Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 3: Francis

Kori did not want to see the king after he had signed her son away over to the Astral Elves. She spent most of her time in the dungeon with criminals instead. She had returned, full-time, to her work as Redeemer, now that she had no Eory to visit or look after and no king to turn to for company.

There was something soothing about the work that made her forget about the horrors she had just experienced only a week before.

For those first three days after Eory had gone, Kori could do little else but sit in her room and think of the cruelties visited upon her and everyone else in that ballroom.

She thought of the king's dirty and underhanded betrayal of his promise to set Eory free and felt sick to her stomach; she thought of Eory's hideous grin as he summoned that horrid creature from his dog's corpse to devour all of those guards and felt all-the-sicker. She thought of Pollyanna—a woman who she had no love for—with her tattered dress, bleeding from dozens of arrow wounds, and sincerely felt sorry for her.

Lastly, she thought of how Eory had been ripped from her arms by a man she thought she loved and sent to die a horrible and lonely death in the Crater of Resentment. That was what hurt the most and made her weep the hottest tears.

The last smile he had given her was burned into her memory.

It was strange to think she had begun to prefer the company of criminals over the king's and yet here she was, about to spend all day with the most recent batch down in the bowels of the castle.

Kori hiked up her skirts and her heels clacked on the stony steps which led down to the torchlit dungeon. Along both sides of the walls were cages with criminals locked inside. The waif recognized them all but one. Curious anout the new criminal, she sat outside the their dank and dark cell and looked in on them. Laurence, oddly enough, had not yet told her of this prisoner. It was very strange—the king almost always told her of new criminals before she went down to visit them in the dungeon, but not this time.

It was an elf. An ordinary elf, and not an Astral one.

The elf's legs were stretched out in front of them and they whistled with apparent nonchalance at their current plight. Kori tried to discern the creature's gender as her eyes roamed over their features; it was always so hard to tell with elves. In a moment, she decided he looked more male due to his firm chin and bigger nose.

Kori forced a smile, even though it was incredibly difficult for her to smile at a time like this. "Hello. What's your name?"

The elf crossed their arms and their legs at the ankles. "My name is Francis, and I do not belong in this cell."

Kori still could not tell what gender the elf was from his voice nor from his name, so she was content with thinking of him as a man still.

She felt sorry for the elf, as she did all criminals. Many of them were not entirely horrible people--many had just lost their way. She was getting that feeling from this elf.

"You shouldn't have disobeyed the law, then." Kori replied.

"I broke no law, little waif. I am a messenger from Alanheim. I was sent with an official missive from our queen to your king concerning your debt. We would also like to address the fact that human and fairy thieves from your kingdom have been on the edge of our border." Francis answered with a roll of his eyes. "You may be backwards, as all who are not elves are, but surely you know that taking an official messenger with a white flag captive is considered an act of war. Can you not pay your debts?" Francis queried.

Kori raised an eyebrow as she looked upon the elf's dirty, blank face which was cast in orange torchlight.

"What debts?" Kori demanded as she gripped the grimy bars worriedly. "We have no debts!"

Francis stood up from where he had been sitting and then pressed his hands against the wall. "Your king promised our queen an absurd amount of gold in return for helping you rid your kingdom of those Arrozans. Did he not tell you?"

Kori blinked rapidly with her mouth open in shock. In a moment, she scowled. "What is this? Some kind of lie you're telling me to fool me into bartering for your freedom? Tell me what you are truly guilty of, elf."

The elf turned her way again and answered with sad eyes, "I am guilty of many things that I am not proud of—including defending myself by killing two of King Laurence's guards who tried to arrest me—but I am not guilty of anything that should have landed me in your dungeon. Ask your king, Lady."

Kori looked into his sad eyes and tried to gauge whether he was telling the truth. He certainly seemed sincere, but...

Laurence wouldn't lie to me about something so important... Kori tried to convince herself. Gods, Maribel can't afford a war with the elves. We're still shaking off the damage the Arrozans did.

Kori didn't wish to see the king. She wasn't sure she was ready to see him; of late, she could still only see him as the villain who sent her son away and refused her request to join him. Regardless, even though she was fairly certain that Francis must be lying about the situation, she had to get to the bottom of it by confronting Laurence. If the lie proved true, Maribel was in deep trouble, after all.