Pariah

Chapter Eleven

After his first day at Pariahland, Damian never truly thought he would be coming back there any time soon. But there he was, at the gate and nearing the toll cabin. The wild rage in which Autumn had parted with him the previous day was frightening, to be honest. He really needed to have a word with her. He'd started the fire anyway so he was going to be the one to put it out.
Sitting at the toll cabin, he met Mister James, dressed the same way as the last time he'd seen him, the only difference being the colours. Damian was on his way tossing a bronze coin to him when the man pushed his hand back.
"I said you wouldn't pay the next time you come, did I not?" were his words to the young prince whom he still thought of as an ambassador.
Damian laughed his way out of his forgetfulness and kept the bronze coin back in his pocket. The last time would have been a better day to have one, he thought to himself.
Now that he was done at the toll cabin, he decided that the next course of action was to ask around for Autumn's address. He saw a group of young men nearby with the lightning band on their wrists and approached them. He got the address as soon as they noticed he had one too.
Autumn's house was just at the end of the first lane east of the toll cabin. It was close to the gate. He went to its doorstep and stood under the shade of the porch to ring the doorbell.
Following the short metallic ringing of the bell, a tired voice came from inside, telling him to come in. He pushed the wooden door open and gently stepped in.
Coming in, the first thing he saw was someone sitting at the doorway of a room just across with her eyes buried in her hands.
Damian's teeth tightened. He shook his head in guilt. "Autumn?" he muttered. "Oh, what have I done?"
He stepped ahead and bent down to pull Autumn up, but when the face would turn, he found out it was someone else, not her. It was Elsa. He didn't know Elsa by name, but he recognised her from that day at the ring.
"Who are you?" Elsa snapped, rising feebly yet glaring harshly at him.
"I'm a friend of Autumn's from Amaden... my name is Damian," he replied, a little intimidated by Elsa's oppressive demeanour.
"The ambassador?"
"Uh... yes," the prince found himself almost stumbling back. That glare of hers was too intimidating!
She released the hard eyes now, but the new expression descending to her face wasn't much friendlier.
"I'm guessing you're the one who told Autumn about her father," she crossed her arms.
"I'm sorry if I offended you in any way by doing so," the prince looked down. He saw himself guilty as charged.
"Just let it be," Elsa huffed as she dropped her earlier-crossed arms. "I shouldn't be venting my anger on you anyway. The truth had to come out at some point. It doesn't really matter who digs it out."
Then, the next moment, she was pleading with Damian. She explained to him that Autumn hadn't come out of her room since the previous night's argument and likened the weight of her worry to the high hills of the borderlands- the prince got the picture. She wanted him to try talking to Autumn. Just maybe, a friend's voice would draw her out.
Damian didn't hesitate to agree. After all, that was the reason he'd come to Pariahland in the first place.
He laid a knock on Autumn's door.
"Autumn, are you in there?" he called as he clapped a hand to his hip and waited for an answer.
But to all of his hopeful knocks, the only thing he got in response was the echoing silence that already filled the house.
He took a deep breath after his last try and turned around to face Elsa with a last-ditch plan. "We may have to break this door open."
She bit her fingers in anxiety for a while but eventually agreed with him on it.
"Wait here. I'll go get the locksmith," she said hurrying out of the house with a rather sudden agility.
Damian leaned his head through one of the tall windows in the modest living room and waited for her. The house continued to echo with that persistent silence he had come to recognise, broken only by the gentle breeze blowing against his brown hair or the loosely hung curtains. He looked over his shoulder at Autumn's door again and felt a pang of guilt cut through him. It was his fault things became this way. And if anything ever happened to her, he'd certainly never be able to forgive himself.
Elsa returned a few minutes later in the company of the locksmith. She  directed him to Autumn's door and explained the job. The smith took off his hat and waistcoat, spread out a long belt of tools on the ground beside him and got to work straight away. Damian and Elsa stood together behind him watching nervously as every tool clicked.
That the locksmith took his hands off the lock for once was enough a cue for Elsa. She didn't wait for him to even report that the door was now open before flying to it. She threw the door open and scurried in... only to find out that the room was empty. Autumn was nowhere to be found.
Elsa was shocked. For a minute, she was frozen to a spot. Her breathing grew ragged, then she began digging around the room thoughtlessly as if Autumn could have hidden in a basket or box.
"Are you sure she hasn't gone out today?" Damian asked her, a feeling of dread spreading over him as well.
"She hasn't- I've been sitting at her door all day," Elsa stamped her foot on the ground. Then, she raised a key for Damian to see, "And her key is still under the pillow where she always leaves it."
"Right. If she had gone out, the key wouldn't be inside," the prince agreed, though under his breath so Elsa couldn't have heard.
Then, suddenly, he remembered the tall windows.
"The windows!" he screamed, pointing to the one open ahead of him. "They're big enough for a person to fit in. She could have climbed out through that."
Elsa spun around energetically and went to crane her neck through the window. She saw a trail of footprints leading from there past the fence and out into the open.
"You're right!" a smile broke through her face. "I can see footprints."
"Great," the prince nodded. "Let's start following those footprints."
Then, the locksmith they seemed to have forgotten coughed from behind them. "Hmm-hmm, I haven't been paid my fee yet."
"Oh, my apologies," Elsa said as she unfastened her purse and paid him off.
She and the prince set out now and started following the footprints, going where they led until they reached a busier part of the town where the prints got mixed up with others and became too difficult to follow.
"So what now?" Elsa turned to the prince in frustration.
"We're at a crossroads," Damian said holding a thoughtful hand to his chin.
"We are- I can see that!" Elsa got prickly again.
The prince dismissed that with a sigh and asked her, "You know the town better than I do; what places can one go from here?"
Elsa stamped her foot hard on the ground before replying with an angry huff. "The town well, the ring and our neighbour, Claudia's restaurant."
The girl in question being a wrestler, the first place they wanted to look was the ring. But where they finally found her was at the restaurant. She was sitting at a quiet corner of the joint. A lady in a hairnet and a chequered apron stood before her speaking to her with attention neighbourly enough for Damian to presume she was Claudia.
Before the prince was done observing, Elsa had got to the restaurant. That was quick, he thought. Then, he hurried behind her.
"Autumn, enough of this madness! Let's go home," she ordered getting hold of Autumn's arm. But the girl adamantly shook it out of her grasp.
A little while of silence followed until Damian decided to dive in.
"Autumn, I know something that might help you feel better."
"Really?" Autumn arched an eyebrow at him, sitting perfectly still.
"Trust me," Damian held an arm across his chest.
Autumn lifted her head from the back of the chair and shuffled forward to hear what he had to say.
The prince leaned in as low as was reasonable and placed his hands on the table. "Your father may have tried to sell out the kingdom's military secrets, but you didn't sell them with him, did you?"
"I couldn't have," Autumn threw her head back again. "I was only ten."
"Then, why were you banished?" Damian held a good grip on the last word. "Just because you were his daughter? That's terribly unjust if you ask me." Then, he smiled at her optimistically. "But, Autumn, if you can prove it to the same court that had you banished that you had no hand in your father's crime and shouldn't have been, you may be let back into Amaden by the power of the judiciary."
Autumn's leaned out of her seat, and her gloomy face slowly lit up with hope. A little smile had now transformed into a large grin, the best Damian had ever seen on her face. It was, in a word, priceless.
"So does that mean you'll go back to Amaden and leave us behind?" Elsa's voice came low from across the table.
"No need to worry, Elsa," Autumn stood up and caught her hands. "Amaden's not that far. It's only a borderland away from here so I can always come back to visit. I can't ever the people of Pariahland; not a chance!"
Claudia threw an arm around Elsa's neck and smiled. "Why such a long face, my friend? Be happy for her. She's a woman of her words- I trust her. She'll come back to visit us just as she's promised."
Elsa finally parted with those frowns and glares, immediately looking more... human. Now that she did, the prince felt safe enough to start warming up to her. And to that, Claudia treated all of them, including the gentleman from Amaden, to lunch.