The Blue Pearl 11 Not A Promise But A Blood Oath

When Tristan was finally out of the forest, he found Ava there, alone with Majteer, kneeling and working on some small black rocks that evidently didn't belong to the forest floor. They were unfamiliar. He looked around for Olean, but she was nowhere to be seen. He approached the occupied woman with caution, as to not disturb her. She was making a small circle with about ten of those round black stones with red etchings. And when done, she opened a waist pouch filled with red powder and drew a circle with them over the stones. It looked everything like a spell, but he failed to feel any power from it. Despite his pathetic reserves and thus weak magic, Tristan was sensitive to unnatural energy. His master had often told him that and also, that he always felt more than he should have.

"The air is corrupted here…" Ava said as Tristan got close to her. He stood silently, not really understanding what she meant. "Look." She stood and pointed toward the peak, the peak like always looked to be in the shadows. Dark mist was oozing from the cracks on it like smoke from a chimney, like someone had burned something foul underneath it. He didn't see anything strange, same as what he had seen the last time he was here, only it was lesser now.

Ava was silent, maybe waiting for him to say something but Tristan didn't know what.

"I thought you would turn back… that would have been smarter."

Not waiting for his answer she started heading up the slope, where the base of the peak started, leaving the circle behind her. She leaned to her side as if to look around a corner and then walked to her other side and leaned for another angle, like studying a craftsman's work.

She stood with her hands on her waist; her lips pressed into a thin line and a hard stare in her eyes. Ahead of her, the peak loomed. Beik's Dagger it was named, who named it and why Tristan didn't know. It didn't look like a dagger, rather the base of a ma.s.sive tree cut flat. Black, like everything else there, with ridges and veins in it formed throughout the ages. At the base was a chasm that was filled with solid and swirling darkness. And inside lived the monster …and Olean was also there. He was very certain. The signs were faint but there had been a battle here. And it had gone up to the base of the peak, inside the crevice.

Seemingly satisfied with whatever she was looking for she returned to Majteer. Tristan, still baffled at the scene unfolding before him, silently watched.

Ava took off her cloak. Underneath it she had a grey shirt and a long leather skirt on that had been well hidden under the heaviness of the cloak. She had dark trousers on too with studded heavy leather boots. Her body was thin and bony and her edgy blades could be easily seen through her shirt. Dark gloves that came to her forearms with silver markings and long fingers rolled the cloak into a small bolt and shoved it in one of the packs on Majteer. The Winid stirred as if to turn and look at her master and Ava slapped her back softly in annoyance and scolded.

"Stop it!"

Majteer stopped but let her displeasure known in a loud snort.

"You can survive alone just for a little while." Ava replied to the clearly annoyed animal, like Majteer had been a spoiled child, as her hands deftly worked the packs on her.

"No." Ava said harshly and tugged on her reins as Majteer almost slipped away from the older woman.

"Hey, stop it!" Another slap, harder than before and this time Ava definitely looked angry. Majteer let out a loud breath and shook her head from side to side. "Yes, yes I get it. A bucket full. A deal. Now stop moving." She said loudly and only then Majteer stopped, but looked no less annoyed.

Then suddenly her eyes fell on Tristan's and the Winid froze and quickly looked away, her silver veins turning slightly yellowish.

Was it...she embarra.s.sed? Tristan wondered but dismissed the thought.

Ava turned to see Tristan looking and then turned at Majteer and smirked but didn't say anything. She pulled a long sword from the back of the animal and strapped it to her waist where layers of leather belts, thin and wide with silver studded hooks and holes were already fastened. Another strap across her shoulder held a small pouch where more small rings on small chains were hung.

She unstrapped a wooden box form Majteer's back and unpacked it in the ground. Tristan watched the entire scene from distance, not willing to disturb them in what seemed to be their private affair. But he did see small bottles and vials of colored liquid inside the box. She picked out some of them and hung them from her waist hooks and the ones which already had chains tied to them into the holes. And finally, a larger tear shaped bottle with a thin long neck and no apparent opening, she hesitatingly tied under the side pouch.

She then packed the box back onto the animal and walked behind her to open a bigger leather pack and brought out a small and wide mouthed wooden bucket with beautiful golden shades and black designs on its side. It looked more like a big and fancy eating bowl than a bucket. Majteer perked up, eyes shifting to her back but didn't move. Putting on the ground Ava opened another pack from her bag and took out something white and transparent from inside, like big chunks of ice but soft looking. She filled the bucket almost to its brim and brought it to Majteer.

Though clearly excited with all the twitching and shifting of hers, Majteer didn't dig in when Ava put the bucket in front of her head.

"What? Really? You can't be-"She said in another one-sided conversation with the Winid and Majteer then turned to Tristan, frowning. Tristan, confused and more than a little scared about what the animal had said about him to Ava, wanted to run.

"Tristan, come here for a while."

With slow steps Tristan walked but seeing the Winid's clear impatience as she swayed her head up and down with loud breaths, Tristan hurried. He would have been more scared too if he didn't see the slight smile on Ava, one a mother would have at their child's tantrums.

She bent down and picked a piece of ice from the bucket and offered it to Tristan.

"Here." She said to confused Tristan, "A gift, from her." And pointed toward the glaring Majteer behind her.

Still bewildered, Tristan reached out his hand to take the strange thing but Ava s.n.a.t.c.hed her hand back.

"But…," she said "she has a condition…"

"Condition?" He asked getting more and more confused, and only because he saw the slight nod in Ava's head did he nod in instant agreement. "Okay."

"Good, see, you get this if you promise never to tell anyone what you had just seen."

"…What?"

"A simple promise-" Majteer snorted and Ava grimaced in return and turned to her, "That is not necessary." She frowned and turned to Tristan then sighed. "Okay. No, no promise but a blood oath."

Tristan didn't know what the two were even talking about.

A blood oath? But for what? What had he just seen anyway?

He looked at the ones in front of him thinking what could they be meaning and then suddenly he realized and glared at Majteer, who in turn glared back. Gritting his teeth he turned to Ava who helplessly shrugged but looked annoyed too.

"O-okay." He answered. And took the soft icy looking thing in his hand. It was not as cold as he thought it would be, just cool enough to touch pleasantly. "Ice apple, her favorite." Ava said and brought out a savage looking knife from somewhere when he was not looking and turned to Majteer.

"Now don't move, it'll be just a nick." She said as she gently touched the Winid's neck with her knife. The animal shivered and took a step back to look at the knife with wide eyes. Her lines of silver turned darker, more and more matching the rest of her skin.

"A blood oath requires blood, yes, because it was You who initiated it." Ava paused and looked at Majteer. "You are certain? I have this ready you see. No? Okay then. Good." Ava talked again in that one sided conversation and turned to Tristan.

"What? Eat. And she says no blood oath required, your promise will do." Grumbling Majteer dug her face in the bucked and started chewing. Tristan too took a bite of that slightly sweet but odd tasting fruit of gelatin water.

"Tristan, you better return now." Ava said as she finished her packing and was ready. "Thank you for what you did but beyond this, I cannot guarantee protection."

Tristan didn't reply. He didn't plan to or wanted to go in. He just wanted to fill himself and it shouldn't take long.

But as the time was pa.s.sing, panic was also starting to rise within him. It was taking too long. Why could he not feel even a drop pouring in his inner well? He was too close to the mountain, wasn't he? That ought to have worked.

"Tristan." Ava looked at him, her gaze was harsh but understanding. "Go back. And don't follow me."

She waited and frowned when Tristan didn't reply. And then turned and walked up the slope toward the crevice. She was going inside. Where the monster had come from, where Olean had gone in after It and hadn't come out. Was she even alive?

But it was only an afterthought. His main worry was his reserves. Ava was almost at the entrance and now slowly disappearing inside that dark chasm. He looked at the Winid, too happy in her own world to even realize he was near.

There is power inside…

The chasm…

Like a voice inside his head, he felt it, and looked up frowning ahead at that solid swirling dark, so inviting, so full.

Just a touch… he will see if it works and return.

***
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The darkness was solid and coiling more as he stepped closer.

Just a touch…

But would he be able to stop himself…? He could almost feel it… with now a few inches away from the mist… The place was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with magic.

Just beyond the darkness. He reached out to touch, to see but the black tendrils grabbed hold of his hand as soon as it got close and he fell forward.