The Tragedy of Renya

4.6 Wanting to Own

Renya ???

“All of this was for your sake.” Hendri said as he entered the family tomb. Lea was there, as he’d expected. She was sitting on one of the tombs; the tomb of Andrey Pentel. Her fingers were tracing the face of the statue as she looked into the distance, at something he could not see.

“They call this a tragedy,” Lea said.
“A tragedy starts with a wedding and ends with a funeral. The story of this city started with a funeral and ended with a wedding.” Hendri chuckled as he headed towards her.
“It ended…” Lea shook her head. She then raised it and looked at Hendri. For a short second he was paralysed by the intensity of her gaze. He finally tore himself away from it and smiled at the wall.
“The story between my family and you did. Renya won’t end.”

“It already has.” Lea suddenly started laughing.

Hendri walked past her and shoved the large dark curtain to the side.
“Renya is my city,” Lea said, “not yours. Renya doesn’t belong to the Pentel family. It belongs to its goddess.”
“I thought you didn’t accept that name,” Hendri said, before descending into the basement.

Perhaps she was right, he wondered. Renya was a city that was built for her. So it was only fitting that this would be the place she’d settle down. And it was only fitting that she’d settle down with the family that had founded the city. They were destined to be together. It didn’t matter what they called it in the future; the city was in eternal prosperity and no longer needed a future.

There was only one thing that worried him: the holes in his memory. He’d been fainting quite regularly recently; at least he suspected he had been. Hendri frowned; he’d have to fix that problem. The consequences if he didn’t could be disastrous.

Alice sighed as she sat down on one of the sofas in the top floors of the Pentel’s mansion. Officially this was forbidden for servants; these quarters belonged to the family and not to the servants. However, she knew that both members of the family were in the basement so that she would not be caught. She leaned backwards and let her head rest on the back of the sofa. There was something wrong. There was definitely something wrong in this city. Her head was fuzzy; she had the feeling she’d forgotten something important. And at the same time she remembered that there was something going on in Renya; there was nobody allowed to leave the city. At the same time nobody entered the city either. Yet the merchants still had fresh fruits in a quantity that could not be grown inside the city.

So what was going on? Alice felt the determination to find it out. Only problem was; she had no clue where to start. And she already knew that Lord Pentel would not talk about it.