2. A Cautionary Tale #2
“Well, we’ll have to agree to disagree. But really back to your party, don’t the Separatists themselves have a problem with you being there?” He shifted and felt the magical bag’s strap against his spine. Oh, if she would only leave then he could escape to the woods to hold the blade!
“Oh, no! Cara invited me. And you, too.” His sister waved away his concerns. “We’re completely welcome.”
“Cara Rohannan?” he clarified. Hadn’t his sister acted like going to this party was not at all a betrayal of their father?
His sister pinked. “Y-yes.”
“Duke Rohannan’s daughter?” His eyebrows rose. Maybe her secrets were bigger than their uncle’s.
“Yes.” She straightened up. “So what? If she’s inviting us then no one there can have a problem with us being there.”
“Except everyone on our side,” he pointed out and pinched the top of his nose.
“Again, it’s just a party.”
“It’s never just a party, Elasha.”
“Look, I’ve become friends with Cara. She and I… talk. To smooth things over when… you know… our fathers act rashly. You can’t deny that our father sometimes does that when it comes to the Separatists.”
He couldn’t.
She continued, “Well, Cara and I recognized that sometimes cooler heads should prevail. So the two of us have been working together to get the results that are best for everyone. While Duke Rohannan might come off as bombastic, arrogant and unreasonable at times, Cara is nothing like that and…”
It was only then as she burbled on that he realized that he shouldn’t be discouraging her from going to this party. After all, if she left to go to Hope, he highly doubted that anyone would check where he was that day either. In fact, no one might notice he’d left at all and that would be ideal.
“Perhaps you’re right,” he interrupted her flow of words.
She blinked. “What? You think… really?”
“I mean Father has been quite high-handed with the Separatists–perhaps with good reason–but it hasn’t worked so maybe a softer approach may be better,” he answered.
“Oh.” She pinked again. “Well, I think you’d actually like Cara. She’s very smart and–”
“You should go then. Spend the day with her. Eat… food and listen to… loud music. I’m not quite feeling up to it, but you should definitely go.
Forget Father’s approbation and the threat of exile to the Lieran Plane!
” Her face fell at that so he quickly rushed out, “If we’re going to be making friends with Kindreth, why not Separatists too? ” He let out a faint laugh.
His sister eagerly clutched onto his words and nodded eagerly. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot too. I mean… After seeing Illithor, aren’t you amazed at the Kindreth? Not to mention what Declan could do.”
He opened his mouth to scoff at her again and risk her not going to the party.
But really how daft could she be?! Kindreth as their friends?
Admiring those monsters? She wouldn’t have to imagine how humanity felt if the Kindreth marched to war against them.
But then he bit back his sour words as he knew it might delay or even stop her from leaving.
He wanted his sister to go to Hope so that he could leave too.
But he couldn’t completely hide his concerns.
“I admit it makes me glad that the Kindreth’s focus so far has been on going down into the Under Dark rather than coming up here,” he stated and the urge to learn the Luminerian’s secrets crested within him.
If the Kindreth were going to return, the Aravae would need to be able to protect themselves.
Again, humanity was the cautionary tale.
“Well, it has been, but now with Prince Declan here… not to mention how connected he and Uncle seem to be–”
“What do you mean?” He asked more sharply than he intended.
She lifted her eyebrows, but then shook her head. “Oh, Darcassan, I guess I shouldn’t expect you to notice these things as love is never on your mind, but–”
“Wait, are you saying that Uncle Aquilan loves the Night Prince?” His voice dropped lower as he said Declan’s title.
“Ah, yes.” She looked at him with amusement mixed with pity.
“How do you know? I realize he made a deal with… with him, but he’d do that for most anyone to save them. Our Uncle is like that,” he insisted.
If Aquilan had feelings for Declan beyond friendship–if he loved Declan–that would be disastrous. Wouldn’t it?
“He is heroic and selfless like that to be sure.” His sister tapped her chin.
“But it’s so much more than that. How he looks at Declan.
How tender he is when they touch. The way his voice lowers to be soft and sweet.
” Then she gave him an almost saucy smile.
“Not to mention that Declan is sleeping in Uncle’s bed.
If they are sleeping much, I do not know. ”
His mouth closed as his arguments against finding such tentative connections were wiped away by the last piece of information. “You held out on me there, sister.”
She giggled. “Yes, well, I wanted you to see that the other things I noticed foretold the latter.”
“You know that Declan and our uncle being together romantically is not a good thing, don’t you?” He cautioned her.
It was her turn to blink. “What? Why?”
“You can’t be serious that you don’t know? I mean the Kindreth are our ancient enemy–”
“And our even longer friends,” she cut in, lifting her chin defiantly.
“You saw what Declan could do!” he pointed out.
“Yes. And?”
“He’s the son. Can you imagine what the father can do?” He shook his head at her innocence.
“Neither of them attacked us, did they? And he could have. Declan has no reason to,” she said.
“That you know of!”
“If Uncle and he care about one another then there’s even less chance of there being a reason–”
“Until the whole thing falls apart and Declan hates our uncle just like he and Ailduin ended up. Two enemies in the Kindreth, which is not what we need.” Darcassan tossed his head. He really needed to master the Luminerian and fast!
“You don’t know that’s what happened! No one knows except him and Ailduin and he’s not said anything.” She crossed her arms tightly over her chest.
“As if he would tell the truth!” He waved a hand through the air at the very thought of Vex telling the truth about something that important. “You pity me because you think I don’t understand the power of love, but you’re wrong, sister. I know the power of it. It can destroy everything.”
She had left soon after that comment. She hadn’t argued with him about it surprisingly, but instead had just shaken her head and muttered something about seeing the world as a “glass half full” which must be a human saying.
That had him wondering how much time she was spending with Cara Rohannan.
But he shoved that to the back of his mind. He had the Luminerian to make his own.
He glided out of the Eryas Palace with only a few of the staff seeing him leave.
The thing was that they had little magical signature and his own magical senses were still misfiring so he wasn’t attuned to them so it was like they appeared out of nowhere.
Irritating, but there it was. Still, he wasn’t worried as he was certain that they wouldn’t say anything to his father about him leaving as they avoided Vesslan as much as he did.
He went to the stables and saddled Ruven.
His horse seemed to have missed him. He stroked her neck, patting it, before they finally rode out together.
The day was warm and clear. The air burst with the clean scent of growing things as Spring began to take over after Winter’s chill.
He tossed his head back and let Ruven start to gallop.
He wanted to get to the glade. He had to touch the Luminerian.
He couldn’t wait any longer. It was his to possess!
The electric feeling as he passed out from underneath the dome’s protection had him feeling enlivened and he found himself smiling as he headed for the right spot.
His sister might have told him things that dismayed him and complicated the picture for the Aravae’s future, but there was still time and he had taken a massive step towards securing that future by finding the Luminerian.
It has to be fate that I came upon it in that mess of an Armory! There were so many weapons there that I could have easily overlooked that burned and insignificant-looking case, but no! There it was. As if waiting for me…
With his head full of these happy thoughts, Darcassan soon found himself in the secret glade.
It was prettier than he remembered. The trees grew tall and lush all around a clearly defined border.
There was a bubbling brook that meandered through the near center of it.
The grass was not too long yet as mostly it was new shoots bursting from the fragrant earth.
But the best part? He was alone. Blessedly alone.
No father. No uncle. No sister. No one to bother him.
Just him and the Luminerian. Oh, and Ruven.
But she wasn’t ever a bother. He sighed in satisfaction as he slid out of the saddle. He patted Ruven’s rump.
“Go eat wildflowers, but don’t wander too far,” he told her.