A messenger bird arrives for Amaya in the following days, and promptly vanishes in a puff of wind or something. Naturally. Because this is Xadia, a melodramatic place full of even more melodramatic elves.
Yet her mind changes when she begins reading the letter.
She finds her way to a tree and leans against it, sliding down to a sitting position against the soft down of moss and undergrowth on the rainforest floor. It hurts to breath. She closes her eyes briefly, and then reads those first few sentences again, this time allowing herself to believe the words she is seeing.
It is not a hoax, not a dream. Callum is alive. Ezran is alive. Even Ezran's little toad thing is alive. What is more, they've hatched the bloody Dragon Prince and have carried the infant safely to his mother at the Storm Spire.
She can't help it – Amaya begins laughing, wide-faced with relief and pure, unadulterated joy. The elves around her completing their work glance at her nervously from the corner of their eyes, as if she were a frenetic pup that may bite them. Who knows, maybe she will. It takes her a long time to settle, and that's only because of the second half of the letter.
Viren is almost there. Her nephews are not out of the clear yet.
Then there's a hovering, ominous shadow next to her. Two, now. She shifts her sitting position around, and for a brief time her thoughts go blank. Janai is looming above her, looking like she did when Amaya first met her – furious, beautiful, and very, very deadly.
Amaya is suddenly regretting all her life choices that led her to this point.
Kazi stands to her right uncomfortably. "Her Radiance also received a letter from the Storm Spire, General Amaya, and beseeches you to answer a few of her humble questions."
Shit. This is not good. They know her name. Who she is.
Amaya pulls what she thinks is an apologetic face, meanwhile praying to the spirits to get her as far away from this conversation as possible. She would even settle with Evenere, the grim shithole that it is.
"She wishes to know when you were going to grace her with the knowledge that you are the aunt of the rightful King of Katolis, and that you were not just a mere captain or lieutenant at the Border as we previously assumed, but the General of all Katolis' Western Forces, including the Border army."
Shit shit.
She glances quickly at Janai, still glowering at her, and looks away. There in her line of sight a particularly interesting slug slides across a branch. Amaya frowns. It has antlers. Why? What could a slug possibly do with antlers? It's like someone dreamed up this realm after eating a batch of bad mushrooms.
Kazi moves into her line of sight. "Her Radiance wants you to stop evading her and answer."
Amaya sighs. Fine. "I don't know. Some...time? Eventually? Maybe never? She can choose whichever of those she likes best." Her hand movements steadily become cutting and sharp, the same effect as raising her voice. Because Amaya is rapidly tiring of this interrogation. All she wants now is a fast horse and a direct route to her family.
Kazi winces as she translates to Janai.
"Her Radiance wishes you to know that as her prisoner she could have you drawn and quartered and set on fire for your disrespect."
Now Amaya looks back at her knight, and raises a cool brow. "Call me pragmatic, but being set on fire after being drawn and quartered seems a little unnecessary. Maybe consider beforehand?"
Janai stares right back at her, mouth pursed and shoulders tight. After what seems like an age, she sighs, raking her fingers through thick braids. Amaya frowns when she takes one step forward, then another, before walking over and thumping down next to Amaya.
By the Orphan Queen, what is she doing?
Janai angles her face directly towards Amaya, and Amaya knows it's done intentionally so she can read Janai's lips. Amaya feels a flash of deep gratitude, which pierces through her current annoyance.
"Stop being a pest, human."
Amaya can't help the small tinge of pleasure she feels watching Janai's full lips, even if it is to form insults. However, Amaya's rather rapid descent into fantasies concerning those lips becomes unhinged when Janai continues.
"I merely wish to know when my forces are leaving for the Storm Spire. There's a Dark Mage that needs killing and I wish to do it personally."
Amaya stops, barely daring to breath, searching Janai's gaze for any hint of a lie. But there is none. Her knight, with her quirked brows and twisting smile, is entirely too smug. But Amaya cannot hate her for it.
Without thought, Amaya jumps up and pulls Janai alongside her. Before Janai can ask Amaya what the spirits she thinks she's doing, Amaya pulls her into an embrace, holding the elf tight enough that Amaya feels one of her own joints pop. Janai smells of rain and metal and sweat, and right now Amaya has never smelt anything more wonderful.
They stand like that for a long time, Amaya thinks for Janai's comfort as much as her own. When they finally separate, Kazi is gone and Amaya and Janai go back to pretending they dislike each other.
Well, Janai, at least.
Ten or so Sunfire Elves have gathered in a small clearing, orbiting desperately around Janai in the depths of this humid, lush paradise. Although, Amaya thinks as she slaps her neck with a dark hiss, she could do without the mosquitoes as large as her palm.
From their clothing and weapons, Amaya assumes – correctly – that around half the elves here are Knights, the rest being mages and other royal staff. These are the people that will help lead the Sunfire Elves into battle, so although they look like a bunch of smarmy pricks, Amaya feels obligated to like them.
From what Amaya has learned, there are just less than a thousand Sunfire warriors able to fight after what Viren did in Lux Aurea. They will be outnumbered, but it is better than nothing.
"They are calling the – ," Amaya frowns, too slow to catch Janai's words, "— to them?"
"Yes. There are seven on hand, Your Radiance. Enough for you and your Knights to travel. As for your soldiers, we've been able to gather almost a thousand mounts. If we ride hard, strap supplies to each soldier rather than to a supply train, we could be at the Storm Spire by nightfall, and just before the Dark Mage and his beasts."
Janai nods her head, deep in thought. Another of her knights opens his mouth, toying with thick, crimson braids. "The mounts will be useless in battle if we exhaust them by weighing them down with supplies. It will have to be an infantry line against the humans, then."
"Good. It is what we are best at."
"Are they even human anymore?" Another in the clearing says. Amaya notes with interest that the elf's eyes are a solid white. She is blind. "According to the scouts, the Dark Mage has corrupted them all. Monsters are what they are. Creatures of dark magic. My mages and I would have trouble, even if we did still had access to the Sun Nexus. All we can be of use for now is healing."
At this point Kazi melts from the forest undergrowth, and gives Amaya a pleased smile. The little mouse sneaks around like one too, apparently.
Amaya sighs, and grimaces. No mages, and less than a thousand infantry warriors against the combined armies of three human kingdoms, all of whom have been warped by magic. Evernere is even starting to look good by comparison. Amaya remembers once thinking in her youth that that was the point of no return. Evernere. Good.
Amaya is so intent on following the conversation that she mistakes the falling shadow over the group as a cloud. It isn't until she feels the thump of the landing that she turns around and shoots a full foot into the air with alarm.
"What the fuck is that?!" Her hands are moving so fast they are almost a blur. If Amaya used her voice she would probably be screeching like an infant. She sees one of the elves laughing at her. Bastard. She will put stinging nettle in their sleeping sack.
Instinctively she looks to Janai, whose suspiciously mirthful eyes Amaya scowls at. "That is our transport," Janai replies.
At the same time, Kazi signs something that translates as 'Two Tails Fire Tooth Big Stripe Cat'. Even Kazi looks hesitant, fingers stuttering as they speak.
"Oh," Amaya amends, "So we're going to face down Viren's army on the back of an overgrown flying cat?"
Kazi translates and Janai huffs. "It is a Twin-Tailed Inferno-Tooth Tiger, not a cat."
Okay, Amaya thinks, looking at the animal. That makes more sense. Definitely more pretentious. But still ..."You made that up," she accuses. "Why would you give that poor cat such an unnecessary name? And you've gone and lit it on fire, too."
Kazi translates, struggling to contain a smile. Amaya watched in delight as Janai listens, outrage growing on her face.
"It's not a cat! It is a magical creature sacred to the Sun Primal, not that you humans would have any idea." Janai squints at her. "Is this going to be a problem?"
"What? No, of course not." Amaya grins. "I love cats."
Janai's face drops, and her forehead lowers to rest gently against her palm and muttering something Amaya can't see. She looks to Kazi questioningly.
Kazi shrugs. "She says at this rate she'll die of frustration before she dies of a sword."
Smugness fills Amaya. Victory.
They leave when the sun is high. Amaya hobbles onto the back of a fire cat, and gingerly holds Janai's waist. Amaya sends a silent prayer to get her through this without shoving Janai off the animal.
Amaya feels her stomach jolt when they take off from the forest canopies. From the air, she looks down to see the fast-moving stream of Sunfire Elves on horseback, weaving an intricate web over the northern bank of the river leading to the Storm Spire.
Soon she will be with Ezran and Callum. She could protect them until her last.
Amaya closes her eyes and revels in the sensation of wind shrieking over her skin, and a small ember of hope is fanned.
A/N:This was meant to be updated a few weekends ago, but our capitalist overlords got to me, and I picked up extra shifts around when I was meant to be writing this. And, ya know, Christmas.