I was vaguely aware of Lia’s voice ringing in my ears, but I had lost the ability to focus on anything apart from the presence inside my head. My vision faded to pinpoints, and I collapsed forward against Lia. In a hundred trillion lifetimes, there’s never been anybody else like you, Elden. Kel’s voice continued to speak as I lost consciousness, reverberating through the darkness. Someday, you’ll realize what you’re truly capable of.
***
5. A LOT TO LEARN
“Okay, loverboy, I didn’t ask for your life story,” Kel sighed, rolling her eyes.
“You asked!” I huffed indignantly. “You asked where I’m from!”
“Yes, and then you started rambling about your beautiful wife who waits for you every day, with hope in her heart and a blush on her maiden cheeks,” she mocked.
I scowled at her, then looked at Jarut. “Back me up here. I don't talk like that, right?”
Jarut pursed his lips and turned his attention to the parade of military units moving down the road beside us, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “Erm...you do tend to go on about Amaya whenever possible.”
My jaw dropped, and I fell back into the grass with a displeased grunt. My companions both burst into laughter, which drew a flush to my cheeks. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” I waited until the laughs had died down to suppressed giggles, then sat up again. “So, I already know Jarut’s story. What about you? Where are you from? Why are you here?”
Kel raised an eyebrow. “The King ‘took notice of my extraordinary abilities and extended the honor of serving in his most esteemed elite battalion.’” She sat quietly for a moment with a dark smirk. “So yeah, I was drafted, same as you.”
Jarut laughed, but I was less amused as I remembered the circumstances of my summoning. “As for the where of it,” she continued, “I’m from up north in the Solaar Mountains. Little place called Mora’s Hamlet. Maybe...sixty people, total?”
“If you were really that far out of the way, how did the King come to hear about you?” I asked.
She puffed out her chest. “When you’re the best fighter the North has seen in a hundred years, word gets around.”
I snorted. “Sure.”
In a flash she sprang to her feet, her eyes narrowed to slits as she watched me with cold amusement. “Care to find out for yourself?”
A wide grin spread across my face as I stood to face her. “I’d love to.”
“Could we maybe not do this?” Jarut asked, somewhere between annoyance and amusement. “You two just met half an hour ago. Is this really necessary?”
“Fighting is the best way—” Kel and I said in unison before pausing, both of us surprised by the other.
Jarut groaned. “Clearly you two are going to be fast friends. That, or you’ll end up killing each other. Either way, it makes my life easier.” He waved us off away from our spot by the road, grinning as he rolled his eyes. “Go on. Get it over with.”
We jogged out to a flat spot between the rolling hills around us and took up positions a few yards apart. “Usual sparring rules? Enhancements and all?”
“Obviously,” Kel answered, drawing a pair of daggers.
I heard the telltale beginnings of battlefield chanting and smirked. The runes along the length of my sword flashed in unison, and I closed the distance between us in a headlong charge. My bullrush caught her off guard, and her dodge was too slow to avoid a rising slash to her side. I let out a whoop of triumph and pumped my fist in the air. “That’s the best that Mora’s Hamlet has to offer?”
“You cheated!” she accused, rubbing her ribs.
“I’m sure that argument will go over well with the man that kills you in the field because you were too busy chanting,” I teased.
She growled under her breath and shook her head, but failed to offer a comeback. “Again,” she barked, waving me away. As I walked back to my position, I heard her chanting again and knew my surprise opening wouldn’t work again.
We clashed four more times, and each time I found myself on the losing end. Her daggers moved with a speed I had never encountered before and always redirected my strikes with an unbelievable level of ease. Our last bout ended with her knee on my chest, holding me against the ground with a dagger at my throat. I shouted in frustration and threw my sword away, tapping her boot in surrender.
“You’re not bad for a country boy,” she smirked, her shoulder-length black hair dangling down into my face. Hopping to her feet, she extended a hand down to help me up, which I begrudgingly accepted. “It’s nice to meet you, Elden.”
Despite my surface level frustration at losing, I felt a deep tingle of excitement at the prospect of training with the woman who had so thoroughly bested me. “It’s nice to meet you, Kel,” I replied, brushing the dirt from my back.
“Seems we’ll be working together for a while.”
“Seems that way.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re a quick study,” she laughed, clapping me on the shoulder before heading back to where we had left Jarut. “You’ve got a lot to learn.”
---
I woke up with a gasp and threw myself forward, which immediately brought my already aching forehead into contact with a wooden crate. The sudden commotion was met with a chorus of surprised yells, and I fell backwards into Lia’s waiting arms. She lowered my head gently back into her lap as I fought to focus my mind and vision. “Ow,” I said eventually, rubbing my forehead.
“Oh, thank the Primes you’re okay!” Marin exclaimed, peering down at me from the crate I had headbutted. “I was so scared when Lia brought you back unconscious.”
“That is unfortunately a much more common occurrence than you might think,” I chuckled dryly. “Thanks for the concern, though. I feel like shit, but I’ll be fine.” I let my head loll back against Lia’s stomach. “How long was I out?”
“Only a few minutes,” she answered, pushing a stray lock of hair out of my face. “We just crossed through the second gate in Lybesa.”
The statement puzzled me for a moment, and I realized with some dismay that I hadn’t planned any further ahead than breaching the Mountain Gate. “That’s...good. Did they give you any trouble?”
Marin shook her head. “I told them we had just passed through the gate when everything exploded, and they let us through without any hassle. They were a lot more concerned with a potential invasion from Kaldan than what we had in our wagon.”
“Small blessings,” I mused. “Where are we going now?”
“Marten’s driving again,” she replied, turning to stare through the cloth barrier between us and the driver's bench, “but I’m not exactly sure where to. He said he didn’t want to wait around for the Kaldan army to come find us, so we’re doing some night travel.”
“That’s good,” I nodded, sending a dull throb of pain through my head. With Lia’s help, I moved up into a sitting position, which gave me line of sight across the wagon to where Hana sat. “Are you alright, Hana?”
She gave me a quick nod. “Yes, we’re all perfectly fine,” she answered. “It was difficult to stay hidden inside while everyone else was taking such a risk for us. We managed to peek outside after Marin told us we were through the gate…” she trailed off, averting her eyes and fidgeting her hands nervously in her lap.
My head was too thick with fog to pull any meaning from the gestures, so I slumped back into Lia’s lap with a smile and closed my eyes. “I’m glad everybody is safe.” As my bodily aches began to register in my mind once again, I pulled on my mana to quiet them and noted with relief that the energy responded without delay. “I think I’ll sleep well tonight.”
Lia giggled. “You can sleep for as long as you’d like. I think you’ve earned it.”
I shook my head. “No, no. Wake me up at dawn, if I’m still asleep by then. I don’t want to miss our trip through a foreign country, right?”
“Right,” she agreed, patting my head as I repositioned myself for sleep.
“Lux,” Marin
started with sudden urgency, “thank you for saving me. Again. When I saw all of the soldiers on the wall, I couldn’t imagine us getting through...but we did.”
I flashed a sleepy smile. “Thank you for your bravery. We couldn’t have made it through without you, either.” My consciousness immediately began to fade into sleep, and the last thing I heard was Lia’s laugh as Marin spun away in a huff and moved across the wagon to sit with Hana.
---
Lia roused me with a gentle shake at first light, and I awoke with a much calmer head. The wagon, now empty apart from the two of us, was stopped. “Good morning,” Lia greeted me, lifting my head to plant a kiss on my forehead. “How’re you feeling?”
Unsure of the answer myself, I did a quick scan of my body and was pleasantly surprised to find my previous aches and pains long gone. “Good,” I replied eventually. “Really good, actually.” I sat up and stretched my arms above my head. “What about you?”
“I’m feeling fine,” she answered with a smile. “Maybe a bit tired, but seeing as I kept watch last night, that’s sort of expected.”
“I’m sure we can find a good time for you to take a nap today. I’m hoping the rest of this trip will be nice and relaxing.” I stood to make my way out of the wagon, but Lia caught my arm as she rose behind me.
“Before we go, there’s something I’m curious about,” she asked. I nodded for her to continue, and she took a deep breath. “When I picked you up after you, uhm, opened the gate, you were acting really strangely. You seemed really confused about what was happening, and your speech was...off.”
“Oh, that,” I said with a small sigh of relief. “I think it was the same thing that happened to me in Attetsia, just before we went out on our raid. I’ve been thinking of it as mana withdrawals; if you use a sudden burst of energy that your body isn’t accustomed to, it has a hard time getting back to normal. This one was a lot worse than Attetsia, though. Nausea, headache, lack of focus, muscle pain, decreased coordination: you name it, I had it.”
She giggled. “That makes a lot of sense. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve said you were drunk.” We both shared a laugh at the idea. “You were slurring your words and staring off at the mountains, but then you were suddenly fixated on not letting me stop the guards on the bridge. When I tried to explain what had happened, you just passed out.” The amusement drained from my face when I remembered the moment in question, and she noticed the change in expression immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s...nothing,” I lied, shaking my head.
Her eyes narrowed. “No, it’s not nothing.”
I sighed and pulled the Strength’s gauntlets off, stashing them in a nearby crate before pulling the cloth glove from my right hand. “It’s this,” I confessed, looking at the black scars that covered my hand. I suddenly became aware of the volume of my voice, and lowered it to a whisper. “I still don’t understand what this is, and I continually find out more things I don’t know about it all the time. I promise I’ll explain everything eventually, but could we just...table it, for now? We don’t really have time for a full explanation, and I don’t want to give you a bad summary that makes you worry more.”
“I’m always going to worry about you,” she said, resting her forehead lightly against my chest. I quickly slipped my hand behind my back until I could put my glove back on, unwilling to touch her with my marked hand. “But,” she continued, drawing out the word with a playful inflection, “I promise I won’t worry more than normal.”
I chuckled and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks, Lia.” A sudden metallic clang followed by muffled laughter drew our attention to the back flap of the wagon. “Alright. Today marks the beginning of our first adventure together. Are you ready to see the world?”
She returned my hug tightly around my waist, then spun and dashed to the exit. “I’ve been waiting all morning!” she shouted as she disappeared through the flaps without looking back.
I followed her out at a leisurely pace and was surprised when I bumped into her just on the other side of the flaps. “Lia, what are you...woah.” My question was immediately answered as I looked past her at our surroundings. The wagon was parked a few dozen yards away from a cobblestone road, mostly obscured by a thick forest made up of enormous trees. Each one stood at least forty feet high and eight feet in diameter with rich, chocolate-colored bark. The treetops were a rippling sea of fiery red as the round, crimson leaves danced in the morning breeze. Despite being only a few hours from the gate, I could barely see the mountain range we had passed through over the towering grove of trees to the east.
“Good morning!” Marten called out to us as we gaped at the beautiful landscape. “Lux, I’m happy to see you up and about! I thought you might be sleeping for the next few days, based on your track record.”
I shook my head, grinning. “No, I’m afraid you’ll be stuck with my snarky comments for the whole trip.” I joined them at our camp in the small clearing and accepted a warmed piece of hardtack with asperberry jam from Marin. “Speaking of which, where exactly are we going? I didn’t really have much of a plan for once we were through the Mountain Gate.”
“Well, lucky for you, I did have a plan for that,” he shot back, giving me a wave over his shoulder as he walked to the side of the wagon. He had a map spread out against the cart when I joined him; the scroll was tattered and yellow around the edges, with random scribbles and circles over various points on what I could only assume was a detailed picture of Lybesa. The labels for various landmarks and cities were written in the country’s native language which, although familiar, was still unreadable to me.
He poked his finger at a large red circle at the base of a mountain range. “We’re...here. Just outside of the Mountain Gate. And we want to go…” he trailed off, tracing his finger along the road to a town circled in blue, “here, about two easy days away. A town called Mayn, if I remember correctly.”
There was a sharp laugh from behind us, and Marin skipped her way over to our huddle. “It’s pronounced Mayaan,” she instructed him, emphasizing the latter half of the name. “Your Lybesian is a bit rusty, Marten.”
“That’s because I don’t speak Lybesian,” he said pointedly. “I’ve only been here a few times in my life, and everybody I worked with spoke Kaldanic. Never seemed important to learn.”
“It never seemed—” she sputtered, unable to finish her sentence. “There’s an entire country’s worth of business next door, and you never thought it might be helpful to learn to speak the language?!”
“Well, I, erm, it never came up,” he answered, flustered. He looked around nervously for a moment before his face lit up as an idea came to him. “That’s one of the many things that makes you so valuable as a business partner! Now that we’re working together, our business opportunities span across three different countries!” He flashed a toothy smile, clearly satisfied with his recovery.
“Oh, so we ARE business partners after all?” she countered loudly. I silently excused myself from the conversation as they continued to bicker back and forth, chuckling quietly. Joining Hana by the tiny campfire, I settled down and took another bite of my breakfast.
“You know, Lia, we could—” I started, realizing halfway through my thought that Lia was no longer in camp. “Hana, you wouldn’t happen to know where Lia went, would you?”
“She wandered off as soon as I gave her some breakfast,” she laughed, pointing off behind the wagon. “Somewhere in that direction, I think.”
“I’ll go track her down,” I replied. A quick pulse of Detection placed her only a few dozen yards away in the direction Hana had indicated, obscured by a line of trees. She was crouched next to one of the giant trunks, delicately observing a patch of flowers growing in the shade. I brushed by a similar plant as I made my way towards her through the clearing; the petals drooped like a mass of coiled springs from a fuzzy central bulb, all colored in bright yellows and oranges. They emitted a pleasant perfume that, mixed with the
dewy morning air, nearly made me forget we had just traveled through heavy snow for a week.
“It’s so beautiful here,” she said before I came into view. “I’m not sure if it’s because of everything we’ve gone through recently, but Lybesa just feels more magical than Kaldan ever did. More...wonderful.”
“We’ve been here for less than a day. Imagine what we’ll find tomorrow, or next week, or next year,” I smiled. “I’ve got to admit, your father was right. Lybesa is beautiful this time of year.”
She hopped forward and landed gracefully in front of me, placing her hands on my shoulders. “Next year, huh?” A coy smile spread across her face. “So you’re planning to be here a while?”
“I’m here for as long as you are,” I answered. “Once we get your parents set up in their new home, we’re free to do whatever we want. We could explore the rest of Lybesa, head north to the Doramese mountains, find our own place to live, whatever you want. I owe you some adventures, after all.”
She laced her fingers together behind my neck and pulled herself in closer. “Our own place to live?”
“Did you plan on living with your parents for the rest of your life?” I laughed. “Even the greatest adventurers need a place to call home. Plus, that’s sort of an adventure of its own, don’t you think? Finding the perfect place, getting the materials, building it all by hand,” I listed dreamily, lost in the amber reflecting pools of her eyes, “maybe with a garden, and a little shed for blacksmithing.”
“And a pond to splash around in during the summer,” she added, “and a big sparring ring.”
I leaned forward and pressed the tip of my nose against hers. “Is that what you want?”
Her eyelashes caught on mine as she blinked rapidly and tilted her face upwards. Just as I closed my eyes for a kiss, she dashed away and left me standing awkwardly by myself. Standing a few feet away, she leaned forward with her hands behind her back and an impish smirk curling her lips. “I think that’s what you want,” she teased. “You’ll have to wait and see if that’s what I want.”
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 11
