Aftermath

Chapter 21: But I Can

The Knights have been raided and now they have nothing to help them against Tygren and the Voltaris, but just when they think it could have been worse, Ria finally admits what she did before she took her leave to Mendoria. Alec also has a confession to make and it seems Ria's mistakes don't stop piling up

And then to top it all off, the Knights have an unwanted guest arrive

Author's note: for some reason, I suck a drawing females, so there's that...

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"It's all gone! We have nothing!"

Grek's yell echoed across the cave as the Knights knelt scattered across the cold hard ground, looking under rocks and picking up their loose papers as they tried to determine exactly how much they had lost when Tygren's forces raided their hideout. He had stolen all of their maps with the possible locations for the Prime Songs and their plans on how they were going to take them back – and what they were to do with them to keep them safe from the rest of the Voltaris.

They couldn't believe they were foolish enough to think that they had made it away from Hailstone completely unnoticed. Tygren had used Hailstone's fast travel beacon to Crown Peak and double-backed on the Knights before they could get back to their hideout, meaning that Tygren and his forces had managed to complete their raid completely unhindered. They couldn't tell how long it had been between the raid and their return, but the Voltaris were long gone by the time they got there. They had no chance of catching them.

Ria shook with fear at the last mistake she swore she would never make and she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, gawking at the mess they were in.

"They took our maps!" Hubris shouted from the hidden corner where the map of Ardonia had previously been pinned to the wall, labelled with all the locations they thought the Primes to be – the Felden Forest, the Cydonian Desert, the Vault of Ardonia and Crown Peak.

"And our notes on who to talk to if we ever got lost..." Onyx held up a couple of notebooks that they had used to scribble loose pieces of information into, torn and ripped with whole pages redacted.

Ria knew that her actions would have consequences, but these were unforeseen. She had never considered that someone could have been sneaking around and gathering the information that they were so carelessly sharing with one another. It was her fault that they didn't get to the Tidesinger in time. It was her fault that they were all now in deeper trouble than they realised.

It was all her fault...

Senn stood up from under the table and looked at Ria as she cowered, empty, in the middle of the floor. He cocked her head at her, wondering why she looked so afraid.

"It's alright, Ria; we can recover. There is still time – at least they don't have any of the Prime Songs, yet. We can catch them." He smiled at her, but he could not hold it when he saw the look in her eyes, glistening in the low light of their cave. "...Ria?"

Her voice shook as she spoke.

"I'm sorry..."

"Ria, I don't understand..."

"I-" She struggled to find the words that she had kept from the rest of the Knights for so long, but her stammering had caught the attention of everyone else in the cave, each of their faces turning as concern washed over them. She looked to them all and hunched her shoulders embarrassed. "I have a confession..."

Given their circumstances, no-one could even begin to imagine what Ria could have done that would make matters worse; but Ria was about to shatter that imagination.