17.

As the morning sun crested the horizon Lynn met with Constell in the open doorway of the library. Constell’s travelling outfit appeared immaculate. Not a speck of dust on his snow white riding jacket. Lynn remained bewildered on how that particular choice of clothing could possibly be efficient but he also didn’t see any point in addressing Constell’s wardrobe issues at the moment. Constell shined his straight pearly teeth at him.

“Ready?”

“Yes. I prepared a pack of supplies.” He kept it shouldered on his right side. His left shoulder had deteriorated into a gnarled joint. He normally wore a shoulder pad to maintain the illusion he still kept a typical young adult male’s physique but it couldn’t actually hold any weight behind it.

“Ya’re certain ya don’t want to bring your servant along?” Constell asked, eyeing his lopsided form.

“I’ll be fine. I doubt my servant would be of much assistance. Ever since his accident, he’s hardly spoken a word. I half believe he’s gone dumb from the incident.”

“Well that’s rude,” Constell said with a laugh.

“To be honest, I doubt I would have brought him along even before he was attacked. I don’t trust him to get things done in a competent and efficient manner and don’t want him jeopardizing our expedition.” Lynn spoke in a calculated tone.

“If ya say so,” Contell said. “Anyway, let’s get moving. We can talk while we walk, no sense in wasting daylight right?”

Lynn nodded and they began trudging forward down a dirt path. Constell talked but Lynn didn’t pay any attention to the man and simply nodded at his words which seemed to be all the validation Constell needed to continue jabbering. Hours passed as they kept moving forward, Lynn’s eyes remained fixated on the ground in front of him, cautious of any hazardous footing that might appear. He almost tumbled into Constell when he halted suddenly.

“We should stop and eat for a bit.” Constell slung his pack onto the ground and removed small cakes wrapped in cloth and a metal canister which he sipped from. “Make certain you’re drinking liquids Lynn. It can be easy to forget sometimes when the humidity is as thick as it currently is.”

Lynn set himself down on a round moss covered rock. He removed a stick of jerky and drank a few gulps out of his own water skin. To his surprise, he found Constell had been correct. The moment he drank the lukewarm water he realized how thirsty the walking had made him. He devoured the jerky in only a few quick, chewy bites as well.

“So tell me, Lynn. We’re out here in the middle of the wilderness where there’s next to no possibility of any eavesdroppers. I’ve got a question for ya.” Constell’s eye glinted as he spoke.

“Ah, what is that?” Lynn realized once again just how vulnerable the position was that he’d set himself in with Constell. What if he had been the one who had attempted to poison him only to mistakenly kill Ivan Quartz those weeks ago. It wouldn’t take a great amount of physical force to overpower him, on top of the fact that Constell was a Mystic. Lynn carefully slid his hand over to his belt knife which he tactfully gripped without Constell noticing.

“Vivian Topaz. Are ya courting her? I can understand not wanting the gossip to spread throughout the library but, come on, I’m your mentor! Ya can trust me. I mean, it would make perfect sense if ya were, she’s cute with those brown curls that fall past her shoulders and those matching chestnut eyes. Not to mention her personality, absolutely lovely. Delightful. Even my brother doesn’t know what to make of that girl, of course he’s just going to ignore her and hit some sticks together. And of course there’s that raw power. I heard what happened at the Silvian Ball before you came. Burnt beyond recognition! Just imagining her complete control over her element gives me goose prickles.” To emphasis he grabbed his arms and shuddered despite the warm muggy air.

“No. I’m not romantically involved with Vivian Topaz. She is a good friend of mine and that is all.”

“Ya said that before too….”

“And I meant it before as well.”

“Too bad. I think you’d be good together.”

“I disagree. Let’s leave it at that. Any other topics you’d be interested in discussing?”

“That’s a pretty blunt way of changing the subject. But I’ll take the bait, there is something else I’d actually love to talk about. Ya know the story of Silvis, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well do ya know about the tragedy of Lysendra?” Constell stood, began walking, and motioned for Lynn to follow.

“I do. According to the legend she was a goddess and the teacher of Silvis. She passed away directly before Silvis saved Regnum, breaking the continent in the process causing the silt fields surrounding it.”

“Almost right. Ya’ve got shards of truth in your story but it’s covered in a fog of misunderstanding. Do ya by any chance know what sort of Mystic Lysendra was?”

Lynn scoured his memory but came up empty. He shook his head, eyebrows knit together in frustration at the hole in his knowledge. He should know that.

Constell grinned. “The story has changed up a bit over the years but, in truth, Lysendra actually caused the breaking of your country, not Silvis. She was an ice Mystic who at the end of her life caused glaciers to sporadically develop and expand across your county resulting in the excessive silt covering your coasts. And…as you know, Silvis happened to be a fire Mystic. Sound like a familiar duo?”

Lynn blinked. “You’re suggesting that I’m a reincarnated Lysenda and Vivian is Silvis? That takes quite a bit of superstition to believe.”

“Nah, reincarnation isn’t a religious belief of mine. And I’m not so callus as to suggest that ya’re secretly a woman. But it certainly is a funny coincidence.” There was a pause. “Ya’re not, right?”

“Not what? An ice Mystic?”

“Secretly a woman.” His grin developed into a full smile revealing dimples on his perfectly unblemished cheeks.

Lynn hit him with his good arm as an answer.

“Ow, that tickled. Judging by that punch, I’d have to say I’ve figured ya out. When was the last time ya exercised? And, so ya’re aware, a local lady’s stretching group from your hometown does not count as exercise.”

Lynn laughed. It felt good. “Not counting this hike, either? I suppose it must have been around the same time you got dirt under your pretty little fingernails.”

“Ah, so never?” Constell held up his perfectly manicured fingernails for inspection. “I have no problem admitting my cleanliness. It’s a virtue of mine, not in the slightest bit a flaw. After all, I’m perfectly flawless, haven’t ya noticed by now?”

“And you’re accusing me of being the girl?”

“Cleanliness should be a gender neutral trait. Universally encouraged by all! It’s nonsensical for anyone to want to be dirty. Animalistic, even.” Constell sighed. “Which makes my brother perhaps the least human individual in the world. Even monkeys pick fleas off one another, he’d rather invite the fleas and make friends with them. I’m of the firm belief that his only friends are the ones living on him.”

"I suppose I don’t have to worry too much about him snatching Vivian up and marrying my friend then?”

“Oh ya don’t even know half of it. I’m so jealous of his luck, no offence but ya’re not as pretty as Vivian, and he doesn’t even know or care about how fortunate he is. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my brother to death but he couldn’t have been given Quinton Silver and I doubt he could have cared any more or less.”

“And how do you feel about that poor girl who Quinton Silver had assigned as his mentor?”

“Ya know, I might feel a smidgen bad for her but they deserve one another. I grew up alongside her and let me tell ya, I’ve never met anyone half as dramatic as that girl. She makes stubbing her toe sound like battling a life or death illness. That girl’s a headache and an eye sore swirled together into a bad cocktail.” As Constell spoke he flicked back his hand as if exasperated just from mentioning her. “Then again, none of the peers I was raised alongside with were very entertaining.”

“What was it like being raised on Silvian Island?” Lynn asked curiously.

“Dull. Almost everyone on the island can use Mystic Arts but they almost never do. Every once in a while I’d see someone from the library perform a trick with but, for the most part, they keep all secretive. Not to mention my mother would flay anyone if she found out they were using Mystic Arts around individuals not associated with the library. Most people are especially careful not to do anything around my brother or myself. Not that we’d snitch to our mother but nobody believes that. They all believe everyone’s out to get ‘em. Other than that, it’s hot and wet here. Not much else to say. I didn’t leave town often growing up and the mountain we’re heading up to is, by far, the coldest I’ve ever been in my life. When I visited it a few years ago I saw snow for the first, and only, time in my life.”

“Why were you up here to begin with? It seems like an out of the way location.”

“Oh trust me, it is. No one in the right mind would come up here for pleasure. My mother thought it would be good for Owen and myself to see more than just our town. Character building. So she hired a guide to show us the entire island. Island’s massive too, took forever. One of the many wretched places we visited included the mountain ya and I are heading to now. There’s a village at the foot of it we’ll hopefully reach by tomorrow night. From there, we start climbing. One last time before we get too far away from the library, ya are certain ya’re up for the climb? It’s not exactly an easy stroll up to the lake.”

Lynn stood up placing his weight on his real leg. “I’ll manage.”