Shades of Grey

GRANYAH— JULY 1843

Granyah is a beautiful city. The Elves really have no equal when it comes to architecture. Elvish scribes spent months and at times even years painting lines of Elvish poetry onto the mouldings of the floors and it was certainly worth the devotion: gracefully multifarious murals covered the faces of nearly every outside wall and intricately detailed geometric patterns were carved into the wood of the buildings. The halls were lofty and only the best materials were used in construction, giving the city a very Ardenian feel.

“It’s beautiful,” Forma replied as she changed and coasted down to a stop in the middle of a grand courtyard in the centre of the palace along with the last of the now free Cambrians.

“As is the sight of a Hunter who has successfully retrieved our Cambrian brethren from the clutches of the Treptiks!” commented a very tall Elf adorned in robes of deep crimson. His waist length hair framed his handsomely authoritative features as he smiled at me with large hazel eyes. He carried a tall gold staff and was surrounded by the entire population of Granyah as well as every liberated, uninjured Cambrian. They began applauding in appreciation.

“I welcome you to Granyah with a whole and open heart. I am King Orion.” He descended the steps and made a grand bow to us once the applause had died.

“Thank you, your majesty, but I am not worthy of such glory. I have given you nothing but a Pyrrhic victory,” I choked as I dismounted Forma and she changed to her human-size. The King looked sympathetic as he understood the reason for my less than eager reception. He placed a large hand on my shoulder understandingly.

“Loria was a great Hunter and Scepta was a skilled and loyal Fairy. Theirs is a bond that will never be forgotten. We shall hold a candlelight vigil tomorrow night in their memory.”

I smiled gratefully at the King and he mercifully waved the crowd away. They then began to disband, occasionally casting genuinely grateful and admirable looks in my direction. I looked away in shamefaced grief.

“We have prepared a room for you and Forma. You may stay as long as you need,” the King said, drawing my attention back to him.

“Thank you. I deeply appreciate it,” I replied. King Orion smiled.

“You helped our Cambrian brothers and now we shall help you.”

He then clapped his hands and Lanek stepped forward, smiling at me with the naïvely childlike purity of Sir Galahad. His smile was so immense and so serenely content that I found myself smiling as well. It was good to see him outside of the work fields in the cave, even with the freshly bandaged battle wounds on his face.

“Lanek will take you to your room. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions or needs at all,” said the King, shaking my hand once more.

“Thank you.”

King Orion then quitted the courtyard, speaking promptly with his council members until Lanek, Forma and I stood together in the empty space. There was a long moment of silence, which was broken only by a snort of laughter from Forma. I glared at her.

“I’m sorry, but I find the awkwardness between the two of you amusing,” she admitted telepathically as she shifted to her natural size.

Lanek then suddenly turned away, clearly embarrassed.

“Well, let me show you to your room,” he said abruptly. I smiled and playfully flicked Forma off my shoulder as she changed into a falcon, still laughing to herself as she flew above.

We followed Lanek through the winding, earth toned hallways of the palace until we ascended an extensive staircase, arriving at a small wooden door in a corner wing which was located near a miniscule arroyo and a progressively sinuous brook. The sound of water flow calmed me and I closed my eyes, letting it settle inside me. Lanek saw my contemplative state and he mercifully remained silent. I then opened my eyes and looked at Forma, who had shifted into her human size and decided to stick her feet into the water. She laughed at the cold temperature, changed into a beaver and proceeded to play with nature.

“She seems happy,” Lanek remarked.

“Yes, her mood is easily brightened,” I replied with a smile. There was a long pause as we both searched for a change of subject.

“Did you know Loria very well?” he asked in a sensitive voice.

“Yes. She was a good friend of mine during school.”

“Oh, I’m sorry for your loss.”

He was kind enough not to ask me directly, but I sensed that he was wondering what had happened after she had called for me. He was wondering what she had wanted to tell me.

“On our Commencement night, a group of Avian-Centaur hybrids attacked the school. I was quickly ushered out of the building and told to run. Before she died, Loria told me that the school is now a pile of ruins and... that I am the only Hunter left.”

Lanek’s eyebrows shot up.

“They all died on Commencement night?”

“Yes,” I said with a shaky voice.

I found myself crying again and I collapsed in the nearest chair, a pitiable mass of tears.

Lanek tenderly sat next to me and place his hand on my shoulder, gripping it sympathetically. I took it and smiled at him.

“Thank you. You’ve been very kind to me.”

“I can’t imagine anyone doing otherwise.”

My stomach dropped for a moment as my mind flashed to Rodag and the similar things he said to me…no. I would not make the same mistake twice.

I turned back to Forma, cementing this promise to myself. Lanek understood and stood hastily.

“Well, I’ll leave you to rest a while. I suppose I’ll see you at the vigil, then.”

I nodded and gave him a polite wave as he quickly left the room. I found myself staring at the door for a long moment afterward, contemplating what had just happened.

“Are you trying to influence him to come back?”

Forma’s voice snapped me roughly out of my daze. She stood in front of me, soaking wet, with her arms folded and a haughty expression on her face.

“Do we have to do this again?” she asked as she grabbed a towel and began to dry herself.

“I’m not doing anything again.”

“Oh really? I recognise that look of longing in your eyes.”

“There isn’t any longing in anyone’s eyes,” I stated firmly, my eyes drifting to the floor. “I just think we should consider him an ally. I think of him only as a friend, nothing more.”

Forma grew frustrated and grabbed my face, turning it back to hers, but my eyes remained on the door.

“Grey! We can’t trust anyone but each other! Even our so-called friends can betray us!”

“What exactly are you worried about, Forma? That he’ll guide me back into Treptik territory and throw me back into their now extinct clutches? If he was out to kill me, he would have done it already!”

“You know better than to hold such casual ideas about your significance. Creatures everywhere are out to kill Hunters and now that you are the only one left I—”

My temper had been swelling with each word that Forma dared to utter and it finally reached its apex. I turned on her and strode forward with rage.

“SHUT UP! You’re always contradicting me! Always making me second-guess myself!”

“That’s my job, Grey. I’m supposed to make you second-guess yourself. It strengthens your decisions! That is the foundation of our partnership!”

“It’s not a partnership when I feel that I need to ask your permission for every move I make!”

“Permission?! You hardly consider me at all in your stupid decisions! I HAVE NEARLY DIED BECAUSE OF CHOICES YOU HAVE MADE ON A WHIM!”

“Well perhaps you wouldn’t be so endangered if you would help me instead of criticising me! A Maisling is supposed to facilitate her Hunter, not hamper them!”

Forma was shocked for a minute at my spate and stumbled on her feet for the first time in the conversation, struggling for a fittingly livid retort.

“Well then perhaps you don’t want me as your Fairy then!”

“Perhaps I don’t!”

“Perhaps it is better that I just depart from your life forever!”

“PERHAPS IT IS!”

“ALRIGHT THEN, I HOPE YOU ENJOY HUNTING EVERY CREATURE LEFT IN THE WORLD ALL ALONE!”

She shrank to her natural size and flew out the window in a huff of irate fury.

“THAT’S FINE! I DON’T NEED YOU!”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than I instantly regretted them. I knew better and the fact that it had been a misjudgement of mine that had become our Apple of Discord filled me with embarrassment. I slid onto a chair on the balcony and ruefully held my head in my hands.

The vigil for Loria and Scepta took place by the Mer de Rein, a calm blue river that split Granyah in two before travelling through the woods outside the city and on into the surrounding mountain range. The entire city had gathered, each with a single candle in their hands.

King Orion gave a solemn address to the crowd, but I wasn’t listening to his words. My thoughts were centred on Loria and Scepta: their last moments together. Then I thought of how harshly Forma and I had spoken to each other. I sighed in quiet shame, watching as Orion finished his address and each citizen bent down to place his or her respective candle in the water. I drew myself out of my thoughts and set my candle in the water with them, watching as hundreds of candlelights travelled slowly down the stream into the dark of the forest.

As my eyes travelled up the river with the candles, I noticed Forma perched on a low hanging tree branch far away from the thick of the Granyah crowd. I watched the weary grief form on her face, a subtle change that no one else would have been able to see. We then locked eyes for a moment and her face turned hard again. Quickly she turned into a small falcon and flew off into the woods.

I hardened my exterior as well and quickly left the crowd, eager to escape to the privacy of my bedroom and my own thoughts.

Hours later, I awoke on my bed — still in the same morose mood — when a soft knock at the door made me start.

“Come in,” I said, sitting upright and stretching abruptly. I had not meant to fall asleep...

“Grey?”

I turned around and saw Lanek in my doorway, looking uneasy and reticent.

“Yes, Lanek?”

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry… for your friend’s death and everything. I can’t remember if I said so or not,” he said with a careful voice.

“You did, but thank you,” I replied.

Lanek’s confidence seemed to grow and he strode forward, sitting in the chair next to me, silent as he urgently tried to think of something interesting to talk about.

“What’s it like? Going to school and learning to kill things?”

I burst out laughing. Lanek smiled, but he didn’t appear to understand what was so humorous about his statement. Looking back myself, neither do I. It was most likely my state of mind.

“I’m sorry!” I said when I observed his confusion. “It’s been so long since I’ve laughed!”

“Well, I’m glad I could help to end such a streak. Are you going to answer my question?” he probed, which made me cackle harder.

“Oh, I suppose not,” he mumbled.

“Quiet!” I cried through my mirth, eager for an opportunity to calm down. “I need to breathe!”

Lanek grinned and allowed me a moment to relax, after which I turned to him.

“It was alright, I suppose. It’s all I’ve ever known. I have no memory of my life before the school, only fragments I’ve discovered since I left.”

“And what have you discovered?” he asked, genuinely interested.

My eyes drifted to the floor as I stated what I knew aloud, for both of our benefits.

“I know that my mother did not want me to become a Hunter because she was one herself, and for some reason, she felt it necessary to move to the city and change our names. I know a Vanguard named Evan murdered them and burnt our house down. I know that I was running around in the forest, ranting and raving about it before a couple Hamadryads recognised my mark brought me to the school.”

Lanek’s eyes widened.

“A Vanguard killed your…and you don’t remember any of this?!”

“Not a bit.”

Lanek sat back once more as he processed this information. He then turned to me once more.

“Where is Forma?”

My mood became sour again.

“She’s not speaking to me.”

“Oh, what happened?”

I paused, not wanting to divulge my feelings, but also wrestling with the urge to confide everything to him.

“A frivolous argument,” I finally said.

Lanek nodded and bobbed his knee as he silently searched for a new direction in which to take the conversation. I appreciated his sensitivity to my feelings. It was nice to meet a man who truly cared about how I felt.

He finally settled on a topic and then turned to me.

“Would you mind…erm… showing me how to shoot something?”

I sniggered.

“Really? You want to learn to shoot?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Cambrians were once legendary marksmen and at the moment I can barely handle a sword. If you had seen me in battle today, you would’ve laughed.”

I snorted.

“See? You’re laughing merely at the thought!”

“Alright!” I replied through my laughter before he could induce another fit. “I’ll show you.”

I looked through my bandoleer and the many compartments on my uniform, trying to settle on a weapon he could shoot safely without there being a great hazard to anyone around us. I then got an idea.

“How long were you personally under Treptik rule?”

“My entire life.”

“You’ve always been a slave?”

“Yes. Cambrians have not been free for at least eight generations.”

I smiled.

“Then I’ve got just the thing to show you.”

I pulled out my quiver of arrows and my long, graceful bow — Cambrian in origin — from the compartment on my legs. Lanek’s face lit up as he gently took hold of the weapon, gazing at it with awe.

“How did you get this?”

“It was a gift from my weaponry professor,” I replied, granting him a moment to admire the sleek design and elegant Cambrian script. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to read it, but stopped after a moment, perturbed at his failure.

“Our language has been lost to us for many years,” he said, nostalgically tracing the letters with his fingertips.

I gave him a small smile and stood next to him, tracing the words as I read them aloud.

“It says ‘to face one flame is to face them all, a warrior without shame is one who shan’t fall. In the dark, unreachable, hidden corners of the world; only to the worthy will the fires of evil be revealed.’”

He looked at me, impressed.

“Garreth George,” he said, identifying the Cambrian poet who had penned the line over a thousand years ago.

“Cambrian poetry was always my favourite,” I confessed. “They always seem to have much more interesting things to say.”

Lanek smiled and then strongly gripped the bow, telling me that he was ready to take his first shot. I took a step back and moved his hands to the proper positions.

“Alright, stand straight up and grip the very middle of the bow,” I looked up, searching for a suitable target, finally locating a sturdy tree about ten metres away from the balcony. “Straighten your arm, raise the bow slowly and aim at that tree trunk over there.”

He looked to where I was pointing and locked his eyes on the tree. He raised his arms slowly, swiftly releasing the arrow. It soared across the courtyard and pierced the ground about two metres to the left of the tree. I couldn’t help smiling as Lanek narrowed his eyes in irritation and turned his head towards me.

“Why does that entertain you?” he asked in a teasingly baleful voice.

“Because I made that same mistake when I shot my first arrow,” I said through a smile. I then got serious and stood next to him.

“Keep your right arm level with the ground...” I gently pushed his right arm down until it was parallel to the floor, “…put the arrow directly in your eye line...” I raised his left arm up and he adjusted it to his line of sight, “…relax your shoulders,” I touched his shoulders lightly and felt the tension wane. I then stepped backward, allowing him the chance to focus.

“Release.”

We both watched as the arrow sailed through the air and pierced the tree trunk unswervingly in the centre. I applauded and cheered as he turned to me with a smile on his omnisciently attractive face.

“I fired an arrow,” he said merrily.

“Yes you did, from a Cambrian bow too,” I added. “Nimrod himself might have met his match in you.”

“And I hit my target.”

“Oh, that tree was a real brute.”

“Absolutely dreadful.”

“Thousands have been saved by your shot tonight.”

“And none of it will go to my head.”

“Never!”

“It would be unseemly of me.”

“It would be uncouth of you.”

He had drawn closer to me with each bit of badinage we exchanged and he now stood centimetres from me. I looked at his face: his once stunning and ideal Cambrian features still had the prospective to be astonishing — I saw it in his eyes and it left me breathless. I had to remember my promise to myself…remember what Rodag had done to me…

“Would it be uncouth or unseemly of me to kiss you right now?” he asked in a whisper. My breath caught in my throat.

“Lanek, please, I’ve told you before…”

“I’m only asking for a kiss,” he replied, his hand cupping my face. “Nothing more.”

I found no words of vociferation and I was unable to make any moves of protest before his strong lips met with mine and, despite my promise to myself to not entertain such feelings for a man again, I did not fight him off.

I enjoyed it.

The next day, I woke up to a radiant sunrise streaming in through my window, which I then noticed lit the silhouette of a full sized Forma sitting on the couch near my bed. Her arms were folded and her expression was difficult to read. I sensed a sort of loath act of contrition about to come.

“I got as far as the Black Woods when I remembered something,” she said, moving to the foot of my bed.

“Yes?” I probed.

“The final line of the oath I spoke back in December: ‘I will never leave my Hunter’s side as we eradicate all remnants of the Rip together, forever.’ Together.”

I smiled at her emphasis.

“I don’t like fighting either,” I replied.

She creased her brow, as if she knew what she had to say but it was too out of character for her to say it. I embraced her and after a minute, her hard exterior melted. She then pulled away and, very characteristically, changed the subject.

“So, I saw you on the balcony with Lanek last night.”

I laughed at the innuendo in her turn of phrase and then rolled my eyes at the oncoming speech.

“Please don’t lecture me, I’ve reprimanded myself enough for the both of us,” I said pointedly.

“Lecture you?!” she exclaimed. “I don’t want to lecture you! I’ve failed twice now at that. I want to know the details!”