Sol's Shine and the Kingdom of Metal

Chapter 13 Old Friend Of Mine

 Sol swung his new sword at a few practice dummies in a remote location away from anyone else. He tried to vent his frustrations that were created from the meeting they had with King Balmer the previous day. The dummies he shattered were originally made from clay, the same material used for making pots or plates. That made breaking them a lot more satisfying to Sol. Though making these types of dummies took a lot of work, he figured that not many orcs felt satisfied making them all the time if they were just going to be shattered one by one. That became apparent to him when he ran out after the 22nd dummy.

Sol had his blade sticking into the ground. He pushed his sword away and watched it fall over like a domino. He turned around to see Brook watching from the bench. Lilac also started to make her way from behind a large hedge to stumble upon them both. "How long have you guys been here?" Sol asked. "I just got here. What were you doing?" Lilac asks him. Brook looks behind himself as if her sudden appearance surprised him too. "I was just watching Sol break a bunch of clay dummies. I've been here for quite a bit." Brook told them.

Sol and Lilac sat on the bench next to Brook and Sol couldn't help but make a long sigh. "The meeting didn't sound like it went well. I take it nothing went our way again?" Lilac asked. Sol leaned back on the bench and tilted his head until he was looking at the cloudy sky and answered her. "Yup." Brook was hunched forward, taking a good look at the mess Sol made. "These are hardly meetings or negotiations. These types of leaders just want you to comply with whatever they want to happen." Brook said to her. "Well of course, we're just going to do what's in our best interests too." Lilac said, resting her elbow on the arm of the bench and leaving her chin to lay on her palm.

"Of course we couldn't make any real plans on how we're going to stop Mithra or Amon. I blew a fuse, telling them I wanted to save Amon and I think everything went downhill from there." Sol admitted. "They want to kill him?" Lilac guessed. "I'm not saying what they said was nice and that I agree with them. It just makes sense that they would come to that conclusion from their point of view. Even Crystal is being put into a position where she has to start caring more about her kingdom than before." Brook stated.

"We need to be able to change someone's mind about all of this, especially Krissy." Sol said. "Yeah?" Lilac looked over to Sol. "Yeah. She wields the Unyielding Bulgasari so the influence she has on King Balmer is big. But more importantly than that, she's an old friend of ours. We know for a fact that if she wasn't going through with this type of grief that she would agree to help us." Sol said. "I don't think she's felt like herself ever since losing her nephew." Brook told them. "I need to settle things with her eventually. If there's anyone that has to get her mind on the right track, it should be me." Lilac told them. Sol only raised a brow. "You know what that means, don't you?" He asked. "Yeah, I know. She'll try to fight me but I'll be ready. The thing is... I know for a fact she wouldn't strike me down and kill the person William loved. She's just frustrated and feels like she doesn't have anyone to talk to. I'll be there when she's ready to calm down." Lilac said to them.

Sol felt nervous about what Lilac said but also couldn't help but trust her intuition. Conflict was always going to be inevitable. "You're right. If you try to confront Krissy, that will at least take her focus off of Amon." Sol told her. "Where do you think he is anyway? How do we find him?" Lilac asked. "We don't. He'll tell us where he is." Brook said. This confused Sol and Lilac. "What makes you so sure?" Sol asked him. "Amon has some sort of vendetta against you Sol. Ever since our arrival and especially since the tournament, word has probably gone around the entire kingdom that we're here." Brook told them. "So if Amon is here in this kingdom then that means..." Lilac tried to piece it together. "It won't take him long to figure it out and make his move. Once he does, through word of mouth, we'll be able to know where he is." Brook said.