Chapter Twenty-Four

The Unmarked, Book One

Jan 15, 2026

[Ch.1] [Ch.2] [Ch.3] [Ch.4] [Ch.5] [Ch.6] [Ch.7] [Ch.8] [Ch.9] [Ch.10] [Ch.11] [Ch.12] [Ch.13] [Ch.14] [Ch.15] [Ch.16] [Ch.17] [Ch.18] [Ch.19] [Ch.20] [Ch. 21] [Ch.22] [Ch.23]

Dawn

Month of Shadai, Year 653.

Kneeling on the floor by Scarlet’s bedside, Dawn pressed a cold rag against her sister’s forehead. Despite laying under a heap of blankets, Scarlet shivered violently. So much that her blue lips trembled, and her teeth clattered. Her skin was deathly pale, and dark circles hung from beneath her eyes. Her cheeks were frightfully hollow because she had barely eaten anything ever since leaving the Rayless Woods.

That had been a week and a half ago.

Scarlet refused any kind of food because she swore that it was spoiled. Her sister had never been a picky eater, and Dawn examined the food thoroughly, but she could not see what Scarlet saw. The first few times, she had tried to force feed her sister, but everything ended up being spat out or vomited.

But Scarlet’s appetite was only one of many ailments she suffered. She could not be out in the sun. The light hurt her eyes and gave her migraines. Dawn had tried travelling with her in the daylight, hoping to cover some distance, but it was no use. Scarlet screamed and cried because of the pain. With her head covered by a blanket, Dawn took Scarlet to the closest village in Ardus. She couldn’t even remember the name.

The sisters had been in the same village, in the same inn, in the same room for the past seven days. The curtains were drawn, but through a sliver, Dawn saw the golden hue of the setting sun. The sight made her shiver. It would soon be night. And nights with Scarlet were the worst.

It had been on the first night out of the Woods, when they were still on the road, that Dawn experienced the horror of what those leeches had done to her sister. Dawn had planned to ride through the night with Scarlet. Her sister had been moaning all through the evening. The moment the sun disappeared behind the horizon; the seizures began.

Scarlet had flailed off the horse and on the ground her body contorted in horrible ways. Saliva foamed from between her lips, and she screeched like an animal who was undergoing a terrible torture. The seizures came in waves, and when they were over, she would cry.

Since arriving at the inn, Dawn made sure the curtains were properly drawn. Scarlet would fall asleep, but her rest was disturbed by what Dawn assumed were nightmares. She would toss and turn, but she would still sleep. Dawn stayed with her as much as she could, to her own torture. She didn’t know how long she could last being trapped inside a room that was dark and smelled like sweat and feces because Scarlet constantly soiled herself.

At first, the only moments Dawn would leave the room was to get food for herself. But recently she began to leave for longer periods of time: to buy more supplies for their trip, to find clean bedding, and to search for medicine that might help ease Scarlet’s fevers. When Dawn was in the room with her sister, she sang her songs. Scarlet didn’t seem to take well to the Anthems and Praises of Erom, so Dawn sang the only other song that she knew: the girl who kissed a fish.

Dawn tried to remember how Wolfe had sung it. She hated the stupid song, but it made Scarlet still. Sometimes she would even smile.

Never had Dawn sang one song so many times in a row.

Eventually she got tired of singing, so she resorted to a new tactic: telling Scarlet a story.

That too, made her smile.

Dawn was getting restless, frustrated, and frankly, terrified. Terrified because she was convinced Scarlet was dying, and terrified because she was losing her lead on her pursuers. Dawn looked at her finger with the ring, and dread came over her. If she lost her lead, then everything she had gone through would have been for nothing.

Dawn had contemplated using her ring on Scarlet. Maybe its power would still the sickness inside of her. But Dawn decided against it. What good would it be if Dawn died and the power wouldn’t work on Scarlet? She had resorted to search the pages of The Epathi Book in hopes of finding something that would help her sister. But the pages were silenced.

Running her palms across her head, Dawn wondered what to do. Travelling with Scarlet would be nearly impossible, she was too much of a burden, and staying with her meant that she would eventually be found. And if she were found, then it wouldn’t be long before she would be captured and killed. And if she died, then Scarlet would die too, and there would be no one left to expose the corruption in Erom.

Dawn couldn’t let that happen.

The thought had been at the back of her head for the last seven days, and now it had surfaced. Dawn didn’t see any other choice. She would need to leave Scarlet behind. Sitting around, singing songs and telling the same story over and over again wouldn’t help anyone. Especially not Scarlet. Her sister would have a better chance if Dawn left.

As the last of the sunlight faded, Dawn took a rag and gagged Scarlet while she was still in her restless sleep. Her screaming would wake the entire inn and she would certainly bite her tongue off. Then, as if on cue, her eyelids fluttered opened, her eyes rolled back, and the seizures began.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on Dawn. With everything happening, she hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since leaving the Rayless Woods. Only a few hours scattered here and there. Dawn dropped her head in her hands and began to sing the stupid fish -girl song. More to drown out her sister’s grunting than to soothe her…

There must have been a moment when Scarlet stopped screaming and Dawn fell asleep. Because now she was woken up by the sound of knocking. It must have been late in the night because no light filtered through the curtains.

There was a moment of silence, and then the handle began the jiggle. The door was locked, thankfully. Dawn’s muscles tensed and she got up and slipped next to the door. Her hand went to the blade that hung in a sheath at her hip.

Scarlet was still sleeping, miraculously. That was to Dawn’s advantage. The person who was trying to get in would let their guard down when they saw her sleeping, and that’s when Dawn would attack.

Her mind tried to sift through all the possible reasons why anyone would be trying to break into her room at this hour of the night, but Dawn focused herself on what she needed to do in the next few seconds.

She pressed herself against the wall. The door swung open. Which, hid Dawn from the intruder’s view. They must have picked the lock.

The person stepped inside and shut the door.

Before they even knew what was happening, Dawn was standing behind the intruder, pressing the blade to his neck.

“Hello Dawn” said a familiar voice.

She didn’t remove her blade.

“Dawn,” the voice said, sounding less confident than it had just a few moments ago. “It’s me, River”.

Still she didn’t respond. Anger and fear tightening her throat.

“Dawn?”

“Why are you here?” She managed to utter.

River genuinely sounded taken aback by her question when he said: “Why am I here? I came here because you’re in danger”.

Her heart slammed against her chest. She pressed her blade harder against his neck. River sucked in a breath. “Yes” she breathed, “because of your father!”

“You can trust me Dawn!” he cried.

Dawn was certain she had drawn blood. She swallowed back the lump in her throat.

“I also thought I could trust Lilly” she growled, “and the Governor” and Wolfe she added silently. “I’ve been lied to, betrayed, hunted down and left behind too many times by the people I thought I could trust” she sucked in a breath, “I don’t believe you” she whispered bitterly into his ear.

But she did believe him. She was only angry. Not with him, but with the shame she felt. It would have been a lie to say that she had spent the past six weeks blotting him out of her mind, crushing every thought of him that entered her head, telling herself that she would never see him again, hoping that he would be the one appearing out of the void to rescue her from danger, and not someone else…

But there had been no memories, no thoughts, no hopes of River to erase from her mind.

And now he was here, in the darkest watches of the night, putting his life on the line to rescue her.

Rationale overcame her blazing emotions, and she pulled the knife away from his neck. Dawn turned away from River without even looking him in the eyes.

“How did you find me?”

“Once we narrowed it down to which way you were heading, it was just a matter of asking the right questions”.

Dawn sighed and sat at the foot of Scarlet’s bed. Her adrenaline evaporating; its absence reminding her of the exhaustion that was deeply embedded into her bones.

“She’s dying” she said

In the dim light, she watched the silhouette of River standing motionless, pressing his hand against the wound she had inflicted upon him. After a while, he spoke.

“What happened?”

She could tell from the way his voice was strained that he was fighting to remain calm. He was angry with her, not because this was far from the reunion he had hoped for, but because this was not even close to the reunion he had expected.

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