Zander refused to break eye contact with his companion. Alas, he was stricken by his gaze into stupefied silence, as if Sir Edward had asked him a question after he daydreamed himself away from the lesson.

Alfread's eyes shifted past Zander and the moment was gone. Zander tried to recapture it. He reached for that thread, hoping that he could pull Alfread back to him before he left him forever.

"Alfread…"

The rest of Zander's words were frozen in time. Alfread, with alarming alacrity, nocked an arrow and drew his bow on Zander.

Zander flinched, lifting his armored forearm over his eyes as he heard the arrow release with a twang. It whistled past him, splashing into the Cardian.

Zander unsheathed his blade, his confused heart breaking even further. "Alfread?"

Alfread's fingers slipped on the end of his quiver, unable to draw another arrow. "B-b-behind you!"

Zander turned and saw the beast streaking toward them.

*************

Alfread froze at the murder in his friend's eyes and the deadly grip on his sword. His fingers fumbled on his quiver. He had better luck getting stuttered words out of his mouth. "B-b-behind you!"

The beast emerged from its hiding spot across the stream, nestled in a bed of shoulder-high green flowers. The monstrosity was armored with scales of a sickly green color, marking it as a male of its species. Those scales were covered in boil-like bumps as if it were the three-hundred-pound, six-foot-tall, bipedal edition of a toad. Its arms were disproportionately large, hanging down to its ankles, causing the monster's back to curve forward.

The forest troll trounced through the stream passing where the arrow had fallen short of its target. He unleashed a thunderous croak as he charged forth. Alfread reached for another arrow. His heartache slowed his reaction as he dwelt on yet another miss.

The arrow never needed to be nocked. Paladin crashed into the stream, hooves splashing the shallow waters, bastard sword readied in Zander's hand. The troll broke character and turned to flee, seeking the high flowers on the Sapphire side. The monster ran on all fours, but it couldn't escape Paladin's great strides and Zander's long blade. Its ugly, round, three-eyed head hit the shore disconnected from its neck, crushing a white carnation as it rolled back into the Cardian.

The beast's body dropped lifelessly into the stream.

"What in Yadeen's name is this monster?" Zander asked.

Alfread halted his horse. Searching as both hunter and prey, he spoke the words to the vast fields in Sapphire territory. "Forest Troll."

Zander wiped the sweat off his forehead and pushed his wild hair out of his eyes. "Celegan?"

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Alfread nodded. He could've ventured into the explanations. How the troll had broken from character several times with its initial lurking and its intimidated flight. Instead, his eyes saw Zander's sword in the air and the troll's head became his own. Feeling more dejected than he could recall in years, he gazed at the corpse and contemplated whether he even wanted to extract lifesaving potioneering resources from it.

Zander glanced at Alfread, his deep sigh speaking volumes. "The real enemy. Good eyes, Alfread."

Alfread dismounted with a groan. He wouldn't allow his divinedamned self-pity to get other people killed. That he had even contemplated it, led him down a road of self-flagellation. For all his mother had trained him to have compassion for those who hurt, he hurt himself for lapsing in his values. For all his mother had trained him to return that same compassion to himself, he hurt himself double for violating those values. His yearning for a different reality, his questing for self-blame, his perseveration on all the missed shots, tainted him worse than the blood in the stream. The stream remained clean, neutralizing the troll toxin with whatever magical properties Mirrevar held. Alfread's consciousness was infected and he couldn't treat the wound.

Knife in hand, he harvested the troll's fat. Slime and fatty oils spurting all over him, he cut as the silence stood between him and Zander like a wall.

Alfread set the intention to personally mix the troll fat into powerful draughts that would substantially improve recovery time from injury. He recalled a fairy tale where a squire had to mix troll blubber with goat's milk to restore vitality to the hero as an army of Halamsul soulless moved on their kingdom. Alfread, trained with skepticism, had cross-referenced that with his mother's potioneering texts and was surprised to learn that it was an actual recipe for a powerful draught of regeneration. Imagining himself in the potioneering tent brought the poisoned thought of spending time there with Asa.

Alfread glanced down into the stream, his miserable reflection staring back at him. He drove his knife into the water, cutting through his image as if that would end this divinedamned heartbreak. Alas, like the thousands of stories he had read testified, you couldn't mend something by breaking something else. His dreams remained shattered. He stared, eyes fixed on nothing, mind drifting away like a leaf on a stream, dissolving his consciousness.

"I am here for you, Alfread."

Alfread permitted his old friend the sight of his despondency, not because he wanted him to fix it, but because he could no longer hide.

Zander—more attuned to matters of the heart than he would give himself credit for—seemed to read his thoughts. "Don't hide from me. If I've harmed you, we can mend that together. If something else ails you, you need not suffer alone."

Alfread couldn't look at Zander without seeing nightmares of him making impassioned love with Asa. He needed to get away. From Zander. From Asa. From Mirrevar. From all of it. "It's getting dark."

Zander's pained utterance was barely more than a whisper. "Do you hate me?"

"I hate that Asa would rather be with you than me."

"She's a fool!" Zander bellowed. "Leverith will send you someone who deserves you!"

Alfread closed his eyes, remembering with his flawless memory the thousands of dreams he had where he danced with a woman made of radiant light beneath the stars. Each time the dream ended the same, with a wall of fire separating them as she called his name. Alfread would try to call for her but nothing could escape his throat. The dream ended in darkness. Every divinedamned time.

Alfread studied Zander's reddish auburn hair and beard. He didn't doubt that Zander was what was between him and Asa, divined by Leverith. He had thought he would find a way around the wall once he arrived in this future. He foolishly believed that he could outsmart destiny and the Divine Thirteen.

Alfread gazed up at Covademara, realizing how small he was. Instead of finding a way around the wall, he'd erected another one between him and his dearest friend. He tried to tear the wall down but couldn't muster the strength.

Alfread set his horse into motion and the wall rode with them, silence their loudest companion.

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