Chapter 26: The Truth Approaches

(Kalan)

The wind blew past me, deafening my surroundings as I flew at full speed towards Arkville, the town that the girls were unrightfully sent to.

The closer I drew to their location, the more relief and anxiety swelled within me, along with the ever growing fear of the past once again repeating itself.

‘I spent all these years training to grow stronger. I even learned to fly to make sure that I’d never be too late again, but has it really gotten me anywhere? Here I am still being thrown through a loop of never ending worry.’

While this trip usually would take about a week for someone like Ryla, the ability to fly took the travel time down to a little over a day. Yet even with that, I never felt slower. Looking around after passing over yet another mountain, I knew I had about a third of the way to go.

‘No. Doubting myself right now will only make things worse. They have Ryla with them, who alone could defeat most others or even escape with the girls in tow with little difficulty, and that is not taking their abilities into consideration.’

‘They aren’t completely defenseless on their own, if what I heard about the tournament is true. I need to just focus on getting there as quickly as possible.’

Forcing the thoughts to the back of my mind, I quickly pushed more mana through my veins, bursting a few, as I pushed myself to move even a little bit faster.

Along the way here, I’d seen vast grasslands, large thick forests with abundance in wild life, rivers, lakes, and many mountains.

But now, that landscape has all but disappeared. Almost nothing remained of the lush greenery and plains of Eden. Sand stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see.

The Borderlands, the land which the gods scorned.

Brutality and savagery; two things commonplace within these arid and dusty winds. These empty deserts are nothing but full of rat infested ghost villages, hungry deserters, and other misplaced individuals who, like everyone else, will do anything for a bite of food or the flash of coin.

What crimes had the people here committed, so as to warrant a punishment such as this? Only the gods would know…

Somehow being lost in my distractions, I nearly missed it. A mana signature I’d recognize anywhere; Ryla.

I felt adrenaline overwhelm my body, causing the mana to circulate even stronger and almost instantly I was cratering right into the path of a swiftly moving mass of shadow.

On reflex her mana surged, ready to defend herself, until she recognized who had cut her off and reformed out of the blackness.

“K-Kalan is that you?”

I could do nothing but stare.

“Kalan?”

“Wh-where are the girls?”

“Wait, what are you talking about? The girls are back at the capital, Eve hadn’t even woken up yet.”

“What do you mean they aren’t here? I was told they were sent with you.”

Her eyes widened and she stumbled a little.

“Kalan, you… you didn’t send me on this mission, did you?”

“No… What? Why do you think I sent you?”

The confusion on her face was erased as her expression turned hard.

“Edwards said that you sent an order through our spy network. I-I was suspicious of it but I didn’t think…”

Edwards has always been a bastard but this is something else entirely. Not only did he falsify my orders but he lied directly to me about it. There’s no way he didn’t know I’d find out…

I closed my eyes and breathed, attempting to suppress the raging fire threatening to take over again..

Don’t lose control Kalan. Focus. Don’t assume, look at facts. Don’t be emotional.

“Tell me everything Edwards told you.” I barked, much harsher than I intended. So much for control.

“About a week after you left the Archbishop called for me. He told me that you were deep in Satanist territory... Someplace called the Third Ring, I think. He said that you were unable to send normal communications and sent a message through our spy network to the Cardinal, who passed it on to him and then to me. I thought- knew it was odd but…”

“But?”

She looked down, her bangs covering her shadowed eyes and spoke with a voice so small I could have sworn it was the wind.

“I thought you were still angry with me.”

The pang in my chest was instantaneous. I’ve screwed up a lot apparently.

“I was never angry with you, Ryla. I was mad at myself for not being there and being unable to deal with my own feelings about what happened.”

She looked up at me slightly with reddened eyes. I was taken aback a bit as never having seen Ryla look so... vulnerable before.

“My faith in you has never wavered in all these years, I trust you more than anyone else. If I truly didn’t trust you anymore, I wouldn’t have entrusted you with the girls.”

Thinking this was going pretty well I was quite surprised when she frowned deeply at my words.

“And yet I left them alone…”

I winced.

“No.. that.. I… I’m not very good at this,” I admitted.

“You’re not.” She agreed immediately, the smallest hint of a smile on her lips.

“So” Ryla started after a brief moment of silence between us, “the girls weren’t at the capital when you arrived?”

I shook my head. “When I found the medical room empty I sensed for their mana and found no traces within around 100 miles.”

“Where could they be?” Ryla wondered aloud.

A very good question.

It would have been impossible for anything to happen to the girls while inside the captial.

There are way too many prying eyes, especially for such a high profile pair. Even neighboring towns would be too closely watched. There would have been some word of them somewhere. With their levels, they couldn’t have gone very far, which leads me back to the beginning... There should have been some word of them.

My thoughts went in circles for a bit until Ryla voiced her own concern.

“What would the archbishop even want with the girls?”

I blinked in surprise, not having realized Ryla hadn’t caught on.

“I’m not sure of their intent towards the girls but it’s because of me, just like-”

A suspicion, no, the very hint of a suspicion cut me off. No... Edwards was a bastard, but he was a holy bastard. Hell, he had been in the church nearly as long as I had been. But… The timing, his blatant overreach, the roundabout he tried to send me on. Taking them as an option fits.

“Cartoria.”

“What about it?” She asked, puzzled by my random outburst.

“That's where the girls are.” I nodded in agreement with myself the longer I thought about it.

Cartoria was a neighboring town, within range for the girls to travel to, that was almost openly friendly towards satanists. I had always kept an eye on it but nothing ever came up, nothing at all. If you want to disappear, or cause someone to disappear without a trace, that is where you go.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t return to the capital first and get the answers out of Edwards? To be sure?”

I shook my head. “That’s what he wants. He even made it clear that he would remain there for some time. So screw him, I’m changing the plan.”

Ryla took a deep breath and nodded. It was all connecting for her too, but we had a day or so of travel to iron out the details as she processed them.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and expanded my aura. A translucent, golden bubble grew around her body as I linked her to me. Her travel speed was impressive but nothing compared to flight. My mind swirled and my instincts flared, yet even still, I hesitated for another moment.

“Ryla, before we head out, I have a request.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Amelia)

“Alright Eve. Let’s finalize the plan for tonight, okay?”

“Yeah, I think we’ve gathered all the intel we can from the outside.” She smiled a little bit, “It’s almost like all that information was set up to help us infiltrate the main base.” .”

While Eve and I hadn’t been here long, we had managed to find lots of things in a short time. Such as a map layout of the base here, the entrance by tailing a few soldiers we’d seen leaving the bar, guard patrol hours, and a few more things

It honestly came as quite a surprise to the two of us, for our first mission. We’d gotten quite the important job, and things had so far been going quite smoothly.

And we finally felt like we’d gathered enough information to move onto the next step of our plan: infiltrating the base itself to see what we could find, and maybe we’d even find enough to be able to head home.

“So looking at the map there are three entrances, one on the north, south, and west. After scouting the base itself we’ve gathered enough data to know that the west gate is the most lax with its guards, but it’s also the farthest from the main office.”

“Yeah, and the gate on the south is the most strictly guarded but also the closest to the office. What do you think?”

“I was thinking we should try the north gate. There’s not as much security compared to the south, and a decent bit closer than the west gate. What about you?”

“I think we should play it safe, and go for the west gate. As smoothly as this has gone so far, one mistake and everything comes tumbling down. It’s better we take as little risk as possible.”

We both sat in silence for a few moments, working over the pros and cons of each plan.

“Okay, we will go with your plan. Tonight, at midnight, when the guards go inside, we will sneak in. We’ll only have ten minutes between the guard changes to slip back out unnoticed.”

“If it’s you and I, I’m confident in our abilities.” She held out her fist and gave me a dazzling smile.

“Of course, we do make quite the team after all.” I winked and met her fist with mine, imbuing a slight amount of ice into hers to surprise her.

“Then it’s settled, tonight at midnight. We may as well try to get some rest before we go.” She continued, pretending to not have been surprised by the chill running up her arm.

“Yeah, you’re right we should. By the way, how are you feeling?”

She gave me a resigned smile, “I’m feeling better, I’d reckon I’m even better than the morning before the tournament. Having you here with me really helps. I don't know what I’d do without you. ”

“I know, I know, I’m just amazing, huh?”

“Pfft, whatever.” She said, rolling her eyes.

“We really have to thank Kalan and Ryla when we see them. Those healers really outdid themselves. It’s a miracle you’re even able to walk normally, even now, let alone go on a mission.”

“Haha, yeah….” She said, scratching her left palm.

‘I guess it’ll never go away, no matter how hard those healers try.’

I felt a little bad for her. Ever since she woke up, it seems like she can’t forget it. The scar on her hand was a constant reminder of her failure and nothing could change that.

“Well, you must be tired with that kind of talk,” I chuckled, “ Get some rest, Goodnight- or afternoon I guess.”

“Good afternoon.” She smiled back.

An hour or so later I lay in bed across from Eve, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was truly okay. No matter how much she told me she was okay, I couldn’t help this nagging feeling I kept having in my chest.

Her earlier words replayed in my head as sleep drew nearer. I had brushed past them at the time because of how cheesy they were but honestly… “Same,” I whispered. Eventually dozing off myself, my hand resting on hers.