{-Casrane-}

While she couldn’t do anything for the travel there, she was able to see where they were going; they walked through the plains, passed the distant Anthalas City, and eventually ended up standing in front of a cave. Shemle messed with something until an entrance opened, then stayed a while longer to close it again.

They were ushered further still, though it was dark enough that Casrane could hardly tell where they were going. Eventually they came into an open room lit by a few candles. The three of them were put in the center and tied there. It wasn’t long after that Shemle mumbled something to the others and they left, leaving the four of them alone.

Casrane was, perhaps, the calmest of them all, though she tried not to make it so obvious—when they thought for themselves, they’d be able to adapt to situations, which in this case definitely would give her a reason to panic. “Do they all work for you?”

“No,” was Shemle’s simple response. He wandered around the room, observing many of the things around him, picking some up while discarding others. “Honestly, I’m nowhere near the position I need to be in order to boss them around. But I know that they’ll listen, so I make sure to take advantage of that.”

The Lady dared a question of her own, “What are you going to do with us?”

“I’m sure Duuzlo’s at least brought up that part. You’re the key to getting what we want… so obviously, we need to have you in our sights until we’re all ready.” He glanced at Casrane. “As for you… you’re only going to cause trouble if I let you out there. We don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“You don’t realize what you’re trying to do,” the Lord mumbled.

Shemle chuckled. “Do I, now? What makes you think that?” He pulled out a book and began to leaf through the pages. “See, I make sure I know exactly what I’m getting into when I sign up for something. I’ve done my research about the whole thing… this could spark a whole new era for the world. A change that would benefit everybody.”

“Benefits everyone that lives to see it,” the Lord corrected. “You have to realize what happened before, don’t you? Everything that happened because the power of the runes was too much for people to just share. What you’re trying to do is unleash all of that and more. For what? What’s a better future for ‘everybody’ if so many others end up sacrificing themselves to get to that point?”

Shemle put the book back and walked up to them. “It’s better to only go through it once than every couple of centuries. What Emmyth did didn’t last. What you’d do wouldn’t make anything of a difference. You’ve just got to see that this is the best option.”

Casrane, during the whole conversation, had been messing with the rope her hands were tied with. It wasn’t done well so it wasn’t too difficult to mess with it long enough for it to come loose; previous knowledge was what mostly helped her here, though mumblings of the guards would’ve helped anyone unfamiliar with what to do. She’d freed herself and then took the easier route of cutting the Lord and Lady’s with a dagger.

Taken by surprise, Shemle stepped back, but quickly regained himself for a fight. “You’re not going anywhere until you get through me!”

They took up the offer and fought. He was stronger than he was as a teammate, now feeling like a boss; still, there wasn’t anything extremely complicated about the battle. They’d finished and had him stunned long enough to find a way out, only able to hear him utter a curse before they were gone completely.

They didn’t stop until they were almost inside Anthalas City. There, they gave themselves a moment to breathe.

“Do you think he’s going to try to find us again?” the Lady asked.

“I have a feeling most of his time is going to be spent trying to explain what happened to the higher ups,” the Lord remarked.

Casrane assured them both by saying, “We won’t have to worry about him anymore, at least. But it’s only the first of a lot of encounters we’re going to have with them. We’ll just have to make sure we’re careful about what we end up getting ourselves into in the future.” She paused, wondering if she really wanted to bring attention to it, then figured she was supposed to anyway. “What was all of that stuff about the ‘everyone that lives to see it’ thing..?”

The Lord, though not without a bit of hesitance of his own, thought of a way to explain it. “The runes—”

They were promptly interrupted by several of the townspeople from earlier. “You’re back!”

“We’d been thinking of trying to find you,” another remarked. “You’ve done so much to help us, it would’ve been the least you could do to help you back. But just as we were going to start lighting some torches and grabbing pitchforks to march across the plains, here you are!”

“Now we can skip right to the part that we were going to do after we rescued you!” a third said enthusiastically. She gestured for them to follow her into the city. “We hope you like it! We didn’t have a lot of time to work on it—it’s only been two hours, after all—but we’ve put every ounce of effort into it.”

It didn’t seem to be much until they reached the heart of the city. What must’ve been the whole city was there, waiting for their time to throw confetti at their heroes. The three of them must’ve looked rather confused by the time they’d reached the town square; or at least, Casrane assumed them to be with the way that Cahacu walked up to them.

“I told you they would have welcomed you with a celebration,” she laughed. “This one’s a double, since they weren’t able to properly greet you the first time and, on top of that, you helped them.”

Casrane gave a wary look at her surroundings, then as quietly as she could so only Casrane could hear it, prompted, “Did you hear about Shemle..?”

Cahacu was surprised for a moment, then gave her a soft smile to show that she appreciated the thought. “They spared no time in shouting about it when the second group returned. I’d like to say it wasn’t really that shocking to hear, but… I’d also be lying to say that I’m just shrugging it off and moving on.” Her tone got much brighter when she gestured to the place around them. “Go ahead and look around! I’m pretty sure they’re going to set up some music soon so it can feel like a real celebration. Go enjoy yourselves! You deserve it. And, uh, you didn’t hear it from me, but Haksima’s over in the corner and may be willing to give you a couple of things for free.” She winked and walked away.

Everyone slowly dispersed from their welcome positions to find something else to do. A chatter soon filled the area and she could vaguely hear the music start.

She glanced at her companions. “So, what do you want to do first? It looks like they have a lot of stuff out for something that they hadn’t really planned for…”

The Lord looked at the Lady and they both nodded. “There’s something we want to tell you, actually,” he remarked. “If we’re going to be running into a lot more people from the Rune Reactivation Project, then I think you deserve to know our names. Duuzlo wouldn’t have wanted us to share them, but I don’t think there’s any reason in trying to hide them now.”

Casrane tried not to look too excited to hear it, patiently waiting for the reveal.

“We’re Llewel and Myriani Beithana,” the Lord said.

“Myriani?” Casrane gave her a soft grin.

“Stuffy, isn’t it?” the Lady laughed.

“Then would you mind if I just called you Myr?”

She smiled. “I’d like that!” She looked around the area, gave her brother a knowing nod, and announced, “I think I’m going to try to find something to do over there.”

Now left alone together, Llewel seemed to fight off some anxieties before holding his hand out in front of Casrane. “I still don’t quite understand what you’re trying to help us do, but… I know it’s something that’s going to help us and I admire you for that. So, would—” He gulped and tried again, motioning with his other hand where the music was coming from. “Would you like to dance?”

Seeing her expression, he quickly explained, “I think it’s time we truly start to make our own decisions. But it’s fine if you—”

Casrane shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Lead the way; just, uh, keep in mind I’m not that good of a dancer.”

He smiled. “Neither am I, if I’m being honest. But I’m sure it’ll be fine as long as we’re together.”