It has been two weeks since Ian has told Kyrie about the curse, and the news has taken root in Kyrie's mind. For as long as he remembers, Kyrie has always viewed problems to be paired with solutions. He usually fixes things or leaves problems that he cannot solve.
However, this time, he is facing something that he has no idea what to do about, and it is unthinkable to let that problem go. After all, the problem is about Ian, and Kyrie knows that before he lets anything happen to Ian, those things would have to pass through his dead body first.
Kyrie looks at his hands and hates helpless throbbing inside his chest and mind.
[Was I thinking so highly of myself to believe I can change something as grand as fate? Did I get ahead of myself?]
Kyrie brings his attention away from his thoughts when he hears the crunching noise of brittle wood chips on the ground. Ian sits next to Kyrie with some wild sweet potatoes that he has found from the forest.
"Look what I have found," Ian shows the fist-sized sweet potatoes.
"Is it alright to eat from the forest?"
"I checked them, so they are okay to eat."
Ian smiles and puts the potatoes on the bonfire. He covers the sweet potatoes with the ash by pushing them in. Kyrie watches the crackling fire, expectant of the sweet and nutty smell when ripping one after it is done.
Today is the second day that they have entered the White Forest. The White Forest is notorious for being a place of no return. For most of the year, the forest is covered in a thick blanket of poisonous mist. Although it is not a deadly poison, it is still deadly because it is present in the air people breathe in. So, Kyrie and the guild have waited for the week in which the mist dissipates from the forest. They are now on a time-ticking mission to find the entrance from the moment they have stepped into the forest.
At first, Kyrie is most worried about the potential attacks from fairies since they are entering the territory. However, their main concern turns out to be more fundamental. While waiting for the mist to disappear in a nearby mountain, everyone has been sure that the forest would be humid since it is covered with mist most of the year.
Nonetheless, as soon as they step into the forest, Kyrie has felt as if they travel into another region with a completely different climate. The air is unbearably dry despite the gentle temperatures. Due to the dry climate, their water consumption has increased by many folds. So, at the end of their first day, Kyrie has noticed that they have used half of their water supply. They have made arrangements for the second day to look for a body of water, but in the attempts to trace one using magic, Kyrie has come to the daunting realization that there is none in the forest.
Luckily, Imogen has noticed the odd contrast between the lack of water body in the terrain and the luscious vegetation of the forest. There is only one conclusion with that observation: the water is flowing underground. Kyrie has frowned slightly with that conclusion since it conflicts with his knowledge about the water cycle. Yet, he cannot ignore the fact that they are in fairy territories. The weird state of the forest might be under the magic influence of fairies.
"Since we can eat the sweet potatoes, the water we are digging for might be safe to use," says Ian while placing more wood on the fire.
"I don't understand that logic because of the poisonous mist, but I also hope that is the case."
"The odd natural law of this forest might be the fairies' doing."
"Hmm… There is a chance that it is."
Kyrie rubs his temples from a growing headache.
"Are you alright?"
"It's just a headache. I am used to them now."
"It seems to me that you are having more of them nowadays."
"Do I?"
Ian nods, "Yeah… Are you worried about the drinkability of the water?"
Kyrie turns to face Ian, and he places his hand on Ian's middle of the chest, above the heart. His frown softens when Ian grabs his hand.
"You don't have to think of the curse."
Kyrie's expression drops. There are a lot of complicated feelings scrambling inside his chest. When Ian sees the worry and helplessness in Kyrie's face, his chest tightens.
"Kyrie… I am still here alive."
"Yeah…"
"I can't promise you tomorrow, but I can promise you today. No… I can promise you this very moment, and I will promise every moment that I can stand next to you."
"Why do you only promise a moment?"
"Because I realize that I am just like everyone else. No one really knows when they are leaving the world. We only exist right now. The past gets erased from our minds as time passes, and the future is unfathomable. So, I will just keep promising you the time in which we exist."
Ian places his hand on top of Kyrie's and flips it to intertwine their fingers.
"Kyrie… Sometimes, our problems are not what is the scariest. It is our thoughts because we are our worst enemy."
Kyrie smiles weakly.
[It's not like I don't know. It's that no matter how much I know about the right logic, I feel like I am hand-grabbing sand. The harder I try, the more I cannot hold on.]
Laurel and Imogen walk to one of the logs around the bonfire, so Kyrie and Ian stop their conversation. Laurel walks to Kyrie, holding a metal kettle filled with water.
"Good news," Laurel says while sitting on the log, "The water is drinkable, so now, Sulfrid is taking charge of filling up our water supply."
"Thanks for telling me."
"No problem! But I think you might need to help if our other water mage runs out of mana…."
"Okay. I will do that."
"I will boil some water so that we can have some tea."
Before Laurel puts the kettle to the fire, a shriek reaches to their ears. They stand up, looking towards a circle of light dancing around where they have dug for water. The spiraling circle expands and contracts.
"What is that?" Kyrie starts jogging towards the water well.
Those that are close to the water well started to jerk forceful movements. Then, one by one, they start to dance as they follow the speed of the spiraling circle.
Ian suddenly grabs Kyrie's wrist from moving closer, "We have to run!"
"Huh?" Kyrie looks back to his guildmates, fearing for their wellbeing. However, he knows he should not get trapped in the enchantment, or else he can't save them.
When they turn and start to run, a magenta wall of light sweeps past them and stops a distance away. Kyrie and Ian stop and turn to see that the wall of light encircles them like a cylinder. Imogen and Laurel are still running to get out of the wall, but suddenly they freeze like statues.
Kyrie notices that sparkles of light are raining down from the clear twilight sky.
"It's too late," Ian murmurs.
"Too late?"
Before Kyrie makes sense of what Ian says, childish giggles and melodic music echo around them.
<Dear travelers from a far far land~
You have come for the dance tonight
Let us dance with the moonlight
Let us enjoy so that we never disband~>
A force suddenly tightens all the muscles from their body. Then, the invisible force drags their limbs to move against their will. As if they are tied to the strings handled by a puppeteer, they start to move like they are dancing. Slowly, everyone is arranging themselves in a big circle.
"Hehehehehe!" A child-like laugh rings next to Kyrie's ear.
Kyrie twists his head to look at what is on his shoulder. Two fairies are standing on it, talking to each other.
"Hehehehehe! I told you this one looks the best!" A fairy with orange hair taps on Kyrie's cheek.
"But the queen told us never to bring any humans back! We should leave them to the fairy sisters! They might know what they should do with intruders."
"Hmmm… Then there is nothing we can do… Too bad you are not a flower."
Before the fairies jump off the shoulder, Kyrie shouts, "Wait! Wait! I have something your queen might want."
The fairy with orange hair rolls her eyes, "What does a human like you know?"
"I… I have the midnight queen! I have the flower that your queen wants!"
The fairy sarcastically smirks at Kyrie, "I heard that you humans like to lie, but I am not angry since you are going to dance to exhaustion and become our forest's fertilizer! Hehehe. Well, so long, human!"
"Wait! I have something really important to talk to your queen!"
The orange hair fairy starts to fly away.
"Phanes! Do you know the goddess Phanes?"
The orange hair fairy looks back with her eyes wide open. Her face darkens, and her expression becomes fill with hatred.