She was reminded of her goal as soon as she woke up. It didn’t make her any more willing, but maybe they could get a little closer to getting it done.
There was no guessing as to where Imre was. He was sitting by the water, absently fiddling with an ikretta. She couldn’t remember who or what was responsible for his fragile smile, only briefly mourning the fact that she’d probably be the one to get rid of it.
“Nokae.” Her tone already proved that something was wrong. It got his attention almost immediately, unlike most other times she wanted to talk with him. “Can we talk alone for a minute?”
He nodded. There was that look that said he would listen to whatever she had to say; a look she never found in anyone else. Not Kesem, Iris, or even Minne had ever given her that kind of unwavering attention. She wondered if he truly realized how much it meant to her that he was just there.
“Do you remember that swallow that appeared in Minne’s dreams? Zokel?” Phrasing it was harder than she originally thought it was going to be. “And remember how he was a Fos..? He appeared to me last night. He told me how he helped Ilethera and the ones that were close to them… But before you say anything, he mentioned a legend. Something about a king whose twin died when they were little. He was locked away and eventually killed, but his spirit still remains where he was captured.”
He seemed to be following along relatively well until she’s got to the last part. “He was talking about the Minotaur. Why did he mention it?”
“I don’t know, the last thing he told me was how mortals were needy like house pets.” She shrugged. “It was mostly random… aside from the fact it relates to what Casper wanted us to do.”
“Did he mention anything else?”
She shook her head. “He left after that.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know how to bring him back?”
“If I did, I would right now just so then you can talk to him yourself.”
Imre thought it all over, though didn’t give her too much time in silence. “We should tell the others. With all of our heads together, maybe we can come up with something.” He got up and walked past her. “I know where Lydia and Kiah are, and it probably won’t be hard to find Dimas. You just stay here until I come back with them, okay?”
“Alright.” Putting on a confident face was all that she could do.
She waited, watching as the rest of the officials slowly began to wake up. No one made any attempt to converse with her—likely being out of their way—so she made no attempt to converse with them. Honestly, she didn’t know how well she could carry a conversation at the moment.
She heard Imre explaining their short conversation as he got closer. That was one last thing she had to do, at least. They’d all be coming in with some sort of understanding to the situation, however limited that might’ve been. It had to have been better than nothing, right?
They immediately started trying to find a way to use it to their advantage. She supposed she saw it coming, in a way, but that didn’t make the feeling any better. She tried to convince herself it was just like any normal conversation.
“Did he show up any time before or after that?” Kiah, judging mostly by her tone, didn’t know whether to be slightly concerned or impressed. Her expression showed no sign of verging more on one than the other, meaning there was no true way to tell.
Samone shook her head. “That’s the first he’s ever appeared.” She realized, soon after saying it, that she had seen a similar bird on her balcony. But she quickly decided it wasn’t important, even if it was only so then she didn’t have to correct herself. “I doubt I did anything special to make him appear in the first place. All I did was stand outside in the middle of the night.”
“If he mentioned the legend of the Minotaur, then could he know more about it?” Lydia suggested thoughtfully. “Maybe if we can talk with him again, he could tell us where it is.”
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“It’s worth a shot, if we can get him to show up again,” Dimas agreed. “It’ll be a lot more productive than trying to figure something out on our own. We might as well be throwing darts at a map and going wherever it hits.”
“Is there any other way we can determine where an entrance might be?” Imre was picking up on her unwillingness to the idea. He always did, whether he realized it or not, and proceeded to attempt to help her out of it. “Do any of the legends specify where an entrance is, or clues as to where it could be?”
Dimas shrugged. “As far as I’m aware there isn’t. The only mention of any of the Caverns’ entrances is just the one in Aspea, and we’re definitely not going into Idkor.”
“I guess I can see what I can do,” Samone sighed. “We don’t have a lot of other options. It’s not like Casper decided to mention where we were supposed to be going after this, and we told them we’d be leaving today.”
“Well in his defense, it didn’t sound like Minne ever got that far,” Kiah remarked. Darker, she continued, “They all started dying off before they got to that point.”
All they could do was tell themselves that it was only because an Ilethera was in the mix there. Misfortune followed those people, after all, and that specific person wasn’t a part of their trip. But that didn’t mean that assured them, or gave them the illusion that everything was going to be fine.
At this point, Samone decided they were more or less finished. When their conversation turned more into wild guesses of where they were heading, she knew that she was right. With little comment, she simply left the group.
She first went to her tent, picked up her pipe and filled it, then found a quiet spot away from the people. Maybe she’d actually be able to concentrate on one fact at a time that way. All she needed to do was get comfortable and assure herself that no one would see her—or at the very least, that none of them would recognize her. Though given the fact that she was behind a tree and far from the normal camp, the only way someone would find her was if they were looking.
There was never any reason for her to fear feeling used. At this point, she couldn’t say that anyone had ever tried to gain her favor for their own intentions. She was adopted into the Jaden family for her strong magic, but it was clear that it wasn’t even the main reason why they considered her one in the family. Minne or Casper had never made any mention of what they could acquire by having her with them; in fact, she never felt anything of the sort from them or Imre. It did change, slightly, as she grew older into a powerful (and, more importantly to some, marriageable) woman, but such a thing was still a few years away.
It seemed like she didn’t have much of a choice, though. They needed something to go off of, and she just so happened to be that person. At the very least, it would help them all get this done that much quicker rather than drawing it out. That was something all of them wanted—maybe with the exception of Lydia, whose sense of danger has long since left her.
With each exhale, she found herself getting calmer. Everything lined up in her head and she wasn’t worrying nearly as much. It was relaxing for everything to be so clear, all of it where it should be. She never understood why people would trade this for a drunken daze. What good could ever come out of everything being out of place, with hardly a sliver of understanding of one’s actions?
She nearly jumped when she saw something fly in the corner of her eye. Whatever she felt before, though, was quickly turned into annoyance when she realized she recognized the bird.
“You know you got me in an odd situation,” she remarked to the little swallow. “I’d really rather not be doing any of this. So I don’t suppose you want to make it a little easier?”
Zokel only looked up at her. He didn’t change out of his bird form, possibly just because there were so many other people around. Were he to be seen, it would cause more of a scene than he likely wanted; it was better if he only changed at night.
He ended up flying right past her in favor of another; it was her indication that another person was there. Samone—before she even knew who it was—put the pipe away and hid it behind her dress. She was partially relieved to see that it was Imre. He never made a big deal out of it in public.
“I see our little friend’s back,” Imre remarked. He held his hand out and Zokel happily rested on it. “I thought I’d come check on you, though. We were thinking about going to a nearby village for supplies. You’re the only one who wasn’t there, so I decided I could come and ask what you thought about it.” There wasn’t anything about him that said he was more interested in the bird than her. In fact, it felt like he considered Zokel like any normal animal rather than a Fos.
“That sounds fine,” she agreed. “I’ll just need a couple of minutes to make sure I have everything.”
Zokel decided he wanted to be a part of the conversation. He took advantage of the mud to write a sort of message, creating the characters from a combination of using his wing and hopping around. If anyone were to see it, they likely wouldn’t know if they were going insane or if he wasn’t just your average bird.
Eventually it got hard to keep track of him. He was moving so quickly, darting from one part to another; it seemed there were also parts where he erased it and started over again. Samone then wondered if he wrote all of his letters like this, starting out with a messy sketch before restarting with something better.
They both assumed he was done when he flew away again.
“The beast rests in Ilystalos,” Imre read aloud.
“I guess we know where we’re going,” she said dully.