CHAPTER 50: A NEW PURPOSE

"You mean," Devic said, as he narrowed his eyes at her, "you want to abandon your duty at the palace... just to fight with him? And you think the king would allow that?"

Nyella’s hands tightened around the reins. "I don’t care what he’ll allow. This is my fault. All of this, everything happening to him, it’s because of me. Because I made him expose the dragon. So I have to give as much help as I can."

"First of all," Devic replied firmly, "it is not your fault. Deep down you wanted him to, yes, but you did not say it directly."

"You don’t understand what that kind of guilt feels like," she said.

He looked at her. "Do you think I haven’t carried worse guilt than that?"

Nyella’s lips pressed into a thin line, but she didn’t answer.

"And secondly," Devic went on, "let’s just hope he comes with us. Because if he doesn’t, we’ll have a much more difficult situation to deal with."

Nyella shook her head. "It’s not even about him deciding to come." Her voice grew bitter, and she turned her face away.

Devic caught the shift immediately. "What’s wrong?"

Nyella hesitated and when she spoke again, her voice was lower. "I went to see him... three days ago. And his mother... she..." Nyella’s voice cracked. "She just threw me out. Said all sorts of things to me... and then she said it was my fault. Not just mine, ours."

Devic frowned. "Ours? What do you mean, ours?"

"That’s exactly what I don’t understand," Nyella said with frustration in her voice. "She used the word ’people.’ She said, ’You people.’ And I still don’t know what she meant by that."

"I, too, have no idea why she would say that, even though I’ve never met her". Devic leaned back in his saddle. "So you’re telling me the difficult one... isn’t the son, but the mother?"

"I’m afraid so," Nyella replied.

Devic sighed. "Well, looks like we’ll have to hurry up. Seems we have a more difficult opponent to handle than I thought."

Without another word, they spurred their horses forward. Hia, hia, hia.

*****

"Please, son... don’t do this."

Elarya’s voice trembled as she stood inside her house with Aeron, pleading with him not to answer the king’s invitation. "Don’t go to the capital. Never go to the capital. I beg you."

Aeron looked at her, confused and a little frustrated. "I don’t understand, Mother. You want me to be safe, and now I have a way to be safe, and you’re telling me I shouldn’t go? Who do you think could help me more against these people if not the Royal House?"

"Not them," Elarya said as her voice was almost breaking. "Just... not them." She stepped toward him. "We can leave the kingdom. We can disappear. But not the capital. I can’t... I can’t break that promise."

Aeron stared at her. "What promise?"

Elarya’s eyes glistened. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I made a promise to your father... before he died. I swore I would never bring you close to them."

Aeron froze. The words your father said hit him harder than he expected. She barely spoke of him in his presence. "My... father?" he asked slowly. "Who are they, Mother? Do you mean the palace? Or the capital as a whole? Tell me."

Elarya turned away, "He lived there," She said as her voice was shaking. "He stayed with them. He trusted them. Just like you are trusting them now. And they betrayed him, Aeron. They betrayed him the moment they had the chance. Once you go there, that’s exactly what they’ll do to you. They’ll use you... And when they think you are no longer useful, they will cast you aside. That’s what the capital of Ivarion does to people. It’s what they did to your father... and what they will do to you."

Aeron’s eyes narrowed. "Mother, you still haven’t told me anything specific. You haven’t given me a name. Who did my father trust? And who betrayed him?"

He took a step closer and his voice was heavier. "All these years, you’ve never told me anything about him. I don’t even know his name. And now, just when I’m about to make my own choice, you suddenly bring him up. Is that fair?"

Elarya’s hands clenched at her sides. "I know I haven’t told you," she said quietly. "And this... this is why. Because if I did, you’d want more. You’d go digging for answers. And one day, you’d put yourself right into the same danger that killed him. You don’t understand, Aeron... there’s just so much you don’t understand."

"I don’t have to understand everything," Aeron replied. "What I do understand is that I have no better option. I have to go."

He turned toward the door.

"I changed my name!" Elarya cried out suddenly.

Aeron stopped mid-step and turned back slowly.

"That’s how bad it was," she said, her voice breaking. "My real name is not Elarya. And we... we were never from here. I fled from the capital the night your father was dying. He was killed by those he trusted most."

Aeron stared at her, stunned. "What?"

"Yes," she said, tears in her eyes. "Your father gave his life so that we could escape. So that you could be free from that place. And now... now you want to go back to the same capital that destroyed him? I won’t allow it, Aeron."

His voice dropped and sounded so pained. "Is that why you never told me about him? Is that why you pushed Nyella away, because she’s from the capital?"

Elarya looked away. "It’s more than that, way more than that." She said in a whisper.

"If my father really was betrayed," Aeron continued, "if they really killed him... then that is more reason for me to go. This time, not just because I was called... but to find out who did it. And why?"