avriel.
Avi paused in the wake of the triton’s question. Did he look like a soldier? He certainly used to, when he had a uniform and a station. What did a soldier look like, beyond that? He wasn’t particularly strong, and he’d left a lot of his confidence behind in Arx, so he supposed now he just looked…normal. He was a civilian, young and inexperienced and unimposing. “No, I don’t suppose I look much like a soldier,” he shrugged. “Most are fighters, I suppose. I always stood a better chance at a distance.”
He struggled to keep his head high as the stranger questioned his lies. He knew he didn’t look impaired or injured or like the king would have any reason to honorably discharge him, but if the triton saw fight in him, he was sorely mistaken. Even if he hadn’t broken so many rules, if he hadn’t been so reckless, he had a gut feeling that the army wouldn’t want him anymore. They wouldn’t want him like this: a fraction of who he used to be, terrified all the time, sleepless and drinking to get through the days. It was a painful reality to accept, but his officer wasn’t wrong about him.
“Well, it wasn’t up to Rolland - at least not directly.” Avi swam through a sea of incoherent thoughts to get to the ones he could speak aloud. My mind isn’t right, he wanted to say, Arx broke me and now I’m unable to fight, but I still fought honorably. It was partially true, but it wasn’t how he wanted to be seen - not by this stranger, and not by anyone. “I lost my powers in Arx,” he said instead, “I didn’t know it was possible, but I was injured badly. Physically, I’m…better, but my abilities haven’t recovered. I’m no good to the army without them.”
Jharvas squinted at the strange human before looking him over yet again. “I mean, well, yes, you don’t look like a soldier at first glance...” He paused as the memories of the battles at Arx resurfaced in his mind. He had fought side by side with soldiers in their king’s armor, king’s steel, as well as soldiers in their common clothes, tattered shirts, the smell of brine and salt and a hard day common’s work mingling with the copper in their blood. Jharvas looked down at the table for a bit, shook his head to regain clarity of his wits, and turned to Avi with a grin. “...not all do. Sometimes it takes a fight for a soldier to come out of a fisherman, or a carpenter, or a husband.”
The mention of distance made the triton raise an eyebrow. “Distance? You’re an archer then? I wish we had archers at Arx. Though, perhaps we did. Perhaps they were why the invaders ran back to their ships. It’s hard to believe a couple of soldiers, a bunch of fishermen and common folk, and a triton could’ve chased them all off the docks. It’s hard to see from a distance, but I suppose that’s what make archers vital to any army.”
Unfortunately, Jharvas was never an insightful fellow, missing the truth behind Avi’s words. “You were in Arx?” The triton began to appear more excited at the fact that he had found another who fought and survived the invasion. “You fought against the invaders as well? How did you lose...” At least he caught himself this time, realizing the answer came freely. It was the injury that most likely made him lose his powers, the defeat perhaps, the hopelessness? He has been in that position before, somewhat, and it is never a good position to find one’s self in. “For now, anyway. They, your abilities, might return soon. You’ll be back in the fight again.”
Jharvas intended his words to be some sort of compensation for the man’s current predicament, though they were actually mostly for him. He had been traveling all around since Arx, trying to find any trace of the army that might still be lingering around, but to no avail. The battles had awoken something in him, and now that there were no more battles to be fought, at least not in the meantime, he was feeling out of himself. Back to being a fish out of water, a man out of time, a wanderer out of place.













