By Midnight Blood

Chapter Four: Edge

Liridia

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The unforgiving wind whipped my hair back from my face and I smiled into the horizon, my feet dangling off of the cliff facing the sea. I felt Nalem's eyes on me from behind and I turned around, meeting his gaze expectantly.

"Lovely view, are you going to sit, or just observe from afar?" I ask, pushing stray strands of hair from my face with a small smile. He sits wordlessly beside me, his feet now dangling next to mine.

"This is outrageously dangerous, you know." He states, leaning back on his elbows and then laying down on his back, one arm tucked beneath his head as a pillow.

"Of course, but isn't it worth it to live a little?" I question, glancing at him with a sly smile. I remember seeing him the bar the first day after I hitched a cart to that town, Zyion. He was polishing glasses when I walked into the bar behind Myra, who hired me to work there until I could support myself and move to the next town.

We locked eyes and he stopped polishing for a moment so his eyes could travel down my feeble body and back up again only to be met with a glare from me. He gave me a small smile and went back to work, but something happened after my shift, and I remember it clear as day.

"So, I'm Nalem, Myra's nephew. You working here now?" He had introduced, wiping his hands on his apron.

"Yes. I'm Liridia." I nodded, taking a glass from under the bench and pouring myself a drink. I didn't need friends, I'd move to the next town and never come back. Or they would just hurt me like all the other people I cared about.

"That's a sippin' one. Burns like hell." He warned, grabbing a glass and taking the bottle from my hands to pour himself one, his fingers brushing mine softly. I don't reply, just sitting on the bar itself and taking a little sip from my glass.

He joined on the bar and we sat there, until he filled the silence with talk.

"This tastes like shit to be perfectly honest." He coughed, glancing at the bottle behind us, making me smile at him as he made a wretched face.

"Was it easy to come here, leave everything behind?" I asked him, laying down beside him to stare into the clouds above. He hesitated a moment before answering.

"No. In the end, this is my life, my family." He said, and I sat up and looked at him with a stupid smile on my face. "What? Is that too poetic for you?" He joked, and I poked him in the ribs in reply.

"No, I just didn't expect it to come from your blathering mouth," I smiled, looking back at those green eyes, "You see me as family?"

"I see everyone here as family, even the stupid ones like yourself." He sat up, and I smacked him in retaliation. I turned back to the waves and it felt as if something had fallen on me. A burden to bare when all I wanted was freedom.

Family.

"I have nothing left. It's easy to leave when nothing is holding you back." I think out loud, my voice almost swallowed up by the wind that roars in my ears.

"No Mother, Father? Siblings, even?" Nalem's smile dissipated along with the joking mood, and I nodded in simple reply, staring at my dangling feet, tears thick in my throat.

No Mother, no Father. No going back.

The conversation fell into silence, and I watched from the corner of my eye as Nalem's eyes narrowed when the sun hit them. He covered his eyes with his arm and sighed into the wind, his chest rising and falling in time with mine.

"My Father died. My mother might as well have too." I choke out softly through the lump in my throat. He uncovered his eyes a bit, just enough to watch a single tear roll down my face that had been pushed out by the wind.

Don't let anyone see you cry. Weakness is the only downfall.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Liridia." He said, sitting up and staring out into the great blue of the sea with me. But I just want to sit alone now, with my thoughts falling to the rocks below so I can focus. I don't want to think, or remember.

"Not your fault, so don't apologise." I scrub the tears away from my face harshly with my sleeve, sniffing and standing up on the edge of the cliff, the wind holding me back from falling off the precarious edge.

"Don't we have training or something to do?" I bite out, harsher than intended and regretting it as his eyes harden. He gets up and nods as he brushes past me towards the orchard.

"Fitness. You'll thank me later when you're nimble enough to dodge an arrow." He said, meeting my eyes with a clenched jaw. I internally groan, but follow behind him with my eyes straight ahead.

No looking back.

Even if it's easier.

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Sorry, this one is a little shorter than usual.

Song recommendation: Lovely, by Billie Eilish
Book recommendation: The 100 series, by Kass Morgan

Have a great night, lovelies.