Change is in the Air

Taran exited his dwelling and knocked on the wooden cabin next door. He had been using it for Dania, but after her sudden departure, the nobleman had set up a bed inside the scientist's lab and had at least four guards inside and four guards outside watching her at all times.

So when Livie had arrived and subsequently been treated, she had taken up residence next door to him. It was his sister that he was visiting now.

It took a moment for the door to finally open, but when it did, Fechin was the one who answered the knock. The hulking wolf, who took up as much of the doorway as he, looked quizzically at the nobleman. Taran returned his confused gaze.

"My lady will be with you in a moment," Fechin said with a bow. His furry head nearly scraped the top of the doorframe as he stood back straight.

"Who is it?" Livie asked. Her voice came from the back of the two-room cabin.

"It's your brother!" Taran called to her angrily. "Now let me in before I do something to your lapdog."

Livie sighed, her quiet steps drawing near. "It's alright, Fechin. Perhaps you should take a walk so my brother and I can have a quiet chat." A slender hand came over the wolf's shoulder to dismiss him.

"I will fetch you some water and breakfast, my lady." Fechin turned, took the lady's hand and brought it to his snout before excusing himself.

Taran barely had time to move out of the way as the silver wolf pushed past him. "He's becoming less subservient now that he can take out an entire village with his claws."

Livie brushed back her long hair over her shoulders. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

Taran eyed her carefully for a moment as he strode inside the room. "Were you two...?"

Livie hissed at him, "Don't be crass! Not that it is any of your business, but he was helping me with my new clothing. Your tailors made something that will fit me with my new...enhancements..."

"Why didn't one of the tailors, or any of the ladies in the camp for that matter, help you don your new gown?" Taran ran his fingers up the sleeve of the dress to feel the fine fabric. It had definitely been repurposed from an outfit or two of someone who had transformed. It was good fabric, but not the quality which Livie was accustomed to wearing.

Annoyed, Livie jerked her shoulder away from him and took a seat on a cushion. "I don't trust any of them. Fechin has always cared for my needs. I see no reason to change things now. We get along very well."

"I'm sure you do," Taran raised one eyebrow. "It seems we both have a taste for things we shouldn't have."

"Speak for yourself..." Livie glared at him. "Though when we are successful, anyone will be within my reach. Commoner or king, they will all seek me out."

"When we are successful, I like how you said that." The man smirked.

"Of course!" Livie clicked her tongue. "For with the power running through me, there is no way we can lose."

"The power running through us," her brother corrected her.

"Yes…if not for…" Livie ran her tongue across her teeth as she thought. "Do you feel it too?"

"The pull, you mean?" Taran scratched the back of his neck. "We will use it against our enemies if necessary. It shouldn't be an issue."

"Speaking of our enemies. I do think we should leave and head to Oblivion. The lack of news is frustrating." Livie pouted.

"We couldn't leave until we were sure our conditions were stable, you know that." Taran did not share her concern. "And anyway, I have no intention of heading to Oblivion."

"But my troops!" Livie exclaimed with a scree almost too high to hear.

"Fechin said the imperial troops had exited Oblivion immediately after you were attacked. So either they were successful in taking out the ambush and our now ruling in Oblivion, in which case we should have gotten a message of some kind by now, or the attack was successful and all of your troops are dead." The charismatic man shrugged.

"Taran!" Livie resisted the urge she felt to make her brother suffer. "I knew it! I knew you left me with the weaker ones!"

"Hey! I did gift you those mindless bears and you insisted on keeping Hadley. If you cannot handle the resources I gave you, then it is very good that I did not give you more."

"Be careful with what you say, brother," Livie began to feel her blood burn.

"Calm down, sister. Look on the bright side. Since it was the less valuable troops, it was an acceptable loss. And because they infected the soldiers in Oblivion, it should be much easier to get inside Valiant by claiming to be more of those unfortunate souls who are also victims." Taran pouted, pretending to be full of woe.

"We are to attack Valiant head-on then?" Livie cooled her temper to pay attention to the man's implication.

"We are packing up to head south this very morning." Taran looked at the window as if to confirm the position of the sun.

"Why was I not informed?!" The noblewoman's nose flared. "I would have liked to have been in on that planning. I thought we were partners in this."

"We are. You were...busy," Taran said briefly.

Livie's face reddened. "So just like that we abandon Oblivion and head for Valiant?"

Taran nodded. "The Empress either died in the assault or has escaped to a safer place. Either way, this is the time to act. We cannot let the Council scramble to form a defense."

"What about the places between here and Valiant? Surely they will sound the alarm that we are coming." Livie did not like this course of action. It exposed them far too much after their careful planning.

"We will take each city as we go and eliminate resistance at the forts. With our ability to infect those who resist us, we only need to scratch them instead of kill them. The odds are distinctly in our favor. Someday they will thank us for showing them the right path." Taran smiled at the prospect of more joining his cause.

"In truth I am anxious to leave. Letting the princess go into the land of magic was a foolish move." Livie scolded.

"It was a move that saved your life. If we had attacked then Dania could have gotten caught in the crossfire, and she would have been unable to save your life. And if you are worried about the elves, don't be. I think they are just as scared of us as the Fates. As for the princess herself, there has been no time for Mairwen to mobilize the humans even if she wanted to…Dania assured me that those four humans were the only ones who had come to rescue her."

"Speaking of Dania. What are your plans for her?" Livie tilted her head, a strange smile came to her face which never reached her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Taran feigned the same ignorance his sister had only a moment before.

"You know what I mean. Now that she has completed her usefulness, do you plan to leave her behind?"

Taran turned up his nose. "She is coming with us, of course. Dania has finally run out of excuses for why we cannot move on." The nobleman sighed, "And if I am being honest, her insistence we must stay put here is grating on my nerves."

"You are finally losing interest in her, then? I was beginning to wonder." Livie's high-pitched voice laughed airily.

"I am not losing interest. I plan to marry that woman!" Taran's mouth set itself in a hard line.

"Oh please, if you had really wanted to marry her, you would have done it by now. You are more like Father than you want to admit. When he wants something enough, he just takes it." With the exception of Fechin and his master, the men in Livie's life were all the same. They took and never cared who was left behind in their wake.

Taran snorted. "I'll marry her in the first town we reach. Her siblings can be there for a reception after we win."

"Want to bet?" Livie cut her eyes at her brother.

Before he could answer, Fechin knocked at the door. "My Lady, Sir Taran!"

"Must he say your name first?" Taran muttered.

"He calls by order of importance. Come in!" Livie bid her assistant to enter without consulting her brother.

He bristled, but remained in control as the silver wolf hastily pushed open the door. "What now Fechin? Another emergency?"

"I'm not sure..." the silver wolf admitted.

"I swear every time I see you, Fechin, you put me in a foul mood." Taran scoffed and crossed his arms. "Out with it!"

"Let him speak!" Livie did not like her brother's tone. "What is your news?"

Fechin chewed his lip for a moment and sighed. "Both of you may want to come with me. Something has changed."