Chapter 42: Friendship?

As the sun rises the next morning Lexa is nowhere to be seen, no note has been left by her either. She’s just gone, like the darkness at dawn. The remaining party members gather in the dining room to have breakfast and plan out what their next set of moves were to be with Lexa missing from their party. Some suggested going to try and find the mage but others shut that down quickly saying that once Lexa got to this point you wouldn’t find her unless she wanted you to find her, meaning that they’d just have to wait for the mage to return and work from there. Throughout this entire conversation Ilev remained silent having lost the trust of his own friends because he took the only correct course of action that was presented to him, now treated little more than an outcast by his own friends and the people that had been fighting by his side for however long it has been. Ilev stood up and walked out of the house needing to get away to find somewhere else to be, somewhere else to think about the decision he made and the fact that it was the only action he could have taken in that situation knowing what he knew. With two members of the party now having gone their separate ways the remaining quintet began packing their gear up and preparing for the coming journey into the Dark Lands with a party made up of whoever might remain after this spat between Lexa and Ilev. With the day dragging on and neither of the feuding party members having returned, the remaining members in the house begin searching the nearby area for any sign of either person, as the city curfew is approaching and if previous records of trying to find this house are anything to go by neither one has any idea where to go to get back to that place. After a short while of searching the quintet find Ilev sitting in the park area near to where Isla had found them on their first night in the city, they dragged him back to the house so he didn’t end up getting arrested for breaking the curfew. The entire way back to the house Ilev was muttering about the fact he had picked right there was no other option, they had to go back to Seolford to protect all those people. Hearing this muttering Suieol gave a sharp slap to Ilev’s face.

“Stop it Ilev. You’re the only one who thinks what you did was the right call. You traded one of the most powerful people we’ve met for the safety of those that cannot help us. If you wanted to get home then you made the worst possible decision you could have. So I suggest you stop this pathetic moping and come to terms with the fact you were wrong and start planning an apology for Lexa. Because right now that’s about all you can do, apart from hoping that you were right about Isla being able to resist.”
“How could I be wrong to go and save all those people? How Suieol?”
“By giving up Isla to the enemy, then all but refusing to hear what Lexa had to say about saving her instead, by prioritising a task that means nothing to us getting out of here and back home and now stubbornly refusing to accept that you made the wrong choice. Your ‘I’m Ilev and I’m always right no matter what’ attitude and huge ego are causing a problem, get over yourself and accept that what you did wasn’t helpful to our quest in the slightest. Because what you did only delayed us from getting into the Dark Lands, made Isla being captured a certainty and made us more fatigued because of when and how we had to travel.”

Suieol’s words cut through Ilev like a knife leaving him unable to respond to what she had said, his mouth flopping open and closed like a fish out of water. Eventually he stopped trying to respond and had his head pointed downward like a child after being scolded by their parents. Entering the house for the night Ilev went straight to the room he and Aromi shared and didn’t come back out even once the others had completed a fairly rudimentary dinner for them all to eat before setting off for the Dark Lands, as it was suspected that Lexa had probably already headed out that way when she left after the argument.

At the break of dawn everyone was gathered by the door to the room that Ilev was still holed up in.

“Stop being a petulant child Ilev and get out here, were heading into the Dark Lands to complete the grand quest. So gear up, get packed and get out here right now, or so help me I will drag you all the way there with none of your gear.”

The door cracks open slightly, and Ilev sticks his head out and tries to run away after seeing the look on Suieol’s face. Before he can close the door Suieol bursts through the doorway into the room giving Ilev no escape from her demands to gear up for the party’s adventure into the Dark Lands.

“Lexa has probably already entered into the Dark Lands, it’s most likely where she went after splitting up with us the other day. Because of that we’re now a day behind her and we have no clue how far she was able to get flying, well levitating, and all. You better have an apology ready.”
“And I can’t just say here?”
“No! Now get ready. If you’re not done in five, I will get you ready myself.”
“Fine, get outta here I’ll be down in five.”

Those five minutes pass, and as the second-hand ticks over the five-minute mark Suieol rises to go and grab Ilev, but as she does that he appears at the bottom of the stairs. Ilev is still visibly down about the harsh words that were spoken to him the night before, but the rest of the party don’t notice or don’t care as they gather their packs up and leave the house heading for the gate at the opposite side of the city. That gate opening almost directly into the edge of the Dark Lands current territory.