Huge thanks to Hunny to helping me finish this last minute ♥
Chapter 18:
New Mission
The dim orange light of the rising sun hugged the horizon as the cool autumn air entered through the crack at the bottom of the wooden window. Silas was woken up early in the morning by the sound of heavy knocking at his door. Quickly getting up, still dressed in his training uniform from last night, Silas quickly combed down the flyaway hairs on his head and approached the door, grabbing the doorknob with a tight grasp and a sigh of exhaustion before opening it.
"Pardon the early wake up call, Captain." Looking at the unknown man's black uniform, Silas knew it was a knight from the travel squad. They were a group of traveling knights that would roam the country doing reconnaissance missions and fighting back troops attempting to sneak into the Yursear kingdom.
"No need." Silas was tired, but he forced himself to stand upright. His eyes were heavy with sleep. For the past two days, he had been scouring the streets, trying to get information on the elusive singer, but no one knew anything about her, except she was from "out east". Even the band she traveled with knew nothing about her, saying she was an incredibly private person. They noted how other than meeting to practice or perform, she did not pass so much as a greeting to them.
"What do you need?" Silas said, looking at the cool soldier.
"A letter for you, Captain." The unfamiliar knight grabbed a letter from his satchel and passed it to Silas with one hand. The letter was sealed with red wax and pressed with the royal insignia. Obviously, it had been an order passed down from the king. Without waiting, Silas peeled open the letter and read the contents over quickly. The ink was still fresh and smelled as if it had been written that morning.
"Captain Silas of the Faelfier Royal Knights," The letter stated. Silas's eyes trailed over the words written in the common Empire language as he stood, clutching the letter in his right hand with his tried expression. Silas's eyes widened as his gaze fixed on to the body of the letter, his previously tired expression becoming more lively.
"Change of plans. Meet me as soon as you receive this letter at the stables just outside of town. I'll be waiting with the proof." The elegant elven writing was no doubt Eva's. It was written the same exact style as before, causing Silas to question Eva's background more than before.
"Thank you." Silas responded quickly, tearing up the letter as soon as he had finished reading the contents. He took the shredded pieces and threw them into the fire of a nearby candle, burning the pieces into ashes. The fire flickered and dimmed as the black specks fell to the table. Silas watched until all of the pieces had burned, and then he turned back to the strange knight, quickly nodding his head in thanks.
The knight nodded his head solemnly, without any expression, and wordlessly left Silas to stand alone in the room.
There was not much time, but Silas was able to quickly change into fresh clothes, wash his face, and quickly straighten out his short hair with his fingers. He ran his fingers through his hair as he sloshed water around in his mouth, his uniform still unbuttoned in the front. The thought of seeing proof of his family brought Silas hope, hope of better days, and hope that they were alive and well somewhere on this continent forsaken by the Gods. Silas did not want to get his hopes up, but the feeling of euphoria and hope just at the thought of seeing them alive after so long was the only thing keeping him hopeful at this point.
There was still an undercurrent of distrust, and Silas felt he was still unable to place even a small ounce of trust in Eva. The woman was focused on her own goals, the gods be damned, and he knew he was only a pawn for her to use to attain her goals. His family was dragged into this mess, and Eva was playing on his hopes to make him obedient. For now, he could only wrangle in his thoughts and shove down his worries. He would have to tread forward with careful steps.
Silas spit out the water in his mouth and ran his fingers up his shirt, quickly placing the buttons on right as he grabbed his training bag from the hook by the door. His mind was racing and his fingers trembled as his heart thudded anxiously in his chest. He placed his training gloves on his hands and attempted to button the wrist clasp, but his fingers shook so much, it took him extra time to shut them both.
Calm down. Silas thought to himself, taking a deep breath. You're stronger than this. You've been in far worse situations. You can handle this. You're a soldier.
Silas took a resolute look in his mirror, looking at his hardened eyes and thin lips, both of which had seen and said a lot of horrible things. He looked at his muscular arms, which had held a sword for over ten years. The weight of all the people he killed holding his sword rested on those arms of his. He looked at his chest, where a small scar sat when he let his guard down near a weakened enemy soldier, and Adora had to save him from being the man's last revenge before death. All of these were memories to him.
Releasing one last leaky sigh, Silas walked over to the wood front door and grasped the doorknob. He squeezed the handle tightly in his palm once before he turned it and opened the door quickly, walked out of the room, ready to go meet Eva as he shoved down the feelings lingering in his chest and held his head high.
…
The sounds of the bustling city seemed silent to Silas as he carefully walked to the outskirts of the town, towards the stables. The walk was short, only a ten minute stroll, but the lead in Silas's legs made it feel as though he had been walking for an hour to only be halfway there.
The trepidation was making him second guess himself. He started to ask himself if he was truly an idiot, trusting the first person to come along and tell him his family was alive. He asked himself again if he thought he would actually see them again, rather than being tricked like the true fool he was. The thoughts taunted him the entire journey, stopping only when he reached the outskirts of the barracks, where an elegant, solemn human woman was standing not far away, alone, petting the long, glossy mane of a brown horse.
The woman's short, curly blond hair was tied back into a loose braid at the back of her head, which matched her tight brown pants and grey, bloused shirt. Dark brown boots were tied up to her knees and black gloves sat comfortably on her hands. Even dressed down as she was, she still radiated a cool, elegant demeanor as she stood in front of the brown horse in the stable. Her expression was soft as she gently pet the horse's neck. Her lips were tilted up at the edges naturally, and her eyes had softened, giving the horse a gaze of a loving parent. Silas was startled by the display. Usually when he was with Eva, she was coyly friendly, with an icy edge to her demeanor, but as she pet the horse, she only radiated kindness.
"Eva." Silas said after glancing around, looking for anything strange in case Eva had set him up.
The woman's expression moved quickly, and her face returned to the facade Silas had met with earlier in the rowdy bar as she gave the horse a final pat and stepped away from it, facing Silas. Though her wispy bangs made her face look gentle, the sly look in her eye set Silas on alert.
"Silas, I'm glad you came. So quickly too." She smiled coquettishly, "Let's move somewhere a little more private. I don't want anyone interrupting us. Follow me." Eva scanned the immediate area once again before she walked up and rested her hand on the crook of Silas's arm. Silas tried to pull away, but she smiled and looked up at him. Their eyes met, and Silas felt uncomfortably soothed. Eva leaned in and whispered in Silas's ear, "Relax, I'm not going to kill you. This is in case anyone's nearby. It's just two lovers going on a stroll for some privacy."
Silas followed Eva's lead and kept a cool demeanor, but his hand was never far from the dagger hidden in his waistband. If anything went wrong, Silas would have no problem stabbing Eva and running away.
The air around the two was tense as they walked towards the east side of the city walls, towards the Gourd Forest, one of the larger forests outside of Moireach. The air had already begun to cool, and some of the leaves had changed color, from green to orange and yellow. Just the tips of the leaves had changed so far, but Silas was looking forward to seeing the changing colors of the leaves once again once he was out of this mess.
Rocks and twigs crunched quietly under Silas's feet as Eva walked at his side, moving her head from time to time to look over their surroundings, as if she were looking for someone or something. Just as they had entered about a third of the way into the forest, Eva lifted her hand and faced her palm to Silas, as if silently asking him to stop, seeing this, he stopped moving and stood beside her with a steady expression.
His heart was pounding in his chest like a drum, thudding heavily in his chest. His hands remained close to his dagger, ready to use it at any moment.
Eva let go of Silas's arm and lifted her gloved fingers to her lips and placed them on the sides of her mouth. She blew out a long stream of air, whistling in a higher pitch than Silas had heard someone whistle before. The whistle was short, but repeated. The closer Silas listened, the more it resembled an elven hymn his father would sing to him sometimes as he was put to bed.
Long whistle. Short whistle. Short whistle. Even the short portion of the whistle pattern was unmistakable. Silas's expression changed and he looked at Eva with a perplexed face. The woman herself was not an elf, but how did she know such an elven hymn? It was almost always sung by the wood elves, like Silas's tribe. They would never teach it to an outsider like this.
This could only mean that Eva had some connection to the elves.
Not long after Eva had stopped whistling, she lowered her hand from her face and looked back towards Silas with a plain expression. She sized up Silas's surprised expression and chuckled lightly to herself.
"Does it make a little more sense now why I asked you for help?"
Silas pursed his lips at Eva's words, still unable to trust the woman.
As the pair stood in the middle of a small clearing, next to a large stump, there was some rusting in one of the larger trees overhead. Silas felt his spine tense as he jumped back in alarm, quickly retrieving his dagger from his waist before moving to cover his back with the trunk of a tree. His dagger stayed pointed at the rustling tree, and he crouched down, prepared for anything.
"Silas, put down your knife." Eva commanded softly, standing upright as if nothing had happened.
Silas, still holding his dagger up, barked back in response. "Why should I?"
A distant voice from above spoke to Silas with a reminiscent sound he thought he had long forgotten. The voice was deeper than he remembered, but nonetheless it was a welcome sound compared to the thought of being attacked by an unfamiliar memory.
A shadowy figure jumped down from the tree above, just in front of Silas. A path of long, light blue hair fluttered though the hair as a pale, tall elf landed gently on the ground on their two feet. As the man stood up to face Silas, Silas's face could not help but change, and his expression softened until a large smile was fixed on his lips. He blinked to hold back the tears that had been threatening to fall.
"M-Meredith?" Silas stuttered, looking at the man's youthful face.
The youthful young man smiled back at Silas and reached out his arms, his white robe moving with him as the sleeves draped down, making him look more welcoming. "I'm so happy to see you safe, Silas." He walked forward and put his hands on Silas's shoulders and pulled him in for a tight hug. "You can still call me 'Uncle Mary.' I won't mind." Meredith, slightly over half a head taller than Silas, patted the young man's back as Silas clenched onto the man's loose robe, as if it were doing to disappear at any moment.
Silas held onto the man for a moment before he pulled back, looking serious once again. "Where are the others?" Seeing Eva standing off to the side, he directed his gaze towards her. Her arms were crossed as she stood off to the side. The shadows of the trees darkened her figure, making her look like an awkward spectator at a family reunion. "Where are my mother and my siblings, Eva?" His voice hardened again.
Meredith looked between the two and spoke up, catching Silas's attention. "Silas, before you say anything, it's not safe for you to meet them right now." Silas wanted to speak up to protest, but Meredith interrupted him. "I came here to let you know that they are safe and sound, and they are currently waiting for you in the southern kingdom, the [tn content="Kyhmal Empire"]This is the new, southern Empire. I like to make up names, so here's my latest one to torture you all~ Here is the pronunciation guide![/tn]. I just got back from traveling there, and I have something for you."
Silas reached out his hand and received a small letter. On the outside of the paper was Silas's name written in the Elven script. Looking at the stiff scrawl, it could only be his mother's, Maeir's. He traced his hand over the familiar writing before he tore open the letter and hastily read the contents, his eyes scanning the page at a rapid pace.
"Silas,
Cirdan, Aurelia and I are safe. Meredith should tell you the details. We are happy to hear you are safe, and we hope to see you soon, son.
We love you.
Your family."
Silas's hands were clenched so tightly the letter in his hands crumpled under his fingers. A rush of relief flowed through his body as he sighed to himself, squatting down onto the ground with the letter still in his hands. He rested his head on his knees and laid still, not exchanging a word for a moment.
He knew his mother's handwriting. When he traced over the ink, there was no trace of mana being used to replicate her writing style. Her words were written purely in fresh ink, and there were some light smear marks where her fingers had brushed past the wet ink on the paper, leaving streaks of black on the edges of the letter. Her words were uniform but hasty. She had painstakingly written them in a neat font, taking every possible step to make sure they were readable.
"Thank you." Silas said as he kneeled, calming himself before he lifted himself up again, now holding on to the letter with a gentle grip. His eyes moved from Meredith to Eva. Though he did not trust Eva, he knew, as someone from his village, he could trust Meredith. Unsure of Eva's motive, Silas fixed his eyes on Eva with an expectant gaze, ready to hear what she had wanted to discuss previously. For the price of seeing his family safe, it must be something big. "What do you want?" Though his tone was blunt, Silas had softened his words from before.
Eva's smile was still just as charming as before, but some of the coldness in her eyes was replaced by melancholy. She closed her eyes for a short moment before reopening them, facing Silas with the same lax stare as before. "I'm glad you're willing to listen, Silas. This is something I can't do alone, so I am putting my trust in you."
"How can you trust me?" Silas questioned, "How do you know I'll do what you want?"
Eva smiled gently, "I thought the letter from your family was enough to at least earn your trust for now, but if that was not enough, please remember if this somehow gets out, it won't be just your head sitting on a pike outside the castle walls." Eva crossed her arms and glanced over at Meredith, "Especially for an outsider like me to be meddling in your country's affairs. It wouldn't be taken well at all."
The three knew the dangers of participating in the rebellion. One of the rules the Faelfier Kingdom had been adamant about when it opened its borders to the displaced elves is that the elves had to stay peaceful if they were to seek refuge there. If it came to light that elves were planning a rebellion of a neighboring kingdom, the Faelfier Kingdom would indiscriminately banish the elves from the country, their only safe place. That would only be after they made an example of Silas, Eva, and anyone else they caught participating in this rebellion.
"There is a reason why I am in this line of work. I'm not just doing this for myself, but for the elves. I can't sit by and watch the Yursear Kingdom continue its tyranny. How many more people have to die before we do something?" Eva's words were stern, her words chilling the air around them. After a moment, she sighed to herself and spoke of the proposed mission. "The first thing I need you to do for me is get some supplies to some of your new comrades."
Silas carefully looked over at Eva, his hand absentmindedly squeezing the note in his hand. "Where would you be sending me, Eva?"
Meredith lowered his arms as he shot a look over to Eva as the woman smiled shallowly and said to Silas,
"How do you feel about returning to the Yursear Kingdom?"