"So, Mira, who do we start with?" I asked as we descended the winding path from Mount Slick.
"Oh, rember that funny dwarf? He was also trying to hit on that elf girl..."
"He died," Mira answered evenly, without turning around.
I broke my stride. "Sad..." I drew out.
"And rember that human who..." I cut myself off mid-sentence. As soon as I uttered the word "human", I realized the absurdity of my question myself.
"Let's do this," I tried to defuse the situation with my stupid joking. "Let's replace the word 'died' with... hmm... with 'tomato'. Deal?"
Mira walked ahead of in absolute silence. When did she manage to beco so lancholy? I genuinely didn't understand.
"Oh, what about the Old Guard? Maybe soone is at least alive there, and not... a tomato?"
Mira stopped abruptly. She turned around, quickly stepped right up to , and firmly grabbed my face with both hands.
"Please, Zenkhald. Stop it," her voice trembled.
I saw a small, shining tear fall from her eyelashes and roll down her cheek.
"Sorry... that was the only thing I could squeeze out of myself." My gaze instantly dropped to my feet. It beca unbearably shaful to look into her eyes. My mory protected from grief by erasing the faces of the dead, but Mira rembered them all. And every careless word of mine caused her physical pain.
She gently let go of my face, turned away, and stealthily wiped her cheek with her sleeve.
"Let be the one to say who we'll go after," her voice beca calm and firm again.
We stepped outside the stone gates of Mount Slick. Breathing in the night air, Mira suddenly smiled, and this smile was real now.
"Oh, I know!" she perked up. "Let's go get Gdok."
"Huh? Who's that?" I racked my brains, but the na stubbornly slipped from my mory.
"Young, arrogant... a real pain in the ass," Mira explained with warmth. "Black hair, yellow eyes. Always getting into so wild scrapes. But on the other hand, he sang incredibly beautifully."
I frowned, trying to break through the fog in my head. "Nothing cos to mind at all."
"And also," she added with a sly look, "you guys always played cards with him, and you constantly lost to him."
And then it was as if lightning struck . "AH, HIM?!" I exclaid indignantly. "That CARDSHARP is still alive?!"
Mira laughed. "Well, even though I've been gone for a thousand years, I think he is alive. At least, when I saw him last, he voluntarily went into a long sleep. So he should be preserved."
"Good..." I rubbed my hands together. "Then tell where he is. I'll gladly win it back!"
Mira clapped her hands loudly and stretched her arms forward. A familiar heat instantly spread through the air.
Her fire gryphons. A forgotten but painfully familiar sight. The journey was beginning.
"Mira... is it much longer?" I drew out drearily, lying almost completely flat on the hot back of the fire gryphon. The headwind ruffled my hair, and the heat emanating from the magical beast ward pleasantly at the high altitude.
Mira, flying slightly ahead, just shrugged.
"The terrain has changed too much over a thousand years. But he is absolutely definitely sowhere around here. His temple was sowhere here."
"Temple?!" I sat up sharply, almost losing my balance from surprise. "That cardsharp has his own temple?!"
"Well, yes," my sister responded unbothered, peering at the lands drifting by below.
I lay back down, putting my hands under my head, and stared into the endless sky. My chest gave a familiar twinge.
"Mira..." I called quietly. "Do you think our parents... they probably don't even look at from up there, right? If there was such a possibility."
She didn't interrupt, and I continued: "I've done so many terrible things over these centuries. Destroyed so many. I don't even really know them myself, I only rember them from your descriptions and stories... They supposedly loved us. But now they would be ashad of , wouldn't they?"
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Mira pulled the reins slightly, making her gryphon level with mine. The wind battered her clothes, but her voice sounded surprisingly crisp and clear.
"This isn't the first ti you've asked this question, Zenkhald. And I, as usual, will give you the sa answer. Our parents never once in their lives regretted that you were born."
She shifted her gaze to the horizon, and her face softened. "I still rember it like it was yesterday. I rember tiptoeing into the room, craning my neck to look into Mom's arms and get a look at you. I rember how happy I was that you appeared. Mom and Dad were glowing with happiness. Absolutely everyone rejoiced that day. And there wasn't a single day, not a single mont, when our parents doubted you. No matter what happened later."
I smiled involuntarily. Every ti this story, told in her voice, filled with an incredible, healing warmth.
I closed my eyes, letting the wind cool my burning face. Everything beca simpler next to Mira. The thousand-year fatigue, the fear of my own mory, political intrigues, and the weight of the upcoming wedding vanished sowhere. Next to her, I could again be just Zenkhald—the younger brother who would always be protected.
The gryphons landed smoothly. An absolutely empty field, overgrown with wild grass, spread out before us. No signs of grandeur, no temples.
I dropped to my knees, forcefully plunged my hand deep into the earth, and pulled out a piece of smooth, clearly worked stone.
"Mira, over this thousand years, his temple was most likely destroyed to the ground and plundered by looters," I stated with regret, tossing the cobblestone aside.
My sister answered nothing. She simply walked to the center of the clearing and stomped her foot hard.
The ground beneath our feet trembled dully and parted with a rumble, revealing a steep earthen descent going down about five ters. At the very bottom of this gap, an iron door of colossal proportions was revealed.
The inscription on the tal, carved in old runes, read: «Only a friend shall open.»
"Well, piece of cake," I chuckled, stepping closer. I confidently placed my palm on it.
Nothing. Nothing at all. The door didn't even creak.
"Weeell, I see," I drew out awkwardly, removing my hand. "The chanism is already thousands of years old, the magic faded long ago, everything rusted in there..."
Mira silently pushed aside with her shoulder. She placed her elegant palm on the exact sa spot and channeled magic.
The ancient letters instantly flared with a bright blue light!
"WHA-A-AT?!" I drew out indignantly. "So this hunk of iron didn't recognize as a friend?"
The heavy door gave a slight jerk with a terrible grinding sound, opening a couple of milliters... and then froze dead, never giving way. The light of the runes slowly faded.
I froze, listening to what was hidden behind this barrier.
"Mira..." I called quietly. "I can feel it right from here. A dead man has been lying in that crypt for a very long ti."
Mira lowered her head and slowly, with a heavy sigh, shook it.
"Yes," was all she answered.
That is exactly how we spent the next three days.
It turned into an exhausting, painful routine. We excavated ruins, descended into forgotten dungeons, broke open old temples and secret hideouts. We looked for those with whom I once laughed, drank, played cards, and fought shoulder to shoulder.
But no one was left. Ti turned out not to be on their side.
Mira and I were sitting on the edge of the forest, just listening to the birds singing. After three days of wandering through empty, dead crypts, this simple, living nature seed like a real salvation.
"Mira, what are you going to give as a gift?" I suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
"What for?" she looked at with her usual faint smile. "Is so holiday approaching or what?"
"Well, I'm getting married soon! And you, by the way, are my only sister."
She chuckled. "Yeah, getting married. For the umpteenth ti? Hmm, do I even have enough fingers on my hands to count? If I give you sothing every ti, and you, as usual, lose it, re-gift it to soone, or, more likely, just forget about it..."
"Aaaah... Well, yeah. I guess you're right," I scratched the back of my head in embarrassnt. "But the main thing for , Mira, is that you yourself attend. That alone will be the best gift. We see each other so rarely."
"That's rarely for you," she noted quietly, looking sowhere through the treetops.
Mira raised her gaze to the endless blue sky. "Zenkhald, do you want a lot of guests?"
"Well... only family. The closest ones. I don't need the rest for nothing."
"Then let's just spread your na across this entire continent," she suggested. "Maybe soone still rembers you. And will co."
"Oh-ho! Seriously? You're allowing it?!" I even half-rose from surprise.
"Yes."
"THEN..." I jumped to my feet and pointed my index finger straight to the heavens. "Let my na spread across the whole world!"
Above the tip of my finger, the air condensed, and a small sphere, shimring with all possible colors, began to rapidly gather.
"Friend or foe, I await everyone!" I pronounced loudly, putting my will into the spell.
BAM!
A thin, blindingly bright line shot up from my finger, piercing right through the clouds.
"I will et sugar and salt! Offense or warmth!"
POOF.
The beam accumulated in the heavens exploded soundlessly, scattering over the entire continent. Multi-colored shimring sparks, resembling snow, began to slowly fall from the height. Mira reached out her palm, catching a couple of them, and watched them lt on her skin.
"Now all that's left is to wait," she said and calmly lay down on the grass.
I also lay down next to her, putting my hands behind my head. The sky was beautiful.
What is all this for? Why all this noise? A wedding... Just to have a fun ti? To make one person happy? But Alastia would be happy even if only ten people ca. And ? Will I be happy? What stupid questions. I can't back out anymore. What kind of thoughts are you even letting into your head? You gave her such hope, and now you want to extinguish it? We like that so much, don't we? Watching soone else's last hope fade away...
My gloomy reflections were interrupted by a warm hand. Mira gently ran her palm through my hair, sweeping away a lock that had fallen over my eyes.
"Talking to yourself again?" she asked quietly.
I didn't answer anything. Just didn't find the strength.
"Zenkhald," her voice sounded incredibly soothing. "If you don't know what to do, just listen to your body. But it will tell you the answer only when problems arise. And as long as it's silent—it ans there are no problems. Relax."
She affectionately stroked my hair once more. It felt so nice. I began to drift off to sleep.
"Sleep, Zen," I heard through the slumber.
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