Bran remained silent on the road. As more time passed after the earlier exertion, his body got gradually colder. The wind blowing from the sea didn’t get any warmer, even with the sun already high. With each step he took, he felt an agonizing pain in his leg. He was indeed used to pain, but that didn’t make it less. He was already struggling to keep his breathing normal. He didn’t want to worry Elea.

He looked at her. She was looking down, still brooding over the earlier conversation. Her free hand was clutching her cloak tightly. He envied her for her cloak. His leg was already numb from the pain and the cold. He would start shivering at any moment. He hoped not. He couldn’t show such a sight to the girl.

He was a fool. He knew it. This walk may worsen his injury if he wasn’t careful. The best option would be to hop on the horse. He didn’t do it. He didn’t wish to show Elea how weak and injured he currently was.

Sweat trickled down his brow, and some of it went into one of his eyes. He blinked his eyes in reflex, and he stumbled on a rock. He immediately regained balance, and pain flared through his leg. A cry almost went out of his throat. He stifled it.

He looked at Elea with the corner of his eye. She was looking at him, her lips parting slightly, realization and worry in her eyes. She held a hand toward him and said in a firm voice:

“Bran, lean on me. You are wounded and you can’t walk on your own”

He hid all traces of the agony he was feeling. Schooling his face, he responded with a smile:

“I’m fine. I can keep going, it doesn’t hurt much”

Elea bit her lower lip. She was getting frustrated with his stubbornness. He needed rest. She caught his arm with her outstretched hand, stopping him. Her voice came out authoritative, almost ordering him.

“Bran, stop acting like a child” Her glare met his eyes “If you don’t get on the horse right now, I will definitively make you regret it”

He glared back at her. This was her usual self. She may have been acting meek because of the last events, but she was never such a person. She always asserted her control on him whenever she could, and besides when he took her by surprise, he was completely under her thumb.

He couldn’t let that continue. He felt like he would definitively be dead after two months. If she was so intent on coming with them, he wouldn’t let her see that pathetic side of his anymore. His voice that has already lost all signs of childhood had a slight vibe of cold in it as he said:

“Stop it. I am fine as you see, and the house isn’t that far anymore”

Their eyes kept locked together for some moments. He could see some anger building up in her eyes. He couldn’t back down. His body was shivering, and he did his best to let nothing show on his face.

She bit her lip, and then scoffed at him, turning around. Her voice came out full of anger and annoyance as she said:

“Fine, do as you want, but don’t you dare complain later!”

His eyes slightly widened in surprise. She had let him have it his way this once. He couldn’t believe that. She started walking forward again, not bothering to look at him. He had managed to anger her a lot though. He exhaled the air he had held without noticing. He could feel some pain in his leg.

He started limping behind her, carefully placing each of his steps to not aggravate his wound. He never knew a cracked bone could hurt so much by walking with it. He tried to walk as normally as he could, as to not hear any complaint from the girl in front of him.

The main road they were taking was a road in name only. It was nothing more than a path trampled by horses’ hoofs dozens of times. It was much better than going through the forest, but for him in that state, it was pure torture. He could see rocks and bumps everywhere, and struggled to avoid them.

They were currently taking a huge detour around the forest. It was a bit farther now, but he could still see it. The trees weren’t as high as in other forests he had seen. The soil of this land wasn’t fertile enough to make such trees grow.

They continued to walk forward in silence. He sometimes glanced at Elea, but she thoroughly ignored him. He sure was acting like a child, but that didn’t matter to him right now. He knew his chances of living after this tribulation were extremely slim, and he wished she would remember him as someone proud and independent.

He smiled in self-mockery. He was anything but proud and independent. He was pathetic. He was so pathetic that everyone abandoned him in the end. Everyone but Celek. His uncle was the only person to stand by his side and help him. He was very thankful to him, but was also feeling guilty. Even his uncle will be in huge danger to protect him.

The boy was completely dependent on his uncle. Celek had saved him three years ago, and would try to save him again in the upcoming fight. Bran gritted his teeth, forgetting the pain in his leg. He felt immensely frustrated. He was weak, and again, he would only try to survive, while his uncle would fight for his sake, putting his life on the line. The boy was getting stronger at a very fast pace, but it would never be enough. He would never bridge the huge gap between him and his uncle.

He tightened his grip on the handle of the sword. He hated this feeling of impuissance. He was indeed pathetic, and he could do nothing to change that.

Elea was still ignoring him. That never happened before. Usually, she would start kissing him, or at least she would be pushier. Did today’s events bewilder her that much?

He cursed his luck and the ice bear he fought in the morning. If not for it, he wouldn’t be suffering so much from the cold. After looking at the cloak of the girl for some moments, a thought occurred to him: as she had already seen the state of his completely ripped coat, shouldn’t she have thought about giving him a cloak before setting out? He sighed in regret. He should have asked for it. They were both very distracted at that time. This was the coldest part of the country, as it was close to the glacial waters of the Cappard Sea.

He heard a sigh from Elea. As he looked up, he could see the house a little bit farther. She accelerated in her steps, still ignoring him. He sighed in turn. She would definitively keep acting that way for a long while. One thing he was sure about was that she was very proud and stubborn.

He tried walking slightly faster, making sure to not be hurt further. He had a lot to say to his uncle. He couldn’t spot anyone in front of the house. Celek must be behind it. It wasn’t actually a house. It was merely enough land to hold two beds, covered with a roof. He and his uncle both preferred to live this way, at least for now. They always cooked outside, and they spent all their time training.

He remembered the first time Elea had seen his house. His lips that had turned blue from the cold morphed into a wry smile. It had happened two years ago. She was visiting with her father and the knight, and seemed quite shocked about the state of the house. She had asked him later to come live in the Bourg at her expense. She must have thought they were too poor to afford building a proper house. Contrarily to her assumptions, his uncle had more money than anyone could imagine. They had chosen to live in such a house because they were both uninterested in a luxury life, and preferred to concentrate on training.

He had been bewildered at that time, as he couldn’t find out why she would help him without compensation. Now he had finally understood. She always wanted people around her to be happy, and she tried making him happier at that time. It was a beautiful way of living, albeit a bit naïve. She was very different from him. He was extremely selfish. He had dragged his uncle into his mess, and now he was dragging her too into it. He knew that if he forced her to stay, something will break forever in their bond, as he already stretching the trust between them very thinly by never telling her anything. He was too much of a coward to force her to stay and risk losing her, even if he knew this trip would be dangerous. He could only hope his uncle would find a way to send her back to her father.

Elea had reached the house, and after letting her horse search for something to eat, she had started looking around. He sighed. She wouldn’t find Celek there. As his footsteps got closer to the house, he went around it. The soil had a red hue due to the density of copper in this place. He could see some red erratic huge boulders lying around. This was where they trained, and this was where you’ll find Celek if he was alone. He started trudging forward slowly, making sure to not trip on anything.

Elea must have probably checked the house and found nobody in it, as he could hear her light footsteps a bit farther behind him.

After walking for some moments, he arrived near a boulder three times his height. It was a memorial of sorts to a very old tribe that lived here. It had a weird shape, as if it had been roughly sculpted, but winds of countless years made its shape unrecognizable. He looked up. As expected, Celek was lying on top of it.

He didn’t even wonder how his uncle got there, even if the surface of the boulder was almost smooth. He was already used to this. Celek always did similar things.

His uncle was wearing a long plain coat that was billowing in the cold wind. Underneath, he could see brown wool pants, similar to his own. Celek’s body was completely sprawled on the smooth top of the boulder, his hands at his sides. His slightly long white hair was fluttering freely.

Celek’s eyes were closed. His face held a certain manliness and ferocity that made him stand out. He had white stubble in his chin, and a few wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, even though he was only in his thirties. He still had a wild handsomeness though. At his left cheek, he had a long brown trail on his skin, stretching from the corner of his mouth to his left ear. It was one of the scars he had gotten three years ago to protect Bran. None of the wounds he had gotten that day had healed properly, even with the use of magic. They all became scars.

It seemed like he was sleeping, but Bran knew he wasn’t. His uncle had his brows furrowed like usual, which meant he was deep in thinking. Celek was always brooding on something, his brows furrowed that way.

Elea came up behind him, but she said no word to the boy. He wasn’t sure if his uncle has already noticed their presence, as he was showing no signs of it, remaining in the same sprawled position. Bran finally felt slightly impatient, and in a respectful voice, he called out his uncle’s name.

Celek’s eyelids slowly opened, and a small frown appeared on his face. As he turned his eyes toward them, they first took an unusual blue, and then a beautiful violet color, before settling on a mixture of both. It was always a beautiful sight to behold, and it gave him an otherworldly feeling. Elea had once told Bran that people got the same feeling as they peered into the boy’s eyes.

Celek’s eyes settled on them, and his lips slightly tightened as he saw the girl. They widened slightly afterward, as he noticed the wounds on Bran’s face and his limping leg as the boy got closer to the boulder.

Elea inclined her head slightly in respect toward Celek. The man lifted his upper torso, and then faced them in a sitting position.

As Bran was about to say something, his uncle’s voice, quiet yet steady, rang out, obviously trying to stop a smile from forming on his lips:

“I remember sending you in one piece this morning” Amusement started to seep into his uncle’s voice “I believe only Sir Hadrin Rulf could give you such a beating. What did you do to anger him?”

Bran sighed. His uncle may find this amusing now, but he definitively wouldn’t, after knowing he couldn’t heal. Celek, as if noticing the boy’s mood, starting showing a more serious expression.

Taking it as cue to talk, Bran started to roughly tell his uncle about the spar, and about his inability to heal. Celek’s face betrayed a slight confusion at the beginning, before frowning. His expression was grim.

As Bran finished his story, Celek remained silent and pensive. The boy hoped his uncle would find a way. Anything, as long as it could heal him, or help him. He held on this hope tightly. After some moments, Celek said:

“I think…” His uncle closed his mouth, thinking a bit more. His gaze settled on Elea, who didn’t participate in the conversation, watching from the sidelines. Bran understood him. He couldn’t talk freely in front of her. There were some things that she mustn’t know. Celek opened his mouth again “I think there is a way to heal you. I’m not sure about your case, but there is a different method, and it will probably work”

Bran widened his eyes. He could heal. He felt slightly happier. He felt slightly calmer. It was unusual for him to get luck on his side. He felt a violent wave of emotion trying to burst out of him, but he pushed it down. He tried asking Celek about more details, but his uncle said:

“It can’t be done here. You’ll only be able to meet the person that will heal you in the capital, and it is lucky that we were going to visit him anyway” Celek’s gaze settled again on the girl for a brief moment. Bran, following his eyes, made a slight nod. His uncle was stopping him from talking because of Elea. They couldn’t reveal too much in front of her. They would discuss this once they were on their own. Bran calmed down the feelings storming inside of him.

Celek’s gaze sharpened as it settled on the boy’s sword. With his usual quiet voice, he asked:

“Is that the sword the knight gave you?”

As Bran gave back a curt yes, Celek got up, and started slowly walking toward the edge of the boulder. Bran, knowing what his uncle was about to do, focused more, trying to commit what he was about to see into his memory. Celek looked down at them from the top of the boulder, and then putting one single step in front of him, he put his feet on the copper filled soil, standing right in front of the boy. Bran cursed, and he heard Elea gasp loudly behind him.

He could never comprehend what his uncle did to disappear from the top of the boulder, to appear right in front of him, in less than an instant. He never understood what was happening. He couldn’t even think it was simply speed, as it would never make someone move like that. He could remember three years ago, his uncle had shown much more than that. This person in front of him was defying all the concepts he understood about the world.

He heard a stutter behind him. He turned his head, and he saw Elea, with eyes wide, trying to say something. He sighed. It was her first time seeing this. He could understand her reaction. He was already completely used to seeing his uncle move that way, but to someone else, they would only see a man who was getting close to becoming an existence akin to a divinity. His uncle looked at her, and in just a few moments, she closed her mouth, making no further noise.

Leaning on the boulder with one hand, Bran gave his sword to Celek, who unsheathed it in one flowing motion. He looked at the blade, nostalgia appearing in his eyes for a moment, before disappearing. He gave back the sword to the boy, and then said:

“It is a good sword, but it is lacking in its cutting ability compared to similar ones of its kind. Are you sure you want to use it? I’m not sure I can teach you everything about it in the time left”

Bran smiled. His words came easily as he responded:

“I’m sure about it, Celek” the boy locked eyes with his uncle. The mixture of color was certainly disconcerting to look at “Everything you’ll teach me about it will be much welcome”

Hearing those words, Celek only smiled back.

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A/N: I know you were expecting the chapter a lot earlier, and I apologize for that. I simply experienced my first writer block, even though I already have what will happen in this chapter in my head... thus I could write nothing for quite a while.