Defying Equilibrium: Book II

Chapter 12: Now or never

 "You'll have to do better than that."

The statement was so simple, but the implications were anything but.

Moments ago, the woman who had commanded their fear so absolutely, fled the room in a state of panic. The disbelief had been written on her face as plain as day, and yet she could not disbelieve what her own eyes had seen,what occurred right in front of her. She had stabbed him. He should have died. An ordinary man would have been dead in seconds. And while blood stained the dagger she had used, the man had not bled. He had not died. The wound in his chest seemed as if not to affect him in the slightest. Who was he?

She almost wished that she did not know, but there was no mistaking it now.

And so she had fled the room in a state of quiet certainty, mixed with a panic. She had summoned another messenger, and another, for there were many people she had to contact. She had fled so hurriedly and distractedly that she didn't even lock the door behind her. The guards stationed outside their cell didn't notice anything different.

The message that she sent out was simple.

He has returned.

"Once again, may I welcome you, Captain Renguard. I trust you found your accommodation satisfactory?" It irritated Mayard to no end having to be so gratingly polite, but it was an unfortunate necessity if they wanted the captain on their side.

Chase nodded. "Yes,of course. And my apologies on behalf of my second-in-command. My cousin found herself feeling rather ill after our long journey. I'm sure you'll understand."

Mayard nodded. "Yes,the journey must have been taxing. Your second is your cousin?"

"Yes," Chase smiled. "Some deemed it unwise, but who better to trust with watching my back?"

Mayard didn't reply.He couldn't care less who was watching the captain's back, only that she wasn't there to do so now. It made his job easier without the young girl getting in the way. He ushered the captain further downthe stairwell, descending deeper and deeper into the forges.

"Tell me, Captain Renguard," Mayard began. "What made you decide to become a Swordsman? Or were you drafted?" Under guise of conversation, Mayard was trying to gain as much information as he could about the captain. And questions like these, while seeming innocent or curious, were important. They revealed motivations.

Chase thought for a moment. "I don't know what made me sign up. I guess it seemed exciting, I wanted to feel important and to feel like I was making a difference to this world. It's stupid, I guess. I know that one person can't change the course of a war. But now I'm here, and this is my life."

"And your cousin?"

"She was drafted, a few years after I joined. I guess it was just luck that got us stationed in the same place."

"And do you enjoy it? Being a soldier, I mean?"

Chase smiled a little. "To anextent."

"And do you have a family, Captain? Back in your home town?"

"No, it's just me and my cousin. My family perished in an epidemic that swept through our town a few years ago." He told this matter-of-factly, like it didn't matter to him any longer. Skillful in hiding his emotions.

"Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that."

I bet you are, Chase thought. I bet you are just full of sympathy for me right now. Yes, you seem like a very sympathetic person. Chase was a very skilled liar, he always had been. While he detested deception,detested falsehood, he definitely understood its necessity in a situation like this. Everything he had said so far was a lie, and by the looks of it Mayard was none the wiser. Here's to hoping it stays that way, he thought.