Fire crackled at the campsite Brecken and Lucas hobbled together in a small clearing outside the city. He hadn't planned on stopping so soon, but the exhaustion of a full workday had started to weigh him down. Lucas snacked on a piece of bread next to him.
"He's going to be fine you know. He seems like a smart man. He said he wasn't going to try to fight right? He's just going to stall them for us. Besides even if they did try to fight him, the man can turn to stone," Lucas chuckled, trying to bring some levity to the situation.
"If he believes fighting will protect me, he will until his body turns to stone forever. That's what I'm afraid of. I don't think any Eartheye could survive three of the men that attacked us, not alone at least. If you weren't there at the beach, I would have been killed. Maybe they'll just pass him bye when they find out we left. I can only hope."
Brecken hoped the assassins left his father alone and came straight for them. At least they would be killed, and his father would still be alive. They'd have no reason to hurt him after that. For a moment, he considered giving himself up, but the idea of Typhus searching for them in the west, never finding them, was too much to bear.
Lucas sat with his sword laid next to him on the ground in its scabbard. The lords of the big cities were known to have swords dangle by their hips, usually gifts from the King of All. They were always ornate, things of beauty rather than warfare, and forged by the most skilled Flairus blacksmiths. Many would assume Lucas a noble just for the fact that he had one so well made.
"Where did you get a sword? Are you a noble where you come from?" Brecken asked.
"This old thing? It was my fathers. I took it when I left home. I guess you could say I was a noble, yeah. My father was wealthy enough to be considered a lord, though there are many well above him. Why do you ask?"
"No one uses swords. The nobles have them, but only as a status symbol. It's uncommon to see someone with one at all, and unheard of for someone to use it in a fight. Where do you come from exactly?"
"I come from Atleos. I could describe how to get there, but I'm fairly sure you wouldn't have any idea what I was talking about. Mostly humans live there, but there are a few other races, your kind among them. They usually keep to themselves. I've been traveling for a while now. I've found some interesting places, but most of them where places humans have already been for generations. Places where men who knew what they were looking for would find me if they looked hard enough." His brow furrowed as his words trailed off.
"Why would they be looking for you?"
"It's a long story Breck. It doesn't really matter anyway. Are there any humans here?"
"I've never met a human, at least I don't think I have. I'm not entirely sure what a human is. What is the gift you were born with? If not water, fire, earth, or the air then what's left?"
"I can't change my body into an element. I'm just human," Lucas said prodding at the fire with a stick, shrugging his shoulders. "Humans can't turn their bodies into anything, we just are what we are. We aren't incredibly strong, or quick or agile, but we persevere. We are unique in one way though. We can use the Way. I've never heard of an Elemental using it, so you most likely haven't heard of it if there aren't any humans here."
"I don't think I have," Brecken admitted. "Is that how you made the air do that?"
"That's part of it, yeah. It isn't an easy thing to explain without feeling it. I haven't ever had it explained to me in a clear way if I'm honest. It's a part of me if that isn't too confusing. When I do it, I can feel it leave my body. When I pull it back, I can feel the energy return to me. It's an odd sensation to say the least, like breathing at a distance. It's something you're born with, and where I come from, people are afraid of it. Anyone who is a Way Mage has to hide it, or they'll be killed."
