I shook my head and laughed. “Your wish is my command.”
“That’s right!” she crowed triumphantly. “Don’t you ever forget it!” With a wicked cackle, she skipped back towards camp, pausing at my side to plant a quick kiss on my cheek. “I love you, Lux.”
“And I love you, Lia,” I answered, looping my arm with hers as we began our walk back.
She sighed contentedly and tipped her face up towards the rising sun. “You know,” she started after a few moments of silence, “I haven’t slept in over a day.” The statement somehow evoked a long, loud yawn to illustrate her point. “I think I’ll fix that.”
We reached the wagon together just as the Corells were preparing to leave, and we all piled into the back apart from Marin, who had chosen to drive for the day. I sat on the floor across from Hana and Marten, allowing Lia the space to stretch out on a bedroll with her head in my lap. My fingers ran through her hair and scratched her scalp in slow circles, and she quickly faded into a deep sleep.
“Hana, about our conversation earlier,” I started when I was certain Lia was well and truly unconscious. I spoke in a hushed tone, which instantly seemed to clue Hana in to my intentions. “I thought now might be a good time to talk about...all that stuff.”
Her rounded, fuzzy ears perked up as she leaned forward excitedly. “Of course!” she whispered, matching my volume level. “Are you sure she’s asleep, though?” I nodded, and she clapped her hands softly. “Okay. I think the best place to start would be with—”
“What are we whispering about?” Marten asked without making any effort to whisper. Hana whirled around to slap his knee and hissed something too quietly for me to hear, and he held up his hands defensively. “Alright!” he whispered, his eyes wide and flashing with a twinkle of amusement.
When she turned back to face me, Hana’s face was all smiles and excitement once again. “Right. Where were we?”
“I believe we were at the beginning,” I quipped, bringing a grin to both of our faces.
“The beginning,” she mused. “In Kaldan, marriage is a holy ceremony. It is traditionally performed in a cathedral, by a priest of the Unity Church. The specifics of the ceremony aren’t important right now, and I’m not sure I would be able to give you the most accurate accounting of them. It’s been a long time since our wedding.”
“Twenty-nine years,” Marten chimed in cautiously. “Twenty-nine lovely years.”
She nodded and gave him an appreciative smile. “It was one of the happiest days of my life. I can remember the feeling vividly, but the details of the day are...foggy, at best. We wore the traditional sash and vest in the Primals’ colors, and we gave our offerings to the eight Primes in the Blessing Rites. There was music, and singing, and...dancing?” Her eyes stared straight through me as she watched the past play out before her, and she laughed longingly. “Primes, we were so young.”
As she reminisced, I took the moment to reflect on the new information. Marriage traditions had a fascinating level of overlap between the worlds I had lived in: traditional formal attire, promises made before the various gods, and always a fair amount of revelry. While memories of my first life were fragmented and hard to draw upon, I knew I had attended multiple ceremonies that fit the description. Conversely, I had never attended a wedding in Hedaat, having avoided the topic entirely, but multiple visits to the city center had taken me past a wedding shop that prominently displayed garish dresses and gargantuan layered cakes in its front windows.
A smile spread across my face as my thoughts drifted to my own wedding in Alderea. Despite the lifetime of suffering that separated me from the ceremony, I could recall the smallest details with such clarity that they were practically visible around me.
I stood in the shadow of our favorite tree as the sun began to disappear beyond the horizon. Rastor stood to my right, his massive, muscled body somehow constrained within a suit coat and formal pants that were clearly multiple sizes too small. A hobbled old man stood to my left, holding a leather-bound tome that appeared to be as ancient as he was. A tiny pair of glasses wobbled on the bridge of his overshadowing nose as he deliberately thumbed through his book. Thick, white eyebrows threatened to completely obscure his sunken eyes, bobbing up and down as he scanned the pages before him.
My heart began to flutter wildly as the sound of wooden flutes floated out of a small tent at the bottom of the hill. The flaps were pulled aside from within, and I beheld Amaya in the most beautiful white dress I had ever seen. Her golden hair flowed back behind her shoulders in intricately adorned braids as she took a step forward. Our eyes met, and a vibrant smile spread across her face. A gust of wind blew across—
“Lux?” A gentle tap on my knee woke me from my daydreams, and I was suddenly back in the Corells’ wagon. “Lux,” Hana asked again, “are you alright?”
“Yes,” I answered apologetically, shaking away the memory. “I was just...remembering.”
She gave me a knowing smile. “Of course.”
“Thank you for the information,” I continued, “it’s been very helpful so far. I’m not sure when it will be useful, but it will be. Hopefully sooner rather than later.”
Her head tilted to the side, and she raised one eyebrow. “You don’t think we’re finished, do you?” She covered her mouth as she tried to stifle a giggle. “That was just the beginning. You still have a lot to learn.”
***
6. OLD FRIENDS
Our trip to Mayaan felt markedly different from our journey to the Mountain Gate. Without the constant threat of pursuit and the looming uncertainty of what we would find at our destination, the air within the wagon was permeated with relief and relaxation. We traveled at a significantly slower speed with plenty of long breaks to appreciate our beautiful surroundings and enjoy each other’s company. Lia and I took a long-overdue turn to drive the wagon on our second day of travel, savoring the chance to feel the wind on faces that were no longer on wanted posters. Our leisurely pace knocked us off track to reach Mayaan within two days, and we were forced to camp outside for an extra night.
Marten explained his plan for when we reached the city the following morning. “I’ve got an old merchant friend who lives in Mayaan,” he told us as we ate the last of our trail rations for dinner. “She moved there about...how long has it been, dear? Twelve years ago? Thirteen?”
“Thirteen,” Hana agreed. “I haven’t seen Elise in a long time.”
“Aunt Ellie!” Lia exclaimed suddenly. “Aunt Ellie lives in Mayaan?!”
“She certainly does!” Marten answered. “I went to visit her a few years back after a delivery to the Mountain Gate. She had always run a successful business back in Kaldan, but her company really took off once she moved to Lybesa. I’ve never seen so many company wagons in one place!” He laughed, pausing for a moment to sip on his tin cup of ale. “If anybody can help us out, it’ll be Elise.”
Lia grabbed my hand and squeezed it, looking up at me with childlike excitement. “Aunt Ellie is the best! She always used to bring me presents from other countries whenever she would come visit.” She bounced enthusiastically beside me on the rock we shared as a bench. “I haven’t seen her since I was a kid!”
“It sounds like it should be a nice reunion for everyone,” I said, scanning the happy faces around the small campfire. “Plus, working with an established trading company should make building a new home a lot easier.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Marten grinned. “All in all, we should be well on our way to building our new lives in Lybesa by this time tomorrow.”
“Good,” Marin stated. “Not that I haven’t enjoyed traveling with you all, but I can’t go much longer without a big meal and a soft bed.” Marten and Hana laughed, and I scratched my stomach in silent agreement.
“Oh, I can’t wait!” Lia hummed, nestling her head into my shoulder. The feeling of anticipation buzzed like static electricity throughout the camp, but our group slowly dispersed one by one in search of sleep until
Lia and I were the only ones remaining at the fireside. “I guess I should go to bed too,” she said sleepily, making no move to follow through on the thought.
“Mhmm,” I agreed, nuzzling the top of her head. “The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner you get to see your Aunt Ellie.”
She reached up over her head and grabbed the edge of my cloak, nearly vanishing inside against my chest as she pulled it around her shoulders. “She’s not actually my aunt, that’s just what my parents call her. I think they’ve been friends since before I was born.”
“I see,” I murmured, looking down at her with a touch of amusement. “You’re planning on sleeping out here tonight, aren’t you?”
“I’m too comfy to move.”
“That’s okay. I appreciate the company.” I took a few deep breaths and prepared to start my watch for the evening. “Goodnight, Lia.”
She gave my hand a squeeze and let out a long, satisfied sigh. “Goodnight.”
I closed my eyes, and the world sprang to life in vivid neon color around me. As my mana rushed out in all directions I was surprised that, even after two days of travel, all I could see was the endless forest of emberwood trees. Marin had explained that the forest covered over a quarter of Lybesa, and despite the massive lumber industry, it never seemed to shrink. According to her, emberwood was highly sought after for all manner of construction products due to both its high strength-to-weight ratio and its remarkably efficient insulative properties. I had seen evidence of logging camps, and small sections of forest that had been recently cut and replanted, but they hardly seemed impactful against the hundreds of miles of dense tree cover.
“Lux?” Lia’s voice asked, small and far away.
I cracked open one eye and peered down at her. “Yes?”
“Are you happy?”
“Of course I’m…” I started, then paused. After fighting off the reflexive instinct to blindly reassure her, I took a moment to truly consider the question before responding. I am happy...when was the last time I could say that? “For the first time since I lived in Alderea, I feel like I have my feet on solid ground. I can take a breath without worrying if it’ll be my last one. I have people around me that I care about, and who care about me, too. I want to see tomorrow again.” I smiled as I reflected on the life I had fought so hard to find. “I’m happy, Lia. For the first time in a long time, I’m really happy.”
“That’s good,” she answered, patting me lightly on the chest. I waited for her to follow up on the question, but it quickly became apparent that she had fallen back asleep with her lips curled in the faint remnants of a smile. I couldn’t help but laugh and hold her a bit tighter against me. Slipping back into my meditative trance, I pushed my attention out from my body to observe the surrounding landscape all at once. There was an immense rush through my mind as a million individual dots of life shifted into focus at once, and I flitted from light to light as they moved.
My attention settled on a skulk of what looked to be giant foxes, each nearly the size of a wolf. They crept through the tall grasses between the trees, carefully encircling a pair of yearlings. Without any apparent signal, they all pounced at once, sailing up through the air from their hiding spots and catching the deer unaware. The twin green lights of the yearlings quickly faded as the skulk finished their synchronous kills and settled in to feast. A quick flash of energy a few miles to the south drew my focus, and the majestic form of an owl appeared all at once as its talons sunk into the back of a mouse, both of which quickly disappeared from sight a moment later.
The teeming life within the forest provided me with an endless array of stories to watch, and I felt the warmth of the rising sun on my face before I had a chance to consider how much time had passed. Lia shifted for the first time as the light roused her, stretching her arms out from beneath the tightly bundled cloak. A small squeak escaped her lips as her eyes opened, and she looked side to side as her brain gradually woke up and began to process the information. “Mmmph,” she grunted eventually, burying her face behind my cloak.
“Good morning to you too,” I chuckled, opening my eyes. “You know, hiding from the sun won’t make it go away.”
A weak punch glanced off of my armor as she grunted again. “You don’t know that.”
I stood and pulled away the cloak with a quick flourish. Lia covered her eyes with her arm and yelped as she toppled backwards off of the rock, landing in the grass with a dull thud. Before I had a chance to laugh, a flurry of legs and feet flew out at my shins, and I felt the edge of her boot scrape my greaves as I dodged backwards. She landed her spin in a crouch and lunged forward while I was off balance, hooking her foot behind my heel as she pressed against my opposite shoulder. I knew I had already lost before I started to fall, so I grabbed her under the shoulders and pulled her along with me.
We collapsed in a heap beside the fire pit, each of us flailing in an attempt to gain leverage over the other. After a few seconds of struggling, I realized I couldn’t shake out of her pin, and I flopped back into the grass in defeat. “Well, you win. Feel better now?”
“A bit,” she giggled, kissing me on the forehead. “Although I have to admit, I’d still rather be asleep with y—”
A loud squeak interrupted her thought, and we both turned just in time to see Hana dive out of sight behind the wagon. Marten’s head poked out of the flaps and looked around for the source of the disturbance. “Darling, where did you…” he trailed off as his eyes scanned over the camp and found us entangled together on the ground, and a playful grin appeared on his face. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?”
Lia’s face flushed, and she threw herself backwards as she attempted to sputter out an excuse. “No! Nothing! We weren’t, uhm, I was just...uhm, just waking up, and—”
“Good morning!” I called out loudly, sitting up and giving Marten a wave. “Lia was just telling me how she would rather be—”
“Stop it!” Lia yelled, struggling to her feet. I burst into laughter, and Marten followed suit soon after. After inarguably losing our first skirmish of the morning, my small act of playful revenge felt even sweeter. I stood and put my hand on her shoulder, and her glare told me she was considering whether or not she would allow the contact. Eventually she sighed, and a small smile graced her face as she shook her head.
“Why is everybody yelling so loud? It’s too early for that,” Marin yelled loudly as she appeared from the back of the wagon.
“Oh good, you’re up!” Marten greeted her. “It’s time for us to get going. Seeing as we’re out of food, our next meal is waiting for us in Mayaan, and I’d like to find it as soon as possible.”
Marin rubbed her eyes and frowned. “I feel like I didn’t need to be woken up for that.” She disappeared back into the wagon as the rest of us prepared to leave. I kicked dirt over the last remnants of our fire, then followed Lia and Hana into the wagon as Marten climbed up to the driver’s bench. After a few hard bumps, we made it back to the main road, and the final leg of our trip began.
Lia filled the hours of our journey with stories of Elise from her childhood. A majority of the memories were focused around the gifts Elise would bring on her visits: Lia’s favorite doll that she carried with her wherever she went, her first fancy dress that she refused to take off for four days, and, when she was old enough, a fitted saddle for Marten’s workhorse so she could learn to ride, much to her parents’ chagrin. Hana chimed in with additional details to round out the stories, and I listened with rapt interest as I learned more about Lia’s formative years.
An image of the town of Mayaan began to form through my Detection long before Marten called out our approach. It seemed as though the outskirts of the town started at some unmarked border within the forest of emberwood trees, based on the sudden appearance of homesteads hidden down winding paths that branched off from the main road. The forest ended abruptly a few miles ahead, replaced with plowed farmlands that ran directly to the edge of the treeline. An organized town
ship took shape at the opposite edge of the farmland, separated into a neat grid containing markets, housing, and industrial sections. While it was nowhere near as large as Yoria or Atsal, the city I saw in my head looked large enough to support a few thousand people.
The telltale switch from packed earth to cobblestone road beneath our wagon’s wheels alerted Marin and Hana that we had reached the city proper, and the excitement that had been simmering in the back of the wagon reached its boiling point. Lia jumped up and stuck her head out through the wagon flaps, bouncing with anticipation as she scanned our new surroundings. Marin disappeared behind a stacked wall of crates, having decided last minute to change into what she determined to be more presentable clothes.
Lia hopped out of the wagon as soon as Marten brought it to a halt at our destination. The building before us looked like a large, modified barn; it had multiple doors along the side wall large enough for trading caravans to pass through, all of which led into a massive, open storeroom full of two-story shelves and palettes stocked with goods. Parallel stairways on either side of the space lead up to a top floor composed of bunkrooms, offices, and break rooms, most of which were full of employees. The front door led to a small lobby, which had doors to both the work floor and the upstairs offices behind a reception desk. An ornate sign was attached to the wall above the front door, labeled with Lybesian print and depicting a stack of three barrels in a red circle.
While Lia joined her father as he entered the building, I waited in the back of the wagon for the rest of our party. Marin emerged from her makeshift changing booth a few seconds later, wearing a familiar red and white sundress from Lia’s box of clothes. “Oh, that’s so much better!” she said, admiring the dress as she twirled in a circle. “Now, let’s go meet this friend of yours so we can get something to eat!”
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 12
