Trenton and Leo woke up to the dawn of the fourth day, their words from last night still hanging in the air. A jubilant feeling, a wonderful feeling, instilled their body, allowing them, for the first time since the fall of Aria, to wake up happy. The two sat together, eating another plain meal together, smiling together, living together. it was all they had, and it was more than enough. It was the perfect flourish to start the day, even be it no more than unseasoned, dried jerky and cheese. A grand feast, that was what it was. It was a grand feast suited for the highest kings in the land. The Conqueror himself would bow his head low to be allowed a seat at this table. Truly, there was no one luckier than they.
Walibeld watched them eat in silence, the gloom that darkened the prior days not gone, but rather diminished. At this point, Walibeld looked like a mess. He'd clearly not slept in the last 4 days, his reactions slow, his movements sluggish, and his gaze in another plane entirely. This couldn’t go on much longer. But, for now, while he was still conscious, he cared for the two boys with everything he could, clearly now intrigued at their sudden growth.
“What did I miss?” Walibeld asked, attempting to take a swig of water, but coming up empty. He must have forgotten to refill the water canteens last night.
“Hmm?” Trenton grunted, mouth full of the least enjoyable meal possible.
“You two are practically jovial. It hasn’t even been a week. I’m curious. What did you realize?” Walibeld asked again, a knowing eye locked on Trenton.
Trenton leaned back, placing his weight onto his hands and looking up at the sky for inspiration. “...I don’t know, honestly. I still feel the pain…but my mind is no longer constantly bombarded with memories. it’s calmer, measured. I can think of what happened without feeling completely overwhelmed. And I guess…it was because I’ve got an idea of what’s next. When Aria was destroyed, I felt as if the world had ended, that there was nothing left for me. But, that’s not true. There’s still so much I can do, so much we can do,” Trenton co*cks his head at Leo. “But, if I wallow much longer, there really will be nothing left for me. I’ve gotta do something, and soon. I have to make some sort of progress,” Trenton finished.
“And?” Walibeld prodded, leaning forward.
Trentons eyes darkened, his brow furrowing as he sat forward. “...and I’m furious. Whoever did this…I had thought they’d already taken everyone's life. But, that’s not it. I’m still alive. You’re still alive. And, Leo’s still alive. I know they’ll be back, eventually. Which means…I’ve got a chance to actually do something this time, whenever it comes to pass,” as Trenton was talking, Leo sat next to him, slowly nodding in agreement, eyes growing wider and wider the longer Trenton went on.
“Good. It looks like you’ve latched onto some sort of purpose. Hold onto that. Potentially the most important quality in a warrior is his will to fight. Afterall, a warrior with no desire will never even lift his sword. If you decide to travel the low road, marred with blood and sweat, you must never lose sight of what it was you’re fighting for. Now, you seem in high enough spirits, so I think it’s time. Tell me what happened while I was gone,” Walibeld said, his eye suddenly bursting with intensity.
Leo sat there, fidgeting with his hands while looking at the ground. “I don’t think I can…nor do I think I should,” he looked at Trenton, who took a deep breath in response. Slowly, Trenton recounted his way through the day's events, Leo occasionally piping up to add additional comments, starting from when Walibeld left, to when Trenton was killed.
“Wait! You died!?” Leo said, suddenly aghast.
“Yeah. The last thing I remember was watching my heart get crushed, and then my brain kind of just cut out. The next thing I knew, I woke up some ways outside of Aria, surrounded by corpses,” Trenton said, skirting around how he found the corpses.
As Trenton talked, Walibeld sat pensive, arms and legs crossed, watching Trenton intently, never interrupting. “It’s impossible. No mortal can live without their core, much less regenerate one…and the other injuries, too…even an immortal shouldn’t be able to live without their core. It doesn’t make any sense,” Walibeld said, slowly devolving into mad mutterings.
“What about the gods? Do they need their cores? Do they even have cores?” Leo said, a bit calmer now, but still side eyeing Trenton suspiciously.
“That's a great question for the chosen if you ever stop by Iradel. Unfortunately, I don’t know. Your core, or your heart, whichever you prefer, isn’t simply the body's source of magic, energy, blood, whatever. It defines the makeup of one's entire being. Without a core, you’re practically a husk, an outline of a human with nothing inside. Destroying the core is the only surefire way to kill any being. So, to lose one and regrow it, flies in the face of everything Era and I have been studying for the last millennium…I do believe you, Trenton, but this has massive implications for what we know about mortality as a whole. I wonder…” Walibeld trailed off, muttering to himself. He sighed, “...I wish I had an immediate answer for you, but I’m at a complete loss. Assuming it’s something different with you Trenton and not a fundamental misunderstanding of how the core functions…then there’s one way that we could figure out for certain what's happening. I’m going to take you to see Era, the archmage in charge of the Academy out east. He should be able to see what’s wrong with you,” Walibeld said, leaning back.
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“Oh yeah,” Trenton said, suddenly remembering what Walibeld said before he left. “I guess I didn’t even process it before. Are you really friends with Era? I’ve heard his name before, but I was under the impression he’s a big figure out east.”
“Friends is one way to put it, but yes, I’ve known him for a long time. I hadn’t thought it relevant up until now, but it seems I’ll actually be needing his help on this matter,” Walibeld said, getting to his feet. “There’s no more use dwelling on it here. I’ll think more on this as we move. We still have a lot of headway to make before we make it to Wyrm’s Perch,” without another word, the three of them packed up and set back out on the cliffside trail. They walked for some time, slowly working their way over the rouge terraign, a thought bugging Trenton as they picked their way along. He had meant to ask this earlier, but now seemed the most appropriate time, given the dead air.
“Walibeld, I thought the plains were supposed to be incredibly dangerous, practically bursting with dangerous monsters around every corner, but we haven't seen anything the entire time we’ve been traveling,” Trenton said, picking up the pace to walk next to Walibeld. But as he slid in next to Walibeld, he noticed his eye was far away and cloudy. He was barely even paying attention. “Walibeld?” Trenton repeated, lightly poking Walibeld’s side, who suddenly came to life as if struck with lightning.
“Hm?” Walibeld grunted, looking over at a waiting Trenton. “Right, monsters. The reason the plains are so dangerous isn't because you’re running into stray monsters at every corner. In actuality, you’re only ever likely to see monsters a couple times on any given trip. it’s only so dangerous because you’re nearly guaranteed to find a battle somewhere along the way. The plains are big and travel can take months depending on the trip. It’d be nearly impossible to never encounter a monster when you’re traveling out here for that long. On top of that some of the monsters roaming around could even give the kings a run for their money, meaning stray adventurers or groups are more likely to be mauled to death than not,” he yawned, taking care to cover his mouth, “so in essence, traveling the plains is a gambling game. The longer you’re out here, the more of a chance you have of eventually running into something you can't handle. Plus, there’s no safety in numbers, either. The more people you have in your group, the more monsters will be attracted to you. More people means a bigger meal. It's the reason traders have such a tough time getting goods anywhere. With how many people it takes to guard even one caravan worth of goods, it’s practically impossible to protect them for any meaningful distance.”
“What about the ETC? Don’t they make frequent shipments across the continent?” Leo said, finally catching up to the two of them talking.
“To the major cities, but not all across the continent. Besides, it’s more their methodology that lets them make shipments, rather than where they are going. ETC is more of a military than a trading group. They recruit mercenaries and experienced warriors, and then they train them to hell and back. It does help make up for the danger, but it isn’t full proof. Their routes are solid, secret too, but they lose caravans worth of goods nearly every trip. If there weren't so many nobles willing to pay exorbitant prices for luxury, they wouldn’t even have a business at all,” Walibeld finished, stifling another yawn.
“You sound pretty familiar with their practices. Are you an ETC fanboy?” Trenton prodded, a coy smile on his face.
“I actually happen to be from the east, a little village out in the southern wilds of Elteran. I also happen to know the owner of ETC. It was only founded some decades ago,” Walibeld said dismissively, as if several decades was a short amount of time.
“How do you know so many big figures?” Trenton said, almost annoyed.
“Would you believe me if I told you I grew up with Wy-” Walibeld paused for a moment, thinking. “Or I guess I’m supposed to call him the Benevolent now,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“You know the Benevolent!? The king!?” Leo cried out, mouth hanging open.
“Correct. He, Era, and I were all born around the same time, about a millennium ago,” Walibeld said nonchalantly as if he didn’t just admit to being childhood friends with two of the most important figures east of the Thalian.
Trenton thought about saying some snarky comment in response to the absurd statement, but something else actually caught his attention. Before, it was a little more vague, albeit just as much of a throwaway comment, but this time he couldn’t have been clearer. Walibeld had been alive for approximately one thousand years. That would mean he was born roughly around the year of 1387 A.G. For some reason, the date struck a chord in Trentons brain from some history lesson ages ago, resonating far back in his skull, but nothing quite came to mind. It was…it was…what was it?
“And here I thought he was just some homeless guy who was abnormally good with a sword,” Leo said, lost in his own mind, as well.
“Why didn’t you ever mention this before?” Trenton said, ignoring Leo’s, admittedly pretty funny, comment.
“You never asked,” Walibeld said without the slightest hesitation.
That’s true. Trenton never did ask. He was too intimidated by Walibeld to try and make much of any conversation with him. That, and he thought Walibeld was just really unsociable. He wasn’t exactly the easiest to hold a conversation with, when he was even available to talk. His only obligation should have been to Train Trenton, but he was almost never around during what should have been his free time. Whenever Trenton would ask about it, he would simply say he had some business to take care of, not answering the question. The only time Trenton ever had even a hint of what Walibeld did in his free time, was when he saw Walibeld sitting in the lounge room, intently reading a letter. Trenton thought to ask what it was about, but Walibeld got up and left the moment he arrived. Trenton never really thought it mattered, anyway, so he didn’t press it. Walibeld was an independent adult who was free to do with his free time what he wished. A really strong, independent adult. A really strong, independent adult elf…born one thou-
That was it.
