Chapter 244: Raelia (Prologue for Book 5)

Chapter 244: Prologue

Raelia was prepared for the worst-case scenario. With her fate in legionnaire’s hands, anything was possible. She truly thought he would turn her over to his mage commander and she would become a prisoner of the Telhians. That was why she was surprised when she appeared in a dark forest in the light of a single glow stone held by the legionnaire. Eryk hadn’t betrayed her.

She slowly relaxed, not sensing any danger. Her breath clouded in front of her in the cold, still air. “We are out of the dungeon?” She asked the legionnaire and resisted wincing at the stupidity of the question.

Dispassionately, the legionnaire responded. “We are. We are about twenty miles west of Parvas. Do you know where that is?” 

Raelia mistakenly took his flat, unemotional tone to mean Maveith had not made it. With a note of sorrow, she asked, taking in her surroundings, “I know where Parvas is. Did Maveith not make it?” 

The legionnaire looked annoyed at her question, “Maveith is sleeping.” He gestured behind him, “My company isn’t far off with my mage commander. You should get going. I suggest traveling south, crossing the river, and then making your way home.” Her pack appeared in his outstretched hand. “There is food and some fragile items inside, so treat the pack with care. You should make haste.” He gestured behind him again at the unseen danger of his mage commander.

Raelia ground her teeth a little. After two weeks of fighting together in the most dangerous dungeon she had ever heard of, he was now tossing her away with no parting words—or even a thank you. She then realized it had only been a heartbeat for her since he had placed her in his space.

The legionnaire looked exhausted and maybe in pain. What had he been through in the days, weeks, or months she had been imprisoned? At least he kept his promise. Not that she liked him, though he wasn’t terrible looking for a human. Well—as long as he wasn’t wearing the red legion armor. What was she thinking? He killed Vaeril. She hardened her resolve.

She sheathed her blades and took a few steps forward to take her pack. The weight surprised her, and she fumbled it briefly. Eryk winced when she almost dropped it. She shouldered the pack and was about to turn, but paused. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, he hadn’t killed her the two times they fought—and he was not a terrible human. A bit of an ogre’s ass but not a bad human.

“If you are ever captured.” She paused, considering her words, “Ask for General Clalyn Glavien. I will tell my brother you helped me, and he will ensure you end up in a work camp instead of being strung up with the other legionnaires.”

“What a generous offer,” he said with a mocking undertone. Raelia winced as she realized what she had said was stupid. Of course, she would have come and freed him from the work camp when she learned he was captured. She hadn’t said that aloud and thought it was implied. She rolled her eyes at him. Rather than clarify, and since she doubted she would ever see this legionnaire again, she didn’t feel the need to clarify.

She hesitated, seeing if he would say anything else, and when he didn’t, she checked the position of the moon and tramped off into the snow. Strangely, she didn’t feel like she was turning her back on an enemy. The snow crunched under her feet as she made her way south. She needed to gain distance from his mage commander and increased her pace. It was too easy to be tracked in the snow.

Raelia pushed herself hard for hours till she reached the river. Crossing the icy flow was going to be unpleasant. She hoped he had given her at least two waterskins she could empty and use as floats. She started to unpack and froze. That stupid bastard! She cradled the griffin egg and pulsed aether into it.

The faint stirrings were still there. Whatever reason he had been keeping a griffin egg was secondary. He had wrapped it carefully, but still, the freezing temperature could have killed the unhatched chick. She came up with a thousand things to say when she saw Eryk again, none of them pleasant.

Then she reeled herself in, realizing she was looking forward to interacting again with him. Not just to yell at him and lord over his lack of knowledge, but to banter with him. How could someone be so irritating?!

She spent the next hour securing the egg inside the ranger’s cloak, another priceless gift the infuriating legionnaire had given her, like handing her an old pair of socks. She made a cradle to carry the egg in front of her. She could only guess the age of the egg, estimating it would hatch in two or three months. At least there were three legion canteens in her pack.

Two were water, and when she poured out the third, the distinct odor of alcohol filled the air. Rather than waste it, she sipped it and frowned. Where did he get Elven Ambrosia? And storing it in a soldier’s canteen? The idiot was wasting priceless ambrosia that took a century to age. She bit her tongue and cursed him as she was forced to dump the contents into the snow. It would make floating across much less dangerous, and right now, her life was more important than elven whiskey.

When black spheres with orange and red swirls rolled out of a cloth bag, Raelia’s jaw dropped. An apex and major affinity fire essence. Had Eryk put these in her bag? No, it must have been Maveith. No, Eryk controlled all the essences, and Maveith always deferred to him. For some reason, the priceless essences enraged her further. That bastard had somehow further tilted their relationship in his favor. Who gives affinity essences away like candy? An idiot, that is who.

She still had the charm essences from the harpies, but she was waiting to consume them. Unlocking a new affinity was not going to be pleasant, and it might be better to sell them. She was not going to raise her charm affinity high enough to learn a spell form anyway.

When night arrived, Raelia stripped naked, packed everything in her pack, and wrapped it tightly with the tarp tent. She attached the canteens as floats and walked up hesitantly into the water, pushing the pack before her as the icy cold water sapped the heat from her body. She needed to make sure she got across the river before the cramps set in, and she drowned. She kicked furiously among the floating chunks of ice as she crossed the river, pushing her precious package. She pushed any thoughts of the possible horrors that might be lurking in the river’s depths to the back of her mind. Best to just cross quickly.

Exhausted on reaching the far side, she dragged her naked body from the water and up the banks. Ice was already forming on her body, and she cursed the legionnaire for taking her thermal stone. Her weak spell form to heat the air around her was acting too slow to warm her body as she shivered. Her numb fingers retrieved the apex fire essence, and she placed it in her mouth. Heat surged through her body, forcing away the cold. She hadn’t been sure that was going to work, but thankfully it did. If the legionnaire had been here, she would have acted like she knew it would happen.

She fumbled through her pack, happy everything had remained dry. Once she was dressed, she had the griffin egg wrapped in her cloak secured. The artifact should keep it warm, but she would check every hour. She was already growing attached to the unhatched chick.

As she moved carefully through the woods back to Bartiradian lands, she was already looking forward to training a griffin again. She even came up with a name for the unhatched griffin, Baldo. It was a Telhian word for a foolish person. So what if she was naming her griffin after the legionnaire who had given her the egg?

Her journey through the Telhian wilds over the next week went relatively well. It had gotten so cold one night that she risked a fire and attracted a gnoll hunting party. She had used a fireball to disperse the gnolls, killing three, and had run the rest of the night, worried the burnt survivors would return with more of their pack. At least there was no snow on the ground this far east.

The effort of avoiding Telhian towns and patrols constantly had her on edge. Twice, she had just covered her ears and pretended to be a malnourished civilian to walk the roads. She used the griffin egg to bulge her belly, as even in the Telhian Empire, pregnant women should be relatively unmolested. It was a risk, but the road walk saved her valuable time, and the Hounds would be patrolling the woodlands this far east. The most stressful moment was when two mage companies passed her on the road. That convinced her that perhaps she was taking too much of a risk walking openly.

She knew she was only about two hundred miles from the border when she left the road. She used the Ranger’s call as she approached the border, a short common bird sound repeated at specific intervals. After half a day, it allowed the Rangers to find her. Her knees nearly gave out from relief when two tall, Elven Rangers revealed themselves.

“Little woman, what are you doing in my woods?” One of the Rangers asked with a good-natured smirk. She missed elven humor, it was refreshing after dealing with the human.

Raelia drew on her Elven fortitude and stood tall. “I fell off my griffin and had to walk,” she replied snarkily. She bowed formally and introduced herself, “Raelia Glavien. Trained Griffin Rider and Ranger. I request an escort to my brother, General Clalyn Glavien.” The two elves looked doubtful even when she revealed her eleven features.

It was another week until she was back in a Bartiradian city. The Telhians had captured the city of Guiracas, and the war was in full blossom. She learned the Bartiradians and Esenhem elves were entering a loose alliance to capture a valuable target. She was not told what that was, but she learned it was outside the city of Macha. That accursed city where she had lost Moonclaw and nearly died—and where Eryk had spared her life.

Her brother finally debriefed her and she was glad it was him and not the Ranger commander. Clalyn entered the room where she was under guard, and they hugged each other fiercely. “Raelia, when I heard the Rangers were bringing you from the wilds, I couldn’t believe it. Where have you been for the last three months?”

“Trapped in the Elven city of Caelora. There is an ancient dungeon there, larger and more powerful than any dungeon I have ever seen.” Raelia responded. She knew she needed to give something valuable to the Bartiradian command after failing to protect Vaeril.

Clalyn frowned, “You were in a dungeon? We know Vaeril is dead. The Rangers I sent found his body two months ago near a decaying wyvern and Telhian drake. Do you know what happened to Traeliorn? The mages at the college have not been able to contact him for six weeks.”

She was surprised that her brother was questioning her and not an Inquisitor. She was glad it was him, but still she was surprised. “I haven’t seen Traeliorn since he brought me to Vaeril. I have recovered enough to rejoin the Rangers. But I also have procured my own griffin egg.”

“From the dungeon?” Clalyn asked. He had clearly already been made aware of all her possessions by his lack of surprise. The egg and all her gear were in the next room. The charm essences were there as well, but she had consumed the second fire essence.

“No,” she said before thinking it through. She actually didn’t know where the legionnaire had obtained the egg. Clalyn nodded heavily, and she could read his body language. He was about to give her some bad news. Was he going to take the egg from her? The breeding program should be producing enough griffins unless the war was going much worse than she assumed.

“You are not returning to the Rangers. Father has arranged for you to be sent to live with an aunt in Artiria.” As soon as Raelia heard the news, her eyes widened.

“The capital of Esenhem? Why?” She asked, confused but quickly angered.

“To protect you. Your failures, and now, with Traeliorn missing, people want answers. Powerful people, Raelia. An Inquisitor will question you and then you will be sent onto Artiria to be a liaison there in House Glavien.” Clalyn informed her. He gestured at the egg, “I will see if you can keep that, but I cannot guarantee it. The charm essences will be appropriated most assuredly, though.”

It was like Raelia had just crashed her griffin into a cliff face. Her family had left Esenhem hundreds of years ago because the Esenhem Regents refused to fight the Telhians. Now, she was being sent there for her protection. “Why?” She asked numbly.

“Esenhem and Bartiradia are allies—at least for now. We have even managed to coordinate with the Supreme Cleric of the Boutan Caliphate to stretch the resources of the Telhians as his orc warlords attack the western Telhian Empire. The Telhian Empire will crumble in the coming years.” As Clalyn said this, why did she worry about the stupid legionnaire’s fate?

When Clalyn left, she was left to the Inquisition. They were a pleasant old human woman named Kiara and a young dark-haired dwarf named Braer. They were just as interested in the Shimmering Labyrinth as they were in clues to the whereabouts of Traeliorn Kelran and the human legionnaire.

She couldn’t keep the legionnaire’s secrets of his powerful space affinity from them. They already knew about his unfathomable space affinity, but still, the dwarf and human questions indicated they doubted her words. She could only tell the truth, but she surprisingly kept some of his secrets, the powerful essence collector, and his other spell forms. She didn’t hide the fact that he was not a Telhian and, in fact, an otherworlder, conscripted in the Legion. Maybe that would help him gain some leniency if he were captured.

The older woman seemed to think his being an otherworlder explained a lot, but Raelia had never heard of an otherworlder with such a strong affinity. After two days of intense questioning, she was finally allowed to walk freely in the city. Her rank had been stripped, and she would never serve as a Griffin Rider or Ranger again in the Kingdom of Bartiradia.

Clalyn did not see her off to Artiria. He was training a detachment for the spring assault on Macha. Everything was very secret, and she had no inroads to the alliance or the goals of the assault. She only knew this was the largest offensive the Bartiradians had amassed in decades. They were determined to keep something from Telhian hands, and it was not the Shimmering Labyrinth. Numerous scholars eagerly came to find her and ask her more questions about the dungeon before she left.

When she was ordered to depart for Esenhem, she was directed to a horse-drawn carriage. A wizened old elf sat in the sturdy coach. The woman’s immaculate dress and brilliant jewelry reminded Raelia of the nobles in the Bartiradian courts. She looked at Raelia and ordered impatiently, “Get up, girl. I am eager to finish my business and be on my way back to Artiria.”

After Raelia sat, she noticed her Ranger’s cloak wrapping an ovaloid object on the seat. Her worn pack was on the floor, and maybe her other possessions were there. “Yes, your brother made sure it traveled with you. I am Maeralya Glavien, your aunt. You will be staying with me while we try to repair the relations between our fractured families. During the trip home, we need to make sure you are presentable to the Esenhem Regents.”

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