The vampire stared at me. “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m—” I paused. Was I really sure? Yes, everything made sense, but everything also had a lot of anger directing it. Was I actually being logical about my assertions here?
“Luna … Luna doesn’t think Singer-Lady betrayed us.” The elf’s voice shook.
“But things add up a different way,” I whispered. And then I sighed. “Fine, let’s forget about that, and focus on the situation at hand. Have you thought of a way to get out of here?”
The tent’s flap opened, and someone stepped in. I turned around, and a knee rammed into my chest. I collapsed to the floor, gasping—my health went down to thirty percent.
“That’s for breaking out of prison.” Another kick landed against my shins—against my still healing leg. I heard a gentle crack, and I yelled out in pain. “And that was for taking the princess with you.”
My eyes arched up. “Joseph,” I hissed. Of course it’s him.
“I missed you, kid.” He knelt beside me. “I have to thank you. I’ve gotten quite few benefits because of all these problems you’ve caused.”
“I’m glad I could help, then.”
He grabbed me under my shoulders and lifted me up. “Come on, now. Someone wants to meet you.”
“I don’t care.”
He opened the flap. “You should be thankful.” He grinned. “Not everyone gets to meet Sage Auron.”
***
“What do you want?”
I sat across from an elderly man with a full beard. His eyes were dark brown, and he stared intensely at me, even though he had a smile on his lips. “So, you are this Ryder boy.”
I looked at the Knight standing beside him—Elya—and turned back to the man. “And you are Auron.”
Elya shifted, but Auron put up his hand. He looked at me. “I would prefer you refer to me as Sage Auron, boy. Disrespecting your superiors is not encouraged here.”
“What do you want?”
He smiled. “I hear you have quite the experience with the Aegil relic.”
I said nothing, but kept my eyes on him.
“Is this not the case?”
I still kept silent.
He chuckled. “Do you think you can play aloof with me? One can only play that card if they have something to offer. You have nothing.”
I smiled. “That’s what you think.”
The old man’s movements stopped, and he stared into my eyes, as if he could see the truth with his glare. “What do you have to offer, then?” he asked. “I will hear it.”
“And what do I get in return?”
“I won’t kill you.”
I shook my head. “That isn’t enticing enough, sorry.”
“Your own life is not valued that much?” he asked with a frown. “Very well, then. I won’t kill you and your friends.”
I smirked. “What friends are you talking about?”
“Don’t bluff, boy.”
“Are you willing to lose precious information by thinking I’m kidding?” I asked. “I knew about the relic’s existence before you did; I knew about its location before you did. What makes you think I don’t know a few more things as well?”
The Sage stared into my eyes, and then muttered something inaudible. “Take him back,” he said. “I have no patience to talk to an arrogant child right now.”
Elya nodded and grabbed my wrists. He tugged at me and pulled out of the tent.
I smiled at the Sage. “Come talk to me anytime,” I said as we left.
Elya half-dragged me over the ground and threw me back inside my own tent. “Learn to treat your superiors with respect, boy.”
And with that, he was gone.
“Are you okay?” Stan walked to me.
I nodded. “That was a super short meeting.”
“You probably annoyed him, didn’t you?”
I grinned.
DING!
My Message Menu popped up, and I noticed so had Stan’s and Luna’s. I looked at the sender’s name, and then froze.
Valentine: Get ready. I’m getting you out of here.
***
“Forest fire!”
A voice yelled out a second later.
I blinked. Are you kidding me?! I peeked out of the tent, and flames rose high from ahead of us. This was not a lie. I pulled myself back inside. This is our chance.
I stared at the screen in front of me. Had Valentine does this? Why is she helping us now? I thought. Getting on our good side so she can trick us again?
The back side of the tent slashed open, and a familiar person peeked through. I couldn’t see her face, but she wore a familiar white hood.
“Singer-Lady!” Luna gasped. “You came back.”
Valentine nodded. “We don’t have much time. We need to get out of here.”
A footstep sounded ahead of me. “Well, well.” Joseph walked inside. “An accomplice.”
“Levi!” Valentine tossed a dagger up to me. I turned my back to her, and grabbed the weapon with my hands tied behind me. I twisted the dagger in my fingers, and sliced off the binding ropes easily.
“You little twerp!” Joseph ran to me.
I leaped at him, and slashed hard. The blade went across his uncovered arm and cut him. He yelled out and stumbled to the floor.
“Come on!” I ran out the other way, through the entrance Valentine had made. The Knights were scampering all around us, securing their items as the fire spread. The trees ten yards off were raging with flames now, and spreading closer. It was only a matter of time until this place burned to the ground completely.
“Hey!” Knights looked at us from ahead. “Prisoners!”
A few of them charged, but a flaming tree collapsed right then and crashed to the ground before them.
“We need to leave.” Valentine tossed out a smoke bomb, and in seconds, we were shrouded by the thick screen. “Follow me.” Her faded silhouette showed through the haze and I walked right behind her. I could see Stan and Luna beside me, following her as well.
Yells and screams sounded around us. Familiar hisses echoed through, and I knew Valentine had set up more smoke bombs. She was prepared, I thought. But is she trying to trick us again?
Ten minutes later, we were out of the smoke, and when I turned back, a raging fire had spread through the forest behind us.
Valentine was hunched on her knees, gasping. “We … the Knights … they’ll come after us.”
I looked at her. “You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”
Her expression fell.
Stan tugged my sleeve. “Levi….”
“Why did you sell us out, Valentine?” I asked. “And why save us later?”
She looked at the ground. “I didn’t sell you out.” Her voice was soft. “I’ve been set up. You have to believe me. Someone’s trying to make it seem like I was betraying you guys.”
“Someone was using your name, then?” Stan asked. “They really did make it seem like you were tricking us.”
She nodded. “I don’t know who in the kingdom would do that,” she said. “And to a princess who hardly ever speaks, at that.”
Everyone stared at her, and no words were spoken. The forest behind us cracked as trees burnt to cinders and wood came crashing down to the ground.
I stared at the girl in white. “What do you want me to do now?”
Valentine looked at me, and her eyes glimmered in the dull light. “Can you trust me again?”
***
CHAPTER TWENTY
Valentine stepped through the trees. She ran her fingers along the surface of the cracked trunks. They were a sickly brown, and their branches held only one or two leaves each.
She didn’t want to do this. But she had no choice now.
How did the Zevalon Knights even find us? She frowned.
It had been a sudden attack, and a well-prepared one. Valentine was surprised she’d even managed to get away. Although it certainly did help that Luna had fought against them for
the first few seconds. It had been enough of a distraction for her to slip away.
Her chest clenched at the recollection of the event. She’d abandoned her friends, and without a second thought, at that.
“That’s something Levi would have done,” she mumbled. Or, rather, something he had done.
That boy thought he was fooling everyone. Of course he wasn’t. From the moment he left for the mountains, she knew he wasn’t coming back. And she knew she couldn’t do anything to stop him. She’d decided then and there that she’d just go along with Luna and Stan and get to the relic herself.
But things had changed, and changed fast.
She snapped off a few pieces of bark and laid it down on the ground within the pile of twigs she’d collected. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She’d given Levi so much trouble for setting the previous Knight camp on fire. “He was right,” she whispered to herself. “I really didn’t understand.”
Still, it wasn’t like this was an easy decision for her. She had to choose between Zevalon, the people she had been with since she was born; and Levi Ryder, a criminal. And yet, Levi had done more for her than Zevalon ever had. He had freed her trapped self, he had given her a chance to push herself out into the world. Getting him out of that prison had been the last push Valentine needed.
She thought about her father; she thought about the Knights. She could just walk over to the camp and they’d probably do whatever she asked them to. She knew where the relic was, too. All she had to do now was tell them, and she’d obtain Aegil.
“But then what?” She picked up a thin branch and held it between her palms. She placed it in the middle of the pile and twisted.
If she got the Knights to help her she’d get the relic, for sure, but the moment she stepped back to the city, her father would probably have her sealed away in her room once again. She wouldn’t go even a step toward what she wanted.
Valentine knew what she had to do here. She had to stand on her own. She had to do all this without the power and money her father had. She was her own person, and she was going to prove it to them. She was going to win her freedom back.
A wisp of smoke rose from the pile of wood. She twisted the stick harder and a gentle flame picked up. She pulled out the broken branch next to her and placed one end within the flames. It caught fire; the air around her heated up.
She lifted the branch over her head and stared at the silhouette of the camp a hundred yards away.
“I’m not a doll in a tower.” Her voice was soft.
“I’ll show you.”
***
“Luna is hurtingggg.”
We were all seated in a circle, now, and Valentine was healing a burn on Luna’s body.
“This actually got you bad.” She put her hand over the wound and her lips moved. A white light shone from her hand, and a glow of the same color covered the burn. “There. That should heal it faster.”
Luna nodded. “Thank you, Singer-Lady.”
Stan shifted closer to me. “How are you doing?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I have something for you.”
“Eh?”
I opened my Ga’em menu and shifted to my Item Inventory. A second later, a stream of lights condensed in my hand, and I was gripping an old, familiar blanket.
Stan’s eyes widened. “That….” His voice cracked.
“Yeah.” I smiled and handed it to him.
The vampire looked at it, and then at me, and then at it again. “Thank you,” he whispered, and buried his face in the cloth. I wasn’t going to pretend I understood what that blanket meant to him. I really didn’t. But I understood what it felt like to be so attached to an object for silly reasons.
“So.” Valentine shifted to face us, but her eyes wouldn’t meet mine. “What are we going to do now?”
“About the relic?” Stan asked, pulling his head up from the blanket for a moment.
She nodded. “We were lax with our traveling because it was that kind of a task. Now, however….”
“The Zevalon Knights are after the relic as well,” I said. “Yes, this is something we suspected a while ago, but it’s different now. I have confirmed that they also know where to look for it.”
Valentine sighed. “I figured that was the case.”
I nodded. “They’re this close to the Kelras Mountains already, and Sage Auron said he knew the location.”
“W-What does this mean for us, then?” Stan asked. “We can’t compete with them, can we? They’ve got horses and an army. We’re….” He looked around. “Just four people.”
“Luna can take army down!” The elf grinned. “Luna’s blade is very sharp. It slice through bad Knights.”
“We can’t depend on violence now,” I said.
Valentine raised an eyebrow, but I pretended I didn’t notice.
“Fighting against the Knights is close to impossible, and also a huge waste of time,” I said. “We’re low on resources, we haven’t had a meal in a while, and we’re much slower than the men who still have horses.”
“So it’s a lost cause?”
I shook my head. “Valentine, back me on this … but as I recall, this plateau arches around the short range and ends a few miles away from the actual Kelras Mountains.”
She nodded.
“Right. But there’s a shorter path that goes straight to the mountains. It’s easily a day or a day and a half shorter than the other path.”
“But there’s a reason the Knights didn’t take it,” Valentine said. “It’s likely it’s a very dangerous path. I don’t see why else they wouldn’t have taken that path.”
“Uh oh,” Stan said.
I sighed. “Our only option right now is to go through the forest beneath this plateau. Else we risk losing the relic.”
“Do you want us to come along?” Valentine looked at me. “Or are you going to go solo, again?”
My eyes widened. She knows I tried to abandon them.
“Luna can’t come?” The elf pouted. “Does Death-Man hate Luna?”
I sighed. Well played, Valentine. I looked at the elf. “Death-Man most certainly hated Luna.” I looked around at everyone else. “He hated all of you, as well.”
They all stared at me, confused.
I smiled. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve always pushed people away. Anyone who talked to me when I was younger, anyone who talked to me now. But you three—” I gazed at their faces. “You’ve all forced yourselves toward me, and what’s worse, made a ton of stupid decisions, too. And while I was absolutely livid at first” —I looked at Valentine— “it somehow feels like I’ve gotten used to it by now. You’ve all made my responsibilities easier for some reason. I started depending on you guys without realizing it.”
Valentine smiled at Stan. “That sounds like an invitation if I ever heard one.”
The vampire nodded. “I-I’m sorry for all the stupid stuff I did.”
“Luna is sorry for asking for steamed buns all the time.” Luna bounced on her log. “But get Luna steamed buns after all this.”
I chuckled, and my eyes turned to Valentine.
“I know I’m the one that forced you into a lot of things,” she said. “And I know something just happened that probably makes you be wary of me….”
Sounds right, I thought.
“But I’d be glad to come along with you. You’re—” She stopped, and then shook her head. “I’d be glad.”
I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Her neck blushed a reddish tinge, and her eyes darted to the forest floor. I tried to ignore that, instead turning to look at them all.
These were people I had vehemently decided to throw out, people I had decided didn’t have much worth to me, people I had willingly abandoned just a while ago. And yet here I was, standing before them. Their smiling faces gave me comfort. I had allies behind me now. I wasn’t alone anymore. Those days were over.
I smiled. I think I did it, Helen.
***
I
slid down the last section of the plateau’s incline and down to the forest beneath. The sun was still out, and we had a good six or seven hours left before sundown.
Stan walked beside me, with his blanket over his shoulders. It was still the same blanket, and it was the same guy holding it, but the way he did it was different. He didn’t have shaking knees or a thumping chest that he was covering up. He wore it around his back like usual, but tied up a knot in front, right beneath his neck.
He’s changed. I smiled, and then looked ahead. The forest we traversed was getting dense, but we hadn’t seen any moving life within it yet. We heard a few bird calls, but never saw any fauna.
Maybe they’re observing me from hiding, I thought. Either way, my daggers were at my side, and I carried the old short sword in my hand. At first, it came in handy for cutting through creepers and bushes, but then Luna decided to bring out her double-sword, and there was no matching that thing. She would twirl the weapon twice and every plant she touched would be sliced in half. In the end, we asked her to stop, since she almost cut down a few trees by mistake.
She wasn’t kidding. I grinned. She really could have cut up the Zevalon Knights if she wanted to.
Although, the lower ranking ones were the only people she could aim at. Attacking Elya, for example, would probably be suicide at this point. What is he, Level 60? Probably higher. I mentally reminded myself to use my Analyze skill on him the next time we met. If we meet.
A screech echoed through the forest.
“That was the loudest cry yet,” Stan said.
“And it definitely came from close by.” My eyes darted through the trees.
A crack thudded from the left. I glanced in the direction, but could see nothing. Another crack sounded, and many more followed in quick succession.
“It’s breaking through the trees,” I whispered. A dark silhouette emerged thirty yards ahead. “Watch the trees!”
Luna pulled out her double-sword and stepped before us all. I handed Stan my short sword and pulled out both my daggers. Valentine stood to my left with her hands up in the air.
Ascend: A World of Ga'em LitRPG (The Chaos Emperor Book 1) Page 22
