Chapter 23: Homecoming

Sarman found himself sitting near the head of a long table. On his right, at the head of the table, was Kayde Towsend, a long-time friend of his father’s, and the father of one of Sarman’s best friends. Across the table from Sarman was Yuuki, who was here as the representative for the new City-State of Crystallia. Finally on his left were Nic, Aria, and then Rust in that order.

Yuuki had the other two members of the Crystallian delegation on her other side. One of the last two spots at the table was taken up by another citizen of Aric who was considered a respected elder in the town. The last member, directly opposite Kayde, was Kiara. She was sitting in on the meeting as the leader of the group that had been diving into the Irradiated Forest. Their goal had been the search for whatever was causing monsters to migrate out of the forest.

The room they were in was actually the dining room in Kayde Towsend’s house in the city of Aric. As the current leader of the City-State, and the very person who had proposed this discussion in the first place, he had quickly offered up his house for the meeting place the night before.

“Alright, alright.” Kayde clapped his hands together twice as he spoke up. Kayde was taking charge in leading the meeting. “First off, let me extend my congratulations on behalf of the City-State of Aric to Crystallia for its newly found statehood as well.”

Kayde led the rest of the table in a small series of claps as he bowed his head towards the Crystallian delegation. Sarman noticed that Yuuki was slightly red as the attention was forced onto her.

Once the clapping and congratulations from the table died down, Yuuki spoke up.

“Thank you. As the current head of the city’s monarchy, I humbly accept your congratulations.”

In the silence that followed, Yuuki sat back in her chair and let out a long breath of air. Sarman looked to his right only to find Kayde hanging his mouth open. At the other end of the table, Kiara was making similar motions.

For those that knew Yuuki before all of this, what she had said had come as a shock. She had hidden her ascension to the new City-States monarchy the entire previous night.

“Head… of the city’s… monarchy?!” Stupefied by what he was saying, Kayde stumbled over his own words as he asked for clarification.

“That’s right. I am the current Queen of Crystallia. My position was given to me by the previous Queen, Crystal.”

“I see.” Kayde’s face was full of conflict. Like Sarman, he probably had things he wanted to say to the girl who he had known for almost ten years. If Kayde was like this already, Sarman feared for how his own father or the Kyokan ambassadors in Sanum would respond.

“Does this mean you won’t be staying in Sanum anymore?” Kiara spoke up from the end of the table.

Hearing her question, a pang of guilt washed over Yuuki’s face.

Seeing that, Sarman felt a pang in his own heart. He knew the answer. He knew it, but he didn’t like it himself.

For Sarman, the hardest part of the last few days was realizing that Yuuki would be going off on her own at some point. He had to face that truth. No matter how much it made him hurt.

“Ah…” Kiara whispered something else under her breath, but Sarman was too far away to hear it. What he did know was that it got looks of empathy from Nic and Aria.

“Ahem,” Sarman cleared his throat loudly, pulling all of the attention to himself. “I’m sure this news is quite shocking to those who were not in Crystallia when it happened, but we should not let it distract us too much. We have much to discuss at this meeting today.”

As he motioned for Kayde to begin the discussion again, he found quizzical stares coming at him from both ends of the table. A glare was all he needed to dispel both of them, but it still irked Sarman just a bit that the focus of worry had been placed on how he responded to Yuuki’s news.

“Sarman is right.” Aria spoke up from a few seats down. “We should get back on focus. We can talk about Yuuki’s new position after the meeting is done. Is that alright with you two?” Aria threw the question at both Kiara and her own father. Mixed with Saraman’s gaze, it was enough to get them to both agree.

“Alright. Let’s start with the official meeting between members of the three nearby City-States then. Of course, I represent Aric, as do Nic and Aria over here.” Kayde motioned to the two of them. “Mr. Tearl here is acting as a scribe, writing down everything that will come out of this meeting. He may also bring up some stuff relating to Aric if he thinks of it.” Kayde motioned to the last citizen of Aric at the table. Once he was done Sarman spoke up.

“While not here in an official capacity, as the son of the current Minister, I am representing the City-State of Sanum. Kiara is also representing Sanum with me, though she has also served the role of helping Aric with a recent incident in the Irradiated Forest.”

“And finally, my fellow delegates and I are here representing the newly formed City-State of Crystallia.” Yuuki motioned to the two other delegates sitting next to her.

All three City-States were represented in these basic talks. If things went well here, Sarman had every intention of barging into the Sanum Senate building as soon as they got back to Sanum. He would convince his father to help Crystallia.

“Alright then. Yuuki, as the head of the Crystallian delegation, you yourself wanted this meeting to happen, correct? What is it that Crystallia wishes to discuss with Aric and Sanum?” Kayde had slipped into the role of Meeting Mediator quickly and was now rolling out the big question to Yuuki specifically.

“Yes.” Yuuki sat up straight and looked Kayde in the eyes. “A few days ago, Crystallia was hit by a large-scale attack by an outside source. It was in this attack that we lost the last queen; Crystal. But that wasn’t all we lost. We lost a large part of our trained defenders and large portions of the City were burned down.”

Starting with a brief explanation of what had happened in Crystallia in recent weeks, Yuuki soon moved into what her City-State was hoping to get out of these negotiations. Mainly that Crystallia wanted help with defending against any further attacks and some help with food for the time being until they could get the city back on its own two feet fully.

Kayde quietly listened to the requests before sitting there quietly for a while.

“Aric can’t help with the defense. We barely have enough people trained to defend our own city. That will have to be something that you talk with Ordwell about Sanum helping with.” Kayde motioned to Sarman who nodded in agreement. “As for the food, Mr. Tearl, how much extra food do we have sitting in storage for a rainy day?”

The last member of Aric’s representatives looked up from the paper he was writing. He tapped his quill against his head a few times as he worked through Kayde’s question.

“We usually make about one point five times the food we consume each harvest. The last point five goes into storage. In there right now we have about four times what we would eat every harvest saved for a bad season. Of course most of it is grain or dried jerky.”

“Perfect. What if we take about half of that and send it to Crystallia to help them? Do you think that would be good with the rest of Aric?”

Mr. Tearl nodded. “That should be fine. I don’t see why anyone would be mad at this outcome.”

“Good, good. I trust this is fine for Crystallia?”

The Crystallian delegation whispered between themselves before Yuuki spoke up in response. “We are grateful for the amount of support you are willing to offer us.” Her face was full of gratitude as she gave Kayde a soft smile.

“Then I guess it’s just up to me to convince my father then.” Sarman sighed as he spoke. His job was easily the biggest and hardest one of them all. The distance between Sanum and Crystallia was great, and it would be hard to have a rotating set of people going there to help defend the city for the time being.

“Hahaha! That’s true. Thank you for taking the job on, Sarman.” Kayde heartily laughed at the young man’s ‘misfortune’.

“Ummm…” Kiara spoke up from the end of the table. As all of the attention was drawn unto her, she looked at Yuuki. “When exactly did this attack on Crystallia happen?” Her voice was strained, and her face stretched in worry.

“When? Six days ago.”

“Six days!” Kiara looked at Kayde in concern. The two had made a connection right then and there. A connection that caused the air to grow stale fast.

“Is that important?” Aria spoke up from the middle of the table. She looked between her father and Kiara in confusion.

Sarman was also looking at the two of them in confusion. What could their sudden alarm mean?

“I think this is a story that Kiara should share, seeing as she was there…” Kayde sat back, the worry on his face growing ever deeper.

With everyone turning to face her, Kiara took a deep breath.

“As you all should know by now, Sarah and I came to Aric as the leaders of a squad sent by Sanum to help Aric with a unique problem in the Irradiated Forest. As of late, Monsters that normally would reside in the depths of it have been moving further and further out. Over the course of a few days, we tracked the cause to a robed man who had taken up residence in a clearing near the center. Six days ago was the day of our attack on the clearing.” Kiara took another deep breath. The hand she had laid on the table was starting to tremble. Seeing that perked Sarman’s interest specifically.

“He was too powerful for any of us. The man made short work of our attack.”

Kiara stopped. The trembling in her hand had moved to her entire body. Remembering what had happened that day was too much for her.

“Did they get a look at the man’s face?” Sarman asked Kayde instead of Kiara. She wasn’t in a position to answer him at that moment.

“They did.” Kayde nodded. “The report said that he had pitch black hair and eyes as dark as the night. Not a speck of white was visible in them.”

“A Dark Elf!” Sarman nearly shouted in surprise. Of the many elven Demi-Human races there were, Dark and Light elves were among the rarest. They usually stayed away from others because they had long been hated for the pureness of their eyes. Neither had visible pupils, which made a lot of people uncomfortable.

“He… He was too powerful for us… They all… They all died…” Kiara continued her story in pieces. Nic reached out and put a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

“If that Elf killed a bunch of people and is that powerful, there are very few options as to what Dark Spirit was merged into the Human Soul in their creation.” An old voice spoke up in Sarman’s mind. Salamander was analyzing the situation himself and had come up with a surprising fact.

“How many options?”

“Less than five. Less than four if we rule out Orpheus because of his nature as a Progenitor.” Salamander’s confidence in Orpheus being ruled out didn’t last long.

It was shattered the moment that Nic spoke up.

“The one that attacked you, Kiara, wasn't an ordinary Dark Elf, right?” When Kiara looked at Nic, tears flowing down her confused face, he continued. “Did they call themselves Orpheus?”

“How did you…?”

“That’s not possible!” Sarman stood up as his hands slammed on the table. His trust in Salamander’s knowledge on the world was implicit. If Salamander didn’t believe that a Progenitor could become an Elf, then neither would Sarman. “A Progenitor can’t be the spirit half of a Demi-Human! That’s not possible.”

Nic looked at him before pulling out three small stacks of paper and putting them down in front of him. “It is. And the reason why Kiara is able to sit with us today- the reason why she is still alive- is because Orpheus left before killing her.” He looked back at Kiara. “That’s how it went, isn’t it?”

Kiara nodded. “The Elf… he said his name was Orpheus. He was about to kill Sarah when he looked East… He said that his brother had failed… That he had to go…”

Her words shut Sarman up. Not only him, but Yuuki and Aria as well. They all could connect the dots. The only reason that Kiara and Sarah were alive was because the attack on Crystalia failed. Orpheus had known, so he left.

“His… Brother?” Sarman croaked out the words. He could feel Salamander about to explode inside of him. Not only was Nic saying that one of his brother’s, Orpheus, had become a Demi-Human, but Kiara’s words implied that another had done the same.

“That’s right.” Nic looked at Yuuki, giving her a slight nod. “The mastermind behind the attack on Crystallia. The one who led the charge of betrayal there. Was the Light Elf Solus.”

The instant that Nic said the name of the second Progenitor Elf, the two Progenitors currently at the table materialized in front of everyone. Behind Aria, the suit of armor made from the wind appeared. And on his shoulders, Sarman could feel the heat emanating from the lizard that had perched itself on him.

The appearance of not one, but two progenitors caught Kayde, Kiara and Tearl off guard. The surprise was clearly visible on their faces.

But what caught Sarman’s attention more than anything was the attitude that Aerial had towards the news. Salamander was bristling with rage, yet its sibling was so calm it was unnerving.

“Tell me, sibling… Are you not angry about this!?” Salamander spat his words out. Rage billowed in the flames escaping from his mouth.

“I am.” The genderless voice spoke up, addressing the flaming lizard. “But this is not news to me. I have known about this since last night.”

Hearing that, Aria turned around in shock. “You know about this?!” In a moment of understanding, Aria turned to Nic. “You… Nic did you meet with Aerial behind my back? Was that why you stayed away from the party?”

A pang of guilt visibly flashed across Nic’s face as he continued to look away from Aria. “It wasn’t my intention to meet Aerial.”

“But you did.”

Silence filled the room. Nic didn’t respond. And no one, Sarman included, had the strength to break that silence. It would have to be something that Nic did.

“I didn’t know about Orpheus. Today was the first time I learned that he was the same as Solus.” It took a minute for Nic to whisper again. “But I knew about Solus. After all, I ran into him during the attack on Crystalia.”

“Nic wasn’t the only one. I also ran into Solus during all of that. I can confirm that it was him.” Yuuki spoke up from across the table.

Salamander stayed quiet, yet Sarman could feel the anger continuing to grow in the Progenitor.

“So, the one causing us problems was Orpheus,” Kayde spoke up, his voice soothing as he attempted to diffuse the growing tension. “And he stopped because he was working with Solus and could sense that Solus’ plan had failed? Succeeded?”

“Solus Succeeded. Their main goal was the death of Crystal, and they accomplished that.” Nic picked up one of the stacks of paper in front of him. “Now that I know about Orpheus, I want to propose a theory to the rest of you.”

His words sparked interest not just from the human participants, but also Aerial and Salamander. The latter of which was able to subdue his rage partially because of it.

“Let’s hear it.”

The bump of the cart hitting a stone jostled Sarman out of his thoughts of the previous day's meeting. Leaning back, he looked out ahead of the carts to see how close they had gotten to Sanum.

The mountain city was clearly visible and growing ever larger. They would reach the city gates in just under an hour at their current pace. The sun would still be high in the sky at the time.

“There is a secret group that has been working against the entirety of Kronul. Crystal knew about them. They call themselves the ‘Irradiated Resistance’. Their goal is to create a second Irradiated Winter in order to turn the rest of humanity into Demi-Humans.”

Nic’s words rang through Sarman’s head. The thought that there was a group of people actively working to repeat the tragedy from three centuries prior caused Sarman to burn in fury. His clenched fist was starting to create smoke.

As everyone started to smell the smoke, a tender hand reached out and grabbed Sarman’s fist. Yuuki leaned into Sarman as she softly whispered to him.

“It’s alright. We’ll get revenge on them together.”

She had heard the same thing that he had. The same truth that Nic had put into words. The truth that Sarman had been running from since Salamander had seen the poison that killed Crystal.

“The attack on Crystallia, the incident in the Irradiated Forest, Jack’s attacks on Sanum and Aric… It was all them.”

“So they’ve only been active recently?”

Sarman wished that Kayde had never asked that. For what Nic said next was the confirmation that Sarman never wanted to face.

“No. Twenty years ago they tried to assassinate the Minister of Sanum. But in the end they only managed to kill his wife, leaving Ordwell without a wife and Sarman without a mother.”

Like Sarman, Kayde had nearly fainted hearing that.

This group had been active for a long time. And somehow, they were responsible for everything horrible that had happened to Sarman. How was it that they always seemed to be involved in his life? Why did they care so much about Sanum?

As the carts grew closer and closer to Sanum, Sarman continued to mull things over. He couldn’t take his mind off of what had been revealed. In the end he continued to come back to the same feeling time and time again.

Why did he feel like pursuing this group would lead to something horrible?

His gut was telling him to run the other way. To forget about everything and escape while he still could.