Songbird: What it Means to be the Hero

{-Allyna-}

She wasn’t a part of this. She was never a part of this. Every story, every fragment of the events—she was never in it. The “wren,” if he ever had a sister, was never worth mentioning; not a soul who’d been tainted, or a light that got lost, or even someone at home cheering the hero on as he left to fulfill his destiny. She was nothing.

And, if her role in fate was to be nothing compared to the heroes, there was no point in sticking around long enough to be told as much.

“Why do you think you need to go?” Rennyn repeated. He still had hold of her hand, though it probably wouldn’t have taken much to break free of it.

Allyna looked away from him. “We both have our own missions. We’ve figured out what we could do together, so it’s probably about time we go our separate ways again.”

“I’m not going to make you go if you don’t want to. Honestly, I might feel a little better if you could always stay where I know you are…”

“Dammit, Rennyn, I’m supposed to be the one worrying about you! You’re off here saving the damn world and the only thing I do is wander around and pretend to be useful. I can’t help you. In fact, I’d say the only thing I’m doing is getting in your way.”

“You’re not—”

“Then let me prove it to you. Let me go and be useful for once, okay? I want to protect you just as much as you want to protect me. So just let me do this.”

Slowly, Rennyn nodded. “Just… be careful, alright? Stay safe and don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want to learn that you got hurt because of something I ultimately asked you to do…”

Allyna gently pulled her hand back. “The same goes for you. And, hey, maybe it won’t be too much longer before we see each other again.”

Then she left, because she didn’t want to be there for any longer than she had to.

The others were probably getting tired of her anyway. She wasn’t a part of their merry band of heroes; she was just a nuisance to them, and she was sure it probably wouldn’t have been much longer before they decided to make her leave themselves.

Once she left the library, she wandered the streets a little bit to clear her head. Then, as it got progressively darker, she headed to one of the inns near the center of town. She ordered something to eat and asked for a piece of paper and something to write with. Then, as she ate, she wrote down the carefully-considered reassurances, making sure she neither lied nor said anything that would cause their parents any concern.

It was as she finished that she finally sighed, glancing over her shoulder to remark, “You can stop hiding now. You haven’t exactly been trying to hide the fact that you’re over there…”

“Was I? Or are you just attuned to my presence enough that you simply knew I was there?”

“Don’t give yourself too much credit. I’m still not convinced of whatever the hell you’re trying to make me do. I’m not afraid to fight you if I have to.”

He laughed. “What makes you think I ever intended to fight you? Or that you really had any chance of doing anything more than a scratch, for that matter?” Then he sighed. “You’re just a mere mortal, and I’ve been given the blessing of earth. You’d have no chance of defeating me, just like you have no chance of ever finding yourself on equal terms with your brother.”

Allyna slammed her hands against the table and turned to face Viragi. “Do you really think that I’m dumb enough to listen to your damn games? Why shouldn’t I believe you just orchestrated all of that on your own in order to trick me?”

“Well, for one, child… you’re taking this all rather personally to think that any of it was simply fake…”

She wanted to argue, but she quickly realized that she couldn’t. But that had to be what he wanted her to do, right? So, instead, she repeated, “You’re just trying to trick me somehow. How’d you put that record in the library? Snuck in there sometime? Got someone else to put it in there for you?”

“Didn’t you notice that thick layer of dust, the archaic system it was still organized under? That book hadn’t moved from that spot in quite a few years. A bit too long for Dhymos to have planted it there, if I’m being honest…”

“You both have lived for, like, several hundred years. Couldn’t you’ve just made it then and put it in there, waiting for the perfect time to use it?”

“I wish I could say that but, unfortunately, I’m not really one for blatant lies. I might be older than this nation, yes, but in my youth I had not prepared for the future I would have. Neither had Dhymos planned out any part of this, or at least not to that degree, all those years ago.” Viragi dared to step a bit closer, his expression unchanging though he still became more intimidating. “Are you nearly done throwing around excuses now? Are you ready to speak, civilly, about what you’ve read?”

“No, because I’m not going to listen. You’re not making me hurt my brother. That’s the furthest from anything I want.”

“Who ever said I wanted to hurt him?”

“You work for the same guy that tried to kill him for fourteen other lives or something. And it’s not exactly like your efforts in this life haven’t been meant to get rid of him, either. How the hell do you expect me to believe you really don’t plan on doing something to him?”

He casually made himself comfortable on another chair in the room. “Well, it would be a lie to say that we don’t have plans—Dhymos has prepared for nearly everything that you can think of. But it’s not like I want to go through with them. You might even be able to help me keep them from happening, in fact…”

“You’re not going to go away no matter what I try to tell you, are you?”

“If I said ‘yes,’ would that give you an excuse for the fact you’re not going to make me leave? Imagine—you could make yourself a force to be reckoned with, all while helping your brother stay out of harm’s way. Things will be over much quicker, much cleaner, if you were to lend your assistance to us. Then perhaps you can tell your parents face-to-face how you are and have more than one-sided updates… I daresay, if you want, things don’t even have to go back to normal. They can change forever—but in a good way. A world of adventure will be yours. Your family could feast, your friends back home jumping at the opportunity to say they grew up with such a prominent person as yourself. You needn’t have a care in the world, with your brother safe and alive at home, surrounded by your family. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

“I still don’t believe you’re not just trying to trick me somehow,” Allyna remarked. “I’m not going to fall for whatever you’re trying to do just by hearing your probably-empty promises.”

Viragi smirked. “But?”

She was quiet for a few moments, then sighed. “I’m willing to see if you can really keep your side of the deal. I don’t want to stay limited to the sidelines, where the only thing I can do is watch and cheer. I want to do something. And… you might just be able to help me with that.”

“That’s a good child…”