Restart Again: Volume 1 by Adam Scott (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📕

upset about it.” Amaya pulled back to look up at me with a reassuring smile. “Have they given you any more information on what you’re doing?”

My eyes rolled involuntarily as I shrugged. “You know how they are. ‘Royal secrets, we can’t tell you that,’” I mocked. “I doubt they know anything more than I do. My escort will take me north to the capital, and from there I’ll join the military caravan on their way to the eastern border. The whole trip will take just under a fortnight. That’s where I’ll meet the others who have been…‘specially requisitioned’ like me. After that, it’s still a mystery.”

In the distance a lone trumpet sounded, heralding the arrival of royal envoys. Amaya closed her eyes and sighed. “I suppose that means it’s time.” We both stood statue still, neither of us wanting our last moments alone together for the foreseeable future to end. The trumpet sounded again, echoing with a tinny ring over the rolling hills. “Will you write to me?”

“Of course. Whenever I’m able.” I caressed her back, doing my best to comfort her and myself. “I’ll tell you about all the people I meet and the places I go.”

More trumpets sounded now, blasting a dissonant chord. “I’ll be waiting for you, right here. Every day, until you come back to me.” 

I tried to blink away the tears forming in my eyes. “There’s nothing in this world that can stop me from coming home to you, Amaya. No matter what happens.”

“I know.” She pulled away from the embrace, taking my hands in hers. “If you stay true to who you are, I know you’ll come back to me.”

My brain shifted its sole focus to crystallizing the beautiful woman before me into one perfect memory. “I love you, Amaya.”

“And I love you, Elden.” She pulled me in for a kiss full of passion, and longing, and heartache. “Forever,” she whispered as our lips separated. A single tear dropped from my eye and landed on her cheek. Amaya smiled and patted my chest softly. “Time to put on your brave face, love. The hero always has to look brave.”

I nodded and wiped my eyes in silence, not trusting myself to speak. “Go on ahead, I’ll catch up with you. They’ll be waiting for you to start the royal address.” She gave me a light push down the hill.

As I walked away, I absentmindedly spun the thin gold band around my finger. It was a habit I had picked up in the past few weeks, a tick that came out whenever I was feeling particularly overwhelmed. With a heavy sigh, I stood a little straighter and quickened my pace. “Forever,” I whispered under my breath with a small smile.

***

18. THE FRUITS OF OUR LABORS

Lia and I left the inn before sunrise. My distrust of strangers had grown exponentially at the discovery of my wanted posters, and I felt it was best to get out of civilization before first light. Did the clerk at the inn recognize me? Is that why she stared at us so long? Does that mean they might be looking for Lia now, too? The thoughts plagued me as we walked along the well traveled dirt road out of town. Despite knowing the best way to blend in was to act naturally, I couldn’t help but check behind us every few minutes to make sure we weren’t being followed.

My worry proved fruitless as the day of travel passed by uneventfully. By midday we had put enough distance between us and the previous town that I could relax enough to hold pleasant conversation with Lia. Our nightly ritual of “a truth for a truth” had evolved into sharing stories while on the road.

A story Lia told me as we ate our late afternoon trail rations had particularly piqued my interest. When she was seven, her parents had taken her on a trip to a town in eastern Kaldan called Malt. It was a three-day trip by wagon, which Lia had spent sitting on the front bench with the wagon driver, presumably talking his ear off. When they finally reached the city, she recounted being amazed by the streetlights lining the main thoroughfare that night. Each lamp was a tall metal rod with a glass orb floating above the top, completely disconnected from the structure. Each one glowed a different color, illuminating the streets in a dazzling rainbow. The sight was so exciting for her that it was the only clear memory she had from the trip, much to her parents’ chagrin.

In turn, I told her a story of my early days training in Alderea under the hedge knight Brusch. Although I never learned where he lived or why he was traveling through our village, he always seemed to show up once or twice a season to get his armor and weapons touched up at the forge. The first time he returned after teaching me how to use combat enhancements, I had been so excited to fight him again to show him how much I had improved in his time away. I pulled out all the stops using every enhancement I knew, straining my mana to the max.

It was truly a shock to me when he repeatedly knocked me on my ass without a single enhancement. He always seemed to see how I would approach and had a new step or flourish to counter every time. Brusch laughed the whole fight, mocking me for “knowing ten fancy enhancements while not knowing how to move my feet without falling.” I was so embarrassed at my showing that I focused on my footwork and movement for a whole month after that day. When Brusch showed up again after the winter I challenged him again and was summarily defeated when he threw mud in my eyes. The taunt that time was “How can you move so quickly when you don’t know what you’re looking at?” Lia found that part of the story particularly amusing.

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