***Mili***

We sat in silence for what felt like an eternity. As the reality of what just happened set in, I felt the walls closing in around me.

I was going to leave Anghelen. I was going to spend the next who knows how long travelling with a member of the Family.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

What should I do? Now that they left, I could pack up my things and run away. I wouldn’t have even considered that while they were here, but with a head start maybe it would work? But what about everyone else? They’d come here looking for me in the morning and who knows what that psychopath would do to them if she couldn’t find me. Could we all run? No. Arthen is still too weak, not to mention Guisen and Paran…

Oh fuck. Paran.

I had realized what this would mean for her almost immediately, but my lungs tightened up to the point where I could barely breath as that possibility became a certainty.

She was going to die.

Oh fuck.

Everything was pointless.

Nothing I had done mattered. It was all going to turn out the same no matter what.

A bitter sweat doused me. Was it getting darker? Was the fire going out? I could barely hear the sound of the wood crackling? What was happening?

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.

“Kid? Kid!”

I could tell Guisen was talking, but I could barely hear his voice.

“Mili! Snap out of it! You need to breathe!”

He was grabbing my shoulders. I could tell he was shaking me, but I didn’t really feel it. It was like I was watching him do it from outside of my own body. Then I felt someone else’s hand on my shoulder and he stepped away.

I turned to see Paran sitting in the chair next to me. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around me. Suddenly, everything snapped back into crisp clarity.

My body was heaving and shaking. My cheeks were warm and wet from tears that I didn’t realize I was shedding. My lungs were burning as I wasn’t able to take a full breath in.

The gentle pressure of her hands grounded me back in my body, but it also reminded me of why this was happening in the first place. My heaving breaths turned into wailing sobs as I collapsed into her embrace.

I cried like that for longer than I care to admit.

--- --- ---

“A-alright…” my raspy voice cracked out as I sniffed and tried to gather everyone’s attention.

I lost track of the time I spent crying, but when I finally managed to pull myself back together, I just felt hollow and empty. I had tried to gather myself enough to start looking forward to what needed to be done, but each time I tried, the emotions came rushing back in. I think it was the third time that I was finally able to keep everything under control.

“First things first. What are we going to do with Kene?”

She looked around confused. She had been asleep for most of Urthal Vath’s visit, so she was probably lost about what was happening, but she still didn’t seem to want to speak. Even then, I don’t know if it was just my… heightened emotional state… but she did seem to be more engaged with what was going on. She was actually looking at me as I spoke and the confusion was obvious. It wasn’t an ideal circumstance, but it was at least an improvement on the vacant, misdirected stares that had become the norm over the last month.

“It seems like we only have two options: either she stays here or she comes with us. I would love it if there was some third option, but I don’t think we’ll have that luxury.”

“Of course she’s going to stay here,” Guisen immediately cut in, not even hesitating for a second. “I gave my word, same as you Mili. She’ll be welcome in this house for as long as she needs to be. She’ll be safer here than wandering around in that wretched forest.”

I understood his intensity, but it wasn’t going to be that easy. I had seen how the people of Anghelen reacted to her presence. Guinang was particularly aggressive about it. The Helefiran is nowhere near as treacherous as Guisen seems to think, but under normal circumstances it would undoubtedly be more dangerous than a settlement like Anghelen for a child. But unfortunately these weren’t normal circumstances.

“I was already planning to take her with me when I returned to the Helefiran. You haven’t left the house much this past month, but people are not happy about her being here. I don’t think most of the townsfolk will do anything particularly bold, but all it will take is Guinang having a bad day to make this a non-viable situation for her. The problem isn’t the forest; it’s Urthal Vath. I don’t know anything about her. She seemed eager to have Kene come with us, but I don’t know why. I’d like to think that she has good intentions, but everything about her stinks of some ulterior motive.”

Guisen looked legitimately surprised by that. He almost looked offended.

“Why are you worried? She’s a member of the Imperial Family. She wouldn’t do anything unbecoming of that position.”

What? His response caught me off guard. Was I wrong about the Family?

“Well… I had just heard stories about them… and the way that she spoke to me. Wait a minute... Yeah! She threatened to kill me if I ran!”

He looked at me just as shocked as before.

“I mean, that’s a given. You don’t just run away from a member of the Imperial Family when they come to pay you a visit, if you ever get that privilege. They are representatives of The Light given form. Turning them away would be like shunning life itself.”

He said it as if it was completely natural, but he almost started to take on the same affection as the other people in Anghelen when they talked about The Light.

I wanted to trust Guisen’s judgement, but his words didn’t put my mind at ease at all.

“What about you, Paran?”

“Personally, I’d love to have her stay around for a little longer, but I think there’s someone more important to ask,” she said, looking pointedly over at Kene.

While Kene had obviously been silent throughout all of this, the scowl on her face made it clear that she was having thoughts about all of this.

What could it hurt?

“Do you understand the situation Kene?”

Nobody had fully explained what was going on to her, but she must have picked up on the context clues. She nodded.

“Good. Do you have a preference? Would you rather stay here or come with me?”

She glanced between the faces of everyone gathered there, then set her eyes on the ground.

“I don’t want to stay here…” she said, barely a whisper.

That did surprise me a little, but as I thought back to her meltdown from earlier in the evening, it made sense.

Guisen and Paran seemed a little bit saddened by her response, but both nodded solemnly.

“Well… Since neither of you are on the same page about how to handle your promise, maybe we should have her count as the tiebreaker,” Paran said.

That was probably the first thing about this whole conversation that I didn’t really mind. I honestly had no clue what the best move was, so it felt good to let something that simple decide it.

“Alright. That’s fine with me. What about you, Guisen?”

“I still don’t like sending her out there, but there isn’t really anything else to do…”

“Then it’s decided. Kene, go start putting together a bag. I’ll come help once we’re done here, but we’ll be leaving early tomorrow so you should get to sleep as soon as possible.”

She nodded solemnly and went off to start putting together what few things she had. It wasn’t much, so it shouldn’t take too long.

Makat was also standing there and I realized how confused he must be. I also realized that now was probably the best time to take him back home as well, so I quickly explained what was happening and told him to get ready as well. Urthal Vath seemed open to having others come along, so I figured I’d at least ask. In stark contrast to everyone else, his face lit up when I told him where we’d be going. That at least lightened my heart a touch.

Now...

“Then the next order of business is-” the words caught in my throat as the emotions came welling back up.

She must have noticed.

“Is it me,” Paran asked frankly.

I nodded.

“There’s not much to discuss, is there? Look Mili,” she said as she stood. She had hardly walked since waking up and her legs barely wanted to support her weight. Guisen immediately went to lend her a hand, but she waved him off. She moved over to stand behind me and wrapped me in a gentle hug.

“You gave me a miracle. The way I see it, if it hadn't been for that, I would have already passed on. This last month has been a beautiful gift that you have given me, and I am grateful beyond words for it, but that is all it is. A gift. My life was never your responsibility or obligation to begin with. You leaving is not a betrayal or a failure on your part, it is simply allowing everything to return to the status quo. The way it was meant to be.”

“But-”

“No ‘but’s. I want you to think about what you have given me in a positive way. You did me a great service, and I would be failing you if I let you think that you had failed me.”

I opened my mouth to try and say something else, but It didn’t matter. I heard what she was saying and really wanted to believe it, but I just couldn’t get my heart to accept it. Still, it seemed important to her that I accept her words, so I just nodded.

“At least let me treat you one more time…”

She smiled as she pulled away from me and staggered back over to her seat.

“That would be wonderful.”

“Alright, let’s go ahead and do that now.”

“No. I know how much it takes out of you and you’ve still got someone else to deal with,” she said, nodding over toward Arthen, who was still sitting slumped against the wall where the guards had left him. “Save me for last. I’ll wait up for you.”

She nodded over to Guisen, who quickly went to pick her up and move her to their bedroom, leaving me alone at the table to gather my thoughts.

There was so much to explain to him that I had to make a list in my mind just to keep it all straight. First, who Urthal Vath was and why she had come to visit. Second, why I wasn’t able to speak with him while she was here. Third, where I was going and what we were going to do about him.

The first two took quite a few exchanges to get their meaning across, but he seemed to pick up on what I was saying well enough. It seemed like he had gotten a decent idea of her position just by watching our interactions before we even started. He also quickly realized that I was saying I couldn’t use my powers around her, but he had far more problems understanding why. He kept digging for a reason, but I just couldn’t find a concise set of memories to explain it all. I was still feeling mentally dulled from everything that happened earlier, so after a certain amount of time I just gave up and forced him to move on.

When we got to the third, I got thrown another curveball.

I was planning to just have him stay here until this whole thing was over. Not only was his condition not nearly fit enough to travel, having him around Urthal Vath would just be asking for trouble. She already seemed to dislike him, but it might also lead to her putting pieces together about how we interacted. It was just far too risky.

But as soon as I mentioned where we were going and that Kene would be coming with us, he immediately started insisting that he be allowed to come too. I tried explaining why he couldn’t, but he just became a stone wall. The only thing he would respond with was the memory he had already shown me of him stepping through the metal platform that brought him here.

Eventually, I just gave up. I’d let him think he was coming, but I’d look for any excuse in the morning to leave him behind. Ideally, Urthal Vath would give me ample reason. She probably wouldn’t be too keen on having dead weight come along on such a time-sensitive mission, so it should be as easy as asking her for permission and being turned down.

With that sorted out, I got to work finishing everything else. Kene and Makat had already gotten themselves sorted out by the time I was done with him and had fallen asleep, so I packed a bag of my own and then went back to Guisen and Paran’s bedroom. I went through the rote movements of treating her, trying to do as thorough of a job as possible to give her as much time as I could. Once I could barely stay on my feet, she refused to let me do any more and had Guisen help me out to bed.

It was probably past midnight by the time everything was sorted out.

As soon as I hit the pile of pelts, I was out.

I had planned on waking up early to put myself together before Urthal Vath’s party arrived, but I woke up with a jolt at the sound of creaking wood wheels outside.

The fatigue was briefly replaced by the shock of adrenaline as I realized how little time I had. Sure enough, I could only just make out the faintest hints of dawn peeking in through the boarded up hole in the wall. When she said we’d leave at dawn, she meant it. Kene and Makat were already up, as were Guisen and Arthen, so I guess I was the last one.

I quickly shot up and did what I could to make myself presentable as I heard the knock at the door. Guisen went to open it, but it sung upen before he had the chance to. A pair of the guards stepped in and flanked the entry as Urthal Vath’s imposing form ducked under the doorway and stood over us, glaring down at me in particular.

“Well. Are you ready to go?”

“Y-yes, I should be.”

Then her eyes snapped over to Kene.

“And what of her?”

“We d-decided it would be best for her to come as well...” I paused as I tried to figure out how to broach the subject of bringing Makat and Arthen, but before I could figure it out she spoke with a sigh.

“You are hesitating. Is there something else that you need to discuss? If it’s about your work with Kelaren, I saw to it that Guinang let her know about your situation.”

I had actually been worried about not being able to let people know where I was going, so that was an unexpected weight off my shoulders, but it didn’t really help with my problem..

“N-no, that wasn’t it. I was wondering… I explained Makat’s situation to you last night. I was planning on escorting him back home soon and the campsite is only a few hours travel away from his village. Would it be okay for him to come with us as well?”

Her face went still, but it wasn’t the same look of irritation she had worn before. It was more cold and calculating than that.

“That could work in our favor. You said that you were on good terms with the people in the village, correct?”

“Y-yes?”

“Good. If it is as you say and not all of the Elves are threats, then that will be a good opportunity to make sure. It will also be good to get it outside of our borders as soon as possible.”

One down.

“Okay then. Could I also ask about bringing Arthen along? He’s not in the best physical shape, so he might slow us down a little.”

I instinctively flinched. I had purposefully asked in as obtuse a way as I could to make sure that she turned it down, but as I was finishing the sentence the realization of who I was speaking to dawned on me again and I worried that I had gone too far.

However, she just looked at me in surprise.

“I assumed that was a given. I said last night that I was treating it as an extension of yourself. I couldn’t just let it stay within our borders unaccompanied.”

Oh…

“Are you sure, he’s still recovering. He’ll probably slow us down.”

“I already accounted for that,” she said, stepping back and gesturing out to the cart of supplies she had brought with her. It wasn’t full. There was more than enough empty space for Arthen and Kene.

Oh…

Shit…

“If that’s all there was, then let’s get moving. We’re wasting time standing around like this.”

There was nothing else to really say at that point.

I turned around to give Guisen and Paran a final goodbye, but we had said most of what needed to be said last night. I gave them each a simple embrace and that was that.

We set out.