Renevere Mars: Part Three

Episode 26: Mission at Hashu Manor

Ren was trying not to get her hopes up. She knew the road would still be long, even if Maharabi's Men where were Trish had shown them. Ren still hadn't wrapped her head around the fact that Trish was the spy. All the memories with her, the Winter Festival, parties, drinks, training. It all still felt completely real. She wasn't sure how she was going to go back through all those memories and rewrite them. Overlay them with the correction; this was fun, but Trish was a spy.

Just as Trish had plead for, she was incarcerated immediately after Duren and Ren brought her to Vertexia. Her stay would not be enjoyable, Ren was certain. They would keep her alive, because she held valuable information, but they would also interrogate her for this information. Keeping a warrior imprisoned is difficult. Keeping fresh runes on their skin so they can't use energy to escape, ensuring that the walls of their keep is fortified with all kinds of seals and enchantments; a high price to pay to keep a traitor alive. They wouldn't hold her there forever. But Ren tried not to think about that either.

The day after their confrontation with Trish, Duren and Ren met up outside Vertexia with packs on their backs. Due to the pressing nature of this task, they would not be waiting for a team to assemble, which was probably all the better as well due to the highly classified nature of what they were about to do. It would just be the two of them, making their way north to the spot identified by Trish, just across the exterior. Ren had never been to the exterior in her entire life, and certainly shouldn't be allowed to go on a mission into it now, but her special permission extended to this task, given the promise that Duren would be with her the entire time.

"Ren," called a familiar voice over the hubbub of the Vertexia milieu, people coming and going with important documents in hand and rich officials in toe. Heath weaved through the throng to catch up to where Ren and Duren were. "I'm glad I caught you," he said as he approached.

"Heath," Ren said with surprise, almost like he was part of an entire chapter of her life that was no longer supposed to exist. All a fake memory, planted in her mind with lies. But Heath had always been there too, and he was real. The concern in his features, the confusion, the hurt, made all those same feelings in Ren rush to the surface.

"What the hell is going on," he said, low and fast, putting his hand on her forearm. She sucked her lips into her mouth and bit down, because tears were suddenly threatening. "Trish?" he asked, begged really. Ren threw her arms around Heath without thinking. She couldn't keep looking at him or she would burst into tears. She clutched onto his back instead, squeezing her eyes shut.

"So it's true..." he muttered, arms around her too in a warm embrace. He squeezed her tight then. "Ren, I...I just can't..."

They released one another and Ren finally said, "I know. I can't believe it either. But it's true." She looked at him gravely, the redness in her eyes now visible to him.

"I just don't know how I didn't see it," he said, eyes distant. "I should have known! Or suspected, something!"

Ren shook her head. "No one did. I can't even think about it all right now, Heath, I'm sorry."

Heath looked over Ren's shoulder in the direction that Duren was standing off, waiting for this exchange to be over. "You two are headed off somewhere," Heath realized, still speaking in a low voice only to Ren. "Is this about..."

Ren nodded. "No one can know, Heath... I don't know when we'll be back exactly, but..."

"When you are, come find me," Heath finished for her. "We're gonna need a drink to wash all this down."

Ren gave a sad smile. "Agreed. I'll see you when we get back."

Heath nodded. "Good luck. And Ren," he added, pausing her from fully turning away from him, "You'll find them... Maybe not now, but... I know you will."