It could not cut through the smoke. Why would it? In fact, the fire only made it worse. Finally, she tried sending a gale of wind to clear the smoke, blowing it in all directions. But I ran with the wind, and the wind exacerbated the flames and thus the smoke.
I had anticipated this— or rather, I had hoped for it. She seemed genuinely angry when Bahr had hurt her. When he threw her into her own ship with all his strength. While she could manifest miracles of all elements, she did not specialize in using the wind. Perhaps if she did, she’d be able to send such a powerful gust it would disperse of all the flames and smoke all at once. But luckily for me, she couldn’t do that.
So she screamed and shouted for me as I escaped into the docks. She did not stop pursuing me, landing with a loud thud close to where I was. I couldn’t see her. I couldn’t feel her shadow. But I could sense her miracles.
I quietly backed up in the opposite direction of Lilith, trying to get further into the city. The blanket of smoke now covered half of the docks, keeping me safe as long as I did not make any noise or cast any spells.
She continued trying to blow the smoke away, and it worked for mere moments before more smoke always gathered around her. I was almost at the stairs that would lead me away from the docks, when suddenly she changed course.
The Saintess started for my direction as she called out.
"Where are you Aria? You can’t run from the Church forever. I will find you. Just give up and I’ll even tell the Archbishop to lighten your sentence— give you a painless death instead of burning you with the Sacred Flames."
I ignored her. I immediately hid in a small alcove as she scanned the area. Smoke kept covering the area as she continued trying to blow it away. I waited for her to leave— to go investigate some other place. And eventually, she did.
With a click of her tongue, Lilith turned around and looked at the waves. Her gaze was fixed on the ocean— she thought I had jumped into the water to escape and hide. She slowly went further away from me, and only after another minute passed did I move.
I ran out of the alcove and ducked into the streets of Luke. Blood dripped down the side of my face. I tiredly made my way slowly through the alleys of the city. I was exhausted. My arm was broken, and my face felt like it was on fire from a simple cut. My vision was blurry. My entire body was numb. I wanted to pass out.
But I pushed on.
I heard the sound of footsteps from people and horses coming from the distance, and I quickly hid myself. Guards and firefighters pushing a simple fire engine ran towards the docks to investigate what had happened. I waited for them to pass before I went back out.
I continued stumbling through the streets, pushing myself off walls I occasionally found myself leaning on. Finally, I arrived.
I pushed open the door of the safe house and stepped into the dark room. I collapsed onto my knees
"Melas? Goddess grace us, what happened?" Lisa ran over to me. She grabbed my shoulders, and stared at me with a worried look on her face. "I’ll get a healing potion just wait—"
Chapter 35: Tired
Everything after I returned to the safehouse was a blur. I passed out soon after Lisa tended to me with a healing potion, and found myself fading in and out of consciousness multiple times. I barely recalled what happened— it was almost like I was a kid again, sleeping in the car ride home after a long road trip.
The only difference was, instead of coming back from a vacation well-rested and content, I had just barely escaped with my life from an evil Saintess.
I vaguely remembered Braz coming to the safehouse to escort me and Lisa out of the city. They both stopped to look over me for a moment, exchanging a few muffled words that I couldn’t make out. Then I lost consciousness.
When I woke up, we were entering the cove of the hideout. Kai was with us now, alongside the remaining pirates that came with us, and he was in the middle of a conversation with Lisa.
"...if we’d known this, we wouldn’t have let her—"
"...but how why did the— "
"...we’ll deal with that later."
I could only understand bits and pieces of their discussion, but it sounded important; I tried to force myself up— say something to them. All that came out, however, was an odd grouse.
"Hngh…"
The large figure of Braz loomed over me as he gently whispered. "Don’t strain yourself. You’re still tired. Go back to sleep."
Every ounce of my being didn’t want to listen to him, yet my body simply complied with that order and everything went dark again.
The third time I found myself waking up, I was lying in the bed of a small room. Gennady was seated next to me, a worried look on his face. When he saw me move, he quickly rushed over to my side.
"Lass, I’m sorry for not being with you. I’m supposed to be your bodyguard, but I’ve left you alone ever since we came here. Listen, if you want me to return your coin or do anything else for you, just let me know—"
He was jabbering on about serious things— things I didn’t want to bother thinking about at the moment. So instead of listening to him, I decided to close my eyes and go back to sleep.
And finally,
