Broken Soul

Geron

After Michael had concluded his stories, Geron left the group and went upstairs, promising to take care of Sola. He looked for the room with her name on it and knocked.

"Sola, are you okay?"

After a moment of silence, he could hear her voice from inside. She sounded shaky. "No, I am not okay."

"May I come in?" Geron asked through the door.

"Do what you want."

He opened the door and took a look at her room, it didn't look too different from the other ones, and she hadn't added any kind of decoration, except an Idas sun standing next to the window. He found Sola lying on her bed, her face buried in her pillow. He had never seen her like this. She was often dramatic, but not like this. In this moment, he remembered that she was even younger than he was, with only twenty-two.

Geron sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed. They stayed there in silence for a while, Geron thinking about what he could say.

"I know this is difficult for you," he finally said. "Kiran doesn't strike me as a bad person, though, and I have seen criminal mages before."

"Oh, what do you know?" Sola spun around in her bed and stared at him. "Mages are dangerous, everybody knows that, so why does Michael always bring the most dangerous people into his service?"

"Like Eydis? No one cared about my objections to that one, and it turned out that I was wrong," Geron replied.

"That was different. Mages are much more dangerous," Sola argued, but Geron could feel that she knew that her argument was very shaky.

"He doesn't seem dangerous. I know you have been taught differently, but don't you ever think that the things you have been taught are not always correct?" Geron tried to be empathetic, but it wasn't his strong suit.

"What are you implying? That the church is wrong," she snapped.

He sat there looking into her beautiful eyes, her anger not deterring him in the slightest. He kept completely calm. He knew that getting heated would not help but rather hurt the situation. Sola relaxed again after a moment of silence.

"I am sorry, I shouldn't snap at you. It is just that I can't understand why Michael would need another magic teacher. Am I not good enough?" she looked away from him with shame.

So, this is what this is really about, Sola was never a superstitious person to the degree of unfounded hatred, Geron thought. "I know what you mean. I felt similar when he allowed Eydis to take part in the training. I am still a little annoyed about it, to be honest, but I see the merit now. Since he started training with both of us, Michael has become more flexible in his movements and thoughts. Eydis has taught him things that I never could, and I respect her."

Geron saw that it didn't convince her, so he pulled out his trump card, "You know why Michael wants him to be here and teach him?"

She suddenly looked at him with a mix of interest and fear in her eyes as she shook her head.

"Kiran helped him through his casting blockade," Geron said, and let that sink in with the priestess. She immediately sat up and faced him. "He can use phrase casting?" She sounded so excited and happy that Geron couldn't help but smile.

"Yes, he wanted to show you later, so please act surprised once he does. I know I don't really need to tell you that, but also please show him that you are proud, he has been excited to show you the whole way back."

She smiled broadly, but the smile slowly vanished from her face, and she turned to sit next to him, "So he is better than me."

Geron awkwardly laid an arm around her shoulder. She looked at him, surprised for a moment, before she scooted closer. "That guy has like fifty or sixty years of experience on you, and as far as I know, he has had many students before. I am sure once you are an old hag, you will be better than him in all aspects."

She gasped and hit him in the ribs, "You asshole, I will never be an old hag."

He laughed, and she quickly joined in. They stayed like this until Sola spoke again, "I missed you." She was red as a tomato and avoided his gaze.

Geron looked at the embarrassed woman with a warm expression and answered, "I missed you too, Sola."

Eydis

The horse looked at Eydis as she took the saddle off its back. Eydis smiled while putting it away and began to groom the horse that had carried her all the way back here. She had volunteered to take care of the horses. It was peaceful working with animals. They didn't talk and were, oftentimes, more reasonable than people. Her peace and quiet was quickly disturbed when Solon left the house and walked over to her.

"Do you want company?" he asked with a warm smile. She liked the dwarf. He reminded Eydis of the elders in her village.

She nodded at him, and he sat down next to the saddle and inspected it for damage. "How did you like the capital?"

She stopped her grooming and looked at the dwarf inquisitively. He just continued inspecting the saddle while looking up at her periodically to see if she wanted to sign anything, which she did after a short while. "Are you here to keep me company, or are you here to question me?"

"A little of both, perhaps," he replied calmly. His eyes now focused on her.

She thought about his question for a moment before she answered, "I would rather burn it to the ground than live there. No one cares for their neighbors, and it is dirty. Everything people do in that city is struggle and scheme. I felt more alone there than I ever had, even though there were thousands of people around me."

"You will have to deal with that frequently in the years to come, you know that, right?"

Eydis nodded, and Solon laid down the saddle to focus on her entirely. "So why did you come back?" She stared at the dwarf, not understanding what he was talking about. "What is your goal? Your motivation? Why are you still here? It would have been easy for you to slip away on the road."

"Are you accusing me of something?" she signed at him, narrowing her eyes. Solon shook his head, his expression an image of neutrality. It looked like he was talking about the weather. "I am not accusing you of anything, but I want to know what is going on inside of you. I think you are a really good influence on Michael, but I can't risk you putting him in jeopardy by having a hidden agenda."

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"And what kind of agenda would that be?"

"Maybe something like getting close to Lord Grim or his family to take revenge on them for everything that happened to you," Solon suggested.

"It was war, these things happen." Eydis couldn't deny that she had thought about it.

"Your people raided the kingdom, and they raided back, so you conclude that they deserved what happened. That part makes sense, but did you deserve what happened to you?"

She sucked in air sharply and stared at him menacingly. "Stop now."

"Did you deserve it?"

"Of course, I didn't," she growled while signing. She had successfully pushed the memories down and didn't appreciate them being forcefully dragged to the surface.

"So, when you are face to face with those that hurt you, will you put your revenge first or your commitment to Michael?"

An image of the grinning men who had cut out her tongue appeared in front of her mind's eye, and hatred filled her consciousness. She wanted to scream, rip their guts out, and grin down at their dying bodies.

The heat died down as fast as it had come as Eydis smiled at the dwarf. "Why lose another home for revenge? I will gladly rip those who have wronged me apart, and I will do so with a smile if I ever get the chance, but I will not risk everything I have now. Maybe I will change my mind in the future, but for now I want to remain here."

Solon smiled back and said, "That is everything I wanted to hear."

Kiran

Kiran sat on his new bed, lost in thought. He wondered if he had chosen correctly in the village. Now that he was here in the open, there would be no going back. He was concerned about the priestess, even though she didn't try to murder or report him immediately, he didn't trust her not to change her mind.

As if on cue, a knock dragged him out of his thoughts. "Come in." The door opened, and the priestess entered the room. Her expression was much calmer than it had been before, but he could still see a certain tension in her movements.

"How can I help you, sister?" He tried to stay polite. It would only make things harder for him if he let his animosity toward the church seep through to the woman.

"I wanted to thank you for helping Michael overcome his blockade. ... I also wanted to apologize for the outburst from before." Her voice sounded stiff, as if she had prepared every word she was saying, but Kiran could feel that she was honest.

"There is nothing to be sorry about. I don't like the church because they hunt people like me, and you don't like mages because that is what you are taught and because of what our ancestors did." Kiran tried to keep his emotions in check, but his answer sounded as rigid as her apology.

"I thought it would be proper to apologize anyway." She didn't seem like she would back down from her apology, so he simply accepted it, even though he didn't think it was necessary.

"I accept your apology." Kiran thought for a moment and then continued, "We will probably never be friends, sister. We both know that, but we follow a similar goal, to teach Michael. So, I hope we can push our differences aside at least when it comes to Michael."

"That is all I want. For him to be safe and as strong as possible." Her gaze betrayed that she thought of him as a danger to Michael's safety.

He chuckled, "Then we have the same goal, priestess. Maybe we can even learn something from the other."

"Maybe," she said, clearly not convinced, and wished him goodbye before she left his room, leaving him to his thoughts.

Kiran smiled and said to himself, "You remind me of someone. Maybe you are not that bad."

Michael

Michael had made his way to Reen Castle after recovering a little in his new home. Eydis and Michael walked through the hallways, on their way to his father's study. Michael expected his brother to be taking care of business from there.

The castle was mostly empty as they walked through it. When they crossed a hallway juncture, a squeaky voice sounded from the side. "Michael!" He turned his head and could see his younger brother Jona charging at him with open arms. His nanny was struggling to keep up.

"Hey there, little man," Michael said with a smile and received the four-year-old in his arms. "Wow, you have become so big. You will soon be as tall as Father if you keep growing like this."

The small boy grinned as Michael looked at him from top to bottom.

"Do you want to play?" the boy asked Michael. He looked at him with puppy eyes, and it was hard for Michael to refuse him. "I am sorry, Jona. I don't have time right now, maybe another time."

"You never have time to play anymore," Jona pouts dramatically.

"I am sorry, but I have been really busy lately. I promise I will try to make time, okay?" Michael smiled apologetically. This seemed to placate the small boy, and he began to smile again. "What are you doing now?"

"I have some business here. It is probably boring."

"Oh, okay then see you later," Jona said and ran away happily. The nanny groaned and followed him as quickly as she could.

Michael shook his head with a smile and kept going to his father's study. Once he arrived there, he found Sir Zeke Tomp in front of the door, standing guard.

He looked at Michael and bowed respectfully, "Milord, you have returned? We didn't get any notice that you would arrive so soon."

"I separated from the family in the capital and came back alone," Michael explained. Sir Zeke instantly tensed up and asked, "Did anything happen, Milord?"

Michael tried to wave the misunderstanding away and quickly said, "Oh no. I just had something to do. Everything is fine."

Sir Zeke relaxed again, and Michael asked, "My brother is inside?" The knight nodded and opened the door for him. Eydis waited outside while Michael entered.

Matthias was sitting on their father's table rubbing his eyes as he was surrounded by reports. He raised his head at the sound of Michael entering, and his expression lightened up immediately. "You are back!"

Michael raised his hand and quickly clarified, "Only me, the rest of the family is visiting Duke Wallsten." Matthias looked disappointed at this information, so Michael followed up, "What? You are not happy to have your brother back?"

"Of course, I am happy to have you back, but this administrative stuff is draining me of every ounce of energy," Matthias said with a weak smile. He did look exhausted, so much so that Michael was concerned. "Let me help then, I can tell you about my stay in the capital while we work."

Matthias chuckled and replied, "This is complicated stuff, I don't know if you ..." he stopped mid-sentence before he tried again. "I forgot that you are not like the others. I would love your help."

Matthias got a chair for him, and they started to work. The table was filled with reports, complaints, and requests; the first thing Michael did was separate them into these categories for better organization. He then read over them and decided on their importance, giving the more important ones to Matthias to read and answer while laying the less important ones aside for later processing.

They worked for hours like this, Michael spoke about the capital and the new friends he had found there, while Matthias told him about what had happened in Reen while he was gone. It was quite idyllic, and the hours melted away, at least for Michael, and soon the sky had darkened, and the night was upon them.

Matthias leaned back and stretched himself over his chair. "I will never understand how you have so much energy for stuff like this." Michael looked up from the letter he was currently reading, "Well, you most certainly don't, this letter must have been lying here for at least a week."

"We made more progress in these couple of hours than I did in the past days," Matthias grumbled.

"Why didn't you get someone to help you with this? Having someone skim over the papers first helps tremendously."

Matthias sighed and stood up. "I wanted to show that I don't need any help doing my future tasks, I guess."

Michael put down the letter and walked next to his brother, who was now standing in front of the window, staring at the town below. "It is not your job to do everything alone as a lord. You just carry the responsibility to get things done. A lord who is good at delegating tasks to the right people will always be more successful than one who is good at doing everything himself. You just can't be everywhere, Matthias."

He could see Matthias smiling out of the corner of his eye. "You know that I am the older brother, right? I am the one who is supposed to give you advice."

Michael simply chuckled, and Matthias continued with a more somber tone, "Sometimes I do wonder who is the more suitable of the two of us. Everything seems to come so easily to you, and I struggle with most aspects of my duty." He didn't sound accusatory, much more disappointed in himself, and lost in thought.

"Matthias, you have qualities I do not. You are charismatic and loved by the people. I will be by your side the whole way and make sure to help you with everything I can so that you can be the best ruler you possibly can be." Matthias turned toward his younger brother and looked him in his determined eyes.

He smiled, "I am glad to have you by my side, Michael. I will make sure to better myself so that I can live up to your expectations."

"That is everything we can do. Be the best version of ourselves."

They gazed at the town below them in companionable silence, and Michael smiled.

One day we will stand here again, side by side, but it won't be just as brothers.