Before Kraghtol could react, Valir chuckled and raised his hands. “No, I know what you are referring to, don’t worry. I…” he let his voice trail off as if he needed to think about what to say. “I didn’t plan on kissing you. It was probably out of place, and hadn’t it been for that demon and this fey-cursed swamp getting to my head, I wouldn’t have done it. At least not like this.”
He shrugged and suddenly looked more vulnerable than Kraghtol had ever seen him.
“But that wasn’t your question. I didn’t…notmean it. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ve grown to like you. More than a bit. More than someone like meshouldlike someone like you. But that doesn’t matter. At all. I’m still trying to figure out what all of that means, but yeah. I meant it.”
The half-orc was speechless, and his emotions had taken more than one abrupt turn during the brief speech. His wide chest suddenly felt too small to contain all the sensations that overwhelmed him all at once.
“I, uh… I really liked it,” he began, careful not to burst out everything he felt. Was he holding back too much? Why was this so difficult? “And I likeyou, too. Perhaps when we’re out of here and there’s no deadly swamp around us, we could… figure it out together?”
What was he stuttering? He sounded like a ten-year-old! Liva wouldn’t have any trouble verbalizing her feelings like that. He drew a breath to try again when Valir already answered.
“I would like that very much,” he said and took Kraghtol’s big green hand in his smaller, pale one. “Thank you, Kragh. I’m looking forward to it.”
The light touch felt intense and new on his skin, and even after Valir had long let go he still felt the lingering warmth. Suddenly, finding what they were after and then getting out of this swamp felt even more urgent than before.
Chapter 16
The Heart
As Kraghtol had predicted, it wasn’t far anymore. When not interpreting the growth of the Mandrakes, he took turns with the others trying to speak to Roderic, with little success. The orderkeeper was conscious enough to understand him, and took food and water when offered, but refused to speak a single word. Finally, Dagna had enough. She stopped so suddenly Valir almost ran into her and put her hands on her hips.
“Now, listen here, longleg. I get it. Losing your arm sucks. But you know what would suck even more? Being dead. You realize that’s what you would be if Kragh hadn’t scraped you off the ground?Afteryou announced you would kill him? He even warned you and told you to run, which you lot didn’t. Now, I don’t know what happened back in Winterstone, but that doesn’t sound like something a murderer would do. That’s just trollshit.”
Roderic opened his mouth to respond, but closed it shut so violently the clacking of his teeth was clearly audible. He just glared, and Kraghtol could understand why. While Dagna was not wrong withwhat she had just said, she conveniently left out the part where he had prepared a trap and lured the demon in. The very demon that killed the rest of the orderkeepers in a few heartbeats. His not intending this massacre to happen made little difference to the orderkeeper, and to himself.
Dagna awaited an answer for a few more seconds before throwing up her arms in frustration and stomping ahead.
The situation reminded Kraghtol more and more of his dream, the dream he had had almost every night in Winterstone. Thinking back to this time seemed like an entirely different world now, an easier one, despite the troubles he had back then. Sure, he wasn’t alone, and he wasn’t running through the mud, but the feeling of purpose was hauntingly similar. Heknewthey were getting closer to their destination, even though he could not tell exactly what it was. His heartbeat quickened at the thought, and he didn’t know if it was from fear or anticipation.
The area had long since stopped making any sense whatsoever. Left and right changed direction on a whim, and without the guidance of the Mandrakes, they would be lost in a matter of minutes. Nobody else could read them. He had tried to explain how he saw those patterns in the chaos to Valir and Dagna, but couldn’t find the words.
It was hard to tell exactly when they found the center, as the cycle of day and night had made way to a perpetual gloomy twilight, filtered through countless leaves above them, but suddenly, the dense foliage made way to a vast clearing. The fog was thinner here, and on the muddy ground, covered by millions of Mandrakes, stood a building.
At first, Kraghtol wasn’t even sure about that fact. He had never seen a building this massive or this ancient. It was made of stone, at least in theory. Vines, moss and even occasional Mandrake plants completely covered the structure, along with a patina of dirt that had to be hundreds of years old.
It was alsowrong. Not only did whoever built this have no love whatsoever for right angles and parallel lines, but the very shape of the massive monument outright defied the laws of this world. Not unlike the surrounding swamp, the architecture seemed to shift and change when he looked away for just a moment, and gave him a headache when he stared at it for too long. Without a doubt, they had reached their destination.
“So, that’s the fabled oracle?” Dagna asked, having recovered from the sight the quickest. “Well, at least it has an obvious entry.”
Right in front of them, only a hundred meters of Mandrake-covered soil away, was a huge gate-like arch looming bigger than the Frostgate in Winterstone.
“I… I don’t like this. It looks like… a trap?” Valir’s voice was shaky and decidedly less confident than usual. Without actively thinking about it, Kraghtol placed a hand on the noble’s shoulder.
The half-orc himself was torn. The whole thing reminded him of an irregular fist, or perhaps a set of brambles broken through the skin of the earth on their own. But then again, he couldn’t deny some similarities to a jagged crystal formation, beautiful in its wildness.
“It’s no trap. Come on, let’s take a closer look!”
Shadows moved through the fog as he carefully approached the gate, but he paid them no attention. His mind was feverishly focusedon what he knew would wait within: the answer to all his questions. His friends followed, not without hesitation, but he only realized that Roderic had not moved when Dagna called out to him.
“Hey, longleg, what’s the matter?”
“You… you’re crazy!” he croaked, uttering his first words since the combat. “I don’t know what fey-cursed witchery this is, but — no! No way! Fuck you!”
He turned around and ran back to where they had come from, quickly disappearing behind the tree line.
“Idiot!” Dagna mumbled and turned to follow, but Valir shook his head.
“Let him. He’s not our prisoner. I doubt he’ll survive on his own and without supplies, but it’s his choice. Kragh saved his life once already; it’s not our fault if he opts to throw it away right after.”
