The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 490

Chapter 490: The Promise

TESSIA ERALITH

“It’s so strange, always being the center of attention,” Alice said as she refilled our glasses with cold water from a pitcher. “We’re just these very plain people, surrounded by actual deities—or at least what we’ve always thought of as deities—but they’re all so interested in us.” She stared down into the pitcher, her eyes glazing over. “It feels like I’ve slipped and fallen into someone else's life.”

I twirled a lock of hair around my fingertip as I considered the dragons we’d been speaking with. “I guess I was always the center of attention in Elenoir, but they seem a lot more interested in the fact that I’m an elf than a princess. The things they ask about…”

I chuckled, and Ellie and Alice laughed alongside me.

“Yeah, they’re kind of weird,” Ellie said with an amused smile. “One little girl insisted I couldn’t really be a lesser, because she’d been told lessers could barely speak or stand upright!”

“Well, things here are going to get a whole lot weirder.”

We all turned toward the door, where Arthur had just pushed back the curtain. I began to smile, but the expression faltered as I processed his words and the pained expression on his face.

Ellie’s hands flew to her face and she slumped back into the seat she’d been hunkering on the edge of. “No. They didn’t! You can’t be serious.”

Alice’s hand began to shake. I quickly took the pitcher from her and set it down on the tile-topped end table before it spilled.

“You…better sit down,” Arthur said, rubbing the back of his neck in that silly way he’d done since he was a kid.

His words and demeanor could mean only one thing, as Ellie and Alice both seemed to have already guessed: the asuras had agreed to Lord Eccleiah’s proposal.

I found myself wishing that Arthur hadn’t spent so much of these last couple of weeks away. He would certainly be pulled into other duties, and it was likely there would be little time to work through everything between us that needed to be addressed. Still, I told myself, perhaps that was for the best. Maybe what we really needed was time.

Forcing myself to appear calm, I took a seat next to Ellie, who had pulled her legs up into the seat tight against her chest.

“I…have officially been named an asura,” Arthur said. He spoke mostly to his mother, but twice his eyes flicked to mine, almost too rapidly to notice. “I’m the first of a new race. An archon.”

I felt my eyes glaze over, my thoughts dissociating from my physical presence as I struggled to understand what this meant. So much had changed since we sat above the Wall and made our promise to each other. A promise to stay alive. To have a future together. A relationship. A family. It had been a beautiful moment. It was a lovely plan. But Grandpa Virion had taught me early…

No plan survives contact with the opponent.

Was it fair, now, after everything that had happened, to hold Arthur to a sweet promise made naively in the middle of a war that neither of us could control the outcome of?

The room had gone silent. I forced myself to focus. Ellie sat beside me, thunderstruck. I could see the gears of her mind working, and her mouth moved silently, but she seemed at a loss for words. Alice, on the other hand, was looking at Arthur as if he’d just told her to wrestle a world lion with her bare hands. I shared their feelings, but I couldn’t let those feelings run away with me.

“What happens now?” I asked to break the silence. “What does this change, exactly, and how would this affect Dicathen and Alacrya?”

Arthur hesitated, exchanging a glance with Sylvie. “Although a new race has been invented for me, really I’ll be a representative for our world among the asura. In the end, I think it’s necessary to ensure protection for both Dicathen and Alacrya.” His head drooped slightly. “With this authority, I can make sure what happened in Elenoir never happens again.”

I nodded, and the conversation continued, Ellie and Alice asking a few questions of their own. Despite my best efforts, the longer we spoke, the wearier I began to feel. Afraid that my control might slip and derail the conversation, I waited for a lull and excused myself, returning to my room and sagging into the bed. Closing my eyes, I breathed deeply and thought back to my lessons.

I can’t control the world around me, but I can control myself and the way I move within it. It was a lesson my father had tried to drill into my head when I was only a small girl, but I don’t think I’d ever truly appreciated his meaning until I lost that control.

Outside the room, Arthur continued speaking, although I would have sworn I could feel his gaze lingering on the room curtain separating us. “We’ve been ‘invited’—I think it’s more of an expectation, honestly—to visit some of the other lords at their homes.”

“Oh, that’s…” Alice started but then trailed off, her voice weak.

“I know, Mom,” Arthur answered. The sound of his voice changed; he must have moved across the room. “I know what I’m asking you to do, and I know how dangerous this is for all of us, but…”

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to remain calm.

The idea of being dragged to another asuran city made my insides clench like a bloody fist. I missed my family. I missed my home. I was ready to return to Dicathen. I knew Elenoir was gone—my mother and father were gone—but I wanted to see my grandfather. I wanted to be with elves, to hug them and cry with them, to mourn our shared losses in a way I hadn’t been able to do yet. Not while I was locked away beneath Cecilia’s will.

The rustling of the curtain made me turn my head. I was expecting, or maybe just hoping, to see Arthur there, but I wasn’t disappointed when Sylvie stepped into the room and let the curtain fall behind her again. She looked down at me with such understanding that the pressure of sudden tears swelled up behind my eyes as if from nowhere.

I sat up, kicked my legs over the edge of the bed, and blinked back the wetness in my eyes. Sylvie eased down next to me. Instead of speaking, she rested her head on my shoulder.

We sat there like that, just the two of us, for quite a while. In her presence, I felt myself settling again. She had a way of transporting me out of the moment and taking me back in time to simpler days. It was so strange that the little fox-like beast that used to ride around on Arthur’s head had grown into this powerful, empathetic young woman. I could so clearly remember when she’d first hatched in Zestier…

I sank into the moment, enjoying the peace and quiet. Instead of worrying about the future, I listened to the rustling our clothes made against the bedsheets with each small movement. I watched as the sunlight refracted through the window to sparkle against the walls. I listened to our breathing as we fell into sync with each other, and sensed the thrumming of Sylvie’s mana signature beside me, moving with the same subtle twitchiness as eyes beneath closed lids.

Slowly, the tension all released.

“Thanks,” I said eventually.

She reached out and grabbed my hand, taking it in both of her own.

“I…wanted to tell you,” I started, suddenly awkward. I knew what I wanted to say, but the words themselves seemed difficult to hold onto. “Good luck. You know, when you go to visit the other asura. You’ll protect him? Nevermind, I know you will. I’m sorry I’ll miss it, but…I need to go home.”

Her hands squeezed mine. “Of course. Arthur told them that they’d have to wait.” She regarded me with sudden understanding and then a sympathetic smile. “We’re taking you home first, Tessia.”

***

The air changed as I stepped out of the portal into darkness. Appearing so suddenly in the cool, dank underground felt almost like waking after Everburn's nearly perfect atmosphere. Like Dicathen was more real, somehow.

My eyes began to adjust, and I found myself standing in the center of a wide, nondescript tunnel. Arthur was already there, having arrived through the portal first.

Behind me, Ellie and Boo appeared, followed by Alice, and then Sylvie.

Our appearance was met by a shout, and we all looked to see several heavily armed dwarven guards hurrying toward us. Behind them was a roughly made wall inset with a small gate.

Before they could reach us, another figure came through the portal. Dressed in the same richly appointed militaristic uniform I’d always seen him in, his otherworldly eyes unreadable, Windsom brought the dwarves up short with a glance.

On first seeing Windsom, I had been thrown back to the battle between Cecilia, Nico, and him. This dragon had helped General Aldir burn Elenoir to ashes. I was mostly catatonic at the time, but Cecilia’s memories of the fight were clear enough. It seemed patently unfair that this dragon was still happily serving his lord, able to flit between our world and his at a moment’s notice, while the shattered remnants of my people were cast off and homeless with nowhere to go.

“Darv, as requested,” Windsom said in his clipped manner. “The city of Vildorial is beyond that gate.” He indicated the guards. “Virion Eralith and a procession of elves are here, though the bulk of the refugees were relocated before Agrona’s last attack.”

The dwarves, finally able to look past Windsom at the rest of us, recognized Arthur immediately. “Regent Leywin! You’re alive…” The dwarf in charge turned to one of his men. “Go to Lodenhold immediately. Inform Lords Earthborn and Silvershale that—”

“Hold that thought,” Arthur said, raising a hand. “I have business to attend to, then I’ll go to the council myself.”

The dwarves looked at each other awkwardly, but none of them moved.

“Well, Arthur, if there is nothing else, I’m afraid I am too busy to shuttle you around—”

“Lord Leywin,” Arthur said, cutting Windsom off.

Despite my anger toward Windsom, I couldn’t help but flinch at the confrontation of their opposing intents. It wasn’t only me, as Alice and Ellie instinctively backed away within the confines of the dim tunnel, and Boo moved to shield them from the conflict.

“Of course…Lord Leywin. I apologize.” Windsom bowed low, hiding his expression from sight.

“No problem, Windsom.” Arthur's gaze was penetrating, his tone frosty. “It’s quite the change for you to get used to, I know. But I’m certain you will.”

“Of course.” The asura feigned an attitude of servility, but I could practically see his irritation seething just beneath his skin. “I’ll return in two days to open the way back to Epheotus.”

“You’re dismissed for now, then,” Arthur said, turning away from Windsom.

The dwarven guards, who had watched the exchange like wide-eyed statues, bent into deep bows before Windsom as he turned toward the portal.