Nafız was sure there was no one around the hut they were in, but she still didn't refrain from taking all precautions.
Blood Dome
It was absolutely impossible for any information to leak from inside out anymore; since the power animals busy eating a large army weren't done with their business yet, no one would be able to disturb them either.
"I wasn't myself, but you must have seen everything done to my daughter; why didn't you stop me regarding Gregoria?"
The hulk-like orc warrior had spilled the beans; along with the beads of sweat trickling down his temples, the trouble inside him was now out in the open.
"So this was what fell to your share from the dungeon, huh Alyon; the pain of repeating what the arch-enemy who persecuted your daughter did has settled in your heart, right?"
Nafız had figured out what happened clearly; her friend was roasting in the claws of more than one trouble. This problem had to be solved here today, otherwise time would only ensure the wound deepened further.
"Nafız, I couldn't keep the promise I gave to my master in the war I entered with the orcs I dragged after me; because of me, those coming from my blood suffered great pains."
"There wasn't a single moment I didn't think about these for two years; the voices coming from inside my head were constantly torturing me. Then you came back, and we set off towards adventures again; a hope sprouted inside me, for a moment I thought maybe I could return to before that day I broke."
"When I saw that woman, I understood from the depths of my heart that she was a bad person, Nafız; I thought if I humiliated her, I would both avenge the past and feel more powerful. An irrepressible feeling constantly forced me to do this; this feeling turned into an obsession captivating my self in me!"
Alyon, who spoke breathlessly for a long time, fell silent for a short while, whether because he ran out of breath or he was going to say something that would tear his throat while coming out was unknown.
The gray-haired orc, who inhibited all his emotions during the two years he tortured himself, was sharing them with his friend accompanied by tears. Now, lifting his face wet with something other than blood for the first time in his life from the ground, Alyon, exhausted from sorrow, would shout his last words too.
"Why did you let me do the same thing as those scumbags, why didn't you prevent me from resembling the person I hate the most?"
While saying these, the hulking orc had shouted as if wanting to tear his lungs apart; if not for the Blood Dome, everyone inside the headquarters would be able to hear him.
Nafız didn't expect to hear such things from her friend at all; she was at a loss for what answer to give to Alyon, who looked into her eyes as if asking for help, not questioning contrary to his words.
In the command center of the headquarters formerly belonging to the Grey Hyenas, two orcs were looking at each other in silence in these moments.
Although she wanted to think thoroughly before speaking upon Alyon's words, the female orc didn't have such a luxury; Nafız decided to continue however she felt inside, as she always did regardless of the result.
"Let me tell you why I didn't stop you, old friend, because it suited my book. To lure the old snake, waiting coiled up in the region besieged by the Black Lilies, out of his hole, you offered me a nice opportunity, and I didn't say no to it!"
The gray-haired orc was expecting an explanation, but no matter how he thought, it wasn't possible for him to guess what he heard right now; his friend had told him the pure truth without holding back at all.
"Since you decided to talk about the past, with your permission, I want to join you too; since they didn't tell you what happened to your daughter, you don't know how Sangre died either, do you?"
"Just as everything was about to end as we wished, an enemy strong enough to trample my arrogance appeared on the battlefield; no matter what I did, I couldn't overcome him. When this person wanted to kill the people who are the future hope of the orcs, for whose sake we strove madly, Sangre stood before him; although he fell captive in the end, he had achieved what he wanted to do."
"I made a bargain with the man crushing us with his power; if I went to the Hell Realm with him, he would spare the lives of everyone remaining behind. Sangre, trapped inside the cage of fire, went mad upon this; he didn't want to accept being used to make me submit!"
The air inside the hut had become thoroughly heavy after Nafız's words; Alyon, hearing what happened for the first time, was now looking at his friend with sorrowful eyes.
"He shouted, he screamed; in defiance of the pressure descending upon him and his hands burning with embers, he struggled to break the cage he was prisoner in. Alyon, some nights I hear those sounds; every single letter turns into countless needles piercing my body, the smoke coming out of his hands holding the bars of fire desperately comes and chokes me!"
"Every time blood splashes on my face, the man who cut his throat with his own hands rather than seeing me kneel comes to my mind; tell me, Alyon, which of us came out more defeated from that war!"
Opening old books had ensured the unhealed wounds of the two people sitting opposite each other bled; Nafız intended to continue without knowing where the end of this business would lead.
"Your daughter is alive, and unlike you, what she experienced turned her into what she wanted to be, the most perfect female orc warrior. Your son didn't turn his back on the emotions you withheld from him; he loved his whole family, including you, and tried to protect them until the last drop of his strength."
"He was defeated but didn't give up; I don't think you could understand even if I told you his true might right now. At the end of the great war we started, the Orcs gained a Khagan impossible to defeat while on his own lands; you felt what kind of power your grandson has in your own body today, didn't you?"
The defeat he experienced while in the leader position had evidently imprisoned Alyon inside that moment; he had been incapable of stepping outside his own rout and seeing the big picture for a long time. When he listened to his friend's words, he was understanding that the reason for punishing himself wasn't what happened as he always thought, but his broken pride and crushed arrogance.
Nafız's face had also taken a very ugly state; a great sorrow had come and settled in her heart as a result of recounting those days by reliving them.
"I am neither a saint nor someone spending her life on the path of righteousness; I am just fighting to bring the man who sacrificed himself for my sake back to life. And if I have to do some things for this cause, no one will be able to stand before me, whatever the price and result!"
Alyon's mind was in a jumble while watching his friend sitting at the other end of the table stand up; a fierce struggle had started in his heart between his new thoughts and old fears. For this reason, he couldn't understand when the female orc came next to him and grabbed his face with both hands; he was only feeling the pressure of a pair of blood-red eyes looking into his eyes.
"Who you are, only you can find this, but let me tell you a bit about the Alyon I know if you want!"
Pulling her hands from the astonished hulking orc's face, Nafız sat on the edge of the table and continued her speech.
"Do you remember, after the event where they beat people called the naming ceremony, they hadn't taken us into the quartermaster tent, and we had gone and eaten leftover bones. When we returned, you had beaten up the guy in front of the door first, and then the leaders who occupied the tent thoroughly."
"Do you remember them taking us to that mountain full of creatures to kill us? If you ask me, that loser brat's grudge was only against you; the sucker's hand had broken when he punched your head. All this adventure would start there; we are here because you didn't run away and killed that creature who wanted to rape me, Alyon!"
"Afterwards, we experienced many things; two people, we even captured a huge city, man, what else? You are not a defeat or some mistakes you made; you are the man whose heart gets constricted knowing what you did is wrong even in this state!"
Nafız's words would ensure Alyon experienced four seasons in ten minutes; the hulking orc, tired to death physically and mentally all day long, was crying with his head on his friend's knees.
"I set out on a path, big head; in the end, I will either achieve what I wish or die for this cause. If you let yourself go like this too, whom will I lean my back on and fight the enemies before me? The past remained where it happened; return to today, to my side now, Alyon!"
Nafız must have thought she needed to be silent because the hut, where shouting prevailed for a while, would be buried in silence. The two friends were talking to each other so intimately perhaps for the first time in years; they had spilled all the stones left in their skirts.
This evening, when the sorrowful Alyon opened his wound to find healing, Nafız was unwittingly applying ointment to both his and her own heart.