From the Ruins

Chapter Ten: "So Human"

The longer they traveled together and the more characteristics Alfarr picked up on Laekonus, the more questions he had.

How old was she? What powers did she have? How was she still alive? How was he still alive? Where were they going? What was going to happen to him? If he went with her then he went with her. But if he did not and if he went back, what would happen to him then? A major mine had burned to the ground, magic users and sympathizers escaped into the woods, and he did not fight to his death to defend The King's honor. And now? Now he was traveling further and further away alongside a nightmare.

They had walked for two more days after they left the inn. The windows of all the buildings were closed and locked and the streets were deathly silent, something unusual for a rural village when the soil was already starting to thaw. He looked down every alley they passed looking for the bodies of the men from last night but there weren't any. At Least not in any of the ones they passed. As they walked he couldn't help but wonder if any parts of their bodies remained at all. He remembered a story from his first week after being recruited that made him think maybe she followed them home and did much worse.

She took off her boots as soon as the grass could be seen through the snow remaining on the ground. Only putting them back on when they approached other villages or were about to cross paths with other travelers. They did not go towards other villages nor the capital city as they passed it, rather choosing to stick to the coast. 

Alfarr noticed that she knew her way around the forest, she was comfortable with it. As they got closer to other people she became more rigid and her steps would get lighter but then she'd change their course and they would continue as normal.

She did not seem to be bothered by his company, not reaching for a weapon when he made a sound and she has not killed him in his sleep. He did not know if that meant she trusted him or if she just did not see him as a threat. Neither option bothered him as long as he was still alive and heading as far away from the mines as possible.

She also had yet to eat and sleep. They stopped once for a couple of hours during the night but just enough for him to eat and take a short rest. When he woke up she was still in the exact same position as when he had fallen asleep.

Her ears twitched at every sound but after the third day of walking, he started to notice the differences even in those. By that point, he watched her just to see what she would do. The descendent did not seem like one for small talk nor sharing plans.

"I thought we were halfway there when we were at the village?" he finally asked while looking through the treeline trying to avoid eye contact and trying to see along the coast. He paused in his steps and-

Laekonus chuckled under her breath and Alfarr's head snapped towards her at the sound. It sounded so human.

"You have been holding that in for a whole day. I was beginning to believe you were never going to say anything."

Again, he did not know how to reply.

"Distance-wise, we were but you needed rest and I'm avoiding unnecessary conflict".

"Unnecessary conflict? Like what you did to those men at the tavern last night?" He sucked in a sharp breath at the tone that slipped through. He wanted to blame it on the cold and the lack of sleep but the snow was quickly disappearing as they traveled further west and the voices from the mine got quieter and quieter each night.

He could feel the terror raking up the back of his neck. His knees felt weak. That was it, she would turn and-

But she scuffed.

"You are bold to make the assumption that I would go out of my way to kill someone just because they were disrespectful".

"The men, they alive than?"

"No," his steps faltered, why does he live but they do not, "I just did not expect you to bring up the subject".

Her tone was light. That was her sense of humor.

*

By the next night, they had finally reached the coast. But they were nowhere near the port cities. Alfarr could see two separate bodies of land in the distance, the islands of Artilof.

He was starting to feel helpless. He needed to know why he was here and what would happen to him next. He assumed he was some type of prisoner, an unspoken agreement between them that if he did not run she would not deliver the same fate onto him as she bestowed upon his fellow guards.

He would sooner throw himself into the ever freezing waters then be subjected to a new form of cruelty. Or if he was to die soon anyway, he wished to do it with a mind satisfied by answers.

He had dropped down onto his back in the sand, she stood like a statue staring off into the distance between the two islands. Surprisingly relaxed with her feet and shoulders equally squared, her hands held together behind her back.

"What now?" He placed his arms behind his head, looking up at the stars. He could never see the stars while at the mines.

"Now?" Her body stayed rigid but she turned her head to look at him.

"What is going to happen to me? Will I die now? Later? I am a prisoner now, will you sell me into slavery, am I already a slave?" He rambled. He feared his fate, his mouth half running off the hope that she would put him out of his misery before the full extent of her cruelty was exposed to him.

But she did not. She continued to ignore his slow descent into madness and it antagonized him.

"I promised the Captain of the ship we are waiting on that I would bring him a replacement for the crewmen he has... lost. You were the only one left at the mines and I am not a fan of rebel camps."

So his fate was slavery. On a pirate ship. That Laekonus had killed off the crewmen of. He closed his eyes, no longer wanting to look at the stars. His eyes stung. It was almost poetic, after watching over the mines, he was now to suffer the same fate. The more Alfarr accepted his fate the less he felt it necessary to drift off into the treacherous ocean.

"How much longer?" he asked. His voice barely a whisper.

"He will be here before sunrise".