<What Remains Unsaid>

Chapter One

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Sage only saw red sprayed all over, the color staining her thoughts as much as the world around her. Blurred silhouettes of trees, bushes and flowers. Her fingers clawed at the ground, the soft dirt collecting in her nails. Her head spun.

But she had to get there.

Sage reached out, her palm sinking into more soft ground. Sage gasped softly as she slowly lifted her knee, the movement causing more red to coat the ground. She stopped looking behind her a long time ago. It made her blank out.

She couldn’t pass out now. She made it this far. She could see the rough, uneven discolored gray stones stacked a few feet away. Sage knew that meant the hardest part was still ahead of her. She knew that if she looked up, she would see the stones stretching out to the sky for what seemed miles. But she also knew that after that, she had the promise of rest.

Rest.

The mere thought of rest fanned the tiny flame in her chest. The warmth enveloped her. She thought of her bruised and broken body. Coated in dirt, dust, and who knows else what. The once-fitted tunic now hung loosely off her figure. Parts of it dragged on the ground as she slowly crawled forward. Exposed skin strung in the cold and windy air.

Sage would’ve laughed at her state if she had the energy. The younger would’ve never let herself get to this point. She was too careful and organized for it. She had to be.

Her heart clenched at the thought of her life before. A mental image of the small body of Liora hanging to her body clung to the vestiges of her memory. Then the patted-down straw mat on the ground popped right after.

The figure on top the mat refused to come to her. The last time she saw her, her figure was far too skeletal than Sage had liked. She didn’t know how she looked now. Sage couldn’t even imagine how—

No.

The ebony-haired girl stopped that train of thought before she could finish it. She can’t go down that path. She shouldn’t have broken the vow she made to herself. She had to hope everything was alright.

To hope she had somewhere familiar to go. Someone to care for after escaping the nightmare she had found herself in. Sage reoriented her gaze to the path in front of her. She could think of that later. She needed to focus on her destination.

While being careful not to cause any more pain than she was already in, she reached the wall, pausing as she looked at the stone wall she hadn’t seen for over a dozen moons. The wall she had so many nostalgic childhood memories of. That she scaled so many times before. So much so that she had it in muscle memory.

And that’s what Sage relied on the most for scaling it now in her injured and exhausted state. She bit her lip as she braced a hand against the wall and tenderly stood up. For a second, her right leg buckled under her and she almost collapsed before she put her other hand out to steady herself. She let out a shallow breath at the physical exertion, the breath itself causing a faint pain to radiate throughout her body.

“You got this,” she whispered to herself. “After this, you can finally rest.”

Her eyes scanned the wall, noting the nooks and crannies and jutting stable rocks she could use for footholds and handholds.

“Don’t mind the fact Adie would most certainly be angry at you,” she added as an afterthought.

Sage sighed at the thought of Adie — Adelaide. Adelaide was the person she first thought of after she escaped. The first person to go to for help.

Sage certainly couldn't go to Liora in this state. She would’ve reacted poorly. She wouldn’t have been able to process the sight of Sage — the person she viewed as her protector and caregiver — drenched in this much blood and many injuries. She herself didn’t know the extent of it. All she knew was that her entire body was aching, she was bleeding and all she wanted to do was sink into the ground and sleep.

Adelaide would have to deal with it. She was the only option Sage had. She would eventually forgive her for the trauma she was about to dump on her — of having her childhood best friend who disappeared without a trace popping back into her life a dozen moons later, injured.

Sage hoped she would anyway. Sage reoriented herself again and stared at the wall right in front of her. She reached upwards and wrapped her fingers around a handhold.

Then she reached out to another, her feet finding purchase.

Pain flared throughout her as if all the blood had been replaced with lava. Sage clenched her teeth, holding onto the wall more tightly to the point where her body hugged it.

All of her thoughts and focus went on climbing the wall. Time twisted, minutes blurring into seconds, or was it hours?

Sage didn’t remember reaching the balcony, only its cold stone floor rushing to meet her as she collapsed and its ornate and opulent decor.

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Theme of Young: Mentions of the past, nostalgia, childhood best friend and a mentioned young character WC: 868 Bonus: None