Chapter 18: Chapter Thirteen : A Vampire’s Game

“Maybe after all is said and done, we could take a vacation. I’ve been all over the place, but I’ve never been to the Northern Continent. It’s a much safer journey now, what with the airships. It’s expensive, of course, but we have so much money, I hardly know what to do with it anymore.

“...I bet the jungles are a sight to behold.”

~~~

There was a gentle rain falling, sparse and pattering among the dense leaves of the jungle, making the muggy air especially dense and loaded with salt. The soundscape was unlike any Hazel had heard before. Despite the rain, the calls of insects and frogs rang out in a cacophonous orchestra. Even just stepping over the edge of the cliff sent several frogs hopping wildly back into the dense bush. The full moon peeked in and out from behind the scattered clouds, occasionally lighting up the night in silver. But more often, the jungle was cast into an oppressive black, only slightly more light than being in the cave.

She cocked her head as she looked south. Hazel saw that strange orange glow, extending across nearly all of the southern horizon.

“Is that White Cliffs?” she asked.

Taé turned where Hazel was looking. She said, “Oh. Nah… that’s The Burn.” Hazel could barely see her face, but she sounded… resigned?

“You’ve mentioned that a few times,” Hazel said. “What is it?”

Taé rolled her shoulders. “Soil here on the peninsula is crap. So us, uh, ’natives’ create good soil….”

“What’s the word that you want to use Taé?” Hazel interjected.

Taé blinked, confused. “Hm?”

“Instead of ‘natives,’” Hazel pressed. “It’s not Azmexican is it?”

Taé fiddled with the feathers in her hair, stroking them as she frowned.

“Nahua,” Taé mumbled. “I am — used to be — Nahua. Azmex, Makabaya, neither of those words mattered much in our village. We’re too far from Tenochtec — the Azmex capital, for them to care much about a, a, group like us?” She huffed out a breath. “The words are hard. It’s all politics I barely understand. But when I was alive, I called myself a Nahua. Anyway,

She clapped her hands and spun her finger in a circular motion. “The Nahua burn the jungle and mix waste with the ashes to make the soil fertile. Once it’s depleted, we leave it fallow for a couple years so the jungle grows back. We do this in a controlled circle around each uh, cluster of houses.”

“And that’s what The Burn is?” Hazel asked.

Taé heaved a sigh. “No… those are Southern-style farms. They burn the land. Plant crops til the soil’s worn out. Then the land is used for cows until it’s sold for homes. On and on and on.” She thumbed over her shoulder, back to the sea. “Unless something changes, your friend Zinnia’s gonna have a house full of smoke in a few years.”

Hazel looked over to Aurelius. “Would stopping Asphodel…?”

But Aurelius burst out laughing before she could finish. Several birds took flight from the sound, out of sight, their wings rustling among the leaves.

“You think the vampire lord is the only schemer in that port? No.” He waved the notion away. “This will stop when the food it produces no longer flows to the Alliance of Three’s troops. The whole jungle will burn before that happens.”

Hazel looked over at the orange horizon with a twinge in her guts. There were so many casual evils in the world. Sins perpetrated not by one man, but by the sheer force of a thousand thousand human hands. More than once she had reached out her own hands to try and stem that tide. But despite all her amazing power, she was nothing to the weight of society.

‘At least stopping Asphodel is something I can do,’ she told herself sullenly.

“Anyway. Not going anywhere near there,” Taé said. She did some stretches, and Hazel couldn't help but stare as the dim moonlight caught her flexing muscles.

Then Taé shot her a wicked grin, teeth flashing white, and Hazel flinched.

“Try and keep up!” Taé barked, then began jogging into the undergrowth.

Aurelius scoffed and jogged after her. And Hazel followed after him.

Hazel followed in the moonlight when she could. When the moon hid once more, she did a simple trick she learned as a youth. She blinked over to her second sight. Darkness didn’t affect this vision, but the density of life was nearly as disorienting as the dark. So instead, she dragged her fingers through the air, and twisted the miniscule threads of Fire into specks of light. This light flared and glittered like a firework, fading just as quickly. But it allowed her to see what was just ahead, and manage from there.

Hazel was used to running over rough terrain barefoot, keeping her steps light and adjusting easily to uneven ground. She was used to the squish of dead leaves, the scratching of sticks, the sharp and unexpected stones and the battering of branches. But the density of the jungle was on another level. While Taé could maintain a jog, Hazel could only maintain something closer to a speedy scramble.

And, to her surprise, Hazel was even outpacing Aurelius, who, as the moon grew brighter overhead, was somehow already covered in mud and leaves from multiple exchanges with the ground.

Hazel flinched as Taé burst out in a screeching laugh overhead. She had scrambled up a vine-encircled tree and was sitting on a thick branch as Aurelius grumpily caught up .

“You never play outside as a kid, Relly?!” Taé cried.

“Now that you mention it, no I bloody well did not,” Aurelius shot back.

Taé barked another laugh. “Wow. That’s sad…”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I was king of a bloody forest as a kid!” Aurelius shouted. “Because my childhood was over a hundred years ago!”

“You,” Taé said. “Need to get out more.”

Taé then stood up on the branch, crouched down, and leapt into the air. She transformed into a panther as she soared through the foliage, falling to the ground with a thud and bounding off into the night. The footfalls of her jaguar form were quieter than Hazel expected, and they quickly vanished as the frogs and bugs began their song once more.

Hazel turned to Aurelius. “You could navigate the caves well…” she offered.

He scoffed. “The acoustics are all wrong out here. I can’t just…”

The savage tone dropped. Still grinding his teeth, he closed his eyes. He stopped breathing, which was strange. Hazel had seen it once or twice before, and it puzzled her. Why did he breathe when he apparently didn’t need to?

Aurelius slowly drew the small sword, then jabbed it in the ground. When he lifted it again, a snake as big as his arm writhed on the blade. He tore it off and sunk his teeth in the wound, taking small shallow gulps until the snake fell still.

“Barely better than a rat,” he grumbled, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “But fine. I can do this.” He sliced off the snake’s head, then tossed the body at Hazel. Hazel fumbled for the warm and scaley-slick body. It was heavier and more awkward than she thought, like holding a long sack of water. “Have Taé prep that. You and Zinnia can eat that part. Probably.”

“You’re turning back?” she said as she got a grip on it.

He sighed heavily. “No, I just want to get used to this without embarrassing myself.”

Hazel flinched as a roar echoed through the trees, followed by an erratic series of screeches and hoots. Aurelius mumbled, ‘that’d be her,’ and waved Hazel on. She nodded. And with the moon banishing shadows once more, she jogged in the direction of the sounds. A little more carefully this time. This wasn’t like her home, where not even bears or wolves roamed. Large predators were swiftly devoured by hungry dragons, after all. In these woods, there lurked beasts that could and would hurt her. If what she heard wasn’t Taé… Well. Hazel had confidence she could at least flee to the skies.

She gingerly followed the screeching sounds, and wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disgusted to have found Taé. She was up a tree, her canvas bag lumpy, blood and gore splattered down her front, spilling down the trunk and roots. Taé drank deep of a monkey half her size, sighing pleasantly as she finished draining it dry.

“Finally!” Taé cried. “Warmth in my fingertips!”

Taé spun a black-bladed knife in her hand and deftly sliced open the monkey’s belly. She scraped her blade along the inside of its ribs, peeling out the beast’s organs, letting them fall to the forest floor below. Then she stuffed the corpse of the monkey into her bag and jumped down. Hazel hesitantly held out the snake, mentally making a note to force Taé to bathe when they returned.

“Nice, Relly get that one?” She cut deftly along the snake’s length and began disemboweling it too. She flipped it over and examined the scales. “Could’ve milked the fangs on this one… eh, better safe than sorry.” And tossed it in the bag too. She cleaned her knife on the corner of her wrap-like shirt and resheathed her knife behind her back

Aurelius soon emerged from the underbrush, wiping blood from his mouth onto the back of his hand. He looked at the stain, then, he turned away to gingerly lap it off.

“Bah!” he cried, wiping his hand on his muddy trousers. “Is there anything decent at all to eat around here, Taé? I’m only finding snakes, frogs, and other things that may as well be rats.”

Taé’s face lit up. “There’s one thing I always wanted to try!” She shot up the tree recently abandoned by monkeys and started giggling manically from the top. “Will we have enough time to find one, I wonder?”

“What are you on about!?” Aurelius yelled up at her. He cried out, falling on his rear as Taé came crashing back down, a pile of sticks and leaves following her swift descent.

She grinned and shouted, “Try to keep up, alright?!”

Without another word she shifted back into a red panther, then charged through the bushes and vanished, the world growing quieter as she passed and louder again as she disappeared. Aurelius made no move to follow her. Instead he just tried knocking the mud off his trousers, and sighed heavily when he could not.

“I’ve no idea why she’s so excited,” he grumbled. “There’s nothing of value out here.”

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Hazel stared at him. That very statement just boggled Hazel’s mind. Just the pure beauty of nature around her, untamed and wild, soothed her heart far more than the collected cultivation of the Grand Antonian Gardens. Sure, she couldn't focus on much more than traversal in the dark. But if she had senses like Taé and Aurelius, she’d love to see the strange trees, strange plants, perhaps strange animals too, if she dared risk it.

She smiled as an idea came to her, and held out a hand to Aurelius.

“Well…” she said, “Do you want to get a better view?”

He eyed the hand suspiciously. “This isn’t a mind reading thing is it?”

Hazel laughed. “No, no, no. Sorry. Nothing like that. I’m asking, do you want to fly with me?”

Aurelius glanced between her face and her hand, still suspicious. He gripped the sheath of his sword tightly by his side, as if he was terrified of it falling off.

But despite his hesitation, he took her hand, his right in her left. Hazel wove her fingers between his, his hands cool and smooth. She gripped, enjoying for just a moment how small her fingers felt between his, how snug. Then she shook his hand, smiled, and said,

“Take off your boots.”

“P-pardon?” Aurelius sputtered.

Soon after, she sunk deep in the leaves and mud as the overwhelming presence of Life filled her vision, Air a haze of gold around the pair. She could fly easily like this, but it would defeat the point. She wanted to see, and to show. So she watched as Aurelius peeled off each boot, watching the red lines in his fabric as they radiated from his chest, just barely curling up around his shoulders. He handed her each boot, and she gently etched a spellweaving the sole. She filled the linework with sap from a tree that had fabric more yellow than white. Perhaps it wasn't the ideal fabric-rich material, but with her around, it would be more than enough.

‘I thought Ares’ flying boots were awkward,’ Hazel mused. ‘Yet here I am, making a pair myself.’

Hazel blinked back into darkness, and laughed. She was stunk near ankle-deep in soft mud and leaves. Pulling her feet free, she handed Aurelius back his boots, and he slapped leaves and twigs off his stockings before he put them back on.

“Alright…?” Aurelius said hesitantly. “What now?”

“This spellwork should grip onto whatever I cast,” Hazel said. “But perhaps a test is in order…”

She gripped his free hand once more, carefully not to crush it as she blinked. She gripped the fabric of Air, spinning and weaving it into her favorite float spell around the two of them. Aurelius’ boots lit up and glowed soft yellow, resonating with her free weaving of the Air. As she blinked back, she saw Aurelius watch with suspicion as the ferns and fallen leaves rattled and lazily swirled in circles around them, light seeping from the soles of his shoes. Hazel grinned and squeezed his hand.

“Here,” she said. “With me.”

She eyed the canopy above, and pulled Aurelius through a few floaty steps. He awkwardly overshot and stumbled, but Hazel yanked him back. He thumped into her chest and she chuckled, feeling her face grow flush. Grinning, she stepped back and pulled him along in a gentle circle.

“When you find yourself tripping, just hop,” she said. “You’ll float long enough to find a place to land… or just take a clean fall.”

They walked carefully in a slow circle. Aurelius took a few practiced hops, shooting up, then slowly drifting back down.

“Alright,” he mumbled, staring at his feet.

Hazel eyed the canopy, then swirled more air about them, leaves tossed about in a small gust. She turned to Aurelius and said, “When I say so, jump straight up.”

He nodded, and adjusted the grip on his sword’s sheath.

“Three, two, one, jump!”

They leapt together. Wind and leaves whipped around them. Hazel laughed; Aurelius’ increased vampiric strength sent him up higher, and she was pulled along his tow. As they reached the peak of the jump, Hazel’s feet settled on a sturdy rope of woody vine, and she launched them both even higher. Aurelius’ yelped, but she held on tight, pulling him in her tow.

They floated in an arc over the tops of the trees. Wide-eyed, Aurelius looked over the canopy as the moon came back from around the clouds. The dark expanse was suddenly lit up in a rolling canvas of green foliage and low foggy clouds of silver. The Burn was far behind their backs, and from her vantage, it seemed like the forest would go on forever and ever. The whole world was swallowed up by woods, even the cliffs and the sea long gone.

Then the clouds shifted overhead, and rain, once only a gentle sprinkle, instead became an overwhelming peppering as they soared higher and higher. Hazel laughed again, and threw out her arm. Quick as a blink, she blew away water with one swipe of her arm, summoning the little pops of starlight on the backswing.

The muggy air flowed around them as they soared. Her hand tightly gripped Aurelius’ as, more often than not, he was just pulled along behind her. She was lost to the flow of freely hopping along the tops of trees, only bracing her hat when they threatened to fly off. Thin branches buckled like rubber. Vines cracked and wobbled under their weight. Solid trunks allowed the pair to soar even higher. Disturbed birds, colorful and the color of bark both, cried and flapped at their ascents and descents, but Hazel counted them lucky that they never disturbed a nest.

More than once the couple tumbled straight through an empty gap in the leaves. Aurelius yelped, but when they hit the dirt, it felt little more than a drop from just a single foot up, mud and leaves splattering sideways beneath their feet. Hazel laughed as water poured around them from the wide disturbed leaves. Then she grabbed the air once more, swirling it before launching into the next leap, back above the canopy once more.

With a few more hops, she settled atop a broad-trunked tree, one of the tallest in the entire forest. Its top branches were more like ferns that easily crumpled under their feet, but the trunk itself was solid, barely even swaying in the muggy wind. Pleasantly exhausted, she stood atop the uneven crook, and pulled Aurelius up after her. His eyes were wide, face slack with shock.

Hazel laughed. “What, was that terrifying?”

“Moments were,” he mumbled.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” she cried, pulling him forward into a quick hug. “I meant that to be fun.”

“Don’t be,” he said. “Moments were fun too.” He pulled away from the hug, and looked over the great ocean of green. “You’re right. This view is better.”

Hazel nodded enthusiastically. She tore her hat from her head and fluffed her hair, feeling the sweat cool in the gentle rain. Her clothes were damp, but not uncomfortably so. She closed her eyes and breathed deep the clean scent of greenery and petrichor, the warm breeze a gentle caress on her face.

“Why?” Aurelius asked softly. “Why are you doing this?”

Hazel cocked her head. “Doing what?”

She turned to Aurelius. His expression was still one of lingering shock, his eyes unable to leave her face.

“Doing… any of this,” he said. “Helping me.”

“I told you,” she said. “I like helping people.”

“Yes, yes, I can accept that,” he said, waving the thought away as he diverted his gaze. “But my situation is a bit more complicated than, what was it, psych soldier healing ....”

“Psychomagical healing, yes,” Hazel said.

“Thank you. My point is… that my problems are bigger than just a few sessions of healing.”

Hazel was prepared to debate that — he had no idea the things she had bore witness to in the soldier’s minds.

But her voice died as Aurelius rose. He found her hands, and despite her wet hands he easily wove his fingers between hers, one at a time, in a slowly unfurling wave. He stepped closer, all but pressing against her, piercing red eyes boring down into her own. She could feel her face flush, heart pounding as he peeled the wet hairs from her face, tucking them gently behind her ears.

“A-Aurelius?” she stammered.

“Hazel…” he asked, rolling her name across his tongue. He leaned in so close their noses were nearly touching. She could feel his cool breath wash down her front.

“What,” he asked. “Are you getting out of this?”

“A-are you teasing me?!” she cried.

“Only…” He deliberately paused “If you want me to be.”

Hazel laughed nervously. She stepped onto another branch and looked away; unable to bear either the closeness of his body or the intensity of his gaze.

And yet she didn't let go of his hand. She fiddled with his fingers, playing with the skin of his knuckles as she spoke.

“I… I said I didn’t want that,” she said. “If you’re worried about me sticking around… Well… I suppose if you want to put it crassly, I have my reasons. Seeing that I’ve done well, seeing that I’ve helped someone, it makes me feel good about myself. Even if it’s just one person, I’m glad that I’ve made the world a better place. I am capable of uplifting people –” She finally pulled her fingers free of his, and lifted his hand up to her eye level. “– So I’d feel terrible if I kept that all to myself.”

He stared at their clasped hands, “But I’ve offered no compensation for this…”

Hazel laughed nervously, “I know, I know. But if you want, consider it like… My own happiness is compensation for bringing others happiness.”

“Hm…”

Aurelius looked over the jungle once more, staring over the treetops. His fingers slipped from her hand as he adjusted his posture on the branches, making the fern-like leaves shake.

“Then… I want to apologize,” he said firmly.

“Huh?” Hazel said. “Why?”

“I still have trouble accepting your answer. But if it is true, then…” he sighed heavily. “I have made an ass of myself, haven't I?”

“Well…” Hazel winced at the memory of the rejection. At her own actions!

He continued. “I find it hard to accept that you wanted nothing in return for helping me. And you seem interested in me… so I offered… myself.” He gently brushed a hand over his chest, one languid finger at a time. “As a potential compensation.”

“Oh Aurelius…” Hazel reached for his sleeve. “You didn’t need to…”

His face flickered with a scowl, and he clicked his tongue. He brushed off her gesture.

“That’s the life I’ve led. For one hundred. Gods be damned. Years.” He took a steadying breath. “Anyone who denied needing compensation only meant they didn’t need it now. Any kind hand became a favor dangled over my head… or worse…”

He sighed heavily, and fell into a crouch amongst the fern-like leaves.

“I’m exhausted, Hazel,” he admitted, voice low. “I’m just so tired.”

Hazel couldn't help but blink. Though it was difficult to see in the rain, she saw Water and Earth rippling and pooling around the wounds in his Mental Fabric. Sorrow and melancholy. She blinked it away and crouched beside him, reaching once more for his hand. He stared at it languidly as she cupped his cool fingers between her palms. Such a small thing, yet just holding that hand, feeling its weight, touching the smooth skin… it made a happy zip in her heart.

Aurelius continued, “If you can stand to believe a liar like me, then let me say one thing.”

His clothes rustled as he shifted over, lifting her chin with his free hand so he could look her dead in the eye. She pursed her lips and tried to hold her gaze, but it was a struggle. Even if it was just her imagination, she felt like they were eyes that could look dead through her soul, and see all her selfish, dirty desires.

He said, “I wanted to compensate you by sleeping with you, that much is true. But I wanted to see if I could enjoy it too. Finally free, finally able to do what I wanted, I wanted to run wild… But I…”

He hesitated, sighing, a sad smile on his face as he glanced away. Hazel finished for him.

“But you didn’t enjoy it,” she whispered.

He cursed softly. “So you knew… of course you knew all along…” He let his hand fall away from her chin, chuckle low as he ran his fingers through his soggy curls. “I feel like a complete idiot.”

Hazel shook her head and pressed his cool fingers against her forehead. She could already feel his skin warm slightly, and felt another happy zip as his thick fingernails felt smooth against her skin, as if polished.

She chided herself. ‘Such small things…’

Aurelius didn’t mind, or at least didn’t pull away. He tugged at the ribbon in his hair and ruffled his curls, mimicking Hazel’s action, letting the wind catch the damp in his scalp.

Her heart felt a little lighter. He had told her the truth, and wasn’t hiding behind his fisherman’s lies. Even his wide-eyed shock, his pain and anger, it had all fallen away. To a calm. A tired calm, but peaceful nonetheless.

Yet, a small guilty part of her couldn't deny her continued feelings of attraction, her craving for that fisherman who used his body as bait. That was the version of the man she… well, that her body craved. She floundered between staring at the fangs in his mouth, and the tired bags under his eyes. She told herself that bringing this man closer to his own happiness would be enough for her.

Should be enough for her.

She fretted, yet again, that she was lying to Aurelius. About her feelings, yes, but was it also lying to not talk about one’s previous relationships?

Could she just escape that life? Forget all of it and throw herself into another’s arms so soon after…

She was shaken from her thoughts when a speck of white against the sky caught her attention. The speck approached rapidly, and soon she realized it was Edelweiss, who began circling around them, and landed softly on Hazel’s shoulders.

“There you are,” Edelweiss said.

“I could say the same to you!” Hazel said with a laugh. “Having fun?”

“Yes, very,” Edelweiss said. “In any case. Lady Taétta says she has something she wishes to hunt with the both of you.”

Hazel laughed. She stood, pulling Aurelius to his feet.

“Well?” she asked. “Shall we?”

Aurelius nodded, stuffing his ribbon in his pocket as he stood.

“Let’s.”

And with a twist of her wrist, they were off and soaring once more.