Empyrean 13: Truth and Consequences

Amelia here! Please enjoy the second chapter of Empyrean's Flight. As usual, any and all feedback is welcome :)

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It took us nearly the entire day to reach our destination. The whole way to Soren’s hidey-hole was bereft of conversation. I would have much preferred at least some pleasant talk, but after the events of this morning, I was only offered silent tension.

On the other hand, I could barely pay attention to my environment by the time we reached the shelter. My eyes were heavy, and the injuries I sustained in our fight with Devils were too sharp to ignore. I just wanted to get inside and rest.

“We’re here,” Soren said, interrupting my thoughts. The first words he had spoken in hours.

I looked up from the dusty brick pathway at a hole in the side of a dilapidated stone house. Did a bomb go off here? I wondered. I wasn’t sure what could have possibly made such a mess of a solid building. I followed Soren into the hole, tripping on pieces of stone scattered across the ground near the foundation of the house.

We walked down a gravel pathway to a bigger rock. “Help me, Alon,” my brother called out to the axeman. It took both of them to move it aside and reveal the inside of the hidey-hole.

Once we got inside and the rock was moved back into place, I took a moment to look around the refuge. It was dank and empty, barring three thin mattresses on the floor toward the back of the single room. There was a bucket to my left in the corner, and a couple of boxes scattered around the floor. It looked like it was previously meant as a storm shelter for the people who used to own the now broken-down house.

It was not pleasant, but it would have to be home for now.

I watched Alon walk toward one of the mattresses and lay his backpack and axe on the floor. Looking around at my brother and my friend, I decided I’d had enough of the unspoken hostility. “Can we please talk?” I asked the axeman.

Alon sat down on the mattress and sagged his shoulders. “What, do you want to scold me again?”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t act like that. We need to work together if we’re going to get through this alive.” I walked toward him and lay a hand on his shoulder softly. “That means not leading us into danger.”

Alon sighed. “I know I could have dealt with that better. I am sorry.” He looked up at me. His eyes were darkened. “And I am sorry for hurting you.”

I held his face in my hands. “I know you meant well, but we need to communicate better.”

“She’s right, Alon,” Soren spoke from behind me. “We are facing more danger than ever, and we will only get through it alive if we work as a team.”

I looked back at my brother and gave him a small smile.

Alon pushed my hands off of his face. “I understand, but then we need to take action.” He paused. “If we sit around and wait to get killed, guess what will happen?”

Soren and I went silent. What Alon was saying made sense, but it didn’t make it any less frightening. “Okay, we can be more proactive,” I said. “But we all have to have a hand in how we take that action.”

Alon gave me a curt nod. “Can I please sleep?” he asked. “I can’t feel… anything anymore.”

I let out a small sigh and left him in peace. Then I walked over to the furthest mattress in the room and claimed it. I took my backpack off, sat on the makeshift bed, and rubbed my sore feet. It had been a long day.

I looked at Soren, who was still standing eerily still, his gaze fixed on me. I was struggling to read his expression, but at the very least, he seemed pensive.

“Is everything alright, brother?” I asked softly, trying not to wake an already-sleeping Alon.

He didn’t respond immediately. First, he double-checked that the rock-door was secure and let down his backpack nearby. Then he leaned against the wall, crossed his arms, and finally said, “Of course not, Elana.” He sighed. “We are in a right mess because of your and Alon’s decisions.”

I shrunk into myself a little before I answered. “I had to save you, Soren. I was so scared I would lose you, and I felt I had to do everything I could to stop that from happening.” I got up from my seat and walked closer to my brother and stopped in front of him.

Soren didn’t move. “Okay, so you thought entering the lair of the most dangerous group in the city and letting Alon get tortured was the way to do that?” he snapped at me. “I just don’t know if this was all worth it.”

I creased my brows and raised my shoulders a little more confidently. “It was absolutely worth it, Soren. We are family, and that includes Alon. He knew as much as I did what we were getting ourselves into.”

“I just wish you could have thought it through before—” Soren started.

“We didn’t have time, Soren! You were on the brink of death,” I interrupted angrily. “What we did was the best plan we could have come up with in the space we had, and look, here you are. Breathing and fighting.”

“And incredibly sore,” he added.

I cracked a small smile before responding. “Pain is good. Pain means you’re alive.”

He cocked his head toward the floor. “Not all pain, sis. And I am not ever going to be comfortable with you, or Alon for that matter, putting yourselves in danger for my sake.”

I raised my eyes at him. “As if you wouldn’t do the same?”

He pursed his lips.

“Remember what Mom and Dad always used to say?”

“Family, whether chosen or by blood, is worth the torment of everyday life,” he said.

I shuddered a little at how morose the message was, but the idea had always stood true for me. “I am thankful we are close, brother, and I will do anything for you. I know you would do the same for me and our chosen sibling,” I said, pointing to a snoring Alon.

Soren snickered a little at the sight before turning serious. “We’re going to have to keep tabs on him. He can’t pull the same tricks he did this morning. We were lucky to get out of that.”

“He ambushed us into an ambush,” I said. “But I understand why he did it. I think Alon is holding onto anger from what happened in the lair.”

Soren had a contemplative look on his face as I spoke. I couldn’t read his thoughts, but I would have given a lot to do so at that moment.

“Anyway, I do understand why you infiltrated the Devils’ lair, Elana,” he said, deciding to change the subject. “Even though it has put us in a bit of a… pickle.” He grinned at his silly phrasing.

Then a darkened look came across his face. “What I don’t understand is why you have clearly chosen the path of a player.”

✵ ✵ ✵

This was the conversation I had been dreading since I took the Class stone in hand. And there was no more avoiding it now. I took a deep breath in before I responded, “You would not believe the power I hold, Soren.”

“Do you not remember what the Game did to our parents, Elana?” Soren asked, tears slightly welling in his eyes. “I am so frightened for you. I do not want you to become a slave to the system like they did, and when you say things like that it doesn’t make me feel better about it.”

I looked down to my feet and shuffled them around a bit. “I hear you, brother. Mom and Dad did not deserve the way they met their end,” I paused, then added, “and how early it came for them.”

“And for us,” Soren pointed out.

He was right. I was only ten when our parents had died, and he was a mere teenager trying to raise his baby sister. “When I say I have power, Soren, I mean I have the ability to help us gain a better life now.”

My brother looked at me thoughtfully. “We could have done that without giving in to the Adjudicator’s whims,” he said plainly.

“Could we have?” I asked sardonically. “Have you not seen the state of the city, lately, Soren? Just recently you and Alon were almost part of Arinna’s army. How would we gain a better life from that?”

Soren’s frame tightened in response to my words. But then he rested his shoulders and let out a sigh. “Fair,” he said softly.

There was a moment of quiet tension between us before I continued. “I promise, here and now, that I will be careful, brother.”

“I am not sure if that is good enough for me, Elana. But it’s not like we can turn back the clock and make a different decision now,” he retorted with a slight hint of resentment in his voice. “What I want you to promise me, now that you have made this choice, is that you take the right path forward.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, slightly confused.

“There are many different ways you can play the Game,” he took a long breath. “And you are special; not many proles become players. You have to understand and accept the responsibility that lies with that.”

I still had not grasped what he meant. Soren was not usually cryptic; he had always been very forthcoming with his feelings and thoughts. This time, though, I was sure he was keeping something from me.

“You know more than you’re letting on,” I accused.

“Just promise me, El,” he implored. “That is all I need right now.”

Soren was obviously not going to say any more on the subject, so I just gave him a slight nod. I will find out what you’re hiding, I thought. I hated being kept in the dark.

My brother then moved away from the wall he had been leaning on and wrapped me in a warm hug. “I need time to think on this, sis,” he said. “Let’s get some sleep, and then we can talk again in the morning.”

I didn’t respond to him. Frankly, I was struggling to get any more words out. The physical and emotional turmoil of the past couple of days had caught up to me. After Soren let me go, I walked toward one of the mattresses, lay down my backpack next to it, and fell asleep before I could register any more thoughts.

✵ ✵ ✵

I woke the next morning to a message from the Game.

You have slept for 12 hours. Your health and mana have been fully replenished.

Ugh, I thought. I was not fond of this idea; waking to alerts from the Game before I could even process that it was a new day. However, it was comforting to realize that I had been healed. Thankfully I didn’t need potions to heal and restore my mana, I could fill up my reserves with sleep.

But that could be challenging in the middle of a fight. I giggled at the thought of taking a quick nap while in battle.

I waved my musings aside. I couldn’t focus on fights I wasn’t even in, and I still had the skillbooks and ability tomes we took from the Devils’ lair to sift through. Hopefully one of them would help me with this issue.

I sat up and stretched my arms out. The mattress was thin and uncomfortable, but I felt rested. Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I looked to my left to see Soren and Alon sitting on boxes and talking.

“Morning, you two,” I said.

“Oh well would you look at that, miss player decided to join us on the side of life,” Alon said mockingly. I rolled my eyes at him. “You seem to be in better spirits,” I said. “How long have you been awake?”

“We’ve only been up for about thirty minutes,” Soren responded, slapping Alon on the shoulder. “No need to be an arse about it.”

Alon had a smug look on his face. “What else would I be?” he asked. “Anyway, I was thinking I could leave you two to talk while I scouted the area. We don’t want to run into any more Devils, do we?”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Soren said. “Elana and I need some time.”

Alon and Soren had clearly spent the morning sorting out the emotions from the previous day, which warmed my heart. But I was slightly taken aback at my brother’s readiness to continue our conversation from the previous night. He clearly had more to say, though, and I would welcome a talking Soren over a brooding brother any time.

Alon sprung up and nodded toward us, his axe hanging on his shoulder. He opened the rock-door and slid out quietly, closing it behind him. It was just Soren and me now.

And he didn’t waste any time getting to his point. “I wanted Alon out of here because I need to ask you about the lizard I saw during our fight,” he said.

Oh dear, I forgot about Adalinda for a moment, I thought. Suddenly, a cheerful voice entered my mind. “How dare you!”

“Ada, I’m so sorry. I was so tired and—”

A little chuckle interrupted me. “I know, Elana. I am joking. I will always make sure you know I’m here. I’m too precious to forget.”

Soren tapped me on the head. “Are you going to answer me or just sit there and smile about nothing?”

Snapping out of my conversation with Adalinda, I realized I had just ignored Soren completely. “Yes, sorry. Uhm… What about the lizard?”

Soren sighed and placed his palm on his forehead before answering. “Elana, a lizard helped us fight off the Devils and then disappeared into nothing. Is that not something you conjured? Or is it a real.. thing?”

I bit my lip. “Adalinda is my celestial companion.”