The Elderien Chronicles

The talk of the past

The man walked closer to Alastair, and as he approached, he could sense something eerie about him.

Alastair took a step forward toward the man, an attempt to match his energy. Then he raised his head and looked him in the eye.

He smiled as Alastair did. What was he hiding?

What secret lay beneath that deceptive smile of his? And why the hell was he even smiling at them in the first place?

He was not a mage, that much Alastair could tell, and he was not a sorcerer either. So what was he exactly?

"Good morning folks. Seems like you two are lost. Is there anything you need my help with?" The man asked Alastair and smiled again.

"We are fine, thanks."

He slowly replied.

The man arched his brow and did not seem to believe him. But that was his problem. He then looked at the bartender who seemed to jerk back in fear.

Whoever he was, he definitely scared the shit out of her.

"Were they talking to you, love?" He asked her but she shook her head negatively. The air was getting tense already. Alastair could sense Cara getting uncomfortable and whoever he was, he could not just do that.

But then, he suddenly looked at Cara and walked towards her, however, Alastair stood between them, looking him in the eye and giving him a Stern look.

"Enjoy the rest of your day, sir." He said to him and gestured to Cara for them to leave.

They were about to when the man attempted to touch Cara's hair, but Alastair was quicker.

He grabbed the man's hand and twisted it, making the man yell in pain. The man tapped out and mumbled something inaudible as Alastair left the bar with Cara.

He could still feel his eyes on them as they moved along. Bloody freak.

"What was that"?

Cara asked as they left the bar. Alastair took her hand, leading her through the streets that were getting flooded by people.

It appeared like a hundred persons were coming out every minute and that was when Cara was able to realize that Rheina was indeed a center for commerce.

"I do not know who he is. Something about him seems off and I do not want us near him. Understand?" He asked her and she nodded.

"What are the chances that we will run into him again?" Cara asked.

"I do not know, Cara. I am not a seer. But I can say that it is pretty slim. So, why don't we just keep our head on mission?" Alastair said,

"By mission, do you mean finding the captain who dances with the sun or whatever, or do you mean princess Miranda?" Cara asked.

Alastair suddenly felt weird being asked that question. He looked at her carefully.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Oh, come on. I saw the way you too were brooding after each other. I know something happened between you two. I want to know what it is and why you abandoned her for sixteen years."

"Do not speak about things you do not understand."

Alastair said and glided through a massive crowd that was headed their way. Turns out, someone had fainted and needed care.

"But you did abandon her, didn't you? You left her all alone. You couldn't even write one letter? Not even a vision or something?" She scoffed. "That's cold, even for you."

The words hit Alastair like arrows.

He sighed and for the first time in Sixteen years, actually thought about what happened between them both.

He had broken her heart, he'd let her down and the very first moment he showed up back in her life, he was asking for something.

"Look, the princess and I had a complicated past. We met when the king took me in as a palace mage. It was instantaneous. I had already gotten pompous and I was quite promiscuous but she accepted me for who I was. I was a different person then. I was young and I made mistakes but afterward, I just couldn't face her. So I guess sixteen years was the time it took me to finally gather the courage to see her again. "

Alastair said to Cara and she nodded.

"But you still need to make things right between the both of you. I mean, she's single, and you're single. If you ask me, I would say she's waiting for you."

"Aren't you too young to know about these things? In my days, sixteen years olds covered their ears in shame and run inside when they heard adults speaking about such things."

Cara laughed out so loud that some passerby's looked at her.

"Times have changed old man."

"I am not old."

"Well, you definitely behave like you are."

Alastair scoffed. If she did not have such a great destiny, perhaps he would have parted ways with her already. She was a thorn in his flesh and her words were always bigger than her.

"Let's keep our heads down. We do not want to attract unwanted attention." Alastair added and they continued their search for the mysterious captain.

But along the way, no one they asked seemed ready to provide any useful information about the captain. Most of the people didn't even know who he was.

Alastair could even recall that one of the people he asked suggested that he never asked about such a "deviant" again.

The rest of the day went by without any luck so they decided to get a place to sleep and think about their next step of action.

Alastair had decided to take drastic measures to find the captain. To read the memories of others, he needed to touch people, and the touch needed to last for more than a moment so that the magic can kick in. And it was energy-consuming.

But no one would want a strange man touching them for so long, so he decided to cast a spell to read their minds instead. Reading minds was brief and he doubted he could get the information he truly needed. But still, it was worth the shot.

As he was not a telepath by nature, he needed to find a way to get the blood from someone he suspected had the information he desired, and used it in dark magic.

'Desperate times call for desperate measures". He repeated severally.

He needed information and that was the only way he could get it. He did not have time to let the sleeping dog lie as mages would do.

They kept on walking in an attempt to find a place to spend the night. The night was already upon them and the moonlight was not giving much illumination.

Alastair and Cara took an alley, but along the way, Alastair noticed someone was following them.

He glanced over his shoulder and saw two men walking stealthily toward them. If they were thieves, they had picked the wrong person to rob.

He just kept waking with Cara by his side, luring them out of the alley so that he can keep Cara out of harm's way as he dealt with them.

Things were about to get interesting...