‘’I am…‘’

A quarter of the day after leaving the town, Evander suddenly starts talking to me. ‘You look troubled…’ I’m scared by his sharpness. Where does his knowledge and intuition come from? I’m afraid that Evander might be a very evil person. I can’t trust anyone here anymore. I’m afraid.

‘I-It’s nothing.’ Suddenly, the carriage comes to a halt.

‘E-Evander? What’s wrong?’ He walks up to me.

‘Why aren’t you telling me anything? You’ve been acting weird since that girl brought you back. If you need someone to talk to, I’m your man.’ I still don’t know if I should tell him.

‘Say Evander...I want you to be honest. Tell me all the dark and evil sides of Illuminia. Everything. I tell you when to stop so…’ He looks very worried at me.

‘Brandr, what did you encounter in Rakenia?’ I can’t tell him, because if I remember that scene again…and I just did. I quickly lean over the carriage and vomit.

‘B-Brandr, what’s wrong?!’ Evander quickly comes to my side. I calm down in a corner for a while, as Evander moves the carriage again.

‘There were bodies…mutated…’ I try to speak to Evander, but my voice is weak. Evander hears me though.

‘Bodies? What kind of?’ The moment I think about it, I feel the urge to vomit come back.

‘Don’t force yourself.’ Evander looks back at me, with a very sad face. ‘There were horrible things in the past, beside Abyss. Well…most of them were caused by the corruption Abyss spread. I won’t say there weren’t any non-corrupted people around that were rotten to the core, but there were only a small number of them. A very small number.’ I don’t like the idea of such psycho’s walking around.

‘Abyss, you say…’ A lot of evil seems to be caused by Abyss…It’s the same excuse I always hear. It’s always…Abyss

‘Abyss is the root of all evil here in Illuminia.’ Evander puts an extra reminder for me.

‘’Of all evil…’ All evil thoughts and action are caused by Abyss… I hope that’s the reason. That means if Abyss is defeated, this country will become very peaceful. That’s a nice thought for once, but highly unrealistic. ‘You know, shoving it on Abyss is easy. Do you really think that if they disappear, that everything will become peaceful?’

‘I hope so…’ Evander looks away for a moment.

‘Evander…’ He looks at me concerned. ‘The thing is…’

I tell him everything…from start to finish. My encounter with the scientist and my…sadistic moment. Evander just listens to me, silently. He doesn’t utter a single word while I cry my way through my story. He hands me a handkerchief. ‘Blow your nose, it’s disgusting…’ I follow his instructions and blow loudly into the handkerchief. It’s a mess now, and I highly doubt it he wants it back. ‘You know…I’m not the best person to console you with this, but-.’

‘It’s fine…I need to deal with it some way or another. I must learn to deal with it myself.’

‘There is no need to act strong when you’re not though.’

‘I know…but some things you have to learn to deal with yourself.’ I clean my face up with my shirt. ‘Thank you though, for at least trying to help me.’

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…………..

We just stare in the distance. We haven’t talked in a while now, as we just ride next to each other. The silence feels heavy, to the point that I cannot stand it. ‘S-so! Do you have a favorite color?’ Evander looks indifferent at me, showing no emotion at all. ‘Y-You know! Like, is there a color…you…like?’ Oh god, I am so awkward sometimes. I ‘m surprised I was able to talk to Morana and Astra back then, because this is how I really am. I’m super awkward when starting conversations…

‘What’s wrong? Asking something like that? If this is your idea of breaking the ice in a dead conversation, you still have a long way to go.’ Shots were fired as the imaginary arrows pierce my heart.

‘A-Ahaha. You think? I guess so…’ I have no idea how to respond. ‘I’m sorry…’ I head to the back of the carriage, until my action gets interrupted by a single word.

‘Brown…I know, weird right?’

Joy fills my body as I almost race back to my seat next to him. ‘On the contrary, brown is a great color. Like the mountains and the earth on the ground. The color feels alive, and it fills you with a sense of adventure and-‘

He puts his hand on my uncontrollable mouth, indicating me to stop talking for a moment. ‘Take a breath, Brandr. Ha, you were so calm and silent on the way to Lamia and Rakenia, but I guess you are a kid filled with unlimited energy. I just said what color I like.’ I slightly blush of embarrassment. I really am a kid.

‘I-I’m sorry, hahaha.’

‘Don’t say sorry for that. What happened to the Brandr that was so determined?’

‘He’s still there…but I’m just really awkward when things calm down. Fighting is easy. There are no words, no consideration of another’s feelings or need to impress them to get closer. Just beat the other…that’s how I see it.’

Evander nods a few times before lighting his pipe. ‘You think awfully deep for a kid sometimes.’ I stay silent. ‘I mean, as in: You consider things on multiple levels from time to time.’

‘You think?’ I never thought myself off being ‘’deep’’ or ‘’thoughtful’’.

‘Let me ask you a question then? What do you think the meaning of life is?’

I think for a moment. Why he would ask me that question, and such… ‘The meaning of life... Why that question? And in what way do you mean?’

‘Hahaha, to think you were seriously considering that questions.’ I feel a bit offended by him laughing. He notices it, and quickly hold it back in. ‘Most people I know just tell me it’s to drink, feast, reproduce and then die. I do have to add to the fact that most of my friends are simpletons. Not the smartest people to have around in life. If you needed a favor that involved using your brains, they wouldn’t be helpful.’

‘Wauw…isn’t that a bit…harsh? To talk about your friends like that?’ Evander gives me a strange look, like he’s searching into my eyes for something. The longer he looks, the more uncomfortable I get. ‘Uhm…’ I break eye-contact, which satisfies him for some reason.

‘The type of boy that cares more about others than himself. If he had ten pieces of gold, he’d give all of them away to help someone, before realizing he doesn’t have any gold for himself any longer.’

I laugh wryly. ‘You think so… I don’t consider myself a ‘’type’’. Aren’t we all different from each other after all?’ Evander looks surprised as I said that, but his smile soon returns, before his expressions turns sullen soon after again, and points to something in the distance. He’s complex.

‘As different as the scene in front of you.’ I look in front of us.

He points at a sight of multiple broken-down carriages. We quickly head over the series of carriages. We get off when we parallel the caravan. It solely consists of torn and damaged wagons. Not even one is unscratched, but I don’t see anyone around. Not alive at least. Nobody is around next to half a dozen of corpses. The corpses remind to much of what I saw in Rakenia, so I quickly turn away. ‘So, they have been raided…’ I say unconsciously as Evander rubs his beard while checking inside the wagons.

‘I doubt it.’

‘And why would that be?’

‘Because all the supplies are still here. Either the raiders did a lousy job, or…’

‘There goal was something else than the supplies.’ Evander nods at me. Excellent insightful thinking from him again, if I can say so myself.

‘This is a typical nomad trading caravan. They tend to travel in big groups, with all their families. They are usually heavily guarded, so it baffles me that they were that easily killed.’

‘So, where is the rest of the caravan then?’

‘They could’ve been taken away, but I don’t see why they would do that.’ Evander exits the wagon. The moment he mentioned ‘’taken away’’, the images of those kidnapped children come to mind. I quickly suppress the urge to vomit. I cannot seem to get the image of them suffering out of my head. Once you see something, you cannot forget it, I guess. I hope they’re not at least... ‘It sure looks like there’s been a fight here.’ There are clean sword cuts, and only the wheels have been critically damaged. The rest is in decent condition, with a few exceptions. ‘This is quite horrible, isn’t it?’

‘Should we investigate? I mean, these people might need our help and such…’ Evander looks back at me with a soft smile. I remember what he said earlier. How is this equal to giving away my gold?

‘At least we’re in synch with that thought.’ He dives back into the carriages, probably looking for clues. I feel like he’s enjoying this more than he should.

‘So, Evander. Do you have any clue where to start?’

He grabs a pipe and starts smoking it. ‘Of course! Who do you think I am? I am ‘’Evander the Wise’’.’

‘Okay, you cocky bastard, calm down. Just…focus on the investigation.’ I get out the carriage and approach the caravan with caution. My legs are still shivering slightly, because the events in Rakenia. I don’t know I will ever forget what I saw.

‘You don’t have to force yourself to come out, you know. If you still feel uncomfortable and all…’

‘Thanks, but I have to deal with it some way.’ He shrugs his shoulder, basically telling me to do whatever I want. ‘So, mister Investigator, have you figured out what happened here?’

‘Investigator? You mean detective…’

‘What the heck is a detective?’ Evander looks surprised at me, like I am a child asking a silly question.

‘You don’t know what a-!’ He stops for a second. ‘Right, different world. You guys don’t have detectives? Or any law enforcement?’

‘Not really…the army does the law enforcement, but we don’t have things like detectives…’

Evander remains silent for a moment. ‘Well, detectives are basically investigators I guess. People who’s jobs it is to solves mysterious crimes.’

‘Okay then, Grand detective. Do you have a clue what happened here?’ I ask him, trying to annoy him for a moment.

‘Grand detective…of course, my sidekick, we’ll start by investigating the area of the assault.’ I hold my head. He’s too excited by this…

While inspecting the ‘’crime scene’’ (how Evander calls it), I wonder if Abyss is behind this. He said that most of the evil is caused by Abyss and its corruption. Would they attack defenseless caravans? Most likely they will. Looking at the scene, the travelers didn’t put much of a fight. After searching for a while, I find a few footprints dug into the grass leading into the wilderness. ‘Evander, I think I found something!’ He hurries from the other side of the caravan towards me.

‘Let’s see, let’s see. Ah yes, footprints. Nicely done, sidekick. We’ll follow the footprints with haste!’ He’s getting on my nerves. I quickly grab him by his robe before he walks off.

‘Evander, I hope you didn’t forget something.’ I point towards our own carriage. He smiles wryly. Since we can’t ride the carriage off-road, we’re forced to leave it behind, but we’ve hidden it out of sight with magic, so it shouldn’t be robbed or something. We’ve also covered the bags, so they won’t see it in an instant. ‘If you look good, you can see it pretty well, but only if you focus on it.’ That’s what Evander said at least. With that fixed, we can continue our investigation with a little more ease in mind. We keep following the footsteps, until a few more come to vision. A few human-looking footprints and some which are completely unknown to me. What are these anyway? They’re big and look like mutated paws. Evander doesn’t look uneasy or something, so I hope it isn’t anything serious. We keep following the trail in the same fashion for a long time.

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‘I’m tired…and thirsty.’ My flask is already empty. It’s surprisingly warm here. I’m drenched with sweat. It’s an open plain, and I can’t see anything in the horizon. ‘Evander…let’s head back. There’s absolutely nothing around here.’ He doesn’t react to me at all. ‘Hey, Evander? You’re alive?’ I wave my hand in front of his face, but he puts it away quickly. What’s wrong with him? I look down again, only to notice the odd change. The trail is getting smaller… I can’t see the weird footprints anymore. Only human-looking ones. I wonder where they all went. They probably splat up when I wasn’t paying attention. I don’t really care about this right now. I just want to return home. Evander suddenly ticks me on the shoulder.

‘Look at the ground for once, Brandr.’ I check the ground and see the trail go to the right. That by itself isn’t anything special. The point is…

‘Eh…they’ve all disappeared.’ The trail goes further for a moment, but after that, the trail is gone. ‘How in the… Magic! I’m sure of it!’ To think that me shouting that would actually make sense one day…

‘Brandr, stand back. I’ll handle this.’ Evander raises his staff in the air and start chanting something. ‘Quaerere, Revelabit!’ A big magic circle appears underneath Evander, and glows brightly, which blinds me. Out of nowhere, a rock starts appearing in front of us. ‘A cloaking spell, hiding the exit…’ A large opening is carved in the rock, big enough for a person to go through. When I look through the hole, I see a long stairway. I look at Evander, who nods at me. The people from the caravan are probably in here.

‘That’s a creepy place… Well, we found them! Let’s go ba-!‘ Evander grabs my collar as I try to walk away. ‘No, no no! Do you see that? It’s creepy as hell!’ He doesn’t say anything, but just looks at me with an expression that just shouts: ‘’don’t be a coward, and just go already.’’ ‘F-Fine…but only because you’re my guide…’ I wouldn’t be able to undo the spell on our carriage anyway…

And so, we walk down the stairway taking us down below…