Liridia

Chapter 20: And the plot thickens...

Aldwin
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Aldwin... Aldwin?

I awake with a start, taking long breaths to calm my heart. I swear I heard her.

Deirdre

My sister is a thing of defiance. Always doing something she shouldn't. Always finding a way to break the rules. I guess that's why she left.

Father was furious that day, he had numerous council meetings and he had to get rid of some of the seamstresses as the suit he wore was 'just the wrong amount of scratchy and tight'. To put it lightly, he was in a bad mood.

Deirdre was to go to a neighbouring kingdom to dissuade them of war with an ally. She was good at talking her way out of things. She is good at talking her way out of things.

But she was a fighter, a warrior that wanted peace so she wouldn't have to fight.

I get up and trudge to get changed into the black pants and white tunic, I absentmindedly tug my belt around my hips and slide my sword into the scabbard. I throw on my heavy chainmail and grab my helmet with the Kiida family emblem printed onto it. I leave for morning meal before the Drill sergeant screams for me to run laps of the halls and get the last measly scraps of food.

"Greggory, yes?" I hear from behind me. Oh Versiim, that's not the Drill sergeant. I turn around and bow deeply to the King's son. Hywel, what a hock headed piece of stuck up-

"Yes your Highness? What can I do for you this fine morning?" I emphasise the 'fine' sarcastically and he eyes me like a cautious child.

"I would like to speak with you before I become too much an inconvenience. If you please." He says ushering me to the second study and closing the door.

I stand like all the others, talk like all the others and he wants to talk to me? Already an inconvenience, get it done with.

"I would like to question as to why you are always assigned to Lady Liona. You seem to be her shadow." He says bluntly. I rip off a loose thread from my pants before I answer.

"I have been assigned to her, your majesty. Unless you deem my services unnecessary, I plan to follow my orders." He thinks for a moment and stretches his neck.

"I think she is perfectly capable of caring for herself, so I think your services are unnecessary." He says, lifting his nose a tad higher into the air. I nod once, twice and fiddle with my chainmail.

"If you deem it so, your majesty. May I ask how you know she can take care of herself?" I ask lightly, pushing the boundaries. He looks at me with a new cautiousness, as if he might say the wrong word and be hanged by the gallows. After a moment of tense quiet, he shatters the silence with a very snarky, "I don't have to answer to you, good day."

He's too likeable. I've been laying it thick with exaggerating the poncy princeness. But he's too nice, to... docile.

She has been getting too close to him, and it could cost me my sister's life.

I wonder what she found from the witch. All she told me was that she could help, and she was sometimes a crazy bat with deadly skill in combat and magic.

"Greggory! If you please, I would like to speak with you for but a moment." I hear a rather desperate sounding whisper from the hall I just passed. Her.

"Mys- Good morning, what say you about a stroll in the courtyard?" I say boldly, knowing she'll say no. I see her cat-like brown eyes peer at me with a confused look from a door and I swing back around and walk towards her.

"'Stroll in the courtyard?' Are you mad? Come inside, I have to tell you something." She says, watching for anyone who could overhear. I breeze past her and lean onto the posts holding the bed up, I hear it creak and decide better of it.

"As you know, I just came back from seeing Jana the seer. She told me that she couldn't tell me much, but could tell me some things. She told me, 'The box is the key to what you seek. There is a dark history in the castles keep. The lowest point is where to go, into the darkness. Polaris holds and will hold the solution. That the Kiida Empire always has dirty little secrets to be hidden. Jana refused to tell me anything else. Told me she saw memories, not a clear path to how to find the box."
She rambles for two minutes, coming up with plans and theories and histories.

I freeze, a realisation hitting me.

"What box? What did it look like? Did it have an emblem? What did the emblem look like if it did have one? Can you show me?" I say, excited at where this might go.
She grabs a small portrait from the table in the corner and shows me, watching my reaction with narrowed eyes.

I grabbed the looking glass from the same table and glanced at the box. It was only small, yet I could see the emblem clearly.

Polaris Box. That's what she mentioned earlier.

I stand and pace the room, searching my mind for even snippets of what I saw from the 'Great Tome of Alchemy and Dark Arts'. I know this is the same box. There was only one  ever made, given by a goddess to a god. Althienna and Aaris.

War and wisdom.

Two very different things.

"What are you thinking? Come, you have been pacing for ages. I fear my youth hangs in the balance." She jokes, holding her heart and sighing.

"Polaris Box, you said. It was a gift from Althienna to Aaris. It captures souls. You said Jana told you that the box was the key to what you seek? We are seeking my sister. The box is the key to find Deirdre. To find my sister." I say holding her shoulders, my voice rising.

"Deirdre is a sad name. In the legend she died of a broken heart." She says softly.
I come close to her face and look her into the abyss of her eyes.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing. Nothing is the matter. Now lower your voice, Greggory. People will hear you squealing like a pig going to slaughter." She ends teasingly. I push her head back and she tries to bite me.

"Ladies don't bite!" I try not to squeal.

"What if I'm not a lady?" She says, lowering her voice to a gruff sailor's accent.

"Come, I'll show you what I saw. It's quite the aforementioned "dirty little secret". We'll talk on the way. Make sure lover-boy doesn't see you though, he'll be green with envy at the sight of you with another man." I say grabbing her hand and pulling her up from the bed.

"How do I know you're a man?" She says, narrowing her eyes and looking me up and down questioningly.

"That is a very good question, detective." I say, wiggling my brows so she chuckles slightly.

"Come on, I will get a good laugh from you one of these days!" I huff when I see her eyes drop to the floor and her smile deplete.

"Why don't we talk, Greggory? Step outside one moment." I hear come from my shoulder. I turn slowly and bow until I see his shoes almost touch my face.

Versiim, may you hold and protect my soul as I step into the seventh gate of hell.

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Geez, sorry guys. Haven't really updated lately.

Sorry not sorry.

Song of the week: Buffalo soldier by Bob Marley (know what I'm saying Ashleigh-is-a-Pillow ?)

Buffalo soldier, dreadlock Rasta
He was a buffalo soldier, in the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America.
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.

God am I into that song right now. I've been zoning out in class just singing it in my head. So catchy.

Book recommendation: Are you seeing me? By Darren Groth. 8/10 for me.