As Dark as the Forest

Chapter 9

Asher

Asher kept a secret apartment in the city which he used as an address for clients of his through his line of work with Remo. The work he did not as Prince Asher, but as his alter-ego, Wen Ashton. It was in this apartment that he and Pit had first been intimate. In this apartment, with Pit, Asher felt like he could be who he truly wanted to be. Not a prince. Not royalty. And not even just Remo's pawn. When he was with Pit he was just Ash.

Asher had been looking forward to this afternoon - finally a moment where he and Pit could be alone after weeks apart. They would eat an early dinner on the balcony overlooking the river - fruit, cheese, and the wine that Pit had brought from the lush vineyards located near the Quercian Forest. Then they would make use of the extraordinarily comfortable bed... And then Pit would leave again. This time with Ori. How Asher wished that he was going along on that journey too.

He'd considered it more than once - packing up only the necessities and disappearing with Pit into the outskirts of Terrendia City. Taking a barge up the Aragain river. Sleeping under the stars. Leaving his life as Prince Asher behind and going on an adventure with Pit, his partner, and Ori, his best friend.

But now when Pit had arrived with news that Ori had disappeared the day before and hadn't yet returned, both sides of Asher's life were merging together like a confluence of rivers, their water and wildlife mixing together until you couldn't tell one from the other. It made Asher realize that he had one life. He might use a different name, but he had one life and though he kept different sides of it as separated as possible, certain aspects of it - like Ori - were intertwined with one another. The web of his life was becoming very tangled and he hoped to Quercus that he could keep Remo's threads from tangling it further.

Pit's lack of knowledge of his cousin's whereabouts had sent Asher into a panic.

"Maybe she changed her mind and set off on her own." Pit said. His large hand cupped Asher's face, and his thumb rubbed Asher's jaw reassuringly. But Asher, usually calmed by Pit's affections was not reassured.

Ori had never left the city before. And Remo had been on Asher's ass the last day and a half. Remo had said that Ori was missing from The Nest. That she hadn't returned home. That he was worried.

Worried about losing his ticket to breaching the Quercian Forest.

Asher doubted very much that Ori would set off on her own. He hoped that Remo wasn't the reason for her disappearance.

"What did she say the last time you saw her?" Asher asked.

"She went out to get supplies. Said she needed some things for the trip. Didn't seem out of the ordinary. Flor was going to go with her, but she said she'd rather do it on her own and not waste our time."

Supplies. Supplies. Ori had left the Nest in a panic. She hadn't prepared to leave. Which meant... Quercus help him... she'd probably gone back to the guild.

But Remo had sent another correspondence to him just this morning. Asking again if Asher had seen her. And the words that had gone unsaid "do you know where she is?" Asher would never give her away. And being a prince, he had some level of protection from Remo. But the more people he brought into this, the more he risked Remo finding out and finding them expendable. Like Pit.

"I'll have to find her somehow... and get her out."

What if Remo was just playing a game? Asher would have to play better.

I will help you find her. Asher wrote back. I will come to you.

He just hoped this wasn't a trap.

****

Isyrria was in her rooms when Asher arrived. Remo was "out", according to one of the Guild members. Asher knocked and Isyrria let him in.

"I think she's taken some of her things," Isyrria said to him, hovering in the doorway to Ori's small dark room. She twisted her hand in her skirt - it was embroidered with a swirling leaf pattern and looked as expensive as something the women in the aristocracy would wear. "Some things are missing from her room - though it's hard to tell with all that clutter." Isyrria sniffed, raising a handkerchief to her nose.

Isyrria, for her part, seemed genuinely worried. She'd never precisely been a bad mother to Ori, but there had been times that Asher wished that she would have stood up for her daughter. Or left the Guild for a better life. Ori though, had not always seen the Guild as anything bad. She'd told Asher that she enjoyed her life for the most part. It wasn't until very recently that she had really begun to question Remo's motives. Mostly because of Asher himself, who had been questioning Remo's motives for a long time - but things appeared different to someone from the outside of the Guild looking in.

There had been a time when Ori had near worshipped Remo. For years she had focused on her training - trying so hard to be what he wanted her to be. Asher had too. But adulthood and seeing things from different angles had changed his mind about the King of Thieves. And slowly, Ori had begun to shift her opinion as well.

And the truth was, that there really was no better life in the city. Not for a single mother and a young girl. Asher wished he wasn't royalty, but he knew he had things easy. He had a warm and luxurious place to sleep. More than enough food. The best healers and educators that the crown's coffers could buy.

Things, Asher thought as he looked around, that Remo's Shadow Guild provided to Isyrria and thus to Ori. Outside of the Guild, Ori would have received only the most basic of education - if she'd not had to spend her time working and earning money to survive.

"I'll take a look in there, and see if I come across anything unusual, or telling." Asher said, Not that I'll share with you if I do find anything. He thought bitterly.

When he heard Isyrria walk away from Ori's room, he began to scan the room with more focus. So she had successfully come here and taken some things. But what had happened to her after? Was Remo really making such an effort to make it look as though she'd taken her stuff and gone? Or had he laid this trap for Ori, knowing that she couldn't leave without certain irreplaceable things.

Her reference notebook was gone. That was something that she and Asher had worked hard on. It was something she couldn't buy in a store. In that moment Asher wished he had been smart enough to tell her that they should make a second copy. A copy to keep safe with him so that if it came to it, she could have left without hers. But they hadn't planned for things to go this way. They hadn't accounted for a Quercian girl being starved to death and then killed mercilessly in the depths of Remo's Nest.

Frustrated, Asher kicked at a pile of clothing on the floor by Ori's bed. It took everything in him not to shriek, for a mouse stared blearily up at him. Why is it just sitting there? He wondered until realization dawned, and in one swift movement, he reached down and swept the little creature into his hand, tucking it into the satchel at his waistband.

Quercus help him if it wasn't Ori.