Chapter 5

**Noch**


*That bastard… He went to go and save her anyway, not caring if he was seen or not, even though he kept on preaching that she can’t see us or else she will die. Bah!* I thought as I kept track of them through the scrying bowl in the atrium. I knew that he would most likely keep tighter tabs on her after his reaction when we told him about the attack. And OBVIOUSLY, Hezerial wasn’t going to leave her side ever again. Probably even if it meant following her soul through the path of reincarnation.

That angelic seemed thrilled beyond the stars to be by her side again. And Thyrion… well. He was a whole other bag of wraiths all together.

I looked back down at the bowl. Merianna had remembered him. She said his name. In other words, he triggered another memory of hers. I didn’t stand next to them in person, but looking through the bowl, I might as well have. Her pain seemed almost more intense like this than it had through Hezerial’s memories.

And Thyrion looked too torn for words to describe. It’s as if in that moment that he made her sleep he gave up on trying to keep her alive.

I thought for a second. What if whatever is plaguing her is almost like a wool jersey, and once one or two threads were cut and no longer connected, the whole thing unravels, and if you pick at it, it unravels even faster… and there is no way to stop it. And no way can a person count on Merianna to not pick on something once she has a grasp on it.

I frowned as I watched Thyrion carry Merianna back to her car and put her in the passenger seat. The angelic was talking, yelling I assumed… probably, hence the angry flailing arms.

Do I want to hear?
…
Maybe.

I changed the enchantment on the bowl slightly, and suddenly sound was flooding into the atrium. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE IS GOING TO DIE ANYWAY?!!!!!”
I flailed backwards at the volume. I was right. Hezerial was having one mother of a hissy fit.

“I mean to say,” Thyrion sighed once he ducked his head back out of the car “that once she starts remembering, and keeps trying to make sense of it all, the more agony she will be in, and the faster she will die. But there is no doubt as to her fate now. She will die, be it in a day, a week, or a month from now. This has happened more than once after her death in that battle where we thought we had lost her. A person, especially a witch, can come back more than once in the span of 2000 years.”

Hezerial was having trouble controlling his anger. All that stood between him and Thyrion was the car, with Merianna in it.

“In those lifetimes, you never thought to seek out help, did you?” Hezerial bit out.

Thyrion shook his head and looked down at Merianna. “You don’t understand. I couldn’t. I can’t.”

I leaned forward at that, my nose almost skimming the still water. That was the bit of information I wanted to hear about. Thyrion made it sound like someone else had the remote control to Merianna’s life, and was using it to make sure Thyrion behaved.

“CAN’T?!” Hezerial boomed in outrage. “You do realize what kind of witches reside in the Order, don’t you?! You do realize who Noch is, right?!”

I blinked at the angelic. Then felt my face contort into a dark scowl. What had the angelic found out about me, I wonder? The thing with being an old witch was that at some point in some lifetime, there is always something that you would prefer to leave buried in the past.

“I know full well what kinds of witches reside at the Order. And what kind of witch Noch is.” Thyrion snapped as he walked around to the driver’s side. I scowled some more.

“Even then, things are not as simple as all that Hezerial. I would ask that you please stay by your lady’s side and make sure she stays safe, and if she remembers anything and goes through the same pain as just now, to stop her before it overwhelms her. It might be a good idea for her to be aware that you are with her, let her see you, and talk to her. If she tries to sense anything in her surroundings, it could unravel her memories faster because she’ll be using her power that is locked away.”
Hezerial looked mad enough to spit fire and brimstone as Thyrion climbed into the car and started it.

“I’ll be away for a little while. I have some things I need to take care of. Would you mind taking care of this mess?” Thyrion asked, pointing to the fallen tree.

Hezerial shook with anger but he laid his palm on the tree anyway and before I knew it, the tree was back where it belonged; the debris was cleared away, and the wind was breezing by as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

“See you around Hezerial.” Thyrion said as he drove past the angelic to take Merianna back home.

I swiped my hand over the bowl, and the images dispersed. Then, not being able to stand still, I started pacing back and forth.

“That sounded interesting.” Said a croaky voice from the shadows.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard that voice. I whirled around and saw Arasule standing in the middle of the walkway with a half empty bottle of wine in her hand and looking more sober than I’ve seen her in 2000 years.

I shifted in front of the scrying bowl so she wouldn’t be able to see it. Even though it was a useless gesture, it still made me feel a smidgen better.

“You old bat. I thought someone would have dragged your drunken ass out of here hours ago.”

She started walking towards me slowly, her bottle swinging lightly by her side. Her face was all seriousness though. Even though her clothes stank of alcohol and her hair was unkempt, the look on her face was what made her look alive again. “What you said to me before you left had intrigued me. And I couldn’t very well leave with only a teasing titbit of information.”

She stood in front of me, back straight. “Spill.” She demanded.

I looked at her skeptically, eyeing her as I waited to see if her expression would give away what she thought might be going on. It didn’t though. She just lifted a feminine eyebrow at me and started tapping her foot impatiently.

I sighed. Ara had missed the little brat something terrible. They did have a self-proclaimed grandmother and granddaughter relationship after all. Even when Ara didn’t take to her twin nearly as readily as she did to Merianna herself.

“Well…” I started saying. “It turned out to be a complicated situation.” I said and started to pace in front of the bowl.

“What turned out to be complicated?” She asked, putting her hands on her hips and scrutinizing me. “You walked through that gate like you were up to some mischief like in the old days, but then you come back with the long lost angelic yelling through the scrying bowl, sounding royally pissed. And if I’m not mistaken, that other voice was Thyrion’s. Both of whom we haven’t seen in centuries, mind you. And there was definitely talk about a “her” and “your lady” through that bowl. But the only person both of them would be so obsessed about was Merianna, but she…” Arasule stopped talking, her eyes slightly brimming with tears like they usually did when Merianna was mentioned.

I stopped pacing and even though Arasule was a nasty crazy old bat, I pulled her into a hug. For once, she didn’t fight it. Must have been the influence of half a bottle’s downed wine. She was sure that Merianna had made her final stop on that day. We all were, especially after her guardian, tear streaked and devastated, told us that he couldn’t feel her anywhere.

“Well Ara. I usually tell you that you shouldn’t get your hopes up, but this time I’m going to tell you to throw that comment out the window and definitely fire up your hopes.” Arasule pulled away from me with a frown, scanning my face to try and make sense of whatever I was rambling on about this time.

I smiled. “We held that vigil way too soon.”

It was funny to see the transformation on her face as she started to think of my words seriously. Her face went from sad, to confused, to skeptical, and when my expression didn’t change, her face lit up like she had just seen something beautiful.

“Truly?” she asked, looking almost too afraid to hope.

I nodded my head. “She still lives. That demon of a child never knows when to quit.”

Arasule let out a shriek of what appeared to be joy and started squeezing the life out of me as she let out that old cackle that said she was up to no good.
I patted her back as she wiggled in delight. “Arasule, we can’t tell anyone else yet, okay?” I half wheezed.

She stopped her rejoicing and held me at arm’s length. “Why not?” She demanded.

“Because there seems to be a small development. She has a pretty powerful spell cast on her by the looks of it. One that has been killing her whenever she seems to remember something from the past. It has also been keeping her aura contained, so she isn’t able to do any magic or be detected.” Ara let go of my arms, looking shocked.

“But how can that be? It must have been done during the war then, because at that time, not even Hezerial could feel her presence.”

I nodded. “This is what has been troubling me since Hezerial came to me this morning. Any number of races or creatures have grudges against us, especially against her, since she was mainly the reason we won all our battles. She would be anyone’s first target. And at the point when we die in one lifetime and our souls leave the old body, we are most vulnerable, especially if the death was quick and unexpected. It must have been done in that instant her soul left her body. A spell that instantly attached itself to a departing soul…”

I started my pacing again. Arasule was watching me, also making her own deductions and theories.

“Something like this could easily be done by a warlock if they had access to the body and soul for a while. Necromancers mostly affect the bodies of the dead but their influence over souls is not unheard of.” She sat down on the ground as she thought through what she was saying. “Those are the two most likely candidates I can think of right now, everyone else is either incapable or not strong enough for something like this. Another possibility is that it could be another strong witch. Or… even a demon.”

I gave a huff of exasperation. That was true, Dermon might have been dealt with last time in that battle, but we weren’t sure if he was truly done for. We had become complacent with nothing much having happened after we killed him that time.

“Thyrion is staying tight lipped. But maybe…”

I stopped my pacing and faced her. “Do you think we could undo the spell or curse, or maybe even track it to the source?”

She was a master of potions and her spell work was something to be respected. She sat there and tapped a slender finger against her chin as she thought. “It might be possible. But if it’s connected to her soul and manifests in her body, it won’t be without a great deal of pain on her side. We’ll need Nelia too to try and keep her stable until we can fully undo whatever it is, because clearly from what you are saying, when it manifests she dies because her body can’t handle the sudden onslaught. Poor thing.”

We stayed as we were looking at each other as our minds raced. But we both smiled when one thing was undeniably certain. Unavoidable.
“You realize what all this planning means, right?” I asked Ara, and she smirked.

“Our little girl has to come home.”