"What do you need me to do, Master Pyle?" I asked, enjoying the sound of my altered voice. "Try moving to the other side of the training yard as quickly as possible. If you get it on your first try, I might need to have a word with your Master once we're done here," he said, trying to hide his excitement.
I took a few seconds to gauge the distance between myself and the other end of the yard. I bent over slightly and made sure my footing was sound. My eyes glowed more intensely just before pushing off the ground as a small explosion of dirt and wind trailed behind me. Within a second, I was already at the other end, where I skidded to a halt. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed, breathing heavily.
I've never moved that fast in my life! I thought.
"No… fucking… way," I heard Pyle say, his jaw dropping to the floor like a counterweight was pulling it down.
"Well, what do you think?" I asked, turning to face him as I steadied my breathing. "I think, Thoma, that you have the makings of one of the greatest Synners of our time," he said, chuckling and shaking his head.
I could feel the honesty in his voice, and acknowledged it with a bow. "Thank you, Master Pyle," I said humbly. "Of course! However, this is only the beginning. Now that you have learned to harness it, having mastery over it is another story entirely. Although with your skills, I don't see that taking you very long," he grinned.
"One step at a time, as over-exerting myself right now would probably be a bad idea. Well, more than I already have, anyway," I said, feeling the bruises begin to form all over my body. "You'll be fine. I'll heal you up and send you to bed. It's already much later than I had anticipated, but I'm sure we'll be fine tomorrow," he chirped. "You say that, but I feel like I'm still going to be sore tomorrow," I said, shrugging my shoulders.
For once, I was right.
As the sun rose over Fangsdalr a few hours later, we gathered our things to prepare for our journey to Coltend. Meliss either didn't notice or care that I'd left, but she did show some slight concern for my physical state, as the bags under my eyes were about as large as the ones I had tied to my saddle.
I was right about being sore. Gods above and below, I haven't felt this since the early days of learning to ride a horse, I thought.
The promised days of rest in Fangsdalr would have been a much-needed revitalization of expended energies; however, fate had decided otherwise for all of us. I looked around at the trees as we rode beneath them. The lack of sleep had caused me to become mildly delusional, and the calling of birds and other such creatures nearly sent me into a trance.
Each branch seemed to mesh into the other, and the small bursts of sunlight did little to help my mental state. The chatter of the other Synners around me added to the cacophony that was my mind at the time, jumbling my thoughts into an ever-entangling web I couldn't seem to escape.
Meliss noticed I wasn't doing all too well, and held me tightly. "Thoma," she said in my ear, noticing my head was bobbing in time with Celer's stride. I blinked, startled by the words in my ears. "Oh, I'm sorry," I said, trying to hide my surprise. "Are you alright?" she asked softly. "Could I roll over and die right now? Probably, but with everything that has happened over the past few days, it has really taken it out of me, I think," I yawned, rubbing my eyes to try and keep my sleepiness at bay.
"I know the feeling well. When I was just a wee child, I'd often help my mother with her daily duties. It was exhausting, so I understand how you feel right now," she said reminiscently. "I don't mean any offense here, but have you always been a servant?" I asked, causing her to chuckle.
"None taken. Ma and I often took charge of cleaning the houses," she said, puffing up a strand of hair that had fallen near her eyes. "It was a slow life, but we were happy doing what we did," she continued. I chewed her words for a moment, trying to connect her lowly life and becoming a servant to the queen herself.
"Nope. It's not making sense to me," I muttered through the fogginess of my thoughts. "What's not?" she asked plainly. "I can't figure out how you became a royal servant," I said, trying to think through the brain fog. "Well, Fulco saw one of the jobs we'd done, and thought we were worthy of working at the Palace. Sadly, Ma couldn't handle the workload she was given as she got older and died about three winters back," her tone dropped as she put her chin on my shoulder momentarily.
"I'm so sorry. I-I didn't know…" I trailed off. "It's alright. Nothing much to be done about it now, anyway," she sighed lightly, leaving a silence between us that I didn't want to be the cause of. "Not very talkative today, are we?" Bernar injected himself into said silence, for which I was very grateful.
"Oh, we were just talking about the past, and I think I struck a nerve I didn't intend to," I said grimly.
"I'm alright, I promise," Meliss said comfortingly, rubbing my arm. "See? She's stronger than she looks," Bernar said with a warm smile aimed at her, who returned it. "Sometimes, you have to take the good with the bad, and right now, I think you're in a pretty decent spot," he said, glancing at the tiny hand rubbing my arm. "Yeah, but what about the rest of them?" I nodded behind me, causing him to look back and sigh.
"You know that our mission may either make us heroes or force history to forget us, right?" Bernar asked me. "I do. Although I will do everything I can to be the former until my last breath," I continued, gazing off into the distance.
I realized I hadn't voiced those thoughts aloud before, but I knew they came from the bottom of my heart as Bernar looked at me and seemingly knew what I meant. "I know you can handle yourself in battle, little shit, but Meliss can't. Speaking of which, I intend to keep you by my side with Leona. With any luck, we won't be too bothered by any creature that comes along," he said. "That makes me glad to hear that," Meliss said warmly.
There was a short silence as we digested our short conversation.