The Age of Solace: The Silver Wolf

Chapter 45: A Conspiracy Discussed

Stella was making her way to the quarters of a familiar one-winged warrior. The two had scheduled to talk earlier that day, as he had promised to make a greater effort to do. However, this time they would not be talking about personal problems. Rather, they would be talking about the theory she and Faradeigh had come up with and she would ask his opinion on the matter. Raven was an experienced warrior, had fought with demons, and had even claimed to have seen a case of Abyssal Madness first-hand.

Stella wanted so very badly for the theory she and Faradeigh came up with to be wrong. And after hearing how Syrah thought of the situation when Faradeigh approached her, she was hopeful that it was. However, she had to consider that Syrah could have brushed the matter off due to the person that was presenting the information. Stella regretted not being able to have been the one to present Syrah with the theory herself, but such an occurrence would arouse many questions and suspicions.

'Please Raven... tell me what I want to hear!' Stella pleaded.

The stress was beginning to wear her down. Her alibi of her travels during the mission to Brim had fallen to shambles... but she was not caught. Her parents... they both covered her tracks and came up with excuses. While she did not want to confront them about it for obvious reasons, they failed to acknowledge the situation whenever she had spoken with them. This made little sense to Stella, and those thoughts mixed along with the thoughts of the potential situation was weighing heavy on her mind.

Her vision started to fill with pools of red.

'No, stop!' Stella shouted in her mind.

The ted tinge faded from her vision, resulting in a deep breath as her nerves calmed. She noticed that the visions of blood would come to her if she was feeling stressed, or if she tried thinking too hard about her past... the timeframe Raven had used to ask her about, to be precise. Being as intelligent as she was, she figured that she had experienced... something. And whatever that something was, Raven had been there and she had forgotten all about it. That was why she had that vision of him... and that was the reason why she was reaching out to him.

"Are you going to enter, or are you going to keep standing there?" Raven asked flatly, as he opened his door and interrupted her poisonous thoughts.

She had not even realized that she had arrived at her destination, and promptly apologized for her behavior. He shrugged it off and asked what the meeting was about. Instead of answering straight away, she looked about his room. She had figured someone as rough and rugged as Raven would have been a bit neater, but his room was a total mess. It was not unlike Faradeigh's in that clothes lay everywhere. There was food littering the floor as well! She was sure there were bugs roaming around the floor. Frankly, it was a disgusting, disheveled mess. But it was also not what she was supposed to be focusing on.

"Okay..." Stella spoke. "You really need to clean in here, or at least allow the castle to assign you a servant. However, that will have to wait. Though, if you could clear your bed so I have somewhere to put these things? There's a lot we need to cover."

And so, the bird-like man had done as requested and cleared a space for Stella to place all of the books and papers. She had to have been wearing about three satchels, filled with all of the notes that were written upon them, as well as the texts that served to her purpose. But before she could discuss the matters... there was something else she needed to do. From one of the satchels, she pulled out her catalysts.

"Raven... I..." She started.

"I already know." Raven spoke as though it were unimportant. "Valiant as well, but no one else to my knowledge. However, I feel as though this is not the true nature of the topic you wish to discuss, so perhaps it would be better if we skip to that part."