"Hey…" Arya ran behind the two ladies, catching up to them and walking alongside them. He was hungry and thirsty more than ever, but loneliness was at its peak.
"You should take a bath when we get there, Arya. You stink of sweat; I hate that smell." The little girl immediately covered her nose and distanced herself from Arya.
"See is right. When you are close, you do stink. You should've taken a dip in the river, or maybe washed your face at least. You look like a homeless beggar, no less."
"..." Arya did not know how to reply to the disrespect, without getting rebuked and shamed. So, he decided to change the subject of the conversation.
"Reva, if I am right. How did you get in contact with Mercy? That little one is his niece, as I know now. What are you doing for Mercy? Babysitting ?" Arya asked.
"I feel I should slap you for every sentence you speak. Do you know anything about talking nice to a woman? People might talk sweetly back to you." Reva advised Arya.
"The last time I talked nicely to the woman I love, She betrayed me when I needed her the most, and look, I am stranded out in the open, exiled, hungry, stinking, and relying on strangers to take care of me. So. I think talking nicely really didn't help me."
Reva turned her face and met Arya's eyes. She looked at them and saw a tired man. She nodded her head and kept walking.
"I met Mercy in the forest of the forsaken while searching for a lower warlord hiding there, but while searching, I met this little girl, Seraphina, instead." Reva slowly patted Seraphina on the head. The girl seemed to neither like nor hate it.
"Seraphina and her uncle were looking for tribal survivors of a plague 500 years old in the forest of the forsaken. I met them, and Mercy asked me about my profession. I told him, and he asked me to join him."
"Just your profession? You are not a warlord." Arya was surprised to overthrow a nation of warlords without warlords. Mercy was either thinking something stupid or genius.
They kept walking for a distance, and then Reva turned her face towards Arya, and he responded by raising his eyelashes.
"Ever heard of Reva Eileen, the plague?" Reva asked with a smirk, and the realisation hit his face.
"You're the warlord slayer, Reva Eileen?" Arya made a foot more distance between him and Reva.
"... but the Warmonger killed her years ago." The raven of the desert of the Dynasty was known for hunting lower warlords; 11 warlords fell to death by her attacks, officially, but her end came soon too.
"That was my mother; she got killed just after giving me birth. The Warmonger killed her by opening her head." Reva explained her story casually and openly.
"There was a lot to listen to... So, you took your mother's name and worked?" Arya asked.
"Yes, I take-" Reva was cut off by Seraphina.
"The work is the same, but she doesn't tell anyone by her actual name. Only Uncle Mercy knows her real name, and she traded it with him for another secret." Seraphina spoke smugly and openly as if she were scheming.
"Hmmm…." Arya looked at Seraphina; both smiled and then looked at Reva, who ignored both of them and kept moving forward. "Both of your lives are worth less than my name. So keep your offers to yourself and Seraphina; you will eat vegetables tonight."
"NO!! You can't do this to me." Seraphina screamed and ran ahead, acting like a spoiled kid.
"Lucky kid." Arya thought.
"The tunnel is ending, and the base is near," Reva announced. Arya thought it was the right moment to learn about Mercy's ideas, but he needed to know about something first.
"How did you know your mother... is your mother? I mean, her hair was black, yours is blond, and he is said to be small in height. But you are near my height. What about your father?" Arya couldn't ask a question like this in front of a child.
"I ask first and answer second, and in this case, I don't want to talk at all." Reva rejected flat-out.
"If not about you, then talk about this base of yours. How are you keeping this place sealed from magic energy? I have seen no magic or seals like this. Is this some result of the death of the warlords?"
"Death of the warlords? How does that do something? I have heard nothing like that."
"I read that when many humans or dwarfs die in a single place, their blood tends to combine and bring calamity." Reva scoffed at the words.
"Nothing like that is happening here. I don't see a calamity here. But is there any proof for the claim you are making?"
"A book of the ancient writers at Uro has examples, but the most important one is during the purge of snow lords and forest tribes. The vampires became known 10 years after that, in the forest. The blood flies are also said to come into the world after the last of the dragons decayed." Arya stated that the book made bold claims and answered them using facts.
"What kind of writer wrote that book? I need to read that book." Reva suddenly showed a quivering interest in reading books. The conversation went from defence to books.
"The name of the author was... Satan. It was a pessimistic book talking about how humans ruin the world; I only read this part because the rest felt uninteresting." He explained it to Reva.
"You were a librarian? Quite a weird job for a warlord, no matter how weak."
"I can detect things present underground using my ability. The Dynasty once assassinated a king using this method in the past. So I was on the lookout for tunnels dug under the castle. I used to roam around the entire castle, checking for everything. I have an important purpose."
"I "had" an important purpose," you say? Still, having a library to yourself is pretty neat."
'I think."
"I would like the library for myself. I would just own the library, read each book present there, and burn the rest." Reva said confidently that she was not worried at all.
"I am surprised. Do you think taking out 10 warlord councils is a piece of cake? The warlords of this generation have been the best of the last five generations. It takes years of planning and strategy. We will be acquaintances for the next 2 years for sure." Arya rebuked, estimating that your enemy was a self-inflicted curse.
"A council of nine warlords, you mean? Mercy had changed the number while bringing you here. He said the two were trapped in a warlord's realm or something." Reva answered with a smile; she looked proud.
The end of the tunnel was approaching, and Arya was in disbelief at what a thing Mercy Unborn was. Goosebumps rose, and somehow dread lowered down.
"Welcome to the Ravine of the New Order, Arya Robon. Your life will not be short of surprises and suffering after you start working with us. That's what Mercy said."
The magic prism came back to Reva as the tunnel met its end, and the duo exited the tunnel for the Ravine of the New Order. The looks of the past didn't overlap with the present, and things turned upside down.
"This is utter insanity."
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