Strings of Jade

I run so fast that I can taste the faint taste of blood in my mouth. Where to? I don't know. 

Anywhere I want. The feeling is deliciously liberating. At last. The things that mattered so much are not even lounging in the back of my mind. Ichora, the High Priest, all of it. All of it except the girl that vanished as soon as she came. Where is she? I have to find her. My back stings again. I wince and stop for breath. 

'So where to?' a faint voice asks me. I turn around to see her. The girl. The one that caused all of this. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have killed. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have escaped. If it wasn't for her... I wouldn't be free. Not now, not ever. She had done more for me in minutes than anyone had done in my whole life, except make weak promises. That It will be okay. It will not be okay. I have to make it so. Because nothing ever works out. 

'I do not know. I thought you must have thought of something.' I say, honestly. 

She smirks, 'I appreciate your loyalty and obedience, but you should use that hunk of flesh lodged in your head' she says, in the nicest voice. 'Out of the premises of this province, at least' she says. Province? This was the most powerful kingdom in the underlying areas. I look at her. 'It is no more than a measly province for me. I've seen better' she says, justifying. 

'Then take me to the better' I say, using the hunk of flesh lodged in my head. She smirks 'I like obedient people like you. Now that you have used your brain, you have used your loyalty. Not bad for a murderer like you' Murderer? I was certainly not so, I tell her. 'So what killed the man? Suicide? Accident? No, it was deliberate. As intentional as a task can be. And you, dear sir, are a murderer and a criminal, no less. So the best thing to do presently is to flee from the province.' 

Wow. She's mean. But I can't seem to protest. Have we all accepted her as the leader? Great, not so free, after all. More than unfamiliarity, she beckoned me as the closest person that I was currently allied to. A person with whom I could speak whatever I wanted without thinking of the consequences. And a person that did the same with me, too, at least I think so.

She keeps her hands behind her and walks steadily, nor too fast nor too slow. Just enough for me to catch up and not fall behind at the same time. 'Do you not have any questions?' she asks. I think, yes, I do. 'Why did you come here?' 

She scoffs, probably the first time I have seen her do so. 'I never left to begin with, I was always here. Watching everything. They were just too naive to see me, to notice. And even if I was not from here, I need not justify my presence to someone like you.' That was exactly why I refrained from questioning her. 

'Where are we going?' I ask, giving it another shot. She makes face. 'I thought you were done with questions. We are going to the better, like you asked.' 'So you listened to me?' I ask, testing her. As expected, a sharp, merciless reply comes. 'Obeying? No, I do not do that. And even if I did, I would never, in my wildest dreams, obey you. That is something expected out of you, not me. As for this matter, I am doing this out of pity. Because engaging in a conversation with you has made me realize that you will never be able to find your way out, come rain or shine.' In her highly refined language, she belittled me. But I did not seen to mind. At all. How funny.

'And I have also realized that you are quite simple minded. For you have asked all questions but the most important one'

'Which one would that be?' I ask.

'What the Priest was trying to do with you' 

Oh, yes, of course. What was he trying to do with me, I ask. She gives me a look, a look I vaguely remember, somewhere in the vast extent of my subconscious. She is not jeering, nor judging, But just displaying amusement and affection at my ignorance.

'He was trying to find scars' she says, nonchalant. 

'Scars? Of what?'

'Strings' she says. She doesn't explain further nor do I ask.