Deathless

Deathless Chapter Forty-Eight: Nightfall

Chapter Forty-Eight: Nightfall

One by one, the pieces began to fall.

First, the Last Mage of Arlenia, Axan, breathed his last, his sword shattered, the last of his strength gone.

Second came the rebel navy, dozens of proud warships made in the shipyards of Ictus City, collapsing underneath the imperial assault. Where there once came a coordinated hurricane of mortar fire, there only came scattered showers.

As the mortars thinned, Admirals Ryfast and Thorgar tightened their advance, smashing straight into the rebel fleet, bringing with them carnage and death. The rebel warships would take sail no more.

Third to fall were the rebel armies, the hundred thousand fighters ready to die for their emperor. And so they did.

Without Axan's power to guide them in their assault, the rebels soon fell underneath the Arlenian-Luartian forces, beating back their assault and forcing them into submission.

When the last remaining rebels cast down their arms, Captain Fercen, the next in the chain of command after the demise of Commander Agron, took charge of the clamouring Arlenian armies.

And last, with Governor Isylric dead and none left to finish the Luartian plot, the remaining Luartian armies agreed to declare Arlenia as the sole victor in the Battle of Arlenn's Point.

The last Battle of Arlenn's Point has met its end. The last pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. And Arlenia is born anew, but this time, with its last emperor dead with no heirs, the fate of the land still hangs in the balance. To ashes they descend, and from ash shall they emerge once more.

And atop Arlenn's Point, Lindale and Vanya watched all of this transpire, just as the sun sets in the west and the moon rises in the east. And as night falls on Arlenia, so too shall its civil war come to a close.

"So what happens now?" Vanya asked, her voice like a sliver of moonlight. Gone is the silent vengeance that tinged her voice on the road to Arlenn's Point. Vanya seemed to have found her peace. Lindale was glad for it.

"I have no idea," Lindale mused. He sat next to her then, on the cliff, as if they were gazing out from the edge of the world.

For a time, they watched in silence, as the last of the rebel forces submitted to the battered Arlenian armies, as the lights grew dim over the Red Bay and the rebel war fleet fell under Arlenian navy, and as the civil war finally met its end.

"Nothing will ever be the same now," Vanya muttered. Lindale knew it to be true.

"A new chapter. A new beginning for Arlenia," Lindale said. "Maybe this time they'll finally get it right."

"Well, we'll see about that," Vanya replied. "But what happens to us?"

"We'll forge on," Lindale said. "As we always have."

"As we always have," Vanya repeated, quieter this time. She looked into the night as it fell upon Arlenia.

Absentmindedly, Lindale took out his dagger, still stained with the blood of the Mage Prince. He wiped the crimson off on the grass, then shined it on the edge of his tunic. He sheathed it again.

"Vanya," Lindale said, turning to her.

"Yes?" she said, her mind still on other things.

"I've been journeying with you for half a decade now," he began. "And for all those years, I never asked you about your past. I respected your privacy, and I still do. But after all we've been through, I think I deserve some answers."

"I agree completely," Vanya said after a pause. "Starting now, Lindale, I'm going to tell you everything. It's time to let my guard down."

Lindale nodded.

"Okay, then. First things first," Lindale said. "Where were you born?"

"Plaeus Town," Vanya said. "My father was a soldier and my mother was a farmer. But I never really knew my mother. She died when I was very young. Four or five, I think."

"And your father?"

"He was... amazing. Strong-willed, firm, but kind and compassionate. He was always there for me, and even when he wasn't, his presence stayed with me. This was ten years ago, long after the Mage Wars and before the civil war began, so he was tasked only to work as a Sentinel in the city guard."

"What happened to him?"

"He was promoted. When I was seven, we got a letter saying that he would now take the position of a peacekeeper, the Sentinels who tracked down criminals and stopped them. Effective immediately."

"He knew he couldn't take me with him, so for most days, he left me with my grandparents while he scoured the fields of the Pass for rapists and bandits. Then one day, when I was eight, one of his comrades knocked on our door."

"And?"

"He was gone," she paused a moment before continuing. "Scouting operation. They never even found a body."

"I never... I never realised. I'm so sorry."

Vanya nodded. "I don't think I ever quite got over it. That's why I chose to be an explorer. Why I chose to heed Iepenel all those months ago. Because I thought that if I could go to the place where I lost him, I could find him again."

A single tear ran down Vanya's cheek as she said it. But this time she did it with more courage than she did with Sirya.

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"What's there to be sorry for?" Lindale asked. "It's what anyone would do. I lost my parents too when I was a kid, and if I thought for a second that there was a chance that I'd find them, I'd take it. I'd go through hell for a chance to see their faces again."

Vanya nodded, unable to voice out her gratitude.. And for a time, they were silent again.

"So what happens now?" she asked again.

This time Lindale looked her right in the eye. "We stay together. We trudge forwards. No matter what. We're partners, Vanya. Nothing will ever change that."

Vanya smiled, then. It is the first time Lindale sees her do so since they lost Sirya.

She nodded. And for a moment, all was right with the world.