{-Kaylin-}
She didn’t want to leave, not really. This was something completely new to her, something that she didn’t even think could happen. She knew things were wrong. She knew Rennyn was getting more and more lost in his own head. But she didn’t think it would end up like this. She didn’t really want to leave his side, either—the bond that persisted through entire lives fought against it, remembering times in which he might’ve done the same for her—but she knew she had to. Even if that meant leaving him in the care of the innkeeper’s son who, despite introducing himself to her and vaguely explaining his qualifications, she couldn’t find herself believing.
But someone else needed to keep an eye on the others, be the “elder” among them, and that couldn’t happen if she was locked up inside.
Also, Seldir probably would’ve carried her outside if she didn’t go on her own volition.
“What’s this job for?” she prompted. They’d gathered what they’d need for a day trip, and were currently walking further into the city.
“It’s just a quick job delivering something from one side of the city to the other,” Seldir said. “I talked with the guy earlier this morning, he was going to meet us at the center of the city. He’ll give us the instructions of where we’re supposed to be going from there, then we’ll just meet him back at his house. I was going to keep an eye out for other jobs we could pick up along the way, though. My goal is to keep us out here all day.”
Lyrei nodded. “It keeps us all busy, but it’s also the most productive thing we can do right now. And it gives the time for some pleasant conversation, if everyone’s up to it.”
“I think we’re definitely going to need the distraction…” Noa mumbled.
“Great!” She soon seemed to realize, however, that she didn’t really know where to start. After that silence had already taken too long to be nothing but awkward, she cautiously remarked, “It’s… a little strange how we used to be friends, isn’t it? None of us remember it, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this hard to get a conversation going.”
“Rennyn and Kaylin have gone through literal lives since then, though,” Seldir said. “We’ve probably all changed a bit from the ‘last’ time we met. I feel like it shouldn’t even count, if I’m being honest…”
“There were different circumstances then, too, weren’t there?” Noa asked. “You asked me if I’d ran away when we first met each other, didn’t we? Based on what you remembered happening?”
Lyrei considered it for a moment. “Yeah, there are definitely some differences. We were all younger, too. And I don’t remember Allyna. But I also don’t remember any of Dhymos’s other minions, so there’s at least two reasons why I wouldn’t remember her…”
“This is not the continuation of the original life,” Kaylin mumbled. “It’s a version tainted by what Dhymos was able to do. All of the differences come from that—he’s gained the ability to manipulate it, so he has. The only way to stop all of it is to defeat him before he has the chance to change much more.”
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That was all that she wanted to say. To say more would give them more questions than answers, more reasons to believe this wasn’t going to end well for them. As their “elder,” it was her responsibility to shield them from that… so long as they were perceptive enough to realize when “no” or “not right now” was an acceptable answer.
But of course, in that moment, she failed to remember who her companions were, and just how curious they could be.
“You know a lot about the lives, right?” Lyrei prompted. “At least, more than Rennyn does. About how they work, I mean—what Dhymos’s greater plan was throughout all of it, and what that means for us. It might be a good idea to share, so that we’re all able to help think of a better plan going forward…”
Quite calmly, despite how much she did not want to have this conversation, Kaylin said, “That’s not going to get us anywhere now, though. It’s likely never going to contribute anything useful to what we’re dealing with. At that point, there’s no use talking about it at all.”
Seldir shrugged. “The fact that it has to do with the lives—the whole reason a lot of this is happening in the first place—seems to disagree with that. Just because it’s not good information doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its value. Lyrei’s right—it’s better to have all the options and knowledge laid out for us.”
“Trust me, I know what I’m doing,” Kaylin said. “Even if we can’t always trust Rennyn to know the best thing to do, I do. I’ve had plenty of time to think it over, and I’ve had an undistracted mind for all of it, too.”
“But just because you made the decision, and just because you think it’s for the best, doesn’t mean it actually is,” Noa pointed out. “I think… I think a part of this happened because of the same thing you’re doing right now. We all knew there was a problem. We just didn’t talk about it, or try to do anything to stop it. Rennyn didn’t think he could share whatever was going on in his mind with us, and it’s pretty obvious where that’s led us.”
Kaylin knew that she was taking too long to answer, that she hesitated and considered it far longer than they would’ve wanted. But she also knew that it was her job to protect them, even if they didn’t know what it was from, so she had to be careful in what she said. “I know you might not want to, but I want you to believe what I’m saying. I know when the time will be right, if it ever becomes that important to begin with. Is that enough of an answer?”
She hoped it would be enough, because that was the best she could think of. Anything else brought up more questions than it answered, or would drag this out much longer than it needed to. All she had to do was get them to listen to her, and then maybe they’ll start to understand what she wasn’t telling was for the best.
But the look the three of them shared was clearly enough of a sign that they weren’t going to listen. Luckily, however, whatever silent conversation they held with each other also had a solution. A solution that coincided with what Kaylin had hoped to achieve.
Kind of, anyway.
“Can you at least tell us how you know all this stuff?” Lyrei prompted. “You weren’t in as many of the lives as Rennyn was, right? And you died in a couple of them. But you know far more than he does, and it didn’t even seem like he knew how.”
“Just because he never saw me doesn’t mean I wasn’t there,” was Kaylin’s answer, the simplest she could come up with. “We each had our roles to play—sometimes they were together, sometimes they were separate.”
She stopped, since she was fairly certain they’d gotten close to the center of town. “Seldir, do you know exactly where the commissioner is? Could you lead us to him?”