Chapter 07

Words That Bind

Time passed quietly. Noah was absorbed in his book, while Eyolian was lost in her thoughts. Noah didn't try to start a conversation with her; he wanted to give her enough time to consider his offer.

And it seemed she didn’t need much time to think, though. Despite stating she'd give her response later in the day, she provided her answer sooner than Noah expected.

"I can accept both your request and your offer," Eyolian said suddenly, catching Noah's attention. "But I have one condition that you must agree to. If you decide to refuse, as you said yourself, there will be no consequences for either of us."

This was somewhat concerning, but Noah remained calm and asked, "What is your condition?"

"I need your help in advance," Eyolian stated shamelessly. "If you're afraid I'll deceive you or something, you can suggest a compromise, but if I don't get your help first, I won’t help you with your request."

Noah didn’t think long before giving his answer, "I agree to your condition. As I said, I need to know what kind of help you need to understand if it’s something I can actually do..."

"You can do it," Eyolian interrupted him mid-sentence. "It's not something that difficult."

Noah frowned at that, and inquired, "If the help you need is of little value, it diminishes the value of my own request. If i awaken, I want my knowledge to be complete. I can't accept just a bit or..."

"Don't worry about that," she interrupted again. "I will teach you everything I know; I won't withhold anything from you. Forget about the value-for-price nonsense you keep mentioning. If you decide to help me, I'll teach you and cover any gaps in your knowledge."

Noah nodded, feeling confused but agreeing. "Alright, I agree. Will you tell me now what help you need?"

"Not now," Eyolian replied bluntly. "I will tell you on the third day of the festival."

If this wasn't suspicious, Noah didn't know what was. He decided to ask to stay on the safe side. "Will the result of this help you need affect my request, or me in general, if things don't go according to your plan?"

Eyolian looked at him incredulously. "Why do you think it's something extreme? You don't even know what I need help with." Noah didn't respond to her protest, so she added with resignation, "It could go very badly for both of us."

Noah sighed quietly - great, just what he needed right now.

Eyolian couldn’t handle the silence and remarked, "I am not forcing you into anything; you can walk away now, no consequences..."

Noah interrupted her, saying somewhat sadly, "It's not that I'm unfamiliar with taking risks. Even talking to you like this or back in the changing room was a risk in itself. But I only take risks when I see a path to the other side. So I will give you my final answer on the third day of the festival."

Eyolian nodded, not seeming too upset by his answer. If anything, she looked confident. This gave Noah a mix of courage and apprehension. As he was deep in his thoughts, Eyolian decided to continue the conversation, but on a different topic. "Did you really meant what you said?," she asked, noticing his confused expression. She clarified, "About the book, what you said this morning."

That - Noah didn’t understand why she would ask about that, but he decided to answer. "There is a lot of uncertainty about the war between the Empire and the Kingdom of Astrolis. I don't know the full story, like everyone else. So the primary source of information I rely on is the book, written by the victor, of course. I can usually distinguish between truth and lies from any literary source. But this book, it has been edited so much that I can't see the truth if there is any. But I can spot the lies. Essentially, this book is a big lie in itself. The fact that soldiers were forbidden from talking about the war tells you a lot."

Noah hesitated slightly and added uncertainly, "In truth, I think the only purpose of this book is to obscure the facts. It's just a feeling, and I could be wrong."

Eyolian's curiosity was evident on her face. She leaned forward and asked, "Obscure the facts, you say? Everyone has their own speculations, but this is a new one for me, the first time I hear it from such sources... Why do you think that?"

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Noah realized this topic held more significance for Eyolian than she let on. So he began a detailed explanation of his view on the matter. "The war started, as described in the book 'Glory and Wound,' with the prophecy of the Astrolis seers, saying that the Empire would fall. Of course, the Empire did nothing to keep this knowledge hidden even if it was true. This raises the first question: why would the Empire do something that wouldn’t benefit their political stance? They claimed it was transparency towards their people, but I think they just wanted a reason for war. They always wanted a piece of Astrolis' knowledge but with little success.

Then, rumors started spreading rapidly. 'The wicked seers manipulated the knowledge they spread, this is a rebellion against our homeland, they want to bring down our Empire...' The voice of reason simply vanished. Even the fact that the Astrolis Kingdom never published any knowledge about the future in its long history was ignored. As my mother says, ~everyone looks for a good story to tell.~ From there, the rumors escalated without any sign of stopping. The Empire exploited the silence of the Kingdom and pointed that fact to the public. Some of these rumors, surprisingly, still circulate even after the war ended, if it really ended. 'The Empire is in great danger from an unknown source. No, it’s the neighboring powers. No, it’s internal factions plotting a coup working with the kingdom’s wicked seers...' Some believe all this news was manipulated by the neighboring kingdom to sow division among the people.

And that is exactly what these rumors did - divided the public. No matter how you look at it, something is missing. What is it? - I don’t know... Even if I came up with a theory, I wouldn’t believe it myself, because it’s based on a book of lies.

Soon after that, there was the declaration of war. And war as everyone knows it, just war, devastation, destruction, and so on. What is more interesting is what happened afterward. Suddenly, the Emperor announced he would end the war - of course, he said his reasons were his concern for his people and so on. If we just scratch a bit at the reasons for this war, the primary logical reason is the kingdom’s exclusive knowledge of the future. So what drove them to make this decision?... Personally, I think they either found what they wanted or found something even more important.

In the announcement of the end of the war, the Emperor forbade anything related to prophecy and prohibited any citizen of the Empire from setting foot in the Astrolis Kingdom. If that wasn’t strange, he also banned any information about the war from leaking from the participating armies. He even threatened publicly that any leaked knowledge would result in severe consequences.

What does this mean? These are not the actions of someone who claimed victory in this war. But this piece of information is what made me say that the purpose of the book is to obscure the facts.

I am sure many facts about the war have come to light, but they disappeared with the multitude of expectations and rumors from various people. When you tell a group of confused people not to do this and that, they will do this and that and much more. So, the facts disappeared amidst the sea of rumors, this simple and efficient if I might say. Mixing truth and lies in this way is just genius."

Noah took a deep breath, and Eyolian in front of him didn’t interrupt or show any change in expression during his entire speech. Noah thought for a bit and clarified, "Of course, my words are based only on pure guesses from reading a book I haven’t even finished yet. But if this is true, and the book’s purpose is to obscure the facts, then it has served its purpose efficiently."

The two were silent for a while. That was his conclusion; he had nothing more to add. Once Eyolian noticed that, she curiously inquired, "Why do you keep saying the purpose of the book is to obscure the facts? Isn’t the Emperor the one doing all this? The book just mentions the war details from the Empire's perspective."

Noah understood why Eyolian would think that and explained his logic. "I am not from the Empire, and seven months is not enough to express my opinion as a familiar one. So, my source of information is just the book. You can say, it’s the perspective of a stranger."

Eyulian nodded, letting the new information settle. After a moment, she declared sarcastically, "You are very talkative." Noah froze in place, not knowing whether to take it as an insult or a compliment. It really seemed like an insult. Eyolian appeared amused by his reaction, "I’m joking, though I am right."

Noah maintained his silence and said nothing - he didn’t want to stoop to her level, he thought.

But Eyolian was really in the mood to talk, seeming pleased after hearing his opinion on the war. "Where are you from, Noah? You can leave it at that."

Noah usually didn’t answer any personal questions about himself, but he decided to answer this one to ask one in return. "I am from the North."

Eyolian raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Before she could say anything, Noah asked, "Why do you feel the need to keep the artifact ring piece always activated?"

"To hide things?" she said vaguely, seizing the opportunity to ask, "Why, I have heard some rumors about the people beyond the snowy mountains? You seem different?"

Noah nodded, "They weren't very kind when I stumbled upon their land, but I managed."

Eyolian was stunned by the revelation, and Noah didn't let her think too much, asking, "Do you hide appearance or intent?"

Eyolian focused her eyes on him. She didn't seem eager to answer, but to ask about Noah's mysterious origin, which had piqued her curiosity, she chose to respond. "Appearance, always. Intent, from time to time. - I don't think we're talking about the same North?"

"There is one North. The North you know isn't necessarily the limit," Noah explained matter-of-factly, then continued with a question. "What is the name of the artifact?"

Eyolian was still stunned by Noah's words, which didn't carry much meaning to her. After regaining her focus, she said, "It's called the Amulet of the Veil of the Unseen. - Let's leave it at that for today."

Noah said nothing about that. He didn't want to ruin the fragile relationship he had built with Eyolian just for his curiosity. So, he kept silent.

Any conversation died off from there, with Eyolian absorbed in her thoughts and Noah returning to his book, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.