Chapter 50: Unexpected Reunion

Eldrin reached into his coat and pulled out the small artifact he’d purchased for five silver.

The object was hardly impressive to look at. A dull metal frame surrounded a pale crystal no larger than his thumb. He had bought it because the merchant had claimed it could draw heat from frozen objects and melt even magically preserved ice.

At the time, Eldrin had thought five silver was expensive for something so unimpressive.

Now, standing inside the coldest room he’d ever entered, he was beginning to think it might have been worth every coin.

He activated it.

A faint warmth spread from the crystal into his palm.

Eldrin moved deeper into the chamber.

The room was larger than it had appeared from outside. Rows of reinforced storage compartments lined the walls, most of them sealed behind thick metal doors.

Then, near the far wall, something caught his eye.

A large structure stood beneath a black covering.

It was longer than a man’s height and wide enough to hold a body. Its shape reminded Eldrin of a coffin, though it was far more elaborate than anything intended for burial. Thick metal fittings secured the sides, while faint lines of frost traced the edges where the lid met the frame.

His steps slowed.

He already knew what he might find inside.

That did not make it easier to approach.

Eldrin reached out and pulled the black covering away.

Cold vapor spilled over the floor.

Beneath it was a heavy metal container, its surface dark and almost featureless except for a small plate fixed near the head.

J7.

His throat tightened.

For months, the designation had been nothing more than a mystery buried in a ledger.

Now it was directly in front of him.

Eldrin placed the warming artifact against the edge of the lid. The metal hissed softly as frost began to retreat.

He searched for a latch.

There was one, but it had been reinforced from the outside.

He tried lifting the lid.

Nothing.

Eldrin adjusted his grip and pulled harder.

The muscles in his arms strained, but the lid barely moved.

"Come on..."

He changed his position and tried again.

This time, something inside the mechanism groaned.

The lid shifted perhaps the width of a finger before locking again.

Eldrin breathed out slowly.

"Almost."

He was about to put both hands beneath the edge when something moved behind him.

A faint displacement of air.

Eldrin turned.

Too late.

A figure emerged from the darkness between the storage racks.

The first strike came without warning.

Swisssss....

Eldrin twisted aside as a blade swept past his face, close enough for the wind of it to brush his cheek. He stumbled backward and reached instinctively for Shade, but the attacker was already upon him.

The next blow was faster.

Eldrin raised his forearm to deflect it and felt the impact travel through his entire body.

Strong.

Far stronger than him.

He retreated toward the coffin, keeping his eyes fixed on the stranger.

The man wore dark clothing beneath a long coat, his face unfamiliar. There was no hesitation in his movements, no wasted motion. Every step seemed calculated to leave Eldrin with fewer places to retreat.

Eldrin reached for Silver Tongue.

Nothing.

The ability refused him.

The stranger advanced.

Eldrin shifted his weight, preparing to use Shadow Step, but there was barely enough darkness around him to choose a reliable destination.

The blade came again.

He ducked.

Steel passed over his head.

Eldrin drove his shoulder into the man’s chest and forced enough distance between them to breathe.

The stranger barely moved.

Then his eyes settled on Eldrin’s face.

Something changed.

The next strike never came.

The man’s weapon remained raised, but his hand had gone completely still.

Eldrin stared back at him, breathing hard.

For a moment neither understood what had happened.

The stranger’s eyes moved over his face as though searching for something that could not possibly be there.

Then his expression broke.

Not with fear.

With disbelief.

"...Eldrin?"

The name struck harder than the blade had.

Eldrin froze.

No one had called him that in years.

The stranger lowered the weapon by a fraction.

His breathing had changed.

"Eldrin?"

This time the name came quieter.

Eldrin’s eyes widened.

He knew that voice.

Not from the past few years.

From before.

From a life that no longer existed.

His lips parted.

"...Brother?"

The blade slipped from the man’s hand and struck the floor.

For several seconds, neither of them moved.

They simply stared at one another across the cold room, two survivors who had spent years believing they were the last ghosts left of a family that the world had already buried.

Neither brother seemed capable of moving.

The man standing across from him was older than the brother Eldrin remembered, broader through the shoulders and harder in the face, with a faint scar cutting across one eyebrow.

Eldrin knew him.

Shaul Novaryn.

His elder brother.

Shaul stared as though he were afraid that looking away would make Eldrin disappear.

"You’re alive."

The words came out almost as a whisper.

Eldrin swallowed. "So are you."

A breath escaped Shaul that sounded strangely close to a laugh, though there was no amusement in it. He took one step forward and stopped again, as though he still couldn’t quite convince himself that the person standing before him was real.

"I buried you."

Eldrin’s expression tightened.

"You thought I was dead?"

"We all did." Shaul replied.

Shaul eyes moved over him, taking in the borrowed military uniform, the exhausted face, the weapon at his side.

"What happened to you?"

Eldrin almost answered.

Then he looked at his brother properly.

There were too many questions in that face. Too many years between them. Too much that would have to be explained.

"I could ask you the same thing."

Shaul’s mouth curved faintly.

"Later."

It was such a familiar answer that something inside Eldrin finally gave way.

He stepped forward.

Shaul closed the remaining distance.

The embrace was brief and awkward at first, neither of them entirely sure what to do with a reunion neither had expected to have. Then Shaul’s hand tightened around the back of Eldrin’s shoulder, and Eldrin held on just as firmly.

Neither spoke.

There was nothing they could say that would fit the moment.

When they finally separated, Shaul looked away for a moment and drew a slow breath.

"We don’t have much time."

Eldrin glanced toward the coffin.

"You came here for him."

Shaul followed his gaze.

"Yes, And the sword, what was placed with it."

"The artifact"

He placed both hands beneath the frozen lid and examined the thick layer of ice sealing it shut.

"Stand back."

Eldrin moved aside.

Shaul took hold of the edge.

Unlike Eldrin, he didn’t struggle against it blindly. His fingers found the mechanism hidden beneath the frost, and for a moment his entire body tensed.

A sharp crack echoed through the chamber.

The ice fractured.

Shaul drove his hand beneath the lid and forced it upward.

The seal gave way with a deep metallic groan.

A wave of freezing air rolled across the floor.

Eldrin instinctively took a step back.

The lid opened slowly.

Inside lay their father.

For a moment, Eldrin couldn’t understand what he was seeing.

He had spent years carrying a memory of his father’s face.

The shape of a man who had once seemed impossible to lose.

But the person lying inside the coffin was not the memory.

It was real.

His father’s face remained almost unchanged beneath the thin layer of frost. His features were calm, as though sleep had taken him only moments ago rather than years. Dark hair rested against his forehead.

A sword had been placed across his body.

One hand still clutched the hilt.

And beside his chest, secured beneath the folds of his clothing, rested the artifact Shaul had spoken about.

Eldrin stopped breathing.

Everything else in the room seemed to recede.

The military district.

The guards outside.

The danger.

The questions.

For the first time in years, none of it mattered.

He moved closer.

His hand trembled slightly as he reached toward the edge of the coffin, but he didn’t touch his father.

He couldn’t.

His eyes remained fixed on the face before him.

"Father..."

The word barely left his mouth.

Shaul stood beside him in silence.

Whatever strength had carried him through years of searching seemed to disappear for a moment as he looked down at the man lying before them.

Eldrin had expected grief.

Instead, what he felt was stranger.

Relief.

He had finally found him.

His father was here.

And somehow, after all these years, Eldrin had finally come back to him.

"Hands up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!