I trained hard, mirroring him, blocking, dodging, lunging. I figured if I could prove myself a good student he'd be wiling to tell me more.
At one point, he had me fight a tree with my stick, while he collected more twigs and sticks and made a fire as the sun began to set.
"That's enough for today," he said, his wings flickering behind him.
He'd had me train with and without my wings, so I could get used to the balance either way, but I found I loved having my wings and regretted that I'd have to keep them hidden while at Castle V.
So while we sat around the fire, I let my wings expand behind me, glittering silver moonlight in the darkness.
He tossed me a Life Force and we both drank, replenishing our strength.
I held up my empty packet. "Why do I feel better when I drink this and nothing else?"
"It's an application of Angel technology," he said. "They found a way to harness the actual life force of living beings in a way that can activate our own cells to regenerate. Not like blood, but close enough to get us by for a time."
I tossed my empty packet into his bag and tucked my legs under me, enjoying the warmth of the flames and the stillness of the night.
"We must talk about any changes you may be experiencing," Zorin said as he stirred the fire. "But first…" he reached for his backpack and pulled out a bag of something white.
"Marshmallows?" I stared in disbelief as he stuck one onto a stick, passed it to me, and prepared his own.
"One of the finer things in life."
"But we don't need food anymore," I said.
He grinned, his face looking younger, less warrior-like when he did. "Since when did anyone eat marshmallows for their nutritional content?" He held his over the fire, letting it turn a golden brown before plopping it into his mouth.
I did the same to mine, still eyeing him skeptically as I held it to my mouth. "This isn't going to be another trick, like the coffee, is it? I'm not sure I can bear it if you ruin marshmallows for me."
He laughed. "It's not a trick, I assure you."
I gingerly placed it in my mouth and bit down.
A delicious flavor spread through my mouth. The first actually yummy food I'd eaten since the night I'd been turned. I immediately grabbed another one and stuck it to my stick.
"Good, right?" He roasted another for himself. "You know, it wasn't until the mid 1900s that they figured out how to mass produce these. By Lilith, I was so happy that day."
I couldn't imagine living through so many changes in the world. Would that be me now? Ageless. Immortal. A witness to time but no longer a part of it? I focused back on my treat, unwilling to wrestle with greater existential conflicts just now. "I must admit, I'm grateful for more options than chugging Life Force all the time." I popped the second marshmallow in my mouth and set my stick down. "But I need to get back to training."
"Yes… and why is it that you are so determined to train with me? Last we spoke, the Orders were enough."
I hadn't told him anything and he hadn't pried, which I'd been grateful for. But he deserved to know the whole truth. "I was wrong about them," I confessed.
He leaned forward and set his own stick down. "Tell me." His eyes glowed in the firelight. "Tell me what they've done."
I thought I would censor myself, but when the words tumbled out of me, they came all at once and complete. I told him about Jax, about what happened to us and to him, and about my plans to rescue him.
He folded his hands together and stared into the fire a long moment before responding. "Have you considered, Scarlett, that Jax may not be on your side?"
"They're executing him," I said. "He's against the Orders as much as I am, maybe more."
"Let me tell you a story, Scarlett," he said, his voice taking on the timber of one accustomed to oral storytelling.
"Many years ago, while in Africa, I saw a tiger in a circus, caged, its right paw festering from a wound its masters had inflicted. The beast, once mighty, was left to die a slow death, for its masters intended to make as much money as possible. And I thought, 'This is not the way a creature should die, for we deserve a peaceful sleep, or at least, a quick end.' So one night, while the masters were all drunk after a night of performing, I forced open the cage door. But the tiger did not move. I spurred the beast on. 'Spend your last days in the jungle you once ruled,' I said. 'Spend your last days at home.' But the tiger did not move. I backed away, wondering if my presence was making the beast hesitant. But the tiger did not move. And I realized, the tiger was already home."
He paused, still holding his eyes on the flickering of light before him. "Too long had the beast lived in the cage of its masters. Too long had the beast played a part for another."
He looked up at me then, with kind eyes that had seen too much in a very long life. "Are you certain that Jax still longs for the jungle? Are you certain that Jax is not already home?"