Chương 70: Timor crastini

Leo, Leonard, Eren, Ann, Atish, and Sidri sit along the parapet overlooking the massive plains and a quaint tipi with a bed of flowers in the distance. Atish took a swig from a gourd.

"You think he's really dead?"

"It's been two months." Sidri sat beside the drunken man with a hand nearby, ready to catch him if he were to fall. Leo sat with his head hung, his eyes sunken; he looked defeated. Leonard had a gourd of his own, and in the other hand, he clenched Leo's robe collar to keep the tiny man from leaning too far over. Eren sat down, tepidly tapping his half-strung bow against his foot. Surprisingly, out of everyone, Ann was the one who stopped sharpening her blade to respond.

"No." Eren cocked his head to the side; an effort was not made to turn it fully.

"Ann… we saw him fall 20 stories."

"We saw them scoop up June… we saw what Martin did to him before scooping him up." Ann continued sharpening her blade; the long, consistent maneuvers turned slow and aggressive. She dropped the grindstone and watched it plummet off the side of Brighthaven's walls.

"So?"

"June's a flesh-shaper."

"You saw what he was capable of." Eren loosened his grip on his bow, almost letting it slide out of his hands until he caught it by the string.

"The stories of Flesh-Shapers are exaggerated."

"Yeah, he's strong, and he's just like the ones from fairy tales."

"…"

"He's dead." Eren held in some words, then lowered his face to cup it in his hand. After a long absence of noise, Sidri spoke up.

"They might have kept him hostage!?"

"I mean, he is a flesh-shaper, right?"

"They might be royals, but they probably know just a little more than us."

"So… what if he still survived?"

"If he survived a drop that big, then he survived being carved afterwards."

"…"

"I think if I were in their shoes and I had an enemy like that, who didn't die."

"I would probably imprison hi—" Leo interjected loudly.

"GODDAMNIT SIDRI, HE'S DEAD." Leo tossed his legs over the parapet and walked away.

"Don't bother looking for me; I'm checking our supplies." Leonard didn't turn to acknowledge that Leo had left; in fact, Leonard didn't even seem to notice. The elf man looked into the distance with a blank stare, his gourd of alcohol untouched. Everybody who sat on the parapet watched silently; they knew what Leonard's blank expression was. They all felt it. It was the pang of regret.

Everyone knew it; they knew it, the guards knew it, the refugees knew it, and even the people who lived tamer lives within Brighthaven knew it. Everyone knew June didn't want to be here. Everyone knew that he sucked it up and took care of them. Everyone knew that he wasn't going to be rewarded for doing so. Every single soul that resided in Brighthaven knew that they were taking advantage of his kindness. Some felt he was naive. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Some felt he was brave. Some felt he was courageous. But despite what they felt, they knew that they were taking advantage of him. Everyone loved him. Everyone got angry when he left for their sakes. The war was going to start tomorrow, and a messenger was sent to convey orders to the revolutionists. If this were a mundane war, then Brighthaven would have had the advantage. People. Morale. Supplies. Location. They even had a castle. But this was no mundane war; Brighthaven had every advantage.

Every single one except the most important thing. Brighthaven had a couple Dreamers. The Royal faction had hundreds. A single Dreamer was worth several hundred Aspirants. A single Aspirant was worth dozens of mundanes. Brighthaven was a faction that mainly consisted of Aspirants and freely accepted mundanes. Time was ticking. The war had already begun, but the battle of Brighthaven will begin tomorrow. Leonard suddenly snapped out of it.

"It's about time for us to water June's flowers."

Despite the oncoming war, every single day since June, his friends took the time to water his flowers. His friends had their own places. Leonard and Leo stayed at the top of a spire with the best view in Brighthaven of the lake and the city. The entire spire belonged to them and several other mages; it was a logistical hub, but the very top was their own.

They had hammocks parsed around the large dark room with the occasional magical candle light illuminating the room with it's warm glow, thousands of carved tablets lined a handcrafted bookshelf that hugged the circular room, there were two massive balcony doors at the opposite ends of the room with leather drapes from a beast the fell down and easily dwarfed the size of June's humble tipi.

The balconies connected a large walkway around the rim of the spire, which always let the pleasant fragrances of the sun mix with the scent of the lacquered wood shelves that surrounded the room. The two didn't pick sides to settle in; dozens of hammocks, high and low, were in the room, and they just slept wherever, whenever. Leonard did have several potted plants placed around the room, while Leo seemed to enjoy collecting rocks and placing them around.

Eren had his own nook that he carefully made his own; he had a view over a large portion of the city. It was a shared place with Ann and Silvester, but each of them made use of their rooms in ways that made it theirs. Eren had a nice, luxurious feathered bed that a smith crafted just for him after he saved their lives during one of his adventures in the Colosseum. Herbs fell from the ceiling and lined the walls of his side of the room.

He had a tanned beast pelt to separate his space from the others, and on it he had drawn a series of events, specifically the series of events that led him here.

Silvester was an elven man, his nook also had beast hides to separate the space, but his room had potted plants here and there, his bed was also fair quality, and his room was fairly clear of any mess, it was a neat and tidy place, there was a beast rug on the floor that almost encompassed the entire side of where his room was and every time he had visitors he would gloat about his rug, it was a tidy, quiet, humble room.

Ann on the other hand slept on a series of animal skins, her entire side was turned into a smithing side, she was the type to enjoy doing maintenance on her weapons herself, so instead of building a proper room, she ended up building a utilitarian workshop, despite how outwardly aloof she was about everything, people could just sense it if they were to look in her eyes, she felt pride in her little nook, it was bland, utilitarian, and lacked much of anything that others would consider substance, but her eyes would light up just because someone asked about it.

Sidri and Atish lived outside the walls; at first, they felt the need to usurp June, to outlive him and outperform him. June lived outside the walls, and the people respected him for doing so. So Sidri and Atish set up their own homes outside the walls. Unlike June, the two ended up settling right beside each other. It was easier to get a leg up on your rival if you knew what they were up to after all.

They at first set up a tipi, then it changed into a little house when Sidri's workers wanted to pay back a favor to the two, and now, the two separate tipis of rivals conjoined into one quaint cottage. The two tried to mimic the frugality that June lived with, but gift after gift, their homes slowly filled up; their conjoined home was fully furnished; it had a kitchen, a living room, individual bedrooms that were massive, and a food storage. It was truly a home.

Sidri's entire room was covered in carvings, plans to improve the lives of the people, and plans to improve Brighthaven. Her room had a worktable, a large wooden bed that lay on the ground, and a window right beside it that let in the fresh air and sounds of rushing water.

Atish's room was filled with pottery, he had picked up a few things from the Brighthaven locals and started making his own alcohol from home, he had a large feathered bed that was more of a rug that covered the floor instead of a traditional bed, he had a worktable that was littered with scrapped carvings and iterations of entries that were compiled into the report book that was given to June when he left, instead of a traditional window, a portion of the roof was collapsible with a mechanism that let it open and close with a lever.

Both Atish and Sidri's homes led into the main living room, with the kitchen, a makeshift sofa, and a staircase leading down into a cold storage area an ice mage made for them. Leaving the front door would allow you to have an unobscured view of the plains, a few rushing rivers to the sides, and a small, quaint tipi in the distance. Despite having their own hovels, spires, and cabins, the others enjoyed June's home more than their own. The pleasant flowers, the scent they gave off, the fresh air, the view.

The modest leather flooring that Sidri and Atish had fought June for since he kept adamantly refusing to give it up. The dark tipi had a single handcrafted lantern that was used only when he had visitors. The thin leather flooring had indented footprints, some etchings from when they were bored, and scratches from when June ran from his training with Leonard. They all had their homes, they all had their second homes, but this was the place where they found themselves when they needed help.

This was the place where they found the help they needed. This was where they found June. So, for the final time, the gang gathered together to water June's flowers. Even Leo, who ran off, came back to silently water them for the final time. The group made sure not to enter his dwelling, since it was set to explode if trampled on. So the group just silently watered the bed of flowers while digesting their emotions. It was an odd selection of flowers. There were two beds.

There was a small bed of pink Hydrangea that was a fair distance away from June's tipi for some reason. It had a quaint stone wall that June built himself. Leonard offered to help with earth magic, but June seemed fixated on completing it by hand. And there was the large bed that surrounded the tipi. Sidri sniffed the flowers that surrounded the tipi.

"Smells like lemons."

"What's this flower called?" Leonard stopped watering the flowers and snapped his fingers a few times, trying to remember. Leo interjected and answered promptly.

"June said they were called Dictamnus albus."

"Weird name."