The Longest Day

“Have you made progress on your spell, Barren?” Slay asked, his back turned to the sorcerer. He stood before the many scrolls that were piled up and waiting patiently for him to read. A half-empty goblet was held firmly in his hand and his ruthless blue eyes revealed nothing, simply grazed over the scrolls, disinterested.

Taking a sip of the wine in his goblet, he turned to stare at the man who would soon enough be responsible for the creation of his new world and his new world order.

“Some, my Lord, but not much yet,” Aldock murmured calmly, meeting his gaze.

It often irked Slay, how the sorcerer never seemed even the slightest bit phased by him. Slay had a deep hunger for power, and it was very clear that he held no power over this man. If it weren’t for the fact that Slay needed him to carry out his plan, he would have had Aldock executed long ago.

“And what do you still need?” he demanded impatiently, setting his goblet down carefully, though the tension in his hand was obvious. He was restraining himself.

“There are five elements to the spell, my Lord. Breath of the creator, for air; stone of the Saxeus River, for water; root of the Whitebark Tree, for earth; igneous rock of the Canden Volcano, for fire; and the pure and untainted blood of a child, for human life. I have the breath of the creator—my own breath—and when the men you sent to warn the towns people about your plan return, they will bring a child back with them, giving me a second element. As for the other three elements, however… They will be more difficult.”

“Can you not use a stone or a root or a rock from within the forests here?” Slay demanded.

“No, Lord Slay. I’m sure you’re familiar with each of the places I mentioned. The Saxeus River is the largest flowing river in the entirety of Norwynne. The Canden Volcano is the only volcano in this region. And the Whitebark Tree is the oldest tree still standing—a tree that stories have been centred around for centuries.

“For the spell to work, I need the elements I use to be the most powerful they can possibly be. And so, you see, that is why I require a stone from the longest river, and a rock from the only volcano, and the root from the oldest tree,” Aldock explained, his face relaxed and his fingers interlaced loosely in front of him.

The muscle in Slay’s jaw jumped.

Still restraining himself.

“I’ll arrange to have men sent out to get each of the things you need then,” he said, touching the scar that ran down the left side of his face.

“With respect,” Aldock said, though nothing about him indicated any sign respect for the man standing in front of him—in fact, he almost seemed to find humour in testing Slay’s boundaries this way, “I would prefer to collect the elements myself. Your men may accompany me if you wish, but I need to be there to gather each individual item that I need.”

Seeing that Slay seemed anything but please by this, Aldock raised his brow and continued. “Unless, of course, you’re willing to risk your entire plan by trusting your troops with such a crucial part of it, my Lord.”

Slay’s face flushed at that, his hands clenching and the muscle in his jaw twitching as he stared the sorcerer down.

“You leave for the Canden Volcano at first light tomorrow morning with five of my men. Be ready. From the volcano, you will go to the Saxeus River, and then to the Whitebark Tree. I trust that your links will be able to shorten the trip enough for you to be back before the solstice, yes?”
Aldock simply inclined his head in response.

“Good. I expect you back here in a month at most, Barren. Do not keep me waiting.”

“Of course, my Lord.”

With that, Aldock turned and left, leaving Slay alone to seethe after him.

***

While Tahni explained to Jaylen why the black-clad man had attacked them and everything else he needed to know about Slay and his men, Vita closed the stable doors and made sure they were safe and out of sight.

By the time Tahni had finished speaking, Jaylen sat with his head in his hands, shaking it back and forth in denial. It was all too overwhelming.

“Those men… The ones who came to speak to the town today; the one who attacked us… They were this Slay man’s followers? They know our world is going to fall apart because they’re the ones who are doing it?” he choked out. “That’s… That’s sick. That’s completely insane.”

“It’s also the reality of the situation. Trust me, Jaylen, I know how hard it is to believe. I know how much you want to just reject the idea of it entirely. But you can’t. You can’t ignore this, and you can’t run from it. All you can do is accept it.”

Jaylen lowered his hands from his face and looked at her, his brow puckered.

“You can’t go after him, Tahni. You’ll be killed. It’s too dangerous. Please, you can’t go after him. You have to stay here,” he said, reaching forward to take her hands. When he did, he was surprised by how warm they felt.

“I can’t, Jaylen,” Tahni said, looking down at their hands, interlocked. “I’m the prophecy’s victim. I’m the only one who can stop this. Out of these three choices, which would you prefer: to die with this world and everything in it, to live as a slave in Slay’s new world, or to live safe and free in this world with Slay defeated?”

“This is a man with a sorcerer and the Heavens only know how many battle-ready troops. You don’t stand a chance, Tahni. You can’t try and stop him. Stay here. It’s too dangerous,” he insisted.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing,” Tahni argued. “I know the odds. I know the danger. I know how crazy it is to think I can defeat a man like that, with that much power, but the prophecy says that I’m the only one who can. I’m not going to twiddle my thumbs and wait for the world to end when I know that there’s a chance I could prevent it. I need to do this, Jaylen. Don’t try to change my mind.”

Jaylen was silent.

Then, after a moment: “I’m coming with you.”

Vita turned to stare at the two of them. Tahni blinked.

“What? No. Jaylen, no. You can’t come with us. You’ve got your family, your friends. You’re not a part of this.”

“I became a part of it when that man attacked us. I became a part of it when I nearly killed him because of it,” Jaylen told her. “I’m coming with you. You can’t stop me.”

Tahni pulled her hands from his and pinched the bridge of her nose, scrunching her eyes shut.

“Tahni, no matter what you say to try to make me stay here, it won’t make a difference. It’s probably better for me to come with you anyway. I know my way to the mountains without needing to stop at villages along the way—like I told you, I’ve been there before. And I know how to fight; you saw it. I can help you.”

“Jaylen, I—”

“Please,” he asked, taking her hands again. “Please, Tahni. Let me help you. Let me come with you.”

With her brow pulled inward, a small crease appearing, she looked to Vita for some kind of guidance—anything to tell her what she should do. The woman’s face was blank though, as she watched the two of them from where she stood by the stable doors.

“Okay…” Tahni said, finally giving in as she looked back to Jaylen.

Immediately, the tension in his face relaxed and he pulled Tahni into a firm hug. She bit back a gasp of pain from her ribs and tried to hug him back.

“Thank you,” he whispered, his soft breath tickling the crook of her neck.

“We’ll leave tomorrow. You need to say goodbye to your parents and gather whatever supplies you can,” she murmured, wincing as she pulled away and hoping he wouldn’t notice.

He did though.

“Tahni? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” she assured him with her best smile. The last thing she wanted was to give him another reason to believe they needed his help. This was her problem, after all. No one else’s.

Jaylen watched her for a moment longer, then, apparently convinced that she was telling the truth, he rose from the ground and dusted his pants off.

Tahni did the same, though more carefully than he had.

“Is there another way out of the stables?” Vita asked in a low voice when they reached her. “I’d rather not risk another attack.”

Jaylen nodded and motioned for them to follow him, leaving Slay’s man on the stable floor, still unconscious.

The three of them passed the closed stable doors and moved further, rounding a wide corner at the opposite end of the stables to Belle and Claire’s stalls and finding themselves before another large set of doors, leading to three large horse troughs and stacks of hay as tall as Jaylen himself.

Looking further past the doors, Tahni could see a small open field. A fence ran across the tree line. She realised this was where they trained the horses and let them graze.

They didn’t stop to look around though.

Jaylen led them outside and behind the stables, hugging the wall to stay out of sight. From there, he opened a gate in the fence and they entered the woods, staying close enough to the edge that they would see anyone coming, though they were almost completely out of sight.

It didn’t take long before they found themselves at the back of Jaylen’s house, crossing the small patch of grass and entering through the back door.

~

Later that evening, after Tahni and Vita had asked Jaylen’s parents if they could stay just one more night and Arthur and Josie had accepted, the two of them sat in the spare room they’d slept in the night before and waited for Jaylen to join them.

They had just finished eating their dinner and had excused themselves early so Jaylen could speak to his parents about leaving with them the next morning.

When the door to the room swung open and Jaylen stepped inside, Tahni and Vita both looked up.

“What did they say?” Tahni asked, her brow raised in anticipation.

“They agreed.”

“What?” She’d been counting on his parents refusing to let him go because of the danger he would be putting himself in. “How did you convince them?”

“I told them that I wanted to show you up the mountains because I know the way better than you do. They don’t need to know what’s waiting there for us. They don’t need more things to stress over.”

“What about Slay’s men? What if your parents decide they want to leave Greybridge with them for safety? Aren’t they worried that you won’t be back in time to go with them?”

“It takes two and a half weeks to reach the Rohnalian Mountains from here, and two and a half weeks to return. That gives me just enough time to be back before Slay’s men return to take our people with them.”

Tahni leaned back, her head thumping softly against the wall. It seemed that there was nothing she could do to stop Jaylen from joining them. Her last hope—his parents—had just fallen through.

“So,” Vita said, tracing her fingers over a small, faded scar that ran from the outer corner of her right eye to her temple. Tahni had never noticed it before. “We’ll leave at first light tomorrow morning with Jaylen leading the way. Are you sure that we’ve got everything we’ll need?” She asked, looking to Jaylen.

“Yes. My father gave me some extra supplies from his travel pack. We’ve got more than enough to get us there and back.”

“Okay, good. Slay’s sorcerer won’t have all the elements to cast his spell yet, and if we’re lucky, he'll be away from the camp, collecting them. That gives us a clear shot at Slay without his interference—”

“Wait a minute,” Jaylen interrupted, his eyes suddenly distant, as if he weren’t looking at Vita herself, but instead past her, at something only he could see. “The elements for the spell… How many are there?”

“From what I saw in my prophecy, there are five in total,” Vita said, eyeing him warily.

“Okay, five,” he repeated, nodding. “And if this sorcerer needs them to be able to cast his spell, but he doesn’t have them all yet, doesn’t that mean…” he trailed off.

“What?” Tahni prompted. “What are you thinking?”

“Well… Couldn’t we go after even just one element that he needs for the spell? Couldn’t we take just one of those elements from him, and stop him from being able to create this new world at all?”

Tahni ran her fingers through her thick hair, her eyes wide. Vita just stared, frozen in place.

“What?” Jaylen asked, shifting uncomfortably under their gazes.

“Jaylen, you—you’re a genius!” Tahni cried, laughing in disbelief. She couldn’t believe that they hadn’t thought of it sooner. It solved all of her problems. The danger she was putting herself in, the danger she was putting Vita in, the prospect of taking another person’s life—albeit to save the lives of so many more…

Everything. It solved everything.

After a moment, however, her smile faded and she looked to each of them.

“Which element, though? Which one do we go after?” she asked.

Vita contemplated the question. “The elements he needs are the breath of the creator—his own breath, to create air—which we could only take by killing him, a piece of igneous rock from the Canden Volcano—to create fire—which we could only stop him from getting by taking every last piece of it from the volcano before he reaches it himself, a stone from the Saxeus River—to create water—which we could only stop him from getting by taking each and every stone from the river before he gets to it, the root of the Whitebark Tree—to create earth—which we could only stop him from getting by destroying the tree before he takes what he needs, and the untainted blood of a child—to ensure human survival—which we could only stop him from getting by protecting each and every child in this world from him,” she told them.

Tahni’s face dropped more and more with each element Vita listed. Perhaps this plan was not as good as she had first thought.

Jaylen’s eyes, however, were alight with sudden realisation.

“The tree. The Whitebark Tree,” he said. “That’s the only logical option. If we can get to it first and destroy it, he won’t be able to use its roots. The breath and the rocks and the stones and the children are all impossible tasks, but the tree… We could do it.”

Before he’d even finished speaking, Vita was rushing to find a map. She located one quickly and pawed over it for a few charged moments.

“He’s right,” she said, looking up to Tahni. “It’s possible. The volcano and the river are closest to the Rohnalian Mountains. It would make sense for Aldock to go to them first. The Whitebark Tree is much further south. We have a chance at getting to it before he does. And unless you would rather kill Slay, destroying the tree is the only other option we have.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Tahni agreed, her stomach churning though she wasn’t sure why.