Bk 2, Chapter 20: Awkward Reunion

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Jeremy jumped back in surprise before clutching his chest. "Yeesh, Delphia, give a little warning next time, will ya? Scared me."

Cayden had startled as well, though he told himself that was more because of Jeremy's perspective hopping around rather than Delphia's sudden appearance. After a full semester as her roommate, he was more used to her shrouded form popping up out of nowhere.

Delphia was a shaeden, a naturally-stealthy race of shadow wielders who had dexterity, agility, and mana regen as their primary stats. Cayden actually wasn't sure what physical features distinguished a shaeden from a base human – he'd only ever met two shaeden, counting Delphia, and hadn't noticed anything non-human from the other. As for Delphia, he'd only seen under her hood a single time. While her albinism certainly made her unique, Cayden didn't think that was a feature of her race.

"Hey, Delphia," he called, and the girl gave him a stiff nod. "Thanks for healing me a few weeks ago. I never got to tell you that, but I heard you almost killed yourself doing it. So...thanks."

Delphia looked at him for several moments, any expression she might have carried hidden in the shadows of her hood, before she nodded again. "...you're welcome. But you did not have to come all the way here to tell me that."

"Oh. Er, no, that's not why we're here. Or at least not mostly – I definitely still wanted to tell you thanks, regardless." Next to him, Jeremy was shaking his head. "The reason we're here is...wait, how much do you know about the current state of the kingdom? All the stuff that's been happening with the queen?"

There was another short pause before Delphia replied. "...I am not the most up-to-date. But I understand there has been tension between the queen and those who were closely aligned with the former duke."

Jeremy snorted. "'Tension' is a polite way of putting it."

"Yeah. I haven't exactly been involved, but from what I've heard, it's been bad. At last count, five different noble families have been killed. There's a curfew in the capital, and the academy has turned away everyone who isn't actively enrolled."

Delphia's head rocked back.

"Yeah. It's been bad enough that the princess decided to get out of town for the next few months. She sponsored an expedition to the tournament in Kilven. Which is why I'm here. Anyone who's a student – even if you're not actively enrolled, so you should still count – is allowed to come for free, along with whatever attendants they may need. A bunch of noble kids are using it as a chance to get out of the kingdom until things cool off – me included." And then Cayden frowned. Delphia had known about his feud with Duke Vass as the creator of the fateweaver compound, but he'd never had the chance to tell her the extent to which he'd been involved in the coup – that he had ended up personally ending the duke.

Though, perhaps she had intuited as much. She'd known the injuries Velic's light magic created and had been the one to first heal him after his confrontation with the duke; she might've been able to figure out the rest.

Regardless, it wasn't the time nor the place to get into the details, so he didn't explain further.

"...and the expedition passed close enough to my barony for you to stop by?" Delphia asked, and Cayden rubbed his face. Perhaps he should've started with the explanation of the drama surrounding the queen rather than giving his thanks for the healing. The reminder of his revenge and injuries, coupled with his exhaustion in the wake of the run, had him out of sorts.

Luckily, he had Jeremy there to back him up.

"People who could potentially challenge the queen, or who were tied to the former duke or the coup, are using the expedition as a way to stay safe while also showing the queen they aren't a threat to her rule. As Velic's roommate at the academy, we thought you might be at risk, and wondered if you wanted to join the expedition too."

Cayden nodded along with his friend's explanation as Delphia simply stared at them. "People who aren't students, or who could not reasonably be described as 'attendants' of students, aren't allowed to come, unfortunately," Cayden added. "We want you there, of course, but we don't want to make you choose between your family or your friends. So don't feel bad if you choose to stay – we just think it would be safer on the expedition, and it wouldn't be fair if you didn't even know about the option."

There was a beat of silence. And then Delphia nodded.

"Five minutes."

"Sure, you have plenty of time. As long as we return to the road by third bell tomorrow  morning, we shouldn't be late. So take a couple hours to talk it over with your family."

But Delphia was shaking her head. "Wait here – I'll be ready to leave in five minutes."

And then before either of the two boys could react to that statement, the darkness from beyond the glowstones surged forward, swallowing Delphia, leaving Cayden and Jeremy alone in the night.

They waited awkwardly where they stood, shifting from foot to foot until Cayden moved to sit against the gate and stretch.

"This is kinda creepy," Jeremy commented a few minutes later, and Cayden responded with his head between his biceps, leaning forward to touch his toes.

"Nah, it's just darkness. Honestly, I kinda wish I could practice my racial skills as much as Delphia can get away with doing." Racial skills couldn't level, but that didn't mean someone couldn't learn how to better use them with time and effort.

"I'm not talking about Delphia. I mean this place," Jeremy corrected him. "Does it not seem spooky to you?"

Cayden focused on where Jeremy was looking, truly paying attention to what his friend's eyes were telling him about their surroundings. The sun had fully set over an hour earlier, but it wasn't yet so late that the average household would be entirely shut down and asleep. Especially a noble household, which Cayden guessed was less likely to rise with the sun in comparison to the average commoner or farming family.

But the manor around them was mostly silent and dark. They could hear the repetitive banging of a loose shutter blowing in the wind, and leaves rustled along the ground in the same breeze, but there were no echoing voices or the normal clamor of workers completing their final tasks before bed. Glowstones lined the path from the gate to a small building off to their right, as well as toward what looked to be the main entrance of the manor, but beyond that it was dark. Not so dark as to blind them, especially now that Delphia was no longer around to deepen the shadows, and the almost-full moon lit the somewhat run-down-looking courtyard around them. Yet the faint illumination did more to  highlight the eerieness of their surroundings than it did to dispel it.

"...now that you mention it, you've got a point," Cayden conceded, nervously fiddling with the straps that held his sheaths over his claws.

"Maybe Delphia's family are all shaeden, too, and they like to go all in for the dark and creepy aesthetic? Some noble families do that, right? Like how the royal family is all phoenixes?" Jeremy suggested.

"I suppose," Cayden replied. "Delphia never talked much about her family. But turning their home into a haunted house just to stay on theme seems a bit more...dramatic...than a family with the same race."

Jeremy shrugged, glancing around them once again. "Yeah, but..." he began as he looked back toward the main entrance of the manor – and to where Delphia was suddenly standing, in the exact same location and position as before she'd left.

"–eeEEAAA-uhhh," Jeremy coughed, attempting to cover his squeaky scream. "Hey, Delphia. How long have you been there?"

There was a pause. “Not long,” Delphia said, continuing to stare at Jeremy for a few seconds before turning to Cayden. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Wait, already?" Cayden asked. Then he looked at the small bag she had slung over her shoulder, smaller even than the amount of supplies Cayden had packed for the expedition. "Is that all you're bringing? The instructor is providing the food, but you're supposed to bring everything else. And it'll be at least three months."

Delphia hesitated for a moment before nodding. "This is everything. And if there's anything more I need, I can purchase it on the road."

"If you need more time to pack or talk things over with your family or anything, there's no rush," Jeremy said. "Or, at least, no huge rush. We were planning on resting here for at least a few hours before heading back."

"No, I am ready to leave now," Delphia instantly rebutted.

Cayden frowned. He didn't think Delphia possessed one of the rare enchanted spacial pouches that Elise was using, though he supposed she could have been hiding one under her cloak. But it was obvious she was in a hurry for them to leave, so he didn't protest.

"It's thirty-five miles to where we're planning on meeting the wagons," Cayden explained. "We rigged up a harness for me to carry Elise – it should work for you as well." He turned to show his torn-apart backpack to Delphia, working at the knots he'd tied to keep it from flopping about during the run there.

"And I'm supposed to...sit in that?"

Cayden winced at the incredulity in her voice. "It shouldn't be that bad. I don't need your eyes to see like I did when I ran with Elise, so you can face backward. It should be a bit more comfortable that way."

"Wait," Delphia said, and suddenly she'd crossed the three feet that separated them, a pale hand raising to touch his forearm. "That blindfold is not for training. You haven't gotten your eyes healed yet?"

"Ah, no," Cayden replied, dodging back from her hand, and she didn't try to chase. Delphia's brand of 'healing' was not the solution to his blindness he wanted, even if she did have the ability to transfer his injury to herself – which he doubted. With all the healing he'd gone through over the last couple of weeks, he didn't think his eyes counted as 'wounded' anymore – just missing. "The healers who could regrow them weren't available before the expedition left, so I agreed with the princess on another form of payment. I'll tell you about it later – for now, I'm using Jeremy's sight through his [Share Senses] skill, so it's not something to worry about."

Hesitantly, Delphia took a step back and nodded, her hood turning back to Cayden's 'harness.' "I will not be able to make the run on my own?"

"Er...I doubt it. Agility isn't very useful for long-distance runs, so unless you've leveled a bunch since the semester ended and have been putting all your free points into endurance..."

Delphia didn't immediately react. "...I do have a few stored points banked that I could allocate."

"Oh, come on," Cayden threw his hands up into the air. "It won't be that bad. Just four hours or so of being uncomfortable. Elise did it."

If anything, this had the opposite effect of what was intended, as Delphia shrank back even further. Cayden supposed he should have considered the harness might have been an issue for the shy girl, considering how much she typically shied away from physical contact when it wasn't related to healing. But the thought had never crossed his mind.

"If you don't plan on taking it, I'm still willing to be carried," Jeremy chimed in.

Cayden and Delphia ignored him.

Then, after several seconds, Delphia's posture straightened in a way Cayden only recognized from their time together training and on the battlefield – usually just before she charged toward danger to administer healing.

"I may have an alternative. Follow me."

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