The Witch Within Slipped Arc Part Three

 Protection Deception

When Lenume` landed the air yot Ringer immediately assigned a man called Deci Witcer and a woman Pogir Diateh to protect Loc. Deci looked thin but carried a determined look in his clear blue eyes and had a pale green hair that was long and well groomed. Yet it was all too clear that he was not only tough,  but despite his meek look, strong too. He was dressed in a black cotton shirt and brown pants. Pogir looked skinny yet she had the physique of a cat. She too was dressed in black, but that was all she wore and the clothing that she had on was tight and even the gloves that she wore were tight. She had a thin scar that ran down her temple that looked like it was from an exceptionally thin blade. Her hair was golden and tied back. Her dark brown eyes gave her a laid back look, yet as she looked at those eyes she could feel the intensity that hid behind her laid back demeanor. 

They followed her everywhere she went. Even when it came to the lieu, which Pogir followed her in. When she was in her bedroom she would be there beside her bed and watched over her as she slept. They sat next to her as she had her meal and helped her with her training, yet throughout the whole thing she was aware that she was being monitored. 

After a while she was even having fun with them. She even talked with them so much so that they both seemed to know her inside and out. During these talks Loc felt that she was getting the psychological help that she needed. She was even able to process everything better. 

She soon found that she was spending more time with them than anyone and she found that she did not mind their company, in fact she found that she wanted to spend time with them. She found that Deci seemed to want to spend time with her too. He enjoyed listening and counseling her. He paid attention to every word she said. However Pogir always gave her the type of advice that only a fellow woman could give.

She soon felt better and happier than she had in a long time, like a great weight had been lifted from her. It also seemed that, despite the fact that her sisters were out there planning to either wake or kill her,  light had started to return to her life. She also felt like she could trust them with anything.

Soon they were talking about the legends of old and other trivial topics. They even started to talk about boys they looked, girls for Deci. They went on to talk about their favorite foods, books and places in the base. For Loc it was the library, Pogir was the rooftops and for Deci it was the dungeons. They seemed to know each other inside and out within that month and had helped her in many ways. She felt like she owed them and wanted to repay them somehow, but now was not the time.

She could see a life after her sisters and could finally let it settle that things would never go back to the way things were. This she had known this for a while yet this was the first time that her heart knew that there was no hope for that. She also came to the realisation that that one hope was nothing but foolish and childish. 

She came to the realisation that she might have to die too. She started to realise that she might be the only who could kill them too, after all, she would be the only one that they would allow anywhere near them. She wondered if Ringer knew this, if so what would his game pay be? What would be going on inside that head of his? What would his plan be and how would it involve her? After thinking about it for a while, she came to the conclusion that it did not matter.

After two months since she was captured Deci seemed to look at her. He pulled out a mirror and then looked at it. His eyes skimmed back to Loc. He pulled out a needle and wrote on it. She was about to look but the scratches disappeared before she could see what he had written. 

"What was that all about?" Pogir asked.

"Just a couple of friends that know that I'm helping Loc. I've been meaning to introduce them to you. It's just they live far away and some have been ill as of late. They just told me that their illness has gone and that they're on their way." He explained with a strange washout to his voice that Loc had just noticed. 

"Do you want to meet up with them when they arrive?" She asked.

He looked at her with a cheery smile.

"I would love to, but orders are orders. After all, I can't leave your side." He signed.

Loc felt a pang of guilt.

"Do you want me to come with you?" She asked.

"You might as well, after all I do think that it would be good for you to meet them." He said.

"When do they arrive?" Pogir asked.

"Tomorrow night. In the gardens." 

"As in the one with the roses?" The girls asked together.

"Yeah, that one. More specifically the purple carnivorous ones. My friends may not like roses but they've always been interested in them and, as they are the only place that you can safely see them,  I thought to show them. After all their parents were overprotective and would never let them see them otherwise. They weren't even allowed to fight in the War Of The Witch Within!" He exclaimed.

Loc nodded as she remembered that her parents were like that, though her sisters did participate in it. They were even raised up as heroes but she stayed at home.

The following day Loc wrote up early and woke the other two up. It was time for Deci to introduce those friends that he was talking about. Loc felt somehow nervous but she listened to Decis' humming the tune that she recognised to be the Lost Legend. This put her at ease. She loved his voice. That was when Pogir started to sing the lyrics.

"Oh lost, lost little child, 

Of manners not mild,

Where art thou name?

Where at thou fame?

" Oh lost, lost little child,

With a heart soever wild,

Why doth thou remember not,

Thine heart of fire like the Scot?"

Loc did not know what a Scot was but she thought that they all had this heart of fire and that they were all like the way the song portrayed them as. Sometimes she had wondered what the Lost Legend was all about. After all it was far too vague and told none of who or what it was all about. She had often wondered why that was.

They soon arrived at the purple carnivorous rose garden. The rose bushes looked normal but their thorns and stems were scarlet. Everyone who knew the basics about them knew to stay away from them. After all, one touch of them would put you into a trance, which they would be able to eat their prey without distance. This was also a trait that was shared by other carnivorous plants. Sometimes knowing this put a shiver down her spine. She had sometimes wondered who or what had credited those sick things.

They reached the end of the bushes only for Locs' heart to sink as she met the eyes of her sisters. Her and Pogir looked at Deci in horror as he cheerily waved to them and they smiled back. They looked at each other and were about to step back to get away from this place only to find that their path was blocked by the bushes that had closed behind them!

Her sisters looked at Pogir and suddenly her body ripped itself apart and blood exploded out of her vanes! Loc looked at it for a moment stunned and she let out a scream as what she had just seen register. She fell down her side, she looked down and spotted that her eyes darted around. Telling her that she was alive.

That was when Loc felt something hit her and she too was lying next to her. That was when Deci picked Pogir up by her color and threw her to the roses. Loc heard the grim snaps followed by some cooking and coughing and then nothing.

Her eyes looked around as she lifted her breathing and heartbeat increased as the shock and far settled in. Then her eyes met her sisters. The sounds surrounding her became silent. All she wanted to do was avenge her friend and patents and get away from here.

She felt something snapped within her and part of her seemed to wake. Her eyes turned purple and her head pounded and something exploded from her. Then a purple ring spread out from her body and when it touched the others they vanished.

Was that the Elemental Shadow? No I doubt that…

She was found two hours later unconscious with a slight purple aura and her body was far too hot to touch. They were able to retrieve a half devoured corpse of Pogir. The two men looked at each other with horror and awe. They instantly told Ringer after taking her by her clothes to the medical centre. His eyes widened as his jaw dropped.

"Reho."

He smiled in excited shock and told the others this too.