Vie nods. 'For beasts like these, it’s says it’s very difficult. Fire. A dagger to the heart. Even cutting off the head wouldn't do it alone. The pieces need to be seared with fire, or, if they're ever put together again, they'll reattach. Reanimate. Fascinating, creatures in the Dark Realms.'
'If you say so,' I say sardonically.
She glances up at me. 'I haven't met a half fae, half orc before. Would you mind taking off your medallion so that I could see you properly?'
I glance round over the mezzanine and see that there's no one watching besides my friends, so I indulge her, slipping it off over my head and putting it on the table. Her eyes widen and her mouth opens.
'Gods,' she says. 'You do look different. Apologies. I don't mean that to sound rude.'
I chuckle. 'I do look different. But pairings between fae and orcs are quite uncommon.'
She tilts her head at me. 'Not as uncommon as you might think. Fae like to believe their lineages are pure, but my research has led me to find that there is Dark Realm in many of them. Human as well.’
'Interesting. I didn't know that.'
'That's the fae for you,' she murmurs. 'Never quite what they appear.'
'Not unless you get to know one very well,' I snort as I slip the medallion back around my neck.
I resist the urge to look at Locke. ‘Sometimes not even then.’
‘Come,’ Jak says. ‘Let’s find out where our future lies.’
We say our last goodbyes, and leave the mezzanine, going out the side door to a private yard beyond, and I take out the amulet we used to come here.
'Don’t we need to leave the city?' I ask.
Jak shakes his head. 'No. The wards are like guards at the gates. They don't give a shit if you're leaving. They only care if you're coming in.'
I rub the purple stone, thinking of Halsford, and the Breach opens a moment later, almost directly in front of us.
We hold Bryn, keeping her between us, but when we exit the other side and I look at her questioningly, she shakes her head.
'There was nothing. Not even a whisper,' she says. ‘He wasn’t there.’
She looks disappointed.
'I'm sorry about your father,' I say.
'It's not your fault,' she murmurs. 'And after all, I don't remember him really. All of it happened long ago. I just wish there was something I could have done for him.'
‘I know,’ I say, taking her hand. ‘But he must have loved you to try so hard to speak with you, to tell you everything he could to help you. He is likely at peace now that he has. Perhaps he is with your mother.’
She nods, giving me a wan smile.
We walk up the trail toward Halsford, as we've come out more or less in the same location as where Jak and I went through when we went to Merediea in search of Bryn. We take the main road toward the village, but as we move closer and closer, I begin to suspect that something is very wrong.
'I can't hear the smithy,' I mutter.
Jak and Locke slow their pace.
'No,' Locke says with a frown. 'Neither can I.'
'It's very quiet,' Jak says. 'Too quiet.'
I draw my sword, and Jak and Locke do the same. Bryn hikes up her dress, and I'm happy to see that she's kept my little gift close as she takes a knife in each hand.
We move through the village slowly, but it's clear that something has happened. There’s not one person to be seen. It's completely deserted.
