Chapter 157: Leaving Home
Lia held the book in her hands for a few seconds without moving. She did not utter a word, simply stared at the book with no emotion. Ren looked at her. He did not speak, he did not try to comfort her, because in this moment, she needed to find her own answers for her own pain. She needed to process it all.
"My... my mum is alive," she finally muttered. She looked up with tears streaming down her face, her lips curled into a shaky smile. She stood there looking right at Ren.
"My mum is alive. She did not die," she said again. She clutched the book even more and then stepped closer. She planted her head on his chest.
"She is not dead. I can get to see her one day."
"Yeah, you can," Ren replied and then patted her on the head slowly. Her tears kept streaming down. Her body trembled. She sobbed repeatedly for a few minutes before she finally calmed down.
She finally stepped back, head still down as she used the back of her wrists to clean her tears slowly. A smile formed on her face. She looked at Ren. "Thank you, Ren. Thank you."
"I didn’t do anything," Ren said. He looked at her and then smiled. "When this is all over, let’s find your mum, and I’ll be doing this for free."
[....]
The journey into Vermilion was set, and carriages were set in place. Aren complained about the fact that he would have to use a carriage when he could fly there in a shorter time, but Liam explained that it would cause a kingdom-wide panic if a dragon suddenly flew over the entire kingdom.
"Alright, so the location we are headed to is the Sky City, under Duke William Astria."
"I thought you said you did not know what Duke I was going to see?" Ren stated.
"Well, they did not tell me which one you were going to see, but they did tell me where to take you, and so we can all assume you will be seeing Duke Astria."
"Fine, whatever. Before we leave, I want a moment to address my subordinates," Ren said.
He gathered all of them. Remu, Ragna, Ezra, Riker, and Silas. The five pillars that held the group together.
Ren looked at all of them standing before him.
Remu. Ragna. Ezra. Riker. Silas. The pillars that had held everything together since the beginning, each one having grown into something he could not have predicted when they first came together.
"Silas, Ezra, Remu," he said. "You three are coming with me."
All three gave a nod.
"The place we are heading requires a certain kind of presence. Negotiations, conversations, the kind of situations where how you carry yourself matters as much as how hard you can hit." He looked between them. "You three are the right fit for that."
He turned to Ragna.
"You are the strongest one here," he said simply. "Which means protecting this home while we are gone falls to you. Everything we have built stays intact. That is your job."
Ragna met his eyes and gave a single firm nod. No words needed.
Ren turned to Riker.
He was quiet for a moment, looking at him with the kind of attention that made people feel seen in a way that was not always comfortable.
"I have been watching you, Riker," he said. "And I know what has been going on inside your head. The self-doubt. The feeling that you are not measuring up. That you are not enough."
Riker said nothing, his jaw tight.
"You are one of the strongest here. One of the best potentials in this entire organization, and I mean that with no flattery behind it." Ren held his gaze. "But your mind is not where it needs to be right now. And a person whose mind is divided is a liability in the kind of situation we are walking into. Not because they are weak, but because they cannot fully be what they are capable of being."
He paused.
"So I am leaving you here with Ragna."
Riker’s expression flickered.
"Before you take that the wrong way," Ren said, reading it immediately, "hear me out. This is not me removing you because you are not good enough. This is me giving you the one thing you actually need right now, which is time and the right push to clear your head and find your feet again." He looked at Ragna briefly and then back to Riker. "Ragna will train you while we are gone. Push you to your limit. And when we come back, I want the Riker who shows up to be someone who has stopped arguing with himself."
Riker exhaled slowly through his nose.
He understood. He did not like it fully. But he understood it.
He nodded.
Ren looked at all of them one final time.
"The Primordial Crimson is going to grow," he said. "What we are now is not what we will be. We will spread, we will have influence, and we will build something that goes far beyond this forest." He let that sit for a moment. "That starts with every one of you doing what you are meant to do while I am away.
Development continues. Training continues. Expansion continues. Ragna, the other forest lords may test you while I am gone. They will not go overboard, but they will probe. Handle it."
Ragna’s eyes said he was already thinking about it.
Ren dismissed them.
The carriages moved out as the horses found their rhythm, the forest path opening ahead of them. Ren settled into his seat, Lia across from him, Luna beside him, Ezra quiet at the window.
Ahead of them in the next carriage, Remu and Silas rode alongside Liam and the half-elf archer. Behind them, the dual wielder and the mage brought up the rear.
Ren looked out at the trees passing by.
It was the first time since he had built something worth leaving that he was actually leaving it.
He hoped it would still be standing when he came back.
He was fairly certain it would be.