Chapter 47
Human Customs
Alianna slowly opened her eyes. The room around her was blurry, and her head pounded like it was being cleaved in two. A groan escaped her, and she saw the faint outline of somebody hurrying towards her.
“Ali,” she heard a familiar voice say. The voice was filled with relief, with happiness, as hands came to cup her face.
She knew those hands.
She felt lips brushing her cheek gently, a hand resting on her own, as the person spoke again.
“Oh, Ali. Thank the gods. Ykava said you would wake, but – I was beginning to think she may have been wrong…”
Alianna’s vision cleared, and she blinked. Her heart skipped a beat as the figure in front of her now became clear. Those eyes, that floppy dark hair, that ethereal beauty. Now enhanced by a strange, iridescent glow that seemed to emanate from him.
“Rionan,” she breathed, her voice hoarse. “What happened?”
Alianna tried to push herself up into a sitting position, but the room spun, and she flopped back down onto the bed.
“Easy,” Rionan soothed, propping a pillow behind her. “Let me get you some water. I can tell you everything that happened as soon as we know you’re alright. I need to get Ykava – I will be back.”
Ykava, the High Healer that Alianna had been introduced to at their camp, returned with Rionan within a few minutes.
Rionan sat at the foot of the large bed that Alianna was resting on as Ykava looked over her, examining her with her healing gifts, running her hands over Alianna’s body.
Alianna felt a warmth pulsing from Ykava’s hands.
The High Healer kept her eyes closed while she worked.
Rather than ask questions, Alianna looked around.
She was in a large bedroom with a huge four-poster bed. If she weren’t sitting in the room with a Xanthian other than Rionan, she might have thought she was back in The Rinniel.
The room was bedecked with marble tiles and dark wooden furniture.
An armoire, a desk, and white velvet chairs which were accented with golden finishings.
To the left, there were double doors which opened up to a balcony.
A warm breeze entered the room from outside.
Alianna could see the clear sky, free of clouds, an inviting summer blue.
She looked to Rionan, who sat there, glowing softly as though he had been blessed by the Gods. His face was unchanged, and he wore an expression of pure pride and adoration. His eyes were fixed on Alianna, a twinkle in that familiar pastel blue.
“She is well, My Lord,” Ykava finally spoke, rising from where she had perched on the bed beside Alianna. “No obvious cause for the headache, so I can only assume it is a side effect of falling in the – ”
Rionan shot Ykava a look which caused her to pause her sentence. She looked to Alianna with a smile. “A side effect of the difficulties she has experienced. One that I hope will pass very soon. If you need anything further, I will be near.”
Ykava bowed to them both and swept from the room, leaving Rionan gazing at Alianna. She felt an intense sensation bloom in her chest and allowed her head to rest back on the plush pillow that was propping her up.
“How is everyone else? How is Thallax? How is – ”
Alianna stopped short, the words getting caught in her throat, as the final moments of the battle came back to her.
Ulreah.
Her eyes clouded with tears, and she looked at Rionan, whose face had become solemn.
“Ali,” he started, “Ulreah…he is gone. He could not be saved.”
Alianna felt the air leave her lungs like she had received a punch to the gut.
Tears slid down her face as she remembered what had happened.
She remembered him unleashing himself on the enemy forces, including the Amassa that fought for Rannirr.
Being overwhelmed when he had to focus so intensely on watching both the ground and the skies.
The Amassa that ended his life with such cruelty, dropping him to the ground like a child’s plaything.
His final words to her as he kept his vow to his Lord.
“I’m so sorry, Rionan,” Alianna spluttered, choking on her words. “He kept his promise. He stayed with me. If I’d moved faster, if I’d hurried, maybe things would be different. I should have hurried.”
Alianna’s tears were falling fast now. Rionan sat down beside her on the bed, brushing some away with the back of his hand.
“You did not do anything to cause this,” he said quietly. “Ulreah died saving this Realm. He will never be forgotten. I will ensure it.”
Rionan’s expression was unreadable, but Alianna noted the grief that stirred in her chest for the Stormbringer.
For several long moments, neither of them spoke.
“What happened, Rionan? I remember seeing Rannirr. I remember running. I couldn’t get the stone out of that damn bag. What happened?”
Rionan took a deep breath. “Are you comfortable? This is quite the story.”
Rionan recounted everything that had happened.
He told her of Rannirr finding him on the battlefield. Of Rannirr scenting his and Alianna’s bond, and disappearing off to the ramparts to find her. His eyes had clouded with tears as he paused his story, like he was wrestling with something that brought him physical pain to think about.
He told her what he knew of her falling in to the Well. He froze as he said the words, taking deep, shuddering breaths, before regaining his composure.
He told her that he suspected she was carrying the stone when she entered the Well, and unleashed the power of the four Lords directly within the Well, as they had planned.
Alianna gasped as Rionan told her of the new power that dwelled within him, and that he had been able to destroy the entire enemy force, including Rannirr.
That had all happened ten days ago.
Alianna had been unconscious for ten days.
She had remained inside Rionan’s bedroom in Savangrad. The same room they now sat in. He had reclaimed his ancestral home now that Rannirr had been wiped from Xanthia.
As Rionan spoke of the Well, Alianna vaguely recalled what had happened.
She told him about Rannirr taunting her, and her realisation that she had a choice: die by his hand, or die by her own.
Rionan gripped her hand tightly, his face pained, as she continued her story.
She remembered how she had pushed off of Rannirr to fall into the Well, expecting to be obliterated by the power within it.
“I can’t remember anything after that, until waking up here,” Alianna finished. Rionan looked at her tenderly, his eyes soft with what looked like an apology.
“How, exactly, am I here? After falling into the Well?”
“That is a really good question,” came another male voice. Alianna and Rionan both turned to see Thallax standing in the doorway, a smile on his face. “Good to see you awake, Ali. You gave us all quite the scare.”
“Thallax,” said Alianna, grinning broadly. “It is so good to see you. Your partner, your child – have they come home?”
Thallax seemed to wince. “Not just yet. There are a few things we need to take care of in Xanthia, first. All in good time. Rionan can talk you through that. This is about you right now, and Rionan was going to tell you how it is that you are still here.”
Rionan looked towards Thallax. “It was Thallax that found you first. He picked you up and carried you to Ykava.”
Alianna looked between Rionan and Thallax, waiting for one of them to continue the story. Thallax rolled his eyes, sweeping into the room and plonking himself down on a chair at the end of the bed.
“To put it bluntly, you were just floating above the Well, Ali. You should have been…well, not that. Nobody has ever heard of this happening in the history of our people. But there you were, floating above the Well. Unconscious, but unharmed.”
Alianna blinked at Thallax as Rionan began speaking.
“Ykava thinks that it is because we are bonded.
You fell into a Well of my power, and you hold a fragment of my soul within you.
The power in the Well would not harm me – it is mine.
The most likely explanation is that the power in the Well could not discern between the two of us, and did not harm you, either. "
“You’re damn lucky, Ali,” Thallax breathed. “Lucky that you two had such strong feelings towards each other that you bonded, even if you didn’t know it was going to happen. Any other circumstance, and – well. We don’t need to talk about other circumstances, because that didn’t happen.”
Alianna nodded slowly, trying to wade through the information she had been presented with. It would have been easier if it weren’t for the awful headache.
“So, you are saying,” she asked, “nobody in the history of your people has ever been left unharmed… by falling into the Well of somebody that they are bonded to?”
“It is recommended that you avoid jumping into the Wells of any of the Lords, if you value your existence,” Thallax huffed.
“It is even less likely that somebody who is bonded to a Lord of Xanthia would – I don’t know – just throw themselves into their Well.
Thankfully, we met this human girl who managed to put the theory to the test for us, while we were in the throes of battle. ”
Thallax gave her a soft smile and stood, going to the fruit bowl nearby to pick up an apple.
Alianna wondered if she should speak to Thallax about Ulreah.
She couldn’t shake the vacancy of Ulreah’s stare as the life faded from him.
She couldn’t shake the ruby red of his blood, its stain spreading across the perfect picture of storms personified.
As if sensing her thoughts, Rionan squeezed her hand and shook his head. Grief washed over his face as he locked eyes with Alianna.
“Not now, my love,” he whispered, leaning forward and kissing her tenderly. “Rest. There will be much time to mourn those lost before the land can begin to heal. Korva is in the process of arranging a service to say goodbye to those we have lost, and to thank them for their sacrifice.”