20. Romeo #3
Excitement, unease, wonder—they were palpable in the looks exchanged across the table.
Aria crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe.
“I am told that Sona’s brother is still alive, despite having once been face to face with death,” she said.
She gestured to Noec. “What’s more, Noec here has undergone the same transformation, with seemingly no drawbacks after only a day or so of distress.
There was, however, one marvelous, unintended side effect.
One that might just prove useful to us today.
” She paused, then startled an attendant as she jolted forward, smacking her hands against the table with a wide-eyed smile.
“Noec is now able to shift between human and scythe at will—a weapon with unimaginable applications.”
While some faces lit with awe, others darkened in horror. All eyes fell on Noec, who looked up hesitantly as murmurs broke out.
From murmurs came uproar.
“He’s one of them?” someone muttered. “His existence alone is blasphemous!”
“He’s probably waiting for the right moment to kill us all!” a woman cried. “Guards! Velo, where are your guards?”
“Velo,” a man demanded sharply, rising to his feet with a hand on the hilt of his blade, “how could you allow him here? How could you allow him to live?”
Flora gripped Noec’s wrist tightly, glancing from Heron to the door. “Noec…” she whispered. Noec squeezed her hand twice before letting go, a silent assurance that things were still alright.
“Enough.” The king’s voice rattled through the chaos, his fist slamming against the table.
The room fell into a hush as every gaze turned to him.
“Shame on you all.” Velo rose slowly, deliberately.
“The man before you is Noec Eldon,” he declared.
“The son of Geno Eldon—the very man who drove the dark arcanist Azura from this land.”
A stunned silence followed, broken only by whispers.
“Noec… Eldon?”
“I thought Geno’s family was…”
Noec moved with calm precision, drawing his old dagger from the bag at his side. He set it on the table, ruby and emerald catching the light.
Gasps rippled through the chamber as all eyes fell on the blade resting on the table.
“Could it be…?”
Geno’s Fang. It was unmistakable. The legendary weapon, said to carry the warrior spirit of the Eldon bloodline, lay still before Noec.
Whispers soon dulled into a heavy, expectant silence.
Flora knew the weapon was special to Noec, but she hadn’t realized it would be so widely recognized.
All eyes remained on Noec and the blade, their presence alone commanding something more than words could speak.
Noec looked around the room with eyes of stone, firm and composed.
The revelation hung heavy in the air, stifling even the most fervent murmurs of dissent.
The queen cleared her throat. Her voice slicing through the silence, she pried sharply, “Aria, what exactly do you mean to suggest? Why have you brought this to our attention now?”
“She’s proposing we fight,” Noec answered for her, his clenched fists loosening as resolve replaced the hesitation in his voice.
“She’s proposing we stop hiding in the shadow of Night Sky Forest. She’s proposing we use their own blood to shift the balance in our favor if—” He paused. “—when they come for us.”
“Exactly,” Aria said. Heron and King Velo exchanged an apprehensive look. “If the Shadowkeeper wants the Sleepwalker,” Aria’s lips curled into a sharp, almost predatory smile, “let’s ensure he has to walk through hell itself to reach her.”
“Florabelle.” Aria beckoned with a soft whistle as the murmuring procession began to shuffle out of the room, with only the royalty and visitors from the Shrouded Village remaining behind.
Aria cleared her throat and lowered her voice.
“I... I heard what happened to Sona. I’m glad I was able to speak to her again, even if it was under the worst of circumstances.
” Aria’s eyes met Flora’s, and she seemed remarkably more tame than before.
“She told me about you,” Aria continued.
“Years ago, when you first arrived. Then, a few months ago, when we first started speaking again. She was really quite fond of you.”
“I loved her,” Flora replied. She clutched the bag holding Sona’s journal, her grip tightening as she offered a half-hearted smile. “We all did.”
“As did I,” Aria said, wistfully looking off into a memory that was too far out of reach.
When she spoke again, her voice was low and serious.
“Florabelle, I don’t think the Scytherax came for Sona because she was an expert on the blood, or scythes for that matter.
” She hesitated, drawing a breath before continuing.
“I think they came after her because she was an expert on you—on the Sleepwalker.”
Aria sighed, wearing a graveness that seemed foreign on her. “If there is one thing I can do to atone for all the ways I’ve failed Sona, it will be using my ill-gotten knowledge in order to protect you—her Florabelle.”