She smirked. “I think you need to hold on to it, no matter what that monster says. See them again if you have to, but never give it up. I believe there’s a reason you have that now and we’re only just beginning to find out what it is.”
Seraphina hadn’t shown many signs of being overtly religious or prone to belief in fate, but she was so beautiful and their attraction was so great Johan never cared. Perhaps a bit of faith was what he needed in his life, even if it wasn’t his.
Johan cleared his throat awkwardly, afraid to ask the next question even though the answer was quite clear. “So, you’re not mad at me for doing what I did?”
She stopped him and looked in his eyes. “I owe you my life, Johan. We all do. I may not agree with it all, but I understand. You’re a good man. A hero. Good men make good choices more often than not. They just seem foolish at the time.”
An uplifting sentiment. “Like making a deal with a talking Dragon Stalker I have no reason to trust?”
She shrugged. “Of leaping to certain death to save a girl you don’t know. So far I’d say both choices worked out for the best in the end.”
He agreed.
He motioned to the others ahead of them. “What do they think? Do they forgive me?”
She didn’t answer immediately. She turned and continued to walk towards Bankoor, hand firmly intertwined with Johan’s while they moved on in silence. They walked like that for a time, enjoying the touch of the other and the warmth of the action. Soon, she was pressed to his side with strides in unison. Then, she leaned over as they walked, lightly kissed his cheek, and whispered, “I forgive you,” in his ear.
Forgiveness is an amazing thing. The giving of it can bring peace; the denial of it, war. Very few are the simple things in life that hold that much power. Perhaps only love rivals it in terms of potential, and that is hard to give and harder to take away.
The evening wearing on and the miles falling like rain behind them, Johan realized what she said was all that mattered. That fact accepted, he pulled her close to himself, kissed her forehead through a tangle of hair and offered her a quiet “Thank you” in return. She nodded in acceptance. With that issue being dead, life continued on.
The second thing that changed Johan (and Esgona equally, though he kept that to himself) came shortly afterwards. This moment was almost seen by the young man for what it was: a defining moment, just as the return of Seraphina to his side had been (though he didn’t know that yet).
The sun was beginning to touch the water and the salt wind was coming in harder now, as if pushed at them by the giant falling star. The smell was almost alien to Johan, but it brought a sickening feeling of remembrance to Esgona. The last time salt air had met his nose was not a pleasant point in his life. It was here that the sun set alight the buildings of Bankoor in the distance, shimmering pillars of glass casting a reflection out in their direction as if guiding them home. At its center was a massive tower, like a spike driven into the heart of the city from beneath the ground, with a sharp point jabbing into the coming night sky, threatening to rip it open.
Below the city center, lights began blinking on like small fires until the whole of Bankoor was alight. The jut of the great tower in the center of the city was glowing softly in a steady reddish-yellow, while the city seemed to burn with light below it like a frozen fire.
The fact that no story ever told about the Blood Sea mentioned the great cities clearly on its shores was not lost on the two from Tan Torna Qu-ay. This was certainly a difficult secret to keep, but here they were, looking at the largest, most advanced collection of living people they’d ever seen.
“Slightly advanced, my ass,” Johan said under his breath as they all stood, staring at the sight before them. Mysteries abounded in this new world.
They began moving again, eager to reach Bankoor before the night wore on too long. The surroundings were strange and the destination unsettling, but no one argued. This group was no longer of the opinion that the Old was something to blatantly and unreasonably fear after the technology it produced had saved them twice in the form of the now-lost Ark 1, but there was still an army of unimaginable power heading for them, and that was enough to make them nervous in the shadow of Bankoor and its unknown evils.
Missing for most of the day, Stroan rode to his traveling companions, giving a perfunctory nod to Seraphina, either out of a standard greeting to a lady or perhaps to acknowledge her return to the fold. “I can’t say I expected this, did any of you?”
Johan laughed, “Seriously? How could we? You never knew and you’re from closer to here than we are.”
Stroan looked dejected at the thought. “My home was farther south, and our enemy to the west. Once the Vein Valley opens into the plains where I lived, we never thought of the valley and what was north. We knew there was great fighting going on and to travel to it without reason or without being in the army was suicide. So we ignored it and went our own way. It seems we were wrong to do so.” Johan agreed. “Well, no stop to it now, eh?” Stroan continued, his horse striding along beside the group, bringing Stroan eye to
