Revealing the Truth

Matthias clutches harder around the axe still in his hands as his emotions battle for dominance. The initial shock is quickly abating, leaving room for fear and then a quickly building anger, but strongest is the sharp stab of betrayal. His mouth is busy forming words, but his voice seems to disagree, leaving him gaping like a stranded fish as the words remain stuck in his throat.

He always wondered who Lukas might be, from the very moment that they met, and time has only made him more curious, especially with how much Lukas seemed to know about the solder's movements and how he got a hold of that wanted poster. It just never occurred to him that someone giving the rebels the information they needed for victory could be a high ranking officer on the enemy side.

"You work for the king?" he finally manages to choke out. His breath leaves his lungs in harsh pants, and he will be close to hyperventilating if he does not calm down soon. "This this why you never wanted to tell me who you are. You are on side with the enemy, you are with the ones burning down homes, taking food and killing innocent people! Not just that, you are their leader!"

Lukas takes one careful step forward, but Matthias immediately lifts his axe threateningly on instinct, hissing out a sharp: "Stay back!"

Let me asks you this," Lukas says, and he sounds tired, lifting his arms in a peaceful gesture. "If you knew I was in service of the king, would you have trusted any of the information I had given to you?"

They both know the answer to that question even without Matthias replying.

"I don't understand," Matthias snaps. "Why would you give me information in the first place? What do you gain from all of this? It makes no sense. You are sending your men out to die! Is this sort of sick game to you?"

"I have told you already, I carry no love for the King." There is a dangerous gleam in Lukas' eyes, but he keeps his distance. "For a very long time now I have hoped to find a way to put an end to both the king and his rule; this crazy idea to stock up for a war that does only exist in his imagination has only made me more determined. The first few villages we came across gave up everything we asked for without a struggle, nobody even dared speak up. Then there was Griven" He pauses. "You stood up against the soldiers despite the risks and consequences and even won. That is the first time I have seen a real opportunity to do anything."

"If you want the King dead so badly, why haven't you just slit his throat already?" Matthias asks angrily. "If you are as you said, his most trusted general, then it should be an easy task to get close enough to kill him and far more easy than helping a bunch of farmers to arrange a rebellion that will cause the death of hundreds, if not thousands. We might not even get within eyesight of the Capital!"

He breathes angrily and it appears that Lukas is finally losing a bit of his calm composition.

"I hate the King more than you can ever imagine," Lukas hisses. "If I could, I would have killed him in an instant and without a thought of regret for it, but the truth is that I cannot." He grimaces as he considers his next words. "What I am about to tell you is not something I share easily. The reason why people call me 'Trollbunden' or what that word truly means, spellbound, is because that is what I am. Bound to the King by magic and forced to obey his every order until he might choose to release me."

Matthias just gapes like a stranded fish and then he snorts loudly in disbelief. "If you are truly bound by magic to serve the King and you can't harm him, how can you stand here and give me information meant to bring his rule to an end?"

"The spell is very carefully formulated," Lukas says. "The king was wise enough to know that when he forces somebody to be in his service especially with magic, he had to make sure they could not kill him to get out of their deal immediately after. I can pick up a knife, even hold it to his throat, but never actually make a harmful cut."

"You still did not answer my question," Matthias snaps impatiently. "How can you tell me any of this?"

"In the early days of my service I would not have been able to talk openly like this," Lukas says. "I have to follow the Kings spoken orders, which is how the spell works. He did not trust me in the beginning, with good reason, you can never truly trust a captured animal after all. He always made sure there were no loopholes to exploit in his phrasing. I was helpless to do anything but what he asked, now however, after many years of loyal service, he has become more careless. He might think I have given up on freedom after or this time or believes my loyalty is genuine. I do not care either way." He spits out the words. "I am sick of being used."

"You can't have been working for him that long," Matthias comments dryly. "You look like you're even younger than me. You can't be a day more than twenty winters at most."

To Matthias' surprise, Lukas begins laughing, but it is a bitter, humorless thing that sends a shiver down his spine.

"I am a lot older than you think," Lukas says, "and so is the King. There is a reason he rarely shows himself in public. People tend to feel uneasy in his presence when they are confronted with the fact that their King might very well be immortal. I can only tell you for sure that he is older than me by a number of years. I have been in his service for close to 150 years and in that time, he has not aged a day physically."

"150 years," Matthias mutters to himself in utter disbelief. "How old are you then?" he asks.

Lukas shakes his head even as he looks thoughtful. "I honestly cannot remember anymore," he says. "After so much time, age loses its importance, and you learn to focus more on the present as there is nothing you can do to change the past."

"But how?" Matthias stutters.

"You can live for a very long time when there is magic in your blood," Lukas says evenly.

"Hundreds, of years," Matthias continues, still in disbelief. "What kind of magic can keep somebody alive for that long?"

There is another dark sound from Lukas. "In the king's case it is a very powerful spell that keeps him from aging and that is all I can tell you on that matter." The words are bitter hateful, and Matthias can image the spell is nothing pleasant, but then Lukas' voice softens as he continues. "The reason why I have lived for so long is very different, however. I am not actually human but rather a Vette, or forest creature, if that term is more understandable to you."

"I think I'm going to be sick." Matthias does feel like he is swaying dangerously on the spot, vision blurring slightly at the edges as his mind battles with the onslaught of information and the nature of it.

"I did warn you," Lukas says with a tired sigh. "This is a lot of information to take in on a short amount of time and for what it is worth, I am sorry it had to be like this."

"Why did you chose me?" Matthias chokes out, his voice finally cracking completely from the strain of trying to keep his voice steady. He can barely make himself look at Lukas. The stranger, the general and a Vette, whatever that is. Every time he does look, it makes his head spin even worse and the sounds from the camp below sound almost mocking and he cannot help but feel as if reality is crashing down around him.

Lukas expression soften just a little bit and he takes a few steps forward. When Matthias shows now signs that he will swing his axe at him with a deadly intention, he takes a few more. With careful movements, clearly projected, he takes a hold of the axe with one hand and uses the other to gently move Matthias' fingers away until he lets go of the weapon.

He slowly places the axe on the ground before their feet and stands back up again, still with the same, strangely open expression. "I chose you because you are old enough to have enough authority that the veterans and chieftains will not dismiss you, yet still young enough to not have played any part in the last war." He waits a few seconds before he continues, as if he is waiting to make sure that Matthias is able to follow along. "I was a commander back then as well and fought side by side with Torleif and many of the veterans that you know. They would never trust me, that is if they would even let me speak before attempting to murder me for working for the King." He smiles, but it looks more like a grimace. "I also saw how you fought back in Griven. You risked your life to save that old man. I knew then that you would do anything to bring justice to the King and I hoped that would be enough to make you trust a stranger."

With his axe out of reach, Matthias fiddles anxiously with the cuffs of his sleeves instead, still feeling the phantom touch of Lukas' fingers on his hands. "How did you even get stuck in this mess to begin with?" he asks carefully. "Hundred and fifty years. That is a long time to be bound in service to the king."

"It was a foolish mistake on my part," Lukas sighs. "I owed the King a debt; payment for a life and I would have agreed to any price he asked for, whatever it might be. He wanted eternal loyalty and I let him cast the spell on me, without hesitation." His gaze looks empty as he recites his story, detached from the whole affair. "The work was not bad in the beginning, and I was grateful for the deal I struck. It seemed honorable to be a soldier, a lifeguard for the King and a trusted advisor. I was proud of my work, but over time it all changed."

Matthias listens with rapt attention, and he lets out a strange sound of protest when Lukas turns quiet for too long, clearly hesitant to continue.

"The King grew paranoid, and his orders stopped making sense from a perspective of keeping the Kingdom safe and prosperous. His latest actions are just the lats ones in a very long line of bad decisions." Lukas heaves another sight. "I have taken so many lives following his orders, and that is something I never wanted to do."

"And you still kept doing the job," Matthias comments flatly.

"I have no choice, remember," Lukas replies calmly, facial expression returning to the blank mask. "I did try to give myself one last choice once." He pulls up one of his sleeves and holds out the inside of his arms so Matthias can see the horrible, white lines running down the entire length of his forearm. "I was desperate and not careful with my attempt and a few guards found me in time to keep me stable until they could summon the King and he saved my life. I have orders now that will keep me from ever attempting something like that again."

Matthias is at a loss of words, very much suspecting that he looks like a stranded fish gaping for air once again.

Lukas pulls his sleeve back down again, covering the marks again and Matthias is happy to see them gone. Then he begins undoing the first few buttons on his doublet and pulls at the strings keeping his undershirt closed. "If those scars were not enough of a reminder that my life will never again be mine to do with as I wish, then I will always have this instead." He pulls hard on the fabric of his shirt and where Matthias expected to see bare skin, there is a glowing, blue symbol snaking over Lukas's chest. "A magical brand and a contract of sorts." Lukas says.

Matthias stares at the mark until Lukas has his doublet buttoned back up again, hiding it from view once more. "I'm sorry that happened to you," he says weakly, he has no idea what else to even say and his thirst for more information is gone, drowned in the horror of reality. "But what am is supposed to do now?"

Lukas's mask of calm is not perfect, and he does look tired. "You will go back and inform Torleif and the others of the camp you just discovered, and you will make you plots on how to proceed from there. That is unless you want to give up and pretend none of this ever happened."

"No way!" Matthias snaps, suddenly shaken out of his lethargy. He feels conflicted and does not know what to think of Lukas belonging to the other side of the fight and that they might meet each other in combat but giving up is not an option. The rebels have no other options than moving forwards no matter what lies ahead of them, and Matthias is not going to mislead them just because he is scared of the sudden revelations.

There is the hint of a smile playing around Lukas' lips, but its gone almost as soon. "That is good to hear," he says. "You are going to need that determination to survive when our two forces meet. You have to remember that I will be the commanding officer for the King's soldiers and ha orders not to show the rebels any mercy. In battle I will not be able to treat you any different from any of the others, and you cannot afford hold back should you meet me on the field."

Still speechless, Matthias stands there and watches how Lukas reaches into a pocked and brings out a chain with a small, dark crystal attached and holds it up between them.

"This is a garnet," Lukas says. "It might sound strange to you, but it is said to contain powers of protection and it would set my mind to ease if you would carry it with you."

Matthias snorts loudly. "You are just impossible, you know that? One second you tell me you will try to kill me should we meet in battle and then the next you want to give me something supposed to protect me." When Lukas does not reply, he sighs and accepts the chain, letting the crystal spin around, glimmering in the pale light. "I guess, after what you just told me, a magical crystal seems no stranger than the rest."

Lukas steps backwards and picks up his cloak from its heap on the ground. "I'm sorry to cut this conversation, but I have to leave now," he says calmly, the emotionless façade is back as he dons his cloak and strides towards the cliff's edge. "Good luck."

Matthias does not how to react to what happens next. He already suspected that Lukas had an ability to shapeshift with the appearance of the little blue bird just moments after another pulling of another disappearing act, but he has never actually seen the transformation with his own eyes.

That is until now, and the sight is truly bizarre, yet Matthias cannot look away.

Lukas' clothes seem to melt together with his actual body and his bones snap and shift underneath his skin and the sound is sickening. His hair turns blue and melts into feathers instead, and there are more feathers spouting down his neck.

Then Lukas throws himself off the cliff, still only half-changed and Matthias has to suppress an instinctual shout of horror and surprise. He should not have worried, because a second later, the blue bird soars up past the edge of the cliff and flies towards the soldier encampment.

Matthias remains still for a few more moments, just watching as the bird becomes smaller as the distance grows between them and disappears. He realizes that he is still holding on the garnet pendant and lifts it up in front of his face to inspect it a little closer. The light from the sun catches in the crystal and it glows with a deep red color, revealing that it is not black like it first appeared. It reminds him of the color of blood.

He considers hurling the entire pendant off the cliff and he never got it, but moments later he finds himself pulling the thin chain over his head and hiding the crystal underneath his shirt and it rests coldly against his skin.

The sun also chooses that exact moment to hide behind a cloud and the temperature drops to frigid levels, almost mocking him and making his breath turn into white fog before his face. He sighs deeply and turns back towards the forest, head still spinning, but he is determined. It is about time he heads back to the others before they can come looking for him and stumble into soldiers. He picks up his axe from the ground and trudges back the same way he came from.

Torleif looks relieved to see him when he meets up with the rebel caravan a few hours later. He kicks his horse into a trot and rides forward to meet him with a smile, but when he gets a real look at Matthias, his smile falls, replaced with concern. "Are you alright there, boy?" he asks. "Did something happen out there? You look as if you've seen a ghost."

Matthias realizes he has been deep in thought the entire way back and he must look distracted. "No ghosts," Matthias says, and them immediately needs to clear his throat to put on some face confidence. "I did however find out where the soldiers are keeping their camp."

"What!" Torleif's entire face lights up in excitement. "You really did?"

"Yeah. We have to find a way to get a bit lower in the terrain though," Matthias says. "I saw them from the top of a cliff, so they did not notice me, but I got e pretty good look of how they are situated. We can reach them before nightfall should we want to."

"I can't believe we finally found them!" Torleif says loudly, and a few of the other veterans further back are beginning to take notice of their conversation. "You need to tell us everything, and we need to make some plans." He waves for the other veterans to come join them. "Finally, we can meet them face to face, get some proper payback."

The other veterans and leaders look back and forth between them, paying careful attention as they approach.

"We have to think carefully about this," Matthias says quickly in hopes to keep Torleif's enthusiasm under control. "From what I could see, the soldiers are already expecting an attack from us. They have their camp completely surrounded by sharp poles to make sure we can't rush them and trample through their camp with horses either. It is also out in the open, they can see us coming from miles away."

Torleif looks thoughtful for a moment until his face brightens up gain. "I used to be a soldier once, I know how important it is with proper planning. Tell me, did you happen to see if they have a separate enclosure for their horses?"

"It's hard to say for sure," Matthias says as he thinks back. "They were pretty far away, but I think there might have been one, yes."

"That is how they used to set up camp back in my day as well," Torleif says with a sudden grin. He turns towards the other leaders. "Spread the word to the rest of the caravan," he roars. "We know the location of the soldiers and tomorrow we will bring them to justice!" He turns back to Matthias with excitement glittering in his eyes. "I have a plan I think might work. Ride back to the carts and get Tino, I have a job for the two of you."