Chapter Text
A heavy sigh escapes me as I prepare to open the door before me. Behind it is our enemy, a Sorrengail, even if he was majorly wounded.
How has it come to all of this; I don’t know. Father tasked me with talking with the Sorrengail in hopes someone closer to his age might get him to talk.
Brennan Sorrengail, golden boy of Navarre, Son of General Sorrengail and a healer rather than a fighter, but so incredibly valuable, that even one of our own sacrificed his life.
Naolin was helping us from within and now we had no one left inside Navarre’s Dragonriders.
Hasty steps coming closer to me stopped my train of thought.
I looked up and found the bright eyes of one of my best friends, Liam.
“And, has he talked?”, was his first question. I shook my head and answered that I hadn’t even been in yet.
“What are you waiting for? We need his help, he could be invaluable to us!”, Liam said and don’t I know that.
A mender, he could be the one thing that turns this uprising into a storm to crash over Navarre. Our numbers have been shrinking ever since my father started this rebellion.
And most of it was to wounds that were too much for our normal healers, but for someone like Brennan Sorrengail, it should be easy to heal.
Forcing a mender never ended well, so we had to convince him to join us willingly…
But how? How should I start a conversation with our enemy, the ones who fought so violently to keep the truth a secret?
Liam finally had enough of my brooding and opened the door before me and gave me a shove.
“Talk to him, I’ll wait here”, he whispered and the door closed behind me with a thud.
The Sorrengail was sitting up in his bed and gave me a curious look, silently asking what I was doing here. I just stared and took in the details, he was mostly healed now but still had to regain his strength after being on the brink of death.
“Here to finally kill me, Riorson?”, were his words once his patience ran out. I sighed and took a seat next to his bed.
“No, here to talk”, I stated, barely restraining the anger taking hold of me again.
“And what about? Your father already tried to get me to betray my homeland. I will not tell you anything”, Brennan clenched his fists and looked like he was about to jump out of the bed to beat some sense into me.
“No, I just want you to listen”, I finally decided how to approach this. I’ll tell my story and hopefully that would be enough to persuade him. I had to think about the good of this rebellion, I had to believe that someone who can heal people would want the best for the whole continent, not just for Navarre. This rebellion would be doomed from the start if we could not pull him to our side.
So I started this bizarre storytime. “Our rebellion is fighting for the whole of the continent. We want to help Poromiel. They are under attack from something called Venin.”
“Did you just say Venin? Those are just a fantasy, a children’s story meant to frighten them”, said Brennan mockingly.
“I assure you they are very real and they are attacking Poromiel as we speak, they come from the barrens and raid their cities and kill everyone. Poromiel’s Gryphon Fliers are not enough.
They are being squashed like vermin. My mother is from Poromiel, her whole family was killed because of them.”, I was barely hanging onto my calm and about to scream at Brennan.
But he was just sitting there, fists slowly relaxing and staring at me with his mouth open.
“My Dad used to read to us about these things called Venin… But from a children’s book! I never thought something like that could be real. Why are they not attacking Navarre??”, he said still staring at me with big eyes.
“They are very real and we want to help Poromiel, but Navarre’s high and mighty don’t want to. We want to tell the whole of Navarre the truth, but the King does not want everyone to know. He knows that the Venin would not attack here, since the wards render them defenseless”, I countered, slowly getting my calm back.
This was good, this was perfect.
“But why… shouldn’t we help people in need?”, he whispered, still laced with disbelief. “I think the King is happy that Poromiel is focusing on quashing the venin and not attempting to attack us anymore.”, I answered, even if
it was not really a question for me to answer.
Brennan looked down at this hands and slowly tried to get up from his bed. “I want to see your father”, he said while angling for his boots.
“Stay in bed, you will need your energy”, I said and getting up myself. “I will get him for you” - “Thank you… and Riorson, I believe you.. even if it still sounds like a children’s tale.”, he said and laid back down.
“Don’t thank me, thank Naolin, who gave his life for you. He knew you’d be invaluable for us. We need you, even if you’re a Sorrengail”, was my final answer before I stepped out of the room.
Liam was leaning on the wall next to the door, whittling away on something.
“Does he believe you? Will he join us? I heard no screaming”, were his first words to me, without looking up from his piece of wood.
“He believes me, for now at least. I am to get my father.” – “Good, that’s good, isn’t it?”, he sounded so hopeful.
“We will have to wait and see”, I said with finality and started my way down the corridor, towards where my father would be holding council with his Generals. We will have to wait and see indeed. The tides of this war had just shifted, hopefully in our favour.