Chapter 9: A Question like a Face

The wanderer who lost its face did not turn to look at Koolah, nor did it give any indication that it had seen or sensed her.

It remained, swinging its legs gazing up from the bottom of the abyss.

As Koolah carefully picked her way towards it, none of the battling once-dead or knights had a reaction towards her. They continued their silent pantomime battle, sparing her not one glance. To them she and the wanderer had never been part of the time they were acting out.

Still, Koolah had to be careful not to accidentally get in the way of the fighters.

As Koolah neared the shattered head of the tower, the wanderer spoke.

The words did not come from a mouth, but were whispered into her mind, as if it was next to her. The voice was without character, not soft or harsh, not in between either. Just words stringed together.

-I did tell you you shouldn’t have come here, and now, haven’t you died?-

“Fat lot of good your warning did” Koolah harrumphed.

She climbed up onto the towerhead, leaving quite a distance between her and the wanderer. Quite honestly, the wanderer creeped her out, what with the facelessness and the staring into the dark and ice.

-Wasn’t that because you didn’t listen? Everyone thinks they’ll be different-

The wanderer turned its head towards her. It wasn’t that there was just skin and no features. There was no skin, no features no bone. Where the face should have been there was blankness, the icy abyss stared at her.

-Everyone thinks that way-

The wanderer tugged its hood and turned its head back upwards.

“Well, no use crying about it, I can’t undo what has been done. The past can’t be changed”

Koolah sat down.

-True enough, you can always pretend though, delude yourself, and if you had the power, make magic like the spells of this place-

Koolah stared at the skeleton champion and knight-captain fighting.

“I think that’s enough from the pair of us. You aren’t stupid, you’ve some idea why I’m here don’t you?”

-You want to know who, or what killed you, are you sure you should be asking me? I could be your killer-

“Already died, so it isn’t going to change much if I just die again, have you seen anything new? Anyone new?”

The wanderer stood up and began pacing back and forth.

-Are you sure you are asking the right questions?-

Koolah frowned and kicked a tile from the towerhead, she watched the scale bounce off the head of one of the oncedead soldiers.

“Talking with you mystic types is always a pain you know that? What do you mean?”

The wanderer’s shoulders slumped.

-At least I have an excuse, since I’m faceless now.-

“Boo hoo, so you were at some point slightly more stupid than me and my sisters, you gonna tell me anything?”

-You really aren’t cute at all you know that-

“So sayth the faceless person”

-It slips from your mind, the most important question. If you remember it, you’ll understand what happened-

“So, you know what happened?”

-Nope! I’ve been busy trying to find my face or build a new one you know, you think I’ve the time to play with a bunch of kittens?-

“Aren’t you playing with me now?” Koolah asked a bit frustrated.

The wanderer leapt off the towerhead and brushed some dirt from its robe.

-One cat doesn’t make a bunch!-

The wanderer quite predictably wandered off, vanished amid the trees.

“Don’t call us cats!” Koolah shouted after it.

-Maybe you should try being a bit less rude then?-

Koolah kicked another tile off the towerhead.

In conclusion, that hadn’t been the most fruitful of efforts. Koolah thought about what little she got from the wanderer as she moved onwards.

Who or what killed them? What other questions were there? Koolah shook her head. She didn’t like to think with so little information. It’d be easier to talk to some of the others. If nothing else, Jadah would probably be able to charm some information out of who she encountered.

For now… Koolah wasn’t too sure that the wanderer was involved, but something like what it was reduced to could be unstable.

It could have ‘played’ with them for no reason at all. It could have even done so and forgotten about it.

She resisted the impulse to look up at the ice and darkness, to see what the wanderer saw without eyes.

What did the wanderer see?

Well, that wasn’t a question she needed to know the answer to.