Chapter 52: BACK TOGETHER
Irene slowly opened her eyes and looked above her, intersecting branches that blocked the sunlight from reaching her face were what she was seeing now, soft calming bird sounds filled the air, Irene was still processing everything, she was laying down on the soft ground which is clearly grass.
"What happened? Where am I?", Said Irene in a low voice while trying to remember everything, she slowly raised herself and sat in her place to find Senka sleeping below a tree just in front of her and immediately after she sat his ears pricked up and he opened his eyes while raising his head and looked at Irene then started neighing happily while standing up.
"Senka! You're fine, thank the gods.", Said Irene happily before she tried to stand up but she felt a little weak and tired so she leaned on Senka who was now very close to her.
"Good boy.", Said Irene while standing up and immediately Senka started licking her face happily that she's awake now and fine.
"Calm down, calm down, I'm fine boy.", Said Irene while smiling and trying to hold Senka's head in place before she finally managed to hug him and he started neighing happily again.
A few meters ahead, Jaxith was washing his face with the water from a river he was leaning before, he wasn't wearing his coat and his sword wasn't with him, he looked tired but better than last night's battle with John, he suddenly heard Senka's neighs and looked worryingly back before sniffing to detect any strange smells but in a moment he smiled and looked back at the lake and continued washing his hair, it's like he already understood why Senka was neighing as no one stepped around because the smell is still the same.
"Wait, where is Jaxith?", Asked Irene while looking around, her arms were still leaning on Senka's body, she spotted Jaxith's coat hanging over a branch to dry, looks like it was washed, she also spotted Jaxith's sword, the black titan, shining and glistening over a tree, it's also washed and looks good.
"Where's he Senka? Is he fine?", Asked irene innocently, Senka nickerd then started pointing with his head towards the west, sounds of waves could be heard from that direction.
"A river?", Said Irene in a very calm voice, she started looking around again.
"It seems familiar, wait, are we in Akreman forest? Is that Artok river over there?", Said Irene while focusing, this is the forest that Lance found her in when she was still baby, Irene started moving towards the direction Senka pointed for her while leaning on him, she was still feeling a little weak.
Jaxith was lowering down his shirt sleeves after finishing washing his arms, face and hair, water drops were dripping from his long silver hair strands and stubble heavy beard, he heard horse hooves stepping a few meters behind him, he stood up calmly before looking back to find Irene leaning on Senka, he looked worried that she walked to him and immediately walked closer to her.
"You shouldn't have walked so fast, the suppressor still affects your body and will make you tired.", Said Jaxith worriedly as he reached her then kneeled and put his hand over her forehead to check her temperature, Irene was silent, just looking at him.
"You're fine, no allergic defense mechanism until now, I was worried that you may get sick.", Said Jaxith in a relief, Irene was still silent but she put her hands over Jaxith's face, it's like she still doesn't believe herself.
"Hey, what's the matter?", Asked Jaxith calmly, Irene removed her hands then caught one of her red hair strands by one of her hands and just before she pulls it Jaxith stopped her.
"Whao! I'm real, stupid, you're not dreaming.", Said Jaxith seriously while removing her hand away from her hair.
"How? I saw you fall, I thought everything was getting messed up like always, and the moment they said you're really de-, I can't even say it.", Said Irene while holding herself from crying, she doesn't want to cry now, she saw a lot and seeing him fine was enough to hold her tears.
"Didn't I promise that I will always be with you? Didn't I promise you that I will never be dead while still protecting you, I know that you don't want any more people to die because of you, and here I'm, alive and well, now do me a favor and don't cry, it's just a mistake that I won't let it happen again.", Said Jaxith to comfort Irene while holding her chin up and smiling.
Irene thought about what Jaxith has just told her then immediately she hugged him, Jaxith was surprised by this hug but he didn't mind, he felt her tight hug again, the hug that she always needs whenever something bad happens to her, he hugged her back and placed one of his hands over her head as always to make her feel safe.
"Sorry for letting you down there in the inn, I didn't know what to do, I felt helpless, even with Emelia, I wasn't able to do anything useful, I can't do anything useful yet but you always come back to me, I feel selfish, Jaxith, and I can't forgive myself about it, you nearly died because of me.", Said Irene while tearing, she didn't want to cry but she couldn't hold her tears anymore.
"I'm the one that should be sorry for letting you witness all of this, it's my fault Irene not you, stop blaming yourself, I'm the one protecting you, not the opposite, what matters now is that you're fine and they didn't harm you, when the time comes you will know the right thing to do, but now you should focus on our destination, okay?", Said Jaxith calmly, his attitude is totally different, last night he was literally a cold blooded monster, now he's so calm and good, it's getting clearer that Jaxith's true nature was the one that was fighting last night, he's just hiding his monstrosity and with Irene he feels even better, her presence around him just makes him better, enough to make him forget the monster inside.
"Okay, I won't complain anymore, as long as you keep your promise and stay safe.", Said Irene seriously.
"I'll always stay alive, isn't that you want?", Asked Jaxith.
"Yes, and don't ever make me afraid that something bad may happen to you, that's a new rule.", Said Irene seriously.
"Well now you're cheating.", Said Jaxith while smiling, Irene suddenly tightened her hug!
"Say it.", Said Irene seriously, Jaxith was surprised by this, he remembered what Emelia told him, Irene looks up to him as a brother now, as the time passes their bond is growing stronger and she can't tolerate anything bad happening to him, so now he has put that in consideration.
"Fine, I won't let you be afraid that something bad, may, happen to me, I'll always stay safe, anything more mommy?", Said Jaxith sarcastically and Irene immediately hit his back softly while still hugging him and smiled.
"Not funny, as always.", Said Irene.
"I'm not funny, as always.", Said Jaxith in a mocking manner, Irene calmed down after smiling then she relaxed her tight hug.
"Now when you break that hug I don't want to see your tears, I hope that baby inside you didn't take control, again.", Said Jaxith sarcastically before Irene hit him again but harder than the previous one.
"That one hurt.", Said Jaxith sarcastically while Irene secretly wiped her tears with her left hand.
"You deserve it, that's what you get when you miss with Irene.", Said Irene happily.
"Fine, we're even.", Said Jaxith before pausing.
"Ready to break the hug?", Asked Jaxith, he knows that she teared and Irene knows that he knows, but he doesn't want her to feel shy about her overflowing emotions, she felt thankful for his understanding.
"Yeah, I didn't even tear a single one.", Said Irene proudly while breaking the hug.
"See.", Said Irene while pointing towards her smiling face, Jaxith smiled.
"That's Irene that I know.", Said Jaxith, Irene paused for a moment while looking with hope at Jaxith.
"Thanks for coming back for me, Jax, everything you do really means a lot to me.", Said Irene calmly.
"Stop thanking me, I'm doing this on my own.", Said Jaxith, Irene remembered what Emelia told her before about reminding Jaxith with someone special to him, she just nodded positively.
"We're in Akreman forest, and this is Artok river, am I right?", Said Irene while looking at the river.
"I expected you to notice it.", Said Jaxith while looking at the river too.
"I used to play a lot in this forest and I travelled through here a lot too.", Said Irene calmly.
"Do you know any historical thing about the Artok river?", Asked Jaxith, Irene looked at him confused.
"No, I don't like reading about the history of the kingdom actually.", Said Irene.
"It's not just about the kingdom, this river was among the reasons for the Six-Party War that broke out on the continent thousands of years ago.", Said Jaxith while looking back at Irene.
"Weird, a war because of a river?", Said Irene while looking back at the river.
"Indeed, you think it's simple, but you don't know that the Artok river is actually the sole river in the continent.", Said Jaxith while looking at the river again.
"Ahaaaa, that makes sense now.", Said Irene.
"Absolutely, the river originates from lake Fekala in Yarnat, it's a large lake in north of Yarnat, the elves kingdom, the river used to stream until the middle Kozelsk, the kingdom south of Vidin, it couldn't stream further because the land there was solid a bit.", Said Jaxith.
"Which means that Vidin didn't have a reliable source of fresh water for their agriculture.", Said Irene.
"Exactly, and Legnica too, Kozelsk refused to dig further for the river to stream north for Vidin and also Yarnat refused to create a canal to the west for Legnica, both of them had the same pretence, they said that doing this will decrease the bounty of the river, its givings will be lower and so that no one will get benefit from this, of course Legnica and Vidin didn't like this pretences and as I told you, these were one of the main reasons for the war, even after peace there's still hatred in the hearts of the Legnicans towards the elves because of their selfishness, the same goes for Vidin towards Kozelsk.", Said Jaxith confidently.
"And what exactly happened after the war? The river is here now.", Asked Irene.
"Of course they reached an agreement in the presence of the prophet, everybody respected the Gods' messenger and accepted all of his arrangements, he was the one that managed to reunite the kingdoms again and renew their faith in gods, he ordered for creating a canal from lake Fekala passing west towards Legnica to help them, Kozelsk was ordered to lengthen the stream towards the north until passing the borders of Vidin then Vidin started digging more until the Artok river flowed into the great ocean in the north, the ocean separating Reldret from the rest of the kingdoms.", Said Jaxith.
"Damn, that's a lot of information, but what about Reldret and Volgast, those two doesn't have any river now, how are they managing?", Asked Irene quizzically.
"Volgast is a small kingdom, they depend on the small lakes they have and the rain, and of course the trades to get what they need, Reldret used its modern science to benefit from the vast space they have from the ocean and found a way to turn the salt water into fresh water and use it even in agriculture.", Said Jaxith.
"Whoa, that's some quality information, you seem to know a lot.", Said Irene in surprise while looking at Jaxith.
"That's just the basics.", Said Jaxith while still looking at the river.
"Anyway, I guess it's better to tell me what happened after I lost my conscience, how are you still okay after getting poisoned by a very lethal poison.", Said Irene, Jaxith looked at her.
"I think that Miller didn't really poison me.", Said Jaxith.
"But you were in pain, and you weren't looking good.", Said Irene.
"I don't know what happened, I just found myself waking up a while after to find some guards coming to get rid of my body, they thought I'm dead and Miller wasn't in the inn.", Said Jaxith calmly, a lie of course, Jaxith saw Miller's body while killing the guard inside the inn when he put the lights off.
"And what did you do?", Asked Irene.
"I knocked them out, the same with the guards at the warehouse where you and Emelia were hold captives.", Said Jaxith.
"Thank the gods, I thought you killed someone, it wouldn't even have made sense after you prevented me from killing the assassin then you start killing those people.", Said Irene in relief.
"Of course, I just knocked them out easily, but I didn't know what happened to Miller actually, although Emelia was fine, I left after getting you safe and immediately escaped with Senka.", Said Jaxith.
"I hope he's fine, Jaxith, he was trying to protect his only child, I can't really blame him, he was so kind to me and you.", Said Irene but she noticed that Jaxith wasn't caring a bit, does that mean he doesn't care about Miller?
"Hey, are you blaming Miller?", Asked Irene, Jaxith looked at her boldly.
"He did what he must to save his child and it was me who saved her, if something had happened to you then he would have lost his daughter and you without any benefit.", Said Jaxith in a strange cold tone, Irene was shocked by Jaxith's reply, he used to love Miller, she didn't think that what happened could make Jaxith bold towards Miller like that.
"You can't blame him, Jax, if you were in his position you would have done the same, right? If it was me who was captured and you were asked to poison him, wouldn't you have done it?", Said Irene sadly.
"I would have done more than poisoning a person that trusts me.", Said Jaxith in even a colder tone with his scary look, Irene started looking afraid from Jaxith's look, he forgot that he's talking to Irene, not John Rascliffe, he noticed that she was getting worried and intense from his cold stares, she isn't used to see him act boldly towards her so he calmed down and looked towards the river.
"Please forgive him, Jaxith, he respected you, forgive him at least for me, Miller is a good man, and it looks like he really didn't poison you.", Said Irene in a caring manner while holding Jaxith's arm and looking straight in his eyes, Jaxith couldn't ignore her innocence, she's so kind-hearted, he can't show her his true nature, his frozen soul and monstrous behavior, he hide all his rage and smiled peacefully.
"Fine, just for you, although we won't see him soon, but I'll give him another chance if you think he deserves it.", Said Jaxith, Irene smiled.
"That's the Jaxith I want.", Said Irene happily.
"Now we got a lot to do, especially after the new lead I have.", Said Jaxith seriously, Irene left his arm and looked serious.
"Did you find anything last night?", Asked Irene.
"Indeed, I needed to find something useful from those guards, and I found a name, finally.", Said Jaxith.
"What're you waiting for? come on tell me.", Said Irene in hope.
"Alphonse Rascliffe, does it ring any bell?", Said Jaxith seriously, Irene thought for a moment.
"It seems familiar, but not as a friend, the Rascliffe family is known across the kingdom, I've seen a lot of merchants that I used to steal from have crates with products from the Rascliffes, I don't know much because I don't care about those nobles but I think if we asked any merchant or even some people will know him, but he's a noble, a very important one, I even think he's close to the minister.", Said Irene.
"So you don't know him.", Said Jaxith.
"Yeah, what would make a thief like me know someone as powerful as him?", Said Irene which actually makes sense.
"That actually makes it harder cuz I'm already suspecting some people behind those attacks.", Said Jaxith seriously.
"Who?", Asked Irene while looking confused.
"That one called John, he was the son of Alphonse, he had a strange looking shard that provided him with an immense amount of dark energy that affected his sanity, and he also used a dark spell, in other words, dark magic.", Said Jaxith while remembering the violet arrows that caused paralysis for his right leg.
"Damn, Jaxith, how did you manage to deal with that? I hear that dark magic is very dangerous, wait! Did that was the reason you weren't able to walk on your right leg last night when you came to me.", Said Irene in fear.
"Yes, thanks for healing me by the way, you're getting better with your divine energy.", Said Jaxith while patting her head.
"See? You're not useless young girl, this paralysis spell was very dangerous and you simply left its curse.", Said Jaxith while rubbing her head smoothly that she smiled shyly.
"I still don't know how I did it, I just found myself doing it on my own, just like with Senka before.", Said Irene before Senka nickerd and started licking her face again.
"You will get better by the time, now back to the important thing, combining what John used to stop and the black stone given for the assassin to get you, I'm already suspecting a dangerous cult, they are usually behind the accidents associated with dark magic and dark energy, no need to mention the strange demoness at the forest near Orstone.", Said Jaxith seriously, two attacks both of them connected directly with the dark magic and the scarlet summoning, it all seems clearer for Jaxith now.
"Jaxith, I don't understand what are you aiming for.", Said Irene in worry.
"Does Lance have anything to do with a cult called the Cragmoore zealots?", Asked Jaxith seriously!
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darkash I'll leave the discord server link if anyone wanted to learn more about the novel, I have just made it as a way to narrow the distance between me and the readers:
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