Cleo's eyes opens for a second seeing a tweak of light till she hears scuttling around and she feels a warm presence before her. Her eyes just couldn't open she was that exhausted. Her body feels dead. If she knew death would feel so bad she wouldn't have ever considered taking her life.

Her eyes flutters open but it was blurry— she couldn't make out anything before her. The person tips some foul liquid into her mouth making her choke, she tries gagging it out but the person kept her head down against the hard surface beneath her and her weak body refused to aid her before she was gone again.

                                                                  °°°

Cleo slowly opens her eyes again, and immediately shut them because the light blinded her and she groans softly at her paining eyes. She wiggles her fingers and toes— they're intact. But her fingers hurt, which reminds her about the scraping of the walls and the scratching of Ezra's hands earlier. That makes her eyes open wide blinking several times through the light.

Her body still feels weak and she just couldn't seem to lift herself up; her body aches everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. From her huge migraine to her dead legs. Her head hurt the most of all, she could only gently place her hand on her forehead until she saw the dried blood all over her fingers mixed with little soot stains that were half washed out.

Hell.

Did she kill Ezra?

She can't remember anything after he pushed them both over the cliff. One thing she did know was that she didn't hit the rocks which means that at least Ezra spared her.

She tries arching her back anything to try to bring her strength back, but nothing works. She just couldn't move. Her hands moves to her mouth and she feels some dried liquid at the corner of her mouth. She gasps as she remembers the someone who is obviously Ezra— that forced some abominable liquid down her throat. She gags as she can still taste the atrocious thing at the back of her throat.

She is alone in the room, there is no sign of Ezra anywhere. She lays flat on her back in the stone house and her back scraped massively against the rough texture of hard rock.

She could only see the top of the house, and still there is the exact same symbol of the interlocked circles on every surface of the low roof. She starts panting hard and tries with all her might to lift her head up letting her chin touch her chest and she sees several green-stained vials all empty laying on the floor not too far from her.

Ezra has been making her drink this how many times already?

She knows it's nothing good too. He could be poisoning her. He already tried to kill her even though he joined the suicide mission with her. But his hard body — she's sure he didn't even feel a thing.

After her failed attempts of sitting up and her bloody body just refusing to do so, she decides to just lay there. Perhaps after a little nap should she feel better.

Almost immediately after she lays down with a deep breathe did she hear scuttling at the doorway— within seconds she lifts her head up just to see Ezra coming in with wood in his hands.

He drops it and sprints towards the wooden shelves at the floor filled with more of the green vials but Cleo was quick too. She flames her entire right hand; half surprised that her powers weren't as weak as she was.

"Drug me one more time, and I'll burn you alive." She threatens him, she groans as she finally made it into a sitting position her core screaming in agony.

Ezra opens his arms in surrender, he watched the flames in delight but she could still the death look in his eyes.

He meets her eyes with a chagrin expression. "I wasn't drugging you. It's a sleeping brew."

He takes his position slowly towards the archway still in surrender.

Cleo follows his every move toward the doorway with her hand. "You fed me several of them. Surely that's not healthy at all, you should just kill me by throwing me directly on the rocks next time."

He grinds his jaw and stands in his normal position — brawler stance again. His hair is dry and tangled and he still wore his loin cloth.

"Where are your clothes?" She wrinkles her nose at how much she could see through the loin. It was that tight.

"I am not here to fight with you." He says ignoring her question.

"So why did you throw us over the cliff? We could of died." Not that she minds.

He growls again. "Look at my fucking throat. You could of burned me. I had to get into water." He wraps his hand around his throat the same way she did, and on it she could see the red handprint on his skin.

Cleo wasn't phased at all. She didn't feel one bit guilty, besides the colour suits him very well. She just  continues staring at him with her neutral bitch face.

"So it's alright to kill us both in the process while you take a bath for your neck dying in the sea?" She glances to her body and sees herself in nothing but her cotton brassiere and her underwear.

She didn't bother trying to cover herself, her thighs were exposed and her skin has a sheen of sweat on it making her glow golden the way Ezra did. There are red marks on her body and she is sure her back is bleeding out, because the floor behind her had little blood stains on it and she could tell that the backs of her thighs were the same.

"You're the Elemental." He stares at her thighs. Not in the hot way Jezio did, but in curiosity at her marks.

Cleo let's her flame out. "Why did you undress me?"

He doesn't waver his gaze from her marks and she starts getting anxious about the way he is looking at them.

"I knew you were the Elemental after you burned my neck. And the least I could do is to tend to your wounds, that's why I brought wood to make a fire. And I also thought it'd be better if you were asleep in the process. As I am sure you'll try killing me."

"You tried killing me!" Cleo seethes through clenched teeth.

He doesn't look at her and changes his attention to the wood picking it up and making it into a little hearth a few steps away from her.

"I thought you were a threat. I didn't know what you were." He sounds glum but not guilty. He still didn't like her. Cleo didn't blame him, she wouldn't like herself either if she had to meet herself in person.

He continues. "I was actually just going to knock you out."

Cleo snorts and moves herself into a comfortable position bringing her back to rest against the wooden shelves not caring if they toppled off, and she brings her knees to her chest. She curses loudly as her back touched the shelves and how her body pained beyond anything she felt.

"You were choking me, and from the death look in your face it's hard to think you were just knocking me out."

She groans again.

Ezra stays quiet again and retrieves some herbs she only saw now and some other coloured vials from his shelves.

"Do you mind?" He motions to the unlit the hearth.

Cleo first gives him a confused expression and then it hit her that she is to light the fire. Cleo sends a ball of flame into the wood and immediately its lighting up and about.

"Like I said I thought you were a threat but my intentions were never to harm you. Lay down on your belly." He motions to the floor before the hearth.

"Why?"

"I'm going to heal you up. You are the Elemental after all. Then we can discuss the real issue here, about those marks on your back and legs."

Cleo immediately twists her body around with a gasp; she couldn't see the full image but from what she could see—there is definitely more of the tattoos dotting her skin. That's possibly why she has been moaning and groaning in pain since she woke up.

She looks at the same marks on her legs and sees another one forming behind her knee. She scratches it with her bloody fingers until her skin turns red and becomes irritated.

"Don't do that." Ezra gives her a hard look.

She shows him her middle finger.

Without any more questions or fighting with him, she lays on her belly on the floor, gagging at the damp stone floor and flinches at the hard edges digging into certain parts of her body; especially her breasts but the contact of the the cool stones on her thighs minimizes the horrid situation she is in.

She folds her arms before her so that she rests on her hands, staring into the flames.

Ezra didn't say anything about what he was going to do exactly, and at this point Cleo didn't even care if he was going poison her wounds with more poison and make it worse or whether he would stab a knife into her back, because either way it's bound to happen. But at least in a less gruesome way.

She hears mashing— the sound of a mortar and pestle most likely the herbs he took.

He kneels beside her body she could feel the heat from the close contact, he holds the pot over the fire for a few seconds and takes it off again, causing her to not know what he was doing again.

"This may burn. It's a healing paste for your wounds. Should I put some on the marks on your back?"

"I don't care. And no nothing works, the stupid tea healed partially, what no it didn't, ugh fuck it. Nothing works." She sighs out and has begun brushing her finger on the burning wood on the floor.

Ezra hums and trails his finger on her back not touching her wounds. It tickles but Cleo won't give it away that she tried hard not to laugh.

There was nothing sensual about the feeling of his finger. His fingertip is warm and nice, but it didn't feel as sensual as it did with Kaleb and Jezio.

Thinking of Jezio her thoughts sprung up, "Oh shit! The barge man he must be awake by now. Did you see him?" She stretched up into a cat stretch facing him who has dipped his hand the green paste in the bowl.

He eyes her with confusion. "What man?"

Cleo widens her eyes and is about to get up when he restrained her back into her cat stretch, which was starting to hurt her back making the formation of the new tattoos itch more.

"The barge I came with. He was in there."

Ezra jerks his head, "Yes. After we fell into the water, you were gone. I saw the boat there, the man was still sleeping. I left you over the rocks and pushed the barge back out to sea. When he wakes up he'll be confused and perhaps remember that he should eat his lunch or else he'll pass out for next time."

Cleo could only stare at him with disbelief."You're fucking crazy. He knows someone knocked him out, and how am I supposed to get back?"

He shrugs and pushes her back down bringing her gaze back to the fire but this time she was tense and not relaxed like before.

"Did you have a plan of what you'll do if he wakes up? And he won't know who knocked him so I think you're safe."A pause. A breath and then more mashing and heating.

She probably disrupted his process and the paste got cold.

He goes on."Why not take your own boat to come here? Why did you do it this way?"

She could feel his eyes burning into the back of her head and she rolls her eyes. "None of your business argh-"

Ezra did something that burned the soul out of her. That paste was hot it burned and she arches her back gritting her teeth tightly together. The pain is excruciatingly painful it sizzled and burned like raw skin over a fire. It was unlike anything she ever felt.

Yes the burn shouldn't bother her. But this specific one did. So badly.

She didn't even realize she is in tears from the pain. "Did you even clean my wounds? Dammit!" This time she clenches her arms in its folded position hard enough to leave bruises.

"I don't even want to do this. I want my own peace again since you came. So don't question my healings. I know what I'm doing."

"I am crying! Doesn't it bother you?"

"No."

"I'm the Elemental."

"I'm the healer."

"I can burn you alive."

"Can you heal yourself?"

That makes her mouth snap shut.

She didn't give a damn.

She feels more paste layers and the pain just dulls away into a little sting. She keeps staying calm even though her tattoos made her want to scratch them again.

"Stay like this for a few. I saw a cut mark on your thigh."

She hiccups. "A demon. Leave it. It's good."

Ezra has gotten up with the mortar and pestle in his hands standing on the other side looking down at her resting on the floor.

His is frowning deeply and before Cleo could ask what was wrong he dismisses himelf. "I'm going to clean up my hands then we can talk."

His face looks grim again.

"Before you go Ezra!" She calls and lifts her head.

He snaps. "What?"

"I need to take a piss."

The hard lines in his face stood out more and it looks like the scar in his face deepened.

"Well why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because I didn't need to then."

"It was a few moments ago."

"Exactly."

He sighs and runs his hand through his tousled hair chuckling fakely under his breath. When he looks at her again, she gives him her normal serious face.

Because she is being serious.

She could perhaps crawl to outside and piss over the cliff, hoping it won't spray on him from the wind. And fall into the sea and rocks. At least it could give the dull place some colour.

Now she's being too gross.

"You don't even have a privy in this place. Or anything else for that matter. How do you survive?"

He rubs his hands together gently shaking his head. "This is not my home. This is my workplace, I live behind the rocks in the forest away frome everyone."

She takes it in a straight face. "There's a forest? The rocks are are high I can't see behind them."

"It is."

She rests on her elbows, the stone digging into them and she finches again. She blows a strand of hair that loosened from her braid out of her face, but the strand was too stubborn so she had to pull it away.

The action brought tears behind her eyes.

Damn she hurt everywhere.

"Why don't you stay in the bungalows like the rest of the villagers?"

Ezra is hard to read behind that hard face of his. He seems to be the type of person that would trip off easily if one single move went wrong and he would kill the someone who messed with him.

She would avoid such people in her life. Not because she was afraid of them; which she definitely is; but because she likes being the scary one. And at this moment Ezra is taking over the job of being the threatening I'll-slit-your-throat-if-you-don't-listen-to-me kind of person. She wasn't impressed one bit.

"I like being here. The rocks are better company than a dumb villager." His voice has no emotion and Cleo wonders where the sudden depression in the room came from.

"It's better than living out here. How do you get to the Village? You swim?" She sizes his body up and down and then regrets her words. He is strong. Bloody strong. He could do just about  anything with that body, there is evidence of strong swimming in his arms and legs, especially in the sensual way he moves around.

"I like water. It brings me closer to my wife." He doesn't meet her eyes and instead stares at his dirty hands holding the mortar and pestle.

"She was a fish?" She cups a hand on her chin.

He growls out loud and suddenly drops the mortar and pestle hard on the floor. His hands forms fists once again and he has a death look in his eyes — making Cleo feel afraid to even breathe one more time.

He seems to be stopping himself hard from attacking her and instead grinds his molars, as she sees his strong jaws tweaking aggressively. His chest moves up and down fast, his face harder than stone, his look made of ice.

Without another word he left.

She decides to not remind him about the mortar and pestle he forgot to take.

                                                       °°°

She definitely passed out again.

Her throat is all groggy and dry that not even her own spit couldn't wet it with the plenty of swallows she took.

Her body hurt a shit ton she could barely move without feeling tension and a zap of white-hot pain going through her body.

The lack of clothing and laying on her belly wasn't fixing anything either.

It is still light outside, thank the Sun God's. Jezio won't come looking for her yet, but she still has to leave. She has Court duties. Again. It never ends.

She looks around and is surprised to see Ezra sitting before her standing blankly into the still rapidly flaming hearth.

Good. He didn't kill her.

"Ezra?" She swallows again not getting herself up just laying.

He looks to her and she can see pain behind those hooded eyes.

"Your wife was the Elemental?" She already knows the answer.

He pinches the bridge of his nose and looks down. In the corner she could see the clean mortar and pestle, making her envisage of how long she has actually been asleep for. Was he just sitting there  waiting for her to wake up?

He didn't respond to her for a long time. "She was."

Cleo takes the end of her braid and brings it to the fire watching it burn.

"I thought you couldn't marry an Elemental." She says softly.

"You can't. But we loved one another." He turns his face away too slow. She already caught sight of his tears.

It's already been the second decade and still he couldn't get over her? He is older than she expected him to be. Older than herself and Kaleb.

She really didn't know the pain of losing someone you love, Jezio had a point she gets it now.

"You also don't know how they died?"

He nods.

Cleo sighs and sits up, and scowls at the restrain in her bladder. She needed to pee. Now.

Ezra is there and removes the dried hard parts of the pastes from her back, and she can say she feels very much healed, except for the body pains and the sting from the formations of the new tattoos.

"Can you tell me how you got those on your walls?" She ends up sitting cross-legged regarding the shadows that the fire threw on the walls before her.

She ignores the powerful urge to scratch her entire goddamn body and grips onto her shins to keep her hands away.

She is starting to look like Ezra. Sheen of sweat layering their bodies — only dressed in underwear and sitting cross-legged in a meditation position before a fire. Silence over-taking the room.

He didn't respond to her  for a while again and she didn't press him.

"She did them."

Cleo flits her gaze to his and he gives her the same look. One with awe.

"But how? Did she have these tattoos?" She leans closer which is actually pretty stupid, it only brought her face closer to the fire and she could hear him perfectly clear from where she is sitting.

Habits. She loves the feel of flames licking her skin, biting, kissing. Scorching.

"No. Definitely not, I don't know what is happening to you, but she drew these. Each and every one of them."

She waits for him to continue listening intently.

He gives a harrumph, and rubs the back of his strong neck, she catches a glimpse of her handprint on his skin. Looked like she claimed him for herself.

"We would spend our alone time here together. After we made love, she would always up and draw these, she says they appear in her dreams. She doesn't know the language or what it meant, but she always drew them."

He smiles more to himself than anything else, remembering the sweet moment as if it were yesterday.

Cleo would of gagged at the story or just kick him off his cliff they way he did to her, and scream down to him:  I don't care about you and your love life!

But wow. She actually played a role in something.

"What does it mean?"

"It has something to do with all of you. From the past Elementals till now."

She tilts her face to the side, he frowns at her action and shakes his head before continuing.

Her cheek is itchy.

"I don't know what it means." A deep breathe. "I'm sorry."

Cle tries running her mind through everything she has learnt through the books, well, what she could remember and doesn't remember any mention about dreams or anything about these symbols in the books.

"There is nothing about this in the books."

He gives her a look, "You think they  will mention any of   this in paper? Bullshit. Books is just a formality, something to give hope. But it doesn't solve any single problem in the world right now."

Her knees hurt and she stretches her legs alongside the fire bringing her toes dangerously close to the fire. She could even feel the ghost of a burn on her toes.

"Have you ever thought about why Elementals can't marry others?"

"Because they have to be lonely." She speaks from experience.

"No-"

Cleo rolls her eyes already bored of this conversation, "Look Ezra. I didn't come here to discuss some history, I really just want to know why my thighs are burning like fuck! I couldn't care less about marrying someone." Did she want to marry Kaleb?

His hard face is back, purposely to match hers. She purposely threw flames in them as well, feeling fulfillment that she could do something he couldn't do.

"Things aren't looking good for you Elemental. The sudden cold in everyone, the crops, the demons. You'll die. Just the like the rest of them. And you won't be able to do shit about it."

He gives her a satisfied evil grin and chuckles under his breathe.

She ignored everything he said. No only was it rude to lessen the hope many courtesans had in her; but it was the truth. She couldn't respond to that. She didn't have an answer. Ezra was right.

"Was there a place she went to frequently?" She let's go of the topic.

Ezra moves his neck around making clicks. He answers her still ridding of his knots. "My wife was here with me. All the time."

She could practically taste the amount of possessiveness he said in wife, Cleo still wonders whether it was a real marriage, or whether it was just him and her exchanging rocks for rings.

"So? It's a no then?" She really didn't care that his wife was here all the time.

He nods solemnly. "Yes. Or if she did I didn't know about it. But I can tell you this Elemental— it's playing a role in each cycle of the Elementals, you'll have to find out what it is."

Cleo grits her teeth as another wave of itchiness passes over her and arches her lower back bringing her chest towards the fire. If she were here to give it a good time, she'd think of it as an invitation to get down with Ezra.

"What do you know about the cold? It's mentioned in the books."

"That has always been true.." He chuckles under his breathe and skims his walls. "It's killing us all."

"Its the demons?"

He glances at her swiftly. "No. She said it's not."

Cleo rolls her eyes, "Did her dreams tell her that too?"

"No."

He goes on. "I apologize for not being any help, but it is time I take my leave. And you should too. I will send you back to the pier in my boat."

Cleo stands up and then it hit her. Her bladder hit her. She couldn't hold it in for much longer.

As Ezra leaves the room heading down the stairs, Cleo briskly dresses into her gear and follows out behind him. Before she could meet at the base, she peed halfway on his steps, of course she pulled her pants down. But this was her revenge for nearly killing her. It was the least she could do.

He was already gone by the time she made her way to the shore and she searches the entire area but she couldn't see him.

She picks up Jezio's cloak, debating whether he'd be there. She'd have a lot of explaining to do when she gets back without the original barge. He may have even seen it come back without her.

She hopes and prays that he didn't do anything stupid like threaten the fisherman of her whereabouts. The man wouldn't even know who Jezio was talking about.

"I have someone that can help you."

"So you'll help me? You would want to know what happened to your wife wouldn't you?"

There Ezra comes out from behind a huge rock pulling a faded white boat by thick rope with one hand behind him, the water splashes roughly around his thighs with the powerful movements. Yet it is so graceful. Not a hint of struggle.

He is a little out of breathe as he reaches her but continues talking without taking in a deep breathe. "I shall see about that."

He is grim again.

"Who is the person?"

He hops into the boat jerking his head at her to get in too. "The wise man. The High Mage of course."