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I crane my neck to look at her, and though that suspicion is back on her raised brow, her shoulders have slackened now that I haven’t burst into flames.
My eyes sting, partly with relief at avoiding what very well could have been a permanent death, partly because it’s been a long, long time since I’ve stood in the sun.
“Well, now that is interesting, isn’t it?”
The voice is the one I least want to hear.
Footsteps shuffle, and Zora instinctively takes a step away from the rim as Farin approaches and peers over it.
“Yep. Seems like my vampirism didn’t make it through the Fabric,” I say, like the Fabric separating the realms is some sort of cheesecloth and my vampirism is coffee grounds that can’t quite make it through the filter.
“Well, knowing that would have made things a tad easier.”
“Yes, we could have traveled in the daylight, I know,” I say, glad for an excuse to employ a dry sense of humor rather than tear up in front of Farin as I’m suddenly tempted to do.
“That, and I wouldn’t have had to watch you feed on all those hares. It was revolting, you know. I’m afraid I’ll never rinse my memory of the sound.” Farin shivers, which I find a tad hypocritical, since he was the one who led me to kill so often when we inhabited the same body.
No wonder the hare’s blood tasted like iron. No wonder I haven’t had an overwhelming craving for Zora’s blood.
I feel as though a flood of relief is about to break over me at any moment, but there’s a well-crafted dam of skepticism holding it back.
I’ll need to work through what this means. If it applies to my body back home. But first I need out of this pit.
“Some assistance would be nice,” I yell up at both my sister and my nemesis.
Farin just stares at me, cocking his head to the side as he’s prone to doing. “It is strange that your vampirism doesn’t affect you here. I would have thought the curse would have clung to your very soul.”
Impatience rattles within me, and I tap my foot. “Yes, well, I suppose this curse doesn’t have a flair for the intangible. I’m sure it will assault me just the same once I’m back in Alondria.”
Farin looks pensive. “So you think it no longer affects you because you’re in a different body?”
“That does seem to be the most obvious conclusion,” I spit back. “Now, if you could kindly hand me a vine.”
Farin stares at me a moment, like he wants to suggest something. Instead he says, more deliberately than usual, “I’d be happy to help you.”
One side of Zora’s nose lifts upward, like Farin is an unfamiliar scent that she can’t quite place. She and I exchange a knowing look before she draws away from the edge to look for something to help me climb up.
“You know, it’s strange hearing you say that. That you’re glad to help me, I mean,” I say, calling up to Farin. “I might get the impression you’re warming up to me.”
Farin doesn’t respond, and though I can sense the shuffle of Zora’s feet as she searches for vines, I get the feeling Farin has hardly moved since walking out of sight.
“Farin?” I call upward. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d be keen to rescue me, though I suppose you could brag about it to Bl—”
I cut myself off, a dreadful thought interrupting my line of thinking.
“You know, I was thinking,” says Farin, and though I can no longer see him, his voice echoes down into the pit. “If vampirism is a curse that’s tied to one’s body and not one’s soul, perhaps there are other curses that work similarly.”
“Again,” I say, “something I’d be more than happy to have an internal debate with you about once we’re peacefully stuck in the same body once more.”
“What?” Zora starts, almost dropping her stick.
Farin chuckles, the sound of which has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
Because something has occurred to me, and I can only hope that it hasn’t occurred to Farin too.
“I don’t see why we can’t discuss it now. In fact, I believe I already possess evidence for my theory. Don’t you want to hear the evidence, Nox?”
Okay, he’s definitely thought of it.
