3-2

 Reba stared at the little lavender bear and the scar on its head. Its tears were bigger than its eyes, and it wouldn’t stop crying. It was worse than one of her baby sister’s fits.

She had smuggled it through the city underneath her scarf, careful to avoid any prying eyes, taking back routes and rooftops where she could. It cried the entire time, wetting her clothes.

The only place she could think to take her was the abandoned stack. The stack that once held the wrath of the Coin Mimic. People were still wary of it. Every time a wrath was discovered in a home, the place was treated like a plague; no one was brave enough to go near for fear of catching the same curse.

So it was Reba’s to squat in. That’s why she already had an old satchel, a blanket, a pillow, and a cooking pot resting in the corner.

“Calm down, already!” She snapped at the bear, who was still wordlessly wailing like a newborn. It tilted its head at her, stopping the waterworks enough to pay attention. “Are all your transformations this emotional?"

She was taken aback to see the bear nodding its head. It looked barely any different than a normal animal, besides the strange shade of its fur. But a lot of animals carried unique features of that kind, especially those of meta arcahea.

"Then, is that what your wrath is? It makes you turn into these things?"

The bear nodded again. It wasn’t hard to figure out. That wolf pup had appeared whenever something threatened her. After Reba told her about the Coin Mimic, and then again when the Attian boy had the knife to her throat. The pup must’ve been a fear response, and this bear was… sadness?

"Okay. Stop crying and turn back."

The bear shook its head.

Reba knelt down next to the little bear, and its crocodile tears. Then, out of nowhere, she flicked it on the forehead.

"Ow," the girl yelped, turning back into her normal form.

Reba blinked. "Can’t believe that worked."

"That was mean," Cen grumbled, rubbing her head.

"It got you to stop crying."

"I couldn’t help it! I was so sad because those boys are gonna tell everybody you’re a friend of wraths, and it’s all my fault!"

Reba saw the tears starting to form again and flicked the girl before she could change.

"Ow!"

"No. Bad crate girl. No crying."

"What’s the point in telling you my name if you’re not going to use it?"

"Don’t worry about those boys. That isn’t your problem. Just no more changing until I figure out what to do with you.”

Cen pursed her lips, holding her tongue as well as the redness on her forehead.

“What spirit did this to you?" Reba said.

"I don’t know," Cen mumbled. “I’ve been like this since I was seven, I think. It’s all a blur. I didn’t even know spirits were real at the time, but no one’s ever told me what the spirit was because most people just wanted to… hurt me."

"Right… I guess I get that." Reba paced, thinking. Without knowing what spirit had wrathed her, it would be hard to figure out a way to help her—or even know what she was up against. She couldn’t think of any spirits that transformed this much. But she wasn’t very well-versed in Myri spirits.

"So then, what were you doing in that crate?"

"Well… It’s a long story."

"Make it shorter."

"I was following some Archas Knight candidates, and I hid in the box and… got stuck."

Poof.

Suddenly, she was a fairy creature fluttering her wings, barely the size of Reba’s hand.

Reba squinted. "Now, what happened?"

"It’s embarrassing," Cen muttered, her voice squeakier than before.

Reba rolled her eyes. So the fairy was her bashful form. "It’s not. I’ve gotten stuck in crates plenty of times."

"Really?"

"No." Reba held in her laughter. "But how come this one can talk, and the others don’t?"

"Because dogs and bears can’t talk!" Cen snapped, puffing out her tiny fairy cheeks.

"Okay, okay. But I don’t see why you’re following Archas Knight candidates. It’s them that just tried to kill you."

“I wasn’t following them,” the fairy squeaked. “I was following you.”

“Me? I only became a candidate yesterday. And not even I knew that would happen.”

“I felt bad about running away from you. And you said you wanted to help, and you didn’t try to hurt me, so I turned around. Then I saw that man find you. I recognized him. He’s a knight, too, right?”

“He is.”

“You were a lot easier to follow than he was. That was until this morning. One of those boys saw me and said something to me. I got scared without thinking, and they saw the other side of me.”

“Ok. But why follow the knights in the first place?”

Cen’s face hardened, and just like that, the fairy was gone. "I have to follow them. They’re going to the Immortal Spring Forest, and if I can get there, then—"

Reba cut her off. "What do you mean, get there? The forest is infested with spirits, and the determinations aren’t held there. They’re here in Armonia, like they are every year. The furthest they go is a pocket out in the countryside."

"No," Cen said. "I know that this year, that’s where they’re going. The knights’ candidates will follow Naciere Strongbow into the depths of the Mother’s forest.” She said it like it was rehearsed.

Reba twitched. "How do you know that?"

"I do. I just do."

"No, that can’t be true. Not even the Knights themselves dare to go anywhere near the forest. Why would they…” Then she remembered Ardentia Kimble’s strange tale. “This is among the many things the spirits have stolen from us. This is the war we, as Archas Knights, must fight.”

“Even if that were true,” she said. “What did you plan to do? Sneak after them all the way there? Then what? Is it what the spirit that tells you to do?"

Cen shook her head defensively. "It's not the spirit. I promise. It's something else. Its…”

“It's what?”

“The spring can cure me."

Reba blinked. ”What?”

"That’s what all the stories say. That’s why all the spirits flock there to protect it. It has the power to bring one back to their true form. To heal any wound, physical or spiritual. If I can make it there, then I wouldn’t have to live like this anymore."

Reba was struck silent. She felt a bit of sadness overtake her because she knew what else the stories said.

No man who had seen the spring after it was sealed upon the Mother’s death had ever returned.

But she thought about it for herself as well. If that's where the determinations were, then that overhauled the meaning of the invitation in her pocket.

"I know how it sounds, but I know a way. I can make it to the spring. I just need to get to the forest," Cen continued. "That’s why I followed the candidates here. It's real. I feel it in my heart. It’s the only way that I can—"

"I get it," Reba said. "It’s better than… but."

"It’s fine. Cen said, her voice trembling. "What more can the spirits do if I fail? They might not even attack me because I’m not a person anymore."

"No," Reba wanted to say. "You are a person. You’re not a monster like they say." But the words caught in her throat.

"It’s a stupid plan," she said instead. "The knights hunt wraths. They would find you. And just because one spirit wrathed you doesn’t mean another won’t kill you."

That left a silence between them.

Reba saw her mother in the girl. Not who she was but what became of her – a faceless girl who the world had forced to live her last life trapped, blind, and alone. She was robbed of her screams for help as she lay helpless to her fate.

How different would her life be if the spring was as powerful as the stories said? If someone had offered to help her and knew the way? But no one tried. No one cared. Instead, when a little girl reached out desperately for help, they killed her mother.

“Do you really think it’ll make you… normal again?” she asked.

Cen nodded.

“Then I s’pose you can keep following me… just long enough to see if it's true.”

“Really?” The girl's eyes lit up.

“But if we are going to the forest, I’ll have to figure out some way to smuggle you with me without getting caught.”

“So you’re really going to help me?” Cen asked, voice downtrodden.

“Well, if I don’t, who will?” Reba replied curtly.

“But if something happens to you because of me, then… then…” The bear started crying on the floor.

Reba rolled her eyes, remembering why she didn’t like other girls—or other people, for that matter. Always so emotional about every little thing. Having to transform on top of that must’ve been an exhausting existence.

“Don’t do all that.” She plucked the bear from the ground by the nape of its neck. “I’m smart enough not to put myself in any real danger. You should worry about yourself. You’re a wrath. Your only focus should be on surviving.”

“But if you get caught harboring a wrath…” Cen muttered, now back in her normal form. Reba jerked away, realizing she was holding the back of the girl’s hair—their noses inches apart. She grabbed her own hand, as if it had just done something without her permission.

“Like I said, don’t worry about that. Just in return, you help me clear the way so that other wraths can come after you.”

“Okay.”

Just then, a low grumble rumbled through the room—the kind one might hear before an earthquake or a volcanic eruption.

"Was that your stomach?" Reba asked, raising an eyebrow.

Cen frowned.

A little while later, Reba returned to the stack with a bag of ingredients for a potato stew. She was pretty hungry herself after a few days of fighting and fleeing for her life. She would’ve much rather eaten more Whale skewers, but she had eaten all of her supply in one sitting.

Though she hated potatoes, she still knew her favorite ways to prepare them—chopped, boiled, mixed with fresh root and herbs to moisten them and bring out whatever latent flavor they had.

Like a toddler, Cen watched Reba conjure a pot and a spindle for starting cooking fires. Within an hour, two piping hot bowls of potato stew sat between them.

Reba barely had time to hand Cen her bowl before the girl vaporized it. She even licked the bowl clean.

Reba hadn’t even started hers yet.

It was like Cen hadn’t eaten in an eternity—and even then, likely just a tree leaf.

"Here." Reba slid the second bowl across the floor.

"Oh, I couldn’t—" But she was already eating, nearly done before finishing her sentence.

Then she looked up, noticing Reba staring at her.

Poof.

The bashful fairy appeared, wings fluttering, hands over her face in embarrassment. The bowl dropped to the floor, spilling the last of the broth.

"Sorry," the fairy muttered. "It’s just… I came from so far away, and I had to hide in that crate the whole boat ride from Myr. I had to make one meal last for a whole month."

Reba sighed, resigning herself to going to bed hungry, and handed Cen a thin cotton blanket and a stiff but sturdy pillow.

“Thanks.” Cen accepted them.

“We’ve got an early morning tomorrow.” She had pulled off her smithing scarf to use it as a makeshift blanket on the floor.

“But shouldn’t you stay with your family tonight?”

Reba groaned. “Just how long were you following me?”

“Long enough to hear you murmur to yourself when you’re stealing from your own house. Wolf pups have good ears, apparently.”

She cursed her nasty habit of thinking out loud when she thought no one was around. “I’m not going home.”

“Why not?”

“If we’re going to make it to the determinations without a fight, then it’s best I just sleep here. Otherwise, I’ll have to hear my father say, ‘We’re builders. We don’t fight,’ blah blah. He wouldn’t understand a thing about what I’m doing, so the fewer questions he gets to ask, the better. I’ll just deal with it when we get back.” She turned over, trying to declare the conversation finished.

She had purposefully avoided her father since she got the invitation. It was always better with him to ask forgiveness than permission. So she determined she would just go, without a word. It’s what Uncle Kreo would do whenever he had to leave. It was because he had to leave, and no amount of pleading or bribing would ever stop him. Because he had a mission and a duty that he would never forfeit. If she hoped to do anything on her own, then she would have to be the same way. She couldn’t let her father hold her back.

“But… it isn’t right,” Cen said.

“What isn’t right?”

“We’re going far away, and you’re not even going to tell him. What if something happens?”

Cen was getting riled up, and Reba didn’t feel like seeing her go through another transforming fit. She turned back to face her.

“What you don’t think I can make it? You think I’m just a builder that can’t handle herself. Trust me. If the other candidates can do it, then so can I. Good night.”

She turned again.

“But…” Cen’s voice faltered. “I mean… Anything can happen. And they might not get to see you again, the way you are now.”

Reba covered her ears, trying not to growl. But she thought of her siblings more than anything. She remembered the last time someone walked away and never returned.

Nearly an hour passed as she tried to abolish the feeling of guilt Cen made her feel. Cen was here because she couldn’t go home. She was a wrath, which meant even her family would forfeit their lives by looking after her. And hearing the small noises of her existence made Reba’s insides churn.

“Fine. I’ll go.” She popped up, grabbing her satchel and anything else she needed to return. “Even if I’d rather step into a pit of snakes. I’ll say goodbye to the kids, and I’ll come right back. Until then, you don’t move from this place.”

“O—Okay.” Cen nodded as Reba stormed out of the stack. Though she couldn’t help feeling that Reba slamming the door was directed at her.