Chapter 5.

*The family was gathered around the dining table, a feast laid out in honor of Harvestfall. My father stood up and gave his prayers, passing around the candle counter-clockwise to the rest of my kin. I, being only four, was too young to participate yet, so I entertained myself by talking to Eldrazi in my head. The candle had been passed around three times when I started laughing despite myself, and to this day, I will never know how no one saw my fangs.

My outburst disturbed the ceremony, and everyone looked at me. "What about this do you find funny?" my uncle had asked.

I looked around at everyone, my eyes finally settling on my mother's fearful face. "Nothing," I said. "Eldrazi just said something funny in my head." I was young then, and had forgotten the first rule of survival: Never tell anyone about Eldrazi. I immediately realized my mistake, and held my breath, waiting for everything to go wrong.

My father awkwardly laughed, but as no one else could sense his emotions, it all seemed rather normal to them. "Eldrazi's his imaginary friend. You'd be surprised how often this happens." It was the first lie I had ever heard, and I was amazed at how well it worked. Everyone just nodded, and continued on. Lies and secrets were what saved me then, and it is perhaps where my talents for it began.*

⛤

"So what are we doing in your plan?" Gavin asked, trying to get back to the main point of the conversation.

"I told you what I thought earlier. The Inquisitors are focused in the South, so we avoid them. What do you think?"

"Well, if you're with me, then I suppose it's fine. Just prepare yourself to be chased... a lot," he warned. "But why are you so set on traveling the country? How are you actually planning on achieving your goals? If you want to convince everyone to let us live by changing laws and ideals that haven't been touched for hundreds of years, what are you doing to cause that?"

"Well, I guess I sort of saw it like your story, without the dying of course. We hide from the Inquisitors and spread our message. We help out others and show people that we're not awful."

By the Gods, was she naive! "Aeiln, that would be fantastic, if it would work. But people are so stuck in their ways, that they wouldn't even listen to a word we'd say, much less let us help them with anything. Years of hatred and killing..." He trailed, watching her face fall with the realization of his reality. A second more, and she could be entirely persuaded, so desperate she was. "Did Rowan really give you all these maps, and Inquisitors' locations, without telling you his idea?" He sighed for effect. Of course Rowan hadn't. It was his own plan, but he had never been powerful enough to do it himself. But with Aeiln's help, if she was as good at fighting as she hinted at, it could be possible.

"I-I... guess he did. And he told you instead?" she blinked at him, a slight look of confusion and hurt resting on her forehead.

He nodded without really answering her question. "So, there are these things called the Relics. Every empire has them; there are three in total, one for each obviously. If we could collect them," choosing to say collect instead of break in, steal, and run for their lives, "then we would get one wish from the gods. With their help, we might just be powerful enough to do anything. Stop the war, get equality. Anything."

"The Relics are real?" she wondered aloud. "I thought they were just stories... but of course Rowan would know." Her face was lighting up again, about to run away with this new idea.

*{3...2...1…}*

"Hey, you know... that could actually work! Did Eldrazi just say something?"

"Uhh.. no. I definitely would have heard him."

"Oh, okay. Well, when do you think we should get started?"

A smile crept up the left side of his face. "As soon as possible."

"Okay, then we'll leave tomorrow afternoon. You should head to bed and get some rest."

"All right. I'm guessing I'm using the same room?"

"Actually, you will be using a different room, so you'll want to follow me," she told him, standing up from her chair and beginning to head out to the hallway.

Continuing to walk down the seemingly never ending hallway, Aeiln suddenly turned and they went up a wooden spiral staircase. After getting to the top, she gestured to a door on her right, which he supposed would be his for the night.

"Why are there so many rooms if only three people live here?"

"Each room has different properties, and can serve a different purpose. In this one you can ask for anything, and the room will accommodate," she explained, holding open the door for him. "I thought it was only fair to give you the best one in the house, after having such a terrible room last night. Well, have a good night. See you tomorrow." With that, she turned to leave.

"Wait," Gavin flustered. "So, what room did I stay in last night?"

"Oh, just the one that feeds off demonic energy. Don't worry, it only takes a few years off the end of your life per night." She quickly turned and sauntered off, suppressing a giggle.

"WHAT!?"

*{She's kidding. Calm down.}*

Closing the door, he breathed a sigh of relief. He stopped and focused more on the task at hand. It was a mite too early for bed, but he could entertain himself. A smile spread across his face. "Anything I want, huh? Hey room..."

-A few requests later-

The room now looked like the one from his childhood, before everything had gone wrong, except that it was quite a few degrees hotter. He nearly laughed; he hadn't been there for so long. Removing his shirt and shifting, he flopped down onto the familiar soft bed. He lifted his head up off the pillow to find his face plastered with tears. He hadn't realized how much he had missed it. His old things, the memories they held. He almost asked the room if his family could be in there with him, but he knew that it would just be an illusion. That it would just make the pain worse. It would just be better not to ask at all, than to trick himself into thinking everything was fine. Instead, he put his head back down and went right to sleep, the tears of past joy becoming hard as he slept.

⛤

Gavin awoke with the feeling someone was watching him. Sitting up with a start, he glanced around the room wildly, taking hold of the knife he had left only inches away from his face. Are there Inquisitors? Where? He looked up to find Aeiln standing by his side and noticed that a small trail of drool had fallen from his under-lip in his sleep. Embarrassed, he wiped it away on the back of his hand, before asking, "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to wake you, but your eyes opened before I touched you. I can leave if you want. It was just that you said you wanted to leave early," came her instant reply.

"That's not what I meant. Just... were you watching me sleep?"

"No. I just came in. Are you ready to leave?" she asked. She tried to hide it, but Gavin could sense her excitement, like a child's during Yuletide.

Nodding, he grabbed his green tunic, pulling the fabric over his head and securing it with a brown leather belt. Together they headed back down the stairs and over to the kitchen table.

"I saw that you made your room look like a child's. Some of the things in there, the book shelves, the carved wooden toys... Was that what you wished you could have had?" Aeiln questioned, breaking the silence between them.

"Oh, no. That was my actual room, a long time ago," he blushed, surprised that she had mentioned it, and how hard it was to admit it. "Although the draft I chose to do without. It used to get so cold at night, enough to kill me if I wasn't wearing at least five blankets." Unfortunately for him, he was cold-blooded, and if he wasn't wearing enough he would freeze to death, especially in the winter. He remembered learning this the hard way when his brother broke his window with a snowball, and how his mother had tried to fix it, but it was never perfect again.

"Oh. It's just that I thought you didn't... I guess I just didn't realize how lucky you were."

*Lucky? I'm lucky? Toys and books mean nothing if your father is too afraid to play with you, and you're not allowed to go out and make friends.*

*{She probably just sees that you had something, while she dealt with whatever Fate had in store for her at that time.}*

*I don't know. It just seems as though playing with toys by yourself is more pathetic than not having them at all. Besides, look at this house. I'm sure her parents could afford toys.*

Aeiln laughed awkwardly, most likely trying to regain what she considered acceptable composure. "Okay, I'm sure you're hungry. You go eat, while I go pack a couple things. I'll catch up in a bit, so don't wait on me."

Gavin went to reply, but she had already left. Making his way over to the dining room he saw Rowan already there, his nose once again stuck in a book and the table already set with food. He pulled a wooden chair back and sat down, the chair sounding an ancient squeak, causing Rowan to look up at him, as if he had been so lost in the spell of written words that he failed to hear Gavin enter the room. He wondered what the book was about, and if he could read it. He hadn't read anything in years, and he wasn't exactly sure he still knew how.

"Good morning, Gavin. How are you?" he asked.

"Same as always, I guess," he acknowledged, grabbing a sandwich that was resting on a tray with its identical siblings. "You?"

"Eh, I'm fine. Just reading." Rowan explained, as if Gavin couldn't see that by the book in his hand. "Where's Aeiln?"

"She said she was going to pack a few things and would be here soon. What are you reading?" he asked, unable to get the book off his mind for some reason. As the title wasn't written in Common, or the one dialect of Demonican Eldrazi knew, he really couldn't read it, further increasing his interest. Apparently the ability to speak two languages and actually read them, were two completely different things.

He nodded in response. "Ah, makes sense. It's just that I haven't seen her all morning. As for this," he gestured to the red book, "it's a book on higher level Demon magik."

"Doesn't that come to you naturally?" Gavin mumbled through a mouthful of ham and bread, his mind trailing back to Aeiln and her free use of magik.

"Actually, we have to learn our power; except for Aeiln. She is obviously a special case. Her powers are far, far greater than mine will ever be, if one is to compare apples to oranges."

"Oh," Gavin stated, thinking about his ability to sense emotions. "The only magik I can use I've known all my life; not that it's very useful though." He sighed.

I'm offended! What do you mean, not very useful? And for your information, I did have to learn how to do that! You just got the knowledge for free when you were born, you ungrateful bastard, Eldrazi complained with feigned annoyance, as he always did.

Guess I am lucky... he sarcastically thought back.

"You know, while reading those books you gave her yesterday, Aeiln found a different way to 'achieve equality'," he mentioned casually, taking another bite.

"Oh?" Rowan asked, only half-paying attention.

"Yes, we came across the legend of the Relics. Being an ex-Inquisitor, you wouldn't happen to know anything about them, would you?"

A thud sounded at the end of the table as the book, forgotten, landed on the floor. "The Relics? The three Relics?" His spectacles were in danger of falling off his face in shock. "I mean, it's a more plausible idea. What am I saying? No, it really isn't, it's dangerous! But... it could work. It would work, that is, if you got them... But do you know how many have tried to steal them?" He put his face in his hands, sighing heavily. He continued, "No. It makes more sense this way. But, if you're serious about this, I'm going to teach you a few things for tomorrow onward. I'm not just going to let you two kill yourselves."

*Wait no. I don't want... I don't need teaching.* He especially didn't need to be delayed any more. "Well, we are to be leaving this afternoon. "

"This afternoon?" he practically shouted. "Absolutely not! I only just met you, and, while you are very interesting, I can't very well have you two go off without me, at the very least without making sure you can defend yourselves."

As Aeiln entered the room, Rowan stood up and left. But before he did, he brushed past Gavin's ear, whispering quickly, so low that even Gavin could barely make out the words, "Meet me in the training room when you are done. It's next to the library."

Aeiln sat down quietly, giving him a quizzical look. "What were you and Rowan talking about?"

He sighed, "He wants to make sure I can fight before we leave."

"What? Why? If he came up with this plan he should have already trusted that we were strong enough to do it. I'm so tired of him never telling me anything!" With fury, she grabbed Gavin's shoulder firmly, wrenching him from the seat, sandwich still in hand, and dragged him to the designated training room.

"Look, Rowan," Aeiln started angrily, kicking open the door and practically tossing Gavin into the room. "You want to spar with him so badly, then go ahead. Just don't kill him. He needs to be ready when we leave." With that, she dropped her grip on Gavin's shoulder, leaving the room to do Akasha knows what.

"... And here I was hoping that she would spar with us, that way I could see you two could work together. Oh well. I'm sure she'll be fine. You're the one I'm curious about anyway. So, if it is all right with you, let's start, shall we?" Rowan said, smirking, his reddish-orange eyes smiling through his thin glasses.