Dance of Fates

chapter 9

Chapter 9

Monte Rosa, Switzerland 

In a cave in the mountains, there was a small, invisible from the outside camp. The campfire was burning and it was surrounded by a group of people lurking to it from all over the cold mountain.

A number of men in thick coats were sitting around the fire, listening to one man, who was telling stories of the olds and the mighty heroes that once were the sigil of light in this world. Despite the warming charms and wards, the coldness still reached them...

And in a dark corner of the cave, Eva was sitting in front of a table full of documents and scrolls. She was studying and reading them with full focus, and fatigue was slowly encroaching upon her. 

'This is not working,' Eva rubbed her eyes with annoyance and let out a sigh of restlessness. She and her squad had been camping out in the wild for months now; from cave to cave, from forest to forest... 

"You should take some rest," a manly voice said in the darkness. She turned around, shocked.

. 

"Kou!!" the woman with red eyes exclaimed, standing up from her chair happily but with weariness, to greet the owner of the voice. 

Kou, the man she’d called out, let out only a sigh of boredom, went to the chair she had been occupying, and sat down there. Eva looked at him suspiciously, narrowing her eyes, then grasped a bottle of ale and decanted some of it in two goblets to hand one to the man. She sat across him.

"You haven't changed at all, how long has it been this time?... Eight months," she said, observing him closely.

Truly, the man hadn’t changed at all, except for the growing beard, which he surely was too lazy to shave as usual. Kou was a well-built man, tall, with an athletic body, square-faced with grey eyes and silver-grey hair, yet he looked in his early thirties to any eye. He’d been born in Japan yet there were no Asian features in his physiognomy. 

She let a few sips of ale burn down her throat in this deadly cold. 

"Aren't you cold?" she asked Kou as she looked at his outfit. He was wearing a black and grey formal hakama-and-haori combo in the cold mountains—it looked ridiculous to Eva. 

Kou's eyes heavied. "It seems the coldness has iced your brain over as well," he said with an arrogant smile.

Her temper got hotter. "Narcissistic fox," she called him in a matter-of-fact tone. He only shrugged lazily and leaned down to the table’s surface to take a nap. 

Eva's hands squeezed into fists and her face got redder. One day she would slay this lazy old fox!

She heard her warriors, soldiers laughing at some joke. She smiled weakly at the sound. September was running out and October would roll around in just a few days. She looked up at her men, who were sitting around the fire. 

'For how long? Should I wait?' she kept asking herself. She’d made sure to hand «The trust» that Eros had commanded her to deliver to his sister in England. She kept wondering how the little Rhaenys was doing; she missed playing and talking with the girl. Now this girl was a married woman... blimey. 

Marriage wasn't among the options she had wanted the girl to have; what was Eros thinking, honestly. She looked in front of her at the war planner: west, east, north, or south… a few months left and civil war was soon to be declared. 

The 28th were in conflict. They knew Eros was dead and Phobos had won. They wouldn't complain about his reign either. From what Sirius had told her, this Voldemort had almost won fifteen years ago and now he was back, apparently more powerful than before. If he also declared himself as Salazar Slytherin's heir, the sacred would have to choose a side, not to mention Dumbledore was raising an army against Voldemort. And the ministries couldn't split their allegiance with the crown… She stared with a big headache at the war planner. Berz hadn't given her any sign to move in ages now—since the wedding, in other words. And while the food was not a problem, she and her group couldn't stay in hiding forever: the men were true to their word and would never change their loyalty, yet they needed a safer place than this shitty hideout. She was in a soup without Berz around: sure, she was the second in command now after him, but she hated taking responsibilities. The other knight leaders had all dispersed, not bowing to Phobos willingly, except for Berz and a few others, who had decided to stay out of fear of imbalance. If she could, she would have wassails till morning, celebrating and dancing all night. Oh! and shopping—she missed fashion weeks. 'Wait, what am I thinking... behave, bitch.'