Chapter 299A Thread Ends

Several emotions crossed Hitori's expressive face. Amusement at my curiosity, slight guilt for not telling me already and letting me wait. A look of worry as he thought of his sister and even shame at her actions. The last thing surprised me a little, as my lack of siblings gave me little experience in that matter, but I kind of understood.

Hitori spoke. "She rang me to tell me everything was alright, with the apologies that she didn't ring before. Of course with everything going on here, I've had little time to worry."

I didn't care we were in plain sight, I gave a little kiss on his lips for those words.

He smiled. "She also asked me to relay some apologies to you for taking that bag."

Something clicked in her mind. "She's not sending it back, is she?"

He blushed a little. "No. She started reading it, having to translate a lot of it from Latin. But, Anka is nothing if not persistent. She has the intelligence to do anything if she really wants to, even if she so rarely does."

I knew I had to ask one more question. "She is learning to become a witch?"

Hitori hesitated. "I... I don't know. From what she said, it's very educational but she didn't exactly say how."

My mind reached for the image of Anka. She may look almost irrational sometimes, offset by her beauty. But she was clever, very intelligent and knew what she wanted and the limits she'd go to to get it. Part of me was glad that she was the one reading the book, as studying those kinds of things went just a little beyond the energy I felt I could spend. I had no doubt that she would use it responsibly, despite her chaotic mind.

"I trust her with it."

Hitori looked almost relieved. "Thank you, I was worried you'd be angry at her."

I giggled a little. "Secretly I'm glad she'd doing all the hard work of translating it." I winked to emphasise my feelings.

He smiled some more. "Come on up, Nuru is awake." He turned and walked to the stairs, I followed, closing the front door behind me.

"Nuru has found the science and nature channels." Hitori sounded very amused.

"Is that strange?"

He nodded, with is back still towards me as we headed up. "Yes, as she didn't seem interested in any other channel with normal television."

I giggled. "That's because they're boring, I've never liked TV that much."

Hitori smiled, I could feel it, but didn't respond. We went inside of his apartment and I was glad to see fresh painting stuff in the other room. It looked like Hitori was going to paint again. I wondered how long it had been. As I looked to Nuru I could understand why Hitori made a deal out of it. She was looking at it with rapt fascination and interest. Like a little girl seeing life born before her eyes, instinctively knowing it's important even if she doesn't understand the mechanics yet.

With Nuru's mind, absorbing everything like a sponge, she'd surely get some interesting dreams from all of this. Of course it felt more like her interest in how humanity researched things than the actual research. But I could be wrong.

"Hey Amy." Nuru looked up and blushed. "I mean, good evening, Miss Amy." She picked up the remote and turned the machine off.

Now that was cute. "It's okay. 'Hey Amy' is even better. I've got something to say to both of you. Hitori can you sit down as well?"

He's closed the door behind me after I'd walked in and was still standing there. He just nodded and walked to the sofa to sit down next to me. He looked at me with interest mostly, some hidden worry behind his eyes.

"Isabel is dead", they both gasped, " but I didn't kill her. She was sentenced by her mother, the Gypsy."

Hitori spoke softly. "Does Muriel know?"

"Yes, she was with me, we buried Isabel together as we couldn't allow her to be found. Speaking of finding, I've spoken to Kai, part of my former group, and told him about Khuna and Valerie. I think he took it well."

Hitori nodded in silence, Nuru just looked at me blankly waiting for the more important thing. It was as if she knew already. It was so hard to hide things from her, but it mattered little. It was just annoying sometimes that someone already knew the things you wanted to say.

I started with. "I want to sleep."

Hitori replied. "You're free to stay here."

I shook my head. "No, not just rest, I mean really sleep. I want to rest in the earth and really calm down, too much has happened for me to continue walking the earth every night before resting."

He responded with only the softest of voices. "For how long?"

I blushed. "I don't know, maybe only a few nights, but it could be weeks... months..."

He blinked. "Years?"

I hesitated. "I really don't know, I just know my body needs to rest."

It was Nuru who broke the tension with the sweetest words. "Get your rest, I know you will return. I'm already proud of Miss Amy for not breaking because of her friends."

I blushed, she continued. "I hope Master Hitori will allow me to stay here and do work for him. I will patiently wait for Miss Amy, no matter how long she'll take."

Hitori blinked a few times. "Not fair, two against one." He smiled weary, knowing that he just needed silly words to get his mind in gear again.

"Sorry, I..." He sighed. "Nuru is right. I know you won't leave me. If your body says what it requires, I would be stupid to ignore or deny it."

He took my hand and kissed my palm. "Thank you for telling me." He treated me to the warmest smile of the night.

I blushed and nodded. "Thank you as well, both of you. Will you take good care of each other until I return?"

He nodded and gave me a kiss on my lips. He took me and held me warmly, it was so nice to feel his warm body against my slightly colder one. Pressure against my back, softer in some ways, told me that Nuru held me on the other side. A loving moment of goodbye without tears or worries. It was just something that needed to be done and they knew it.

And they supported it.

After that moment words were no longer needed. Nuru received a kiss on her lips from me, something to remember. She was still holding her hand to her lips as Hitori led me outside. She smiled. A darkness full of light.

Hitori spoke only a few words when we got downstairs again, it felt like I'd only been upstairs for two seconds. Two seconds that had lasted for hours, days and years. His words however still echoed in my head as I rose up in front of his eyes, one of the rare times I did. Words that continued their sneaky reflections around my thoughts as I went outside the city.

To the forest where I once cried blindly in the rain.

It felt as if a forest had been the start of my tale, a forest filled with two girls that helped each other. A gift of life both ways that carried through time. My bracelets and necklace felt both cool and warm against my skin. I was complete.

I selected an old healthy tree, maybe the king of the forest, and dug myself in next to it's roots, going deeper until my body said this was the place. It was as if I was being guided. Then, as the earth closed above me with gravity doing it's share, I started to feel myself drift away. My heartbeat slowed, my breathing stopped, my eyes closed only to open in my mind.

First I saw the earth, then the tree, both full of life. My senses expanded, hearing noises of wild rivers and large bouldering rocks, but it was nothing but the sap in the trees and the rustling of the leaves. I could almost taste the air as my soul felt disconnected from my body and rose above the forest, above the fields, above the earth.

My consciousness spread out thinner and thinner as I saw more and more of the world around me. Soon the sun would rise and my body would slumber. It would be protected in the soil, inside the womb of mother earth. I knew there was still very much a connection between my mind and my body. I was safe, I was tired.

I would rest.

I would dream.