Chapter 9 – Changing of the Tides

At the darkest hour of the night when even the predators of the forest keep to themselves, just outside the smoldering rubble, Chey began to wake. She rose to a sitting position slowly, clutching her head.

As soon as she regained the ability to process her thoughts, her eyes shot open and her senses went of full alert.

“…!”

—Cheyenne’s Perspective—

As soon as I remembered what was happening, I shot up and got into a fighting stance, ready to defend against any incoming attacks, but it was pitch black. I could hear the sounds of the forest and the faint crackling of dying embers, and the pervasive scent of burning wood overpowered my sense of smell. I spat out the small pool of blood that had collected in my mouth, leaving an aftertaste of copper and a slight twinge of soreness in my jaw.

A swift night breeze blew the plumes of smoke and clouds from the sky, and the light from the moons illuminated the smoldering remnants of the orphanage and a deserted battlefield.

After a few seconds, I calmed down and realized that I was the only soul left alive here. The only movement came from the branches of the nearby uruk trees and the assorted foliage around me.

I ran about the area, shouting the children’s names, hoping that they were safe. Hoping to, at least, find a sign of where they could have gone had Callum been beaten, but I found nothing.

Twinges of soreness assaulted my jaw again, and I brought my hand up to massage the pain.

“…?”

Curiously, the hand that was once severed, is right where is should be; albeit, of a slightly rosier color. I’ll have to teach Callum about the price of some healing magic. When you heal someone, you’re essential using the body’s natural regenerative ability and accelerating it. The cost associated with regenerating a limb is not only a large sum of mana, but it also exhausts the victim’s life as well to a certain degree.

Judging by the state of our home, and the life of the few embers that remained to dimly cast their incandescent glow, it must have already been hours since the assault.

I wandered around, amidst the rubble, shifting between emotions of sadness, pain, anger, and regret. I didn’t know if I wanted to lash out and break everything, or weep for the children I’d grown so fond of over the years.

In the beginning, I thought, I would run the orphanage to help these kids find families. Thurr was the first under my care. I put out posters and advertised on all of the town boards, hoping to help the child find a family that would care for him, but a year passed a no one answered.

Then came the twins Talia and Ulrich. They both were absolutely adorable with their wavy blond hair and green eyes. If it wasn’t for the ears being human, one could easily mistake them for being elven children. Talia was stubborn and protective of her brother, who was quite shy at first, but Ulrich quickly became friends with Thurr and made a complete change. He started acting proud, confident, and strong, and Talia grew quite happy with her brother. It seemed like she didn’t have to worry so much about him, but it didn’t change the fact that she had his back no matter the situation. It was an adorable role reversal.

Of course, over the time that I’d had them, I reached out to potential families, but still no response.

Then came Elena. I’d found her while I was on my way back from town after doing some grocery shopping. She was emaciated and dirty, and she must have been exhausted, because her feet had sores to such a degree that she must have been walking for days on end. I was honestly surprised that she had lived for that long as a child on her own in the wilderness. After cleaning her up, wiping the dirt and grime away, her natural elven qualities shone through. Her bright and straight blonde hair was long and lustrous, her skin, save for the injuries of course, was without a blemish, and her eyes were such a deep green, and so captivating, that I felt as though I’d become lost if I’d stared for too long.

She didn’t seem shy, but she was quiet. Elena would keep to herself and refuse to join in on the other kids’ fun, even at my behest. She would just remain in her room and read.

As I walked around what used to be my room I noticed, among the debris, a book poking out from the fallen shelf. It was Cal’s favorite, the ‘Introduction to Magic’ tome that he’d scour over for days on end. Rukh tried the same thing when she was dropped off at my orphanage. She was really despondent most of the time, and desperately wanted to prove to her parents, who had left her here, that she could be useful, so she picked up this book and tried to teach herself how to read and write, but she just wasn’t ready for that yet; She was only trying to emulate what her parents would do. That’s when Ciel joined us.

I had found Ciel while on another excursion through the city. I was walking down the market bazaar when she had come and bumped me from behind. The only thing I saw was a glimpse of an orange blur dashing into an alleyway from the edge of my vision. I was confused until I’d gone to pay for the grains I’d selected. He’d cut my purse and stolen my coins! I only brought what I needed for that trip, so he only walked off with a handful of stone and iron coins.

I came back the next day to search for him, but he never turned up, so I assumed that she was picked up by the guards. The next time I saw him was a week later while on another shopping excursion. He was sitting down, with his arms wrapped around his knees, staring off into space.

A light drizzle had developed into full-on rain, so I ducked into the bakery across the way. It was a summer shower, so it lasted about as long as my love life.

I bought a loaf of bread and a sweet pastry as a sign of gratitude to the bakery owners for letting me use their shop as shelter from the rain, which had gotten much lighter. I walked back out into the light drizzle and I saw him still sitting there, in the same position as before. He had sat through the rain! At the time, I thought to myself, ‘I understand being stubborn, but don’t be stupid’.

He recognized me as soon as I walked up and tried to flee, but I’d already had him by the arm. He gave up so quickly. You had no idea what my intentions were, but you still offered no resistance to being captured.

After I let him calm down a bit, I gave him a pat on the head, and offered the pastry. He slapped it from my hand, giving me this scornful look as he ran off again. Honey, pride won’t fill your empty belly.

I was now determined to help him, so I came back almost every day to try and get Ciel to come along with me.

After a few weeks of trying, I stopped seeing him around. This time, for sure, I thought something had happened. A month went by and I hadn’t seen a trace of him, until I heard some shouts around the back of the adventurer’s guild.

“Oi, oi, oi… where’d you stash our coins you fucking brat!?”

“You should listen when brother talks. He’ll think that you’re deaf and have to use… more physical means to communicate.”

Peeking around the corner, I saw two men talking down to someone who was very sick, judging from the coughing.

“… I didn’t steal anything from you…”

“Are you calling us liars?”

“Yeah, yeah! Are you calling us liars?”

“Who, exactly, do you think the guards will believe, a street urchin like you, or two upstanding adventurers like us?”

Ciel, having heard enough, spit on their boots in an act of defiance, to which they responded to by lifting him by the neck, pressing him against the wall.

“That’s it! We know that you pick other peoples purses, so you must have some coins on you. Now hand them over!”

I’d had enough just being a bystander, so I chanted Icy Shackles>, binding their feet in place. Surprised, they loosened their grip and Ciel slipped from his tattered clothes. It was then that I’d figured out that Ciel was a girl, even emaciated as she was.

Since the two muscle-heads couldn’t move, knocking them out took minimal effort and a brick. Remembering back now, the brick played a key role as the brick of asshole slaying: the brickening.

The men having been promptly dealt with, I scooped up the unconscious Ciel, clothed her, and returned back home.

I had set her down on the couch by the bay window and started to put my groceries in the pantry, but she was starting to wake before I had gotten the chance.

I sat by her side until she was fully coherent, “How’re you doing?” I asked, but as soon as she saw me she adopted an expression of pure terror and despair. This is common for those who’ve had some kind of trauma, so I won’t ask her about it until she’s ready, but for starters…

“Go wash up; ladies can’t stay dirty like that.”

“I’m not a lady… I’m a boy! Girls are weak… and I can’t be weak…”

She was on the verge of tears, so I wasn’t about to argue that this ‘girl’, right in front, of her just beat up two burly men. I had decided to play along until she’s ready to tell her story.

Then Callum came along and we had a wonderful, peaceful time… until now.

I continued walking around the burning rubble, remembering various things like when Ciel found her voice and started asserting herself amongst the group. The sibling-esque fights that happened over there in the den. The bathroom where Rukh had a panic attack from her first baby tooth falling out. The drawings that the children had done. All of these memories welling up inside of me brought me to my knees in tears.

As strong as I was, I couldn’t even protect those closest to me. I will find them. I will find Liorre and take from him until he has nothing left. Be it material possessions, dignity, pride, or his mind; I will take it all and leave him nothing.

Steeling my resolve, I tucked the magic tome into the rucksack that survived the fire, along with the money I’d saved, and set off for Timera, the capital city of Biruth, where I’d have the best chance of finding information on the kids.

Author's Note:

Let me know if you like the direction the story is going so far.

Cheers! Thank you for reading!