Chapter 190 - Beneath the surface
Too many questions flooded Rosa’s mind as they made their way back from the swamp under the cover of night. The answers to most of them remained just out of reach, as though she could almost reach out and grasp some of those threads of understanding. Like she was this close to making sense of some things.
But maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part.
Silently trailing behind Malachi through the undergrowth, Rosa mentally counted down from eleven while keeping an eye out for the demons lurking in the surrounding shadows. What she truly wanted to do right now was return to Scarlett and the others, make sure they were safe, and then find out what the Blazes they had been doing in that cave. But, at least for the time being, Malachi wasn’t allowing any of that. The unsettling woman had some goal in mind, and now Rosa was clearly a part of achieving that goal.
Whether that was a good or bad thing was still up in the air.
One thing that Rosa could say was that her initial wariness had grown tenfold, and her doubts about it all far outnumbered her certainties.
The only thing that had stopped her from trying to resist Malachi earlier in the cavern and screaming out for help like a drunken banshee was Scarlett’s behaviour. Rosa would wager a year’s worth of fine-course meals back at the noblewoman’s mansion that Scarlett had foreseen tonight’s events. Knowing her, it was more likely that a dragon would offer its head on a platter to some random farmer’s kid than Scarlett just ‘coincidentally’ appearing exactly at the same place as Rosa and Malachi like that.
It also seemed far too convenient that a well-armed group of people decked out in armor just so happened to accompany Scarlett to kill that Abyssal Vilewyrm, the very thing that Malachi apparently wanted something from.
Rosa’s rational side told her it was both foolish and naive to think Scarlett had orchestrated all this solely for her, but another part of her couldn’t help entertaining the possibility with a touch of delight. Even though, from Scarlett’s perspective, it was entirely possible that it was all just the result of some pragmatic calculation.
What that calculation would have been, however, was a mystery Rosa was still wracking her brain on.
Her gaze fell upon the robed figure of Malachi in front of her as the enigmatic woman advanced through the swamp, not having uttered a word since they left the cave. Whatever the woman had extracted from the Vilewyrm had to be special, given the trial they’d almost faced to obtain it. Although Malachi never explicitly stated as much, Rosa was convinced they would have had to battle that monstrous demon themselves had Scarlett’s group not already dealt with it.
Once more, she suppressed the feelings that stirred at the thought of anyone going to such lengths for her, regardless of the underlying motives.
Finding happiness in thoughts like that was neither a luxury she could afford nor deserved, even if she wished it wasn’t.