hardly fell into the floor of the snow sled.
"How are you doing? " I asked
Hassan must have heard the question because he suddenly slowed down and turned to look at us.
"I'm okay now. Thanks" she said. Her voice was calm now. It seemed as though time had relaxed her nerves.
"Nice," Hassan said with a joyous look evident on his face. He seemed to be fond of Skye, in a way that even the slightest thing that went wrong to her made him worry.
"Did you guys notice that there is a countdown for the quest?"
"Yeah," I said. It was pretty obvious.
One of the rewards for the quest that we just finished was another quest that would be in hours ...
"What's the time remaining? " I asked her.
"one hundred and nineteen hours, ten minutes, and nine seconds," she said
At least we had a means of checking the time; using the countdown.
Soon, silence returned to the speeding snow sled.
The only thing that was heard was the noise of the speeding snow sled and the sound of the tires against the snowy ground.
One other thing was heard, but it wasn't out loud for others to hear. It was only heard by me because it was being echoed in my mind. It was a single question "What doubts did Hassan have towards me?"
And I wasn't going to wonder for long because I decided to find out for myself.
I made the eye of Psion materialize from my inventory and I felt its gentle aura round my neck. It was light so its tangible presence could be hardly felt.
Then I called out to Hassan "Hey, Hassan"