“Thanks, Laikynn,” I reply gratefully. I look at the others. “Are we really going to trust them?”
Rast frowns, “I don’t want to, I don’t trust them. To be honest, I never have, but like Ricollio said, what would be the benefit of them lying to us and leading us in the wrong direction?”
“I guess you’re right,” Loki says, although he’s frowning and he doesn’t seem too sure of his own words.
“I’m not saying that they aren’t up to something. I struggle to believe that they trekked all this way just to tell us that we’re heading in the wrong direction,” Rast replies with a deep frown. “Having said that, everyone is terrified of the compound leaders and for good reason, so they may have just been following orders.”
“I’m assuming from the way that you phrased that, there are consequences if they don’t follow orders?” Killian asks.
I nod, “Yes. The leaders always know if orders have been disobeyed. I don’t know how, and no one questions it. There is a lot that no one questions out of fear. There is no way that anyone wouldwillingly go against the leader's orders. Especially not just to mess with us, and risk the whole realm, including themselves, being sucked into oblivion and ceasing to exist.”
“Fair enough,” Storm replies.
All of us are more than aware that he didn’t exactly answer the question. He didn’t tell us what happened, just that it wouldn’t be worth it, and honestly, that’s fine.
I can definitely understand that.
I kept a lot of things to myself, and at the end of the day, he doesn’t really know us that well.
He feels like he belongs with us. At least he does to me, but that doesn’t mean that he feels the same way. This whole situation is pretty fucking messed up, and his beliefs and things that he has known for his whole life have been flipped on their head.
Even though he suspected some things, it doesn’t make it any easier to come to terms with.
Plus, he didn’t seem that fond of me while we were at the academy.
Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to be treating me the same way anymore. I should let it go, but that’s not really who I am, and I want to know why he was treating me that way in the first place.
Maybe I just pissed him off.
I tend to have that effect on people.
“Okay, so we carry on then?” Storm asks, Rast.
“Yes, as I said, they have nothing to achieve by sending us in the wrong direction,” Rast replies, sounding pretty sure.
“Agreed,” Storm replies. We walk for a bit further before Storm speaks again, “So he’s a dick.”
It’s not question. It’s a statement.
Zev chuckles, “Dude, you have such a way with words.”
“Speaking of a way with words, you have been really quiet. Unusually so, are you okay?” Kill asks with concern.
I don’t know how I didn’t notice, but Kill is right. Zev has only said a few sentences here and there, nothing more, and that is pretty unusual for him.
Zev’s smile drops, “I haven’t had a proper vision since we’ve been here.”
“What?” Storm practically barks. “At all?”
Zev shakes his head, “I didn’t want to worry anyone. We’ve got a lot going on, but this is the longest ever that I haven’t had a vision.”
“That can’t be good,” I mutter.
“No, it probably isn’t. The realm itself could be blocking the visions, or there could be something else going on,” Rival says. “I know that’s pretty obvious, but that’s all I’ve got at the moment.”
“I think that’s a reasonable explanation,” Rast agrees. “Do you feel okay otherwise?”
Zev shrugs, “I don’t like it. It’s uncomfortable. It makes me feel uneasy. I feel like one of my senses has been completely taken from me.”
