Lux [h.s]

forty-one

In two days they pushed Idais far behind them, and in one more they reached the sea. They travelled alongside the coast, hidden just into the woods not to risk crossing paths with the king's guards, for two more days. Even though there was a harbour closer to the capital, Harry had decided it would be safer for them to leave from a more secluded one, worried that their party of eleven would catch too many eyes in a lively town such as the ones that dotted the coast around Idais.

At night, they either continued or set up a temporary camp in the woods. When they neared villages Harry sent Cora out to buy supplies, since she could easily pass by unnoticed. In the little spare time they had, Harry helped her train. He asked her to fill up cups with magic, to make the water of rivers and lakes they walked by splash. At times she attempted to make her own floating spheres of water just like Harry did with fire, with little success.

Now it was night, and they'd stopped in a comfortable spot distant enough from the street to start a fire safely. They'd opted for a real one, reasoning that Harry's white flames would surely catch every kind of unwanted attention from afar. They'd let it burn while they ate, and then they'd set some blankets on the cold, hard ground.

Cora looked into the distance, her back against the trunk of a tree, the fire dying out next to her. The moonlight couldn't peek through the thick foliage of the trees above her head, so everything that was more than a few feet away from her was hiding in the deepest shadows.

She was attentive but not scared. A darkness like that would've terrified her when she was still at the hostel, but now she found comfort in it.

The woods are way more homely to me than many cities. There's less disingenuousness and cruelty, Harry had once told her. Only now she could understand how true it was. The woods were the only place where they would be safe, where nothing would be out to get them—aside from hunters and thieves. But they didn't scare her nearly as much as hundreds of armed men did—the ones that patrolled the cities.

Cora wasn't that girl anymore. She couldn't exactly tell when, but sometime during the past month something had shifted inside her. Everything she'd believed in was a lie, her family didn't exist, she'd been playing a role that wasn't for her. Animals could talk if only you bothered to listen and nature could do her bidding if only she trained enough.

It was rare for her to be left alone with her own thoughts, and it scared her to be alone with them. There were still too many things left unanswered, too many pieces of the puzzle that was her new life that were yet to make sense.

Where did she come from? Why had Soren killed the king, why had he done it at the Fair and pinned it on them when they hadn't done anything to him? What were they supposed to do now that the Fair had been destroyed? What did it mean for Harry? There was a pang in Cora's chest, so harsh that it almost took her breath away.

Harry, that had created the Fair to build a safe haven for all the fays that had nowhere else to go. Harry, that had carved out a spot for himself in a world that didn't want anything to do with him. Harry, that had saved her and offered her his own bed to sleep in only asking little to nothing in return. What would become of him now?

She turned her head, easily spotting him curled up under a blanket next to the dark red light of the dimming fire. She couldn't see his face, but she'd recognise his frame anywhere. It was the first time she saw him properly sleep in more than a week. The nights before that one, he'd always woken up after no more than a couple of hours to take the place of whoever was keeping guard. Cora wondered how he hadn't fallen down yet.

She now understood why everyone at the Fair adored him, he was so selfless it hurt. He would give anything and everything for them, and she didn't know if she admired him for it, or if it terrified her deeply.