Songbreaker

Chapter 6: Shattered

Yvana and Thalleous get to the Tidesinger and find that he may be beyond repair, but their sympathy for the former legend vanishes when they uncover some unnerving facts about him; and just when things couldn't get worse, their suspicions are twisted as Galleous sends bad news their way that creates more questions than answers

****************

It had taken some convincing, but Master Aurelius had finally agreed to allow Yvana and Thalleous to see the Tidesinger, much to his distaste. He warned them that they were to keep his location a secret or he would 'hunt them down and kill them.' At this point, Yvana wasn't sure if Aurelius was talking about himself or Achillean, but she brushed off his threat as nothing more than just a warning. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut. It shouldn't be difficult, right?

As they crossed the Northwind flats towards Frostburn, the snowstorm slowly got worse, and they struggled to see ahead for the whiteness of the scene-less landscape that stretched for miles.

"Aurelius!" Thalleous yelled above the howling winds around him. "This has to be a joke! I know where you are taking us, and I do not appreciate it!"

Yvana looked to Thalleous, shielding her eyes from the battering snow and she squinted, unsure as to what he was getting at. She certainly didn't know where they were, let alone where they were going, but she trusted that this wasn't a wild chase.

"I am sure you do not, Thalleous, but remember you asked for this!" Aurelius yelled in return.

Thalleous had visited this area before. Long ago...

Some have even argued that, on hearing of his feat that day, he was the reason that the Great War even started. He had raided that camp. He had slaughtered the Voltaris there. He had taken the life of their Master – Dominus Voltaris. He thought he had destroyed them all, but he left one small, young, loose end behind that was, in the end, the Tidesinger's undoing. Aurelius had learned of that day from Master Aegus who had found out by none other than from that small loose end left behind.

Perhaps Thalleous had torn more from the people he loved than he did the people he hated...

He didn't know about Ingressus. He didn't know about the small Voltaris child that had grown up in the shade of yellow. He also knew nothing of the Tidesinger's strong connection with that small Voltaris child, but he was about to find out the aftermath of it all.

"What is he talking about, Thal?" Yvana asked. Thalleous simply sighed.

"Not too long before you were born, Yva, I led an attack on a Voltaris camp that I thought was successful. The camp stood here..."

Aurelius leered over his shoulder and scowled before pausing at the base of a cliff. Barely through the snowdrifts, a small orange light could be made out in a cave network, well hidden amongst the snow and ice. One would have to know exactly where the cave was to spot the light, but it was enough for Yvana and Thalleous to stand satisfied that the Nestoris Master has lived up to his word.

Aurelius leaned into Thalleous as he planted Nestor in the snow beside him.

"He is not the same as when you last saw him," he began, his voice a stern whisper, colder that the blustery winds around them. "Whatever you do, do not look him in the eyes, unless you are willing to apologise..."

Thalleous glared at the Nestoris Master, but his eyes had no hold on him, for deep down, he knew that he was right. They may have been allies during the Great War, but he knew that Achillean held resentment; he was just never sure why – and he wasn't so sure he would ever find out.