10. Reward
Reward
R halyf sipped his coffee as Elasha and Cara–that very unlikely pair–made a plan for the Separatists to report back on if they had seen Darcassan anywhere in the ruins of Chicago.
A bit of shy smiles and whispered words later, and the two women got up.
Elasha left the cafe after receiving a warm hug from Cara while Cara, after watching fondly after Elasha’s retreating form, had disappeared into a back room, ostensibly to contact the Separatists and put their plan in motion.
Separatists with some kind of rift location and frequency map. Interesting. Must investigate this.
He was not necessarily worried about Aquilan’s nephew.
Darcassan was a gifted Mage so he could defend himself.
Plus, the king’s nephew was on a snipe hunt as he searched for a rift to Illithor in the ruins.
The fact that there were no creatures coming through from the Under Dark–for whatever reason–meant that he was even less likely to be in danger.
Unless he ran into whatever eliminated Seith and Leisha.
That did give him pause. But if Darcassan had run into this thing–or person –then there was likely little enough to be done.
He would either be unharmed or as dead as the other two Aravae.
But he didn’t believe Darcassan was dead.
Not because this thing– person –couldn’t have taken out the elven prince, but that he likely would have no reason to.
Darcassan hasn’t even met Declan unless he’s taken to going to dwarven pubs, which would be a real change in behavior. Although he might have come to talk to Finley about his view of Illithor.
Yet he was certain that was not the case.
Shonda and Michael spoke of Finley telling the Glass Scholar about what he had seen.
He had been ignored otherwise. Darcassan had likely inferred that Finley– wrongly –was a foolish human who could add no more information than he could gain from speaking to Neldor so he wouldn’t have bothered to seek him out directly.
And that meant the likelihood of his meeting Declan–and insulting him–was close to nil.
So there was no reason for the thing– person –to have killed Darcassan like they had killed Seith and Leisha.
And, for now, it was daylight. Darcassan would be safe.
Perhaps he should do a location spell just to be sure though he would need something of Darcassan’s to make it work and that would require a trip to the palace.
Aquilan’s nephew would likely be back in the time it took to do all of that. He hoped. If he was not then…
Then that makes things more difficult. I hope for Aquilan’s sake that stupid elf is fine.
Gemma cleared her throat. Finley did the same.
Rhalyf was snapped out of his logical reverie.
They were looking at him expectantly. He had, after all, dragged them in here after Elasha.
They likely wanted to know why. They’d played along after all.
But he wasn’t sure what to tell them. The women had been speaking softly enough that he guessed only he with his acute elven hearing and magical enhancements to it actually caught all of their conversation.
“Tell me it isn’t weird that Aquilan’s niece and the Separatist leader’s daughter are good friends,” Finley said dryly.
“You think they’re only friends?” Gemma’s eyebrows rose.
Finley blinked at that. “You think they’re… more ?”
“I think if they aren’t, they both want to be,” Gemma said with a wise, teenaged shake of her head.
“What a fascinating observation. I believe you may be right, Gemma,” Rhalyf said in his Gran persona as he, himself, picked apart their interactions in his mind and did find a romantic undercurrent to it.
That also might be useful to him later on in dealing with Elasha and the Separatists. He filed it away for future use.
“So what were they saying?” Gemma asked, resting her chin on her hands. “Anything good?”
“Define good ,” Rhalyf asked back.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever you think is good enough to spy on them for. You dragged us after you in here fast enough.”
He took another sip of coffee. Even with the milk and sugar it was bitter, but not unpleasant. It was actually growing on him. It also had him feeling slightly energized.
Hmmm, an interesting side effect.
“Gran?” Finley prompted softly and kicked him under the table.
“Yes, what? I was just thinking,” Rhalyf murmured.
“About what they said to one another? We want you to share. We are owed an explanation,” Finley prodded.
Seeing both their gazes still on him, he sighed, “So curious. Both of you.”
“Yeah, well, you bring us in on your nefarious plans, we have to know why,” Gemma told him.
“Nefarious? Hardly nefarious! For all you know, I was being nosy,” he sniffed.
“Nosy. Nefarious. There’s a fine line there somewhere.” Finley sipped tea and looked ready to stay there as long as it took to get him to speak.
“Spill, Gran. We want the tea,” Gemma said.
“You have tea,” Rhalyf said.
“It’s an expression. We want the deets. We want the hot gos. Gossip? C’mon, what did they say?” Gemma asked.
He snorted, amused at her persistent yet adorable demeanor.
Finley had that too though his was slightly more…
interesting. “I was simply curious as to what Elasha was doing here. Is she a secret coffee fan? Is it the adorable pig mugs? Or a hidden love for junk architecture? In truth, I now have more questions rather than less after that exchange.”
“It’s clear that they’re, at least, friends,” Finley mused. “Maybe this is the way that Vesslan unofficially communicates with the Separatists. Sends his daughter out as his ambassador.”
Rhalyf snorted again. “Vesslan does nothing unofficially. But Elasha… this definitely makes me see her in another light. I wouldn’t have thought her capable of putting her prejudices aside long enough to cultivate friends.”
“So what were they talking about? They were pretty serious.” Gemma leaned forward. “We know you heard every word.”
“You do?”
“We do,” Finley answered.
He drummed his fingers on the table. Should he tell them? Or a convenient lie?
“They were talking about the fact that Aquilan spent his evening at the tavern with your father rather than at the palace or here, in Hope,” he said. “They both felt their fathers had played things badly when it came to influencing him and were bemoaning that fact.”
Gemma’s lips curled into a smile. “Dad always knows how to play his cards right.”
“He definitely does. But he’s also the sort of person that Aquilan would like, I think,” Finley pointed out. When Rhalyf turned towards him, he added, “Straightforward, honest and brave.”
Rhalyf gave a brief nod though he did not meet any, but perhaps the last of those three characteristics. And he found bravery overrated for the most part. Better to live and fight another day.
Iefyr, my foot.
“What else did they say?” Gemma asked. Whether she guessed there was more or was just asking was unclear.
“Just that the rifts had been relatively quiet.” He decided not to mention Darcassan supposedly being missing. The royal family’s whereabouts were not to be known generally and, again, he truly doubted Darcassan was in any danger.
Finley frowned. “That sounds… good.” And yet, Finley’s tone indicated that he did not quite believe it to be good. Again, this showed his intelligence.
“We do not have enough data to know whether it is good or bad yet, but it is interesting,” Rhalyf said and he meant that.
Though he might have suspicions that the two women were right that something–or someone –had come through that was scaring everything off, he wasn’t certain by any stretch of the imagination.
But what–or who–could do that? There’s one person, but if it is him… No, I refuse to even consider it.
“How long do you think we’ll have coffee and sugar and stuff like that?” Gemma suddenly asked as she turned her empty cup of tea in her hands. Her forehead was furrowed.
“I suppose it depends on whether the Aravae will let us use the gates to establish supply lines and if there are enough people who want to grow the appropriate crops,” Finley said carefully.
His eyes darted to Rhalyf. The young man was clearly attuned to the fact that he was the Sun King’s best friend and everything he said would likely make its way to Aquilan’s ears. Again, intelligent.
“Your best bet to ensure the survival of favorite foods or other such things is to get others to appreciate them,” Rhalyf said as he sipped more coffee and his foot began to tap. “That way you won’t be so limited in terms of who can plant, harvest and transport them.”
“So we have to feed more people caramel corn?” Gemma’s eyes twinkled at him.
He found himself reaching up and touching his chin where Finley had brushed away the errant kernels of corn. “Yes, yes, well, the products do rather sell themselves.”
“It’s a shame that the Separatists don’t encourage other species to come to Hope,” Finley said. “While certain people in power may not see the value in human culture, others certainly will.”
“But so much of it is lost. Is anyone, I don’t know, like cataloging it or something?” Gemma suddenly asked, slightly anguished.
“What do you mean, Gemma?” Finley asked gently. “Shonda is–”
“Mom is more focused on keeping us safe, which is the most important thing, of course. But…” Gemma swept an arm around the shop. “There’s so much we’re not talking about, not considering, that’s going away every day.”
Rhalyf thought about his initial impression that Hope was built out of garbage.
It was true. But this was all that was left of human civilization really.
And with the reclamation of the ruins, even this would soon be gone.
He couldn’t see someone like the Glass Scholar taking an active interest in preserving any of this.
But without some kind of concentrated effort like that, things would be forgotten. Gemma seemed to realize this too.