Between the Veil and Crown

Arvek 44

After several hours of restless sleep, Arvek gave up and spent the early morning hours watching over Selim and Cor as they slept. As sunlight crept through the windows and brushed the sleeping figures in the bunk room, Selim's eyes fluttered open. He and Arvek made eye contact. Then Selim sighed deeply before going right back to sleep.

For some reason, it provided just the smallest bit of relief. Even though Rasinod and Glae had said that Selim should be fine, it was as though Arvek needed confirmation from Selim himself. No, it did not mean that everything was solved and all right. But that didn't matter right now. Selim had woken up.

Arvek did not allow himself to dwell on the next obstacle in Selim's healing until the other started stirring.

The obstacle being, of course, the question of whether or not Selim was under the influence of an obsession potion.

And if not, addressing the question of why he would come to his kidnapper's rescue.

Rasinod was the next to wake. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he checked on Selim's head wound.

"Everything is normal so far," Rasinod assured Arvek.

Arvek didn't respond. Rasinod moved off to the kitchen in search of a good breakfast.

After Rasinod woke, the guards who were in the room with them began waking. After giving Arvek a proper greeting, they respectfully left so he could have time with his brothers, softly closing the door behind them.

Cor was next, though Arvek suspected he had been awake for a while and just wasn't ready to let anyone know. When he was ready to face being awake, he did not move from his bed, but watched Arvek and Selim while laying down.

The sunlight became bolder in its approach as morning officially set in. It lit up all the wooden frames of the beds, giving a soft orange glow to the room.

Somewhere in the distance, Arvek could hear someone speaking, almost as though it was to him. But they were not close enough.

He quickly glanced up at Cor. He jolted, realizing that Cor had something to him. "What?"

Cor nodded at Selim. "How is he?"

"Well, he woke up sometime ago for a brief moment."

"Did he say anything?"

"No. He just went back to sleep."

"Oh."

For a while, they were just silent.

It was broken by Cor.

"So, what's after this?"

"Ideally?" Arvek said. "I'd like to arrange a meeting with the Ranger's captain. I want to discuss the fact that they're now aiding and abetting a criminal." He added, muttering under his breath, "As though they didn't know before."

"That might take some time," Cor cautioned him. "I've heard the captain is not particularly easy to get a hold of."

"Well, we have time, don't we?" Arvek pointed out.

"Not if the villages keep getting destroyed," Cor countered. "Even if we somehow remain, we'd be at the whim of the captain's schedule."

Cor was right: As the Rangers were outside of Arvek's jurisdiction, he could not insist on the captain relegating his duties to another Ranger so he could meet with him. Arvek was essentially dealing with an equal, a ruler of another country. With the eminent threat of whatever was happening with the forest, he didn't have a lot of time.