The Awakening

Oliver- Sparks of Friendship

How does someone forget being an assassin's apprentice? Oliver had heard that the training was brutal, which explained how Elza, no, Clarissa, he reminded himself, had run so fast through the dungeons. Being made into a killing machine didn't seem like something you could forget easily.

Oliver was sitting up in his sleeping bag, pondering the mystery that was the girl sleeping a few feet away from him. He wondered what her story was, how she came so close to killing the evil tyrant that ruled atop a throne of bodies. Metaphorically speaking.

Clarissa shifted and awoke, but not gracefully. She jolted up and yelled at invisible people who didn't exist. Oliver ran over to her and put a hand on her arm.

"Hey, it's okay, it was just a dream!"

"Yeah... yeah, right. Just a dream." she wiped sweat from her brow. Something sparkled there that he hadn't noticed before.

"What's that?" he pointed to the band low on her forehead.

"Well, I should probably start explaining myself." she mumbled, removing the band and looking at it.

As they walked to a clothing store, she told him everything. How she had been engaged to the Prince, how she yelled at the King in court. How she had stolen a guard's dagger and pointed it at the King himself, then was dragged down to the dungeons, having been knocked unconscious before they descended the long spiral staircase and chained her to the wall. Only to wake up and be told by her closest friend that his father was going to sentence her to a mysterious fate, then her own father saying that he risked his life in order to get her to safety.

"So, you were a princess?" Oliver asked. He didn't understand fancy titles, because he never needed to know them.

"No!" Clarissa laughed. It was a beautiful sound. "No, I was a Noble. Then when I was engaged I became a Lady."

"Well, you don't seem very noble, and you definitely don't act like a lady, hanging around scum like me," she laughed again.

"I don't think you're scum. I think you are a very nice person who doesn't live in the best neighborhood. No offense. It's not your fault, it's the King's for putting the people down and not caring about what they need."

"So what exactly made you go 'stab! stab!' at court?"

Clarissa's smile fell. "Some Commander wanted to increase the conditions in the labor camps. I thought that his idea would be overridden, but the King agreed! I couldn't let more people die there without saying something, so I spoke up. That's when I learned that neither the Queen, nor the future Princess were supposed to speak their minds. We're just supposed to sit there and look pretty as everyone around us ruins our world bit by bit."

Oliver didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry..." he began.

"You have nothing to be sorry for! People need to stop being sorry for things they didn't do or cause. First Luke, now you! You know, Heidi said that I could change things when I became Queen. I thought she meant this!" Clarissa gestured to all the poor people crouched in corners. "But she meant dinner parties and dresses, I should have known! She's too loyal to change the world. I have to do something, I can't just let everything fall apart around me!"

"I understand. And I think I know who we can talk to, but later. Today we need new clothes and money, then we'll find Secretum Buntovnik. Then tomorrow we can find someone I know you will be interested in." Oliver explained.

Clarissa looked at him with a confused look.

"Wait, not interested like that, interested like... well you'll see."

When they arrived at the clothing store, they each got one all black outfit. Clarissa paid with money from the guard's pocket. Then they left to go find Oliver's employer.

"He will probably be where I met him last time, if not, we'll wait for him to show up."

Clarissa nodded. She seemed almost giddy.

"Do you know this guy?" Oliver asked, guessing at her answer.

"I'm assuming that he's my father. A few minutes after Luke visited me in the dungeon, he came to tell me you were coming."

"It didn't seem like you knew I was coming. I seem to remember you suggesting torture, death, and a pretty face. Though I don't seem to remember if you were talking of yours or mine." he teased.

She blushed, which made him smile. "Since I could hardly see your face with that stupid hat, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out that I was talking about my own."

"Yes, well your face was, and still is, quite dirty." Clarissa blushed more and wiped her face on the black sleeve of her shirt. "Not that you aren't pretty."

Why, why, why, did he say that? Clarissa didn't seem to care too much even when she said, "Thanks. Uh, you too. I guess."

It was now Oliver's turn to blush as she elbowed his arm, but it was quickly submerged as they neared the familiar building.

"This is it!" Oliver said, leading Clarissa into the one room building. A hooded man waited. When he saw the two of them, he threw off his hood and smiled.

"My darling Clarissa! You're safe!" he held out his arms as Clarissa ran into them, smiling at his embrace.

Oliver grinned from his place in the corner. This was why he did what he did. Seeing people happy together, living as good a life as they could get.

"Son, you did it! You freed my daughter!" The man walked over to hug him too. Oliver knew that the term "son" was just a greeting, but to hear someone call him that brought him overwhelming happiness, grief, appreciation, basically any emotion a human could have.

"It was my pleasure, sir." Oliver replied once he was out of the man's grip.

"Well, here is your payment!" Clarissa's father jovially handed him a heavy bag, one-thousand Para.

"Thank you, father." Clarissa said, hugging the man again. "And thank you too Oliver!" Clarissa gave him a hug as well, which surprised the heck out of him that he dropped the money bag.

"Might want to keep that, son! Now I better head off before they all notice I'm missing. Be careful out there, and remember what I told you, darling! I will always love you, no matter what!"

"I love you too father! Goodbye!" Clarissa waved and kept waving even after her father had left the building.

She turned to Oliver with tears glinting in her eyes. "Thank you. You could have turned me over to the guards and left me to die, but you didn't. You could have done that and came to get the money anyways but you didn't! You stayed and helped me even though you didn't have to." Then she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

"Well, I... I don't like people who break promises, right?"

Clarissa laughed. God, he was beginning to love that sound. "Right." she said.