Chapter 6

In confusion Ariel stumbled back to the house.

What was he? Was he just like her? Did that mean that there were others like her? Could she and Nathan finally go home and take up their lives again as Aric and Brianna Griffith again and give up this second life?

As the thought swirled around in her mind as she entered the house, she completely missed the fact that there wasn't anyone in the front room. When she realized where she was and what was going on she quickly rushed into the room to check on Nathan.

Entering the room she could see that Kat was there and she was running her glowing white hand over Nathan, and he was sweating and gasping. Occasionally he would thrash lightly before he returned to being motionless.

"How is he? What is wrong with him?" asked Ariel.

"He's under the effects of a very powerful black spell. What ever happened to him must have come from direct contact with the mage judging by the marks on his chest. The spell entered his body directly via these marks. But was it a very young woman? The hands are smaller than mine," said Kat as she looked over at Ariel in wonder.

"Can you cure him?"

"I don't know. While I know a lot of magic, this is a spell I'm totally unfamiliar with. It had no structure, or no reason to it. It's purely chaos. I have no idea how the mage even cast it," said Kat as she looked at Ariel.

"We have to cure him, he's my life. I can't go on without him," said Ariel as she heavily sat down in a nearby chair.

Terrance and Rory stood by looking lost because they didn't know what to do to help.

"Did he say anything at all to give us a clue?" asked Kat.

"Well he said..." said Ariel as she stopped to think a moment.

Everyone stayed quiet while she was thinking.

"Yes he did! He said it was the boy. The boy is who we're looking for! I was so concerned with him and confronting who I thought was responsible that I totally missed that. But what boy was he talking about?" asked Ariel.

"I know of no boy. It must have been someone who was hanging around us," said Rory as he looked at everyone else.

"I too wasn't aware of any boy. But we'll have to start looking first thing in the morning. I doubt he'll be running around in the middle of the night for us to easily find," said Terrance as he tried to calm Ariel.

"Is there anything you can do for him?" asked Ariel.

"I know several white spells that I can use to try and slow it down, but that's the best I can do. Without finding that mage who cast this we're on borrowed time at best," said Kat solemnly.

As she said it everyone could see the large tears swimming in her eyes.

She didn't want to let anyone who really didn't deserve it die any longer if she could help it, not when she was trying so hard to save them. She had a lot of killing and death to atone against people who didn't deserve what she had done to them and for this to happen wasn't helping her conscious any.

While Terrance and Rory didn't trust her still, they did have to admit that she appeared to be desperate to help them. It didn't cause them to completely forgive her for her past actions, but it did soften them up some.

"Uhhm Ariel. I need to ask this as delicately as I can, but it's been about four days. Have you and Nate taken care of your problem recently?" asked Rory softly.

Kathryn looked at them confused as she noticed that Terrance was also listening for the answer.

"We were in the middle of doing it when he collapsed. I'm not sure where I stand with it," said Ariel quietly.

With everything that had been going on she wasn't sure where she stood and had completely forgotten about it.

"What are you talking about? What problem?" Kat asked.

"You don't have to tell her!" said Terrance empathically.

"No I may need her help to try and contain me at some point, and she should know what she's up against if it comes to that. If you don't mind lets talk in the morning though. Right now I'm worried about my husband," said Ariel.

Passing her glowing white hand over him Kat said "He's resting for now, but it will get worse. We should be prepared incase we can't find the mage who cast it to remove it from him."

Ariel decided to sleep on the floor to be close by her husband and Terrance and Rory returned to their room.

Ariel had given Kat Nathan's sleeping bag so that she had something to sleep on to try and recover what sleep she could before morning.

Early the next morning Rory, Ariel, and Terrance left looking around for a boy that didn't belong.

They tried to ask everyone they spoke with if they had seen any young boys who had newly arrived to their city. Some did know who they were asking about and some didn't, but not one knew his name. They only recognized him as a beggar.

But their questions did get a good description of the boy and what he was wearing.

Working with that the trio started paying more attention to all the poor looking children around them, but they still hadn't found the boy after a few more hours of searching.

At noon Ariel decided to go back and check on Nathan, but Terrance and Rory decided to continue looking for the boy

Returning back to the house the first thing she did was head to the room where Nathan was staying and she saw Kat as she was coming out. She had cast another white spell to try and slow down the poison and make him feel somewhat better for awhile.

Ariel had a dark thought before she realized that if Kat wanted to kill him then she could have done it half dozen ways well before this. She would have done it moments after they went out the door and she wouldn't have seen her exiting their room hours later if she had.

Smiling at her while stepping past, Ariel entered the room to check on her husband. Kat had been wiping his forehead and trying to keep him cool. Every once in a while she would hear her husband say something but then he would go quiet.

Re-entering the main room Ariel saw Kat sitting in a chair wringing her hands.

"I'm trying to do the best I can, but I don't know what to do. He's slipping away but I swear I'm doing all I can," said Kat desperately

Reaching out Ariel pulled her close and held her. She realized that Kat must be feeling guilty because she couldn't really help her husband.

After a few moments they separated and Kat looked at her.

"He's in a delirium right now, but he keeps saying "Brianna don't leave me" over and over again. Who's Brianna? Was she his first wife?" asked Kat as she looked at Ariel.

"No, I'm Brianna," said Ariel softly.

"Excuse me? I thought you were called Ariel," said Kat.

"I'm Brianna Ariel Griffith. My husband is Aric Nathanial Griffith. But you may better know him as Aric the Battlemage," said Ariel.

"What is going on?" asked Kat getting confused.

"This is going to be a long story, so get ready to be confused beyond all belief," said Ariel.

Then she started into the complete tale of who they really were.

"Let me get this straight. The reason I was pulled to him was because of his magic when I was, uhhm, like I was before," said Kat embarrassed.

"Yes," said Ariel.

"And you have part of that same magic running in your body and it has changed you?" asked Kat.

"Yes," said Ariel

"And if you don't have sex every four or five days or so to re-sync that magic in you, you could possibly transform like you did that night we really first met?" asked Kat.

"Yes," said Ariel.

"And if you do you become totally magic resistant and a killing machine that only he can stop?" asked Kat as her eyes grew wide.

"That about sums it up," said Ariel grimly.

"We have to save him more than ever now. I really wanted to save him because it was the right thing to do, but now I'm concerned about you both. I'm not sure I could stop you if you go resistant to magic again like you did before," said Kat.

"Kathryn, while we're sharing, how do your powers work? Was Nathan really correct when he said what he guessed about them earlier?" asked Ariel.

Taking a deep breath Kat briefly explaining how she gained her powers and how they worked. She then expanded on how her powers work if she's with a mage.

"So when you said you were pulled to him earlier it really was because he was a mage then correct? So would you have really killed him?" asked Ariel warily and concerned.

"There was one time I would have easily without a second thought, but not now. Now I do all I can to not take a life unless they are threatening someone innocent and I can't stop them easily any other way. The innocents and the little people have no one to watch out for them and there are lots of people just waiting to take advantage of them," said Kat solemnly.

Leaning forward and looking her directly in the eyes Ariel asked "Kathryn what is the real story between you and Elliot. I've heard his side, but I want to hear it from your mouth what happened.

Kat looked away as she quietly said "It wasn't my fault. I was one of those little people who got caught up in something beyond her control with someone who was more powerful than I was. He played with my life and in the end he cost me Elliot."

"What does that mean? How did you get caught up? Kathryn you can't ever fix your problems in life if you keep hiding from them. You can save all the people you want, but if you keep running from the truth it will only weigh you down," said Ariel as she looked at Kat.

"It was their fault. They took him from me," said Kat almost as whisper as she put her face in her hands.

"Kathryn, how could someone, anyone, take someone else from you if you didn't let them? If you really loved him like you say, didn't you ever fight for him?" asked Ariel

"You have to understand, it wasn't my FAULT! They used me! They used me and threw me away! It cost me my life! It cost me ELLIOT! THEY WERE THE ONES WHO TOOK HIM FROM ME BECAUSE MY LIFE DIDN'T MATTER TO THEM!" screamed Kathryn from with-in her hands

"Really? How did they did they do that? I have to tell you, I met Elliot back when you were trying to kill my husband, and he didn't look like he was abused by anyone in any way. At the time all he could do was talk about you. Did they rape you in some fashion? Did they force themselves on you?" asked Ariel carefully, as she put her hand on her shoulder.

It wasn't lost on her that Kathryn was suddenly starting to show the same signs of mania that she had the last time she spoke with her in the barn. She was doing so well lately that she didn't want to push her into a relapse and have her start thinking of men as her playthings again.

But something wasn't quite ringing true to Ariel between Kat's earlier actions and what she was saying now. She was still trying to run from something.

"It was William who tricked me. He made me believe that Elliot wanted me to be like this, someone who was very experienced in sex and offered to teach me because I didn't know what to do.

"But after they had their fun teaching me, by way of having me do everything sexual they wanted, they then left me alone to deal with their lies and face Elliot after he caught us," said Kathryn softly as she looked up at Ariel with watery eyes.

Kat had started to calm down.

She desperately wanted to tell someone her whole story from her side since Ariel knew Elliot's side and Ariel had seemed to be a good listener so far, in spite of all her own problems.

"Fine, tell me what really happened then. I'll do my best to listen," said Ariel softly.

Something in her last statement didn't make sense, but Ariel could see she wanted the chance to tell her side and Ariel was willing to let her.

Kathryn softly recounted her tale of what happened, her meeting of William, his "coaching" into the world of sex and the lives of the upper crust of nobility, his last night with her and her foursome with him and two of his other friends.

Then she covered how when Elliot found out he fled the Inn, and later called off their engagement.

The whole time she spoke she was twisting her ring, the ring Elliot gave her, around and around on her finger as she relived what happened.

Soon she was finished and looking nervously at Ariel.

But as she finished, if anyone had been looking their way, they couldn't have missed the rage building in Ariel's face the more she listened to Kathryn speak.