6 Asch Years Later...
"La-La? La-La?"
Leyla swatted at the finger prodding her arm. "Go away, Michael. I don't hear the suka birds."
"La-La! Wake up, please!"
The distress in Michael's voice registered. Her eyes flew open and she rolled to her feet, reaching for the sword she kept on the table beside the bed. Except there was no table. There was also no bed and her sword was hanging at her hip.
Michael was standing up beside her, his face pale as he stared over her shoulder at the four soldiers standing a few paces away. White uniforms, blue boots, thin swords drawn and pointing in their direction... Leyla's brain kicked into gear. They had managed the crossing.
They were back in Gaia, but where exactly? Leyla looked around quickly, noting the small water fountains, animal statues and bushes with blooming white flowers that had been used as a barrier of sorts; an enclosed garden?
"Stop looking so worried, these are your people, aren't they?" Leyla spoke in Asch, not taking her eyes off the soldiers. After six years and a few weeks, the portal had reappeared on the plateau of Crag 5, though its location was off by a few feet. It made sense, then, that they didn't reappear in the exact same place Leyla had jumped in, and judging by the soldiers uniforms, they had crossed back to somewhere in the Land of Light.
"I'm not worried," Michael held his hands over his stomach, his parlour now a shade of green. "I'm trying not to vomit."
Leyla would have laughed at his miserable tone, if there weren't for the four armed men inching closer to them. She watched the way they held their weapons and estimated the number of moves it would take to disarm them. "Pull it together and tell them who you are little man before I have to hurt these guys."
"You can't!" Michael brows rose in panic, then he took three deep breaths and switched to Light language: "Please call the Book Keeper, she is expecting us."
"Put your weapon down, Warrior!" The dark haired soldier spoke in her direction, ignoring Michael's request. Unlike the other men who wore plain white belts over their white uniforms, his buckle had a silver circle with a golden lotus inside. An officer, then?
"It doesn't seem like they will cooperate. Do you recognise the garden we are inside?" Leyla asked Michael.
Starting to regain his colouring, Michael shook his head. "Not exactly. We are definitely inside the inner keep, but I've never been in this garden. It must belong to one of the council members." He ran a hand through his black curls, "La-la, you remember that we can't tell anyone anything until I've spoken to my mother."
"Yes, yes." There it was again, Land of Light secrecy. In the past six years, Leyla had come to know Michael's personality like the back of her hand, but she was still clueless about the Kingdom he was born in; he had been trained at an early age not to divulge its secrets, no matter the circumstances. Of course Michael had mentioned people from time to time, and she had heard much about his mother, his father and his 'kind of' brother, Raphael. But Leyla knew next to nothing about how the land was administered, its army or its technologies.
"Did you not hear me, Warrior?" The officer took a threatening step forward.
Following his angry gaze, Leyla looked down at the sword by her hip and sighed. "Even without my weapons, I can disarm you before you can take a swing at me." She lifted her hands away from her sides. "I am no danger to you. Please, call the Book Keeper."
The officer gave her a hard look, then used his gloved hand to pull a familiar looking ball out of his pocket.
Bloody Diya. "Throw that at me and I will let it fall. Then, I will come over there and break your neck." She held his gaze, while he contemplated what to do.
"Soldier," Michael stepped up beside her, having gotten his stomach under control. "Call my mother, the Book Keeper. Now!"
Surprise and uncertainty warred in the officers eyes, then he put the ball away and nodded for one of his men to break formation. "Call the Book Keeper."
"I thought we weren't telling anyone who we are?" Leyla's amusement was evident in her voice, though her eyes stayed on the three remaining soldiers. They might have done as Michael asked, but they had yet to lower their weapons.
"You didn't exactly leave me much choice!" came the indignant reply. "Seriously, La-La. Why are you boasting about breaking necks when we are standing at sword point."
"I don't boast." Leyla grinned. She was pleased that Michael's parlour was back to normal, and his nerves seemed steady now too. It wasn't being held at sword point that would make him nervous; as intelligent as he was, he knew Leyla would make short work of these soldiers without causing real harm. But meeting his parents had put him on edge for weeks now. Michael was worried about their reactions. They would be expecting their little nine-year-old boy and would find a nineteen-year-old grown up instead.
Well, almost grown up.
"Yes, yes. Boasting is for the weak, I remember." Michael grumbled. Then he cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. "Wait, was that a smile?"
Leyla lifted her chin, "I don't -"
"Yes, yes. You don't smile either." Michael cut her off, rolling his eyes. "Except you definitely do. Remember the time Jara let you ride Kizari on your own? You didn't just smile, you actually laughed!"
Flying on Jara's Sky Bird, Kizari, had been one of the most exhilarating experiences of her life. "You are mistaken."
"Hah! You know I am not," Michael folded his arms cockily, now seemingly immune to the swords that were still pointed their way. "Everyone in the Plains of Asch knows that my memory is flawless."
It was true, Michael had a sponge-like brain that soaked in everything it sensed. When she first discovered that to be the case, he had shrugged it off as an ability that he shared with several other High Thinkers in the Land of Light. Leyla couldn't imagine it though. Michael was special. "Big ego's don't last long in fights," she reminded him, when her ears picked up a distant shuffling. There were people coming their way, somewhere behind the wall of flower bushes.
"I have you, so I don't need to worry about that!" Michael's pleased grin froze on his face when the soldier who had left earlier, reappeared followed by a woman and a man.
"Weapons down!" Hector commanded as they approach. Seeing the Book Keeper and her husband, the soldiers backed away immediately, their heads bowed in reverence.
"Lieutenant!" The Book Keeper's anxious gaze travelled over Leyla's face before landing on Michael. She halted in her tracks, slender fingers rising up to touch her lips. Hector stopped beside his wife, his eyes wide with surprise.
Leyla could feel Michael's tension beside her. She didn't like the hurt creeping into his eyes. "Book Keeper, we have returned."
The woman's bewildered eyes shot to hers, before turning back to her son. "Michael?"
Michael straightened his back, then lifted three fingers to his forehead and bowed low. "Mother, Father, I have worried you. Forgive me."
The sound of his voice was the couple's undoing. The Book Keeper had flung her arms around him, before Michael could straighten from his bow. He laughed, hugging his mother while his father lay a large hand on his head. "You've become a man." The dark green of Michael's Aschian tunic disappeared under elegant white silks as his parents enveloped him.
Leyla stood back, watching the reunion with strange feelings churning in her stomach. She was not surprised that the couple were taking his drastically changed appearance in stride; although Michael did not say much, she had gleaned that High Thinkers were proficient in alchemy, philosophy as well as other disciplines that strengthened the mind.
"Is that stubble on your cheek?" The Book Keeper laughed softly, touching her boy's face. Michael beamed at the contact.
Leyla was happy for him. She really, truly was. And she had known this moment would come. This moment where Michael, who was the closest thing to family she had ever had, would no longer need her. And yet the painful feeling in her chest still came as a surprise.
Hector turned serious after his wife waved away the guards. "Time moving at a different rate was always a possibility in our calculations, but by how much? How long were you there?"
"I turned 19 not long ago." Michael drew forward the blue satchel Leyla had purchased for him several birthday's ago. "I've kept detailed notes on everything I observed."
"The Prorex will be anxious to read them," The Book Keeper smiled gently. Then her eyes filled with unexpected tears, "But how did you live? For ten years..."
"Mother, don't worry," Michael held his mother's hand, then looked to Leyla. "I lived well. Thanks to the Lieutenant."
Hector turned her way, then touched his fingers to his forehead and tipped his head. "You have our eternal gratitude, Lieutenant."
"We will not forget this," The Book Keeper repeated the gesture.
Uncomfortable with her feelings and the grateful gazes that were directed her way, Leyla stiffened her spine. The faster she could get away, the faster these feelings would stop plaguing her. "There is no need for gratitude. I've completed the task assigned to me, so I trust you will keep your word and send me back to my Kingdom."
"Back? What- " Michael tried to protest, but his mother raised her hand.
"Of course," said the Book Keeper. "However, you have both been through a very long ordeal. We will show you to a room first to clean up, and rest."
Leyla avoided looking in Michael's direction, knowing he would either be angry or upset with her. They had not spoken often about their return to Gaia, perhaps because neither of them trusted that the portal would indeed reappear. But, the few times Michael broached the topic, he always talked as if they would not separate. Leyla had not disabused him of the notion, there had been no need to then. Now, however... he was home and she had to go back to where she belonged.
She had to remember how to be alone.