Inheritance

Chapter 7: A Miracle

I deserve to be here. I need to be here. Kori has been nothing but kind to me; she saved me.

Eory thought to himself as he took in deep breaths to try and feel like he was out in the open with fresh air. He remembered a moment of Kori's kindness and her sweetness. He was young—so young that the rest of his memories from that night were blurry at best--but he remembered Kori reading him a story. She had pulled his blankets up and he listened eagerly to her story. "Luis was a grand hero—a dragon slayer, and..."

"I want to be a hero!" Eory interrupted. "I want to be a hero like you!"

Kori grinned. "Me? A hero?"

"You saved me!" Eory replied.

And Kori replied with tears in her eyes, "you are far too kind... I have done little except keep you safe."

She was modest. She had saved him from the beheading that came to his brother and parents and she had loved him knowing the evil that festered deep down in his soul like it did for all of his ancestors.

He found his gaze drawn once again by one of the pictures he had drawn of Pollyanna and pushed down his regrets and loathing of the fact that he would never be able to meet her.

She was his fantasy. He had lived most of his life in a fantasy with her because there was nothing to live for in his confined reality.

And as he sat in silence with nothing but the dripping rain to keep him company, his mouth turned ever gradually into a hideous grimace as he blamed Kori for all his woes.

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Kori picked up some presents from the market on her way to see Eory. She had some very good news to tell him that she previously thought she would never be able to share with him.

Time and again, she had come before here friend, the new king of the human kingdom of Maribel, Laurence, and begged him to just give her charge—her beloved son—a chance on the outside of his tower.

She had plied the king with what she considered to be sufficient evidence that Eory did not have the evilness buried in his soul that all of his ancestors had.

So often, she had kneeled upon the verdant carpet spread from the throne to the bottom of the many steps and said to Laurence, "Your Majesty, Eory shows no signs of an evil nature. He greets me kindly everytime I visit, he cleans his room as I command, he has learned his letters and numbers and is an excellent and kind student. His social graces are better than any peasant's and indeed, better than most nobles'. I implore you to give him just one chance on the outside of his tower."

But the king would always meet her pleas with the same answer. "You have no proof that he will not harm or kill anyone if he is released. I can't free him unless you can bring me definitive proof that he will harm no one. I know it is your job as the Redeemer to redeem criminals as it has always been, but this one is simply too dangerous to merely trust your good judgement with."

No proof existed, and the king knew it. Kori had always held out hope that she could change his mind, but it had been waning as of late and her heart was broken because of it. On one of her recent visits to her charge, she had even broken down in tears while Eory slept and murmured in his ear, I can't ever free you.

But the Waif Gods had finally blessed her with a miracle; the king had finally given in and granted Kori's wish. She didn't know why and she didn't care. She just knew she couldn't wait to tell Eory that he could be free.