Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire by D. K. Holmberg

to me—”
    “I wish I would have said the same when Althem asked me. Maybe things would have been different. But you’re one of the few whose judgment I can trust completely. We might not always agree on how to do what needs done, but I’ve never doubted your motivation, Tannen. I need you for this.” He grunted. “And the others will come around. They do not know you as I do. You have come to your abilities in a… non-traditional route.”
    “In some ways, I’d say it’s more traditional.”
    Tan met Roine’s eyes, saw the request burning within them. Could he accept? If he did, what would it mean for him? How tied to the kingdoms would he become?
    Roine waited, his face unreadable. Finally, Tan nodded.
    “Good,” Roine said with a relieved sigh. He handed Tan a thick band of dark gray, different than the silver band that he’d worn to mark himself as Athan. “Thought I would make my own. There’s nothing really special about it, only the rune of office.”
    Tan studied the ring, noting that the rune comprised parts of each element. “That’s it?”
    Roine shrugged. “I’m not so formal as Althem. I had a ceremony and a celebration, but I didn’t think you’d want anything like that.” Roine smiled. “Besides, I don’t have the title before my name to make the rest necessary. If I ever manage to find his heir, I can get back to what I prefer anyway. We’ve found a few who are promising, but it will take time,” Roine said.
    “And what is it that you prefer?” Tan asked.
    “The same as you,” Roine said with a laugh, then he glanced to the sky. “Shall we?”
    “Where are we going?”
    “To the Aeta. They requested an audience with the king. Since I’m all there is, I guess I have to go.”
    Tan hesitated and sent word to Amia through the bond. He sensed her resting, not shaping. She stirred and came awake.
    “Wait,” he said.
    Roine’s shaping had been building and it released with a soft pop . “What is it?”
    “With the Aeta, Amia should be with us.”
    “You said she was working with the First Mother.”
    Tan nodded. “She has been. She was sleeping.”
    “You could tell that?”
    How much of his bond to Amia had he shared with Roine? To him, they were connected, a couple, but Roine didn’t know that Tan could speak to her in a way that he’d never spoken to another person before. Well, other than Elle, but that had taken incredible focus and required her to be near him.
    “We’re bonded, Roine.”
    Tan watched his reaction. Roine didn’t say anything, but nodded slowly. “Bonded. Well, that makes more sense than what I’d been thinking. Spirit to spirit?”
    “How do you—”
    Roine laughed. “You’re not the only one who’s spent time in the archives, Tan. Before I was Athan, I spent enough time that the archivists threatened to forcibly remove me. Only the fact that I’m a warrior permitted me increased access. Now I wonder if Althem had some role in it, too.”
    Roine frowned and scrubbed a hand across his face. His eyes were drawn and clouded, with his mouth pinched in a pained expression. “So much of what happened with Althem is hard to describe. How much of what I did was because of me, and how much was I shaped? I have memories of my interest in searching the archives for knowledge from the ancients, but was that interest always mine, or had it been added?” He shook his head. “I now know that he wanted the artifact all along. Maybe I was used, maybe that interest was placed so that I could begin the search on my own.” His smile was tight and did not reach his eyes. “Or maybe it has always been me. You cannot begin to understand how it is when you question everything you’ve ever done. Now that he’s gone, I feel freed, but sometimes I get this strange sense of anxiety, as if everything I’ve ever chosen was not mine.”
    “The fact that you worry about it tells me that you’re fine.”
    “And the fact that I can have you as Athan provides me