The Sage's Reign

by Shakyra Dunn

  “We can always retreat to another town further away,” Solus suggested. “It would give us time to recuperate, and we could figure out a plan. You do still need to explain what you discovered during your little self-motivating journey.”

  “Oh, I guess that’s true. It’s gonna be a lot.”

  Amiria took his hand, grinning up at him. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here to help explain things.” He intertwined his fingers with hers, a tender smile forming on his puckered lips. Solus found himself to be rather surprised at the girl’s forwardness towards Rem.

  Sien squinted in discontent, clearing her throat before proclaiming, “Well, let’s get a move on if we’re going to. Who knows how long it’ll be before the Order of Helix catch on that their leader fled the coop.”

  As he trailed behind the rather motivated group of three through undeveloped fields of overturned stones and moss-ridden trees, Solus cradled Leilana in his arms, the girl finally coming to upon feeling his warm contact. She wrongfully assumed that he wouldn’t notice her awakening. Curiously, he turned his head away in anticipation of her next move, chewing on dead skin on his bottom lip to remain a little more inconspicuous. She was glancing up at him off and on before covering her left eye in a poor attempt to ease his concerns. He nearly laughed, but he knew that the gesture was more serious. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her in such a battered state. Solus reacted by taking her hand, pulling it away from her face.

  “I would ask if you’re all right, but it seems that you held your own.” Leilana tiredly smiled in response and shut her eyes, holding the grimoire close. Somehow, she knew that he was keeping his eyes trained on her, even when he was pretending that she was the last thing on his mind.

  “It’s almost surreal to have this back after six months,” she told him. “The weight of the Lasette barely exists anymore. I have access to my magic again, and all the information that we need to stop Mas-…Hinju.” She covered her face, the sun’s rays scorching the cornea of her damaged left eye. “I made a mistake. I rushed right into using my magic when he tried to take it back. I should have considered using close corners skills. Maybe I wouldn’t have suffered so greatly.”

  “Try not to take it as a loss.” His fingers gently grazed over the wound, and she cringed at the contact, causing him to pull away a bit too fast. “We can handle things from here. Sien plans to do what she can to help once we reach safety. Try to remain at ease, princess.”

  Leilana frowned. “Did you just call me princess?”

  “Hey, Sol!” Rem called, catching his attention. Rem and Amiria were both staring at him, the girl standing with her arms behind her back whereas Rem had his hands on his hips, his eyes unsettled. “Everything okay back there? You started slowing down!”

  “For the most part,” he replied. “How close are we to town?”

  “Sien says just down the road!” Rem pointed towards the snowy mountaintops. “I can see it from here, right underneath the mountains!”

  “Right underneath the mountains,” Solus repeated to himself.

  For several miles now, ever since they left the rocky terrains just beyond Erican, they had been marveling at the sight of them, but now that they were so close, they were grand. The light of the afternoon sun peeped over the dark grey oversized rocks, the shimmer of frost coating them drifting away due to the light gust of wind picking up. The air around them was growing dense and frigid as they trekked a few more miles down the road. Solus wondered when the grassy plains would transform into snow right before his eyes.

  “I can walk,” Leilana piped up. “It’s not like my legs are broken.” Solus thought to retaliate, but in the end heeded her demand, allowing her to touch the ground once more.

  “Let me know if you need anything else, princess,” Solus responded, laying a hand on his chest to bow to the girl slightly. She resisted the urge to smack him.

  “Stop calling me princess,” she warned, already rushing to reunite with the others.

  Amiria hugged her thin shirt to her body. “It feels like we’ve completely skipped late fall and jumped right into early winter. Is the rest of the northern region like this?”

  Sien wasn’t overly fazed by the cold, continuing to gaze over the map. “I think it’s only like this in the regions closest to the mountains. Linarus had cold fronts during this time, but not this severe. The place where we’re headed to is called Mithra. From here, if we’re lucky enough to catch one, we’re a day-long boat ride from Kinsley.” The radio commercials were already playing in Leilana’s head again, and she withheld a groan. “Beyond there by foot, in another full day, we would reach the mining town of Nilu. And right above sits the kingdom Linmus.”

  “I can’t believe we’ve come full circle,” Rem stated. “We’re so close to home again.”

  “You got to Paluna rather fast though. It’s taken us practically a full month to travel this far, and you got there from Linmus in days. How did you manage it?” Leilana inquired.

  Solus crossed his arms, cocking his head to the left before replying, “We first arrived in Nilu two days after the castle was taken over. It was the night before the empty moon of the first month. We escaped as soon as the trouble started, and to avoid running into any enemies or being discovered by people that wanted Rem’s head, we hid in the mountains. Once everything cleared up, we stayed with a friend of Rem’s family. A man named Laikros Olen, who informed us of the castle’s state, and told us of the death of the king and queen.”

  Leilana cleared her throat. Right around the time that they were gathering information from Laikros Olen, it was likely that the news broadcasts had already gotten wind of their demise and kept broadcasting the shift in the kingdom as well as Rem’s disappearance over the course of a few days. It was entirely possible that she caught one of the last broadcasts by coincidence right before she departed for her pilgrimage.

  “Olen said that it wouldn’t be long before someone caught up to us in Nilu, so he told us to leave as soon as we could and try to plan what to do next. Rem was adamant about restoring the kingdom despite what news he had uncovered. That was set in stone.”

  “Sounds like Rem,” Sien mumbled.

  “We weren’t short of money at the time, so as soon as dawn hit, we left. We took a boat from Kinsley, then we caught a carriage the next day and rode nonstop as far away as we could get with what we had. The driver got us to Kalonia a couple of days later. We bypassed the town because we didn’t want to run the risk of anyone recognizing Remiel, and we tried to seek shelter in the closest town, which happened to be Paluna. You can probably infer how that process went.” His gaze locked on Amiria as he finished. The girl cleared her throat, hiding her face behind her hair.

  “Them’s the breaks, Solus,” Rem countered. “We have to accept things as they are. Taking our chances out there netted us some pretty good friends.”

  Leilana smirked. “And some rather formidable enemies as well.”

  “Details, excuses. Either way, I think it worked out for the better.”

  “Well, bypassing Nilu before we reach Linmus wouldn’t be the worst option, but we still need to search for the Orb of Concord,” Sien continued. “What sense would it make to go back empty-handed?”

  “Actually, we have to visit Nilu!” Rem piped up. “The moment that we settle down in Mithra, I want to talk to you all.” He briefly glanced at Leilana, who was continuing to hold her eye. The blood was drying up, leaving cracks on her exposed skin, and the cold air was doing nothing for the wound. “We can talk during the healing process and recuperation. Promise me!”

  Solus playfully rolled his eyes. “We’ll hold you to it, Remiel.”

  Isolation was the norm when dealing with other inn-goers, but huddling into a single room to escape the bitter cold? That was a new low for them all. They barely had enough money to go around after paying off their room for one night and a simple broth for dinner, and they only scavenged that due to Amiria’s last-resort savings. Though Rem wan
ted to rough it just to have a better chance at survival, Solus insisted that there was no point in trying to beat the cold.

  “I want to make sure that everyone is okay,” Amiria told him while taking his hand in both of hers. “So please, let me do what I can to help.” The burst of generosity was overbearing for Rem’s emotions, and his face became as red as the leaves on the autumn trees.

  They settled in quickly. Leilana claimed one of the two beds for the time being under Solus and Rem’s suggestions, holding a wet cloth to her stinging left eye while her good eye observed the activity in the room. Sien was in the corner of the room working on a brew composed of several herbs she gathered that would ease Leilana’s agonizing pain, laughing to herself like a madman. Rem’s eyebrows were furrowing as he watched her from the second bed—earlier, he had voiced his thoughts on how the girl managed to obtain some firewood, and why she was burning it in the room knowing that they were already short enough and couldn’t afford extra damages. Amiria blankly stared at the older girl from afar, deciding to bundle in blankets and rest her head against the cushioned floor.

  Solus returned to the room after acquiring more blankets and a few pillows, closing the door behind him by kicking it, the wood creaking before gently shutting. His head was practically buried under the collection of soft fabrics, and Leilana giggled, covering her mouth with her right hand in a poor attempt to hide them. “All right, I think this should hold us for the night. Luckily, the inn manager was generous enough to spare them.”

  Rem rose from his spot to assist him, and Solus responded by tossing one of the pillows in the young prince’s face. Rubbing his nose, Rem scrambled to retrieve the falling pillow before smacking his attendant across the back with it the moment that he turned the other cheek. Solus nearly dropped the remainder of the fabrics in the process, tossing them onto the bed where Rem once sat, one pillow in his hand. Within seconds, they were embroiled in a pillow-style fight to the death, and feathers were scattered across the room. Nobody had the heart to stop them.

  Amiria smiled softly. It was rare to unwind in the world’s current state, especially for those that shouldered the most burdens. From the beginning, these two young men were ensnared in chaos that struck their home, ripped from their prosperous lives, and entangled of their own volition in a war that became bigger than either of them to handle. As more people became involved in the destruction, others came to their aide by coincidence or fate. Was meeting Rem a coincidence? Or were they meant to walk this line as one, and she chose to defy it far too late?

  It was a few minutes and a full-blown mess before Rem and Solus settled down, Rem taking a place at Leilana’s bedside while Solus sat on the floor in front of the second bed and allowed Amiria to have the cushioning under her. Rem crossed his arms, seemingly gathering his thoughts.

  “You can begin anywhere,” Leilana told him. “We don’t mind half-tales.”

  “It’s not going to be a half-tale because this is important,” he countered.

  “Pick a place and stick with it,” Solus responded.

  “I guess I’ll start with what happened after I left. All I remember is packing up and leaving the hotel, and then Leilana showed up to stop me. I remember yelling, I remember a lot of bloodshed in between, and after that, it’s a blur.” Rem sighed, folding his hands. “Leilana, I’m sorry. I’ve caused you more damage than you deserved, not just then, but on numerous occasions. And I won’t ask you to forgive me.”

  Sien stood up, holding a steaming mug that emanated a repulsive, earthy odor. Leilana’s nose twitched, and she inhaled slowly before looking to Rem. “Rem, I’m used to your outbursts by now. It was my own fault for jumping headfirst into your problems. These wounds I’ve garnered are my own to bear.” She rested a hand on the grimoire at her side, smiling delicately. “And to me, every battle has been worth it, because I’ve grown due to them.”

  Rem smirked at her resolve before laying a hand on the girl’s head, taking the mug from Sien to pass off, sensing the redhead’s budding impatience. “You’re tougher than I thought.”

  Leilana carefully grasped the mug’s handle with both hands, peering inside. Swirling around was a leaf-green mush that rivaled the thickness of moss. Deciding after a few mental debates that this was for her own good, she put the brew up to her lips, her eyes widening. She could still taste plant roots, greenery, and spices that were doing nothing to veil the backwater slime trailing down her throat. She was quick to cover her mouth with one hand, nearly gagging.

  Sien was bouncing in her spot despite her clear disappointment. “Not good?”

  “Terrible…” Leilana belched, swallowing the still-unsettling mixture before handing the mug to Rem, who was happy to rid of it after seeing what nearly caused her to double over.

  “Medicine isn’t supposed to be good, you know,” Sien joked.

  “I don’t think the taste should kill someone either,” Rem mumbled. Solus picked up the mug to taste some of the concoction for himself, smacking his lips once before shrugging lightly. Leilana was baffled. He didn’t bat an eyelash at the disgusting mixture.

  “Uh, good?” Sien asked.

  “Rather acquired,” Solus implied. “Continue with your story, Rem.”

  “Anyways, after I left, I called Amiria. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to involve her in my problems, but she was happy to oblige. I am grateful for it.” Amiria beamed. “We met up in Ocula earlier today, and she took me to a place called Anthea to pray at-”

  “Queen Helesa’s tomb,” Solus breathed. “I can’t believe you discovered it.” He grasped Rem’s shoulders, shaking the young prince back and forth. “How could you visit such a place without me?!” Rem nervously chuckled. Not surprising, the scholar seeking to explore a ruin. “Tell me all about it!”

  “It was a winding flight of stairs, and the tomb was guarded by a barrier. The first time I tried, they nearly sent me to Hell, literally. There was nothing but pitch darkness under my feet. I was able to pick myself up, and I got through by talking the Warlords of Old down. After we entered the shrine, Amiria sang to get me to focus my mind and inquire more about the Orb of Concord, the Order of Helix… even a little more about myself.”

  “What did you see?” Solus asked.

  “My parents.”

  “Your parents?” Sien repeated. “Did that go well?”

  “I think it went all right.” A soft smile formed on his face. “It gave me insight on their actions. They isolated me because they wanted to give me a fair chance to prepare for the future. They didn’t want other people to know the truth about my origins, and looking back, I wish that I was the wiser and came to understand why they chose that path. At the same time, I needed freedom, and I had to steal it for myself. Without those escapes, I never would have met Solus.”

  Solus laid a firm hand on Rem’s shoulder, exchanging no words. There was no reason to speak. It was clear from the beginning of their friendship that his relationship with his parents was strained, and it was hard for him to accept that he couldn’t spend time with them. To have them swept away from him through a blanket of flames threw him into a state of confusion. Was he supposed to feel discontent? Heartbroken, numb? Either way, seeing them now, after they’d long since passed, was a blessing in disguise.

  Leilana crossed her arms, her head bobbing from left to right for a few seconds. Rem eyed her movements but quickly found that the sensation was making his stomach bounce and turned away until she spoke, “So, your parents came to you at Helesa’s shrine. It may have been due to their connection with the Warlords. Your mother was an Arcana, and your father is a descendant of Helesa herself.”

  “So, she was a ruler,” Rem mumbled. Amiria nodded.

  “That alone has bound you to her, and to the other Warlords.” Rem didn’t appear too appeased. More and more, he was garnering responsibility on his small shoulders, and Leilana could tell from the glint of concern in his eyes that he was growing tired of adding more to his already bubbling mixture.
Lowering her head in the declaration of changing the subject, she piped up, “What happened next?”

  Rem’s expression shifted to an enigmatic gesture, his hands firmly on his knees, his hair slightly covering his eyes. “The Warlords of Old told me about the Orb of Concord. It’s in Nilu.”

  Solus was in the middle of taking another sip of the medicine due to overwhelming thirst, coughing up the mixture upon hearing the words. Sien stepped up to him, patting him on the back as he set to regaining himself, setting the mug on the nightstand. “Nilu?”

  “We were there. It was right under our noses from the very beginning, and we would never have known,” Rem told him.

  Solus patted his chest a few times once his coughing fit had come to a halt. “All this time.”

  “And Ennis Erovina helped us to gather that intel without knowing about our plight. The pieces have lined up now more than ever.” Leilana, Sien, and Amiria didn’t want to butt into the now two-sided conversation.

  “Sounds like we have a plan then,” Solus stated, catching them all off guard. Rem was grinning, frantically nodding his head.

  “What? When did you guys even formulate a plan? It’s only been twenty seconds since you started talking,” Sien whined. “Why did you decide on one without us?”

  “I’m wondering if they have some sort of psychic connection that enables them to think of plans without speaking,” Leilana began. “The friendship between boys can be befuddling.”

  “We need a bond like that, Leidibug!” Sien proclaimed, wrapping her arms around the girl’s shoulders, rocking her back and forth. “We can’t let them have dominating love over us!”

  Amiria raised an eyebrow at the sight. Though it was strange to watch the two girls rekindle their friendship, she felt out of the loop. She took to fiddling with the flower entangled in her hair. The texture was becoming rough, the leaves beginning to wilt. Her fingertips became enamored in a silken glow, restoring the flower back to a renewed state.