After their decisive victory over Orinovo, Lys-Akkaria's army crosses the border to take back territory that used to be theirs. With the combined forces of a lightweaver and shadowforger, Orinovo doesn't stand a chance.
In spite of their newfound a...
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The next few weeks were a blur. And Ainreth was very grateful for that—it stopped him from overthinking, and kept him focused on what was really important.
The Lys-Akkarian army had returned. Not all of it, of course, but enough to pose a problem given that they'd started bothering the citizens of Lys-Akkaria all over the country, specifically looking for Ainreth and people allied with him.
On the plus side, though, with the proof of Varilik's lies in hand, it had been relatively easy to gain support in smaller towns.
Going around from town to town to gain support for their cause was annoyingly reminiscent of when he'd done a similar thing with Fenn just months ago, but Ainreth refused to let that distract him.
There was a noticeable tension between the locals even outside Kyr-Toryl, though, and so when they'd at first started doing this, announcing what had happened, showing proof, and asking for people to join their cause in fighting Varilik's oppression, Ainreth had expected the people to be hesitant. Or perhaps outright not wanting to have anything to do with this.
But surprisingly, they'd gained new people for their cause fairly easily. Especially from people with Orinovan heritage. Ainreth had heard from many of them about being forced to sign that document about not being traitors, how it had made them feel as though they were second-class citizens.
And Ainreth agreed completely. It was why he, Petre, and a couple more of their fellow rebels—as Varilik insisted on calling them—were on their way to Tenremi to see his parents.
Well, the actual point of the trip was to garner more support, but Ainreth had been anxious to check on them. He needed to know if they were okay since one of his mom's was from Orinovo. Even though the thought of her being forced to sign made him boil inside, he hoped she had. He wanted them all to be safe much more than he wanted them to uphold things like pride and honor.
The only reason he'd told Petre not to do it if they didn't want to because he could be around to protect them. But he couldn't do the same for his parents unless he brought them to the battlefield, which was about the last thing he wanted to do. They weren't soldiers or even fighters.
Since he couldn't be seen anywhere publicly without risking Fennrin showing up and stopping him, Ainreth entered the town invisible, with the rest of his group separating from him.
Ainreth knew they'd handle this perfectly well on their own. Petre had been taking initiative lately, and it was quite endearing. Ainreth was so proud of them.
He sighed when he reached his parents' house. At least on the outside, the place looked the same as before.
Ainreth approached the door, knocking before looking around and dropping his invisibility. There was no one around, at least.
"Who is it?" asked the guarded voice of his father. It tended to be guarded on the best of days, but this was a different level of it. He almost sounded like he was ready to fight whoever was at the door.
