“You mean the dayyougave me no choice but to kill those men?” Eldric said, moving his hands in exasperation.
Alissa ignored him as the latest attack started to make more sense. The attackers had wanted to capture them alive and deliver them to the capital to retrieve the reward on their heads. She remembered the black-haired man’s last words:“Before we hand you over, I’m going to enjoy using you two.”She shivered as she thought about what would have happened to them if Eldric hadn’t shown up when he did.
“So, what changes for us now?” Alissa asked.
Eldric paced back and forth in the small room, his thoughts racing. “First of all, Freyah and I will need to be careful walking on the streets of Nyfrel while you’re recovering. I don’t think anyone has recognized us so far, but it would be just a matter of time.”
He stopped pacing and stared at them, both watching him. “I will also purchase some material to change your looks. It will be too easy to recognize you two like this. Especially you,” he said, looking at Freyah, referencing her long, unusual red hair and pink eyepatch.
“What do you mean?” Freyah asked.
“He means for us to change our hair,” Alissa intervened, explaining.
“I’m not dying my hair!”
“You either dye your hair, or you die. Let me know when you decide.” His expression was one of detachment as Freyah whined and slid her fingers through her gorgeous, wavy hair in anticipated nostalgia, her lips curving down a little in sadness.
Alissa didn’t care about that; she would shave her head if it was necessary for her mission to be successful. “What else?”
“We will need to travel more slowly and cautiously when we are back on the road. We’ll need extra attention in the capital as well. You won’t be able to just enter the library anymore. You’ll need to make up a plan and lay low while you’re there.”
“What happens to fugitives of the kingdom if they are caught?” Freyah asked, still holding a lock of her hair for dear life, already mourning it.
“They usually go on trial and are either imprisoned or sentenced to death by hanging. That reinforces how careful we must be, do you understand?” Eldric spoke in a warning tone. He didn’t seem scared but alarmed.
They fell silent, all of them contemplating the risks and consequences that would be added to their already challenging journey. The stakes were higher than ever… until Alissa spoke again.
“What is a magical researcher?”
Eldric explained the details of the job, what it took to become a magical researcher, and the benefits and struggles of the role. Alissa noticed he spoke with more excitement than she would have expected; he had known more aspects of it than they would have thought. The same way he was the only one to properly react to the Ferrugia announcement, it meant he knew, at least to some degree, about medicinal treatment.
“How do you know so much about it?” Alissa’s eyes narrowed. She flinched a little, feeling the pain in her thigh as she tried to move on the cot, blood escaping from the stitches to stain the bandage around her leg.
“It was an ancient dream of mine to become a magical researcher,” he admitted, his eyes dropping to the floor.
Eldric blushed, and she found it adorable. “Well, if not a magical researcher, you could have been a bard, too,” she said with a smile, recalling all the singing they heard of him on that first day inside the barrels. She didn’t want to admit it, but he could actually sing well.
He smiled back at her, his gaze averting to the floor shyly.
“Maybe now you can finally make your dream come true,” she replied, leaving Eldric with a confused expression.
“I guess now you’re a fugitive, you won’t be able to serve the kingdom as a Royal Guard anymore, will you?”
Eldric felt embarrassed that the thought hadn’t crossed his mind before Alissa brought it up. Of course he wouldn’t be able to keep his job as a Royal Guard when the entire kingdom was after him for killing civilians. He felt something weird in his chest. He just wasn’t sure whether he was happy to finally be free of this duty that had broken his soul day after day, sad that he was suddenly left without a purpose, or concerned about the implications for his future.
“This means you have some knowledge of illnesses and medical treatment, right, Eldric?” Freyah’s question brought him back to reality.
He confirmed with a nod.
“Is there any treatment for the Senectus out here?” Freyah inquired, hoping he would give them the answer they needed to save Dhalia.
“What?”
“Senectus Subita,” Freyah said, shrugging, as if it was obviously what she had meant.
That didn’t help in any way with Eldric’s confusion. He stared at her as if it sounded like gibberish to him.
“I don’t think it exists outside of Bryniard, Freyah.” Alissa’s eyes were wide as she stared at her friend. The mention of Senectus Subita made her body stiff on the cot, but Freyah didn’t take the hint.