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Ri’kara jerked awake, sitting immediately upright in her bed. Her hearts thundered in her chest as she kept herself frozen in the loud silence, straining to try and listen for whatever had pulled her so abruptly from her sleep.
Her room was painted in the soft blue of predawn, and she slowly tried to relax herself, blinking away the blur that still rested over her eyes.
Did I imagine—?
The knock came again, the familiar three taps more urgent than she was used to. Quickly, she scuttled out of bed, pulling her soft robes around herself as she rushed to the door to open it.
Alarak stood in the dark of the hallway, still in his own casual robes. She blinked. He looked about as put together as she was, an urgency on his face that immediately set her on edge as much as him even being there did.
“What are you doing here? I wasn't told you were back from Slayn—”
He had seen the way her eyes had narrowed, putting one hand up gently in a calming sort of motion. “I had to speak with you. I will not be on Aiur long.”
She relaxed just slightly, moving back a little to let him in. “Come in, then, what’s wrong?”
“No. I will make this quick.”
There was something about his tone, the way he held himself despite trying to put her at ease. Her chest felt too tight. In the hesitant silence that followed, she looked him over, noticing, unusually, that the decoration she had given him was not on his cord.
“Alarak—”
“You were correct.”
“What?” Impatience made her want to fill the air. She stepped forward again, trying to catch his eye as he refused to look at her. “What was I correct about?”
“You know.”
Her hearts sank. He held out his hand. The tarnished brass tube lay in his scarred palm.
“You need this back. I will not allow it to become a trophy.”
Her hand shook as she reached out to take it, moving her other hand up to pull his off her cord.
“No.” Quickly, he moved forward, holding her wrists in his hands and making her look at him. “Keep it; my life is yours.”
Tears began to well in her eyes, dread sitting painfully in the pit of her stomach. Before she could ask the question, give shape to what was hanging in the tense air, he let go of her.
“Goodbye, Ri’kara.”
All at once, he was gone, leaving the ghost of his grip on her skin and seemingly taking all her strength with him. She let the door close in time for her legs to buckle, a million thoughts racing through her mind as she knelt on the floor and tried not to cry, holding the trinket to her chest.
You knew this was going to happen eventually. You knew it was time.
It took a few moments, but she shook herself, moving to put the cord decoration back on and frowning as her fingers brushed against something tucked away inside it.
What?
Carefully, she pulled the tightly wound strip of parchment out from the hole and tilted her head, turning the lights on so she could see what exactly she was looking at.
It was smudged, splattered with stray ink and littered with his almost unreadable scrawl. Her eyes narrowed, and she unwound it completely, looking for the beginning.
Ri’kara,
Do not chase after me once you have read this.
Below the warning, three words froze her in place for a moment, a confession that made her head spin. Her hearts slammed into a sprint, and she shot up from the floor, ignoring that warning and running out into the corridor—
Verinis caught her before she could get any further, hands on her shoulders, concern clear across their face. “Ri’kara, you need to stay in your room.”
“Verinis, what—”
“Val’ka summoned me. He said that you may still be watched, and he thought something might happen, so I came right away.” They looked a little surprised themselves. “I have… never heard his voice before.”
“H-he spoke to you?” Finally, the tears she was trying to hold back began spilling down her cheeks, water and red vapour clouding her vision.
“Yes. It must have been urgent to have called me this early.”
Bastard… She wiped her eyes quickly, shoulders shaking.
“I-I think he might have just been… Paranoid; we dealt with the spy problem a while ago... I’m ok, really, I am.”
They relaxed a little, properly taking in her shaken state and frowning with more worry, their grip tightening a little on her shoulders. “… Was he not supposed to still be on Slayn?”
“Ye, but... Rak’Shir, he… The Highlord requested he declare for him again.” She shook her head, unable to fully compose herself.
“Let us… go back to your room, yes?”
Ri’kara nodded, letting them gently lead her through the door and to the small seating area by the balcony doors, helping her sit down.
Awkwardly, they sat beside her, putting their spear down across the low table and resting their hand on her back.
For a moment, she was reminded starkly of sitting in Ilira and Uljia’s dimly lit home on Slayn, eyeing the old, battered scythe that Ilira had placed on a similar surface. It gave her comfort somehow, and she slowly calmed enough to level her voice.
“… I’m sorry you were summoned so early. I really don’t think there was any need.”
“You are clearly shaken by something.”
“Val’ka, he—” She opened her palm, looking down at the groves she had imprinted into the skin with how tightly she had held her own cord decoration. “… He isn’t going to survive this time. I think that’s why he came.”
“You do not know that. He is strong; he has come back many times before—"
“I’ve been warning him for a long time. This new first Ascendant has been meddling with things, spreading rumours. I have met the Highlord more times in these past few months than I have in the whole time I’ve been Val’ka’s aide, and… Var’gash is going to win.”
The Tal’darim tried to keep herself calm, tried to keep all the anguish from bubbling up again. No matter how many times she’d prepared herself for the inevitable, it still hurt more than anything she had experienced before.
Verinis spoke gently, voice low. “And he came here to tell you that?”
She nodded, blinking away more tears. “To tell me I was right about it. To say goodbye.”
“… I am sorry.”
“If only that stubborn bastard would have listened. I’ve been trying to get the Highlord to abolish Rak’Shir completely for so long; I got so far with it, but it was never enough to protect Val’ka, and… I just wanted to make sure he would be safe, I wanted that more than anything, and now he’s going to die, and I’ll never be able to tell him that I…”
She didn’t have to say it for the Templar beside her to understand. They pulled her close, hugged her tightly and patted her back as she was racked with more sobs.
“It will hurt for a long time; I know that you were both close, but… I promise that this will pass as all things do.”