Only The Beginning

The Triptych

Gravel crunched under their feet as they made their way up the hill to the crumbling estate. Olive felt a pit growing in her stomach, there was something about the home that made her anxious, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She chalked up her nervousness to the loyalists who set up camp nearby, keeping her on edge.

Sebastians eyes were downcast as he spoke of the attack on Anne in extreme detail, she was convinced he would have been able to recreate it down to the last second with how precise he was. "Do you see all this rubble? They're digging for something; this is what's left behind. I'm going to find out what it is." He glared at the crumbled rock, like it was just as horrible as the goblin who broke it.

They came upon the clearing, and as they stopped to look around, Olive saw something out of the corner of her eye. Behind Sebastian a loyalist appeared, trying to sneak up behind him, she raised her wand and pointed it just over his shoulder. He looked at her with wide eyes, not noticing the danger behind him. "What in the bloody hells are you doing!?"

"Confringo!" The spell went whipping past his ear to the goblin behind him, hitting square in the chest plate, throwing him into the mountain.

"Are you out of your mind!" Sebastian cried exasperatedly, hand on his heart trying to calm himself.

"A simple thank you would do." She said flatly as she brushed off her pants.

"Bombarda!" She went rigid and her hair fluttered as the spell flew over her shoulder, hitting the second loyalist who was hiding out in the bushes behind her.

Sebastian smirked at her as he watched her jaw drop in surprise "A simple thank you would do."

"I see your point." She laughed sheepishly as she rubbed her arm. "Come on then, let's have a look around, before more show up."

The estate was a ghost of its former self, rock and debris thrown all over, mostly due to loyalist mining. The evidence of their intrusion was clear, picks and shovels littered the area, small campsites set up in the corners. Olive approached a stack of burned wood that once used to be a cart of some sort, sat sadly amongst the rubble; she looked at it curiously, the loyalists didn't usually set things ablaze.

"We were woken up to the smell of smoke that night." Sebastians voice sounded like it was far away "It was too late for a bonfire, so we knew something was wrong. The whole hamlet was outside, watching the estate go up in flames, but Anne, she got worried. She had thought someone must be hurt, and she dashed off up the hill not concerned with her own safety." He inhaled deeply "She was gone before any of us had a chance to stop her. I raced after her, but she's always been faster than me. When she got to the top, the whole place was crawling with goblins trying to stop the fire." Sebastians face contorted with disgust "The smoke was so thick it was impossible to see, but a voice called through it 'Children should be seen and not heard.'. I watched as the blinding spell cut through the smoke and hit Anne; I wasn't quick enough."

"They must have been hiding something, why else would they have such an adverse reaction to a child trying to help." Olive pondered the scenario, what could they have been looking for?

She wandered further inside, Sebastian trailing behind. She could tell it was difficult for him to be here, but also what fueled his determination. "I come by whenever I'm home. I keep thinking I must have missed something that would help me uncover who cursed my sister. I know it sounds like I've lost it, but there has to be something here. Then when I find them, I can find the cure and we can go back to how things used to be."

"I don't think you've lost it." Olive smiled lightly at him, "The loyalists seem to spend a lot of time here for there to be nothing. Perhaps we can look together, I'm sure a fresh set of eyes may help."