Chapter XVIII
The Man in the Shadows
Captain Gareth made his way through the halls of the Ivory Palace, on his usual night patrol. He was restless, but tired at the same time. After the events of the long day - the protester in the streets, Princess Selphie's return, and the king's announcement that he would be leaving for the Elder Hall in only a few days - it was little wonder that he was so uneasy.
The kingdom was on the precipice of war, something that King Zaow had been fighting for years to prevent. The king was confident that he might be able to talk the other kings out of it, but in reality there was little chance their minds might be swayed. Even Zaow's own people no longer seemed to believe in his vision of peace. That man in the streets was proof enough of that. Gareth had heard whispers and quiet murmurs from people who didn't know he was listening, but it hadn't been until today that someone had actually gone out in public and spoken against their king. More would undoubtedly follow.
Zaow had always been a difficult king. For one, he had waited too long to have children, leaving the line of succession empty and vulnerable for over two decades. When he finally had married, at the age of fifty-five, it had not been for political gain, but rather for his own heart. Trist was born two years before the Acarian War, and Selphie a year after it. The queen, Sarah, had not survived the childbirth, and King Zaow had refused to marry again.
Gareth had been a guard since he was a young man, and he had been captain since the aftermath of the war. He had watched both of Zaow's children grow up, the princess in particular. The girl looked so much like her mother, who had always been dear to Gareth's heart.
Gareth reached the room where he knew Selphie and Jared were now. The door was open, and they could be seen inside, seated at a couch before a fire. He had passed them thrice already, and each time he glanced briefly inside to make sure they were alright. He wasn't sure if they were aware of his presence or not, but if they were they gave no indication. And as he glanced in the room once more, they did not look up at him.
Selphie was upset, and reasonably so. She had never seen her father in the state she had today; so tired and vulnerable and old. So close to death. She had done her best to hide her shock and pain while her companions were there, but once they had gone, she had let her so often-restrained emotions out. As always, Jared was there to comfort her. As always, Gareth had seen and said nothing.
When Selphie was just a young girl, she would come to Gareth at midday while her father was busy and he would give her lessons in swordplay. It was not unusual in Bacoria for women to be trained as hunters or soldiers, but Selphie was the princess of Sono. Such a thing was simply not proper, and Zaow would undoubtedly not approve if he knew. So the lessons were secret.
Gareth was a busy man, and what little free time he'd had available then went to secretly teaching the princess how to fight. However, she was not his only student. A few days before, a young boy had tried to pick his pocket in the market and had ended up spending the night in a cell. He'd found out the boy was an orphan, his father one of the few casualties Sono had suffered in the war, and his mother having died as well not long ago. He had pitied the boy, so he now allowed the boy to stay at his home, and was training him to be a guard as well.
The solution was obvious. The princess and Gareth's apprentice would train together. He didn't have the time to devote to them both, and they were around the same age and got along well. What could go wrong?
Of course, he should have seen it coming.
The first time he caught them, he told them off. He yelled and swore and even threatened to stop the lessons. They bowed their heads and apologised and promised it would never happen again. The lessons continued, and the princess and the orphan continued to train together and spent far too much time together than a princess and an orphan should.
Gareth knew that it didn't stop. They never let him catch them again, but he saw the looks they exchanged, the whispers they shared, and their fond smiles, and he knew. And every time he saw the two of them together, all he could see was himself and Sarah, all those years ago. And he saw the end of that story; Sarah married to the king, and himself left a heartbroken shell of a man.
And now, years later, the princess and the orphan were older now. They were grown and mature, and they also knew how their story would end. But still, as he peeked into that room to check and see if they were alright, what he saw was a princess and a guard, sitting beside one another, closer than a princess and a guard should have been.
And as always, he said nothing.
"I am the one who is responsible for all the hardship you've endured," Gordon said to Luca. "So many years ago, I was a soldier in the Acarian army. I was young then, and I looked up to King Manorith with reverence. When the war ended in absolute failure, and King Manorith ordered us to retreat, I was with him, in a small squad of men. We were trying our hardest to get back to Acaria, crossing over the mountains that separated our home from Sono.
"It was storming that night. I remember that detail well, because the storm obscured our vision so badly we couldn't go on into the night. Those rocks were treacherous enough in the dark, but the rain made them slippery as well. We couldn't risk going on, so we stopped in a small cave and made camp. One of the other men - I can't remember his name, but I hated him - he advised King Manorith against it. He reminded him of the Allman mercenaries who were still on our trail, and said that they would not stop for the storm. I think the king believed him, but everyone in the group was so exhausted he chose to risk it so that we could sleep for the night.
"The man I hated turned out to be right, because the Allmans ambushed us. It was brutal; everyone was slaughtered. King Manorith and I were the only ones who were able to get away, but they chased us. We fled into the night, and we managed to get away from the Allmans who chased us. All but one."
"My father," Luca said.
"Indeed," said Gordon. "At the time, I didn't know who it was - just that he was out to kill us. I was terrified - I thought I was going to die. But King Manorith took me by my shoulder, told me to get back home and tell his wife and son what happened to him. And he went and fought your father. I ran away, but I looked back and saw what happened. I don't think your father knew who he was chasing until the fight was over. It was too dark. But I could still see your father carrying King Manorith's helm back.
"I followed his last order. I went back to Acaria. The plague had ravaged our kingdom; that strange disease that killed both man and plant. Acaria had not been a beautiful land, not for a long while, but it was a frozen wasteland when I returned. The small number of people still alive now lived in Acarienthia, the capital. The queen and prince still lived, much to my relief. At this time, the plague more or less passed. But our country was damaged beyond repair.
"I told them what had happened, and they both grieved in their own way. The queen was distraught. She cried and shut herself up in her room. She cared dearly for Manorith. The prince on the other hand... he grew angry. Young Zinoro was filled with rage and hatred. He swore vengeance against Sono for what they had done, both to his father, and to his kingdom.
"A few months later, we received a letter from a man sympathetic to us in Sono. He told us the truth of the matter, that the public believed it was Zaow who had struck down Manorith in the last battle of the war, but it was actually a man from Saeticia named Lodin who had killed him. The description of Lodin matched the man I'd seen perfectly."
"Now Zinoro hated both your father and Zaow. He vowed to destroy them both, but to do this, he needed power. Power he lacked. And that is where the tragedy truly begins. Because Zinoro threw away everything his father believed in in the name of his justice.
"Your father is dead because of my actions. I could not have known they would lead to this, but they are still my responsibility nonetheless. I am sorry."
"You say it is your fault, but it is not," Luca told him. "The fault lies with Zinoro. He's the one
who killed my father, who led his men to destroy that town and all those innocent people. It was Zinoro's orders that led to Allma Temple's destruction."
Gordon shook his head. "While I will not deny that it is indeed Zinoro who did those things, he could not have done those things without help. He received this help from the darkest place imaginable... from Ekkei."
Luca drew in a sharp breath at that name, and stared at Gordon in disbelief. "That can't be. You're wrong. Ekkei is a myth; a story told to frighten children away from misbehaviour."
"I used to believe that once, too," Gordon said sadly. "The shrine was once nothing more than a relic of another time; a temple to a being that no one truly believed existed. The last shrine of Ekkei; the only one the Paladins had been unable to destroy. It was always been the duty of Acaria's king to watch over it and ensure that no one enters it and disturbs the dark forces that resides within. While no one actually believed there was any need for the rule, it was still followed, for Acarians are slow to give up the old ways. King Manorith believed in that rule as he believed in any of the others... Zinoro did as well, but he cared more about revenge than that. So he forsake the king's duty and entered the shrine of Ekkei.
"He spent a week there. We started to fear he was dead. And then he returned... a different person. I know he is touched by Ekkei's evil, because his eyes were not red before. And when he came back, he had powers. Magick that had been forgotten since the ancient times. And his mana was different... dark and vile and corrupted."
Luca knew what he meant. He had felt that mana himself. Even now, some trace of its evil lingered in the scar across his cheek, defying the healing magick that should have removed it.
"With this power he had, he found and attacked your father in Saeticia," Gordon said. "He was confident then, and he went alone. The attack failed. Your father, and the rest of your family was able to escape, and Zinoro lost one of his eyes in the battle. He told me it was your mother who did this."
Luca hadn't known that. Ash probably had, but he spoke so little of their mother.
"Even Ekkei's power was not enough, Zinoro learnt," Gordon continued. "So he travelled all over Bacoria, taking me with him. I was his first acolyte. He found others on his travels; people with skills he knew he would have use of. Trunda was chosen for his ability to absorb mana. Verra for her skill in Reverse-Healing. Serpos for his orbs that can control dragons. Dreevius for his shapeshifting."
"And yourself?" Luca asked.
"I've no special skills," Gordon admitted. "Zinoro made me an acolyte as repayment for my service to him. I've been loyal to him to from the beginning." Gordon's voice was heavy as he said this, and his eyes were filled with regret.
"I should have seen what was happening from the beginning," Gordon said. "Zinoro started to lose himself in his rage. He was no monster before; he actually wrote poetry when he was young. I don't know if it was his grief, the influence of Ekkei on him, or both, but eventually all he could think of was his desire for revenge. His madness led him to do horrible things. The queen was devastated by what he did, and tried to run from him. She hid from him for a very long time. But like your father, eventually he tracked her down and killed her. His own mother."
Gordon paused for a moment, visibly upset at the memory.
"When he found a man with a Rixeor Fragment, rather than challenge the man as he would have before, he sent Verra to kill the man in his sleep. She did, and brought him back the sword he uses now. And when he found the seer he was looking for, he had the man tortured until he told him what he needed to know.
"His acolytes, the Rixeor Fragment, the seer; it was no coincidence that he found them all. Ekkei was guiding his footsteps, leading him to the people and tools he would need. I don't know what Zinoro promised him in return, because he never speaks of his time in the shrine.
"After the seer, however, things changed. The seer told Zinoro that he could possibly fail, and he told him of the potential futures where he did. In most of these futures, it is you, Lodin's first son, who kills him. Zinoro, now knowing that he could possibly fail, started to be more careful. He would not go through with any more of his plans until he was sure you and your father were both dead. This was about two years ago. He shifted his focus entirely to finding you two, but this proved difficult as you were in hiding. He sent his men all over Bacoria to find you, and eventually they did. A team up north in Arimos reported you, so he took his revenants and attacked that village."
"Revenants?"
"Aye," Gordon said, his eyes wide. "More of Ekkei's evil power. When someone dies, they vanish, retaken by the mana of the earth. But if Zinoro has blood, even just a few drops, he can... bring them back. It's not truly the person it was before, just a pale imitation of them. These beings we call revenants. They do not speak, they do not act on their own; they only follow the orders we give them. In the past two years, Zinoro has built an army of them. He only had a hundred of so remaining Acarian soldiers prior to that. He needed an army if he wanted to destroy Sono, and he found a way."
Luca thought back to all the Acarian soldiers he had fought before. The one with the axe he'd faced in Forga, the ones who had come from underground in Allma Temple, the pair who had stood watch over them like statues when Dreevius had captured them - they had all been such revenants - soulless copies of people Zinoro had killed.
"The attacks on the fringe villages," Luca said in realisation. "The Acarians attacked not for captives or spoils, but simply to kill."
"In the aftermath, the revenants will gather up any clothes or bloodied objects and take them back to Acarienthia," Gordon told him. "Zinoro will use this blood to make more revenants. Any fallen revenants can be brought back as well. His army never loses men, but with each battle it grows. I'm sure all the slain students of Allma Temple now wear the armour of Acaria. As well as all the people who were killed at that village you lived in."
Arlea... was she there somewhere, hidden under the black and red helm of Acaria? Was she one of the silent attackers Luca had struck down at the temple?
Luca found that he had clenched his fist. His hatred of Zinoro only grew with each thing he learnt of him.
"So why are you telling me all this?" Luca asked him.
"As I said, I've been with Zinoro since the beginning," Gordon said sadly. "I watched him transform from a kind young prince into the monster he is now. And I can't follow someone like that. At first, I believed in what he was doing. I believed that Acaria could rise again from the ashes, and we could have vengeance for the war. But I've long since lost those feelings; ever since he started using slaughtering innocents to build his army of dead men. I cannot follow someone like that anymore.
"I've come to you because you're the only person left who can stop him. The seer said that in most potential futures, it is you who kills him. Zinoro has already cut the other branches; so you're the only one left who has any chance. But in order to do that, you'll need a Rixeor Fragment."
"I've been looking," Luca said.
"Set aside all other goals," Gordon told him. "Because without one of those sacred blades, you have no chance of matching him. Do you know anyone who has one?"
Luca thought about it. "King Marcus of Saeticia. His sword, Altair. It's a Fragment."
"You must convince Marcus of the importance of this," Gordon told him. "Rixeor Fragments can be temporarily used by someone else if the master allows it. Convince him to let you borrow it, and go to Acarienthia. If you do this, you can not only prevent this war everyone is talking about, but you might also spare the world of whatever evil Ekkei is aiming to unleash."
Luca frowned. He thought back to his previous encounter with Marcus. "I don't think Marcus would be very willing to give his sword to anyone, much less me. We'll be going to the Elder Hall soon, and I'll have the opportunity to speak with him there, but I wouldn't count on him agreeing to this."
"In that case, we must find another," Gordon said. "I have heard rumours of a town called Eccador,
in Saeticia. They say there is someone with a Fragment there. But these are only rumours, and I have heard little else. The town is not far from the Elder Hall."
Luca mused. "Perhaps I could go there, and meet the others at the Elder Hall later."
"I see," Gordon muttered. "I'll do what I can in the meantime. We'll need to meet again. I'll see you at the Elder Hall."
"You're one of Zinoro's acolytes. You can't just wander about the Elder Hall..."
"In disguise, or course," Gordon assured him. "The kings are taking their armies with them. It will be no great task to wear the armour of a soldier and blend in among them. But do not look for me. I will find you. That we met here must remain a secret between us. Neither Zaow's men, nor Zinoro's spies, can know. I don't know how much Zinoro still trusts me, if he does at all. I know there are things he hides from me. And he does not suffer traitors to live. If my treachery is found out, it could ruin everything. You'll need me to get into Acarienthia."
"Of course," Luca said.
Gordon bowed his head. "I'll meet you at the Elder Hall. With luck, we'll both still be alive by then." And with those words, he made his leave.
Luca waited upstairs, until he heard the sound of the front door closing. He considered Gordon's words, and whether or not he could trust them. The man was an Acarian; of that there was no doubt. A truer Acarian than even the king of Acaria. Gordon had spoken of Manorith, the honourable king, with reverence and pride. He had spoken of Zinoro with thinly-veiled disgust and shame. Sure, there had been a time when Gordon might have believed in Zinoro; but those days were gone. Gordon's loyalties remained with Acaria, but not with Zinoro.
Luca would trust him for now, but he would be wary. The man was still one of Zinoro's closest followers. It might still be a plot that he came to meet with him; even if Gordon did not know it.
After a few minutes, Luca left as well, opening the front door slowly and carefully and stepping out once he was sure no pedestrians were looking. The streets looked empty, but he could not be sure if any eyes watched him from the windows.
He made his way back to the inn from before. Some time had passed since he had left; possibly an hour or so. The revelry at the inn had died down to just a few people at tables in the corners, discussing their own shady business. Luca spotted the portly innkeeper at the bar, but Emila was no longer there.
"Ah, it's Emila's companion," said Trent as Luca drew near him. "She was wondering where you'd wandered off to."
"Where is she?"
"Upstairs, in bed. She was always a lightweight," Trent said, pointing at the ale barrels behind him. "Why don't you take a seat? You can have a drink, on the house."
After a moment of thought, Luca sat down at the bar. Trent poured him a mug of ale, and handed it to him. He took a drink, but he swore it would only be one; after what had happened before, he doubted he would ever let himself get drunk again.
"I wanted to thank you," the innkeeper said to him. "For the two years that she lived and worked here, that girl was downright miserable. Just the saddest, loneliest thing I've ever seen. Tonight she looked happier than I'd ever seen her. And I wanted to thank you for that. You probably saved that girl's life."
How wrong he was, Luca thought. "I figured she was happy because she was back here," Luca muttered. "Once she started talking to you, she seemed to forget all about me."
"On the contrary, she couldn't stop talking about you. Luca this, Luca that. She's been happier on her travels with you than she's been in the whole two years I knew her."
Really, Luca found himself wondering. She'd seemed so depressed ever since they had left Serenite. She certainly didn't seem happy all those days when she was clinging to him, her head bowed, not saying a word. The Acarians had seemed to sap all the life right out of her...
"That girl's had it rough, you know," Trent continued, wiping down another empty mug. "You know that her home was one of the first towns attacked by the Acarians, right? She was one of the only survivors from what I know."
"I knew," Luca replied. "She doesn't like to talk about it, but she told me a while back."
And now he knew just why Emila had lost her family and her home. Zinoro had needed blood to build his army. All the people she had grown up knowing - her parents, her little sister, and even that boy who'd been her first crush - they were likely now mindless, empty puppets in Acarian armour. It was by sheer luck that Emila was not as well.
"She came here with these two old merchants," Trent told him in a sombre tone. "A old married couple. They'd found her right after she escaped from the attack. The merchants were coming to the city, and they were going to buy a place and spend the rest of their lives there. And they had grown very fond of Emila on the trip to the city. They were going to let her stay with them as their adopted child. But the husband fell ill shorty after arriving in the city, and he didn't survive. The wife followed shorty after, from grief as they say. All they ended up being able to leave her was a golden lute, which I never saw her actually use."
Luca was staring deep into the mug of ale before him. "She never told me about that," he said in a quiet voice. A golden lute? He'd never seen Emila with anything like that...
No, wait. He had, a while back. A heavy object, wrapped up in several layers of crumpled paper that he'd spotted in her bag. That's what that must have been.
"I felt sorry for the girl, so I let her work here," Trent said. "She had nowhere else to go, so I let her live up in the attic. She was always very quiet, and she never answered any questions about her life from before. I doubt I ever would have found out about her home if the old merchant woman hadn't told me. I never knew what went on in her head, but I think what she saw in that attack traumatised her pretty bad."
Luca didn't know what to say. He was suddenly finding out all these things about Emila he hadn't known before. It was a lot for his tired mind to process.
"When people around here started to talk about war with Acaria, she packed up her things and left. I was worried about her. I asked her where she was going, but she wouldn't say. To be perfectly honest I thought I'd never see her again."
"That's what you said when she first walked in," Luca said.
The bartender set the mug down and leaned in close to Luca, staring him right in the eyes. For a moment, Luca feared his last comment had insulted the man.
"Don't hurt that girl, you understand?" Trent told him. "You clearly mean something special to her. If you break her heart, I don't think she could bear it. She's the kind of person who needs to be with someone; she can't bear to be alone. But after losing her family, and then those merchants so soon after, she was too afraid to get close to anyone else. She took a chance with you, so don't let her down. I don't think she could survive another loss."
And then, with that last word, the missing piece of the puzzle clicked in Luca's mind. Something that had been puzzling him for so long about Emila suddenly made sense. The reason she had been so quiet and despondent since Serenite.
She wasn't afraid of the Acarians; she was afraid of what they would take away from her. Specifically, she was worried that she would lose him. The things she'd said in the inn at Revan, about how he was turning into a monster like Zinoro; now that Luca understood the full extent of Zinoro's evil, he could see how such a thing would be so terrifying to her. As far as Emila could see, the path that Luca was currently on had only two conclusions; either he would be lost in his hatred and he would die fighting Zinoro, or he would kill Zinoro, and in the process become the very monster he had set out to destroy.
The latter was more frightening to him because he already knew that it was happening. In the process of fighting against Zinoro and his acolytes, he had forsaken the Way of Uro, and had killed Dreevius in a cruel and dishonourable way. His justification for that had been that Dreevius was a monster himself, and had deserved nothing better, but he knew that was only an excuse, and a flimsy one at that.
Emila words at Reven came back to him...
It is easy to excuse atrocities in the name of justice.
There was a difference between justice and vengeance. He was after the latter, and could no longer use honour as the justification for what he did.
So he realised he needed to make a choice... Zinoro or Emila.
"She confided something in me tonight," Trent said to Luca, interrupting his reverie. "She told me she's worried you're going to leave her here in the city. She said you're going to be going off somewhere dangerous, and that she fears you'll leave her here so you'll be free to go off and do whatever this is. That isn't true, is it?"
Luca felt like his blood had run cold. He didn't want to lie to this man, but he couldn't tell him the truth. Not now, because Luca no longer knew what the truth was.
"We'll be going with the king," Luca said. "We're going to go to the Elder Hall. I-I'm not sure if I can take her, but I certainly have no desire to leave her behind."
That was true, at least. He'd never wanted to leave her in T'Saw; he'd just thought it was a necessity. But if leaving her meant she would utterly fall apart - and possibly even take her own life - he knew he couldn't do that.
Trent stared at him suspiciously. "I see. You've got friends in the palace, then? I knew there was something in her story she was omitting."
"You must tell no one," Luca said to him. "It is important that no one knows the king will be leaving."
"Of course," Trent assured him. "I'm an innkeeper. I know how to keep secrets."
"Thank you," Luca said, taking one last swig from his mug and setting it down. "I have to go now."
"Will you be joining Emila in her room?" he asked.
Luca considered it. Emila was fast asleep up there. She wasn't going anywhere. But the events of the night had changed a few things. He needed to reconsider his plans.
For now, he could make no promises.
Luca opened the door to his and Emila's room. He saw the dark-haired girl in bed, the sheets pulled up to her chin. Her eyes were closed, and her chest rose and fell slowly. She did not stir at the sound of his entering. He walked past her, going to the free bed on the other side of the room.
He set his belongings down as quietly as he could and started to change out of his travel clothes. He removed his belt, and the sheathed sword at his side, and set it on the dresser beside his bed. Once he was finished changing, he took another look at the sword and found himself staring at it.
His father's sword... Siora. He'd sworn, all the way back in Forga, that it would be this blade that he killed Zinoro with. At the time, he hadn't wanted to think about it, but it made sense that he would need a Rixeor Fragment of his own if he wanted to kill Zinoro. But according to Gordon, if he wanted to have any chance of beating Zinoro, he would need one. Which meant he could not use Siora. Once again, the justice he had been after would be denied. If he wanted to kill Zinoro, he would have to set his father's blade aside and take up a new one.
But it meant more than just that simple truth. It meant that his own strength wasn't enough. He needed a magick sword to defeat the man who had killed his father. His own skill, his own passion, his own drive; none of those were enough. If he challenged Zinoro with Siora, it would end in his death. To beat Zinoro, he would have to either go to this Eccador town and find the Fragment that was rumoured to be there; or worse, beg and hope that Marcus, a man who had hated Lodin, would let Luca borrow his blade. It was pathetic and unbecoming of Lodin's memory, but there was nothing Luca could do about it.
He had forsaken the Way of Uro when he had killed Dreevius; now he would have to forsake his father's honour as well. How much more would he have to give up to rid Bacoria of Zinoro's blight?
He knew the answer to that question. It was asleep, only a few metres from him.
It would break Emila's heart for him to leave her behind. Those things that Trent had told him made that clear enough. And though he had known he was only making it harder for the both of them, he had still given in and been weak. Those kisses and those personal truths they had shared with each other only added to the pain. He'd known... he'd known his whole life that getting close to people only made partings so much more painful. He'd almost made the mistake again with Arlea; what if he would have gotten closer to her? A stronger bond between them wouldn't have stopped the arrow that struck her down right in front of him. But it certainly would have made it more painful.
There could be an arrow just like that one waiting for Emila in Acaria.
He couldn't let her follow him there. She would, even though she'd once told him that Acaria was the one place she wouldn't go with him to. He now knew that she would follow him anywhere, to preserve that happiness she had found with him.
He had made his decision.
Luca put his clothes back on and left as quietly as he could. He slipped out of the inn without Trent noticing, and made his way to the Ivory Palace.
Emila, and Siora, were left behind.
Luca went to the palace, and asked the guard captain if Selphie and the others could be woken and gathered in the meeting room. Gareth hesitated at first, but after a bit of prodding, he went and got Selphie and Jared, and after that Brand, Wiosna, and Ash. Though they were all visibly tired, they gathered without complaint. The absence of Emila was noticed, but nobody said anything.
"I'm not going to the Elder Hall," he told them. "Not until later. There's another place I need to go to first."
He told them about the town of Eccador, and the rumours of a Rixeor Fragment there. Gareth would not leave the princess alone, not even with people she had been travelling with for months, so the captain stayed in the room with them and watched. Thus, Luca could not tell them where he had heard of these rumours.
"I still intend to be there when the kings meet," Luca said. "So I need to leave now, a few days before Zaow does, so I can hopefully be done in Eccador and on my way to the Elder Hall before the meeting happens. I wanted to let you all know where I would be."
"Do you need to be going right now, in the middle of the night?" Brand asked, rubbing at his eyes. "Couldn't this wait until morning?"
"I'm leaving as soon as I'm done here," Luca said dryly, trying not to think about Emila. "There's not enough time to spare."
"Alright, then," Brand said, rising. "I'll have my things packed in a few minutes."
"Me, too," said Wiosna.
"I'm going by myself," Luca said, irritated that he hadn't realised this would happen.
"No, you're not," Brand told him.
Exasperated, Luca looked to Selphie, who smiled and shrugged.
"I suppose arguing it is pointless," Luca said with a sign. "If you're coming, then hurry. I intend to be out of the city within the hour."
Without further prompting, Brand and Wiosna went off to their rooms, leaving Luca with Selphie, Jared, and Ash.
"Is Emila getting ready?" Selphie asked.
Luca cursed silently. He couldn't lie to her, so he said, "She won't be coming with me."
Selphie's eyes grew wide, and she stared at him as though he had just said something terrible. "What are you saying? Are you leaving her behind?"
"I am."
"But what about your connection? That... magick tether between the two of you?"
"There's no need for it anymore," Luca said to her. "I'm not recovering from any mortal injuries anymore. I don't need the tether, and I don't need Emila."
Selphie was speechless. She continued to look at him, shocked that he could be saying these things. Jared said nothing, and did not meet his gaze, but the disapproval was evident in his eyes.
Surprisingly, it was Ash who spoke up. "Why?"
Luca looked to his brother. "Why what?"
"Why are you leaving her here?" Ash asked. "If you wanted to leave her behind, there were dozens of other opportunities before. Why now?"
"Because..." He trailed off, knowing he couldn't well say the real reason. He'd kept her with him so far because he had needed he
r. The injuries he'd received in the Arimos, and then again during the attack on Allma Temple would have killed him had he tried to leave her before. Now that the injuries were fully healed, he had the opportunity to leave her without the tether choking him to death.
But that was selfish, and he knew it. So instead he told them, "T'Saw is safe. Safer than Allma Temple, and safer than Serenite." He knew that, in theory, T'Saw was the safest city in Bacoria. The empty fields surrounding it left an army vulnerable and easily spotted on the horizon. The tall, marble walls were invulnerable, and hundreds of archers could sit upon them. The steps one had to climb to reach the gate were narrow, and impossible for more than a few people to climb in a row. Never in the past had an army succeeded in breaking into the city.
In theory, Allma Temple was invulnerable as well. And it had fallen in a single afternoon.
Luca sighed, plagued by doubts yet again. "I'll be waiting at the city gates." He turned and started out of the room.
"Luca," Selphie said to him in a soft voice. "Are you sure this is what you want?"
He stopped at the doorway.
Of course it's not what I want, he thought, but it's what needs to be done.
Luca made his way down the steps of the Ivory Palace, his head bowed. Try as he might, he could not keep the guilty thoughts out of his mind.
"I should have known... I should have known..."
He had known. He'd known for months, as far back as when they had left Forga. He'd known not to let himself get too close to Emila, and yet he had gone and done it anyway.
But why?
He couldn't be sure. Perhaps it was the tether that had drawn them so close to each other. Perhaps it was simply the time they had spent together. But whatever it was, it was trying its best to hold him in T'Saw; to keep him from leaving Emila.
She would be safer here, he told himself.
Indeed, but that didn't change the fact that he couldn't bring himself to do it.
He looked up, seeing the emptiness of the dimly-lit streets, and he almost thought he could see Emila approaching him like a spectre in white.
No... she was approaching him.
"Luca," she said to him.
"I..." He couldn't find the words. It couldn't actually be her. It couldn't be. It was just an illusion, just a figment of his mind come to haunt and torment him...
But that thought ended as she reached out and placed her hand on his cheek. "You're shaking..." she said. "And so pale... what's wrong?"
"I..." Again, he just couldn't say it. I was going to leave you. Those words were his guilt; his crime against her.
"You weren't at the inn," Emila said. "I saw you slipped off, and I felt guilty for forgetting you. I was going to go look for you, but I guess I had too much to drink. I just woke at the inn, but you still weren't there. I was worried."
"I-I'm okay," he said.
Emila chuckled. "For a second, I though you were leaving me."
And then the guilt hit him like a sack of bricks to the gut. He found himself unable to look her in the eyes. She seemed to notice this, because the smile vanished from her lips, replaced with a worried frown.
"You... you weren't going to leave were you?" The worry in her voice was evident.
"No," he lied, as much to himself as to her. "I... I was just talking with the others. We're leaving tonight, to go to a town called Eccador. We'll meet up with Zaow at the Elder Hall later. I... I just wanted you to get some rest before we left. That's why I went off on my own."
He was digging himself back into the hole. How could he leave Emila now? But the relief in her eyes eased the guilt he felt. The prospect of continuing to travel with her fought away the demons his leaving her was bringing up.
And then he knew just how pathetic he was. He was attached to her, both magickally and emotionally. He should never have kissed her at the inn in Revan. That kiss had been the step he'd never taken, the stage he had never allowed himself to pass. He'd passed it with her, and now he could never go back.
Of course, at that moment, Emila stepped in front of him, put her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.
After a few moments of painful joy, she pulled back. "You're so thoughtful," she said with a smile.
It was like she knew, and was doing everything she could to torment him.
Luca heard footsteps coming from behind him. He turned to see Brand, Selphie, Jared, Wiosna, and Ash coming down the marble stairs. They, of course, immediately noticed that Emila was there, but they they gave no reaction, aside from a few brief starts.
Luca wasn't sure if he was appreciative, or irritated by this.
"I've decided to come as well," Selphie said to him. "I've left a note for my father."
"Will he be alright with that?" Luca asked.
"Likely not," Selphie said. "I doubt he'll let me leave now, after being gone for so long. But either way, I will have to be with him at the Elder Hall. My brother will manage the kingdom in our absence, as he has been doing."
"I see," Luca said. He looked to Ash. "And you? What changed your mind?"
Ash said nothing, but Luca did not fail to catch a brief glance at Selphie.
"We're a team, remember?" Brand said. "You can't break the fellowship, right?"
Luca met Brand's gaze for a moment. There was a look in Brand's eyes that Luca could not quite identify. Resentment? Did Brand hold against him that he was going to leave Emila behind? Nobody was saying anything, but Selphie had to have told them.
It didn't matter in the end, anyway. Luca couldn't bring himself to do it now. Perhaps before, when he had hardened his heart and been ready to leave on his own. But after she had found him, and said exactly the wrong things...
She was smiling. Emila was happy that they were leaving. What had happened to her fear from before? Wasn't Acaria the one place she could not go? She had even told him once that she could not follow him there, back at Allma Temple when he had first tied to leave her...
But it would seem that fate had other plans.
"If Selphie is coming, then we shouldn't waste time," Luca said. "It could cause problems if she is seen."
"Indeed," Selphie said.
So with nothing else to say, they started off. Nobody said anything, and the silence was like torment to Luca's ears. Before long Emila's hand found its way into his own, and he had not the heart to reject it.
His heart was weak. Try as he might to be strong, he keep falling back into his comfortable weaknesses. Emila held his hand as they left T'Saw, and he let her, being guiltily comforted by her warmth.