“Yes. I didn’t build it, of course. It has belonged to the Lord of the West since the beginning.”
He waited for her to ask further questions before moving on.
“Next was the waterfall. I told you about it the other day. Well, now you have seen it. You have heard the birdsong,” Rionan smiled fondly, eyes wistful. “The Alaccaran Mountain Range. Some of the most accessible peaks in Xanthia with incredible views of nearby areas. Lastly, Syncara Port. A nice place to shop, get food, and socialise. Boats come and go, trading between the territories.”
Alianna considered everything he was saying and everything she had seen. “These places. Are they all in your territory?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “The other territories are not mine to show. Technically, the mountain range sits between my territory and another, but it is still within mine.”
Alianna stepped back, her eyes still scanning Rionan’s changed form. She gently lowered herself to the nearby sofa. “It looked…beautiful.”
“It was.”
Alianna looked up at Rionan, seeing the sadness in his face.
She should be angry with him.
Yet, the way he was looking at her now.
What he’d shown to her.
“You truly wish to help your people? Your lands?”
He didn’t answer, although the sincerity on his face said everything that words did not need to convey.
Alianna returned her gaze to meet his.
“Let’s try this whole thing again. Right from the top. Hi. I’m Ali. I’m twenty-eight years old, and I’m from Porthan.”
He smiled softly. “Hello. I’m Rionan, Lord of Western Xanthia. I am…three hundred and forty-eight years old.”
Alianna’s eyes widened.
“But I’ve seen every bit of you. You don’t look a day beyond your mid-thirties!”
“Xanthians age very, very slowly compared to humans. We reach physical and mental maturity at a similar age, but everything slows down from then. Our life spans often exceed one thousand years. In the eyes of many of our people, I am quite young, for a Lord.”
Her eyes dropped to the floor.
“This is…a lot. Xanthia. You are some all-powerful Lord of another Realm. The war. Being…soul-bonded? And you’reover three hundred years old. It is so much to take in. There have always been stories about other types of beings that were out there somewhere, children’s stories, but this…”
“I know,” he agreed again, “although I am not all-powerful. If I were, I wouldn’t have needed to come here in the first place.”
“Don’t be smarmy,” she instructed firmly. “I’m trying to think.”
After what seemed like several long, hard minutes, she contemplated. Rionan didn’t move, didn’t speak, and didn’t take his eyes off her. He felt the tension in his shoulders release as her face softened, her previously angered expression fading.
“You need to find something to save your people. I’ll help you. Where do we start?”
22
AnAgreement
Rionan and Alianna spent the rest of the evening discussing his arrival in Porthan. He explained what had happened just before he left his own realm, pulling his power out of the land, and his decision to transport himself wherever his power told him he needed to go.
“Then you landed on West Beach.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “And you found me.”
