Runesight

11 - Fragility of Thought

I was the Hero.

At least, that's what they called me after I died.

They weren't supposed to love me, they weren't supposed to even remember me. I hated that title because I'd done nothing to deserve it. I hadn't destroyed that army, I hadn't done anything but bring war to a place that had known nothing but peace. All I'd done was kill the king. All I'd done was purge the world of a monster only to let more monsters take his place.

But...who had destroyed that army then? Eliax couldn't help but wonder...I didn't give her that answer. I wasn't ready. I found myself falling back to the edges of her mind, stubbornly refusing to face this.

Eliax found herself staring at Aymiae. Her mind racing at this newest revelation. She couldn't let her know though that she had been Foralen. That she'd been the person to do all those terrible things.

Aymiae took it as a sign to keep talking, she didn't seem to think it was odd. "Do you want to see my favorite part of the Ayfel?" Eliax nodded slowly and the older woman smiled, "Right this way then!"

She led Eliax up some stairs, a ladder, and then finally into the attic. It was fairly small, but mostly empty. There was nothing but a couple of chairs, a small round table, and an empty vase.

Aymiae sat down in one of the chairs and Eliax followed suit. For once the resonance was silent. "This is the quietest place in the Ayfel." Aymiae whispered as she spoke, she looked out the small window with a smile, her crossed eyes absorbing things that Eliax would never know. "It puts things in perspective for me. You can see the city below, the people, the sky, the sunrise."

Eliax watched those things, feeling a kind of peace well up inside her. It still wasn't okay, she still wasn't okay, but perhaps one day she would be. "Thank you."

--

Eliax frowned at Jiuhen as he nudged her shoulder once more in an overly friendly manner. Clearly Givei didn't like that since she kept glaring at him when he wasn't watching, like right now.

She wasn't entirely sure, but Eliax got the feeling that Jiuhen didn't realize this. She would have done something sooner, but she liked planning these types of things out, she wanted to make a move and have it be effective.

Either that or she wanted him to just take a hint and pay more attention to his girlfriend already. She nudged him back but made it far more violent. Whoever said that violence wasn't the answer was clearly an idiot. It had a place, and that place was now.

He overbalanced and fell off his chair, Eliax glanced at him to make sure he wasn't dead and continued sipping her drink.

She was starting to think that Niun was right in his extendedly impossible revenge plot. Sparks, she should check up on that and make sure it was actually called off.

Raendus wasn't here today since he had a game coming up and needed to practice, Hivren was sitting across from Eliax but he seemed distracted by something, and Givei was clearly not paying attention to the game either.

Oh, plus Jiuhen's cards flew everywhere when he landed, giving Eliax a pretty good view of what he'd had.

She glanced at her cards and looked down at Jiuhen, who was just now picking himself up, "Sparks Eliax, what was that for?"

She picked out a card, a nine with a nick in the side and played it, "You're ignoring your girlfriend again, I've noticed you do this a lot." He sat up, giving Givei a wide-eyed look. Sparks he was so stupid.

Givei only glared at him.

Jiuhen groaned, "I swear, girls have a special language or something."

"We aren't denying it." Givei said tensely.