Ryl turned his head. He was surprised to see the hood of her cloak down. Errant strands of her brown hair blew across her face from the wind that pushed at her back.
Her gaze drank in the surrounding landscape starting from the west. The arc of her vision carried on until it stopped as their eyes locked. Behind her, the last glimmer of the flaming red sky dissolved behind the top of the western palisade.
“Since I was a child, I’ve been raised with the stories of this place as all in Vim do,” she said. “The dichotomy is so much more visceral that I could have ever imagined. There is so much hatred, yet there is a beauty that is incomparable.”
“Aye, it took me cycles to see through the veil of hate. Nearly every sight harbors memories of pain. Of loss,” Ryl responded.
Her right arm moved slightly; her fingers brushed the skin of his hand. The response was as immediate as it was electric. The surge of energy tore through his body. Every muscle seemed to contract and release simultaneously as the sensation surged past. He heard the barely audible sigh as it escaped her lips. Her body tensed slightly.
“You are an anomaly to me, Ryl,” she whispered. “The connection. The sensation. I don't understand it. You have a magnetism that's undeniable; I can feel it in every fiber of my being.”
She stared at him, the light of the burning signal fires dancing in her eyes.
“I can feel it too,” Ryl answered. “I know not the meaning either, it's as foreign to me as it is to you. I can find no answers in my blood. I've never experienced the like.”
Ryl paused to collect his thoughts, letting his gaze sweep the landscape around them. His eyes stopped on the blackened mass of the mountains now barely visible in the absence of light. He rubbed his right hand subconsciously over his tattooed left arm.
“The alexen still holds its secrets, that I'm sure,” he professed. “The connection, the pull we both feel, there are answers that are both obvious and hidden. I regret that now is not the time to explore them further.”
His gaze turned back toward Kaep. She now stared to the north, her eyes tracing the rapidly vanishing silhouette of the Haven Mountains in the distance. Her hair blew gently in the breeze, floating in the air before gently falling back to her shoulder. She cut a striking profile backlit by the flickering gouts of flame from the signal fires along the wall.
Ryl reached his left hand out carefully. He prepared his body for the onslaught of sensation that he knew was coming. The jolt of energy tore through his body as he carefully took her hand in his. He saw her go rigid as the feeling ignited within her as well.
“There will be time soon, Kaep,” he whispered. “All will be revealed soon.”
It was with considerable effort that Ryl broke his handhold with her. The connection was more potent than ever before. More energizing. More thrilling.
More impassioned.
The realization startled him. It terrified him. He shook off the feeling as he led the way back to the group. Neither spoke a word, so consumed were they with the thoughts that raced through their heads.
Ryl and Kaep walked together as they moved to rejoin the tributes and guards that had spread out around Thayers Rest. She silently raised her hood over her head before they reached the camp. The last hint of light from the sun had disappeared. It wouldn’t be long before they continued their journey north under the cover of the coming blackness.
He led the way toward the supply wagons they’d taken from Cadsae. The captain had established his post at the head of the caravan, sharing the makeshift office with Mender Jeffers. Ryl could see the captain leaning against a tree a few meters to the east of the wagon. He’d noted the prostrate form of Jeffers, sprawled out on the ground near where Sarial rested alongside the ailing tributes. The racing mind of the mender had thankfully calmed enough to grant him a short rest.
He’d need it. They assuredly had long days ahead.
Along the train of wagons and throughout the now brimming camp, the fires had been allowed to burn out. The only remaining blaze was the largest of the bunch, though fairly hidden from view of the Palisades amongst the few trees and single building of the diminutive work camp. A small lantern hung from the edge of the captain’s wagon; the light, though mostly hidden behind shutters, sent a small glowing sliver to where Le’Dral stood.
Ryl quietly hailed the captain as he approached. Le’Dral pushed himself back off the tree, yet his hand remained. The small flash of a smile was apparent even in the dark.
“How soon do you want to move?” Ryl asked as he and Kaep stopped before the captain.
Le’Dral scratched at the stubble that had overtaken the skin of his chin with his opposite hand.
“Within the hour,” he said as he looked to the sky above them. A thin layer of wispy clouds had moved in throughout the evening, covering much of the night sky, blotting out the stars that had only recently revealed their splendor. The diffused light cast the area into a dim, hazy glow.
“The clouds should help conceal our movement, yet our progress will be slow,” he acknowledged.
Le’Dral stopped. The expression on his face became gravely serious.
“Ryl, I agree that Tabenville is the most defensible point in the entirety of The Stocks,” he commented. “What do you plan to do there? How long do you plan to hold out? We’ll be cut off from all supplies.”
Ryl had anticipated the questions from the captain. He had the answers, yet now was admittedly not the right time to divulge them.
“There are surprises yet to be revealed, my friend,” Ryl offered hopefully. “We need not hold it indefinitely. We need but a few weeks.”
Captain Le’Dral eyed him with a look of
