Beyond the Glow

Chapter 29

Euna continues on through the crowd, towards a small group of tents in the process of being ripped up from the ground by a group of men and women. She must have felt my curious gaze on her back, because she turns, looking at us again. "When we found you two, I ordered for us to set up camp here tonight. Sadly, due to the amount of magical activity tonight," She sent a glare towards me, "The area is no longer safe, because you managed to leave a magical signature big enough for me to notice, and I'm not particularly sensitive to this stuff."

I blinked, "It wasn't all me-"

Euna glared at me, cutting off my sentence, "I don't care, tell your story later because we have to move now."  She turned away, waving her hands in the air and yelling. I leaned towards Leila, whispering as inconspicuously as I can.

"What now? I's rather not travel with the crazy band of bloodthirsty warriors, even if they are supposed to be on our team." I cast suspicious looks around the camp, watching each of the people in turn. What I really want to do is go back into the woods, back to when it was just me and Leila.

Leila laughs silently, muffling it with her hand while she guides me over to the edge of the camp. "They don't mean us any harm Asra. To the people here, me, Fira, Baldur, and now you, we were all just legends to them before joining the underground. Just a hope for a better future. They treat us with respect." Leila paused, looking around the camp, pride shining in her eyes.

"We call Euna Fira not just because of her temper though," She said, watching the elf yell at a few men who were 'wrinkling the tents', they looked simultaneously scared to death, but in awe.

"We call each other by code names, because it would be too easy to find us otherwise. While there many people who look up to us, there's also a large amount of people who want us dead. Mainly the King. We're what keep this revolution alive in their eyes, and they want it snuffed out."

"I still don't see why we need an escort," I mumble under my breath, moving back a little as one of the larger men came towards us. "Who's Baldur? I've never heard of him before."

"He's the true leader of the underground," Leila said. "He's very old, and it was his idea to start the Underground in the first place. As for who he is, his code name is Veldor, and as I said, we call him that just to keep his identity a bit safer."

"Everyone has a code name except you and me." I mumbled. Leila grinned.

"Not exactly. My name's Poki, or at least it is in public." She turned to me, "Right now everyone only knows you as 'The Runaway Genie'. If you're going to join the council, you'll need a name too."

"Join the council?" I say in confusion, turning towards her, "What do you mean 'join the council'? I just got here, and I don't think E- I mean Fira, likes me all that much anyways." I frown at her, she can't really expect me to join just like that can she?

"Of course join the council." Leila said frowning at me. "Why wouldn't you? Us remaining magic's have to stick together. So anyone with substantial magic and a will to help the people gets invited to step up. We hold sessions with the others, the 'fake leaders', or decoys, so to say. Its really us making the decisions, but they talk to the people, and then they talk to us, and we tell them what to say. "

"What about-" I stop myself, Len has magic, doesn't he? That's how he woke up my memories, and how he survived this long, surely. But wouldn't he be on the council already? Obviously, he doesn't want them to know, but why?

"Yes?" Leila looks at me expectantly.

"Never mind." I say, shaking my head. The people are almost done packing up the camp, and Euna is stalking towards us, some of the tension in her shoulders having relaxed with all the yelling she was getting in on everyone. The soldiers, however, didn't look like they were in such good spirits. A few were shooting unhappy looks our way, more specifically at Euna.