Preparing for the road was quicker than I’d expected. The villagers helped us get ready, although that may have just been them trying to get us to leave. I didn’t blame them, since our presence in the town put them in danger.
However, out of a sense of charity or perhaps sympathy, they’d gifted a lot of members of the caravan new clothing.
“It looks good on you.” said Joseph, the villager who had let me sleep in his shed. He was a woodcarver and lumberjack. He reminded me of Elm. He had similar salt and pepper hair, but it was combed back and tied into a bun. I was wearing the clothes of one of his three sons who had all left the nest and moved on to different parts of Corith, including Freiweld.
Instead of a guard outfit, I was now wearing a long sleeved gray tunic covered by a brown vest with heavily worn black buttons. A few patches of cloth covered up tears in the fabric of the vest. On my shoulders was a black cloak which went down to my hips. The inside of the cloak was surprisingly soft and kept in some warmth to protect against the cold. He’d even given me some nice brown pants, new socks, and a belt to wear with the tunic. By the time he handed me a new pair of gloves, I felt pretty spoiled.
It wasn’t the type of thing I’d worn back in Marlisle, but for the first time in five years I didn’t look like a slave or rebel. I looked like a citizen of Corith, although the belt and white lining at the bottom of the tunic gave me the sense I looked a bit like a squire.
“I don’t know how to thank you.” I said breathlessly.
“Thank me by keeping my son alive. He’s still in Freiweld.”
“I promise.” I declared with outward confidence. Inward, I was less hopeful that I could do that. Alex’s words about being realistic with what I could save were constantly hanging over my head.
I should talk with Elm about that.
I stuck that little reminder in my head. I thanked Joseph again and walked out to confer with everyone else, who was throwing things onto carts. Groups had already formed around their leadership now that we had divided up everyone into specific teams.
Elina and Cedric got along rather well and had a fairly easy time picking who they wanted for the mission. Alex, Silva and Jay took the rest, and everything sorted itself. There were a sizable group of noncombatants, but numbers didn’t matter as much as speed in the coming fight.
Everyone had congregated around the strigs and their carriages awaiting me at the edge of the village. I’d not expected to feel nostalgic for strigs, but seeing them was comforting. We could carry more things without burdening people or slowing down our pace.
I could feel Elina glaring at me from the crowd. I ignored it and made my way towards Ruby, Sera and Mell who were huddled together overviewing a map. Both Sera and Ruby had been similarly gifted new clothes by the villagers.
Sera was wearing a blue blouse that was starting to lose its color and a light brown skirt. It’d been cut in a few areas to help with ease of movement, but it otherwise looked like something I’d imagine her wearing back in Marlisle.
Ruby was wearing a white buttoned shirt and black suspenders, which she had shown off with pride. It did look good on her, and she apparently preferred the mobility of pants over a skirt.
Mell was the only one of the trio who didn’t get a new outfit, since none of the villagers had clothing that would fit his size. Luckily, it didn’t seem to affect him much.
“North! We were waiting for you.” Sera called out, waving in my direction. “We’re about ready to move. Want to use the cart?”
“Want to? Yes. Am I going to? No.” I smirked and stood next to Mell.
“How noble of you.” Sera mocked and punched me in the shoulder.
“I’m just more comfortable with walking, now that the wind isn’t constantly at our backs. I need to be more mobile if we want our plan to work. Aren’t you two going to be on scouting duty?”
Mell and Ruby took a quick glance at each other and grinned.
“Mell and I are going to be swapping with Cedric for duty. He’s more experienced than me, but I think I have a longer range.” She said very smugly. I wasn’t one to dampen her ego, so I said nothing. I also wasn’t on the greatest terms with Cedric after he had attempted to murder the man who had been essential to saving the life of myself and so many others.
“Seems everything is good. If we’re ready, let’s get moving.”
----------------------------------------
The start of the trip was smooth. Now that we were actively thinking about the potential threat of an attack on the road, we’d planned around it far better. Only a few of the freed slaves stayed back at the village, all of which were children deemed to be a burden. It was another act of charity I didn’t feel like I could repay.
The response I got from Sera was “Pay them back by being a good king”.
At lunch, I decided to hold a meeting going over our plans with the entire group, making sure that we were caught up. We even had a little section at the end for questions and proposals.
A final note we made sure to give was that of the forest and what to do in case a rule was broken. It was Elm’s idea, not mine to do it. That was mostly because of his solution to the problem of someone committing the unforgivable sin; kill them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
It was a mercy kill, if I was being honest with myself, but it didn’t sit right with me. After that, we walked the rest of the day, conversing with new people. Jay and Deborah seemed to enjoy each other and were almost always side by side whenever I took a look. When we stopped for the night, I decided to focus on one of my own desires.
I’d talked with a lot of people during the first walk, but I hadn’t gotten time to talk specifically with Elm.
Matthias and Elm were sitting together near their own little fire. Elm was listening attentively while Matthias was making wild motions with his hands and explaining things in such complicated jargon that it was hard to tell it was Morathin. I slowly made my way over behind Matthias who didn’t notice my presence. Elm looked up at me. He wasn’t frowning or smiling, but he didn’t look like he hated what was going on.
“Hey Matthias, mind if I talk with Elm for a bit?”
Matthias nearly jumped out of his skin upon hearing my voice, falling forwards onto the dirt and nearly into the fire. He apologized for three different things and moved off to some other place where he could be carefully watched. I took his place near the fire on the pack he’d been using as a seat.
“You got lucky with him. He’s not that bad.” Elm responded casually, looking me directly in the eyes.
“Were you enjoying talking with him?”
Elm shook his head and sighed. “No, it wasn’t that. It was more like nostalgia. I look at him and I recognize a lot of myself when I was starting out. The feeling that you’re at the forefront of humanity’s progress is intoxicating, and Arlin knows it. I see that fervent desire to learn more, to push your research deeper and deeper into the secrets of the chaotic world that surrounds us. That’s how they control people like him.”
“Is that really what you used to believe?”
“It’s what every researcher for Arlin believes. They tell you that our understanding of Sol can only progress with their benevolent hand. It’s part of why I kept making the cuffs for so long. I didn’t want to question what I was doing, because I believed it would hold back the progress of the entire world.”
“Did you still believe that back at the camp?” I warily asked him. Elm didn’t respond, his eyes gazing into the flame. His silent ‘yes’ was heavy in the air.
“Are Arlinian civilians like him?”
“Like him how?”
I took a deep breath. Part of why I’d been keeping Matthias around had been an experiment of sorts, one for myself. I wasn’t a researcher like Elm, which was probably why I hadn’t been able to come to anything conclusive based on it.
“Are they good people?”
Elm sighed again, raising up his gaze from the fire. Even though he wasn’t crying, his blue eyes looked watery.
“I don’t think we have the luxury of being able to decide that at this point. Because when we step foot in Freiweld, regardless of how moral our cause is, we are the enemy of Arlin and its people. And their relationship to their nation isn’t like yours. Separating yourself from Arlin is like severing a limb. It’s painful and it leaves scars that never heal. Arlinian pride isn’t just something you’re taught, it’s something you’re given at birth that is nurtured until it feels as essential to living as your heart. Matthias is just trying to survive and is willing to throw away his nationalism. And judging from what he told me, his relationship with Arlin was shitty at best.” Elm explained breathlessly.
“You didn’t answer my question.” I said back to him.
He sighed and muttered a few curses under his breath.
“Most of them are. They’re like the people in Corith, with the same amount of good and bad. Kid, I know why you’re asking this. You can’t liberate them like how you liberate the people of the camps, because you’ll always be an ‘other’ to them. They will never see you as legitimate because to Arlinians, there is only one true nation in the world. The only way to make them follow you would be to conquer them.”
“Which would make me just as bad as Arlin…” I replied dourly. Elm nodded in confirmation.
This doesn’t feel like something he’d normally do
“You’re better than them. Don’t squander that fact.”
“That wasn’t something you would have said back in Boralis.” I noted. Something had changed in him, although I couldn’t pinpoint what it was specifically.
He shrugged and turned his gaze to the other members of the caravan.
“When I started leading them, I had a realization. I’d been running from tying myself to others because I knew that Arlin would exploit that. If you weren’t planning your revolt, they would have used you to get me to work for Arlin again on making cuffs or helping with one of their new projects. Solomon, that old bag of bones, might have dragged me into the AM project he’d been obsessed with. And you’d be my apprentice, learning the ways of research and helping Arlin push what it believes to be progress. I believe wholeheartedly that with my tutelage, you would have become one of Arlin’s best minds. Your understanding of mana is entirely unique, and you’re a fast learner.”
“Thank you?” I said, confused. The meaning was there, but it didn’t seem like he was going to explain whatever this “AM Project” was.
“Don’t let it get to your head. You’re still a dumbass.”
“Thank you.”
Elm and I both chuckled.
“I was unwilling to lead because I was running from my past mistakes. You’ve given me the chance to correct some of them.”
With those words, the term finally came to mind. Elm had grown. He’d always been the one helping me get better, helping me grow into a better leader and a better mage. I’d never have gotten anywhere without his support, and both of us would have still been slaves. I hadn’t thought as much about how I was affecting him as a person. Being separated from him and forced to face adversity on my own had seemingly given us both the perspective to understand the change.
“Make a promise to me.” I said with a newfound confidence.
“What?”
“I want you to promise not to try and martyr yourself. I’ve already lost one friend that way. I don’t need another.” I raised up my right palm and let pure mana flow out of it. A distinct blue glow emanated off of it, “My mistake led to Weiss’s death. I poisoned him trying to save his life, and he decided his death was more valuable. No matter what, I don’t want you to devalue your own survival for my own. We fight together.”
Elm took a moment before chuckling, shaking his head. “Sure, because I doubt you’ll let me say no.”
I smiled. I was about to lower my hands until I realized that I was still pushing out mana through my palms. I closed my fist and opened back up again. Small flecks of mana flitted off into the air before dissipating. Something about that seemed to catch Elm’s attention, who opened and closed his mouth without saying anything.
“Sir?”
“It’s nothing. Just thought I saw something for a second. You should probably get your rest.” He said before muttering something under his breath. The only word I could make out was ‘Solomon’, but the rest was incoherent.
I walked off and made my way to my bag to unfurl my sleeping gear, and quickly dozed off.