Reaylah shivered as a bone-chilling breeze slithered above her, stinging her ears and blurring her eyes. She looked up to see the four guards stationed at each side of the castle run to investigate the distraction she’d set up.

The distraction was a mastern nailed to a plank of wood.

By his head.                

It went rather smoothly, since Reaylah had crept like a cat in the shadows and attacked him from behind. It was an easy mission. Though she would have expected more of a challenge, with him being a grand soldier and all. Emphasis on the ‘grand’.

Okay, she’d have to work on her killing methods. Yes, it was rather sloppy nowadays, getting too much blood on her hands to go unnoticed. But what else was she suppose to do when the world had rivaled against their queen? Thrown her off her throne like she was nothing more than the scum on the bottom of their shoes when she had loved and cared for these people since she was born?

Being a nice, caring person will never get me anywhere, Reaylah had thought, so I’ll turn the tides.

She remembered this revelation she had had some hundreds of years ago, while she leaned against the cracked stone that sheltered her well from the prying eyes in the night. Now or never, never or now. With a deep inhale, Reaylah gathered her beloved sword and the remnants of her courage, and got up from her hiding position, taking clumps of dirt from the loose ground with her.

To smack straight into something.

Something solid. And hard.

Reaylah rubbed the bruise forming on her forehead and cursed herself for her bad eye-sight. She slowly brought her gaze from the statue’s base to top, and found that it in fact was not a statue. Or made out of stone. No, what Reaylah beheld before her was something else.

Or rather someone else.

She peered at the man’s face from lowered, thick black lashes. He stared back at her, and Reaylah, belatedly realizing what she was suppose to do now, scrunched up her face in a last second effort, desperately trying to conceal her eyes.

But it was too late. The man had seen her unusual stark-violet eyes.

But he did not run, as they did. He did not cower as they did when they realized that running from her was not an option. For she was the Bahayah. This was what “turning the tides” had meant. Being exiled by your own people was not something that brought you happiness.

But it did not bring her to despise her people, like it would’ve so many others.

It had brought her to hate them with a hatred so pure and bright, it burned through her soul each day like a never-ending flame.

Beautiful.

But deadly.

And so everyone knew to fear her. Except, apparently, this man.

Curiosity ate at her while they both gazed at each other. The man’s face was relaxed, calm, though she still could not decipher why he wasn’t flailing in terror already. Did he not know who she was? Questions piled on top of questions. But they all were contained when Reaylah saw the man.

Truly, saw the man.

For the man’s soul was laid bare in front of her, and it was not a pretty site. Usually people she encountered had straight, white threads that served as their souls. A nag here or there was regular with humans. But when the white line that appeared horizontally in front of the man’s chest, it was not straight. In fact, it looked as if it were never a line, but instead just waves and sharp angles. Reaylah never paid any heed to human’s faces, or looks. Souls were what she broke. So it was rather a big disappointment and at the same time, an interesting case. She was about to tap into those broken lines to see what part of the man’s life had caused his soul to break, because she personally knew that it was not a common site to see one’s soul so shattered beyond repair, when he spoke.

“Are you going to talk? Or are we just going to stare at each other?” He rasped. His voice was deep and husky. But it was a voice nonetheless. So he still had enough of him to speak. So that meant his soul could still be saved? Or was it broken forever? Reaylah did not know why she wanted to spare the man’s life, albeit only a few minutes longer, or why she hadn’t already destroyed him. Maybe it was because of past-Reaylah. The Reaylah with mercy and kindness in her heart, that took pity on seeing a man so broken from inside. But if that were true, if his soul was so truly broken, how could he manage to portray humor, in front of death itself?
When she spoke, it was not Reaylah, but the Bahayah. “Do you not know who I am? Have your kin taught you nothing?” She hissed. “Why, human, do you still stand before me? Why haven’t you ran?” She questioned, twisting her head almost like a human in thought. “Do you not fear me?”

“Your questions are many, thus I leave you to your thoughts. I do not stand here as a fool. I know who you are and what you are capable of. But see, that is the reason I seek you.” The man hesitated before continuing. “My brother has fallen ill by a terrible monster that now roams our lands. The monster is merciless and will stop at nothing until my brother is tortured beyond help. I ask you, Bahayah, to aid me. I will offer anything, for my brother is the only family I have left.” The man’s voice was full of pleading and desperation. Maybe even a little bit of hope in the mix. But why, Reaylah thought, does he think I will help him?

“And what good will it do unto me? Glory and honor have long been forgotten, young one.” Reaylah then began her speech she said to all of her prey, right before she went in for the last blow, physical or mental. She thought this necessary for them to acknowledge her pain and misery, if only but for a little. “I am the Bahayah, lethal and immortal. The queen of Tihar did not simply vanish after being exiled by her own people because she was not a full-blooded Asi, like all, and her blood was tainted by the Feheel, a diminished people that were believed to be of witchcraft. She did not cower while the fight was ending. She became a monster, when all had but forgotten her. And now she will rise to finish what she started, to end the Asi. ‘The final blow is but one, but it is enough to crack the soul.’” She finished, a bit breathless from the newly formed rage firing up through her veins, like it once did to her ancestors, coursing through her lungs and diving into her heart. She readied to strike, poised for battle. But she did not get far, because the human had the utter will to say another word in front of her.

“While I find that information rather enticing, mind you, I do not understand what it has to do with you. I also cannot decipher why you reject me, when I am offering you the soul of this monster, if you can catch it. Though I may be human, I know that its soul is worth more than hundreds of humans to you, in whatever way.” The man then added: “And no, I will not like to know why the taste of monsters is better than that of humans. I prefer to keep my appetite, thank you very much.”

The wind swept through the opening in the tall oak trees above her, while the shouts of her long forgotten distraction scheme rang through the midnight air. Now Reaylah’s blood boiled. How dare he have the audacity to stand before her after making her miss her cue to exact revenge long waited for, and be humoristic?
They had found the smoke from the fire the Bahayah set after she broke the mastern’s soul. And they were not happy. They would soon be sending out soldiers to search for the gruesome murderer. Reaylah would have to wait another month, when the moon would be new, to continue her plans. She needed to make sure there would be as little light as possible for people to recognize her eyes. This delay made her furious. All of her hard work and her perfect schedule, messed up because of a human. She would take her time with him. The Bahayah decided only Reaylah would be able to make this stubborn man understand.

“Now I’m going to display a very clear message to you.” She stopped to clear her throat. “I will torture your mind by breaking your soul. I will not stop there, for I will then eat you alive while your soul is desperately clinging to the thread of life. I will consume your heart with pleasure, then continue on with my day, which, by the way, you have so blatantly ruined! Now if you value your life, which I so hope you don’t, I’d suggest you run far, far away where I will hopefully not look when I change my mind and decide to kill you! You shall leave, NOW!” She shouted, years of fury breaking free to take shape in her voice. Even the birds around her flew away, now barely background noises in her pounding ears. Reaylah reeled herself in.

Reaylah had created the Bahayah out of cleverness and wit, along with the enormous help of Patalias of Dadian. She sought his help at the mere young age of 17. She was the master over this wild and cruel part of herself. And so she considered this offer, realizing that waiting and sitting around another month would not be any fun, when there was a monster’s soul to be eaten.

“I agree, man of the wind, to fix your brother’s soul and capture the monster in its form,” she said, her voice full of a time long ago. “Show me the way to your brother so I shall fix him.”

“Oh but Bahayah, you should’ve thought more carefully,” the man said, with a gleam of mischief in his eyes. “For I never stated that I knew the whereabouts of my brother. Now to fix my brother’s soul, as you have so simply put it, you will have to aid me in finding him first. You see, a message was delivered to me by the wind, from my brother. He calls for help, but cannot define where, for his mind is so in shambles that he does not remember where. Now you will help me find him, Bahayah, and you will heal his mind, for that is the agreement you have made.” The man looked amused and not at all worried that he was about to be embarking on a journey with the Bahayah, who had plenty of tales about her that spiraled through Tihar, telling of what she did. One spoke of a female who ate the hearts of children while they slept. She only had done that once. She didn’t know why of all the cruelties she performed, why that was the one that had gone public.

“You have tricked me, mortal,” she snarled, baring her bone-white teeth. Moonlight glinted off of them, captured in the never-ending depths of color. The night air twirled, combing through Reaylah’s stray strands of hair that had escaped from her ponytail, lifting them with the breeze. The far-off shouts of soldiers could be heard, yelling of how they had found no tracks, no hints at all of who it could’ve been, or where said person was. As they conferred over long distances, crickets chirped in the background. The soldiers finally declared after a while of investigating, that this was the work of the Bahayah. And that this meant she was near. Anytime they would be sending masterns to scout her out, however much they knew that that would be of no use. Still, Reaylah weighed her options considerately. Better to leave with the fight, than be discovered harboring it.

She turned her head around to face the mysterious man, her dark-as-coal eyelashes fluttering. “Fine. We will leave. I will find your brother and restore him, as long as I am able to get the monster’s soul.” She pronounced. And with that she turned away, her dark locks  swaying as she clutched her sword in a death grip, her knuckles turning an even paler shade than the rest of her while she trudged through the forest. Her unnaturally well hearing allowed her to determine the voices of more soldiers and masterns, the latter shout-whispering commands to their pupils to keep close and to keep as quiet as possible.

Reaylah continued on about 100 feet before she noticed that in hearing the soldiers, she had tuned out everything near her. She abruptly halted, straining her ears to catch the whisper of dried leaves being trampled by heavy boots and came up empty. She slowly pivoted on her feet, her face a mask of untempered anger. Sure enough, her suspicions were confirmed, for their the man stood, arms stubbornly crossed, modeling a lazy smirk on his mouth.

With a deep inhale to control her desire to rip that sly grin from his mouth, Reaylah spoke. “I do not think you understood me,” she said. “When I proclaimed that we will leave, I meant now. Notice that part where I also included ‘we’?”

His grin stretched wider. “Oh I understood you the first time, Bahayah. I was just waiting you to figure out with that, ‘wise mind’ of yours, as they say, that I will not take orders from you. I am a person, not a little puppy being dragged on a leash. I assume you will respect my wishes?” He questioned, clearly baiting Reaylah.
But she didn’t survive hundreds of years without learning a thing or two. So with all the indifference she could muster, she set her face into a mask of cool, collected calm. “Fine with me. Now will you lead the way, your majesty, so that we may escape from these stupid fools hunting me, or shall we wait here? Maybe hang up a neon sign or two saying ‘Here lies the Bahayah and the dimwitted companion of hers’?” Her face had took on a look of annoyance by the time she finished.

Reaylah was astonished to see that the man’s face had stretched into an even wider grin, completely overtaking his features, which were beautiful, to say the least. His ebony eyes twinkled as he spoke. “There, now that was not so hard, was it? Compromising is a big deal in a partnership.”

She swallowed the urge to voice aloud a smart response and instead set her pale face into a deep scowl, turning her head the other way.

The man, taking that as a cue, started to walk through the woods as the final drifts of voices dimmed, then stopped entirely.

Why do they waste their time on such fruitless attempts to seek me? She thought. Years gone by and still they do the same as their bickering ancestors.

With that last final thought drifting from her mind like a leaf waltzing to the ground in the autumn air, she set off after the man, easily matching his long strides with even longer ones of her own. While he walked with the brunt of a soldier, she crept gracefully on her toes, creating barely a whisper.

Well all those years of practicing with Ania weren’t for nothing, she thought, thinking of her long-dead etiquette instructor. Apparently, when you were parading in front of your people as queen, wearing 6 inch heels were necessary. And making sure they echoed loudly so as for your people to notice your entrance, was the key to being the perfect queen, according to Ania. But past-Reaylah had not been like that, thinking it were important for her citizens to not be differentiated from her in any way, so she had practiced the art of making sure her heels gave the tiniest clack when she walked.

A slow, small smile crept on her face as she remembered. She pushed her thoughts aside as if clearing mist with a hand and looked ahead. The cranky trees reached tall and proud into the sky like needles sticking out of cloth, battling for space. Branches leaned in their way and Reaylah pushed them aside with her sword as easily as drawing back curtains.

As Reaylah trudged forward to find a clearing a good distance away or for the man to stop, she felt someone watching her. She turned her head ever so slightly to the right and found that said man was watching her.
Bear with me Bahayah, Reaylah thought. You cannot attack him because you need him to lead you to the monster. Once you devour the monster, you will have twice as much strength, and then you can have your revenge on the Asi. But for now, deal with it.

She took a deep sigh, breathing in the smell of the forest, of pine wood and the slightest hint of rosemary as she turned her head around to fully face him. “What? What is it? Why do you stare at me? Is there some sort of necessity in you to annoy me? Does it bring you pleasure?” She asked.

The man, clearly taken aback by the bitterness in her tone, reined in his many thoughts and said, “I was merely looking at you Bahayah, for I cannot hold back my curiosity. What is your name? You have yet to tell me. And since we’re to embark on a rather long journey, I figured it best to exchange names.” And now that Reaylah noticed, there was a sort of curiosity burning in his eyes. He was trying to take in the girl before him. No, not a girl, he reminded himself. No matter how much she may look like one, she is not.

Reaylah was too caught off-guard and stopped in her tracks. She swerved to face him, and he stopped as well. In the blink of an eye, too fast to be human, she had pushed him against an old tree trunk with her sword to his throat. Her right arm was strong holding the sword while her left used just as much strength pushing his shoulder against the tree. Fear flickered in his eyes, mixed with confusion and rage. And with a deadly, lethal voice, she spoke.

“You will not ask me my name again in the future, unless I provide it to you. You should remember, human, who you speak to. Do not underestimate me. For here, as you might have noticed, I hold a blade to your throat that has survived to see kingdoms rise and fall, and I can easily slit your throat here and leave you to be found. Do not test me.” And with that she released him and pivoted to resume her walk as if nothing had happened.

She was deadly, he had to admit. Collecting himself, he cautiously rejoined her as if she were a deer he were sidestepping. As owls hooted farther along the loosely packed walkway, he formed a smug smile. He would save that question for later, he thought, as he plunged deeper into the darkness.