17. A Promise

I cautiously walked through the forest and eventually reached what looked like a clearing.

Further in the distance, I spotted a high wooden wall with an open gate at its center.

I walked towards the gate and entered it to find myself standing at the southern entrance of a certain town.

I looked around and saw that the old wooden buildings were riddled with black arrows.

I also spotted several decaying corpses.

This is where it all began.

I thought back to my final moments on earth while looking up at the clear morning sky.

I was a nobody, who had done nothing and I meant nothing to almost no one.

And it was all due to my inaction.

However, in my short time on Edenton, my actions were the catalysts that led to a civil war, I had watched countless people die and I had made a friend-

Yna.

Who was she exactly?

I almost didn't want to know because the more I learnt about her and the more time we spent together, the scarier she became.

I sighed deeply before walking out of the seemingly deserted town.

Nothing would be achieved by sulking about the past.

I needed to keep my head high and my nerves steeled.

I eventually returned to the hole I had fallen into.

I decided to hide it by creating a dark door that sealed the tunnel.

I then pushed a ton of dirt and rock above it, concealing the door.

I made my way back to Coh and called for Farin since I enjoyed his company while I worked.

We made our way onto the Dark Expanse and settled near the stream where I absorbed all the surrounding darkness.

"Say… what kind of man is Karish?" I eventually asked after getting bored of sitting in silence.

"I can't say. I don't know the elder very well. I lived on the second level and he rarely ever visited us so I rarely got any opportunities to even see him. Actually, one of the more recent times I saw him was when he revealed that you were the vessel of lord kenos."

You say "elder" even though you look way older than Karish. I thought to myself.

"I see." I droned as a cool breeze swept across the Expanse.

This dark place-

Wait a minute!

It's at this moment I realized that none of the Foph I came across had any dark patches on their skin.

Did they have magicians who specialized in the Aspect of Life?

I needed to know, but that'd have to wait until after I returned to Eimval.

I needed to see if Karish and the Ia were alright.

Farin eventually noticed that I had absorbed my fill of darkness and so he picked me up and carried me back home where we met up with Yna who was inspecting a certain clearing on the plateau.

"What are you up to?" I asked.

Farin stood under a tree, shielding us from the sun's heat.

Yna inspected the cleaning for a long minute before finally turning to face me.

"I wanna train some Rendaro."

"Heh?" I sounded as Yna approached.

"It's simple. You and I won't always be around to protect this place. The Rendaro will need to learn to protect themselves and I want to help them do that." Yna said. Her hands on her hips.

I noticed that her eyes were glowing.

She was getting pumped up again.

"I love your enthusiasm, but I'm gonna need you to hit the breaks before you hurt someone," I said before hopping out from Farin's grasp.

"Is there any way I can help?" I asked.

"Yep. I need you to create a large, flat mat of darkness where my students can spar and whatnot." Yna said.

I nodded before making my way towards a certain spot on the edge of the clearing.

Yna then instructed me to construct a flat sheet of darkness that was about the size of a tennis court.

She told me to harden the mat and so I spent the next few hours doing so.

.

..

I let out a yawn while continuously sending darkness into the dark, matte mat. Hehe.

Farin had returned to the main camp while Yna carefully inspected the mat.

She had me cover the entire thing and this covered the entire mat in cool shade.

I reinforced the roof several times over and did the same for the pillars that held everything up before finally dropping my head from exhaustion.

Yna picked me up and walked north while gently petting my tired self.

We then arrived at the waterfall and there, she plopped me into the water where I lazily floated.

Yna on the other hand removed her old leather jacket.

She lightly stretched her muscular arms before removing her shirt.

My eyes widened as I got a closer look at the scars that lined most of her body.

I had seen them before, but this time I was curious.

Yna removed her pants before grabbing all of her clothes and washing them in the stream.

"Umm… how did you get all those scars?" I asked.

Yna looked herself over briefly before washing her clothes once again.

"It depends. I've fought so many things and have been cut so many times that I've lost track. Rendaro, dragons, bizarre beasts, my fellow knights..." Yna said.

"Rendaro? You've killed some before?"

"Yes. I was a captain of a Legion of Knights during the war. I did whatever the Grandmaster said. If he told me to kill everything in a specific area, I'd do so without hesitation." Yna said rather softly.

"Why did you stop being a knight? How did you end up here?"

"I… can't say," Yna said as she hung her clothes on various tree branches.

"Why not?"

Yna turned around and faced me with an expression I had seen her express before.

Anxiety? Fear? I wasn't sure.

Her once golden pupils were so dim, they looked like dark spots in her eyes.

She tightly wrapped her arms around herself as she approached the riverbank where I floated.

"I don't want you to leave after I do." She said softly.

"Is it that bad?"

Yna nodded.

"I see. Will you ever tell me? When we get further down the road?"

"I… I will, but I need you to promise me… when that time comes and my truth is laid bare… when I need you more than ever… will you stand by my side?" Yna asked with an expression that closely resembled pain or maybe even desperation.

"I will."

I said that knowing full well that when the time came I'd panic.

However, unlike before, I'd be prepared.

Yna sank into the stream and allowed her body to drift towards me.

Her eyes began flashing rapidly and I got a very bad feeling in my gut, so I swam away.

Yna's body then began glowing intensely and before I could get away, she grabbed me and engulfed me in her flame.

A flame which burnt so brightly, it bathed the forest in its light.

Yna began floating and even though I wasn't resisting, she tightened her hold on me as flares of light appeared around her body.

And even though they looked extremely hot, none of them burnt me.

"I may not be able to tell you my truth right now, but we can still share our feelings. The burden you'll carry will be heavy, but you don't have to carry it alone. After all, you said we're partners." Yna whispered into my ear as we were entirely engulfed in light.

I could no longer see the forest or the sky.

It was just Yna and I.

"Tell me what worries you."

"Everything. Your past, Kenos's past, the Ia, the Foph, Coh's development, everything. Back on earth, I never really had to worry about much. Most of everything was prepacked, pre-planned and automated, so I never had to stress out about anything. That and I have so many people to think about now. Whereas back on earth, it was only ever just me." I blurted without thinking.

The words just came out of my mouth and it's not because Yna asked me to say all those things.

I just wanted to let her know.

"W- what about you?" I asked nervously.

"I, for the longest time, have been cold and alone. But now I'm scared. You fell into my lap and I've been afraid you'd leave ever since we met. You're such an ambitious and passionate little one. I'm afraid that one day you'll leave me to sit alone in that place. You'll go on to become a leader of countless people, one who can't afford to stand by an old, bloody sword. Regardless of its golden sheen." Yna whispered.

I forcefully turned myself around to face her.

"Don't worry. I made my promise, all I ask is that you do the same." I said.

Yna nodded and the light around us grew several times brighter.

To the point where I couldn't see Yna anymore.

A strange, low sound then filled the air and the light rapidly faded.

Yna slowly fell back into the stream where the heat from her body sent out a plume of steam and unfortunately for me, I could feel the steam's heat.

"Ah!" I cried before diving into the stream where I desperately tried to keep my body from getting cooked.

I eventually emerged from the river deep and I quickly swam over to Yna, who climbed out of the stream.

I then clobbered her shin with my hooves several times to no practical effect.

"You almost cooked me!" I whined.

"Hey, that's what I wanted to do when I first saw you. Isn't that nostalgic?" Yna asked before sitting against a nearby tree.

"No, it's not! It's traumatic!" I cried as I sat next to her.

I wanted to clobber Yna some more, but I quickly noticed that her expression had gone dark again.

"If… if a gate opened up and allowed you to return to your world, would you leave?" Yna asked.

"Hey, we literally just talked about this. I'm not going anywhere and besides, it's not like cosmic collisions happen often, right? Right?" I asked with a nervous chuckle.

"You're right." Yna said with a faint smile.

"Yeah, but speaking of which, when exactly did the previous collision happen?"

"Around five hundred years ago."

"And the one before that?"

"That's just it. That was the first one." Yna said, but I tilted my head in confusion.

If that's the case, then where did all the humans in Edenton come from?

Every source I have said that humanity outnumbered the other races by several folds.

Those humans couldn't have come from earth otherwise archaeologists back home would have found evidence detailing the disappearance of possible thousands.

Something wasn't adding up. Because if that many humans disappeared suddenly, someone would have documented it, even if it was five hundred years in the past.

Either there was another collision before the one that led to the Great War or the humans in Edenton came from an entirely different world.

Yna left me to my pondering as she got dressed.

She then picked me up and began walking back to the cabin all while my thoughts stewed.

She tidied up her cabin before heading towards the main camp where she told Farin that we were leaving for Eimval.

Yog tried standing to join us, but he found himself unable to move like before and so I lifted his stretcher and allowed him to float beside us while we walked.

We said our goodbyes before making our way onto the Dark Expanse where we spotted something approaching from the south.

"Are those… the Ia?" I asked.

Yna tapped my head prompting me to look up at her.

She gestured that I look east.

I did so and my eyes almost popped out of my skull upon noticing a large group of what looked like Foph approaching.

"Well, shit."