Grey (Part 6 - The Breaking Point)

His first thought upon waking was that it hadn't been worth it at all.1

He woke up slowly, feeling confused. He couldn't seem to open his eyes, but he could hear a loud banging noise next to his ears, like somebody banging metal on metal. Every impact seemed to send pain through his head, and after about a minute of that, he used all his willpower and managed to open his eyes a crack. The light hurt even more than the strange noises did, and he rolled over with a sigh, closing his eyes again. Forget getting up, he knew he'd feel better if he could sleep a while longer.2

Suddenly he felt a large amount of water splash his face, and Grey sprang to his feet, forgetting his discomfort. Bane stood next to him, unsuccessfully hiding a bucket behind his back, and Grey entertained thoughts of killing him, mostly because it helped distract him from his pounding headache.3

"Why does everything hurt so damn much?" he moaned pitifully, "And was that you making that loud noise before?" 4

Bane laughed loudly, making Grey cringe all over again. "I warned you about the liquor, I really did. It's your fault you have such a bad hangover."5

"This is too intense to be a hangover, I think I'm dying."6

"No, but the enchantment on it stops nausea and vomiting so that people can handle it being much stronger. As a result though.. if you still drink too much, the hangover will be terrible." Bane's words might have seemed more helpful if he hadn't been grinning and probably trying not to laugh at him again.7

"Whatever," Grey muttered, walking away, "I'm gonna go wash up in the stream, watch our stuff."8

As he walked towards the water, his headache started to fade away, dulling to a low throb. The sun's light gave the stream an inviting glow, and he only waited long enough to get his clothes off before he jumped in. It was cool and refreshing, and he waded around for a while before he convinced himself to get back out.9

It was about that time that Grey realized the clothes he'd worn were exceptionally dirty, and the clean ones he'd brought were back in his bag, with Bane. Until then, he hadn't given a lot of thought to what he looked like, but when he thought of going back with no clothes, he felt a little self conscious.10

'I could use my cloak like a towel,' he thought, but when he pictured the look on Bane's face, shook his head violently. Cursing under his breath, Grey picked up his muddy pants and slipped them back on. 11

He was still feeling a little curious now, and he stood looking at his wavy reflection in the stream, as if seeing a stranger. The stranger was a young man, maybe in his early twenties, though his wide curious eyes and the mousy brown hair swaying in front of them made him appear even younger. Looking down at himself, his body was lightly muscular, but nothing spectacular. He didn't seem to have a lot of body hair, but it didn't really make a difference. All he really saw was somebody that would never stand out in a crowd, or catch some lonely, wandering eye.12

"You should cut your hair," he told the stranger, pushing it out of his own eyes as he picked up the rest of his clothes and found his way back.13

Bane was holding a little red stone over a pile of small branches, and looking rather frustrated.14

"What's that?" Grey asked, pointing at the stone with a frown, "And why are you holding it like that? Is it supposed to light a fire or something?"15

"Actually, yes," Bane said with a sigh, putting it down, "it's a multi-use ignition spell, but mine died early on me."16

"Do you think I could light that with my power?" That seemed a lot more useful (not to mention a lot cooler) than some crumbling black sword or shield.17

Bane frowned for a second, then answered. "It should be possible, demons use fire all the time. Beats me how you'd do it though."18

Sitting on a log closer to the dry wood, Grey hunched down, thinking of how he could use his power again. It was starting to get colder, so he focused instead on how it would feel if there was a fire going, how he would feel the waves of heat pour over his skin. His fingers felt ice cold suddenly, and when he looked down tiny flames flickered along his fingertips. A victorious smile crept onto his face.19

"It worked!" he shouted, his eyes reflecting an orange shimmer as he touched the pile of wood, igniting it in seconds. Shaking his hand off to put it out, he glanced at Bane expectantly. "Are you making breakfast now? I'm starving!" He hadn't noticed it before, but now his hunger was a physical pain in his stomach, demanding to be satisfied.20

"We'll have to eat the meat we have first," Bane said, pulling out some small cooking pans from his own bag, "I wouldn't trust the preserving spells I bought if a simple 'lighter' enchantment didn't work properly, that kind of stuff has to be made by professionals to work at all."21

"What's so complex about a meat preserving spell?" Grey didn't really see much of a difference between the two types of enchantments, but maybe that was naive of him.22

"Fire is a natural element, so gifted people can borrow it's use here and there for simple things, sometimes more depending how powerful their gift. If this preservation enchantment worked properly, it would create a small field around the meat, and in that field time would move slowly compared to outside." The frying pan was emitting some distracting smells as Bane added spices and paused his lecture.23

"So," Grey began, trying to ignore his rumbling belly, "What you're saying is, because that preservation spell involves changing time, it's harder to find people that can make them?"24

"That's part of what I'm telling you." Bane looked a little frustrated when he spoke this time. "All that matters, really, is that you're not ever stupid enough to try anything that messes with time, anything that major just might have some side effects on you."25

It slowly dawned on Grey that Bane had been angry ever since he'd lit the fire Bane was still silently cooking on. That took some of the heat out of his words, and Grey's voice was strategically obedient as he lowered his head and said, "I understand, thank you for warning me."26

Everything was silent for a couple of minutes, but when Grey looked up in time to be handed a plate with a small steak steaming on top of it, all seemed forgiven again.
***27

Walking later on in the burning sun, Grey's thoughts flew to increasingly attractive images of drowning himself to get away from the heat. He'd given up on his shirt hours ago, and the straps of his backpack were starting to leave red imprints in his shoulders. Soon he carried it in one hand instead, wondering how the hell Bane was still walking calmly in yet another black shirt.28

"You didn't tell me you had a tattoo on the back of your neck," Bane said suddenly, breaking the silence they'd settled into for the past hour or two. "Did you even remember it?"29

A tattoo? No, he hadn't remembered that at all, and he shook his head to indicate this. "What does it look like?" Grey asked him, stopping to let him see it better.30

"It's kind of familiar," Bane said, pushing Grey's shoulders into the light to examine it, "but I can't say I recognize what it is one way or another, it's just a wide loop with a spike on top or something. Maybe it's some odd symbol, or something you made up before you lost your memories?"31

"It could be." Like his sudden hunger before, the urge to know about his past was a deep hole in his mind that screamed to be filled. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of a way to fix that problem himself, so he hoped desperately that the people at the monastery Bane was bringing him to could tell him how. He forced his legs to keep walking, despite the fact that they felt like they would break soon. He was surprised when Bane's hand caught his shoulder, pulling him to an abrupt halt.32

"This is the place," Bane told him, answering his questioning look. "I'm sure that someone here can at least give you a clue of what you need to do next."33

He'd been distracted when he heard of another weird mark on his body, but looking up, Grey saw the imposing building that resembled a dark, jagged spike piercing the clouds in the sky. So this was where the odd man beside him had grown up. No wonder he was so.. intimidating.34

"Let's go!" Grey said enthusiastically, trying to smother the bad feeling the building gave him somewhere deep in his chest. For some reason he was literally shaking, so he made sure to take the first steps, making Bane follow to catch up. 'To hell with this,' he thought, forcing a grin, 'if things are going to go wrong, I may as well walk into it headfirst'. 35

There were times later on, when Grey would often wonder if things might have been better off if he'd listened to his gut feeling and ran as far away in the opposite direction as possible.