Songbreaker

Chapter 17: Silence

With the stakes high and tensions higher, Thalleous trails Yvana and Achillean with a firm grip on his sword, trust a thing of the past.

But when they encounter the very person that they have been searching for this entire time, all logic goes out of the window when yet another Prime Song is on the firing line and more truth comes to light - as well as a past that finds its way back to someone 154 years later.

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Songless and silent, Achillean and Yvana walked mere feet ahead of Thalleous as he kept his sword tight in his hands, his piercing gaze never leaving the two Ardoni in front of him.

The death of his brother had sparked a cold hatred in the heart of the Sendaris champion and it quickly froze him to the point of distaste. Everything meant the world and yet, the world meant nothing. The world was cruel. The people were cruel.

The Songbreaker was cruel.

Stealing Songs and desecrating names, demolishing whole cities and territories was one thing and, to Thalleous at the time, it was all part and parcel of who the Songbreaker was – an immoral monster with no endgame but an end; but what had just occurred had turned it all so personal. He thought it bad when the Songbreaker had claimed Osivian's life, leaving Senn and Ria alone in their village. Back then, he merely counted himself lucky that Yvana had interrupted him as he was about to gift Senn and Ria their first Songs – in the end, she undoubtedly saved their lives.

Now, he wasn't so sure it was that black and white.

Yvana had to be involved somehow. He just couldn't work it out.

The loss of Galleous didn't only take its toll on Thalleous, however. Yvana was simply just as devastated, if not more so. That man had taught her everything that Thalleous hadn't, giving her a complete skillset of both warriorship and self-discipline and craftmanship. Without him, there was a high chance that Yvana would have ended up in exactly the same way that Thalleous had – morally grey, hard-hearted with questionable integrity. Losing him had torn a hole in her heart and it had emptied into a void.

In seeing the destruction of Ataraxia, she knew that there was more to the Songbreaker than meets the eye. They had targeted Ataraxia for a Prime Song, but they had killed Galleous beforehand, and it couldn't be only because he fought back. It didn't add up. The only viable conclusion she could bring herself to was her irrational reaction at the time – that Thalleous had done it to silence his brother.

It had been over a week and that feeling never dissipated. The raw gut-feeling that Thalleous was not the whole-hearted champion that he had been playing all these decades still continued to wheedle its way into her mind, ravenously tearing away at her insides. She couldn't even look at him anymore, less so Achillean.

The truth is powerful, but it holds more value when it is hidden.

Learning of the possibility that Ingressus could still be alive had flipped Achillean upside down. He was no longer consumed by the sickening thoughts that swamped his mind of being on this journey with people he couldn't stand being around. He no longer looked at Yvana and wanted to throttle her. He no longer looked at Thalleous with hallowing memories of the once-great Tidesinger. Instead, he looked to the crisp snow on the ground as he walked, thinking about Ingressus, knowing that everything that he was doing up until this point was in the name of revenge on him for leaving him to die.

Even then, he still kept his eyes to the ground with Thalleous' threat lingering over his head like a dark cloud looming. There was still so much more that he felt compelled to explain, but now was not yet the time nor the place. If he were to turn around and admit to all the things that he had done since the Great War, defenceless, his life would be over before he could blink; whatever history that he and Thalleous had would be of no barrier to him. Not after Galleous' death.