Verita - The Guardian of Darkness

49

As they left the training grounds behind, the combat  noises quieted down. They'd passed through the barrier of trees  bordering the recruit's corner of the grounds and were aiming towards a  brick wall. It suspiciously resembled the wall separating the private  gardens from the public ones.

"Your maids have sent a cry for  help to Stellan and Laris. Apparently, you escaped them and they  couldn't find you anywhere", explained Aetrian his sudden arrival.

"I  needed to get out for a little bit." Remembering the gleaming eyes of  the seamstress and her helpers sent a shiver down Elanthin's spine.  "They're all very serious about their tasks."

"You don't have  to tell me." Upon noticing the disturbed look on her face, Aetrian let  out a low chuckle. "But I'll ask them to go easy on our valued guest."

The  private garden's wall rose up in front of them. Aetrian showed no  intent of evading it, so Elanthin assumed that they were entering.  Despite the lack of a door, he didn't slow down until he stood right in  front of the bricks.

After he'd put a hand onto the uneven stones, they started to rearrange and make way for them to pass through.

"Is it possible for you to tell on me after I've found a new hiding spot?"

"Let's make a trade. I'll keep your secret but only if you do something for me as well."

She looked at him with annoyance but that didn't deter him. Instead, the corners of his mouth rose up. Shameless bastard.  If he asked anything more of her than for her to kindly overlook his  latest silly remark, she'd have to find a way to get him back.

"Name your price."

"Sit  with me for a while." The surprise must've shown on her face, because  Aetrian's grin grew crooked. "Are you disappointed that's all I'm asking  for?"

Her hands closed around the hilts of her sword, which  were dangling from the leather belt around her hips. Aetrian understood  the meaning of her symbolic gesture immediately, but his smile didn't  waver.

Torn between the option of sitting down with Aetrian,  who seemed to have set his mind on provoking her, or returning to her  waiting maids, she followed him to a little pavilion in the middle of  the garden. His private grounds were simpler than she'd imagined; a  gurgling brook ran along the brick walls covered in ivy, while the  middle was dominated by large patches of wildflowers and soft grass.  Apart from the pavilion in the middle, which they'd nearly reached, it  lacked any of Gratia's overbearing decorations.

Maybe this  garden was telling her something about its owner; if Aetrian could be  compared to it, he must be more modest than he let on.

That  thought disappeared as quickly as it had crossed her mind. As Aetrian  turned around to hold out a hand in front of the pavilion's stairs, she  caught a glimpse of the golden ivy wound around his left ear. It gleamed  from under the silver tips of his hair, as a sunbeam met with it.

I must be mistaken, decided Elanthin. Not a hair on his head is modest. Out loud, she complained: "I don't need your help to climb up a few stairs."

He didn't draw his hand back. "I never thought you did."

Given  even more reasons not to accept his supposedly-polite gesture, Elanthin  took all of the three stairs at once before she settled down on one of  the delicate chairs surrounding a tea table.

Aetrian sat down next to her.

"Now  that I think of it, maybe I need to re-think my high evaluation of your  skills. Did I see that right?", he asked innocently. "One of the  recruits managed to touch you?"

Frowning, she looked over his shoulder instead of in his face. Bingo.

"No."

"Are you certain? Because from what I saw, her sword met your arm quite clearly."

"There wasn't anything like that."

"Oh really? Then you wouldn't mind me checking, would you?"

His hand had caught her arm, turning it towards him until he detected a little slit in the blouse's fabric.

„That girl really ...", started Aetrian without his prior amusement, while his hands were busy moving over the skin underneath.

Elanthin  couldn't feel the sting of the cut anymore, so she didn't care much  about what he'd find. However, Aetrian's expression grew more and more  confused.

"She did cut you, didn't she?"

She sighed. "Yes, I admit it, you're right. Her blade touched me a little in passing. It's not –"

But Aetrian wasn't letting her finish. Without looking up from her arm, he cut in.

"I was certain too. But there's nothing here, Elle."

As  Elanthin lowered her gaze onto her blouse, she realized what he meant.  Not one drop of blood had stained the half-transparent white fabric.

"How in the abyss", muttered Elanthin, before drawing her arm back with considerable force.

For  some reason, she felt like hiding the absence of this cut – as if it  was betraying that the Children had been right and she wasn't entirely  human anymore.

They both took a second to consider its  absence. When Aetrian spoke up, his voice had taken on a calm manner, as  if he was trying to convince them both.

"Perhaps we were  mistaken and all you've felt was the coldness of the blade", he said.  "Let's call the medic to inspect your arm."

Usually, Elanthin  would've protested at this point. A simple cut like that wasn't enough  to be worried about; however, the fact that there was no cut was  unsettling her enough to agree.

"Just to be sure that there's nothing ... wrong."

Her  eyes wandered over the cut blouse which couldn't hide the smooth skin  underneath. Had the darkness really healed her cut? She hadn't even  noticed that something was happening to her body before Aetrian had  pointed out the missing wound.

The picture of one of the abyss  crawlers, its flat face distorted and overshadowed, crossed her mind  for a split second, but it was enough to get her heart racing and her  stomach turning. Even if the darkness had cured her of the Deep's poison  and healed her cut, could she trust that it wouldn't change her in some  other way?

Nodding her head, she quietly agreed to Aetrian's proposition. "Just to be sure."

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