*COMPLETE* "People don't believe in us anymore. They don't believe that in the end we will do what is right. We can't let them down. We can't let Ben win."
Decisions made on top of the lonely, wind-swept cliff of Lethinor reverberate around the five...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The two strangers are covered in dirt and blood when they show up at the city gates. Five pairs of feet run down to them, no one voicing it, everyone hoping. And when the doors open, the electric lights falling on Caj's worn face and Fae's thin frame, no one says it but they all move at once, gripping the pair in a tight embrace.
"Walked," is what Caj tells them, his left arm set in a brace and his voice flat from exhaustion. "All the way."
Their first stop is the infirmary, despite both travelers' protests, and then the kitchen. A bottle of wine is cracked open and mugs are passed around; the mood the lightest it has been since leaving Bear's Spear.
It's Hiran who broaches it first, Hiran who, glancing critically between Caj's newly re-set cast and Fae's hollow cheeks, finds the light way to say it.
"Why didn't you go to Solveigard City, you little fool?" he asks, ruffling Fae's wet, frizzing hair and Caj, scowling at them over his cup, sinks further beneath its brim to avoid being lured into the conversation.
"Thought we might be the only ones left," Fae answers, her gaze half-flickering toward the Smith-caller. "By the time we knew where we were, we were so far west it would have delayed us days to go back, and we thought we had to get to Bear's Spear immediately."
To tell them we had been lost¸ Allayria supplies at the end of this, drinking deep into her own cup. This, just as the other five's prior anxiety-inducing assumption about Fae and Caj's status, remains unsaid. They are, after all, celebrating.
"The soldiers there told us where you had all gone," Fae continues, the candlelight flickering in the hollows of her cheeks. "They said they would send a bird out ahead of us. Did it come?"
"No," Lei answers, frowning. "We heard nothing until today."
There's a disquiet that follows this, a wordless wondering of where that bird went, and, at least on Allayria's part, why the soldiers sent Fae and Caj without any back up, any guard. It's only broken when Finn slumps into his cup, already snoozing, his sleeves stained with apple juice.
The morning after is blurry and bleary, even for Lei, who bears it stoically, with the exception of his shortened temper. Both he and Allayria are due at the council, which they probably should have thought about the night before, but then again, noon had seemed so far off then.
But the midday comes faster than expected and they trudge down, stepping into the bright, sparkling room with squints and mumbled grousings.
"I heard Fae Urilong showed up last night," Beinsho says in way of greeting, his eyes narrowing when they find Allayria's face. "I went down to see her and the Smith-caller this morning."
"Hans will be thrilled," Hai Sofo wheezes from his chair, settling back into the cushions. "I had my scribe write to him immediately. He's overseeing the council with Sinfui while I am away. Was quite distracted when he learned his girl hadn't been retrieved."
