Chapter 62: At Last (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ua_CArhyCX9kLEJ0ECrokHZANNphFzd1Sw6kb3zEqpA/edit?usp=sharing

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Cayden woke the next morning later than his normal time to knocking at his door.

“Coming, coming,” he mumbled as he pulled himself out of bed and tiredly threw a shirt on. He walked into the bathroom and splashed some water on his face before pulling open the door to his room.

Velic waited on the other side with a sheepish smile on his face, holding up a crumpled piece of paper.

“Sorry to wake you, but I thought you might want to see this,” he said. “It was on the front carpet when I came in this morning. It looks like it’s been there a while, and someone had stepped on it – it’s addressed to you.”

“Thanks,” Cayden said, accepting the paper. Sure enough, dirt in the pattern of the bottom of his boot was encrusted on the front of the paper above where his name was written – in his exhaustion, he must have missed it the previous evening.

He flipped the paper over, noting a fancy-looking but damaged seal holding the envelope closed, and looked up at Velic suspiciously. The way the seal was damaged didn’t seem as if it could have come solely from him stepping on it. Had his roommate tried to read his mail?

Velic innocently looked back at him and gave Cayden a sheepish smile when he noticed his stare. “Sorry, I’m just curious. I’ll leave you to it.” The elf turned and walked into his own room, leaving Cayden standing alone in the doorway between his room and the common area.

Staring at his roommate’s closed door, Cayden fully broke the seal and opened the envelope, pulling out and unfolding a single piece of paper. But as he turned his eyes to the note, any thoughts of his roommate were completely forgotten.

Cayden,

I have secured a time for you to meet with your sister. Meet me at the east market’s fountain at second bell on Dyneday.

Valeria

Cayden’s eyes widened, and he frantically dashed back into his room to pull on his shoes. Without having heard the bells ring out over the city, he didn’t know what time it was with any precision. But from the way the sun was shining through the window of his room, it had to be close to the second bell already, if not already passed. He’d visited the east market a few days earlier with Elise, but only the one time – he just hoped he remembered how to get there.

Thirty seconds later, he dashed from his dorm, uncaring of the shouts of alarm from the students he narrowly dodged in his haste. It was his chance to see his sister – if he missed it, he would never forgive himself.

He was forced to slow down somewhat as he speed-walked out of the gates of the academy and through the streets of the city. He was still in a rush, but drawing the ire of the guards would only slow him further. After moving for a few minutes towards where he remembered the market to be, he was forced to ask a passerby for directions.

Two gongs rang out over the city, marking the second bell, and Cayden breathed a sigh of relief. He was still late, but not nearly as late as he had been worried he was. Maintaining a brisk walking pace, he followed the directions given until he rounded a corner and found himself at a familiar square, a fountain with a large marble statue shooting water up in the middle.

It was still early in the morning on Dyneday, but many of the shopkeepers in the market never truly rested. Even now, the square was crowded with individuals and families enjoying the morning sun and browsing the wares of the shops on the edge of the square, and Cayden scanned the crowd in search of a familiar face.

He didn’t see his sister or Valeria, but he did recognize a large earth elemental on one edge of the fountain as one of Valeria’s bodyguards. He followed the gaze of the bodyguard to an area next to the fountain, and after edging around a gaggle of teenage girls standing in his way, he spied the princess. And next to her…

He saw Tiana.

He was ashamed to admit that he didn’t immediately recognize her. In his mind, she was still the skinny human girl who was ‘too cool’ for her big brother – he’d only had a day with her as a fateweaver before she had left for the capital. So it took a second before he registered the slightly taller girl with white hair and shining eyes as his sister. But when he did, he immediately started running.

As if feeling his gaze, Tiana turned and looked Cayden in the eye, and Cayden’s run slowed to a walk.

She had been so annoyed with Cayden’s presence in the months leading up to her departure, and she had barely written since then. What if she didn’t miss him? What if she had no desire to see him now, and only was here because the princess forced her? What if–

“Oof–”

Cayden had been training almost non-stop for the past year to fight all kinds of monsters, honing his instincts and reactions. Yet somehow, he was completely unable to respond as a missile in the form of a small girl impacted his stomach, her arms wrapped around him.

A smile, wider than any he could ever remember wearing, formed on his face as he hugged Tiana back.

He was finally reunited with his sister.

--

Valeria followed Tiana over to Cayden, but after telling them in a flat voice that they had an hour to spend, retreated to give them some space. Cayden wanted to complain – how could she put such a short time limit on their reunion? But he was unwilling to waste any of the limited time that they had.

“What have you been eating?” Tiana said after they finally disengaged from their hug and she dried her tears, poking Cayden’s grey-skinned forearm. “You look weird.”

Cayden chuckled, realizing that he hadn’t gotten his [Clawed Grasp] or [Skin of Stone] skills until after she had left. “Benefit of my race,” he said, pulling off a sheath to show off the claws on his left hand. “I explained in my letters. Did you not get them?”

And as if a switch had been flipped, Tiana’s happy smile disappeared, and she sighed.

“Yeah, yeah. It looks cool I guess, but not as cool as what I’ve been learning. Did you know there are five different major styles of dances that can be performed at balls with the nobility?”

That was what she said, and Cayden heard it just fine. But just behind those words, like an echo that didn’t quite sync up with her lips, he heard something completely different.

“I haven’t been getting your letters, at least not beyond the first one. I think the compound has been intercepting them. You were right to be suspicious.”

Cayden’s smile fell away, and his eyes narrowed as he stared at his sister.

“What–”

“Here, let me show you my favorite dance I’ve learned,” Tiana said, interrupting him. “Put your right hand on my side and we hold hands with your left. Actually, put your glove back on, first. I don’t want to get cut.”

“Act normal. This is one of my class skills, [Dual-Speak]. I don’t know who might be listening in, otherwise. You can’t talk back, unfortunately, so I’ll just be explaining and try to give you easy ways to respond.”

Cayden winced as he attempted to parse through the partially-overlapping words from his sister. Thankfully, his mind stat was high enough that he could keep track of both conversations at the same time, but only just. He would have to thank Elise later for insisting he invest in the stat.

“I’m not a very good dancer,” he said wryly. “So go slow.”

For the next twenty minutes, Elise explained in broad strokes her life within the fateweaver training compound. She told of both the good and the bad, laying out her experiences that led to her growing suspicions. Out loud, she guided Cayden through all five of the different dances, offering critiques and directions that allowed Cayden to nod and grunt as his response, letting him focus fully on Tiana’s [Dual-Speak]. He stepped on his sister’s toes more than anyone with his dexterity should have from some simple dances, but that was the least of his worries.

“And then this morning, out of the blue, I was told I would be spending the morning with the princess – outside of the compound for the first time in a year. And then after she shows up, she says we’ll be meeting up with you. And…that’s where I am now.”

Out loud, Tiana finished her instructions on the fifth dance by showing Cayden how to do a dip, which he managed to clumsily accomplish without dropping her. “What should we do next?” she asked.

Cayden glanced to the side where the princess was waiting. She was twenty yards away on the other side of the fountain, simply sitting on the stone edge and staring into the water. Apparently, she wasn’t recognizable as the princess, at least not enough that she was mobbed by citizens asking for favors or autographs or whatever people might ask someone famous for in this world. But she was still a beautiful girl sitting alone by a fountain, and even as he watched, a teenage boy, egged on by several of his friends, walked up to talk to her.

Before he could get close, the earth elemental bodyguard shifted in his stance a few yards away, immediately drawing the attention of everyone in the area. After an angry glare directed at the boy, he ran back to his friends with his tail tucked between his legs.

The princess didn’t even look up from the water, and Cayden watched for a few seconds more, double-checking that neither of them was paying close attention to him or Tiana.

“Want to go somewhere else? Explore the capital?” he suggested, hoping Tiana would pick up on his meaning.

“I’ve got to stay close to the princess, and we’ve only got half an hour left. I don’t think that’s enough time to see anything good in the capital.”

“They aren’t the only ones watching. Even if we got away, we wouldn’t be able to hide for long. Not if there are fateweavers searching for us.”

“I could show you some of my new skills? I’ve been delving a lot, recently, and I’ve gotten pretty strong.”

Tiana looked at Cayden skeptically. “Really? It’s only been a year. I bet you can’t do anything too impressive.”

“There’s no way you can fight. Not against these people. I don’t care what new skills you might have picked up, you wouldn’t have a chance against most of the people in the compound.”

Cayden bristled. He wanted to deny her words, to insist that he could protect them. But he couldn’t, not when they were working so hard to avoid alerting any potential listeners to their double-speak.

And also…was it true?

Tiana hadn’t seen how much time and effort he’d put into his growth. Sure, she’d seen the efforts he and Elise had gone through to unlock his tier-three skill. But that was nothing compared to the lengths he’d gone on some of his delves. Nothing compared to the amount of time he’d invested after quitting his job. She had no idea what Cayden was currently capable of.

But then, neither did he know what those in the compound were capable of. He’d so recently eaten a slice of humble pie in his match against a teenaged noble – after that, how arrogant would he have to be to insist that he was capable of taking on a fully-trained adult he’d never even seen?

So, without a response, Cayden just stood there. Eventually, he leaned forward and pulled Tiana into a hug. “...I don’t know what we should do.”

“We could keep doing this?” Tiana finally suggested. “Just hang out and enjoy…”

“...I don’t like it, but do we have to do anything?” her [Dual-Speak] echoed her words as she continued to talk. “It seems like someone in the compound is trying to isolate us fateweavers, but the princess must not be on board. She seems to be willing to keep letting us meet like this, and she has the authority in the compound to get away with it. All things considered, life in the compound isn’t that bad, and I’m sure they’ll let up on the restrictions eventually. Right?”

Cayden rubbed his face. Everything in his being revolted at the thought of simply doing nothing, of letting the status quo – a status quo he hated – continue. Of giving over control of his relationship with his sister to someone else, someone who he barely knew and didn’t trust.

But what else could he do? If he was honest with himself, he knew he wasn’t strong enough to fight their way free from anyone who might try and stop them. He wasn’t so prideful as to think he could withstand one of the elf bodyguard of the princess’ fiery attacks without injury, and from Tiana’s words, that would be but the least of their worries.

Tiana knew the situation so much better than him, and if her conclusion was that there was nothing they could do, then he would have to trust her judgment. And as long as he was able to spend time with his sister, it really wasn’t too bad.

Cayden clenched his fists, tight enough that his claws threatened the cut through the sheaths and into the palms of his hands.

There was no way Cayden was able to truly believe that, no matter how much he might repeat it to himself. But there was nothing else to be done, at least not at that moment. He wasn’t strong enough to protect his sister, to give her the safety that she deserved.

Taking a deep breath, Cayden relaxed his fists and smiled at Tiana.

Yet. He wasn’t strong enough – yet.

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Hopefully, the [Dual-Speak] wasn't too difficult to follow -- wasn't exactly sure how to best format it.