A Path of Vengeance Chapter 6

As Mitsuko's thoughts strayed to what had happened the night before, she remembered that she had wanted to interrogate Kaden. She looked now for him, but he was nowhere in sight. She decided that it was time to start moving again, so she jumped off the cart and went on a search for Kaden.

Instead of finding Kaden, she found Tidus and Gloria setting up their tent. The scene was touching; Tidus and Gloria were laughing together while putting up one of the poles, while Angelica ran around them, laughing as well. They turned around as they heard Mitsuko approach.

"Oh, hello Mitsuko! Do you want to help us set up the tent?" Gloria asked, her face adorned with a beautiful smile.

"Sure," Mitsuko agreed, forgetting about her search for Kaden.

Setting up the tent was more fun than Mitsuko had envisioned it would be. With three people working on it, the job was completely quickly, but the time that Mitsuko was working on it was enjoyable. It wasn't just about setting up the tent, it was also about socializing. While Tidus and Gloria set up the tent, not only did they talk with themselves, Angelica, and Mitsuko, but they also talked with their neighbors as they walked by.

Once they were finished, Gloria and Angelica got ready for an expedition through the paths of the mountain, in an attempt to collect what seemed to be rocks.

"Why are you going into the mountain just to look for stones?" Mitsuko asked; her discomfort with being inside of the mountain was causing her to question Gloria's decision to head further into its depths, away from the congregation.

"We are looking for a certain type of stone, called a Farideith. It helps with healing people who have come done with an illness, and they become more in demand during the winter because more people get sick," Gloria replied.

Although she wondered how the stone could help heal disease, Mitsuko didn't think that she would be able to get an acceptable answer by asking. Instead, she watched as Gloria and Angelica headed off into one of the dark pathways of the mountain.

"Wait! Don't you need a lantern?" Mitsuko questioned, noticing their lack of the item or any source of light.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine," Gloria answered. She kept walking forward, and Mitsuko kept watching until Gloria and Angelica were completely immersed in darkness.

Once they were gone, Mitsuko remembered why she had originally been wandering around the city.

"Tidus, have you seen Kaden anywhere?" Mitsuko inquired.

"No, but after how well he hunted yesterday he was probably dragged over to one of the social circles to talk with the other men," Tidus explained. "When we aren't able to hunt, the men who are usually appointed as hunters create a sort of circle of logs or whatever they can find and just talk with each other for most of the day."

"Do you know where they are today?" Mitsuko replied.

"I think I saw them setting it up near the entrance, where we entered the clearing. However, I'm not sure how they'll treat you there. There are many social circles that women are involved in, but most don't associate with the hunters on their days off. They can tend to get vulgar," Tidus answered.

"Okay, thank you," Mitsuko replied, heading off to find the hunting circle despite the warning that Tidus had given her.

It didn't take her very long to find. While she saw many social circles along the way, the one that the hunters had adopted was easily depictable from the rest. It was the only circle that absolutely no women were sitting at, and it was definitely the largest circle in the whole area.

Mitsuko could hear the sound from many conversations occuring at once, with a few shouts and loud noises thrown in. When she saw him, Kaden looked comfortable with the situation, but Mitsuko knew that he looked comfortable with almost every situation, so she couldn't judge how he was feeling from his demeanor. He turned around smoothly when he heard her approach.

"Kaden, I want to talk with you," she spoke, sternly. As she spoke, the noise around her died down until all of the attention of the circle was focused on her, which only helped to increase her discomfort.

After a few seconds of silence, a voice broke through. "Woo, trouble in paradise!" a boy with dark-red hair exclaimed, before taking a swig from a bottle that he was holding in his hand.

The people around him laughed at that exclamation, much to Mitsuko's annoyance.

"Please excuse El," a black-haired man wearing spectacles, who was sitting near Kaden spoke. "He can be quite vulgar at times."

"Come on Ian, women love that," El replied. He took another drink from his bottle.

"I've had four girlfriends already," Ian retorted. "I think I know more about them than you."

"Pfft, that's just because they run away once they get to know you!" El answered.

Throughout the conversation, the other members of the group had been listening intently and exploded in an uproar after each sentence, as if it was some type of sport for them. At this point, Mitsuko decided that she had experienced enough.

"You're going to talk with me later," she whispered into Kaden's ear. He didn't offer any confirmation, but El had made yet another rude remark and she couldn't stand to be near him any longer.

Unsure of what to do next, Mitsuko decided to go on her own to explore. She borrowed a lantern from Tidus and headed off into one of the many pathes into the mountain that surrounded the clearing.

For a while, there was nothing encompassing her except the looming walls of rock around her. As she went further down the path, she felt nervous once again about walking inside of the mountain. She cursed herself for making the decision to go exploring, but decided that it wouldn't hurt to go deeper since she was already so far in.

As she walked, she started to see glints of light on the walls. The further she walked, the more common the glints were. After a while she decided to investigate.

She walked up to one of the walls to find what was causing the light, and found out that it was actually a reflection of her lantern. Nestled in the walls were clumps of a precious ore.

Mitsuko dug her fingers into the wall to retrieve one of the stones that was close to the surface. When she successfully uprooted it, she held it in the palm of her hand to appraise it.

The rock looked like some sort of gem, crimson in color. By taking it out of her palm and holding it to her lantern, Mitsuko found that it was actually a bright red.

After more observance, Mitsuko still could not figure out what type of stone it was; however, this was not surprising as Mitsuko had never tried taking a geology class at the orphanage, and didn't even know if they had ever offered one.

She saw a few more stones that were close to the surface, and decided to take them back with her. The unknown substance had perked her curiousity, and now she wanted to head back to the settlement to find out what they were.

It seemed to take longer to walk back than it had to originally get to her location, but that was most likely an illusion created by Mitsuko's impatience. She studied one of the stones as she walked, and was captivated by its beauty. There were no blemishes on its surface, and even when Mitsuko tried cutting one of them it didn't have any effect.

Eventually she made her way back into the clearing, and by the deserted state of the area she entered through, it seemed like everyone had headed to the bonfire. She tucked the stones into her satchel so that they wouldn't get in the way when she was eating.

The bonfire was, at this time, not really a bonfire. There wasn't an actual flame burning, but the congregation of citizens still remained and they chatted animatedly while they feasted on breads and dried meat. Lanterns were placed around the clearing to light it, now that the sun had retreated for the day.

"Where were you?" Kaden inquired after he spotted Mitsuko. "We were looking all over for you!"

"I just decided to explore a bit," Mitsuko answered. Before Kaden could reply, she continued. "I found something really interesting," she spoke animatedly, as she reached into her satchel and retrieved one of the stones.

"Oh! You found some!" Gloria exclaimed, walking over to Mitsuko and Kaden. "Where did you get those?"

"I just saw them in the walls while I was walking through that path over there," she recalled, pointing toward the direction from which she had emerged minutes earlier. "Do you know what they are?"

"Those were the Farideith that I was looking for. We can melt them to create potions to help people when they are ill, so they're very valuable. When we're in the mountain, the women go out - in groups, of course - and look for the Farideith. It's important to stock up on them, especially during winter," Gloria explained.

Angelica, who had been clinging to the bottom of Gloria's dress, walked over and looked up at the stone Mitsuko was holding. Mitsuko dropped it into the younger girl's hand, to which Angelica responded by giggling and holding the stone up to one of the lanterns.

"I'll give you all of the stones that I collected then," Mitsuko continued, once again reaching into her satchel. At this point, Kaden cut in.

"Let's keep one of them in case we need it," he suggested, grabbing one of the stones out of her hand to examine.

"We can decide that later when we get back to the tent," Gloria said. "For now, why don't we let Mitsuko enjoy the food?"

Mitsuko was glad for her comment, as she once again remembered how hungry she was. They had eaten when they had first arrived in the clearing, but the combination of hours since then and the energy she'd used for walking through the mountain had made her ravenous. She happily took some of the food that was offered to her.

Once she had finished eating, the bonfire had ended and it was time to head back to the tent. The residents of the tent chatted cordially before getting ready to sleep.

Mitsuko had only been slumbering for a couple of hours when her dreams were interrupted by careful footsteps outside of the tent. As she woke, she heard muted voices from the other side of the tent's wall. Knowing that everyone in the city should already have been asleep by now, Mitsuko decided to go and investigate to find out who the people were outside.

Since wandering outside after dark was frowned upon in the city, Mitsuko wanted to make sure that she remained hidden. This meant that she wasn't able to bring a lantern with her. However, much to her relief, the people for whom she had went on this endeavor had a lantern in hand and she was able to navigate clearly using the light from their beacon.

As she neared, Mitsuko recognized the two silhouttes of her expedition's motive. Strolling through the city were two of the hunters that Mitsuko had met earlier: Ian and El. They were conversing in voices too hushed for Mitsuko to understand.

Ian and El kept walking until they had reached one of the carts that was used to transport people and tents from settlement to settlement. Hiding behind a diagonally-placed cart, Mitsuko watched as they headed into the wagon.

Her observations proved futile however, since the opening of the wagon were covered by mats. All Mitsuko got a glimpse of was a young woman's face before the mat was replaced after Ian and El's entrance. Not wanting to wait for them to come back out, Mitsuko left to go back to the tent to regain her state of slumber.

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While Corinth was getting ready to head out of the mountain, Mitsuko tried to get another glimpse of what was inside the wagon she had been near the night before. No one opened the flap and she didn't want to intrude, so she wasn't able to find out about why El and Ian had visited it. She planned to ask Kaden, but didn't want to do it when she could be overheard.

It was much easier for Mitsuko to exit the mountain than it had been to enter it. After spending a day in it, she'd gotten used to the feeling of being surrounded on all sides. However, she was still glad when they made it outside. Tidus informed her that they would reach Winter the next day.

Mitsuko decided to spend her day meeting new people, since Kaden seemed to be too busy with the hunters. The lifestyle of the Corinth women seemed pleasant; if she hadn't had the feeling of needing to do something greater, Mitsuko thought that she probably would have liked spending her days joking around and having fun while making art. She talked with many interesting characters, including Helene, the girl who had first lectured Mitsuko and Kaden about how gifted Corinth was when it came to food and other resources.

"Hello, oh clueless traveler," Helene had greeted, in a whimsical tone of voice.

"What makes you think I'm clueless?" Mitsuko inquired, looking up from her drawing that probably wouldn't have turned out well even if her full attention had been focused upon it.

"Well, for one thing you didn't even know about Corinth. Everyone knows about Corinth," Helene responded, adamant in her statement. "You must have been living under a rock for all of your life."

Mitsuko was ready to retort, but then realized that Helene may have been right. Although she had always felt very knowledgeable about the world around her, this expedition so far had taught Mitsuko that there were many things about the world outside of the orphanage that she had never been aware of.

"So what are you going to Winter for?" Helene continued, putting the finishing touches on a portrait that looked exact to its model, a picture that Helene had been commissioned to paint.

"We're trying to find out why people are disappearing everywhere," Mitsuko lied, ashamed that her true intentions were much less honorable. To make her statement more true, she quickly added, "and we're also looking for someone who we were told had gone there."

"Well, good luck with that," Helene mumbled sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Mitsuko exclaimed, offended in Helene's complete lack of faith.

"It means that you won't be able to find out why people are disappearing," the other girl replied. "There's no way to."

"Then I'll find a way!" Mitsuko exclaimed. "If you knew someone who had disappeared, you'd feel the same way too."

"I do know people who have disappeared!" Helene screamed, standing up sharply and throwing her paintbrush on the table. "I lost everyone because of this! My parents, my sister, my best friend - all of them! So stop lecturing me when you don't know anything!" She turned and stormed out of the room.

Mitsuko was in shock. It hadn't occured to her that Helene could have already tried to figure out what caused the disappearances. The other had lost a lot more than she had, and Mitsuko had been lecturing Helene about how she didn't understand what it felt like to lose someone. Overcome by guilt, Mitsuko abandoned her project and decided to walk to try and clear her thoughts.

She was hoping to see Helene on the way so she could apologize, but didn't meet any sign of the older girl. After walking past the edge of the city's current settlement, Mitsuko encountered a river.