Queen of The Reach

12

An older man, with a fully grey moustache and thinned beard, was closest to me on the bridge. He seemed lost in his work, performing the same actions in a rhythm. Stoop, shovel, stand, throw. He made his way slowly along the waist high wall, clearing the mounds of snow away. I didn't know why he bothered. I approached him and smiled lightly to show him I was meaning to be a friend.

When I got close enough I noticed his torn clothing and how he shivered from the temperature. His jacket was worn thin and the button at his neck was missing, exposing his skin unnecessarily. His hands shook while he did his best to hold his shovel. I wanted to cup his hands in mine and warm him up, he looked pained, but I knew I would only make his struggle worse with my ice waiting to sink into his skin. I felt the draw to let it have it's way, to let the cold escape me and take over all in my path but I held onto it, let it make me shiver from the inside to spare these people. I didn't know the extent of what I could do.

I still needed to make it to Velum but he could wait. He had made me wait this long for answers and had left me in the dark. "Excuse me," I tried to sound like the queen in Velum's painting. I wanted to present myself as her, she was fearless. That girl, his queen, would never be left without answers. The old man continued his routine and ignored me. I pushed a little more demand into my tone, "Your name."

He looked at me with hollow eyes in a sunken face. I stepped away from him. He lifted a hand to touch me but he was slow and I sidestepped him quickly. "I just wanted to know your name," I said, panicked. I felt the ice crawl up my arm. Worriedly I glanced in its direction but for now it remained hidden. The man shook his head back and forth sadly. "You don't have one."

Without much strength he stretched to touch me once more. I yelped and dodged him only to back into another figure. I tried to bite down on the hand that covered my mouth but my captor spun me around and marched me back inside. Velum. "What are they?!" I was shaking at the incident. "They don't have names. They're working for you?" I tried to make sense of the mess I'd wandered into. "Why did he try to touch me?"

Velum was angered, his eyes matching my own. I backed down a little. "Velum?" I said more softly this time.

"No Crimson," he was exasperated at me and my questions and having to save me again, I supposed, "They don't have names." He looked down at me, willing me to ask why and oh did I want to but I kept my mouth shut, let him tell me what he wanted at his own pace. He sighed heavily and brushed the hand that wasn't on my waist through his dark hair. "Some people fall into this place and they we're never meant to stop falling. I've simply given them a purpose to save them from that fate. They can do a kindness for me, keeping up this castle, this sanctuary for the lost, and in return I give them a home here and protect them from their evils."

"This place, The Reach," I corrected myself, Velum eyed me questioning the source of my newfound information but I wasn't giving anything away and he let it slide. "You said it's where people go when they haven't earned their place in heaven or hell, right?" He nodded. "Some people were on their way to hell then, but weren't all bad. Are you helping them find their salvation?"

"No, I can not do that for them. I can give them a distraction. Keep them busy. Keep them here. They know better than to want to leave. The likelihood is that they'll end up in a place far worse. Don't let them touch you, you have so much life, they want to take it."

"Take my life? Isn't that up to you?"

"I cannot revive the dead, Crimson. Those ones don't have much time left. Their only option is to take yours, that's why they work out there together, they can not steal from each other."

"Can everyone do that? Take life?" I asked him outright, I needed him to be truthful. It couldn't be true, I'd touched Velum and Lou, I reasoned with myself.