Reela and Taanys set out, returning to Sunyu Foorst to begin their search for the Varagores spy that's supposedly been making the centaurs kill each other, for whatever reason. She gets that it's to drive the centaurs extinct, but she just doesn't understand why.
She thought Varagores wanted to eventually enslave everyone once they gained enough strength. But apparently centaurs are redundant? You'd think with how strong centaurs are, the orcs would be eager to add them to their numbers. But if Taanys and Adaste are correct, then Varagores would prefer to wipe them out completely.
Maybe it's because the centaurs would provide the most resistance. Enslaving Tus'Felnis or Adaliaens is easier because war isn't in their nature. But cross centaurs and there will be blood. Both orcs and centaurs are inherently violent, and a war like that would last longer than most would think. Perhaps driving the centaurs extinct is Varagores' way of avoiding a century-long war with them in the future. Who knows.
Anyway, the spy. Reela is still deadass tired and wants nothing more than to go back to the tavern so she can fucking sleep, but she guesses trying to save the centaur race is more important. But on the other hand, this is absolutely going to fuck her sleep schedule in the ass.
The spy should be relatively easy to find. Varagores uses Tus'Felnis and Adaliaens as spies, Tus'Felnis more than Adaliaens since they were enslaved first. Adaliaens are still rather rebellious, while the Tus'Felnis are decades accustomed to their role in this war. It's sad, really. People like Nisha were lucky to have gotten out, but not everyone was let go once Aramora was destroyed. The slaves that were in Aramora at the time it was destroyed got the easy way out.
So it's likely a Tus'Felnis they're looking for. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't keep an eye out for Adaliaens too. Reela guesses she and Taanys look pretty sketchy themselves, being two Adaliaens snooping around the streets of Sunyu Foorst at two in the fucking morning.
They make their way down the street, walking down the stone steps imbedded in the forest floor. As they come up on the town square, Reela sighs as she ultimately needs to break the silence.
"So... How do you know Adaste?" she asks and turns to look at Taanys, who glances back at her.
She shrugs and resumes looking around for anything that might look suspicious. "I told you I came to Sunyu Foorst because of the war, and how it makes for good songs. Well, when I arrived I played a song that upset some of the centaurs and they were sure to let me know when they broke both my arms and threw me into the forest to die."
"Ouch," Reela winces and also goes back to looking around to divert her attention from that image. She can take Cree taking his arm off all the time, but breaking limbs freaks her the fuck out. People shouldn't snap. "I... take it Adaste found you after that?"
Taanys nods and steps up to a building, searching around the crates stacked by the door. "She sure did. I woke up in Esh Outpost to her tending to my wounds. I told her what happened, and the way she spoke in response made me realize she wasn't like other centaurs. She had abandoned her violent nature to live a more peaceful life, which earned her being shunned by her people," she explains and steps away from the crates when she finds nothing.
Reela slowly nods and picks up a bucket by the well in the center of the square, looking inside it just so she looks like she's being productive, when really she has no fucking clue what she's looking for. "Couldn't she have taken the Warrior's Test to restore her honor?"
Taanys looks back at her again and cocks a brow. "Why would she? 'Honor' is something the centaurs make up to try giving a name to the chaos they create. She realized this early in her life and never looked back. Being a Mar certainly played a part in her realization. Magic isn't valued among centaurs as much as physical prowess is, but she thought it stupid. If you're good at something, be good at it. It's as simple as that," she states and walks away from the building to approach Reela, calmly taking the bucket from her and setting it down.
Reela sighs. "Sounds like Todo. And yet, he still wanted to take the Warrior's Test," she grumbles.
Taanys shrugs. "Maybe he wasn't fully beyond looking back. Maybe he wanted something from it. I can't say. I don't know him like you do."
Reela lightly chuckles. "Honestly, I've been feeling the same way lately. It's just... It's like he's trying to be... someone else that I don't know. So it's like I don't really know him anymore," she says and the two of them resume walking down the road, towards the bridge that leads out of town.
"Maybe that's what he's taking the test to figure out," Taanys suggests.
Reela looks down as she lets that sink in, and she guesses Taanys might be right. Maybe Todo's off having an identity crisis or something. This makes her momentarily feel bad for not going with him to help, but hopefully this will also help Corb figure his own shit out along the way.
She sets the thought aside to return her focus to Taanys. "So what song did you sing that pissed the centaurs off so much?" she asks to change the subject. Centaurs make her brain hurt, especially when those centaurs are her idiots.
Taanys glances over her shoulder to look at Reela. "'Sarabeth's Lament,'" she says simply before continuing forward.
Reela's brows slightly raise. "As in... Sarabeth Blackwell? She has a song?" she huffs. "I want a song..."
Taanys softly chuckles and stops walking again to face her. "Of course there's a song about her. A story like hers needs to be told. She lived a noteworthy life, so it's only right it isn't forgotten just because she's dead."
Reela frowns and crosses her arms. "But she was a bitch," she says with a pout.
"Maybe. But she was once a little girl just like you were – and like I was. To have everything taken away in an instant for reasons she was too young to understand leaves a scar. Some people let their scars heal, and others can't help but pick at them. Sarabeth was no different," Taanys says calmly. "Some people look at her and see a monster with only spite in her heart and a desire to watch the world burn. Others see her as a broken soul who took extreme measures to achieve her ultimate goal of one day reuniting with her family. Both are true. So both stories deserve to be told," she explains and watches Reela for a response.
Reela just stares at her, looks down in contemplation, then meets her eyes again. "She fucked my dad."
Taanys stares at her blankly. "...Oh."
They hear the scraping of stone down the path towards the bridge, and they both snap their attention over towards the sound. Reela doesn't see anything, but it is dark out. Taanys shifts to stand slightly in front of her and narrows her eyes across the bridge.
"I thought I saw something..." she whispers and glances at Reela. "Wait here, watch my back."
Reela grabs her arm to stop her before she can walk away. "Are you sure? That sounds really fucking stupid."
Reela knows that you never split up in situations like these. If this were a horror movie, the moment Taanys reaches the other side of the bridge, she'll turn around, say the coast is clear, then get her fucking head cut off.
Taanys sighs and glances at the bridge again before facing Reela. "Well, what would you suggest?" she asks, and Reela pats the side of her backpack, looking back at it over her shoulder.
"Hey, Toya, scouting time," she says and feels the fox moving around in her bag before poking her head up and looking at her with a glare.
"Oh, so now you want my help?" Toya sneezes, but climbs out anyway.
Reela picks her up and sets her on the ground. "Yeah yeah, I'm a bitch. Just do it," she waves her hand towards the bridge, all while Taanys is watching her like she's a fucking maniac.
"You... want your fox to scout the bridge...?" she asks.
Reela nods when Toya runs ahead and starts crossing the bridge. "Oh yeah, she's a lot smarter than me and I'm pretty sure she has night vision. And her head would be harder to cut off than yours, so I think this is the safest option," she shrugs.
Taanys watches her quizzically and looks around with concern in her eyes. "What about my head getting cut off?" she questions and Reela waves her off.
"Nothing, just horror movie stuff," she returns her focus to the bridge. Toya is now out of her sight. "Well, Toya? See anything?" she calls out to the fox.
She waits a moment, but she receives no response. It's not like Toya is too far away for Reela to hear, since she speaks in her head. Reela takes a step closer to the bridge.
"Toya?"
Reela tenses when she still hears nothing from her fox.
Fuck, if she not only lost Regan's katana but also Toya, Regan is going to fucking kill her when she finds him.
She starts walking towards the bridge, but Taanys catches her arm. "Again, Reela. Maybe I should go check it out and let you know what I see. Wait here while I—"
She stops when they hear a pained squeak from the other side of the bridge.
Reela gasps and pulls her arm out of Taanys' grip to start sprinting across the bridge. She frantically starts looking around for Toya the moment she reaches the other side, and she spots the fox laying off the side of the road, shakily breathing but laying in a small puddle of blood.
Her face pales. "Toya!" she exclaims and sprints over, dropping to her knees beside the fox and pulling off her hoodie to soak up the blood. Toya's eyes are open, but absent. Like the way Romeow looked back in Greanleif.
Reela shakily lifts Toya out of the blood to lay her in the hoodie so she can try looking at the wound, only to see that it's a deep gash across her side. At first, she thinks it looks like an animal could have done it, which instills her with fear that maybe the 'spy' is actually that werewolf cat girl, M'Venaas. But this wound looks like it was done with a knife, but made to look like it was claws.
While she's so busy examining the wound and trying to figure out what to do to help Toya, she's grabbed from behind with a blade pressed hard to her throat.
Her gasp and jump from getting startled almost made her accidentally slit her own throat on the blade, and she feels some blood run down her neck to her chest, and she instinctually reaches back to try grabbing the wrist of whoever is holding her, but they grab her frantically searching hands and pin them back with terrifying strength.
She sees Toya start breathing faster, and her eyes move to look at Reela, but the fox is only able to let out more squeaks of pain and desperation, but nothing more.
Reela keeps fighting to get away from whoever grabbed her. She feels her head screaming at her, demanding to let the Dark out. She normally feels like she has something of a choice, but this time it simply pushes its way to the forefront of her mind and takes control. Her eyes darken, but she doesn't feel the strength in her body that she usually does. She feels weaker, if anything.
The person restraining her with a knife to her throat leans down to her ear as she continues fighting. "It suggests you stop fighting so much. It thinks a knife in your throat would damage your pretty skin, which would be a shame, don't we think?" it hisses into her ear with a low rasping laugh.
It breathes in deeply, sniffing the side of her neck which makes her grimace and try even harder to break away. She manages to twist one of her wrists free and reach back to grab the shoulder of whatever the fuck is holding her. It sounded like a person, but everything else about it just seems utterly wrong, but she has no words to explain why.
She tries to grab onto its clothes or really anything, but from what she can tell just from frantically feeling behind her, it's not wearing a shirt. So instead, she tries clawing at the skin of its shoulder. It growls and shoves its knee into her back, bending her spine back and pulling her down by her neck, drawing more blood from her throat as its face fills her view.
Again, it looks human. But it's just wrong.
It has a male body and face, but an unnaturally stretched smile is spread across its face. Its colorless skin looks almost sick with how lifeless it is. It's like a corpse, especially once she sees the thick scar running across its throat. It has shaven hair with black stubbled hair in patches, but the thing that Reela can't shake from her vision is its eyes. They're pitch black, just like her own right now.
But seeing that look on its face, that empty black stare, the Dark in her mind recedes back into her head and her vision clears. She had hoped that with the Dark no longer fucking with her head, this nightmare in front of her would look like something normal, but it stays exactly the same, which makes it look even more twisted in her eyes. Knowing that this is real.
Terror fills her eyes and she starts trying to force words out, but she ends up choking with the force of the knife against her throat, which only spills more blood so she gasps, now out of the fear that her throat might be getting slit but her panic prevents her from feeling it with how paralyzingly afraid she is.
She tries to breathe, choking over either her tears or her own blood. The creature holding her gasps and its face calms a bit as it removes the knife from her throat, replacing it with their hand in a tight grip.
"Shh shh... Don't worry. It doesn't want to scar such pretty flesh. Although..." it leans down to her left shoulder and licks the burn scar she got from Avinalyn some time ago, and she grimaces again but can't really react since she's struggling to breathe. "You've already been damaged... A pity. What a beautiful corpse you would've been, it thinks."
Reela croaks out her gasps and tries to wriggle out of its hands, but with its knee still bending her spine back, its hand suffocating her around her throat, and its other hand restraining her wrists, she can hardly move.
"Taa—" she rasps. "...nys..." she gasps again and feels her body starting to tingle the harder she struggles to breathe. Just making any sound at all took too much out of her. She needs to get out of this mess before she faints or dies because she can't fucking breathe.
Then beside this creature, Taanys' face fills her view with a smile.
Reela tries to understand, but with everything happening in this moment, it's pretty self-fucking-explanatory.
Taanys sighs. "I'm sorry, Reela. It's nothing personal against you. Just, well... Orders are orders. You think I enjoyed singing Sarabeth Blackwell's praises? But I needed to piss off the centaurs, throw in a bit of Mind Magic, and I made sure I lived for Adaste to find me. Or rather, so I could find her. After all, take out the city's healer and next is the city itself," she kneels down and brushes a strand of hair out of Reela's face, which is turning purple the more she struggles. "You're intentions were pure, which I respect. But I needed you out of the way. It wasn't hard to make your friends fight to get them up in that damn ruin, but you were just too stubborn. So I had to be more direct."
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the black vial Reela remembers Adaste giving her for dealing with the 'spy.' "Don't worry. I won't kill you. After all," she uncorks the vial and holds it over Reela's face. "The daughter of Ophelia's Descendant would make a wonderful prize for Varagores."
She needs help. From anyone.
Corb and Todo can't help her. She fights harder, trying to force her hand over enough to reach her pocket so she can grab the rift shard. She'll go to Ceelyaer. Greanleif. Avinalyn's castle. Anywhere she would be able to find help.
She's almost able to reach her pocket, when Taanys pours the poison into her mouth. Reela coughs and tries to force it out, but it's too late.
The tingling in her body worsens and her vision starts flickering in and out of consciousness, but she fights with everything she has in her to stay awake. She doesn't want to be a slave. She doesn't want to go to Varagores.
She still has to save her dad.
Taanys stands up and nods to the creature holding her, and it hisses with a delighted grin before letting Reela's throat go, but keeps her wrists restrained as it pushes her to sit up, but her head falls limp. She watches as Taanys smiles and steps onto the bridge, facing Sunyu Foorst.
She takes out her flute and lifts it to her lips, beginning a haunting melody that fills the silence of the night like the first cannon to fire before the war.
As the song fills the air, the quiet streets wake up. Sounds of wood cracking and glass shattering, then swords striking together again and again. Screams of rage are next to come, then pain as the fighting erupts. As the silence is ended with Taanys' swan song for Sunyu Foorst.
And Reela falls into the darkness.
________________________________
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Corb walks with his head up as he and Todo enter the final room of the test. A massive room with two sets of stone stairs leading up around the edges of the room to what looks like a stage. Behind the stage is a towering stone door, much like the one that first let them in the ruins to begin with. That's the way out.
Corb's face hardens and he glances back with a glare to see Todo slowly following with his head down. Neither of them have said anything since that last trial. And at this point, Corb is perfectly fucking fine with that. He'd rather hear nothing than more of his brother's bullshit apologies that he knows don't mean a damn thing.
But now they've made it to the last trial.
The Trial of Honor.
Corb doesn't even wait for Todo to take the lead before he just starts walking up one set of stairs, and Todo wearily does the same and makes his way up the second set on the other side. The brothers arrive at the stage before the lumbering door, and Todo's eyes fall to a pedestal in the center of the stage.
Both he and Corb freeze at seeing that sitting atop the stone pedestal is Nesosa's crown.
Todo slowly shakes his head and takes a step towards it. "How...? I thought Naomi had it..." he says, uncertain of if the question was to himself or his brother.
Corb shrugs and also takes a step towards it. "Yeah, so this one is probably fake. Much like everything else here has been. It's just magic bullshit to fuck with our heads," he huffs and looks over at the door, all while Todo can't tear his eyes off of the crown. "Just figure out what the fuck you have to do to get us out of here," he says, but still Todo doesn't look away.
Corb doesn't know the language of centaurs. He never cared to learn it. But for some reason, the words above the door are clear to him. They're carved in words he can understand, just like back in the Trial of Aptitude.
"What is the true price of honor?"
Todo approaches the crown steadily, remembering seeing that shade of Nesosa during the Trial of Courage. Seeing the slight shine of the crown on the otherwise blank shadow of a silhouette. Maybe it's real, maybe not. But it's here, and it's right in front of him.
With a deep breath and a shaking hand, he reaches for the crown.
Corb catches his wrist, getting Todo to snap out of his trance to look at him.
"Todo, don't. Something feels wrong about this," Corb states and motions his head back to the door. "Just answer the question and leave the crown so we can go."
Todo's face hardens and he glances over to read the words above the door, which to him are still in the language of centaurs.
"What is the true price of honor?"
The magic thrumming off of the crown beckons him, just as the shade of Nesosa had done in the dark hallway. Only this feels more alive. Corb is right, something feels off. But that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.
Todo shows Corb a glare and without a word, he reaches out with his other hand to grab the crown.
White light fills his vision.
There's a ringing in his ears that slowly dies down, fading into gentle echoes in the empty distance surrounding him. As his sight clears, he sees that the room, the ruin, everything that had been around him just moments ago is gone.
Now, he's standing in that courtyard again. In the garden. The tower in the center of the courtyard is still standing, and a beautiful white fog hangs in the air, radiating with that magic that Todo felt within the crown.
He's standing in Ecrin. The Divine Temple.
Streams of water flow through the garden in winding paths, and the soft trickling of water fills the silence. He can hear birds chirping in the distance, all under the beautiful white sky.
"Todo. A'm glad ye made it," he hears behind him. It's been ten years, but he knows that voice anywhere.
He turns around to see Nesosa standing in the garden, with her shield on her back. She doesn't have her greatsword, though. But everything about her is exactly as he remembers.
Todo can hardly find the words. He's walking through a dream, staring at a ghost. Afraid that any sound or movement will force him to wake up, so he stands frozen in silence.
And Nesosa merely chuckles. "Really? Nothin' tae say? Never thought ah'd see th' day when mah brothers were silent. An' 'ere ah thought ye'd never shut up."
Todo unconsciously takes a shaky step towards her. "...Nesosa?" he shudders.
She simply smiles. "Brother."
Todo swallows back a lump in his throat and finds the ability to move so he can run over to her and pull her into his arms, hugging her tight and crying when he doesn't pass through her like he was afraid he would. She's here. He can actually feel her and hear her and see her.
Nesosa chuckles before hugging him back. "Ah almost forgot ye became a softie after ah was gone. What happened tae bashin' heads with Corb 'til one o' ye dropped?" she asks and Todo slowly lets her go to lean back and wipe the tears from his eyes.
He sniffles and looks down. "We... we don't do that anymore."
"Why nae? Ye used tae love that," Nesosa questions. "Granted, ye were always th' one tae drop first. Ye've always been flimsy."
Todo takes a deep breath and tries to compose himself. He's still shaken up over seeing her again, but he actually has a chance to talk to her. He's not going to waste it. "Because... We..." he sighs. "We're not kids anymore. We've... drifted apart. We've grown up."
Nesosa snorts. "Bullshite. Ah never grew up, sae why th' fuck would ye?"
Todo cocks a brow. "What do you mean? You're a hero, Nesosa. You saved the world. No matter what anyone else says, I know you were the most honorable warrior the world had ever known. You gave your life to save everyone," he insists, and Nesosa chuckles again before turning around to start walking through the garden.
"Maybe. But that does nae mean ah was brave. Or honorable. Hell, that does nae even mean ah was a warrior. If ah had another choice, ah would've takin' it. But that's just nae how things played out. Maybe ah saved th' world. Maybe ah destroyed Aramora. Both are right. But neither makes me a hero."
Todo follows her through the garden, when they stop on the balcony overlooking Ecrin. He can just barely make out Kilead in the distance. He feels like he can see everything from here. He sees Balmoral to the east and Whiteridge a little past it. He sees Arkala, New Cresthill. Eelry. It's all here.
Todo shakes his head and looks at his sister again. "But you were a hero to me."
Nesosa stares over the balcony at Kilead past the Recharn Sea. The gentle breeze rustles her hair, making her dark auburn curls dance around the golden bronze crown adorning her head. Her hazel eyes that both he and Corb share gaze out distantly, but with a small stoic smile on her face.
"An' what is a 'hero'?"
Todo's face blanks at the question. "I... what do you mean?"
Nesosa looks over at him. "What makes someone a 'hero'? Many people call me a monster fur killing al' th' lives ah did when ah destroyed Aramora. An' yet, others call me a 'hero.' Sae, ah want tae hear from ye, Todo. Why dae ye call me a 'hero'?"
Todo smiles with a small shrug. "Because... you were selfless. You gave everything to do what you hoped was the right thing. You knew what you were doing, and you knew what would happen when you saved the world. You knew it would cost Aramora, but you were able to make that decision when no one else could. You weren't afraid when everyone else would have run away," he says and blinks back tears when his eyes start misting up.
Nesosa doesn't look away from his face, nor does she lose her small smile.
"Who says ah was nae afraid?" she says. "Ye call me 'selfless' fur what ah did. But what ye didnae know was that when ah took th' Warrior's Test, mah greatest fear was selflessness."
Todo stares at her in question. "It... was?"
Nesosa nods once. "Aye. Th' last thing ah ever wanted tae do was give mah life fur somethin' greater than mahself. That's why ah ran from th' Warrior's Test at first. Why ah let ye an' Corb think ah was dead. Because ah didnae want th' burden o' protecting anyone but mahself. It's why ah was never there," she explains and looks over at Kilead again. "Why ah never said goodbye."
Todo stares at her, remembering Corb saying that exact thing to him during the Trial of Aptitude. Nesosa never said goodbye. And now he's forced to realize why he struggles to remember much of Nesosa before her sacrifice. It's because she was never there.
"But... you still did it," he insists. "You faced your greatest fear. You gave your life to save the world."
Nesosa slowly nods and looks down. "Aye. Ah did. Ah realized that th' true price o' honor – fur me – was fear. Had ah not made that sacrifice, ah would nae have been someone worth honoring. Th' way ah see it, ah needed tae die. Nae because ah was th' only one who could make that decision, but because ah was beyond redeeming in life."
She takes a deep breath before turning to face Todo fully. "Dying was th' first 'honorable' thing ah ever did. Does that sound like a 'hero' tae ye?"
Todo just looks away and tries so damn hard to think about it. He doesn't know. Nesosa has always been a hero to him. How is he supposed to think of her as anything else? How could he even begin to think less of her now?
"It... sounds like someone who just wanted to be redeemed..." he says softly.
Nesosa smiles again. "Exactly. Ah didnae die fur Aramora. Ah didnae die tae save th' world. Ah died tae be someone worthy o' honor. Saving th' world was just mah motivation tae be that someone. Sae tell me, Brother," she reaches back and grabs her shield, holding it out to him.
"Who are you?"
Corb stares at the greatsword Nesosa holds out to him, and takes it without question.
He knows who he is now.
He knows his true price of honor.