See You Yesterday

Chapter 48: Elvin

The leader meets his old foe - the fire finds even those who hide.

I regret everything.

I regret ever agreeing to help Zanna help Leo, and I regret ever having any part in this.

We need to do it and we need to do it now, or else Alexander will catch us.

So after Derythian is taken elsewhere, I decide to look for Zanna, although I don't really need to look far- she's at the scene of everything minutes after. She runs up to me, ash all over her face.

Before she can speak, I beat her to it, "Zanna, there's something we need to-"

"Can't you see what we've done, Elvin?" She interrupts, her face completely expressionless.

"Yes, I know, it's awful, but you agreed to help Leonardo and there's nothing we can do to change anything now."

"Are you kidding me?!" She cries. "This is great!"

"What?" I say, in shock. "You're kidding, right?"

"I'm deadly serious."

"So you don't feel bad?" I ask. "At all?"

She sighs. "Don't you see? If this works, Xenia will be a new place. We'll have a whole new system."

"Oh?" I quirk an eyebrow.

"Normals will be able to enter Xenia and then... Then Leo doesn't have any excuses to stay away from where he belongs. He can come back."

I stare at her, dumbfounded.

After everything. After everything that's happened and everything I've done for her, she still wants him.

I let out an irritable sigh and grab her hands. "Zanna... We have to go."

"Go? Where?"

"We have to leave here."

"What? Leave? Why?"

"Because we're criminals!" I snap.

She laughs, "That's never stopped us before."

And that's when I remember something. That's when I remember someone.

Ally.
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I must have said his name out loud because when I start to run to the pod, Zanna is close on my heels.

We arrive at his specially-protected part of the pod and he is sitting on the floor, meditating.

He opens one eye, sees us, and smiles slightly. "No."

"What?" Zanna and I say in unison.

"No. Clean up your own mess. This one's on you. Oh wait, they're all on you."

"We don't need you to clean up anything," I retort. "We're just here to say that things are changing and we-" Zanna cuts me off with a death stare, "I have to leave. I'm the head faerie, so this protection you have? Kiss it goodbye."

Ally shrugs, both eyes open now. "Okay."

"I know that you'll get executed and that I'm breaking my promise, but there's no other- wait," I say, interrupting myself, "Did you just say 'okay'?"

He nods.

"Oh," I say, "Well that was easy."

"Something is coming. Something big," Ally warns. "Get rid of this protection spell, Elvin. I'm going to have to make a run for it before it's too late. And if they catch me and they kill me, I don't care. I've nothing to live for, have I?"

"Come with me, then," I offer, before I even realise what I'm offering.

Ally raises an eyebrow. "You'd be prepared to risk everything? You'd be prepeared to get caught? I could mess up. I could foil your plans."

"Villain now, are we?"

He shrugs again. "'Course not. Someone has to be the bearer of a pessimistic attitude, though."

"Well I'm staying here," Zanna states.

I stiffen. "Then I wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavours."

Zanna looks at me strangely and then she pulls me into a hug. I hug her as tightly as I can, this frail faerie, this beautiful friend who provoked my unrequited love.

I pull away and she frowns.

"I'm not one for prolonging goodbyes," I lie.

She nods and Ally gestures for me to get on with it. So flexing my power-tingling fingers beside me, I begin to mutter the incantation to remove his protection.
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When the protection was removed, Zanna stalked off to go and find Leo, because they ought to 'talk' about everything.

As of now, however, Ally and I are on the run.

We leave the faerie pod and step out into the open, trying not to attract any attention to ourselves.

I reach for a golden allow from the sheath that is forever on my back and I put it carefully onto my bow, leaning against a tree when I see a boy walk past, pulling Ally back with me.

"Sparkly, shiny weaponry," Ally grumbles. "Nice one, golden boy."

"Oh shut up," I whisper angrily.

He exhales loudly- maybe a bit too loudly- and the boy stops walking. Ally puts a hand over his mouth, annoyed with himself, and he looks at me with apologetic eyes.

When the foosteps start up again, he breathes out again. "Close call."

I roll my eyes, moving forward again, still armed with my bow, and answer, "Be quiet and keep your head down."

He does as he is told and we continue in our efforts of sneaking out of Xenia.

I hold out a hand that Ally walks into  and lower my bow when I see what I see. Gale is dragging Charlie along by the hand, and he really looks like he'd rather be elsewhere. She looks angry- angrier than I've ever seen her- as she continues to yank him forward.

I hear a sharp intake of breath beside me and before I can stop him, Ally is running towards his goddaughter, giving us up.

I stay lurking in the shadows, watching.

"Gale!" He cries, driving me to put my head in my hands in dissaproval of his volume.

She moves her head ninety degrees, taking her time to look back.

Ally, she thinks you're dead. Please think rationally, I think to myself.

He touches her shoulder and she finally spins around completely to see his face. She squints at him and then she takes a huge step away from him, shock horror etched on to her face.

"It's so good to see you," Ally says to her.

"No," she says, shaking her head, furiously while still clutching Charlie's hand tightly. "You're dead."

"Gale..."

"You're not real!" She sobs.

Ally looks back at me desperately, giving away my hiding place.

Reluctantly, I step forward, walking towards them."He's very real," I sigh.

"David," she says, "Why the hell didn't you find me sooner and what's going on?"