SWNOVELS Chapter 10: Arinella
Arinella was sitting in a tavern with her longtime friend, the tonnebeard Darfairick. She was no longer a representative of the Ardolavlak company, and she was also stripped of her knighthood and expelled from the Order of the Shimmering Light of Illivlis. Twenty years have passed since the events when she used Edelmer for her own purposes. Yes, perhaps she fell in love with the warrior, like Lanialis GrenRattik (maiden surname KelGalanod, now Arnwaldskar), but she chased away memories and feelings, did not want to concentrate on them.
Edelmer married Lanialis. Why? After all, both arqilunians deceived him constantly. Why did he choose her over Arinella? But Arinella knew the reason, the pregnancy. Edelmer had not expected such a turn of events, but when he found out, he was so happy that he immediately proposed to Lanis. He stayed with his wife for about a year, and the arqilunian pregnancy lasts fourteen months, and could not wait for the birth of the child. Thanks to magic, they knew that they would have a girl... Lanialis did not want to let her husband go, but for some reason, she became obsessed with ancient knowledge of the oldenmessers and the secrets that the southern side of the Belt of Twilight keeps, and she also felt guilty that she was involved in the teleportation of more than a four thousand northerners from three different towns. They were forced to conquer the Belt of Twilight and disappeared there.
Arinella hated Lanis all her life. Although both of them came from noble families, Lanialis KelGalanod was wealthier and more privileged. That is why, on that ill-fated day when they met again, Arinella without hesitation released three magic balls at Lanis.
“But why did the northerner choose this vashkhalar?!” She scolded.
Jealousy ate her up. She hadn’t realized in all long twenty years that she had fallen in love with him much more than she could have imagined.
Arinella sat next to Darfairick and drank the strong tonnebeard drink, tenliash. There were only tonnebeards around, and each time they looked strangely at the arqilunian and didn’t understand what she was doing here.
“Another mug?” Darfairick suggested.
“It’s time to finish,” Arinella didn’t support.
“And I, perhaps, will take another,” the tonnebeard decided, and with a gesture, he called the bartender.
“We need to go to the Belt of Twilight,” Arinella said suddenly.
“What?! You’ve got to be kidding me!” the tonnebeard spilt tenliash right on his long beard. “You still can’t forget him! Sumnargish help me!”
The elf-woman gave him an irritable, intoxicated look, turned around and went to the exit. Darfairick drank a mug of booze in one gulp and rushed after her.
“Wait, wait,” the tonnebeard was half the size of the elf and four times wider.
Arinella stopped. Her glassy green eyes were full of longing, pain and sorrow.
“You know I’m right, we need to go there. War is coming, we cannot stay here, we cannot help anyone.”
“But we’re good at fighting, you’re a great mage! Don’t you want to protect Eileenelia?”
“We are far from Eileenelia.”
“Yes, but how close to the Belt of Twilight? To those terrible mountains you need to go all of Kaushmanashtoon! The whole country, Sumnargish take it! With sands, heat, monsters, and then cold and monsters, and again heat and monsters, certainly some other monsters!”
“Then I’ll go without you!”
“Arinella!” Tonnebeard grabbed her wrist, “you know I can’t let you go alone.”