The Beginning After the End: Book 7: Divergence

by TurtleMe

  I waited anxiously for what seemed like an hour, resisting the temptation to go and ask if she was okay, until Tessia stepped out of the bathroom with a towel barely slung over her chest and her dark gray hair dripping pools of water behind her.

  Getting up, I grabbed another towel and sat her down in front of the small vanity in the corner of her room. Tess kept her eyes down, unable to look at her own reflection.

  Virion had told me everything. I knew the choices she had made and the consequences that had resulted from them. She blamed herself, much like I did, and I knew that no words of consolation would change how she felt right then, because she was right. She had made decisions and people had died because of it. In time, she would come to understand that this was the nature of war and that she would never be able to save everyone. Sometimes even our best intentions lead us astray…

  So, I stayed silent. I gently patted down her long hair with the spare towel, then conjured a warm, soft breeze that blew through her hair, drying it.

  After that, I grabbed a brush from the wooden vanity. While combing her hair, I found myself staring at her bare shoulders, thinking about how small they looked. Those shoulders carried a heavy burden and the weight of many expectations. It was easy to forget that, before this war, she had just been a student. Though our bodies were nearly the same age, my mind was much older. Tessia didn’t have a past life to rely on for experience and mental fortitude.

  “You’re really bad at this.” Tess’s voice was soft and hoarse, but it still made my heart skip a beat.

  “It’s not like I have experience doing this sort of thing,” I mumbled, embarrassed. I stopped and made to put the brush away, but Tess looked up, catching my eye in the mirror.

  “I didn’t tell you to stop.”

  “Yes, Princess,” I replied, the hint of a smile playing at my lips. Normally, she’d pout at being called “Princess,” but she just looked at me, her expression unreadable. We held eye contact for several long moments as I began brushing her hair again. When I broke the contact to look down at what I was doing, she looked back down at her fidgeting hands.

  For a while, I just absentmindedly talked while slowly brushing her hair. I repeated the silly stories of our misadventures back together in Elenoir when we were kids. Although we had been constantly training, and I had spent much of my time assimilating with Sylvia’s beast will, that didn’t mean we didn’t relax and have fun.

  I was reliving a particularly disgusting memory when she interrupted me.

  “I was the one who had told you we shouldn’t go down that ravine, not the other way around,” she said, chortling.

  “Really? I’m pretty sure I was the smart and cautious one when we were little.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Smart, I’ll admit, but I wouldn’t exactly say you were cautious. Ugh, I still remember finding the moss leeches all over my body even hours after we made it back home.”

  I stifled a laugh, remembering clearly how grossed out she had been at the harmless wriggling leeches that stuck to our skin. She had immediately flown into a spastic flailing of limbs that made her look like she had been shocked by lightning.

  “Why are you laughing?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

  I didn’t answer, instead doing my best impression of her get-these-leeches-off-me dance.

  “I was eight!” she protested, hitting me in the arm.

  “You were a delicate little princess,” I retorted warmly, rubbing my arm.

  She glared at me, but when I raised my arms in submission, she turned fully towards me and wrapped her arms around my waist. Slowly, I lowered my arms, one hand lightly caressing her bare back, the other gently entwining itself into her silky gray hair.

  Tess remained still, her face buried in my chest. The towel drooped, exposing more of her smooth skin, and I felt suddenly very conscious of her exposed body and her intoxicating smell.

  When she looked up, her turquoise eyes met mine, and despite the shade of pink rising up in her cheeks and ears, I could see my own longing reflected back in them.

  She closed her eyes then and pursed her lips, and I felt Arthur drifting away. For a moment, I was King Grey, in those early days: the days of loneliness, where I constantly questioned my self-worth, my reason for being; the days where I indulged in physical intimacy just to get a semblance of what being loved felt like—not as a political figure, but as a person.

  I lowered my head, and, for a second, I was tempted to meet her lips with mine. We had done so before, after all.

  But, given the circumstances, this wasn’t the same.

  I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and felt her flinch at my touch.

  She pulled away, looking up at me as if I had hit her. “Why? Am I not attractive enough? Is it because you still see me as a kid? I’m already eighteen. I thought this was behind us! Or... or is it that you blame me for what happened, too?”

  “Do you blame yourself?” I asked, keeping my expression impassive and my voice emotionless.

  Tess lowered her eyes and nodded. “I—I was selfish… I thought that—”

  “Then you’re growing,” I cut her off, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “We all make mistakes, but the hardest part is admitting them and moving forward so they don’t happen again.”

  Her shoulders trembled as she sniffled. “So, it’s not because I’m unattractive?”

  Immediately, my face burned as I took in her exposed figure. “No, it’s not because you’re unattractive. I just want to do it properly, when we can really be with each other, not when we’re trying to escape from something else.”

  Prying my unwilling eyes away from Tessia, I turned my back to her. “You should get dressed. There’s one more thing I want to do for you.”

  The kitchen was empty when we arrived, but there was an abundance of food stored in the chilled containers.

  “You wanted to… eat with me?” Tess asked, looking around the kitchen.

  Taking a wrapped slab of meat from the storage, I held it up. “I want to cook for you.”

  “Cook? Why?”

  I shrugged, gathering the rest of the ingredients and laying them out to prepare. “You’ve grown up with meals made for you by the chefs in the castle.”

  Rather than use magic, I pulled out a kitchen knife and began dicing and mincing the ingredients. “Back in Ashber, when I was a kid, my mom used to cook all of our meals. She poured her time and energy into each meal just to see a smile on our faces while we ate.”

  My hand trembled, but I continued cutting. “Sitting at the dinner table… laughing and joking over good food. It was one of those things that I never truly appreciated—not until it was… too late.”

  I hurriedly wiped away a tear. “Ah, s-some of the spices must’ve gotten into my eyes. Sorry about that. Almost forgot about the water.” I turned away from Tess and lowered the fire beneath the boiling pot of broth.

  Through gritted teeth, I held down the sobs forming in my chest, but the tears wouldn’t stop. My hands shook and my breath came out in choked bursts.

  Flashes of memory from my time as a child growing up in Ashber pierced my mind like hot iron stakes. Don’t be stupid, Arthur, I thought. It’s just food, you big idiot.

  “It’s okay. I’m okay, Art.” Her voice was gentle, and her soft caress was enough to drive me to my knees.

  I fell to the cold, hard floor, clutching my chest as heaving sobs tore out from my throat. As I lay there, my head in Tess’s lap, the warm touch of her hands kept me anchored, and the smooth cooing of her voice moved through me like magic from an emitter’s fingertips, easing the ache within me.

  231

  Field of White

  Alduin slammed the door as he stormed off. The room shuddered slightly from the impact.

  “That didn’t go too bad. I didn’t think he’d give in so easily,” Virion breathed, sinking back in his seat.

  “Neither did I,” I mused, my eyes still on the door that Alduin had exited throug
h.

  The Council meeting had ended more than an hour ago, but Alduin had stayed to protest Virion’s decision. Even General Aya, who never voiced her opinion regarding orders, had pleaded with Commander Virion to reconsider.

  I didn’t blame them. Virion had ultimately decided to evacuate forces from Elenoir and focus troops on the western border to defend against the Alacryan ships coming from the ocean. For the elves, it meant abandoning their home to the Alacryans.

  Although Alduin was still angry, he relented.

  “I’m glad he wants to lead the evacuation our people. Perhaps he is finally grasping the fact that we’re fighting to protect all of Dicathen, not just Elenoir.” Virion sighed, rubbing his temples. “And it will give me more time to focus on the fallback scenarios.”

  I nodded. Forming strategies for battles was only half the task during times of war. Thinking of various contingencies and training all of your troops to know what to do when things didn’t work out as planned was just as—if not more—important.

  We sat together wordlessly for a moment before Virion cleared his throat. I knew what he was going to ask. It was the same question he had struggled to ask me since I had arrived back at the castle.

  “So, Arthur. Have you thought about my request?” Virion said, cold determination in his eyes.

  I met his strong gaze. “I have, and I’m afraid that I’m going to have to respectfully refuse.”

  “And if I ordered it?” he challenged.

  “Then I’d have no choice but to do it.”

  After a beat of silence, Virion let out a defeated sigh, shaking his head. “If your father hadn’t died, would you have said yes?”

  My jaw tightened and I struggled to keep calm but I didn’t blame Virion for asking. “Most likely.”

  Waving his hand in dismissal, he said, “Fine. I won’t push it any further.”

  “Thank you,” I said, genuinely relieved. I hated to refuse him anything, but this was something I couldn’t do. “Besides, I’ve heard that General Bairon is fairly knowledgeable in war, anyway.”

  “It is the Wykes’ family tradition to teach their younger generation the art of war and battle,” Virion replied. “But his knowledge stems from books—manuals of strategy and theory, tales of old wars long sense fought and forgotten.”

  “Compared to my knowledge… as a teenager?” I rebutted, smiling in amusement.

  Virion chortled. “If I thought you were a normal teenager, I would treat you the same as my granddaughter and put you both, along with the rest of your family, into protective custody.”

  “Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer,” I teased.

  “There is no offer, brat. Speaking as the commander, I can’t afford to lose you, so toughen up,” he growled. “If you’re not going to lead, then at least get your hands bloody.”

  “Aye aye, commander,” I saluted. “Just have that early retirement package waiting for me.”

  “Will do,” he said with a tired chuckle.

  We chatted a bit more as Virion told me what to expect once Sylvie and I arrived at Etistin, but we also relived some old stories from our past. After all, it was possible we might never see each other again.

  “My mother and sister should be arriving at the castle in the next day or so. Please take care of them in case I don’t make it back,” I said, holding out my hand.

  There was a part of me that wanted to personally say goodbye to my family, to see their faces one last time in case I really didn’t make it out of this battle alive, but a bigger part of me was scared to see them.

  I didn’t want to admit it, but I was somewhat comforted by the fact that, even if I died, my remaining family might mourn for me rather than look at me with hatred, disdain, or apathy.

  If that made me a coward, then I would embrace the title. The fighting would offer me an escape, and if I was able to save our people from the Alacryans in the process, then some good might still come of my cowardice.

  Virion clasped my hand and pulled me into a hug. “You know I’ll treat Alice and Eleanor as if they were my own blood. They’ll be given the same priority for retreat as Tessia and the Council.”

  “Thank you.” I pulled away from his embrace and walked towards the door. I turned back one last time to look at Virion, jaw clenched and body rigid as he forced himself to stay composed. “You’re one of the few people in this world that made this life worth living and this continent worth fighting for.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need any armor?” I asked my bond, concerned to see her wearing only a long black cloak over a pair of pants and a long-sleeved tunic. Her long, wheat-colored hair was pulled back and tied into a braid, accentuating her large horns.

  “My scales are strong enough. Besides, conventional armor would be useless when I shift between forms,” she answered. We continued our journey to the teleportation room in silence.

  The doors were already open and only one guard stationed out front; many of the soldiers in the castle had been sent off to Etistin, leaving few for guard duty.

  I could see a few a familiar faces waiting to send us off. Aside from Tess and Elder Buhnd, Kathyln and Elder Hester were here as well.

  “Looking quite dashing there, young hero,” Elder Hester smiled. “Clothes really do make the man.”

  “It’s good to see you again, Elder Hester,” I greeted, holding out a hand. “I hope you don’t take what I did personally. I’m sorry if it’s affected you in any way.”

  Hester Flamesworth accepted my gesture with a wry smile. “I heard about your father and what Trodius was planning. The Flamesworth name’s prestige isn’t nearly as important to me, and I hope this will serve to humble my brother. I would just like to thank you for allowing him to live.”

  I nodded, letting go of her hand before turning to Elder Buhnd. I gave the old dwarf a pat on the shoulder. “I know that you’re just itching to get out into the field, Buhnd. What do you say, want to come with me?”

  “Bah, and get my arse dragged back by Virion? I’ll pass. Besides, the old man needs a hand here, what with everything going on these days,” he replied, looking up at me. “Be careful over there. I know it may not feel like it right now, but there are people that care about you and are waiting for you to come back.”

  Again, I just nodded. The promise I had made to my mother—that I would make sure my father was okay, turned out to be empty. I didn’t want to make another promise I couldn’t keep.

  My gaze eventually fell on Kathyln, who had been silent.

  “Thank you for seeing me off,” I told her, holding out my hand.

  Kathyln hesitated before grabbing my hand. She looked up and her usually impassive face was alive with worry and regret. “I wish I could fight alongside you and Curtis.”

  “Your mission is just as important, if not more, for the future of Dicathen. Don’t worry,” I said, trying to comfort my friend and training partner with a smile. I understood her anxiousness and frustration at being unable to fight in the main battle; it’s how I felt about leaving so many I cared about behind.

  Councilman Blaine and Councilwoman Priscilla had ordered Kathyln to the Wall to help the remaining soldiers scout the area and make sure there weren’t any stray beasts heading towards the fortress. After Trodius had been taken away, many of the soldiers were sent to Blackbend City in order to be transported to Etistin, leaving the Wall severely lacking in capable fighters.

  Kathyln’s parents probably thought being at the Wall was much safer than Etistin and would give their restless daughter something to do.

  Finally, I turned to Tess, who was already hugging and exchanging goodbyes with Sylvie. The two had always been close; Tessia had been in Sylvie’s life just as long as I had, after all. To Sylvie, Tess was mother, sister, and friend all at once, and I could feel my bond’s heart break just a little as she said goodbye.

  When it was my turn, I gave Tess a long hug as well. “I heard you’re going to be with my sister and mother. Take good car
e of them.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to them,” she muttered as she pulled the leaf pendant out from under her shirt. “Just remember to keep your promise.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I answered, pulling out my own pendant. We stared at each other silently for a moment before I pulled my gaze away. I couldn’t keep the image of my father’s corpse out of my head.

  I was the one going into battle, but somehow I was still afraid for Tess. I knew it was childish and irresponsible to think it, but the thought of her being carried over to me in the same state as my father and being unable to do anything despite all my power made me want to run, to flee—not just with her but with Ellie and my mother.

  A firm squeeze on my arms pulled me out of my thoughts. Tess wore the same smile she had last night, after I had broken down in the kitchen. It was a smile that conveyed both loss and hope, and it was just enough to give me the strength to step through the teleportation gate.

  “I’ll see you soon. All of you,” I declared. Then, with nothing left to be said, I stepped through with Sylvie by my side.

  After the unsettling sensation of teleportation wore off, the two of us stepped down from the raised podium that held the gate. Heavily armored soldiers stood on either side of us, heads bowed.

  “General Arthur, Lady Sylvie. General Bairon is waiting for you in the castle,” the soldier to my left announced.

  “Will you be guiding us?” I asked.

  “Actually, that’ll be me,” a familiar voice rumbled from below.

  It was Curtis Glayder. Despite everything that had transpired, the years had treated him well. His clean shaven face and sharp military crew cut made Curtis look like the dashing white knight he always aspired to be, complete with polished armor and swords strapped on both sides of his hips.