“Ali,” crooned an elderly man, who was standing above them at the top of the museum stairs. He was sweeping outside and looked a lot like he needed to sit down. “Lovely to see you, dear. Who have you brought with you?”
“Hi, John. This is…Max,” Alianna offered, hesitating before coming out with his name.
“Hello, Max,” smiled John. He looked at Rionan, who was the same height as him, despite the fact that he stood two stairs lower. “Might you be the reason our Ali has had a smile on her face of late?”
Rionan’s eyes twinkled at the information John had let slip, and he reached out towards her hand. He interlinked his fingers with her own, turning back to John. “Ali and I are…companions. It has been a pleasure spending so much time with her recently.”
“Companions, eh? Is that what you young people call it nowadays?”
When neither of them responded, John continued.
“Ali, my dear. No need to pay for the entrance fee today. Justlet them know that you’re here as my guest. I get a couple of free tickets a month, you know, so you can use them today. Enjoy the exhibitions. Good day to you, Max.”
Rionan dipped his chin at the man who resumed his sweeping, whistling softly. Alianna began to lead Rionan into the museum by the hand, with neither of them commenting on the fact that she had not pulled away or let go.
***************
“You will find the Origins exhibit on the top floor, Miss,” said the ticket clerk, who had organised passes for them due to John’s free tickets. “If you get lost, do ask one of us. Or, there are maps around, if you can find those. Enjoy.”
“Thank you,” Alianna smiled as they began walking to the area the clerk had said the elevator was in.
“Do you think you will find what you need here?” she asked Rionan quietly.
“I don’t know, truly. My powers are silent. We may get another lead, which would be better than nothing at all.”
They entered the elevator, and Alianna pressed the ‘3’ button. While they waited for the elevator to go up, she asked Rionan a question that she had been thinking about since last night in their room.
“Last night, you showed me Xanthia. It seemed to be such a beautiful place. You also told me that the Lord of the East was corrupting his magic and that it could do things to the land. So, what’s the matter? I didn’t see anything awful in Xanthia.”
Rionan considered his words carefully. “The Xanthia I showed you was…before the war. Before the land started changing. Now, where crystal waters shone, horrible pits of stagnant filth sit. Where fish swam, monsters lurk. The singing of the birds has been replaced by the sort of silence that watches you. The Xanthia I showed you is how I want to remember my homeland – not what some maniac has beentrying to make it. Full of terror, lurking everywhere that was once good.”
“Has he done that to your territory, even with you there?”
The elevator door opened, and they walked out, presented with three long corridors and a map on the wall ahead of them. Alianna moved towards it, and Rionan followed.
“Not entirely. I have explained that Xanthia has a sort of network that runs through it. This network is supplied with power provided by the four Lords. Xanthia is not a place of violence, of terrible things. When one person has such intentions, their magic changes. Now imagine you had a system of pipework. Four separate systems that end up linking at points. It might take a while, but eventually, the pipework of one system would seep through into another.”
Alianna nodded in understanding. “So, although the West is mostly supplied by you, some of his power has started to creep in?”
“Exactly. Made worse by the fact that he has killed another Lord, and thus, taken over their Well. He is stronger. More of his power can seep in. There is only myself and one other Lord that stands against him.”
“How does a Lord’s power corrupt, if Xanthia is not a place of evil?”
Alianna scanned the map as she asked, keeping her voice low.
“If one has bad enough intentions, then one’s own power begins to reflect this. Much like the actions other humans put out in your realm are reflected by the thoughts and desires that they have, our powers reflect our intentions, even if it is not a conscious decision to affect the land in such a way.” Rionan’s lip curled in disgust as he recalled the acts that had taken place in the other territories of Xanthia. “Rannirr revels in it.”
Alianna reached out and took his hand, intending this to be a display of comfort, not knowing what else to say. She decided to change the subject slightly.
“Do you have friends in Xanthia?”
Rionan raised an eyebrow. “Do I seem so miserable and boring to you that I would have no friends?”
“You just haven’t mentioned anyone so far.”
Rionan shrugged. “I do have friends. My closest friends are Ulreah and Thallax. Thallax is my general. Ulreah is my Stormbringer. I haveknown each of them from childhood, before I became Lord of the West.”
“What’s a Stormbringer?”
