The Rainlands: Grand Delusion

Chapter 15: A Plan

"I have a way to get you noticed." Levi said after they left the town limits. It was dark in the forest. The only light was the moon and the road was hardly flat. The princess didn't seem to mind. She kept walking without giving any indication that she had heard him, her silver hair bouncing with each step. I can't tell if she's listening. He tried to speak anyways, "My sister. She left Eastrain years ago. The man she left with, he was important. An official in the North. If we could find my sister, she would believe me." Levi didn't expect her to stop. However, she did, finally giving a long hard stare.

"Really? Your sister is dating an official? I can't believe someone from Eastrain managed to meet an official from the North, let alone date them." She turned off the trail. "I'm getting off the road until we get further from town. If anyone's coming, they'll see us too easily."

Levi didn't like going into the trees. At least on the trail, he could see what was ahead of him. But in the underbrush, he was lost. The sword was awkward and uncomfortable in his arms. He couldn't find a good way to hold it and it kept getting snagged on things. Eventually he just started hugging it to his chest, hoping the point didn't stab him in the leg.

"I'm pretty sure he was important. He had this badge he wore, and retainers like you did. What was it...a dagger? Or a spear?" Levi struggled to remember as he walked through the weeds and bushes. Yujeon kept going, and he struggled to match her pace. She was far more graceful than him, and he couldn't even remember when she had hidden her dagger, or where but now she was empty-handed once more.

"There's no house in the North with a hawk or a falcon. The only one is..."

"A broadsword! That was it, a big broadsword!" Levi remembered all of a sudden, he could hear his sister's voice as she excitedly pointing at her lover's chest and told him what it meant.

"See that Levi? That's a broadsword, it's the sigil of Tao's house."

"A broadsword? That's the sigil of House Yi. Are you sure?" Yujeon jolted him back to the present. She had turned around while he was thinking and was poking him in the chest. "Hello? Still there? This is important. Are you sure it was a broadsword?"

"Y-yea. I'm sure of it. My sister told me. I think she's dating one of the local officials." Levi stuttered, unwilling to bet everything on a memory that was several years old. But he could remember it so clearly now...

"Well, well, well would you look at that. I guess the Raingods really have a funny way about things. To think your sister would be dating an official of the Yi clan. I don't believe it..." Princess Yujeon's voice was pensive, almost hopeful. Levi was surprised at the emotion in it, and he felt a great swell of hope inside. Did I...say something useful?

"Then we could go? I haven't seen her since she left Eastrain, but I know she'll help me...err us!" He boldly declared. The princess's face behind her mask was unreadable. The fox pattern on the mask was beginning to fade, the ink scratched by numerous thorns and brambles. After a long, long time, she nodded.

"Alright. If your sister really is dating an official of the Yi clan, then this might just work. They're one of the few houses which are isolated enough to avoid my brother and sister's influence. Maybe, just maybe, if we're lucky, they'll listen to us." She agreed and Levi was ecstatic.

"Yes! Alright, let's do this!" He frowned then, realizing he was totally lost. "Wait, which way is it?"

"Hehe..." The soft noise was just barely audible. But then he realized it was Yujeon. She held a hand up to her mask, as if to block the noise but he could tell.

"Hey, stop laughing!" He yelled, and she motioned to keep it down. It's the first time I've heard her laugh.

"I'm sorry, it's just..." She whispered, one hand on her stomach, the other held out as if to make peace with him.