Shocked, the Captain clutched her head, the sword still in hand. Where in the world was the scream coming from? Was it coming directly into her mind?? She should be immune to mental magic now, so why could she hear a scream inside her head?
'No, no, no, this can't be happening!' A female voice frantically said in the Captain's mind. 'How did I become a sword? This is unbelievable!! Is the universe determined to change my species into something different every half a day?!? This is so stupid! What the hell is up with this!?!'
"Who are you?" Captain Swallow asked aloud. "Why are you speaking into my mind?"
The voice paused for a moment, then inquired, '... You can hear me?'
"Yes," she answered.
'Well, maybe you can answer my questions then. My name is Alesha and I somehow ended up as a sword, I guess?? Do you know what happened and how I got here?'
The Captain froze. It couldn't be, right? The sword's voice did seem to match what she remembered, however. "Alesha… could you be Alesha the Hero?"
The voice of the sword turned dark, with an edge of suspicion. 'You know me?'
Horrified, Captain Swallow's jaw dropped open slightly and a large pit formed in her stomach. Her hands dropped limply to her side and, her grip having relaxed from the shock, Bana Laoch slipped from her fingers, clanging as it hit the stone floor. She was unable to respond.
It simply couldn't be. There was no way. Alesha was far off in the countryside, living peacefully away from danger because she was unfit for battle… right? That's what the King had claimed, at least.
'Hey! Answer me!'
"Alesha," the Captain said hesitantly, "Is it really you? The King said he sent you off to be safe, was he lying to us? Did he… did he really turn a Hero into a sword??!"
An overwhelming flood of anger and betrayal surged through Edelle, though it wasn't her own. Somehow, she knew the emotions belonged to the sword. 'That lying bastard,' the sword's mental voice raged. 'You say he told everyone he sent me off to be safe? Ha! Not only is he a hypocrite, but he's also a damn liar! I want to kill him!'
Confusion filled the Captain's mind as she wondered what exactly the King had done to make Alesha so angry. Certainly, turning her into a sword was something to be greatly upset about, but was there something more? As far as she knew, Alesha was a generally good-natured Hero; she was far from being one of the ones she'd worried about ever turning on the Kingdom. How had she gone from that to murderous? Edelle trusted the King deeply, though, and as such was inclined to believe that perhaps there was a misunderstanding between the two of them. For now, she set that aside.
There was something else that confused her. The Goddess, Toltura, had mentioned that it was a "seedling" that was sleeping inside Bana Laoch, so why was the sword's consciousness Alesha? And what had caused her to wake?
"Alesha, do you know anything about a Goddess's Seedling? Specifically Toltura's Seedling? She said it was in the sword and I needed to wake it up. I don't know how or why you woke up, do you know something about it?"
Inside her mind, the sword's voice hissed, 'Toltura? The Goddess of Chaos? She's… Wait, how do you know her? She called me a Sprout in a dream before, I think, though, so maybe she meant me? But anyway, you never told me who you are'
Half a dozen questions formed on the tip of the Captain's tongue, but she held them back. Had the Goddess been speaking metaphorically, then? Why would the Goddess of Chaos call a Hero her seedling? What kind of relationship did they have for the deity to care so much about her? What other secrets did she have?
Instead of voicing any of these, the Captain picked up the fallen sword and introduced herself. "We've met before, Alesha. I'm Captain Swallow, the Knight Captain in charge of training the Special-Class Heroes. I'd like to apologize for wielding you. Though it's a feeble excuse, I have no idea how you became a sword, and was unaware that it was you until you told me. Please forgive me."
--
Alesha went silent at the Captain's words. Complex emotions mingled in her consciousness, and through her life-detection ability, she could "see" the Captain's green silhouette as she placed a hand over her heart, while holding aloft her newly sword-ized body in the other hand. The Captain seemed sincere. Still, after having been so thoroughly betrayed just recently, she was reluctant to fully trust her.
Feeling subdued, Alesha inquired, 'Well, I have a lot of questions, but I'll believe you for now. First off, how long has it been since I supposedly got sent to safety?'
"It's been five and a half months."
Dismay filled her mind and overflowed. While Alesha wasn't aware of the fact that her intense emotions were being transmitted, Edelle staggered under the weight of Alesha's despair.
Five and a half months?? Alesha thought, incredulous. That means, if time flows the same here as back on Elantris, and the six months of "class" that I skipped really happened, then…
It's been an entire year since I disappeared from the interrogation room back home!!