Getting down the mountain was much easier than last time. The ice prosthetic worked wonders, better than I thought it would. I’d expected it to break apart halfway down, but it held up strong even as I made my way toward the city gates. It was taxing to hold it together for so long, and my Soul was starting to feel how it felt after I’d killed the mathear’s, but I was still proud of myself for figuring out such a powerful fix for my leg.
“I guess he was right,” I muttered under my breath.
When I got a short distance from the gate, I was met with an unfamiliar view. I had walked through these large wooden doors many times when coming home after hunting with my father, so it was disturbing to see them, as well as the wall that they were framed in, completely gone. All that was left was some rubble and a giant hole in Dousin’s outer wall. I could see some people working on it already, trying to fix the breach. Some men were laying bricks and stone, others were examining plans on some kind of scroll, and a few barked orders. The only two people that noticed me, though, were the guards stationed out front.
“Who’s there!” one of them yelled, reaching for the sword at his side.
“I– I mean no harm! I just–”
“Sean!” the other guard yelled.
He ran over to me, placing his hands on my shoulder and looking me over. I didn’t recognize him at all, and was startled by his sudden approach.
“I’m– I’m sorry, but who are you?” I asked him.
“Ah, sorry,” he said, still inspecting me for wounds, “I knew your pop. He talked about you a lot, and I’ve seen you come through the gates with him before. Name’s Cormac.”
“Oh. I didn’t recognize you as one of the gate guards.”
“So’kay boy. You’ve got plenty of other things on your mind anyway. Wait, what’s this?” His eyes drifted down to my leg.
I shifted my gait, putting my ice covered leg behind the other one. “It’s just a small bruise. I’m fine, really. I just want to get home now.”
He stood, finished checking me for wounds, then stared at me with a puzzled look. “What happened to you that you're out here anyways? It’s not safe.”
“I…” I paused, trying to come up with a story on the fly. “I was out in the market with my mother when the attack started, and we got separated. A sairla started chasing me, so I ran into the woods. I’ve been hiding out there since. I’m… I’m very tired, and scared. I’d just like to go home.” I gave him my best ‘scared child’ face.
A warm smile came over Cormac’s face. “Father’s are really something. With the way Aaron described you, I would have expected the sairla, hell, even a mathear, to run away from you instead. Bastard made me wish to have a son like that.”
My chest hurt at Cormac’s words, like he was pushing a dagger into an already open wound, but I also began to smile. In that small, insignificant instance, I had exceeded my father’s expectations of me. Still, the smile felt wrong.
“Come. I’m sure your mother’s extremely worried about you. Let’s get you home.”
Cormac led me through the ‘gate,’ then handed me off to another guard to escort me home so he could get back to gate duty. This new guard was quiet, unlike Cormac, and didn’t say a word as we winded through the streets of Dousin towards Baird’s home. As I walked up to the door, the guard let out a cough. “I’m sorry, about Aar– er… your father. He was a good man.”
I stopped, then nodded to him. He waited for me to enter the house before he left.
Glass shattered as I stepped into the home. A cup had fallen to the ground at my mother’s feet. She was staring wide eyed at me, the blue ocean’s they contained surrounded by sore red skin from crying. Her lip quivered, like she was trying to say something, but all that came out was a mumble. Tears streamed down her face in droves. She jumped up from her seat at the dinner table and ran towards me, wrapping me up in a tight squeeze as she wailed.
We sat on the floor in front of the door for a long time, embracing one another. I realized it was the first hug I’d shared with her in a long time. I hadn’t since I’d first saved Winter from a mathear, and that was months ago, long before everything that had happened. So, I relished in the feeling, wrapping my arms around my mother, letting her know that I was alright, and that I was still here.
“You stupid, stupid boy!” she yelled through her cries, pounding against my chest, but not releasing me from the hug. She was right. I was stupid. I had done so many stupid things, and worse, I planned on doing more.
“I’m okay, mother. I’m okay now,” I said.
*****
“Damn Bind Fiends,” Baird muttered.
I had just finished telling him, Ailisa, and my mother what had happened after I left the house when he said that and slammed his fist against the wall he was leaning on. I hadn’t told them what actually happened, instead opting to give them a similar story to the one I told the gate guard. When mother finally finished crying she had scolded me for leaving the house rather harshly. She had been safe with Baird and many other people, so there was no reason to go out looking for her. I felt a bit guilty, knowing that it wasn’t actually my objective to go out and save her, but I held my tongue.
“Baird, it's not their fault. I heard that it was a little girl, the orphan out in the woods, this time.”
Baird’s anger dulled at Ailisa's words, but then swelled a moment later. “It’s sad, yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is the second Bind Fiend in ten years! And this one caused so much damage!”
“She was a child!” Ailisa was angry now, “Children don’t know better! They had no one to teach them, and she was left all alone! If I… I could have…” her speech trailed off, then she ran to her bedroom, crying.
Baird sighed, then turned to me and my mother. We were seated next to each other at the dining table, Mother not letting me out of arm’s reach from her. “Sorry about that, Cori. I didn’t mean too… I didn’t want to mess up your last day with us, though I suppose it was already too late for that even before I spoke. I should… go apologize to her.” Baird went after Ailisa, leaving me and my mother alone.
We sat in silence for a short time, my mother clearly happy that I had come out of my room after so long, even though it was during one of the most dangerous times I could have. When I’d explained the ice prosthetic spell to her, it looked like she was going to begin bawling all over again, but she composed herself.
“Come,’ she started, breaking the peaceful quiet, “We have to get everything ready. We’re leaving tomorrow at mid-day.”
My head whipped around so fast I almost smacked her in the face with my nose. “Tomorrow!?” I exclaimed.
I knew she was planning to have us leave Dousin. It was the reason she was gone from the house yesterday, and was a major part of my plan for Isla. No, it was more than that. It was the plan. However, I thought that I would have a lot more time to prepare, and a lot more time to convince Mother of what I wanted to do. Now, I only had a day to do it?
“Yes. You remember Rhys, right? The nice merchant that brought us to Dousin. Well, he doesn’t plan on staying here for very long anymore. Not after the attack. He wants to leave as soon as possible. We’re to meet him tomorrow at the front gates.”
“Tomorrow, “ I mumbled in frustration.
She led me up the stairs and to my room, watching me as I entered. “We have to leave, Sean. You can’t… you can’t stay in that room anymore.”
I turned around to meet her eyes. She looked worried, and she kept fidgeting as I walked. “I know, mother. I’ll be out of the room soon.”
That seemed to comfort her, at least a little, and her familiar smile appeared on her face, which reminded me that I hadn’t seen it in so long. She walked away, and I began packing all of my things into my bag. There wasn’t much to put in there. I carried most of my stuff with me, the only thing I didn’t have room for in my backpack were a few clothes. Everything important, my bow, waterskins, Nayu’s scale, and cane, were always carried around with me. So it didn’t take long for the room I had spent the last several years living in to return looking like it had been before we came to Dousin. Things seemed to change so quickly.
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I walked out of my room on my cane, the ice prosthetic having melted while I was packing, and made my way over to Mother’s room. My heartbeat began to quicken the closer I got, and I tried to wipe my hand against the side of my pants. I turned to look into my parent’s bedroom, terrified at what I might see inside. Clothes were all over the place, some thrown into a bag and others just laying on the floor. Mother was laying on the bed, her arm over her eyes, crying.
I looked down to my feet, not sure what to do. I took a heavy breath, then walked over and sat on the side of the bed. “We have to leave tomorrow, Mother,” I said softly.
She moved her arm away and looked up at me, tears still in her eyes. “I know, little bird. I know. Can you… help me? This is harder than I thought.”
She looked exhausted. She was already pale and had bags under her eyes when I’d gotten home, but she looked much worse than she had after only an hour apart. It made me want to cry, seeing her like this, but I held back my tears. I had to be strong, like he was. Like Sean should be. “I can,” I responded.
Another hour passed, and very little progress was made. She wasn't only trying to pack her things, but father’s things as well. It was a struggle to get her to decide what was needed and what was not. I sighed, knowing that there was going to be no better time to do this. I was just postponing the inevitable. I worked up the courage, and spoke. “Mother, can we talk for a second?”
She looked up from Father’s bow, which she was cradling in her arms, and towards me. “What’s wrong, Sean?”
“Nothing, it’s just… Do you remember the orphan girl in the woods? The one Father always talked about?”
Her face turned sour. “I… do. It was something he mentioned often. It’s a shame, what happened to her. I don’t know much about Bind Fiends, but what I do isn’t pleasant. He would’ve been upset if… if he were still here.”
“What if I told you we could still help her?”
She smiled, “I would be happy, Sean, but you can’t save someone who isn’t alive anymore. Believe me, I’ve wanted to.”
That's all I needed to hear. “She is alive, Mother.”
She looked up from the bow, “Honey, no she isn’t. I’m sorry, but that’s how Bind Fiends–”
“I saved her. I went into the woods and up the mountains, and I saved her. She almost died, but I stopped it. I hid her up there. She’s all alone and has no one, and she can’t come back to Dousin or the guards might kill her. She needs us to help her.”
She stared at me, her eyes growing wider and wider as I spoke. “You’re… you’re serious?”
“I am. Someone had to save her. I needed to save her.”
She stood up from her chair and walked over to the door, leaning against it. It was too much to put on her shoulders, I knew. She already had so much to deal with, and now I was adding to her burden. It was selfish of me, but I had to help Isla. It was what he would have wanted.
“I want her to come with us, Mother,” I said.
She looked up at me, confused, “Wha–what?”
I chose my words carefully, trying to use whatever I could to convince her. It felt wrong, but I had to do it. “She’s alone on that mountain. She has nothing, but that’s not right. I know it’s not right. Everyone should have a family, including her.”
A shocked expression appeared on her face, and I could see her fighting back tears. She bent over and grabbed her stomach, sobbing so hard wet spots began appearing on the wooden floors underneath her face. I walked over to her, wrapping her in my arms as she cried. We stood again after she began collecting herself, and I realized for the first time that I was taller than her. It had been like that for a while, but I had never really noticed it until now. She looked up at me, a small smile on her lips.
“I’m okay, little bird,” she said. “Though I suppose I shouldn’t call you that anymore.”
I smiled back at her. “No, it’s fine. I like it. Why do you call me that anyways?”
She let me go and walked over to the bow she had dropped on the floor and picked it up. “It was something one of my parents' housemaids always used to call me when I was little. She was in charge of taking care of me, and I made it rather difficult for her. I was always trying to get away, running so that I could spread my wings outside of our home. Most of the time I was caught, though. When you were born I just started calling you it.”
“Oh,” I started to chuckle, “You must have been a handful as a child.”
“I was, just like you are,” she laughed. “I suppose I gave you that nickname for another reason, though. I think I wanted you to take it, and use it to gain the courage to go outside. Like the name would give you wings, or something.”
“It would’ve been nice if the name did.”
She looked up at me, “What do you mean? It did. At least, that’s what I’d like to think. When we came to Dousin, you were always out of the house, running around and getting lost. I was worried that you were turning into me, and in many ways you acted just like I had when I was young.”
“Was I really that bad?” I asked.
“Worse. Much worse. However, I know now that we're different. When I was running, it was always away from something, like my responsibilities or the mean housemaids that would make me study. You were always running towards something, whether it was magic, friends, training, or saving someone’s life, exactly like your father.”
“I–” I choked on the air in my throat, “I’m just like him?”
“You are, Little Bird. I guess all the Brynor’s are the same.”
I tried to hold in my tears as best I could, but a few escaped.
“Sean,” my mother said, walking over with Father’s bow and placing it in my hands, “He would be very proud of you.”
I fell apart, my legs giving out and my body falling into her arms. I had cried over my father’s death so many times that it'd be impossible to count, but her words had ripped through all the bandages I tried to put on the wound. As I layed there, crying into my mother’s arms, my hand started to feel a little less wet.
“She can come with,” I heard her say through my sobs.
I looked up at her, and saw that she was crying too. “She– she can?” I asked through muffled breaths.
“Your father would have never let me refuse.”
*****
“Your twin sister?” Isla asked as I layed out the details for her.
“If we’re about to fight over who gets to be the older sibling, then you win, because I really don’t care.” She was frantically putting on the clothes I had brought her from Dousin, her teeth chattering and body shivering every second. “How did you survive the winter like that?”
“It wasn’t easy,” she said, pulling the large coat around her body and wrapping it tight.
I sighed, hoping she would give me more details in the future. Learning how to survive harsh winters could be useful, even though Mother said it never snowed in the Marble City. “My grandparents haven’t seen my mother since she was pregnant, nor have they ever met me, so it’s a fairly easy lie to get away with. The only problem is the man transporting us, but a few extra coins always buys a merchant’s mouth.”
Isla stared at me with guarded eyes. “I get that Dousin is dangerous for me to stay around, but I don’t understand why you can’t just drop me off around this new city. I’m fine living on my own.”
“I wouldn’t… recommend that,” Nayu rumbled in our heads. “Your Soul is still unstable. While I think it unlikely, there is the possibility that you will become a Bind Fiend again. It’s important that you stay around Sean, at least for a little while.”
Isla blinked, then, without any other arguments, said, “Fine.”
It hurt a little that she trusted a wall of scales more than me, especially since I was the one that introduced said wall to her, but I let it be. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to gain her trust, and I didn’t want to force that on her. “Alright then, we should get going if we want to meet up with the caravan in time.”
“Be safe, Sean.” Nayu said.
I walked over to the giant beast, Isla right behind me, and placed my hand on one of his scales. It was as solid as a rock, and I could feel the power running through it. “I will, Nayu. Thank you for everything. I hate that we didn’t get to talk together more.”
“I feel the same, though… We never know what the future may hold. May we meet again.”
I kept my hand on the beast for a few more seconds, then started walking away. Behind me, I heard Isla speak softly, “Goodbye, Nayu.”
“Goodbye, Isla,” he responded, “Remember, do those exercises daily for a year, and your Soul should be just fine.”
I turned back around, staring the great beast right in the eye. “What exercises?” I asked.
“Ah. A sort of… concentration exercise. One that helps a mage gain more control over their Souls.”
“I see. Maybe you could… I don’t know… show me before we go?”
“You will be late, Sean. Have Isla show you sometime else. Now, go.”
I sighed, and started heading up and out of the cave. We made it to the bottom of the mountain just before noon. I hid Isla near the road about one hundred meters away from Dousin’s gate. Mother should have already told Rhys that we would be picking her up around here, so I told her that the caravan would arrive soon, and started down the path towards Dousin. I could see the wagons inside the city through the broken gate as I walked up to it.
Baird was the first to greet me as I walked in. He placed a hand on my shoulder, “Look after your mother for me, alright? And be careful in that crazy city.”
“I will Baird.”
He pulled me into a hug, and I returned the favor. “I love you, Sean. Come back and visit sometime, okay?”
I nodded, then turned to Ailisa. She gave me a hug, a few parting words, then said goodbye. Soon after, me and my mother loaded up into one of the caravan’s wagons, and Rhys had his lisyfe’s start moving.
As we made our way out of the city, I noticed a little girl running out of the crowd in the destroyed market. It was Lennox. Her face was a mess of tears and snot, and her clothes looked dirty and ragged. I hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye to her or Hector. There just wasn’t enough time with us leaving so quickly. I waved to her, yelling, “Goodbye!” then watched as the city I’d lived in for so long slowly drifted into the distance.