Aileen and her two saviors were safe, for now. Gwydion had only been after one person at the time: Aricin. Fortunately for Ty and Kia, they had been able to save Aileen unnoticed, but unfortunately for them, they had no idea what they were doing.
Kia had taken Aileen to a nearby patch of trees while Ty scanned the area for danger. In her exhaustion, Aileen took the liberty to rest while her newfound companions kept watch. After taking another clean sweep of the area, Ty poked his head back into the patch.
“Are we clear?” Kia asked.
“Crystal. He didn’t see us anyway, so there’s no reason for us to be followed.” Ty made an attempt to squeeze between two trees only to find that the gap wasn’t big enough, and he ended up on the ground.
“Clumsy,” she laughed and sat beside him.
“So do you mind telling me why we’re questioning the will of the most feared being on the galaxy? We were lucky that he didn’t notice us today.”
“We had to do something. Aricin is our friend.” Her midnight blue eyes looked to the sky. “I hope he’s alright.”
“Aricin? He can get through anything.”
“I still don’t understand. Why is Aricin so interested in this civilian and why did Gwydion attack Aricin? He’s served Gwydion loyally for over a century, so what provoked it? None of this makes sense.”
Ty looked at her sympathetically. “It makes more sense to you than it does to me. You’re the brains around here. Where’s the girl?”
“Asleep.”
“She trusts us too much. We don’t know each others’ names and she trusts us with her life.”
“You don’t think we’re the same way?”
His golden eyes gazed at Kia with interest. He had never known that Kia had doubts about their allegiance to Gwydion. “What do you mean?”
“Have you ever thought that maybe we’re on the wrong side? If Gwydion is willing to turn on his right-hand man, then either he’s too brash or Aricin provoked him in some way. If the latter is true, then, knowing Aricin, there had to be a good reason for it. We know Aricin very well, but how much have we ever known about Gwydion? Who should we trust?”
“This is hurting my head,” he sighed, pulling Kia closer to shield her from the cold. “You’ve really been thinking about this, haven’t you?”
“You haven’t?” Kia was able to relieve her discomfort a bit by playing with Ty’s dangling golden mane. It wasn’t new to him, and he said nothing of it.
“Not really.” Ty wrinkled his brow, his headache no longer a joke. “I could really use some Aricin’s endellion right now.”
“He still makes that stuff?”
“Makes it? He never goes anywhere without it a flask of it.”
They fell silent, content with sitting together under the whispering trees. A grim thought continued to hang over Kia’s mind, but she decided now was not a time to share it. She only hoped that everything would turn out alright in the end. The path they had chosen was not an easy one, and she often doubted their decision to join Gwydion. However, it was Ty who once told her, “We’ll see eternity someday. I could go through Hell and back as long as you’re there. It doesn’t matter what path we take as long as we have a purpose. As long as we have something to live for, eternity will always be just another second away.”
And, for a time, they actually believed some things could be so simple.
