As the silence sets in I think to myself once again that I was afraid of hearing what made Fal what she was. Standing here with her, now, I don't feel that same fear, anymore. Now, I just feel pity. I find myself looking at her. After telling that story, it's hard to see how she feels looking at her face.

“Yrza,” Fal says, looking at me.

“Hm?”

“I was afraid of telling this story.” Now, she looks at her hands. “It's not that what happens in it scares me. I thought to myself, that if no one knew what I went through, it'd be almost like it never happened.”

“I understand it was hard and painful for you, but why would you wish for it not to happen?”

“Let me try to explain it. In the end, I think what happened to me was good. If I hadn't almost died that way, if I hadn't chanced into meeting Eiha, my fate would be different from what it is, now, I'm sure. I think we can both agree that wouldn't exactly be good.”

“Right. We probably wouldn't have even met.” Even worse, she could have ended up dead right then and there. “I think us meeting was a good thing.”

“I'm glad,” Fal says, smiling a little, “but what I meant to say was that I didn't want anyone to know about it because of what I was like, back then.” She sighs. “Yrza?”

“Yeah?”

“You think, when I was a child, that I was pretty weak, right? That I had no power over what was happening?”

Now she gets to the point. Starving, dying, needing to be saved by someone else. I can see why it would bother her to share that. “It couldn't have been helped, but yeah, you were weak.”

“I'm glad you were honest, at least,” she says, with a chuckle. Maybe I was a bit too blunt. “So, Yrza, after hearing that story, do you think I look any weaker, now?”

“Why would being weak before make you any weaker right now?” I shrug. “If you ask me, you're overthinking it.”

“Hmm... let me tell you something else, Yrza.” She looks up at the sky. “Understand that I have a great deal of respect for Lady Eiha. Surely, you saw that yourself when I brought you to her. However, I've also come to know her very well, and gotten to see many of her weaknesses.”

Hm. I wonder, where is she going with this? “Weaknesses? I don't follow you.”

“So, Yrza, I think you might laugh at this. For example, Eiha still likes men, even though we shouldn't really be hanging around other people and attracting attention because of the whole Dark Rune Master thing.” Looking down, Fal pinches the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “One of the reasons she keeps herself looking so young is because she likes how it feels to have their eyes on her.”

There's a lot more I could have taken from what she was saying, but... “...is this your way of saying you don't like men?”

“I think we can worry about that later,” Fal says, not even missing a beat.

“But--”

“Moving on...”

“Alright, alright,” I say, with a sigh.

“Seriously, it's caused us more trouble than you might think. Isn't it weird? Grandall made sure he looked strong in front of you, didn't he? Did you get to see his imperfections so clearly?”

“Grandall did always seem great, like there was nothing he couldn't do, but because of that I got to see how human he was only as he was dying, and it came as a terrible shock.”

Fal averts her eyes once again. Maybe that wasn't the answer she expected. “I'm sorry.”

“It's alright, don't worry.” I look out at the river again. “Maybe it's because she trusted you that she showed you all of that.”

“What I saw, though, brought her down to our level. It made me realize that Lady Eiha, the Dark Witch of the Imperial Four, was just a silly mortal like the rest of us. I saw that, and realized I didn't want it for myself.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“You wanted to look perfect, with no one seeing through it?”

“That's one way to put it. Like Eiha said, we would basically be the things people feared, we'd be freaks. I often thought about how someone could show up and hurt us, and because of that, to protect the happiness I found, I wanted to be, and look strong. If I was going to be a freak, I wanted to be a freak nobody was going to mess with.”

“Oh, I see. I get it, now.” I look at Fal. “That said, it's not as if you look like some kind of monster, or anything, just a bit odd because of the runes, grey hair and all.” Grey hair that I assume she has because of Eiha's power. “At first, Dark Rune Complexes aside, I didn't think you seemed scary at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

“Yrza, what are you trying to say?”

Suddenly, I become aware of what I may have implied by saying that. “I-I'm just saying, at first glance you don't look like any sort of scary freak or anything.”

“You're flirting with me,” Fal says, laughing. “Do I have to tell Maria on you?”

“What!? What are you--”

“Really, what is it with you two? Are you honestly just traveling together because it's convenient, or is there something else going on?” Fal doesn't say it out loud, but her smirk tells me exactly what she means.

“I... I think you might be looking too deep into it,” I say, knowing I'm being a bit dishonest, but wanting to steer her away from this, anyway.

She laughs even louder, now. “I'm just joking. Don't worry.”

“For the love of all that's good in the world...”

“Just wanted to tease you a little. Maybe it was a bit mean.”

After that, we go back to looking out at the moving world once more.

“Well, I have to admit, Yrza, you might be right when you said she showed me all of herself because she trusted me,” Fal says.

“Maybe you took a little of that 'weight' off of her,” I say, smiling.

“Maybe so.” Fal returns my smile. “Showing myself to you made my load a bit lighter.”

“I'm glad.”

Fal stretches. “Well, we probably won't reach the Old Capital for quite a while. I think I might go to bed right now.”

“I probably should soon, myself.”

“Alright, then.” She turns and starts walking away, down into the ship, toward our quarters. “Yrza.”

“Yeah?”

“Really, thanks for listening.”

I smile again. “What are friends for?”

Fal smiles back, and retreats inside.

As for me, I decide to look at the star-filled sky just a bit longer before following her.

“Yrza. Yrza, wake up.”

The next morning, I open my eyes to Maria hovering over me.

“Maria? What's up?” I sit up in the bed, a lower bunk, directly under her's.

“We're almost there. The Old Capital is coming into view.”

Without saying anything else, I get out of bed and gather our things. While I was doing this, I notice a few bags are missing.

“Fal is already up and about. She's helping to carry some of our stuff.” Maria giggles. “Wasn't that nice of her?”

“Make sure you let her know I'm thankful, okay?” After smiling at her and waving her away, I pick up the other bags. Eventually, I make it to the small “stable” they have here, as well. “Come on, Kobo, let's get going.” After getting the worker here to open the gate, I snap three times, and Kobo walks to my side.

“Wow, Yrza, look!” I can hear Maria shouting excitedly as I make way to the outside. “It's coming along nicely, don't you think?” When I'm finally out there, she's pointing toward the Old Capital. I finally get to see it.

“Whoa.”

Indeed, even from this distance, I can tell. In the five years since I've been here, so much work has gone into rebuilding the city. A far cry from the ruins in my memories.

“Alright, we'll be landing soon,” the captain, who is also here, says. “I hope you've been satisfied with the service, young ones.”

“Very much so,” I say, turning to face him. “How much do we owe you?”

“Oh, the church funds all of this, boy,” says the captain, putting his hand up as I reach for my pouch. “We don't charge our travelers.”

“Well, I'll be giving the church a generous donation when I go back there,” I say, moving my hands back to where they were. “I'm really thankful for all of this.”

“Hope to see you again, lad.” With that, he goes to help the sailors, conducting the landing.

“We're finally here.” With the ship having landed, I step onto the dock. Maria, Fal, and the speedscales are close behind.

“It's even nicer up close,” Maria says, still admiring the city. “Well, let's get going.”

“It probably wouldn't hurt if we stuck together a bit longer,” Fal says, also looking at the city, but seeming more focused on how big it is, and how easy it could be to get lost in. “Let's go.”

“Yeah.” I nod. Finally, we go walking into the Old Capital.