Later, long after Masalee and Willow swapped watches, Willow heard a sourceless voice: "Hello, Willow. My name is Lark, and I wish to warn you about your travelling companion Masalee. She's dangerous. See, I was her closest friend long ago, her victim. She betrayed me, Willow. I trusted her, and she left me to rot in a prison worse than the most wretched imaginings of Satan. Sheβ" The voice breaks off, as if the memory is too painful to share. "She could have saved me. She didn't. She looks out only for herself and runs, not caring about who's in the way. I don't want you to suffer the same fate. She probably hasn't told you about me, swept me under the rug like she does. You've only known her for a few days, and I far too long, so trust me when I tell you not to trust her. Trust me. And if you don't believe me, just ask her to tell you what happened. Ask her, and don't trust."
Willow looks around slightly, concerned that there is a strange disembodied voicenear the camp and decides to shake Masalee awake. The voice seems to know her, or used to know her, so she probably knows more about this.
"Ugh what is it?" Masalee sleepily replies.
"There's a disembodied voice and they were talking about you and I think we're being followed and they know where we are," she kept her voice low, in a whisper but loud enough for her to hear.
Nathaniel smirked while watching from a tree nearby, laughing quietly to himself he sees Willow wake up Masalee and talk to her quietly yet he could see panic in her face. This should be fun.
"Okay then. Time to leave. Cert, you coming, or do you want to stay?" she whispered to Cert, who had woken from the noise. "Do you know who the whispers belong to?"
"I'll come," Cert said, figuring this would give him more of a chance to find out what was going on. Something was off, and he didn't particularly want to be left behind for whatever was chasing them. Given their reaction to him, he doubted it was any law enforcement or someone who would take his side at all.
"They said there name was Larp or Lerk, I remember I was still concerned about a voice without a body!" Willow was very confused and stressed about what has been happening the last 24 hours. She had started packing up and was now ready to move.
Masalee turned white. She froze for a second, then burst into motion scooping things up and tying up bedrolls. "How did she find me?" She spoke almost inaudibly.
"What did the voice say?" Cert asked.
Seeing the panicked movements of Masalee only made Willow more anxious to leave, thinking back over the words the voice said she debated on asking Masalee if the claims it made were true and what actually happened, but this was not the time or place, and Willow could wait for the answer.
"Uh, some stuff about being abandoned and left to rot in prison or something, I mean whoever this person is has been watching us, they even knew my name which I find creepy, personally but maybe that just me. Either lets get going," she untied the horse.
They go, and this time Masalee doesn't bother with restraining Cert at all. She doubted he would leave at this point.
"Okay. But this will be discussed in more depth as soon as practical," Cert said.
Lana smiled and let them go.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Willow walks with the horse, silently holding its reigns tight.
They ride through the night and eventually stop at a small clearing on a hill overlooking a town. The horse, despite being magical, desperately needed rest. Masalee slumped to the ground, exhausted.
Willow collapses on the ground, "I think we should rest a bit, I can take watch," she sits up and watches as the sky begin turn purple with the sunrise.
"Okay. Thanks." Masalee closes her eyes and falls asleep right there.
Cert, who had slept while the others took watch, felt no need to sleep then. "What did the voice say?" he asked Willow.
Willow sighed, "it said a lot about their past and to no trust Masalee, essentially."
"Why should we not be trusting her?"
"Well the voice said they were abandoned by her when she could've saved the voice, I didn't get much information about what actually happened though, just the general idea of it all."
"Do you think Masalee would know?"
"Proberbly, it told me to ask her about it"
