Feigned Delusion

The three other girls laid in a huddle surrounding Lillie, all fast asleep. Arhen and Mallo rested nearby—Mallo using Arhen’s back as a pillow. Arhen, lying face down in the still-wet mud, continued to snooze, creating small bubbles with each exhale. Alera, having been unable to escape Oren’s grip, was laying down over his chest, her head beside his.

The tarp that had shielded them was now neatly wrapped at the center of the crater, no longer needed as the storm had passed. The first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon, casting a soft glow on the scene. The dark, gray sky gave way to a brilliant gradient of colors—black, blue, purple, yellow, and orange blended into one another, painting the morning with quiet beauty. The still damp air woke a particularly-struggling-to-breathe Oren, his stomach growling with a deep pain. He looked around at his muddied companions and at the tiny Alera in his arms.

“We’re alive.” He groaned as a weak smile crossed his face. He tightened a hug around Alera and shouted, “We’re alive!” Alera was the next to awaken, kicking her legs in surprise as Oren had yelled beside her, not to mention squeezed the air out of her. The girls woke one by one, groggy and feeling gross as the mud clung to their faces. Mallo woke and quickly moved to the clothes at the center of the crater, pulling out a silver locket from under the muddy stack of robes. Arhen remained face down for several minutes as the rest of them scampered out of the crater and regained their bearings.

Lillie, the long black haired girl, looked dismally at the rising sun, doing her best to avoid anyone’s gaze, without fear all that remained was the embarrassment of wailing like a child. Seeing this, the remaining girls launched themselves at her and fell onto the damp ground teasing her. Oren smiled at Mallo who’s gaze had lingered on the half-dressed girls, their robes still laying in the crater. Rolling his eyes to him, he turned to look at the rising sun in the east, then back down at Oren who was still holding tightly onto Alera, who was issuing no complaint but had a rather perplexed expression.

“You shouldn’t be holding her like that.” said Mallo, glaring at Oren. “We still have five days to go, don’t take advantage of the situation.” He continued scathingly.

“Sorry about that.” Oren addressed Alera, releasing her from his embrace, making great effort to ignore Mallo’s accusation.

“It’s okay, I did it to Kariavri too. She said it was okay too!” Alera beamed at Oren and pulled him into a hug of her own. She clung to his neck. Oren felt a heat not unlike the day prior rise from within. “You’re warm like Azurael.” Giggled Alera, causing Oren to blush fiercely at the odd compliment. His stomach growled intensely, though he didn’t seem to pay any heed to it, Alera quickly released him and gave a worried look. “You didn’t eat anything yesterday either!” Her eyebrows furrowed, and she went looking for her backpack.

Oren could feel Mallo’s glare burning a hole through the side of his skull. “So…we headed north?” Oren asked Mallo, his blushing face obscured by blots of mud, blood and grime on his face.

“Yes,” Mallo said, tossing everyone a set of robes. “Considering we can see water across the horizon, I roughly estimate we need to walk six miles. If the maps are accurate we should be relatively close to the northern edge, can’t be a coincidence.” Alera handed him something wrapped in foil.

“Ya’ sure? Just six miles?” Arhen pulled himself out of the mud. His face looked cleaner, more handsome than ever before, his hair falling to the left, covering an eye as he gave a cold, confident smirk. Alera shoved something wrapped in foil into his hands.

“Yes, it’s hard to say for sure, but the mesa towers a couple hundred feet at its center. We’re probably twenty to thirty feet above the lowest point, or we’d see a lot more ocean.” A silence fell over the group as they processed Mallo’s words. Alera broke it by shoving something wrapped in foil toward the four girls. “Can you all manage that?”

“Right! North!” Alera declared in a sweet, upbeat tone and began to walk toward the sun. Tearing off a piece of the foil and chowing down on a fresh-looking sandwich, plump and dripping with sauces. Oren leaped out of the crater, backpack in tow, and escorted her in the right direction before she got too far.

They walked, Alera in the lead, Oren followed closely behind. The rest fell behind her, having decided to keep pace with her as a thank you for the sandwiches. Oren refused food from two of the girls before they decided to stop offering, Arhen seemed to be carrying Mallo’s food as he seemed hesitant to offer him any, clearly trying to avoid getting on Mallo’s bad side.

Oren, still perplexed by Mallo’s performance the day prior, decided to prod a little. “That spell, the one that nearly killed us, well, you– what was it?”

“First off– it wasn’t a spell. It was a sigil, you saw me marking it into the ground.” Oren could only hope to ignore Mallo’s condescending tone.

I gotta work with this guy, can’t afford to piss him off more. Seems like he’s the most qualified one here. He looked around at the girls singing a chorus for Alera’s march, Arhen giving a carefree to Oren and Alera jovially marching ahead as the sun rose across the sky, admiring the endless blue of the sky and creeping waters.

Oren had meant to sound indifferent, but he caught himself leaning into the question with actual interest. “What’s the difference, though?” He added quickly, hoping to smooth things over.

Mallo gave Oren a puzzled look, quickly shaking it off before he responded. “As they said in the very first lesson, sigils are a form of invocations, similar to spells but do not require the stringing of several incantations to take proper effect. It’s what you start with until you learn basic incantations.” Mallo spoke in an almost uninterested tone, Oren listened intently.

“You?” Oren’s attention lingered on this. “You’re saying you’re above sigils?”

“I can perform a few spells, but everything is circumstantial. I had to go through their tomes yesterday to find something that could help us. What you saw me do was employ a sigil to invoke a spell, though I wasn’t sure about how it worked or really any of its specifics.”

“So you had no clue what you were doing?” Oren scoffed, coughing in order to cover it up.

“Yes, I chose a completely random spell to use and it just so happened to do what we needed.” Mallo’s sarcasm was not lost upon Oren, who returned a dopey smile. “If you bothered to read a tome– you’d know they describe the intended function of the sigil.” He returned a sharp look at Oren, “If you’re not using your tome, I could take it off you.”

“Why would you want mine?” Said Oren, puzzled.

“Everyone gets different sigils and spells to learn.” Oren replied with another look of utter disbelief. “Too many invocations for any single person to go over so they thought this was the best way to go about things.”

Oren frowned, shaking his head slightly. “Wait, so I’m stuck with what I’m given? That’s insane.”

“I’ll assume you haven’t read a single page.” Oren looked away, not wanting to show the guilt on his face. “Hundreds of incantations, sigils and spells are out there in the world. You would go mad before you could choose where to start.” A confident smirk crossed his face. “Although–I’ve never had a problem in that regard.” Mallo’s smirk widened as he stepped past Oren, closing the gap to Alera with an air of satisfaction. “I’m just better, I suppose.”

From the moment Alera noticed everyone was behind her she had begun walking briskly, as fast as her legs could take her, hoping to spare someone from the midday sun that had punished her the day before. She wore her robe as a jacket, the cloth-man had modified her outfit especially, to keep her arms warm, and allow the cool breeze to blow into her cape-like outfit.

Mallo pulled up carefully, closely. “You’re from Parmsa.” He said abruptly in a hushed voice.

“I am?” She whispered back with a tilt, perplexed.

“Your nose has the marking of the Asrealith family but there is no record of your name.” Mallo did not look at her, he appeared to be sweating from much more than walking. “Even the disgraced Seraim is mentioned from time to time.” Alera winced at the mention. “It would not be wise to pass off as one of the families, you haven’t the slightest as to their reach.” Mallo stuck his tongue out briefly, much to Alera’s curiosity. A brilliant shine emanated from the back of his tongue, much like it was encrusted in diamonds. “Even those from the branch families can be targets. Don’t make yourself such an obvious one.” But it was not obvious, if fact, the white mark crossing the bridge of her nose could hardly be seen under the glory of the sun.

Alera slowed her pace, falling behind Mallo and beside Oren. She grabbed Oren’s wrist weakly as she walked with her gaze to the ground. “You okay?” Oren asked, glaring at Mallo who turned to look at her with a sort of curiosity on his face.

“Yes.” Said Alera, her voice tense. Though he couldn’t be sure why, what he did know is that whatever Mallo had said, shook her more than the storm ever could. And, he reasoned, if he had to protect her from that then whatever Mallo said must be kept from her at all cost.

The trek had taken longer than Mallo’s estimate. With the girls trying to cheer up Alera, Arhen sharing stories of wrestling beasts of the deep and Oren holding her robe for her to block the sun, none could lift her spirits that had staggered her pace. Nonetheless, they had reached the edge, winds howled over the steep drop. A short survey of the land quickly resulted in sighting of a deep, long fissure that ran along the cliff edge-to-edge.

“I realize it’s a little late to ask this…” Dalli, a rather skinny looking sun-burnt girl, noted. “Where exactly did you get information about a mythical Isle?”

“Yeah…” Mallo looked into the depths of the fissure dejectedly. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked Azurael for advice. Guy’s a monster.” He forced out a laugh.

“Why would you ever ask him for advice?” Oren’s tone made it clear that he detested the mere idea. He took a slow, deliberate step toward the edge, holding the still clung-on Alera an arm's length away, eyes narrowing at the abyss as if expecting it to hold more answers than Mallo did. Alera shimmied her way to peek over it. “Yeah… I guarantee he jumped in here to get down… if he didn’t jump off the cliff outright.”

At this, Alera lept.

The seven froze, struck silent by the impossible. Not a gasp, not a yelp—just stunned disbelief as Alera vanished into the abyss. Oren’s heart seized. His mind barely registered the drop before his body moved, diving into the void after her, no thoughts—just sheer impulse.

The cool wind rushed past him, the darkness surrounded him as the opening shrank behind him. “Spread your body out!” He shouted into the void to no response– but a small giggle. And then–

Splash.

He heard Alera hit the water, getting a great splash in the air briefly before he felt the icy cold surround him completely, causing his body to stiffen and gasp, the cold shock penetrating deep into his body. Through the suffocating space, an echo reverberated—he could hear it, feel it, pulsing through the abyssal chamber. The moment seemed to linger as he fought back to regain control of himself, slowly, one-by-one his muscles relented their hold. To his left fell another.

The impact shoved him aside, his body jerking in response. He reached out instinctively. A hand caught his, yanking him toward the faint light above. They broke the surface together.

“You a’rite there mate?” Arhen's voice reverberated off the walls, slipping his arms under Oren’s and around to the back of his head to hold him still.

“Alera!” Oren thrashed around, trying to free himself from the bind.

“Calm down, you’ll kill us both.” Oren’s breath came in ragged gasps as he finally stopped fighting, sinking back into Arhen’s support.

“Find Alera.” He spoke into the abyss through panicked breath.

“Oi, Mallo, drop the thing!” Arhen shouted, his voice was deafening.

The distant light above them wobbled and intensified, getting closer– it was falling. With a pathetic splat, it fell onto Oren’s face further suffocating him. Arhen removed the robe, now shining brilliantly, and wrapped it around his right hand, suddenly releasing Oren from his bind.

Arhen whipped his head around, the glistening walls of the cave were all he could see. He went under, The depth and darkness was such that the light could not pierce a foot ahead, his feet straggled behind in the void.

And then, there she was.

Alera shone like a distant star, her hair suspended like strands of spider’s silk drifting in the current. Arhen blinked, certain for a moment that he was imagining it. But there she was, her wide eyes fixed on him, an infuriatingly calm smile playing on her lips.

She didn’t need rescuing.

With a swift kick, Arhen launched himself forward weaving his body to and fro, practically serpentine, effortlessly carrying his streamlined body through the and took hold of Alera’s waist, holding her tightly.

Looking around he managed to glance the faintest glimmer of the cave wall beside him and used it to kick off, the water tightening its hold the faster they went. It had not been a minute before Alera was once again at the surface, staring at the shining robe wrapped onto Arhen’s hand.

“It’s about a fi’ty foot drop.” Arhen shouted. Holding tightly onto Alera he spun around, extending the light in his hand, “Can’t see a damn thing, get down ‘ere already.” A blip came from the darkness nearby.

The water sprang up and remained suspended, a pale blue light emanating from it. A tendril of water waved itself over Alera, dropping about a cup of water over her. Her body trembled as she turned to look over at a mound of water towering over them.

Her smile widened as the mound slowly shifted, contorting itself into the crude shape of a man.

The watery figure danced around them, sending tiny spouts of water to playfully tickle Alera before slipping away into the shadows beyond.

“That’s the robes?” Alera asked.

“It’s a poltergeist.” Arhen whispered back.

Alera pondered. A poltergeist…it’s so funny. I want it. Leaning her head fondly on Arhen’s chest, waiting for the dim light to return.

The water rushed as the light came from under them, untwisting the robe from Arhen’s arm, it kept a hold of his hand as it pulled them further into the darkness. The light from overhead vanished as they swam further into the void. The robe curved around a bend, and the sound of running water could be heard.

The current pulled on the pair but it took no hold as they were tugged onto a sharp, jagged landing for respite. With a brief salute the robe-light disappeared once again around the bend. “Come on ova! Wat’as runnin’, must be a way down.” His words practi- cally lost in the echo.

“Why’da jump?” Arhen asked Alera, who sat beside him. A sincere curiosity coursed through him, that such a frail looking girl, who was struggling against mere winds, was capable of taking a plunge into the unknown. He needed to know why.

“Oren said Azurael did.” He could tell by her tone that she truly believed that her utter disregard for her safety was justified by that.

With that much faith, you’d think the guy’s her dad. He thought.

“Photus Effunde.” A light appeared, Alera looked at it and around, the cave wall glimmered like stars in the night sky. Arhen chuckled. “Ya’ know, ya’ might be crazy enough ta’ meet with Azurael one day.”

Alera replied with a smile. Around the bend came the light, slowly, it got to Alera’s feet, it had pulled a seemingly comatose Oren who was floating on his back muttering to himself. “So, so sorry. I don’t know why. Not cut out for this. Alera, please try to stay alive.” His eyes looked up at a curious Alera standing over him. “Another day with you.” He looked defeated, utterly surrendered.

Deafening splashes echoed as the remaining five took the plunge, the light had worked to splash the water around as they did, breaking the surface, cushioning the fall. One by one, it pulled them along the bend and onto the ever-shrinking landing. The girls huddled together, pulling Alera in the middle, checking her for injuries, scolding her actions and hugging her for being okay. Mallo was the last to take the leap, being careful to know if anyone had gotten hurt before he leapt.

“You little bitch.” Mallo growled as he pulled around the bend. “You know the look that fat bastard would give me if you ended up dead? Do you know what you’re costing me? If you’re going to kill yourself then do it as far from me as your pale, lanky legs will take you.”

What am I saying? He nearly regretted his words, however, he reasoned no point in doing so. What am I thinking? I know she’s not from one of the families, I know that. But…I feel like I’ve spoken out of turn. No. They can’t have, she can’t be… She must be, yes– an imposter like that deserves no reverence.

Mallo had the keen ability to remember every single detail he paid attention to, short of photographic memory. His brain was a repository for information, one he had trained through countless hours of flipping through documents for the family, one he had acquired to repay his failure. Indeed, no document, official or otherwise had ever listed the existence of Alera. The Asrealith family had only ever had six heirs, five were deceased according to records. The youngest was at large.

But something ate at Mallo, of course he would take responsibility if she died, he was the smartest there after all. On the off chance that this was some unregistered heir to the Astrealith family, what implications would that have? His mind raced with too many possibilities to notice the fact that Oren held him by the collar.

“...you got that?” Oren looked vicious.

Mallo gripped his wrists. “Some backwater plebeian handling me?” He threw his body around infuriated, trying to overpower Oren, to no avail as he was thrown back into the cold water.

“Right, both ya's. Ease down else I’m gon’ ‘ave to take these ladies with me and ya’ can both stay ‘ere bickerin’ amongst ye’selves.” Arhen tried to calm them both down, pulling Oren to the side and extending a hand to Mallo. “Don’ be such a dick’ead Mallo, she’s safe, s’all ya’ should care ‘bout.”

Mallo was steaming but he bit his tongue as Arhen bulldozed through his dialogue, “Now, onto tha’ issue of gettin’ down ta’ coast from ‘ere.” Alera stood beside him, a silver locket in her hand and a glistening orb of light on her nose, her eyes as curious as ever, walking forward slipping off rocks playfully as she lit the way. They walked the stretch of cave, water rushed faster and faster until it roared below.

“Cascade.” Lillie announced, keeping close to Alera.

“Go ahead, keep jumping till you see an exit!” Mallo sneered, still fuming, his words dripping with contempt.

His stomach dropped as she moved to the edge. It was just a jab, he hadn’t meant– but Alera took him at his word, her face brightening as she readied herself to jump once again.

“Alera, no!” came a chorus of desperate voices behind her as she leapt forward with sheer glee.

But Alera barely heard them. What were heights to her? She could not see the bottom, but each time she jumped, she landed in a pool of cool, rushing water. And after all, Azurael had done it.

Arhen, not to be outdone, jumped right after her. Oren staggered over the edge after her, part of him was fighting the urge to jump into the abyss for some reason. Mallo and the girls lagged behind, doing their best to gather their nerves to take the plunge once more. By the time they managed to catch up to the frolicing Alera, they had jumped twice more and were in far too much shock to be relieved to see daylight breaking through a rather large hole in the wall.

Alera twirled her way to the exit, Arhen sat in the darkness waiting for the rest to gather their wits. Mallo and the girls were not in good shape, he had twisted his leg as he hesitated to leap and the girls’ nerves had been rattled so that Lillie and Connie had come down with fevers. Oren dragged himself along the sandy bank towards the exit trying to reach Alera, he was supposed to be taking care of her after all.

“Alera…” He choked out, she turned curiously. “Wait… for us…” He did his best to issue a command but between his labored breathing and his voice cracking, he was sure she might as well have been looking after him.

“Yes.” Alera stopped in her tracks short of reaching the exit and waited politely for them all. Arhen walked past, looking at her with a certain admiration; the girls were too busy taking care of Connie and Lillie to worry about she-who-had-no-fear; Mallo walked past everyone, falling to the rough sand the moment the sun once again singed his sallow skin.

“Come on.” Oren gripped her wrist firmly and tugged her along to the cave’s shore.

The expanse of the ocean couldn’t have been received any worse as the last two girls seemed to get more sick than their patients. Of course, they couldn’t be blamed, leaving the confines of a claustrophobia-inducing, pitch-black, ice cold cave in an attempt to find reprieve on a tiny, empty, scorching hot, beach would leave any normal person with a distinct feeling of “we’re gonna die.”

“’rite, time ta keep my end a ta’ deal.” Arhen stretched his long slender body and made his way forward, barely a couple dozen feet ahead. He had tossed his robe and was wearing his undergarments, looking like a sort of wetsuit.

Oren had barely recalled ‘the deal’ and no sooner his stomach had him on his knees still gripping Alera’s wrist. “One sandwich wasn’t enough.” He chuckled, but Alera reached over his shoulders to rummage through the backpack he still carried. Between hunger and exhaustion, he could merely remark. This would be hot if I wasn’t dying. As Alera’s chest suffocated him with her wet robe.

She pulled back, in her hand, a single foil-wrapped sandwich. “Last one.” Alera didn’t seem to notice Oren’s struggle. Her face was serene, almost childlike, as she casually offered him the last of her food. For a moment, Oren thought he might pass out, and yet here she was, unfazed, offering him the last sandwich like they were on a picnic.

“Thanks–” Oren stopped his outstretched hand as a yell came from the shore.

“Oi! We gon’ starve.” Arhen yelled mere inches from the shoreline as his head bobbed up and down. He reached out to the sand and pushed his body up and out of the water. “Da’ ocean’s dead.”

“You get in there and find us something!” Mallo yelled back. He glared at Arhen with wild eyes. “We did not just crawl through that damn cave for you to fail. There is no failing now, do you think we have the option of going back up?”

“Mallo–” Arhen began, but Mallo exploded.

“No, no! Don’t you make excuses! If you’re useless then just say that, you worthless plebeian. Azureal said he thrived here, that means we survive here. Are you so incapable that you can’t measure up to a fraction of him?” Mallo’s voice trembled, each word laced with panic. His eyes darted around as he continued to ramble madly, oblivious to the fact that Arhen had reached him, and was dragging him to the water’s edge.

Arhen held Mallo’s head underwater, everyone was still for the moment, then he let go. “Really is Hopman’s Isle.” Arhen stared down at Mallo who backed away from the water with a panic.

“Why couldn’t it be a lie?” Mallo dug his fingers into the sand.

It was quite the unfortunate circumstance, the sun overhead beat down on the tiny cliff-beach throughout the day. For this reason they had made the decision to explore the cave as much as they could, at least those who could manage to steel their nerves. Arhen slowly mapped out the cave with his orb of light, Alera’s robe glowed with such radiance it would give the moon a run for its money. Oren had followed her, his energy temporarily boosted by the sandwich he had chosen to split with Alera, though he wasn’t exactly up to the task of being all that productive, he was only supposed to be taking care of her after all.

The rest had been through enough for a day, the girls lay sleeping on their robes and backpacks, makeshift beds for the feverstruck two. Mallo stared almost catatonically at the expanse, his eyes unblinking as he tried to see, as he hoped to see, something to spur him onward. And as the sky filled with crimson streaks, and the shadows lengthened, he saw it.

In the far distance, hundreds of feet from where he sat, a gigantic fish glimmered in the twilight as it tore through the divide of sea and sky.

“There!” Mallo yelled, jumping to his feet. “That was a Bluefin!” Though nobody else seemed to share his excitement.

“Mallo... please... just let us have peace for tonight,” she murmured, too tired to care about giant fish or any other miracles.

Hungry as he was, Mallo had been better off than Oren, who had managed to chug through a third day on one and a half sandwiches. Arhen returned to the tiny beach, Alera followed behind giving a shoulder to Oren who was straggling along.

“Well mate, cave’s got notin’ useful. It’s cold as ‘ell but we could take cova’ in case of anotha’ storm. Everyone’s beat, the girls’ food supply got mopped up.”

“I saw a bluefin,” Mallo said, his eyes narrowed as if daring Arhen to find an excuse.

“Ye’ well, those be deep sea fish. Them don’ usually break surface ‘less somethin’s chasin’.”

Mallo's face twisted, his excitement deflating at Arhen’s words. The last sliver of hope he'd clung to now felt like a cruel joke.

Darkness crept, the group fell into a heavy silence, the only sound the distant waves crashing against the shore. The promise of the Bluefin felt more like a taunt now, mocking them from the depths, just out of reach.