Bacorium Legacy (58 page)

“I wanted to thank you,” the innkeeper said to him. “For the two years that she lived and worked here, that girl was downright miserable. Just the saddest, loneliest thing I've ever seen. Tonight she looked happier than I'd ever seen her. And I wanted to thank you for that. You probably saved that girl's life.”

How wrong he was, Luca thought. “I figured she was happy because she was back here,” Luca muttered. “Once she started talking to you, she seemed to forget all about me.”

“On the contrary, she couldn't stop talking about you. Luca this, Luca that. She's been happier on her travels with you than she's been in the whole two years I knew her.”

Really, Luca found himself wondering. She'd seemed so depressed ever since they had left Serenite. She certainly didn't seem happy all those days when she was clinging to him, her head bowed, not saying a word. The Acarians had seemed to sap all the life right out of her...

“That girl's had it rough, you know,” Trent continued, wiping down another empty mug. “You know that her home was one of the first towns attacked by the Acarians, right? She was one of the only survivors from what I know.”

“I knew,” Luca replied. “She doesn't like to talk about it, but she told me a while back.”

And now he knew just why Emila had lost her family and her home. Zinoro had needed blood to build his army. All the people she had grown up knowing - her parents, her little sister, and even that boy who'd been her first crush - they were likely now mindless, empty puppets in Acarian armour. It was by sheer luck that Emila was not as well.

“She came here with these two old merchants,” Trent told him in a sombre tone. “A old married couple. They'd found her right after she escaped from the attack. The merchants were coming to the city, and they were going to buy a place and spend the rest of their lives there. And they had grown very fond of Emila on the trip to the city. They were going to let her stay with them as their adopted child. But the husband fell ill shorty after arriving in the city, and he didn't survive. The wife followed shorty after, from grief as they say. All they ended up being able to leave her was a golden lute, which I never saw her actually use.”

Luca was staring deep into the mug of ale before him. “She never told me about that,” he said in a quiet voice. A golden lute? He'd never seen Emila with anything like that...

No, wait. He had, a while back. A heavy object, wrapped up in several layers of crumpled paper that he'd spotted in her bag. That's what that must have been.

“I felt sorry for the girl, so I let her work here,” Trent said. “She had nowhere else to go, so I let her live up in the attic. She was always very quiet, and she never answered any questions about her life from before. I doubt I ever would have found out about her home if the old merchant woman hadn't told me. I never knew what went on in her head, but I think what she saw in that attack traumatised her pretty bad.”

Luca didn't know what to say. He was suddenly finding out all these things about Emila he hadn't known before. It was a lot for his tired mind to process.

“When people around here started to talk about war with Acaria, she packed up her things and left. I was worried about her. I asked her where she was going, but she wouldn't say. To be perfectly honest I thought I'd never see her again.”

“That's what you said when she first walked in,” Luca said.

The bartender set the mug down and leaned in close to Luca, staring him right in the eyes. For a moment, Luca feared his last comment had insulted the man.

“Don't hurt that girl, you understand?” Trent told him. “You clearly mean something special to her. If you break her heart, I don't think she could bear it. She's the kind of person who needs to be with someone - she can't bear to be alone. But after losing her family, and then those merchants so soon after, she was too afraid to get close to anyone else. She took a chance with you, so don't let her down. I don't think she could survive another loss.”

And then, with that last word, the missing piece of the puzzle clicked in Luca's mind. Something that had been puzzling him for so long about Emila suddenly made sense. The reason she had been so quiet and despondent since Serenite.

She wasn't afraid of the Acarians - she was afraid of what they would take away from her. Specifically, she was worried that she would lose him. The things she'd said in the inn at Revan, about how he was turning into a monster like Zinoro - now that Luca understood the full extent of Zinoro's evil, he could see how such a thing would be so terrifying to her. As far as Emila could see, the path that Luca was currently on had only two conclusions - either he would be lost in his hatred and he would die fighting Zinoro, or he would kill Zinoro, and in the process become the very monster he had set out to destroy.

The latter was more frightening to him because he already knew that it was happening. In the process of fighting against Zinoro and his acolytes, he had forsaken the Way of Uro, and had killed Dreevius in a cruel and dishonourable way. His justification for that had been that Dreevius was a monster himself, and had deserved nothing better, but he knew that was only an excuse, and a flimsy one at that.

Emila words at Reven came back to him...

It is easy to excuse atrocities in the name of justice.

There was a difference between justice and vengeance. He was after the latter, and could no longer use honour as the justification for what he did.

So he realised he needed to make a choice... Zinoro or Emila.

“She confided something in me tonight,” Trent said to Luca, interrupting his reverie. “She told me she's worried you're going to leave her here in the city. She said you're going to be going off somewhere dangerous, and that she fears you'll leave her here so you'll be free to go off and do whatever this is. That isn't true, is it?”

Luca felt like his blood had run cold. He didn't want to lie to this man, but he couldn't tell him the truth. Not now, because Luca no longer knew what the truth was.

“We'll be going with the king,” Luca said. “We're going to go to the Elder Hall. I-I'm not sure if I can take her, but I certainly have no desire to leave her behind.”

That was true, at least. He'd never
wanted
to leave her in T'Saw - he'd just thought it was a necessity. But if leaving her meant she would utterly fall apart - and possibly even take her own life - he knew he couldn't do that.
 

Trent stared at him suspiciously. “I see. You've got friends in the palace, then? I knew there was something in her story she was omitting.”

“You must tell no one,” Luca said to him. “It is important that no one knows the king will be leaving.”

“Of course,” Trent assured him. “I'm an innkeeper. I know how to keep secrets.”

“Thank you,” Luca said, taking one last swig from his mug and setting it down. “I have to go now.”

“Will you be joining Emila in her room?” he asked.

Luca considered it. Emila was fast asleep up there. She wasn't going anywhere. But the events of the night had changed a few things. He needed to reconsider his plans.

For now, he could make no promises.

<> <> <>

Luca opened the door to his and Emila's room. He saw the dark-haired girl in bed, the sheets pulled up to her chin. Her eyes were closed, and her chest rose and fell slowly. She did not stir at the sound of his entering. He walked past her, going to the free bed on the other side of the room.

He set his belongings down as quietly as he could and started to change out of his travel clothes. He removed his belt, and the sheathed sword at his side, and set it on the dresser beside his bed. Once he was finished changing, he took another look at the sword and found himself staring at it.

His father's sword -
Siora
. He'd sworn, all the way back in Forga, that it would be this blade that he killed Zinoro with. At the time, he hadn't wanted to think about it, but it made sense that he would need a Rixeor Fragment of his own if he wanted to kill Zinoro. But according to Gordon, if he wanted to have any chance of beating Zinoro, he would need one. Which meant he could not use
Siora
. Once again, the justice he had been after would be denied. If he wanted to kill Zinoro, he would have to set his father's blade aside and take up a new one.
 

But it meant more than just that simple truth. It meant that his own strength wasn't enough. He needed a magick sword to defeat the man who had killed his father. His own skill, his own passion, his own drive - none of those were enough. If he challenged Zinoro with
Siora
, it would end in his death. To beat Zinoro, he would have to either go to this Eccador town and find the Fragment that was rumoured to be there - or worse, beg and hope that Marcus, a man who had hated Lodin, would let Luca borrow his blade. It was pathetic and unbecoming of Lodin's memory, but there was nothing Luca could do about it.
 

He had forsaken the Way of Uro when he had killed Dreevius - now he would have to forsake his father's honour as well. How much more would he have to give up to rid Bacoria of Zinoro's blight?

He knew the answer to that question. It was asleep, only a few metres from him.

It would break Emila's heart for him to leave her behind. Those things that Trent had told him made that clear enough. And though he had known he was only making it harder for the both of them, he had still given in and been weak. Those kisses and those personal truths they had shared with each other only added to the pain. He'd known - he'd known his whole life that getting close to people only made partings so much more painful. He'd almost made the mistake again with Arlea - what if he would have gotten closer to her? A stronger bond between them wouldn't have stopped the arrow that struck her down right in front of him. But it certainly would have made it more painful.

There could be an arrow just like that one waiting for Emila in Acaria.

He couldn't let her follow him there. She would, even though she'd once told him that Acaria was the one place she wouldn't go with him to. He now knew that she would follow him anywhere, to preserve that happiness she had found with him.

He had made his decision.

Luca put his clothes back on and left as quietly as he could. He slipped out of the inn without Trent noticing, and made his way to the Ivory Palace.

Emila, and
Siora
, were left behind.
 

<> <> <>

Luca went to the palace, and asked the guard captain if Selphie and the others could be woken and gathered in the meeting room. Gareth hesitated at first, but after a bit of prodding, he went and got Selphie and Jared, and after that Brand, Wiosna, and Ash. Though they were all visibly tired, they gathered without complaint. The absence of Emila was noticed, but nobody said anything.

“I'm not going to the Elder Hall,” he told them. “Not until later. There's another place I need to go to first.”

He told them about the town of Eccador, and the rumours of a Rixeor Fragment there. Gareth would not leave the princess alone, not even with people she had been travelling with for months, so the captain stayed in the room with them and watched. Thus, Luca could not tell them where he had heard of these rumours.

“I still intend to be there when the kings meet,” Luca said. “So I need to leave now, a few days before Zaow does, so I can hopefully be done in Eccador and on my way to the Elder Hall before the meeting happens. I wanted to let you all know where I would be.”

“Do you need to be going right now, in the middle of the night?” Brand asked, rubbing at his eyes. “Couldn't this wait until morning?”

“I'm leaving as soon as I'm done here,” Luca said dryly, trying not to think about Emila. “There's not enough time to spare.”

“Alright, then,” Brand said, rising. “I'll have my things packed in a few minutes.”

“Me, too,” said Wiosna.

“I'm going by myself,” Luca said, irritated that he hadn't realised this would happen.

“No, you're not,” Brand told him.

Exasperated, Luca looked to Selphie, who smiled and shrugged.

“I suppose arguing it is pointless,” Luca said with a sign. “If you're coming, then hurry. I intend to be out of the city within the hour.”

Without further prompting, Brand and Wiosna went off to their rooms, leaving Luca with Selphie, Jared, and Ash.

“Is Emila getting ready?” Selphie asked.

Luca cursed silently. He couldn't lie to her, so he said, “She won't be coming with me.”

Selphie's eyes grew wide, and she stared at him as though he had just said something terrible. “What are you saying? Are you leaving her behind?”

“I am.”

“But what about your connection? That - magick tether between the two of you?”

“There's no need for it anymore,” Luca said to her. “I'm not recovering from any mortal injuries anymore. I don't need the tether, and I don't need Emila.”

Selphie was speechless. She continued to look at him, shocked that he could be saying these things. Jared said nothing, and did not meet his gaze, but the disapproval was evident in his eyes.

Surprisingly, it was Ash who spoke up. “Why?”

Luca looked to his brother. “Why what?”

“Why are you leaving her here?” Ash asked. “If you wanted to leave her behind, there were dozens of other opportunities before. Why now?”

“Because...” He trailed off, knowing he couldn't well say the real reason. He'd kept her with him so far because he had needed her. The injuries he'd received in the Arimos, and then again during the attack on Allma Temple would have killed him had he tried to leave her before. Now that the injuries were fully healed, he had the opportunity to leave her without the tether choking him to death.

But that was selfish, and he knew it. So instead he told them, “T'Saw is safe. Safer than Allma Temple, and safer than Serenite.” He knew that, in theory, T'Saw was the safest city in Bacoria. The empty fields surrounding it left an army vulnerable and easily spotted on the horizon. The tall, marble walls were invulnerable, and hundreds of archers could sit upon them. The steps one had to climb to reach the gate were narrow, and impossible for more than a few people to climb in a row. Never in the past had an army succeeded in breaking into the city.