Their shadows flickered on the wall in the light of torches, sinister in the otherwise motionless space. Maeve stared in silence, her eyes constantly shifting between those three: Mindu, Aluri, and Lyn. The Stormwalker stood behind his wife, a wishful silence cloaking him. The Whisperer’s face drew into a sour mask as though she bit into something repulsive, a silence of reluctance veiling her. Lyn seemed casually bored, leaning at the stone walls, careless about the sharp azure crystals protruding all around her body, silent only because she had nothing to say. Darine sat a few feet apart, legs crossed under her; hers was the silence of stubbornness, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.

‘I see.’ Reynard, arms crossed, kept his distance. ‘We will dig a tunnel beneath the ocean. We will create the biggest jest in history. Those demons will indeed scratch their heads when they find out we vanished into thin air.’

Lyn snorted and turned her head to conceal her grin.

‘Your cynicism doesn’t serve you well, Hunter,’ Mindu said, patient. ‘The Isles are interconnected. Faelin binds each and every one of them. Now, there is a big if, but should we be able to repair the gate, we may step into the caverns underneath Grospan, one that is very similar to this one.’

‘That goes against everything I know about the faelin,’ Maeve whispered. Darine gave a degrading snort but remained silent; Maeve pulled her head to her shoulders.

‘But that’s simply not true, Lady Maeve,’ Mindu turned to her. ‘Bryne bound the faelin into the material world. So why would the idea of a physical vessel be unprecedented? The relics functioned the very same way. Bryne knew that.’ He peeked over his shoulder, at the tall and narrow arch carved into the rugged stone behind of which was a small recess. Maeve could probably squeeze herself in, but she doubted Mindu could have fit there. ‘And even he himself is far from what a God was able to do.’

‘Hold up,’ Reynard stretched his arms, disbelief prevailing his face. ‘We are just not going to throw the names of the Twelve around as though they had actually walked the surface. Right?’

‘Believe what you may, Reynard. These things are beyond you or me. The gate, as you can see, is actually here. It’s old. I’m not talking about hundreds of years old. Older, much, much older. The Veil tore only a couple decades ago. Reborn couldn’t have done this. This is a relic. One from a bygone era.’

‘Damn shame it doesn’t work,’ Darine said, studying some dirt stuck under her nails.

‘I can only hope that you might help with that, Lady Maeve.’ Mindu took a step towards Maeve, ignoring Darine’s bait. ‘We might not want to linger until it comes to punches. I do believe in my men, but dragons and demons that turn the fallen are a threat way beyond any Boar.’

Maeve’s stomach began to fall. She knew the situation was dire. But the Stormwalker had just admitted he thought fleeing to be the only solution…

Her shoulders slumped. ‘I can’t make it. Darine couldn’t, and I’m… I am uncouth and inexperienced.’

She felt uncomfortable under those stares. Aluri, silently judging and giving up on her, Reynard, sympathy in her eyes, Darine, smirking under her breath. Lyn did not even look at her.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Mindu bit his lips and bowed his head. ‘I ask you to consider the matter, Maeve. Nothing else for now.’

‘I promise I will.’ But please do not depend on me. I can’t even take care of myself, the thought of taking care of all of you destroys me. She was wise enough not to vocalise her thoughts. She had already done enough to make herself seen as a useless pile of wretchedness.

‘How much time do we have?’ Reynard asked.

‘That is something beyond our control,’ Mindu looked at Lyn expectantly. The knight raised a bow, to which Mindu patiently asked, ‘Could you please tell us what you saw out there?’

‘I spent a single night outside Tusk Ridge, and I stumbled upon three of their people within the barrier,’ said Lyn, gesturing into Reynard’s direction with her head. ‘What does that make you think?’

Aluri hissed.

‘Talking clever, but we know you saw nothing. Set out again! This time make sure you remember the details.’

Mindu lifted his hands when Lyn straightened, face dark, pushing herself from the wall. ‘It’s for our mutual benefit, Lyn. Please, see what the demons are up to. We are already planning, but my scouts reported some activity on the northern side of the Isles as well. Gods, if I knew Undh’s Cliff was untouched, we could even set sail and be gone from here. But we cannot risk a week-long march to the west with all these civilians for a perhaps.’

‘As if they had a chance surviving here,’ muttered Darine, though her comment was ignored once again.

‘Fine,’ Lyn agreed, already on her way out of the cave. ‘The Royal Reborn comes with me. Keep this redhead bitch away from her from now on. We’ll be back in two days.’

‘We cannot let Lady Maeve—’

‘Watch your—

‘I don’t remember speaking to you, Hunter. And you, you little twat, may speak with me outside at the stone circle. We’ll see how well you’ll sing.’

Maeve blinked as Darine scoffed in fury, seeming reluctant to stand and follow Lyn to the circle. Maeve quickly scooted after Lyn, exchanged an apologetic glance with Reynard, and received an encouraging nod from Mindu. Aluri’s face was unreadable.

She soon closed in on the knight, staying one step behind her. The faint glow of the crystals growing from the walls enclosed the cavern in dim azure light, leaving Maeve wondering of their origins. When she first touched them, she felt the faintest of traces of life, but it was nothing like the faelin.

‘Change into something comfortable,’ Lyn broke the silence between them with her raspy voice. ‘Something in which you can move freely. And quickly.’

‘Erm…’ Maeve looked at her dirt-stained black clothes adorned with the Khryssalans’ bear—the emblem could hardly be recognised as anything but another muddy spot—and her tattered cloak flapping around her knees. She swallowed. ‘This is all I have.’

Lyn flashed her eyes at Maeve’s attire, grimacing.

‘That won’t do. I’ll get you something. Besides, the smell could attract the scum.’

‘The… smell?’ Maeve tentatively smelt her armpit, making sure to do so while the knight was not paying attention. She did not sense any foul smells, though admittedly, the clothes were getting more and more filthy.

‘Pack light. We’ll move fast. Meet me at the square in an hour.’

‘I…’ Gods, she must think I’m some kind of a porcelain doll. ‘I don’t think I need that much time to pack.’

‘Excellent.’ Lyn seemed genuinely surprised. ‘Then you wait until I get us some rations and clothes, then we’ll be off.’

Maeve nodded, throat tight. It had just started to dawn on her what she had agreed to.