Point of view of Drake Helkar
"Drake, what did you do to me?" My sister said with a broken voice, cutting the silence that enveloped us.
I remained huddled in the snow, unable to lift my head after her question, until the tears increased, mixing with the dirt and blood on my face. My chest hurt, and it wasn't because of the broken ribs I had, but because of the disgust I felt for myself.
Zoe….
I had tried to lie to her, but the image of the vision was too heavy to hold on my own.
"I hit you…." I finally let out, with a choked voice. "In the vision… we were in a room. I was out of control and… and I hit you, so hard that I broke a wall. You had blood on your face and… and you were looking at me with a fear… a fear I had never seen in you."
Zoe said nothing, remaining in silence while her heavy breathing could be felt right above me.
"I told you to leave… that I would kill you if you stayed." I continued, gritting my teeth so as not to sob any louder. "A-And then I was alone, su-surrounded by fire! Crying!! Over what looked like your ashes…. I, I killed you, Zoe. In that future, I killed you."
I waited for her to get up. I waited to hear her footsteps moving away from me, fleeing from the time bomb I had become. Any sane person would do it, or so I thought to myself. But the silence stretched so long that it hurt more than the wounds I had.
Suddenly, I felt her hands that did not push me away as I would expect, but instead grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to sit up. When I finally dared to look at her, I saw that she was also crying. Tears ran down her soot-stained cheeks, but her eyes held no fear. They held a rage and a determination that left me speechless.
"Do you think I care?" She suddenly snapped at me, tightening her fingers on my clothes. "Do you think I'm going to go running off just because of something that hasn't even happened? Look at me Drake!"
She said, making me look at her, feeling how the cold of the environment disappeared before the intensity of her words.
"I am not leaving. I don't care what you saw or what that damn vision tries to show us."
Zoe moved closer, pressing her forehead to mine while her tears fell onto my hands. "If that is the future they showed you, then we are going to tear it apart. I'm not going to let you become that, and I'm not going to leave you alone with that burden. Do you hear me? Never."
In that moment, something changed inside me. The panic that was suffocating me transformed into a spark of clarity. Seeing her like that, willing to die by my side rather than abandon me, made me realize how pathetic I was being, waiting like a fool for destiny to run me over without trying anything.
Shit… she's right. I thought, as my breathing began to stabilize. If the vision showed me that, it's so I do something. I'm not going to allow her to end up like that. I'm going to change it. I'm going to change every damn second until that future is impossible, ¡impossible in every scenario!!
'Change the future'. That was my new goal. It was no longer just about surviving or finding the fragments; it was about becoming strong enough to protect her from myself if necessary.
"All right…." I said, wiping my face with my sleeve, although I only managed to get dirtier. "We'll do it together."
Zoe nodded, letting out a sigh of relief that turned into a small cloud of vapor. She stayed by my side for a moment longer, making sure I wouldn't collapse again, before beginning to check my wounds more professionally.
…
Shortly after she finished healing me in various ways, the real cold of the mountain began to be felt again, until I gathered enough mana to create a slight layer of mana, warming my body. I stood up with some difficulty before looking toward the horizon to see exactly where we were.
"We went quite far, didn't we?" She asked, standing up as well. Her tone had returned to normal, but she stayed close enough that our clothes touched.
"Yes… it dragged us several kilometers to the northeast." I replied, trying to remember the map we had seen on the caravan. "We're in the middle of nowhere and without mana. It's going to be a long way back."
Zoe looked toward the forest she had come from and then toward the mangled corpse of the Thunderbird a few meters from us.
"Then we better start walking." She said, extending a hand to help me out of the crater we were in. Upon taking it, we stood looking at each other for a second and we both ended up smiling warmly, feeling that, despite all the disaster, things would be fine between us, or at least for now.
We took our first steps to leave the impact zone, when a static sound broke the silence, catching our attention immediately.
"Wait." Zoe said, stopping as she searched for something in her clothes. After searching with difficulty, she pulled out a silver Yetsu I had never seen, making me wonder where she had gotten it. "This is Markus's. He gave it to me before leaving the caravan in case I managed to find you."
With amazement at its design, I nodded, watching as she adjusted the magical dial to stabilize the signal. After a few seconds of annoying noise, Markus's voice was heard through the device, though it sounded a bit crackly.
"¿Zoe? Zoe, can you hear me?"
"Zoe here. I hear you Markus." She quickly responded, with a sigh of relief. "I already found Drake. We're a bit injured and quite tired, but we're fine. We're going to start the way back right now, so wait for us."
There was a silence on the other side, which was only broken by static before Markus spoke again, but this time, with a tone full of guilt.
"Zoe… n-no lo hagan. Don't go back to the meeting point… the caravan is already moving."
Zoe's expression changed in an instant. Her eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed with evident annoyance.
"¿What? ¿What are you talking about? ¡Markus, that is impossible!" She shouted, almost losing her composure. "¡The protocol says they must wait for missing guards at least until dusk! ¿Why didn't they wait for us?"
"I know, Zoe, I know… and believe me I tried to stop them." Markus replied heavily through the Yetsu. "But… you see, the situation of several guards worsened drastically. So, without much discussion, Axel gave the direct order to advance at maximum speed toward Barton."
Zoe, clearly annoyed by Markus's words, whispered Axel's name, before I took the device from her seeing her distress.
"Markus, I'm Drake. It's okay, don't worry about us." I said, trying to calm the atmosphere. "We're not that far from Barton, so we'll go on our own to regroup there later, and go together toward Macury as originally planned."
"Hello Drake… yeah, you see, that's the problem." Markus cursed in a low voice. "I don't doubt you'll be able to reach Barton safe and sound, but… walking in your state and with this weather, it will take you at least ten days to get there. That's why… shit…" He cursed, before continuing. "By the time you arrive, the wagon going to Macury will have already left, and with it the chance to catch the royal carriage heading to the capital…."
Ohh… that means that….
"Without that carriage, my trip would be delayed half a year, or even more." He continued, before going silent for a while and continuing with what he truly wanted to tell us.
"That's why, I can't wait for you, I'm sorry…." Markus repeated, and this time his voice broke a little, showing how much it cost him to tell us that. "If I miss this transport, I'll lose my chance to get to the capital this year, and you know I can't afford that. So… this is goodbye, at least for a long time."
The silence that followed his words was heavy, only interrupted by the whistling of the wind and the static from the Yetsu I held in my hand. Zoe, who was next to me, stood completely rigid, absorbing the fact that we had just been left alone in the middle of nowhere.
"Guys, listen closely, because the signal will surely cut out at any moment, and I'd like to tell you a couple of things before that." Markus continued, speaking fast as if fearing the signal would cut off due to the distance that kept increasing.
"Zoe, please… stop being so stubborn, and try to be more sincere with what you feel for once and don't let time slip through your fingers, because sometimes opportunities don't return."
Turning to see her reaction to those confusing words, I saw how Zoe's eyes widened like saucers as she listened to Markus's words.
¿Eh?
"And you Drake…." He continued, with a more serious tone. "Take good care of Zoe please, but also… get ready to see Angelica, as she will soon leave Swaford as an adventurer, preparing to wait for you in Slorah, or something like that. So you better meditate well until then, or even before… or well, that will depend on Zoe, hahah—"
With a laugh and many questions, the Yetsu's signal emitted a high-pitched beep and the static became total, indicating that communication had been definitively cut off due to the distance.
I stood staring at the device in silence, processing the incomplete information that fool Markus gave until I could finally connect certain points. ¿Angelica? ¿She will already set out for our meeting?
A mixture of joy and nervousness ran through my body thinking about her, but that feeling disappeared in a second when I felt Zoe's intense gaze fixed on the back of my neck as I showed a silly smile.
With fear, I slowly turned my head to see her, and what I found made me take a step back by instinct. Zoe was enraged, with her fists so tight that her knuckles were white, while she let out unintelligible noises from frustration.
"That idiot…." She whispered, with a tone I had never heard or seen from her, making me even more scared. "¿He tells me to be sincere… to then tell him to take care of that… that woman? ¡Traitor!" She finally shouted into the air, causing a couple of nearby birds to fly off in fright.
Noticing I was still there, she turned toward me, and although her eyes still had traces of the tears from before, they were now filled with a jealous determination that was scary.
¿Eh? ¿What is happening…? ¿Zoe? I thought at her strange behavior, until with a step, she invaded my personal space in a way that made me nervous.
"Don't think about her for even a second, do you hear me?" She snapped at me, while pointing at the dead Yetsu. "Right now we have to get to Barton alive, so get that demon out of your head right now, because I know you'll get stupid like you did years ago when you still saw her."
Without giving me time to respond, she turned around and started walking with heavy steps over the snow, leaving me standing there with the Yetsu in my hand and my head in a mess.
…
We walked for a couple of hours toward the city, advancing with difficulty over the virgin snow and a quiet forest while we tried to recover some energy by absorbing the little mana that was in the environment.
Because of Markus, the silence between us was dense, forcing me to glance at Zoe from time to time, noticing that she was making a huge effort to hide what she was feeling, something that by the way, was not going well at all, as she looked indecisive, with a furrowed brow and an expression of worry that mixed with the annoyance she still felt. Given how she was, I knew what words were weighing on her mind, so I decided it was best not to say anything to avoid making things worse.
"Ahh.." I sighed, before looking forward and deciding to focus my thoughts on something more important, like the analysis of the vision I had, only this time unlike before, I would do it with a cooler and calmer mind.
Let's see, let's take it step by step. I thought, trying to organize the images in my head.
If I remember correctly, the first thing I noticed was that we kept moving north, beyond the Kingdom's borders until reaching an island. I thought, with no idea where it was or why we were heading there. It's confusing, but… I guess we were going there for Bernal's second Fragment…. Yes, it must be that, that has to be it.
More submerged in my thoughts, I continued thinking as I walked behind Zoe until I managed to answer some questions I had. The second thing, was seeing Mork and Ness with us.
A small spark of joy ran through me remembering it. ¡Yes! ¡It's true! ¡They were helping us with the trip! That will save us several years of travel….
Excited, I continued until that scene hit me again. Then there was the thing about the fragment… that I obtained and observed it, something that at least indicates to me that all this trip is not in vain, or well….
My heart rate accelerated a bit upon reaching the part that baffled me. Then there was that house. It seemed we had settled there, something that makes no damn sense. ¿Why did we stop? ¿Did we forget to search for the fragments?
Ahh… I don't know, all this seems very strange to me…. I took a mental pause, remembering the image of my sister. In the vision, Zoe looked a bit older, more mature than now. ¿Does that mean several years had passed? Yes, that's certain, but… I still don't understand… I saw myself mistreating her, being a complete asshole to her in that room. ¿Why? If I condemn mistreatment like that….
Remembering a scene from the past, I reinforced with one more reason to find a way to change the destiny of those visions. For my race's culture, it doesn't matter much if you are female or male… that's why everyone saw it as normal in a way when Kadian hit Zoe hard, after my Omen trials, but… I don't support that, I believe that while both genders should have the same opportunities, one shouldn't even lift a hand to a woman, I… abhor that…. That is why my stupid behavior in that future has no logic.
Doubtful from the thoughts running through my head, I decided to think about it later, so as not to lose the thread of my current thoughts. And finally… the scene of the ashes. I gritted my teeth remembering the suffocating heat and the smoke. I was shouting her name like a madman, surrounded by fire and destruction. The strange thing is I didn't see any body, but everything was reduced to dust. It seemed like everything we had built had gone to hell in a second.
I let out a heavy sigh, after the shiver that ran through my entire body trying to avoid the sensation that image left me with.
Damn it… what frustrates me the most isn't the destruction, but the feeling of that scene, because… it was pure hatred, accompanied by a pain so strong I had never experienced before. A pain that tore me apart inside while I shouted her name among the ashes.
Glancing at Zoe, who was still walking in front of me with tense shoulders, I reaffirmed my decision.
I don't care what destiny says or what that vision tries to impose. If being in that house leads us to that, then I'll make it so we never settle anywhere. I will change every damn detail until that future is impossible. I finally concluded.
Hours passed, until finally the sun began to hide among the mountains, darkening the entire white environment.
With several more hours of walking, the moon rose high, illuminating our path with the little light that passed through the branches of the forest surrounding us. Already tired and after sensing several monsters further ahead, we decided to stay at the top of a tree to rest. Finding the perfect spot, I took out several of our things from my dimensional space thanks to my Atlas Rune, which we began to assemble, creating a shelter high up, something like a camping tent, with a bed and the whole works.
We finished setting up the shelter high in the branches, a kind of improvised tent with a single bed that I took out of my dimensional space. It wasn't a luxury, but compared to sleeping in the snow below, it was paradise.
"I will do the first watch." Zoe said, checking the surroundings from the small opening of the tent while I finished arranging the blankets. "You sleep first Drake, you need to recover more energy than I do."
I sat on the edge of the bed, feeling how the fatigue weighed on my eyelids. "All right, but make sure to wake me for the relief. I don't want you exhausting yourself alone."
Zoe nodded in a calm way, turning her attention back to the dark forest with Perception surely active. Lying down, I closed my eyes, unable to help a thought crossing my mind.
I still don't understand how it is she needs to sleep so little unlike me. I thought, seeing her silhouette outlined by the moonlight, a few centimeters from me. It's the same with Kadian... sometimes it seems they can go days with barely an hour of sleep and carry on as if nothing happened. I guess it must be some extreme endurance training of the Omens they never told me about, or maybe my body hasn't reached that level of efficiency yet? Well, whatever it is, I don't have it.
With that doubt lingering, and with the images of the vision and Markus's words mixing in my head, I finally fell asleep.
…
With half-consciousness awake, I felt a warm hand gently shaking my shoulder.
"Drake… wake up. It is time." Zoe's voice whispered near my ear.
I opened my eyes heavily, feeling strangely sleepy and dazed. As I began to regain consciousness, I noticed something odd. I felt my body too hot, as if I had a fever, but it wasn't a feeling of illness. It was a stinging heat that was born from my belly and spread through my veins, a sudden and suffocating arousal that left me unsettled while I was still half asleep.
Zoe, completely ignoring what was happening to me, let out a yawn and settled next to me in the narrow bed, turning her back to me to finally rest.
"Your turn…" She murmured, closing her eyes.
"Y-yes… don't worry." I replied with a voice hoarser than usual, trying to ignore that strange fire running through me. "Rest Zoe."
Zoe simply let out a sound of affirmation and stayed still. I stared at the ceiling of the tent, trying to concentrate on my ability, convincing myself that I wouldn't fall asleep and that I would control that strange urge I felt. But the fatigue and the heat were a treacherous combination, since without realizing it, my eyes closed again while I sank into an intermittent sleep.
Suddenly, the feeling of attraction became unbearable, as if something in the air were tempting me, clouding my judgment completely. Being in that state of semi-consciousness, I approached her without even noticing it, instinctively seeking her warmth.
I wrapped my arms around her waist, pressing my body to hers while I inhaled the scent of her hair. The smell intoxicated me, causing my temperature to rise even further and my breathing to become heavy. Almost without being aware of my actions, I slid my hand upward, reaching her breasts and squeezing them gently while I continued smelling her hair, completely lost in that addictive sensation.
"This… I love… I love you, Zoe…" I whispered against the back of her neck, with desire burning my throat.
As soon as I spoke her name I realized what I was doing, and to whom I was doing it. Feeling as if I had been splashed with a cold bucket of water in the middle of the night, I froze, with my hand still on her and my heart beating so hard I felt it was going to explode in my chest. Carefully, I moved away from her slowly so as not to wake her, and thus avoid an awkward situation while my mind tried not to collapse from the sensations invading me.
¿What… what the hell is wrong with me? I asked myself, gritting my teeth while I tried to calm my accelerated breathing. ¿What did I just do?
I sat there in the darkness, looking at my hands in horror while feeling that sensation of loss of control, an animal and violent attraction…
With my mind working at full power, I remembered having felt something similar a while ago, exactly during my first trip as a guard. It is true… It is similar to that time.
With a racing heart, I looked at Zoe's back, as she continued sleeping peacefully. Oh shit, SHIT, SHIT!!!
Despite the disgust I felt for my behavior, I couldn't deny that something had broken inside me. For the first time in all these years since I entered this body, I began to look at Zoe with eyes that were not those of a brother, but those of a man.