Chương 37: People Change

"My circumstances?" she asked, her right hand reaching for the other. The priest was rubbing his eyebrows as Alexandra waited for him to speak.

"Miss Alexandra," Bamir started.

"I haven't been honest with you. For that I apologize" He looked up.

"We both know what I'm talking about. You're not truly amnesic." She stared.

"Your divine class marks you as someone summoned by the Seven. A heroine, like the Saint." Alexandra opened her mouth to deny his claims, but no sound came out.

"I must confess that I've reported your existence to my hierarchy, as dictated by the rules of my order," Bamir continued, his voice flat. She took a deep breath.

"I see. Why are you telling me that?" He hesitated.

"I believe it is right."

"Won't you get in trouble?" Bamir shook his head.

"I shouldn't. The Saint has ordered that we should treat you like we would anyone else." Alexandra frowned.

"Did he? Have you told him my name? Described my appearance?"

"I did, and that was his answer." Her frown deepened. Did Hakim forget about her? A century was a long time. She couldn't quite wrap her head around it. Maybe…

"Can you tell me the names of all seven heroes, then?" The healer nodded.

"There's Saint Hakim, which you've already heard of. Then, we have Aaron Loew, who leads the Wardens. Jenna Marl, Raymond Ludval, Arthur Patin, Jade Akkan, and…"

"Lila—" Bamir's eyes went wide. He clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Don't say her name." He retracted his hand.

"Apologies, but the Grand Legate forbids her name to be spoken, and somehow, she has a way to detect when it happens. Trust me, you don't want the Architects to come knocking." Alexandra's mind was blank. She didn't know what to think. First, those were indeed the names of her old guildmates. At this point, she couldn't delude herself into thinking it was a coincidence. Yet, Hakim had decided not to help her. He had to know it was her. If she could make the connection, so could the others. Why not?

She remembered their time together fondly. Of course, not everything had been perfect, but she didn't think they would turn against her. Then again, Lila's name being forbidden, Bamir's look of fear when she almost spoke her name… She groaned.

"I don't know what your relationship with the heroes was a hundred years ago," Bamir said, his voice soft.

"But now, they are not people you can afford to provoke." Alexandra nodded. He was right. She had to take things slowly, figure things out before throwing herself at them.

"How did you find out about me?" Bamir nodded.

"Good question. It's something else you should be wary of. We followers of the Seven have special classes. We can sense the touch of the gods on others. But unlike us you were blessed by all seven gods. That only happens when a hero is summoned."

"So every member of a holy order will know…"

"Unless you develop a skill to obfuscate the gods' signature." She clicked her tongue. So the branch leader of the Hands, Arame, already knew who she was. No wonder she let her go so easily. Then again, with her white hair, her scars, and her missing finger, she probably hadn't needed more to recognize her from Bamir's reports.

"And how do you expect the other orders to react to my existence?" she asked.

"I don't think I can keep it a secret for long." Hakim's indifference might not be the worst thing that happened to her, after all. Bamir grimaced, all but confirming her fears.

"I can't say for sure. But I believe you should avoid detection for as long as possible. Regardless of the heroes' stance, their subordinates will see you as a threat, or an opportunity to latch onto. Much like I was rewarded for my report, others might want the boons that may come with your discovery, or capture, or…"

"I understand." Alexandra interrupted. She looked at the window. Louis told her there was no real Warden here. She should be fine. Bamir answered what he could, which wasn't much. Common knowledge on the order, a rough idea of what each of them did, and the reputation of their leader. She stood.

"Thank you. For telling me." This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Bamir rose with her.

"I apologize once again for deceiving you." She waved it away.

"No harm done." Lara sat on the fence near the fields, kicking her heels against it. Therion stood a few feet off with his arms crossed, watching the road. He turned when the door opened. Lara jumped down.

"Well?"

"We're good." Alexandra picked up her pack from where she'd left it against the wall. She slung it over one shoulder and looked at them both.

"I need to move."

"Now?" Lara said.

"Now. Marick doesn't want me here." Therion uncrossed his arms.

"It's night." Alexandra shrugged.

"I'll be fine. You'll hear from me when the Yshant's dead."

"You're not…" She smiled.

"Because I'll be the one slaying it." Lara chewed the inside of her cheek. She looked at her face, then at the road behind her.

"You're not coming back through here, are you?"

"Wait for news," she said.

"It won't be long." She gripped Lara's shoulder once, firm, then let go. She met Therion's eyes.

"Keep her out of trouble."

"Debatable which of us needs that more," Lara said. Alexandra almost smiled. She left them at the house and walked the main path to the village edge. The south bound path stretched before her. The plains started where the last fence ended. The grass was long and pale, bent sideways by a wind that hadn't let up since yesterday. In the darkness, all the flowers had the same grey color. She didn't look back, and started running.

She ran faster, with an intensity that made it seem like she hadn't spent the entire day fighting. Her muscles ached, she didn't care, she didn't think about them. Imagining her friends as the heads of powerful holy orders was hard enough, now she had to wrap her head around them having changed beyond recognition. Faster. There was nothing she could do about it at the moment. Neither about her guildmates, nor about the danger she was in.

What better way to deal with an unsolvable problem but to stop thinking about it? Perhaps there were plenty, but that was what she would do. Instead, she turned her attention to more pressing matters. She had completed the secondary objective of the Yshant event quest, and by quite the margin too. The quest originally asked for three beasts. She killed more. Though not all of them had been enthralled by the Yshant. As for her daily, she needed to hurry.

Maybe she could have found Mira and talked to her, but she owed it to Marick and the others not to cause a ruckus. If she ran fast enough, she would reach Esmera in a few hours, long before the reset. Finding someone to talk to shouldn't be that complicated. She was going to crash at Louis' anyway. She had been running for two hours when the thought surfaced. Running was getting easier and easier with each point of constitution. At this rate, she would be able to attempt the skill quest soon.

Running one hundred kilometers was never going to be a walk in the park, but it had turned from some impossible task to something she believed she could manage. She pushed her pace. The grass blurred at the edges of her vision. A running skill made sense. Even more so after the Gallowbloom. Had she ran faster, she could have avoided the fight altogether. Granted, it ended up favoring her, but it'd been a little too close for comfort. Esmera emerged from the dark in pieces.

First the torchlight on the ramparts, orange and distant. Then the walls themselves, white stone rising clean against the sky. Behind it, the sea, pitch black, inscrutable. She could hear the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. The gate tower was broad and undecorated. Functional. The gates below it were shut. She slowed to a stop in front of them. Closed. No light in the gatehouse window.

"Shit." She looked up at the walls, then at the bell rope, then at the gates. She rang it. The wait was long enough that she considered ringing again. Before she could, a light appeared in the gatehouse window, and boots came down stairs on the other side, unhurried. The postern door opened. The man who filled it was broad across the shoulders, grey at the temples. He held a lantern at chest height. His cloak was pinned at the left shoulder with a clasp she recognized, an eye. She'd seen it in Louis' letters.

On the seal of every official Warden correspondence stacked on his desk. She kept her face neutral.

"Gates are closed," the man said.

"I can see that. Can you let me in?" He looked at her. The lantern came up slightly. Her hood had shifted during the run and she hadn't fixed it. White hair at the temple, the scars that ran from her jaw toward her eyes. Something moved behind his eyes.

"Entry after dark requires a resident permit or a Warden escort," he said.

"You have either?"

"I have a friend in the city. He'll vouch for me."

"In the morning he can." She held the man's gaze.

"You're going to let me spend the night outside?"

"Yes." He said it without apology.

"I don't care." She looked past him at the dark gap of the postern door, the courtyard stones beyond it, the city she could not reach. Her jaw tightened.

"Please."

"Name?" the man asked. He had produced a small ledger from somewhere. She looked at it.

"Why?"

"Anyone who requests entry after dark gets logged." His pen was already out.

"Name."

"Alexandra." He wrote it without reacting.

"Family name."

"Ward," she answered. He looked up at that. The lantern light caught the clasp on his cloak again, iron-dull, unmistakable.

"So…" she started. He closed the ledger.

"Come back at first light," he said.

"Gates open at first light." He stepped back inside. The postern door shut. She stood in front of the white walls and looked up at them. Smooth stone, well-maintained, no handholds. The rampart torches were spaced wide but not wide enough to sneak in between. She stepped back, and summoned her journal.

"That asshole was good for something, at least." Talk to five people (5/5) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 INT Daily Quest Streak: 10 -> 11 She smiled. Another day, another daily quest completed. She'd half-expected a social skill quest to come with it, but it seemed it was too much to ask for such a simple quest. Alexandra dispelled her journal, and turned her gaze back to the walls. They were standing between her and a good night's sleep, and a good night's sleep was what she needed for tomorrow's daily.

Wall or not, she was going in.