The Shadows of Erisdar (ON HOLD)

Chapter 6

Alex sat across from Jason in his modest little home that he had set up for himself. They both scribbled away silently, Jason busy with schedules while Alex helped him draw up some plans to redirect some water from the various mountain streams into storage dams, since most of it now runs off into the ravine.

After several hours, Alex leaned back and assessed her drawings, going over the details. From beside her, a refreshing mug of flavourful ale appeared.

"Come on, take a break." Jason told her after handing her the ale, while tilting his head to the sofas in front of the fireplace.

Alex gladly relocated herself to one of the soft plush chairs draped in fur hides. They quietly enjoyed their drinks while staring at the mountainside that centred around their earlier discussion, when Jason broke the silence.

"I've been curious," he stated.

"Uh-oh, that's dangerous yous you know," she replied cheekily.

Jason smiled before continuing. "So, aside from all the interesting building stuff you learned at the Academy. Why six years? This couldn't have possibly taken that long to study." He asked incredulously.

Alex smiled as she looked thoughtfully into her mug. "It's called craftwrighting," she corrected him.

"Alright, alright, but still, six years? I mean, we were only there for two years, and that was for advanced studies," he said.

Alex was quiet for a while as she contemplated her thoughts. "Promise me this stays between us."

James frowned but nodded sincerely nonetheless.

"Well, as you know, Markus is convinced that I have Alpha lineage, so he enrolled me to study rulership just like the rest of you, because then I could help take care of pack business whenever any of you needed it," she began explaining.

"Yeah, but that's still just one year," he countered.

Alex nodded before continuing, "After Seamus... I was so angry and determined to do right by him. So I followed in all of your and his footsteps by studying Warcraft as well, but unlike where you guys specialised in Command and Shieldbearing, I enrolled in Tactical and Hunter classes."

Jason leaned forward at the news. "The shadow guild. But how? Markus would have never permitted it. Students enrolled in that course have died."

"I paid for it by repairing tools, gadgets, and armour. You name it. If you enrol in that, nobody knows; it's kept secret to protect the graduates' identities. He never knew," she told him. "After the second year, because I'd been paying my way through with repairs, someone from the inventors guild asked me to enrol in their classes, free of charge. It was a way for them to get more people interested in it, and it worked. But when I was done with that, I still felt inadequate to serve the pack, so I looked for something that would be useful, and animal health looked like a good fit."

Jason looked at her sadly. "You were never inadequate. Even without what you learned at the academy, you mean so much to us."

"I know," she said, "I just wanted more, I guess." Alex didn't share the whole truth with Jason. There were some things that she kept to herself. She didn't want to be pitied or fussed over, so she never shared the years of research she had done to try and trace her past. Nor did she share about the strange abilities she had begun to develop when she was younger. She had only trusted two people with that information, and neither of them was here.

Silence fell over them once more before Jason decided to cheer up the atmosphere. "Figures a smarty pants like you would need to show us all up with your achievements."