Chapter 4 #2
Alissa was mad at him at first, believing he would leave the city and never come back, abandoning her and her mother behind.
It was only years later that Alissa understood her father never intended to leave Bryniard without his family.
He, as a huntsman, was merely accompanying that man and his boy across the wall safely, to protect them from the monsters on the outskirts of Bryniard.
That was the reason they believed the wall was built in the first place: to keep the people safe from the beasts on the other side.
Of course, her father, always so brave and benevolent, would agree to help two poor souls escape.
Alissa never learned the reasons those two had to risk leaving; maybe they were seeking desperate measures as Alissa was right now, while she, too, considered escaping Bryniard.
All she knew was that whatever their motivations were, they took an extraordinary man’s life away.
They took a father from a daughter, and that was a terrible waste.
Some people believed the monsters outside Bryniard were two-headed, furred beasts with talons the size of a human, and poisonous tails.
Others swore their skin was made of scales and that the multiple eyes on the beast’s body had the power to drain life just by resting upon someone.
There were even those who claimed the monsters to be the size of a rat but blessed with a mouth that could stretch open to hold an adult living inside their body for days until the acid of their organs slowly deteriorated the body into mush.
All the stories had one thing in common: the belief that when anyone had enough courage to cross those walls for the first time, the beasts would celebrate the feast with a growling strong enough to tear down the walls of Bryniard.
But that night, Alissa didn’t hear the snarling or the growling that would be expected from the monsters.
She only heard sounds that resembled a battlefield, not exaggerated, big-fanged teeth tearing human bodies apart.
Against all the rumors, men had reached the other side, but the walls were still standing.
Whatever surprised them on the other side of that wall was not an animal.
Alissa was never the same after the events that unfolded that night.
She lost her father. Only days later, it was her mother who left this world, not bearing to live a life without him.
Alissa was left behind. Alone. For years.
Despite her community’s support, Freyah and her parents were her only family for those eight years until Dhalia was born.
She informed everyone in Bryniard that her parents had drowned in the lake and conducted a sham service to prevent suspicion about the true events.
She kept what she had witnessed that night a secret from everyone except her closest friend.
This was why Freyah would never endorse her friend’s attempt to leave and risk ending up like her father and the other fools who had willingly walked to their deaths alongside him.
After what happened, she was no longer the little girl who dreamed of adventuring beyond the wall.
She had buried that part of herself deep inside when she realized the dangers she had put herself and her friend into—those same dangers that led her father to his death.
While she still had the determination to discover whatever had awaited her father on the other side, the very thing that had claimed his life, she eventually accepted that she would never attempt to leave again.
That is, until that moment.
“This is different, Freyah.” Her voice was low, and she stared at the ground, avoiding her friend’s gaze.
“How is this different, Alissa? I will not let you go on with this madness again.” Freyah spoke for minutes nonstop, accusing Alissa’s recklessness of being the potential cause of their deaths.
“She’s next, Freyah!” Alissa snapped, interrupting her friend’s lecture. She was yelling, eyes swollen with tears from the memories of her father and the acknowledgment of her daughter’s fate. Her emotions were gaining the upper hand.
Freyah was startled at Alissa’s sudden blow-up. Her eye widened in surprise, but Alissa’s visible state of emotional pain made her realize this wasn’t a matter of recklessness anymore; this was something else.
“What do you mean, she’s next?” Freyah’s hands gently searched for Alissa’s, giving her courage.
Alissa held a deep breath and closed her eyes. She thought maybe saying it with her eyes closed would make it easier. It didn’t. “Dhalia. She is next in line for Senectus. She’s dying, Freyah.”
The red-haired woman froze, chuckling as if none of the words out of her friend’s mouth made any sense. “That’s impossible.”
She looked at her friend, hoping she would then burst into laughter, admitting it had been an awful joke, but Alissa’s sorrowful look said it all.
“How do you know?” she asked, finally breaking out of her state of petrification.
“I just know. Trust me. I’ll explain later.” The heavy atmosphere was what made Freyah really understand that her beloved niece would not live to see the following summer. She took her trembling hands to her mouth in shock, her eyes letting the first tear slip away.
“Is this why you want to leave?”
Alissa nodded. “I believe the answer to saving her could be beyond Bryniard. There’s nothing in here that could help me save her, but maybe on the other side, I can find answers.” She cleared her throat, but it didn’t help her voice from shaking when she said, “I can’t let her die, Frey.”
Her friend nodded and pulled Alissa by the wrists inside her house. They continued their conversation alone in the bedroom.
“So, what’s the plan?”
Alissa shrugged. She had come up with a thousand ideas on the way there. They all seemed worthless now.
“So, you’re telling me you want to do the one thing that is explicitly known to be ill-advised in our city, risking getting yourself killed, and probably will, but you haven’t got any idea how to do it…”
“Yes.” She nodded. “You were always the smartest of us, Frey. I bet you can come up with something that will work out.”
Boosting her friend’s self-esteem had proven to be the most efficient way for Alissa to get what she wanted. She could almost see the wheels of her friend’s mind turning at a speed she could never keep up with.
“I have an idea,” Freyah said, lighting a spark of hope in her friend’s heart.