How much longer?
The thought didn't even have a voice anymore; it was just a dull throb in the back of Elias's mind, timed to the rhythmic, sickening crunch of his boots. He had been walking for fourteen days. Two weeks since he'd tasted anything but the metallic tang of melted snow and his own cracked lips.
By all rights, he should have stayed down the last time he tripped. Any normal human—any normal kid—would have been a frozen statue by now. But Elias's body seemed to be acting without his permission. His knees were locked in a cycle of agonizing motion, and his ankles felt like rusted iron rods being hammered into the permafrost with every step.
The silence of the wastes was a physical weight. Ever since that ridge, since that cursed bird, there had been nothing to listen to but the sound of his own ragged, shallow breathing. It was just him and the ghosts in his head.
He stared into the white abyss, his vision blurring until the horizon vanished entirely. Was he even moving forward? For all he knew, he was just tracing a wide, pathetic circle, a dying boy marking a grave in a land that didn't even know his name. He had no one to go back to, no one waiting by a hearth with a warm blanket and a worried expression. All he had was the suffocating, chest-aching weight of regret.
I should've just kept my mouth shut, he whimpered internally, his throat too raw to form the words. Or if they hadn't put us with that idiot...
He tried to think of Mera, picturing her back home, probably wrapped in a thick shawl and sipping something hot. She was fine. She had to be. She didn't need him worrying about her at the moment.
His tracks were long gone, swallowed by the falling snow, and by now he couldn't tell what north or south was. He told himself this was about revenge—that he was trekking to Isle Three just to spit at the feet of the people who abandoned him—but even that felt like a lie.
At no point was he not fighting tears. They froze halfway, tiny, jagged shards of ice clinging to his lashes like diamonds on a pauper.
He wasn't cold anymore. Not on his skin, anyway. For a long while he feared he would lose what hope he had. Therefore, seeing dead bodies, seeing a trail of blood, all of this new sensation was both a breath of fresh air, and a thing of horror.
Elias stopped walking.
How, no why did they possibly travel this far. From where Elias stood, there was a half of a ship, seemingly trapped between a berg, and the plane of snow ahead, or at least that was what elias guessed.
He was probably so far from the black mass off in the distance that the possiblity that he was looking at a monstrous beast didn't slip his mind either. Elias saw no details, it looked more like a shadow puppet, but what made him confidently assume it was the ship, was the fact that it did not move, yet tiny strips of light seemed to move around it. Those had to be people.
Wait can they see me?
Elias crouched lower, he couldnt see anything other than what he assumed to be the lights being held. But the evolved had their own traits, and they weren't very open about what those traits were. Solely due to laziness and paranoia, he lowered himself until the point that he was laying in the snow, prone. But even with bits of snow hanging from his chin like a white beard, Elias was not cold. At worst, he was mildly uncomfortable as the snow beneath him melted and compacted from his own body heat subtly.
From there he crawled in the direction of the black mass
A smile crept onto Elias' face.
Good for you wench. It only serves you right that you would be trapped here, forced to stay in this weather with me. Its only fair that you'd have to travel that far to get some food. And then watch your men die.
Elias breifly considered the possiblity that none of this was but a mild inconvenience to an evolved though.
That doesn't really matter though. Me and you are here. But you think you killed me and –
He chuckled a bit. Like she remembers any of that.
He even allowed himself to day dream a bit, he imagined burning Kallena alive, after all, death by fire was the immediate path to hell right? He felt like an old world viking, denying a warrior their trip to valhalla by stealing their axe.
He imagined how the fire would swallow her whole turning her soft skin into black crust and her eyes into runny marbles.
He'd stand over the mess, chest puffed out, and smile how she did.
Bye Bye
He'd repeat with the same, lost cheesy face. But even then she likely would not remember. But that was fine, He knew his goals were more about him than they were about her. And sure the other evolved would be there, but honestly, that was something to consider when he got there. Not really, who cared what happened next. Did it really matter that much?
What could possibly matter enough to change my mind though? Nothing. So no it doesn't matter, i dont have time nor the power to let my focus waver.
But in regards to power, he did have one issue. Elias glanced at his hand. Focusing on burning her wasn't the wisest decision, after all he couldn't seem to get any more than enough heat to keep him at a constant state of warmth.
But he did wonder quite alot about that. How did he gain power, from eating, and then the power suddenly degraded into near futility. One second he could control FIRE of all things, especially when that would likely be the most useful power to have. The fire didn't poison him with a wasting sickness that would rot his lungs from the inside out. It actually didn't even leave a single mark on his skin, failing to produce those grotesque, unclosing wounds that usually continue the fire's work long after the flame is gone.
He somehow controlled the uncontrollable, his fire didn't seem to spread randomly, chasing more life. And honestly if it did, what'd he have to lose. It didn't jump gaps or make purposeful decisions to feed its own self-amplification. There was no settlement-scale blight, no delayed deaths for those who thought they'd escaped. The fire acted nothing like how he knew it to. It was tame, fire like this could probably be a cornerstone of life, if fire was ever as tame as his was. But tame or not, Elias' fire seemed to not come back, at all.
But through all the crawling, and thinking, Elias could see the camp and it's inhabitants clearly.
The ship was mostly overtop the snow, maybe fifteen percent had been buried in the ice, the ship itself had seemingly crashed into a cliffside. Well more accurately a very tall rock held the ship in place until it'd been frozen with the river. Elias could see four, no five people huddled next to the huge snowy rock and beside them was– Elias rubbed his eyes in confusion.
Is that a full whale?
It was, the members of his surviving camp had hunted a whale, brought it back and were now dousing it in different lime based-acids that miraculously remained liquid from within the ship to cure the meat of the whale. Obviously the evolved did not need to cure the meat, but the stomachs of a regular cannot handle the bacteria that grew within wildlife. While Elias could not see facial features, he looked very hard to try and find Kallena, while doing so he continued to crawl through the snow.
Elias could only hope that if someone was watching from atop the rock, they'd either miss the long trail of snow, or be too late to report it. But he was sure that he needed to move somewhat fast. Elias crawled and angled himself behind the ship, and once he was sure no one could easily see him, he stood and walked normally. At a point in time this'd been his ship, so seeing him wouldn't be entirely too alarming for anyone anyway. But the only way he'd kill his target would be with cunning, or through her being defenseless. He pressed his back against the frozen, splintered wood of the hull and edged toward the camp's perimeter. The chemical lanterns cast a harsh, pale blue light over the snow. Elias held his breath, waiting for the right moment to peek around the curve of the ship.
He expected to see Javier, or Daven or Sela shivering somewhere in the area where everyone was. From what Elias saw, it was mostly regulars outside the ship anyway. Starkly contrasting from his time on the ship, but considering the boredom he felt walking here, the boredom they would've felt sitting inside doing nothing had to be worse.
Elias hoped to see Kallena standing anywhere off by herself like normal, wearing that vacant, arrogant smile he was going to burn off her face.
He leaned over and looked.
The woman coordinating the cuts on the whale was Evolved, but her features were entirely too sharp, her and two more unfamiliar Evolved. But it wasn't like Elias remembered every insignificant face. Elias didnt fully recall his own– and that was before crossing halfway between the isles. No less, there were maybe nine people outside watching as the food was prepared. Only one Evolved was actually working, and the food was almost mostly being prepared by regulars.
I guess things got even worse. How can they force literal children to do the work they were sent to do.
Elias squinted, his heart stuttering in his chest. He scanned the faces of the five people in the light. The two evolved had injuries. One was a male, somewhat short and looked abnormally young to be an evolved. Even moreso, his adaptations seemed more–Elias wasn't sure how to word it in any way other than– natural? His skin didn't seem hardly that sickly blue, first and foremost and the webbing of his fingers, the gills, he couldn't explain how but they looked much less awkward, either way he had thick bandaging around his neck like he'd been stabbed there. There was another woman who's shoulder seemed immobilized in a sling. He also could not recognize her.
Wait no. no no no no no.
He looked for people he could recognize within the regulars, whom he paid alot of attention to.
Nothing. Not a single familiar face.
But if no one here was recognizable–
He didn't want to even think about what went into that possibility. He didn't get the chance to either because suddenly Elias' shirt was rapidly lifted by the back of his collar, He was raised up from his crouched position into an awkward float in the air.
Putting his feet back on the ground, Elias craned his neck to look at a man, a bit over six feet tall. No, he was well over six feet, possibly even seven feet tall–like whoever built him had not enough material and simply over stretched. Scrawny, which at that height looked almost accusatory, all of his veins and joints were visible past the hanging fabric, his shirt doing nothing useful at the shoulders. He had sallow skin as well as wide green eyes. Dirty blonde hair covered the man's forehead and hung to his shoulders looked like it had been pushed back once and forgotten about.
"Why are you sneaking around, bud?" The skyscraper of a man said in a tone that didn't fit the somewhat relaxed words.
He looked at Elias with two facial expressions mixed in, one was of sympathetic confusion. But the second, the way his lip seemingly was twitching upward, eyes furrowed and most of all, the way his neck awkwardly twisted away from Elias seemed to signify disgust.
"Wait, wha- Nadia!" The skyscraper called out sounding panicked almost.
"Why are you yelling" A females voice replied after a minute or so, "There is literally no reason to yell at the top of your lungs like that. And why are you holding this kid like tha–"
Both of them were evolved, from the slits at the sides of their throats to pallor both seemed to express. And both evolved looked at Elias the same way he was looking at them. Lost.
"Ok.. uhm." Nadia looked dumbfounded. "I guess a better question is, where did you even find this kid? Or, who is this kid? But I would only be able to guess that you have no clue. Right?"
"Yep. I saw him from up top, he was crawling in the snow, but I thought it was obviously one of our regulars. I was coming to ask why and, well." The skyscraper threw a furtive, concerned glance down at Elias.
Elias though, was dead silent. And now, so were the two evolved.
The woman in front of him, Evolved Nadia, was much shorter. Maybe an inch or so smaller than he himself was. Copper hair — dense, unruly, aggressively mid-back hair that was loud against skin that had no business being that fair. Her glasslike, tanned skin was marked with freckles across the nose. She was a mildly attractive lady with a sharp jaw that didn't apologize for itself,lips with a slight upward pull at the corners that was, objectively, well-shaped, and a round-tipped nose that kept the whole thing contoured against her dark brown eyes, upturned, and sharp.
Elias was failing repetitively. Kallena was no where to be found, and if she was, he had no chance to surprise her. And worse yet, he was already firmly in the grasp of the enemy. As far as he knew, fully competent enemies. And these enemies, were studying him intently. Wordlessly for the last few minutes.
"What?" Elias spat with irritation.
Nadia's face almost looked surprised he was capable of speaking.
"I wanna wonder how your alive, but i have my ideas of course. Amar, are you sure he was alone though? Could he be one of the–"
"I watched for a while, if any one was with him Rook would see them by now, he was keeping watch with me and i told him to watch specifically for anyone else in his direction." The skyscraper, Amar, replied. "And it wouldn't make sense for the bandits to have traveled here from the east, after all, they're in a snow storm too."
"I don't need you to state the obvious."
Elias listened to them discus his arrival intently. He was infuriated.
How could i have come from the east. That would mean. Shit.
It would mean Elias had traveled not even a tenth of the distance it took to get from isle three to isle four in two whole weeks. He actually been walking around five hundred miles to the west, where there was another ship, from an entirely separate one of the islands in Isle three, headed towards an entirely separate isle four aswell.
"In any case, If its just him, we should be able to take him in. the body looks like he'd been ou there for weeks. All is clothes are soaked." Elias tuned back in to hear Amar claim.
"Yeah right. Like we can afford any more weight, and even if we could, look at how he looks at us, there's no way that would be safe"
"Are you really gonna fight me on this too? It's one, malnourished kid. What can he possibly do that bad. If your that worried we can put him in a cell. But leaving a child to freeze on the river is cruel even for you"
"It's not like i want to. But it isnt only our lives we're responsible for Amar. you keep forgetting that."
Do they think it's up to them if i stay here or not? Scared of me or not i need to leave as soon as possible. These people, they arent worth my time. And if i made it all the way to another camp, who knows how far they got.
Picking up from your last line. Matching your register exactly.
He ran the math again. Five hundred miles in the wrong direction. The ship he needed to catch up was now somewhere vastly far north without him, and now even vastly far to the north aswell. Kallena was on it.
The argument in front of him was still going. Amar and Nadia, negotiating his life like it was a supply count.
Just leave. He could do it. Amar's grip had gone loose while he was talking. One hard twist and he'd be out of it. He knew how to do that at least.
He'd walk both north and east. Find the right ship. Or find the shore. Or find something else to eat that gave him enough power to kill the wench. He'd figure it out the way he'd figured out everything else on this river, badly and one crisis at a time.
And if you don't make it?
He didn't answer that. To him it made little difference. He'd die trying and kill her in the afterlife if need be.
You've been walking for two weeks. You haven't eaten in four days. But your legs stopped hurting days ago. That's not a good sign, that's what happens right before things stop working.
He looked at his hands. They were fine. Warm. Whatever the bird had given him was still in there somewhere, doing something he didn't understand.
So I can use that. Stay. Eat their food. Learn what you can do. Kallena docks at Isle Four same as everyone else. You can be there.
It was the first time he'd let himself think that plainly. He wouldn't admit it but all this planning to die was a bit scary at least.
He could actually be there. Not chasing the ship. Not crawling across ice. There. Waiting. Fed, rested, with two more weeks to figure out what lived in his hands and how to aim it.
They had a whole whale for storm's sake.
The idea sat in his chest in a way that felt almost dangerous. Like if he breathed wrong it would collapse.
You'd be alive for it.
Amar was still talking. "—not asking you to adopt him, Nadia. He can work aswell. He eats, he sleeps, we assess."
"And if he's a problem?"
"He's a child."
There it is, Elias thought. That's the whole conversation, isn't it.
He looked at Nadia. She was still running numbers. He could see it. How much he'd eat versus how much he'd contribute. Whether the math worked out in his favor. Whether he was worth the subtraction.
Every evolved he'd ever met had done that same accounting, and the answer was always the same. You're a regular. You're a cost. You're something we tolerate until we don't.
Kallena had just been unreasonably honest about what they all thought.
These two weren't being honest. They were being careful. There was a difference and the difference made it worse somehow.
When the food gets low, he thought, when it actually comes down to it, which mouth stops getting fed.
He already knew the answer. He'd always known the answer.
So what was he doing, seriously considering handing them that decision.
They'd do it eventually. Evolved always do. He'd watched it his whole life, the soft version, the polite version, the version where they called it pragmatism or protection or the hard truth of survival. It always ended the same way. The regulars got moved to the back of the line and were told to be grateful they were still in it.
Evolved were evil creatures. But they pity me right now, so who's to say i can't kill them all, then take what they have. That was an option aswell wasn't it? Rid the world of theseplagues ship by ship. Im sure my powers would fully awaken from something like that. Screw being taught, being cattle.
And these kids in this camp. Whatever regular kids were sleeping inside that ship right now. He could see exactly what was coming for them. Maybe not today. Maybe not until Isle Four. But it was coming.
Not your problem, said the part of him that had been keeping him alive for two weeks. You don't have the power to fix what evolved are. You barely have the power to fix what's in front of you. Find Kallena. That's the whole list.
He almost had himself convinced.
Then Nadia looked at him, directly, the way she hadn't since this started, and said: "Can you tell us where you came from, at least."
Elias looked at her for a long moment.
There it is.
He didn't reach for the knife. He didn't decide to reach for the knife. His hand just moved because something in him had already made the decision while the rest of him was still doing math, and the cut across Amar's wrist was short and not particularly deep but it was there, dark against the pale blueish skin, and Amar's grip dropped.
Elias lunged for his throat.
The hilt of Nadia's sword caught him across the side of the head so fast he didn't see it move.
White.
Then snow.
Then his legs were already running, body doing what it did, moving because stopping was harder, and the camp blurred past and someone shouted something behind him and the cold air hit his face and he ran until the chemical light was just a smear behind him and the only sound was wind and his own boots.
He ran until his legs gave the first real warning they'd given in days.
Then he slowed. Walked. Put distance between himself and the light.
His head rang. The wrist where the toad had gotten him throbbed.
He didn't look back.
Idiot, he thought.
He kept walking.