Twelve Realms

Chapter 14

Aerid

So this is how my first segment ends. This is how the king gets me. 

Not at the end of a long chase through the forest. Not kidnapped in my sleep. 

No, I was dumb enough to walk right into a fight I now realize I had no chance of winning. And I've thrown away all the time I've spent trying to protect myself.

The girl stares down at me. She doesn't look too different from the people born in this Realm-- long brown hair, hazel eyes-- but she's far too pale to have been here for long. Maybe she's new to this Realm, and had a reputation so good the king hired her immediately. Gods, am I in so much trouble that the king is hiring new people to hunt me specifically?

Her face is determined, but not hateful, which confuses me slightly. Maybe she didn't know the nuances of the job when she took it. She has to be working for the king. Her clothes are far too fancy and her appearance far too polished for her to be a regular citizen of the Realm. 

"I've been sent to take you back to the Realm of Eternal Winter." Her voice, like her face, is professional and relatively detached, but bears no trace of dislike. Which surprises me, considering what she's just said. 

"You're sending me to the River?" I say, unable to keep the fear from my voice. 

"Yes," she says, sounding confused that I would even ask. 

"But... why? I'm only on my first segment! You can't send me to the River yet!"

"Only on your first... what?" The girl takes her stick away from my face and drops her fighting stance. "You're not the Thief?" 

"The Thief?" She must be referring to the Trickster. "No. You don't work for the king?" 

"Work for the king?" She sounds incredulous. "No. I serve the Temple of the Winter River." 

And then everything clicks. Her paleness, the quality of her clothes. 

She holds out a hand, not to strike me, but to help me to my feet. 

"I'm Lucia," she tells me. 

"Aerid," I say. 

"Nice to meet you. Now, if you don't mind me asking, Aerid, if you're not the Thief, what are you doing living in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere?"

"Um..." 

For some reason, I don't think telling a girl who works at the Temple of the Winter River that I'm a wanted criminal is a good idea. 

"I'm on a bit of a self-discovery journey. I wanted to see what it was like to live on my own, with no one's help."

It's probably the lamest possible idea I could've come up with, but Lucia seems to buy it. 

"Oh. I understand."

She looks up at the ruin, probably wondering why I would choose to live here of all places. It would take just a few questions for her to dismantle my whole cover story. 

"Can I ask you something?" 

I wait for the question, a confession already forming on the tip of my tongue. 

"What happened to this Realm?"

"Huh?" That wasn't what I expected at all. 

"Everything seems wrong here. The people are suspicious and unfriendly, the nobility are snobby and unkind, and everything seems on edge." 

I almost laugh out loud. Is she serious? 

I ask her. "Are you serious?" 

She doesn't say anything, just stares at me with politely confused, expectant eyes.