The Haunting: Destiny (FF)

Chapter 64

Third Person POV:

A key landmark of the elven village is the public park which has benches, tables and hanging willows that shadows over the bushes and flowerbeds that allow many to roam and enjoy the bright colours that change over the seasons. At a standing table, Mia marks the map lain before the travelers, Mia finishes marking out the route they're going to take. Placing the pencil down she steps back and looks to Grayson.

"These aren't the primary routes, and do have a couple bumpy areas but it'd keep us safely away from the Empire." She explains.

"If they're not already there." Grayson mumbles before getting a quick glance at Mia's glare.

"Positive thinking." She say, poking his arm, "We'll stop them."

He gives her a small smile and rustles his hair, "That reminds me! Is Markus going to come with us?"

"What!? No. Sure he can walk around now, he's made a good recovery after nearly dying... but I don't think he trusts me, I've not had a proper conversation with him since he woke up. Either way, it's too dangerous, I won't risk it."

"That's fair, I'm sure Freya can look after him." Mia adds, rolling up the map she slots it into a new magic bag Xavier gave the group. It can hold twice the objects for half the weight and keeps a magical seal over it, Mia hasn't left it on its own for a single second.

A small compass slips out and lands besides Grayson, he tries to pick it up with his freshly washed gloves but his movements are stiff and his leg slightly gives way. Mia goes to get it herself but is stopped as Grayson finally collects it.

"It's like my leg has been turned to stone."

"It's the best support your leg is going to get."

Wrapped around his knee and shin are strands of leather are tightly looped to avoid unwanted twisting, "It still feels like stone."

Shaking her head she places the compass in her pocket and continues packing up the items as Armen come up to them. As soon as he makes eye contact with Mia he grumbles and puts on the eyepatch.

"How's your magic going?" Mia asks.

He shrugs, "Got the gist of some things, but there's way too many rules or dos and don'ts for the technique, and that's just for healing!"

"Seems like there's rules for everything in life." Grayson jokes, though is only met with a half-hearted chuckle, then silence.

Looking between the two Mia comes to a realisation and puts the clip on the bag, "I need to go gather supplies, be back in a bit!" She waves the two goodbye, hoping the best will happen next.

Watching her walk away, Armen makes sure she's gone before taking off the eyepatch and stuffs it in his pocket.

"Aw, it made you look like a pirate!" Grayson chuckles, "Bet she'd glue it to your head if she had the chance."

"Let her try, if I need to run, I can." 

They share a smile which would normally last longer, but catching the other gaze shut that down quickly. This silence has lasted between the two since they got here, Grayson sighs.

"Alright, I'm gonna rip the bandage off, we need to talk, like a proper talk and not a one sided dump or an argument. Just a conversation to clear the air."

Armen nods, "I know..."

"Do you want me to start?" Armen nods, "Alright."

He takes a deep breath in, then spots an empty bench, he signals for them to sit down and once settled in, he starts, "What I did was wrong, I'm a bad friend who treated you like shit and caused... the 'necklace' incident to happen."

Armen takes out the necklace, "I'm still confused as to why you did it. I understand you were overwhelmed with what happened to Luke..."

"That's no excuse. I was angry, upset, and so frustrated at things that were beyond both of our control. I was expecting you to do things that you couldn't and I was hoping for the impossible to happen. I'm sorry, and I don't think I'll stop being sorry, but I never expect you to forgive me. I won't do that again, I promise. "

"I want to believe you, I want to move on and I will try. I've fucked up as well, I shouldn't have been so pissy with you and aggressive when you were hurt..." Armen lifts his hand up, "I promise I'll try to move on, and although things might not be the same I hope to leave it all behind."

Grayson looks at him and smiles, opening his arms they have a hug. Happy to get it out and thankful to move on.

"Yo!" Mia exclaims from afar, waving to them she carries a lot more equipment than before, "I managed to get almost everything: food, money, water, bandage, more bandages and more water. We just need weapons which we could get from the blacksmith later."

"That was quick." Armen mentions, having to regrettably put the eyepatch back on.

"A lot of people owe me a lot of favours." She proudly exclaims.

"Oh shit." Grayson remembers, "Aldruin. We can't defeat him without it..."

"It's the one you made from the Fiery sword, right?" Armen asks, he nods, "Then let's just make another one."

"Do you remember the materials?" Armen shakes his head, "Neither do I, so that's out of the question."

"That can't be the only option of defeating him." Mia chimes in, looking at Armen.

"It'll have to be old magic items, something that I'm sure he got rid of after our first attempt." Armen looks down at the bag, "We can hope there'll be something at the Hatchery that'll help."

"Yeah, still means we'll need weapons." Closing the new bag, Mia gestures for them to start heading towards the blacksmith. The two uninjured travelers speedily walk off only to remember to slow down as Grayson uses his newly named walking stick, 'Sticky', to help him along.

Partially teasing him, the two exchange gleefully sarcastic comments, not noticing Armen's still stance as his eye scans a corner of the forest, lifting his eyepatch up he squint at a blurry figure moving in the distance, no one else seems to be concerned about it, but its silhouette makes him worried.

"I'll join you guys later, I just want to have a look at something." He half-yells to the others, already a good distance away. They turn around.

"All good! The blacksmith is near Xavier's house." Mia yells back.

Giving her a thumbs up, Armen heads off to an encounter he'll soon regret.