Songbird: What it Means to be the Hero

{-Kaylin-}

If she had any power to convince Rennyn of anything, he’d never have a care in the world. But, unfortunately, even as hard as she tried, she could rarely get him to see her point of view in the situation. He hadn’t intended on going back to town, honestly—the only excuse he gave was that Dhymos’s minions could be planning something dangerous, and the others had Seldir to keep track of them. It was Kaylin who, after a bit of persuasion, convinced him to head back. She didn’t want to worry the others, and she knew Rennyn might think a little clearer if he had a full night’s rest.

Or, the closest thing to a full night’s rest that he could muster. At least it was in a comfortable bed instead of the middle of the woods.

He was up far before the rest of them, from the sounds of it asking after anything strange that might’ve happened over the night. She walked over to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

“We can check on it when we head back to Queen Vaeri,” she tried. “But do you really have to worry about it now..? Come on, let’s just get something to eat. The other three are already at a table.”

“I… guess,” he mumbled as he went to follow her.

Lyrei, as soon as they sat down, started a conversation. “Oh, hey! There’s something I was going to ask that I couldn’t last night. Do you think we’re ever going to go to a ball? It’s at least a possibility, right?”

Rennyn shrugged in response.

“I suppose,” Kaylin answered more thoughtfully. “Though that kind of stuff usually involves more issues than whatever problem it’s supposed to help us solve…”

“The two of you have gone to them before, right? In your other lives? Can you tell me about them?”

“They’re like this,” Rennyn mumbled, giving a wide gesture around them. “A bunch of people who act like they own the place, eating and drinking basically anything that isn’t nailed down. The only difference is that the people here acknowledge it’s all just in their head. And that’s coming from someone who was a prince once.”

Lyrei, seemingly incapable of being bogged down by the other details, then asked, “You were a prince before? Like the romantic white knight kind of prince or the moody but secretly—”

Suddenly, someone burst into the inn. “A commission from the guards! A large number of monsters have just appeared to the north and west of the town! Anyone capable of handling their own in a fight is allowed to join the guards at the town’s entrance, with payment after the threat is subsided—more details there!”

Rennyn was up quicker than it took Kaylin to even process it. He gave the curt mutter of, “Come on, we’re going.” as he started to walk to the announcer.

Kaylin, a kind of caution keeping her from being too quick, glanced at the others. “Are you all ready to go?”

“I mean, Rennyn’s not going to wait for us, so…” Lyrei mumbled. She stood up. “Seldir, think you can settle the bill? Knowing Rennyn we’re probably not going to be back to do it later…”

Kaylin nodded. “Sounds like a good idea. You shouldn’t need to be that far behind us.”

“Alright. I’ll get that sorted out now.” Seldir gave a small wave and left.

She offered him a thankful smile and gestured for Lyrei and Noa to follow her. After a quick scan of the people around the announcer, Rennyn wasn’t one of them, so she assumed he’d already left.

A slight panic came with the wonder of whether or not he actually intended on waiting on them. Surely he would, wouldn’t he? She didn’t want to leave him alone for any longer than necessary—especially when Dhymos’s minions were involved. Whether unconsciously or not, she started to walk quicker on her way to the town’s entrance, ignoring the comments made by Lyrei when Seldir caught back up with them.

“Rennyn!” Kaylin called when he saw him. He acted like he didn’t hear her.

He was too busy trying to question the guard. “Are you sure you didn’t see anyone else?”

“N-no?” The guard nervously shuffled, looking between him and their own companions. “None of us saw someone. At least not something definite.”

“Even a guess.”

“Alright, there.. might have been someone to the south? But we couldn’t investigate for obvious reasons.”

Only then, as Rennyn turned around, did he acknowledge the others. “We’re heading south. With any luck, that’s where Dhymos’s minions are.”

“No, you’re going to give us a minute, because you’ve already rushed ahead of us once,” Kaylin said. She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from going anywhere. “We’re supposed to be a team, Songbird. And I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but teams don’t leave each other behind.”

“But Dhymos doesn’t wait for teams,” Rennyn countered firmly. He pushed her hand off and took another step closer to the entrance. “We don’t have all the time in the world here. We’ve got to do something now before there’s nothing we can do at all.”

He didn’t wait for them. Kaylin was almost about to argue until she saw Seldir walk past her to follow Rennyn, gesturing to the others as he did.

“There’s no point in fighting this,” Seldir pointed out in a mumble. “But we still have the option to stick with him. At least then we’ll know he won’t get into any serious danger—that we’ll be able to help.”

That seemed to end that discussion, so they were in silence the whole walk there. Which, admittedly, wasn’t long—they all needed to be quicker in order to keep up with Rennyn. When he did slow down, it was more of an abrupt stop, and it was partnered with him drawing his sword.

Just in front of them was Viragi… watching something emerge from a summoning circle.

Lyrei squeaked, though undoubtedly more out of excitement or fascination—not like Noa, who shrunk and stepped behind the others. Seldir looked bothered but not afraid; Kaylin found herself feeling something similar. Rennyn took a confident step forward as if what was emerging was something mundane.

He glanced back at them. “Kaylin, can I trust you to try to stop the ritual? I don’t think it’s going to stop this thing but it’ll keep there from being any others.”

She nodded.

“Seldir, I’m trusting you to take care of that thing. It’s not the worst thing that’s been summoned, it’ll only take a couple of hits. But try to be quick and don’t let it drag you away from Lyrei and Noa—you’re there to protect them, too.”

Seldir mumbled his understanding.

“I’ll take care of Viragi. With any hope and luck I might be able to get some more information out of him.”

They all shared a moment of mutual understanding, then went to their own tasks. Kaylin was confident enough in her ability that only half of her attention went towards it; the rest was watching, waiting, to see if anything else came.

She knew this wasn’t the kind of thing that could be achieved alone, but… no one else came. Not to mention even after she’d stopped the ritual, and Seldir had downed the monster, Viragi still kept the same calm expression.

Kaylin, feeling a sense of urgency, called to the still-fighting Rennyn and Viragi, “Rennyn, something’s—”

Earth jutted out to stop her from getting closer. She knew what would happen from trying to take another step, so she stayed in place.

Rennyn barely seemed to acknowledge it; perhaps the only sign he had was the way he pinned down Viragi, his sword only near his throat instead of against it. He mumbled something—she wasn’t close enough to hear. Viragi responded with another mumble and a smirk. Finally, Rennyn stepped back and started walking towards the others. As Viragi walked away, the earth in front of Kaylin crumbled down again as if it had never moved in the first place.

“We’ve got to get back to Queen Vaeri,” Rennyn said as some sort of half-explanation when he was close enough. He gestured for the rest of them to follow him.

“What about the monsters..?” Noa asked.

It was clear that Rennyn hated to respond with, “Someone else is going to have to handle it.”

“I… know someone in the area, if you think we can spare a quick detour,” Seldir remarked cautiously. “He might already be out here, actually. But it wouldn’t hurt to try to get him to help.”