Myriad of Lies

"You have a lot of questions, isn't it? Now's your chance, ask away." Evin said.

"Hmm, ok firstly, what was that rose, in the garden, it definitely didn't seem like some ordinary plant to me, and you said you did a healing spell? And also..."

"Whoa whoa relax Mez, I can only answer one at a time. Don't worry I'm not gonna run away."

"Hmm ok, I don't know I just have this feeling you will run away any second."

"Haha, that was me in the past Mez, well... I'm working on it, but I promise I won't run!"

He told me that the blue rose was a family heirloom of his, it possessed strong healing magic, which if not handled properly could do the opposite. Basically, that rose was one of the reasons for why that garden thrived regardless of the external conditions that surrounded it. He said that wielding the powers of that rose took him well over five years to master and that he had originally not intended to use its powers to heal me, but while healing the garden, somehow a bit of the magic had escaped into my soul. But since it had been wielded for the purpose of healing, it didn't do any harm.

Apparently, the magic of the blue rose bought out the unhealed wounds of the soul to the surface, which made sense as to why I suddenly couldn't control the pain and confusion that haunted my mind. Hmm, Evin's explanation seemed convincing but only as long as it didn't involve him. What was that sudden change in his demeanor that night, if the magic had escaped, then surely it must've affected him too, I wasn't sure if he was deliberately not including his behavior into context or whether he didn't remember what he looked like that night. He had apologized to me, why?

I felt like he was painting a landscape, where all the misfits were carefully painted over with another image, but without making it seem out of place, basically a carefully crafted myriad of lies that couldn't be questioned. When you looked at his face it seemed true, but it just didn't make sense to me. Everything was in place but nothing added up at the same time. Didn't anyone else feel this way? Katy and Victor seemed to believe whatever he had said. But it made sense, how he convinced them, he had an unrealistically strong demeanor and a gaze that would catch all your attention, almost as if making even the nonsensical seem true. Maybe I was just overthinking it.

However as cynical, I was about him, I just couldn't bring myself to question him, or hurt his feelings. I felt that the questions I had would hit a rather sensitive spot, that might cause him to further avoid being honest. I didn't know how I knew that, but I trusted my instincts, I decided to remain patient for the time being, being hasty never solved things faster I felt. But what I didn't like was the fact that despite knowing all this I couldn't help but be fascinated by this strange persona of his. He then said something unexpected after that,

"Oh and also, we actually......ok I know this sounds weird but, we have a soul bond."

"Huh? What's that?"

"Well, a soul bond is quite a complex topic you see, in simple terms, you share a part of me, I share a part of you, you can access my skills and memories if you learn how to use the soul bond."

"Oh.....I see, ahaha, is that why you felt more familiar to me than the others?"

"Yeah exactly, but now since you've lost your memories the bond is fragile. You must learn how to use it before it rebounds on you, I will help you though don't worry."

"Rebound on me? What do you mean by that?"

Just then there was a crash, I heard screaming and yelling coming from the dorms, Evin and I rushed back in to see what had caused all this commotion. The third chamber of the dorms had been attacked, Evin suggested that even though it was going to be risky, this situation might help me regain my memories and powers. I knew simply sitting back and not taking the risk I needed to recover wouldn't do me much good, besides I didn't want to simply sit around while my friend's lives were at stake. I was taken aback by Evin's cool composure and willingness to risk his life if it were to save others. He seemed to be used to such situations, like this was another normal day in the institute.

We went and helped those who had gotten stranded first, thankfully not a lot of people were not seriously hurt under the rubble caused by the explosion that was used to blast the chamber. It seemed the explosion was merely to grab attention as it didn't seem like it was intended to hurt people. Hmm, something was not right, Evin suggested that we get back to the lowest hall which was where everyone went during emergencies. I realized that we were the only ones here, everyone was already at the lower hall. We tried to walk through the smoke so that no one saw us, it was extremely hard to catch my breath, as we were running and that too there was heavy smoke everywhere.

Suddenly, someone knocked me over and slashed my arm with a dagger, my arm seared with pain as blood began to pour from the cut. I saw their face as the smoke cleared up, it was another one of us, but he didn't seem like he was from this institute. People from another institute? What did they want with our people? Something big must've happened for them to attack our institute. He lunged at me again with his dagger, I dodged it and kicked his shin, making him lose his balance and fall over, I grabbed his dagger and knocked him unconscious with a hit to the sensitive part of the head.

"Good job Mez, but get out of here for now! I'll follow!" Evin yelled.

"I'm not leaving without you Evin, I can hold up for a while, who knows there might more people coming, what if you get outnumbered!?"

"Goddmanit Mez you're bleeding too! JUST GO! I can handle this, really! run for now!"

"I'm sorry but I'm not leaving you alone, it's best we don't split up at this point, think about it Evin!"

"Ah, you and your stubbornness never change, ok stay, but at your own risk Mez, it's seriously not safe here!" Evin was right about the unsafe part as not soon after, I felt a pair of cold hands around my neck, choking the life out of me. I elbowed the person in the ribs and tried to break free in that split second, but when I turned around, the face that I saw seemed rather familiar.

Wavy long hair, a small stature, her naturally brown eyes were a blazing red, and her face a mess of tears and smoke. I saw pure hatred in her eyes, but this wasn't how I remembered her, it was Isla, my best friend. However, now she looked like she wanted me dead.