Post Chapter Five - Hazel

A/N This is for if you used the key at Lucinda’s

The streets sprawled out into a cobblestone gray expanse of broken clutter and derelict memories. Hazel pitched forward, squeezing herself through a hole in the wall. Her chest was too tight and magic crackled at her fingertips, turning the skin there a muddy black.  Gone was the rich tone of the hands she used to know and instead decay slowly crawled forth, reminding her of the abomination she was becoming.

Tripping, she barely caught herself before tumbling forward into the slick of the streets. She didn’t recognize this part of the market; a realization that sent her heart pounding even further. Vaguely, she remembered a time when she had refused to even leave the apothecary.  Hell bent on staying inside the safety of her walls, letting customers and friends come to her. Foraging for her own food instead of going to the market. But now, she couldn’t quite remember why that was.  There were a lot of things lately that she couldn’t seem to remember. And she knew she needed to be concerned about that. Who wouldn’t be? But every time she mustered up the ability to care it slipped away like grains of sand.

“Hazel?”

She jumped, eyes searching the dark. Sharp teeth glowed from the depths, past where the candlelight could reach.  They were pointed and made of pearl, a set of long talons emerging through the darkness, to reach for her.

“M-Malachi?”

A man stepped forward. Aqua hair like spun yarn falling over his shoulders while a set of violet eyes stared back at her. “What are you doing here?” His broad shoulders cast a wide shadow against the wall, tapering down into a narrow set of hips.

Hazel looked around. “I don’t even know where here is.”

“Near one of the Deep passages,” the man rumbled. “There’s an old well back there that leads down to the Baron's castle. Supposed to be blocked off but I broke it open.”

“Right.” Hazel hadn’t a clue what he was really talking about. The idea of the Deep sent a shiver down her spine though. Instinctually, she did not like it there.

“You in trouble?” Malachi asked. He towered over Hazel, a long tale curling behind him, forming into a spade at the end.  

“No. Yes. I– I am pretty sure my brother kidnapped me.”

Malachi’s eyes narrowed to mere slits, knuckles cracking at his side. “Where is he? I’ll talk to him.”

“No!” Hazel raised her hands up, ready to physically stop him. “No. It’s not– he just– Him and my mother…”

“I don’t care what his excuse is. You don’t treat a lady like that.”

“You’re a literal dragon. I am sure you’ve done something very similar in your item.”

He grunted, lips curling in a snarl. Though he did not deny it.

Dropping her hands, she sighed. “My family is complicated. My brother assumes my mother is controlling me. And I think he’s been brainwashed. He’s been traveling with someone that thinks they are in love with me.”

“Are they?”

Hazel paused. “I think they think they are.”  She didn’t detect a lie from them. She just couldn’t understand how someone she had never met could look at her with such passion and such eagerness.  It’s what she always imagined falling in love would be like.

“But you don’t know them.”

She couldn’t quite say that. There was something familiar about the stranger with the bottomless eyes. Something that Hazel wanted to fall into. But that didn’t make sense.  Hazel was used to lapses in her memory but forgetting an entire person felt like a much larger problem.

“Come on,” Malachi said at her silence. A silence that spoke volumes. “I’ll walk you home. Streets aren’t safe anymore.”

“Why not? I mean, I know why not. But have they gotten worse?” She looked around, expecting someone to jump from the shadows.

“Warden’s gone on a killing spree.”

“Gabriel?” That did startle Hazel While Gabriel Caine was not a warm man, she didn’t see him as a cold blooded killer either.

Malachi shrugged. “Might be his name. Who cares. This place is probably better without him. Or any authority.”

“Don’t you come from an authoritarian family?”

“Why you lookin’ so much into my past?” he growled.

“You’ve literally told me all this, Malachi,” Hazel said with a sigh. He was one of her long-time customers. Having come to the Night Market to try and find his sister. Dropped in a world without his magic, fluctuating between his human form and dragon form without any warning. It had taken months to get the shift under control and quite a few tonics. Most of which she had to send down to the Deep.

“Whatever.” Malachi gestured for her to start walking, the two of them heading down the street. The candles were out here. No one had come to relight them. Hazel wondered if anyone ever would.  “Got to ask. You think there’s a possibility you’re being controlled?”

“By my mother?”

“By anyone.”

Hazel thought about it for a long while. The inconsistencies. The blood that she had to wash from her clothes. The way she couldn’t remember days at a time. “I think something really bad happened,” she whispered. “And I think I don’t want to remember it.”

The lights up ahead burst green before guttering out.

“Fair enough,” Malachi said.  “Fair enough.”

Behind them, stood answers. Hazel was certain of it. But she still walked forward.