Chapter 25 - 25. Fire Lily
…
That night, we went back to the church. No one was somewhere around. It was quiet, dark and serene. Moonlight was the only light we could rely on so that I still could see my way to the flower I folded the leaf. I believed it was fire lily.
"This flower?" Mickey asked when I picked up the flower I tagged secretly in the afternoon
I got up and smiled to him. Actually I saw around seven flowers. But this one was the ost reachable from me and the safest I could tag," As I said I put the flower into my bag. "I saw a man directly picked up this flower and he ended up being killed. I think, I picked up this flower this afternoon, I would also end up like that man. So I tagged it instead and waited for the right time to take it," I explained to them.
"how did you know it was the right lily we looking for?" This time Kerberos brought up the question to me. I liked it. It was the question I had been waiting for.
"At first I did not know, so I just made predictions about that flower." Their faces looked surprised. "I relied on my instinct that the flower I picked up was fire lily. It has tongue of flame, but at that time I could not prove it to myself. When I looked at how people used many different methods to find it, I guess we had different sights. For me, all plants in this church did not have the same colors, while they said all of the lilies were white," I explained that slowly.
"I took one flower I used it as a bait for other hunters. Would the theory I used to find fire lily correct or not?" Still Mickey and Kerberos got confused. "Honestly, at that time I had not had any ideas what that flower was like. So I asked Kerberos to follow them. When they headed to a house I predicted it was Zarina's and the ritual was a success, I knew what the flower is like from the theory I used from the beginning. Now I can set up a theory to look for the real fire lily," I was satisfied when I looked at their expression. They looked amazed with all I had told them about my experiment. .
I used other person to take my flower. I knew they would go Zarina's house or to Manji to ask for something. Hence, I gained new knowledge: 1. The way to find fire lily, 2. Zarina's house, 3. Ritual.
I was not totally sure that they had made a resurrection ritual. Somehow, my confidence was formed when I watched incomplete face of a man went out of that building. If it was true, I could conclude that Zarina did not do any random rituals.
Like what Mickey had said, Manji was the big enemy of Kerberos. Because the spirits in the spirit realm would always be the same, they needed a substitute, and the substitute was to take other person's life. It meant that for one life you wanted, you had to sacrifice other life. And the Manji's might use the same ways.
Around 2am, we looked for the nearest inn from the church. We planned to stay for a day or two while trying to gather information about the Manji and Zarina
The inn was about two hours away from the church. The ground floor of it was a bar that was so crowded with visitors. Mickey kept complaining of unable to sleep due to the nois. I knew it because he had sensitive hear
I was unable to sleep too so that I decided to go out for some food with Kerberos. A long the road we pass by were restaurants, inns, shops for souvenirs, and there were many other shows offered. The area was the main stopover for merchants to go to the market
For almost an hour we walked around because that white dog was quite a picky with his food. We stopped several times in some restaurants but after checking the menu he simply left.
At that time, I just went out from a souvenir shop, I saw someone who looked familiar for me. She was sitting alone on a bench outside the shop. It seemed she was daydreaming.
I walked toward that woman, "Hi!" I greeted her.
She turned to me and bowed down politely. She allowed me to sit, then she called a waiter to order something some food. "Why are you still here? I asked you to go. This place is very dangerous." She warned me.
"You don't need to worry about me, I am here with my two friends," I was trying to be friendly with her.
"Yeah I know. A spirit realm guard and a witch cat," I was shocked to hear that. I wondered how she knew about Mickey and Kerberos?, "Even though you are with them, it does not mean you are safe and stop being alert. They help you because they have their own importance and goals. You help them ease their goals," she talked in a level expression
I thought about what she had told me, it was simply true. Kerberos and Mickey gave me their reasons to be with me so far.
The white the keeper of the spirit realm wanted Zie and Mickey. From this I started understanding his ambition. He wanted the fire lily. I saw his big enthusiasm in seeking that lily this afternoon although I still had no idea what he would do with that lily.
"Sometimes there are simple things that can make us happy, something that does not keep us in troubles, requires us to trust someone else and be patient for him," At that point I felt on the lowest point and I needed to be honest to myself.
"What I experienced in the last few days is like something that made me jump from my normal world. I that used to work in a florist until 9pm, do my final project, meeting my counselor to hear his advice, eat at my favorite place after I earned my salary, but in this few days," I showed her my cut wounds on my arm that I got from fighting with pack of wizard in that forest that time.
"I could go to another dimension, stole in a market, and met you. The simplest is I talk with a cat. No one I can trust at this moment, but them. All sound non sense for me. If I find out they would betray me later on, I will face it. Perhaps I am still weak right now, but as time goes by their true intention will appear, and I will understand the conditions I have to take. When I am able to adapt and face them all, I believe I will finish it," I took the lily I had picked up today,
"I realize now I don't need this as much as you do," I handed out the lily, "Take it. You need it more than I do,"
That woman let go off the hold and showed me something she kept holding in her arms, "Man dies once. You have to appreciate the life," she said.
I was shocked when she put the thing off her hold, the thing that she never put down a minute. It was an oval thing wrapped in rags with inscriptions I did not really know. It was in red ink. Although she was less than one meter away from me, I did not smell anything. But when I was close enough at that moment, I could really smell a very pungent rotten smell. Suddenly I felt dizzy and fell onto the chair. I almost threw up. It was the same sensation I got when I was in that shop of religious ritual.
When the waiter came with the food she ordered, she paid it and asked me to follow her to the church.
With her horse, we left to the church that morning. There were no chats between us until we reached the place.
She opened the church door and went inside as soon as we arrived there. I followed her, watching what she would do in such early morning. I could only see when she was standing at the edge of the ravine.
"I want to move forward and try to lead my new life. I leave all the memories with you today, here," I could hear all what she said. I saw her throwing that baby mummy down in the ravine, then she walked to me. I did not scold her, angry to her or whatever to stop her. I remembered Emma's words that everyone had different length of time to heal his wound, they had their own ways to heal it as well.
…