Chapter 8: My Life Officially Sucks

So many questions, wonderings about something that doesn't concern you. Get on with your life, half of my brain whispered. I'd call that half common sense. Common sense told me that I should probably listen to common sense and get on with my life.

The other half told me the complete opposite. What would I call it, uncommon sense? Irrationality? It was screaming something along the lines of AGAAAGGGAGHAAAAH!

Help.

What was my life, at this point?

I was a long way from putting the shards of my fractured being back together, but there was someone who would walk with me over the road of glass splinters, all the way back to survival. Perhaps, just perhaps, back to living.

My father, who I now saw as gloriously normal without magic, who wouldn't be affected by the demons who would keep coming back. Who could continue to lead, after he had made up some excuse for me not being here, even as the Gifted vanished—

one

by

one.

Even as all his memories of his wife, his child's mother faded, as they were probably already leeching from his mind, too susceptible to the demon's attacks on his mind.

My father, the High Chief, who somehow came out of his trance and hurried me back to the Chief's Villa, bathed in an orange glow from the setting sun. Another thing I would miss when I left—the comforting light of the sun that I could see every dawn and dusk, which would now remind me all too much of the mother I'd lost without knowing her as her.

I disappeared into the bathroom. Coralia was gone. I scrubbed until the copper paint on my face came off, watching the red pigment swirl down the sink like the sun spilling blood across the water. Watching myself carefully in the mirror, I picked the ash out of my hair as best as I could, although I left the braids in. I changed into a khaki jacket and loose pants, grappling with the earrings to get them out. The golden cuffs joined the mess on the vanity. Soon the Chieftess was replaced with a regular girl.

Only then did I realise that I hadn't eaten. After all that had happened, food seemed like such a material desire. I padded into the kitchen, surprised to find that the cooks were also absent. The sandwich was fine. Well, until I realised that I was starving. The ceremony had sucked too much from me. Who knew how long it would be since I tasted the food of my homeland on my tongue again?

I raided the cupboards is one way to describe what I did. I found some flatbread, which I munched as I searched for more.

I looked up, just about to eat a spoonful of rice with marinated meat. I set it down as Father strode into the kitchen. "Oh, good. I was just coming to get you food," he told me as he held up an old hiking backpack. He looked like he was about to say more, but instead started looking for unperishable foods. I stuffed the last bite into my mouth, trying to savour the tangy herbs one last time.

I trailed him, watching helplessly as he whirled like a tornado through the long corridors and countless rooms of the Villa, picking up not debris but things I would need when I left.

Father turned to me at the end of the hallway.

"Listen to me, Chandani," he instructed, "in this pack," he held up the backpack, "you have everything you really need to survive. Water I can't give you, but there's a small kit you can use to purify whatever water you find." I nodded, studiously noting down everything he told me in my mind. "There is also some dry food, and a couple of knives. Once you learn to master your Gifts, you'll be able to get food for yourself." Well, that was assuming I could learn. "You can cook, and you can create traps with the earth. Remember, star, this is not a hiking trip." He almost growled. The voice wasn't new to me.

You are the fire that forges the blade.

"The demons have found us and will hunt us for as long as the Gifted exist. There's also a blanket, a tent, and a compass. Money, basic supplies, you know, all that stuff." I could only nod mechanically—was there a more suitable response? "Alright, now listen very carefully. In this pocket here," he demonstrated how to open a hidden pocket in the back of the pack, "there is a map that will lead you across the sea to where you will be safest." Seeing my aghast expression, he added, "you need to guard this with your life. Understand? One demon finds it, and the thousands of Gifted lives hiding there will all be forsaken. When I found out—" he shook his head in what could've been shame, "I wanted to take your grandmother there. But she told me not to. That Kaleveh needed her. You wanted to find out was out there, star? Go get it."

He handed me the pack and my arm sagged momentarily under its weight. I shouldered its weight, the straps nestling comfortably against the puffer vest I'd put on for warmth. I looked my father in the eye and held out my arms. This time, it was my steely father who almost fell into my embrace, perhaps even the last I'd ever get from him. That was the closest I've seen my dad come to tears.

"Two of the women I love are gone," he said. "Bring them back, my daughter. Survive."

I nodded, fighting to keep the moisture from falling from the corners of my eyes.

"Goodbye," I murmured.

He lifted his hand in goodbye and salute, and I was gone.