Evander had gone back inside his home and righted the chair that he had been thrown over. He now sat in front of the fireplace as it crackled softly. The wind outside had picked up some and could now be heard blowing over the structure.
The Hunter pondered quietly to himself, Watch out for your friend, O'Leander had said. What did he mean by that and what friend was he referring to? Evander had to find out, he had to find Den and the king. They had to know about this.
He stood and rubbed the bridge of his nose as his head pain pounded against his brain. Over by the bucket of water used for various purposes was a wash rag and he dipped it in and wrung it out. He tried his best to dull the pain in his head by placing it over his face for a time, it helped, but very minimally. He collected himself and continued making his way outside.
He found Onyx standing quite close to the front door as if he had been waiting for his rider to explain to him what had transpired. "Worry not, my boy, I am alright. Just a little head pain is all," Evander patted his friend on his neck. "We've got news to tell the king."
Onyx wasn't buying it, he could feel something was not at all right. He had been very close with Evander long enough to know when something was amiss.
Evander locked the door and turned around to see Onyx who stood with his head held high and his eyes demanding answers. Evander had no choice but to relent otherwise Onyx would not allow his rider to continue on his way. "You want to know who that was, I am sure."
Onyx snorted sternly in answer to such an obvious reality. Of course he wanted to know who that was, he had only heard shouting and what sounded like objects being thrown.
Evander sighed and collected his thoughts, "I am sure you can gather enough from what you have seen and how I have been reacting to know who that was."
Onyx sadly realized after a few moments of thinking who it had been. His eyes shared a strong amount of confusion. On one hand O'Leander had returned home but on the other, Evander had looked none too pleased about it. Onyx concluded that O'Leander was not returning as an ally. He lowered his head below Evander's height, his spirit saddening.
"Do not fret your heart. It will be alright. Let us go tell the king, he should have arrived from Bromidium Keep by now. I will tell you what happened on the way there." Evander patted the powerful neck of his steed. Onyx's size would appear to those who did not know him to be a heartless stone but to those who did, he had a heart of gold.
Onyx snorted again in response and Evander climbed back into the saddle as he had left it on Onyx when he went inside the hut earlier that morning.
Evander took his time getting to the Kingdom of the Flag. He relayed to Onyx what had happened with O'Leander that morning and both of them had fallen mostly into a depressive and hopeless state of mind. O'Leander had come home but not to rekindle the family. Evander had wished that his brother had never returned at all and that he would have just stayed away and not brought with him false hope. Life would have been better if he had just remained dead.
But that was not a fact that could be changed now. O'Leander had returned and it had shattered Evander's entire world. Though that reality had not caught up with him quite yet. The fact merely floated on the surface of his consciousness and he refused to let it sink.
After a solid half hour, the pair made it to the castle home of King John. Hopefully the king had arrived from his meeting and Evander would not have to sit alone with his thoughts for too long.
He dropped Onyx off at the stables and patted his neck lovingly, "We will find a way to deal with this. Worry not." He then regarded the stablemaster, "Take care of him for me, Henry."
Henry replied with a simple but sincere head bow as he was busy shoveling out the stables and cared not to open his mouth.
Snow had begun to pile up on the banks on either side of the pathways where the townsfolk had been shoveling it for the last few days. Evander steeled his nerves and walked with purpose up the paths and through the homes of the castle grounds.
He stepped inside the Entrance Hall and took in the warmth of the insulated space. He wondered where Alrid would be. Probably trying to sleep if he were to guess.
The homes outside had been rebuilt so the makeshift beds that had been in the hall had been removed as the townsfolk now slept in their homes again. Sir Derrick had been on watch inside the hall, Evander looked to him now, "Is the king in, Sir Derrick?"
"Not at the present time, Master Drayton. He should arrive sometime in the afternoon if I were to wager." The knight seemed to be wearing tired with everything that had been going on the last weeks.
Evander noticed this and laid an empathetic hand on his shoulder, "We will get through this, Sir Derrick. We will see the sun shine brightly on the other side again. Worry not, my friend." Evander tried his best to ease the worry of the old knight.
Sir Derrick sighed heavily, "Might I speak plainly, Master Drayton?"
"Of course."
"I do not see a way out of this. It is obvious that we lack the numbers to stave off our enemies. Though I do not fear for my life. I fear for the lives of those I am entrusted to protect." Sir Derrick wasn't expecting an answer, he was more just expressing his concerns with where they found themselves.
"I do share in your sentiment, sadly. But that is not to say that we will not fight to defend ourselves. To defend our freedom. We have to."
Sir Derrick's demeanor had not changed with Evander's words, he still held the weariness of a weathered soul.
Evander felt the end of the conversation, "Will you let the king know I am here, I am going to search for Alrid."
Sir Derrick bowed his head slightly, "I shall, Master Drayton."
"Thank you, Sir Derrick," and Evander strolled away to find his son.
Evander wandered down the hall to the east of the keep, towards where he speculated his son to be. His footsteps echoing off the bare walls as his thoughts echoed off the walls of his mind. He must have been deep in thought because he had walked all the way down to the Hunter's room in what felt like a matter of seconds.
Alrid was inside. Evander's son sat at the desk to the right of the room, intently writing in a notebook. The desk sat nestled underneath the only window built into the wall that was open to the world outside. Evander stepped inside the room and sat on the bed beside his son, "What are you writing?"
Alrid did not respond immediately as he was finishing a sentence he had been scribbling. He looked up to his father and leaned back in his chair with a long exhale of tensed breath, "I have been keeping a journal of all of the events that have happened lately. I am hoping that when we make it out of this we can look back on it as history and perhaps learn from our actions. Maybe it can help me be a better King's Hunter."
Evander felt a glimmer of hope and smiled calmly, "I am glad you still have hope, my son. It seems most around here have lost any thought of a chance of surviving this." He paused, "Including me."
Alrid thought intently about his next words, "The way I see it." Alrid started, "We can either despair and give up or we can remain hopeful. Either way, whatever happens is going to happen regardless of our views on the matter. There is no other way around it from what I can see. We just have to deal with what we are given and take the most from it. We have been given a shit hand but that is the hand we have been dealt."
"Yer mother would be proud, I say lad," a familiar deep voice came from the doorway. Den had been leaning up against the frame and listening to Alrid's take on the war. Den had been absent from the majority of the events concerning Alrid and Evander since he had been tasked as a blacksmith, repairing and forging weapons and armor for the knights of the king. It was a busy and time consuming task. He had spent many nights hammering away at the forge along with other dwarves that had been left behind by the War of the Lost.
Den entered the room and Evander stood to accept his extended hand. "And I wish she were here," he said as he found a chair to the left of Evander.
The three friends all faced each other now and Evander had decided that this was the perfect time to tell them of O'Leander. In fact this may be the only time the three of them would be alone for the foreseeable future.
"My brother is alive," Evander said plainly. Alrid dropped his quill as he had been jotting down some more notes and looked to his father. Den on the other hand was more vocal about it.
"That canna be good," Den said calmly.
"What makes you say that?" Evander asked.
"Well, considerin he had been taken all them years ago by the enemy, he's probably been in his teachings all this time." Den regarded Evander with sad eyes, "What happened to the young lad?" He was greatly curious about the little boy they had spent countless lives trying to rescue.
"To put it plainly, Den. It would have been better if he were dead," Evander hated admitting this out loud but he felt it in his heart that his brother would have been much better off not in this world as opposed to the torture he endured.
"Ye don' know what yer sayin, lad," Den was not pleased with what he was hearing as it troubled him dearly. He had loved O'Leander like a son and was there for his birth and for the two years after before he had been ripped away.
"I do not like admitting this either, Den, But sadly I believe it would have been favorable to the reality. From what he has told me, he has died more times than he can count already. Varamont had planned for this, so every time O'Leander died during his torture he would be revived just to endure more pain. It was awful to listen to and I cannot imagine what it was like to have endured such misery. Such pain."
Alrid gently chimed in, "Where is he now? Can we speak with him?"
"Onyx was the last to see him," Evander said. "He was gone as if he were a ghost. I know not where he is now."
"Then we best keep our wits about us, ey lads?" Den thought of something then, "Do we have to werry about em? Does he mean to be against us?"
Evander nodded mournfully, "I am afraid he will not be seeking to aid us." He paused sternly as he tried to admit, "He means to kill me."
"We cannot allow that. We need to find him," Alrid said as he stood. "Stop him before he has a chance at you, father."
"I do not think it would be that easy," Evander explained. "He will only be found when he wants to be. He remains in control of where he wants to be revealed. I believe he has powers beyond anything we have seen. I fear what he is capable of."
"Do you think he will follow through with his plan despites the fact that he is of our blood?" Alrid followed up.
"He is no longer of our blood, my son," Evander answered. "In fact, as of his own words, he has not been of human blood for many years."
Den asked this time, "And what do ye mean by that, lad?"
"Well, Varamont drained him of his blood and forcibly replaced it with his own," Evander's voice held deep sadness within it. "He is not just corrupted, he is a carrier of the abyss itself. It is seeded deep within his heart and every part of his flesh. I do not think he can be released by Varamont even if we were to defeat him. O'Leander is forever gone from us. I fear there is only one way to stop him. I just hope that I will have the strength to do it when the time comes."
"You don't mean...please tell me you mean something else," Alrid seemed to be having a hard time with the news.
"Sadly," Evander paused, "I do. We have to kill O'Leander."
"We have to tell the king," Alrid said.
"Tell me what?" King John had returned from his meeting and Sir Derrick had notified him that Evander needed to see him. He hadn't found Evander in the Grand Hall so he decided to check the only other place he would be.
The three sitting men turned their eyes to the king. Evander then got up from the bed and met with the king, he spoke with a heavy heart, "O'Leander has returned." He watched the king's eyes light up and quickly fade as he said, "And he is not on our side."
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