{-Rennyn-}

“This is the first one we came across,” Rennyn announced.

To him, it didn’t seem to be in any better condition than what they’d left it in; as far as he could tell, it hadn’t been repaired. He would hazard the guess that no one even came over here to attempt to fix it. But Vaeri looked at it with an unreadable expression, studying every part of it, so he guessed that he was ultimately wrong.

“Thank you for showing me this,” she said, though it was more of a mumble. She turned to the others. “Could I ask that the four of you try to keep an eye out for Dhymos’s minions? I believe they might try to stop us, if they realize that we’re here. I don’t want us to be caught unprepared.”

They all nodded, even if it clearly wasn’t without a couple of questions.

Vaeri then looked at Rennyn. “I’d like you to help me. I’m going to need a second hand and I think you’re the better person to do it.”

“Why?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking. “Trust me, I might’ve lived fourteen other lives, but I’m not really familiar with this kind of stuff. Kaylin knows more about it than I do—she’ll probably be able to help more.”

“I thought of one more question to ask you.”

“Can’t you just ask me that here?”

“I’d like to keep it between the two of us.”

“You know that just makes it sound suspicious, right?”

In fact, if he’d been in a slightly more paranoid state of mind, he might’ve denied the offer entirely. Nothing ever came from someone asking to talk in private like that. But… despite the conflicting evidence, he felt like he could trust Vaeri. Like he’d trusted her before and nothing bad came out of it, so it was alright to do the same now… even if he didn’t know when that “other time” had been.

“Apologies, I just thought that perhaps you’d like to keep the answer to yourself.” Vaeri continued on with what they were supposed to be doing, walking close to where the ritual’s markings were. “I was… working towards this question before, actually. I just thought I’d keep it to myself for a little bit longer—you’d seemed distressed after a little bit. I thought I might get a more honest, and more complete, answer if I were to ask in private… if no one else had to see you falter.”

“I’m not faltering.” Yet he hesitated just admitting that.

She didn’t even waste the time in pointing it out. “You’re… Songbird, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Why didn’t you think I’d tell you that? Pretty much everyone related to Dhymos knows that, I think. No point in hiding it.”

“You got nervous after I asked about seeing Dhymos. I thought there might have been more serious connections between the two of you.” As she talked, she started working, making a vague gesture that he took to mean he should follow her. He understood none of what she was doing, but maybe he didn’t have to—she didn’t yell at him for doing something wrong, at least.

“He almost tried to kill me, and succeeded in killing a few versions of Kaylin and some allies.” He didn’t want to call them friends; putting distance between him and them made it hurt a little less… made the images, and the voices, less distinct. “Do you think that counts as more or less of a ‘serious connection?’”

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“I thought that… maybe you were a bit more like me.”

“Like you?”

She gave a grim nod. “Someone who fell for his tricks once, then forever used as his toy.” She didn’t let the thought sink in, shrugging instead. “But it seems you were never close to him—at least, not personally. Your fear comes from repetitive exposure. Am I right about that?”

“I’m not afraid.”

“I’ve seen many things in my years, child. I know what it looks like when someone’s hiding their feelings—when they’ve seen things that no one should ever have to. You can admit to being scared—you can admit to being broken. I, of all people, will understand what that feels like… how time can wear down on a person.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied. He knew full well what she was saying and what it implied.

And she knew that just as well as he did, so she chose a different tactic. “I’m a little envious of you, you know.”

“You’re the queen of an entire nation—able to get anything you want just by asking for it. Everyone trusts you and would do whatever you want, no matter what that was. You could probably have an entire council rule for you so you can do nothing but relax all day and no one would stop you. I’m just a merchant’s kid from some small town in the middle of nowhere. The only thing of note I did was draw the short end of the stick of fate and got myself into living fifteen lives of being the damn hero. What is there to be envious of, again?”

She gestured past him, to where the others were. “You have them—you have friends and allies who, I hope, you know you can rely on.”

“One practical fighter and three others who are practically perfect targets for Dhymos, maybe…”

“So, do you not rely on them?”

“I know I can trust them. But I can’t expect them to do anything—they don’t know the kinds of things that I do. I’m afraid that getting them involved is only going to get them hurt.”

“I don’t think they’re as defenseless as you seem to think they are. At least, not once you give them a chance.”

He might’ve given some other form of protest—point out that, ultimately, it didn’t matter how good they were as long as Dhymos could use them against him. But it was interrupted by a call from Kaylin.

“I think we’re going to have a visitor.”

Rennyn looked up and followed her gaze to where Viragi was—and there was no denying that he was heading straight for them. Rennyn got up and drew his sword. “Queen Vaeri, I want you to stay out of the way. He’s probably going to try to attack you.”

“If his orders were to kill, then he’d have done it already,” she said calmly. She slowly stood up and brushed the dirt off her dress. Louder, she said, “It’s been a while, Viragi. When I first heard you were out here, I’d thought it was someone else. I hadn’t pinned you as one to follow someone to the grave.”

Viragi didn’t seem fazed by her comment at all. “What happened to you, though, little Vaeri? You’re looking a little worse for wear.” He laughed. “I might be following Dhymos to the grave, but at least I haven’t already dug myself into it!”

Then Lyrei looked between the two of them and asked, “Do you know each other?”

“I suppose you could say that,” Vaeri said. “There was once a common link between the two of us. But it seems that one has pulled away, and the other’s clung closer, to a conclusion that would never happen.”

“Ah, but I’d like to remind you who seems to have made the right decision,” Viragi returned.

She shook her head. “There’s a reason you’re here. Is it just to stop us? Or did Dhymos decide to waste all of our time?”

He smirked and, with a flick of a hand, pulled some earth up from the ground. “I saw an opportunity. After all, we’re… old friends, aren’t we? Why don’t we spend some time catching up?” With a gesture, earth shot out in front of everyone but Rennyn and Vaeri, keeping them from immediately stepping forward.

Casually, Viragi strolled over to them until he was only an arm’s reach from Vaeri. “Why don’t we have a dance—just us two old crows?”