Thinking back to the lore that he’d studied both in Mr. Herst’s company and in the privacy of his home, he said, “I’m not sure how far back you’re referring to, but since you mentioned the Inverted Wars… The two that come to mind were called Dalia Silver and Tephon Coldwater. At least, those are my ancestors on my mother’s side.”
The man smashed a fist into the ground, breaking it in several places without so much as a flinch of discomfort. “Dalia…how could you? Of all people, of all blasted people, you chose Tephon?”
Alistar was very perturbed by the direction of the conversation. One moment, the man was dying and very much so insane, and the next he was coherent, angry, and speaking of great figures that had died centuries ago as if he had been personally acquainted with them. This, along with the fact that he had inquired about the current era, made it seem as if he had lived during that period of history, which was quite obviously impossible.
“Um, if you don’t mind, sir. Could you tell me your name?”
“Let me see your hand again.”
After hesitating for a moment, Alistar complied. Feeling his pulse, the man grumbled, “Remarkable. Not just Dalia’s and that bastard Tephon’s, but Kalven’s too. And so pure… If it’s been as long as you say, this shouldn’t be possible.”
Alistar pulled away for a second time, his unease increasing. “That’s what I should be saying. Just who in Lucian’s name are you?”
The man spat on the ground. “That devil is still around?”
Devil? From the way he spoke, it sounded as if he were under the impression that Lucian was a living being, not a god.
“We’re in those mountains, yes? Those moun…”
Before Alistar could make any further inquiries, the man suffered from a sudden, unprovoked seizure. Alistar tried to steady his body, but he ended up biting his tongue off in the midst of the fit. This time around, there was no change when Alistar tried to heal him. As had been the case before, however, a minute or so after his body had grown still, the man began to jerk in odd, tortured movements before his body returned to its previous, partially-recovered state.
“Are you okay?”
“Who’s there?” he cried, voice a bit rougher than it had been a moment ago. “You…you…” After a few moments of silence, his wrinkled face warped in anger. “Come to torture me again, have you? Or are you here to take what little I have left?”
Suddenly frightened, Alistar ran from the cave as quickly as he could, stumbling on his way out and experiencing a frantic fall the moment that he was reunited with the cold, winter air. Quiet and still, Ms. Parsnip stood calmly in front of the entrance to the cave mouth, which had vanished from sight as if it had never existed in the first place.
Disturbed and panting heavily, Alistar collected the docile rabbit with fumbling, absentminded hands, his eyes fixated on the tiny clearing. Without thinking, he grasped a handful of snow and threw it into the empty space, growing even more confused as it landed in the centre of the undisturbed ground without showing any suspicious results.
Don’t think, he told himself. Just meditate.
A few minutes later, Alistar decided to push what had just happened into the far corners of his mind, knowing in his heart that his curiosity would never allow him to forget what had just happened. Thinking this, he picked a tree that roughly faced the entrance of the now-invisible cave and left a subtle energy imprint on its surface. Before leaving, he crept forward just enough for the surrounding sound to cut off in the same manner as it had before, the wide mouth of the cave now staining his vision in darkness.
Stolen story; please report.
Alistar fled the scene as quickly as his legs allowed him to, reuniting with his friends a short while later to find that Helen and Corrie had successfully tracked the buck from earlier, the former having killed it with a well-aimed arrow that had pierced it directly through the neck.
“How did you manage to track it down so quickly?” he asked with half-hearted interest, staring at the dead buck that Jaden and Zech had just finished dragging back to their temporary camp. “I was hardly gone for an hour.”
“Hardly gone for a—are you serious?” said Anice, who pointed up at the sky with a judgemental finger. “You were gone for over three hours! Do you know how boring it is sitting around a fire for that long in the cold?”
Three hours? Were there other spells at play that I couldn’t pick up on?
“Ah, my apologies everyone. Ms. Parsnip was pretty elusive, so I guess I lost sense of time for a while.” Realizing that he was still holding the rabbit, he handed it to Emely without saying anything else.
“Alistar, are you alright?” said Woods, who looked at him with suspicion. “If you’re hungry, maybe we can keep a leg or two—”
“Not happening,” snapped Zech, who was in the midst of tying up the buck’s legs at the ankles with thick bits of string. “We need to return the body whole, else it won’t count and we won’t get any achievement points.”
“But we hardly ever get to eat meat at home…”
“We can stop by at my place after, and I’ll get you some stew.”
“Zech, my closest friend! As I thought, you really understand me best.”
Ignoring the boys, Lessa walked over to him and grasped his hands in a firm, gloved grip, a searching gaze behind an expression of worry. “Did something happen, Alie?”
Anice joined her at his side, also frowning. “Alie, you’re so pale. Are you really okay?”
As the rest of his friends began to crowd around him, he forced a smile and waved off their worries. “I’m fine. I just remembered some things I’d rather not have and…it should be fine if we stop talking about it.”
Lessa let go of his hand after giving it a light squeeze, her silver eyes unconvinced. “If you say so. Just remember, if you ever have anything on your mind, you can tell me.”
“You can tell us,” said Anice, motioning towards the rest of the Dozen. “We’re your friends, after all.”
Emely handed Ms. Parsnip to Helen and then walked over to him, pulling him into a guilty hug. “Whatever happened, it was because you went to get Ms. Parsnip. Thank you, Alistar. I’m sorry if you remembered something sad because of me.”
He returned her hug, slightly comforted by her warmth. For some reason, he felt that he couldn’t tell anybody else about the cave that he’d just found and the tortured man within. At least for now, this would have to remain a secret known only to him. Even so, as he took in the worried expressions of those around him, he was once again reminded of how lucky he was to have met these eleven peers of his. In this world, he couldn’t have asked for better friends.
“I’ll be okay. Thank you, everyone.”
Hearing the appreciation in his words, the others showed mixed reactions. Zech and Jaden continued to fuss with the buck’s bindings despite the fact that there was nothing more to be done with them. Corrie gave him a light nod and then turned his attention elsewhere, while Woods scratched at his nose with a helpless grin, averting his gaze in an attempt to avoid any awkwardness. The girls all gave him supportive smiles, though Anice was quick to pull a guilt-ridden Emely away from him.
“Ah, Anne. Don’t be so rough!”
“How long did you want to hug him for?”
Lily began to laugh. “Are you jealous?”
Anice glared at her.
At this point in their friendship, the others were quite tactful when they felt that he was affected by memories of his time as a slave. Even the boorish Jaden knew not to prod any further in such situations, which made Alistar feel a bit guilty that he had lied to them about the cause for his distress.
They returned to the county via the southern gates of the vast stretch of walls that surrounded all of Distan, a section that was guarded by four men, two on the ground level that had been leaning against the walls in a lazy manner, and two lookouts atop the ramparts that were visible through the stone parapets. They commented on the size of the buck and paid Helen some heartfelt compliments when they learned that she was the one that had felled it, words that added a bit of bounce to the lean girl’s steps.
While Zech and Jaden went off to deliver their catch to the frontiersmen guild—an awkward task that required mutual cooperation and every last bit of their swordsman’s aura—Alistar and the rest of his friends made their way to the Lawsons' tavern, where they waited for nearly three hours before the other two finally showed up.