The Dragon Races- Part 30

"I don't want to talk, I want you to leave." 

Alaric sat down next to her, anyway. Everlys inched away when their shoulders brushed, hugging her knees to her chest and angling her head away from him. Her knives glistened, pinning up her hair until she tugged them out and threw them to the stone floor. Her jaw jerked sharply at the scraping sound of cold metal against rock. 

"Like I said earlier, I don't know how I'm Shielding... Eriene doesn't either. What's your obsession with her, anyway?"

Everlys turned her head away at the mention of... her. The quiet, soft Wind Elemental. The Empath. The girl she absolutely despised for a reason she couldn't even pinpoint.

"Stop playing games with me, Emrys." she whispered. "If Eriene doesn't know anything, fine. But... stop doing whatever this is when she's clearly over there. Go talk to her. Stop making me believe you could see me as something else than... this." Everlys gestured to her knives, to her slim, hourglass figure curled against the wall, to the pleats of braided blonde hair twisted up in a bun. She yanked out a thin strand crossing over her face and watched as it drifted to settle by her feet. 

"And don't talk." Everlys grabbed her knives and stood up. "Or you'll start making me believe it. You practical stranger and your shameless, obvious flirting." 

Alaric exhaled a frustrated breath as her footsteps faded back in the direction he had originally come from. He ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the brown curls that fell halfway over his forehead. 

"I'm... glad you noticed."

But Everlys had gone too far to hear any of his mumbled sentence. 

Alaric stood and followed her, walking quickly to catch up with the whispers of her footsteps. He didn't look back at the rest of the tunnel, only forward. Never into the possibility of darkness cutting through the manufactured light. But he glanced back anyway, chin tugged by an invisible force to turn his head into a wave of crazed, overwhelming shadow. 

***************

"I'm trying!" He braced for a sting, angling away from the muscled arm and looking towards the training room's door. 

The man who had been glaring, who had raised his hand to the boy, growled. The sound was animalistic, unpleasant and terrifying. "Off with that girl again?"

"Vyla." The coldness in the person's hazel eyes lessened for a moment at the name as he strode forward. "And I should have taken Alaric with me." He held out his hand, clasping it tightly around the small, trembling fingers. "Do you find joy in hurting him?" His voice was cold as ice. "Your own son?"

"He's not my son." The man muttered with a scoff. "And neither are you." He took the sword form Alaric's hand an threw both his and the boy's on the wooden table behind him; he looked up at the shelves stocked with gleaming weapons. "Your parents didn't want you, whoever they were. At least Raquel and I provide food, shelter, education, and training. You should be grateful, you spoiled, worthless brats."

"How dare you-"

Alaric tugged on his brother's sleeve. "Altair, stop. Calm down. Please."

Altair looked up at the man's face, stared into the cold, dark eyes glittering with satisfaction. He looked down at Alaric, at the mall, trembling figure half-hidden behind his body. He gave a last glare before ushering his brother out, pulling him into a hallway of their overly lavish house. He knelt to meet Alaric's height. 

"Are you okay?"

Alaric nodded. Altair pulled him into a tight hug, running a hand over the boy's curls. "We'll get out of here someday, Alaric. You, me, Vyla, and Renn. We'll leave these horrid places, and find our parents and home. I promise."

***************

Alaric stumbled forward, shutting his eyes tightly to rid himself of the memory, opening them again when Altair's image intensified under the darkness of his eyelids. He ran after Everlys, slowing when the Sinistrian halted in her steps, glancing back to look at him for a moment. Her walking resumed when Alaric reached a few paces behind her. 

Everlys found his footsteps comforting, like a shadow constantly on watch. Not one of grief and taunting horror, but one of some form of acceptance and care. Maybe. 

***************

"Raya?"

"Go away." 

"You haven't come out of there in days."

"Leave, Luke. I don't care, and I don't want to care. Leave."

Raya listened for the quiet receding of her brother's footsteps. What he had said was true- she hadn't left her room in days. She hadn't eaten except for the few times Lex had arrived with a tray and looked up at her with his blue eyes half-hidden by curly blonde hair. The same eyes she saw on the persisting images of Nevara. 

And Therin.

She reached a hand towards the hilt of her knife, fingers curling around the worn leather. She traced the silhouette of her fingers with the glistening silver blade- the creases on the inside of her hand, of her wrist. Lightly, just to feel the pressure on her skin. But not to draw blood.

Her mind traveled back to her mother's words- the sentence sharply spoken with no intent on wanting to hear what Raya had to say. 

"Whatever this is, it's unnecessary."

"He was nothing." NOTHING. 

Therin... he was everything. He was... her savior. Her reason for life and sanity and control over herself. He had saved her all those summers ago. 

***************

"Lady Castor?"

Raya spun around, tightening the grip on her cloak and reaching for the knife hilt hidden within the thick pleats of fabric. 

"Don't call me that. Ever. Whoever you are."

A black- hooded figure stepped out from the trees. Barely visible against the uneven line of shrouded tree trunks and branches. A relieving contrast from the white-clothed guards and Medics she saw every day at the palace and fortresses.

"Cressida sent you."

Raya nodded at the metallically distorted male voice. Her clutch on the knife loosened. "She... told me to come here. She said the... whatever the Rebellion's called would be here."

"We don't have a name." He stepped out of the shadows. "It adds an extra level of... mystery. And intimidates the Nobles and Royals because they don't have anything to call us."

"That's... pretty smart."

"We try." He said with a shrug. "Now follow me."

Raya walked alongside him until her legs ached. Until the winding white turrets of the Sinistrian palace glimmered faintly, mere spots against the black sky and overshadowed by the light of stars. The trees gradually thinned out, revealing a clearing filled with stripped away fallen logs morphed into benches wrapped around tree trunks. 

Silence.

Raya reached for her knife again. "Where is everyone?"

"Calm down." It sounded like he was rolling his eyes. He pulled off a black glove, revealing a caramel-skinned hand decked with one piece of jewelry. A silver metal cuff around his ring finger, a small, thin band with crosshatched lines etched in black. The lines wavered as his fingers touched some kind of invisible barrier. 

Raya stepped back as white sparked around his hand, traveling through the clearing in waves. She stared for a second as he reached out his hand, taking it and shutting her eyes tight as a cool sensation passed over her. It felt like... being drenched in water, yet drying right as it touched her skin.

When Raya opened her eyes, people stood and sat around the grassy clearing. All looking at her. Structures made of both wood and strips of a thin, barely opaque material curled around the tree trunks and plunged into the ground. Pulsing lines of blue and white coursed under the structures, leaving half the clearing a natural, untampered with green. 

"...Wow."

He nodded, then pointed at a woman across the clearing. "That's Neilena. Our... leader. She's one of them."

Raya stared at the woman, her hair piled up on top of her head in pale violet braids. She had never seen anything so... untainted and pure. Though the hair was dyed, it was left to it's own accord. Tied off with a simple white ribbon at the base, strays splayed out over her shoulders and long down her back.

She looked over at Raya as the person she was speaking to shifted their focus to her. Neilena nodded something at the person, making her way over. 

"It's good to finally meet you, Raya." Her voice was calming. Nothing like any of the voices at the palace. "I've heard much from Cress and her mother the few times we've had the chance to talk."

"I... It's good to be here." she managed. "Finally."

Neilena didn't reply, but looked at her with deep, deep brown eyes. Like the queen's, but not at the same time. Her eyes were warm, inviting. "I'm sure you can explain everything to her?" She murmured to the person who had led Raya in.

He nodded, and she caught a glimpse of a smile underneath the hood as Neilena waved her hand when he gave a small dip of his head. 

"Follow me again."

She smiled at the tinge of humor in his voice, walking quickly to keep up as he wove through the clearing and into the trees, up a small incline of a forested hill until reaching the peak. It overlooked a cliff- not a looming, terrifying sight, but enough of a dip to cause a surge of excitement and wonder. 

Stars bathed the inky blackness, fading into the shallow, moonlit water visible on the horizon.

"You've seen me around before." He said as he sat down on one of the decently flat boulders freckling the ground. "Quite a lot, actually."

Raya crossed her legs, comfortable on the grass. "So... I know you?"

"Kind of."

Her first instinct was to stare as the hood was brought down, the cloak shrugged off his shoulders and piled into his arms, set down beside him in a swath of black. He shook his head of silky black hair, running a hand through and pushing the strands falling into his eyes back. His hair wasn't long, though not cut extremely short. It was just long enough to show it off, just short enough to not seem unruly.

He was... easily the most gorgeous person she had ever seen in her entire life.

"You're... Therin."

He flashed another perfect smile, hinting a slight smirk at her awestruck expression. His eyes were blue, a light, glimmering blue, like Riverdeen's flag. Freedom came to people in Riverdeen. 

"Therin Caius. My parents work for your mother."