The Truth Over The Wall

Chapter 14

It had been a while now since Hanalea had stopped talking and Alistair had yet to react...

Or move. Or blink. Or even just breathe for that matter.

"Allis," Hanalea leaned in cautiously to touch his shoulder, "Alistair, are you alright-"

"FIONA?"

"Just making sure." Hanalea jumped back as he came back to the numbers of the breathing.

"Fiona?" He was now pacing back and forth, making tracks in the earth with the force of his agitation. "The Witch-Queen Fiona?"

"Last time I checked," Hanalea said thoughtfully, "There was just the one Witch-Queen. And yes, her name was Fiona..."

"You can't be serious," He was astounded, "Hanna; witches are a supernatural abomination capable of wreaking mass destruction in solitary numbers. Fiona is their queen! The most fearsome, the most vicious and ruthless of them all.

"Alright fine, you've clearly trained for it. But even someone with the best of training wouldn't last more than a few seconds before Fiona's powers. Especially, someone without any practical experience fighting witches in the first place..."

Alistair trailed off when he caught a nervous look flit across Hanalea's face. She quickly looked away from him and started to worry at the ground with the stub of her boot.

"Hanna...?" Alistair questioned on a long note that was slowly growing suspicious, "You don't have any practical fighting experience with witches, do you?"

"Well," Hanalea shrugged and continued to avoid eye-contact, while she tried for a casual tone, "Now when you say practical experience in combat...are you implying as to a number that might be higher than ten? Because in that case, no. No, I don't have very much experience at all, actually."

"Hanna," Alistair's voice had a warning tone now, "What number then, if not ten?"

"Umm," she said awkwardly and shrugged yet again, "Nine."

"Nine!" That was two more witches then he had ever fought. "You've fought nine witches! How? When? Is that even possible?"

"First of all," Hanalea clarified, "Killed not fought nine witches. And Secondly, I wasn't alone so it's not as impressive as it seems. And thirdly, do you remember that time Marissa insisted I spend the winter at her castle. To give me a sense of my own people," Hanalea made a face, "Let me just tell you, that was brutal!

"All that standing around and talking to people you don't even like only to give them the impression that you actually like them, even though, clearly you don't. But you would rather that they didn't get that, at least not right away, because that frees you to exploit-"

"Hanna," Alistair said firmly, "You're trying to change the subject."

"Right," she said, tapping her fingertips together distractedly, "Anyways. That's where. Or when. We followed the mountain road along Tafah to Marissa's castle, giving me plenty of time to test out my abilities. And I wasn't alone, like I said. I was with Lady Amelia the entire time."

Lady Amelia of Marabeck was one of the most experienced warriors of her time. She was on Damon's personal guard, which of course meant that she was Hanalea's guard.

"And you've gone every year since then," Alistair said pressing a hand to his forehead, feeling it stretch painfully to make room for all this impossible information. "But she couldn't have gone with you the year after that," that was the year Alistair had turned seventeen and begun his own training under Lady Amelia, "And I know my father would never have let you go alone or trust you with anyone else."