One of his palms facing the sky, Fedlimid asked his sister-in-arm. "Where's she?"
He got no answer as the woman's eyes browsed through the many mysteries that made Arthur's body the top one in her collection.
"Mel!" The barbarian shouted, willing to trigger her jumpiness to break her out of her reverie.
"She's on a stroll with the lord! Why are you always this unpleasant to live with? It's not like he's about to argue against a petty glance or two!" She replied, pointing at Arthur's blank face, another moment of inattention misread by his hosts.
He was looking at the ghost who quietly welcomed him back. 'I missed you, Lancelot. Don't you want to talk to me now? Can't you?' He mind-asked, but the hallucination faded and his track of thought was buried under a pile of clean clothes.
The few other people in the camp wore armor with the colors of the kingdom, they peeked at him from time to time but avoided getting involved.
"Yeah! That's what he said!" Fedlimid laughed out, followed by the woman, they were probably talking about the odd encounter. They dragged him to the widest tent, the hanging tissue that limited the ceiling was low, but inside, the soft ground was dug and covered by a blanket of tanned skins, the ambiance was much warmer except for a wooden table with traces of blood all over.
"Does he need the shackles?" The woman asked a rusty chain in her hands.
"No, he's conscious but not frantic. He's of the cool kind despite the little act he put on earlier. That's Melite by the way. Don't be shy, say hi buddy." Fed said, moving Arthur's forearm left and right. "He'll come back, I'm sure the short absences he's having are caused by the cave."
"You're acting inappropriately, soldier Fedlimid," Arthur replied while pushing the man's hand away and reaching for Melite's. "Nice to meet you too." He sat on the first chair he found, ready to face the obvious purpose of the tent, an interview. "I'll be glad to have information from you as well, let's not make this a one-way experience, shall we?"
While Fedlimid pursed his lips, not knowing how much of their conversation had entered Arthur's ears, Melite put a green leaf on the table. It looked like a savage version of the ones that once decorated the desserts of the royal family, those with strawberries.
The woman shook her head left and right while clicking her tongue. "Need to perform a short test before. You're not the first person to exit the cave with dystopic thoughts. Some can't even talk anymore. We had a few cases in which, they forgot who they were, down to their name, which means we had a few incidents during the first few weeks."
"Tragic incidents..." The man commented with a melodramatic nod. He stood behind the woman and crossed his arms before laying against one of the bearing beams.
"We need to see if you are a mage, though we doubt it a lot. Here's your reward." Melite added, pulling a clear glass of fresh water from under the table.
Arthur was obsessed with the recompense. Instead of focusing on the tiny leaf, to make it suffer the passage of the six elements and pass the easiest test executed on the youngest population of the kingdom, he locked his eyes on the glass.
He felt the exact sensation needed to make the magicules react anew. He used as less emotions as possible, only a condensed amount of focus while he shaped his hand to intercept the moving object.
The knitted fingers of the guard undid as the glass slowly racked its way onto the table. It was a creaking, one that captivated all of those present in the room, the pressure from the glass against the table left a cylindrical mark under its path. The soft wood of the table was under such pressure, under such an attempt to not spill any of the glass' content that it became marked forever.
Arthur gulped down half of it in a gentle, appreciative mouthful. He noticed the uneasiness of his host, however, he was so captivated by the fantastic power he could now perform that the surge of high spirit led him to let out a scoff. He was looking down on them.
"Doubting yourself once so often would do you no harm." He said, sitting more comfortably, his voice sounded a lot friendlier now.
"This does spare us some time." Fedlimid pointed out, it was a way to tell Melite to close her mouth.
The woman took out a bunch of paper sheets with hundreds of squares and annotations, she crossed four or five.
Drumming his fingers on the table, Arthur was glad to know they respected his request. "My turn. What is your work here?"
They were facing a mage, the value of their guest had increased tenfold already, and the two soldiers rejoiced at the sole idea of getting promoted. The woman straightened her posture before replying with a tone noticeably more serious.
"We're the guards of the distorted cave's outpost. We are here to welcome exploring troops coming from the capital and retrieve anyone who comes out."
It was short, the woman was saving intel for later. "You'll be later registered as an unstable mage from now on I'm afraid, you'll need to go back to the House of Mages before being reintroduced in the army. Since there was no one behind you there's no need to ask if you are accompanied, can you tell us what date your exploration mission started?"
"Four days after my eighteenth birthday. I know no date. Why is there an outpost here?"
As if they had lost a precious answer, they clicked their tongue again. "It's a pure loss of time, the royals sent us here in the hope of retrieving their heir, the one that you dared to impersonate. This was based on what they qualified as an unquestionable source, they brought an entire army here, and all were swallowed in the cave. The few survivors that found the exit told their tale and there we are, one year later the disappearance of a thousand men, sorting out our madmen."
Fedlimid contracted every muscle of his back each time the mage's eyes landed on him. He was stressed now that a man with a higher authority knew how he treated survivors of a traumatic experience. The barbarian asked. "Have you met anyone in the cave?"
One word hammered the man's thoughts, he was pondering on the nature of the boy's achievement, on the success he talked about.
Arthur's tone became cold. "I entered with five other people, met their corpses hours later, and ended up gnawing off every bit of meat on their bones to survive." He froze the guards on the spot, by giving his best at acting like a mage to become a better one, he was freaking them out.
He repressed his hunger by biting his right index anew, a slimy drip fell from his lips.
Melite turned her sheet over and drew a new square, crossed it, and added her annotation. One drop of sweat fell off her forehead and marked the paper with an explosive round dot.
Now that Fedlimid understood the nature of the mage's glare, the wide-opened eyes that meant how much of a piece of meat he looked like, he started to tremble. They were in danger.
"This cave is but a time hole that feeds on your despair. It's empty."
'At least it is devoid of treasure now. It's still full of dead soldiers.'
"I'll ease your next question instead of bothering you with mine," Arthur announced solemnly and let the information sink for a couple of seconds. "Who am I?" He asked, picking up the remaining water before pouring it on the top of his head. A few strands of his hair turned grey, silver, then white while the others still bore the black dust of the cave.
He saw in the frame of the door, a face he couldn't erase of his mind. But the man quickly ran out of sight, however thanks to the terrible silence in the tent, all three could overhear the conversation.
"Honey! They found the guy I told you about! It's him! Hundred percent sure! Please, no matter what happens next, know that I'm in love with you and wish to live the rest of my measly life taking care of the children you'll give me."
While Melite pulled her hair, Fedlimid fell on his butt and shrunk as best as he could. The pressure increased in the room, the air vibrated like the growl of a vicious beast.
'That orc bastard! He sold me to the royals!' Arthur thought, boiling from within, he stood up to give the thief a piece of his mind.
Instead of seeing Loke slamming the door open, there was a petite woman, barely older than the last time they saw each other. Lily, Arthur's second youngest sister, was looking at him from top to bottom.
Only behind stood the translucent-skinned orc, with a unique reason to coward behind the mage. He had been rewarded for his help to find the lost prince and was promised a princess in exchange. Alas, deep inside he was afraid to be wrong all along. A year-long relationship built with the princess was short and the immovable face of his promise eroded his courage. If the man he accompanied to the cave was the prince, he could marry her. If not, he was to die the next instant.
"I told you I would come back, they just wouldn't believe me, thus the delay," Arthur said, jokingly, but when he sewn the guards to his lateness, they almost fainted.
"Tell me something I know, brother," Lily asked, there weren't many perfect moments to remember together, but there was a tinge of suspicion, the sparkles in the boy's eyes, the plain joy that amplified a distorted smile made her hesitate.
A fifth person stood nearby, silent. The ghost reminded Arthur of the perfect alibi.
"The last two mages you sent to my room were found cut in half."
Just a nod in reply, the princess precipitated outside and cast a gigantic detonation high in the sky. No one could tell if it was the echo against each finger of Titan's claw or a quick reply they heard. They were so surprised by the sudden blast that shook the camp next second none dared to utter a word.
In his impeccable white-feathered outfit, Bion the royal omnimancer landed with the grace of a meteor. He entered and sent the orc with a gust of wind as the tent's ceiling burnt with a floating white sphere. The magic light bubble allowed all to see how damaged was the prince, they were puzzled to notice he was healthier than he was dirty.
Bion had long raven-black hair with thin lips, colored by the many alchemical components he experienced in his lab. The only way to tell he was mixed blood like his twin happened to be the pointy fangs decorating his mouth, rare were the occasions to observe one of their smiles.
The omnimancer hissed out of joy, he turned toward the crawling orc and said. "Congratulations to the groom and bride!"
"Any baggage to take?" He asked Arthur while performing a deep bow, almost letting his hair touch the ground.
It looked like a mere polite question, however, there was no way for a survivor of the distorted cave to carry out something other than their body, the two barbarians shook their heads left and right, they were cherishing the moment since it was still linked to their body. The many blurts they made were heavily punishable and they were well aware of it.
Lily was scrutinizing Arthur's face, she could tell he was just a little more than before. He was happy, but she couldn't decipher her brother.
One finger up, Arthur made them all wait in silence as he examined the pretty construct in front of him, he was mesmerized by the spell and the wonders of the magical structure needed to illuminate his face.
The time-consuming hobby of the young prince fed up the omnimancer who dispelled his magic a minute later, triggering Arthur's statement. "I'll take them both instead of my previous bodyguard. I'll buy their silence and add a surplus, they already know how 'lavishly' the crown pays."
A spark of hope lit the barbarian's eyes.