A Sword For Gold

Chapter 14 - Lost Time

The four of them cooped up in a circle.

The stressful drama that had ensued between the two Martel sisters had finally died down, and the four apprentices of Zel Rockborne gathered up away from the rest of Velenya's allies, since they were more comfortable with each other despite the amount of time that had passed since they had been together. Velenya would have also joined in with them, but she had told them that she had other matters to take care of with the other Shadow Hunters.

"You know what this is missing?" Vaelia spoke, easing the silent tension between all of them, "Kaleb Penelyth. Where is he, if you don't mind my asking?"

"He's been accepted to the royal guard of Levyria," answered Cora quickly, taking the opportunity to speak without getting too awkwardly silent.

"Is that so?" Vaelia reacted delightedly, "That's good for him! The job really suits him!"

"Yeah," agreed Cora, "He was always more of a warrior than a hunter. Anyway, what about you, Vaelia? What have you been doing all these years? Baros told me you've been doing a lot of monster slaying."

"Yeah," affirmed Vaelia, "I've mastered the art of assimilating into me the residual energy left behind by the monsters I kill so that I can grow my power. It's been hard lately, though. People were after me, so I had to be discreet in every place I'd travel."

"The Rising?" asked Cora, "Are they the ones who are after you?"

"I don't know," admitted Vaelia, "I never really got a chance to confront the ones who are hunting me down. However, I'm pretty sure that the only reason that people are after me is because of my sister, but they didn't count on the fact that I had no idea of her existence until today."

"Yeah, it is kind of weird that you'd let people chase after you," echoed Cora, "Or is it that you were never really able to backtrack them?"

"Indeed," said Vaelia as she nodded with a frown, "The people who are after me are quite careful. This is just a theory, but I'm certainly convinced that they control powerful monsters and send them after me. How are you going to explain five Nightstalkers all chasing the same kind of prey? It's not just Nightstalkers. They've also sent Terradromes and Acanthudromes after me, although they were quite easy to kill. The Nightstalkers were tough, though, and I had to find a way to outrun them, and I was so convinced that Baros couldn't escape the Nightstalker that turned around and went after him."

"Thank goodness we ran into him," added Cora.

"Yeah," affirmed Vaelia, "You two really have my thanks, Cora and Maraxus."

The whole time they had been speaking, Maraxus just simply kept awkwardly staring at Vaelia, as if he had something to say but was quite anxious to let the words out of his mouth from the tip of his tongue. She kept glancing at Maraxus, noticing his itch to speak about what had been swept under the rug all these years ago, and Vaelia knew better than to ignore this situation between them.

After all, in the end, not only were they disciples of the same master, but they were also close friends, nay, family.

"Baros, could you give me a moment here with Maraxus?" said Vaelia, and in turn, Maraxus turned to Cora and gestured for her to give him a few minutes with Vaelia. After all, it was a talk that needed to be talked. As soon as Cora and Baros left the room, Maraxus finally began to speak.

"So, a Doroza, huh," he spoke first, "You never really told us why you had lost your family."

"The same Doroza..." recalled Vaelia.

"What do you mean the same?" asked Maraxus.

"It was the same Doroza that had killed our master," she answered, "I'll never forget the two scars that he had sliced into the Doroza's eyes on the afternoon that I met Master Zel. That's why I'm trying to gain power, Maraxus. I want to find that Doroza one day and beat it to death with my own hands."