~.✧ Austora ✧.~ [COMPLETE]

~.✧ eighteen ✧.~

Two days later, on the day of the summer solstice, word was delivered that my sister had been located in a small northeastern town called Pretnek. A flood of emotions overwhelmed me when I was informed just before breakfast; relief, hope, excitement, love—anxiety, fear...

I clambered down to the dining hall even though I was barely presentable. But I needed to know more.

When I burst in, I found my family, as normal, but also a few of my father's councilors. Father was standing at the end of the table, discussing with his advisors, while Mother and Kartren sat near each other and spoke intensely. I was still angry at both my parents and Kartren and I didn't want to interrupt them anyway, so I ran to Braz who sat to the right, examining a map.

"Braz," I breathed, slightly out of breath from my rush downstairs.

He looked up with wide eyes before bolting to his feet and smashing me in a hug. "They found her," he said into my hair as he squeezed me tight in relief.

I let out a long breath before pulling away. "Tell me everything."

We both sat down and he pointed to the map. "Pretnek is a small town located here, just on the southern side of the Brikenfolt-Austora border. It's about a three day ride from here but it's mostly good terrain. But there's a problem."

I looked at him in concern. "Problem?"

He nodded, explaining, "Pretnek mostly consists of Brikenfolt immigrants and is not easily entered. The facility that the scouts reported seeing Asria being held in is small but well protected with an abundance of men. The scouts could not enter alone lest they be killed themselves. So Father is assembling as many men as he can to travel to Pretnek and infiltrate. All remaining royal guards that can be spared from their duties and all of Ethira's supplied men are going."

I felt my breath coming fast, in either anticipation or fear or a mix of both; I wasn't sure. I brushed my fingers over the little dot on the map that held my sister, the sister I'd nearly lost hope of finding. She was alive. And we'd finally found her. Tears pricked at my eyes.

"Saidy," Braz said gently and I looked up at him, blinking away the tears so that I wouldn't break down like I had so much recently. A lot had been setting me off these days and I didn't want to make a spectacle of myself with some of Father's council here.

He let out a sigh, his bright green eyes darker than usual. "I volunteered to go with them."

"With... with the caravan to rescue Asria?"

He nodded, his lips pressed into a straight line. "Is that okay?"

I swallowed. I didn't particularly like the idea of putting one sibling in harm's way while trying to save the other. But the look in his eyes told me that this was something he needed to do. Though he was good at hiding it, I knew that waiting around for everyone else to help his sister had been torture. Now, he'd been presented with the opportunity and he didn't want to pass it up.