Chapter 684: Freedom
The servant bowed, but Elion noticed how tightly her hands had clasped together beneath her sleeves. Whatever she thought about this arrangement, she clearly had no intention of questioning it.
"As you wish, master."
Elion waited until she moved toward the door before signalling for the others to follow. They needed no encouragement, though Mayumi remained close enough to brush his shoulder as they crossed the chamber.
"You’re really bringing her with us?" she asked quietly.
He glanced back.
Kali was still watching him from her throne, her chin resting upon her fist and a contented smile upon her face. Beside her, the three remaining sages stood motionless near the heap of human bones.
"We’ll discuss it when we’re alone," Elion murmured.
Mayumi’s gaze dropped briefly toward his left arm. He noticed the movement and flexed his fingers, then pulled his hand closer to his side as they passed through the doorway.
...
’Freedom!’
The stone rippled as Elion passed through it, and a moment later, the dim confines of the underground settlement gave way to sunlight.
He stepped onto the weathered paving beyond the boulder, drawing in a deep breath of air that smelled of damp earth and vegetation rather than enclosed streets and stagnant water.
He was rather pleased with how things had turned out. They had avoided a potentially life-threatening disaster after all.
But once again, this little occurrence had reminded him how utterly weak he still was, and part of him was well aware of just how blindly he had come to rely on Zenith as of late, which is why he had told her to stay, despite the fact that she easily would have been able to enter with.
He didn’t linger on the thought, but he made a mental note on the subject.
The others emerged behind him in quick succession, and he turned to make sure everyone had crossed before allowing himself to relax.
Kali came through last, looking mildly interested as the sunlight caught upon her long hair.
Her dress stirred around her ankles in the breeze, and without the oppressive aura she had previously allowed to spill from her body, she could almost have passed for an ordinary woman.
Elion’s gaze lingered on her for a moment before moving toward Eva, who stood close to Nora with both hands clasped in front of her.
The little girl had woken up early that morning, and by the time they were ready to leave, she had decided that she would be accompanying them. Elion hadn’t found much reason to object.
Leaving her behind had been a matter of necessity when they were trying to escape, but now that Kali had agreed to let them leave, taking her along seemed considerably less troublesome, though he still quite didn’t know what to do with her after.
For now, it was sufficient to just ride the wave up until they left this place.
He hadn’t wanted to douse her excitement at the time anyway, since she had looked quite pleased with herself until she saw who would be joining them.
Since then, she had barely made a sound.
Even now, her attention kept straying toward Kali, only for her eyes to drop immediately whenever the woman turned in her direction.
The fear in those fleeting glances was too obvious to dismiss. Clearly, the two were familiar with each other, though Elion wasn’t particularly eager to find out what sort of encounters had made Eva so frightened of the woman.
"Come on," he said, turning toward the avenue leading through the ruins. "Let’s get out of here."
They retraced their way between the abandoned structures, passing beneath fractured arches and around the enormous fallen pillars scattered across the pavement.
In the daylight, the sunken city seemed less obscure, though its desolation had lost none of its grandeur.
Narrow shafts of sunlight reached between the towering buildings, illuminating pale walls furrowed with cracks and terraces where shrubs had taken root in ancient stone.
Their footsteps echoed through the deserted avenues. Here and there, a loose fragment of masonry shifted beneath someone’s boot, its clatter briefly disturbing the silence before the sound disappeared among the surrounding structures.
Elion kept his eyes moving as they walked. Having Kali beside him was reassuring in one sense, but he hadn’t suddenly forgotten where they were, or how poorly following someone through unfamiliar ruins had worked out the previous day.
They reached the stairway leading toward the broken outer wall without encountering anything troublesome.
The climb was slow in places, with fallen stone forcing them to move along the edges of the steps, but before long, the buildings began sinking below their line of sight.
The distant trees appeared again, followed by the broad expanse of sky that had been hidden from them within the depression.
Cole paused near the top, looking back over the city.
"Looks a little different now," he muttered.
Elion followed his gaze toward the jagged spire rising above the surrounding ruins, then toward the place where the hidden entrance lay somewhere beneath all that stone.
"Let’s hope it stays behind us."
Kali had already turned north.
Once everyone reached the top, she led them away from the outer wall and into the sparse woodland beyond it, choosing her direction with enough certainty that Elion hoped she actually remembered where she was going, since she wasn’t using the same mode of transport.
Regardless of the fact that he didn’t know how she had travelled before, he could make a few guesses.
The ground remained relatively flat at first, covered in dry leaves, scattered stones and low patches of grass.
Sunlight filtered through the thin canopy, and the breeze moved freely between the widely spaced trunks. After spending the night underground, even the ordinary rustling of foliage seemed rather pleasant.
It was some time before Elion brought up the matter that had been troubling him since they left.
"What do you intend to do with the people back there?"
Kali glanced at him. "Which people?"
Elion gave her an incredulous look. "The ones on your food farm."
"Oh." She considered the question with a disturbing lack of interest. "I suppose I could kill them. I don’t particularly need them anymore, and they haven’t suited my tastes for quite some time."
Elion stopped walking.
Kali took another few steps before noticing, then turned toward him with a questioning expression. Behind them, the others slowed as well, their gazes moving between the pair.
"No," Elion said firmly. "You will not."
Her brows drew together. "Why?"
"Because they’re people, Kali. You don’t get to kill them simply because you’ve decided they aren’t useful to you anymore."
"But they’re mine."
"That doesn’t make it better!"
His voice rose enough to disturb something in a nearby bush, and a small creature darted between the roots before vanishing into the undergrowth. Elion barely noticed.
He was too busy staring at the woman who had suggested slaughtering an entire settlement with the same casual indifference someone might show toward clearing out unwanted belongings.
He didn’t really care about these people, but it was her attitude that bothered him.
Kali looked distinctly displeased.
"You’re making a fuss."
"Yes, I’m making a fuss," he replied. "You just suggested killing everyone on your farm because they don’t taste good anymore. What sort of response did you expect?"
She opened her mouth, paused, then folded her arms.
Behind Elion, Cole gave Maya a cautious sideways glance. Maya returned it, looking almost as bewildered as he did, while Mayumi’s gaze remained fixed on the unlikely argument unfolding before them.
None of them seemed entirely certain whether they should intervene or quietly prepare to run.
Elion drew in a breath, reminding himself that shouting at a saint wasn’t something he should make a habit of.
"Listen," he said, lowering his voice without softening his expression. "If we’re going to travel together, this is something you need to understand. Killing people whenever they inconvenience you is going to cause problems for both of us."
Kali’s eyes narrowed slightly. "They would have remained alive if I hadn’t taken them?"
"Some of them probably would have preferred that, yes."
She looked genuinely doubtful, and Elion felt an unpleasant ache forming behind his brow.
"In any case, leave them alone," he continued. "You’re leaving, so let them get on with their lives. There is absolutely no reason to kill them."
For several moments, Kali said nothing. Then she turned away with a small, irritated huff.
"Fine. They can stay where they are."
’She’s almost like a child in some ways.’ He couldn’t help but think... He watched her begin walking again, then reluctantly followed.
It wasn’t everything he might have wanted to hear, but it was considerably better than finding out she intended to dispose of them before leaving the world.
The others resumed their pace behind him, and after a little while, Mayumi leaned closer to Maya and Cole.
"He certainly knows how to make an impression on very odd people," she whispered.
Cole’s mouth twitched, though he kept his voice low. "I thought she was going to tear something else off."
Maya glanced toward Elion and Kali, who were now walking beside each other as though nothing particularly unusual had happened.
"I’m still not entirely sure she won’t."