Xanthia was trying its hardest to pull Rionan’s power from him, knowing that the land was being starved of life without it. Rionan himself had told Alianna as much back in Porthan. Xanthia could not be without his power for long. It was a risk to the entire realm.
Alianna knew that Rionan would not take her idea well, but she owed it to him to suggest this now.
To save him, to save his people, to save a part of herself that he had unlocked – she had to put this forward.
Her plan was simple. He had told her that anyone and anything – aside from himself - that fell into his Well of Power would, upon contact with the energy within, be ripped apart. Obliterated.
If Alianna was able to get close enough to the Well and throw the stone in, the force of Rionan’s power colliding with the stone itself could destroy the physical matter acting as a bind to the power – releasing the power itself. Releasing the power of the four Lords, right into the Well that Rionan was connected to. Into Western Xanthia. In to Rionan.
With the power of not one Lord, but five, flowing through him, he would hold enough might to wipe Xanthia clean of Rannirr and the enemy forces. He would hold the power of all of Xanthia.
Korva had interrupted at this point in her theorising to ask, “Why would we send a human girl into a war zone with an object unlike which any of our people have ever seen?”
This had earned a growl from Rionan, and even Thallax hadthrown a “shut up, Korva” in his direction, whilst he nodded for Alianna to continue.
She had an explanation for this, of course.
Rannirr would expect to see Rionan on the battlefield once he had unleashed his power back into the world.
They would expect to see Ulreah once they saw storm clouds gathering.
They would expect to see Thallax, commanding their armies.
What they would not expect to see, and would most certainly not be threatened by – was a human. A human who had no powers. No magic to wield. Nothing in her arsenal.
They would not know that the human carried an artefact that could bring about the end of this war in mere moments. As long as she could get to the Well unharmed.
That is where Ulreah would come in. He would stick with her. They had made it clear that he could wipe out huge numbers of enemy infantry soldiers in a short amount of time. He would be able to clearany threats to Alianna’s safety, or clear a path for her to get to a good enough vantage point to throw the stone into the Well and be done with it.
“They will know we are bonded,” Rionan had gritted out. “They will know you are important to me and come for you.”
“Then it is everyone else’s job to make sure I am able to get to your Well quickly enough, that nobody has time to realise that. If nobody gets close to me, and I pose such little threat to them, then they might not even notice that I’m there.”
At the silence that had lingered in the room following Alianna laying out her plan, Rionan had growled and began his pacing. Korva had given her a slow nod, as if to say: “This could work.”
Now, Rionan simply stared at her. His eyes were glassy. His expression was an unreadable mask. The feeling in Alianna’s chest gave away everything he was feeling: sorrow, fear, anger. But amongst all of that – flickering like the last embers of a candle being swallowed up by darkness – hope.
“I should never have brought you to Xanthia,” Rionan whispered to her.
“Why?” she asked, standing and moving towards him. “I want to help, Rionan. I want to do this for you.”
“Why would you do this for me? Why would you put yourself in such incredible danger?”
“Because,” she began, running her hands through her hair, looking for the words she needed to convey everything she wanted to. “Because you have given me something I was longing for, and never truly thought I’d find. You have given me purpose, Rionan. You have given me a sense of connection, like I have never felt before. You have given me a sense of mattering. You, your bizarre friends, and your little camp among the mountains. Here, I am not just a girl in a coffee shop. Here, I matter. Here, I have purpose. I am someone. That someone is soul-bonded to you, Rionan. Soul-bonded to the Lord of Western Xanthia. The male who searched for answers in desperate hope. We found each other while you searched, Rionan, and I refuse to believe that was a pure coincidence. So here I stand, bonded to you, and I ask you quite plainly: will you let me do this for these people, and for you?”
Alianna wasn’t sure that Rionan was breathing. His eyes roamed her face, like he wanted to speak, but didn’t know how to form words.
“If anything happens - ” he began, standing and moving towards her.
“Ulreah will be with me, Rionan. You and the others just need to serve as a distraction. If you show me maps of how to navigate Savangrad, how to get to the Well. You just need to distract them for long enough.”
Rionan’s shoulders heaved with the force of his lungs expanding. He stared at her for several long, hard moments.
“I love you,” he finally said to her, his voice sounding more fragile than she had ever heard it.
“I love you, too,” Alianna replied, moving towards him and taking his head in her hands. She searched his face for the disagreement she was anticipating, but it did not come. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her gently. When Alianna withdrew, she was surprised to find a tear sliding down her cheek.
That would not be a goodbye kiss.
