Chapter Three
Edahn
"Blossoms"
Edahn sat with his back leaned against the gravestone, He looked up lazily as a gust of wind rolled through the field of graves. A small plot of land set in a small clearing in the highlands, just a mile or so from the town of Creagloch. In this particular clearing, dozens of cherry blossom trees had sprouted a long time ago. They were in full bloom in the early days of springtime. The cold snap of the winter months were the only thing that shook these light pink flowers into existence. For that reason alone, those who died in Creagloch had been buried here. To watch the eternal cycle of life and death through the blossoms that graced their eternal slumber.
"Well, yanno what happened next," Edahn mumbled. His head fell back onto the gravestone with a soft thud. "I made a choice. I have to hope that I'm doing the right thing, because if I'm not… Me and my cocksure ass self, I could get the lot of us killed."
A flicker of a dream shook itself through his mind. Terra was laid just behind the gravestone Edahn sat at. Caught in a dream that reimagined her hunt earlier this morning, every once in a while, the dreams bled into his mind. Every few breaths, he could make out the faint smell of blood. It mixed with the scant scent of almonds emanating from the cherry blossoms and made his nose scrunch up. It didn't help that whenever the smell of blood was around, he couldn't help but taste copper on the edge of his tongue.
"I want to ask you two what I should do," Edahn continued. His melancholy was enough to overpower the shared sensation of Terra's dream. "I don't even know what you'd say. Arvel, I don't even remember what you looked like. I lost all of that to the flames."
Another gust of wind carried through the grove. In its wake came loose dozens of blossoms that rained around Edahn and Terra. Several of them fell onto the snow white gryphon but she remained steadfast in her dreams of pursuit. A few landed by Edahn's leg and one fell directly into his lap. He scooped up the flower and looked at it closely. He could feel the soft, almost velvet-like quality material that formed its lush pink surface. It glistened with a sheen of moisture. Rain drops, left preserved from the recent rains. Edahn smiled and slowly put the cherry blossom down to the ground, directly above where he knew his parents were.
"I hope you'd be proud," He said simply. This was the closest he got to baring his heart in the open. "I've tried to be the man you wanted me to be. But I fail at that too. Maybe you'd both understand… I'd get it if you didn't though."
He really couldn't blame them if they were ashamed of him. The things he had done since both of his folks were taken from his world, it was hardly something a parent could brag to others about. Edahn had caused a lot of damage in his youth. Or.. well. When he was younger. Edahn was still considerably young from a Lunalilan Human standpoint. A well maintained man could live for well over 150 years, and he was only two years into his thirties.
A loud snap suddenly erupted into the air. It prompted Terra to immediately wake up. Her head went to and from, searching intensely for whatever had the nerve to disturb her nap-time. Edahn rose his eyes towards the direction of the sound, but after several long seconds of nothing but the wind to greet his attention, he flopped his head back onto the gravestone.
Terra stuck her large head over the stone and peered down at Edahn. An inquisitive glint danced in her eyes as she impressed on his mind an emotion of curiosity. Edahn looked up at her and gave a half-smile. She chirped and leaned down farther only for Edahn to playfully flick the tip of her beak. Terra trilled in response and nipped at his fingers, drawing a dollop of blood in the process
"Oy! I'll bite ya right back ya brat," Edahn playfully said. Terra chirped again and bounced her head up and down before she retreated back behind the stone. A final fleeting warmth graced the edges of his mind before Terra retreated back to the slumber she had been in the middle of.
"Well well well," A voice emanated from behind a clutch of trees just a few yards away. Terra immediately jumped up and swung herself around the stone, taking a protective stance in front of Edahn while he remained sitting.
"Figured there was someone out there," Edahn murmured, barely loud enough for himself to hear. He rubbed his eye a moment, then stood up and pushed past Terra.
"Funny to find the King in a graveyard," The speaker said, coming out from just behind the trees.
"Hey, don't judge a man for…"
Edahn stopped cold as his eyes locked onto the stranger. He didn't recognize her face or anything. Everything else though…
She was tall. Only a couple of inches shorter than his own 6'3". She wore worn robes over what looked to be basic lamellar armor. In the breaks, where he could make out flesh, he saw ink forming half-shapes. Her hair was voluptuous and colored a deep blue, almost raven like in its sheen. Bangs danced over her dark purple eyes, but nothing was more striking than the paint that lined across her face.
Similar to that of a raccoon, the woman had a painted mask that covered her eyes and high cheekbones. The paint itself was blue and it broke only in small dots towards the upper edge. Otherwise, it looked like it was just applied today.
The way she dressed. The paint on her face. The half shapes he could make out…
She was a Fàine. The enemy.
Fire crackled on the edge of his ear. He felt a melting sensation spread throughout his jawline. Edahn could feel his eyes start to hollow out, unable to see the beauty of the cemetery now that he was locked back onto his hatred.
Terra trilled softly and stepped up to stand just in front of Edahn, though she stayed at his side. The sight of his companion made Edahn relent, although only slightly. She hadn't ever felt his rage and he wasn't keen on making it a habit now. Despite the present company, he had to force himself to be civil. Unless the witch happened to be hostile.
"Boy, Fey sure as shit wasn't lyin' about ya eh?" The woman said. She snickered a little before she took a half step towards Edahn, who instinctively balled his hands into fists. He forced his fingernails to cut into the palm of his hand. Anything to keep control.
"Mmh," He grunted. "What business does a Fàine have here? None of your folk are buried here."
Every word carried a slight indentation of hatred. It didn't matter the amount of control, it just leaked out as if out of a shoddily made boat.
"Who says I need to answer ya? Maybe I'm just here to stir shit up. Maybe I'm here to scout for my clan."
A flash of heat ran across his mind, so vicious in its temperature that Terra yelped in response. Edahn had unknowingly passed that feeling to her. The sound of her yelp pulled him back immediately, and the flames in his head became nothing but something in the background.
"Ooh, she doesn't know 'bout ya eh? That's dangerous yanno. Even cold blooded murderers need to share their feelings," the woman jibed. Edahn couldn't tell if she was being serious in her condemnation. She wore a half smile that seemed to never fade.
"I asked a question," Edahn said stiffly. Terra lingered by his side still, though his uncontrolled aggression had set her into a hostile mood. "We don't bury Fàine here."
The woman nodded. The half-smile didn't go anywhere.
"Duh," She started. The Fàine crossed her arms and leaned back onto her right foot. "But my uncle and cousin weren't Fàine. Not really."
Edahn couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Nobody in Old Creagloch had been Fàine, much less related to them. They didn't roam north often, especially not so far into the kingdom of Speir. Stone-Elves fought their kin as fiercely as they do the Cirvu, so the kingdom of Moss-Stone was generally dangerous for them because of the amount of Stone-Elves there.
"I grew up here," He said through a half-clenched jaw. "Never heard of a Fàine sibling out there from any of the people who lived here."
"Right, coz age and mental scars don't make memories hazy. What a bassa," The woman rolled her eyes. That half smile was still smacked across her face though. "Let me walk ya down the river of time eh? Pol and Crea Lhotun. Pol was my unc'. Crea my cousin."
Mud clogged his mind for a brief moment before his eyes blinking brought him crashing back down the cherry groves. Crea was his best friend. Or…
He had been anyway. Edahn had risked his own skin to save him from a burning hut when they were both just seven. The entirety of what followed just a few years after that had stained his soul for life. But seeing Crea dead… It was just as bad as his parents.
And he couldn't remember Crea's face either.
"They.." Edahn tried to speak.
"Like I said, they weren't really Fàine like me. Pol left the clan, removed himself. Ended up in your neck o' the woods. Sure he was born with us. But he wasn't one of us... It's an insult to suggest it. The man made his choice, and death doesn't change a damn thing about ideals."
Had Edahn not been reeling from what looked to be a seemingly simple revelation, he'd have taken the time to note that he actually agreed with the sentiment the woman took a stand for. How could he not? He was basically the definition of reinventing yourself.
It was a shock to hear Pol was born a Fàine. Even more so that he had relatives who missed him. Edahn had always been under the understanding that Pol had no family. It was just Crea and him. Crea's mother died during childbirth. The two were hardly separate.
Memories weighed his head down more than he wanted. Edahn bit the inside of his cheek to pull himself out of the introspection. A spark of curiosity was enough to flicker out the more negative emotions. At least for now.
"Why approach me then? Cemeteries are for private mourning. No reason we should talk."
The woman rolled her eyes again but that damn smile was still lighting up her expression. Maybe it was nothing. The paint was throwing him off. He made a point to not wander to the southwestern mountains of Harborstone for a reason.
"Right, so Pol and Crea's grave bein' just to your left doesn't mean anythin', ya? C'mon your Grace, I expected more of the man I'm to take orders from."
And again, he raised an eyebrow without thinking. It was increasingly difficult to mask the truth of what he was really thinking when his facial expressions kept instinctively misbehaving.
"Ah," Edahn said. It was obvious now. A Fàine in the Arlacks though? Ljolfey must've kept that to herself for a reason. That meant she either didn't trust he could handle the weight of it, or that she was just waiting for the right time to spring the news. Or both.
"You're the one being sent to the fissure site I take it?"
Terra trilled before she sat on her hind legs, her wings tucking behind her massive shoulders. Even sitting, she was about a foot taller than Edahn.
"That be me. Friendly and lovely Fàine descendant. My name's Wyveri."
Terra chirped twice and then bowed her head, as a way of introducing herself. Edahn found himself rolling his eyes, a mimic of what he had just seen from Wyveri.
"She doesn't talk you," He joked, throwing a smirk up at Terra. She responded by tapping the back of his knee with her tail, and Edahn stumbled forward before catching himself.
Wyveri chuckled and uncrossed her arms. The half shapes of the ink on her exposed skin was more telling. A moon on her wrist, or a half moon at the least. A black bird that stretched from the bottom of her neck to the collarbone underneath the robes. The face paint up this close was more than just paint. Edahn didn't have to be magikal to know an enchantment when he saw one. But for what???
"She meant to say I'm me and this is my oddball rider, I'm sure," Wyveri joked. Terra responded with a confident chirp which elicited another eyeroll from Edahn.
"Her name's Terra," Edahn said. His voice was lighter than before, not so coiled in his throat. "And yeah, she understands bits and pieces of what we say."
Terra trilled again and then snapped her beak twice before shaking her head furiously.
"Most of what we say. Maybe. I'm not convinced," Edahn said. The air picked up with a light breeze and his eyes caught an errant cherry blossom dancing its way to the ground.
"Mmh," Wyveri grunted. "Nice to meet her. But the Thorn's Flame, my goodness, what an honor."
She even curtsied. Edahn didn't need to be a bard to hear the sarcasm behind every syllable. Then again, why shouldn't she feel like that? As much as he hated the Fàine for what just one clan, he couldn't argue against the fact he was a monster all the same. He knew full well the folk tales told in small circles about his crusade.
"If you're looking for me t…" Edahn began
"Whoa whoa," Wyveri interrupted. She held up a hand for a moment before letting it fall back to her hip. "I wasn't lookin' for a speech. Don't care for it. Besides, they killed my unc' and my cousin. Ya think I didn't want em dead either?"
Edahn stood still. He couldn't bring himself to speak. Why though, that he couldn't figure out. He hadn't met a Fàine in his life who didn't want him dead, much less sympathize with his crusade. More likely than not, her vengeful feelings didn't go past the Nohmadi clan that had carried out the deed. Edahn's rage had gone farther than just them.
"Past is past," Wyveri continued. "It's enough for now aye? Let me have my moment with my folk, like ya did with yours."
Without a word further, Wyveri stepped past both Edahn and Terra towards her family's resting place. A part of Edahn wanted to reach out and stop her. Ask more questions. Try to divine whatever that link was. Why would she care about people who had left her people? Had she left too? If she was an Arlack, it had to mean that. Whosoever joins relinquishes attachments to all things beyond Speirtalahm.
The questions were enough to twist his mind into knots. Terra pushed against him and trilled softly. He looked at her and forced a smile, then patted her shoulder with his hand.
"Go get some more food girl," He said. "We could be gone for a while. Wouldn't want you to get dizzy when the fighting starts."
Terra chirped a few times and shook her head in response. She impressed an emotion of worry against the borders of Edahn's mind. He smiled again and patted Terra once more.
"Go on ya brat," Edahn said. He began to walk towards the edge of the cemetery where he'd wait for Wyveri. "Stay close though."
Terra snapped her beak and then immediately took off. A gust of wind followed her ascent and more cherry blossoms shook themselves free in the aftermath. Edahn threw a glance behind him and saw Wyveri kneeling. He only allowed himself a split second to stare before turning back to what was in front of him.
He simply had too many questions to just leave. Wyveri was headed to the same place he was anyway. Along the way he could hopefully divine more from the Fàine woman. Although, what he could find out, well.
Only way to find out was to try.