Truth of the Whisper

Chapter Ten.

'Please, just stop.', I said and for a moment, there was silence in my head.

'I'm going to tell you this for as long as I need to, Adriyele. I don't see you as a key. You're not a thing. You are a young woman, who just found out who she is. And you became a friend. A friend that I didn't want to have, but not because I don't like you – just because I knew that something like this would happen and we'll lose that friendship.'

I closed my eyes and shook my head. 'We're not... I mean... We're not friends. Maybe, we've never really been. Maybe, I wasn't even friends with the others.'
'They are still your friends, Adriyele. Caaln and the others are asking me about you all the time.'

Caaln's face appeared in front of my inner eye. He always had an open ear for me. He'd always been my shoulder to lie on. Caaln had helped me a lot when it was about admitting someone near me, was it emotionally or physically. But... 'Rhydomir told me that everyone's fine. The men that took me... said something about Caaln being injured.'

'He was, but he's fine now'

'I'm glad he is. I really am. But no – they are not my friends. I always said I have no friends, and maybe it's better if it stays that way. I cannot trust you or anyone else. They all obey your command – and as your family and... subjects – they should. I don't wish them bad. I... they'd all played their part, and I'm... I don't know if sad describes it. None of them told me, but they also weren't allowed to. I shouldn't have expected anything. I have to admit, that I really liked what it felt like to have someone to tell me that I'm not alone in this. But I am. So please do me a favour and don't tell me otherwise'

'Adriyele', Nyshard cut in, but continued 'But I'm not stupid. If you feel guilty - or whatever you may feel - because you killed my father and stole my freedom and therefore want to at least try... them I'm at least using my chance to hear your side of what Phylon told me. But don't be nice, Nyshard. I need facts. I don't need niceties. We've had that, and I need to keep my feelings out of this. From now on.'
'Feelings?', he asked.

'It hurt, Nyshard. Reading that letter, realising what you had done, and that Caaln had never saved my life... and then everything that happened afterwards. It hurt, Nyshard. For the second time within a few weeks, my whole world got shattered. You gave me a new place to live, training, friends and parts of a truth I wouldn't have believed if the Whisperers had not told me the same. But then, that letter took it all away. You've had your reasons. And if I believe you, you had no... other choice than to kill my father. But I don't know if your reasons make anything that you've done any better. I just don't know. All I know is, that I need to get away from here.'

He was silent for a while, but then he said, almost carefully 'I understand. We – I – have put you through things. All of this happened because I did not tell you the full truth. I know that. And I promise you that I will make this right.'

I looked at my reflection in the mirror for some time and tried not let this get close to me. But I couldn't. It was all just so contradictory, just as Nyshard himself was. From the beginning, I wasn't really able to decipher him, and when I finally had had the feeling that I was getting to know him more, I'd left. But for now, all I was able to do was to get as much information from him as possible. And then try to find a way out of here.

'So, why did the binding mark work, even though Caaln hadn't saved me at all?', I asked.

'Because he did save your life. Not from the wolf, but more... generally.'

'And that was enough?', I asked, shocked. If that was the case, then... almost every Fleyr could bind someone because of almost nothing?

'And you believed that he did save your life from the wolf. Otherwise, it wouldn't have worked. That's a loophole in Sladowran's law.'