“Wouldn’t it be nice,” Gareth was saying as Orenda followed the magical signatures of the group to find them, deeper in the maze-like corredores, “If we could just head back to the ship? Poor Impy must be bored. I’m sure one of her lackies has sent word to the great and powerful Xandra. We don’t need to stay in one place for too long.”

“This place has really been picked clean,” Bella said.

Orenda came into what seemed to be a sitting room, but it was disheveled and unused. Bella was right, the place had been looted and there was little left. It looked as if it had once been a bright and cheery place, lit, as the outside had been, by fire crystals set into the walls, because she could see where they would have been placed. But some unnamed hand had pried them loose and stolen them, and now the room was lit from the flame in Gareth’s hand. The light increased as she walked in holding her own flame, and Anilla came trailing behind her.

“This is where I was born,” Falsie explained, “Well… maybe not born, but where I dwelt. This place was a home, once.”

“There’s not a scrap of workable fabric in this place,” Bella said.

“Didn’t you say Xaxc knit with his hair?” Orenda asked.

“That wouldn’t work,” Gareth said, “Sterilite doesn’t conduct magic. Spells won’t permeate it. It would be the worst material to make this armor from.”

“We’ll just have to go buy some then, won’t we?” Orenda asked.

“I… I honestly think that this hardship may be a sign,” Gareth said.

“You believe in signs now?” Orenda asked him.

“No, but I mean… we’re wasting time that we don’t have,” Gareth explained. “If you and I went alone I could fly us up there in no time, and we could come back. I don’t like staying in one place this long.”

“There’s no indication that the Emerald Knight can move that fast, Gary,” Bella said softly, “We can stay in one place long enough to construct this armor.”

“I want to get it over and done with,” Gareth said, “I want to be back on my ship.”

Orenda felt for him. She understood his fear, but she did not share it. She had never seen the horrors that the Emerald Knight could do, and wasn’t entirely sure she believed them.

“Do you remember the night the Fire Elves fell?” Orenda asked him.

“Yes,” he said, “I was young, but I’ll never forget it.”

“Do you remember a prince regent?” Orenda asked, “From Uril? I didn’t know Xandra was married, or that she had ever been married.”

“I remember some to-do about nobility,” Gareth said, “I was supposed to go meet with them, but I didn’t, because I was pissed at dad. So… I didn’t go. Ronnie went. I let my father down on his last day alive. It… I was a child, and I tell myself that children act out. I tell myself that I had no way of knowing.”

“You were supposed to meet a prince,” Orenda asked, “And you chose not to go?”

“We were being presented like prized goats,” Gareth said, “‘Welcome your majesty, this is my son Garon, the prodigy, the good one, the one Theisis has chosen- and this is Gary. He’s here, also.’ Even then I was no child of their non-existent god.”

“Oh,” Orenda said, because she didn’t know what else to say. She collected her thoughts before she spoke again. “I think that I would like to meet a prince, even if I was upset, just to say that I had.”

“I don’t recognize the authority of the Urillian Empire,” Gareth said with great seriousness, “I didn’t then and I don’t now. They had no right, and still have no right, to be here. Even by mom’s own logic they didn’t have that right. Hell, they had less right! They spilled sacred blood on sacred ground. They came to kill us, to get that stupid staff. That thing caused this war, and now we’re going after it again.”

“We are gonna have to buy it,” Falsie declared, “I need yarn I can weave the crystals, and the spell, into.”

“Do you know how to do that?” Gareth asked.

“How hard can it be?” Falsie laughed, “People weave cloth every day. I just have to work the magic.”

“Completely out of your element,” Gareth snarled, “No, you know what? I’m sick of this. I’m not letting you hurt yourself for me. Orenda, I’m leaving. If you want to come with me, then follow me!” He waved his hand and his fire went out.

“Gary!” Bella called.

“No!” his voice carried down the tunnel, “I’m done! We don’t have time for this! This entire quest is foolishness! We go alone or we don’t go at all!”

“Gareth!” Orenda ran after him. She caught up quickly, grabbed his arm, and said again, “Gareth!”

“I’m the one he’s tracking!” Gareth turned to face her, “I’m the one he’s after! Ronnie screamed my name at him, not theirs. I’m the danger here, as I am everywhere. They can hide here while we’re gone, and if he comes for us it will be me he’s after, and I can fight him while you get away.”

“But he isn’t here at all,” Orenda tried to appeal to reason, “Gareth, these things are in your head. Even in the story you told, the Emerald Knight never said he was after you! He told you to run away!”

“I know they’re after us!” He shouted, “Me. After me. There is no us anymore… I know they’re after me. That’s how we met Soko… that’s how I met the Knight the first time… I know they’re after me.”

“You’ve been running for two centuries,” Orenda argued, “I know he didn’t succeed, but perhaps Garon was right about one thing- you can’t run forever. It’s driven you mad. You deserve better, Gareth. I don’t care what they all told you- Garon is dead and you aren’t, and the only reason for that is that you were smarter. You didn’t go into danger unprepared. You knew when to pull back. You’re the good one.”

He stared at her hand on his arm and though he was not wearing his mask, Orenda could not read the expression on his face.

“Gareth,” she said softly, “I need your support. You’re the only family I will ever have. And I need your intelligence. You’ve faced the Emerald Knight twice and lived. You know the danger, but you must also know the reward. You know that you’ve been running for too long. You deserve a rest.”

“Because… because my father was so proud of Ronnie,” Gareth said, “They knew he had been chosen by Theisis. They knew he had been accepted by the temple as a priest. I think they wanted to wipe out the entire priesthood. Anyone who takes the test must be accompanied by a priest, Rendy. They were trying to keep that from happening, to seal the temple away forever. Ronnie may have… you may be… right. The staff may be able to hurt him. And they wanted to make sure no one could ever get to it again.”

“You have to have a priest to get to the staff?” Orenda asked in alarm, “You told me that they might not be able to get in but we could! Are you telling me now that we may not be able to get in to even try?”

He looked from her hand to her eyes, then away.

“No,” he said softly, “No, magic flows through the blood. It’s genetic. It’s inherited. We were… a matched set. I never told them I could…”

“You aren’t part of a set,” Orenda told him, growing more annoyed. She knew he was upset, but his madness was coming on, she felt it in the way he moved, and she needed to cut it off, “Because you aren’t a doll. You never were. It can’t be good for you to think like that. I know that you loved your brother, but he’s gone, and I’m here now, and…” She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and told a lie, “And I forgive you for abandoning me. I believe you were doing what you thought was right; that you were doing the best you could.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” he said, “I had hoped you wouldn’t be. Both your parents were so good at it. I was always good at it. Priests have to be good liars, so it runs in our family. You have to convince people to take things on faith, and that’s… that’s difficult to do if you’re speaking to people who are prone to thinking. Faith is a vice, not a virtue. To believe something without evidence, even if it’s to believe in yourself is… foolish.”

Orenda remembered the card she had flipped and frowned.

“You’re right,” She said, “I am a terrible liar. But that’s because I stride toward truth, and the truth is that I want to forgive you, Gareth. I want to believe you. I actually believe… that you were frightened, that you perhaps panicked and made a decision that hurt us both. But I can see why you did that. You had a very bad day.”

“I had a very bad life,” Gareth laughed, then amended, “I shouldn’t say that. That I had a bad life. I… all things considered I suppose I… well, I don’t think most people have legends told of them. Most people can’t walk into a place, proclaim their identity and start a panic. I’ve done good in the world, I think. Haven’t I? We both have. All of us. I need to write Xac back.”

“We’re still alive,” Orenda said, “In a world trying to kill us, we’re still alive. We can’t keep running, Gareth. We have to take it back. We have to avenge our family. Their lives have to mean something.”

“I still think we should go alone,” Gareth said, “It’ll be faster. And… perhaps more fitting. We would have gone into the sacred space alone anyway, were we to really perform the ritual, to do the test.”

“Let’s say a proper goodbye,” Orenda squeezed his arm.

“Yes,” Gareth relented, “We’ll have a proper goodbye.”