Chapter 12

“What?” Luchs repeated, unbelieving, as she approached Aria. Roark looked up at the bewildered knight and to his charge, the princess, standing at the edge of the clearing beside Roark. “Princess, you cannot be serious.”

“I am,” Aria assured, taking a step forward. “I am where I want to be right now, and I am… safe.” A cursory glance around still showed a dazed Levin and Karios on the ground, while Roark kept looking to other men to speak up.

“Your Highness, do you even know who they are?” Luchs asked, swiping a hand out. “They—!”

“They’re not the ones going around towns and burning them!” Aria cut her off immediately, and the knight took a step back. Karios’s eyebrows raised in shock. Was the princess really cowing this knight? “They’re not the ones going from town to town with a Forgerosi hunting party parading a bounty on my head!”

“Aria—!”

“No, Luchs!” Aria continued, maintaining her gaze at the woman in front of her. “These men saved me at the siege of our home, and they’ve been helping me all this time to stay alive. I don’t even know where you were when the attack started, Luchs.”

“Your mother had you hidden away before we could organize a defense,” Luchs answered, her gruff voice soft. “I was assigned to the northern walls,I never had a chance to find you.”

Aria sighed, taking in the information. It was true, the moment the sounds of the Forgerosi invasion began, the Queen had pushed Aria toward the secret corridor that led to the Outer Ring where she first met Karios. Luchs had been drawn away before that, though Aria never knew why. She looked at her former guardian knight once more. “I swear Luchs, I am safe with these men.”

“Can I get up now?” Karios asked bluntly, and the knight finally looked down at him before stepping off and away from his body.

“You fight like a bastard,” Luch muttered.

“Was taught by the best,” the swordsman replied. Their eyes met in what felt like a silent agreement, though Aria couldn’t tell. Was Karios taught to fight by a Carnissian knight? He definitely didn’t fight like one, but he very well could manage to fight Luchs, who was one of the best in the royal ranks.

“What exactly did you think to accomplish by joining the hunting parties?” Aria asked.

“I wanted to find you, and protect you,” came the knight’s simple reply.

“And then?” Aria’s question was met with silence. The princess sighed. “Carnissia isn’t safe, Luchs, we know that. What was your plan after finding me and somehow getting me away from the search parties?”

“Find you and protect you…” Luchs repeated, her voice soft once again. “We’d find some place far enough away to hide until things calmed down and the Forgerosi presence left Carnissia.”

“Which we both know isn’t happening, especially now that they know Aria is alive and on the run,” Karios said.

“I know that!” Luchs hissed, glaring at the man. “So what now? Wait, Aria? Princess, you let them-?”

“Yes, Luchs I let them call me that, it’s much faster that way,” Aria assured.

“Right, fine,” Luchs nodded, glancing at the men and back to the princess. She turned to Karios. “What’s the plan from here then? Continue attacking Forgerosi in Carnissian’s frontier?

“No, we move south,” Aria answered, and confused red eyes found her. “We don’t have much strength between the five of us to take back our home. We definitely don’t have any way to tell which Carnissians are still loyal to the royal family either. What we can do is go to Ormain and appeal to their leader.”

“You want to make an appeal for support from King Denatur?” Luchs asked. “Princess, we do not have a good rapport with him or his followers. Ormain will send us back empty-handed.”

“My father did not have a good rapport with him,” Aria corrected, trying to ignore Karios’s smirk. “I am not my father. I will do what I can to help his kingdom, make whatever promise I can, and have his help to take back our home!”

“We can’t do that tonight,” Roark said suddenly from the side, where he tended to his brother. Levin wasn’t bleeding, thankfully, but he was subjected to a haymaker to the stomach after he managed to grab Luch’s blade. He shot a glare at the knight before continuing. “Levin’s exhausted and hurt.”

“Levin, can you walk?” Karios asked, his voice calm as he watched the ponytailed twin slowly rise to his feet and hand the heavy blade to Roark to hold. “We should move. Still too close to town and I’m sure no one from Bantai wants to see a Carnissian soldier right now.”

“Bantai still had some stragglers,” Luchs said, looking in the direction of the town. “You sure we shouldn’t go back and clean up?”

“Bantai has the largest militia of the three southeast towns we’ve visited,” Karios answered as he looked forward into the dense forest. “Lot of washed out knights and veterans. All we were doing was giving them time to regroup. Bantai stands just fine without us now.”

“Fine,” Luchs accepted with a nod. “Lead on.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Hey, Aria,” Roark caught up to the princess as they walked. Levin was just behind them, still catching his breath. Luchs and Karios were just ahead, scouting and arguing as they moved. “I wanted to ask. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Aria answered swiftly. “My head no longer hurts.”

“Not that, I meant back in town,” Roark shook his head. “The fight.”

“Yes, I… I did well, did I not?” Aria smiled at the boy. “I used my Light!”

“Right,” Roark nodded, his smile uncharacteristically small. “You did kill one of them yourself, you know.”

Aria stumbled as she recalled the fight. She stabbed one in the shoulder, yes, but she recalled Roark being the one to finish them off. The others she simply distracted with more bricks and debris thrown their way while Roark did most of the damage. Then there was the first brick she threw.

“The one with the brick lodged in his helmet,” Roark said, as though he read her mind. “He didn’t move after that, I checked. That was you.”

“I… oh,” Aria’s steps came to a stop. “I-I mean, I only threw the brick to stop him, surely you—?”

“That was you,” Roark assured, cutting her off. “So again, are you okay?”

Aria looked ahead and realized the group had stopped moving. Levin had reached the two, putting a hand on the princess’s arm. Luchs and Karios were looking back, having caught the conversation. Luchs made to approach before Karios grabbed her arm and shook his head.

“Aria?” Roark’s voice was both so close and so far as the scene replayed in her head. How the Forgerosi soldier was running at her, blade at the ready, how Karios’s lessons taught her that her knife wouldn’t be effective in that fight, since there was more than one enemy. Plus, she was eager to keep using her Light. She protected herself. Yes, she protected herself. Roark hadn’t intervened, Karios wasn’t there to distract the knights. Aria defended herself. She took a deep breath and looked at Roark.

“I’m fine,” She said with finality, swallowing the uncertainty that rose with her lack of experience. “If I hadn’t acted, the knights would have taken me. I’m glad I did it.”

“You’re glad?” Levin asked, his voice soft and his green eyes looking into Aria’s as though searching for something.

“Glad I survived the fight, glad I defended myself,” Aria nodded. “I-I don’t like that the knight had to die, but it is better than the alternative, correct?” Levin’s searching gaze relaxed into a proper smile that Roark echoed. Luchs seemed to relax, turning to look at Karios, who simply shrugged.

“I didn’t teach her that,” he said. “The princess is pretty damn smart.”

The troupe continued on until the group found another clearing to set up camp. The tent Roark bought in Gaoal fit two at best, and with Luchs wearing such bulky armor, it would be difficult to simply store it while she rested. Both Karios and Luchs opted to sleep outside, offering to alternate watch during the night. Levin and Roark got to setting up the tent, while Aria found herself in one of Karios’s lessons.

“So I hear you used your Light at Bantai,” Karios noted aloud. “How’d it feel?”

“It was… good,” Aria answered. “After the first time I threw the stone with Roark, I started to understand what I needed.”

“And that was?”

“Concentration and intent,” Aria nodded, and it was true during the fight. Aria had taken Luch’s disbelief at that moment in Bantai to focus her mind on the nearby bricks, just as she had with the stone outside the town. Once she managed to lift and throw one, the other bricks followed easily.

“Interesting,” Karios nodded. “That’s helpful. We don’t have any ranged weapons among us. Luchs, you’ve known Aria the longest. Is combat something she trained her Light in?”

“No,” Luchs shook her head, her wry smile aimed at the princess. “If I recall, she learned healing and how to lift small objects. Not much else.”

“Because it was always breathing exercises and meditation!” Aria whined. “Then they’d make me heal a shallow papercut or lift feathers and books. Very dainty things.”

“They trained you for peace in a time of conflict,” Karios scoffed. “Typical.”

“She wasn’t supposed to be a part of the conflict,” Luchs growled, rising to her feet.

“She’s the heiress to the Carnissian Empire,” Karios stood, meeting the knight’s glare. “She was going to be dragged in sooner or later.” Red eyes met blue in a brief clash before Aria cleared her throat.

“What is your lesson, Karios?” Aria asked pointedly.

“I want to see what limit your Light power is right now,” he answered, ignoring Luch’s withering glare. “Obviously, you can lift a brick.” He unlatched his sword in its black leather sheath from his belt, but held it with a closed fist. “Can you take my sword?”

Aria took a deep breath and moved towards the weapon, examining it. It was about as long as her arm, but less than half of Luch’s greatsword. Karios’s fist, at closer inspection, was closed lightly. The bricks did not have any resistance, they were sitting on the ground. The stone had left Roark’s hand when he threw it, and Aria grasped at it with her Light in a panic. This time, she had to take his grip into consideration. The princess raised her hand, willing Light to her fingers as she did before.

Karios felt nothing at first, other than slight warmth as Light slowly covered his sheathed blade. He didn’t tighten his grip, not yet. He could see Aria’s eyes were fixed on her task as she tried to move his blade, her palm facing him. She pushed outward, and he felt his blade get lightly pushed to his body. Her hand moved left and right, the blade followed ever so slightly. She pulled her hand back, palm still open. Nothing.

“What’s wrong?” Luchs asked, her eyes on the Princess.

“I… I can feel the sword move when I push it forward and to the sides, but it doesn’t follow when I pull my arm back,” Aria answered, her gaze still focused on her task. “I’m just thinking pull over and over again but it’s not working.”

“Then pull,” Levin said, from behind, approaching from the finished tent, where Roark was already lazing, both their weapons on the inside of the shelter. “I do the same with my Wind.”

Aria watched Levin throw a lazy hand out, causing a small green wave to shoot forwards into the forest. Before she could say anything, the axe-wielder followed it with his other hand starting extended in front of him and with a swift pulling motion, summoned another green wave that curved back towards him. The princess’s eyes widened as she realized again that she was not the only Blessed in the group.

“Luchs, do you have anything similar?” Aria asked, her eyes alight with curiosity. The knight simply nodded, starting with a similar lazy push outwards that shot a weak burst of fire out in front of her. However, her next move was an uppercut that summoned a small pillar of flames that followed her punch’s trajectory upwards. Aria turned to Karios, who simply shook his head.

“I don’t have anything like that,” he chuckled softly, though another glare from Luchs seemed to make Aria think otherwise. Was Karios a Blessed, with an elemental gift passed down from the stars? He never made much mention of it, nor did he seem to use any ability in combat in the times she saw him. His eyes were blue, though. Not as bright a blue as the Lusinarians, whose ambassadors practice Frost, Karios’s had dark depths to his blue, though Aria swore she’d seen many common people with such eye color. “Now,” the swordsman regained her attention. “Pull.”

Aria shook her head and regained her bearings, the Light around Karios’s blade returning with her enthusiasm. She tried a yanking motion, like Levin, to no avail. Karios shook his head, the blade hadn’t moved. The princess tried to copy Luch’s uppercut, rendering the same result, although Levin thought her attempt quite funny.

“Breathe, Princess,” Luchs urged calmly. “It’s not a strike, and it’s not a wave. Focus on what you need to happen.” Aria nodded, beginning to feel the sweat build up on her forehead. She flexed her Light-covered hand once before slowly closing it into a fist and, taking a deep breath, slowly pulled.

Karios looked down at his hand as he definitely felt a force beyond him begin to tug his weapon towards the Carnissian princess. It was absolutely there, but not quite enough to relinquish his hold. He gave the princess a curt nod to show he felt her. “Good, but it’s still in my grip.”

Aria took another deep breath, really looking at the blade again. Gritting her teeth, she willed more Light to her grasp, causing both her hand and the blade to grow brighter. “Grmph,” she grunted, feeling the resistance in Karios grip. Gold eyes met stormy blue. Aria’s fist closed once more as she pulled towards her body as she would opening a door. It was like she was standing in a river, with a rock sitting in the middle, splitting the stream. The rock wasn’t locked into the ground, though, as she poured more water into the river. More Light, more force to push the rock aside and let the water flow. More water, more Light! The princess let out a fierce “Grah!” and pulled once more with such fervor that the blade flew out of Karios’s grip and right at her, smacking her square in the chest. A beat passed as the four Blessed looked at the sword on the ground.

“I did it!” Aria cheered! “I pulled it!”

“Well done, Princess,” Luchs smiled proudly. Levin clapped softly in agreement.

“Karios, I can do this!” Aria beamed at the swordsman, who nodded and picked up his sword once more and held it in his grip.

“Good,” the blue-eyed man replied. “We’ll be needing your Light to be stronger if we’re going to survive all this. You ready to keep going?” The Carnissian looked at her mentor, the rogue swordsman, her childhood friend and guardian knight, and the two brothers who poured everything into what they did.

“Ready!”