At the balcony everyone sat on their chairs waiting for their tea to be ready while Aegara and Krona were having an entertaining conversation remembering their old days. Arius was observing, he wanted to know what Crowell and Lenora were planning. Even if it was none of his business his instincts as a soldier were kicking in.
Arius is thinking to himself:
There is definitely something wrong here. I should be suspecting Krona aswell but something tells me she doesn't know what's going on with them....or maybe she doesn't want to acknowledge it.
Lenora joins the conversation with Aegara and Krona, the only ones left in silence were Crowell and Arius. They stare at one another for a while and just when was being served Crowell breaks the silence.
"Sooo…..you were a soldier in the Northern war right?"
Arius turns at him.
"Yes, I was recruited at a very young age too, but it wasn't really my choice. I was forced to go because that's where I was born"
Crowell is shocked.
"A human? And born in a northern country. In which one were you born?"
Arius grabs the cup of tea, drinks a little and starts talking.
"Ahhh….ok so I was born at Dukedom of Fritzland, my mother was a native Atraksian while my father was a human, of course you already know just by the rumors that humans are a very rare species so they couldn't let go of me, they placed me on a war I didn't want to fight, but I was too young to understand that so I just went with the flow. I just killed and killed like it was nothing. Life felt meaningless to the point where even witnessing the death of my teammates felt like nothing. Simply just the weak dying"
Crowell was silent. He felt pity towards the young boy who wasn't allowed to enjoy his childhood. Arius continued to talk while Crowell continued to listen.
"Even after returning from the harshest battles I was left with no time to rest and simply sent to the next one. That and never being taught of empathy by my mother was what shaped my past mindset.
"Was there a reason your mother wasn't your moral compass?"
Crowell asked.
Arius scoffed:
She never could. They said she died giving birth to me since the human mother dies from childbirth because the crossbred baby drains all of its mothers energy 99% of the time. Therefore there aren't a lot of species who would mix with us and yet our numbers are still dwindling."
Crowell curiously asked:
"What about you and female humans? Can you successfully have children with them as a halfbreed?"
Arius replies uncertainly:
"This information doesn't come from me but from a traveling historian. He was at the Northern war to record its events. I was told little information about humans. I asked him the same question you did to me and he said that human DNA perseveres and it essentially overrides the others and so most likely I could. I was also told about a certain event that happened involving a "halfbreed" human male and a female. Taking motif from the risk of human females dying from cross breeding and the incident their elder decided to split the humans up to take a different approach. He said nothing more. Just that both groups live in Terra. The females have created a temple and only pray to "God". They do nothing but play games and many other activities devoid of any lust. As for the males nothing else is known besides being apart from the females. Now you might wonder how does the race continue its existence? That was my question too, but the historian left with me only the idea of visiting my people's planet and uncover my race's secrets. With that conversation I had my first push to leave the war."
Crowell was amazed from the information about Humans, but he wanted to know more about Arius.
"The first push to leave war? What happened next?"
Arius sips from the cup of tea again.
"In the midst of war I met my friend- no actually my sister. I don't know what she considers me but I love her like I would a sister. We aren't from the same species but we are a family, she helped me see things from another viewpoint and soon I realized that continued participation in the war was the wrong thing to do. I understood value of life especially when I found out how rare humans are and thus I decided to dedicate my life into saving people instead of killing them, no matter the circumstances. We all need help but don't have the courage to ask for it, people have the courage to do anything but ask for help because they are afraid of whom they are asking for help."
Crowell satisfied with the answer can only say:
"I see….thanks for the insightful answers."
Arius looks at the sky and calmly asks:
"What about you Crowell?"
Crowell looks at the sky just like Arius, with his right hand he grabs the cup of tea, takes a sip and places down the tea cup.
"I…..didn't kill anyone, yet my sins weight more than yours, my people are nomads. On our way to the east we were faced with a plague and our tribe…..well we stopped at the northern kingdom of Stasia and were promised treasures if we helped deliver class and information to the kingdom's allies. We agreed and started serving them."
Arius gets curious by the bats words.
"But I didn't hear your tribes name on my dukedom?"
Crowell continued:
"The rumors spread to the rest of tribes and they all gathered in north and started serving every northern country, state and kingdom, as a result the war continued longer."
Arius says with a whisper :
"Don't blame yourself or your people, blame the ones who started it."
Crowell lowers his head.
"No…..I don't have that right, because of us the carnage continued, because of us.....we did....God.....I can't."
Arius looked at Crowell with a pitiful expression and said:
"Even if your people didn't stop in the north the war would have continued, the nobles were determined to continue it until one of them had complete dominance over the other. It was thanks to the revolutionary that we were able to stop the war, it had no victors and no losers, only ashes."
Crowell nods.
"So don't blame yourself Crowell, what happened to us was simply a tragedy and we should be thankful everyday that those days have passed. We should look forward and not seek revenge nor forgiveness for actions that were beyond our control. What we must look forward to is a free future, with that freedom we will create a better life for everyone."
Arius said smiling .
Crowell smiled too and replied:
"Yes, better days are to come."
And as they hope for a better future we shift our attention towards Saava and Bordor who are currently waking up.
*yawn*
"Ahhhhhhh, what the hell man my head hurts! Ah we are inside Aegara's dimension!"
Saava wakes up too and asks Bordor:
"Bordor, where are we?"
He looks at her and calmly says:
"We are inside Aegara's dimension, it's healing us and stabilizing our Origin but there is something strange, she isn't letting us out."
Saava stands up to fix her dress.
"Why isn't she letting us out? Is there a problem?"
Bordor wonders.
"Well maybe she is trying to do something and is leaving us as the big surprise."
Saava confused at her current situation asks Bordor:
"Then what about Arius, is he alright?"
Bordor looks at her and confirms:
"Yes he is, but they don't want us to appear yet."
Saava is concerned and asks in a low tone:
"Why?"
Bordor replies with a serious tone:
"There are 3 people with them, it seems Arius and Aegara are very cautious and don't even want to tell them about us at all, especially the dragon. Aegara is trying her best to shield our presence from the dragon."
Saava sits down.
"So what now?"
Bordor sits and lays down the plan.
"We simply wait for the right time to join them but for now we heal and prepare ourselves for when they need us."
Saava looks around.
"All dark...."
Bordor replies:
"Yes, it's all dark.... Dimensions reflect the current state of ones mind, so Aegara is currently thinking nothing but Darkness"
Saava is shocked and says:
"Is she evil?!"
Bordor stays silent for a moment then bursts out laughing.
"No Saava hahaha no no, it's just that well...from the looks of it the team that was supposed to join us has died. It will take a while for her to mentally recover from this but she definitely will. She'll probably use Arius as a punching bag because she becomes depressed everytime something like this happens"
As Bordor says this Saava looks concerned.
"Why did you laugh at your teammates death?"
Bordor looks at Saava with a serious look—no with a face devoid of all emotion and says:
"Saava dear, when you live as much as I have you either stop caring about people or just go insane. Well, hahaha let's just say I took a bit of both."
Saava just breathes out.
"Oh, I see...."
We turn back to Arius and Aegara, as they have finished their tea time with their new acquaintances.
"Well Krona it was very nice reminiscing about our old days but I think it's about time me and Arius go to our room to rest. While we do that you can talk with Lenora and Crowell about our proposal."
Aegara says as she grabs Arius by the arm.
Krona humbly replies:
"Yes it was nice, Aegara please rest well and don't worry. By tomorrow you will have our answer."
Crowell and Lenora say Good night to Aegara and Arius.
As Arius and Aegara head to their room, Krona sits down and starts talking to Crowell and Lenora.
-Meanwhile on Arius & Aegara's room:
"…..and that's all we talked about. I believe Crowell might just be a pawn to Lenora and not really the mastermind. She is definitely manipulating him, not with Origin but simply using the guilt of his past actions."
Aegara hearing this statement from Arius agrees with him and then asks:
"Good thinking but...why are we sleeping on the same bed?"
Arius looks around then at her.
"Well because there is no other bed in the room."
Aegara nods weirdly.
Arius then asks:
"General can I ask a favor of you?"
Aegara replies:
"What?"
Arius clears his throat.
"Ahem…Well...can I hug you while we sleep?"
Aegara shouts:
"WHAT?"
Arius makes a serious face.
"Please mommy-I mean ma'am. It would help me sleep."
Aegara stares directly at Arius.
"Say things like that again and I will blow you up!"
Arius raises his head.
"Yes ma'am, time to get a good nights rest!"
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To be continued…