Our Past, Present, and Future

Who Cares About Legends, They're Usually True Anyway

Dindraine

I felt exhausted. The Eye of Adriel managed to completely drain my strength. Once I gained control over myself again, I collapsed. Most people would think how bad could collapsing be? Very, if you're falling face first onto hard, solid rock, of course. And, with my luck, I just had to land on my face, which woke me up. A little too well.

"Aw man," I grumbled, "I feel terrible."

"Pretty obviously," Ragnor replied, crouched down next to my head. And he didn't look all that great himself, the nerve wracking situation probably drained the hell out of him too. He slumped next to me with his hands to his sides. Out of nowhere, he asked, "So, you gonna explain or am I gonna have to guess?"

"The Eye of Adriel is something of my creation," I answered shortly. Then added on dryly, "And I really shouldn't have created it."

"Hmph," I heard someone grunt, "should have destroyed it once you regretted it." Turned out, it was Silver. How fun. Instead I said, "If I could, I would have."

And Silver, being the bright person he was, just turned away. Internally, I was reminiscing about how I used to be like that...

"Hey, Silver," I said, after realizing something, "you're kinda like the way I used to be."

"Why does that matter."

"Because I want to give you a warning about being like that," I rose steadily and replied darkly, "You will regret it one day. I'd suggest changing."

I crossed my arms behind my head and grinned like nothing happened. Ragnor looked at me with tired eyes, probably because of how aloof I was being. After a moment of silence, Ragnor cleared his throat and turned to face Silver, away from me.

"So, Silver," he started off quietly, so only Silver and I could hear, with a hard expression, "ever heard of the Exercitus?" In response, he merely nodded. Ragnor continued, "Wanna join?"

Instead of agreeing, which I expected him to do, he asked, "What benefit does it give me?"

"For one, it's fun," I answered for Ragnor, Silver looked at me incredulously. He bent his back a little so he was at the same eye level as me, something about him intrigued me. And looked like something piqued his interest too. "What do you say?"

The hard stare from Silver's eyes disappeared and in its stead, a look of calm and kindness replaced it. He smiled, giving a glimpse of pearl white.

"Why not."

Oh. I thought. I just realized Silver wasn't a bad looking guy, but not extremely good looking either. He had ocean blue eyes that glinted under light from the right angle. He was somewhere between beautiful and handsome, definitely not cute. Once I snapped out of my trance, I realized I was staring at Silver for some time, minutes? Hours? Maybe even days? Who knew, but I didn't let that faze me, "Cool." I heard Ragnor huff out a sigh of relief, Wonder why. I thought absentmindedly.

"So where are you going to take me?" Silver asked, changing the subject. Being the clueless person I was, I turned to Ragnor for an answer.

"Well, it's your choice," he answered. The two of us looked at him with puzzled expressions. "I mean," he clarified, "that you can choose either to come with us to recruit more people, or you could go to our headquarters."

Silver had a thoughtful expression on his face while he gave himself a moment to make his own decision. Finally, after one long minute, he smirked right at us, "I guess I'll be sticking around you guys for a bit."

A bit... I repeated in my head. Don't like the sound of that.

"Alright then," Ragnor said cheerfully, "where do we go next?"

"Isn't that your choice?" Silver and I say in unison. In wonder, we turned our heads to face the other.

"Well I was wondering where 'they' were," he turned to me, asking. I put a finger to my chin with a thoughtful look, and thought through the possibilities as quickly as I could. In an instant, I answered, "The City of Angels."

"What?!" Silver exclaimed, though Ragnor now seemed used to my strange, one-of-a-kind answers. "That place is just a..."

"Legend?" I finished for him, smirked and continued, "It isn't, actually. It's a real place, just... not in this Realm. In the end, if you ask me, all legends are true, to some extent."

"So how do we get there?" Ragnor moved on. Silver, on the other hand, looked exasperated and wasn't standing straight. He then said, "Aren't you going to ask why we're going there?"

"I'm assuming its their headquarters," Ragnor said with a look I've never seen before, "Am I right?"

I nodded, afraid my voice would waver, even just slightly. "We can get there through a Portal, only problem, I don't know how to direct a Portal to a certain Realm."

"Oh, I can do that much," Ragnor informed, "want me to teach you?"

"Hopefully, I'll get it in one go, and I won't kill us all while I'm at it," I remarked, which did not improve Silver's impression of me.