Secrets Uncovered

Pain and Torture

            The door unlocking and opening quickly made me jolt upright in my bed. To whom I wasn’t surprised to see bursting in my door was my personal guard, Amonost. I let out the breath I had been holding in since the door opened and relaxed my tense muscles. Amonost looked at me with worried eyes.

            “Sorry ma’am, Lithaldoren and Saeldir told me to fetch you as soon as possible.” His monotone was harsh with his heavy breathing. What was going on?

            “Give me a few minutes to get dressed.” I stood away from my bed and walked to my closet only a few feet away. I opened the compartments to find my clothes. I turned to Amonost with a scared face.

            “Are you going to leave or watch me get dressed?” he looked startled at me and ran out the doors, closing them behind him. I searched through my wardrobe of clothes, none of my leather armor or cloth shirts where there, the only thing I saw was a dress. I pulled it out and scrunched up my nose. It was a plain cloth dress with a beige color, I rubbed the material through my fingers—it felt like a potato sack—I sighed and put it on anyways. I walked out of the room to Amonost leaning against the opposite wall.

            “Good, you found the dress Lithaldoren sent.” I scrunched up my face again, why would he want me to wear this fowl thing? I opened my mouth to say something but Amonost cut me off.

            “We must hurry; Lithaldoren wants to see you right away.”

            “Has he given a reason why?” Amonost shook his head; he hurriedly walked down the hall and I followed him. We ran through the halls, never stopping to rest. Amonost seemed very worried, I wonder what for? He burst through the doors at the end of a corridor and stopped running. Two elves met us there, turning their heads to us. I recognized Saeldir to the right quickly and I held back a growl that tried to escape my lips. The other I did not recognized, he was tall—long blonde hair—and a sort of caved-in face. Amonost quickly knelt to the ground on one knee getting up after a few seconds; the male elf waved him to leave. Even though the two elves of the Valor were here, I felt lonely as the door shut. I decided to act the part of a cruel person, my face looked stern and I narrowed my eyebrows to add an effect. Though, the dress didn’t help.

            “What is this for you two? I have other things that need to be done.” I harshly said, sounding a bit annoyed and bored. The male stepped forward and spoke gently but terrifyingly.

            “You are Vanadesse aren’t you?” he asked, was this guy serious? He was asking me if I was… me, Unbelievable. I nodded my head once and waved my hand for him to continue.

            “Let me firstly introduce myself, I’m Lithaldoren. We have met before Vanadesse, or should I say… leader of Black Rose.” My heart pounded in my ears. How did he know that? I looked at him furiously

            “How do you know that name?” I demanded. He chuckled softly to me as if I were playing a joke on him.

            “You don’t recognize me from the bar in Freymill or the street in Ostvale?” he chuckled again, sounding hysterically creepy. It was then that I remembered where I had met him. He was the elf I had met to discuss the mission with, Hackery. He had used a fake name in case I had been caught in Faelwen.

            “You,” I took a threatening step towards him, “You were the one who set us up! You put us in danger!” he looked to Saeldir with a wry smile and turned back to me.

            “I am very sorry for that Vanadesse, if I had known you were Arphenion’s daughter I wouldn’t have sent you and your group to do the job. We were merely trying to find his bow.” I could tell he was lying; his voice had a small hint of sarcasm in it. It only made me angry when I was being fooled by someone. I was on the verge of punching him in the face with a cool burning hand but I held back the temptation.