Chapter 48

“…And that’s all I know,” Wallace finished his story.

Something felt wrong to Aris. He trusted everything that the old man had said. He had long ago earned Aris’ trust but along with that trust gained, Aris had learned how to tell when Wallace was holding something back from him.

Aris wondered what it could have been.

Whatever it was, it was important.

Wallace had built a carapace around that truth like a tortoise shell.

Aris dismissed Kestrel and Sephira and watched as they headed down the mountain, Kestrel took Sephira’s hand in his and led her down the steep trail. How was he supposed to feel about that? Kestrel had come to take a special place in his heart, but Sephira was family. Though she had been born to her brother, she was his daughter.

He would always protect her. But could he protect her from her own heart? Did he need to protect her heart from Kestrel?

Those were questions for another time.

Aris turned his eyes from the couple to Wallace who was making ready to descend the mountain on his own. “What are you hiding from me?” he asked.

Wallace’s skin pricked at the sound of Aris’ stern question.

Emperor’s balls.

Aris had picked up that he hadn’t told him everything. The General could see that he was hiding something. He had seen the secret that he’d been too afraid to share with Aris. The one that could shatter his world.

He was going to find out.

“It’s nothing,” Wallace huffed. He knew it wouldn’t do a thing to throw Aris off the scent of the secret, but he could hope.

Aris reached his hand to touch the old soldier’s shoulder. He knew that Wallace wasn’t just going to give away whatever secret he had deemed so perilous that he hadn’t shared it with the group even after keying them into a secret history of genocide.

Just what could be so disastrous? What could be worse than learning that the man whom you’d worshipped as a savior of your nation had in-fact enslaved it? How could any information possibly be worse than that?

Aris needed to know. Whatever secret Wallace was so zealously protecting, he would dig it out and expose it to the light.

Wallace reacted almost violently as Aris’ hand came near to grazing his exposed skin. He raised his hand as if to hit the General.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” He barked harshly. “Don’t you ever try to take memories from me without my permission!”

Aris’ eyes narrowed. That reaction told him whatever it was that Wallace was keeping from him was important. He would have that truth.

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It demanded his knowledge. He needed to know whatever it was that his old commanding officer was hiding from him.

“So then tell me what you’re keeping from me you cursed old dog!” Aris growled in response.

Wallace’s harsh features softened ever so slightly as he spied the look in the General’s eyes.

Aris truly wanted to do what was right. He would take in every bit of information no matter how painful. Aris would take on the whole world and shoulder everyone’s burdens if it meant that he could protect the people and the city that he loved.

That was his problem. This burden would destroy him. It would tear his world apart. Wallace couldn’t do that Aris. Even if it meant that Aris ended up hating him, he would protect this secret. He could bear hatred if it meant protecting Aris from the pain that threatened to overwhelm him.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. Just trust me when I say that it has nothing to do with what we talked about tonight,” Wallace said, raising his hands and slowly backing away from Aris.

“Curse you!” Aris said.

He lunged at Wallace.

The old man’s speed surprised Aris. He’d seen Wallace in the fight against Dumas’ mercenaries, and he’d watched Wallace training the new recruits countless times.

It seemed as if Wallace had been holding back those times.

He dodged Aris with ease.

“I said don’t,” his voice turned to ice.

“You already know I have to know. If I miss even one thing, then everyone I love could be put in danger. I won’t accept that. You’ve hid so much from me. I can trust you with my life, but you’ve proven it’s safer not to trust you with secrets anymore.”

“Emperor’s balls!” Wallace hissed. “I knew you were going to say that. I just wish you wouldn’t have. I’m going to leave now, and you aren’t going to stop me,” he commanded Aris.

“You know I can’t do that,” Aris said.

He’d been sneaking in. Wallace hadn’t seemed to notice that with each word he’d slightly shifted his weight and had scooting within lunging range.

Aris whipped off his cloak that he’d used to keep him from the mountain night’s air and flung it at Wallace’s face. The older man easily sidestepped and Aris nearly missed his tackle, but he’d expected this agility from the old man and at the last second, he planted his foot and shifted sideways to match the evading man and his shoulder drove into Wallace’s stomach. The duo tumbled to the ground in a mess off limbs.

Wallace fought with the ferocity of a cornered Windig, but Aris’ constant years of service and practice beat out Wallace’s more dulled battle senses. Within seconds he’d shifted his weight to take Wallace’s exposed back and sank his forearm underneath the grizzled soldier’s neck.

He didn’t need choke the man. He just needed to keep his skin in contact with Wallace’s as long as it took to locate the hidden memory.

Wallace bucked to escape, but Aris’ years of training in the grappling forms of Falis outmatched the older man’s skill.

Wallace stopped squirming. He gave in to Aris’ control.

His muscles relaxed.

Aris let out a breath of relief and in that exact moment Wallace slammed the side of his meaty fist into the General’s temple.

Aris’ vision swam but he didn’t let go. He tightened his grip. Wallace’s squirming lessoned. He soon went limp. He had really gone unconscious this time.

Aris loosened his grip and began searching through the man’s memories. So skilled was he, that even now, his conscious only beginning to return, his mental walls were nearly impossible to scale.

Aris was assaulted with visions of his comrades falling to the Wendig. He relived the depression that had overwhelmed Wallace after Van’s death. He watched the bodies of countless Memory Mages burning in the streets. He felt the constant beatings Wallace had faced at the hands of his callow-faced mother.

Just how much horror had Wallace seen in his life?

Aris dug deeper. There. He felt the defenses falling. Whatever it was that Wallace was keeping hidden was almost in his reach.

Wallace awoke and started struggling in Aris’ heavy grip. “No! Stop! I’m trying to protect you!”

Aris found it.

He watched Corrine confront Wallace. He recognized that fire in her eyes. Why hadn’t she told him that she’d confronted Wallace?

Aris saw the moment when Corrine’s hand grasped onto Wallace. He immediately recognized the look in Wallace’s eyes. He saw the flood of memories overwhelm the old soldier.

What had he seen?

Aris’ question was answered immediately. “She was Van’s wife,” he heard Wallace mumble as Corrine walked away. “She was his wife.”

Aris threw Wallace off of him.

He vomited.