37 Eira
Eira
Eira worked her way back to standing, a groan escaping her lips as she felt dozens of eyes on her. The townspeople, including
the barmaid who had seen her magic yesterday, stood in a semicircle around them. Three fugitives. Three bodies.
Hugo ran to Eira’s side, beating Evangeline by mere seconds.
“What are we going to do?” Evangeline whispered.
“Fight our way out?” Hugo growled. “I don’t know. I don’t want to kill anyone else in this town.”
“You did enough damage, huh?” Evangeline scoffed, wiping blood from a gash on her arm.
Eira looked around at the people watching them, searching for signs of aggression, and found none. “No.” She shook her head.
“Let me talk to them.”
“I cannot express how bad of an idea—” Hugo started but Eira walked ahead anyway, carefully approaching a mother with her
young daughter beside her.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Eira said, hands still shaky from the magic she had cast.
“We’ve not seen magic like that in these parts from an outsider in a long, long time,” the woman said. She was older than Eira would expect a mother of such a young child to be.
“These days it isn’t very safe to show magic like this,” Eira said. “Do you think the people of Lichton can keep this a secret?”
“Darlin’,” the woman said to the young girl who hadn’t spoken yet, “show the lady what you can do.”
The little girl looked at Eira as she squatted down to the girl’s level. She held up her pointer finger and thumb and a tiny
flame hovered over it, the glow reflecting in both of their eyes.
“Oh wow,” Eira marveled genuinely, a surge of tears welling in her eyes, threatening to pour down her cheeks. “You’re so talented.”
“Nana says I can’t tell anyone outside of Lichton, though,” the little girl said, brown eyes sparkling as she watched her
own fire.
“Your nana is smart. We need to keep our magic a secret right now,” Eira said, nodding.
“Mommy didn’t keep hers a secret,” the little girl said. “And now Mommy is gone.”
Eira’s heart shattered—of course. This girl inherited her abilities from her mother, her mother who no doubt used her elemental
magic to light the fireplace and stove at night and bring clean water to her home.
“I brought the little one north after the Iron Empire took over and her mother died; needed to keep her safe. Lichton is safe,”
the girl’s nana said.
Eira stood, tears welling in her eyes. The rest of the townsfolk had drawn closer, standing around Eira in a semicircle. Hugo
and Evangeline walked toward her, Hugo touching the small of Eira’s back, a subtle gesture that let her know he was there.
“I’m so sorry,” Eira said to the girl’s grandmother. “You were right to bring her here.”
“It’s not you that needs to apologize, I know what the soldier with you did here. I heard all about it.” The woman’s wrinkled
eyes cut to Hugo on a fierce glare.
“She’s right,” he said, shoulders slumped.
Eira looked at the townsfolk, anger blossoming on their faces as they remembered Hugo from all those years ago. The men from
the tavern the day before were among them, the group’s anger fueling theirs further.
“What I did was unforgivable,” he continued. “I don’t expect any of you to forgive me for what I did under the Iron Empire’s
fist.”
“We should kill you,” one man spit, causing Eira’s heart to race. They didn’t understand; he wasn’t that man anymore.
“I wouldn’t blame you. But I think it would be better to have me fix what I did. I can’t bring your loved ones back, but I
can destroy the ones who forced me to do it,” Hugo said, voice laced with so much guilt and shame, but resolute.
“For what? Another Iron Empire to rise?” another man huffed angrily.
“No,” Evangeline said, hesitating as the heads of the townsfolk swiveled as one away from Hugo. She locked eyes with Eira,
worry and concern and something else in them as she decided what to say. “For the rightful queen to take the throne.”
Every gaze turned to her, shock on their faces as they processed what she’d said. “What?” the group murmured, confusion and
anger and something like excitement building in the air.
Evangeline came forward, and Eira watched the olive-skinned woman transform into royalty with each step she took toward the
furious crowd. An echo of recognition ran through Eira’s mind before hiding behind the locked door of memories in her head.
“The Iron Empire did not succeed in destroying my family,” Evangeline explained, her voice carrying and ringing clearly over
the crowd. “And I intend to return Astra to its true glory, and bring safety back to everyone.” The air stilled as Evangeline’s
words hung in the silence, gathering weight. Every single person in the crowd looked like they’d seen a ghost.
It started with one man dropping to one knee, and before Eira knew it the townsfolk were all kneeling, Evangeline standing at the center of them.
“This hasn’t happened in a while,” the princess muttered through the side of her mouth to Eira.
The townsfolk stood, one by one, watching the three of them. Hugo grasped Eira’s hand, his thumb running nervously over her
sensitive palm.
One of the men, just as tall as Hugo and somehow broader, stepped forward and jabbed him in the chest with a thick finger.
“Walk with the weight of what you did, the minute you forgive yourself is the minute you excuse it.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Hugo said, unblinking and unflinching, taking every ounce of what he deserved. “I’ll never forgive
myself for what happened here.”
The older woman spoke up. “Where are you going?”
“To Luwha,” Eira answered, and she could feel Hugo glaring daggers at the back of her head, as if she still needed to worry
about telling these people where they were going.
“That’s a long, cold ride. Take the blankets and the rations off the horses the knights rode in on,” Catrina, the barmaid,
said as she pushed through the growing crowd.
“Are you sure?” Eira asked.
“It’s one less thing we need to clean up.” She brushed her hands as she assessed the crowd around them. Something about the
way this woman acted made her seem like the quiet leader of this town.
“We’ll handle this,” Hugo said, gesturing to the bodies.
“No,” Catrina said. “Let us handle our own town. We know where to put the bodies.”
Eira looked at her, wondering for the first time if they had been rebelling in their own way these past three years. About
how many people there may be rebelling across Astra, in their own quiet or not so quiet ways. A little girl, still bright
with magic, even in a town like this . . . it gave Eira hope.
“Thank you,” Eira said, placing her hand on Catrina’s shoulder.
“I would say the same to you, but you brought danger to my town, so . . . fuck off,” she said, smiling and patting Eira’s
cheek.
Eira laughed, heartily and from the depths of her chest. It felt like relief, and something else . . . hope. “Fair,” Eira
answered as she turned away, looking back briefly. “Protect the witches you have left. We’re going to need them.”
Catrina nodded as Eira walked to Arthur, Hugo taking supplies from horses the knights had ridden into town on before darting
into one of the few shops in the small town. It was at least a four-day ride to Luwha, with few taverns between here and there;
they needed to be prepared.
As the three of them sat astride their horses, nothing but the mountains and cold ahead of them, Hugo cleared his throat.
“I bought you both some leather armor pieces,” Hugo said, handing them small bags.
“I’m keeping the sword,” Evangeline stated, off topic but clear in her intent—Hugo was not taking this weapon from her.
“Honestly, you should—you’re good with it.”
Evangeline looked at him in shock.
“I thought you’d try to tell me not to fight,” she said, scratching the back of her neck.
“We’re all going to need to fight in the war to come,” Hugo said solemnly. “If you truly want to take your throne back, we’re
going to need allies too.”
“We could search for the witches that are in hiding,” Eira said, petting Arthur’s mane before pulling on a pair of fur-lined
leather gloves.
“That’s a good first step, but we’re going to need more,” Hugo said. “With those Soulless Knights in play, we’re going to
need a lot more.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask . . . What are those things?” Evangeline demanded, turning to Hugo.
“I was told of their existence before I left, but . . . I think they’re people. People who have been changed. They don’t bleed, they’re superhumanly strong . . . If there’s any humanity left in them, they can’t access it.”
“They’re abominations. They feel wrong.” Eira couldn’t describe it, but something felt distinctly off about the Soulless Knights. She was learning how to
feel the Flow in what she cast again, and their presence felt like an interruption, an aberration, in the pure natural feeling
of magic.
Evangeline paused, pondering something as she looked out at the lake. Her dark curls billowed in the winter winds, her black
cloak in stark contrast with the blowing snow. She looked every inch a queen. “We need Corisia,” she said finally. “We need
to convince Corisia to invade with us.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking, and I believe you’re right,” Hugo said.
“The main issue is, how can we get to Corisia safely?” Eira asked.
“It won’t be easy. The fastest is over the sea from Archport, but it’s also what everyone would expect, and . . . we’ll discuss
that later. I say we go to Luwha, then Iceport. We’ll catch a boat from there and try to get to Corisia unscathed.”
“Perfect, I like a challenge,” Evangeline said, kicking into her horse and galloping ahead of them.
Hugo looked to Eira. “Are you okay?”
“Why did you leave the Iron Retinue?” Eira asked; the question had been plaguing her.
Hugo’s face softened, a look of shame overcoming it as he thought, again, about his past. He was so good to her, but there
was a part of Eira that felt strange choosing to be with a man who would have killed her just a few years ago. Not you, she thought. He’d never kill you.
“Lord General Kerrigan . . . he took me in, you know?” Hugo said, golden skin and dark hair bright against the snow-covered backdrop. “I felt like I owed him my life, like I owed him my past and my future.”
Hugo paused and looked away, toward where Evangeline was riding ahead of them. “I never believed in the drastic things he
wanted me to do, but I believed in the Iron Empire. I believed I needed to do the hard things to protect Astra.”
Eira grabbed his hand as she watched tears well up in his eyes before he blinked them away, shaking his hair back with a toss
of his head.
“I found out about the Soulless Knights, about his plans for Corisia . . . and it all suddenly fell apart for me.” Hugo looked
at Eira. “It was about Astra at first, and I believed him. But now? Now I think it’s about him, and power.”
Eira believed him. There was a ring of truth to what he was saying. She believed that he regretted it, that he’d never wanted
to do it.
“I believe you,” she said out loud, squeezing his hand as she watched the tension melt off of him.
“I was so worried that you’d find out what I’d done and want to leave . . . I—” He let go of Eira’s hand to touch her face,
his eyes full of emotion. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you again.”