Will Of The Fates

27.

"So, back when we were wee men." I sighed as I settled into my seat. That's how Alasha began all his stories. "Our balls had freshly dropped, our voices were as rough..."

-as the sea on the stormy night. Our urges as men unfulfilled. Needs raging as high as fir- I'd gotten over my disgust at most of this after the first five times.

"Are you listening?" He growled.

I nodded somehow, my head thrown back to stare at the ceiling as I nursed my big mug of ale. "How old were you two in this one?"

"Merely a thirty and one."

He says that's young? "Wow. So young."

He chuckled deeply. I felt it rumble in my chest. "Indeed. Ah, so long ago. Where was I?"

Another month without seeing them. I wonder how long I need to stay here. "Something about a woman." There's always a woman.

"Oh yes! An archer!" I looked at him as that caught my attention. His eyes twinkled behind his mug. "Now... it wasn't these-these times where just any woman can pick up any weapon and become an adventurer." He lost me. I turned back to the ceiling. "Sh-she was about your age!"

"That's disgusting." I replied. "Thirty year old men after a woman ten years younger."

"N-No! She made the first move!"

I raised an eyebrow as he got annoyed. "In a time and age where not any woman can pick up any weapon and become an adventurer?" The fact that I still have still deal with this...

Alasha slammed the table. I tilted my head just enough to see his bushy brows lowered in anger towards me. "You came here of your own will! The least you can do is listen!"

"Two months of this, Alasha and I've listened to you through it all." I replied dryly. His brows lowered further. "Go on. I haven't stopped you yet."

"Women these days..." He grumbled his usual grumble. "More balls than half the men in the castle."

I grimaced. "No, thanks." Surprise crossed through his grey eyes. "Don't compare me to the ugly men in this place."

"Hey!" Alasha's hand slammed against the table. "They're all fine, handsome, young men!"

"'young'." I scoffed as I eyed him.

He started to turn red. "I—we—The esteemed teachers here have years and years of experience training and on the battlefield!"

"What battlefield?"

He gave me an irritated look. A genuine one this time. "Shameful how kids like you do not know about the wars we've fought for the lacrima you use so freely." I sat up slowly as he said that. His eyes went to my neck. "It used to be hoarded by the rich. They'd treat the common folk who mined it like utter shit— let them die, rot from injuries, make them use all their mana to mine the lacrima, or-or charge it so they could it for entertainment or to sell." He leaned forward and tapped the table with one finger. "I and my father fought for what his parents suffered through, just so you could have a piece of it hanging around your neck today, without needing to be born rich."

My hand went to my neck as he said that. The lacrima was hidden but he'd seen it before. We'd talked about it before.

Lacrima was everywhere. In this castle, not as much as mana was blocked by the heavy stone and something Alasha refused to reveal to me. The village outside used it. My friends used it. I used. It was... impossible to imagine a life without it.

"Interesting." I nodded slowly. "We weren't taught about this. Everything for us was..." For the Fates, by the Fates, and to the Fates "... for the village. We're expected to come back and work to grow our home once these..." I trailed off. I hadn't told him about this. "Whenever."