The Pearl Fox

The secret tower door

His name is Topaz Elldwin and for three years he served as a guard at The Black Castle. In his twentythird year now, he was now a door guard to the West wing during the day but sometimes he had night shifts at the same post. He started off as a gatekeeper, and then an armoured soldier of The Black Castle. His humble bakground meant that he couldn't become a knight or a squire, not that he cared to want that. He just wanted to guard and do his duties. Topaz had silver eyes and long scarlet hair, a feature that was quite rare in the world of Blue Star but found only among populations across Tritiaka. Topaz was once in the Diaphry army's infantry, and a graduate of martial arts schooling, bringing him upwards in society as it's dedicated soldier.

During intervals of duty hours, Topaz returned to the gatehouse and climbed the stairs to one of the small rooms. A small fire burned orange in the hearth, and there were chairs around a table for guards to rest. He sat there, and a male servant left two brass pitchers of cheap yellow wine, and dishes of steaming soup full of chopped parsnips, millet, peas, rutabagas  and chicken. Topaz played boardgames with other guards before duties at these times, and occasionally made bets and won extra coins or lost some. He didn't want to play this today even though a few guards were already cheering it at the end of the table. All of their armour was grey with plated armour and chainmail links, with a surcoat made of black velvet with the crest of Crow Thorn featuring an outline of a corvus done in red. It was news that Crow Thorn himself remarried and his new wife called Yvetna, was a daughter of another wizard.

Topaz wondered what happened to the beautiful apprentice girl named Thistle. He no longer saw her around the Black Castle anymore. He missed her. They sometimes used to meet together, Topaz and Thistle, and they wandered through the castle, along the battlements, across the drawbridge and along the streets of Moondome. They were intimate a number of times, and he loved the smell of fresh flowers on her. One of the other guards told him she was "expelled from the castle for having a bun in the oven". Of course, Topaz didn't know if that was his doing or not. Thistle never took it upon herself to meet with him to share the news or discuss her feelings for him. He didn't know where she was but she knew where he was. Her exit from his life meant that the pregnancy wasn't because of him, in his view.

As Topaz mulled over Thistle after draining the last drop of yellow wine, a guard from below the stairs called out his name, "Elldwin!"

"Yes sir?" Topaz leaned across the bannister and saw another guard.

"You're wanted in the Great Hall to meet our master!"

Topaz went straight into the main castle and into the now almost busy great hall, with its flamboyant drapes and tapestries so vibrant and fluid they seemed to come to life. Crow Thorn sat on his throne like a king, with his trusted guards and others, including the newcomer who was supposedly there to train as a guard, called Binofft. Yet Binofft never did anything, and was dressed in the same armour that he was. Binofft had glowing golden curls and a flashing smile with perfect white teeth. There was always a different maiden attached to Binofft like a kitten. This maiden was of dark violet hair, who Topaz first encountered when he started as a guard. She was his first bed lover at the Black Castle. Now she was clinging to Binofft, and didn't seem to remember where she was. She seemed drunk and foolish. Crow Thorn, as usual, was oblivious to the antics of Binofft and his girlfriends. Occasionally, while on guard duties, Binofft tended to approach him and leer or threaten to strike his face. Topaz always stayed firm but sometimes he would utter the words "fuck off!" at him. He wondered if Thistle would've been interested in Binofft also.

"You disappoint me, Topaz Elldwin of Nee Town! You're a big nuisance for impregnating my student, Thistle! You've been watched. I don't want any fights here among the guards! You've been seen gambling in the guardhouse and you've been unpleasant towards my trusted new apprentice, Binofft." Crow Thorn said angrily. "I often reshuffle my houseguards. I'm sending you away to Hillside Lake, where you'll become a guard there at the Green-Rose Towers."

The smirk on Binofft's face was making Topaz want to kill him. But he would have to leave the Black Castle now. And he would never be in Moondome to locate Thistle, and ask her why she left him, and why she wasn't giving him a chance. The secret tower door to her private chamber was causing him to remember her, and then he wondered about her. It felt painful to realise that she had chosen to leave so he felt that it was best to get out of here.