The Lies of the Immortal Queen

Rage

During the following days, Lucas convinced Alex to let his dye fade out, gradually revealing more and more of his original hair. Alex would say he got peer pressured into this, but it didn't matter, the ending result was still the same, for as the first week of his stay in Colborn came to an end, the top of his head was now completely pink. 

He still felt quite uneasy going around like this, having gotten used to hiding his true self his whole life. So, when he felt there were too many prying eyes around, he would 'borrow' Lucas's hat to hide his hair. Well, more like stealing rather than borrowing, since he wouldn't bother to ask for permission before taking it. And after the millionth time he had done it without warning, Lucas got pissed. 

"Why don't you buy yourself a damn hat instead of keep on stealing mine!?" he grumbled loudly as he bought some groceries, handing them off to Alex to carry.

"Sorry, but do I need to remind you that I don't have a single copper to my name right now?" he shot him a glare "And whose fault is it? Wasn't it you who kept betting all of your money and losing it over and over to Freya?" Alex cringed. 

Fair point. He did perhaps have a little bit of a gambling problem, but he was sure it wasn't that bad, I mean, at least he still owned his sword.

Wait...

"Did you get everything?" 

"Almost, I just need to buy some soap to wash our clothes" 

That would have been nice, he had only packed one change of clothes with him, and that too was starting to smell after a whole week of travel, not to mention that he was in very much need of a bath himself. Lucas told him that since they would reach the capital soon, they would all stop by an inn to bathe. Of course, it was not because Freya was worried for them, but because it would be 'Bad for business' if they were to be all dirty and smelly. They wouldn't look like real merchants, but newbies that didn't properly plan their travels and got here in such a hurry that they couldn't even bother bathing. 

"That woman is all business and no heart" he mumbled under his breath "That's true, but at least she doesn't let us starve or freeze to death" he let out a sarcastic laugh. Now that he paid attention to it, among the four of them, somehow Freya seemed to be the cleanest, despite always wearing white coats, which would be the first to become dirty.

"How does she manage to keep clean at all times? She walks all day in mud and then sets camp for the night, she has to be dirty!" Lucas sighed "I guess you haven't noticed, she changes most of her clothes every two or so days but always keeps on the same coat, so it's not that noticeable. As for looking filthy, her coat is enchanted with self-cleaning magic, so it takes a while before it gets so dirty that it needs to be washed" Alex whipped his head around "A magic like that exists?!" he nodded "Although it is quite expensive, so we chose to stick with our plain ol' clothes, for the sake of our pockets"

"Then why did she-"

"Because she's a woman Alex, and all women like to keep clean" he shook his head "Especially crazy people like her that always want to look at their best in case they 'Ever run into potential business partners'" he let out a groan "I swear that woman sees everyone as potential walking gold-filled bags" he paid the merchant and bought the soap "Let's head back" he nodded, following Lucas back to camp.

"Alex" Callon called as soon as they were back "Freya wants you ready for training in five minutes" he sighed, nodding before heading towards her tent. After the ambush, she started training Alex every day for two to three hours. Although the 'Training' was mostly him getting beaten up with a big stick, since she didn't consider him a worthy enough opponent for her blade. 

So, out of pride, Alex made it his driving objective to force her to draw that damn dagger. He would prove her that he was a worthy opponent, and one that she should fear. And after getting beaten and pushed around for a few days, he was slowly starting to learn her attack patterns, finally gaining some ground.