The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 5 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 5 ✰✦✰
" Uneasy Lies "

"THE SHIELDER OF Darkness will come after you," Jacks told me. "You realise this, don't you?"

We'd finally let him out of the cellar since we claimed that we needed his help with everything. Something that hadn't surprised me was that he hadn't tried to escape yet and I doubted he was going to. Overall, I just thought he was far too excited that we'd now allowed him to work alongside us. Jacks wasn't exactly fun to reveal this all to but I had to. Even if it gave me a headache to do so, I didn't know how to go on with this and I was starting to question if I'd done the right thing.

"I have yet to challenge the Shielder of Darkness—"

"But once you do," Jacks interrupted me, his eyes stern and serious. "He will not be merciful."

"Are you saying he's going to kill her?" said Sarinne, eyes wide and alarmed.

Even my heartbeat had sped up.

"Possibly," replied Jacks calmly. This was another reason to have him here—he remained calm and calculated at times when I knew Rinne and I weren't going to be. "And we'll have to prepare for war, perhaps."

"War?" I choked out.

Jacks nodded.

I shook my head. "No," I said. "No, this wasn't what I wanted. I signed up to change the world but I didn't want war—"

"And you thought it would be easy?" Jacks cut in, staring at me in disbelief. "That he'd agree instantly and you wouldn't have to fight a single thing?"

Stupidity was a horrible feeling. Yet somehow, I managed to experience it quite a lot.

Jacks spent the next few days explaining all the possible outcomes of me challenging such a highly respected, powerful person. And with every new threat that Jacks gave me the chances of receiving, I grew even more unsure of what I was doing. I was a teenage, orphaned girl who couldn't even do simple maths. How in the thirteen Isles was I supposed to change our country again?

It all gave me an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. Of the same fears that I'd had since I was a child. I used to be utterly terrified of ruling over a country that could do so, so much better than me. The only relief that I felt when my childhood burned to the ground was that I wouldn't have those worries anymore. I was alone and no one knew my name. Everyone I'd loved and cared for was dead and no citizen alive had ever seen my face. I was safe.

Until some dickface called the Shielder of Darkness decided to piss me off. How was I the right person for this? How was I so certain that I needed to defeat him? To say no to him and refuse everything he stood for?

That question followed me into my dreams and my nightmares for what felt like forever. Until I finally told it to fuck off and got my arse out of bed and made my way to the Messenger's Place with a letter addressed to the one and only Shielder of Darkness—who, according to the contacts he'd left below his poster about killing kids, had a specific number one could send letters to for concerns on his plans but never revealed his address. Perhaps he lived in a lonely cave, eating whatever and waiting for updates on his schemes like a psycho. I certainly couldn't picture him living in a place like Sagax Isle–an isle with the biggest city in any of the isles. It was modern, large and beautiful. I'd never visited before but I'd seen pictures from when my parents had travelled before their marriage.

"You. . ." said the Messenger when I handed her my envelope. Her stormy-blue eyes widened at my sight. "You're writing to the Shielder of Darkness?"

I frowned. "Yes. Haven't others already?"

She shook her head frantically, like she was afraid. "No one does."

I swallowed a nervous breath. I didn't know why that scared me but it did. "Why not?" I asked. "Does the man not have many friends?"

The woman either didn't understand my joke or she took it too seriously, looking completely terrified of me. "May I ask why you're writing to him?"

"No," I immediately said. Was this normal behaviour for Messengers?

"No problem," she said with a weak smile. "Good day, Madam."

I frowned, slightly concerned.

Regardless, the woman threw my envelope in one of the piles and bade me goodbye.

Had I made a mistake? And why had the Messenger looked so scared when I'd asked her if anyone else wrote to the Shielder of Darkness?

Was there something much larger at play here or was I looking for something to be at play?