Barely had they stepped outside of Fayre when the peacekeepers arrived.
"Lord Xion?" one of them said, stepping forward. "We have evidence suggesting you deliberately spread the purple plague. You’ll need to co with us for investigation."
Xion blinked, stunned. For a mont, he could only stare. But he still followed behind them without a word.
His thoughts drifted back to that morning when Serena packed her bag with only the lightest of clothing. He’d teased her then, urging her to carry sothing warr.
But now... it clicked into place. She must have known.
No wonder she refused to carry weight when it was pointless.
Xion snorted under his breath, adjusting the strap of his satchel as they walked. So much for loyalty.
"We apologize, my lord," one of the peacekeepers whispered, leaning in.
Xion barely resisted the urge to shove him back.
Why did they all insist on whispering in his ear?
Still, he offered a tight-lipped smile while rubbing his ear. "It’s alright."
The peacekeepers remained respectful all the way. They didn’t touch their belongings, nor did they bind their hands.
It was obvious that soone from the higher-ups was pulling strings — even if they knew he was innocent, they still had to follow protocol.
However, when he saw the person sitting inside the station, Xion was stunned.
There had been many suspects in his mind. This man wasn’t one of them.
The elder village chief offered a sheepish smile as he mouthed, "My lord... I am bound."
That was all he said before turning to the head officer sitting on his desk. "Here," he said, pulling a large pouch from within his coat. "We found it in the manor. I’m afraid it’s the sa powder causing the outbreak."
Xion groaned internally. If they wanted to fra , couldn’t they have done it while I was still there? At least then he could’ve extracted a sample, maybe even crafted a counter-agent.
Noxian, who had been silent until now, scoffed. "And where exactly did you find this?"
"In Lord Xion’s room," the village head replied, but his gaze flickered to the ground, clearly ashad to look straight at them. "We... also have a witness."
Just as the words left his mouth, the door of the office opened again.
It was that servant, the sa man who had cried for help last night while claiming his daughter was sick.
"Yes," the man nodded solemnly. "It was Lord Xion. He warned us never to enter his room. I didn’t know it was sothing dangerous..."
Xion didn’t answer. He was too tired.
He had worked through the night perfecting a temporary antidote. Slept for maybe two hours. And now this.
If the headache wasn’t enough, another voice rang in the air.
"I always knew you were hiding sothing malicious under that pretty skin," Lukas sneered with disgust pouring out of his eyes.
The drunkard was dressed in finery far beyond his ans. Forget clothes, even the chain he had been deliberately keeping out of his shirt seed expensive.
"You killed my son! Now I’ll watch justice be served."
Xion didn’t even look at him. He gave the head officer who had a friendly smile on his face a nod, then went to drag an extra chair.
After he slumped into it, he used the main table as his headrest. "Wake up when you’re all done," he mumbled and... promptly fell asleep.
A warm comforter was draped over his shoulders soti after, shielding him from the chill of morning.
He wasn’t worried. Not with Serena around.
And true enough, when he woke up half an hour later, the ss had been sorted.
Lukas was being dragged away in chains, still screaming. The servant’s lies had beco useless within minutes.
The head officer gently escorted them out with a smile on his amiable face, "I am glad that in such tough tis, we have you with us."
Xion didn’t reply, rely shaking his head. His gaze fell on the village chief, who was standing near the gates with his face red with sha.
Just as the old man opened his mouth to speak, Serena cut him.
"We should take everything important with us," she said calmly, not even glancing at the old man.
Taking everything ant they weren’t coming back. The implication made sothing twist in Xion’s guts.
Xion had planned to return after resolving the northern crisis. Fayre had been his resting point. It was a little shelter he’d built, bit by bit, with his own hands. But now...
He sighed, rubbing at the tired lines under his eyes. "Yeah," he said quietly. "It’s ti to move forward."
Because what was the point of building a ho where loyalty could be bought for a pouch of gold?
If the village chief could sell him out once, he could do it again.
They returned to the manor and Xion went straight to the library.
Every rare book, every handmade scroll... he packed it all into his system lab.
He left behind only the simplest books and a few dical texts. The kind the children could easily read. It was his farewell gift for the little ones who used to trail behind him with stars in their eyes.
After that, he inford the heads of various departnts of his departure. They could continue serving Fayre as they had been so far, or they could choose not to.
It was entirely up to them. A group of healers, including Bard, had insisted on joining him.
But Xion couldn’t risk their lives. So he urged them to travel independently, keep learning and expand their horizons.
When he would decide on a place to settle down, he would write them letters.
And when Xion and his group left Fayre again... they left for good.
The village chief didn’t understand the consequence of what he’d done. At least not yet.
His guilt over betraying Xion was dulled quickly when his gaze fell on the gold gleaming from his cupboard.
"He’ll co back," the old man muttered. "He’s soft. I’ll just beg and he’ll forgive ."
He didn’t know this was the last ti he would ever see Xion. And the last week before all those healers, too, abandoned Fayre.
The sickness that had been creeping at the edges of town would surge forward, devouring it whole.
This ti, there was no one left to save them.
Two months, that’s how long it took for Xion to finally end the journey to the north which should have taken 45 days.
What could he do when he had to stop at many gates and offer his assistance to the sick he t on the way?
Although the dicine he had made to slow the plague’s progression was working, it wasn’t the complete solution. Not to ntion the rising death tolls of the people who were unable to get their hands on it.
The further north Xion traveled, the more he noticed the silence.
Not the peaceful kind though. It was oppressive, bone-deep quiet that seeped into his thoughts like frost through boots.
Villages sat half-buried in snowdrifts, and their roofs caved in when no one bothered to clear the heavy ice settling on them.
Frozen fields lay untouched, crops were long dead and forgotten. The people... they moved like ghosts.
They were pale and stiff. If Xion had to describe them, they were just surviving rather than living.
After going through all the trouble, they still insisted on travelling to the Northern lands, just like them.
It made him wonder exactly how the archduke was governing his lands to make the soulless people gain the last hope of survival.
Xion tightened his heavy cloak over his neck.
No matter how hard he tried to cover up, the cold chill still managed to slither inside his clothes and make his skin chilly.
Noxian was wrapped up like a dumpling, and no matter how he protested that he was fine, Xion still forced the kid to wear an extra white fur coat.
And now he looked like a polar bear, trying his best to move forward under the burden of his clothes.
Serena, on the other hand, was dressed in red robes.
Other than the fact that red looked good on both Serena and Darius, Xion really couldn’t find another reason as to why they were fond of this particular color.
He had once asked her, and as an answer, he got a chilling smile from the lady, ’Ah, red... It is easy to hide blood.’
After that, Xion never asked such a question again.
A heavy gust of wind blew, forcing them to squint their eyes. Even their snowy mounts had to halt for a few minutes.
"My lord!" Ravik yelled loudly over the howling wind, "We should cross the border or we might have to wait until tomorrow!"
It was four in the evening, but the sky had already started to darken. If they didn’t enter sooner, they might have to spend another night in the cold.
Hence, they rushed forward.
Despite the bleakness, despite the cold biting at his skin and soul, they managed to step across the invisible border before night fell.
As Xion stood at the outer edge of the Northern Kingdom, sothing stirred in his chest.
Just like his bland blue eyes, the once dull map flickered to life.
The outline of the North stretched... wider than Xion had ever imagined.
Many colors bled into the grey. Pale blue veins lit up across the screen like rivers of starlight, outlining valleys and mountains which were long thought forgotten by the natives.
Those colors rged together, dancing in front of Xion and making his eyes shine brightly.
Xion blew warm breath at his stiff fingers while he stared into the distance.
Darius, he wondered, will I ever see you again?
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