Inivisible string: A Sam and Nehemia story

Chapter 20

Sam

The next day, they woke up to the noise of the port of Rifthold. Though Sam could tell it was different from before, he couldn't put his finger on what. Or at least that was until they got off the ship, arm in arm, and noticed the lack of slaves, the lack of whips and the lack of shackles. Other than that, Sam could see so many people from different places, that didn't happen in Adarland when he was growing up. He could see people from Ellywe and from the Southern Continent, but what surprised him the most, was that people no longer seemed to reproach outsiders.

While they didn't have much money, they had enough for getting something to eat and passage to Ellywe, maybe even a couple night in an inn if they wished it. They walked around the port, looking at the ships, asking the captains where the ship was scheduled to go and when. When they found a ship that would be going to Ellywe the captain told them they would leave at dawn, and to come back in a couple of hours at most to secure passage. Instead of paying the passage at once, they decided to walk around the city, see what else had changed.

They went to the good part of the city, so Sam could show her where he grew up. He didn't show her the Assasin's Keep, he only showed her places he was happy in, and though he was happy in the drawing room of the house, he wouldn't get close to there, too many bad memories he didn't want to remember. They walked around the city until they got to a street that might've seen random, but Sam remembered. They were in the back street of Rouke Farran's house, he would never walk the front of it if he could avoid it. He told her the story of his escape, showing her the details of the windows through which he managed to escape. He had planed this before, he had the body straight from the sickhouse for if anything wrong. While he hadn't gotten away from the worst of the torture, he didn't get the worst of it, the worst of it was done to a random body of a young man who died from the sickness, it turned out Farran and Jayne hadn't wanted to go against Arobyn, so when Arobyn said to torture Sam, he did, and when Sam got away, he found the body that looked enough alike, and what was so different, wasn't distinguishable.

Sam gave thanks to the gods for that, it didn't matter that they had been gone long enough, all that mattered is that he hadn't suffered as much as he could've. Being here with Nehemia was in ways healing, he could think about this in the future and instead of all of those memories that threatened to break him, he could think of this moment, of her hand in his, of having her next to him. He pulled her in for a hug so that they both could stop looking at the house, which by the lack of guards, wasn't the house of Jayne anymore. She didn't say anything about it and just hugged him back. After a few minutes she pulled away and just led him away from the house.

They didn't stay in front of the house for much longer. While they were walking away from it and nearing tha main streets, they noticed plenty of people celebrating in the streets, most of them drunk and swaying. When they got close enough to one person, a young man who got a huge grin in his face as soon as he saw Nehemia.

"Well hello Darlin', what can I do for you?" The young man slurred.

Nehemia to her credit didn't even make a face as she just said:

"Oh please don't. You see this big guy next to me? He's my boyfriend and he doesn't appreciate the way you are looking at me, and honestly, neither do I." The man's smile left his face with her sharp tone. She turned her voice sweeter before speaking again and her mouth turned upward in a smile. "Sorry, I just meant to ask, what do all of you seem to be celebrating?"

The man's smile didn't return his face as he answered her question in a cold tone. "It's the annual congress. All the royals are here, The Lords of Fenharrow, The Witches of the Wastes, The Queen of the Western Wastes, The Queen of Terrassen and even the Pirate King. They discuss the best ways to keep the kingdom at peace." He probably saw the confused look on both of their faces, since he added "You are not form around here are you?"

Sam and Nehemia didn't deign to answer the question, just murmuring their thanks and leaving. Apparently both of their minds were in the same thing, since they were on their way to the castle and neither one of them confirmed this with the other. On the way to the castle plenty more people seemed to be celebrating, they were trying to pass when Sam came across a very familiar face, albeit a few years older. Lysandra.

She was walking next to a big, muscular, young man with blond hair and turquoise eyes. He seemed familiar, but he couldn't tell from where. Sam grabbed Nehemia's hand as if that could help him keep himself standing. He realized that Nehemia gave him strength in a way, the strength to face his past.

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He saw the moment Lysandra's face changed from happy, to confused, to happy again, to confused again. She said something to the man next to her and started walking towards them with the man in tow. When they got close enough to them to have a conversation, Sam could see the tears in Lysandra's eyes and could hear the heartbreak in her voice when she said "Sam? Is it really you? Am I under an illusion or something? This can't be real."

Before Sam could utter a word, Lysandra was falling into his arms. Sam turned to Nehemia, unsure what to say. All that came out of his mouth was a barely there "Hey". And suddenly Lysandra was hitting him instead of hugging him.

"What the fuck?" He asked.

"What, how, when, what" Lysandra muttered all of this while keeping hold of Sam's shoulders. "How are you here? Ael-Celeana said you were dead, Arobynn and Wesley said the same. How?"

"It's a long story. I managed to escape Farran while he tortured me. He left me alone a few minutes and I left, barely. After he got a body from a sickhouse nearby and he-" Sam couldn't keep going, he felt as if his throat was closing up and he couldn't get any air inside of him. He put his hands on his knees, trying to get enough air to his lungs.

From the corner of his eyes he saw Nehemia stepping forward. "He managed to escape, whatever happened after was not his fault. That's the point." She put a hand on Sam's back and whispered in his ear, "Breathe Sam, you are out, this happened long ago. You are safe. We are safe."

Suddenly the man was stepping towards Sam, he had a murderous look on his face with his narrowed eyes and his clenched teeth. But before he could get close enough to Sam, Lysandra put a hand on his chest and stopped him.

"I believe we should have a conversation somewhere else. About a lot of things apparently." She said looking over at the hand Nehemia still had on his back.

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It's a lot longer than usual, so hope you like it. I will keep trying to make the chapters as long as I can. Good things coming in this story. Let me know what expectations you have and which characters you can't wait to read about. :)

Things are about to get crazy, prepare yourselves for it.