Part 2. Chapter 50: The Price of Freedom

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While Maruka fought with his troops up on the battlements that night, he couldn't help his cheery disposition. Even though so much rested on his shoulders, and there was so much chaos around him, he felt like he could float. The sound of the terrified screaming of his soldiers didn't weigh heavily upon him tonight—neither did the grinding of axes on swords nor his responsibility of having to keep his recruits alive. He felt like he didn't have to hang his head because his heart was so heavy as he normally did; he felt like the shackles that were keeping him bound to his duties and to the dryad had been removed.

He unleashed a dampened arrow with pin-point precision into the fiery heart of a doppelganger with a smile on his face.

One of the recruits who was hunkered down next to him behind the parapet commented, "you seem cheerful."

Maruka didn't reply; he didn't even hear her. He was caught up in something that only he could see.

Crystalline bubbles were floating up from the dead earth surrounding the fortress; they buoyed upward and upward until they eventually popped. Maruka stared at them with an almost drunken smile. Following the bubbles, water began surging up from the earth, and sea-vegetation popped into existence after it.

Maruka could hear seals barking in his ears; he could feel water caressing his cheeks.

"Sir, get down!" The recruit hunkered down next to him grabbed his calf and dragged him down next to her just as a shadowy arrow flew past his head.

Maruka was breathing heavily. What happened? Was that all my imagination?

He ran a hand through his hair. Am I infatuated with the fairy? Is that where this imagination has stemmed from?

He slammed his back against the slab of iron. No. It's the art. I can't stop thinking about it.

Maruka regained his bearings. Although he was still cheerful, he kept his imagination under control. He stayed with the recruits for many more hours—fending off the doppelgangers--and then he returned to his quarters to attempt to rest.

He sat on the edge of his bed—hunched over with his hands hanging off his knees.

He could imagine the sea gently waving under a clear sky and a cool wind.

His hands tingled excitedly when he thought of continuing to paint the room; his wrists twitched. I can't stop thinking of it! I must return to the sea! Not the painted sea, but the real sea!

"Maruka..." A sing-song voice called.

Maruka looked around in the shadowy corners of his room until he saw the silhouette of a woman in one of them. "Lollia...?"

"What have you been up to?" The dryad queried from the darkness.

Maruka couldn't help the electric fear that ran up his spine at her voice. "G-gathering information like you asked. I-I didn't learn much of interest yet. Just that Pollyanna seems to have gained her powers from one of Eory's ancestors."

The dryad, Lollia, crossed her wooden arms with a disparaging expression. "I know. I heard. I also heard you telling him that you didn't like being my slave."

Maruka's eyes darted downward worriedly. "Y-you were there? How?"

Lollia emerged from the shadows and sat down next to him. She reached into his ear and pulled out an ant the size of her thumb. "I planted one of my spies on you. He told me everything."

Maruka couldn't hide his look of revulsion at something so big living in his ear. In a moment, he managed to recover. "I-I shouldn't have said t-that, but I was trying to bond with him. H-he told me he was a prisoner once, too. We had that in common..."

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