Year 23-6

In certain battles, swords were the weapon of choice, but in others, simple words were key. Allies, known as family, could enact the deadliest combat against one another without shedding a drop of blood. The trickiest wars were those a man couldn’t see himself walking into until his feet stood in the middle of turmoil. What greater conflict was there than a fight amongst siblings?

Tucker, Penn, and I had gathered around the pink elf, Arwen, as she sat up in my deceased sister’s bed. We waited for her eyes to adjust and her bearings to solidify. I didn’t know if she knew my language or if Tucker potentially knew hers, so I prepared myself to fight if it came to that.

Her gaze scrolled across the room, first finding me on her left, Penn at the foot of the small bed, and finally, Tucker at her right.

“You should have left me to die,” she said to my surprise, but the others didn’t seem shaken by the rudeness.

“... I couldn’t,” awkwardly, I began to speak until she cut me off.

“I wasn’t speaking to you,” Arwen argued.

She was enraged, but not at me, at the mage.

“Do you know each other?” I asked Tucker.

He gave a blank expression before doing the unexpected. He let down his hood. Tucker’s black hair was natural and wild, but I knew that already. What caught my attention were his ears, his long, pointed ears.

I took a step back and reflexively gripped the hilt of my sword.

“... You’re an elf?” I asked, despite the answer having been clear.

Being so clueless was humiliating, and in my home, no less.

“He’s more than a mere elf; he’s a Prince and my brother,” Arwen added.

It should not have mattered. It didn’t matter, and yet, I was betrayed. We were so close to being allies only moments ago. Before the heat became too intense to simmer, I left the room. Unfortunately, Tucker followed behind me. I could hear his bare footsteps tracing my boots.

“You lied to me,” I said when I felt his hand reach my shoulder.

As I turned around, Tucker gave me distance. It wasn’t enough.

“I withheld,” he said calmly.

He was always so calm, too calm. Even in the wrong, he was polished.

“I’m beginning to question whether you’re an actual Seer. You’re far from noble with your secrets,” I said.

“Nobility has never been a requirement of Seers,” he remarked.

“This is why you don’t want a war with the crown, because you already have your own.”

“War breeds death on anyone involved,” Tucker argued while stepping closer, but I backed away.

“Do you not want freedom? Something so lofty requires blood, even more so than other dreams,” I argued.

He went silent, but I didn’t walk away. Despite Tucker revealing his truth, we knew it changed nothing for me.

“You still want my help?” He asked, as if he didn’t know the answer.

“The King, his men, took my first and second families,” I said.

“You wanted to leave this place, if I recall correctly.”

“But you wouldn’t grant me that wish.”

“I won’t grant this one either,” he answered with squinted eyes.

“Then I’ll do it alone,” I laughed hysterically, only to keep myself from charging at the mage.

“No, you won’t,” Arwen said as she joined us in the hallway before continuing to say, “I’ll help you.”

Tucker and I both immediately turned to her attention. She shouldn’t have been out of bed. The pink elf couldn’t stand without holding herself against a wall, despite her attempts to act otherwise.

“You should be resting,” Tucker and I spoke simultaneously.

The shared thought shocked us both, but not enough.

“How is he more willing to die for our people than you?” Arwen questioned her brother, and it felt like a scolding.

“He’s blinded by grief,” Tucker remarked, and finally, I’d had enough.

“I see just fine,” I spoke for myself while approaching the mage till he was forced to take steps backward.

At that moment, feathers began to leave my eyes.

“Did you hire me to save Penn or her? Your blood?” I asked Tucker.

“It’s more complicated than that,” he said as his back met the wall behind him.

“You knew she was there, didn’t you? Did we even need the satyr?” I interrogated while holding him up against the wall.

I held a hand full of his cloak in my fist under his chin. Still, he showed no sign of fear or remorse.

“I told you, Penn is like a brother to me.”

“He is our brother, stepbrother at least,” Arwen admitted while she stood behind my back, holding my arm to keep me from hitting her brother.

“Why leave out your sister?” I asked.

With a pause, “Because I wasn’t going to save her,” Tucker said honestly.

I took a breath and a moment to swallow my pride. I felt foolish. I felt used and lied to. Worst of all, I was ashamed, but not of myself.

“And I’m the villain,” I said as I stepped away.

He fixed his cloak while I walked away.

I tried to step outside, but he used some form of magic to lock the doors and windows too tightly to pry open from the inside.

“We’ve had our words with one another long ago. Arwen, my sister, wanted to fight for our people in her way, and I my own,” he said while catching up to me.

I continued to pull at shutters, and door handles, attempting to leave Tucker’s presence. He continued to embarrass me in my home.

“You never turn your back on family,” I grunted while aggressively kicking the front door in defeat.

“She would have done the same; she has done the same,” he added.

“Then you’re both shit,” I remarked.

I held my forehead to the cold wood of the front door and sensed Tucker standing behind me. His silence, his presence, was haunting. I needed him, but perhaps we weren’t meant to be friendly. How could we when he lied to me and hid so many things without remorse?

“Sorry to interrupt, but,” Penn intruded on our conversation.

“Not now, Penn,” Tucker and I said unanimously again, though I had more exhaustion in my voice.

I turned around, and the satyr was holding Arwen in his arms. She had passed out.