Steel Roses

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, a merchant lived in luxury with his six children.

They were all beautiful of face though flawed in heart.

Only the youngest child was considered flawless. He was believed faultless – the pride of society and the finest of gentlemen.

Until the merchant fell from grace.

The great wealth that had provided the family with every comfort and made the merchant's children the envy of the courts vanished in a single storm; the great ships that carried the latest trade lost at sea.

Overnight, their lives changed. 

The society that had once envied and adored them now pitied and detested them. Shame spurred the family from their home, forced them out to the country, out to where they did not belong, to the dust and the dirt, to a life where they were nothing and no one.

It was only the youngest that bowed out of society with grace, with no complaint, no tantrum, no rage.

And while everyone believed it was due to his good nature, he knew it was for another reason. He had his own secrets that had eventually taken their toll on him and, while he would never wish the downfall of his family, part of him breathed a sigh of relief when society sent him reeling away from the life he had known to a world where no one knew him.

Little could he know what the downfall would truly mean for him and what awaited in the forests beyond his new home.

~~~~

On the night the last of the harvest was brought in from the fields, Beldon returned home tired and aching, his hands stiff from handling tools all day.

He knew what he really needed was a night to relax, to sleep. Yet before he even reached the door of the family's small cottage, he could hear the raucous voices.

The sound hit him like a runaway horse when he opened the front door.

His family were rejoicing, bringing out the meats and fine wines they had managed to save when they had left town. His sisters were pouring over lists of things they wanted for their return to court – dresses, gloves, jewels and accessories – fashions changed so quickly in mere months. His brothers were talking about the latest race horses that were splashed across the papers, laughing and already making bets between each other.

Loud. So loud and so happy. Laughing and cheering, more excited then he had seen them in months.

Not without cause, of course.

The Conquest had been found.

Their father's largest ship hadn't been lost at sea as believed. She still sailed with all her cargo in tact. It was a miracle. It was the loss of that ship that had hit their father the hardest and yet there it was, alive and safe, crew and cargo home again. It was enough for the family to start again, to reclaim what fortune had stolen from them.

His siblings had every reason to be joyous.

Beldon glanced over his shoulder, out into the darkness and silence of the night, towards the road illuminated only by autumn moonlight. It was the road that would eventually lead a traveller back to town – lead them home – back to the world he had escaped, if only for a moment.

Beldon looked around for his father and found him in the kitchen, at the large scrubbed table, already writing up letters, a light now in his eyes that Beldon had not seen in too long a time.