The Sight Beyond The Haze

Chapter 66: A Haunting Face in the Present

It was not Anasthasia's fault that things started to get f****d up. It was just the timing that she arrived that the succession of the sequence of the events unfolded.

The archer revealed herself in front of us.

She had long black obsidian hair, sleek and smooth under the moonlight. That hair was on a tight ponytail and it accentuated the angular jaw and the cheekbones of hers. Her brows were arched in a perfect arc and was paired with pitch black eyes, deep and extremely cold.

And that girl, this archer, looked exactly just like me that it dumbfounded me.

My feet involuntarily took some steps forward, towards the archer. She had a fierce expression that told me of a story that she does not feel the same awe and the emotion of being dumbstruck towards me. It seemed that she was just waiting for me to see her face.

"This must be an illusion," I whispered to myself and quickly retreated the steps I took forward. "I am being fooled by my eyes."

But the archer looked real.

She stood up in front of me, the moon's light casting an absolutely real shadow on the ground. Even as the wind blew, the loose strands of hair on her head were being blown. I could not even feel a single trace of magic on her.

She was just standing there, by herself, like a ghost from my past.

"Who... who are you?" I demanded at her.

I heard that my voice trembled with the awe and maybe with the little fear that touched my core. Here was someone who looked exactly like me, standing in front of me and wanting to kill me by launching arrows at me. Take note that those arrows were with very real and sharp tips, could easily kill anyone if they just let those come at them.

A sharp laugh cut though the silence and the sound of the blowing air. I do not know if she was laughing at the tremble on my voice or at the fact that I was very much clueless of her existence. In my defense, it was not even a year when I started recovering my memories.

Although I have gathered some of it, those memories were my experience outside the magical community and has nothing to do wirh the people of my childhood.

I looked at her. It was dark and I could only see the most basic of her features. The way her hair was pinned up and was in the same exact shade as mine, so deep in its blackness. At my distance, her eyes might not even be the same shade as mine but her whole face was unmistakably familiar.

It was the same countenance that I would see stood in front of the mirror everytime that I would look at it.

"For someone who has taken away everything I treasured the most, how could you not even know me?" she demanded back at me.

There was an accusation on her tone; pain and the sense of betrayal. It was all directed right at me. I felt that my heart started beating so fast again, so fast that I thought it would jump right out of my ribcage.

I do not even know her, yet she accused me of taking everything away from her.

Who was she? But then I would be lying to myself if I told her that I do not know her. Even without any confirmation, I know who she must be to me.

My sister.

I do not know what to say to her. I do not remember her well, in fact, I have no recollections of her. Have I ever met her in the past? I was uncertain. She was never in any of the memories I have recovered.

"You are here, being free, while I rot on Dalcanoraz!" she roared at me. There was sadness on her voice hidden well behind the anger that she threw at me. I saw her fist clenched on the bow so tightly.

She was elegant, maybe much more so than me who was awkward on my own skin.

"I do not know what you are saying," I said and tried to step towards her but she immediately shot an arrow towards me. "Please..." My voice trailed away, not knowing how to even address my own sister.

"How could you be so clueless?" she demanded yet again. "How dare you not know any of the pain I have to go through just so I could be on the same place as you are in our mother's eyes. You have always been favored by everyone, loved by everyone without even saying or doing anything. I was the one who was there for Eirini. I was the one that Mother could rely on, but you have to have the best Fate out of eveyone!"

Her eyes were brimming with anger as she nocked another arrow to the bow. I gathered magical energy on my hands and as she let go of the string of the how, I was already on to get it out from her.

I ran on her direction, planning to disarm her then maybe I could take her to the house where we could talk more amiably. At this rate, she would be doing a lot more damage. Not to me, but to herself and to the property around us.

But I became too over confident with my powers.

Although I have trained for the better half of the year, I was still a beginner. The archer, with only the elegantly carved bow on her hand, met me straight on. I realized as I was fending off her attacks that the Hybrid must have been really holding themselves off yesterday night.

I was knocked down by the bow, the physical strength of it exceeded the power that I infused my hands with. I was not able to catch the bow, its speed was more than that I could handle. Because of the impact, I was thrown off my spot and had to plant myself firmly on the ground. Two feet-sized dents were imbedded on the asphalt ground.

I coughed and clenched my jaw.

I realized that it would not be an easy win for me, but I did not expect it to be this hard for me.

"I have been training since I am a kid," she told me, executing a very skillful spin of the bow on her hand. The string on it made a twang! sounds as it was disturbed by the spin. "Do you think that your mere months training would be in match to me."

It was a statement and I know she was already looking down on me. I could never be a master on being either a Mage or a Warrior, Deo told me that when he taught me the magical properties and the basics of the hand-to-hand combat. My power would always be divided into two and although it was an advantage to fused physical strength and magic, it would also be a weakness for me if I wanted to be more skillful.

It would be more difficult to master both.

In this instance, I immediately knew that the archer was a great Warrior. Her speed was undeniable and the fluidity of her moves were almost a blur on my eyes. And even when she was trying to look down on me, she did not let her guard down. She was sharp as the edge of the sharpest sword and as broad as its surface.

I took a deep breath and prepared myself with another blow from the bow. This time, I was not caught off my guard. I caught her bow with both of my hands and deflected it away.

"How insulting," she sneered at me, an arrow was already on the bow, ready to shoor at me with a moment's notice. "To not let out your best skill on me. Are you, by any chance, looking down on me? Just because I am not a Mage and a Warrior like you? Do not look down on my skills! I am not any less than you."

It was getting harder to catch everyone of her attacks. I kept on being backed up and stepping back causing me to be pressed on the barrier that I erected to protect Anasthasia. In this moment, I was certain that the archer did not come for Anasthasia.

"You can protect other people," the archer said, her voice full of resentment. "But you cannot protect your own blood. You forgot about me! You are weak! How come no one has ever look at me with so much adoration as they did when they spoke of your name. You are not a Deity, my dear sister. Why were you always exempt on the pain?"

Those words.

Those words hit me straight to my very core. It was an ongoing issue for me. As my Veil, the foundation of a mortal's mind, was manipulated since I was a kid, I began to forget that I was ever a Dalcanorian myself.

I forgot everything.

"My apology would not matter to you," I said, my eyes were casted downwards. "But I am sorry for everything I was not part of and for everything that I was not aware of. For making you feel that it is an unfair world to you. I could not remember you, that is true, but would it be a sin to start over? To share your burden to me?"

She was slightly taken aback, a smirk was in place on her lips. Her shoulders were tense earlier but that tension has finally faded, loosening while she took back the arrow on the quiver that was hanging across her chest that was still nocked on the string of the bow. She took a few steps towards me and because the menace on her face has disappeared, I did not bother on retreating.

She was absolutely strong, maybe she was stronger than me. Even when I was training for months, my ability as of now could not catch up with hers. Though my instructors have been Deities, the archer...

My sister, I corrected myself.

Though I have been taught by Deo and Leigh themselves, my sister have been training for years now. Much longer than I did.

"Yto spoke of the truth," she suddenly said, the resentment that her voice held faded slowly.

It was like it had all been an acting. My head immediately knotted with how sudden she changed the way she acted. I discreetly looked back to Anasthasia the back to my sister.

"I hope that truth would be favorable on my part," I said.

My sister chuckled lowly. Since the farther away she was, the farther she was from the source of light. Now that she finally stepped into the reach of the fluorescence, I could gauge her features more clearly. I realized that I was being too exaggerated when I said that she looked exactly like me.

She does looked like me, but not a total copy of my whole face.

The form of her face was rounder and her lips were also plump on contrast to the thin lips that I have. My facial structure was more angular, sterner if I must say and colder, but hers was alive and affectionate if that made any sense.

"You are naive despite not saying much," she finally said. Her eyes, which I thought at first were obsidian black sinilar to mine due to the poor lighting, were actually a deep green shade. It made her more beautiful and fiercer. "And that I wasn't the only one who suffered. I have hated you all my life, and it seemed terribly unfair that you do not even know me. But fine—" she held out her hand when she has truly approached me "—I'll take you to the Dalcanorian Territories."

My eyes widened.

Was this some kind ot test? Those arrows could have hurt somebody! But the exasperation and incredulity that I was feeling was a singular emotion, just for me. My sister was smiling at me with warmth on her eyes and I could hardly believe if she has already forgiven me.

I hesitated to shake her hand which she noticed.

"Leigh was the one who requested it of me," she suddenly shared, there was arrogance on her tone that made me feel as though she was rather proud of that fact. "I could get you out of here, sister, or I guess you could say that he believed I could get you out of here all the way to the other side of the world. So... are you in?"

I finally accepted her outstretched hand, nodding as I did so.

"But you must first tell me your name."

I felt guilty not knowing anything about her. Actually, I felt guilty not knowing about her whole existence. With that statement, my sister smirked.

"I'm Idris Fleur," she said with a slight nod to me.

Just then, Cocytus burst out of the door with Zachriel on tow.