Private Tales They Fell

[Edric]

Anirian Wilds
Henk

Edric took in a sharp breath as he dragged himself from the cold waters of the river Draz.

His skin was blue, his eyes were sunken, cuts and bruises decorated his body like paint. Marks of the journey he had sustained as the river had carried him down the mountain. Dragging him beneath it's waters and ripping at his body with buried stone, broken masonry, and forgotten statues that had long been overwhelmed by the flow of the mountains melt.

Chest slowly rose and fell, his hand clutching desperately still to the collar of the figure who had made the journey with him.

With screaming legs, Edric slowly dragged Henk onto the shore.

The small beach, if it could even be called that, abutted the forest. There was no sign of any road nor city. Around them lay nothing but forest and stone. The river had carried them down the mountain and further. Dragging the two rogue Dreadlords far beyond the walls of Vel Draza and into the middle of nowhere.

Edric's magic began to reach out, dragging the life of the forest into him. The shake that ran through the whole of him slowly subsiding as he finally managed to clear the waters wholly. "C-c-ccome o-o-on H-henk."

He said, his teeth chattering from the icy waters as he gently placed the other boy down. A palm settling on his shoulder.

"C-come on." Edric said, taking some of the vitality from the trees ahead and pouring it into the man he had once been able to call a friend.

 

[Henk]

Darkness and Cold.

When Henk had taken that plunge with his former classmate, he'd known the risks; It was a move that would likely kill him, and one that would do little to Edric. But harming Edric wasn't truly what he'd wanted. How could he desire such a thing? Just like him, Henk wanted to protect his friends, protect the one that he loved. Vel Draza had made one thing perfectly clear to him, though.

Edric was a fool.

It wasn't the roaring water that had nearly ended Henk, but an impact from the rocky outcroppings beneath them to his temple as the pair were pulled underneath. There was no way he could have avoided it, and it certainly hadn't been Edric's doing. If anything, the Exile had stubbornly stuck to his guns, trying to use his own body to mitigate the impact to Henk's.

It hadn't worked. Blood pooled beneath Henk's head from the grievous wound above his blind eye. What vitality was getting through to the pale-skinned, shallow-breathing man was only serving to prolong his suffering. With each surge, his back arched, another deep breath came to him, before he sputtered and thrashed in pain again. The wound would heal, but it was healing too slow. At the rate things were going, Henk's life would end due to a lack of blood before anything else.

It was that agony-fueled writhing, however, that would offer him a second chance.

The twisting and turning of his form underneath Edric would rip at his cloak, and the contents of the chest pocket he'd been so closely guarding would spill onto the ground before his old comrade.

A familiar crystal, metallic and black. One of the very same that Edric had found in Tyr. It was what had alerted Henk to Edric's presence in Vel Draza in the first place, how he'd felt when he'd begun to drain Lumen. The light-mage had procured it for just such a purpose, of course. Now, it seemed a blessing of another kind.

 

[Edric]

"S-shit." Edric stammered, noting that the flow of his magic was not enough. Whether stemmed by Henk himself or some fault of his own he didn't know. It didn't matter in that moment, all he thought about was making sure that Henk survived through all of this.

He let out a quiet curse, tearing a strip of cloth away from his soaked shirt and pressing it against the wound above Henk's eye.

The other Dreadlord shifted, pressing against as if half conscious. Clashing momentarily and causing the small crystal to fall from his pocket. A quiet tink echoed out as it fell onto the rocks, catching Edric's attention almost instantly.

He recognized it almost instantly, he'd only ever seen the like once before.

It was the same as the ones he had picked up in Tyr. "Where the fuck did you..."

A hint of anger flickered through his tone, his head shaking as he reached out and snapped up the small crystal. The things were powerful, not in their own right, but because of what could be done with them. They acted as transmitters, in some way, though Edric did not know exactly how.

They were not linked with him intrinsically, but he'd learned that if he held one, and someone else did as well, it would allow them to pull at the reserve of magic he carried always. Had he not still had one of the crystal's the thing would have been useless. Luckily for Henk's earlier plans, Edric had kept one of the things; set into a small metal amulet that Ralene had crafted for him.

He cursed, and then picked up the crystal. With a sudden show of strength, he snapped the thing in two. Stabbing one sharp end into his own thigh before looking down at Henk.

"Fuck it." Edric said, and stabbed the crystal into his companions shoulder.

An act that would, for Henk, feel like a surge of life and vitality. Like adrenaline, but more whole. Healing his wounds as Edric sapped the life from the wilds around them. His fingers held onto the crystal like a vice, ripping it free the moment he saw the wound over Henk's eye heal.

 

[Henk]

Life.

Henk felt his eyes snap open wide as the incredible surge of vitality shot from both the crystal and Edric himself, spreading through every vein, soaking into every muscle and saturating every bone. His lungs filled with air, his fingers and toes stretched until every inch of his body was taut. The gruesome injury to his head finally knitted itself shut, as did the burns beneath his clothes he'd accumulated from using his light so recklessly in tackling Edric in the first place.

His vision came into focus slowly, initially a blurry mural of what looked like a star-soaked treetop with a hazy shape hovering over him. In a matter of seconds, the leaves overhead became clear, as did the identity of that figure he hadn't been able to place. Only then did his mind catch up: He was alive, presumably far from Vel Draza, and Edric had saved him.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, his first weakly-spoken words were not those of thanks.

"Why save me?"

As he began to relax, the excess vitality settling within him and the surge of energy that had brought him back from the brink waning, his eyes flittered to the Exile who'd gone through the effort of keeping him around. The anger that had filled his gaze before their plummet was gone, replaced with a somber mixture of sadness and disappointment.

"You... You chose your side." He rose slightly onto an elbow to let out a few coughs, bringing a hand to his mouth, working eye not leaving Edric's. "Now you're going to mock me by not even letting me die?"

Then he saw the crystal in Edric's hand, and his mouth twitched slightly.

"Been hoping that thing would help me find you for a while now. Guess I should be more careful what I wish for..."

 

[Edric]

Edric's fingers pressed into the crystal as he slowly pulled himself back and away from Henk.

The surge of breath which flowed into his companion was heartening, to say the least, but the words which flowed from his lips mere seconds later were not. For a brief moment Edric didn't answer, a frown playing over his lips.

He glanced down at the crystal, looking at it for a moment as his knuckles turned to white. A fracture appeared within the onyx like glass, and then suddenly it crumbled within his palm. The black sliver fracturing into a dozen tiny pieces before falling into dust.

"I saved you because I chose a side." The Rogue Dreadlord said, a hint of anger finally playing through his tone.

As if he was just now allowing himself to feel the frustration that had sat in his chest for so long. "I didn't pick Gilram.

He argued.

"I didn't pick Vel Anir." Edric let the pieces of the crystal fall to the ground. "I chose us. My friends, my family. You're part of that."

Whether Henk wanted to be or not.

 

[Henk]

Henk let Edric's answer linger in the air, creasing his brow a bit as he pushed himself to sit up. Reaching up for the sore patch of flesh where his wound had once been, he winces before letting out a slight sigh. Once again, he'd let his emotions take control of him, this time nearly to his demise. It had been an ongoing problem for a matter of months now, something to do with the changes he was going through, he was sure.

If anything good had come of The Proctor's betrayal, it'd been the vast new well of power he'd been able to tap into ever since, but it was only useful if Henk could get it under control.

Watching the bloodstained ground beneath him for a moment, Henk seemed to mull over Edric's line in the sand. In the deepest part of his heart, he related to Edric's feelings, agreed with them even. So when finally he met the gaze of the rogue warrior again, there was less spite in his eye, replaced with a measure of pity.

"I know how you feel, Edric. I don't have any love for the City either. You know that." Henk had never been shy about his disdain for how Vel Anir had treated them, sometimes to his detriment. "But look at what happened in Vel Draza. Remember what you've seen Gilram do, Edric. Your actions are not those of one wishing to save his friends. They are the actions of a fool and a coward."

The time for him to mince his words had passed long ago. The scarfaced man clutched at one of his arms with another wince of pain as his muscles still tensed and relaxed in attempt to regain some semblance of normalcy after his ordeal. Henk looked back to the ground, shaking his head at the notion that Edric could accomplish anything on his current path.

"You appease Gilram to try and spare us his wrath, and put the lives of those innocent of any crime at risk in the process. What happens when he finds what he's looking for? Who's going to stop him if not the Dreadlords? You?"

Both of them knew that no single warrior of Anir, exile or otherwise, was a match for Gilram alone.

"He won't stop at Vel Anir. A man like that... he'll want more. I'm not willing to tolerate such evil for the sake of my pride."

With a cough, Henk rolled himself to his knees and swung up one leg to struggle to his feet. If Edric had made up his mind, they were done here.

"I have somebody that I love in that city, and I won't let harm come to them, or to any of those innocent people that did nothing to wrong me."

 

[Edric]

Edric slowly shook his head. "You don't get it."

He didn't move from where he was crouched. Looking down at the remnants of the crystal he'd destroyed. His gaze lingering until slowly he looked up at Henk.

"At the start I thought I could kill him. I thought maybe I could end this before it all began." A frown touched his lips as he remembered the first night in the fortress. The words Gilram had said to him as he'd held the dagger behind his back. He was sure the man had known. "Then I realized the same thing you did, I can't stop him. His magic. It's..."

For a long while he paused, as if thinking. Edric had never been the most eloquent or well spoken of their number. The academy has forged him into a creature of violence, death. He never would have been one of the Dreadlords to attend Galas or parties, no. That hadn't been their intention.

Edric shook his head then continued. "But it doesn't matter. He's not our responsibility, he's not my burden."

His voice became a little stronger.

"He's theirs." Slowly Edric pulled himself up off the ground. " They made him what he is, they made me what I am. They made all of us."

Anger flickered into his voice. "The monks I killed? Guardsmen who stood by and watched as children were taken from their parents."

His jaw tightened as he continued.

"The nobles I slaughtered? For four hundred years they collared us and treated us like dogs." Bitterness flickered in his voice. "Living their happy little lives and playing their games while we fought and died for them."

Edric knew he was parroting the very man whom he'd wanted dead at the start of this. But he couldn't deny the truth in all of it.

"They made him, Henk, and now because of what they did we suddenly have a duty to protect them?"" He asked. "Me and my friends have to die because of choices we never had any say in? After they already took our families? After they took our lives from us?!"

Edric shook his head. "When did they stand up for us?!"

He demanded. "When did they say 'this is wrong', 'these children are being tortured, broken', 'these innocent children are being inducted into a life of blood'."

Fingers furled into fists.

"Even their fucking revolution left us in chains or thrown out of our home they forced on us in the first place." Edric didn't know much about the revolution, but he knew Talus and Zana had been the lynch pin. Dreadlords who had turned on the Houses. Without them there would have been no Republic, and yet here they still were. Dogs of the state. "So fuck Vel Anir."

He said, and then added. "And fuck Gilram too. I'm not a moron..."

Despite the reputation he had built up, Edric wasn't a simpleton.

"I know he'd happily see us die if it meant getting what he wanted." There was no doubt in his mind. "They all would."

The Houses, the Guard, Gilram, even the 'innocents' Henk wanted to protect. "No one is looking out for us, so we have to do it."

Edric said, finally finishing his rant.

 

[Henk]

Henk let Edric speak, listening to every word that poured out of his mouth in what had started in annoyance and finished in rage. All that he'd wanted from Edric in the first place was honesty, was for him to make his intentions known. Instead, he'd been frustratingly secretive up until this very point. But Henk hadn't realized that Edric still held such bitterness, such rage towards all of those who'd wronged him.

And much of what he said was truth. Henk crossed his arms and closed his eyes as Edric ranted, not arguing any of his points. He'd never claimed that Vel Anir itself was innocent, nor had he implied that Gilram was anything but a symptom of a much bigger issue.

That symptom had become a cancer, though. No matter how Henk wished he could ignore it, that was not an option any longer.

A sigh escaped him, exasperated air that he couldn't hold as a sadness took hold of him at the end of Edric's speech. He shook his head, mouthing something silently to himself before he stepped closer to his former partner. "You're right. We've been victim of injustice after injustice. Crime after crime with no recompense. All in the name of making us the perfect killers, weapons that could be pointed at anybody they need us to silence. A great many of them don't deserve the slightest mercy."

Henk stopped mere feet from Edric, his hands dropping to his sides.

"But all this anger, all this pointless death... It's something I've thought about a lot since we've been apart." Indeed, he'd been full of unbridled rage himself after what they'd done to his class in that damned forest. Anger bright and more passionate than he'd ever felt in his life coursed through every cell of his being. "To slaughter them all over what they did to me... I'd be justified in doing it, and yet it would also make me exactly what they wanted me to be. What they wanted you to be. We're being good little killers, killing everything that makes us cross."

Cautiously he reaches out, placing his hand upon Edric's shoulder.

"I understand. Edric. I truly do. Both sides have committed atrocities beyond belief. The way you see it, what does it matter which side wins? I implore you to discard your fury for a moment, though. Please. If Gilram has his way, he will merely continue these crimes, but without the bare minimum limits that the Republic has implemented, if not worse. You saw the same thing as I in that hidden laboratory."

Kidnapping children of magic was horrible. Kidnapping ordinary children? Experimenting on them to make them magical enough to warrant putting through those same trials? It was abhorrent.

"You cannot claim to wish to protect your family when you know some of those people will die before they let the man you stand beside win. Noel. Ralene. Everleigh. Sable. This path you're on will lead to their deaths. I cannot let that happen. You know I can't, Edric. You know why I can't."

A beat of silence hung between them, and after a moment of tense consideration, Henk stepped forward and embraced his old friend.

"I love you, Edric. You're my brother. But don't ask me to be both your enemy and your ally. It would be crueler than any wound you could inflict on me."

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric's fists were still rolled into tight balls, knuckles white, his jaw set so hard that it threatened to crack his teeth.

Yet as Henk spoke, he listened carefully. Parsing every word and knowing exactly that his friend was right. Gilram would eventually mean the death of those he loved, cared for. It was something he had known all along and struggled against even in Vel Draza.

There was no stopping Alistair or Henk, much less Noel of Ralene. They would fight, whether they were told to do so or not. That was who they were, as long as the Archon threatened what they saw as their home, there was no putting a stop to it. Edric knew that, and he knew even that Gilram was not an answer to the very problem that he so wanted to solve.

For a moment, as Henk stepped forward, Edric seemed to flinch.

As if expecting, or perhaps intending to lash out.

When the other Initiate wrapped his arms around his form however, Edric's fingers finally unfurled. Some of the tension finally uncoiled from his body. As if hearing the words Henk spoke to him pulled some sort of pin keeping a rack of emotions at bay.

His body seemed to shutter, and his voice was quiet. "I can't leave them."

Edric said softly.

"Fermin, Del, Gaage, Talea..." Oh gods Talea, who had so much bought into Gilram's words. "I can't leave them, Henk."

Words he had once spoken to Noel resounded in his head. "Everyone comes home."

Even if he was the only one that didn't.

 

[Henk]

Henk closed his eyes. Sighing as the man he'd embraced finally let go of that last bit of stubborn pride he'd been gripping so tightly, letting his hold on Edric fall away, his arms coming to his sides as his friend spoke of those he couldn't leave, of the names that still followed the path that Edric now found himself teetering on the edge of.

Once again, the two of them found themselves of similar minds, with different ways of acting on their thoughts. It had shocked him, in that time near the end of their education, to learn just how similar the two of them truly were. Similar, and yet opposite. Henk had used a shield of kindness, gentleness and a soft heart to cope with the traumatic experiences that had brought them to this point. Edric used ruthlessness, rage and power unmatched.

Stripped of those traits, they were both men robbed of innocence long before they were prepared.

"You can't choose for them, Edric. Trust me, I wish I could bring them all back with me. Nothing would make me happier than for all of this to go away, but it won't."

A harsh truth, but one Edric needed to hear. His voice was soft, devoid of the anger he'd expressed before. How could he be mad at one struggling in the same way he had? At least Edric had picked a side. Henk had been so weak that he'd tried to step away from it all, to play the middle in a battle where there was no such thing.

"I can't leave Ralene, or Sable, Davi, Kristen, Alistair. I can't ask Noel not to fight."

The one he loved most was perhaps the most determined of all of them. The sad truth was that if there was any chance that Noel could be convinced to stand down, Henk would have taken it.

Henk leaned forward, his tone shifting. There was a flame behind his eyes that wasn't dissimilar to the look he'd given Edric himself before launching them off of that cliff and into the depths.

"I've never been as strong as any of you. I've just done my best to help you all, to be there for you as you needed me. Now, I am strong. Now, I can do whatever is in my power to make this stop. The reason I chose to return to Anir and help them isn't because I forgive them for their actions, but because I live in spite of them. To bite their hand in defiance of the family I have left would be to let their crimes rule me."

Henk refused to be a victim of Vel Anir any longer. He'd made that choice as he watched the vision in his right eye fade away to black.

"The only way everybody goes home, the only way everybody can truly escape this madness is if Gilram dies."

Even then, there would be punishment, heartbreak, and shattered friendships. Henk knew it wasn't a solution that meant happiness for all. It would be bittersweet in the worst way possible.

"Vel Anir be damned, he's the one who started this by tearing our family apart with what you know damned well are hollow lies. His words are what turned Fermin, Del and the rest of them into enemies of their home. If they wanted to leave, they would have had a chance to the moment graduation ended. They didn't need to be branded criminals. He did that. If it hadn't been for those rogue proctors..."

A pause, as something dawned on Henk just then. Something he hadn't thought about until that very moment, surprisingly-- It was right there, but he'd never made the connection until he said the words aloud to Edric. His eyes moved to the ground, his brow furrowing.

"How did he know when to show up in the woods? How did he know what was about to happen to us?"

 

[Edric]

A frown pulled at his lips for a brief moment, and then he simply shook his head. "I don't think they're lies."

Henk might have believed it so, but he knew little of the man the Archon truly was. Edric might not have believed the man would do any better for him and his. He might have thought the man was only going to bring more violence, but oddly enough he did not think the Archon was a liar.

"They don't want to leave, Henk." Edric pointed out. "They want to be home. They want a chance to live their life without a collar around their neck. Without someone telling them what to do or when to do it. They want to be able to choose, and they want to do be able to do it in their home. Not half the world away from it."

An impulse that he understood, for he felt it too.

Always had. Even before all of this mess.

His hand came up dismissively to wave at Henk as a thought popped into his head. "It was Renout. She told him just after we were all taken."

A piece of information Edric had learned a few weeks after. He'd confronted the Archon with the same question, and Gilram had freely offered his answer. Just as he always did.

"I don't think..." Edric shook his head. "I don't think he actually wants to kill Initiate's if he can avoid it. I'm not sure why, but..."

His head shook, and he was reminded of Vel Acan again. That laboratory where they had all seen Gilram for the first time, where the Archon could have slaughtered them all but simply let them walk away. A frown touched his lips. "I think he's doing something else, something related with what he did in Acan."

Edric frowned, and then finally continued.

"But what the fuck do you think I've been trying to do?" Edric complained, separating himself from Henk and walking over towards one of the large boulders at the side of the river.

"I'm not hanging out with these sociopaths for fun." If he wanted to go on missions he would have stayed back in Vel Anir. "I'm trying to earn their trust."

He said with a long sigh. "Gilram isn't...he's not an idiot. Getting to him isn't easy."

That much Edric had already found out.

"He's surrounded by some of the most powerful Dreadlords Vel Anir has...or had." However you wanted to look at it. "All sorts joined him; illusionists, conjurers, fucking telepaths."

Both Nicholas and that woman. The one who had very nearly cracked Ralene's ward with just a brief glimpse. "All of them are full Dreadlords, better trained, more experienced, and fucking ruthless."

There was a long pause, then he continued. "They scare me, Henk, and that's not even mentioning Gilram's own magic."

A problem that Edric still had no real way around.

"All he needs is one heartbeat. A second." Edric's frown deepened. "The moment between a knife slipping through his skin and stabbing through his heart. That's all he needs, and in that second he can make the knife disappear, heal the wound, and simply delete you from reality."

He wasn't exactly sure how Gilram's magic worked, but the descriptor he knew was close enough. "How the fuck do you kill a man capable of changing the world to his whim?"

 

[Henk]

Henk's mind, the mind of a Dreadlord, that had been so graciously beaten into him by The Academy, was petrified by the stories he heard of Gilram's power.

But his 'heart'. That intangible soul that had led him away from being a mindless killer and taught him love and compassion for others... It didn't fear the Archon in the slightest, and he couldn't tell why. As much as Henk tried to quake at the thought of facing that powerful beast of a man, terror didn't come to him. Not in the way it should.

Was he in the wrong for that?

Probably.

With Edric's appeal complete, Henk sighed.

"I waste both our time with my arguments. Instead, allow me to tell you what I see before us, friend."

He could stay here on this coast and plea with Edric to see his side of things forever. It was not to be though; just as Henk could not comprehend Edric's line of logic, so too would his be foreign to the Warrior. Henk collected the tattered remnant of his dark green cloak from the ground, tossing it's bloodied remains over his shoulder as he spoke.

"Everybody is terrified of Gilram, Edric. Myself too, I suppose. But... I'm so tired of being afraid. I've done it all my life. I don't know what he's up to, or what he's planning on doing when he finds what he wants, but I don't really believe that I care anymore."

Henk didn't give a damn about what happened to the City or the royals who played with the lives of everybody else. But the people inside of it, the common folk who had no say in the way any of them had been treated their entire lives... Henk truly believed that somebody capable of what Gilram was capable of didn't give a damn about anybody but himself and the people who did as he asked.

It would just be another regime under a different name.

"And I don't care about Vel Anir, The Academy, or what happens to any of the people who enable the crimes they still commit to this day. Both sides use us like pawns in a game. And I don't know what's right or wrong. I'm not a moral compass, all I can do is follow what I -think- is right."

Maybe Gilram's followers were right. Maybe he really did just want to make a world where they didn't have to feel subjugated. Perhaps Henk is the one who was brainwashed. He brought a hand up to where his wound had been, his one working eye trailing off to the side as he continued.

"Seeing what I've seen. What you too have seen, I've made the choice that he can't be allowed to do as he pleases. It'll just beget more horrors. So, whatever it is... I don't care, because it doesn't matter so long as it doesn't come to pass. Stopping him is what I think is the right thing to do."

That brought them to the how.

The most vexing issue of it all. Because Edric was right; they were no match for Gilram. Nobody seemed to be a match for Gilram. Standing up to him seemed to be a formal request for death. Henk took a long breath, one full of every iota of frustration as his friend's.

"Look at me. I'm twenty years old and I look like I've been through a handful of wars already. I'm missing a damned eye." His remaining working one flicked down to the ground, the last remnant of self-doubt bringing itself forward. "I'll either help find a way to beat him, and live a little while longer until I die from an attack to my blind spot in the future, or I die by the hand of him or his exiles. The way I see it, I'd rather die fighting for something I care about."

After all of the arguing, all of the back and forth about what was and wasn't right, Henk shrugged.

"Standing here pissing myself over it, wondering how I'm going to kill him and dreading whatever it is he's up to... It doesn't help anything. Everybody has a weakness. Nobody is immortal. I'm going to keep going until I find a way. If I succeed, then I've made this place safer. If I fail, I speed up the inevitable. If you truly feel like hanging around them and hoping to get some information is the way to go, I suppose I can't really fault you."

Edric was doing what he thought he had to do. Henk disagreed with it, but now he understood. His head dipped in a nod towards his comrade, not sure what else there was to be said.

"But if he's as smart as everybody claims, he'll catch on. Perhaps he already has."

 

[Edric]

"Probably." Edric said with a shrug to Henk's last statement.

In a strange way it felt as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Like someone had come along and taken up some burden he had been trudging through the desert with.

He knew why.

Finally, after months he had been able to say it out loud. He had been able to tell someone why he'd really left. Noel had known, a few others probably suspected, but now he had actually said it to Henk. Vel Anir would never take him back, his crimes were too great, Edric knew that.

But someone knew, they actually knew. "Not dead yet though."

He said with a slight smile.

"So he's keeping my alive for some reason." Perhaps Gilram knew, perhaps he didn't. For Edric's purpose it didn't really matter. Either way he was going to try to kill the man. One of the options was just going to make it a lot harder. "And I have a better chance if I'm there."

The rogue Dreadlord reasoned. "So for now, that's where I'm going back to."

And in the end? He just wasn't sure about that yet.

 

[Henk]

Henk couldn't help but crack a smirk at the return of Edric's composure, crossing his arms again as he took a look around at the dark edge of whatever forest they'd washed up on. Having been out cold, he really hadn't the faintest idea how far they'd been carried before hitting land again.

Briefly, the image of those initiates he'd left behind as he plummeted into the depths flashed in the back of his mind, and he winced. He shouldn't have left them behind. He hadn't thought clearly through the fire in his veins, and there was no guarantee they'd been able to make use of the momentary distraction he'd offered them.

But in the time it would take to return to Vel Draza, it would all be said and done. Henk could only pray Gilram didn't find what he needed there.

"And I suppose I'm going back to the city. Noel is going to vouch for me, try to get me reinstated so I can help organize the efforts on that front. I'll regroup, and then I'll keep fighting. Until I die or he does, whichever comes first."

After that, he had no intentions of staying within the Academy. The enemy of his enemy was indeed his friend, but once that enemy had been defeated, Vel Anir would still be the city that had beaten him like a dog and betrayed him at the very end.

"Thank you, for saving me. Guess that makes us even for that vampire incident, hm?"

A short chuckle left him, then he paused.

"Should I tell Noel anything? About you, I mean. I'd like to say she'll understand, but... She's become rather single-minded in killing Gilram herself. I can't promise she'll take it well."

 

[Edric]

Edric smiled, but didn't comment on the scores they'd now settled.

For some reason a flicker of sadness ran through him. Perhaps because it had been a small connection, a piece to hang onto. Or maybe it was Henk's stalwart determination, the fact that the both of them were single-mindedly hurtling towards either success...or death.

The latter being far more likely by his own estimation.

Edric said nothing as he slowly ventured over towards one of the smaller boulders and sat himself down. Only speaking up when Henk mentioned Noel. "She knows."

He said, remembering the look they had shared. The nod she had given to his words. Noel had been the only one who could have understood in that moment, the one who had from the start known Edric's intentions when he'd left with Gilram.

"Maybe..." A frown touched his lips. "Maybe tell Ral if you see her."

He looked down at the ground, running his thumb over the knuckles of his other hands. "Though I doubt she'll be any happier than Noel."

 

[Henk]

"She knows."

Henk couldn't help the surprised quirk of a brow. Noel was even more hell-bent on Gilram's death than he was. He could only imagine the opinions she would hold of the situation. Imagine, and then shudder a bit. Even if Edric were to return to the city, he'd have his hands full dealing with the Metal-Mage's wrath. Death might actually be more desirable.

No, it was clear that their paths were set. Neither would sway the other in their thinking, and it was foolish to try any further. Henk smiled, somewhat somberly. "If any of us is stubborn enough to survive the route your taking, it'd be you. Though I admit, some small part of me wishes I could have had my chance to fight you one last time." He glances at his hands, still covered in char from the fireball he'd turned himself into. "But... to be honest, my magic has been manifesting itself... strangely... since the forest. I haven't gotten the hang of it yet."

Something had changed, and he'd no idea what exactly that was. Nevertheless, despite his confidence it was probably for the best the two of them hadn't come to real blows. "I probably would have killed myself with it before I'd have done too much damage to you. I need more time to figure out what's happening." Light had always been his wheelhouse. Burning so brightly that he set himself alight... well, he'd always been capable of it, but always at great physical cost, and not without being out of commission for a week. Now, it came so easily that sometimes he did it on accident.

Shaking his head, he lowered his hand to his side and nodded towards Edric. "I don't know if or when I'll see her..." Ralene was in the Guard now, on the frontlines and away from the Academy just as she'd wanted. He hoped it was what she'd envisioned, but it always seemed it was more what she was reserved to, rather than what she truly desired. "But If I do, I'll send your regards. Likely I'll be indisposed for a while first..."

He'd no doubt Noel would do her best, but it would still take time for the city to trust him again.

"I ask only one thing of you, Edric. I know you don't care about the newer class, but if you can do so without compromising yourself, please spare them. If even a little life remains in them, they can be saved, but the blood of children in the same position you and I were in need not sully your hands more than they've already been painted by force.

 

[Edric]

Edric stood for a few moments in silence as he listened to Henk speak. A frown pulling at his lips as a memory flickered through his mind.

He remembered the creature he had faced in that village far from Vel Anir. How the thing had laughed so gleefully, how it had tried to burn him away and nearly succeeded. Could Henk do the same? Would the result be the same?

Five square miles. That was how much he obliterated with his magic. How much life his magic had taken in that moment. Every soul, every insect, every blade of grass.

Edric's stomach turned even at the thought of doing something like that again. Of his magic taking over and simply making it happen. The very idea made him want to puke, so as Henk spoke, he only kept silent. Nodding his head and smiling weakly. "Thanks."

He said in regards to Henk passing along his message to Ral, lips pressing to a thin line as he spoke of the Initiate's

His mind flashed to the girl whom he'd thrown against the wall.

"I'll do my best." Edric said, promising what he could.

It wasn't likely what Henk would want to hear, and in truth Edric himself wished he could offer more. The line he was walking was an incredibly dangerous one. There was no telling what would happen on the next mission, or the one after.

Likely the best he could do is avoid the Initiate's at all costs, as most of them hadn't seemed all to keen on talking.

 

[Henk]

It wasn't what he'd wanted, but it was about what he'd been prepared for. Henk couldn't expect Edric to pull all of his punches, especially when the circumstances weren't always going to be in his control. He nodded, a smile still lingering on his face as Edric made the half-promise.

"Then I suppose it's back to work, for the both of us. Nothing either of us can do about Vel Draza now."

He had to hope that Alistair and the initiates made it out alright, but he'd done all that he could at this point. Whether he'd actually helped or not was up for debate, he supposed, but there was no point in dwelling on it. One last time, Henk brings his hand to the side of his head where his wound had been, grimacing at the texture of the dried blood on his skin.

Stupid. He'd almost paid too heavy a price for his anger. He was better than that.

"Thank you, for saving me. I can't die just yet." He would likely leave that whole almost dying part out of his report to Noel. She would tear him a new one if she learned he'd nearly died in a suicide attack. "Next time we see each-other... I hope it's under better circumstances." He muttered. They both knew the chance of that was slim.

Henk began to walk into the forest they'd washed up ashore of, passing Edric by as he headed home, to Vel Anir. Before vanishing into the treeline, he stopped and turned one final time to look back at his friend. There was one more thing he wanted to know, one last nagging question.

"You knew I was going to come after you when you started draining the girl. That was a gutsy bluff, but you could have dodged the attack that sent us down here if you really wanted to. Why take it?"

 

[Edric]

Edric chuckled. "I'm not sure what the circumstances could be to define 'better'."

Though Henk now knew that they were technically on the same side still, the nature of Edric's position meant they would likely face one another again. Just how, when, or why neither of them would be able to tell, but at least this time around they wouldn't have to try to kill each other.

Just act like it.

He remained standing there, on the river side, as Henk began to walk into the forest. Musing over what the next few days might bring, what they would yet have to do.

His smile never faltered as Henk turned back over his shoulder, asking the question.

"I didn't want you to throw you getting yourself dead." Which, given Henk's momentum would have almost been assured. "And..."

Edric paused. "I figured this way at least we could talk."

Without anyone reading their minds.

 

[Henk]

He stared at Edric for a moment, the serious look on his face slowly melting into a smirk, and then to a smile before finally, he began to outright laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. All of it, from running into him when he had, to the strange betrayal tactic Edric had used with Lumen, to letting his emotions get to him and hurdling himself off of a cliff like a damned buffoon.

"We're idiots. Whether we admit it or not. For the record though, I could have stuck the landing if you hadn't started hugging me." Henk teased, but he was thankful. He'd made that much clear. He nodded as if accepting the answer he'd been given before he tucked the sodden remains of his cloak under an arm. "Always knew you were just as soft as me under all that grim n' gloom."

Turning back towards the woods and rolling his neck one last time, Henk waved a hand as he departed into the darkness of the night, the trees above him shielding him from any rays cast from the moon above.

"We both have things to do. Stay safe, brother. I imagine we'll see each other again soon."