Spoiler! :
The tense silence that fell between them was palpable.
James was watching her with a look of increasing confusion and concern, and she couldn't meet his eyes anymore. She looked down into her lap, feeling like everything was falling into place, and at the same time, falling apart.
"...What?" James whispered, his brows pinched together tightly.
"What did you do with the coffin?" Clandestine cut in. "What did you -- where did it--"
"What do you mean I found--" James tried to interrupt.
"I was inside that coffin!" Clandestine raised her voice, leaning in towards James with her hands raised, fingers tensely arched as she gestured at him in a desparate frustration she hadn't expect to be unburied.
It felt like she was waking up from it all over again.
Blearily, her eyes opened up to darkness. The whole world around her shook, and she jolted, hitting her head on a hard surface above her with a thump.
Her whole head throbbed, and her ears started ringing. Her arms shot out at her sides, trying to steady herself and get her bearings, but she was quickly met with four wooden walls, locking her inside what felt like a coffin, or a closet.
The air was stale and thick, catching in her lungs with what felt like decade's worth of must. She choked out a cough, feeling panic rise in her chest as reality began to dawn on her, and she realized she was trapped.
She started hyperventilating.
Every breath felt pained, like she couldn't get enough air or oxygen.
Finally, her ears stopped ringing, and she could hear another thump somewhere outside. A voice. It sounded like a man, maybe above her.
A desparate, feral panic overtook her and she began to smash her fists into the wooden surface above her, gasping for air.
"Please!" she screamed, her voice hoarse and wavering. It felt like she hadn't used her voice in ages. It felt weak, and it hurt to talk.
"Please!" she shouted again, tears streaming down the sides of her face as she thrashed inside, feeling the desperation pool in her chest, suffocating and insecapable.
"Get me out of here!"
And suddenly, a crack.
It was loud, like thunder. There was a rush of air that flooded in, and she could hear it come in with a whoosh, filling her lungs like she was taking her very first breath of real air.
Light flooded in. Bright, and blinding.
Not far from her face, the blade of an axe broke through, splintering the thick wood around her. It felt like something in the air around her broke - like a seal had shattered, and suddenly, the world felt tangible again. Her voice left her, and she glued herself to the other side of the coffin, as far from the blade as possible.
"Did I get you?" a man's voice asked, crisp and calm.
Clandestine stared as the shining blade of the axe receded, leaving a sliver of an opening she could see through.
She could see a portion of the man's face.
His skin was pale, but weathered. His eye looked haggard, and the lower half of his face was hidden by a shaggy, patchy blond beard.
She didn't recognize him.
Not at all.
"Stay back on that side," the man said. "We'll get you out."
Clandestine pulled away, holding her breath. She heard the whizz of the axe through the air before it came down with another crack.
James had leaned away from her, and he was watching her with wide eyes, his brows furrowed tightly. Clandestine noticed that he'd set his bowl of food to the side like he'd given up on trying to eat during this conversation. If Clandestine hadn't already finished her food, she'd give up on eating too.
She hadn't thought about all of this in years. To be particular, exactly five years, ever since she woke up from it all.
What was she supposed to do with it?
Silva had been the one person in the world Clandestine had trusted in the whole world. And she... she left Clandestine without an explanation. Without anything.
Clandestine had woken up decades later to a world completely changed, and she didn't even know why. Even she hadn't been able to read the text on the front of her coffin.
And now James was telling her it said something about a dragon?
This didn't make any sense. She didn't want it to.
Dragons were gone. Right? No one had seen them since before the Great War. That's what she was told, at least.
She shook her head, pulling up her knees as she leaned forward, burying her face in her hands.
She knew she couldn't just leave James hanging, but she didn't know what to say to all of this. She wished she could offer some kind of explanation, but she felt like all she had were broken pieces of a story that Silva never told her.
"...Are you alright?" James asked softly beside her.
Clandestine laughed weakly into her hands.
"I don't think so," she said sadly.
There was another long silence that felt like it dragged on, and Clandestine couldn't help but feel like she'd ruined everything. She'd thought this conversation was just going to be about James. She hadn't expected any part of his story to be connected to hers. Why would it be? He was a soldier from the Moonlight Kingdom, born in a different age, and was a wanted criminal. She was expecting his story to end with him ending the war, and him quitting.
Instead, his victory led him and the soldiers with him into finding her.
Her mind started racing.
It wasn't like she wanted the mages to lose - but what would've happened if they did? Would the mages have buried the bodies of the soldiers? Would Clandestine have even been found? If she hadn't been found, would she have woken up six feet underground, buried alive, never to be discovered?
She didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but all of them seemed to have terrifying implications.
"So you were the person in the coffin," James said quietly.
Clandestine rubbed her face with both hands and finally looked up, feeling small as she sat curled up beside him, her overgrown bangs falling into her eyes.
"Yeah," she said.
There was a beat of silence. Clandestine could hear the crackling of the fire behind her like a heartbeat, reminding her it was there.
"Can I ask how you ended up in there?" James asked hesitantly.
It was a fair question, especially considering how much he'd shared in return. She just didn't know how to explain it as succinctly as he'd been telling his story. He seemed to be able to streamline everything into the most important parts, meanwhile... her head felt like it was a mess.
"My mentor put me in there," she said.
James blinked.
"Your monster-hunting mentor?" he asked.
"Yeah," Clandestine said.
Clandestine watched as James looked out into the field ahead of them, his face pinched in deep thought.
"Why?" he asked quietly.
That, she wished she knew.
"I can guess," she said, her mouth hidden behind her arms, still hugging her legs. "But I don't really know for sure. All I know is that one day, everything was normal. And then the next, the whole guild was bustling with worry. No one would tell me why, but I could tell everyone was freaked out, even if they wouldn't tell me what was going on. Maybe it was just because I was young at the time - but I wasn't that young. I was 19, but I guess I was still a child in their eyes."
She sat up a little straighter, frowning as she looked over at Billy.
The horses were fast asleep, now. It was late, and she was starting to feel it.
It had been a long day. A long two days. And it was only feeling longer.
"There was a woman who came rushing into the guild, wanting to meet with Silva. At first, I thought it was because Silva was the guild leader," Clandestine said. "But I think it was actually about me. Silva was my guardian and had been ever since I was a child. She was like a mother to me, but never let me call her mom. Even though I always thought of her that way..."
She sighed, frowning deeply as she swallowed down a lump in small her throat.
"I overheard them through the walls. They were talking about me," Clandestine said. "I couldn't make much of it out because their conversation was so hushed but... it was all just so weird. I'd never seen that woman in my life. I knew of her, but I'd never met her. She was some really powerful fire mage, named Svida. She was really well-known because she was the leader of the Burninghead Guild up north, and--"
Clandestine hesitated, realizing that there was a key piece of information that had gotten lost in translation.
James was staring at her, deep confusion filling his wide eyes as his brows knit together even tighter.
Clandestine had forgotten.
For years, she simply never talked about where she came from, or about how she woke up in a graveyard, moments before she was buried alive, and managed to be heard soon enough to be freed from the coffin.
But because she'd never spoken of it, she also never mentioned when she came from.
"You're talking about the mage guilds," James said. "From before the war."
Clandestine let out a nervous laugh.
"Yeah," she said.
"That was almost 100 years ago," James said, still staring at her in bewilderment.
Clandestine couldn't help but feel awkward, shriveling under his gaze.
"Yeah," she said defensively. "I know."
James raised his hand up to his face and held the bridge of his nose, rubbing his eyes for a second before he rapidly shook his head. Staring now at the ground, he blinked like he was trying to blink away the confusion.
"But you're alive," he said. "And you look--"
"Young?" Clandestine interjected with a stiff smile.
James looked up at her letting out a deep sigh.
"You said you were 19. Was that how old you were when your mentor... put you in the coffin?" James asked.
Clandestine shrugged, her smile waning.
"Yeah," she said. "When I woke up... I'd grown a little. But not much. When I was put in the coffin, it was [insert year]. But when I woke up, it was [insert year]. And yet, for me, it was like hardly any time passed at all."
She tried smiling, but this time, it felt too forced. It faded as quickly as she mustered it up, and she looked away.
"I don't know how to explain it either," she said quietly. "I thought... maybe it was the coffin. But... I don't know. Can lifeblood trees keep people from aging? Is that possible?"
She knew James wouldn't have an answer to that. She didn't know why she was asking it out loud.
"Sorry," she said. "You were telling your story, and I..."
"Are a part of it," James said. And there was something in his tone that was more confident. Like he was making sense of things. But Clandestine didn't know how any of this made sense.
What did he know that she didn't?
"Is there more?" she asked quietly, feeling even smaller as she looked at him.
There was an intensity in his eyes upon first glance, but when he met her eyes, his look softened, somehow serious and gentle at the same time.
"Yes," he said. "Because when we found the coffin - when we found you - we didn't leave you there."
Clandestine held her legs a little tighter.
"You... you didn't?" she asked.
"No," he said. "We took the coffin back with us to the Moonlight Kingdom capital."
Clandestine felt her chest grow tight.
"We took you to King's Peak."
James was watching her with a look of increasing confusion and concern, and she couldn't meet his eyes anymore. She looked down into her lap, feeling like everything was falling into place, and at the same time, falling apart.
"...What?" James whispered, his brows pinched together tightly.
"What did you do with the coffin?" Clandestine cut in. "What did you -- where did it--"
"What do you mean I found--" James tried to interrupt.
"I was inside that coffin!" Clandestine raised her voice, leaning in towards James with her hands raised, fingers tensely arched as she gestured at him in a desparate frustration she hadn't expect to be unburied.
It felt like she was waking up from it all over again.
Blearily, her eyes opened up to darkness. The whole world around her shook, and she jolted, hitting her head on a hard surface above her with a thump.
Her whole head throbbed, and her ears started ringing. Her arms shot out at her sides, trying to steady herself and get her bearings, but she was quickly met with four wooden walls, locking her inside what felt like a coffin, or a closet.
The air was stale and thick, catching in her lungs with what felt like decade's worth of must. She choked out a cough, feeling panic rise in her chest as reality began to dawn on her, and she realized she was trapped.
She started hyperventilating.
Every breath felt pained, like she couldn't get enough air or oxygen.
Finally, her ears stopped ringing, and she could hear another thump somewhere outside. A voice. It sounded like a man, maybe above her.
A desparate, feral panic overtook her and she began to smash her fists into the wooden surface above her, gasping for air.
"Please!" she screamed, her voice hoarse and wavering. It felt like she hadn't used her voice in ages. It felt weak, and it hurt to talk.
"Please!" she shouted again, tears streaming down the sides of her face as she thrashed inside, feeling the desperation pool in her chest, suffocating and insecapable.
"Get me out of here!"
And suddenly, a crack.
It was loud, like thunder. There was a rush of air that flooded in, and she could hear it come in with a whoosh, filling her lungs like she was taking her very first breath of real air.
Light flooded in. Bright, and blinding.
Not far from her face, the blade of an axe broke through, splintering the thick wood around her. It felt like something in the air around her broke - like a seal had shattered, and suddenly, the world felt tangible again. Her voice left her, and she glued herself to the other side of the coffin, as far from the blade as possible.
"Did I get you?" a man's voice asked, crisp and calm.
Clandestine stared as the shining blade of the axe receded, leaving a sliver of an opening she could see through.
She could see a portion of the man's face.
His skin was pale, but weathered. His eye looked haggard, and the lower half of his face was hidden by a shaggy, patchy blond beard.
She didn't recognize him.
Not at all.
"Stay back on that side," the man said. "We'll get you out."
Clandestine pulled away, holding her breath. She heard the whizz of the axe through the air before it came down with another crack.
James had leaned away from her, and he was watching her with wide eyes, his brows furrowed tightly. Clandestine noticed that he'd set his bowl of food to the side like he'd given up on trying to eat during this conversation. If Clandestine hadn't already finished her food, she'd give up on eating too.
She hadn't thought about all of this in years. To be particular, exactly five years, ever since she woke up from it all.
What was she supposed to do with it?
Silva had been the one person in the world Clandestine had trusted in the whole world. And she... she left Clandestine without an explanation. Without anything.
Clandestine had woken up decades later to a world completely changed, and she didn't even know why. Even she hadn't been able to read the text on the front of her coffin.
And now James was telling her it said something about a dragon?
This didn't make any sense. She didn't want it to.
Dragons were gone. Right? No one had seen them since before the Great War. That's what she was told, at least.
She shook her head, pulling up her knees as she leaned forward, burying her face in her hands.
She knew she couldn't just leave James hanging, but she didn't know what to say to all of this. She wished she could offer some kind of explanation, but she felt like all she had were broken pieces of a story that Silva never told her.
"...Are you alright?" James asked softly beside her.
Clandestine laughed weakly into her hands.
"I don't think so," she said sadly.
There was another long silence that felt like it dragged on, and Clandestine couldn't help but feel like she'd ruined everything. She'd thought this conversation was just going to be about James. She hadn't expected any part of his story to be connected to hers. Why would it be? He was a soldier from the Moonlight Kingdom, born in a different age, and was a wanted criminal. She was expecting his story to end with him ending the war, and him quitting.
Instead, his victory led him and the soldiers with him into finding her.
Her mind started racing.
It wasn't like she wanted the mages to lose - but what would've happened if they did? Would the mages have buried the bodies of the soldiers? Would Clandestine have even been found? If she hadn't been found, would she have woken up six feet underground, buried alive, never to be discovered?
She didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but all of them seemed to have terrifying implications.
"So you were the person in the coffin," James said quietly.
Clandestine rubbed her face with both hands and finally looked up, feeling small as she sat curled up beside him, her overgrown bangs falling into her eyes.
"Yeah," she said.
There was a beat of silence. Clandestine could hear the crackling of the fire behind her like a heartbeat, reminding her it was there.
"Can I ask how you ended up in there?" James asked hesitantly.
It was a fair question, especially considering how much he'd shared in return. She just didn't know how to explain it as succinctly as he'd been telling his story. He seemed to be able to streamline everything into the most important parts, meanwhile... her head felt like it was a mess.
"My mentor put me in there," she said.
James blinked.
"Your monster-hunting mentor?" he asked.
"Yeah," Clandestine said.
Clandestine watched as James looked out into the field ahead of them, his face pinched in deep thought.
"Why?" he asked quietly.
That, she wished she knew.
"I can guess," she said, her mouth hidden behind her arms, still hugging her legs. "But I don't really know for sure. All I know is that one day, everything was normal. And then the next, the whole guild was bustling with worry. No one would tell me why, but I could tell everyone was freaked out, even if they wouldn't tell me what was going on. Maybe it was just because I was young at the time - but I wasn't that young. I was 19, but I guess I was still a child in their eyes."
She sat up a little straighter, frowning as she looked over at Billy.
The horses were fast asleep, now. It was late, and she was starting to feel it.
It had been a long day. A long two days. And it was only feeling longer.
"There was a woman who came rushing into the guild, wanting to meet with Silva. At first, I thought it was because Silva was the guild leader," Clandestine said. "But I think it was actually about me. Silva was my guardian and had been ever since I was a child. She was like a mother to me, but never let me call her mom. Even though I always thought of her that way..."
She sighed, frowning deeply as she swallowed down a lump in small her throat.
"I overheard them through the walls. They were talking about me," Clandestine said. "I couldn't make much of it out because their conversation was so hushed but... it was all just so weird. I'd never seen that woman in my life. I knew of her, but I'd never met her. She was some really powerful fire mage, named Svida. She was really well-known because she was the leader of the Burninghead Guild up north, and--"
Clandestine hesitated, realizing that there was a key piece of information that had gotten lost in translation.
James was staring at her, deep confusion filling his wide eyes as his brows knit together even tighter.
Clandestine had forgotten.
For years, she simply never talked about where she came from, or about how she woke up in a graveyard, moments before she was buried alive, and managed to be heard soon enough to be freed from the coffin.
But because she'd never spoken of it, she also never mentioned when she came from.
"You're talking about the mage guilds," James said. "From before the war."
Clandestine let out a nervous laugh.
"Yeah," she said.
"That was almost 100 years ago," James said, still staring at her in bewilderment.
Clandestine couldn't help but feel awkward, shriveling under his gaze.
"Yeah," she said defensively. "I know."
James raised his hand up to his face and held the bridge of his nose, rubbing his eyes for a second before he rapidly shook his head. Staring now at the ground, he blinked like he was trying to blink away the confusion.
"But you're alive," he said. "And you look--"
"Young?" Clandestine interjected with a stiff smile.
James looked up at her letting out a deep sigh.
"You said you were 19. Was that how old you were when your mentor... put you in the coffin?" James asked.
Clandestine shrugged, her smile waning.
"Yeah," she said. "When I woke up... I'd grown a little. But not much. When I was put in the coffin, it was [insert year]. But when I woke up, it was [insert year]. And yet, for me, it was like hardly any time passed at all."
She tried smiling, but this time, it felt too forced. It faded as quickly as she mustered it up, and she looked away.
"I don't know how to explain it either," she said quietly. "I thought... maybe it was the coffin. But... I don't know. Can lifeblood trees keep people from aging? Is that possible?"
She knew James wouldn't have an answer to that. She didn't know why she was asking it out loud.
"Sorry," she said. "You were telling your story, and I..."
"Are a part of it," James said. And there was something in his tone that was more confident. Like he was making sense of things. But Clandestine didn't know how any of this made sense.
What did he know that she didn't?
"Is there more?" she asked quietly, feeling even smaller as she looked at him.
There was an intensity in his eyes upon first glance, but when he met her eyes, his look softened, somehow serious and gentle at the same time.
"Yes," he said. "Because when we found the coffin - when we found you - we didn't leave you there."
Clandestine held her legs a little tighter.
"You... you didn't?" she asked.
"No," he said. "We took the coffin back with us to the Moonlight Kingdom capital."
Clandestine felt her chest grow tight.
"We took you to King's Peak."
Spoiler! :
"There were many meetings had after we returned," James said, feeling the weight of what he was going to say next grip him even tighter.
"And... I didn't quit," James said. "I got promoted."
He could hear the questions Clandestine left unsaid as she watched him, her eyes big and glossy. He could tell that she was trying to keep back tears, and had been attempting to laugh it off this whole time. But he felt like he was looking into a window at a pain and heartache he couldn't even measure. There were so many implications to what she'd said. Her trusted mentor sounded like a harsh woman who might've held Clandestine at a distance, and James could only assume that if Clandestine's mentor was her guardian, that her parents were out of the picture. She was either orphaned or abandoned, and both options were tragic.
He knew that she was still reeling from the realization that she'd been found by the Moonlight Kingdom, and that somehow, she was inexplicably connected to his story. She would want to know what had happened to her, and how she'd ended up outside of King's Peak by the time she'd woken up.
"Your coffin was taken deep beneath the palace, in the kingdom's secret archives," James continued soberly. "At the time, they didn't know what to do with it. But they were determined to translate the writing on the coffin and discover its significance, if there was any. At that point, it was out of my hands... for a time."
James took in a deep breath, glancing at Clandestine again, aware of how the night was dragging on and how tired she seemed.
He hesitated.
"Maybe... maybe we should continue this later," he said quietly.
Clandestine shot up, looking to him with a pout, her brows drawn into a line.
"Why?" she whispered. "Did something-- is it something else? Something bad?"
James shook his head.
"No," he said. "It's just that you look exhausted."
Clandestine deflated, letting out a long sigh as she slumped forward, leaning against her knees once more.
"I am," she said. "But... I won't be able to go to sleep until I know how this all connects. I feel like..."
She swallowed, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes before she looked up at him again.
"You know, it's been five years since I've had any answers," she said. "Five years since I woke up in a graveyard, narrowly avoiding being buried alive - apparently for a second time. And I... I need to know. I don't know if you know why all of this happened but ever since I woke up and realized I'd been asleep for 100 years... you have no idea how this has felt for me. It's like I've been living a dream. None of it feels real. It does, but it doesn't. Everything I once knew is gone. Everything's so different now."
She turning her body to face him.
"I was tucked away and you were promoted," Clandestine said. "But our paths must've crossed again after that. I can feel it."
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