Monaco
The burning in my palm was so intense it was like my hand was on fire, like it was on the inside of my skin threatening to blossom outward to engulf my whole hand and arm. And the voice of that damnable fox in my head wasn't helping either.
"No. You've asked more of me than is fair! I went back and helped your mage out back in Blossom City. That makes us even!" I hissed. I was in an isolated part of the camp, although there were still enough soldiers nearby that if I raised my voice they might hear me anyway.
The deep, mature voice of the devil hiding behind the fox's facade spoke, her voice filled with mild amusement. "Even? How naive. You assume you can dictate to me what is fair?" A fresh wave of pain burst out of the mark on the back of my hand, and I nearly bit my own tongue to avoid screaming. "Your service to me ends when I say it does. It is no one's fault but your own that you chose to tempt my wrath the way you did, wolf."
My fingers spasmed curling and uncurling uncontrollably as I fought back the urge to curse. "What do I have to do? Just hurry up and tell me so you can release me!" This time, there was no amusement in the devil's voice when she responded. "Your duty is not yet done. It remains the same. Protect the mage. Now, you have the means to do so. I compelled you to take the Hand so that when the time comes, I will guide your arm to strike the deathblow against the Encroacher."
"And what happens after that? What's to stop you from deciding you can get further use out of me?" I snarled. Low, husky laughter echoed in my head, chilling the blood in my veins.
"You should've thought of that before you agreed to my deal. In fact, had you taken this entire affair more seriously, you might already be on your way home by now, little wolf. But as it so happens, perhaps there's a way to ensure you don't go home empty-handed."
The image of my father, back when he was healthy enough to stand, surfaced in my mind. He was tall and lanky, grey forming in his dark hair and neatly trimmed mustache. Dressed in a modest yet still expensive suit, he stood outside our mansion with his cane, a black piece of steel with a golden wolf's head concealing a hidden blade. He had eyes like mine, or more like my eyes were like his, and a golden pin denoting his allegiance to the Four Winds hanging on a cravat.
This was replaced with my last memory of him, lying in his bed struggling to breathe. He was pallid and small, no longer the man who was always sure of himself. His sputtering cough and periods of incoherence made me wonder if he would survive long enough for me to fulfill my bargain with the Guildmaster. "I know what you came here for. I know why you need the Hand. Maybe there is something more you need that I can provide."
"You mock me for not taking a devil seriously, then tempt me seconds later? You must really think I'm a fool." This bitch is something else. Don't know what her endgame is, but it can't be good. She's right that I shouldn't have underestimated her before. But now that I know what she is, I can try to outsmart her. She wants to play a game with rigged rules? I'm a quick study. Let's see how long it takes for me to turn her rules against her.
"Well, since you agreed to the deal in the first place, I guess that question answers itself." The smugness in her tone made the fur in my tail stand on end. "Your mind is an open book to me. Your father's life hangs in the balance. The deal you made with the Guildmaster is the gift of a poisoned apple. You have no good options, and when there are no good options left one must decide which poison one can live with drinking."
I could feel her digging around in my thoughts and memories, sifting through them like junk in a storage crate to find something she could use. She latched onto a memory of me at age nine, showing my father how easy it was that I could pick any lock in the house so long as I had the tools. The idea that her daughter had such a skill hadn't sat well with my mother, but I saw the twinkle in my father's eye even as she lectured him on what I was or was not to do. Once I saw that spark of approval, I knew what my path in life would be.
"Errgh, stop that!" I slammed my hand against the side of my head. "My memories aren't for you to just mess with! Get out of there!" A nearby Sentinel gave me a funny look, but decided not to pry. "Stupid devil! I don't want anything from you!"
"What if I told you that I might be able to cure what ails your father?" My heart seemed to stop mid-beat. "The doctors you hired can't figure out what's wrong with him. Every day he wastes away, and you are no closer to finding out how to save him now than when you left Margloom. And even if the Guildmaster kept her word and gave you Seraph's Mercy, you know it won't cure him. It hasn't so far, why would it now?"
Her words took an icy grip on my heart. "So what would you do about it?" Hope and despair were fighting a battle in my mind to see which would prevail. "Let me see him. I will find the root of his ailment, and cure him. I suspect your Guildmaster might be more insidious than you first believed."
"Why would you say that?"
"Because the motives of mortalkind are often far more sinister than devils."
There was that hint of arrogance that I expected from her, but also bitterness too. Then silence. Having said her piece, the devil decided to leave me be to stew on the decision I now had to make. I was in no hurry to continue our conversation. How far would I be willing to go to save Dad? I've already burnt so many bridges. Off in the distance, I saw Alicia and Sheena by their campfire, having an animated conversation.
Wonder what that's about. No harm in asking, I guess. The less time I spend thinking about what that devil woman said, the better. I made my way over to where the two of them wer, hoping they were in a talking mood. Not bloody likely knowing my luck.
Sheena
Everything was in place a few hours after midnight. The only thing left to do now was to wait for the Encroacher to arrive.
I wouldn't have believed it if I'd told myself that this is where I'd be about a month ago. There hasn't really been time to adjust to the rigors of my new life, and I'm already facing a threat that borders on apocalyptic. This can't be the norm. Digging my palm into my eye, I fought to rouse myself from my short slumber. Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered with that short nap. It wouldn't do to go into a battle groggy.
Sunrise was still at least an hour away. Alverd had insisted we get at least a little sleep before morning, and after my part of the preparations were complete I was only too happy to comply. Sleep will be a luxury going forward. These Silent Sentinels could probably use it more than I. The silver-clad soldiers were operating in shifts to squeeze in an hour or two of shuteye, which was impressive given they'd spent the last day marching to the Valley at double-pace to arrive in time.
The Order of the Silent Sentinel. How strange that I've heard so little of them. Siyun admitted they have operatives outside Shardin, but why didn't I know that? Did Uncle conceal that information from me on purpose? I absentmindedly chewed on my thumbnail as I thought about the possible explanations.
If they're supposed to be an apolitical group, then I don't see why they wouldn't have been more open in having diplomatic ties to the Algrustian royal family. It stands to reason they'd want to maintain those ties in case of an issue with one of the Five Kings. Siyun even said that every Steadfast since Standing Stone's founding has been part of the Order. So why would there be no presence in Algrustos?
Like a bolt from the blue, the answer hit me. Because there's no King to guard against. Algrustos must not be the resting place of one of the Five Kings, so there would be no need to try and butter up the royal family to have a presence there. So, according to that logic, there must be one in Margloom somewhere. Troubling as it was that the Order might've left Algrustos undefended, I had more important things to think about. Monaco was very insistent that she take the Hand of the Usurper. Even without factoring in her need for the Hand as a bargaining chip regarding her father's life, she's not trustworthy in the slightest.
I bit down harder on my thumb, and the pain was the only thing that stopped me from accidentally drawing blood. Ooooh, the cheek of that woman! She's no doubt scheming right this second. Whatever her play is, she's not clever enough to outwit me. Monaco was close to the Valley entrance, going over her plan of attack one last time. A few wooden posts had been planted atop the canyon walls, giving her the opportunity to swoop down from above. I surmised her grappling hook would let her hit the Encroacher from above once its attention was focused on the defenders, at which point she could use the Hand to full effect.
She walked out on us before, but that was before she got the Hand. We know she can't go back to Margloom empty-handed. It comes down to weighing whether she's willing to cross Alverd for the sake of her father's life. Unfortunately, I don't think I can call which way that coin will fall. Either way, she'll have to make her move after the Encroacher is dealt with. Any number of things could happen in the battle to come, including her untimely but very possible death. I'm not saying I would raise my hand against her. But like Uncle once taught me, when one tends a garden the weeds are better removed sooner than later.
Alverd himself was still catching up on what sleep he could get before the battle, but Alicia was still awake. She was pacing back and forth among some of the tents, lost in her thoughts. Having nothing better to do and in need of a distraction, I stood up and joined her.
"Hello. Can't sleep?" A rhetorical question, but a decent enough ice breaker. We both were too nervous to sleep. I guessed the only reason Alverd had been able to was that he'd been pushing himself so hard that his body had almost given out on him.
She hopped in place a few times, shaking her arms. "Yeah. Just trying to get all the jitters out, but for the life of me I can't loosen up. I've got all this energy pent up and nothing to do with it." Letting out a deep breath, she swung her arms open and shut in a series of practiced exercises. "I'm too wound up to meditate. My mind keeps wandering to a bunch of different crap. So I guess I'm just wearing a rut in the ground here waiting for that big blob to show up."
"I get that." I echoed her sentiment with a sigh of my own. "There's so much riding on this battle. At least this time we're not fighting it alone." In spite of their stiffness, the Sentinels were a welcome presence. Many of them had proven not in the mood for idle chatter, although none had been so rude as to say so to my face. "For what it's worth, I don't think it's as hopeless as when we fought the Magisters back in Algrustos."
"Or my siblings back in Ishmar," Alicia said. "Sorry, you weren't there for that. But it was pretty skewed against us then, too. Just me, Alverd and Kuro in a colosseum full of angry soldiers and feral dragons, with some murderous royalty on top of it all." She had a bitter smile on her face. "How do we keep finding ourselves in situations like this?"
"A question for the ages. If you find the answer, do tell me. Perhaps next time we can avoid another world-ending crisis and go on holiday, instead. Maybe somewhere tropical." I adjusted my glasses as I painted the picture in my head. "That Roland fellow told me that the beaches in Margloom are quite temperate. In the summer they have resorts that open up to cater to the tourist trade. As the sea along the northern border of Algrustos is too cold to go bathing in, I'm curious to see what these resorts are like."
Alicia stroked her chin, trying hard to match my vision. "I've never even seen the sea. That would've required flying west or north through untamed territory in Ishmar. But a place where people go to relax sounds nice. We just have to survive this horrible battle and maybe we can ask Alverd to take us there." She smirked. "Once Kuro gets here, we can get him to pull some miracle out of his arse and make the Encroacher go away, and then head there."
"It would be nice to forget about all our responsibilities for a while," I acknowledged, fighting the urge to join Alicia in her stretches. "We should've done that in Standing Stone, but things moved so fast we didn't have time to just enjoy ourselves. Just another thing to blame Kuro for. If only he hadn't wandered off." We shared a short laugh.
If not for Kuro wandering off, would we have been drawn into this debacle? Or would we have been none the wiser as the Encroacher clawed its way out of its prison? A pair of Sentinels set a crate of explosive ammunition next to one of their cannons, double checking each individual shot for any defects. Wondering about what ifs is pointless now, but I can't help but wonder anyway. If we hadn't intervened, how much worse could it have been before the Sentinels would've gotten involved?
I was so distracted that I didn't notice Siyun's arrival until we joined our little chat. "Hundreds of years of waiting, preparing for a day we hoped would never come. Yet here it is anyway. This is a strange feeling for my fellow Sentinels." He gave off the same nervous energy as the two of us, although most of it he hid behind his career soldier persona; he was calmer than both of us combined.
Standing up, Alicia cricked her neck side to side. "How so?"
"Imagine your whole life, you've watched people train and prepare for an event that could spell doom for all the life left on this planet. When you come of age, you too are pressed into service to fulfill a singular purpose. I have seen at least two generations pass with the men and women who comprised them seeing all their preparation be for naught. To dedicate their lives to an ideal, but never live up to it. Yet, by never needing to, they fulfill it. It's paradoxical. We live to serve, but serving our purpose would be the worst case scenario for the world itself."
She snorted. "Yeah, sorry. I don't get it. Could you rephrase that?"
I playfully patted her shoulder. "He's saying that peace was the ideal in spite of their training. He can't help but feel like many of his brethren wasted their lives even though they were vigilant for a catastrophe they hoped would never happen." I made eye contact with him, and saw that I was onto him. His eyes wouldn't meet mine.
Siyun grunted, his hands on his hips. "It's as you say. I've wondered the past three years if I'd end up the same way. Just some old codger wondering where his life went, and then knowing exactly where. But now that the moment has finally come when we're called upon to do what we swore to do, will we be ready? I don't know. Because this is the first time it's happened. Hell of a lot of pressure on us."
My fellow royal flexed her arms, showing off her muscles. "Lucky for you, we do some of our best work under pressure." I didn't share her bravado, even if she was technically telling the truth. Let's not tell Siyun about the close calls we've had. Or about how the capitol of Algrustos is a crater. We'd be hard pressed to explain how that qualifies as our "best work". As the conversation progressed, I chanced another look in Monaco's direction, intent on making sure she wasn't up to no good.
The thief was cutting an animated path in a haphazard loop in front of the Valley opening, her back hunched forward and her fingers clenching as she went around in an uneven circle. Her teeth were gnashing, although she may have been talking as well. I was about to try reading her lips when I saw it. A quick glimpse of her hand showed that it was bleeding again, red droplets falling away from the now soaked bandage.
The curse. She's being compelled. Whoever is holding her leash is giving it a firm yank. Monaco looked like a caged animal, and for once I felt sympathy for her. She's got no way out of that without alerting the one who cursed her. The only way to save her from it is if we remove the curse ourselves, likely after wrestling her down to make it look like she didn't arrange it herself. She can't tell her detractor something she doesn't know.
I peered at Alicia out of the corner of my eye. But telling more people about the situation runs the risk of her finding out. As much as I'd like to get Alicia in on this, there are too many ways she might let slip that we know about the curse before we have a solution. If it becomes necessary, I'll tell her. For now, best I keep it to myself. To avoid giving myself away, I returned to the conversation with Siyun. "Do you have any other advice for how to deal with the Encroacher, master Observer?"
He crossed his arms. "A bit. The Encroacher relied heavily on mental assaults and psychic domination to incapacitate attackers before blasting them with extremely powerful arcane spells. The slime secreted by its body, while not poisonous, can cause harm and make those touched by it more susceptible to its mind manipulations. Lastly, its skin is nearly impervious to magic. Only power on par with that of a divine being or the Hand of the Usurper has any hope of penetrating that defense."
Alright. Nothing we didn't already know, although confirmation is always nice. "Is there anything else?" I asked. Stroking his chin, Siyun smirked. "Magic isn't directly effective against the Encroacher, but the aftereffects of magic still can be. Fire left in the wake of a fireball's explosion can still ignite the slime coating the creature's body, drying it out and preventing it from using said slime as a weapon. You could throw large boulders at it. There are a few documented cases of these tactics in our old records dating back to the War of the Five Kings. The cannons are our way of adapting those tactics to the modern era."
Still not convinced, Alicia let out a derisive sound. "You expect me to believe that thing is gonna work against something that magic can't beat? I watched the Encroacher eat a mature dragon in one gulp." He shrugged.
"With all due respect, if these weapons weren't as effective as we claim them to be, Margloom might be part of Ishmar right about now. The cannons will not destroy the Encroacher, nor is that the plan. They will merely slow it down and damage it enough to force it to become defensive, at which point we pick our moment to strike with the Hand."
To her credit, Alicia didn't take the provocation dangled in her face. "Right. Well I guess you can show me when the Encroacher gets here. Speaking of which, how much longer will it be?"
I squinted my eyes and looked off to the west, behind us, but no light lay on the horizon. "Sunrise is probably still a ways off. Nothing to do but wait, unfortunately." Siyun excused himself, muttering something about last minute inspections of the cannons. Alicia and I sat down by the remains of the campfire we'd built with Alverd, who was still peacefully sleeping near it.
"One more sunrise," Alicia said. "One more sunrise, one more fight. Then we feast, and then I want to just sleep for a whole tenday." I laughed, completely in agreement.
"I concur. And more wine! I refuse to drink that horrid swill you served me in Standing Stone. I demand something more refined for my palate."
She let out a gut-busting bark, equal parts amusement and disbelief. "Oh, no. No more alcohol for you. If you can't handle something as simple as what they gave you in Standing Stone, then you don't get wine, ale, mead, whiskey or whatever else they might have. It's for your own good." She tried to sound all responsible and mature, but a second later she snorted and lost all sense of composure. We chuckled to ourselves about how silly the idea of putting our carts before the horse was when the battle had yet to be decided, warmed ourselves by the fire.
"Well I guess if you can't drink then it's only fair that I don't either. We'll just have to make sure that the boys don't get too carried away, hm?" I smirked at Alicia as I pictured Kuro so drunk that he could barely stand. My companion looked at me with feigned incredulity. "The boys? If I recall, it wasn't the boys who ended that last bar fight we were all in."
"True," I said. "But it was definitely us girls who finished it." We laughed again, even though my own memories of it were still hazy due to my inebriation at the time. Wait a second. Alverd was telling me about this. Camaraderie. One of the things I'd pick up from being a mercenary. He said that I'd start to fit in, like I always belonged.
I didn't want to point it out to Alicia, who was busy imitating the face and noise Kuro had supposedly made as he had been unceremoniously chucked over the bar counter, but inwardly I smiled. As per usual, he was right. I didn't even notice. Somehow, I'm one of them now. It's like lightning in a bottle. I wasn't sure I could make it happen, and it just… happened on its own. Like magic.
As Alicia went on with her hyperbolic reimagining of our tavern escapade, I felt the urge to join her. With a little more prompting, I did just that. It didn't matter that we blew things out of proportion, or remembered things differently. What mattered was that we were meshing over something pointlessly silly, trivial and inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
It was the best feeling in the world, better than the finest bottle of wine could hope to emulate.
Alicia
In the hours leading up to the battle, there were a hundred things I could've fixated on, but my dumb brain decided that it was going to worry about Kuro, that sly little bastard.
That idiot. He should've told us what he was up to. Maybe if he had, we would all be here right now waiting to stomp on that giant slime ball together. A knot of anger was stuck in my chest like a rolled up ball of twine, and I'd spent a good portion of the night picking at it since I had nothing better to do.
This is why it doesn't pay to be smart. When you're smart, you start to believe you're smarter than everyone else. Then you start acting like you're smarter than everyone else, then you end up with no friends because they're all dead or they can't stand what a smug dolt you've become. I ran my hands through my hair, paced back and forth, ground my teeth, and cursed under my breath for a long time, obsessing over what an idiot Kuro was.
Why does it bother me so much? I should be used to this by now. It's not the same thing with Alverd, is it? Admittedly, my feelings about Alverd made a lot more sense than this irritation I felt towards Kuro. Somehow though, I felt like they stemmed from the same place. It's not about the way I feel, I think. Evros, that was a sentence that made a whole lot of sense. Ugh, this is eating at me and I can't make heads or tails of it.
At that time, Sheena came over and gave me a welcome distraction from my thoughts. "You look troubled," Sheena said from beside me. She was seated just about a foot or two away, her hands propping her up so she could look toward the Valley entrance. Her mismatched eyes gleamed at me in the fire's light, making them look almost gemlike. "Care to tell me what's on your mind?"
"It's Kuro. He should've been back by now. And I'm not sure why, but it's been eating at me since we finally had a second to stop and breathe. I'm all wound up about him not trusting us, and I can't figure out why." I crossed my legs under me and put my head in my hands, resting my elbows on my knees. "When I try to meditate, I keep coming back to the anger I feel about him not telling us his full plan."
Crossing her slender legs, Sheena took in a breath, then let it out slowly. "It must be serious if not even meditation is helping you overcome it. I'm afraid psychoanalysis isn't my strong suit, though."
I blinked in confusion. "Psycha-whatnow?"
She laughed. "I'm sorry, trying to get inside your head to figure out your problem. I'm not an expert at that."
I scowled. "Oh. Should've just said that, then. What's your theory? Without that psycho-canal-sissy stuff?" This time Sheena had to put her hand over her mouth to contain her reaction. "Yeah, whatever. Have your laugh. Be serious."
She had to take another deep breath to calm herself, but then she sat up straight. "Well, if I had to hazard a guess, you're probably upset that he didn't tell us what he was planning, and it triggered some feeling you had about not trusting others. He didn't feel the need to let you know what the plan really was, is that what you're mad about?" She adjusted her glasses. "Does that seem more accurate to you?"
"Yes! I think you're on the right track. By now he should see us as his allies. I'm used to not trusting people, so you'd think I wouldn't be bothered by it so much. And yet here I am. So what's the difference?"
"If I can weigh in, I'd say it's because you expected better from him, then didn't get it."
Both of us turned and saw Monaco had snuck up to our camp, an impressive feat given she had technically been where we could see her for the last fifteen minutes at least. She had the same insufferably cocky look on her face she always seemed to have, except now her smile was even wider than normal. She sat down next to us without asking to be invited.
"You can take it with a grain of salt if you want, but based on my own experiences when you expect things from someone, the only thing you end up getting is disappointment. You wanted him to treat you like an equal and he didn't. Doesn't take a genius to see that's what's eating at you. What's gonna be harder to figure out is, why does it bother you specifically. So let's unwrap that, shall we?" She pulled her tin flask off her belt, unscrewing the cap so she could take a swig.
Monaco's tone was irritating as usual, but there was something in what she said that gave me pause. I bit back the scathing remark I wanted to make. "Well, it sounds like you've got some idea of what's happening. Speak up." I folded my arms and waited for her to say something.
After finishing her drink, Monaco smirked. "How long have you known him? And on that same note, how long have you known Alverd?" I bristled a little at the question, but answered it.
"A few months. Maybe four or five by now."
She took another swig while she formed her next question. "Yet in those months you've come to trust them more than most people in your life growing up, right?"
Anger bubbled in me, the instinctual tell that Monaco was prodding at something she shouldn't have been prodding at. "How would you know that?"
She grinned at me, her sharp teeth glinting in the firelight. "You're an open book, girl. You fighter types always are. Couple that with your personality type and you'd be a murder mystery someone could solve on page one." I don't know exactly what that means, but if she keeps up that insulting tone there might just be a murder pretty soon.
"Stop being a bitch and just say what you want to say, thief."
"You behave like someone who expects betrayal wherever she goes. That's why trust doesn't come so easily to you. You finally meet two people who you feel you can trust unconditionally, who you want to trust, and one of them lets you down, and it hurts you." She took another drink from her flask. "What's eating you is that Kuro didn't have the same level of trust in you that you had in him. And it doesn't make a lick of difference that he didn't know you trusted him. He's not the one who has to worry about getting his feelings hurt here."
Sheena warily turned her gaze from Monaco back to me. Her expression almost begged me to say whether the thief woman was telling the truth or not. I would've said something if my eyes hadn't started stinging at that moment. They were getting cloudy too. Then, the sniffles started. "It's so stupid. I know it's stupid. But it hurts anyway." I pulled my knees up to my chest and tried to hide my face behind them. "Stupid. All of it is so damn stupid."
For maybe a half second, and possibly because my eyes were tearing up, I thought I saw Monaco's expression soften. Maybe she thought she'd gone too far, or she knew what it was like to be in my position? Her face went back to that insufferable grin and I had to wipe my eyes. "Take it from me, Ishmarian. It's not even about men and women at this point. It's only about trust. You can't afford it when you're a mercenary."
"I guess you would know. You could steal all the money in the world and not afford to be able to trust someone if you did."
Monaco's eyes narrowed. "Huh. I come over here and tell it like it is, and this is the thanks I get. Wonder why I have trust issues." She stood up. "Get ready. Kuro or no Kuro, the Encroacher will be here soon. Get your head on straight, because that thing isn't gonna care if you're wrestling with your issues when it's trying to kill you."
She got up, overturned her flask to get the last of its contents to drip into her mouth, then walked away, her tail swishing in a self-satisfied manner. I debated throwing a heavy object at her, but decided against it. She'd probably dodge it anyway. Let her think she won. She's the one who knows she's up against a wall with no real allies. I became aware I'd been clenching and unclenching the fingers of my right hand during the conversation, which had probably been my tell during the whole thing.
Sheena scoffed. "The gall of her. I've never seen such hypocrisy concentrated in a single person before, and I grew up surrounded by politicians." She put her hand on my shoulder. "Are you alright? She just said a lot of terrible things to you."
I shook my head. " No, but Ishmarians have thick skin."
We were quiet for a few seconds."Is it wrong to want to be trusted by others?"
Sheena patted me on the back. "Absolutely not. I've wanted that too. I wanted my uncle to see me as someone capable, not just the little girl who needed him to shield her from the world her whole life. Wanting trust from others isn't a crime." I sniffled, still not fully over Monaco's words.
"So why can't Kuro trust me with his plan when Alverd would?" I asked.
Sheena looked towards the Valley entrance. "Well, for the same reason you didn't trust your siblings. It's hard to remember but one cannot judge others the way one judges themself. That's how you get people like the Black Scale Legionnaires. Because one way or another, the only logical endpoint of judging others is judging them for not being like you." She tilted her head towards me. "That goes for mages too. Everyone. The moment you choose to see nothing but how people aren't like you, that's when you start seeing them as your enemy."
The story that Hen had told me a few hours ago popped back into my head. Sheena was right. The Marevarians had seen her as just another person trying to make her way through life until the invasion, and they just saw her as Ishmarian. Everyone can be guilty of it. Warrior, farmer, dragon rider, royalty. That's rough. How do you fight a sentiment? How do you convince an entire people to stop seeing what makes you different from others and see what makes you the same?
"Kuro is his own person. His life has shaped him in a way that makes him reluctant to trust others. From what I can glean, there are times when he has trouble trusting even Alverd. You saw that Alverd wasn't aware of Kuro's plan either." Sheena sighed, pinching her eyes to stave off a wave of exhaustion. "On the other hand, Alverd is more open to trusting others because of who he is. It's difficult, but we have to work with what we have, just as we expect others to be conscientious of us too."
I let out a long, anguished groan. "Ugggghhhh. Human interaction is haaaard." Sheena blinked in astonishment, then laughed. "Well, I guess I have an advantage over you then. I'm part elf, after all." I belted out a laugh of my own. "Well, shit. That's not fair. And here I thought you had all the answers."
After the laughter subsided, we took a look at Alverd. He was still sleeping peacefully, his face serene. "I do want him to trust me more. Both of them." I hesitated. "You too." "I want people to rely on me. To take me seriously. I've been sheltered for a long time, and I'm not bright to begin with, but I really want people to see me as someone who can be depended on." It hurt to admit these things, but at the same time it was freeing, too. The knot in my chest felt like it was unraveling, the tightness easing as I unburdened myself of my feelings.
"That vacation is sounding more and more like a necessity with each passing moment," Sheena said. "When we're done here, we ought to charge Mingsheng for it. All expenses paid for a trip to one of Margloom's best tourist resorts. A small price to pay for saving his country, I think."
"I agree. I really want to see what this resort business is all about." I blushed a little. "Hey. Thanks for listening to me."
"Anytime."
The sound of a great horn rumbled across the camp. The Sentinels stationed atop the Valley were reporting movement on the horizon. "Sonuvabitch! Kuro actually did it." I scrambled to my feet, picking up my maul. Giving Alverd a firm shake, I roused him from sleep. "Alverd, it's time. The Encroacher is here."
Alverd's eyes were still heavy with sleep, but the moment I mentioned the Encroacher, he was up and moving. "Urrgh. I hoped to get at least another hour in, but I suppose men plan and gods laugh." He smacked his face hard with his open palm, shaking his head back and forth to jostle himself awake. "Well, no sense in keeping him waiting. The sooner we sort this, the sooner we can all go back to bed."
By the time we took up our positions near the Sentinel's firing line, the lookouts had retreated, scrambling down the Valley on their ropes to form up with the others. Cannons were loaded, torches were lit, and the signal was given to standby. Minutes passed, and a deathly silence fell over us all. Then the ground began to rumble.
All hell was about to break loose.