I smiled and nodded with a shrug.
“I have no clue. Though… maybe…” She seemed lost in thought. “My parents were royals… and didn’t have a lot of time for me, I was raised by nannies and servants. And one nanny in particular tried to teach me culture and art, kindness and generosity. Maybe she hoped I’d be a different sort of royal? Which does suggest there could be a faction of titans who really don’t like or want our constant warring with the elves.” She shrugged.
Fascinating. Maybe we could use that?
First, I had to find Bayn and help him get his head out of his ass.
“Any idea where your brother might have gone?”
“I know exactly where he is,” she answered. What a relief. “He’s almost directly below us, down on the beach.” Again, she seemed to sense my curiosity at how she knew this and preempted my question. “After we found each other again, we decided we never wanted to lose each other, so we placed a mutual little binding on each other, so we’ll always be able to locate the other.”
Huh.
“He really cares for you, doesn’t he?”
She smiled. “There’s a decent man in there, buried beneath centuries of horrible treatment by our parents and a betrayal which utterly broke him. I hope you can find that part of him.”
Yeah. Me too.
I got up. “Thank you, Wensuria,” I said honestly. “If everything goes to plan, you’ll be my sister-in-law and I couldn’t think of a better sibling to have.”
She smiled as she rose and came over to hug me, gently. It was kind of nice being enveloped by her massive form, comforting in a not-quite-smothered, sort of way.
“I look forward to having you as a sister,” she said as shedrew back. “Now go, find my brother and kick some sense into him.”
I laughed at that and left.
Koar followed me as I jogged along the main path through the residences, till I came to The Tumble, the stairs down to the beach which descended through a crevice in the rocky cliff, over some ancient rockslide.
Then I retraced my steps, heading back east, till I saw a cave which hadn’t been there the last time I’d been down on the beach. It seemed like it was roughly under the residence where Bayn had been staying. Once again, I told Koar to stay back, out of sight, figuring his presence wouldn’t help any while talking to Bayn. The dragon moved back down the beach as I checked inside the cave, finding a beaten and bloody Bayn laying inside it.
Fucking hell! What had happened to him?
I raced to him, looking around, wondering who’d done this to him… but with all the blood on the jagged stone of the cave, I realized he’d done this to himself.
Fuck me. If the man was willing to go to these lengths to deliver self-harm, then I had my work cut out for me, getting him to see reason.
IZZY
“Fuck, it’s you,”Bayn muttered.
“Happy to see you too,” I shot back.
“How…?” Bayn asked.
“Wensuria.”
“She betrayed me?” he spat.
Yeah, this massive man really needed some sense kicked into him.
“No, she’s trying tohelpyou,” I said, attempting to remain calm as I looked around the scene. He’d carved this new cavern by bashing it with his broken hands, then throwing himself bodily against the jagged stone. Wow. What level of rage and self-loathing did it take to do that?
“By sending you?” Bayn uttered, then gave a mirthless little laugh.
He certainly wasn’t making it easy to help him.
Or like him.
