Sara felt her body relax as her burdens of the last day left her. This time the void they left was not replaced with love and kindness like before. She would have to fill the void on her own. The pain in her arm left her and she had a feeling of euphoria. It was difficult to feel distressed because when she did, it left her and went to Legon. She did not want to increase his suffering, so she focused instead on the present and the break that she was receiving from her pain. She was grateful for what she had been given. She had experienced many trials, but she’d been given a lot too.
She didn’t notice time go by as she knelt next to her Everser Vald. She looked at her situation with a new perspective, one that was not filled with doubt and hopelessness. Gradually the pain in her arm returned, along with all of the rest of it. But now from her reprieve she knew what she was to replace the suffering with. She still felt stress and anxiety, but now she tried to see the two perspectives separately. Adding them together, she came up with a new one, one that was her choice, one that didn’t discount the bad but pushed her to the good.
Legon sat quietly with his eyes closed. He was breathing deeply. She and the others waited patiently.
Soon he opened his eyes. They were different. She saw them in incredible detail, etching the image in her memory forever. She locked eyes with him, and she attempted to look into his soul to unravel the mysteries of the Everser Vald, but the answers didn’t come. Still, the eyes were different, not just in physical appearance but in substance. There was… more behind them now. Was that from being an Elf, or from what he had done?
She looked away. She wasn’t worthy of holding his gaze, not after all that he had done for her and what he would do for them all. It wasn’t that he was deity or a prophet. No, it was rather what he was destined to do that made her feel a sense of awe. She also now knew his lineage, but Arkin wouldn’t reveal that, nor would she. That was the Elves’ place.
Legon looked around the circle and Sara followed his gaze. Arkin was looking down, but not at him or anything else, judging by the look in his eyes. Keither was looking at him, not believing what he was seeing. Here was one that looked at the world through logic, Sara thought, but magic was still beyond him. Sasha had great tears running down her cheeks now. Sara knew that they sprung from happiness. Her brother was free of growing old and dying. She wouldn’t have to know the pain of losing him. Sara would have to look at Sasha differently as well. Legon spoke to her then.
She was caught off guard by a finger under her chin, guiding her face. No more was this the rough hand of a butcher, but the soft tender hand of the healer. He looked her in the eyes, not letting her look away.
“What are you thinking, Sara?”
What an odd question, but this whole scene was odd. There was a reverence to it that wasn’t appropriate for the mourning of a friend and loved one.
Her throat caught as she spoke.
“ U n Prosa,” she said, using what she knew of the old tongue. Her head jerked from his hand as she looked down. She could just see his face. He paused, looking curiously at her.
“Why do you look away from me?” He was hurt, but that wasn’t the intent. Arkin answered for her.
“She means no disrespect. In fact, she respects you very deeply, but I am afraid that she knows more about you than you do.”
“Is it time to break your oaths, Arkin?” Sasha asked politely.
“Yes, I think it is.”
Keither knew that something far greater than himself was happening here and tried to clear his mind. It was close to daybreak, but the moon would not set for some time to come. It was that part of the year when the sun would be rising and the moon would stubbornly hang in the western sky, refusing to bow to its more powerful brother. He sat on his overly large behind. All of them were sitting now. Sasha gave Legon a piece of bread to chew. He would be hungry after all, wouldn’t he?
Arkin took a sip from his water skin, collecting his thoughts. “It won’t do to get right to the part where you two come into this story, so I will start further back.” When he said, ‘you two’ he inclined his head to Sasha as well as Legon. How was she involved in this?
“As you know, there was a war when the Queen took over this section of Airmelia. And in that war, human, Elf, and Iumenta fought. All sides took casualties, obviously; one of these was a dragon. His wife was killed. Now it doesn’t matter what killed her, only that she was killed and his grief was great. All of you remember what I have said about what happens when an Elf’s spouse dies, don’t you?”
They did. Keither wondered how a dying Elf had anything to do with their current state, but he listened on.
“Before this great dragon expired, he used magic and the Mahann to ascertain the future, for he wanted to know how long it would be until the rest of his house fell to the Iumenta.”
Legon spoke, preempting Arkin. “But he didn’t see their end.”
Arkin looked surprised at Legon’s intuitiveness. “No, he didn’t. He saw in the future one man that would either choose to belong to the Elves or the Iumenta. He would be an Elf, but the choice would be his to make. Now this man would do many great and terrible things if he chose, but in the end he would restore order.”
When Keither first started to hear about a ‘prophecy’ he scoffed at the idea, but this was not so much a prophecy but rather a probability. The Mahann used logic to figure things out, and this dragon used the Mahann to tell of these things, so there was logic here. It had to be a probability, but he didn’t see it yet.
“That ‘hero’, as he was called, would be known as the Everser Vald, meaning, in the Elven tongue, ‘the destroyer of great power’. This meant that if he chose the Iumenta side the Elves would fall, but if he chose the Elven side…”
“The Iumenta would lose control of the land,” Sara said, beaming at Legon.
Legon interrupted them all. “Wait, wait. That doesn’t mean that it’s me. You said that there had been others in my situation before. There have to be signs or something to say who it is.”
“Yes, Legon, there have been others. But let me finish. The prophecy spoke of signs that would appear, of course, and I will get to those, but there is more. This hero, this Everser Vald, would be greatly influenced by another.”
Sara said incredulously, “An influencer? I have never heard of an influencer in this story.”
“No, you haven’t. Only a select few have heard the prophecy in its entirety. This was done as a protection, not only to the possible hero, but to that influencer as well. This person would be the deciding factor in what side the Everser Vald would choose, and that meant that we had to step lightly when a potential person fit the signs.”
“But I haven’t had an influencer,” Legon blurted. But he had. Keither saw it, saw her for the first time. Pieces fell into place now. It never made any sense at all to keep one like Legon so deep in the empire but now it fit, she fit! Who else could have had an impact on someone as headstrong as Legon? The same person who had impacted all of them over the past few months. The name came out without thinking.
“Sasha.”
Sasha looked at him, the little color left in her face draining away. But it was her. She had taught him empathy with her episodes, made him a better person. She was his drive for doing everything; he would attack the Queen herself if it would save Sasha from suffering. Keither had truly never seen anyone love another person the way Legon loved Sasha. And it fit. How could he not choose the right side?
“So this whole thing was a setup?” Keither said.
“How do you mean?” Sara said, sounding agitated.
“Sasha is the influencer, so he was put with her to make him the Everser Vald, wasn’t he? And moreover, you said that Legon has been using magic with Sasha during her episodes his entire life. If he wasn’t around her then he may not have turned, correct?”
Arkin looked uncomfortable. Keither knew that he was right and that angered him. All of them had been through hell for this and it was just a setup.
“No, Keither, this is not what you think. Edis and Laura didn’t know anything about what Legon was or who he would become. But yes, he was allowed to stay with them on account of Sasha. Even at a young age it was apparent that she was an unusually good person. If he was taken back to the resistance we don’t know what would have happened. Even being raised on our side wouldn’t guarantee that he was going to turn Elf or-”
“That I wouldn’t become a tool for the Iumenta. I don’t fault you for what you did. I don’t want to think of life
