Songbird: What it Means to be the Hero

{-Lyrei-}

She liked to imagine she was pretty good at spotting different types of heroes—the anti-hero, the heroic bastard, the chosen one… anything found in any kind of tale. She recognized something like that in Rennyn, too.

Though she didn’t consider it a good thing.

“Does he… usually do stuff like that, too?” she asked, cautiously, while the three of them ate breakfast. Since Rennyn, Kaylin, and a couple of the guards had left, the only thing they could do was wait. “Leave the rest of you, I mean, even if it might be better to stick together. I… guess you probably haven’t known him long enough to really tell, though…”

Noa shrugged, though his response was more cautious. “There was a group of monsters he offered to help fight. It was pretty early in the morning, Kaylin hadn’t woken up until he’d already left. But other than that, I don’t know.”

“With the way she greeted him yesterday, this feels like a regular occurrence…” Seldir mumbled. “To be honest, I… don’t know how I feel about that. It seems like a surefire way of getting someone hurt…”

Lyrei recognized that tone, though, and she was certain not to let him voice the rest of his thoughts. “But we’re supposed to be with Rennyn and Kaylin. Without us, they might not be able to defeat Dhymos and whatever he’s planning. We can’t just abandon him.”

“I’m not going to stop you, if you think it’s going to be too dangerous.” None of them were prepared to hear that voice yet. But, despite hearing what they’d been talking about, Rennyn walked up to them casually.

Kaylin, being right behind him, shook her head. “No, we can’t. I think you know that. At this point it’s just the illusion of choice—we’ve been given too much evidence to assume we don’t all need to stay together in order to defeat Dhymos.”

“It doesn’t matter whether you need us or not,” Lyrei decided confidently. “We’re going to stick with you, no matter what ends up happening. Aren’t we, Seldir?”

Her dark glare in his direction, however, didn’t make him change his answer. “I’m here to protect you. I can’t agree to do something that’s going to put you in harm’s way all the time. We don’t know what we’re going to face and what this all will lead to. How am I supposed to head back here and tell your parents that I failed my job?”

She opened her mouth in an attempt to argue, but she found that she couldn’t. As much as she wanted to prove him wrong, she knew he was right. So instead she tried, quietly, “If we don’t do anything, then who’s going to do it for us? If we’re not the heroes, then who’s going to be? And… what’s the point of staying safe at home while something bigger is happening that could end it all anyway?”

They were all quiet, for a couple of minutes.

“If you’re worried,” Kaylin eventually said, slowly, “we can talk with your parents. On our way back Rennyn decided he wanted to try to look into who Dhymos’s minions were—if we could try to learn more about them through records. Assuming the Archives are open again.”

“I heard one of the guards mention that it was,” Seldir remarked. He stood up. “Warning you now, though, I’m not that good with the research part. If Rennyn can tell us if you’re looking for anything specific, he and I can go talk to Lyrei’s parents.”

Rennyn nodded absently. “Kaylin’s right—as long as you’re with us, you’re going to get into danger. But you’re probably also the only chance we have of not dragging more people into this. Maybe they’ll be able to understand that.”

…

She wished, at least, they didn’t both seem so solemn when they went to find her parents. A part of her wanted to be there, but… she knew she was better with books, and helping Kaylin and Noa find what they were looking for.

“Not a lot of… regular people have access to the kinds of records Rennyn’s probably looking for,” she mumbled as she sat a couple of books down. “Even this much might be slightly stretching the amount I should be giving technical outsiders. But we are heroes trying to find out more about the bad guys, and we’ve kind of proved our reliability, so…”

“We don’t need a lot,” Kaylin remarked. “Even a little bit could get us a lot further. There’s a lot that can be learned using simply a name.”

Noa reached for one of the books and opened it. He must’ve been somewhat familiar with the concept because, before Lyrei could even tell him where to go, he already flipped to where the most recent business logs were. “Do you think they would’ve been together? I kinda got the impression that Viragi was like the mentor to the other two. But it… also would seem a bit strange, if they’d done stuff together before then.”

“Definitely makes them a lot more suspicious,” Lyrei agreed. “As soon as one of them started doing something, everyone would be able to connect them together. That’s practically the biggest mistake in mystery novels—giving too much evidence is a surefire way to get yourself caught.”

“I hate to admit it, but I don’t know,” Kaylin said with a sigh. “Dhymos usually tries to be subtle—he doesn’t rise to the top immediately. He plans things in the background until he knows that he has what he needs.”

“Maybe they’re just really inexperienced?” Noa offered. “It didn’t sound like they really got all of Dhymos’s planning.”

She shook her head. “But then that leaves the question of why Dhymos is sending under-trained people to do his bidding. He knows that all that’s going to do is put the rest of his plan at risk—as they are right now, they’re just a liability to him. What could he be planning, or be afraid of, that he’s sending them out now instead of waiting until they’re better..?”

A somewhat-surprising voice remarked, “Sounds like you’re all desperate, then.”

Her parents, Seldir, and Rennyn came back out from whatever room they’d been in before. None of them seemed upset, so Lyrei held onto the hope that things had gone pretty well.

Her father, who’d been the one to speak before, wandered over to where Noa was. “Is there something in particular you’re looking for? I know the records like the back of my hand—if there’s information you want to find, as long as it’s here, I’ll be able to find it.”

Then while he, Noa, Kaylin, and eventually Rennyn went to discuss that, her dad gestured Lyrei over to him and Seldir.

“We’re letting you go,” her dad explained. It was one of the few times she remembered hearing him so serious. “While it might be dangerous… we understand what’s at risk. We can’t, in good conscience, keep you in Zaitha as if there’s nothing more you can do. That would mean we’re all responsible for whatever might happen, if not by proxy. Make sure to stay close to Seldir. Try not to get into too much trouble. Most importantly, we want you to come back home—preferably, being able to say that the job was well done.”

For a moment, she really was trying to figure out how to convince them. So it took her a second to realize that he had allowed her to go, and then another to process exactly how grateful she was for it. Or, skeptical and a bit excited, as her subsequent “Really?” implied.

Her dad nodded. “We trust that you’ll be surrounded by reliable people. Besides, Seldir reminded us that… we ultimately couldn’t stop you. As long as you make sure to keep us updated, that is. You know, until a guard came over to tell us you were with them last night, we were worried sick…”

Both Seldir and Lyrei let out a bit of nervous laughter, but she chose to change the subject again.

“Thank you both!” She hugged him. “I promise, I won’t get into any trouble. Intentionally. And if I do, Seldir will get me out of it. We’ll all give you something to be proud of!”

He smiled. “I know you will. Our baby girl’s all grown up and ready to star in her own adventure.”

“It’s not like we’re going to be leaving immediately,” Seldir pointed out. “We’ve still got to talk to Queen Vaeri…”

“Well, if anyone knows the power of connections, it would be a mercenary,” her dad remarked. “We can probably see what we can do about that, too.”

“Are you done over there? Could you come here?” Rennyn called. He waited until the three of them wandered over to where the rest of them were to explain, “We think we might’ve gotten a little more information on Viragi, Kharis, and Ether.”

“I wouldn’t quite call it… information. But it’s certainly something.” Lyrei’s father gestured to the records, though he soon summarized what they said. “They haven’t been in Zaitha for very long—it seems the incident yesterday was one of the first things they’d done. They’d booked a room at an inn the day before, but they must’ve arrived at the city separately—or at least, Viragi came alone, and Kharis and Ether came together. As for why they came to Zaitha, or how they might’ve known you were here… there’s unfortunately nothing about it.”