Chapter 40

"It hasn't been long since you got back, and yet, you insist on not only pushing yourself with training, but going out on these little excursions with little to no backup to breakup skirmishes. We have plenty of other knights available to deal with them," Orsted complained to Jade, as they set up to spar. "You are to stay close to me at all times, as you did before your disappearance."

Jade sighed and adjusted his gloves. "But you're not busy right now, so I end up bored. I'd rather keep myself occupied."

"Why? It's not like you've lost your edge." He glanced at the line of knights he'd already taken down in sparring matches. "Or your stamina. After that many fights, how are you not looking for a break?"

"Because I have energy to burn."

"I doubt that's all it is." Orsted got into his stance with a wooden sword.

"Maybe I'm restless because I don't think the war is over. Them being silent is worrying. What if they're planning something big?"

"And what if they ran off scared? They don't have Emerald anymore. You know, I've noticed you keep looking at that thing you brought back with you. What did you call it again? A smartphone?"

"I have not." Jade frowned.

"As if you could ever hide anything from me. Remember that time you kept a wild animal as a pet—"

"I was a kid."

"So was I."

"Quit blabbering." Jade charged at him.

Orsted dodged and swung, hitting Jade in the back. "Okay, that was not only reckless, but your fatigue is finally showing, or I must be onto something. How about this, if I win you tell me what's going on, and you win, I'll stop asking?"

"You put that like it's a question, but I know better; it's an order."

Orsted shrugged. "Such is life."

Jade held his sword in front of him, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath before getting back into his fighting stance.

The tired knights surrounding them got riled up, cheering as they clashed and dodged.

"Oh, have I motivated you now?" Orsted laughed.

Jade attacked with precision, but Orsted could read his moves from their years of sparring together. "Since when do you stick to being defensive?"

"Since you're more careless when you're aggressive. But you want me to come at you? Fine, have it your way, but I'm well-rested."

Neither of them managed to get a direct hit in, despite their slew of attacks. Orsted changed his tactics and aimed for Jade's pants pocket.

"What in the world are you doing?" Jade blocked him and jumped back. "Randomly swinging now?"

"Random? Come on, Jade; you know better than that. Use your brain like you usually do."

Jade's eyes widened. "How dare you?! You know what that means to me."

"Oh, so you admit it?" Orsted smiled.

"Your Highness," Jade hissed. "As you know, I have a limited time with it, so don't try to destroy it. Besides, I thought you wanted to study it later."

"I do, but I thought it was odd you brought it with you, especially with how fragile it sounds. No one would dare steal from you around here."

"Stop messing with me." Jade's eye twitched, and he charged at him again.

Orsted moved with elegance as he dodged.

Jade slammed into him from the side, knocking him over, and discarded his sword. "I can play dirty, too."

The two tumbled on the ground, taking swings at each other.

The knights exchanged looks of confusion and wondered if they should split them up.

"They might hurt each other."

"But who wants to get in the middle of this?"

"It's basically brothers fighting."

"Do we keep cheering?"

"This feels like something we should stay out of."

A couple of them started to back away.

"I think we should stop them; what if they actually hurt each other?"

"If we stop them, they'll probably both hurt us."

The rest of the knights backed away. "They wouldn't go too far. We can trust them."

They pounded on each other and fell back on the ground, huffing and wincing in pain.

"Geez, you're not holding back," Orsted complained, gripping his jaw.

"Same to you, but who won?"

Orsted held up Jade's phone. "I think I won."

Jade clicked his tongue and closed his eyes. "Whatever."

Orsted set the phone down on Jade's chest. "The others left, so you can talk now."

"I'm... keeping busy to try to stop myself from thinking about her. I know it's silly, but I miss her."

"It's not silly. And I was afraid it was that. How many times have I caught you staring at her photo?"

"Doesn't matter. The battery, despite keeping it off most of the time, is almost dead. I won't be able to gaze upon her ever again." Jade sighed and tried to hand him the phone back. "At this point, there's no reason to keep it."

"But it's not dead yet."

"But all I'm doing is prolonging my misery."

"Misery?" Orsted repeated the word in a whisper. "I've never outwardly seen you so downtrodden for so long. This is serious."

"Don't worry about it. I'll make sure it doesn't hamper my duties, and I'll keep a tighter wrap on my emotions. My reactions lately have been a failure on my part, and I apologize."

"That's not what I was getting at, and I don't want you to swallow your feelings. I want you to talk about them."

"I tried that, and it didn't help. Trying to talk more will only make it worse. I need to focus more on work, and everything will be fine."

Orsted sighed and shook his head, knowing Jade wouldn't listen to him.

"If you don't look up the meaning, I will." Conner popped up behind Ariel while she sat at her computer again. "You know you'll keep wondering forever."

"But is knowing any better?"

"Only one way to find out." Conner hit enter and search results for 'Ego te semper amare' came up.

I will always love you.

Ariel read the phrase meaning a few times, and her eyes teared up.

"Should've guessed it was something like that. Sounds... Oh, Ariel." Conner rubbed her back.

Ugh, how pathetic; I'm crying again. Why would you tell me that?! Doesn't that imply that despite the distance and time, he'll keep loving me? She clutched the necklaces and bit her lip.

"I... I'm sorry. There's nothing I can say to help right now. Time may not heal all wounds, but it does push it further back in your mind."

"Not helpful."

"I know, but I can't think of anything I can do right now. Damn it, Jade; this is what I was worried about in the first place. I knew you two seemed close, and we knew the risks—"

"But when you fall, you can't help it."

"Yeah. More importantly, weren't you saying about checking up on the bindrune necklace, too?"

"After this reaction, do you think it's good to continue?" She motioned towards her tear-streaked face.

"Better to get it all out of the way at once? Have your – hopefully temporary slump – and get back to being you."

"Who would that be? The loner that spends all her time reading because stories are better than real life?"

"I like the reading part. And I think it's always been the case for stories better than real life; why else would we be so enamoured with them? As for the loner part, that would be on you to try to make friends, but I somehow doubt you want to. You like keeping to yourself in the outside world; you always have."

"It was different with Jade around."

"You can... make a new friend."

I don't think I want to. They'd probably leave, too. "I'll pass. As you said, I like to keep to myself."

"Right... Of course, you'd say that. Now." Conner tapped on her keyboard. "If we're doing this, let's do it. What's that necklace mean?"

"Why are you here pestering me?"

"Because you need the push, and I'm a curious, nosey old brother. Now type."

'Gebo and Eihwaz bindrune.'

"Okay, way more popped up than I expected to. How do we figure this out?" Conner asked as he scrolled through the links. "This one has a comprehensive list. Gebo and Eihwaz runes are for a love that endures, even at a distance..." Conner trailed off. "It could be something else, though." He kept going into different ones.

"A bunch of them say something along the lines of a lasting bond or commitment, so I kinda think the first one might be right." Ariel went silent, fiddling with the necklace. Why? That makes me want to cling to the idea that we could meet again someday, even though I know it's impossible. "Ugh." Ariel leaned her elbows on the desk, covering her face with her hands as tears fell.

"I'm sorry, Ariel." Conner hugged her.