Chapter 67 - Solemn Salvation

The first person to see us as we approach the village is one of the guards. He sounds the bell and many others come rushing to our attention. There are no cheers, no cries of relief.

They see the empty spaces in our ranks.

I clutch the broken lens to my chest, its fractured surface a mirror of what we’ve become.

We don’t stop at the gate. We don’t stop at the barracks. We walk straight to the Orville’s house, an unspoken, unified purpose guiding our feet. 

A careful knock is placed on the door by Arrian before walking in. 

Orville is sitting in his chair with a thick woollen blanket draped over his lap, hiding the truth of his injury. Alarmed by our sudden appearance he closes his book. 

Arrian stops before him, bending down on one knee. He removes his helmet, his perfectly coiffed hair now a matted, sweaty mess. 

"Chief Orville. The expedition…Well we may have found the source of the destruction, a massive opening in the land that births evil incarnate... We sustained heavy casualties." He falters, barely managing to find the words to describe the immensity of what happened. "Captain Roach… didn't make it back."

Orville’s gaze drifts past the humbled Knight Captain, trying to find me, then Clovis. 

He sees the truth in us. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t need to. 

His composure finally breaks. Quiet tears escape from the corners of his eyes, breaking through the weathered lines on his face.

A choked sob escapes my lips, and my legs carry me forward before I can think. I stumble towards him, collapsing to my knees beside his chair, wrapping my arms around his frail shoulders. 

He feels so small and brittle.

I press my face into the rough wool of his tunic, the scent of old books and woodsmoke a painful reminder of the peace we have lost. His body trembles with silent sobs that rack my own frame.

I feel another presence join us, slender and boney. 

Clovis, in a rare display of unguarded vulnerability, kneels with us. 

Her hand rests gently on Orville’s back, a quiet offering of comfort. We are three broken pieces, clinging together in the wreckage, mourning the man who helped save our lives.

"An evacuation will be ordered."

Arrian’s voice seems pragmatic, but I catch him wiping away at his face through my blurred vision. 

He has risen to his feet, the commander reasserting himself over the scene. "I will personally see to it that order is restored to this area, but in my absence this village is no longer safe. I will unfortunately need to put in a request for evacuation."

"Evacuate?" A new voice, hard and edged with disbelief, joins the conversation. 

Standing in the doorway, his presence unnoticed until now is Riel.

He steps into the room. His eyes are burning with a fresh, defiant anger. "You want us to run? To give up on our homes?"

He sees this as them giving up on the village. 

He takes a step toward Arrian, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "We just buried two of our own. We’ve fought and bled for this place. You can’t just order us to abandon it."

Arrian steps to the side, his movement a simple, devastating piece of rhetoric. 

He reveals the scene behind him: me and Clovis, still kneeling, our faces streaked with tears, holding onto a weeping, broken old man. 

Riel’s angry advance halts. The fight drains out of him as he finally grasps the severity of the scene at hand.

But as his resolve falters, a new one ignites within me. Born from the promise I made to Orville. 

I take to my feet, wiping my tears away with the kindness that got me here in the first place. 

"We won’t leave." Arrian turns to look at me, his expression unreadable. "We have lost too much to just give up on our home."

He studies my face for a long moment. "You are free to do whatever you want, but I would advise you to see past your grief, it’s not safe here." he says, his tone leaving no room for argument. 

"I must leave to report to the kingdom. My remaining troops and I will depart within the hour. The village will be undefended if anything happens."

He turns to leave but as soon as he steps out the door we hear a distinct ring out again.

Another bell. Not the single, sharp ring of an alarm, but a frantic, joyous, impossible peal, ringing over and over again from the direction of the southern gate.

Every head snaps toward the sound.

Riel supports Orville as we sprint out of the house and into the stunned and confused village, our feet pounding on the cobblestones as we race towards the southern gate to see what's happened. 

We burst through the gathering crowd of villagers just in time to see the gate being hauled open again.

And there, silhouetted against the bright morning sun, they stand. Battered, bloody, but miraculously alive.