*crawls out of hibernation and blinks blearily in the freezing winter sunlight*
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Reyson flung himself out of the way of another Feral One, mentally promising himself that he would kill Nasir himself if they didn't find Leanne in the tower. Getting angry was, for now, much preferable to the alternatives. Acknowledging the horrors posed by this battle was a bad idea whilst in the middle of it, and he had a terrible feeling that the day was only going to get worse.
The Feral One, a brutally twisted Gallian, met Boyd's laguz axe coming the other way, and Reyson winced away from the resulting spray of blood. One would think he would be used to such things, by this point, but no, mere repetition was not enough to accustom him to seeing Boyd take the heads clean off of enemies bare inches from his face. Whoever first used "clean" as an idiom for such things had obviously never seen it happen, or had a sick, perverted sense of clean. And Reyson wasn't using those terms lightly.
"Watch yourself," Boyd said cheerfully as Reyson sang his galdr, before bounding off towards another cat. Reyson looked away, but still heard the inevitable wet thwack and injured yowls cut short.
"It'll be over soon," Soren said from behind him. Reyson didn't jump, but barely. He was getting better about not leaving his stomach behind when someone appeared behind him; as Tibarn had told him, the moment it took to flinch was enough for an enemy to kill him. Of course, if an enemy had gotten as close as Soren just had ad Reyson hadn't noticed, he'd have been killed regardless of a moment's surprise.
Soren stared at him briefly, as if deciding whether or not to dress him down for inattention. "We should get ready to go inside," Soren finally deadpanned, nodding towards the entrance to the tower.
The sage guarding it was too busy trying to fry Boyd and Kieran with his Bolting tome to notice Nephenee striding towards him. General Ike was finishing off a dragon nearby, one of the few spots of action remaining, now that Reyson was looking. He looked back at the throne just in time to see Nephenee do critical damage to the sage. Really, even with a killer lance, the girl shouldn't be able to do that every time...
Soren was stalking determinedly towards the door, reaching it at the same moment as Tibarn and General Ike. Ranulf slunk over seconds later, and Reyson hurried to join them.
Going through the tower was one of the most emotionally grueling experiences of his life, Reyson decided after a few minutes. For every door they opened, his heart was in his mouth, hoping to find Leanne, then dropped into his feet when they didn't. Then he had to feel the immense relief that they hadn't found her mangled corpse, and after that the horror of all the other nameless mangled corpses. Then they would leave that room, and the whole cycle would repeat again.
They were at the bottom level of the tower now. The smells were terrible, and Reyson was thankful for the dim torchlight. He didn't want to know what that was on the walls. General Ike and Ranulf looked nearly ill. Tibarn only looked wrathful. Soren's face was blank, though the way his hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists spoke to his opinions on the sights thus far. Reyson was nearly sick with worry. There was still no sign of Leanne.
General Ike wrenched open the last door, a heavy iron affair set at the bottom of a few more stairs. Reyson stepped back. The stench of blood and decay was positively boiling out of this room. The others took a few tentative steps forward, and Ranulf came back out almost immediately, gagging and pressing his hands to the wall for support. Reyson preferred not to touch the walls. Just the thought made him pull his wings in more tightly.
"No sign of Princess Leanne," Soren said, his clinical, tightly controlled voice giving Reyson something to ground himself with.
"But this is the last room," Reyson whipered.
"We haven't found her corpse, either. The cell doors were open when we were there earlier; it's possible that she escaped somehow."
Well, it was nice of Soren to offer that comfort, even if it was so obvious a lie. How would his fragile sister ever escape from a place like this? And why did Tibarn look so calm? He was furious about the results of the experiments done here, but he didn't seem worried at all about Leanne.
"Let's get out of here," General Ike commanded shakily, pale-faced as he exited the room. "We can talk outside."
Soren nudged Reyson lightly, then grabbed his arm impatiently and led him outside. Reyson was faintly surprised; Soren had scrupulously avoided touching him after the last battle. That was a small matter in the face of Leanne's absence, though. He could feel himself shaking. It would be too much, to lose her again so soon...
The setting sunlight was too blood-red for Reyson's peace of mind as they left the tower. He hadn't stopped shaking, and Soren hadn't let go of his arm. But the tactician wasn't looking at him...he was staring into the sunset, squinting angrily against the glare. And...yes, there was something flying towards them. Too large to be mere birds. Laguz? But who? Tibarn was looking almost triumphant...hawks, then? But the way they were flying wasn't right for hawks...
"Looking for something?" Such a familiar drawl. Reyson had thought that he would never be happy to see Naesala again, but behind him there...
"Leanne!" Soren let go of his arm as Reyson flung himself towards his sister, murmuring with her in the language of their ancestors. He just barely caught Tibarn's smug thanks to Naesala, and the latter's grudging acknowledgement of them.
It was well past dark by the time that Reyson could bear to leave his sister in her own tent. He'd barely noticed as they returned to the base camp, flying more on a high of relief and joy than concentration. He was still feeling the same way, but the army would be moving early the next morning, and he needed to rest...
So did certain other people, Reyson reflected as he passed the supply tent. It was clear from the light silhouetting the slim figure inside that Soren wasn't asleep yet either.
"Why are you still up?" Soren snapped as he slipped into the tent.
"Why are you?" Of course Soren would manage to head off his question.
"I have to take care of this! Our next battle will decide this whole war!" Soren looked up from his remarkably complete-looking papers for long enough to glare at him. "And...I'm glad we found Princess Leanne," he mumbled, writing something in one of his ledgers.
Reyson grinned. It seemed that Soren was getting over his affront from after the last battle. It was unusual for him to say something so unmistakably nice, to say the least. Though Reyson wasn't sure if he wanted Soren to forget about that incident...it was nice that Soren had reverted to their rather strange friendship, but mightn't it be better if they could move forward, instead?
"What are you still doing here? I'm sure today was difficult for you. Go get some rest."
"I'm touched by your concern," Reyson said, with just a touch of irony, "but you should really take your own advice."
Soren didn't look like he knew how to respond to that. He must really have been tired; usually an irritated scowl would be an acceptable reaction.
"Come on," Reyson coaxed. "What more could you possibly need to do with those? There's no more space to write."
Soren's gaze at his ledgers was indecisive. They were obviously more than adequately completed.
Sighing, Reyson grabbed Soren's sleeve and the lantern from the table. It was only a few steps from the supply tent to Soren's, and Reyson couldn't help but wonder for a moment if the tactician was being so compliant because he knew he could just go back when Reyson left. It was nice, though, not to have to fight every step of the way. Dealing with Soren was emotionally draining, and this brief moment of complaisance was almost bizarrely restful, especially at the close of this particular day.
Reyson took firmer hold of Soren's arm, turning to meet his eyes. Reyson never got tired of Soren's eyes, even when they were piercing straight through him in a merciless death glare. Now, Soren just looked a bit resigned, and calm in a way that was also warning.
"Go back to your own tent now, heron," he said, the words lacking any of his usual asperity.
"Goodnight to you, too," Reyson quipped, smiling one last radiant smile. When he glanced back over his shoulder a few moments later, Soren was still standing outside his tent, watching him.
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Ummm...the next chapter will be better? Especially if you leave me advice on how to suck less at writing? At least I have lots of free time this month, since I only have one class...
zzzzz- Leave me a review that makes sense? Either the meaning of "intelligibility" has changed or you liked the last chapter...? If so, what changed? Well, I suppose unintelligible reviews are better than none.
The music I'm listening to sounds like it's sung by psychotic Japanese hamsters. It's too late at night for this. And I couldn't remember what comes first; Naesala showing up with Leanne, or the exploring-the-tower ordeal. Meh, it's more dramatic this way.