~.✧ Austora ✧.~ [COMPLETE]

~.✧ thirteen ✧.~

I hadn't felt this light since before Asria had gone missing. Not only had Father received a letter from one of the search parties this morning saying that they were confident Asria hadn't been taken out of the country, but I also was going to see Larklind. I had mixed feelings about the note, but anything at this point was a blessing. If she hadn't been taken out of Austora, then it meant that things with Brickenfolt were less likely to escalate. Though maybe I should want them to do something to show that they were behind this. Maybe things needed to escalate to get better...

But I tried to ignore my tumultuous feelings about this new update. After talking with Larklind yesterday, I'd realized how much more I wanted to talk with him, how he made everything so much easier. Those few days where we hadn't seen each other had slowly drained me, more than I realized until I was around him again, his bright personality and selflessness filling me up in a way I hadn't known I needed.

We'd agreed to meet in the back courtyard. I'd been excited so I was out here a little early, but I didn't mind having to wait. The day was cooler than normal, a front moving in from the west, blowing in large grey clouds with the lower temperatures. Occasionally, larger storms from the coast of Ethira made it all the way to Austora, but they were never as strong when they hit the castle as I'd been told they were in Ethira.

So being out here had another advantage; I got to enjoy what little of the sun blossomed today before it started to rain.

As I walked around the hedges in the back courtyard, my head turned toward the outbuildings where I heard the voices of guards talking and laughing brightly. None of them were Larklind yet, but I did have to do a double take when I saw one with darker hair. I didn't mistake him for Lark, but he did almost seem familiar. Then I realized it wasn't that I had seen him specifically before; I'd seen someone who had to be his brother. Gestin.

Guilt crawled up my throat from deep within my stomach. It had been days since that attack in Caliprofra, yet I hadn't thought a single moment about the severely injured guard that had risked his life for my sister, had risked his life so that we'd be informed of what happened. He'd fulfilled his duty, almost to the point where he couldn't do it anymore, yet how had I repaid him? By ignoring him... By forgetting about him.

"What world is your mind in, princess?" a voice said, startling me from my deep thoughts.

I spun around and faced the fountain where Larklind had just emerged, a smile gracing his lips like it almost always seemed to.

I let out a relieved sigh. "You scared me."

"Sorry," he replied, though I couldn't believe him because his grin only widened.

I smacked his arm and he chuckled, eliciting one from my own lips. Though my chest lightened slightly by his presence, my mind was still weighed down by the new revelation about Gestin.

I glanced back at the group of guards, my smile falling. Larklind noticed. "Hey, is everything okay?" His eyes followed my gaze but it only seemed to confuse him more.