Chương 38: The Oathrunner Vs. The Fancy Hisker

The Fancy Hisker

"Wha—?!" A cloud of fire burst through Enel's door and shattered it open. The flame swallowed the room, crawled out into the hallway, and painted the stone in orange light. A moment later, Enel emerged into the hallway through the smoke with his blanket in his hands. The blanket was on fire, of course.

"Ah!" Enel looked at it, then quickly threw it back into the room before the flames could spread farther down the hall. But as soon as he did, Sigrud rushed out after him, his purple scales glowing red from the heat. There were two orbs of flame in his hands, one over each palm.

"Sigrud?!" Enel leaped back, one hand raised toward him.

"What are you doing?!" Sigrud threw the flames. But before they could fully bloom, Enel slapped them away. The wind from his palm whistled through the hallway, snapping the banners above them so hard that two tore loose from the ceiling and flew down the corridor. Sigrud stumbled several steps to the side from the same wind, catching himself with his tail before he could fall.

"Sigrud," Enel said again, "I do not understand what I have done!" Sigrud answered by summoning another flame. And once again, no words appeared in the air. No Script burned before his fingers. The flame simply gathered over his palm, as if the world had agreed to give it to him. Enel noticed that, but the fire was already rushing toward him, so he stepped through it. The flame broke across his chest and shoulders, scattering sparks through the hallway.

Enel quickly slapped the embers forming on his tunic before they could eat through the cloth, and the sound of his palm striking his own chest echoed through the Guild like a thundering drum. If the other trainees had not been awakened by Sigrud's first attack, they were now.

"W-what was that?!" Doors began opening one by one.

"Is someone fighting again?"

"Again? Is that not the sixth time since the last full moon?"

"Who is it?!" One trainee stepped out of his room, only for a wave of heat to nearly burn his eyebrows off. He froze, blinked, then saw Enel moving backward past him with smoke rising from his clothes. Then he saw Sigrud.

"The two Blesseds are fighting!"

"What?! I want to watch!"

"No, move! I cannot see!" Enel glanced past Sigrud and saw more people stepping into the hallway. Some still looked half asleep. Some were already grinning.

"Sigrud," Enel called, louder this time.

"Stop. There are people here." Sigrud hissed and moved. He was fast, but not fast enough to truly matter. He dropped low, rushing forward on all fours with his tail swinging behind him. Enel stepped aside, but Sigrud lifted himself with his tail and swung both claws toward Enel's side. But, well, his claws scraped against the wall instead. Enel had already leapt upward. Sigrud looked around, then finally spotted him clinging to the ceiling. Fire bloomed again, this time... from his mouth.

"Woah..." Enel tilted his head, amazed despite everything. Sigrud did not stop. The flames continued spilling from his mouth until the ceiling blackened with soot and the trainees farther down the hall began shouting.

"Is... that your Blessed ability?" Enel asked. Sigrud stopped only when he realized Enel was no longer on the ceiling at all—he was behind him. Sigrud spun and whipped his tail toward Enel's head. Enel did not dodge. The tail struck him with a crack, hard enough to make several trainees flinch, but Enel only blinked. Another door opened near them. It was Tiny. His face appeared through the crack, his eyes wide and his hair sticking up in several directions.

"M-m'lord?" he whispered.

"Do... you want me to call for someone?" Enel looked at him, then finally grabbed Sigrud by the tail and his left wrist.

"Yes," he said, before gently pushing Sigrud away.

"Call anyone." Then Enel ran, and Sigrud chased him immediately. Tiny stared as they disappeared down the hallway. Then he stepped out and screamed as loudly as he could.

"Help! Lord Enel is being murdered by the fancy hisker!" The trainees who had been hesitant to step out all opened their doors at once. But instead of calling for help, most of them sprinted after Enel and Sigrud.

"W-what the?!" Tiny covered his head and leaped to the side to avoid the stampede.

"You people are insane!" Unfortunately for the curious and eager trainees, they would not be able to follow for long. Enel reached the first window he saw, broke through it with his shoulder, and leapt out into the night. Sigrud followed. Enel landed on the snow-covered rocks below, and the mountain air struck him immediately. The cold did not bother him, but it was sharp enough that steam rose from his sleeves where the fire had touched them.

He looked up and saw the Crown's Guild towering above him, its windows glowing across the mountain. Then Sigrud fell from above.

"Hey!" Enel stepped back, avoiding the burning claws that struck the stone where he had been. Sigrud's fingers dug into the rock, instantly melting the snow beneath them and sending a cloud of vapor around them both.

"This has gone on long enough, sir!" Enel leapt backward out of the steam, putting more distance between them and the Guild.

"Can you at least tell me what I did?!"

"You lied!"

"About what?!" This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"You are not a Blessed!"

"What are you even saying, sir?! Of course I am. I—""No!" Sigrud slammed a ball of fire into the ground, and another burst of steam swallowed the rocks.

"We Blessed can feel each other. We know when someone is one of us, and you, Enel of House Blackwood, are not one." Enel stopped moving. For one breath, the wind was louder than either of them.

"Enough." He clapped, and the sound cracked through the mountain like thunder. Sigrud was blown backward. He dug his claws into the ground, tail whipping behind him, but even then, the gale pushed him several more steps across the stone. Snow scattered outward in a white storm. And when the wind finally faded, the rocks around them had been stripped clean, revealing dead grass beneath the frost. Enel walked toward him.

"I do not know why you are calling me a liar," he said, pointing at Sigrud, "but I do not appreciate it, good sir." Sigrud flinched and summoned another fireball in his mouth, but Enel appeared in front of him and clasped his snout shut. The fire died between Sigrud's teeth.

"Please stop." Sigrud clawed at Enel's arm, but quickly stopped when his claws scraped against skin and felt like he was about to break his own fingers.

"Listen," Enel whispered.

"I do not know what your problem is with me. And right now, I do not much care. I only wish for you to calm down." Sigrud stared at him.

"I am going to release you now, good sir. But if you refuse to be good, then..." Enel's jaw tightened.

"Damn you. Ah! You made me say a curse word." He looked away, irritated with himself. And Sigrud stared at him... strangely. That did not last long, however, as Enel's eyes changed when he looked back.

"If you refuse to be good," he repeated, quieter this time, "then I will enact Marshal Tommen's lesson on you. And you will not like it. I will not like it either." Sigrud did not move.

"I will release you now," Enel said.

"Understood?" And finally, after a few more moments, Sigrud nodded. Enel carefully released his snout, then backed away while watching his movements. Sigrud did not attack again. He only lowered himself onto the stone, breathing hard as the snow began to settle around them.

"You are not Blessed," Sigrud said. Enel looked down at him.

"You have said that already."

"No." Sigrud's voice shook with exhaustion and anger.

"You heard me. You did not listen." Enel stared at him for a while, then slowly sat down as well. Above them, lights moved through the Guild windows. Voices called from somewhere high on the mountain, but no one had found them yet. Enel ignored the noise and focused on Sigrud.

"Then, please. Explain." Sigrud curled his tail close to his body." Blesseds feel one another."

"What...?"

"Not with the nose. Not with the skin. Not with Breath, either. We know. When one is near, something answers." Sigrud touched his own chest.

"Like lifting a crate. You know whether something is inside by the weight. You do not need to open it."

"Then..."

"That is how Blesseds feel each other," Sigrud continued.

"You, Enel of House Blackwood... you are empty." Enel frowned.

"But I have no Breath, and I can do things normal people cannot."

"Neither do I," Sigrud answered. Enel blinked. Sigrud lifted one hand, and a weak flame sparked over his palm before fading away.

"We Blesseds do not write Scripts for the world to obey us. We ask, and something answers." Enel pointed at himself.

"That is the same as me, then."

"No." Sigrud's eyes narrowed.

"Tell me. Have you ever asked the gods for anything?"

"Every day."

"Then have they answered you? Whispered their Breath into you?"

"... No?"

"Then you do not belong with us." Enel looked down. The Great Spirit of the Lake had said something similar.

"I... But I was told I am Blessed," Enel said.

"By whom?"

"My parents." Sigrud looked at him for a while, then the anger in his eyes slowly faded away.

"I do not know your parents," he said, "and I will not assume they lied. But they are hiding something from you, Enel of House Blackwood." Enel's jaw tightened.

"Do not speak of them that way."

"I did not speak of them badly. I only said they are hiding something." Sigrud looked toward the Guild above them.

"And hiding things is not always evil." Enel did not answer. When Sigrud noticed how uncomfortable Enel suddenly looked, his claws dug lightly into the snow.

"My... My name is not Sigrud." Enel blinked.

"It is not?"

"No. Sigrud is the name they gave me because my own was inconvenient. Too sharp, you could say, for Aldwyn tongues."

"What is your name?" Sigrud did not answer immediately. Then he said something Enel could not quite understand. It was short, but the sound moved strangely, with a hiss folded around a note that came from deep in the throat. Still, Enel tried." Sha... iva? Shai'va?" Sigrud's eyes widened.

"Close."

"I apologize." Enel sighed.

"I will not disrespect your name by saying it incorrectly. I shall call you Sigrud until I can say your true name properly."

"There is no need. Your tongue is different from mine. You will never say it correctly." Enel touched his lips without thinking, and Sigrud let out a small hiss that might have been laughter. But then it faded just as quickly.

"When they started calling me Blessed, my village celebrated," Sigrud said.

"My mother cried, and my father bowed... then they gave me away."

"To the Crown?"

"To the people who came bearing gifts." Sigrud looked back at the mountain.

"They said I would be honored. Educated. Fed. Protected. My parents believed them. I was only three and ten when they gave me away."

"Did... they not love you?" Sigrud's eyes sharpened. Enel immediately lowered his head.

"I apologize. That was not—""I believe they loved me," Sigrud said.

"That made it worse. But they were right. I was educated. Fed. Protected." For a while, Enel could only listen to the wind. None of them spoke after, but when snow started to land on his shoulders, he looked at Sigrud and smiled.

"My parents tried to hide what I could do at first," he said at last.

"They told outsiders I was sick. Fragile. They kept me inside when strangers came. Father refused guests, titles, offers... even help. But the villagers knew, of course, they could not truly hide me from them."

"Because you are dangerous."

"... I am." Enel nodded.

"I was a danger to myself, too. I realized I was lucky to have been born in a family that could provide for and care for me. To feed me. So, yes, Sigrud... I believe your parents loved you, too."

"They gave me away."

"You said it yourself. You are fed and protected. Mine kept me because they could. Yours gave you away because they believed they were protecting you by giving you away." Sigrud looked down.

"I... have never thought of it that way."

"Hm." Enel nodded.

"But three and ten... you were the same age as I am now. I cannot imagine how sad I would be if I were separated from my parents now."

"Huh?" Sigrud's head snapped toward him.

"What was that?"

"I said I cannot imagine—""You are three and ten?" Enel blinked.

"Yes...?"

"Are you telling me that I attacked a child?" Sigrud looked at his clawed hands.

"Why are you so large?! I did not know they made humos children like you!"

"I am a little taller than most my age."

"A little is an understatement, sir." Sigrud sighed and stood.

"I apologize for attacking you. I thought you were lying about being one of us."

"I forgive you, Shai... va."

"Please do not."

"You believe me now, then? That I am a Blessed?"

"No. Because you are not."

"But—""But I believe you are not pretending to be one of us." Sigrud looked him in the eyes.

"You simply do not know what you are yet."

"That..." Enel looked down at his hands.

"Can I not just be one of you?"

"It does not work that way. You cannot be Blessed just because you and others think you are."

"I am not talking about being Blessed." Enel looked up at him.

"I am talking about... just being people." Sigrud's steps paused. For a moment, he only stared back, then he let out a small laugh and waved one hand as he walked away.

"I do not care anymore, Enel of House Blackwood. Be whatever you want to be. Just... stay who you are." Enel smiled a little.

"Are we friends now?" Sigrud did not answer. Enel watched him disappear into the white as snow slowly began to blanket the stones again. He remained where he was. He looked up at the sky, remembering once more what the Great Spirit had said to him.

"Little... starboy." Even with the snow falling, the stars were bright above the mountain. Far brighter than they had been at Widow's Wall.

"What did it mean by that?"

"Lovely evening for talking to yourself, is it not?" Enel turned, and a pale red scarf moved past right in front of him. He followed the scarf and saw Marshal Tommen Uller gracefully sit down where Sigrud had been sitting before. Enel... had not heard him approach at all.

"Marshal."

"Pretty lord." Tommen smiled.

"Or perhaps I should stop calling you that until we determine what you truly are, no? Not a Blessed, hmn." Enel's brows lowered. Tommen lifted both hands.

"A jest. Mostly."

"How long have you been watching us, sir?"

"Right about the part where the two of you almost got naughty." Tommen moved his fingers close to his mouth, imitating the moment Enel clasped Sigrud's snout shut.

"You... heard everything, then," Enel said, raising his knees and hugging his legs.

"Do you think he is right, sir? That I am... not really Blessed?"

"I would not know that, pretty lord. I am not one."

"Why would my parents lie?"

"Because people lie, Lord Blackwood." Tommen's smile thinned.

"People lie all the time."

"Not my parents."

"No? Even if it was to protect you?"

"That—""But I am not really one for guessing." Tommen's smile returned.

"Pay me enough, and I will find out for you."

"Marshal." Enel sighed as he looked at Tommen.

"I do have a very expensive question of my own, pretty lord. The least you could do for disrupting my beauty sleep is answer it."

"I... apologize for that. What is it?" Tommen looked at the Guild, then at the dark road leading down the mountain, then finally at Enel.

"Are you planning to take over Aldwyn?"

"... What?"