Chapter 1

“Please, dearest friends, I beg you. Do not ask this of us.”

Closing his eyes,  Lewyll reached for Moiri’s hand, hoping her unfailing strength could carry them through this agony as it had countless other times.

“You cannot imagine,” he began shakily, “how impossible it was for us to come to the conclusion of what we must do or how much we hate ourselves for feeling this way. I swear to you, my friends--”

“Friends?” Lewyll swung his head to gaze into scornful eyes, the amber in them reflecting into the amber of his own. “I hear no friends speaking to me now.”

“Trilis, please understand--”

“Do you see friends before you now?” he asked, turning to where Kaylex and Chyla were huddled close to the dwindling  fire. “What about you, Rolon? Parine?” He strode around the campfire to the pair but they turned their heads away in despair. “I see no friends before us, only selfishness given life in their blood and bones, speaking to us in their voice.”

“Enough,” Moiri whispered.

“You two truly believe--”

“I said, ENOUGH!” Moiri ripped her hand away and stepped forward, panting with gray eyes ablaze. The wind softly murmured against the bare tree branches. “You think that we want to cause this misery? That we want to turn our backs on you and everything we fought for?”

Snorting, Trilis stalked back towards her, the burning wood cracking as he passed the fire. “I know nothing about you anymore nor do I desire to.”

“We have a right to happiness, the right to create our own path in life. Isn’t that what all of our sacrifices have been for, the right to chose our fates rather than have them handed to us?”

“So a fair price for your happiness is our lives?” He whistled humorlessly, backing away. “Bit steep, if you ask me.”

“You’re a coward,” she ground out, turning away. The breeze picked up, fluttering  her raven tresses like a waving cloak behind her. Moiri had barely made it to the edge of the small clearing before she was whirled around to find Trilis towering above her.

“What did you call me?” he demanded. The flames of the fire behind him began to dance wildly as if some sort of tribal drum were beating a manic rhythm that caused it to undulate faster and stronger.

Moiri’s cackling was nearly drowned out by the swirling dead leaves the wind was lifting off  of the earth. “So you’re deaf now in addition to being a coward?” Both were oblivious to anything outside their burgeoning rage but their companions could see what they were doing to their surroundings and it terrified them. Anonymity was key to their survival; the fire was nearly five times it’s original size and the smoke being blown by the fierce currents would lead to their discovery.

“STOP THIS!” Wrenching herself between their prone bodies, Aguinn shoved herself against Moiri until the tiny woman was pressed against Lewyll’s chest. Reaching back for Trilis, she dragged him over to a large rock near Rolon and Parine and forced him to sit. “Calm yourselves now!”

Lewyll wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly, and letting every rapid beat of his heart seep into her until the vibrations began to soothe her, easing her until her panting slowed and the rustling of the forestry died with it. Trilis ground his hands onto the rough stone and the pinpricks of pain on his skin  forced him away from his pain and back to reality. He felt Parine’s fingertips gliding through his blonde curls and the flames ebbed  down until the flecks of black, orange, and red breathed together peacefully.

“Why?” Moiri lifted her head and turned her aching eyes towards her dearest friend. Chyla’s gray eyes asked a multitude of questions that could never be answered but her voice, her sweet voice that Moiri had known her whole life, only had one demand and she knew she owed it to her friend to try and justify the pain she and Lewyll were inflicting on their group.

“I just…we just want to have families, our own families with…children. We can’t have that if we stay here with you.”

Rolon stood slowly. “You don’t know that you can--”

“We don’t know that we can’t either, unless we try,” Lewyll broke in. “We’ve been thinking over this for years and truly, all things considered, we’re not that different from them. Not in most ways.”

“No, we’re not,” Aguinn agreed softly, setting herself next to a still Trilis. “There’s no reason to believe that either of you couldn’t…”

Parine whipped her head up to her. “What are you saying?”

Aguinn sighed, burying her toes in the moist ground. “I wish with everything inside me I could say differently but she‘s right.” She smiled wistfully at Moiri. “We all fought for our freedoms and we should be able to do with them what we please.”

“We’ll be weakened.” Kaylex added his voice, pacing gently, arms crossed stiff and rigid. “If we let you leave we’ll be weakened and if we’re found by--”

“That’s only if they wish to find us,” Aguinn countered.

“What do you mean?”

“They believe they cannot defeat us; since when is it custom of The Four to seek out a battle they are not certain they will win?” She laid her head on Trilis’s shoulder, curling her body around his taut form. “I love you all so much, more than I loved even my own mother and father. My dream has always been to live my life with all of you but that is not everyone’s dream.” Her sad but strong emerald eyes gazed at her companions. “Oh Moiri…so bold and so protective of all you love. And dear Lewyll, noble and so much stronger than you think you are. I will re…release you.”

“As will I,” Parine agreed gently, never ceasing her brushing of Trilis’s hair.

Kaylex stilled and walked to Rolon. They conferred to themselves for a moment, two sets of blue eyes giving away nothing to the other six, before Rolon patted him on the shoulder and said, “We will also release you but please, never forget for one moment of one day what we’ve given up for you.” Lewyll nodded and walked over to the pair, embracing them fiercely.

“I’ll be alone.” Moiri’s heart throbbed at the feeble whisper of her friend. “You’re leaving me here alone.”

“I know,” she admitted, reaching over to play with one of Chyla’s long black plaits. The others remained quiet, watching regretfully yet unable to look away. “You can always come too.”

“I’m already happy. Why should I want to leave?”

“For me.”

Chyla shook her head. “If I’m not enough to make you stay, then you, my precious one, are not enough to make me leave.” She took the hand that was mussing her hair and brought it to her lips, feathering each knuckle with a kiss and a tear as the moonlight shone upon them. When she glanced up, her eyes were shining and heavier then Moiri had ever seen them. “I will release you with the hope that you have many daughters and that each one has your temper and your stubbornness because it would be justice for all the bedlam you’ve ever caused.” The group began laughing quietly at that, all except Trilis who had not moved a single inch or made a sound since he had sat down.

“Will you release them or not?” Parine whispered to him.

He had never cried. Not once throughout any of their trials had he shed one tear. Not when they finally saw that every single truth they had known was shrouded in at least a dozen different lies; or when they realized they’d never see a parent or a sibling again; or when they all huddled together at night to sleep not because of a lack of warmth but because they had all agreed that if one was caught and sentenced to death, then they all were. He’d had never given into fear or sadness, not once.

He was fighting against the moisture seeping out, blinking and squinting his eyes shut. “You are both sure, absolutely sure, that this is what you want?”

“Yes.”

“If either of you ever changes your mind, this can’t be undone.”

“We understand.”

Trilis leaned forward, grinding the palms of his hands against his eyes before taking a deep breath. He slowly rose, Aguinn and Parine following him.

“Will you release us, Trilis?”

He nodded. “Under one condition.”