Greyashe chapter 335 is entitled 'Memories in Rain.'

Previous chapter 334:Guardian.

Next chapter 336: Progression.

Summary page.

-Short summary-

Under consciousnesses racked with guilt, madness, and fury lies a desire to connect with another even if only on an ephemeral level.

-Long summary-

Delaney’s question despite being uttered out of shock moreso than confusion remains unanswered as the ‘Wicked Lady’ keeps a steely gaze on him. The young man probably wouldn’t have recognized her if it weren’t for the feelings he has for the Wicked lady’s ‘alter ego’. Feelings that he’d rather not admit to and he wishes he could forget (especially considering how she had reacted to his sadly lacking confession.) Still he had hoped to meet her again, but not like this. What had happened to her that she ended up like this? Hadn’t she been traveling with other people before? Where were they and why allow her to do this to herself?

The ‘Wicked lady’ huffs and walks past Delaney without acknowledging whether he’s right or wrong about her true identity. Delaney begins to call out to her, but restrains himself. For one thing meeting up with her isn’t part of his mission, and he needs to make haste before the recall takes more of his brother and sister’s cognitive facilities. 

And then there are her eyes…

It was momentary, but he saw them…or to be precise he saw into them. Is there anything he could do for someone who seems to be that far gone? Although he knows that like him, Kani is unaffected by the recall, her eyes look like someone who has lost all sense of self to Butcher’s handiwork. Perhaps this whole ‘Wicked Lady' Thing is her ‘madness’. Where other magicians might go and level a village or attack innocents, hers is just to keep fighting, keep working so that she doesn’t have to think about what it is she lost. The monumental loss that she had experienced…could he possibly do something to fill that void? He who has no connection to her besides their ‘condition?’

He watches her go and clenches his fist. Maybe not, but what else could he do but to try? Even if it’s one sided, even if he won’t be recognized for his efforts, if he can bring happiness to someone that he treasures...

Isn’t that reason enough?!

He returns to the inn and finds Aicha there waiting pensively. She hops up upon his entry and asks what happened. She got worried when she returned and didn’t find him waiting there. Delaney sighs and apologizes which catches her off guard. Although it’s not as if he’s a horrible person, he also doesn’t strike her as the kind of person who apologizes when he’s wrong! Delaney makes a face and asks if she realizes that she’s insulting him as she compliments him? In any case he didn’t mean to worry her, and actually went out because he was worried about her. Aicha almost faints in shock, which annoys him even more. Okay, sure maybe he’s not the most friendly individual, but he’s not some kind of super villain. Moreover, aren’t there more important things they could be talking about? Like did she find out anything in regards to that Van guy? Aicha shakes her head and confirms their suspicions. Van hasn’t been seen in the area. Delaney nods curtly; he figured they’d have to go to Greyashe directly if they want more information so he’s not surprised. They’ll just have to make haste and leave quickly. Every second counts as they’re dealing with the recall. That being said, he still has some business in town, and asks Aicha if she can give him time to finish what he needs to. It’s not a big deal or anything, so she needn’t follow him. Aicha asks what business he has in town, but upon seeing his earnest expression, she smiles and amends herself. If it’s important to him he should go and take care of it, but at least wait until the morning since moving at night is far too dangerous.

Delaney agrees and thanks Aicha for understanding. As the two go to get rooms and rest for the night, the young man realizes how foolish he’s being for someone he’s only spoken to on one occasion, and who doesn’t seem to acknowledge him in the same way he does her, but this is the first time in a long time that he’s felt so…clear about something he needs to do, besides save his siblings from Butcher’s ‘recall’. Selfish as it sounds, he hasn’t really been in the frame of mind for himself in a long time. Usually if he’s not thinking of his siblings, he’s thinking of how his father basically abandoned them, and how Butcher is causing them no end of grief. Not to be mistaken, he doesn’t think that their –or his suffering is more than anyone else, but for a long time now it’s all he’s been able to think about.

Now however he actually wants to do something for himself, and despite everything he actually feels entitled to these feelings.

The night is both too long and too short for Delaney and he’s up and out of bed despite the lack of sun in the sky. It works out well anyway, since the gears in his head have started to turn and he’s begun to figure some things out. If he’s right, then the mystery of the dual ‘Wicked Ladies’ is actually a simple slight of hand….er, person. Either way he’s sure they’ll only act at night since that’s the best way for the ‘trick’ to work.

He peeks into Aicha’s room and finds that she’s fast asleep. After some thought he decides to leave her and head out. She’s still getting used to her new ‘status’ as an ‘unloved’. He fondly remembers how he would almost literally sleep through entire days when he was first afflicted. It took him almost a year to get completely adjusted to the effects, though the isolation from the rest of the people an their ability to use magic had never really faded….that is until recently anyway.

The sky is gloomy as Delaney steps out –a sure sign of rain or in this instance, snow. He braces himself against the weather and breathes into his glove-less hands for warmth. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so macho when Azha had offered him the chance to take them. Sure he grew up around these continents, but he had been away from home for years. He had adjusted to more exotic and tropical climates despite his skin bearing quite the aversion to them. Still there’s a ‘simplicity’ that comes with cold weather that’s easy to understand and hard to be betrayed by. It’s cold, plain and simple.

So when the young man feels an unnatural ‘warmth’ wafting past him, he is at attention.

He follows the source of this warmth around a corner and into an alleyway where he finds an unconscious magician lying before the ‘Wicked Lady’. The two make eye contact silently regarding each other for a moment before Delaney smirks and asks if she enjoyed the Ice cream. The ‘Wicked Lady’ tilts her head inquisitively, and he asks again, adding that she even got to eat it for free since that kid…a boy right? Bought it for her way back when….though it really wasn’t that long ago was it? Moreover, they met yesterday too. He didn’t recognize her at the time, but now he does. She was asleep on the couch in the inn yesterday, and is the girl who was with Kani in the park when the two of them had talked. The reason why there seem to be two ‘Wicked Ladies’ is because there ARE two of them.

The girl blinks and after more silence turns to run, but Delaney surprises her by leaping forward and grabbing her arm, and explaining that he means no harm. He just wants an explanation of what’s going on here. Why is Kani doing this? Why are they here? Where are their ‘friends’?

The girl doesn’t try to struggle, and instead uses her free hand to remove the silver wig she has on her head revealing her long purple hair. She asks innocently if he can help Kani? Delaney is silent for a moment before responding that he’ll ‘try’. First she has to explain the situation to him, and most of all tell him where Kani is. The girl nods and sadly adds that ‘She’s hurting and doesn’t know what to do.’

The snow is falling light but steady as the real Wicked Lady sits on the stoop of a building alone. The bandages that wrap her body are dirty and worn, and the places on her body that were burned by Candle during their first meeting and subsequent fight are being exposed to the elements. She had been diligent about changing them back when she was among friends, back when it concerned her how she looked to him, but now it just feels like another meaningless chore. She certainly doesn’t want to die, but it is only recently that she realizes how alone she had been even with them. Though it had been mostly her doing –assuming they’d always be there for her, assuming that what she wanted was what they wanted, and assuming that allowing things to come as they may was the only way to live. Only now does she know that the important things, what really matters must be pursued, and risks have to be taken even if one will be hurt. For if she knew how much it would hurt now, she might have risked that pain when it was a flesh wound and not a fatal injury.

Without turning around, she states to someone behind her that she’s not interested in talking, and would like to be left alone.

Delaney stands behind her with an umbrella and a pained expression, but doesn’t move, and so the silent stalemate continues until he clenches himself, walks over to her and sits down. Kani doesn’t move, and continues to stare out into the snowy distance, content to ignore him until he speaks up, that he’ll talk and if she’s not interested in replying she can just listen. That doesn’t take much effort does it? Kani doesn’t respond, and he takes this inactivity as permission to keep speaking.  He recalls their conversation back in Aerhaart, where he mentioned being born unloved VS being ‘turned’ into one. Well, he was ‘turned’ when he learned who his father was and tried to use agape before being educated in it’s use and implications. At first he was able to use ‘Fire’ magic with relative ease, and even practiced in secret to impress others, but little did he know he was invoking a being that has it’s own feelings and nature. It had been a mistake to invoke it without knowing it’s true strength, and he had paid for it dearly when the magic willed him into burning his mother upon her finding out what he was doing and rebuking him for it. There had been a struggle and while he contained it so that his mother hadn’t been burned too badly –just a flesh wound on her arm, he had nearly died for trying to fight against the magic…for disobeying it.

Back then no one really knew much about the ‘unloved’ phenomenon, so he had to endure solitude even when people were around. The boy who was alive but can’t use magic. For a while he even thought he should be chastised and left alone –his life as he knew it had been toppled over. Either he was an experimental guinea pig or a misunderstood freak, and worse yet his own father wasn’t around to protect him from life, himself and the loneliness…

Then he met his siblings.

It had been a chance encounter really, maybe during some boring assembly for his father all three of his mistresses had accidentally been in attendance and brought their children. Upon learning that they are related, the three had become inseparable. They dragged him out of his shell, and made him accept who he was, ‘unloved’ and all.

He was both ‘unloved’ and ‘loved’ thanks to them.

This is of course something that wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t taken the lead and made him come out of his haze of self pity. So now that they need him, he’ll do whatever it takes to save them.

Today however…

He puts his arm around Kani and leans in so they’re shoulder to shoulder. Today however is for him, and ostensibly her. Kani looks up at him before her facial temperature rising causes her to look downward quickly. Delaney grins and comments that warmth after a long time of being out in the cold isn’t too bad is it? Kani covers her ears and nods slowly. He confesses that he can’t stick around here for much longer, but for now he’s in town. He may not be able to heal whatever ails her, but if it’s just sitting here trading body warmth under a snowy sky then he’s more than happy to oblige.

Water drips on Kani’s head and she looks up to see that the snow is melting as it pelts the umbrella, causing a mini rainstorm. Maybe this warmth is ephemeral and in the scheme of things ineffectual, but compared to before it’s a welcome change.

The two huddle close and listen to the rain as it uses the umbrella to tap out an impromptu elegy to loneliness.