Haven Lake was one of the few parts of Corith I felt confident in calling beautiful. The sun had started to descend as we gathered around and celebrated.
We’d taken time to mourn those who had been lost, although there weren’t many bodies to collect. Strewn limbs and body parts were hard to identify to one individual. We still planned to give a proper Corithian funeral to those we could find.
The air smelled nice as the breeze wafted down the scent of cooking meat from the camp and right down to the lake. Some of the freed slaves came forward offering their apparent cooking skills, and it appeared they were being put to good use.
General sounds of merriment came from the water as people either relaxed in the shallow parts or went to enjoy a swim farther in. With my pant legs rolled up and my shoes resting back on the shore, I was part of the former group. The water wasn’t as cold as I’d expected it to be for the middle of winter, although I just counted that as another example of Haven Lake living up to its name.
A large portion of those who were going for a swim were also nude as to ensure their clothing didn’t get wet. Being enslaved had stunted my growth in several things, including my “sexual maturity”. That was the phrase Sera had used for it when she tried to explain it to me back when we were still in the mining camp, but most of it went over my head.
My cheeks were burning bright red as I watched the nude swimmers off in the distance, unable to look away. I didn’t know what I was feeling and was terrified that it wasn’t the type of thing I could ask about in good faith.
This feels like one of those things that would ruin people’s image of me if it ever got out.
Sera’s voice saved me from my internal dilemma, calling my attention away from the lake and back to the shore.
“North, I know that you’re trying to be relaxed, but are you sure it's a good idea to just have him here?” Sera inquired, looking at me judgingly from the shore.
Sera pointed over to Matthias who was sitting on the grass looking absolutely terrified. I’d barely given him any attention, letting him do his own thing. Most of the others were ignoring him as they either talked around or in the lake. Sera’s finger must have felt like a burner being pointed at his forehead.
“He’s not a danger to anyone. Last I checked, he was smart enough to figure out that he’s got no choice other than to stick with us. Isn’t that right Matthias?” I craned back my neck to stare at him with a predatory smile, reveling in his cowardice.
“Y-Yes sir!” He stammered.
“And if he does do anything, we’ll just throw him into the forest. As long as he helps out and shares what he knows, it seems kind of pointless to get violent.” I shrugged, watching Matthias be consumed by confused gratitude.
“But he’s an Arlinian.” Sera emphasized.
“So was Elm… and I guess Nicole. He’s basically a civilian.”
“You’re classifying a researcher as a civilian? Isn’t that basically another part of Arlin’s military?”
“Actually,” Matthias warily piped up, “we’re a separate branch of the government. The leader of our military is the grea- er, the well known Emperor Arlin. Our branch is led by the Head Researcher Solomon. Our work is often used by the military, as magore is considered central to Arlin’s expansion, but we do other things as well. After all, not all research is dedicated towards magore in Arlin. We have an extensive department dedicated to agriculture which has a beautiful facility located in Freiweld, for example.”
I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling at his odd explanation.“See? Completely harmless and full of information.”
Sera stopped mid-nod and locked eyes with the lower half of my body, narrowing her gaze.
“Uhh….”
I followed her gaze and felt my heart sink. The pants I’d been wearing were loose, but they’d gotten noticeably tighter. Listening to my naive instincts, I gave up on keeping my pants dry and ran further into the water to hide it.
Sera watched this and laughed uproariously at my shame.
“North, by the flow, you can’t be serious.”
“Shut up!” I yelled back in futility. My red cheeks were lighting up so much I was worried I’d been accidentally using my attunement.
“Please, it isn’t that bad.” Sera said half-heartedly, a mocking grin still plastered on her face.
“Then why are you laughing at me!”
A shadow loomed over me, and I turned to see the duo of Ruby and Mell, with Ruby riding atop his shoulders.
OH FOR FUCKS SAKE!
“What’s going on? I heard you two yelling.” Ruby innocently asked.
“Nothing!” I fruitlessly denied.
“North is just panicking about gett-”
“SERA!” I interrupted, horrified by the thought of this getting any worse than it already was.
She cackled as she fell back onto the grass right next to the terrified Matthias. I groaned in mental pain while Ruby and Mell searched for some sort of sense.
“Are you okay?” Ruby puzzled.
“No, Ruby. I am very much not.” I slowly waded through the water away from them, making my way back onto shore. The pants were soaked, but I’d returned to normal.
“Wonder if Alex could…” I pondered aloud, thinking about how my family would dry clothes sometimes by placing them near our fireplace.
“North, are you about to risk getting your pants set on fire just so you can have them dried off?”
I shrugged. “Maybe?”
My response was met with a towel being thrown directly into my face by Sera.
Did this camp keep towels somewhere? We definitely weren’t carrying any.
“There. Now you can go and dry your pants the normal way, not using someone’s attunement, and not go walking around nude. It’s not like we’re going to find many pairs of pants your size.”
Sera paused, and the two of us slowly shifted over our gaze to Matthias. He froze in place like a cornered animal.
“Arlinian, do you-”
“Yes. Um, they should be in the guard tent along with any other clothing or items you may need from me.” Matthias announced, the fear of death permeating every word.
“Could you lead me to where that is?” I probed
“Yes, of course. Anything to help!”
With a small nudge, Mell walked Ruby near the shore to loom over the terrified Arlinian.
“Did you keep paper with you?”
Matthias pondered the question before giving what seemed to be a reluctant nod. Ruby nearly flew off of Mell’s shoulders to land directly in front of Matthias.
“Get moving. And if you’re lying, I’m taking one of your fingers.”
Matthias gulped and scrambled to his feet. I joined up next to them, still rubbing the towel against my soaked pants.
“Of course.” Matthias began slowly walking, taking occasional horrified looks back at Ruby. He was probably wondering how and why he was very likely to be down a finger within the next few hours if he didn’t fulfill this absurd request.
I made my way up to his side and patted him on the back.
“Good luck.”
“Why are you doing this to me…” whimpered Matthias, the realization that this was going to be the way of things for the foreseeable future fully setting in.
“You’re still an Arlinian, and you did watch all of their suffering without a second thought.” I replied casually.
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“But I didn’t do anything.” He asserted.
I shook my head, hoping this wasn’t going to be the normal response I’d get from people like him.
“That’s kind of the problem. Maybe you could only do something small, but you still had the chance to do something to be better than the rest of the guard here. As far as everyone else sees it, you’re just as bad as the people who did hurt them.” I explained, thinking back on all of the terrible guards we’d met throughout our journey.
“Then why are you keeping me around?”
“Because I’m an idiot. I’ve met Arlinians that were good people, but they weren’t like that at first. So I guess I’m just hoping that you can be good too.” I said. I was being far more honest than I’d initially intended to be with him.
“That’s rather…”
“Naive?”
“Noble. Not too different from what I’ve heard Emperor Arlin espouse, although he’s far more eloquent.” Matthias accidentally insulted me, “When I met him in person, he gave off this feeling that he was specifically looking for people who could become better servants to the Empire’s cause. Makes a lot more sense now why he basically ignored me.”
Elm had called the Emperor ambitious, but also willing to do anything to achieve his goals. While they were different descriptions of the man, with Matthias’s containing far more respect, I could see some of the overlap.
“Do you like the Emperor?” I inquired.
“Of course. He is the great Fourth Emperor. His short tenure has done much for our nation and…” His words droned off as he realized who he was talking to.
“Keep going.” I goaded him on.
“I get the feeling that it would be in my best interests not to?”
I shrugged and continued walking, watching as the other freed slaves were cooking meals or cleaning through the rubble to get supplies. It was a bit of peace after the chaos, where the people could finally breathe and hear their own thoughts.
The smell was intoxicating, and I could scarcely wait for the feast to finally begin.
New pants would need to come first.
----------------------------------------
Whatever the meat that the freed slaves had cooked up, it was tasting absolutely delicious. I couldn’t tell what creature it was, whether it was some of the meat that was stocked up as food or if it was one of the dead animals they found strewn about the place.
Corith might have screwed up how I view food.
Ignoring the intrusive thought, I started to make my way back over to the group of Sera, Ruby and Mell while chomping down on what I believed to be a leg. Ruby was happily counting the sheets of paper she’d liberated. In the middle of the walk I felt a heavy arm land onto my shoulder, forceful holding me in place.
“Are you North?”
I turned to see a man staring down at me. The first thing that stood out to me was his darker skin tone, darker than even Ireborian. That meant he was probably from Uril. His eyes were colorless, the pupils looking like miniature moons. He was around the same height as Marcus was and was similarly skinny, but it looked more like muscle than malnutrition.
“Yes, that’s me.” I answered, wary of his sudden intrusion.
“Good. Come with me for a second.”
I was dragged through the crowd by this stranger until we arrived farther down on the lake. He let go and leaned himself against one of the trees with his arms crossed.
“How’d you get into the mines?”
“Light attunement.” I said flatly. I lifted up my right hand and allowed for the light mana surrounding it to erase it from sight.
The man’s moon-like eyes dilated as he slowly stepped forward and put a finger against the empty space and landed against my palm.
“Heavenly Father… and you can do this to your entire body?” The man gasped. I’d met a few Urilan slaves in the past, and I’d heard them say Heavenly Father or Heavenly Mother as a sort of exclamation, like Corithians and the Flow. Religion was Sera’s strong suit, so I never found any reason to ask.
“It took me a month to get it down, but I can hold full invisibility for around fifteen minutes if I’m focused.” I humbly bragged.
“I see. Yet you still needed to use the flash of light in the mines?”
He must have seen the flash, but not the first guard going down. Maybe he assumed I had a fire attunement before this.
“I did. Sorry if it hurt your eyes.” I preemptively apologized. I hadn’t really held back on the flash, since I knew the guards were wearing the magore protection suits.
“No need. But it feels like a waste.”
“Huh?”
The man pointed at my still invisible hand, which was now resting by my side.
“Blinding places you at far more of a risk. If you are blinding the enemy, they will know your general location. You’re far more dangerous if they have no idea where you are at all.”
“Using invisibility while fighting is something I’ve not been able to do. It splits too much of my focus.” I pushed back. I could feel a slight headache coming on, and when I looked back I could see the stranger eerily smiling.
“It’s a teachable skill. I’ve been using my attunement for the entire conversation.”
I looked around, checking the lake, the dirt, and whether there was a fire anywhere. That was until I noticed that outside of the stranger’s voice, I couldn’t hear anything. The sounds of the celebration nearby were completely muted.
He’s like Ruby!
“Your skills give you the makings of a great assassin.” He opened the bubble and allowed all of the sounds of the forest to finally reach my ears. The headache I was feeling dissipated nearly instantly.
“Who are you?” I finally asked.
“Cedric. I was a member of Uril’s National Unity Security. Although Arlin would likely call me a ‘State-Sponsored Assassin’ or some other derogatory term.”
“Is this some sort of offer to train me?”
I couldn’t help but think about Elm. His mentorship had been forced on me. I wasn’t exactly looking for another person to do the same.
“I was supposed to start training the next young generation of Security agents, but Arlin conquered us before I got the chance. They would have been around your age.” He explained.
“I’m nineteen.”
“Sure.” He remarked, doubting me, “But you’d still be best off learning sooner than later.”
I turned back to the celebrations and could see Sera curiously watching me. I was supposed to formally introduce our group around this time.
“Could we talk about this later? I’ve got to give a speech.”
“Of course. Still, think of my offer.”
I nodded and ran off back around the lake and to Sera, letting her lead me to a makeshift podium that they’d set up. It was just a few wooden boxes, but it would do the job. Sera, Silva, Alex, and all of the people who’d come with me through Corith gathered at the sides of the box.
Conversation slowed as they seemed to realize that I was about to begin talking, with only a few hushed whispers left in the background.
“Freed slaves of Arlin. I am North, a son of Corith. I lived in this land for the first fourteen years of my life. When my town was destroyed, I spent five years being used as a tool for Arlin’s mines. That was until I and the others who stood before you removed our shackles and fought back against the Empire.” I exclaimed to the crowd, before lowering my tone, “We lost many on the way to get here. You surely have heard the stories. We had to spend weeks in the forest of Corith to arrive here, braving deadly creatures one after another. In the end, to destroy Arlin’s forces, my dear comrade Weiss had to sacrifice himself. Many sacrifices were made, and not all by choice. But to honor those sacrifices, we must look to the future and continue forward.”
I took a deep breath, trying to survey reactions. Most looked like they just wanted to get back to their food, which I couldn’t blame them for.
“Arlin is never going to let us go unless we take the fight to them. They deserve freedom, and only with your help can we give it to them. Our work will begin tomorrow. But for tonight, we shall celebrate!” I raised up my fist and was met with a cacophony of expected cheers. Many of the lifted mugs and glasses were filled with wine we’d pillaged from the collapsed supply depot.
“Not bad.” Sera remarked, patting me on the back as I stepped down from the box.
“Could have been better.” I admitted.
“You’ve got time to work on it. What was that Urilan guy asking you about?”
“Wanted to help me with using my attunement for stealth. Train me to be a better assassin. I think he said he was part of the ‘Natural Unity Security’?”
“National Unity Security.” Silva corrected.
“You know about them?”
“A bit. Uril wasn’t like any other countries when it got conquered. I think someone said that everything they did was communal?”
“Correct.” Cedric affirmed.
All of us twisted backwards in shock, completely unaware that he had snuck up behind us.
“Did anyone tell you that it’s rude to eavesdrop?” Silva chided him.
“It didn’t appear like you were trying to have a private conversation out in the open. And yes, we were a communal nation before Arlin. Private land ownership was abolished and everything was given by the state. We were a nation of equals. My job was to maintain that equality and insure the nation remained unified.”
“By killing them?” Sera piped up.
“That's what I did. It wasn’t the whole purpose of Unity Security.”
“Sure.” Silva scoffed.
“As long as you’re willing to help us in our next fight, I don’t have any problems with what you or your nation did.” I cut in through the tension. Cedric had already shown skills that I knew we could use.
“Does that mean you’re going to take my offer for tutelage?”
“We can work on it when we’re on the road. It’s going to take a few weeks to get to Freiweld.”
All heads turned to me expectedly.
“Freiweld? The original plan was to head south to meet up with Elm.” Ruby moved to stand right in front of me.
“That was a plan we made when we had our original numbers. And strigs. We were expecting to have a strong enough force to make a march on the central camp. Time’s not on our side… and Elm’s group might be dead.”
I gritted my teeth saying those last words. I’d ignored the thought as best as possible the entire time because I knew that it would only slow me down. Now that we were here and out of the forest, I could address it.
Unless Arlin’s forces only went after us, that meant that Elm’s forces were at risk. He was a good leader, and that made me believe in his survival, but I couldn’t bet on it. I could only pray, and praying could only take you so far. Seeing the grim looks of everyone around me confirmed they were harboring much of the same thoughts.
“I say tomorrow, we gather as many of the most militarily minded people together and figure out our next steps. That includes you, Cedric.”
He nodded, seeming somewhat intrigued.
“We can’t make the same mistakes as last time. Arlin’s not going to keep underestimating us forever. By the time they learn about this camp’s destruction, I don’t think we’re just going to be another nuisance to them. They can’t ignore us any longer.”