Arc Of Embodiment (Hiatus) - Chapter 98

Thunderous screaming. That’s what Emerald and Mercury remembered in the last few weeks. The woman they followed and believed invincible was screaming in agony as the arrow ripped through her hand. But what follows is what they fear. Cinder Fall is a monster, and now, she has become a beast with a vengeance. The plans that they were following was dumped by Cinder in favour of achieving her revenge from the man that caused her to lose her precious Fall Maiden.

“Emerald! Mercury! I need you to find everything you on that man! I’ll have my revenge one way or another!” Cinder shouted her commands as she supported her injured arm.

“We’ve tried to look around and ask nearby villages, but no one knows who is, or they are protecting him. I’m leaning towards not knowing him,” Mercury said.

“If you want to keep living, I suggest you keep looking,” Cinder said in a sinister voice. “If the nearby villages don’t know him, then maybe he isn’t from around here. I suggest you increase your parameter”.

“Understood,” Mercury said. He then left the room to continue his search. It was better to be away from Cinder. ‘I don’t know why I ever joined this group’.

“As for you, my dear Emerald. Tell me, were you able to hide my face from that man?” Cinder asked.

“I-I c-couldn’t. When you got hurt, I didn’t know what to do,” Emerald replied with fear.

“Hmm. For the only reason I brought you into this group, you failed to do. I hate failures, Emerald. But I’ll give you another chance,” Cinder said. Emerald was about to say something, but she was cut off. “But fail me again, and I’ll make you suffer”.

The more pain Cinder felt in her hand, the angrier she got. Every time her hand twitched in pain, it reminded her of the man that shot her hand. She tried to remember how the man looked, but he was too far away for her to get a clear view. All she knew was that he was blonde.

“I will not stop until I find you and make you pay for what you did to me,” Cinder said to no one. “I will make sure that you feel the pain that I felt a hundred-fold”.

“I failed the mission of my Mistress. I know that I’ll be punished for it, but I’ll have my revenge before then,” Cinder said with a trace of insanity within her. “Ha-ha-ha-ha! Maybe I’ll rip him to shred and then give him to my Mistress as an offering for failing her mission”.

Mercury was doing as Cinder told, but he was contemplating if working with the woman was a good thing. He met her the day he killed his father. Originally, Cinder wanted to hire his father, but death prevented that. Hence, Cinder went for him. As the ȧssassin’s son, Cinder believed that the craft was forced on Mercury, and she was right. Mercury thought if he should take this chance to leave, but he knew that one way or another, Cinder would find him and kill him for betraying her. This caused Mercury to throw the idea of escaping out the window.

Emerald was scared. She looked up to Cinder since the day the woman changed her life. But now, like Mercury, she was thinking if staying with the woman was a good thing. Logically, she wanted to leave, but there was something in her saying that she should stay because the woman gave her a new life. She didn’t know what to do, so she decided that it was best to stay by Cinder’s side, for now.

The following morning of the day, Amber woke up. Jaune was helping the village as he had done in the past few weeks. Amber was feeling much better, and she was ready to get back on the road. But the doctor told her to rest a few more days as she’d been in a coma for a few weeks. Amber agreed, and the doctor left her room.

When Jaune completed the tasks the villagers needed help with, he went to Amber to see how she was doing. Amber told Jaune what the doctor told her, and Jaune believed that it was for the best. Jaune then asked her what she would do once the doctor discharged her.

“Well, I’d like to continue my travels around Remnant. What about you?” Amber asked. “You don’t look some from this village. And before I passed out, I remember seeing your skills with the bow, you were able to hit that woman’s hand from a distance. Are you a Huntsman-in-training?”.

“Technically, yes. But I’ve never attended any combat school before,” Jaune said. “The reason I was nearby when you were attacked was that I was travelling around Remnant just like you, with Menagerie as my destination”.

“Your quite young. You’re maybe around fifteen. What’s a young person like you travelling alone? Aren’t you afraid of being killed by bandits or Grimm?” Amber asked. “Remnant isn’t a world that you can just freely roam. Danger lurks in every corner”.

“I know. One of the purposes of my travel is to gain real-world experience fighting Grimm and bandits alike.” Jaune said. “I’m not as naïve as I look. I know the danger that lurks outside of the kingdom walls”.

“Then why would you risk leaving the safety of the kingdoms?” Amber asked. “Only the insane would do something that insane”.

“My dream is to be a Huntsman and a Hero. You may think that my dream is childish, but it is my dream, nonetheless,” Jaune said. “I’ve seen the cruelty of the world outside the walls of the kingdoms first-hand, and it just solidifies my dream”.

When Amber looked at Jaune’s face, it was the face of one that had seen too much for someone of such age. She can’t even imagine what he might have seen to have such a look. But even then, she can see the determination in his face.

“What did you experience? The look on your face tells me that you’ve seen something that someone of your age shouldn’t have experienced,” Amber said. “If you need someone to talk to, I’m willing to listen. It’s the least I can do for the person that saved my life”.

Jaune told Amber what had happened not too long ago. Amber couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She couldn’t believe that someone that disgusting existed, and she now knew why Jaune had the look on his face. He made his first kill, but it wasn’t just a single person, but dozens of bandits. Amber was amazed that Jaune was able to protect a village against a group of bandits.

“I see. As gruesome as what you did is, you did good by protecting the people,” Amber said. “I’ve felt the same way when I made my first kill. But my experience was nothing like yours. Mine was much tamer”.

“A man was being played with by some bandit outside the village he came from. The bandit was playing with the man because he enjoyed seeing other people in pain,” Amber said. “I saved the villager and told the bandit to leave, but he didn’t want to. When he realised that I was a female, he wanted to **** me, but I fought back. I didn’t have control over my semblance then and burned the man to death”.

Jaune listened to Amber as Amber listened to him. When Jaune heard Amber say semblance, he felt her hesitate. That’s because Jaune knew that it wasn’t her semblance that she couldn’t control but the power of the Maiden.

“For a long time, I felt guilty for what I did. I felt disgusted with myself. It wasn’t until later, when I returned to the village and met with the villager that I saved, that I finally came to terms with what I did,” Amber said. “I realised that if I didn’t help that man, he would probably be dead, and his family would be grieving. But instead, I saw him smiling with his family. I also later found out that the bandit was a scout. He was sent to figure out if a Huntsman was present within the village. With his death, the bandit leader decided to leave”.

Thinking about what Amber said, Jaune remembered the joy in the face of the villagers he saved from the bandit. He remembered the relieved joy of the parents of the child that nearly got rȧpėd. He remembered how happy they were that he had saved their daughter.. This made Jaune smile.