40°49'37.0"N 47°42'45.1"E

  Q?b?l? International Airport

  20.05.2024 – 23.20 UTC +04.00

  But it was not luck that had led R??id to us. He found us the moment I set up my ward to protect this newfound company of civilians.

  “How are you so sure?” R??id’s question made me pause.

  If he was struggling to maintain this hex, his expression did not show it. His dark eyes oscillated between me and the procession of the Hex of Lot, never distracted by the mayhem around us. Although he did periodically tap his fingers. I figured this was a way to regulate his silencing Curse, as nothing else betrayed nervousness or restlessness. His stance was that of a warrior. An assassin.

  It was still unclear to me how his Curse worked, but I made sure to mentally note as much as I could notice. Inevitably, we would soon find ourselves in less aligned positions. If I had to cut his fingers clean off his hand, I would.

  Ramin was at the forefront, literally and figuratively. He was now leading the procession, the frontrunner of the Hex of Lot – in the safest position of all involved, if you asked me. He was also right in the epicenter of the mystery that had turned my life upside down over the past few days. I just could not guess how.

  “Do you have any way to calm them down?” R??id changed the topic, referring to the people inside our common hex-bound ward.

  Was that concern in his voice?

  “Unfortunately, I do not think I have. They just have to persevere; I wish there was a better way.”

  Bullets flew right through our path-shaped ward, crossing from one side of the golden path and reappearing from the other side, leaving anyone inside unharmed. I reminded myself that these people would have been dead the moment the covens crashed in this place, like all the rest of the innocent bystanders around us. So even if our approach was bound to have severe consequences, it could still end in a net positive outcome.

  “This is not how a Hex of Lot goes,” I said again, to remind myself this time.

  The name had less to do with the biblical Lot himself or any religious meaning, for that matter. It was, however, aptly chosen for its unintended consequences when you are wholly unseen, unheard, and protected. A hex like this was testing human nature to a degree unmeant to test; turning all these mortals into observers of scenes not meant to observe, only die in. Lot’s wife looked back at the sulfur and fire, and turned to salt.

  I did not avert my gaze, although it was a brutal sight. Most dead bodies around us were not that many minutes ago living people, normal, innocent people, here to have a business trip, or a much-desired holiday escape. They were of all ages, lying on the ground, butchered by shards of glass, shot by enchanted bullets, or simply trampled by powers that they would not comprehend. In their last moments, they had witnessed ungodly, meaningless things.

  Piles and piles of butchered bodies. Sulfur and fire.

  I was not the only one noticing them. The men in the front of the procession whimpered, looking left and right, as they were walking right through hell, completely alone. Calling out to whatever gods they might, thinking no one would hear them. That was almost true; no one could, besides R??id and me.

  “Perhaps they can brave this walk,” I said, “all they have to do is walk alone through the path.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then you let us fly an airplane far away from here,” I said. I did not want to reveal my plan to him, that I was chasing a vision to another continent. A vision… How had this series of visions begun?

  A group of whispering Starlings lunged in the battleground nearby. Their faces were concealed behind their feathery masks. Platanus leaves appeared around them. Men of Adil spawned around them, opening fire with rifles, aiming at witches’ hearts. Maybe I knew some of them, maybe days ago I would have felt pain seeing them bleed. But now my mind wandered in a realm of new possibilities. Of unwanted possibilities.

  R??id kept tapping his fingers.

  “Nisy, we have to steer them to a gate,” he said. Like a shepherd would steer his flock. Like a guide creating visions.

  “It was you… The first vision was because of you,” I said.

  The vision in the cabin, when this man had abused my whispers. When he pushed me to see further than I had ever seen before. In a city of stone, beyond Sahara.

  And then again, the vision in the Safehouse. My Farsight led me again to Africa. And then Ramin and I came here to the airport… all to meet him again.

  Bullets, screams, more blood. Our procession became unstable, and the dust’s light flickered between gold and silver. My mind stumbled. Had I miscalculated what my vision meant? Was it really sheer luck we ended up in the thick of this battle?

  “Don’t. Please don’t,” R??id begged. He tapped his fingers closer to my face to get my attention. “Stay focused!”

  “What are you afraid of?” I asked. As the pieces of the puzzle landed in a different pocket of my heart, anger brewed.

  He weighed his response.

  “It was me. I put you with the half-Shadow, in that house,” he said eventually.

  He had weighed poorly. I grabbed his hand and stopped walking. The procession stopped, our golden path pausing by my command. Worried voices and whispers from our flock of sheep reached my ears, but I blocked them. I cared for life, but they were still sheep. And I had to first understand the wolf.

  I peered right into R??id’s eyes.

  My sight was lost diving into his thoughts, and all I could hear were whispers. No more airport, no more chaos, no more screaming. Only his whispers, his voice. Some were in a Roman language I could not speak. Spanish, perhaps. Other whispers, his thoughts, were loud and clear.

  Tienen el segundo. Manden contacto a Madrid.

  She is powerful. She could break him out.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  El tercero debe ser liberado.

  The whispers flooded my brain.

  Ellas tienen la Segunda.

  She is powerful. She could break the house. Set the Shadow free.

  Take her in, Shadow. Let her heal. Let her speak to you.

  And then more voices. Ramin’s voice:

  I do not understand.

  And finally, my own voice:

  You are to be caged by my ward’s light, for as long as the rain still plans to fall.

  This had never happened to me before. I had gotten Insight from his thoughts, an ability I did not know I could harness through my Curse. I opened my eyes, and he looked at me, enraged by the psychic intrusion, pushing my hand aside.

  “Nisy, what is happening?” Ramin shouted, somewhere at the forefront. The company was panicking, and the Hex of Lot paused while I hesitated on my next move.

  I started walking again, releasing R??id’s hand.

  “Was that the message you had me send? What is even in Madrid?” This alliance was doomed, to begin with, and I was trapped with this treacherous man in a Hex of Lot. I cried at the top of my lungs: “You had me believe my coven entrapped me, but it was you who placed me there! What do you want from me?”

  “Witch! Focus on your ward!” He yelled back at me. The golden dust surrounding our procession trembled.

  “I can focus, heretic,” I shouted at him. I willed the warded path to expand brighter, to further accentuate my point, “You made me a pawn to your plan!”

  My voice echoed both as a cry and a whisper. I was both losing control and also felt more in control than I had ever been in the past days.

  He kept tapping his fingers. I could see the desperation in his eyes.

  A shriek of a hex crossed the airport, making metal crack and glass explode. Our ward lit up, excited by my anger and reacting to what I could only guess was Hokum?’s uniquely distinct malice on the battlefield.

  Was it the scream? The glass? Was it me, losing focus, or R??id’s taunt? Or was it that she simply was not meant to witness the sulfur and fire?

  One of the middle-aged women in the front jumped, cried, and fell on her back, outside the golden border of my ward.

  This was it.

  The moment she crossed the border, she knew what this meant. I did not need to be able to hear her thoughts. She yelled.

  “No, let me back in!” She screamed and crawled towards us, her hands bleeding as she pushed onto the glasses on the floor. She could not see us or hear us, as was meant for such a hex. But we could see and hear her. In fact, everyone in the procession could, from the moment she fell out of it. The women in the front who were standing next to her froze in fear momentarily and then continued walking. They understood the point – there was no helping her. If they tried extending a helping hand out of the bounds of our Hex, they would be doomed like her.

  “No, please, where is the path! Bring it back, I know -ah- I know you are there,” she said, wandering close to the family of four. Not that she knew. All she could do was crawl among bodies. “Let me in, you Cursed witch! Please, please, where am I supposed to go!”

  R??id glared at me, as if it was my fault this happened. I was under no delusions, and I would not succumb to his manipulation.

  “You made me believe you care to save these people, walk them through war,” I whispered calmly and smiled. “All you want is for Ramin and you to get out of here. Was he in on it? Were all these theatrics so that I would help? Answer me.”

  “Please stay on course,” R??id said, walking fast and pulling the path forward, prompting me to follow hurriedly. Behind us, the Men of Adil were running. I could hear them approaching this side of the airport again.

  The middle-aged woman who had veered off the path decided to stand up. Perhaps one last act of bravery, or desperation. Her eyes wet from the tears. Perhaps she thought she could reach me and plead. She stood still, perhaps, because she thought we had lost her and we would come back to find her.

  One by one, the members of the procession passed next to her. There was absolutely nothing I could do but watch. I knew this going in. R??id did as well.

  That angered me. I was left in a joint hex that depended on the mercy of this man, all to fulfill intentions I frankly did not care to find out. As he walked faster, leaving me behind, all I could think of was how he had ensnared me in that cabin that fateful night.

  “Let me in!” The stranded woman shouted, begging for the impossible.

  I rushed behind R??id and grabbed his head, and before he could react, I whispered in his ear, hoping to reach deep inside his heart.

  “Do you know why Lot’s wife turned to salt? Why is Eurydice trapped in Hades? Because we are not meant to resist caring.”

  Your plan will succeed Leaf, but I will make you hear them all.

  I had never used any kind of psychic insights before like that, but it felt natural that they would be the same as whispers. All these thoughts borne by the people around us, ready to be caught like whispers in the wind.

  The woman started screaming. From her perspective, she was the only living person around, lost and alone, surrounded by bodies. Caught in the crossfire.

  Why won’t anyone help me? Why won’t anybody -

  Finally, another group of the Men of Adil arrived, at the right time to take her out of her agony. One of the many bullets pierced her skull, ending that whisper in vain. Her body fell right in our procession.

  The suited man – still carrying his suitcase, as if this was going to matter to any extent in his limited living moments – jumped startled right out of the path.

  Please no for the love of god. Another begging whisper.

  He ran around, disoriented.

  “Noone abuses me,” I hissed at R??id, forcing him to keep walking safely into the Hex. We would reach our destination, as he intended. But all, if not most of the people in it were doomed to spiral outside of the path, left behind to die. This was a Hex of Lot. I had to make him regret it and feel it all.

  Ramin walked steadfastly at the front, infuriating me with how far out of reach he was, protected by my own Curse. I would deal with him once at safety.

  The spiral continued. One by one, the civilians were consumed by fear and madness, and witnessing others losing the path, they followed suit. And every single one whispered thoughts of desperation, before a bullet, a hex, or fire would consume them. I channeled in vengeance all those desperate whispers I caught into R??id, who was walking hollower and hollower by the step towards safety, right next to me. Every step of the procession took us deeper into another major fight of glass, feathers, and leaves.

  Mommy! One of the boys from the family of four whispered his fear into us.

  The boy panicked and stepped to the side to avoid one of the men who were running around aimlessly. But he had now stepped outside the ward.

  “Mom!”

  Mom!

  The boy shouted, doomed to find itself beyond our protection.

  I can’t let that boy on his own. The overweight kind man in front of us ran right towards the boy, perhaps instinctively even. Glass slit his throat before he would even make more than a step.

  His mother ran towards the boy.

  Each boy takes one of us, was her whisper that I kept for myself. As she purposefully stepped out of the path to not let her boy die alone, the boy ran into her arms.

  I let all the whispers flood R??id’s brain and heart, except this one. This one had no desperation, but hope in it.

  I sent it to her husband and son – the minimum courtesy I could do, fueled by her intention. A message not to look back and continue without them.