Chapter 102 A Hero’s Ailment (Part 4)

It was some time before Ash finally let go. Her fierce grip had loosened almost immediately, but she had clung on lightly still. Some small part of me, even now, wanted to push her back. Wanted to remake the distance that had always stood between a Queen and her retainer. The other parts of me simply held on, and allowed Ash to do this for however long she wished. And I could admit now that I did not find the arrangement displeasing. What I found it instead, I could not say.

Eventually, Ash raised herself on her arms, enough to put some distance between us. Her blonde hair half covered her face, but her blue eyes still peered through. She had stopped her crying. I was fairly certain she had not been weeping in grief, as she had that one night back in Hamel. She reached to the side and brought back the necklace. She looked at it, and she smiled. That woman in the street had smiled more widely than Ash did. I preferred what I saw now.

"Where did you get this?" Ash asked. "Something like this must be expensive. And-" She looked at the gemstone, blue, with grey at the edges. "I don't think I've ever seen something look like this."

"That is because nothing else looks like that stone," I said. "It is singular, and not only for its unusual color, but because I touched it and made it into something more than it was." My voice was proud, which was exactly what it should have been. Why had I worried it might come out as anything else? "As for the item itself, I acquired it in the city."

"You used Turn on it? I see," Ash said thoughtfully. We were still very close. She was on top of me, and the little distance between us was not much distance at all. She rose fully, and sat back, and that allowed me to rise as well.

Solara let out a tiny chirp beside me. She was still sitting where she had been, her four wings tucked against her sides. She chirped again when she saw me watching. I reached over and idly brushed one of her black feathers.

"Lys."

I looked across at Ash. She was holding the necklace up to her throat. "Do-" Her face turned faintly scarlet. "Do you want to put it on?" she said, gesturing at the necklace with her eyes.

It was a strange question. Had she grown bored of it already? "Ash, I obtained that item for you. If I wanted something like it, I would have acquired it for myse-"

Ash shook her head, and she giggled. "Sorry, that's- that's probably my fault for not being more specific." She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. "I mean- do you want to put it on me?"

"And why might I do that?" I asked. Ash was deft with her hands, far defter than I. Fastening one simple necklace was no task at all for her.

Ash looked at me, and it was a strange look. One I could not even begin to understand. "Well- that's-" She shook her head, and lowered it.

"Wait," I said. "Would you like me to help you wear it, Hero?" I still did not understand the why of it, but I understood now that this was her strange way of asking. One would normally ask a Queen directly, and explain their reasons in full. Perhaps a Hero was simply not the one who usually did the asking.

"Yes," Ash said. "It's- it would feel nicer if you did it, I guess." Her face, already faintly red, turned redder still.

I nodded. She reached out and gave me the necklace, and slowly turned around. She gathered her golden hair in one hand and swept it aside, baring the back of her neck. I moved forward on the bed. Solara waddled up next to me, looking up at the Hero.

It was a simple task. Of all the requests anyone had ever made of me, this was by far the simplest. Opposite the gemstone, on the chain, there was a tiny clasp. One had only to undo it, move the whole thing around the neck, and clasp it again. The necklace came apart and opened. My hands trembled as I reached toward her. I took a breath to steady them, and brought the part bearing the gemstone around beneath her throat.

Then I redid the clasp. The sound of it was small, nothing more than the faintest of clicks. It was loud in a room that was otherwise so quiet. I gave the whole thing a faint tug, just to be sure it sat securely. It did. "It is done," I said. My voice was steady. I had to make it so.

Ash slowly turned and looked down at herself. The necklace had slipped past the collar of the Academy uniform, such that I could not see the gemstone at all. For a brief moment, I considered burning the offending clothing away with Ruin. Instead, I reached forward. Ash watched my hand. I tugged at the chain and freed the blue-grey gemstone, and now it rested over the uniform rather than under it. "I believe it looks better this way," I said. "The purpose of these ornamentations is display, after all. I expect you to hide it away in battle."

Ash smiled. "How does it look?"

"It matches your eyes well," I said. It was true. I had captured the exact color of them.

Her smile split wider, just by a fraction. Why was she asking something so obvious? Solara let out a mighty chirp. We both looked down at her, and she chirped again, louder still. "How do you think it looks, Sol?" Ash asked, leaning down toward her.

Solara craned her neck toward the ceiling and let out a soft trill. I believed that made her answer clear. Then her four wings flared, and she launched herself at Ash. She made it. Her tiny talons found purchase on Ash's head, and she turned around and tucked her wings. She was almost too big for the Hero's head now, but she still fit. "You want me to be your seat today, huh? I'm honored." Ash grinned, and straightened carefully.

We were quiet for a time. Ash kept tracing her thumb over the blue gemstone. It was an idle gesture. I was not certain she knew she was making it. I had a question, one I had wanted to ask for some time. Since Ash had first taken this necklace from my hands.

"Hero," I said. Ash looked up at me. "Has the thing that was wrong with you been… corrected?" The question was poor. It was aimed in the right direction, but it was still poor. I did not know how to aim it any better.

Ash looked at me, and then back down at the necklace. "A little," she said.

"A little," I repeated. "Do you require more of these necklaces? I do not believe it makes sense to wear more than one. Or perhaps I should have gotten something finer than-"

Ash raised her hands hurriedly. "No, no, it's nothing like that!" she said quickly. "I love this. I really do. It's just-" She trailed off. "Well, it was kind of a shock. When I found out-" Her mouth closed.

"When you found out that this Orvyn may yet be alive?" I asked slowly. Ash nodded. "And it… bothers you that she may still be alive?" I asked, more slowly still.

"That's some of it," Ash said. "But it's- well-" She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. Solara let out a startled chirp, and Ash quickly straightened again. "Uh, sorry, Sol." Sol answered with a tiny chirp of her own as she readjusted herself on the Hero's head. Ash smiled, and then met my gaze. "It's more like I just can't believe she might still be around, y'know? And then there's-" She made a sweeping gesture with her right arm. "Everything. Everything we're learning about the Great Hunt. About the way this world works. About its history. About what everyone thinks its history is." She lowered her arm. "And when I think something is about me, it's-" She fumbled for the word. "It's wrong. It feels-"

"Insulting?" I offered.

"Yes. No. It just feels very complicated, I guess."

The Hero had said a great many words, and used them to explain very little. Still, I could understand some of what she felt. I had found only a few scattered references to myself in the Athenaeum, and these demonbloods and half-demons carried my name with a meaning far different from any it had ever held.

It had prickled, but it had not stung. For I, at least, was still remembered. I had never once heard the name of Ash Vale. Not anywhere I had looked. Not in any tome I had read. This Divine called for a Great Hunt every five years, with a party suspiciously similar to a Hero's party, and yet the greatest Hero herself was mentioned nowhere at all. I knew it. A necklace, however beautiful, was not enough to cure whatever ailed the Hero. And so I would-

Ash reached out and took my hand. "Lys, I'm okay. Or, well, I will be. I just need a little time." She held the blue-grey gemstone in her left hand. "And this is beautiful. I feel better already."

The Hero said the words warmly, so there was no reason to believe them an attempt at deceit. "Very well," I said. "If you are sure."

There was little to do now. Most of the day had already passed. Our last day in this Academy. In Koralis. There was a warmth against my own chest, the warmth of a clay bead. One far simpler than this necklace, but perhaps no less valuable.

It was far too late for any further training. Alisa had yet to reveal the secret of her mark. Strange, that she had not found us and shown it already. What was she waiting for? I had meant what I said. If the girl would not reveal what power she carried, however meager, then we would not take her.

Actually, there was still one thing left. I had almost forgotten.

I reached into the small satchel and drew out another necklace, one whose gemstone was still green. Ash paused and looked at it. "You… got two of these?" she asked, clearly puzzled. "Oh, so that's what it looked like before Turn."

"I did," I said.

"Is this one for you?" Ash frowned, then tilted her head. Solara, atop her crown, tilted hers in almost the exact same manner.

"No. I would not wear something like this. Something that serves no purpose other than to catch the light." And then I drew out a silver bell. One that made no sound at all, even as I held it up before Ash.

She looked at it, and I saw the realization dawning there. Then she smirked. "Oh. I don't think she's going to appreciate you using that bell for this," Ash said.

"I do not care for her opinion," I said. "If her power is as great as she claims, then this should be a simple matter for her."

And if I was to go somewhere farther away than Koralis, then I would like to see Hamel again. For however short a time. Solara let out a small chirp. I looked up at her. The chirp had sounded confused. I wondered what she would make of the village and its small huts.

The door slammed open. I whirled, and the Requiem answered. I raised my hand, and I knew Ash would not be far behind. It was only Ren. Her foot was half raised, and she looked angry, even for Ren.

"Girl, what do you think you are-"

Ren pointed a finger at us. At me, more specifically. "What the hell are you doing?" I glared at her, rising from the bed. I would tolerate much, but I would not tolerate- "I told you to come to the mess hall in half an hour, didn't I? It's been half an hour!"

I froze mid-rise. I searched my memory, and found, to my considerable displeasure, some vague recollection of agreeing to exactly that. It seemed I had forgotten two things, and not just one. Not that I would tell this girl that.

"We were just on our way," I said. "Fool girl."

Ren folded her arms. "You expect me to buy that? Seriously? I bet you two were just about to fuc-" Her mouth snapped shut. Her face went red, very nearly the shade of her hair. "A-anyway, come on already." Then she looked past me, at Ash. She smiled. It was a smaller smile than Ren usually wore. "That looks really good," she said. Then she turned and marched out the door.

I turned slowly back to Ash, whose face had gone faintly red as well. "What was that about?" she asked.

"I agreed to join her in the mess hall," I said. "It seems the time passed more quickly than I accounted for. Though the girl never did say what I was to join her for."

Ash blinked. Then something dawned across her face, and she glanced at the door Ren had gone through. "Could it be-" she murmured, mostly to herself, and her mouth closed around the rest of it.

"What?" I asked. "Do you know what this is about, Hero?"

"Err… maybe, maybe not," Ash said, rising. Solara swayed atop her head and chirped her displeasure at the sudden motion. "We should go."

She knew something, and she would not say it. I considered pressing her for it. I decided instead that I would forgive the Hero her secrecy, but only until I had seen the thing for myself. Solara let out a small chirp, and I chose to hear agreement in it. We left the room, and followed the sound of Ren's footsteps.

We found her standing before the great doors of the mess hall. The doors were closed. In all my time at this Academy, I had never once seen them closed. And it was very quiet. It was evening, but not so late that the mess hall should have emptied.

Ren turned as we approached, arms already folded. "Good. I was about to come over and drag you again."

"Girl," I said. "You will explain what this is about. What manner of trap is this?"

"Trap? Why would-" Ren threw both hands toward the ceiling. "Look, we have half an hour left. You're already late, so come on." She stepped aside from the doors and jabbed a thumb at them. "Well? Open it."

I did not know what any of that meant. I looked to Ash. She only smiled, and nodded. I looked up at Solara, perched atop the Hero's head. She let out a chirp of tremendous volume, as if she somehow knew what this was about. Which was impossible, since she had been with me today.

"Very well," I said. Whatever trap waited on the other side of these doors would be a trifling thing.

I stepped forward and set my palms against the wood. The doors were exactly as heavy as they looked. I had to use Essence in my limbs to move them. They slowly swung inward, and I saw the mess hall past them. It had never looked like this.

Banners hung between the pillars. They were bedsheets, or they had been. Letters had been burnt into the cloth, and in one place the fire had escaped its author entirely and left a hole where a word should have been. The largest banner read THANK YOU. The one beside it had attempted GOOD LUCK ON THE HUNT. The author, who I suspected was a red-haired girl, had clearly found it hard to burn all of that on a single bedsheet, and so the last two words were only half the size of the rest.

At the nearest table sat three people. Edda. Corin. Alisa. All three of them were staring at the doors.

The table before them had food, and much of it. Skewers of glistening meat. Bread. Other things I had vaguely seen on the night of the festival but had never tried. It occurred to me, distantly, that these must have been the things Ren had bought on our excursion. Bought, and made a point not to show me.

And at the center of the table sat a thing. It was black. Mostly black, with faint lines of pink, white and red. It was some kind of food, stranger than anything else on the table. Something was written on it in those three colors. I could not read it from where I stood.

The three of them looked at me. I looked at them. I had walked into ambushes before, and I had walked out of every one. Not one of them had prepared me for this.

"Surprise?" Corin said, awkwardly.