Rometo’s attention moved over to Aiden, pulling himself away from his own thoughts of whether Aiden believed what he had told him about his heritage or not.
The boy was alert, too alert. Whatever was bothering him now as they reached the summit of the hill and basked in the ugly beauty of the mountains ahead of them was more than just the watcher.
“Something’s wrong.” Aiden’s said, his attention still eerily fixed on the mountain like someone who knew that secrets were being kept from him.
He was studying it in that same way he studied everything he came across. It was different from how he studied Rometo, though. It was one of the things he did not like about the boy. The boy studied him as if he already knew him, as if he was trying to figure him out. The problem was that he wasn’t trying to figure out what Rometo could do but what Rometo was supposed to be able to do and which ones he could not do.
Like a teacher to a student they have expectations of.
No matter how different Aiden was from his peers, nothing justified a child looking at an adult in such a manner. Nothing allowed an adult to be alright with it.
“It’s too…calm,” Aiden added after a short moment, eyes still moving carefully. “Something’s going on, keeping it in place.” He was talking like a person who was solving a problem as he spoke. Rometo knew the kind, talking was part of their process. “There’s a working here.” Aiden came down from his jepat. Now he was turning his head, looking around, no longer focused on the range or the mountains before them. He took a step forward and to the side. “Something strong.” His frown deepened. “Old… maybe. Or new and strong.”
That was an interesting take. How did a boy as young as Aiden and of his level understand that there was a difference between old and strong and young and new when dealing with the unknown. Then again, how did Aiden know the things that he knew.
“Strong and old is always better than new and strong,” Rometo said, offering what little he could to help the boy figure it out because, in truth, he had no idea what the boy was talking about.
“The rocks are too tidy,” Aiden continued, as if he had not heard what Rometo had said. It was almost as if he was talking to himself. “Precise.”
He pointed at a small rock in the distance. Rometo focused on it and found it leaning one way, as if it would soon fall. On a normal day, he would not have paid it any mind.
“That one should’ve fallen off by now,” Aiden said in the same investigative voice, putting pieces together, “but it’s still there. Someone’s done something, a spell, an enchantment, something. I just can’t figure out how exactly or what it’s reach is.”
Aiden paused, his demeanor changing. It was the slightest hint that Rometo was impressed. If the Order trained the boy, only the gods knew what heights he would reach by the time he was a full member of the Order. Still, Rometo noted the fear only because he had been taught to notice it.
The young always slipped into fear when they were uncertain. The old too, but it was the flaw of the young. They slipped into fear and allowed it to consume them, clouding their judgement.
“Rometo.” Aiden looked at him. “You’re powerful and know a few things. Think you can sniff it out?”
The phrase ‘know a few things’ was just insulting when considering what he knew. Especially when Aiden seemed to have a vague idea of the scope of what he should know. Still, Rometo did not allow it to bother him. He was well accustomed to Aiden’s quiet hubris now. But the boy was not necessarily wrong. While he had the [Mana mastery] skill, spells were still things that easily went over his head.
Rometo shook his head. “Enchantments and spells are not really my forte.”
“You think it’s whatever’s following us?” Melvet asked.
Aiden shook his head with certainty.
“Could be a natural enchantment,” Valdan suggested. “You told me how you read that such things can be found in places that are vast and natural.”
That was interesting. The boy was even teaching the knight in matters of the knight’s own world. And the knight was listening.
If the knight is listening, I guess I should. Rometo stretched his awareness, reaching far and wide, reaching as far as the valleys before them and the mountains that sought to lord over them even from a distance.
Nothing.
He could pick out the few scouts and fighters waiting patiently like tense creatures as if when a fight breaks out, it would be one that would come from their backs. But he knew that it was not what Lacheart was talking about.
Rometo was still searching and seeing nothing when Aiden’s fear solidified like a physical thing. Though the boy was young and still had a lot to learn, Rometo could not deny that having the boy as a part of a team was a plus in different ways.
The boy turned, the worry slipping into his movements very slowly and carefully. It was even infecting his older brother. Ted’s worry was different, though. He wasn’t worried about what could be bothering his brother, instead, he was worried about his brother. Their sibling dynamic was interesting. They weren’t joined at the hip, but they cared a little too much for each other.
Aiden frowned the way one would when the answer to an equation was eluding them, and they were running out of time to solve it. He took a step forward, venturing closer to the edge. Then he stopped abruptly.
Rometo saw the moment Aiden fell to the inexperience of the young. He saw it when Aiden succumbed to his fear of uncertainty. The boy paled, horror took away his reasoning, and he looked down.
He turned, words clearly on the tip of his tongue, and disappeared.
Rometo’s eyes widened.
Oh.
Now this was going to be a problem.
Ted turned immediately. His eyes were sharp. He glanced around once, then twice. It was all the delay he was willing to allow before he leapt from his jepat. Something in his eyes shifted and they focused in that way people who hadn’t yet mastered the art of searching for things within the range of their awareness did.
Rometo watched the boy’s expression shift to panic and knew that he could not find Aiden. In the next moment, Ted turned and pointed at Rometo.
“Find my brother,” he commanded, then turned away, as if Rometo was under some kind of contract with him and not his brother.
The moment he turned away, he stomped over to where Aiden had been and dropped to his knees right on the spot. His hands began moving, scattering the sand and grass. It was as if he was searching for something.
Zen and Fjord looked very worried, as if they had lost an irreplaceable benefactor. Feira’s jaw hung loose in horror. It was as if she’d just watched the love of her life pass away in her arms. Then there was Melvet who frowned as if something out of the ordinary had just happened, as if the sun had just come crashing down.
“This doesn’t make sense,” she muttered, her attention on Valdan.
Valdan was the most composed of the group. In fact, he looked as if he was completely unbothered. As if Aiden Lacheart was going to descend from the sky claiming to have found the secret of the universe.
Still, he dismounted, coming down from his jepat. Melvet hurried to follow him.
“What doesn’t make sense?” Valdan asked Melvet, still seeming unbothered.
Melvet’s frown deepened. “I can’t find him.”
Rometo was beginning to wonder if the man was truly calm or just putting up a façade so that Melvet would also be calm.
“Rometo!” Ted barked, and all eyes turned to him.
Rometo tilted his head to the side in inquiry. “Lord Lacheart.”
“My brother said you are the strongest in the group,” Ted said. His hands had not left the ground. They kept moving even as his eyes fixed on Rometo. “That means you have the best chance of finding him. Find him.”
Rometo was already doing that, spreading his awareness as thin as he could. One of the things he learnt was that people hiding within the mountain that Aiden had been very much aware of were still hiding, not yet aware of them. Another thing he learnt was that whatever Aiden had sense that had potentially taken him away was still beyond his reach.
“He looked down,” Feira offered. She had already dismounted, walking over to where Aiden had disappeared. Then she took two steps forward. “He stood here.”
She turned in one direction, and Rometo noted something interesting. It was in the way she moved when she turned. Her hands, her feet, even her head. She moved in what seemed like a perfect imitation of how Aiden had moved before disappearing.
Still, as impressive as it looked, Rometo still couldn’t sense Aiden anywhere. Worse, he still couldn’t sense whatever it was that Aiden had sensed.
“Lord Lacheart,” Valdan said, addressing Ted. “What are you doing?”
Rometo could see the lines of mana coming alive each time Ted moved his fingers now. He was drawing something in the sand. A tracking spell perhaps. Considering they were brothers, Rometo would not be surprised if the boy had everything that he needed to track Aiden.
“I’m finding my brother,” Ted answered simply. “I’m bringing him back.”
Rometo came down from his mount and walked over. “And you’re sure what you intend on doing will work.”
“You don’t sound like someone searching for my brother,” Ted said simply. It was as if Ted understood the gravity of Aiden going missing. It was as if he understood it far greater than anyone present.
Rometo’s brows furrowed slightly. “What are we not being told, Lord Lacheart?”
If anyone cared to know more about the journey right now, they did not show it. Rometo was not surprised. From what he’d observed about the team, no one questioned Aiden. They obeyed, and that was all there was to it.
“Find my brother, Rometo,” Ted replied, and there was something hard in his voice. Anger perhaps. “Him going missing is not good for you right now.”
Rometo cocked a curious brow at that, still scanning everything within the range of his awareness. “Are you threatening me?”
Everybody froze.
Three summoned creatures burst into existence beside Ted. Rometo felt a few breaths being held but could not be bothered by the summoned creatures, he’d faced worse. Then a third appeared. It stood in a robe that concealed its face and looked very humanoid.
Ted motioned to it and stood up. “Continue.” Then he looked at Rometo, met his gaze. “I do not possess my brother’s restraint when he is not restraining me. Am I threatening you?” He walked over to Rometo while the creature he summoned continued whatever it was that he was doing while the others darted in different directions, clearly in search of Aiden. “Let me make a correction. I don’t care how powerful you are or what secret society you hide within. If my brother does not come back alive, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
There was something in the boy’s eyes then. It was not determination or bravado. It was not making Rometo a promise, he was telling him a fact. The boy might as well be telling him that Aiden had disappeared.
He really believes he can pull it off. The boy’s certainty almost made him smile. Like his brother, he had a sufficient touch of madness that the Order liked to look out for in its recruits. The kind of madness that told anyone smart enough to see it that they would watch an entire world burn to achieve their goals.
Rometo sighed. “I am currently looking for your brother, Ted. Do not resort to empty promises.”
Ted turned away from him, his rage showing in his tense shoulders. “Try harder.”
He walked over to the summoned creature, and it gave him space. Once it did, he returned to drawing whatever it was that he was crafting with his mana. Seeing as he was a [Summoner] Rometo found himself wondering if the boy was actually trying to summon something instead of simply trying to track his brother. After all, Rometo had seen a number of tracking spells in his life, and they did not look like what the boy was crafting.
“Ted?” Valdan moved over to him. “What’s going on? Will this find him?”
“I don’t know.” The uncertainty was clear in Ted’s voice. “Remember that one time Aiden and I fought? That night when I scared the shit out of Fjord?”
“I cannot forget.” Valdan’s eyes were sharp. He was scanning their environment while having the conversation.
“Well, Aiden did something while we were fighting that caught my attention.” Ted drew a line with a flair and blue-black mana sprayed out like spilled water. “Some how he managed to make my summons disappear. He unsummoned them. I’ve been dabbling ever since then, trying to make something happen. It works on my summoned creatures, but I’ve never tried it on a human being before.”
Rometo had no idea what Ted was talking about, but considering his class, he was certain he could speculate. But he didn’t, because something else caught his attention. Somebody had finally spotted them. Considering what he knew about this place, he was more than confident he could survive an encounter with the scouts of both warring tribes without breaking a sweat. The problem was that Aiden wanted to go through them and not away from them.
The chimeras would be easier, he thought with a mental sigh.
“You all might have to prepare yourselves,” he said, turning to face the mountains. Zen and Fjord finally got down from their jepats, and Rometo assessed them. “Has any of you ever killed a man before?”
Fjord raised his hand up. “I’ve had my share of doing things I don’t like.”
“I see.” Rometo’s gaze moved over to Zen. “And you?”
“Do accidents count?” Zen asked, ever the suppressed comedian.
“It does not.” Rometo cast his attention back on the mountains. “You cannot feel or hear it yet, but the people Aiden Lacheart was trying to device a plan around are finally aware of our presence.” He looked at Ted who was not paying any attention to him. “I will assume that the interim leader of the team be informed that he has to pick a battle plan. We can either stay here and fight or hide in order to avoid them.”
Ted looked at Valdan. Valdan met his gaze. The knight was waiting, perhaps for an instruction.
“What do you advise?” Ted asked.
Elami shrugged. “I figure we can survive them if we put our mind to it.” He stroked his jaw in thought. “We might suffer casualties, though. Feira, maybe Zen as well.”
It was interesting that the [Healer] thought he was in a position to be giving any advice.
“Valdan,” Ted said, a question in the single word.
“I say we get the kids to safety,” Valdan answered, snapping to attention, his hand resting on the pommel of his sword. “They are not versed enough in the art of combat so Elami is right, they will be casualties. I say we send them on and you and I see what we can do to hold this place.”
Ted nodded. “I’m almost done with this so we shouldn’t need long.” More summoned creatures began to appear around him, each one bursting to life from a cloud of black smoke. “I only need about a minute. If we’re lucky, I should be done before they can cross the distance from the mountains to us.”
Melvet held out her hand and while she had a spear strapped to her back, another appeared within her grip from fractured light.
Rometo was wondering what it was about when she turned, aimed, and threw the spear. It cut through the air. Somewhere mid-flight, a cry of pain echoed from the air. A man appeared in the middle of the spear. It had run through him and sent his trajectory to the side.
A frown creased Rometo’s brows. The man had somehow flung himself at them, and Rometo had not sensed him even in his awareness. That was a sign of very high level [Stealth]. The kind that came with a very powerful person or with a powerful—
His instincts flared and Rometo turned, stepping to the side. Something hit the ground with a thud and a man appeared as if from thin air, curved sword swinging like a maniac. Rometo did not panic, nor did he hesitate. He stepped into the man’s swing, moving faster than him, and grabbed his neck. In a single move, he broke it.
“We will have to rearrange that plan, Lord Lacheart,” he announced, unfazed, slipping his hand into his pocket and activating an item. “It seems the enemy is already upon us.”
[You have used Enchantment of Greater Dispel]
He felt the wave of mana ripple out of the enchantment. Elami frowned as it went through him, like a man who had just smelled something foul.
But Rometo paid very little attention to him. His mind was elsewhere.
Up in the sky, like arrows fired from a thousand bows came men armed in swords and axes and spears.
They fell like rain.