“I still can’t believe you were part of the wild though. I thought you grew up here in Lowsunn.”
“Mostly I did, but remember that every one of us has a story, and an old life before Advent. In my case, I happened to spend the first two years after Advent on the outside. In the shining city of Siren. Heard of it?”
“No.”
“It’s very far away, along the coast of this continent, surrounded by tall mountains and vast valleys so one would have to travel very far in order to stumble across it. It’s where the Peacekeepers live.”
“I have heard that term used before. On the outside it’s a derogatory term for someone who died trying to talk down a threat.”
“Yes, my people coined the term and everyone else defiled it. No matter what you may think, they’re not a bunch of touchy-feely types. They’re a group of free individuals with a common goal – that everyone in the city of Siren should be able to use their wishes as they see fit, as long as it’s to add to the world and not take away from it. It’s not like here in Lowsunn, though it sounds similar. In Siren, there is no council, no ruling body. Just a community of creative, free-thinkers that are helping each other rebuild.”
“Sounds magical, but why aren’t you there now?”
“Like anything good in this world, you eventually have to fight for it. We were invaded at the two year anniversary of Advent. A band of treasure hunters known as the Slayers heard rumors that the Choate artifact was hidden in our city. I don’t know who started the rumor, but given that the artifact has yet to be found, it was more than enough information for the hunters to investigate. We were peaceful with them and willing to let them scour the city to look for it. When they found nothing, they demanded compensation for their time. They wanted bodies to help with their menial tasks while on the road, particularly those who had already used their Yen so they weren’t threatened. Cooking, cleaning, fact checking. That sort of thing. We drew lots and I and three other boys lost. Before I left I made sure to take a hot poker, in the shape of our seals, and sear my flesh with it, to make it look like I had already used my three seals. I made up some story about –”
“You went willingly?”
“It was either that or start a fight. If you had seen Siren, you would know that ensuring its integrity was of the utmost importance. I sacrificed for them. And so, I left with the Slayers. I traveled with them for about a year across the land. I didn’t learn much. They never spoke in my presence unless giving me an order or telling me to eat. They were never cruel, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was no longer useful. All of the boys from Siren were kept separated so we never got a chance to plan or talk except in glances. But it was scary to wake up periodically and notice that one of us was missing, and no one knew why. I realized that I had to make my escape, and so, I used one of my Yen to become a swordsman. I had seen the Slayers work, and there was one that had always caught my eye. He went by the name of Trident. Tall. Strong. Fearless. His skills with a sword were incredible. We were often attacked on the road, being a small group, but he always volunteered to dispatch the intruders. He was so quick that our attackers couldn’t even use their Yen against us. Quicker than thought. That’s how I remembered him.
“I escaped when they were sleeping and to this day, I don’t know how. With all the power that emanated from them, I was sure I would be caught and immediately executed. But I left, so easily that I’m sure they allowed it. Why? I may never know. But one thing was certain. I struggled without their protection. It was only three days after my escape that Bailey found me on one of the scouting missions. Given her reputation with the board, she was able to get me into Lowsunn easily, and thankfully I was younger than twenty-one then, so my five year clock hadn’t started until around the time you arrived…Do I look forward to going outside the shields? No. But I know I’ll have to one day. And that is why I’ll soon be using my second Yen. Another ability to prepare for the inevitability.”
“Of what?” Aidan asked.
“Of war,” Bailey declared with a heavy sigh. “Whether Duncan was bluffing or not is irrelevant. This new information about the Choate, rumor or not, will spread quickly. It won’t be long before someone, maybe even the Slayers, seek to learn the truth. The threat of more conflict looms over us regardless of whether or not Duncan has friends nearby.”
“Not to mention the tear in the shield, wherever it may be,” Aidan replied.
“Even if someone used their Yen to fix it, which is unlikely at this point, anyone on the outside now knows that we are disorganized and wounded. If I were to attack Lowsunn, I would do it now when we’re at our weakest.”
“So what happens from here on out?”
“We prepare,” Bailey sighed. “And more importantly, we investigate the validity of Duncan’s claims. If the Choate is attainable, and we manage to retrieve it, it will ensure that Lowsunn will be protected forever.”
Chapter 10 – What’s Eating You?
A liquid, melting, sucking sound woke her up, but it was the burning smell that made her shoot up in bed. Once she found the source, however, she felt at ease. It was Aidan, melting the glass window to get inside. It didn’t matter that it was the dead of night.
“How did you reach the third floor from out there?” she whispered. Aidan pointed below him.
“I have George helping me.”
“Who’s George?”
“I’ll introduce you later,” he said, climbing over the window sill. He waved goodbye to George and she could hear the sucking sound of boots trampling through mud. Leah examined her husband, outfitted in a Lowsunn uniform of baggy pants and a yellow shirt. It was soaking wet and his hair matched the ensemble perfectly in form. Drops of rain dripped onto his nose from his spiked hair as he cleared his throat and grabbed a chair from the corner. He placed it next to Leah’s bed and sat in it. In the dim light of the moon, he looked sadder than ever, but she didn’t want to interrupt whatever he had to say. She folded her hands and waited.
“I don’t blame you at all for what happened,” he said. “I blame myself.”
She didn’t say a word.
“And not because I think that I should have forced you to stay back or anything like that. It’s because I haven’t treated you with the respect you deserve…I was so quick to yell at you for getting involved in the fight, but when I look back on it…I realize that you saved my life twice.”
He glanced up at her with tear-stained eyes.
“You are my partner, and my equal. Not just in marriage, but in battle as well. We both need more training to face whatever’s ahead, but when we were together…we kept Duncan away from those villagers. Without you, I would have died, and who knows how many others.”
He paused to gather his thoughts.
“I’ve done you wrong. I considered you weak, and treated you so. I thought of myself as a man who knew the realities of the world around us, and that you were just a Lowsunn girl. I couldn’t tell you what I believed with my words, but it was all over my actions. The way I couldn’t trust you to help me. The way I would train on my own in the dead of night instead of asking if you wanted to come along. And I was so, so wrong. I’ve been hiding who I am lately, when I should be more exposed. I should give my weaknesses to you, so you can mold them and harden them into something I can use. I’m nothing but clay, and I can only be transformed into a greater vessel if you shape me. I believe it’s the same way with you. We’re a team, and we can do great and wonderful things together. It’s part of the reason I fell in love with you so fast in the first place. Because when I met you, I felt like I had found my equal. And after tonight, even after my foolishness and unbelief, I realize…I was not wrong.”
Leah didn’t know what to say so she let him continue.
“But it’s more than that. I don’t just admire your tenacity and strength. You have this uncanny ability to not let fear consume you in the midst of conflict. It definitely consumed me tonight. So much so that it eve
ntually turned into a consuming rage. But you were able to face Duncan without letting your emotions cloud your actions. I love that about you. I love how no matter how hard you train, sweat running down your face, your hair all messy – you still look just as beautiful as when you’re walking to class at the break of dawn. You maintain this glow that just awes me. How you stay so collected…I just can’t understand why I can’t be like that. I know you can teach me to –”
“That’s enough, Aidan,” Leah whispered in the darkness. He stopped short and took a sigh. “I know you didn’t mean what you said last night. When I asked you to leave, it wasn’t because I was done with us, and I’m sorry for that. You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” she chuckled.
“Then what was it?” he asked.
“I was just hurt that you didn’t trust me enough to handle myself. I had no idea I was pregnant…if I had, I wouldn’t have jumped in…no, that’s a lie. I’m not sure what I would have done. All I know is that I saw you writhing on the ground, your flesh torn from your body, and I realized that if I didn’t intervene, I was going to lose the only humin in all of Obsidian that can make me smile. You are what I live for, Aidan. Your very presence transforms the dark, rotten, corrupt world around me in an instant, making it delicate and breath-taking and elegant. A mere word from your lips hypnotizes me. Your kiss makes me lose control and just by your standing next to me, I can see the future. Where I once lived day to day, your very presence makes me dream and hope and feel like a child all over again. When we met that day, you awakened me. Not the Elder my father wanted me to someday be. Not the Lowsunn villager. Me…
“So what happened in the infirmary,” she swallowed. “What happened to our child…it was like a crack in the fantasy we had achieved. But…I’m not sad anymore, and I feel like all is as it should be. I look at this as a way for both of us to improve. To reach a new level of intimacy. We couldn’t take our relationship higher if any mistrust was between us, or we didn’t believe in ourselves. But we can change that. Starting now. We can get back on the path we somehow lost.”
“I agree,” Aidan said after a pause.
“Do you love me?” Leah asked.
“I do,” he said. “As much as any monster could.”
“Don’t say that,” she said, reaching over and lightly slapping his face. “You’re no different than any of us.”
“I have to tell you one last thing,” he said with a sigh. “I…I almost killed Isaac tonight. I was so angry over you nearly dying, and the death of our…I was so angry that I lost myself. I turned, Leah. I turned on one of the few friends I have and nearly murdered him in cold blood. What kind of a person does something like that?”
“One that needs help, just like the rest of us,” she said. “Aidan, you’re not a monster. We’re all capable of such acts. But you have to decide what kind of man you’re going to be from now on. You can’t change what happened between you and Isaac any more than I could have saved our child, but where do we go from here? That will determine if we grow. And we can only do that with each other.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I realize that now. I’m just tired, Leah…so tired of being angry all the time. I don’t know what to do with Isaac.”
“Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. He forgave me and everything.”
“Then leave it at that.”
“Just like that?” Aidan scoffed. “That simple?”
“Either that or you can go make it more complicated and awkward. It’s up to you.”
“Sometimes I feel like it’s simpler on the outside than here in Lowsunn.”
“That’s the art of blending into a community,” she laughed.
“Community Arts,” he chuckled. “Imagine that being an ability.”
“With how hard it is to form a good one, it might as well be…I’m sorry, I have to ask, why are you wearing the Lowsunn uniform? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
“Oh, you like?” Aidan asked, standing up for Leah to see.
“It’s hideous on you.”
“I wore it to show just how sorry I was, and how low I’ll go to make it up to you.”
“That’s pretty low,” she nodded. Then she smirked. “But I think you’ll just have to take me dancing sometime.”
“Done.” He smiled as he shook his head and sat back down.
“So what happens now?”
“Hardly anyone’s getting any sleep tonight,” he sighed. “Many are keeping watch. Took forever to get over here. But I guess we wait to see what the Elders will say in the morning. Besides that, we train. You and me.”
“There will be time for that,” she said, “but for now, I want you to lay next to me for the night.”
“The nurses will find me in the morning if I don’t wake up in time.”
“There’s a gaping, melted hole in the window. You left a big signature.”
“Good point,” Aidan said, throwing off his damp shirt and pants and climbing into bed next to her. She scooted over so he could sit up against the pillows and then she leaned her head on his chest, falling asleep within seconds. Though he was tired, he stayed up and remained vigilant, sorting through the events of the day, the damage caused by Duncan, and the damage caused by his very own hands. But even these thoughts didn’t disturb him as much as what Leah muttered in her sleep, just as the sun was beginning to peek its head over the horizon:
“My baby, where are you?”
* * *
Aidan managed to jump off the bed on the first round of knocking, grab his clothes on the second, and leap out the window fully dressed on the third. He hit the ground running, shielding his eyes with his forearm as the local birds chirped their morning hellos. The clean-up crews and master carpenters had already been at work, rebuilding the homes first before they tackled the larger and more frivolous structures. The rhythmical knocking of hammers on nails and wood, the distant murmuring, the exchange of soothing, delicious potions – it was an almost pleasant, relaxing morning.
But once he hit the center of the village, he realized just how tense the atmosphere was. Passing by a few conversations, he learned that the shield over Lowsunn had been reinforced, but that wouldn’t hold back anyone searching for the Choate. It was on everyone’s mind, and they looked to the Elders for answers.
Now short two members, the remaining five took to the stage that the master carpenters had built, situated on top of the demolished grand hall. There wasn’t the usual murmurs and excited talks of the morning. There was only an eerie silence as the villagers attended with folded hands and sunken faces. Even the local birds had ditched the meeting, having opted for the reconstruction of their demolished homes instead.
Aidan did his best to ignore the poignant stares as he politely pushed his way through the crowd. He thought that the people would have been too busy hiding to notice his outburst the night before, but that was apparently not the case. No matter. He was ready to move forward and protect Lowsunn, with or without their approval.
“Order,” Elder Exil shouted. “The honorable Elder Thine wishes to address you all in light of last night’s horrific encounter. I know the wounds are still fresh. But this isn’t the first time we have come against opposition, and it will not be the last. Elder Thine has information on our next course of action.”
He bowed and stepped out of Elder Thine’s path as she took the forefront. Silence greeted her even after she said hello. Unmoved, she continued with her speech.
“Winter is cold, bitter and unforgiving,” she said to the crowd’s puzzlement. “But there is always a change of seasons. As sure as life and death will each pass through our lives, the seasons come and go. The rivers are never full. The oceans never spill. There is an order. A cycle that all humins have learned of, whether through experience or innate understanding. We realize that there are some things that cannot be changed…and many of us have forgotten this. We thought Lowsunn to reside in the clouds, amongst the Heavens, where flesh could not hope t
o touch its gates. But we are on Obsidian. We are still amongst others.”
The crowd nodded and a few sobbed.
“But does this mean we give up?” she asked. “That we abandon our homes for the outside, knowing that it is just a matter of time before another Duncan appears? Before his supposed friends arrive? Before those who hate us try to claim what we have spent so many Yen for? No…no…we can’t do that. We have to be strong, and just as the frost melts away into spring, so will our suffering. Even last night, a silver lining revealed itself…I speak of the Choate.”
The crowd murmured amongst itself as Aidan gave a heavy sigh. Next to him, Isaac appeared and placed a friendly hand on his shoulder. Aidan glanced at him and nodded. Isaac gave a cheesy grin in return. All was well between them.
“The way Duncan spoke,” Elder Thine continued. “…the Elders have conversed through the night of his words, and we believe, unanimously, that he was telling the truth. That this artifact of legend is truly out there. And though there will be much more loss before there is gain, we believe, that we should take a chance, and try to retrieve this item for ourselves.”
“Are you insane?!” Zorin Crane roared as the people next to him joined him in shaking their fists at the Elders. A few of the other villagers were shaking their heads, while others closed their eyes to find comfort within themselves. The Elders watched and waited for the information to sink in. Aidan turned to the swordsman.
“So we’re to carry out Duncan’s plans after all,” he scoffed with folded arms.
“Hmph,” Isaac replied. “He must be turning over in his grave.”
“There is no way these people are ready to search for this, even if it exists.”
“The Elders have probably been dwelling on this for quite some time, even before Duncan’s arrival. They must realize that now is the time to demand their cooperation, while their anger is still fresh. If they allow this calamity to simmer, eventually they will become complacent, and fall back into routine, believing the lie once again that their village is safe, and that Duncan’s attack was a rare occurrence.”
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