Prologue : Unclouded Memories

Daein Keep, 4 years before today

I heard a loud scream, coming from one of the neighboring hallways. I admit it, the voice frightened me. What was happening? I could barely believe that it truly belonged to whom had let out such a sinister cry...

So I ran back to the throne room, where we had – at last – defeated the Mad King. Ashnard.

"Madness! This just CAN'T be! I swear, my eyes left the body for a second, no! even less than that! He cannot just be gone!"

The scene could have been funny to watch : once again, Shinon and Gatrie were arguing because the first one had failed at doing his watching job.

"Admit it, Shinon! You fell asleep, didn't you? Come on! You only had to watch over a dead man!"

I ran to separate them, and that was enough to make them freeze, as if they had just heard the sinister cry. In fact, they had just realized that they had heard it too.

"Stop it, both of you."

To see their two almost panicked faces fix me was something of the most funny, yet horrible kind ; the same thought had gone through our minds. Who had we sent in that hallway to search for other hidden enemies? Only one man, and not the strongest, physically.

I remember having thought that if anything bad was to have happened to him, I would have damned myself a thousand times.

"The king could never have moved by himself, there must be somebody else in here," said I, as I ran in the direction of where the sound had come.

Shinon followed, with a loud complain, and Gatrie did his best to move as fast as us.

However, the scene we found, when we finally saw somebody, was far from what we had expected, and stopped us in a second, still too far to be able to act, except for Shinon. Two silhouettes : the farthest, facing us, was none other than Soren, who looked down on the other, who was laying on its knees, and turning its back to us. However, the man's armor and hair clearly identified him as Ashnard, and none of us could believe it.

"It can't be, it simply can't be! He's supposed to be dead!" whispered Shinon, taking his bow, as our companion seemed completely paralyzed in front of the king.

Ashnard turned a little bit to look at us, which drew Soren's eyes at the same place, and like those of the Mad King, they met mine, filled with a fear that I could not understand. My friend's gaze went down on the apparently dying man again as his raucous voice rose.

"F...Forgive me, S...Soren... It's all my fault..."

As soon as I made a movement to draw my sword, Soren's eyes brutally lifted up on me, casting me a glare that simply paralyzed me. What had the king told him, I had absolutely no idea, but I could read in his eyes all the confusion that had taken over his mind. When I think about it, Soren was just an opened book, for me ; nobody could read him as easily as I could...not even him... Or so it seems, to me.

At that moment, he had no idea of what to do and what to think of the Mad King. Not anymore.

"Ike!"

I looked away from my best friend to see Shinon, aiming at the man's upper neck. One side look from him was enough to confirm that he was ready to slay him at the first sign of hostility.

"Ike!"

Soren's calls seemed desperate, and a doubt concerning his faithfulness invaded my mind for a second. As I can recall it, it was that precise doubt that made me believe in the hate towards me that my eyes saw, seven months ago.

Suddenly, as if he had seen that I was refusing what he pleaded silently, he made a little step back, apparently terrified.

That's when I realized that Shinon was, in fact, aiming right above Ashnard's head. At Soren's heart.

"Is he truly aiming at you, Soren? What are they to call themselves friends of yours, if they aren't even able to recognize your faithfulness? My boy, you look so tired. Don't worry, though. You shall get a good rest soon enough."

I don't know exactly why, but the king's words did not seem very nice to my ears, and triggered a sudden anger in me. Maybe because I felt that my friend was in a great danger.

I gave Shinon the signal to shoot the madman, and immediately drew Ragnell while advancing towards our enemy.

Surprisingly, Ashnard easily avoided the volley and stood up, as if he had never felt better, even though some of his wounds kept bleeding. However, distracted by Shinon, who kept aiming at him, he did not see me come... You can imagine the rest, I think.

Standing still, like he had done for the whole scene, with that same confused look in his eyes, Soren did not say a word. He only watched the body fall heavily on the castle's floor. His breathing was extremely fast, and hastened even more as I got a little bit closer to him.

"Soren?"

I cast him a questioning glance, but his eyes were empty, and he did not even see me.

"Soren? Are you alright?"

When I saw his face get even paler than usually, I knew what was about to happen. I caught him right before he hit the floor, and as I lifted him up, something fell from his sleeve. When I turned back to see what it was, I saw a little trinket thing. A small stone, enclutched in a silver ring. As I picked it up, I wondered where I had seen it before, and did not even notice how dark was the energy flowing inside it. And as neither Shinon nor Gatrie had seen it, I chose to hide it, and ask Soren about it later.

"Is he gonna be alright? He is as pale as dead..."

To see Mist express such concern was no surprise : she always cared about everybody... Why didn't she help? I don't know. But, I must admit it, I was even more dread than her, and impatient for Rhys to tell us what was the situation.

When the healer finally came out of the tent, I was nearly eating my own fingers from nervousness.

"Is he sick?"

Rhys shook his head.

"No. He just seems completely...drained. Exhausted. He looks like he hasn't slept for a few days. Let him rest, give him calm, and he will soon get better."

I gave a loud sigh, finally able to stop worrying.

"Thanks, Rhys," said I before entering the tent, with his approval. He knew I was not going to allow Soren to be disturbed.

As all the others had gone to their own activities, I felt myself relax, even though my friend was still as pale as before. In his sleep, he kept mumbling nonsense about him not being beorc (okay, I know, that one was perfectly true), and the Mad King being some kind of thing that I did not understand, since the word he used was nothing I had heard before in our language. It sounded just like a word taken from one of his magical incantations, with such harmony flowing in it that it seemed to roll gently on his tongue as he stressfully spit it out.

At one point, I sat beside him, and that seemed to calm him a little bit. I looked down on his sleeping figure, and, unable to detach my eyes from his apparent vulnerability, couldn't help but wonder about his origins.

"He looks so young, so frail... To think that we are approximately the same age... It's like he hasn't grown up yet... And still, he is so strong... "

A slight movement interrupted my thoughts, causing me to startle, which surprised my companion as he came out of his torpor.

"Hello, Soren."

He opened his eyes, but shut them immediately after ; the daylight was too bright for someone who had slept for so long.

"Hmm... Ike?"

I stood up as he made a motion to sit on the bed. His arms seemed to refuse obeying him, and they bent over as he fell back on the pile of clothes that served as his pillow.

"How are you feeling, Soren?"

He breathed deeply, as if bracing himself for an upcoming pain, or a hit. And with one effort that seemed like the one needed to lift a horse, he tried to sit again. Another failed attempt. As I helped him achieving his goal of the moment, he briefly answered.

"To be honest, I feel like a good two hundred horses stomped me..."

When he had secured his position, he gave me a quick, nervous glance, obviously afraid of what was coming next.

"W...Are we at the camp?

– Yeah."

It was strange, being able to feel his fear. It was the first time he ever reacted that way with me, and I had not even thought about it a second that it might have been because of what had happened before we arrived in the hallway where he and Ashnard were. I was so obsessed by the small pendant that I had not even realized what had happened down there, where we had finally slain the Mad King (for real, that time) while he was standing, filled with dread. Even though it could have been obvious, I had not realized yet. But I wanted to know. However, before I could ask him anything else, his voice rose again.

"Who brought me back?

– Me."

He seemed strangely uncomfortable with that news. And I guess he had detected my impatience, because he immediately spoke again, and confused himself in apologies for the earlier events.

"Ike, I'm sorry for what happened out there. I tried to take him down, but magic wouldn't do anyth...

– It's okay, Soren.

– I did not...

– Stop it, I said it was okay!

– But I feel bad for having been such a burden!"

His loud protest attracted a little attention from Rhys, who suddenly entered the tent, and Soren nearly had a heart attack from the surprise.

I never had any other chance to speak to him alone for the rest of the day, and I found myself completely unsatisfied when dawn arrived. I therefore decided to pay him a small visit when everybody else would be asleep. I knew he would still be up, working on his reports for the campaign : he was not the kind of person who could just let things not completely done and go to sleep, even if he had been dying for some rest.

In fact, when I entered the tent, he looked like he had expecting me. Like he had been waiting for me to come. All of his work was already done. On his table, the only thing that laid open was a small black book I had never seen before, but that was filled with writing of his, and all the other papers had been carefully sorted away in a corner, ready to be taken to whom they were destined to, on the next morning.

"I know you have it, Ike."

My blood stopped coursing through my veins for a second, as I detected some kind of hostility in his words.

"Give it back to me," said he, standing up to face me. His stance somehow intidimated me, maybe because I felt confined to a small parcel of the tent while he seemed to have an absolute control over the rest.

I handed over the pendant, and as soon as he got it back, he hid it in his sleeve without even giving it a single look.

"What makes it so precious to you?

– I need to study it. I am not sure of its purpose yet. But if you have it, I cannot analyze it precisely.

– You did not answer.

– Ashnard had it. And I think it is somehow related to my inability ot harm him with my magic."

Strangely enough, his answer did not sound as convincing as he would have liked, but I made no comment, as I did not want to bewild him more than he already seemed to be.

"Tell me when you find out what it is, and what use we can give it."

It was all that I said before turning back to exit the tent, but right before, Soren caught my arm to stop me.

"Thank you again, Ike... Forgive me, please, for what happened there. I shall get stronger. I promise."

He then released me, and I made a movement to get out of his tent before my mind made me turn back. Suddenly, I had realized that something had happened in between the two of them before our barging in the room. Seeing I was not leaving, he gave me a questioning, yet somehow annoyed look.

"Say, Soren...

- What do you want?"

I nearly expected for the word "again" to complete his sentence, judging from his expression at the moment, but he had suddenly seemed to realize that he would have acted in a rather displeasing way towards me, and probably thought that he couldn't allow himself to do that after what I had done for him. I saw his features darkening while he lowered his head.

"What happened out there?"

He remained silent for a moment before letting out a single word for an answer.

"Nothing."

The fact that he refused to give up the reason of his confusion was truly annoying me, and I thought a second about seizing his shoulders to shake him into telling me what was wrong with me. But I held myself back, making another attempt to learn more about the earlier events.

"Did he try to harm you?"

He gasped, but kept his eyes low.

"You saw him as well as I did. Had he wanted to kill me... I would have been dead long before your arrival."

I saw him squeeze his eyes shut and clenching his fists, obviously trying to hold back his emotions, whatever they were (because I truly have no clue of what exactly he felt at that moment).

"No. I was the one who attacked him, and it did not do a thing."

He was ashamed, or so it seemed to me. I did not understand why he was always putting so much pressure on his shoulders, but he had obviously failed to meet his own objectives. I was about to ask him what had been the source of his trouble, but he continued, so I remained silent, as having Soren reveal you something personal of his own will was something of the rare kind, and had to be respected.

"He... He just seemed...fascinated by me... I don't know why, but he seemed somehow...familiar."

That was when he suddenly met my eyes with a dark gaze, and suddenly moved up to me and seized my arm again. But this time, he was looking at me directly, even though he was unable to conceal the newly born rage tears that reddened his eyes even more.

"Promise me you won't tell anybody else about this, Ike. Please.

- It's alright, Soren. If you don't want me to tell anybody, I respect your wishes. But don't feel too bad because of what happened. It is not your fault if you hadn't slept well and let yourself get troubled. You had so much to do, we should have helped you."

Soren lifted his eyebrows in an expression that was probably saying "you don't know that, but I had slept a whole lot and like a log, last night." However, I did not notice it, as I was getting tired and wanted to get to my bed. He noticed that I was getting sleepy, and let go of my arm to turn his back on me.

"You can go to sleep if you want. I won't try to hold you if you want to go. But hear me, Ike: I promise I shall get stronger. I won't be a burden anymore. You won't have to worry about me. I promise you, Ike."

As his tone seemed to allow no reply from my part, I thought he simply wanted me gone, but if I had to live that moment again, I would have stayed to comfort him : it was easy to see, the next morning, that he had not slept at all. So, almost satisfied with what I had learned, I went back to my tent , where I spent a long and peaceful night. Those dark, dreamless nights I cannot enjoy anymore, to the point I dream of such nights during the days. Worst is, I think I am slowly sinking deeper, day after day, without even being able to identify what is pulling me down...