I let out a sigh of relief when the band slid down over her finger and sat securely at the base. Lia held her hand up and admired the piece, then launched forward and hugged me. “Thank you,” she said quietly into my chest. “I love it.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” I said with a smile, hugging her back. I let the moment stretch as I reveled in the warm feeling tingling throughout my body. “You know, that ring means you’re going to have to train even harder now, right?”
“I’m ready!” She declared, hopping back a step.
“You’d better be! Our first practice session with them is tonight,” I warned her. “Now, why don’t you get dressed in that newly polished armor of yours? I bet your parents would love to see you fully equipped before we leave.”
“Can do!” She nodded happily. I took a moment to check over the rest of my kit as she began to change. Once I was satisfied that all of my possessions had been returned to me, I hopped down from the back of the wagon and returned to Valandra and Lia’s parents. They were exactly where I had left them at the edge of the yard; Marten was talking eagerly as Hana nodded along with a smile.
“This one will talk your ear off, Valandra,” I called out with a smirk as I approached. “He’s your biggest fan, you know.”
She considered the statement for a moment, then turned to Marten. “Is this true? What do you know about me, exactly? Many of my endeavors are not intended for public knowledge,” she asked, exactly as humorlessly as I had hoped.
“Just stories, is all! Everybody in Kaldan knows how great of a warrior you are!” Marten replied, flustered. “Lux is just giving me a hard time, don’t pay him any mind.”
“Don’t be modest!” I countered with a devilish grin. “Just the other day, you were telling us all how much you—”
“That’s enough out of you!” he shouted back at me. Hana and I both began to laugh while Valandra watched in puzzled silence. “It’s shameful, what you’re doing! Trying to embarrass me in front of our guest! Shameful!” He wagged his finger energetically as he scolded me, which only served to strengthen my laughter.
I heard Lia hop down from the back of the wagon, and turned my attention to her as I wiped a tear from my eye. She cut a striking figure as she came into view, with the dark green of her armor contrasting against the silver vine-like ornamentation which sparkled brilliantly in the sunlight. Hana gasped as her daughter appeared, but Marten was too busy in his condemnations of me to notice until she took her place beside me.
“Marlia, darling, you look so...strong,” her mother said softly.
“Of course I do!” Lia exclaimed. “I’ve been training every day with Lux!”
“Well yes, but...look at you!” Marten motioned up and down towards her. He looked at me in wonder. “You bought this for her?”
I nodded. “The best way to keep her safe was to teach her how to protect herself. She needed some equipment to do that effectively, so I had it made for her.”
“It suits you,” Valandra told her with a small nod of approval.
Lia looked between the faces of everyone observing her and scrunched up her face. “Why are you all looking at me like that? It’s just armor! It looks just like Lux’s,” she yelled, spinning on her heel to walk towards the head of the wagon. “Shouldn’t we be leaving right about now?”
I caught her shoulder before she could escape and stopped her in place. “Yes, we should be leaving soon. It’s time to say our goodbyes.” Her shoulders slumped as she let out a long sigh, but she eventually turned and rejoined the group.
Lia hugged each of her parents in turn. “I’ll be back again before you know it!” she declared. Hana pulled her in for a second hug, and Marten stepped forward to shake my hand.
“Thank you for everything,” he said in a low voice. “Hana and I will consider what you’ve told us. We won’t spend a copper of what you gave us without good cause.”
I nodded. “Keep an ear to the ground, and do whatever you have to do to stay safe.”
Lia returned to my side, and I smiled down to her. “Are you ready to go?”
“Ready!” she said happily. She bounced excitedly to the front of the wagon and climbed to the driver’s bench, taking a seat next to Valandra’s spot.
Valandra regarded the Corells a final time. “I will do everything in my power to keep your daughter safe. You have my word.”
“WE,” I corrected loudly as I moved to follow Lia, “will do everything in OUR power to keep your daughter safe.” Climbing past Lia, I moved to the interior of the wagon and sat down on the long bench. Valandra took her spot up front a moment later. She looked between us expectantly, and we both nodded in reply. Taking the reins in hand she spurred our horse into motion, and the wagon began to rumble down the dirt road.
---
Our first day of travel passed by quickly. I spent my time in the back of the wagon, perpetually thankful that our trip wouldn’t be made on foot again. The ability to rest during our travels allowed me to rework the training plans I had made for Lia. Without the worry of saving energy for a full day of walking, I could pack more lessons into even longer sessions. I knew the idea would be met with groans and complaints, but I suspected that Lia had grown to enjoy the work despite her protests.
While I planned, Lia and Valandra talked at the front of the wagon. Lia buried her with questions for most of the day. They started out simple: “Where are you from? How old are you? What’s your favorite fruit? Do you have any siblings?” Valandra answered them all directly, but never inquired about anything in return. Once the rapid-fire inquisition ended, the gaps in their conversation lengthened, but the subject matter of the questions grew more serious. “Do you enjoy working for the King? How did you become so strong? How did you get the position as leader of the Trinity Guard?”
Though my focus was elsewhere, I still managed to catch the more pertinent information about our new companion. She was thirty-four, a fact that surprised me; I had unconsciously placed her in her mid-twenties alongside Lia and myself. She had a younger sister who had recently moved away from the capitol. Her family had lived in Yoria for generations, though they had been of little renown until she was appointed as the King’s Shield.
The story of her ascension to the Trinity Guard was particularly interesting. At a young age she found that she had a knack for physical activities, having grown much faster than the children around her. After training by herself for years she was accepted as a city guard on her sixteenth birthday, the youngest age allowed. From there, her progression was simple: find the next highest ranking person, learn the responsibilities of their post, and defeat them in a sparring match in front of their superior officer. Her strategy had been so effective that she rose to her current position before her twenty-first birthday.
I found the most interesting aspect of her story to be the way in which she told it. There was no arrogance in her voice as she spoke to Lia; she recounted the exploits of her rise to greatness with the same tone as someone reading from a grocery list. Nothing felt exaggerated or embellished, and I believed the story implicitly. When the tale was over, I had a lingering feeling of guilt on my mind. She came from nothing, worked hard, and earned her post. I just wrote her off as another entitled noble.
By the time Lia ran out of questions, the sun had begun to sink behind the treetops on the horizon. Valandra directed the horse into a flat clearing on the roadside, and we all helped to set up camp. As the wagon was covered and large enough to sleep two people, setting up a tent was unnecessary, which left gathering wood and building a firepit as our only tasks. We completed them quickly, and a supper of fresh bread, spiced apples and jerky followed soon after.
“I’m surprised by the variety of food you brought for us,” I remarked to Valandra when we finished eating. “Thankful, certainly, but surprised.”
“My wagon is always prepared with a wide variety of food, at my request,” she replied. “I have found that flavorful meals are the simplest way to boost
morale among my troops on long journeys. Spices are lightweight and compact, but make a significant impact.”
“When Lux and I went to Atsal, all we had was old jerky, bruised fruit and hardtack,” Lia said offhandedly, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye with a smirk. “I’m glad someone understands the importance of a good meal.”
“We didn’t have the King’s kitchen to pack our lunch for us, and we were on foot,” I countered. “Besides, eating trail rations makes your next true meal even more delicious, don’t you think?”
She stared at me with a deadpan expression. “Sure. You go ahead and eat your hardtack. I’ll be eating whatever she brought.”
“I am glad you enjoyed it,” Valandra said. “I do not claim to be a skilled chef, but we have been well supplied.”
Lia turned to me and wiggled her eyebrows. “Alright, enough about food,” I groaned. “You and I have some training to do, and we’re losing light fast. Time to get to work.” I stood from my seat by the fire and retrieved our weapons from the back of the wagon. “You think you still remember how to use this?” I asked, tossing her sword to her.
She caught it midair and pulled the weapon from its sheath. “Why don’t you come and find out?”
I shook my head. “No, not here. Come with me.” I waved my hand forward and began to walk further into the clearing.
“Are you going to come too, Valandra?” I heard Lia ask excitedly.
“I will stay here and watch the wagon,” she answered. I let out a small sigh of relief at the reply. While I intended to train with Valandra in the future, I had specific plans for our first night that required us to be alone.
“Awwww,” Lia pouted as she followed me away from camp. “You have to come next time, okay?” she called out over her shoulder.
I led her to a spacious clearing well out of earshot of Valandra, then sat down and patted the space across from me. “There’s something important we have to talk about before we begin,” I said. Lia seemed to sense the serious nature of the impending conversation and sat down quietly, giving me a small nod to continue. “When we start to train with Valandra, you cannot, under any circumstances, tell her anything about how our magic works.”
Her brow furrowed as she processed the information, and I raced to clarify my statement. “I’m not trying to be spiteful with this; it has nothing to do with what I think about her as a person. I’ve put a lot of thought into this decision. If you’ll let me, I’d like to explain my reasoning so you understand where I’m coming from.”
She considered for a moment with a frown, then nodded. “Okay.”
“Since my time in Hedaat, I swore to myself that I would never teach anybody what I knew about magic. Even with the basic understanding I had back then, it was far too dangerous to put out into the world. Things changed when I met you.” My face softened to a smile as I watched her blush. “I decided to break my rule, just once. I knew that I could trust you with it, because you’re a good person.”
I tried to hide it, but my voice was tinged with regret as I continued. “Have you ever thought about how dangerous your abilities make you? Do you know just how terrible the gift I’ve given you is?”
“I don’t understand what you mean,” Lia said slowly, shaking her head.
I counted off my points on my outstretched hand as I continued. “You can use the energy in your body to perform magic. You can cast that magic through any object you’ve infused with energy. You can send that energy out to incredible distances, even to places you can’t see.” I waited to see realization in her eyes, but they were only filled with confusion. “With just those abilities, you could burn a man to death from the inside out while standing three blocks away. No way to trace it. No way to stop it. You probably wouldn’t even break a sweat.”
Her expression turned to one of pure horror. “No! That...that’s not—”
“Yes,” I interrupted. “You know that I’m right.” I leaned forward and placed a hand on her knee. “I know you would never do that, Lia. I can tell you’ve never even thought about our magic that way before. You’re a good person.” My voice grew sad as I continued. “But that’s the reality of how magic works. And we’ve only scratched the surface of what it can truly do.”
“But Valandra would never do that, either!” she yelled, her voice cracking. I had known the conversation would upset her, but it didn’t make it any easier to see it happen.
“I believe you,” I conceded. “That isn’t what concerns me. When our mission is over, she’ll have to give a report to Virram and his council. If she knows anything about our magic when that happens, she will tell them about it. Once they know, it’s only a matter of time until every soldier in Yoria knows. Soldiers like Jack, and his thugs.”
She put a hand over her mouth as her eyes widened, and she began to cry. I rocked forward onto my knees and pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry, Lia. I really am,” I whispered softly as she cried into my shoulder. “Magic is incredible, when incredible people like you use it. But there are terrible people out there, too. I can’t allow them to learn what we know.”
We sat for a moment in silence as I scratched the back of her head with long, soothing strokes. Eventually she pulled away and looked up to me with a sniffle. “So, we can’t use any magic around her?”
“Not exactly,” I replied. “Valandra already knows I can use magic, although she doesn’t know how and to what extent. It’s fine as long as she doesn’t learn how it works.” I put on my best reassuring smile. “If she ever brings it up, I just want you to blame me, okay? Tell her I said you can’t tell her anything about it, and that she should ask me directly.”
“Okay,” she nodded. I was satisfied with how the conversation had gone, all things considered, and stood to begin preparations for our sparring match. Lia stood as well, but she caught my hand and tugged at it gently. “Lux, I’m...sorry.”
It was my turn to be confused. I turned back to her with my head cocked to one side. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“It’s just…” she trailed off and looked down at her feet. “I’m sorry for crying all the time. I really am trying my best to get stronger, like I promised I would, but sometimes—”
I cupped the side of her face and tilted it to look at me as I leaned in close, cutting her off. “Lia, never apologize for that. Your emotions are not a weakness.” Our faces were so close that I could feel the heat from her cheeks against mine. “You are an amazing person. You are compassionate, and kind, and you actually give a damn about other people. That’s not something you should ever change. It’s one of the reasons that I lo—”
The word caught hard in my throat. Say it. I knew I had to say something, but my mind was blank apart from one word floating at the forefront. Don’t be a coward. Say it. “I-It’s one of the things that makes you who you are,” I finished awkwardly. All at once, the intimacy of the situation crashed over me. I let my hand slide from her face as I straightened and looked away, trying to hide the flush in my cheeks.
The silence that fell over the field was heavy; every second it continued felt as though a weight was stacked on my chest, threatening to crush me if I let it linger too long. “If we don’t get to training soon, we’ll be up for half the night,” I called out as I walked away from her to grab my sword. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
“But it’s already dark out,” Lia said, her voice still shaky. It was true: any sunlight that remained when we left to train had faded during our conversation, and the moon was mostly obscured by the overcast clouds above.
I drew my sword and turned to face her. “Are you making excuses to get out of practice early? We both know you can see in the dark.”
She raised an eyebrow, her face mixed somewhere between amusement and confusion. “You can’t.”
“I can’t?” I replied mockingly. “If that’s the case, maybe you’ll be able to land a few hits.” The runes on my sword flashed to life, and the surrounding field seemed to br
ighten. To my enhanced senses, the moon provided more than enough light to meet my needs, though everything looked smudged in shades of grey.
Lia smirked as she retrieved her sword. She pulled the weapon from its sheath and began to mutter a string of combat enhancements under her breath, but was interrupted as I lunged forward with a quick stab. “That was just a lucky strike, I guess,” I taunted as she spun away and finished casting her spells. “After all, I can’t see in the dark, right?” She returned with a flurry of blows a moment later, and our training began in earnest.
The field was filled with the sound of steel against steel for over an hour, until every muscle ached and my lungs burned. I called off the fight and we collapsed side by side in the grass, panting heavily. “That was...good work tonight. Let’s head back.”
“No magic practice?” Lia asked as she rolled onto her back and stretched.
I mirrored her movement, drawing a loud pop from both of my shoulders. “We’ll meditate before bed. Our next new lesson requires daylight. Plus, I’m tired.” We waited a few moments to regain a small portion of our strength before making the short trip back to camp. Valandra still sat in the spot we had left her in, tending the fire with a gnarled stick. “I’ll take the second watch,” I called out to her as I passed through, not pausing on my path towards the wagon. “Wake me when you’re tired.”
She nodded silently, not looking up from her current task. When we reached the wagon, Lia punched me in the shoulder. “Goodnight!” she called out to Valandra happily as she glared at me.
“Goodnight, Lia,” Valandra replied, turning to give Lia a small wave. We rounded the corner of the wagon and climbed into the back to prepare for bed. I pulled out the bedrolls from our stash of supplies while Lia began to remove her armor.
“You should be nicer to her,” she whispered. “She’s nice to you.”
“Not being mean is me being nice,” I grumbled as I lined the floor with our lightly-padded bedrolls and a single blanket. After a pause, I sighed and sat down on the bench to remove my boots. “No. No, you’re right. I should be nicer.”
Restart Again: Volume 2 Page 12