Battle of Lies

Chapter XVIII

 Silus stood in the woods. This would only take a moment, but he had to be sure no one saw him. He began chanting. It wasn't a strange kind of chanting, just a magical chanting that his master had taught him when it was time to report. He found it strange that someone who was against magic would use it. Silus threw some dust on the ground and before him appeared a ghost of sorts.

"What news do you have for me?"

"They all finally met and none suspect me, but Jordyn, as we suspected, has more to her story."

"Good, when the time comes I will deal with Jordyn but for now I need you to keep an eye on them. Pretend to be innocent, pretend to actually help and it will do wonders."

Silus nodded and headed back to camp.

"Hey Silus!" Leon called, "I have a joke for you. Come here."

Silus walked over to him, cautiously. It wasn't that Silus didn't trust Leon, it was that when someone said, "I have a joke." Silus tends to run away, because they always tended to say the joke was him.

"What has two butts and kills people?" Leon asked.

"I don't know, what?"

"An assassin." Leon began laughing harder than anyone could ever imagine.

"Very funny," Silus said and he meant it. It had been a long time since someone had called him over to them and told him a joke. In fact, he couldn't remember a time when someone had just wanted to have fun with him. SIlus was too normal to be counted as weird but too weird to be counted as normal, "Hey where's that new girl?"

"Nadine? I think she's off somewhere. She should be back soon for dinner."

"Oh, I just needed to talk to her about something, but I guess it can wait."

"You can tell me." Leon said. Silus looked at him with curiosity. None of the other boys in the village he was from had ever wanted to actually spend time with him, at least not to be kind and have a good conversation.

"Uh, I'm sorry but I can't. Nadine is the only person I can tell it to."

"What about Rodalya? You guys seem close."

"I can't tell anyone else, okay!" Silus yelled.

"Alright, fine. Have it your way." Leon said, slightly offended.

Silus walked away from Leon. He needed to kill the time by doing something that wouldn't make the others suspicious of his true alignment. Jordyn had been right. The prophecy said six, not seven, but because the prophecy didn't state where the six would be from; Silus used it to his advantage. That way he could get under their skin, but he had never anticipated on actually falling in love.

"Silus?" a girl asked.

"Rodalya." Silus breathed.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just all this adventuring is a bit much."

"This is all my fault. Had I never asked you to come along-"

"You can't blame yourself for my choices. You can't blame yourself for anyone else's choices. You can only blame yourself for your own but even then, nothing you have ever done or said or thought could require blame. You are perfect," Silus tried to reassure her.

Says the one who has betrayed us, Ielio said in Rodalya's mind.

What? Rodalya thought back.

Silus has betrayed us. He is helping the enemy.

How do you know this?

I can hear things you cannot.