11 PASSAGE TO LIREMIA

The one constant thought running in my head these days seemed to be, "Ryne is annoying." It had been two weeks since the blood moon and I was nowhere near finding the god. Ryne ignored me for three days straight after that night. Then he found me during Global Economy and made a big show of pulling me out of the class only to say that opening the passage required a celestial event and, that we had to wait for the solar eclipse since the blood moon was gone.

After that, I had hardly seen him. He would send one of his friends to communicate with me. He sent the accord with Arlan and Gyrod a week ago. That was not a pleasant meeting. Gyrod seemed to not like me very much. Either that or he was possessive of Arlan and jealous of my fiancé status. He would constantly have physical contact with him and look at me with pride as if that was supposed to make me die with envy. For someone who was said to be the uninterested type, he seemed very interested in everything I had to say. He would try his best to find ways to mock me and if he couldn't, he would just stand there and, look smug and superior.

As if that weren't enough, Ryne sent Keelin to give me a list of supplies I had to arrange the next day. The camaraderie I had felt from her on the day of the blood moon seemed to be a figment of my imagination, for she was openly hostile towards me. She also spoke of, "her Ryne de" a lot, about how he was the most ideal person ever, perfect in all aspects. She said he had a million responsibilities himself and did not need someone like me in his life. When I asked her what she meant, she called me a few choice words, some that resembled a leech who was using him.

Two days later, when I saw Hystia, I was glad for a second before noticing that she was accompanied by Yuvien. What's worse, I had to spend the entire day with them. We went around the campus looking for a spot with enough ancient energy to sustain the passage until we could pass through. Hystia tried to make friendly conversation once in a while and I was really thankful for that as Yuvien completely ignored my existence. If I spoke, he would pretend he didn't hear me until Hystia repeated my words. He was acting like a baby and I was at the threshold of madness. I couldn't help but curse Ryne in my head.

Ryne and I were the only ones going to Liremia. He didn't need to involve all the others. But apparently, he was very busy with fifth year studies as well as ti-eglor duties. I could understand that and I was thankful to him for helping me out, but I would rather see him instead of his posse, except maybe Arlan. Ever since I confessed to him about not wanting to go ahead with the marriage, he seemed a little distant. Whenever I saw him now, it was with Gyrod and that was an interaction I did not look forward to. Besides, with J-Vil having taken a break from school due to a family emergency and Lord Dragomitus going silent on me, I couldn't help but feel lonely.

Presently, I waited for Ryne at the entrance of the site where we would open the passage soon. I hadn't explored this area much the other day. Yuvien had declared it would do and we had left it at that. This place felt sacred to me. I didn't know what it was, but I was drawn towards the stone wreckage as if it were a magnet. I dropped the bag on the muddy ground and took a step forward.

"Are you really that thick to enter ruins that may topple anytime?" I heard Ryne's voice and froze in my spot.

"Of course, not. I was just... just looking around," I cleared my throat, picked up the bag and turned to him.

I blushed because coincidentally, we were both dressed in casual jeans, white t-shirt and a leather jacket.

He let out a laugh as he looked at me, "I guess we have the same taste in clothes." His hair had grown a little longer and didn't look cropped. A slight stubble on his face made him look ruggedly handsome.

"It just seemed practical," I said, shrugging.

He nodded before taking the bag from my shoulders. He opened it and pulled out a knife, a bit of camel hide, a scented candle and a lighter. He lit the candle and waved it around until the scent of fresh jasmine permeated through the air. He burnt the hide and threw it on the ground in front of us.

He looked up at the sky and then his watch. When it finally became dark, signifying the beginning of the eclipse, he picked up the knife. "So how do you want to do this?" he asked me.

I frowned, confused.

"We need to draw our blood. Do you want to do mine?"

My eyes widened in surprise. He needed blood? But then again, a complicated spell such as this obviously was not going to be easy. I nodded.

He handed the knife to me and held out his palm. I took a deep breath before gripping his hand in mine. My heart began racing against my will. I was about to draw blood. This was hardly something to get excited about. I pointed the knife at his index finger and pressed lightly; With his skin pierced and bleeding, he held his hand over the burnt hide. When his blood dropped on it, it sizzled before evaporating.

"Your turn," he said and grabbed my hand. He brushed his thumb across my palm before taking the knife from me and piercing my finger as well. I let the blood fall onto the hide before sucking on my finger to stop the bleeding. When I didn't get any further instructions from him, I looked up and found him staring at my lips.

He noticed me and cleared his throat. He grabbed both my hands so we were facing each other, closed his eyes and began muttering something. I couldn't make out what he was saying. Since I was being quite useless, I closed my eyes as well and sent out a sincere prayer to whatever god was listening to us. I prayed for my clan, but mostly for myself.

When I felt cold wind biting at my ear, I opened my eyes to find Ryne staring at me.

"It's done," he said.

I looked beside me and found a huge swirling portal. Golden and cerulean sparks shimmered around us before vanishing into it. Ryne zipped the bag and grabbed my hand.

"Ready?" he asked.

When I nodded, he smiled at me before pulling me into the portal.

Travelling through the passage was like being underwater. I could hear and see nothing. It felt like a huge void. I began to panic and held Ryne's hand tighter. Knowing he was here with me was reassuring. It would have been even more so if I could see him as well. But I was engulfed in my own personal bubble of nothingness. I tried speaking but couldn't hear my own voice. I tugged at Ryne's hand until I felt him come closer to me. I moved my other hand wildly in his direction until I felt his body. I clutched him tightly and pulled at him until we were both pressed together. I buried my face in what I assumed was his chest and took deep breaths to calm myself. I felt his arms snake around my body and hold me firmly.

Time was meaningless in this passage. I didn't know for how long we stayed that way. But at some point, the darkness began clearing out. I began seeing brighter colours which soon took form, Ryne's form. In an instant the darkness was completely replaced by sunshine, the kind that graced us when the sun was directly above our heads. I felt ground beneath me and realized we had arrived at Liremia. I also realized that I was still in Ryne's arms. I hastily pulled away from him. The weather was so warm that my face began heating up. I had already gotten sunburned in just a few seconds of being there.

"Are you okay? You seemed scared," he said.

I nodded, "I'm fine. Thanks for... for being there." I took a deep breath and bit my lip. "What next?"

He rubbed his neck, "I've been doing some research the past two weeks. Of course, I found nothing about your god in the books. If there was something, I'm sure you or your ancestors would have found it by now. But I read a story about another god, Thydremos. He lost a bet to Feslok, the god of prisons, who then captured and locked him up."

A gentle breeze blew his dark hair back and forth as he spoke and I was tempted to fix it. Birds chirped as they soared high in the light blue sky. A dozen small trees surrounded us and we seemed to be in the middle of a grassland. If I hadn't experienced travelling through the passage, I would've thought that I was still on Earth.

"Towards the end of a millennium, Feslok's prison began weakening and Thydremos crawled out of there, freeing himself. I don't know if it has any relevance to you. But I found the thousand-year part fascinating. You told me that you were the first one to hear your god's voice, right? What if he was captured in a similar way? It could be the reason why he was only able to contact his people now."

I nodded, "That's quite possible. When I saw the god before, he seemed to be in a dark, quiet place. I haven't heard the story you just said. But I do know about Feslok. I know that his powers only work in the dark. Which is why dungeons are built underground so he may lend us his power in keeping the evil bound."

"To bind someone as powerful as a god, he must have needed a lot of darkness," Ryne smirked.

I nodded again, understanding what he meant. If our assumption was right, we were going to have to find the fabled 'land of night'.

"If only we can find a way out of this grassland, somewhere with water, I can create a locating charm," Ryne said, sighing as he looked at the vast expanse of dry land around us.

"Water? That won't be a problem."

He looked at me with narrowed eyes, "I thought you couldn't turn dragon."

"I can't," I said earnestly. "But I have my magic. It's not even half of my true potential, but it's still handy."

"What can you do?" he asked shielding his eyes. The sun was blinding, but the cold breeze made us want to pull our jackets tighter. This was such a weird place.

"It's called echolocation. I basically tell my energy what I want to find and shoot it out. When it identifies said obstruction, it echoes back to me and I get a picture of the direction and size of the object."

"Wow, that's really cool," he said, eyes wide.

"Yeah, except, I've never used it before," I said sheepishly.

He raised his eyebrow disbelievingly.

"I told you the other day, we have heavy concealing spells back home. It interferes with our energy so much so that we get reduced to humans. When I travelled with my teacher, I wore wool, which is another material that can weaken our energy. And you saw the bracelet I had on before. Basically, we have never dared to embrace our true nature in the fear of getting caught. And... we got caught," I let out a laugh.

He looked away from me, not able to say anything to that. I closed my eyes and called my energy forth. Picturing water in my head, I shot my energy out in all directions around me. Apparently, my ancestors could project it to about a few thousand miles. I could only hope mine would go far enough to locate water. I waited patiently for a couple of minutes when my senses suddenly got activated. My energy had been obstructed by water somewhere. In a couple more minutes I heard the echo from behind me. I opened my eyes and smiled.

"Can you sense it?" I asked Ryne.

"It's like a trail of pulsating energy," he said closing his eyes. Then he looked at me, impressed, "Not bad, dragon."

My heart swelled up and that wasn't even a proper compliment. I was really hopeless.

"Well then. It's my turn to impress you," he said. Even before he was done with the sentence, a shimmering horse with large turquoise wings materialized in front of us.

"Whoa," I said, drinking in the features of the beautiful creature. "Where did this comes from?"

"It probably existed somewhere on this realm. I just performed a summoning spell," He said with a shrug as if it were nothing. Compared to him, my powers were child-like.

I walked closer to the horse and held out my hand. It nuzzled its way into my embrace and I couldn't help but let out a delighted laugh.

"We should go," Ryne said after a beat.

He mounted the horse and extended his hand. My heart ticked periodically like a clock in my ear. I held his hand and he pulled me up, grabbing me from under my arms and lifting me up like a child. He then placed me in front of him. I swung my leg over and he brought both his arms around me to hold onto the hard surface on the back of its head.

"Hiyah!" he said and patted the side of its neck. As if it understood him, the horse began to canter forward.

Ryne's face was beside mine and my body was completely engulfed in his. His constant proximity had my heart malfunctioning. My body heated up and my mind travelled to places too dirty to recount. While I wondered when I began to be so attracted to him, Ryne held me in place with one hand of his, sending my brain as well as my heart into overdrive. He smelled like the woods. If I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, I could even smell the scent of rain on mud. I didn't know when, but I had turned to bury my face in his neck. When I realized what I was doing, I quickly turned forward, but not before noticing his amused smirk.

What the hell was wrong with me?