Chapter 54: What Comes Next

The conversation stretched for almost two hours before either of them realized how late it had become.

There had been no real order to it. They moved from the escape to the years Shaul had spent in Novaryn, then back to the night House Novaryn fell, before drifting into smaller things that had nothing to do with any of it. Eldrin learned where Shaul had lived, how he had managed to stay hidden, which identities he had used, and how often he had been forced to abandon one life and begin another whenever someone came too close.

Some parts were difficult to hear.

Others were almost absurd.

At one point Shaul had described spending several months pretending to be a travelling merchant, only to realize halfway through the arrangement that he had no idea how merchants were supposed to keep their accounts.

"You survived all those years," Eldrin had said, "and accounting almost killed you?"

"It was close."

Eldrin had laughed at that, and Shaul had looked rather pleased with himself.

It was strange.

For the first time since they had found each other, Eldrin was beginning to recognize the person sitting across from him... not merely the brother whose name had survived in his memories, but the man Shaul had become while Eldrin was growing up somewhere else.

Eventually, though, the conversation returned to the question that had been bothering Eldrin since Shaul had told him how he survived.

His death had been faked.

Someone had created a convincing enough story that nobody had thought to look for him afterward.

Eldrin sat quietly for a while, turning the thought over in his mind.

"If they managed to make everyone believe you were dead," he said, "then there might be another possibility."

Shaul looked over.

"For me?"

"For me."

Shaul’s expression became more attentive.

Eldrin leaned back against the wall, his gaze drifting toward the ceiling.

"I’ve always assumed that my disappearance happened because Father sent me away and I eventually became Caiden. But if your death was deliberately manufactured..." He paused, searching for the right way to phrase it. "Then maybe mine can too."

Eldrin continued, "If everyone believed I was dead, nobody would have been looking for a fourteen-year-old boy wandering around as a slave. but that was not the case."

He had spent years believing that becoming Caiden was the reason he disappeared from the world.

Before Eldrin could follow the thought any further, Shaul shifted in his seat.

"There is something else you should know."

Eldrin looked at him.

Shaul raised a hand toward his face.

The change began almost too subtly to notice.

His jawline shifted first, followed by the shape of his cheekbones. His nose narrowed, his eyes changed slightly, and within moments the familiar face Eldrin had spent the last two hours looking at had become someone else entirely.

Eldrin stared.

He had seen it before.

Not from Shaul.

From Larius.

The infiltrator in the military district had done something almost identical when he copied the face of one of the guards.

Eldrin pointed at him.

"That’s the same thing Larius did."

Shaul smiled.

"So you really were paying attention."

"I was trying not to get killed." Eldrin anwered.

"That too."

Eldrin continued staring at the altered face.

"How?"

"Pathway....Trickster."

Shaul’s features shifted again, gradually returning to normal.

"The Pathway lets me alter my appearance. Face, voice, smaller physical details. The changes aren’t permanent, and the more I alter, the more difficult it is to maintain."

Eldrin frowned.

"So you can just become someone else?"

"Not perfectly."

"Good." Eldrin said.

Shaul raised an eyebrow.

"Is that all Trickster does?" Eldrin asked.

"No."

Eldrin waited.

Shaul leaned his head back against the wall.

"It can affect personality too."

Eldrin’s expression changed.

"Yours? How?"

"I can alter certain aspects of myself. Fear. Confidence. Aggression. Patience. Even the way I respond emotionally to certain situations."

Eldrin stared at him.

That was considerably more disturbing than changing a face.

"Aren’t you still... yourself?"

"Usually."

"Usually?"

Shaul looked at him for a moment.

"That’s the dangerous part."

The amusement disappeared from Eldrin’s face.

Shaul continued more quietly, "Changing your appearance is easy compared to changing the way you think. The more I alter my personality, the harder it becomes to tell where the ability ends and I begin."

Eldrin felt an uncomfortable chill run through him.

He had spent years studying people because it had helped him survive. He watched how they spoke, how they reacted, where their eyes went when they lied, what made them nervous, what made them careless.

A person’s personality was the pattern underneath everything else.

If that pattern could be changed at will, even temporarily...

That was terrifying.

"You’ve used it often?"

Shaul looked away.

"More than I should have."

Eldrin studied him.

For once, he didn’t make a joke.

"I don’t think I’d like that ability."

"You wouldn’t." Eldrin said.

"Changing your face is one thing."

Eldrin glanced at Shaul’s face.

"But changing yourself?"

Shaul gave a small shrug.

"That’s why I don’t use that part unless I have to."

Eldrin nodded.

That answer was enough.

For a little while, neither of them spoke. The conversation had wandered into a place neither seemed particularly eager to stay in.

Eventually, Eldrin looked toward the coffin.

His father’s remains had been the reason for everything that had happened.

Finding him.

Taking him away.

Making sure Korrandis could never use his body again.

Eldrin’s gaze lingered there.

"We should take him somewhere proper."

Shaul followed his eyes.

"Yes."

"I don’t want to leave him here."

"We won’t."

Eldrin nodded.

He had imagined this moment for years, though never quite like this. He had expected relief when he finally found his father. Instead, there was only a quiet ache and the strange feeling that one Chapter of his life had ended without telling him what came next.

He looked back at Shaul.

"As for us..."

Shaul waited.

Eldrin gave a small sigh.

"I suppose we should figure out what we’re doing next."

A faint smile appeared on Shaul’s face.

"Finally."

Eldrin frowned.

"What?"

"I was wondering when you’d ask."

"You could have brought it up." Eldrin said.

"I wanted to see how long you’d sit there thinking."

Eldrin stared at him for a second before shaking his head.

"You really are my brother."

Shaul laughed.

"Unfortunately."

Eldrin couldn’t help smiling.

"Zarian is here, my lord... time to move....