Talj still couldn't believe it. He had spent the seven past years grieving the deaths of his friends, of his family. When he had told Xara the truth, she put all the effort she could into helping him move on and enjoy his new life, to teach him their deaths weren't his fault. And now, as close as he was to acceptance, the sight of Aklas looking at him with a calm reassuring smile brought him back to square one.
He has changed a lot, the toll of the seven years he spent alone clearly visible. His brown hair was dirty and messy, his green eyes rested on heavy bags. A scar ran across the lower end of his chiseled left cheek. He wore a dirty, but well made hunter attire; one he probably made himself from the skin of multiple animals.
"Aklas, is that really you?" Talj asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
"Hello, Talj. It's been a while." The archer never broke his comforting smile.
"You... But how!? I thought you were dead!"
"So did I... Until half a year ago." Aklas's tone was as warm as calm, just like how Talj remembered. Never showing more emotions than needed to understand him, and staying poised to ascertain all sorts of situations.
I, on the other hand, am on the verge of going crazy! Talj thought to himself.
"I..." The white haired man was still too dumbfounded to speak. He coughed an exasperated laugh, unable to react properly. Trying to keep his composure, he focused on believing a single thought:
Aklas, his oldest and greatest friend who he viewed as a brother, was alive, and just helped him escape Rolmea.
"We'll have time to be petrified in shock later." Aklas informed, tapping Talj's shoulder with a serious but still compassionate expression. "For now, let's focus on getting as far as we can from the city."
A flapping noise suddenly reached Talj and grew closer. Looking up, his eyes widened at the sight of an eagle-like bird, except smaller and with black feathers on its back and the back of its wings, and dark blue ones under them and on top of its head. A Night Eagle, an ancient mystical creature that, despite its animalistic features, were sentient and capable of speaking like humans and that had long gone extinct.
All with the sole exception of his old mentor and his father's best friend: Nyr. Or, as Talj used to call him:
"Birdie?" He let out with an incredulous snort.
"Greetings, Talj." The eagle replied in a witty and resonating voice. "I see that the seven years that parted our ways have yet to teach you to address me by my name."
Nyr descended to put himself on Aklas's shoulder, as Talj looked back and forth between them in disbelief.
"Talj, as much as I'd love to catch up and rejoice over finding you, we have to get away from Rolmea, fast." Aklas proclaimed with an expression that became more serious.
"Aye." Nyr looked at the walls of the city. "I threw in a small distraction, but I do not believe it will bind them for long. We must depart."
"Right..." Talj finally seemed to get a hold of himself. "Depart... Okay, hold on."
Talj closed his eyes and focused on his second magic branch: Summoning Magic.
He did not have many spells in that domain, for he mainly used it as a means of transport. A grey aura surrounded him and slowly took the shape of two large wolves with dark fur except at the neck and throat which were light blue for one, and dark blue for the other.
"I suppose you remember Bolt and Tempest." Talj smiled at his companion.
"That I do." Aklas hopped on the one with the light blue fur, letting Nyr fly up ahead of them. "Can they conceal their magic signature?"
"Theirs and the one of their riders. It was tricky to hone the spell but I managed to make it work."
"Good. The Daiko Hills form a plain terrain but if we are fast enough we may be able to reach the Morwon Mountains." Aklas redirected his mount. "Hiding our tracks will be much easier once we're there."
"No!" Talj exclaimed suddenly, making the archer turn to him. "We have to head north-west, towards the swamps."
"That's almost the opposite way." Objected Aklas. "And we'll spend too much time on the hills, leaving us exposed to anything that comes our way."
"I know! But... I just learned something. I can't tell you everything before we get to safety, but believe me when I say we need to go north."
Aklas looked at his brother longly before nodding and turning his wolf again.
"Alright, then let's skim the outskirts of the Harsha forest for now. We'll hide on its limits for a few days until we're far enough to cut directly through the river and then we'll see where the road takes us."
As Talj agreed with the archer, the reunited brothers rode away from the city, keeping the afternoon sun on their left. As they approached the woods, Talj followed Aklas's lead. The young man was a hunter, and had probably spent the last seven years wandering in nature more than Talj. He knew his way in the forest better than him.
They rode on for hours, mostly silent. Allowing themselves to assimilate their situation, to get comfortable with the thought that they were both alive and reunited again. As they dodged trees, bushes and roots, the sun settled and the stars looked down on the two young men who arrived at a small area cleared of trees, with a rocky formation in its center.
"We'll rest in this glade." Aklas announced before dismounting. "I'd rather not tread any further in the Harsha Forest at night. You know its reputation."
"What? Scared of a few bed time stories?" Talj playfully replied before dismissing his summons into a puddle of black mist.
As they both settled down, the blacksmith noticed the remains of a fire and provisions hidden under one of the stones.
"You've been here?"
Aklas nodded before answering:
"I've camped in this forest for almost a month now. Going back and forth between Aquabjorg and Rolmea. I set out a few camps." He sat down after lighting the campfire and handed a small leather bag to Talj and gestured to him to sit too.
The young man obliged, taking the bag that contained some water from his brother's hand before looking at the sky.
"Nyr isn't joining us?" Talj asked.
"He stays up there a bit, making sure there is no danger nearby." Aklas took some rations from his bag and spread them on the ground before sitting oppositely from Talj.
"So, who's going first?" He asked with a smile.
"By all means." Talj raised his arms in a theatrical gesture, as if acclaiming him. "Let my savior have the honor!"
They both chuckled before settling as comfortably as they could. Aklas sighed and asked:
"Seven years ago, when The Darkness attacked our home, in The Crying Mountain, do you remember what happened before Shaja told us to hide?"
"Yes. I remember the sound of the alarm waking us up... Everyone in panic. I remember when we stepped out of our rooms, we found your mom rushing towards the door, utter fear in her face."
"Yes. We followed her into the hallway, asking her what was happening. But she didn't seem to listen. Now that I think about it, she was probably too scared to even realize we were there." Aklas continued with a gloomy face.
"Then we heard the explosions, the screams, the shouts. We tried to run back to our house but..." Talj continued.
"The corridor was filled with other Spear members. Dead." The archer finished.
"Shaja then found us, he urged us to hide. We didn't understand what was happening. We ran aimlessly, in the chaos of our own home... Until we saw them." Talj went on.
"Three Spear members... Who tried to attack us." Aklas confirmed. "We were too young to fend them off so we tried to run away. But in the rain of spells and attacks, we got separated."
Talj nodded, swallowing some berries despite losing his appetite. Aklas took a loud gulp from his water pouch before continuing:
"When we did, I headed deeper inside the mountain. I skimmed through galleries and corridors. Taking random turns, going up and down..." Aklas's voice sounded more broken the longer he spoke. "I found so many dead people in my course. Some we knew... And others I wish I did know. I ended up getting lost, realizing the mines of our mountain were far grander than I expected. So I hid inside a chamber I didn't recognize, then sat there in a corner and waited. I think I may have spent hours, if not a whole day there. Sometimes I'd hear footsteps but I didn't dare to trust them, other times I'd hear explosions and spells crashing... I think I accidently fell asleep from fear and exhaustion.
"When I woke up, all sounds within the mountain died. I slowly got out of my room, hoping to see anyone... But all I found was more dead people. I called to my parents, and I called to you. In vain. Nyr found me then, in tears and covered in dust. He guided me out of The Crying Mountain, and when I got out I..." Aklas's throat constricted, making him unable to utter another word.
Talj nodded in an understanding smile before saying:
"It's okay, I saw it too. You don't have to tell that part."
Aklas probably escaped hours after me. Talj wondered. To think the battle outside lasted that long... The Spear lasted longer than I expected.
They both sat in a brief silence, the image of the carnage in front of The Spear's base hovering in their minds. If the massacre that had happened inside the mountain was ruthless enough to make the two of them shiver, it was nothing compared to the genocide that happened outside of it.
"As I ran in the battlefield, dodging attacks and shooting enemies the best I could -Which didn't result in much considering how inexperienced I was- I stumbled across Shaja. He asked me about you. I said I didn't know, and I knew from his face that he believed you dead. He urged Nyr to help me out of there, to run as far as we could, before diving back into the battlefield. We listened at once and ran. Well I ran, Nyr flew above me to guide me... But in our course... I found... My parents..."
Aklas's voice diminished slowly into a silence that didn't last long before he announced:
"On the ground. Dead."
Aklas grew quiet, the dancing light of the campfire reflecting. Talj could feel his own chest tightening. Blindri and Alice Hadad, Aklas's parents by blood, hosted Talj and took him in as one of their own. He was found and brought into The Spear by Shaja, one of its chief members. But being often dispatched on expeditions, Shaja would leave Talj under the care of the Hadad couple.
A bittersweet memory for the young blacksmith. Blindri, an optimistic and wise man, was the one who taught him the basics of blacksmithing. Even if he never said it aloud, Talj could feel that the man thought of him like his own child. To hear the confirmation that he was indeed slaughtered with his wife during that attack shattered his heart.
Aklas went on with his story:
"Nyr and I fled to the Jibal Kingdom, into the western sites of the Yayema forest. We spent most of our time there. If we weren't grieving, we would be fighting to survive. It was difficult, I was merely thirteen at the time, and I am not ashamed to admit I flooded the earth with sobs. But mom had taught me how to use a bow and conjure arrows, and she taught me that emotions make you strong but only if you're the one controlling them. So I slowly wiped my tears and adapted to the wildlife. Of course, Nyr helped me, else I'd have gotten myself killed numerous times. I spent months honing my skills, fending off monsters and tracking bandits. Killing both preys and any dangers that lurked in the woods, keeping them safe for travelers or hunters."
"Troops from The Darkness?" Talj asked.
"We'd find those too, and I'd try to hack them off. I considered it my penance. The last strand of The Spear, alone, weakly pushing the continent into its own peace as it fell down the slope of chaos." A dry laughter escaped his mouth. "We were just a fly, bugging The Darkness without causing any change."
"I know the feeling..." Talj sighed in return.
"Five years ago, when Kroll was elected as the Jibal Dali General, this is when we started to despair."
"You know him?"
"Nyr does. Apparently, he was one of Koronus's greatest counselors during The Collapse. The Spear thought him dead for all this time."
"Wait... Wouldn't that make him-"
"A few thousand years old, yes." Aklas replied swiftly. "Seeing one of the most powerful assets of The Darkness being proclaimed as one of the most important figures of the continent filled us with quite the distress. It was just then that we realized how far our foes actually breached our defenses. But again, what could we do? Fighting him head on would have been suicide. And... I wanted to bring change."
Aklas looked fondly at Talj, with a deep melancholy in his eyes.
"I wanted to fight back, to do something. To avenge my kin... But I was alone, and I had no plan. Even now, I am still thinking about how to stop The Darkness and protect the continent we swore to save. So I waited and observed, hoping for even the slightest opportunity to appear. A weakness, a crack in The Darkness's strength, an asset..." A strange smile appeared on Aklas's face before going on. "And, a bit less than a year ago, I hear that a prodigy blacksmith with white hair, wandering around under the alias The Hammer was suspect of an investigation for being a member of The Spear, an order people learned to be wary of ever since that prophecy had been leaked years ago."
"Hold on. A year ago? The Dali has been watching me for that long!? How did you even get your intel, it's supposedly a confidential mission they were running?" Talj shot question after question, to which the hunter replied calmly:
"Yes, a year. And it's a good thing they took their sweet time to get to you since we were quite far from wherever they fetched you from. As for where I gather my information, you'll have to ask Nyr. He's the one who always plants his eyes and ears in every wall."
Aklas stretched before eating a couple more berries, and nodded at Talj:
"Which brings me to you. The night you arrived at Aquabjorg was quite busy for us."
Nyr chose that moment to return from his skyward expedition. Landing between the two brothers, he announced:
"No danger is close, lads. And no signs of the Dali either. Your wolves have quite the long stride, Talj. What did I miss?"
"Nothing much." Aklas replied in a yawn. "I just got to the part where we reached Aquabjorg, four nights ago."
"Oh yes. Quite the messy night. We had to hunt down a Darkness spy operating within the Dali, and then in one night we had to cross the entire city unseen. However the murder of the spy had stirred such a ruckus I had decided to send Aklas ahead, to fetch you at Rolmea's threshold."
"You reached Rolmea before me? On foot?" Talj asked.
"Oh no, we stole a horse." Aklas replied matter-of-factly.
"You stole!?"
"It was more of a... Forced transaction. We left some money in the owner's barn and I departed at once without being seen." Aklas answered.
"And the money was stolen too!?"
"Well... Is it illegal if it was the spy's purse?" Aklas clumsily scratched his neck.
Talj looked at the two of them, dumbfounded, before laughing aloud, slowly joined in by the rest of the group.
"Okay, okay. Go on." Talj invited them to speak.
"After listening to your conversation with Kinfol, Salzeka and the headguard Telemes, I deduced that there was a deeper meaning to your arrest, and that you deliberately chose to follow the two generals with cuffs around your wrists." Nyr spoke up. "And so, we waited in Rolmea's outskirts, hoping that we didn't misjudge the situation. That is until you plummeted from the sky like a comet crashing unannounced, stirring us from our idleness violently in order to help you get out of that wormhole."
"The waiting part was the most difficult one." Commented Aklas. "I still couldn't believe Nyr when he said that you trusted the generals. I believed you were tricked or mind controlled, but I guess this little bird's eyes can see through people's hearts."
"Why, thank you my friend. Might I add that this bird is older than both your ages combined, which makes the use of the word 'little' quite inadequate."
Aklas rolled his eyes at the remark. Talj chuckled and took this opportunity to ask:
"So Nyr was nearby when I entered the Harsha forest? I didn't even see him."
"Aye, us Night Eagles were known for our furtive natures and our ability to blend in the shadows."
Talj nodded in a smile and took some water. After wiping his mouth, he looked up at the sky, enjoying the canvas of stars. His body and mind finally made peace with his reunion. An immense joy filled his heart. He could feel a longing that ached him for years finally settling down and dissolving in a puddle of serenity. He had found his family again.
Yes... Except now I've lost my second one. How funny is that...
"So, little brother. What about you?" Aklas inquired. "What great adventures has the renowned Hammer been up to for seven years?"
Aklas's voice was sarcastic, but Talj could see from his eyes that he was sincerely happy too.
"Well... I will spare you the details of the battle. I am sorry but... I don't think I'm ready to tell that part yet. After I fled the battlefield, I ran aimlessly for days. Using my summons as mounts, I kept heading south until I found myself in Plaev. I lived in the streets there for a few days, before hunger overcame me. To be honest, I was still too terrified to care about feeding myself. I would barely sleep, always looking behind me expecting an attack or something... But when the first week passed, my senses came back to me. I realized I was starving, exhausted..." A weak laugh escaped the smith's throat. "But then, the stupidest thing happened."
"Oh?"
"I was just walking slowly, without a coherent thought in my head, when I came across a smithy." He went on in a slow voice. "The owner was visible to me, and I could see the frustration on his face. Hehe, he was honing a blade but struggled with the sharpening. I saw that and... A familiar feeling came to me. I remember talking without even controlling myself. Telling the man to give a few hits to the blade first, because the material used needed to be loosened. He looked at me in surprise. And somehow, a few minutes later, I was inside the workshop, showing an adult how to finish his own weapon."
Talj grew silent for a moment, before continuing in a happier tone:
"Well, it helped me both emotionally and financially. The man, realizing I was homeless, asked me to be his assistant. However, when he asked me about my name I panicked, not wanting to reveal my identity. So I said the first thing that came to my mind."
"Uhhh, you said 'Call me The Hammer.'?" Asked Aklas.
"Yes. I didn't think much about it. But it was a way to... Remember your father."
Talj opened his palm, summoning a small item from his magical realm: A small but richly adorned smith hammer. A gift Blindri had given him when he was little, telling him he'd be a great blacksmith one day.
"You kept it all this time..." Aklas's eyes were drawn into the gift, a nostalgic smile drawing across his lips.
"Yes. I couldn't part from it." Talj handed the gift to Aklas, letting him admire what could possibly be his father's last remnant on Ylbunish.
"After a few weeks however, I couldn't stay in Plaev. The sight of the mountain being that close still made me feel anxious. So I fled west, to Kaelnah. Finding work there has been quite easy for two reasons. Firstly, the famous Guild Of Adventurers had just opened a new office there, thus I enrolled myself as one and started taking commissions, gathering ressources, fending off monsters… Normal adventurer tasks. And secondly, the main military academy of The Dali was located there, and so when the rumor of a young but somehow talented blacksmith started spreading, it brought some attention."
"I can imagine that." Nyr chirped in. "Blindri's trade was no ordinary weapon craft. It was a magical art, the culmination of a sacred knowledge that all the continent forgot, except for The Spear, which managed to house that knowledge for centuries, producing enchanted weapons and the sturdiest arms of Ylbunish. And, seeing as you insisted on helping him in his forge since your youngest age, it is only natural that you'd pick up bits of his talent. Although, you were learning at quite the frightening pace. Blindri even jokingly wondered if you were human at all, haha."
Chuckling at the last part, Talj continued:
"At that point in my life I was starting to get anxious, scared of all the attention. And, I am a bit ashamed to admit this, but I wanted to move on. To forget The Spear. I was... Scared."
"Of what? The Darkness?" Aklas asked.
"The prophecy."
Talj's brother nodded slowly. The campfire grew dimmer, so he threw in a log, reviving its ardent flame.
"I wanted to leave that life behind, to be my own self and be free. No longer bound by some sense of duty or honor."
"Do you believe that prophecy?" Aklas asked, no hint of reproach in his face.
"It's... Complicated. I know no magic can see the future, and there's no way to actually create a prophecy... But the full poem speaks of The Spear getting near extinction, its fall and; would you look at that; it being reduced to a handful of 'children' or whatever those terms mean. What do you make of it?"
Aklas looked into the ground and said.
"Like you said for your own self, it's complicated."
Talj sighed before dipping his head in an understanding gesture. Sensing the mood getting gloomy, Nyr tried breaking the tension:
"Talj, please finish my bedtime story."
Talj chuckled lightly before continuing:
"Then I met Kinfol. Apparently, she needed a pair of new daggers, and was in the area at the time. So she personally commissioned me to make her new weapons. I was fourteen at the time but I had managed to rent a small workshop. She gave me a generous sum and gave me the simplest instructions any client could have given: 'Make something good enough.'Haha, I'll let you imagine her surprise when I made her the most sublime blades she's seen in her life -Her words, not mine- and returned more than half the money offered as payment, declaring I didn't need it."
Aklas blew a whistle, before clapping dramatically.
"Mister prodigy impressing Dali Generals at fourteen years old! And I thought my life was eventful."
"Hehe, thanks. When she tried her weapons, she insisted I'd get a reward. So I asked if she could take me to her home, in Enyo. As I said, I wanted to be as far as I could from... You know."
Talj paused in his story, letting himself rest before saying in a snort:
"And ironically, I am now at half the distance between The Crying Mountain, my old home, and Enyo, my new one."
He adjusted his position and yawned loudly before going on with his tale:
"Once I arrived on the archipelago, I was happy to see that the name 'The Hammer' only reached that kingdom in bits of rumors, some true and some false. Upon arriving, I was lost. The capital, Folden, was way bigger than I expected. As I was enlisted as a Guild Member, I could easily gain money from commissions. But settling in was way more of a difficult task than I anticipated. There was still a part of me that told me I was abandoning my sworn duty, that I should go out there and fight, even if it meant I'd die. And there were also the logistic problems. It was one thing to rent a dusty workshop and make it your home, but I... Wanted to at least have a proper room. To have proper housing, even though I had no idea how to get that." Talj admitted shyly.
"No need to be embarrassed lad." Nyr comforted him. "There's no shame in wanting to have a proper life, and none of you were even prepared to have one. You've spent all your childhoods being told you're the last pillar of this continent's peace, and that pillar fell when you were but a child. Wishing to simply live freely is no crime after that."
"Yes." Akals joined. "Don't drown in your guilt brother, for you have no rebuke to pay when you acted on both fear of the prophecy, and the belief that you were no longer fit to fight the greater battle."
Talj nodded, smiling thankfully at his friends, before reaching the final part of his tale:
"Luckily, all my problems were solved after I met Xara. She just barged into my life like a sunshine and managed to burn most of my problems away. Insisting she'd help me and always looked after me, making sure I was well and helping me get used to Enyo's life. Hehe, I can't thank her enough for all she did for me... Uhm, why are you looking at me like this?"
"Nyr." Aklas wore such a concerned face Talj wondered if he saw a ghost. "Am I tricked by the fire's light or is my brother blushing?"
"Oh I see it too, Aklas. The woo in his eyes doesn't lie."
"I'm not blushing!"
"Oh now he is completely red!" Nyr commented in a giggle.
Aklas started laughing too and shot mocking glare at his younger brother.
"Let me guess. Her eyes are so pretty you can get lost into their... Uhm... Nyr, help me out."
Nyr cleared his throat and opened his wings in a majestic and playful way:
"Her eyes are jewels, each facet of them a story that could fill your heart with a delight so grand-"
"Wake me up when you guys are done." Talj retorted annoyingly.
"Okay okay, we'll stop... For now." Aklas let out a final chuckle. "Tell me all about her! How did you meet? Did you confess? Does she... Know about your older life?"
"I'd rather not speak of her right now..." The memory of Xara's goodbye still stinged in Talj's chest. "For now, all I can tell is, we are engaged. Now that I remember... We were supposed to get married tomorrow." Talj added in a sad voice.
A silence settled among the group. Without a word, Aklas got up and moved closer to his brother, sat down and put a hand on Talj's shoulder.
"We'll get you back to her, I promise."
"Not anytime soon... There's still a detour we must take before doing anything."
"Well, you'll tell us about it tomorrow." Nyr declared. "Tis quite late, and you both yawn any more your jaws may fall on the ground."
"Nyr is right, we'll have to depart at dawn tomorrow if we want to escape our pursuers." Aklas confirmed.
"Both of you, go rest." Nyr commanded in a compassionate tone. "I'll keep an eye out. Night Eagles don't need to sleep more than a few hours a week and they have excellent night vision."
"Thanks Nyr. Goodnight."
The two of them drifted to sleep, under the sound of Nyr's wings flapping away into the night.
They let themselves drift into slumber, inside the Harsha Forest which was known for its deadly nights, inside a world that The Darkness was slowly conquering, all while the most powerful military force of the continent hunted them down. But they felt strangely at peace, and slept without much torment that night. They didn't care about the dangers before them, or the dread that would come after them. They cared about one single thing: They had found each other, and they were both alive.
That thought alone was enough to dismiss their worries for the night.