Chapter 85 - Awakening

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As the time slipped by, Kasma grew worried. The third pahar was about to end and there was no sign of the nymphs.  They were still inside of the giant bizarre tree. The heads were now snoring,  drooling golden saliva. Occasionally the baby heads cried out. 

The woods around him had awakened from the hypnotic charm put by the nymphs while coming here. Spine chilling cries and hoots were breaching the sullen silence of the woods as if threatening him, the only human hiding amidst them, that not even his soul would leave this forest. 

Kasma stifled his urge to approach the rusty door. He had no idea what kind of being the tree was. And his twenty -year long life had taught him that never ever face an enemy of whom you knew nothing. 

So he waited, growing antsier with each passing moment. He had already revised the plan umpteen times in his mind and felt more uncertain of its success.  And at last, he decided to leave it on Nuha, who had never given him, a lowly thrall,  any heed. And tonight the chance of him helping Kasma was much less, for he was not here for the holy mission. 

Suddenly, the rusty door creaked open, and the nymphs finally stepped out, giggling. Their laughs were the music of Nooyi,( a female minstrel of Tayma, a city of Moriya. ).

"No... I think Anishi wanted to see when she would find her lover." said one of the nymphs, whose eyes were droopy and her round face flushed. She must have been drinking liquor.

"Stop, Lamia. Look at the poor girl. Her face is red like a cherry. We can't blame her she has yet to experience the human touch. " said another nymph, winking mischievously. 

"Believer me, Anishi. It doesn't worth the trouble. Humans are very fickle-hearted. In the beginning, they will shower you with love and praise. And once they get you under them, they will leave you never to come back again.  You will spend the rest of your life sighing with your heart aching as if it had been stabbed." said Narisha, one with the circlet on her head. 

"Please, stop teasing me. I don't need a human lover. I just wanted to help Pacha-ma. didn't you see how her face changed after reading the World Almanac? "  Anishi said, her blushing cheeks were roses. 

A silence fell over the bevy as the shadow darkened their blooming faces. 

The rusty door dissolved into the olive green face, grim just like the nymphs'. The large beautiful green eyes looked at the hushed nymphs. 

"Remember, what I said, Daughters of Ullis. " Ama-lur said, "Stop interacting with humankind. " There was strange steel in her gentle voice. 

"Yes, Ama-lur. I will inform the human lord." Narisha said. "But .." 

She hesitated. 

"Voice it out, daughter. No need to hesitate," said Ama-lur gently. 

"May you tell us what you saw in the World Almanac?" Narisha finished. 

Pacha-ma didn't answer immediately. She stared at the nymph's curious face and sighed. 

" A great upheaval coming. A great war. Again the land of Mazia will be dyed with human blood. Wails of humans will echo in the breeze. " She said in a voice of sheers. 

"I only hope the fire will not reach the Nimarawood."

A gloom fell over the nymphs. 

"Why can't humans live peacefully? " said Lamia; The effect of liquor had ebbed away from her charming eyes. 

" Because they are humans," Ama-lur said. "Now go back to your lake. You are already late. Take care of Anishi, the silly lass. "

Kasma didn't surprise at the woman's prediction. The araafas (female seers)  of Moriya had been presaging the same thing for years, egging on Moriyans lords to prepare for the holy war. This prophecy was the reason, nowadays every Moriyans lord was claiming himself Najir ( the first Gazi).

The water-women bowed to the woman and flew off, humming the magical song.  Kamsa didn't follow them, for the face was watching them go.  When the nymphs disappeared into the woods, the large green eyes glanced towards the spirit-oak where the Moriyan was hiding. 

Kasma's heart froze, for he was sure the woman's eyes could see him.  However, maybe he was wrong. The face dissolved into the knotty trunk. 

What followed afterward dumfounded the slave. The giant tree shook violently, jolting awake all the sleeping heads. And it started shrinking, letting out magical light. Within a few moments, it turned into an ordinary basil tree. 

Kasma blinked his eyes, to make sure that his eyes were not playing a trick on him. 

What the hell it was? 

The Moriyan shook his head. He had no time to waste. The nymphs had long gone. He needed to hurry up if he didn't want to meet his end here. So he set off. 

What Kasma didn't notice was a woman with a face similar to the giant face. She had appeared there out of thin air. Her untied shining green hair was flowing in the night breeze, lashing around her soul-captivating face. Her fish-shaped eyes were two emeralds. Donned in magical green net Embroidered Saree, she was so exquisite that all the nymphs would feel ashamed before her. 

She watched the disappearing back of Kasma. Myriads of emotions rose and fell in her deep eyes. 

"What are you doing here? " Her coral lips moved, and the air whispered.

"I wished I had never meddled in your life. I wish I hadn't... " Wishepers died away as two pearls like tears rolled down on the woman's cheeks. With its sullen silence, the forest around her seemed to be crying. 

As soon as the two drops left the enchanting face, they turned into two gleaming pearls and lost into the fallen leaves. 

*****

Unaware of the strange woman, Kasma tailed the bevy.  Just like before, the nymphs were flying in a queue. Narisha was at the front, and Anishi was at the back of the line. 

Holding their lamps glowing with blue light, they continued on their way back clueless about the Moriyan slave, who was lurking behind to make his move. 

After making sure the women were following the same route, Kasma took a turn and disappeared into the woods.  Fumbling his way through the dense woods, he soon came to the place where he had seen the owl parrot, snoring. The bird had gone away. 

Kasma hurriedly dug a pit large enough to bury a human. after placing illusory hexes, and he laid down into the pit and covered himself with leaves. 

After mulling over for a long time he had come up with this plane. Not very ingenious, but it was all he could think of in his current situation. He had no clue about the powers of the water women. The stories he had heard in Minaak were not better than the Moriyans' erotic tales. 

According to Sutas, storytellers of Minaak, the nymphs enchanted humans with their otherworldly beauties and magical songs. When their captors became slaves of their beauties, they would take them to Nysa, the city of death faires, and sell their souls to the soul harder in a black.

There was no way Kasma could believe this tale, told to children to spook them. 

So having no knowledge of his enemy's powers, the Moriyan slave decided to play save. He would not face the water women head-on. 

He would take them by surprise. 

Kasma listened to the hypnotic song ( due to the curse he had cast on himself,  he was immune to it and in fact, he would never sleep. ) as the nymphs approached the place he was hiding, like a wooden log.  Narisha didn't seem to notice anything out of ordinary and flew past over the pit. 

Kasma's heart had come into his mouth as he counted the woman flying above him. 

As soon as it was Anishi's turn, the hex got triggered. Without any warning, the air above him turned into a prison imprisoning the water-nymphs. 

Before the water-nymph could let out a scream to alert her sisters, who were so lost in the song that they didn't seem to realize that one of their sisters got frozen into the air, the hex seized her. The Ventus Statica, the hex Kasma had cast on the water-nymph, was one of the advanced hexes he had learned from Jora. This hex could freeze air present into a human body, thus paralyzing the victim completely. 

Kasma used the harpy's curse and the gravity pulled down the nymph on the ground. The other nymphs, still unaware of the kidnapping of Anishi, went on their way singing the balmy song. As soon as the nymphs touched the ground, Kasma swiftly poisoned the girl and dragged her into the pit.

Coumflaughed by the hex and leaves, Kasma waited for the Nymphs to disappear into the woods. Once the water-women were out of sight he hurriedly picked up the frozen body of the lass and rushed towards the ghost wood tree. 

His heart was thudding loudly, he hadn't expected everything to go so smoothly. 

It was as if he had kidnapped a fawn, not a water nymph.