Ana's Story - CHAPTERS 5-8

 

Ana

   

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CHAPTER 5

It was just two days later when I insisted upon returning to the forest with L’eiito, Saebastiia’an, and En’nii. This time, we were also joined by Ei’iraa, a brilliant and sweet young alchemy specialist who was also an amazing cook and exceptional duellist. As one of the People, Ei’iraa Zath’aara wasn’t a Mage, but had come to the Coven as a talented botanist with a keen interest in Magikal alchemy. She had shown herself to be exceptionally talented at potion and poison-making, skilled in all manner of specialisations including the creation of a potent healing balm that would fade away bruising and scrapes immediately, and minor injuries usually in twenty-four hours or less. This, along with her talents in sword-fighting and duel-wielding, her cold proficiency in using knives, particularly poisoned ones, as well has her wonderful cooking skills, made her an obvious choice for guard-duty outside the Coven, so I had invited her to join us.

      En’nii was probably just there to babysit me. She claimed she wanted to satisfy her curiosity, to see what we did, what dangers we were faced with... but I suspected this was no more than a ruse and what was what she really wanted to do was go and tell her father what she had seen first-hand, so he could have sufficient ammunition to have me frog-marched back home to safety. Or perhaps it was to spend more time with Saebastiia’an. Either, way, what she most certainly wasn't interested in was the danger involved... she had always feared and hated anything to do with it.

      We set up camp in a specific copse, one revered for its placement between the stars and moon, and one particularly used for worship of the Divinities, especially during the Moon Solstices and other specific occasions. We camped here this night because we felt in explicit need of their wisdom and mercy after what happened that last time we went out. There was always hope that in setting up our tents in their presence, we would possibly gain some blessings from them, and especially protection from the Divinity A’aegiia, the God of Protection. But to my cousin, it seemed that we had quite ridiculously parked ourselves outside extremely frightening giant stone statues for no good reason but purely pointless superstition.

      En’nii – as a very sheltered non-Mage – had astoundingly little knowledge or understanding about Mages’ reverence for the Divinities – she did not even recognise the statues as those of the Seven Divines. They were placed around carefully, each set and facing a certain way, each with a decorated alter of stone, and each with placements of specific gifts. The People – the non-Mage humans – rarely knew anything of their true history within The Mortal Realm of Faeh’rron  now, which never ceased to amaze me. This was seen by them as simply made up mythological stories for the Mages. It was their history too, but they never realised nor accepted it. They refused to ever believe they were created as Brehi’ina’s children, the First Creations. Mages were, in fact, only created some time afterwards specifically to protect them from harm – and yet it was only the Mages who remembered and revered the Divinities anymore.

      To the People, they were a forgotten myth, a romantic tale of tall imagination, instead constantly insisted that such things could not be truth and there were no real Creators. Nevertheless, they offered no alternative either, instead believing only that we were all random creations – something which I certainly could not understand. As Mages, we all accepted the Divinities were real and always turned to one or all for guidance, blessings, protection, and hope. Hence the reason we were all here now.

      The Seven Divinities were the Creators of Life and offered assistance or protection in times of crisis or despondent confusion for their creation. Of the shrines for them that now surrounded us as we made camp, two of the shrines erected here stood out the most. These were for the Divinity Brehi’ina – Queen of the Divinities and Creator of all the People and Mages, and for the Divinity A’aegiia – Divinity of Protection. They consisted of beautiful and elaborate statues depicting the two gods, both beautiful and awe-inspiring in their images. The others were a little less grandiose and ornamental, but no less beautiful and still mesmerising and imposing.

      En’nii stood before them, transfixed and fascinated, whilst the rest of us worked on setting up camp. I noticed L’eiito eventually wander up to her and I overheard him explaining the history and stories behind the statues and the Divinities to her, patiently educating her in what we Mages all knew by heart. It still amazed me she didn’t know such things when they were common knowledge to myself, but then I was a Mage, and therefore the story and place of the Divinities as absolute gods was imprinted upon me. En’nii was no Mage and was in receipt of a detailed history lesson from L’eiito as she stared at him and the statues, entirely fascinated.

      There was much to tell a novice of the Divinities, but the basics were simple enough to grasp without requiring extensive detail or study: The Divinities of Nehvadi'iaa were our creators, our protectors, our gods. Then seven of them were also referred to as the Old Gods, the Ancients, or the Ancestors, and they were headed by Brehi’ina – the Creator, our first Grand Mage, and specifically the Divinity of Mercy and Hope. Next to her was A’aegiia, the most prominent and powerful of her Ascended Gods, who was our protector and saviour... unless you subscribed to the school of thought that he was sly and duplicitous, and protected only for a price.

      At first, this idea was a strange offshoot of philosophical thought from some, lecturing that A’aegiia hid in plain sight, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, protecting only those who would then do his bidding and whom he could manipulate and entice to do whatever work he bid. Now, it was a definitive school of thought, taught as part of the history and believed by many. Either way, protection prayers and gifts were to be left at the alters, either as bribery to entice this Divinity to come to the aid of themselves or others, or as an offering to a god who simply protected. It was said that it was A’aegiia himself had requested this specific ritual – as did all the Divinities – but the reasons as to why was still contested to this day, thus we still carried out the ritual, which had now become ingrained in our ways. Whether they worked or not was another matter entirely.

      The other five Divinities were Cari’idryydd, the Divinity of Love; Rhyyd'vael, the Divinity of Battle; A’uraasinae, the Divinity of Elements; Ealvvi’iniaaen, the Divinity of Magika; and A’erudiitae, the Divinity of Souls. These Divinities, the old gods, were all of immense power and importance; however, Brehi’ina and A’aegiia were the most feared and revered, for the power of life and death they held and wielded in their hands. These were the gods we were in absolute mercy to. The ones we prayed to. The ones we needed now.

      I didn’t notice L’eiito sidle up to stand beside me. I was too busy staring at the statues and alters surrounding us, contemplating what it must look like to an outsider. I found it difficult to imagine how it might seem to En’nii, who knew so little about our true Creators. Very few of the People, the non-Mages, even knew about them now, let alone actually believed in them like the Mages did. They believed no gods truly existed, that they were nothing more than wishful thinking. It was an unfathomable idea they could even be close to correct.

      “Did you know En’nii does not believe in the Divinities?” L’eiito mused with much surprise. “I did not realise such a thing was so common.”

      “Mages are the only ones who know or truly remember them at all,” I remarked quietly. “The People here do not believe that such suffering would be endured if they truly existed, and so they have been ignored and forgotten. I do not believe I have ever doubted they exist... En’nii and I used to argue so much over that as we got taught enough to learn of such philosophical thinking.”

      “I admit it had never occurred to me to doubt. I have always believed in their existence.”

      “Mages have never doubted their existence. We know who gave us our gift of Magika.”

      I stared up at the large stone alter for A’aegiia, our protector. He had answered so many of my prayers over the years, it was impossible not to believe in his existence. I took a few steps closer to it and placed flowers on the alter, saying a small prayer for him in the Old Language of the Ancients as I knelt with my hand on my heart.

      “Kohvi’iaa a’a vi’ia. Edryy’rh a’a vi’ia. Pia’add a’goviiah a’a vi’ia, a’ann cari’iaa a’a vi’ia... Vy’yn Diiw’wn, vy’yn edryy’rhah, vy’yn gii’ydd.”

      Slowly, I rose to my feet, bowed, then took five steps back before bowing my head again. The ritual complete, I looked back up at the statue of A’aegiia’s persona and wondered how much he could possibly hear from everyone in the entire world... yet, somehow, I was still always saved.

      “Do you not find this arrangement of idols strange?” L’eiito crossed his arms and stared at the circle of statues thoughtfully. “Worshiping the Divinities should surely be more simplistic than this, no?”

      “The rituals are as old as time itself,” I remarked, knowing he knew it too. “There must be a good reason for them. That it has been practiced for too long to count must mean they themselves created it and require it from us.”

      “I highly doubt it. This seems all to... human… to have been created by any god’s hands.”

      “I have honestly never thought to question it... I suppose such omnipotent and all-powerful beings cannot think like we do, otherwise they would be just like us.”

      There was a thoughtful pause. “Hm…”

      I waited. There was more to this, and I was willing to stand here until he was ready to share whatever it was that had him over-thinking again.

      “En’nii’s questions and statements were thought-provoking as she tried to understand it herself,” L’eiito finally murmured. “I did not know what to tell her when she simply asked me why this is so. Time seems to have forgotten the reasons for such things, with Mages accepting it as fact without reasoning.”

      “I know I have never really given it much thought, just followed all rituals as shown to me.” I shrugged. “If the Gods themselves did not create it, why would Mages?”

      L’eiito gave a light shrug. “I can honestly imagine many reasons they might – the first of which may simply be one way of allowing themselves and the People to show appreciation and reverence to their Gods. The second is more sinister... These stories and rituals are also a way of exerting power and control over others, threatening negative reactions and disfavour from the Gods if these rituals are not strictly followed and achieved. Overall, my opinion is that it is both and many other reasons over too many years to imagine, until they were all more ingrained and natural than breathing.”

      I found myself edging closer to him, until his arm touched mine. He leaned back against me a little and kept staring at the statues thoughtfully.

      “Do you always prey to them in this way?” he asked.

      I looked up at him curiously. “Yes, although I am not always sure what good it does, since I am of the opinion that they hear you no matter where you are. I have prayed many times away from the alters and I have found them answered in one way or another. A’aegiia in particular has been quite merciful in protecting me.”

      “Most certainly. He was clearly watching over you when you were so badly wounded.” Something in his voice caught and his expression momentarily changed. But in an instant that fleeting slip of emotion was gone again. “I sincerely hope he is watching you now you have requested him to.”

      “I am not delicate Royal glass, L’eiito. There is no need to treat me like I am and worry so much.”

      He turned to me and I received a hard glare from him, one that penetrated deeply. His voice was dangerously low when he spoke. “You bled out in my arms, Ana. You are far more fragile than you think.”

      “If I am so important to A’aegiia, then he can protect me again.”

      “Perhaps you may prefer to take better care of yourself and allow him to look over less-capable people instead?”

      “I. Am. Fine.” I said the words deliberately and slowly. “I’ve learnt my lesson this time.”

      “It is of little wonder then that you go over to the alter and place a gift for the Divinity, then. If you will not, he may be not so insistent he work so hard for you.”

      I rolled my eyes at the unwarranted sarcasm. “Why don’t you do it too, since you’re so concerned about me?”

      “Perhaps you should return and ask for my protection, so I am protected from the insufferable pain caused by your reckless behaviour the other day.”

      I was momentarily silenced by his frank openness and the vehemence in tone. I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, taken aback by the uncharacteristic break in usually brooding and sullen behaviour towards me. L’eiito did not show his emotions often enough for me to be used to them. It was the general consensus he didn’t have any, and I was inclined to agree with their assessment. The stoicism and blank face he almost always had – unless he was telling me off – never slipped in public. The few times they did with me, in quiet, private moments like this, I was at a loss to deal with them or generally understand them.

      This small blip, though… That hurt me. I never realised he had hurt like that from what happened.

      “I’m sorry... I never meant to hurt you, L’eiito. All I have ever wanted was to pull my own weight. Prove myself to you, that you made the right decision to bring me here, to save me.”

      “You need prove nothing.” L’eiito’s eyes still sharply penetrated inside me, quite nearly physically knocking me backwards, berating me for wanting to do any such thing.  “Least of all to me… Even if it were so, you do not throw your life away so lightly! It is worth more than your stubborn pride.”

      I stared back at those deep eyes. “L’eiito... I...” I sighed out despondently. I wanted to apologise again – but was it worth the attempt when it would not be enough? That look in his eyes was so painful to see, and words alone would not be able to take it away. “I really won’t make the same mistakes again. I will be fine.”

      “Yet you cannot promise me that.”

      I watched him walk off, shaking my head. No, I could not promise – but I certainly was going to do everything possible to ensure it.

~ ~ ~

It was coming up towards the early evening. Our brief was the same as it always was –protection for the High Coven of Earra’al. We were placed as decoys – posing as vulnerable Mages camping in the woods. We had been doing this for some time now, a necessary and unfortunate evil to prevent it being broken into and having Mages harmed or killed in their sleep.

      These days Mages were seen to be easy prey, so bandits and mercenaries had started targeting lone Mages, even laying siege to entire Covens, some time ago, in the hope of earning money, or even body-counts, for themselves or their cold-hearted superiors, intent on taking precious things that were ours. Money, valuable objects and artifacts, potions, ancient scripts and scrolls, exclusive items, even lives, were all constantly stolen. The Covens of Narayya’an now required to be protected at all times, particularly the smaller ones. Ever since the Canaddon Official of Earra’al had siphoned the funds from the King from Guard rotation patrols around the forests and Covens for his own gambling problems, we Mages had been forced to take matters into his own hands.

      That was why we were here now – to protect our own, the High Coven of Earra’al, and what stood within. No one else was going to. Neither the guards of the Royal town of Kaer’ystell nor the Special Royal Military Guards now patrolled in the forest. The Mages were simply left to fend for themselves. So that is precisely what we did.

      To prevent the brutal criminals from attempting to enter the Coven to steal our precious artefacts, weapons and potions, or even cause horrific bloodbaths, as had been in the past, a set of capable fighting Mages from each one was placed close by the entrance to appear as vulnerable and sleeping. If, and when, they stumbled across us, they always inevitably attacked the small camp instead of heading to the Coven – selecting the easier target. We then put paid to their attempts. The choice of their fate was simply their own.

      L’eiito wandered up to me with an armful of firewood as I knelt to build our campfire. Dressed up in his fighting gear of specially-made and perfectly-fitted black leather doublet, buckled up and tightly belted, with black leather pants, long boots, and fingerless gloves with gauntlets, he was rather an impressive sight... despite the dark scowl he had just for me.

      He knelt down and gave me a hard look as I glanced over at him.

      “Are you certain you are capable of this?” he growled. “You have barely recovered from the previous attack on our camp.”

      I took the wood silently as I returned the hard stare. I added them to the large pile I had already built, carefully placing each one so it would light easily and burn well into the cold Narayya’an night just as carefully ignoring him. Riled by my silence he scowled more.

      “Ana, I am perfectly right to be concerned for you.”

      I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t need you to be concerned for me. I don’t need anyone to be concerned about me.”

      “You have no choice in the matter.”

      “Well, I should.”

      “You do not get to choose who cares for you.”

      He held my eyes stubbornly for a few moments as I glared back defiantly, making me feel more of that feeling I didn’t want to have when those dark eyes pierced right into me, putting me in a worse temper. I took a breath to settle myself and went back to focusing on building up the fire.

      It was then that I noticed something uncomfortably familiar out of the corner of my eye. My stomach knotted a little when I looked up to verify exactly what I had seen.

      “Speaking of which...” I muttered under my breath.

      L’eiito threw me a look as L’aena swayed over, her seductive eyes glancing over every person around and lingering quite a few moments longer on Saebastiia’an and L’eiito. I noticed the way L’eiito met her gaze as he stood, watching her as she made her way towards him.

      “I am very glad to find you here,” she purred at him. She extended her hand and ran her fingers down his forearm. “I was given something to bring to you.”

      I glanced away, pretending to be enraptured by the firewood. With her perfectly-fitting, figure-hugging, corseted and flowing Mage’s dress, perfect hair and undeniable beauty, I felt like a pointless troll next to the woman. I wore my own fighting gear instead of some beautifully embroidered and tightly-corseted Mage’s dress. It was no more than a hip-length leather jerkin, belted up and buckled tightly, along with tan leather pants, long boots that held internally-sheathed knives, gauntlets, and fingerless gloves, and it just ended up making me feel like I should have made more of an effort in her presence. Even my hair was plainly tied and pinned up out of my face, ready to fight, whereas hers was always a long and flowing sheet of perfect shining ebony.

      Not that I was jealous or anything.

      Just as I turned away, I caught Saebastiia’an’s eye and he shot me a silent, querying glance with piercing turquoise eyes that said too much. But I hoped he hadn’t really guessed what was truly on my mind. It was better that nobody knew how ridiculous I was.

      “You came here to bring us more food?”

      I tried to ignore L’eiito’s friendly tone with her. I really should take have cared. He was my friend – that was all that I should really care about. Things were complicated enough without going there.

      “Indeed, as well as extra potions I thought would be of benefit to you.”

      My hackles raised at her seductive purr. I glanced up as I saw her pose for him, her ample chest pushed out and hip jutting to the side, poised just so to make it abundantly clear she was flirting with him. It made for discomforting viewing, especially since he appeared to be unable to take his eyes from her.

      I could hardly blame her for wanting his attention... or more. He was intense, brooding, quiet, intelligent, and sometimes even kind. This went along with stunning features, shoulder-length dark hair that was almost always tied back, and amazingly deep, dark brown eyes that oftentimes looked almost black. His voice was low and sultry, enough to melt anyone’s heart, and he had an impressive and strong physique to go along with it from all that fighting and training he did. There was also that incredible, breathtaking fighting skill with both a sword and Magika – whenever he fought, his moves looked more like part of a dance than any part of a battle. His poise and grace were amazing to watch. It was little wonder L’aena was all over him, really. But that didn’t mean I had to like it.

      I felt a hand in my shoulder as I silently seethed. I looked up to find Saebastiia’an standing over me, immediately indicating I should follow. It was with great reluctance that I did so.

      “Come now, sugar,” he said kindly, taking my hand and squeezing it as we walked a little away from the camp. The voices of the others drifted away into the distance as me walked further towards the trees. I noticed L’eiito barely glanced at me before giving L’aena his undivided attention again. “You have no reason to take her behaviour to heart – it is nothing but purely shallow flirtation. It is not reciprocated, I can assure you.”

      I stared blankly at him, trying to pretend that I had no idea what he was talking about. I received a wry look in return as he put his arm around me and pulled me against him.

      “I am not blind, my sweet. I know you better than that. We both know, Casapiia’an and I. I am also fairly certain En’nii is well aware, too.”

      I bristled defensively. “There is nothing to know – and any opinions should be kept to yourself.”

      Saebastiia’an gave a knowing smile. “I shall not breathe a word, I assure you.”

      I stopped walking and threw him a hard look, yanking myself away from him. He gave me an exasperated sharp glance and a slight shake of his head.

      “Come, Ana... Why this need for secrecy? You would think that someone who came as close to death as you would wish to tell the object of their affection about such things, having realised time and life is actually very short and fickle.”

      I sighed and didn’t bother saying anything more about it. Denial would only strengthen his conviction. I crossed my arms and turned my back to him, looking towards L’eiito for a moment.

      “Some things are just simply better left alone and unsaid,” I stated quietly. “He’s my friend... It should be simply left at that. He has no inclination towards anything more, either.”

      “Punishing yourself every day for Divinities knows what is not going to make you feel any better.” I felt his hands on my shoulders as they slumped. Saebastiia’an met my eyes as I turned my head to glance back at him. “He told me what you did the night after Casapiia’an released you from the infirmary. I expect he believes I will be able to talk you out of pushing and punishing yourself further. None of us want you to die, sugar. But it seems that you do.”

      “I do not have a death wish.”

      “If that is so, then why are you here when you are still not recovered?”

      I glanced back to L’eiito again, who was already sending me a hard glare, clearly intended to be directed at my back, as I did so. “I wanted to prove I wouldn’t let him down again.”

      “Sweetest… There is only going to be one outcome for you if you are cornered and alone in this fight,” Saebastiia’an said dully. “There is not even any practical reason for you to be here – we have more than enough Mages capable of dealing with any threat that may come.”

      “It is still my duty to be here.”

      A huff of irate exasperation was followed by my being spun around to fully face him, hitting me with hard aquamarine eyes when he did so. The warm afternoon air suddenly seemed to get a lot colder as he stared at me so harshly.

      “I did not spend every last particle of Manna healing you for you to repeat your stupidity again, Ana! What is it that you really think you have to prove?”

      I stared down at the billowing hem of his traditional black Healer cassock, watching it rustle in the breeze, not wanting to answer such a thing. Torn between keeping my secrets and my friends, and telling them the truth, which would inevitably make them reject me. They would not take kindly to knowing who I was – what I was – and they wouldn’t understand why I had kept such a secret from them. If I told them, I would undoubtedly be no longer welcome in their Coven.

      “I…” With no words I just stepped away from him, from his hands, from his care, without having a single clue how to explain. Abruptly, I spun on my heel and walked away, ignoring another sulky glare that came from L’eiito as I did so. I was surprised he managed to tear his focus away from L’aena for a second to even notice what I had been doing at all.

      I stomped away to a quiet corner, not too far from the fire. Unbuckling my pack from around my hips and pulled my cross-shoulder strap from around me, I flung them both heatedly onto the ground where I was planning on putting up my tent. Then I untied my tent and bedroll from the cross-shoulder trap and proceeded to focus my energy on getting my sleeping arrangements organised.

      “I’m surprised you sit back and watch her do that with him.”

      I pursed my lips and turned around to face En’nii.

      “Exactly why are you here?” I asked her coolly. “I thought you didn’t want to see me get hurt.”

      “It seems I don’t need to wait for the bandits to come to see that, Ana.”

      “So, you too?”

      I kept cold eyes on her and she narrowed her eyes as she scowled back, before turning on her heel and leaving me alone, shaking her head as she did so. I turned back to focusing on my tent, trying not to glance up to see if L’eiito was still standing and enraptured by L’aena. When I did look back, he was sitting with Ei’iraa, holding the potion bottles and apparently discussing them with her. I watched him for a few moments, his eyes focused completely on her as she spoke, lifting a bottle and clearly asking questions about whichever one he was holding.

      Ei’iraa had that familiar flush on her cheeks, the one that nearly all girls had when speaking to either L’eiito or Saebastiia’an. They had a way of looking at you that could make your cheeks heat up – with L’eiito’s deep and intense eyes, and Saebastiia’an’s charming, heart-meltingly searing gazes and intoxicatingly charismatic smile, it was impossible not to. But whilst Saebastiia’an was fully aware of this and enjoyed using his disarmingly smouldering techniques to his advantage, I was certain L’eiito didn’t have the faintest idea about any of his. He was apparently oblivious to such things and constantly insisted quite hotly that there was no truth in the fact – a fact that was inherently obvious to just about everyone else – that more than half the Coven who had come across him were swooning in his wake. It was also a fact that it was quite annoying.

      After a few minutes of putting the rest of my tent up and securing it, I felt a touch on my shoulder again. I spun around irately to stop whatever lecture En’nii had – only to find L’eiito standing over me instead.

      “Get in,” he ordered in a low growl, giving me a hard look and indicating the tent. Forgetting everything I had just been thinking about him, my hackles immediately went up.

      “Why?”

      He remained intensely silent. Simply waited for me to crawl in. After a short glaring-match, I relented and wriggled inside, curling up in the back of it to allow L’eiito space to fit in too.

      “Start talking,” I demanded hotly, intensely irate at being forced into my own tent by being spoken to like I was a child. “This better be good.”

      L’eiito’s dark eye bore into mine, like he was staring into my soul. I glared back angrily – it was hardly his place to order me about like this, no matter what those eyes made me feel about him otherwise.

      “I strongly request that you return home and leave this to us. It is inevitable someone will be coming tonight – the moons with be at their lightest and it is the best time for them to come. You are not up to fighting them, Ana.”

      “And exactly who are you to tell me what to do?”

      I glared furiously, but my amazement, L’eiito grasped the top of my arm and pulled me roughly to him, my face barely an inch away from his. His anger was palpable, and it startled me. He had never been this angry with me before.

      “Someone who cares far more than he ought to for such a stubborn fool,” he growled at me in a low and dangerous tone. “Two days ago, I had to watch you nearly bleed to death in my arms – I barely got you to Saebastiia’an in time. I did not leave your bedside until you woke up and I knew you were safe. I know you are not recovered, yet. However, you still insist on being here for the next ambush. How can I allow you to put yourself on such danger again in good consciousness?”

      I gazed deeper into his eyes and realised he really was still hurt by the fact I had been so badly injured in the last fight. My anger died. I raised my hand and placed a caring touch on the same arm that held onto me.

      “It’s not your place to worry about me, L’eiito,” I said to him feelingly. His façade of anger slowly turned into one of concern as I spoke. “It’s my choice.”

      L’eiito loosened the tight grip on my arm a little and brought me in closer to lean his forehead against mine. He did so with a long sigh, letting go of his anger towards me. “I wish you would not even consider it, Ana.”

      “I won’t make the same mistake again and fly off after one of them on my own,” I assured him gently, squeezing his arm in an attempt at showing understanding and comfort. I was rendered quite taken aback by the uncharacteristic openness and attempt at physical connection from him, and it chilled me to think he had been so badly affected by what had happened to me. “Both Saebastiia’an and Casapiia’an are here already, anyhow, just in case.”

      “Saebastiia’an is barely recovered himself. How is he to help you if he is too drained to heal you or anyone else?”

      L’eiito leaned back and looked imploringly at me. I understood where this came from, but I regardless slowly shook my head stubbornly – I had a job to do, just as they did, to protect my Coven, and I wasn’t going to stand down from it like a coward. My best friend dropped his head and sighed again.

      “If you will so stubbornly refuse to leave, then my tent will be right here, right next to yours, and I shall not be leaving your side.”

      I stared, indignantly horrified at what he was implying. “I’m a fighter, not a delicate wine glass. I do not require a bodyguard!”

      L’eiito raised a querying eyebrow. “A bodyguard? No... I was merely suggesting being a better-located fighting partner.”

      I threw him an unimpressed glare. We both knew quite well that was exactly what he had been implying.

      “I don’t need any help,” I said stubbornly. “And if you park your tent next to mine I shall never get any sleep from all your snoring. I can hear you across camp very well already.”

      L’eiito’s eyebrows shot up. “My snoring? You know very well that is Saebastiia’an.”

      I let him know with a silent glance of hinted suggestion that I did not believe him, even though I really did know quite well it was Saebastiia’an. I found out the hard way when I once pitched up right next to him – needless to say that had been a very big mistake that was never replicated.

      “I am moving my tent, and to that you will not argue. If you even think to dare to do so, I shall put myself in here with you instead.”

      I scowled outwardly, but inside I almost gave into the threat of arguing with him. Having L’eiito here with me in the small tent was not an unpleasant idea, but I also gathered that if I did so, and in such an obvious fashion, at least one of my secrets would be very clearly revealed to him – and I doubted he would be too happy to find out how I thought far more of him than I should.

      I watched silently as he threw me one last hard look, then left the tent. I then tried to push his concern for me and my current state from my mind – if I let his paranoia me concern get to me my fighting would suffer anyhow. I wasn’t entirely certain I should be there myself, but I wasn’t about to lay on my bed like a delicate maiden who wilted at the thought undertaking anything particularly taxing. I hadn’t been raised to do any such thing, and it was one of the reasons I had left home in the first place – because no one wanted me to do anything and were horribly overprotective of me.

      But then... I couldn’t really blame them. I was the only one left of my small but loving family unit. I was the only thing my poor uncle had left of his beloved little sister, and he wanted to protect that thing – and went to great lengths to do so. But I wasn’t born and brought up to be an ornament in the corner, its sole purpose to be looked at and protected from damage. After two years I’d had enough, and I had left the suffocating confines of my uncle’s home to do something more. I had come this far in the years since… had experienced much… I wasn’t about to lie down and feel sorry for myself now.

      Preparing to leave a few moments, I was accosted by another visitor who appeared through the tent’s entrance. I rolled my eyes when I realised it was Casapiia’an. He was just as bad as his twin when it came to appreciate brotherly affection and unwanted advice.

      “What?” I demanded, cocking my head and waiting expectantly for the answer. He scooted in and sat next to me.

      “Why are you here?”

      I closed my eyes and groaned in disappointed exasperation. “Not you as well... Why am I not really surprised?”

      Casapiia’an offered an amused smile. “I assume L’eiito came to lecture you too, then?”

      I threw him a hard look. Casapiia’an was the more sensible of the twins – steadfast, quiet, reliable, kind, considerate, and knew better than to ask me such things. Where he lacked Saebastiia’an’s blinding charisma and heart-melting charm, it was made up for by his incredible depth and immensely caring nature. It was difficult to believe two people who looked almost exactly the same – except for how they would wear their hair or choice of Healer’s robes – could be so very different. Although to me, they were not the same to me at all.

      I was, apparently, one of only a few who could tell them apart perfectly, even when dressed identically in the traditional Healer’s cassocks or robes. Most people only told them apart due to their differing dress code – Saebastiia’an was almost always dressed in elaborate and colourful Mage’s robes; Casapiia’an was always in the full-length formal black cassock and white sash of the Healers. I required no such assistance to know exactly which one of them I was speaking to – and they had tried to trick me often enough to see if I could be fooled. Thus far, I never had been.

      Despite their different natures, the brothers were certainly identical in their beauty, though. With clear turquoise-blue eyes that looked unreal, shoulder-length and waved blond hair that was usually tied back, ethereally handsome features, and strong and lean figures, it was hardly a surprise that almost everyone would want to melt at their feet. Naturally, the incorrigible flirt that Saebastiia’an was ensured that he enjoyed using all this to his advantage, but Casapiia’an avoided any interaction with anyone who would do so, if at all possible, unless on a professional level in the clinic. He had his own reasons for it, which he never specified or divulged, but I long knew it was also because he did not hold the same interest for such people as his brother did.

      The one thing the two of them did have in common was the way they looked out for me and took care of me. They were my two surrogate brothers, my family, and people who would always ensure I was well taken care of and whom I loved dearly for it. Despite such meddling such as now.

      “I will tell you, as I told L’eiito, that I am not leaving, and I will not argue about it,” I told him firmly.

      He raised an eyebrow. “Is that why he’s bringing his tent over here then?”

      I huffed. They all knew better than to treat me like I was made of glass, but they did so regardless.

      “Come, Ana... Why is it that you are really here?” He wasn’t quite as openly affectionate as Saebastiia’an, but he still took my hand in both of his and squeezed them with the same care and concern he always gave me. “You barely survived the last encounter. You realise that is why we are both here with you, Saebastiia’an and myself? L’eiito... coerced... us both into joining the camp because you refused to see sense.”

      “And by ‘coerced’ you mean...?”

      I knew exactly what it meant. But I wanted to hear it.

      “Threatened to put his blade into our hearts whilst we slept if anything happened to you.”

      My expression darkened to thunder. Before I could shoot out of the tent, Casapiia’an grasped my hand harder and kept me down very firmly.

      “Do you blame him?” he demanded pointedly. “The man carried what was barely left of you all the way back to the Coven and had to wait hours to see if you would even survive. You very nearly didn’t. It is surely only by the grace of A’aegiia that you did! If Saebastiia’an was not as powerful as he is, you would not have made it. No one but my brother could possibly have saved you, I’m certain of it. And it is not as if you are just anyone to that man, Anna – you must know that, despite your constant denials... You know he would not do this or go to such lengths for anyone else, and you know why.”

      I felt my heart jump uncomfortably and avoided the words, and the point, entirely. “I do not require coddling.”

      “What you require is a good dose of common sense.”

      I scowled and pouted. “I’m not leaving.”

      Casapiia’an gave me a hard look, but I wasn’t about to back down. I wasn’t going to be a coward. “I sincerely hope you have become better at fighting in that case.”

      Casapiia’an looked at me for a moment longer to make his point. With a kiss to my cheek to show he wasn’t too mad at me, he exited my tent and left me in there to pout. I finally crawled back out and was about to grab my bedroll to drag it in with me to make up my bed, when I saw L’eiito speaking with L’aena again. She was flicking her long ebony hair and batting her darkened eyelashes at him, leaning over him provocatively, appearing to speak to him about the potions as he sat on a tree trunk. For a moment he looked up and caught me staring, his gaze lingering on me for a long moment as he did so. I dropped my eyes and scooted back into my tent, dragging my sleeping sack in with me, hiding in there before I saw anything else I didn’t want to see.

      The night drew in and became cold. We had long drained every last bit of Ei’iraa’s delicious stew, which was the only reason I had come back out of my tent again. The fire I had built roared and kept us warm as we sat around it, further illuminated by the soft glow of the golla’coaed, under the beautiful and enormous twin moons of Faeh’rron .

      Sitting under those resplendent and infamous golla’coaed, the beautiful light-trees of Faeh’rron, was the best thing about being out in the woods at night. They were truly a wonderful phenomenon of nature, with glowing particles of light blooming on their branches, looking like they were filled with fireflies, illuminating the dark forest alongside the moons. They made it all look so beautiful, so innocent in the face of what was going to inevitably come that night.

      I sat away from the others, with my own thoughts and watching the large fire. En’nii and Saebastiia’an were smiling and speaking to each other – my cousin was certainly taken by him, and I certainly had never seen him so enraptured with one woman before. Ei’iraa and Casapiia’an seemed to be deep into a discussion that I guessed to be about the science of healing – both holding up potion bottles, and he showing Magika as she scribbled on small squares of parchment, clearly discussing combinations of both for the clinic by the few snippets of louder and more animated, excited words that came drifting through the crackling flames of the fire.

      L’eiito seemed to have disappeared into his tent, but I preferred to be warm by the fire than get into mine. Narayya’an nights were icy cold, and it was always best to be as close to the fire as possible when the darkness fell. It was only when the fire stated waning did I ever leave for my colder tent.

      No attack came by the time the fire was dying down. We retreated to our tents and I wriggled myself inside my bedroll, having made one concession of pulling off my boots. They were quick to get on and off, so I could afford not to dirty my cozy sleeping sack with the mud on them. If the bandits came I could yank them on and slap down the snapping buckles down in a second to go out and defend our camp.

      I noticed a shadowed figure approach my tent, silhouetted by the golla’coaed and what was left of the embers. I watched cautiously, my hand gripping the hilt of the dagger under the pillow of my bedroll, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

      Naturally, it had to be L’eiito who opened the flap of the tent and looked inside. At least it wasn’t bandits... but it wasn’t much better.

      “What in Faeh’rron  are you doing?” I hissed at him. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

      Dark eyes pierced right into me. “No.”

      “You should be careful, I could have taken your eye out,” I berated sternly, sliding the dagger fully out to show him.

      “Do not flatter yourself, Ana,” he immediately retorted mildly. I rolled my eyes at him. He was probably right.

      “What are you doing sneaking in here now?” I asked petulantly, entirely disinterested in the inevitable lecture he had brought with him.

      “Ensuring you are still well enough to fight.” He looked at me pointedly. I huffed and beckoned him inside. “I also noticed that glare earlier... I believed I had sufficiently explained that I am in no danger of falling for L’aena’s incorrigible tricks of flirtation.”

      He came in with a slightly teasing smirk at the last jibe and sat himself at the end of my bedroll after I sat cross-legged on it to allow him space to sit.

      “And I thought I told you I am in no danger of being hurt fighting again,” I retorted. “I suppose it’s a simple and unfortunate fact friends take care of each other.”

      “You are not jealous of her... are you?” L’eiito raised a mildly querying eyebrow. I forcibly rolled my eyes and shook my head at the mild teasing. To Chthoniia’an was I about to slip and admit it, that he was bang on the coin for his guess. “You must understand that by now my loyalties are only to you.”

      “She’s hanging on to your every word to flirt, not to make friends. I’m hardly afraid she’s going to take my place as your fighting partner.”

      “What about your place as my friend?”

      I threw him a cool glance. “L’aena doesn’t have, nor make, friends. So, no danger there, either.”

      “I find her attention neither flattering or even agreeable. Just so we are clear on that.”

      “Hmph,” I snorted. “You would be the only man in Narayya’an to think such a thing. Even those with a preference for men fall under her spell.”

      “It takes my attention away from you, and you require watching. It also makes you poor-tempered with me afterwards, which I also do not appreciate.”

      “She’s a temptress.”

      “She is not capable of tempting me. Certainly not of breaking my heart.”

      “That’s easy to know, you don’t have one.”

      L’eiito’s expression darkened and his eyes narrowed, scowling at me coldly, pursing his lips tightly and getting his jaw. He took a breath before quietly and dangerously responding, “That is unfair.”

      I dropped my eyes guiltily at the hurt growl and knew I had crossed a line. But, keeping such constantly rolling emotions always in check was sometimes just too difficult, particularly when being faced so closely with him. I needed to hide my yearning and wistfulness, and most importantly, my physical reaction to him, when he was anywhere near me — so, far too often, this came out as anger and insults.

      “Sorry,” I muttered immediately. “I... It was unfair. You... just don’t seem to care about much at all.”

      “I am here caring about you, am I not?”

      “Not caring. Paranoid. How can I believe you have anything but a heart of stone when you apparently can’t even have your head turned by the most beautiful woman in Earra’al? You would have to not be human for that to be possible, surely.”

      Something darkened in his eyes and he set his jaw tensely once more. I seemed to have hit a sore spot. However, his tone was warmer than his expression dictated it ought to be.

      “That is perhaps because I do not regard her as such. That I feel she is not, in fact, the most beautiful woman in Earra’al. I am perfectly capable of being taken in by a true force of nature, I assure you.”

      I looked back dubiously. “I shall believe that when I see it.”

      “Your current state of displeasing temper is doing no good for the camp. Or for me.” L’eiito came closer, placing a concerned hand on my leg. “What is it with you?”

      He clearly asked with a sincere wish to know and help. I really didn’t know how to answer,  especially when he looked at me like that, with his hand on my leg. And I could hardly tell him the truth, now, could I? Not without ruining our friendship. That was something I was not willing to chance under any circumstances, and why I continued to do everything I could to keep my mouth shut. So, I continued to keep my mouth shut and think of some other stupidly flimsy answer to give him, instead.

      I was still thinking about it when the shout came up and the bandits came.

 

CHAPTER 6

At the cry, both L’eiito and I scrambled to take on whoever had come. I slapped on my boots and pack and went out into the fray, sending out an immediate burst of energy force into one idiot that was coming straight for my tent. It flung him several feet, slamming him backwards onto the floor and out of my way, just as another came from the side.

      I parried a clumsy attack with my swords, and another attempted hit then came back a me with his blade. Done with him and his terrible fighting technique, I simply lifted my hand and fried him with a fireball. At such close range he had no chance of recovering from it as it exploded in a shower of flames right in his face. The smell alone of this least-used move stayed with me for days after. As did the screams. It was something I always tried to avoid, unless necessary.

      Despite of the repulsion I felt after this, I still had to fight. I ignored that burning mass of bandit and shot after another of them, one that was chasing down Saebastiia’an and En’nii – and that was not acceptable. Neither of them could fight, and were in grave danger of being very permanent victims if they were not protected. Even though Saebastiia’an had at least managed to get a strong protection barrier shield around the two them for now, it wouldn’t last because it took too much Mana to cast and keep up – Mana which Saebastiia’an simply didn’°t not have, right now.

      Thankfully, Ei’iraa got to the swordsman first with a flying kick and double backstab, followed by a hard, blunt pommel-strike the head after she spun him around with the blades deep inside his back, knocking him to the floor. She swiftly took Saebastiia’an and En’nii away to safety whilst he was incapacitated and dying. Once they were safe, she was back to slit his throat, to be on the safe side, and I couldn’t say I was sorry for it, after seeing that look in his eyes when he was chasing my friend and sister down.

      Another came at  me as I noted Ei’iraa’s movements of protection. He was busy trying to out-fight me with his clumsy swordsmanship, and laughable as it was, it was still a possible threat until it was gone. Now, I never used Magika in fair melee combat; but when they were requiring swift and efficient elimination, all bets were off. I got him slashed through the stomach and down on the floor, then as he was struggling back up, I followed through with ensuring he was no longer a danger, throwing him back down and further away with an energy force blast, then freezing him solidly with ice.

      The next idiot was immediately upon me. This one was better, knew his way around a sword fight, and I was physically waning by now. I was about to use more Magika when the ice shell shattered what now remained of his… colleague. The flying frozen particles from the explosion had enough force to hit the bandit I was fighting and ensured this suicidal idiot fighting me me was effectively dealt with, too, the ice hitting and spreading along his skin and into the tissue, down to the bones, until he, too, was a solid block of ice-sculpture.

      There was an exhaustively large gang of thugs still left, ones who were more than usually brutally relentless. The fighting was bloody, and they would not give up until they near all lay dead. Relentlessly dogged, they pushed my abilities almost to their limit, and my Manna to the core, draining it too quickly as I used it to help defend myself against quite exceptional mercenaries.

      My team fought tirelessly around me, lethal, quick, and highly underestimated. Especially L’eiito. Ethereal and beautiful with his skill and dance of lethality, he balanced Magika and his blades with a fluidity, grace, skill, and precision that was almost impossible not to watch, taking on a vast majority of the large band of foes that faced us down.

      The Assassin had no scruples like I did when it came to Magika and Melee, equally happy to use whatever means he preferred to dispose of whoever was rather stupidly trying to kill him. He received and earned his moniker each time he faced anyone down, with his key manoeuvre being  his Magika ability to re-manifest himself anywhere relatively close by. This easily allowed him to position himself to push his opponent harshly, then disappear from in front and reappear from behind, before drive his blades into the back of the enemy, and finally, of they still insisted on fighting, yanking their heads and slitting their throats.

      The formidable Mage would execute this in less than a few seconds. He would then effortlessly move onto another and fight the next one in whatever manner he saw fit to, whether it was a fireball to the face, being frozen solidly and destroyed with a Force Energy blast, or simply with a blade to the stomach or throat.

      He had been my mentor, my teacher, and my guiding star in battle, and it was he to whom I looked up to and wished for praise or recognition from. Not that I would dare admit it to him. But still, it was the truth.

      So, I pushed myself harder against these bandits and fought on to keep up with him in battle.

      Unfortunately, I pushed too much, too soon. I was suddenly down to fighting them off hard with my daggers alone, because my Magika had drained too much, too fast, and I was left with having to attempt to restore the over-spent Mana in my blood with a small bottle of Ei’iraa’s ingenious and intense fast-acting Mana replenishing stimulator.

      Finding a short moment whilst I had thrown them down to the floor to knock it quickly back was difficult, but I managed it. There as an immediate sense of relief when that familiar heat and intense tingling began rushing inside me again.

      Even though I was knocked down again that very next second, I was now at least able to push them back with a hard elemental force, enabling me to scramble to my feet and attack them instead.

      Lesson quite heavily learned from before, this time my armour kept me well-protected. The punishing blows I received, the slashing swords that swung towards me, the painful sting of them going deep or catching my face, felt like nothing as adrenaline and Mana flowed powerfully through me.

      Fortunately, I barely received more than a few superficial scratches and hard bruises, thanks to the armour being so well-made, and my Magika shields being strong. Blades sometimes went deep, but the point barely scraped the leather or penetrated through, allowing me precious moments to fight back when they least expected it.

      Unfortunately, though, my tent and bedroll did not fare so well. One of the better thugs kept pushing me, coming forward, eventually shoving me towards my tent by pushing me back too strongly with his heavy sword against my crossed daggers, followed by a well-timed parry and riposte against my next attack.

      The tent collapsed beneath me as I fell from the heavy blow, the wind knocked out of of my lungs with cry when I hit the ground on my back and my shoulder. I was dazed, in pain, and breathing had become almost mind-blowingly painful. Still, I fought on, clutching my long daggers tightly, immediately scrabbling to get up, despite the attacks and blows that rained down on me mercilessly.

      I was losing power and breath. All my Mana was being drained out in maintaining full-body shields. And I was well aware that with each swing or stab towards me that missed, went directly into my flattened accommodation.

      The mercenary kept attempting to slay me whilst I was on top of it, his sword ripping through the tent fabric several times as I rolled and shoved myself this way and that from his blade and worked to get onto my feet. I could hear it being torn, between brutal yelling and heavy breathing, and I was wincing inside each time that it happened. But I was being pinned down, and could seem to find now way out of this to save it, or me.

      Ei’iraa couldn’t see me. L’eiito was looking right at me, but was fighting his own battle and was too far away to be of much assistance. His eyes were torn between pure panic and utter fury, although I wasn’t quite whether that last one was for the bandit, or for me.

      Eventually, after pushing me so hard for so long, I had almost nothing left, and he was about to strike a lethal blow. It was coming, and I knew it wouldn’t be good, especially after the last one. So, I unleashed something every BattleMage kept the very base of Mana reserves for, referred to by the Coven as Power Drive – something that could only be initiated by having nothing left but the drive to live. It was the catastrophic final move that was a last resort to save my life.

      The explosion startled even me, and I’d started it. It was an enormous burst of Force and Fire Magika that pushed out and exploded harshly, setting fire to everything within a certain radius, including the monstrous lunatic that tried to kill me .

      Of course, a straggler wanted to try his arm at me now. I was weakened, but I just caught him with a remaining Power Drive fireball to his face, which also unfortunately singed what was little that was left of my poor tent. He went down screaming in flames just as he was about to strike. My tent went with him, burning up just as quickly, along with everything that had been in it. Or under it, given I had fallen right on top and flattened most of it first.

      The upshot of it all, was now that this was over, was that I now very effectively had nowhere to sleep outside anymore... and I deftly noted in the middle of the chaos, screams, violent yells, blood, and singed masses, that fighting next to my camping accommodation was apparently a very bad idea.

      That thug was also not the last to go down. Where in all Divinities’ Names were these idiots coming from?

Scrambling back up from the charred remains of both the tent and the mercenaries that helped destroy it, I had to gather myself again, throw back more utterly disgusting Mana Juice, and fly back into the Frey. I would have to mourn the loss of my tent later.

      After a lengthy and hard-fought battle, they were, finally, all left dead. The immense  was neutralised.

      Mangled and charred corpses littered what had been our campsite, shining with slick and dark blood in the glow of the Twin Moons of Faeh’rron and the soft light of golla'coaed trees. On the sidelines, I stood, exhausted, my long daggers still in my hands, slick and thickly sticky from where they had been, what they had hit and sliced and stabbed, still glistening crimson in the moonlight.

      Looking about, I was barely feeling the rather deep scratches and minor lacerations that stung mildly. Instead, I was coldly horrified by the carnage of what had just been done, with no real reasons as to why they had come to do the same to us.

      There was a blanket of… remains… scattered everywhere around the camp. If we had not been as good… Well. That would have been us. It might even had been some of the Coven It came with the same ugly, disturbed feeling every time. But… this time, there were so many of them…

      After a few moments, I felt a presence stand next to me. I did not need to look up.

      “It is done.”

      The gruff and softly quiet, grim tone made it all the more chilling. I lowered my head, closing my eyes, saying nothing in reply.

      “How are you?”

      I still didn’t look at him. “Fine.”

      “You have been hurt. Again. Bleeding, even.”

      Now I did look back. L’eiito met my eyes with concern and I swiped at my face. When my fingers came away warm and sticky, I only then realised that my face had also been badly cut. I glanced at it nonchalantly and wiped my hand on my pants leg. Pain was pain. You get into enough fights, you get used to it in the end.

      “Nothing a healing balm won’t fix.” I let out a sigh and turned to face him. “I think we should return now.”

      L’eiito shook his head slowly at me, but did not argue. We’d all had more than enough for one night.

      I followed my Mentor and friend into his tent, still standing in one piece, where he broke out some of Ei’iraa’s healing balm. He sent me a stern look that silently told me to unbuckle my jerkin and gloves, as well as to remove my loose blouse beneath, so I could be treated – something I did not particularly want, given it meant sitting in the cold, confined tent in my thin and sleeveless under-bodice and nothing more on top. With him. Rubbing warm healing balm almost everywhere into my skin, with warm hands and long fingers.

      I sat quietly as he cleaned the minor injuries and scratches with water from his pouch, very carefully and gently cleaning up the blood and washing the shallow wounds on my arm and face as I tried to breathe. He also insisted I lift my under-bodice enough to show him my ribs, abdomen and back, tutting and muttering to himself when he saw further injuries and the harsh bruising beginning to cloud darkly around my torso.

      He very gently and carefully rubbed in the healing balm over the bruises and wounds, massaging them away with firm and gentle hands… as firm and gentle as his voice when he spoke to me.

I had to look away, to suppress the usual awful pull of yearning and the uncomfortable fluttery sensations I always felt upon feeling his gentle touch upon my midrif, my ribcage, my back, my cheeks, my forehead, and then down my arms. Blood was pounding in my ears, and I hoped to all Divinities that he wouldn’t notice the raised pulse and suppressed shivers. Or at the very least, put them down to being in battle and in pain.

      Feeling the gentle pressure of his fingers applying the balm to my skin, as he stood so close, was both comforting and unnerving. It left me confused and torn up inside, wishing it could be as simple as giving into what I felt for him… Or having it go away, altogether. That maybe I could just be like L’aena and be more overt and honest. Or failing that, ignore my pounding pulse and the incessant fluttering nerves inside, and be a normal friend.

      I didn’t flinch when the balm stung me. I was more focused on covering other responses instead. Don’t get me wrong — it stung, badly. Being scraped and stabbed at will do that to you. But, I was far more concerned about giving myself away than whether something hurt me enough to go cross-eyed.

      The last thing I needed now was L’eiito’s gentle touch on my skin, caressing me in strokes and circles, ensuring the balm was being applied properly and effectively. It was becoming more and more difficult to manage to keep this… thing… reined in,   I was still feeling his disappointment and frustration with me. Still trying to keep him as my friend.

      “You were not quite so reckless this time.” L’eiito’s low, soft tone cut into my thoughts, his breath just touching my skin as he knelt behind me. He delicately applied balm to the top of my arm, near my shoulder. It was almost too much to remain so nonchalant and still, and I wondered if he really was so unaware as to the effect such behaviour had on me. “I am relieved there was no repeat of the previous incident. However, the same cannot be said of your accommodation.”

      I turned to fully face him. It was hard to keep fighting the instinct to just reach out to touch him, my hands remaining straight down at my sides, as I sat on my legs. He was still rubbing to top of my arm when I met his eyes.

      “I expect it will be put down to acceptable casualties,” I quipped lightly. L’eiito allowed a little smile.

      “You shall at least be spending the remainder of the night in your own bed. You need not concern yourself over it now.”

      “Do you accept I am now well enough to fight?”

      “I was gratified, and surprised, to see you in fairly acceptable condition out there.” He nodded a little. “You dealt with the fight quite admirably and capably.”

      “Maybe now you’ll stop playing big-brother with me.”

      Something dark flashed across his face that I did not understand, but it sent something uncomfortable right through me. His eyes seemed to get deeper and blacker, more intense… and I did all that I could right then to remind myself he was just my friend.

      Absolutely no touching or swooning allowed. Nope.

      “I certainly do not see you as a sister,” he murmured, “and I am not playing.”

      L’eiito continued to hold my gaze intently as he continued to so softly apply balm into my other arm. He was kneeling high on his knees, right in front of me, far too close, gently but firm, and slowly rubbing in more balm.

      No … Just friends.

      Words and breath choked in my throat and my pulse went into overdrive, and quite frankly I was lucky not to have melted into a gooey puddle at his feet. I had to take a breath to steady myself and retrain from moving into him.

      However, the attempt at calm apparently did not have the required effect, since it was barely a moment later my resolve wavered when a new wave of exhaustion claimed me. I lowered my head and leaned forward until it pressed against the top of his very firm abdomen, my hands finding their way to his sides for balance.

      I felt him start a little at the unexpected contact, but his surprise did not last long, much to my own. His hand stopped applying the balm and stilled, whilst the other found its way to my head and started stroking my hair, silently offering comfort he clearly accepted I required in that moment. The hand on my arm began caressing it, and I didn’t realise he was leaning down over me until his forehead rested on the top of my head.

      “You must be exhausted,” he murmured gently. “I wish you would not push yourself so hard. I do not like to see it, or you feeling this way.”

      “I can tell … But, it is still not on you, not your responsibility, to take care of me.”

      His next words came as barely a breathed whisper, all gruff and grim. “I have every intention of protecting you from yourself. Someone must.”

      My hackles rose again, despite the fluttering I was feeling at being held by him, and at such words. Damn this man!

      “I keep telling you, I don’t need protection.”

      The caressing slowly stopped. He lifted his head and then my own, fixing those gloriously intense dark eyes on me. He kept looking at me intensely, silently, for a long moment. Oh, Divinities… Those eyes…

      “You truly do, Ana.”

      Lowering his head, he slowly and gently removed himself and his hand from my arm, and with slow deliberate movements, he closed the lid of the balm. The loss of his touch was even more painful than having it in the first place.

      “You allow no one to care. You allow nobody in. I hope, one day that might change.” He put the jar away and went to leave the tent. “Get a good night’s sleep at the Coven and rest. I hope you will feel even better tomorrow.”

      I watched him leave and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. If only I could be so transparent... Life would be so much easier, then.

CHAPTER 7

We made it back to the Coven in the hours just before the dawn. L’eiito came with me up to my room and helped me put my things away. My armour was painful and heavy to wear, my things awkward and difficult to carry. The cross-body shoulder strap pressed against deep bruising and scratches, my pack weighing me down as I tried to will my legs to keep on walking. If he hadn’t been pulling me up the stairs  by my hand I would not have been able to make it.

      “Here,” he said, drawing me to him by the hand he still held. Letting it go, he took off his own fighting gloves and went about unbuckling the pack from around my waist. “Allow me to help you, so you don’t hurt or exhaust yourself further. You are still in recovery and I do not wish you to jeopardise yourself any more than you already have.”

      I was in no state to argue, so all I could do was rather petulantly shrug and let him.

      Dropping the pack to the floor, he slowly unbuckled my stiff leather jerkin, and very gently and carefully helped me out of it. I winced despite the great care he took, the injuries still painful despite the healing balm. “You must be more careful in future.”

      “It was a fight. Injuries are inevitable.”

      L’eiito’s eyes darkened and he yanked up my light blouse and under-bodice beneath. “Was that?”

      I looked down at the deep and long angry scar in my side, still painful and aching, where, just barely a few days ago. I had been sliced so deep that I’d nearly died. It was still healing, still raw, still a horrible reminder of how close to death I had come.

      I lifted my head defiantly and huffed. “That was recklessness. There – I admit it!”

      “Recklessness kills.”

      “So.” I sighed a huff and grimaced inside. “You are never going to forgive me for it.”

      It was a statement, not a question. L’eiito dropped his head and shook it, making me feel even more guilt-ridden and despondent. He slowly lowered my bodice again and turned away from me. I let out an irate and disappointed sigh.

      “I’ll take that as a no, then,” I muttered, trying hard not to care.

      L’eiito rubbed his forehead and sighed. Turning back, he then raised his eyes to me for a brief moment. “There is nothing to forgive... But you must promise that you will take better care of yourself and fight better.”

      “You mean like today, where I’ve had no more injury than I’ve had otherwise?” I retorted smartly. “And I did this even whilst still recovering from the Healing, so it seems that I’m more than capable of fighting better than usual now.”

      “I cannot have that happen to you again.”

      “It won’t.” I grasped his hand in mine and he looked at me like his eyes were boring into my very soul. “You think I want it to happen again? I also don’t want to see that look on your face again, either.”

      “If my disapproval keeps you alive, then so be it.”

      I squeezed his hand and sighed tiredly. “Can we let this go now, please? I’m agreeing with you, Ara’laan, so you don’t need to keeping making your point. I need to rest, not argue about this.”

      L’eiito’s eyes continued to bore darkly and intently at me for a long moment more. Then he gave one nod of his head and squeezed my hand back, before letting it go and lowering himself to kneeling, to unbuckle my long boots for me. I balanced myself by holding onto his shoulders as he tugged them off, setting them aside while I slowly sat myself down on the edge of my bed, smarting from the aching that was starting to build, now all the adrenaline wearing down.

      L’eiito stood again before me, placing his hand firmly on my shoulder.

      “I do not suppose you would care to explain to me what reason you have to always feel as if you must prove yourself?” he enquired gently.

      I refused to meet his eyes and stared at the far wall. “There are too many reasons to even begin.”

      He came to join me, sitting next to me and leaning his elbows onto his knees. He sighed and cocked his head to one side as he looked over. “Well... that is more than you have confessed to previously.”

      L’eiito pushed himself back along the width of the bed until his back pressed against the wall. He leaned forward and pulled on my arm until I scooted myself back to join him. I leaned tiredly against his arm and shoulder as we both sat against the wall, my elbows resting on raised knees, my head resting forward against my hand.

      “This is a long night,” I mumbled despondently, voice muffled. “I wonder how long such measures will be necessary to keep the Coven and Mages safe.”

      “Until the King decides we are worthy of guard patrols here in the forests, we shall be vulnerable to constant attacks from bandits.” L’eiito gave a sharp shake of his head in exasperation, followed by a gruff grunt of disapproval. “Outside Khaer’ystell, all the People and Mages remain forgotten, whether in the vulnerable villages out here, or in the Covens. Mages and the poor villagers, with so little to offer, seem to mean little to those in charge of this Kingdom.”

      “I can readily believe the King does not even know of these plights,” I remarked dryly. I lifted my head to glance over. “He is probably so busy having his banquets and balls and pandering to the Court and Nobility, he has no idea about such things as where his guards patrol in this District.”

      “If that were case, what use is it to even have one?”

      “This is a large kingdom... It must be too much to ask one person to know everything there is to know about it all. I would lay blame squarely at the door of Town Mayors and Officials, not upon him. Each one of these is appointed as guardian of each District or town, and it is they who must report back to the King and his advisors regarding everything necessary and relevant. They’re supposed to be the King’s representatives, leaders, guardians, his eyes and ears, and his helping hands. I sincerely doubt they are doing anything that His Majesty actually thinks they are doing.”

      L’eiito raised an eyebrow. “How is that you are so well-versed in Narayya’an politics?”

      “How do you not know about such things?” I looked over at him expectantly as he shrugged. “I suppose I learnt more than I thought on my journeys through Narayya’an... Although I believed everyone would know such simplistic things about basic politics. It is surely in all our interest to know them, no?”

      L’eiito uncomfortably sidestepped the question and posed one of his own. “So, you lay the fault at the feet of these… Officials… The Canaddon?”

      “Absolutely. It’s been a well-known rumour for some time that those idiot Canaddon, particularly the Official of Earra’al, has been squandering their Districts’ money. The budget put forth by the King, which is to specifically pay for basic things for the people, has long been taken and squandered by the District of Earra’al’s Official himself. He is a known gambler with debts, and lives far above his means, as if he were Nobility. If you spend enough time living on the streets, you get to know people a lot of things that go on around you, especially if making acquaintances with certain people.”

      L’eiito’s eyebrows stayed up as I spoke. Taking in what I had shared, he gave some weighted consideration to the knowledge that we were being maimed because the Earra’al Canaddon was squandering his King’s money on gambling instead of guard patrols… and I knew specifically it to was dice and cards – both of which he was deplorable at. Best not to ask just how I knew that for a fact.

      “It is not the first time I have heard such things, and such corruption and fraud are widespread,” I added dully. “There is not enough money for the poor, the hungry, or even children. None for the appropriate guard patrols to help them. Their lives are being squandered for the sake of men in power lining their own pockets. By those who are criminals themselves, stealing money from the Kingdom and King for their own gain. It is a monstrous truth I’ve been made aware of again and again, all through Narayya’an. The King cannot possibly know everything, particularly if it goes on in secret.”

      L’eiito gave a mild snort. “Then King appears to know nothing at all… Of what use is he? Ten or so years ago, it would have been understandable, with half his own family gone. But now, too much time has passed... The excuse that he is still suffering the consequences, allowing him to be blind to what is occurring here, is inexcusable.”

      I raised a curious eyebrow. “You believe such things could affect him still, after all this time?”

      “There is no time on missing loved ones who are gone,” he answered quietly, momentarily closing his eyes. “His younger sister and brother-in-law killed in an accident, their surviving only child – his own niece – subsequently vanishing, never to be seen or heard from again... The tragedy that befell the Royal Family on a personal level is immeasurable. I imagine he must be especially fearing for and missing his niece, so inexplicably vanished so soon after his own sister and her husband died. Knowing their carriage tumbled over a cliffside simply because their driver miscalculated a sharp curve in the road... It cannot be easy. There is no niece, and no one to blame for the fall. To deal with it can be no easy task, particularly with his own immediate family to keep, with a daughter of his own to ensure she is being taught well enough to one day become Queen. Not everyone is tasked with the challenge of running a kingdom... Yet, be that as it may, it still falls to the one who is Sovereign to lead their kingdom. They must be the one to lead it, and its subjects, all of which should naturally come first, with his own grief second.”

      “You are absolutely correct, there can be no excuse to allow your position to be compromised by weakness if you are a ruler of a powerful kingdom.”

      L’eiito was studied my reaction closely, apparently somewhat taken aback. “You surprise me. I would have not expected you to be so unfeeling towards a man who is most likely even now still in mourning for his deceased younger sister and brother-in-law, as well as in no doubt besieged by guilt for the disappearance of that deceased sister’s only child whilst under his care. I do not think it matters that the young Princess... the Royal Grand Princess, as I suppose she would be now her mother is gone, has been gone a decade.”

      I leaned forward, agitated and irate that he could let the Sovereign Ruler of this Kingdom, the person who was supposed to be ensuring our care and welfare, governing us, leading us, be allowed any sympathy for anything that happened to the grand Royal Family whilst the rest of us suffered.

      “It has been almost ten years hence – that Princess was declared missing so long ago it should no longer be relevant. His lack of rule, his lack of judgment, his inability to see the suffering through his own grief, it is more than enough to warrant such lack of feeling towards him. How many have suffered? Ignorance is not bliss, and it is also not an excuse for incompetence.”

      I endured watching the deep black pools in front of me turn into confused and saddened pools, but it was for barely more than a moment before I turned my head away from him. I couldn’t look at him anymore. I could no longer deal with my feelings for this man… friend… and I was too tired and still quite drained from my Healing to keep my turmoil in check.

      “You clearly went through much before I brought you here...” L’eiito murmured. “I cannot imagine how you have come to know so much about this Kingdom otherwise, to feel so much bitterness about how it is run.”

      Sighing deeply and leaning back against the wall, I stared up at the ceiling.

      “I ran alone for many years before you found me, L’eiito. I experienced...” The words choked my throat. I stopped talking and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, willing the memories that flooded my mind far away. “There was much that I experienced, and I travelled a lot. All those things... Even what we just do now every night... it is down to him burying his head in the sand and letting those Canaddon do as they please. If such things weren’t so, and if he had been truly in charge, the corruption would not have been so absolute, and those bandits and mercenaries would not be out there, unregulated and unpunished.”

      “My apologies... I did not mean to upset you.” L’eiito reached out and took my hand tightly. I clutched it, searching for the comfort it offered in my turmoil from memories I wished that I could forget. “One day I hope you might finally trust me enough to tell me what you went through out there alone and share the burden you carry.”

      “It is not one that others should have to share. Not even you.” I squeezed my eyes shut again and stemmed the tears that threatened, letting out a long breath. L’eiito’s hand squeezed harder, thumb brushing over the back of my fingers, offing more sympathy and comfort to me. “I hope that I can just forget it ever happened.”

      “You need never think of them again. You are perfectly safe here.”

      Momentarily allowing myself to let my eyes linger on his, I gently let go of his hand and slipped my arm through his. Leaning my head down onto his shoulder, I wrapped my hands around his wide and firm, tough bicep and closed my eyes. His hard body was warm and calming, making me feel, at some level, like I was safe. Nestled up to him like this, it was another unusually affectionate blip in my interactions with him – as close as we were, we didn't generally fall into easy physical contact, like I did with Saebastiia’an. L’eiito never had seemed especially comfortable with such behavior. But right now, he willingly allowed it, knowing how much I needed it.

      To Chthoni’iaan with keeping myself in check when these memories were haunting me so vividly.

      “The worst of it was being alone.” That confession was a difficult one to make. I wasn’t even quite sure why I was telling him now, after all this time. “I’m glad I don’t have to go through that again.”

      “Without doubt. I have experienced it well myself, and I agree that is the most difficult part.”

      “You were lucky that you stumbled upon the Coven.”

      “Indeed...” L’eiito leaned his cheek against my head. “I do not know how much longer I would have been able to survive in such cold under the river’s bridge otherwise. An old and torn blanket is insufficient protection from these nights.”

      Narayya’an nights were freezing – a stark contrast to the warm, long days we tended to usually have – and they were difficult to endure without proper shelter. Even when making our own tents and blankets to stay outside, they were all carefully made from warm materials and crafted to be insulating. Without such things, the nights had been hard to endure for both of us. I thought about the cold nights I had spent out in forests, wrapped in various things over the years, from blankets to bedrolls to nothing more than a wool cloak, and I didn’t ever want to experience anything like that again.

      “We are lucky to now have warm beds.” L’eiito patted my leg with his free hand. “It is probably time enough to for you to get yourself into yours now, before the sun rises.”

      “The sun will rise very soon.” I squeezed his arm and decided to continue to be reckless. “You should keep me company, especially since it is cold in here.”

      “Agreed.” L’eiito gave me a small smile as I looked up at him. “I have little energy to return to my own chambers, anyhow.”

      I shifted to lay down on the bed and made room for him to join me. Once L’eiito had taken off his armour and long boots, he settled himself on the further side of the rather small bed, next to the wall, and closed his eyes. He fell asleep almost immediately, a trait I envied greatly. It was something I had not been able to do in almost a decade, because of those very things I had seen and done.

      It was not at all unusual for L’eiito to keep me company like this, particularly after returning from a long night of fighting, and we were more than accustomed to sharing the narrow space and blankets. It had started when I was too afraid to stay in the room alone upon first arriving, and he had gone from staying in the room to sitting on the bed to keep me from leaving, one night accidentally falling asleep alongside me. After finding I slept easier and longer that night, without nightmares, he had then selflessly and routinely stayed with me when he saw I required proper rest. The security and comfort of having him alongside me still worked, and nights always passed easier with him here.

      With him tucked up against the far wall, I had enough space to fit myself next to him and I curled up, exhausted, beneath the thick blankets. The warmth of his body and the blankets lulled me into a sense of comfort and I felt sleep come easier than usual.

~

The next thing I was aware of was feeling trapped. There was a knife to my throat. Men stood above me, sneering and leering, laughing, yelling, I tried to speak, make a noise, move, anything... But nothing happened. I felt the cold knife press harder against my skin – right before the sharp, intense pain of it cutting into me. The laughing was louder, the yelling became faster and more intense.

      I saw a man suddenly loom over me and the yelling turned to chanting. I couldn’t move. I knew little of the world, but I knew what he was going to do. I tried to scream – but I could not. I squeezed my eyes shut. I waited. For the inevitable. I couldn’t stop him.

      When I opened them again, I was standing and saw bodies. A massacre. So much blood. A Noble woman in once-perfect clothes lay at my feet, covered in dirt and mud, one shoe missing, dress torn, hair askew. Her terrified eyes stared back up at me. She was the only one to survive.

      A man grasped my arm and twisted it so hard I screamed. He shoved a large knife in my face and pointed to the woman, ordering me to slit her throat like the others had been. I tried to run away, but his hand had me so tight I could see the bruises on my arm already start to spread.

      His ugly face and pungent smell made me turn away, and I felt the tears because I was not willing to kill an innocent person in cold blood. A long sword was out to my throat by another man. He pushed the tip into my throat and drew blood. The eyes of the Noble woman continued to stare at me and I closed my own eyes again.

      This time when I opened them I was running, far, far away from whatever that seemed to horrify me so much. In my hands were knives. They shone with new blood running down them. I couldn’t even breathe I was going so fast, my legs tripping up from under me. I felt an arrow fly past my head, a hair’s breadth from my ear and I screamed again.

      I was shaken violently awake. My eyes flew open and I stared straight into the most familiar sight I could have seen. L’eiito was above me, staring intently down, holding my face, forcing me to keep my eyes on him. His lips were moving, but I could not hear him. My staggered breathing rang inside my ears, echoing through see my head... and I tried to forget what I had seen once again in my dreams.

       My Nightmares.

      L’eiito called my name again and this time I heard him. Dark pools of deep concern stared back, loose hair that fell over his face masking some of it from me. I took a deep breath and tried to close my eyes, but he shook me again with one hand on my shoulder and continued to hold my head angled towards him, his palm firmly but gently cupping the back of my head. To stare at him. To focus on him. Not on the dream.

      “L’eiito...”                                         

      My hoarse whisper seemed to ease his concern for me. His shoulders dropped a little and he breathed out a heavy sigh of relief.

      “Nightmares again?” It was a rhetorical question, tone combined pained and grim disappointment. I slowly nodded anyway, my eyes never leaving his. He shook his head desolately, softly touching my cheek and brushing hair from my face. “Oh, Ana... What is it that you have been through that does this to you?”

      I turned my head away from him, leaning my cheek into the warm palm of his hand. Closed my eyes. Tried to breathe. “Please don’t ask. You don’t want to know.”

      I felt him stare at me a moment longer, then he lowered himself back onto his side right next to me, his head propped up on his hand. His chest was still lightly touching my arm and shoulder as he faced me on his side, arm lightly draped over my waist, the contact keeping me present and feeling calmer. Safer.

      “You are a stubborn fool,” he growled in a whisper, in my ear. “If you shared your burdens, these dreams would not plague you so.”

      “I can’t... I…” My voice trailed away. There was nothing I could say… That I was willing to say.

      “One day, you will. You shall have little choice in the matter, and know I shall not judge you for them when you do.”

      He lifted his hand from my waist and stroked my hair, in an attempt to calm me further, making me turn my head to face him, to focus on his earnest eyes, so close to mine. His thumb brushed my cheek gently, and I closed my eyes again at the sympathetic contact.

      “There is still more time for rest. I suggest we try and take advantage of it whilst we still can,” he murmured in my ear.

      His close proximity got my attention and made me shiver inside. The fact he then put his hand on my arm, fingers brushing up and down, attempting to bring me calm, made it all the more intense. That feeling that I hated – no… feared – heightened.

      “They are naught but dreams, memories... They are no longer real,” he continued soothingly. “What is real is that you are safe and warm here at the Coven, with me, and no one will be able to harm you now. Consider that truth and you can know whatever plagues you can no longer be of any threat to you.”

      I kept my eyes closed, hoping those images were now gone. They were… but replaced by something completely different, which should not have included one very certain deadly BattleMage with beautiful dark eyes.

      “Will they ever go away?” I mumbled the rhetorical words despondently, wondering how long this fear was going to hold onto me for, ignoring those new images now replacing my dreams.

      “Perhaps… If you ever dare to share your burdens. If you continue to hold them to yourself, they shall continue to haunt you.”

      “I do not think I can sleep anymore.”

      “If you are certain of it?” L'eiito simply returned my nod when I agreed. “Very well, if that is the case, sit with me and we shall await the start of the day here.” L’eiito lifted himself from his position next to me and sat himself up, indicating for me to do the same. He pushed his long hair from his face with a hand. “I shall go and bring us coffee and we shall ready ourselves for whatever comes today.”

      I reached out and took his hand. “L’eiito... Thank you.”

      “M’aenn dia’an biha’ad.” L’eiito gave me a rare small half-smile as he replied in the Old Language. It was a simple “it is nothing” answer in the old language of the Ancients that was typical of him. “Anything for you.”

      He squeezed my hand and moved himself off the bed, putting his boots on quickly to go down to the huge kitchens beneath us. He stepped up to me just as he was about to leave, and placed his hand on my face, lifting it to look up at him as he tentatively smiled again.

      “Take care of yourself, and do not fret over your dreams. It is a new day, and we shall drink our sludge and prepare for whatever lies ahead. I assure you it will not involve whatever you were dreaming about, so think nothing more of them. I shall be back shortly.”

      He brushed his hand over my hair once then turned and left. I watched him go in his loose, untucked shirt, tough black leather pants and bare feet, berating myself for thinking more of him than he thought of me. His kind friendship was almost more than I could bare, because I cared about him in a way that I never should. We had a unique and seemingly unbreakable bond... and I was not willing to test it by revealing how much more it meant to me. That was a chance I was unwilling to take.

      So, I didn’t tell him anything about them, and simply hoped that he would never find out.

CHAPTER 8

Traipsing back through the woods a little later the next morning, found us bemused and mystified. Returning to the same place we had fought the bandits, we found the slain corpses from our ferocious fight already gone. Either their remaining comrades or scavengers had carried them away, but regardless of which, I was simply glad they were no longer there. I was a fighter and protector but taking lives wasn’t something I enjoyed. But long as these suicidally-inclined bandits kept on coming to take our lives, we would continually be forced to take theirs instead, to protect what was rightfully ours. Our lives simply weren’t theirs to take.

      I had returned with L’eiito, Casapiia’an, Saebastiia’an and En’nii to what had been our camp the night before. It was still early morning, and it was quite a surprise to return to find the area already cleared. It was also unfortunate – we had returned specifically to the area because it transpired that En’nii had lost a very precious necklace, presumed to have been torn from her neck during the fight as she fled. If the area had been cleared, it was also possible the necklace had been found and taken; a safe assumption given it was virtually priceless.

      As we looked around the empty copse, we were all rather taken aback for a moment. Then En’nii suddenly grasped my arm and pulled me a few feet away from the others.

      “They cannot see what is on that necklace,” she hissed at me earnestly. “Make sure they are not the ones who find it.”

      “You really think they’re going to recognise what’s on it?”

      En’nii stared at me. “Ana, everyone knows what that icon is! If you don’t want them to find out who I am, and ergo who you are, you need to be the one to find that pendant.”

      “Then why in all Faeh’rron did you let them come?”

      “Do you not think they might become a little suspicious if I didn’t? Especially L’eiito – he goes wherever you do. You two are like shoes – you come as a pair, no matter what.”

      I huffed and rolled my eyes exasperatedly.

      “All right,” I relented. “Where were you hiding? We’ll get them to search away from there. Hopefully whoever took the bodies away didn’t find it first.”

      “If they did, we are both going to be in a lot of trouble.”

      En’nii showed me the area where she had hidden with Saebastiia’an from the bandits. I then sent the other three in separate directions away from that area. En’nii and I focused our attention on this area instead and hunted about, desperately hoping we would find it quickly.

      “How could you possibly lose it?” I berated En’nii sharply as we looked carefully along the ground. Between the grass, mud, leaves, and other random foliage, it would be quite some miracle if we ever found it again.

      “I think it was wrenched off me,” she replied, carefully scouring about on her hands and knees. “It didn’t occur to me until we returned what that sharp pain at the side of my neck must have been.”

      “Too busy having Saebastiia’an wrapped around you, playing the protector?”

      En’nii glared, but the blush rushing through her cheeks told me I was entirely correct. “Leave it alone, Ana. We both had to fit inside his barrier bubble… thing…”

      I rolled my eyes again. “You really aren’t the sharpest knife in the kitchen draw, are you?”

      “I am no fighter, Ana! We were running away – that horrible man was chasing after us and grabbed me before Saebastiia’an cast the protection shield whatsit.” En’nii sat back on her heels and looked around helplessly as she tried imagining back to the night before for more details. Her entire body tensed with trepidation and fear when she did, and she started visibly shaking. “I thought he just scratched my neck... The only thing I could think of at the time was how awful he smelt and that I had to get away from him… I hope he didn’t grab it and keep it.”

      “You should not have been wearing it.”

      “You wear yours.”

      I stopped and looked back up at her from where I crawled on the floor. My voice barely scratched out an audible sound to respond with. “How could you possibly know that?”

      Nobody knew that. I kept it always hidden well away beneath clothes and armour, so no one would ever see the pendant I had. No one should know about it.

      En’nii met my eyes. “Because I know you, Ana... I can tell that you wear it. I knew you would never completely turn your back on us.”

      “No one is to know about it.”

      “I am aware of that, fruitcake,” En’nii retorted with exasperation. “That’s why we’re here trying to find mine before they do. It would hardly take them long to guess who you are if they saw my own one… Though I still cannot believe they do not know.”

      We hunted for a long time. We poked through everything on the ground carefully, sieving mud and bits of forest through fingers to check through it. I was becoming despondent and feared someone really had taken it. L’eiito eventually left his own corner and wandered over to us, his hands spread out to show he had come up with nothing – which, given the search plan, was hardly surprising. I turned away and looked back at the ground, carefully fingering through grass and foliage as I went inch by inch through it.

      “If not one of us has found it after all this time, I do not imagine it is still here,” he remarked dryly, leaning back against a tree.

      “Thank you for the overwhelmingly hopeful and positive attitude,” En’nii retorted, her eyes still focused in the soil sifting through her hands and not bothering to look over at him.

      “L’eiito has no concept of what a positive attitude is.” I shot him a teasing grin from my position in the ground. He narrowed his eyes and threw me an unimpressed scowl.

      “I understand realism.”

      “I hope you therefore understand the realism of the trouble I’m in if I don’t find this thing,” En’nii remarked dryly.

      L’eiito rested his foot back against the tree he leant against and crossed his arms impatiently, watching as we continued to look and thankfully not helping. Casapiia’an and Saebastiia’an soon joined him, having also found nothing. Neither En’nii nor I were willing to give up searching what was hopefully the right area for something so important, and we refused to stop.

      Thankfully, our stubbornness paid off after another half an hour. I sifted through more muddy foliage and suddenly it was right there in my hand. I squeaked in joy and held it up for En’nii to see in a way so that none of the others could.

      “You found it?” She scrambled off her knees and came to look. “Are you sure?”

      “It has the Ddrai’igae,” I grinned. “I’m absolutely certain.”

      Saebastiia’an looked across with surprise. “Ddrai’igae?”

      “Yes... The Great Guardian Ddrai’igae of A’aeriigaelon,” En’nii responded, placing the pendent carefully into her pack and ensuring nobody else actually saw it. The necklace of it had been snapped apart and would require fixing. “They’re wonderful creatures.”

      Saebastiia’an raised an eyebrow. “They’re mythical creatures and they don’t exist.”

      I rolled my eyes. “They are extinct. That is not the same thing.”

      “Don’t tell me you really believe the stories about real dragons flying over the Grand Kingdom of A’aeriigaelon?”

      “I, for one, certainly believe they were once real,” L’eiito offered.

      “Of course you would,” Saebastiia’an sniped. “You’re the delusional fool who allowed Ana to fight yesterday. If you’ll believe her about the state of her health, you’re clearly wiling to believe anything.”

      L’eiito turn a cold and insulted glare towards him. “And you did nothing to prevent her, either – you would be just as much to blame if she were harmed.”

      “Boys, please refrain from all this posturing and blame...” Casapiia’an glared at both with exasperation. “She is here, and she can hear you. You might also want to accept it would be her blame, not anyone else’s, just as it was the last time. And every other time before that.”

      “It must be nice to be adored by two such loyal puppies,” En’nii teased me, grinning in amusement at the two of them. I scornfully huffed and shook my head.

      “Nothing could be more contrary to the truth,” I grumbled. “They’re both ridiculous and annoying.”

      I threw them both a glare and stalked off. I sat myself on a fallen tree trunk and let out a long sigh, vaguely hearing En’nii and Saebastiia’an still yet continuing to debate the validity of the existence of mythical creatures that had once – supposedly – soared above the skies of the Eall’wyye Kingdom of A’aeriigaelon. The Ddrai’igae were said to have kept Faeh’rron  safe from the evil harm of the Underworld of Chthoni’iaan, and more specifically, from its Lord, the D’aemon Prince of Nightmares and Secret Desires, Cythrauliia'an. In the Mages’ Tales books, the imagery of them swooping and sparring those skies were incredible, particularly to a child.

      Although disguised well as fabled children’s stories, as a Mage, I was aware that these stories were written in truth and not myth – although it would seem even some Mages believed them to be nothing more than tales and mythology. Saebastiia’an seemed quite amazed that En’nii could possibly believe they truly once existed.

      I was intensely relieved I had found the pendant, to know that it hadn’t been permanently lost or stolen. In the wrong hands, it would have been disastrous, and if anyone from the Coven had seen it, it would not have taken them long to realise who En’nii and I really were, which was not an option.

      “Care to enlighten me as to the reason behind the sorrowful eyes you show?”

      I looked up as L’eiito sat himself next to me. He glanced at me with curiosity, waiting for me to tell him what was wrong. Unfortunately, I could not, so I refused him.

      “It’s nothing you would need to concern your pretty head over,” I replied with feigned nonchalance, patting his leg and making an effort to make it sound as light as I could.

      “I am always concerned for you.” L’eiito placed his hand on my back and gave me a look that said I should know such a thing perfectly well. “Whenever you are with En’nii you always appear unhappy and distracted.”

      I looked across at her, still speaking intently with Saebastiia’an. “I wish she hadn’t come.”

      He followed my eye-line. “I see... It seems Saebastiia’an has been spending much more time with her than you since she arrived.”

      “Well... that hardly matters,” I remarked with a shrug. I hardly cared to see more of her than I already did. “She... brings memories. Ones I would still prefer to forget.”

      L’eiito slipped his hand away and leaned forward, placing his elbows onto his knees, clasping his hands before him. “He will not be taken by her long. No doubt his attention will return to you soon.”

      “I hardly care where his attention is... What has that to do with anything?” I distractedly looked across at him with mild bemusement at such a strange comment. “You’re not really listening to anything I say, are you? It has nothing to do with him... Why would it?”

      “It is no secret, is it?”

      I felt a cold chill of fear.  “What is?”

      I wondered if he had really found out my secret, whether it was that which he seemed to believe was common knowledge. I carefully watched him, his body language, considering his tone and manner towards me... and I hopefully assumed that he was in fact much too calm for it to be so.

      Hopefully this was simply one of L’eiito’s random musings, common and oftentimes strange, frustrating in their disjointed manner. He did it quite often – his mind wandering away to some indirect line of thought without bothering to take everyone else on the same cognitive journey, leaving nothing but a trail of confusion and bewilderment in his wake.

      “I am fairly certain I have absolutely no idea what in Faeh’rron  you are taking about,” I stated, hoping that the statement was true.

      But before he answered, we both noticed Saebastiia’an coming over. L’eiito gave a shake of his head and quickly got up to leave. I watched silently as he purposefully strode away, barely offering Saebastiia’an a glance. Sometimes it seemed he really disliked him, although I was baffled as to any reason why. Perhaps he imagined I had been – quite laughably – taken in by Saebastiia’an’s harmless flirting and sweet care for me, believing me to be enamoured with him, and genuinely unwitting about the general power of the Healer’s charming charisma. Perhaps he thought he was protecting me, that Saebastiia’an would therefore somehow break my heart – as he generally did to anyone who fell for his charm, flirtations and incredible beauty – and L’eiito did not want to see me hurt. I could only conclude it must be that L’eiito, as always, was being far too over-protective of me.

      Saebastiia’an also turned to watch him stalk away. He then returned his attention to me with a raised eyebrow and an unspoken question as to why L’eiito had suddenly walked away in such a fashion. 

      “I have no idea...” I mumbled my answer, shrugging as Saebastiia’an took L’eiito’s place next to me. He slid his arm around me and I leaned into him, my head on his shoulder.

      “That man is far too intense for his own good. I expect that is part of the charm for the women, though.” Saebastiia’an grinned teasingly at me as I glanced up at him. “Is it the constant brooding that has every female who falls over him swooning at his feet with batting eyelashes? Or is there some other charm he has that makes that happen?”

      I elbowed him. “Jealous, by any chance?”

      “Of course, my dear Ana. I am so very, very jealous of his brooding.”

      I rolled my eyes as he laughed with amusement.

      “You have more than enough women feathering your love-nest, trailing after you and swooning at your charismatic charms,” I remarked dryly, putting my arm around his narrow, firm waist. He pulled me closer and chuckled endearingly in my ear. “I don’t suppose you would have any need to be jealous.”

      “There would be only one reason for me to be ever jealous of him – but luckily he is not interested in the same thing.”

      Saebastiia’an silently looked across the copse we sat in. I followed his eye-line towards where my cousin was sitting with Casapiia’an on the grass.

      “En’nii.” I said it quietly, feeling disappointment for both my poor friend and my cousin. This was probably not going to end well, if it even started at all. Saebastiia’an glanced back apologetically, noting the tone. It was clear he wasn’t too proud of falling for the cousin, and adoptive sister, of his closest friend. He moved his arm away and leaned his elbows on his knees, leaning forward and clasping his hands with uncertain discomfort.

      “Are you jealous?” he asked, with quiet flippancy.    

      “Naturally. As if you need to ask.”

      I smiled wryly as I made my rebuke, but the tease didn’t ease my concern. Saebastiia’an’s attempt at flippancy did not make me feel any better. His face was attempting to remain blank, but I could clearly sense the trepidation and uncertainty, the flippant question nothing more than a weak attempt to hide it. He didn’t even smile, despite the ironic in-joke.

      I pursed my lips and took a breath, letting it out slowly. Despite my own flippancy in my answer, I gave him a hard look, to which he responded with a nod and self-deprecating half-smile of understanding. He knew what his reputation was, and what trail of devastation and broken hearts he had left in his wake. I did not want En’nii to be one of them.

      “She is... This is not like the others, Ana.” He looked over at me solemnly and earnestly, tone low and sincere. “This one matters. A great deal. But... I – we... Well, she’s your family and that might be a step too far.”

      My eyebrows shot up in complete surprise. “You’re looking for my blessing?”

      “Of course.”

      I nodded slowly and thoughtfully. Taking his hand in both of mine, I answered, “You would have my blessing, if she was really as important as you claim she is.”

      “Do you think I have any possible chance with her thinking the same of me? She knows of my... reputation. She has made it clear she is unimpressed by it. If she has any interest whatsoever, I may have already lost that chance before even trying. Even then, if it is not lost, I also realise I run the risk of also compromising my relationship with you.”

      “En’nii is not the easiest person to try to start a relationship with, Seb,” I told him gently. “Her personal situation is... complicated.”

      “Ah… And you believe I am too fickle to commit to something complicated.”

      It was a statement and not a question. Saebastiia’an went to great lengths to sustain his reputation of charming seducer, suppressing and hiding a deeper truth behind it that he preferred no one to know about. Truths that I was very aware of, that no one else but his brother was ever to know.

      “There is more to it, but yes. That is a good part of my concern.”

      “She does not know about... me, about this,” he added quietly. “I may have entirely forgot myself and been unable to do much but keep her company as often as possible, but I have said nothing.”

      I stared at the ground and sighed. Suddenly a life that was so simple had suddenly become ridiculously complicated. If he ever found out who En’nii really was, any chance of this infatuation he had for her developing into something meaningful would most likely evaporate in the moment he knew. If he told En’nii or gave her any hope of his feelings before then, he would quite certainly hurt her and break her heart – much in the same way he did with so many other women he had wooed and left in lurch over and over again after the chase, and night, was over.

      Why had En’nii decided to come and rock my simple little boat of existence? Everything had been going so well in the last three and a half years since I had been taken into the Coven. I finally found a new family, people to trust, people who would not only let me be a Fighting Mage but used it to help them. Now she threatened everything and brought back my past to haunt me, threatening every relationship I had built and the person that I now was.

      I was no longer the person I used to be. When I left that life, I was still a child of barely seventeen. Now I was a grown woman of twenty-five with a different life that I loved. I had no intention of looking backwards. Yet, En’nii had insisted on ferreting me out and jeopardising it all. Even getting Saebastiia’an to start falling for her.

      “I do not disagree with it in theory,” I stated carefully. “But Saebastiia’an, please do not start anything with her until she tells you why her life is complicated. For the sake of both of you not getting hurt.”

      Saebastiia’an raised a surprised eyebrow. “I therefore assume I will discover something I will not like.”

      “Not necessarily... It simply means I don’t want you to break her heart if you decide her life really is too complicated for you.”

      “All right... Fair enough.” Saebastiia’an kept his eyes on me wearily, squeezing my hand with care. “Perhaps there really is good reason you are so uncomfortable around her.”

      I said no more. How could I without giving myself away, as well as her?

      A clatter of hoofbeats distracted me as I was becoming lost in thought again. I looked around and noticed a small band of riders going past, visible through the thin line of trees separating the copse from the road.

      I was just looking away again when a loud cry was yelled out. It was a shout of surprise and pain, and I turned again to find one of the riders – clearly a uniformed guard – falling off his horse. Another yelp was cried out, and a second fell. I jumped up and drew my daggers, crouching and moving steadily to slip behind a tree where I could see what was going on. I was almost immediately joined by L’eiito, who crouched right next to me to see what was going on. En’nii stayed back with the twins. 

      A carriage bared down swiftly on the remainder of the riding party. The driver lifted a crossbow one-handed to his shoulder and pulled the trigger in a jaw-dropping and unbelievably accurate manoeuvre that screamed of mercenary professionalism.

      Another guard rider fell as the rest fled from him, then he dropped the crossbow as he yanked the reins hard and the horses squealed to a halt next to the final rider – who was clearly not a guard, but their ward – to fall at his hand.

      Two more men scrambled out of the carriage and picked up the last man on the ground. Other guard riders had run too far before realising their ward and flanking guards had fallen.

      One turned back and raised a shout and an order to return, but the people in the carriage were far too swift with their actions. The deadly mercenaries hauled the wounded man, the bolt still through his shoulder, into the carriage, pressing a handkerchief to his face as they did so. The sickening smell of chloroform wafted in the air as the victim wilted, allowing the two men to take one end each to shove him into the carriage and flee. 

      The moment the door was closed, the driver sent shots into the remaining riders, all of them falling and bleeding profusely from bolts to their hearts, all dead by the time they hit the ground. Then the merciless kidnappers vanished down the road, leaving the carnage in their wake.

      The five of us stared in shock at what we had just secretly witnessed. It had all happened so suddenly, in less than a minute or two, and now it was over... a trail of corpses in their wake, and an inexplicable kidnapping to go with them.

      “I can’t believe it...” Saebastiia’an looked utterly stunned. “Why would they do that?”

      “That was Jar’rohd... Prince Jar’rohd...” En’nii whispered in shock, her hand over her mouth. Her face was so drained of blood, she had the colour of a corpse.

      She kept staring, horrified, as the carriage retreated with the unconscious victim; its slower pace ensuring that it would never be suspected of being involved in the massacre we had just witnessed. It was a long, straight road through the woods, and we were all left staring after it.

      It took a moment for me to realise what my cousin had said. I knew that name, and had myself recognised precisely who it was. Just who had been kidnapped. What it really meant.

      When the copper coin dropped, I was stunned, and looked to her in absolute disbelief. I realised in that moment we may have just witnessed the catalyst event to the beginning of an outright war.

      Crown Prince Jar’rohd was the heir to the throne of the neighbouring Kingdom of Vakarii’aa. The Crown Prince was infamously visiting the Narayya’an Royal Palace, for a diplomatic visit with the King. The very act of kidnapping him on Narayya’an soil whilst a diplomatic guest of this kingdom was more than enough to start a war between the two Kingdoms of Eall’wyye. It broke one of the most prominent clauses of the Peace Treaty of the United Realms: The capture or harming of any member of a visiting Sovereign Family or dignitary on another kingdom’s soil was absolution for nullifying it entirely. The consequences of this action would be disastrous, to say the least.

      En’nii slowly turned to me with fear in her eyes. She also very well knew the consequences.

      “I have to notify the Palace,” she stated quietly, clearly trying to control her rising panic. “They must know about this... The Royal Military must get him back before it’s too late. Vakarii’aa cannot find out about this.”

      I nodded my head mutely. There was going to be no argument from me. Someone had to go and tell the Palace of the crime, and since we were the only witnesses, there was no alternative option other than for one of us to go.

      “You’re going to the Royal Palace on your own?” Casapiia’an asked, looking at her with some concern. “There are too many of the mercenary groups running about at night, and you won’t get there before then.”

      “I’m going after the carriage,” I announced impetuously, realising it was imperative to know where it was heading. “You have to go now, En’nii... and go fast.”

      Without even looking back or waiting for an answer, I headed off right after it, hoping En’nii was heading off in the other direction, too.

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