Uneasy Alliance (A Roleslaying with Roman story)

The Revelation

Roman had been reading his mother's journal at every possible opportunity he got. Youngblood was right, it did seem to have been written during or before the war between the bards and the fae.

His mother seemed very kind, and almost always saw the good in any situation. This made sense to Roman; he got his looks from his father, and his optimistic outlook on life from his mother.

It gave a whole new meaning to the fond yet sad look he caught on Riker's face when he looked at him. Whenever he would reassure people or be determined to solve difficult tasks. The thought of this made Roman's heart sink a bit. Did his father look at him and see a reflection of his mother? Was he just a constant reminder to him of what they could have had as a family? Surely his own father wouldn't think of him like that... right?

Roman shook his head and continued reading, pushing the thought out of his head. Of course Riker didn't think of him that way, he loved Roman unconditionally. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that Riker wasn't truly satisfied with having Roman as the only reminder of the person he had lost. To be fair, Roman couldn't really blame him for that. Even Roman himself wasn't content with just staying in Reston and not knowing anything about the world... or his mother...

Roman realized that during this line of thinking, he had completely skipped over the page he had been reading. He sighed and brought his eyes back up to the top of the page.

The date at the top of the page seemed to be at least a few weeks later than the date of the last entry. The writing on this page was much shakier than usual, and the page had a small, dark red stain on the bottom corner. Roman's brow furrowed as he read. The entry described the start of the war from what seemed like an outside perspective.

The entries from the past few months had told about how his mother had met Riker and Patty, but they also said a lot about a blonde man with violet eyes named Remus, who had been traveling with them as well. Roman had assumed that this was the same man that he had seen in his vision when he left Reston. The journal had mentioned multiple times that Remus had gotten progressively more distant from the rest of the group in the months before the war, especially after Riker had been blessed with his own son. Remus and Riker seemed to have gotten into arguments more and more often, even though they had been introduced as good friends, and seemingly almost more.

By the time the entry that Roman was currently reading was written, Remus had left the group. This seemed to have had a significant effect on Riker, who was now described as though he had lost some of the light in him. The journal didn't explain how or why he left.

The next few entries told about a battle between the newly established (at the time) bard army, and a small city of fae. The writing in this entry was nearly illegible, and had a few darker splotches on the pages, as though his mother had been crying while writing it.

His mother had been outside of the city during the time of the battle, but Riker and Patty had both decided to go in and try to help the fae, who were, surprisingly, greatly outnumbered. Not being able to bear waiting any longer, his mother ran into the city to try to find Riker, making sure Roman was safe before doing so. She found him close to the center of the city, locked in a sword fight with the Bard King.

Roman never thought he could gain more respect for his father than he already had, and he was surprised to be proven wrong. The way Noise and Youngblood talked about the Bard King, Roman expected him to be some all-powerful force of unstoppable evil, and yet now Roman was reading about how Riker had gone up against him, and the two seemed to be evenly matched. As Roman continued to read, he noticed more and more of the ink was smudged.

The Bard King slashed Riker's face, and Roman's mother called out for him.

The writing on the page had become so shaky that Roman almost couldn't read it.

When the king turned to face her..

The ink smudged badly, but Roman could just barely make out what it said..

It was Remus.

The entry ended there abruptly, which may have been for the better as Roman's mind was swarmed with questions. Riker had been traveling with the Bard King?! Why had he never told him? What would Noise and Youngblood think? Would they think that he was trying to turn them in? Would they shut him out and abandon him in the middle of nowhere?

Roman shoved the book back into his satchel quickly and looked around, desperately trying to get his thoughts back in order. Noise and Youngblood were both out hunting, so he was alone in the cave. He got up and walked out briskly, deciding that he needed some time away from the other two on his own terms to calm down.