With three distinct layers on and a cloak Aurelia had lent me, I likely appeared as if I were 20 pounds heavier than I actually was as I squatted down on the ground.

  Despite going on a walk around the castle and visiting the horse stable, Aurelia still hadn’t come back, leaving me no choice but to absentmindedly drag a stick across the snow in an attempt to waste time until Aurelia got her money. And to distract myself from thinking about the lieutenant. But while I could confidently say I was accomplishing the former with flying colors, I was failing miserably at the latter.

  Gradually, I started to feel a rage that only seemed to increase in intensity as I continued to draw in the snow, until the fury I felt seemed to reach its zenith, and I angrily threw the stick to the side, mostly out of anger, though partly out of frustration that I didn’t know why I was feeling such a way.

  After pulling the skin on my face down in severe irritation, I rubbed my temples together, before resting my arms on my knees and digging my lower mouth into the crook of my inner elbow.

  “Sol!”

  Hearing my name, I shot up to see the smiling face of Aurelia as she cheerfully jingled a small leather pouch.

  I limped as fast as I could to stand in front of her.

  Aurelia passed one of the two packs she was holding to me, before walking past to the side entrance.

  Suddenly stopping, she turned around, and asked, “Are you going to have any trouble walking?”

  To her question, I hopped in place, showing that I was injured, but not enough so as to significantly slow us down.

  Chuckling slightly, she offered her hand for me to grasp, and we left through the castle’s side gate.

  The world outside, even shrouded in shadows from the lack of sunlight, somehow looked more beautiful, more vibrant as we stepped out of the castle.

  Despite the trees still being the same green needle trees whose bark was sticky to the touch, the ground still covered in snow that would soak my leather shoes as I trekked on it, and the air still so dry that my skin would likely become chapped, cracked, and bloody in the next few days, I somehow felt different.

  The trees were somehow more green, the tangy, woody, slightly herbal scent of sap somehow more pronounced. The snow was still white, but under the moonlight, it seemed to glisten more beautifully, to the point where I would still feel horrible walking on it, but not from my shoes getting wet, but from the fact I would be ruining such naturally generated beauty. The air was still dry and caused just as much pain as it entered my lungs, but it now also felt refreshing and almost comforting, as if even though it was still painful, the pain it generated only served to enhance the beauty of the world and made one gain a new appreciation for the parts previously unknown and overlooked.

  My gait now more energetic, I followed Aurelia from behind on the road, quietly admiring the forest around us, when a cough not originating from either of our throats suddenly echoed.

  Pushing me behind her, Aurelia glared in front from where the noise came from.

  The light in her eyes white hot but her tone frigid, she loudly demanded, “Come out.”

  With his arms raised in surrender, the head guard slowly, and calmly walked out from the tree he was hiding behind.

  “Didn’t Aurelia just get her payment from you?” I confusedly asked, desperately attempting to hide the fear I felt from his presence.

  “I might be weaker than the captain was,” he calmly relayed, “But coming here from the castle in the time Aurelia took to get you is more than doable at level 3.”

  “Don’t talk to the boy,” Aurelia coldly stated, “What do you want?”

  “Calm down,” he suggested, before throwing a small pouch at me.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Instinctively catching the container, I tentatively opened it, only to be met with the characteristic “shine” of light reflecting off of silver.

  Roughly counting the number of coins in the pocket, I estimated the pouch held at least twenty silver coins. Four months salary for an ordinary soldier.

  Head tilted, I wordlessly questioned him why he would do such a thing, to which the head soldier merely waved his hand.

  “Just think of it as a final act of kindness from an old man’s shriveled up heart.”

  Passing the two of us, he began to whistle.

  Somehow, his lone figure, surrounded by a seemingly endless number of trees and illuminated by only the twin moons, gave off a lonely, melancholic air.

  ***

  “Why didn’t the head guard force me back?” Sol asked Aurelia midchew.

  Having walked in silence for 4 hours after leaving the castle, the two were slightly tired and elected to take a short break before continuing.

  Aurelia, still gnawing on the hard, tasteless jerky she packed as ration, stayed silent, quietly formulating a response in her mind. That, or there was a not insignificant risk of choking and she needed to devote 100% of her concentration into properly chewing the preserved meat.

  Successfully swallowing the strip of what was essentially dry shoe leather in every aspect but name, she drank from her waterskin, before finally answering the boy’s question.

  “They say that there are only two instances when a man shows his true character. When he is drunk," she listed with her fingers, "and when he is on the verge of death.“

  “Who’s they, and where does it say that?” Sol asked, “The Codex?”

  “It’s a saying,” Aurelia laughed, “Like don’t drink the milk of a male cow.”

  “So?” Sol continued asking, “Which was it? Was he drunk, or was he going to die?”

  “Couldn’t be the former, he didn’t smell like alcohol.”

  “So he was going to die then?” Sol rhetorically asked in confirmation, “Then why didn’t he just run away? He never struck me as the type to just lay flat in the face of death. Stubborn, yes, stickler for the rules, 100%, but suicidal, no, never.”

  “Even he probably didn’t know why he did what he did, or even what his motivation was,” Aurelia answered, “so it’s pointless for us to speculate about it.

  “Nothing you can do for trash like that anyways,” she continued, with severe disdain in her voice, “The lowest of the low, just going wherever the water flows, and not even trying to fight against the currents of life because they don’t even know where they want to go, but they're also too scared to just swim.”

  Suddenly turning to Sol, she pointed at him, “Don’t grow up to be like that,” she instructed, “Be honest with yourself, know what you want, and act on it.”

  “What, like how I begged you to “save me?”” Sol joked, especially emphasizing the ‘save me’ portion of his words.

  “Exactly!” Aurelia energetically exclaimed, patting Sol on the head as if rewarding him for a job well done.

  Slapping her hand away, “Wha- but, you, What?” Sol bluthered, tripping over his words in his confusion.

  “You asking me for help was the right thing to do,” she reiterated.

  “How?” Sol, eventually regaining his calm, asked.

  “Because,” Aurelia answered, “You wanted something, to stop fighting. You acted on it, asking me to help you, and I answered in turn by doing so.”

  Breathing in deeply, she continued, “What’s the alternative, your desire remains the same, but you don’t act on it, you stay a slave, and end up dying in some obscure frozen corner of the world.”

  “But isn’t that selfish?” Sol inquired, “what if you didn’t want to help me?”

  “Then I wouldn’t have,” she directly stated, “simple as that.”

  “Wait, wait,” Sol frantically shook his hands, as if requesting Aurelia to slow down, “What if you didn’t want to help me, but still did so anyway?”

  “Then I’m indecisive trash who got taken advantage of.”

  Sol quietly digested her words, while Aurelia watched him in amusement.

  “...Then what if I wanted to hurt people, and acted on it?” Sol quietly asked.

  “Then someone else, who wants to stop you will try to stop you,” she immediately answered.

  “Then wha-”

  “It's not that complicated,” Aurelia interrupted, “The world is full of people, and those people have a near infinite amount of beliefs and those beliefs may sometimes manifest into action. Some of those people may even share some of the same beliefs and they will band together, but there will inevitably be those who will oppose them. And then it’s just a matter of who has the bigger stick.”

  Pausing to see if Sol had anything else to say, she continued,

  “Nothing inherently moral, or immoral about that. Nobody can judge your own actions, not even the goddess. Only you can.”

  Aurelia, having said everything she wanted to say, stood up, dusted herself off, and extended her hand to help Sol up.

  “Let’s go, we’re a long way from Frosthelm.”

  Still thinking of what Aurelia said, Sol absentmindedly accepted her assistance.