Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)

She could see the small town in the distance even through the thick mass of tree branches.

“Remember, anything bad happens don’t run straight back here. Make sure you lose whoever is chasing you or else you will get us all killed. If you are not back before sundown we will not come after you and we will assume you are dead. If you are not dead and just something else happened, you know where we are going. The next town we hit would be Faithorn so you can meet us around there. Understand?” Nik told the siblings, handing them some of his money to purchase the necessary supplies.

“Crystal,” Freya replied.

“Please try to stay safe,” Tatianna told them. There was no hug goodbye as she watched them gallop off towards the town.

Nik moved Ida away from the main road. “So, what do you want to do?” he asked her, dismounting himself from the horse. She then jumped off herself.

“I don’t know,” she replied, only now realising how awkward the situation was.

“About this morning-” He started.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” She interrupted him. Talking about it meant she had to confront whatever feelings she had for him, if there was any, and she wasn’t ready to do that. She walked towards a rock in the snow, brushing off the layer of white dust and sitting on it. Nik came and sat next to her, still holding onto Ida’s reins.

“I do have a question though,” her curious mind thought.

“Yes?” he said, waiting to hear what she wanted to ask.

“The weapons the Hunt carried...they were different, the steel on them was layered and patterned kind of like my knife,” she said and unsheathed the blade to show him. “Is there anything special about that metal, or am I just overthinking things?”

“Where did you get this from?” he asked looked closely at her dagger.

“I don’t know, I’ve always had it,” she attempted to answer.

“You’re not overthinking. This is Kaddeian steel, forged at the heart of Jeun by Dwarvish hands. My father owns a blade in case of emergencies, I’ve only ever seen the metal a few times. It used to be forged in the thousands but after the war, many were destroyed, and the Dwarves stopped making them. At least they were supposed to. You said you saw the Hunt with it?” Nik asked

“Yes,” she replied, “is that a problem?”

“It is an extremely big problem,” he said, “The metal is rare, to have a whole group with it is dangerous. But it also means they have a supplier. That someone is making them again.”

“It’s just a blade, no more dangerous than a kitchen knife,” she said in confusion.

“Maybe to me it may just seem like a blade that never blunts but to you? It is so much more,” he said still admiring her dagger.

“Um...I’m going to need a bit more than that,” she said in a confused but annoyed tone.

“Before the war, the Elves and Fae were thought invincible which caused a massive problem for the humans and Dwarves. How would they defeat something that can’t be killed?” Nik started to explain. “Eventually they managed to capture an Elf, although they couldn’t be killed, they could still be weakened. The Dwarves forged all manner of blades putting all sorts of magic onto it, testing each one on the Elf until a Dwarf stabbed its newly fashioned blade into the heart of the Elf and killed it. For the first time in history, they had a weapon. It’s what turned the tide of the war. If the Hunt has a large amount of these weapons, a manufacturer it could mean they are planning something that goes way beyond our mission to survive,” Nik explained and handed her back the blade.

Tatianna remained silent and looked at the metal, realising something that she hadn’t thought of before. “I’m immortal, aren’t I?” she said in a daze.

“Yes, you are. You will live until someone takes a Kaddeian blade to your heart two days or thousands of years from now.”

A thousand years or more of life. She had all the time in the world, literally. Death was no longer something that was waiting for her to reach an old age and collapse into its arms. She looked over to Nik. She would see him grow old and die, she would see Freya and Riley grow old and die, while she remained the same. Suddenly her life felt like it had no meaning to it. Why go through so much knowing that it will never end. No deadline no...anything.

“Storm, speak to me. What’s going through your mind?” Nik said in a worried tone. Focusing on her silence and distant look.

“Without the overwhelming feeling of death, without the string of mortality attached to me...life is seemingly meaningless,” she told him. “Everything I do won’t matter in a hundred years to come, any companion I make will die unless they are immortal, and I will still be here. So, what is the point?”

“Friendships are unique and therefore irreplaceable; each friendship exposes a different side of you that you never knew about,” Nik told her, “so even if every friend you make dies, they will unlock new emotions and parts of you which is worth it every single time.”

There was a moment of silence as Tatianna tried to grasp onto the idea of her immortality. Would she be the same person in hundreds of years, or will she lose sight of herself? Become something else entirely. She looked down at the blade, seeing not just a weapon but an escape from eternity.

They sat in a comfortable silence until a soft rumble echoed through the forest and pulled her out of any negative thoughts she was having.

“Was that your stomach?” Tatianna asked, suppressing her need to laugh.

“I’m sorry but I am hungry,” he defended himself.

“But that was so loud! I swear I saw a bug run away in fear,” she joked, smiling at the Prince.

“It wasn’t loud, your heightened hearing just made it seem loud,” he protested.

“I think Ida agrees with me, don’t you?” she said to the horse who answered with a soft neigh. “See? She agrees with me.”

“I think that was her way of saying she’s hungry too,” he told her looking at the horse.

“Nonsense, she was definitely saying that your stomach was super loud.”

“Whatever Storm,” he replied.

“You just don’t want to admit I am right,” she pointed out.

“Fine, my stomach made an alarmingly loud noise, are you happy?”

“Happier than I should be,” she replied. “Don’t worry, the hunger eventually becomes a nuisance at the back of your mind...that is until you smell food again.”

He didn’t reply but rather seemed to be thinking about something. “How did you end up at the ball?” he wondered.

“Freya found me on the street and kept insisting that I come,” she explained, “Although everything went to shit after it...I don’t regret going. I know I should, but I never would have found out I was an Elf,” she admitted to herself. Her trust had dire consequences, changing her entire life but she was grateful for the change.

“The sun’s getting low,” Nik pointed out.

“And they aren’t back yet,” she replied. “Do you think something happened?”

“Maybe, we will wait until it’s completely down...then we will leave.”

“I feel bad,” she said surprising herself considering waiting around went against her survival instincts. “I feel like we should wait for a bit longer.”

“They knew what would happen if they didn’t make it. I was very clear. Perhaps nothing happened, then they will meet us later on,” Nik replied. “It just means we will have to hunt for food.”

“I hope nothing happened,” she said looking down to the dark town of Cainva.