Pariah

Chapter Ten

Damian paced in his room. It was past midnight, and he was still awake. Not that he didn't try- he just couldn't sleep. There was something ticking in his head and stealing his sleep.
That was the third day since he and Autumn began their quest, and that evening, he had discovered something disturbing. He was kept awake by it. He wasn't sure how to explain it to her. He spent the whole night imagining different scenarios of how she would take the shocking news of what he'd found, and none of those scenarios ended well. But he knew he had to tell her.
In the morning, with heavy eyes that showed lack of sleep, he dragged his feet to the training ground. He was dozing most of the time and almost got hit by Maverick's sword thrice during practice. On top of that, he was completely absent-minded. The thoughts that had kept him awake all night still hadn't stopped ticking in his mind.
Robin had been watching him all day. The prince losing badly against Maverick was the norm all right, but not to the point of leaving his neck under the knight's blade three good times in a row. He knew something wasn't quite right. He left his seat and dashed in to pull Damian out of the fight. He asked Maverick for a minute with the prince, and he agreed- even though a wordless nod was all the taciturn knight could spare.
"What's the matter with you, Prince?" Robin questioned as he let go of the arm he had held Damian by.
The prince sighed. He dumped his head against a near wall and sighed again.
"Are you dozing, Prince?" Robin's voice rang into his ears like a bell. He jerked. And only then did he realise that his eyes had actually been closed before Robin called. He was sleeping while standing!
Damian sighed a third time, his eyes still feeling very heavy and his heart, even heavier. "I didn't mean to be disrespectful, Robin, I just... didn't sleep all night."
"Why? What's the matter?" Robin's eyes were wide with concern.
"There are a few things bothering me," the prince replied quietly. He chose not to be explicit with his reply to the knight. His meetings with Kendrick LeClark's daughter wasn't really something he wanted to share at the moment. He'd prefer it if nobody knew the story for now; not even Anthony.
And it seemed Robin understood that. He didn't demand any details. He patted the prince gently on the shoulder and smiled at him.
"Well, whatever it is bothering you, be sure to get it off your chest on time," he said. "You're the king of Amaden, you know. We can't risk you getting injured during training."
The knight stole a glance at the water clock before his eyes rolled back the way they came. "It's my turn for training already. Go and take a break; have a good rest," he said benevolently. He patted the prince's shoulder again, and with that, he turned to give him some time to himself.
On Damian's part, Robin's words did the trick. The prince finally embraced the fact that he could either lose his peace of mind or tell Autumn the bitter truth. And getting beheaded by Maverick one of those days didn't look like a good option.
So when they met at the usual place and time that day, he broke it to her.
"Autumn, what I'm about to tell you might hurt a bit, but I can't let us keep on going around in circles..." he began, his eyes darting nervously from side to side. "Your father wasn't innocent, Autumn. He was guilty of all he was accused of."
Autumn's face twisted with anger as the words trickled in.
"I know it's a lot to take in, but it's the truth," Damian went on anyway.
"Stop!" Autumn snapped at him. And he paused. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and brought out some papers tied in a bundle. He pulled the string and started showing them to her one by one.
"Look at this," he pulled up the first. "This was the last contract your father signed with the kingdom's enemies before he was caught. Look carefully at the signature and thumbprint on it."
"And look at these," he pulled up a few more. "These are some of the official documents your father had signed while he was still working at the palace. Look at the signatures and thumbprints on them. They're all identical with the ones on the contract."
Autumn snatched the papers from the prince's hands and compared them over and over. The contents began to blur before her sceptical eyes.
"We cannot keep lying to ourselves or to each other, Autumn," Damian sighed gloomily. "Your father really was selling Amaden's military secrets."
"It's not possible!" Autumn shook her head in denial, tears clouding her eyes fast. "My father couldn't have. He was not a traitor!"
"What made you ever believe he didn't commit those crimes?" Damian tried to help her reason, barely fighting the urge to cry along with her first. "Don't turn a blind eye, Autumn; this is the truth before you. He was never innocent."
Autumn wrapped her arms tight around her shoulders hanging on to the false hope that her father was still innocent. The prince took a deep breath now and brought out one paper he had saved.
"I didn't think it would come to this, but I guess I have no choice but to show you this last one." He held it up to Autumn's face and turned his away.
"This was Kendrick LeClark's written statement that you, his daughter, shouldn't be allowed to visit him in prison. He knew how shattered and disappointed you'd be so he couldn't bear to face you. And look... even this statement has his thumbprint."
Autumn threw down all the papers she had in her hands. In the effort, she lost her balance and landed against a wall. All of disappointment, anger, defeat and fear had found a place in her eyes now. She wasn't sure which one to feel.
Damian had turned back to face her. He tried to pacify her, but Autumn unfortunately wasn't planning to listen much longer. With eyes still teary, she stormed out and went down the borderland.
The prince tried to run after her, but he couldn't catch up. He turned around when he realised that the papers he came with where still lying on the ground near the gates. He wanted to find Autumn, but he wouldn't want to get on Sir Martin's bad side by losing the archive copies either. He went back for them and picked every piece back up. Clutching those, he looked up to find that it was already getting dark. It would be night before he knew it so he had to get back home soon. He looked again in the direction Autumn had run and took a deep breath. Then, he crossed the gates back into Amaden.
By that time, Autumn had made her way to Pariahland. She marched straight up to her house, stomping as if the ground would break. Slamming the front door behind her, her fists clenched tight, she went into the kitchen to confront Elsa.
"Swear that you didn't know my father was guilty of all the accusations against him," she grunted at her in a single breath.
Elsa slowly dropped the kitchen knife in her hand next to the vegetables she was chopping and heaved a sigh.
"So it's true," Autumn deduced from the reaction. She blinked away her tears and took a step towards Elsa, asking her why.
"I did what I thought was best for you, my dear," Elsa gave the answer. "If I had told you that your father was the traitor they said he was, you would have given up. You would have accepted the name they gave you; a criminal's daughter. I wanted to help you have a life of your own and not spend all of it hiding away in shame and bowing your head to the world for a crime you didn't commit."
"But you made me live a lie for fifteen years, Elsa!" the girl's tears broke out, flooding their way down her face.
"That lie made you who you are today, didn't it?" Elsa said in her defence. "You trained so hard that you became the best wrestler in town; that would never have been possible without this little lie."
"A little lie, Elsa?" Autumn barely suppressed the impulse to fling away everything on the table beside her. "It's too bad that little lie is all my life's worth!" She pointed a finger at her foster mother now. "You know it, Elsa; you know wrestling has only been an excuse to while away time. My purpose had always been to clear my father's name and go back to Amaden. I've never thought about anything else. And here I am finding out after fifteen years that my whole life has been a lie- a little lie you told. Do you have the slightest clue what that feels like?"
"All right, Autumn," Elsa held her hands up in surrender. "I admit that I was wrong lying to you. But this isn't the end of the road. You still have your wrestling career."
"What career, Elsa?" Autumn slapped away the hands that tried to reach out to her. "I can't even wrestle outside Pariahland and the borderlands."
She stormed out of the kitchen with the same rage she had stormed in with. She locked herself in her room and never came back out that night. Elsa knocked on her door several times begging her to come out, but there never came even a word in response.