Black Crystal Part 1 - The Origin

Chapter Eighteen ~ Threats

November 8th, 1809.

City of Eugene, Oregon Province.

"Please don't..." Garen felt these words escape his lips as his consciousness came back. His eyes opened, and upon doing so, he realized that he fell asleep on the floor in Lenora's room. Peter, Lucius, and Lenora looked at him with concerned expressions.

"Garen," Lenora whispered. "Are you okay?" Garen quickly sat up and immediately felt light-headed.

"Yeah... I'm fine." He groaned a bit and grasped his head. "It was just a bad dream. What's going on, guys?"

"Millicent and Horace said the Bishop was spotted nearby," Lucius whispered in response. "They've locked the inn, and everyone was alerted to stay inside for now. If we see him, we're prompted to ambush him." He looked out the window behind Garen at the rain. "They want us to kill him if he gets close."

"Kill him!?" Garen hissed, quickly standing up. "I can understand imprisoning him, but why are we gonna kill him!?"

"He isn't who he says he is," Peter replied as he leaned up against the wall behind everyone. "You want to protect Lenora, don't you?"

"Well, of course I do..." Garen and Lenora made eye contact with one another for that moment, and Garen's heart broke. He could see fear in her eyes, concern. Despite this, he wasn't sure what Lenora was afraid of. Was she afraid of the Bishop, or for their own well-being? Finally, Garen smiled at Lenora and nodded. "We're all gonna be okay. I promise." Lenora smiled back for a moment, but that moment was interrupted when Horace burst into the room with a look of concern in his wild eyes.

"I think you kiddos should come see somethin' real quick," he said quietly. "The courier just delivered a letter. A very concerning letter, and I think you should look at it yourselves."

Garen, Peter, Lucius, and Lenora exchanged worried expressions and followed Horace out to the lobby of the inn. Millicent was pacing back and forth with the letter in her hand, hyperventilating. When she saw everyone, she quickly ran towards them and handed the letter to Lucius without saying anything, and Lucius read out loud:

"I know where you are. It took some time to figure out, especially since that idiot Garen left my sword in the forest, I couldn't track you all the way I intended. However, I've seen where you are. Millicent's Inn and Restaurant, in the City of Eugene? Never assume you're safe. You didn't want to die the easy way? Then consider this war. Unless you surrender that witch of a Princess, a lot of people will die. And you will only have yourselves to blame. I'm outside the northern entrance to the City. It's your choice.

'Bishop' Bartholomew Cadence."

"I knew he couldn't be the real John Sleadd," Lenora said with a shaky voice. "What does he want with me?"

"I don't know..." Millicent sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "But we've gotta get you kiddos out of here and to the Capitol, ASAP."

"Hold on a sec!" Peter exclaimed. "You read the letter! The Bishop, or Bartholomew or whatever, is gonna wage war on you guys because of us! Shouldn't we be the ones to face him!?"

"Gettin' y'all to the Capitol is all we care about right now," Horace replied as he crossed his arms. "We can handle ourselves against one man, I can promise you that. Now Millie, shall we show 'em to the station? They're gonna need some fast transportation, and protection. We're gonna have you kiddos escape right under that bastard's nose."

"What are you guys gonna do?" asked Garen, and right as he asked that, Horace grabbed a rifle from below the inn's front desk.

"We're gonna fight," he said.