'Garren had a particular loathing for Palingard.' He leaned against the wall behind them and looked away for several moments. 'I wish I could tell you differently, but I seriously doubt that if they're alive, it's a good thing.' A profound grief clutched at his words as they left his lips. He'd loved Palingard and though the other Adorians she'd met had expressed regrets, it wasn't the same. None but Duncan, Roahn and a handful of Braeden understood what had been truly lost. It was more than just a stronghold, or a name on some map. It was home.
She could tell by Michael's attitude toward the Braeden that he felt they were languid in their character, simply by not disagreeing with the elders. This aside, when she'd finally let go of her initial anger, their presence here above all others made her feel at ease. The Braeden had been in Middengard with them — or with the humans. She still couldn't think of herself as an Adorian.
'I have so many questions, but I suppose now isn't the time.'
He nodded and looked as though he wasn't going to speak again, but turned back just before leaving. 'I'll make time to answer anything you want to know later.' He cleared his throat and absently swung his hand, hitting the door frame, as he breezed out of the room.
Michael leaned toward Ariana again. 'You barely touched your food.'
'I'm alright.'
He kept his arm on the table beside her, unimpressed with her answer. 'It seems you and Duncan have made amends.'
She nodded in silence.
'I was never able to see Palingard except at a distance,' Michael noted. 'Tell me, what was it like?'
She'd been playing with her fork, and when Michael finished his question, she dropped it beside her plate. She still wasn't interested in talking, but realized that he was going to press her until she gave him some sign that everything was alright.
'It was different. It's hard for me to explain how. Everything was simpler, less elegant.' She took a deep breath, pausing before saying anything further. 'I was raised by a friend of our mother's, her name is Bella. I've known her since I was born. She helped mother around the house and in the fields in return for room and board. Then, when mother died, she tended to me while Father was gone. Eventually, she was all I had left.'
'What about your lessons, what were they like? Is there a school there?' He seemed genuinely interested, but she'd have preferred to finish her meal, or rather play with her meal, in peace and quiet.
'There were few children left after the first siege, so we were all taught by the same teachers. It was a small building near the center of the village. The older children helped the younger ones, and though it was nothing like what you have here, it worked for us. Mother read to me when I was little, and while he was still there, Duncan taught me all sorts of things.' A slight smile forced its way to her lips. 'I tried to teach Sara a few words of what I now know was Adorian. Certainly explains why she was never able to grasp it. She'd tell me stories that she'd heard over the years of winged men. It was all fun and games to me, nonsense, but she really believed it.'
'I take it Sara was a close friend of yours?' He asked.
'She was my closest friend.' She was terrified for Sara, and though Duncan had said it would be worse if she were alive, Ariana desperately, selfishly hoped that she was. She pushed the thought of what Sara would be going through out of her mind; it was too much to bear at the moment.
'She told me once that she'd seen an Adorian. We'd just finished celebrating a wedding, and just as everyone had readied for bed, she came tearing through our house yelling for me. I'll never forget her face. At the time I thought she'd gone mad, but, I suppose she could have seen one of you.'
Michael lifted his head. 'What did she say to you of this Adorian?'
'She said she was walking through the woods, looking for flowers for a wreath, or something equally ridiculous, when she spotted him from a few yards away. She went on about this for weeks, well, years afterwards. The armor he wore, his horse. Even after she'd gotten engaged, she still talked about it, all weepy eyed and sappy.'
'Did she marry?' Michael asked.
Ariana thought the question odd. She shook her head. 'No, the wedding was set for a few months from now, though if you want to know my opinion, I don't think it was ever going to take place. They didn't get along very well.' A smile crossed his face. It had a quaintness to it that caught her interest. 'Am I missing something?'
'I saw Palingard once from a distance, as I said earlier. It was at dusk after a ride from Ruiari and when I approached the village, as I shouldn't have done, I witnessed what I assumed to be a wedding. It was several years ago. I think your friend may have seen me.'
Ariana wasn't sure how she felt about this. 'Are you serious?'
He nodded, looking a bit self-conscious. 'I'm afraid so. No other Adorian would have ventured that close. I deviated from my riders because I had the authority to.'
Ariana thought it over for a moment and found the revelation saddened her. It may have been the only time that Sara would ever lay eyes on him. 'You would have really liked her.' Ariana closed her eyes to keep from crying. 'She was the human embodiment of trust and loyalty.'
'Ariana, there's someone I would like to introduce to you.'
She opened her eyes to see Jenner, his hand on the shoulder of an aged, pleasant-looking human. At least, she assumed as much — he didn't have wings and didn't have the build to be Braeden.
'This is Bronach.'
The man bowed, a generous smile lighting up his features. 'My Lady, it is truly my pleasure to meet you. It seems your name is all I hear these days.'
She rolled her eyes. 'Don't believe a word of it. I'm not nearly as feisty as they would lead you to believe.'
Bronach laughed as he patted her hand. 'Fair enough, but I should tell you that you are every bit as lovely as I was told. You remind me very much of someone I once knew. Perhaps I'll tell you about her sometime.'
'Bronach is a historian,' Jenner said. 'I imagine he could tell you far more about Adoria than any of our elders, myself included.'
Bronach nodded. 'If you could stand the company of an old man, grumpy and sardonic in his ways, then I will teach you anything you wish to know, child. All you need to do is ask.'
Ariana was intrigued by him, relieved by his humor and his humanity. 'I'll take you up on your offer. Just remember that you made it.'
Michael leaned back relaxed in his chair. 'Bronach has begun the restoration of the Saeculum, which I have no doubt you'll find interesting. It might eventually lead to excavating the old world, but we'll see what comes of this first.'
Bronach eased a chair out beside them, settling himself against the high, thin back — fashioned so for those whose wings would fall to either side. 'In due time we'll tell you all about it, though I cannot imagine why a spry young thing like yourself would bother with dusty, overgrown ruins.' He appeared well aware that such a choice of words would do nothing but pique her interest all the more.
'Spry indeed, my bones say otherwise. I feel well over a thousand years old these days.'
Bronach's face stilled. His rounded eyes and bulbous little nose paused only long enough for her to catch it. 'My deepest sympathies for your loss, this cannot be easy to bear.' He looked to Michael then. 'Have you taken her to the Garden of Dedication?'
Michael shook his head, 'I haven't. Too much has been weighing on our list of considerations lately. Palingard will be dedicated with a statue of its own sometime in the coming months. I think you'll be pleased. Every village and city has been — '
Ariana abruptly rose from her seat, the legs of the chair screaming against the polished floor. She didn't intend to be rude, but the finality of his words fell on her like a hundred stones.
Memorial. Remembrance. Sara is not lost! Bella is not lost!
She started to explain her sudden change of emotion, but found herself without the words. As she turned to leave the dining hall, she heard Michael start after her and Jenner's voice telling him to let her go.
As she walked deeper into the keep, down one corridor to the next, she sobbed. She missed Bella and everything else about home. She missed the smells and the sounds, and all the things that she'd longed so desperately to escape. Michael had meant no harm in his questions, nor Bronach in his teasing. But Adorians and the few from Middengard who were raised in Adoria didn't seem to really understand humans. Everything in Adoria was a matter of principle alone. Things in the human world weren't always that simple. She couldn't explain why
