The morning sun broke through the trees, shining through the canopy their branches and leaves created. Asteria had been awake for a while, watching the birds soar through the trees and twirl around one another occasionally. She was hardly paying much attention to them, though. Mostly, she had been lost in her thoughts. The smell of freshly baked bread and mint tea rushed back to her, and she longed for home. Sadness flooded her heart when she thought about her morning walk through the village to the bakery.
Her eyes wandered from the sunny scenery to where Oren was, slumped against the wall. She was surprised he was still asleep, but he needed it. He must have thought she was sleeping the night before when he pulled out the Sun’s Stone and began writing in his journal. How wrong he was. She wished she had been asleep, but memories haunted her through her waking moments as well as her sleep. During the day she was able to keep herself distracted enough to where there may have been occasional glimpses of the past flickering through her mind, but at night it all ran wild. Nearly every night she had to relive the day her brother left their home; she always awoke feeling just as exhausted as she did when she’d gone to sleep.
Asteria hadn’t meant to watch him so carefully, only noticing how long she had been staring at him when the sunlight stretched across the cave until it reached where he sat. He began to stir, and she finally looked away. Oren yawned as he rose from his spot, and his joints popped as he began to stretch. He winced; sleeping hunched over against the stone wall hadn’t agreed with him.
Now that the sun was fully risen - as was her tracker- she began folding her spare cloak and put it in her satchel. The cloak she wore the night before was dry, so she draped it over her shoulders and fastened a neat bow in the front. Her fingers lifted the hood to cover her hair and shield her face. Glancing over to see if he was ready, she caught Oren’s eyes lingering on her. He had been watching her. The thought made her shudder, and she looked away.
“Do you know where you had planned on heading next?” He asked softly.
Slowly, Asteria shook her head ‘no’. It was just then that she realized that she no longer knew where she had planned on going next. Silvville was her last destination based on the information she had been able to gather from previous encounters. A few people she had met and questioned along the way had suggested it because they saw a morbid looking group heading there days prior. However, the town being at a crossroads made things a bit difficult.
“I…” her voice was barely more than a whisper. “I’ve run out of ideas where to go. I don’t know where to head next.” Her eyes lifted, briefly meeting his. Something in the way he looked at her left her feeling… comforted. Perhaps it was understanding or sympathy she saw staring back at her.
He looked away and stared off into the forest for a short while. Her gaze followed, wondering if he had seen something in the distance. All she saw were the birds, but she recognized she lacked the experience he had. She looked back at him. Furrowed brows hinted to her that he was either thinking or observing, though she could not determine which.
Oren whipped back to face her, declaring, “Then we head east.”
“East?” The question bounced off the walls, echoing through the cave. Her face twisted in confusion as she wondered how he came to such a decision.
“Asteria, I think we need to head towards Foras,” he began, and she thought she heard the slightest tremble in his voice. “Something tells me that we are more likely to find answers- or at the very least leads- the closer we get to the city. Think about it: the capital is a hub of information surrounded by smaller such hubs. People come and go from the city all the time; there are bound to be some that have heard of suspicious folk or activity coming and going from the area.” She listened carefully, intently. Deep down she knew he was right, but the thought of traveling so far from home was intimidating.
‘Adrin…’ she thought. ‘Look at what great lengths I must go to in order to bring you home.’ A tightness in her chest grew, and for a brief moment, she felt like she couldn’t breathe. As she took a deep breath in, several concerns fluttered through her mind. What if she was too late? What if they head all the way there just to find nothing? Why was Oren so determined?
A look flickered across his face, but she couldn’t quite read it. If she were to guess, she thought it was one of uncertainty; caution and concern dug their talons into the back of her mind. What little faith she had in him wavered slightly. How was she to follow someone across the kingdom when they seemed so unsure of their decision? His eyes met hers, and she wondered if he could tell what she was thinking.
“You don’t seem as sure as I’d like you to be about this destination,” she revealed. “I hope you can see why one might be wary to follow if this were the case.”
“Oh, I would,” Oren confirmed, giving a soft smile. “But it is not our destination and its correlation with the quest we are on that is leaving me so anxious. It’s just been far too long since I was last there. I worry about returning to the city; I am confident, however, that it is where we need to go if we want to find answers.”
Asteria realized that the muscles in her back had stiffened and she had been holding her breath, waiting for an explanation. And though he had reassured her of the determination that this was the right path, she now had more questions on the matter. Before she could question him further, he threw on his satchel and began walking away.
The sun was overbearing in its bright rays and warmth. She nearly stepped back into the little cave as soon as she had walked out. A soft laugh escaped her as she thought back to the night and how it was full of howling winds and freezing rain, and yet nature had turned around. The morning was all hot, damp air, and the sky gave no reprieve with its clear skies.
The pair headed back toward the main road. They wove through the bushes and tall grass coating the forest floor. Asteria eyed her new companion warily; she was following him, after all. She didn’t know exactly which way to go as she had never bothered with maps and directions. All she knew was that the capital was in the east, and beyond that she was lost. Old Kavstrick would burn holes through her with the glare he would give if he knew that she took the old map just to be unable to read it.
The Merchant’s Road - as the main road is called- is only a simple dirt path in The Outskirts. It could easily be mistaken for any old road if not for the signs every few miles that mark it. She watched as Oren turned onto its path as they emerged from the treeline- so confident about which way to go. Following closely behind, she wondered if he had taken this route before. There was much she didn’t know about him, and more that she wanted to learn.
“How do you know so confidently which way to go?” Asteria asked, matching his pace to stay at his side.
He looked down at her, and it was the first time she noticed how he towered over her. She was not short by any means, but the man in front of her was at least a head taller than her. The sun shimmered against his hair, revealing hidden streaks of gold and bronze. She thought that she got a good glimpse of him the night before with the Sun Stone for light, but it didn’t do him justice compared to what the sun showed. Their eyes met for far too long, and she quickly looked away.
Oren cleared his throat, but she didn’t look back at him. He explained, “I’ve taken this road a few times; I am sure you surmised this. However, I have never gone as far west as Silvville before.”
“What brought you out this far?” She inquired. “There’s not much all the way out here. I don’t believe there’s even much trading opportunity- though, you don’t really look like a merchant or trader, so I suppose that doesn’t make much of a difference.”
“I was doing some searching of my own,” his voice was soft, hesitant to answer. “There’s someone I lost a long time ago, too. I’ve been looking for years, and I assume I will continue to look for many more.” The response was mysterious, leaving her with more questions than answers. She wondered if he’d indulge her if she were to ask more, but she decided not to push her luck. There was plenty of time to learn more with the long journey they had ahead of them.
Her eyes wandered, stealing a glimpse of his face. His expression was sullen, and the distant look in his eyes sent a shiver through her spine. Curiosity grew ravenous in her. Asteria found it tough to shake off the desperate need to learn more about the man she found herself traveling alongside. How could she not? He was a stranger who had either lived in or been to the capital, Foras. A stranger wealthy enough to have a Sun Stone: an exceedingly rare object to see in The Outskirts. One who was then hesitant or uneasy about the idea that they would need to head toward the capital to yield results in the search for her brother. All of these details left her rather inquisitive.
She turned her attention back to the road, chewing on the inside of her cheek to distract her from the need to learn more. Part of her felt guilty for the overbearing interest she held in his background, but she also realized that she had never encountered someone as interesting as him.
The day grew long as they walked in silence. It had been uncomfortably silent at first, but she slowly became lost in her thoughts again. Her mind wandered back home, many miles behind her. Asteria wondered what was going on back in her village. She wondered if her mother was still mourning and if her father was still angry. They hadn’t even said goodbye; he refused to even look at her. He just stared down at the table in the middle of their small kitchen, hands clenched so tightly that his tanned, worn knuckles turned pale.
A wave of anguish crashed over her. Between her waking thoughts and the constant nightmares, she felt exhausted and heavy. Her mind replayed images of her brother’s room, untouched by time. Knowing their mother, she felt certain it would be that way until he returned. It was often that she found herself thinking back to the day Adrin had left. Her hands grasped onto the door frame, and her eyes had darted around the room. She had been desperately searching for a letter or something that he had left behind for her. Her heart had broken when she saw that he hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye.
The memory of walking through his room was fresh in her mind. Her fingers ran along the spines of his small library of books, feeling the embossing of each one. It was then that she knew something was off; there was a book missing. It was one she’d seen him reading in secret many times. She’d found him sitting just past the tree line or in the hayloft of their barn, but he would never dare read it in the house. He knew better than to do that. He knew what would happen if he were caught with it in their father’s house. They both did.
It was small and bound in old, faded leather. Asteria had assumed it must have been at least decades of years old, though something about it felt far older. She managed to steal a glimpse of the weathered lettering on the front, and that’s when she knew that there was something very wrong about it. Something immortal and dark coursed through the ancient words within, written in a language few knew anymore.
Adrin had caught her staring, observing the book he was reading. He had slammed the covers shut and stood. As he approached her, she swore there was a sudden darkness that enveloped him. Feet pounded against the ground as he grew closer to her. In that moment, her kind, warm-spirited brother - the man who wouldn’t hurt a fly - felt like a genuine threat. He had become someone she did not recognize. She had flinched as he towered over her, and when she finally peaked out from between her braced arms… She would never be able to forget the look on his face. Heartbreak was plastered across it, and the shadows had disappeared. The malicious and cruel rage had been swept away by a wave of regret.
The instance had left her feeling rather confused and a good bit frightened. She had tried talking to him, asking where he had found such a book. But every time the subject was raised, she would see a similar range of emotion flicker through him; a war of conflicting thoughts and feelings that she could only see a glimpse of in his eyes.
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