Jim Armstrong and the Goblet's Curse

Chapter 14: Stories Are How To Start The Day

   "Are you ready to tell me who this James Delamir is?"

It was the next day, and Noah, Cecily and I were sitting at a table in a Tim Horton's, getting some breakfast before starting our search. We had left GreySlash early that morning, and as soon as the Tim's had opened, we were in there, getting caffeine to keep us going. We had some pieces of papers with plans and ideas spread out on the table, along with the card that we'd gotten from the Tree of Hope, the side with James Delamir written on it facing up.

Noah swirled his hot chocolate in his cup, loosening his scarf. At GreySlash, I had barely even realized that time was passing, what with all the recent events, but it was now mid-to-late- November and the air outside was getting chillier and chillier with each passing day. We had even gotten a bit of flurries this morning, with more real snow to come. Noah, Cecily and I had broken out our winter jackets, because Toronto in November is cold, and if I'm saying it's cold, it's cold. Today was -7 degrees, and the temperatures would only getting lower as the days passed. I knew, though, that we all secretly hoped that we would have and easy time finding the Silver Sand and we wouldn't be on this Itinere when real winter hit.

I don't know if any of us truly believed that though.

I looked out the window at the normal people starting their days, without a care in the world. They didn't know that everybody was depending on us. They didn't know that we were in some deep shit, hell, they didn't know that we were kids. Before leaving GreySlash, Noah, Cecily and I had heavily Illusioned ourselves to look like adults, meeting for some sort of business meeting. Nobody but ourselves knew that we were actually twelve years old, and that, if we were normal, we would be in school right now. We didn't need the extra stress of trying to explain to people what we were doing all by ourselves on a Thursday morning.

Cecily put her cup of coffee down and fingered the card from the Tree of Hope.

"James Delamir... how do you start to tell the story of James Delamir?" She muttered more to herself than to me.

"Well, he used to be a Guardian," Noah said. "The best in the business."

"Yeah. He had everything anybody could dream of," Cecily continued. "He was respected, trusted with the most important Itineres, was known around the world, was generally loved by people-

"He was popular like hell, was buff like nobody's business, had a hot wife-

"Those details aren't really important, Noah," Cecily interrupted. Noah shrugged, taking another sip of his hot chocolate.

"If you're going to tell the story, tell it right," Noah said. Cecily said nothing, only glared at Noah, before continuing on.

"Anyways, years ago, it was like... 11 years ago, I think, the queen of the Guardian Cause-

"We have a queen?" I interjected.

"Yes. Well, we have a different queen now, be-

"Why?"

"If you let me speak, you'll find out."

"Sorry. Go on."

"As I was saying, a couple years ago, the queen of the Guardian Cause, Queen Dorothea fell ill and nobody knew of any way to save her, to cure her. But, someone thought of the Sliver Sand.

"So, obviously, the first person they thought of to go and find the Silver Sand was James Delamir. I mean, he was the best. They told him to find it and bring it to a designated place they arranged earlier. He took a couple of months to find it, but he did."

"How'd he find it?" I asked.

"If I knew, we would be off finding the Silver Sand and not sitting in this Tim's."

"True."

"Can I continue?"

"Yeah."

"Anyways, he found it somehow and brought it back to the Union, our government, in the dead of night. When the government came to get the Sand from the designated place to cure Queen Dorothea... they didn't find it."

"But-

"Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

I shut up.

"James Delamir took the Sand for himself. He stole it, and because the Union couldn't get the Sand, Queen Dorothea died. By being the reason she died, James committed treason. Treason. The most famous in the business, and in one day, he turned into the most infamous."

"So he got arrested? He went to jail?"

"No."

"What? Why?"

"Because people who commit high treason don't go to jail. They're killed."

I took a moment to process this. "So... you're saying that James Delamir is... dead?"

"No."

"What the hell, like he's not in jail, he's not dead, where the hell is he?"

"Well, that's the thing," Noah said, finishing off his hot chocolate. "He was arrested, and was going to be killed, but when the time for his execution came, he was gone. Escaped during the night. They've been looking for him ever since."

"They haven't found him?"

"No, and it's not a surprise. I mean, he was the best at everything, which includes keeping hidden." Cecily said. "There's no trace of him anywhere. He's been gone for, like, eleven years now."

"Wow. He's a wanted fugitive, he's been on the run for eleven years, and he still hasn't been captured? That's impressive," I said.

"Not to mention the $10 000 price on his head," Cecily said.

"$10 000?" I asked in disbelief. "Wow. He's one wanted person."

We lapsed into silence for a little while thinking. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that big flakes of snow had started to fall from the sky, starting to coat everything in a layer of white. I guess we were going to get caught in the snow. Noah broke the silence that had fallen.

"He's the only person who's ever found the Silvers Sand," Noah started.

"Which is probably why his name is our clue," Cecily finished.

"Do we have to do what I think we have to do?" Noah and Cecily looked at each other, then back at me, faces grim.

"Yeah," Noah said. "We have to find James Delamir."

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