The Final Lesson, page 21
part #1 of The Final Lesson Series
“The truth,” Sien pressed. Solus stepped to Rem, laying a hand on his shoulder, a telling look on his face. Rem sighed, nodding in approval. Maybe it would help to have proper allies in better places, and Sien didn’t seem the type to go running her mouth too often.
“I am Prince Remiel Ankove Vesarus. Heir to the throne of Linmus. This is my attendant, Solus Brenner. And the girl is Leilana Erovina, an Arcana training to become a Warlord.” Rem laced his front bangs between his fingertips. Sien raised an eyebrow, becoming intrigued by the direction that the conversation was going in. “Solus and I are searching for a way to restore Linmus. Leilana might have a way to help us, so she chose to tag along.”
“I figured it would be beneficial to my mission as well, as I’m supposed to gathering totems for my pilgrimage,” Leilana cut in. Sien nodded to herself. That did explain a lot; someone like Leilana didn’t seem the type to mesh with royalty despite the formalities.
“I can’t say much else aside from that, because there isn’t much to mention. I just want to help my people, but no one even knows that I’m alive, and that’s for the best until I come closer to my goals,” Rem finished. “Now can you unlock the door and answer Solus’s question about where we can stay for the night? I’m starting to feel tired and want to lie down. We’ll be out of here tomorrow.”
Sien sighed, opening the door to the back rooms. “This is the inn,” she responded, resting her hands on her hips after untying her ponytail, her crimson locks flowing down her back. “We allow people to rest here if they’re too drunk or just in need of a place to stay. If you can afford to, you’re welcome to our beds. And only with my seal of approval will you be leaving tomorrow.”
“What?” Rem croaked out merely from astonishment, clearing his throat quickly. “Why is that?”
“From what I’ve heard, a lot happened at Linmus. The kingdom fell, and many are unable to return to the land without permission. Those that do enter never seem to return. You’ve got a lot of work cut out for you in the long run. Besides, even if you could return to the kingdom, you won’t get far if you aren’t properly treated. You’d likely die before you got to the northernmost point of the continent. And what kind of apothecary would I be if I were to turn away the ill-ridden crown prince? It’s sheer idiocy to let you try anything that reckless.”
Rem’s cheeks flushed. This was the first time that he had seen genuine generosity with an edge that didn’t tie into his title. She was being hard on him rather than reluctant. “Thank you, Sien. I really do appreciate it.”
She playfully rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hurry it up, we don’t have all night. You can work around the room arrangements however you’d like. There’s only one room that’s been taken, and the guy using it when to bed way before the chaos started.”
Solus watched Sien guide Leilana and Rem passage into the back rooms, the lengthy hallway dimly lit by some candles. He kept his arms folded, pondering over the sudden gesture that Rem offered up. He was so cautious about his desire to keep his identity hidden, and no amount of alcohol intake could have ripped that morality away. Why would he in good conscience allow his guard to drop around Sien, someone that he only met a few hours ago? He supposed there was no choice but to trust Rem’s judgment and wait for him to recover before asking him directly.
Within minutes, Rem was bundled under a blanket, a rather aged brass-colored mercury thermometer in his mouth. After the stress of the winding day settled into her body, Sien was barely awake, keeping a close eye on any significant changes. Solus was standing next to the door, rubbing his temples to rouse himself out of his own draining stupor while Leilana stood at his side, curiously watching Sien’s handiwork. Sien waited for the device to steady before reclaiming it from his lips.
“Five points for my accuracy,” Sien joked, waving the thermometer around to drop the thermos level. Rem groaned, hiding under the covers. Sien laid a hand over the spot where his face was. “You know, usually when people stay at my tavern, it’s with bar-flu, not influenza.”
Rem smiled, shrugging his shoulders from under the sheets. “What can I say? I’m different.”
The tavern mistress took hold of the dripping rag, ringing it out before laying it over Rem’s forehead. “Well, Mr. Different, you’re going to be spending the next few days right here. We can figure out how you’ll be paying off this room once you’ve recovered.”
Rem’s smile faded away. “Pay?”
Sien rested her hands on her hips. “Surely you didn’t think that getting sick on my watch meant that you’d be getting free living space?”
“No,” Rem mumbled, sinking further under the covers.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious. May be stress overload. Have you been sleeping?”
“Neither of us truly have,” Solus stated. “We’ve been moving from place to place rather frequently and have yet to properly settle without some sort of turmoil following.”
“Well, luckily you ended up running into my tavern then. Now you can ease up, if only for one night.” She moved the covers from Rem’s face. “And as for you, we’re going to work on eliminating the toxins from your body so that you aren’t too susceptible to any viruses through Adrylis. You’re going to need to be in top form when you reach Linmus.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he whimpered.
“We’ll do the same for you, Leilana, Solus. That way you don’t end up falling short yourselves.” Leilana nodded, looking up at Solus, who grinned back at her in response, shrugging his right shoulder.
“I’m going to study my grimoire a little before bed,” Leilana told the two before stepping back. “See you both in the morning.” Without another word, she exited to a room across the hall and closed the door gently. Solus chuckled to himself. It seemed that her work was never done.
“Is there anything you need me to help with, Sien?” Solus asked, watching Rem slip into a rather fitful slumber, though the question came out more strained than he would have liked. It almost startled him. He hadn’t been sleeping the best, but was he really that exhausted?
“You should get some rest,” Sien explained. “You look worn out.” Solus tried to smile to play off her concerns, but he couldn’t find the energy to muster it up genuinely. “I know you’ve been acting as Rem and Leilana’s caretaker, but you don’t have to kill yourself. You’re allowed to ask for help.”
“I’ll rest when I see fit, I promise,” Solus told her. “Leilana doesn’t need the added burden when she already has enough on her shoulders. And you’re already doing more than enough between running the tavern, caring for your younger sister, and now caring for us.” His breaths were running ragged, his exhaustion becoming more evident. “Guiding Rem is my responsibility. I was entrusted this duty by my late father, and by Rem’s parents. If I sit back and do nothing, what use am I as his servant?”
“The way that the two of you interact, you’re more than just his servant,” Sien retorted. “I doubt that he would want anything to happen to you.” She pointed down at the sleeping prince. “Don’t be as stubborn as this one, Solus. The two of you need each other.”
Solus sighed, leaning his head back against the wall. “I know that. I just want to protect him. Remiel has been through too much for him to face his problems alone.”
“Things are different now,” Sien urged. “Don’t feel like you need to shoulder his problems all by yourself. You can talk to me, and you can certainly talk to Leilana. I know that we barely know each other, but it’s best to have someone to lean on.”
“Thank you,” he responded, arching his back into a subtle bow. “I’m appreciative, truly. I’ll try and get some sleep.”
Leilana climbed into bed a few hours after the tavern had settled, the Lasette bundled in her arms. She heaved a sigh and allowed her head to rest upon the warmth of the pillow, her hair sprawling out in every direction. There was light snoring protruding the wall opposite hers, making it easy for her to assume that the walls were paper thin and that everyone else was a heavy sleeper singing like canaries to the poor unfortunate souls left to endure the melody. She wondered if Solus could sleep.
She flipped through the pages of the Lasette upon rising to a sit again, her hair tickling the back of her neck. Shivers ran down her spine when she settled on information regarding the Orb of Concord. The image always seemed so… daunting. Solus and Rem were adamant about knowing more on it, but they couldn’t translate the text like her. She gathered a pen and sheet of paper, writing down the text in linguistics more akin to them. Solus had provided her with a brief lesson on their scriptures, a more modernized language called Sentience. The letters were like the ancient Minsuran text, twisted in a manner unique to those that spoke and wrote in Sentience; that was how she could understand their worded statements.
Each letter was a word of its own in the Minsuran text, bound to chains of the tongue. They lashed out when a spell was cast, heeding the call, shaped into something of use. And all that remained was she to carry the Minsuran name and conjuring prowess.
The door swung open, slamming against the wall. Leilana nearly jumped out of her skin, the grimoire flying out of her hands before she reached up to catch it, mumbling the lost words before realizing that there was no threat in her doorway. Before her stood Rem, absent of his shirt, dripping with sweat. She slowly pulled the Lasette to her face, shielding her eyes from the sight, her face beginning to heat up.
“Hey, don’t hide!” Rem exclaimed, keeping his voice low. He reached out his hands after trotting up to her, pulling the grimoire from her face, his eyes practically blazing. “I’m not looking to cause trouble for you all the time, you know.”
Leilana wanted to scream at him to go back to bed and continue to rest but found it hard to avert her attention from his bare chest, her eyes flickering up and down between the muscle and his eyes. Rem didn’t look too amused by her gestures, grabbing the blanket covering her, wrapping it around his body, planting himself on the floor.
“Hey,” she exclaimed. “I was using that!”
He shrugged. “Well, as an Arcana, you win some, you lose some, and this way you can actually talk to me without being distracted.”
“What are we even talking about?” Rem grew silent, and Leilana leaned over the bed to get a good look at him. His eyebrows were furrowing, harrowed with deep thought, biting his bottom lip. His right leg bounced from the anxiety of facing his words head-on. She almost laughed at his shift into meekness within seconds. She figured that he was bad at expressing himself, which is why people never came to truly understand him, but she didn’t imagine that he could be so sweet-looking. “You’re sick, you know. Go back to bed, Rem.”
“Can’t,” he choked out. “Can’t sleep. Nightmares.”
“Nightmares? What about?”
“It’s not a big deal. I just wanted to be around someone.” So, he runs to her in his time of need, but not Solus? She supposed it was a change, and maybe even an opportunity.
“Don’t be afraid. You can tell me.” Rem was startled by her voice emerging so close to his ear that he accidentally bumped the back of his head into hers upon jumping. Leilana whined in response, rubbing the aching spot while Rem sucked in air through his teeth, clutching some of his hair.
“Sorry…”
“That wasn’t nice,” she admitted.
“No, it really wasn’t, I’m sorry, you just scared me.” Rem drew in a breath and exhaled, a shrill whistle escaping his lips. “Look, I wanted to talk about what happened the other day in Kalonia. I, um… I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail on it. Do I?”
She shook her head, not wanting to relive the splintered words. “Not at all.”
“That was what my nightmare was about. I didn’t remember anything I said, not until it seeped back into my memories. I was confused and becoming incapacitated only added to the mix. I don’t understand why I snapped, or what led me to take it out on you.” He wrapped his arms around his legs, resting his chin on his knees. “I wasn’t myself, and I don’t expect you to accept any apologies from me. I dealt a lot of damage to you.”
Leilana was appalled. He was opening his emotions to her.
“Truth is,” he continued, staring at his empty left palm. “I wasn’t always that honest with you. I want to be your friend, maybe not now, but someday when we’re both comfortable with one another. It’s hard to connect with people when you’ve grown up with a shell. Because I’m a prince, I can make little mistakes in the path that I walk now—too many people see me as a leader, someone meant to usher in a new essence of prosperity now that my parents are gone.”
He rose to a stand and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. She traced her hands over the woven cotton, her fingers grazing his once he had pulled away.
“I don’t know anything about carrying my own burdens just yet. I still have growing up to do myself, so, um…” He briefly averted his gaze, his cheeks reddening. “Maybe we can grow up together.”
Her heart swelled at his words, and she couldn’t stop her heart from wildly pounding against her chest. “I’d like that, Rem.”
Come to terms with understanding.
Ascertain the growth and development of a new beginning.
Rem was taken aback by her smile. A faint glow engulfed his senses as if the stillness of the night drifted away. He looked at his hands to find that the illumination hadn’t sparked from her, rather from himself. He tried to brush it away like dirt, to no avail. He could see it. The magic was resonating with him, someone that bypassed the first step towards the totem of understanding.
Leilana grabbed his hand, catching him off guard enough to ease his tension. “It’s all right. Just understand that something better is coming. For both of us.”
“You know something, don’t you?”
Now she was holding both of his hands in hers, the young Prince’s eyes darting between her firm grasp, her eyes, and then his shaky palms. His breath hitched in his throat when he tried to ask what she was doing, and his fingers tensed before calming her words, “I think that you and I were meant to cross paths. Solus thinks the same thing. You were always meant to be a piece of my pilgrimage. I know that now. I will do my best to understand more about you, Rem. And I hope that you bless me with the same respect someday.”
His mouth went dry. In those few moments, she almost sounded regal. It was baffling to witness. “I-I-Okay then. Thank you, Leilana.”
“Shoot, I’m out of verbena for Rem’s medicine,” Sien mumbled after throwing open every cabinet in the tavern. “And there’s not enough time to go to the gardens for more.”
Leilana was watching over her from the other side of the barstool, and at her side sat the bored-looking second-in-command to the tavern mistress, Luna Kaiser. Her chocolate-colored hair was pulled into a loose shoulder-length ponytail, and she was catching up on her daily routine of studying notes on different herbs to brew.
It was downtime in the early afternoon at Midstream, the customers barely filing in, and neither Solus nor Rem bothered to make an appearance. Luna decided to check on them in place of the older girls and found that Rem was still fast asleep while Solus was tossing and turning, his slumber restless.
“Did you need me to run and get some?” Luna asked, looking up from her journal. As she spoke, a group of six rather rowdy men stormed the tavern, and Sien was quick to jump back into business mode. Luna scoffed to herself as she set the book aside, watching the men fawn over her older sister’s ‘valuable assets.’
“Maybe I should go instead since you’re about to have your hands full,” Leilana suggested. “I’m sure I could figure out what’s needed.”
“The field-workers know my norms, just tell them that I sent you,” Sien called while blending together a few drinks. “They should be out already.”
Leilana promptly stepped out of the tavern to leave the Kaiser siblings to their work. She remembered bypassing the paddies and fields when she first arrived in Linarus, but under the night sky, it was hard to see anything noteworthy. She trekked about the lively village for a decent amount of time before stumbling upon the familiar paddies.
“Put yer back into it, new guy!” One of the men called over the fields, laughing. Leilana didn’t take notice of who spoke.
“Not gonna get anywhere with those stubby arms if ya don’t push it!” Another joined in. She was taken aback by their carefree accents, even after becoming used to Luna and Sien’s speech patterns. Though some words seemed a little broken at the seams, something about their phrasing was inviting in a way that rivaled Solus’s humble and prim accent or Rem’s brash yet courteous undertone.
“Stubby? I’ve been told I’m quite muscular.” This voice was different—one that seemed primed, drenched with tenderness and trained in a wary manner. It reminded her of her own.
“Don’t go gettin’ cocky!” That belonged to the first voice, and now she could identify him by his long grey hair pulled into a slick ponytail.
Leilana was overlooking the paddies and rows of dirt being worked on by the farmers of the tiny town when her vision lined with a young man in the fields. He was clothed in a plain white shirt covered in dirt spots, holes in the bottom of his baggy pants; they were a bit oversized on him, but he managed. He could barely lift the hoe in his grasp to slam into the ground and dig up the weeds that were considerably growing, far off the mark due to his footing. He wiped sweat from his brow, brushing dark brown hair from his forehead in the process and exhaled, which emerged as a whistle.
“Lancett?” she called. The sudden address made Lancett jump, dropping the hoe to the ground before he scrambled to retrieve it, whirling around to face her. He blinked a few times, the sun blinding him for a moment.
“Leilana? What are you doing here?” Then his mind snapped back into place and he once again dropped his tool to the dirt. “Wait! You’re alive! I can’t believe you’re alive!”
