Diary or the Dead

Royal Tears

The queen. Dew had heard a lot about her, she was the reason he and Avery got here in the first place. The elders spoke of her as if she was more than just a hybrid woman. It was as if she was a fairy tale that had become reality. Wings, they say she had. No, not bird wings, bat wings or those of an insect like one would see from time to time. They said she had translucent wings, long and sharp at the end and when the sun fell through them sparks of the rainbow would dance around her. Nobody knew where she came from. She wasn't from a royal family. Rufus the second, twenty years old at that time, had been lost for a year while being out for a hunt and returned with her as his wife. Rumors spread that she came from a town deep within the forest where souls that had lost their path were aided and guided to their destination.
Even though over four years had passed, the memory of himself and Avery traveling from village to village wasn't as blurry as everything else in his mind. His companion had been focused on finding his brother; he promised to turn the world upside down. All Dew knew about the absent sibling at that point was that Avery had fallen sick during a walk in the woods and couldn't move anymore so the brother promised to go and search for someone who could help. The boy never returned but Avery got better, at least he said so himself, and found himself alone in this world. Due to a convenient visit to a shady city filled with drunkards and mostly men looking for happiness in every bed they met an old woman who claimed she had access to all the knowledge in the world. Through her wisdom they learned that Avery's little brother didn't die but was now living in the place where the queen had come from. Of course Avery immediately tried everything to find out the location and now he was indebted to the king and Dew had decided to stay just out of pure interest. At least that's what he told himself.

Throughout his whole morning shift Dew couldn't get his mind off of her and the portraits which earned him several hits to the head by Frederick who was growing more inpatient with him minute by minute that day even though he was doing a decent job. The tension between Tiana and Josephine had quieted down to a point where they were just refusing to talk to each other and silently left the room once they were done with their work. Dew decided to stay with Frederick and help him sort all the books by topic while Charles was cleaning the dishes. "Hm, how about a main course with fish? The people of Havn are known for their likeness for everything lurking in the water after all" the small man thought out loud. Dew took three fitting books and handed them to him. Frederick opened the page with the contents and put a set of glasses on. After a short moment of studying he commanded Dew: "Search for Salmon in lemon sauce, they might also call it 'a bitter end' in one or two books. Oh, also look for 'deep sea adventure', we haven't done that one in a while." Hesitantly he took the first book. It was small compared to the other but as he opened the first page and began to read the letters began to dance and shift before his eyes, the words tumbled around  before coming to a standstill. The chef's handwriting was just that bad and the regular spelling mistakes made it nearly impossible for him to get what he was looking for. Still he fought himself through every line until finding and writing down the first recipe which somehow included brown trout that was roasted in garlic, lemon and butter. Those fish didn't even live in the deep sea, so he knew. A few pages further he found the other recipe and went through the ingredients. Asparagus, butter, lemon juice again, herbs, a white merling filet... He stopped and read again. And again. Frederick noticed the aghast look on Dew's face and asked: "What is it now?" Dew turned the book towards him, pointed to the word and requested: "What does this say?" The man understood. "Oh, that says merling but we don't use those anymore. The king was so disgusted when he heard where that dish came from he banned it from this kitchen. Besides, merlings have probably died out in the last ten years. We'll just use perch instead, it almost tastes the same. At least my master said so." He didn't know whether to be relieved or not. It had been obvious to him for the last eight years that he might be the last of his kind. After a fisherman killed his unsuspecting mother he had found himself alone in the lake. Some part of him thought it was better this way, now merlings with his special condition wouldn't have to go through the pain of being aware of everything happening around them while everyone else didn't.