Celeste's life is far from the enchanting fairy tale one might expect from a princess. Her father, a ruthless and self-absorbed king, leaves a trail of death and destruction in his wake. To seal alliances and maintain his power, he arranges for Cele...
People often come into your life unexpectedly, sometimes for an identifiable reason and sometimes purely by chance. Sometimes people come into your life to teach you something, teach you. Sometimes people seem to come into your life just to destroy you, to do something to you. I have enough examples of both situations to establish that it is true.
Elenor is another one of those issues of which I am not yet sure. It all happened so fast that I haven't had time to think about which way this will go. We could now have a traitor dragged into our midst, but she could just as easily be the help we needed. It would be easier if people's intentions were written on their foreheads.
However, that would make my own situation more difficult by leaps and bounds. I always hope that somewhere deep down there is something good hidden in people, though I highly doubt it. In the end, we still do everything to make ourselves look our best.
Sometimes I struggle with those thoughts. I am no longer a holy bean either and god is more likely to send me on to the devil than welcome me through the gate. I kill 100 people for a reason that is not just selfishness. However, those 100 people won't get their lives back with that either. I will be labelled a hero by some, a selfish murderer by others. What I call myself is and always will be a question to which I have no answer.
'Put this on,' I say as I push one of my dresses into Elenor's hands. She stands confused in our tavern room while Novak and I push our things back into the bags as fast as we can. Our visit to Runcast is over again. The task is not only to get away as quickly as possible before people realise that Dumburt is lying bleeding on a floor, but getting Elenor out of here is another reason.
Elenor grabs the dress and starts changing. I push the last of my things into my bag. Sleep we will not get this night, which is not the first time. Before, before all this, I really needed my sleep. Meanwhile, I can sleep through nights without experiencing a problem. Whether that is a good development only time will tell, for now it is a handy new feature.
'Does it fit?' I look up from my bag and see Elenor standing in my old dress. It is the brown dress I had to wear when I was employed by the elf king. I don't know exactly for what reason I kept the thing, but it has roamed with us all this time. Her slender body fits perfectly between the fabric, though her breasts are clearly a larger size than mine.
'Yes,' I reply as I walk towards the door. Novak also grabs his last belongings and comes walking towards the door. We leave the tavern in silence. The wooden small room is packed with drunk people who wouldn't notice us if they tried their best already. The streets too are packed. The stench that has been in the city from the beginning has only got worse, but now mixed with the smell of cigarettes, booze and sweat.
People seem to have no sense of shame. Sexual acts are done in the streets without pardon, people are wearing less and less clothes and the words spoken would be a ticket to the dungeons in the castle. It is so crowded that picking up our horses is still quite an undertaking. We barely get the two nervous animals to wriggle through the crowd. The narrow streets seem to have become even narrower with the night.
Elenor's presence is already a handy extra. She knows the way and leads us out of town as quickly as possible. No one looked up or back at us. Runcast was interesting for our brief visit but not a city to visit if not necessary.
'Where are we going?' asks Elenor as soon as we are a few metres outside the gate. I just get on my horse and look at Novak.
'What's the next name?' he asks. I don't even have to take out the list to answer that question.
'Walmoet Merlier', I reply. Novak helps Elenor onto his horse and sits behind her himself.
'What do we know about him?' he asks further.
'He has six wives, ten children and lives with the elves.' We began our journey once by seeking as much information as possible about all the names on the list. We travelled taverns asking everyone for information. Of all the names, we found a little bit of information, some more than others. Welmoet was a tricky one at the beginning. It took me a long time to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I found the most important puzzle piece a few weeks ago, at the tailor's.
'Would you like it a bit tighter?' the kind woman asks. I look at the black dress in the mirror and shake my head. The amount of black dresses with blood stains was so excessive that I did have to go to the tailor.
'Okay, you can take it off,' the woman informs me. Slowly, I lower the black fabric, which hangs together only with some pins, from my shoulders. I step out of the fabric and pick it up from the floor. The woman, who was just writing down my measurements, turns to me as I turn in her direction. Her eyes seem to find something remarkable, enlarge and she is silent for a moment.
'Is something wrong?' I ask the woman as she moves back and forth uncomfortably on her legs.
'I don't want to be rude, but the scars on your back caught my eye,' she replies. From time to time, I forget they are still there. I had hoped they would fade with the new magic in my body, they didn't.
'Don't worry about it, I haven't felt it for a long time,' I reply with a small smile and hold the dress out to the woman. She grasps the fabric, but does not seem at ease.
'Could I ask you how you got it?' she asks highly uncomfortably.
'The elf king did not appreciate my visit,' I reply as I begin to put my old dress back on.
'The elf king? Walmoet Merlier you mean?'
That was the information we needed. The woman could name the infamous king and after asking a few questions, I knew we were talking about the same man.
'Residence and title?' Novak asked on.
'The elf king of the green lake.' I quickly brushed the situation aside at the time because there were more important things on my mind. It is now time to pay our old friend another visit.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
