[Reminder: This story contains explicit sensual content, violence, mature themes, and references to trauma/abuse. Reader discretion is advised.]
"Me?" Salīa scoffed.
It had been such a long, long night already. And she'd heard so many things about her that such words almost seemed laughable after everything.
Yet here this man was, this one who felt no shame in doing despicable deeds, using the last of his might to waste such words on her. "You can't really curse a demon, can you?"
"You—"
"Cut off his tongue!" Queen Saoa yelled.
Just like that, Chief Raino did. It was hard to tell if he was doing it to follow Queen Saoa's orders or to satisfy his own anger. Or maybe no emotion was stirred within him at all.
It wasn't questioned either, as this bleeding man was ruthlessly dragged out, leaving the air stiff and quiet.
Magi Inio was the first to speak and said he would take to clear the quarters of the dark traces of that rogue healer's energy and check for any others who reported receiving harm at night. Then Lizaenhle hugged her sister, and they whispered words.
She then looked at Salīa and pulled her into a hug.
"I apologize for not greeting you appropriately, Aunt Liza," Salīa whispered.
"Shh," she hugged her closer. "I need to tend to my son, but find me if you ever need anything."
Now it was only Nomusa who stood before her mother. Salīa also wanted to just run up and hug her. This woman was always laughing. And now?
"Mother, forgive auntie Nomusa. She was obviously distressed and—"
"Silence."
And that's exactly what filled the air.
"You understand your punishment for leaving, Salīa?"
There was nothing Salīa could do but nod.
"I'll make my way to my room. But please consider—"
Queen Saoa shot her a burning glare, and Salīa quieted.
Nomusa looked to her and offered a faint smile to let her know it was okay. All Salīa could do was reluctantly step away as she was escorted into her room. And that was all she'd be seeing for a long time, unable to even hear a single word of what happened outside.
While she wasn't asked this time, Salīa never said where she went and held that secret, even when the magi-mi, the newer magi learning from the elders, came to tell her it was time to return to the Faraway Forest, years later.
She had many secrets at this point, and craved to go somewhere where no one would ask her about them.
So, she readily accepted and walked into the unnamed forests that led between the Silio and Senai villages.
When the leaves choked them in and the bark caged around them, she was given the sacred juice. Off to a celestial land.
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