“I bet that all this has been staged to reinforce the trauma from the destruction of your childhood memories with the death of your friend.” Tista said. “Otherwise, answer me this. Why did the members of your family abandon Narso here? Is it normal to leave a corpse of your own flesh and blood exposed for the animals to feed on them?”
Bodya shook his head again.
“If you ask me, I think that while we waited for everyone to gather in the main hall, someone took a trip to the family burial site, dug up Narso’s corpse, and brought it here. Forrn did everything he could to push you away from me.
“He vomited bile and resentment on you like he wanted to argue yet he sent you away before you could answer him. Maybe I’ve been around Jirni Ernas for too long but I think you are being manipulated.
“As for our relationship, you are right, we aren’t that close and that’s mostly my fault but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you. I don’t know what the future holds for us but I’ll be damned if I let you throw everything away because of an old snake.
“Whatever you decide, I’ll accept it but I want to make sure that it’s what you want, not that you just parrot Forrn’s words.” Tista let go of his neck and took several steps back, even shrinking back to her human form.
“I’m done. Take your time and give me your answer.”
She walked away slowly, leaving Bodya alone with his thoughts. He looked around the scene of the battle again, this time without letting his emotions cloud his judgment.
He noticed many details that were inconsistent with his early reconstruction of the events and that supported Tista’s hypothesis. The effects of the acid were too extensive to be the work of a single Nidhogg and the position of the corpse was weird.
Narso’s bones came out of the ground at regular intervals, like he had been swarmed while slithering in and out of the soil and also killed so quickly that he had failed to either fly away or dive down for cover.
That was the only possible explanation, unless, of course, everything was staged. The thought made his stomach churn and dizziness blurred his vision.
The inconsistencies and the weirdness of Narso’s death scene were no proof of anything. Bodya had seen many even more unbelievable things happen amid the chaos of battle and the amount of acid that the soil was laden with could be easily explained.
Maybe Narso had fought together with other members of the tribe and lagged behind during a retreat, forcing them to abandon him there. Maybe he had been caught by surprise and realizing he had no chance of survival, he had spread his acidic blood everywhere to bring down with him as many enemies as possible.
All Bodya had were a bunch of theories and a single certainty: his life had come to a point of no return.
If he decided to believe to Tista’s words, returning to his tribe was out of the question, no matter if their relationship blossomed or withered. How could he trust people who claimed to love and care for him yet didn’t hesitate to exploit a tragedy for their ends?
There were bite marks on Narso’s bones, indicating that after he had bled out, monsters or scavengers had preyed on his corpse. If Tista was right, leaving the body in the open like that was a ruthless, intentional act meant to shake Bodya.
He could understand his tribe’s outrage for his prolonged absence and the current colonization of Jiera but such things were no excuse to defile the body of a warrior of their tribe to manipulate another.
If he decided to believe patriarch Forrn, instead, Bodya could still go back to his ancestral home, but that meant cutting ties with Garlen forever. His kinsmen and Jiera’s Council would never accept him were Bodya choose to pursue his relationship with Tista.
A relationship that may fail, leaving him a lone outcast and forcing him to rebuild his life from scratch in a foreign land.
‘Yet what if I choose my tribe and later find out that Tista was right?’ He thought. ‘I could never forgive such a betrayal. I’d abandon my family and I would be alone anyway. I could still live in Jiera and be a member of its Council, but to what end?
‘Without any bond to fight for, I have no reason to care for this wretched land.’
Bodya shrunk back into his human form, walking toward Tista and the rest of the group. They were waiting for him from a distance, giving him time and space to think things through.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you an answer right now.” The Nidhogg said. “Until I clear my doubts and learn the truth about Narso’s death, there is no right answer. Only poison that muds my brain.”
“It’s fine.” Tista nodded, doing her best to hide how hurt she felt.
Her brain understood that choosing her while they weren’t even betrothed would have been reckless and stupid of him. One thing was giving up on his family to move in with hers and having the certainty that they would build together one of their own.
Gambling everything on a maybe quite another. Yet love is supposed to be reckless and stupid and her heart was no different, wanting to be chosen no matter how flimsy the odds were.
***
A quick call to Vladion later, Lith and the others were flying toward the coordinates of the undead encampment that the Firstborn Vampire had given them. Lith was in his Tiamat form and everyone else was riding on his back since he was the fastest among them.
Bodya spent the trip in silence, mulling over everything that his grandfather and the patriarch had said in search of faults in their arguments. The problem was twofold since he found none and Tista’s reasoning was just as solid.
He was sitting on the edge of the barrier protecting them from the wind pressure and the jolts of the flight, adding a physical distance to the emotional one that already separated him from the rest of the group.
‘Don’t be angry with Bodya. I’ve walked many miles in his shoes and I know how hard making this kind of life-changing decision feels. It tears you apart.’ Lith said Tista with a mind link.
‘What do you mean?’ She asked in confusion. ‘You never doubted your relationship with Kamila.’
‘I wish it was true.’ He inwardly sighed. ‘Before choosing whether or not to share the truth about me, I doubted every one of my relationships. Even those with Phloria, Kamila, and our family.’
‘What?’ Hearing him question their bond of trust outraged Tista. ‘Why?’
‘Because opening up to a woman or friend meant putting my life and the freedom of our family in danger while opening up to the family meant risking to be disowned, called names, and lose everything. That’s why.’ Lith replied.
‘Think about it. A single slip of the tongue or a break up with a girlfriend might have led to exposing my existence before I had gained enough power to protect everyone.’
