The fragrance of the tea traveled through my shop, masking the rancid smell of my alchemical potions and ingredients.
While holding the steaming teacup near my nose, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the smell.
It had a light sweet fragrance. Not too strong, not too weak.
I let a calm smile slowly cover my lips and returned to look at Dante.
The child had no patience for the heat. He clearly didn’t enjoy the fragrance of his tea either, for he kept his cup away from him and he drew energy away from the tea, turning it colder.
He took a small sip from his non steaming tea, put it down on the table, and returned to what he has been doing since he had entered my shop: Look down at the first page of a book, with furrowed eyes and clenched teeth.
I took another breath from my tea, set it down, and waited.
“...Amara.” The child looked up from the book and focused on me. “What would you do if the entire world was after you?”
I shifted a bit on my chair and took a moment to process the question.
What…?
I gave him a small smile. “The entire world would never be against you, child.” I answered calmly. “You will always have someone by your side.”
“But what if there wasn’t anyone, and the whole world is still against you.” Dante kept looking at me, his stare unwavering.
I took a long sip from my tea, and after a moment of not knowing what to say, I pressed my lips together. “Running or hiding away from your problems, will never solve them.”
Dante clenched his fists on the table, and his unwavering glare wavered for but a second. “So the only thing left to do is to fight the entire world?” His voice was weak, near quivering. Small wisps of mana started to float around him, too small to feel the emotions they carried.
“I had never said that.” I quickly responded and let the silence take over the room, giving myself time to think. “You don’t need violence in order to make things right.”
The child opened his mouth only to close it. The wisps of mana disappeared. He returned his gaze to the first page of the open book, and with furrowed brows and clenched jaw, his eyes didn’t leave the first page, again.
I took a deep breath. “What is it that troubles you child?”
Dante didn’t answer, instead, he closed his eyes. “What would a… sewer skeever do if he is trapped?”
He would rip through whatever traps him there. I thought to myself. I knew that Dante already knew the answer to that question, because I had taught him about the sewer systems when he asked me about them.
I gave him a small smile. “You might be small. But you are too handsome to be a sewer skeever.”
The child's face softened, a small smile tugged his lips. “... I never said that I was talking about myself.”
“Oh please.” I placed my tea on the table.
Dante looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. In return I raised both my eyebrows at him.
I felt the words hanging on my tongue: ‘I know that you are talking about the nightmares, do you want to talk about it?’ But I held back, I already knew that pressuring him wouldn’t help.
Dante seemed to take the hint, he tensed up and shook his head.
“Whatever it is.” I caught his attention, “you will never be alone. And those nightmares that you are having? Remember that they are not real, they can’t hurt you, they will pass.”
In return Dante gave me a weak smile that made my heart wrench. “Thank you, Amara.”
I pressed my lips together as the silence took over the room. I was about to ask him something, even the smallest of questions to take his mind off his thoughts when the door to the shop opened.
Eleanor and her mom, Freda, stood in the entrance. Both of them wore smiles as they entered hand in hand.
While both Freda and Eleanor walked calmly with their backs straight and heads high, The moment Eleanor saw Dante, a wider juvenile smile spread across her face and her calm steps seemed to be packed with energy.
“Amara, Dante, it's so nice to see the both of you on this fine day.” Freda greeted us and I did the same.
“Nice to see you too Freda, hey El.” Dante got off the chair and walked towards Eleanor, while she tiptoed from leg to leg near her mother.
“Now Eleanor, remember your etiquette, be nice and don’t cause any troubles, alright?” Freda smiled at her daughter who nodded excitedly.
After I promised Freda that we would meet again for a tea party, she got out of the store leaving the three of us.
Right as the door was going to close behind Freda, Eleanor jumped on Dante with a hug which he returned, wide smiles covering both their faces.
I let out a small sigh as I watched the both of them talk and smile.
Both of them went through so much, one was born a slave, the other has nightmares that are probably caused by an evil sage. I drank my tea until there was nothing in it. Why can’t the world let children be children?
For a moment I was lost in thoughts, I started to remember, remember the past, remember the screams of men and dark creatures, and I was all out of Sindur tea.
Darn it. I snapped myself out of my haze, and decided to get drunk with Koll, as fast as possible.
“Amara?” Dante called out to me, one eyebrow raised.
“Later.” I softly answered back and put a smile on my face. “Eleanor, how are you my dear? Oh look at you, skinny as a twig, you need to eat, how about some herbal salad?”
Eleanor’s face froze like a mask, she looked at me with a smile. “Thank you very much for the offer, unfortunately I’m quite famished, I’ll have to decl-”
“Didn’t you ask me if Amara bought sweats a couple of seconds ago?” Dante interrupted her before she could finish. She was about to speak when he continued, “I swear that I heard your tummy rumble, don’t tell me that you don’t like her herbal salad?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as Eleanor stepped closer to his side and started to pinch him. “You know it's good for your health.”
Eleanor’s expression broke, “I- I know, it's just that-”
“It’s alright, if you don’t like it you don’t have to eat it.” I stopped her before she continued. “I’ll bring you some sweets.” I said and brought her sweets.
Eleanor’s eyes brightened, and her cut elven ears twitched in the slightest. She courtly sat on the table where she started to slowly nibble them.
Dante also sat on the table, his face covered with a broad shit eating grin as he took a handful of the sweets and tilted his head. “You know El, these sweets look really well made, I think I’ll eat them with you.”
Eleanor’s face fell, and when Dante took one of the sweets and brought it closer to his mouth, Eleanor’s face morphed into something else entirely.
She clasped both her hands together, lowered her head a bit, looked up at Dante and blinked twice. I had to hold a hand to my mouth as I felt a small squeak rising out of my throat.
At the moment, all I knew was that I had to protect her at all costs.
“What Koll had taught you to convince your father won’t work on me El.” Dante chuckled and Eleanor’s cute face intensified.
I coughed and drew his attention. “Stop torturing her child, you don’t like sweets anyway.”
He shrugged and returned the sweets to Eleanor who guarded them closely, all the while eyeing the evil sweets thief who was grinning back at her.
Looking at the both of them made me smile, children who act like children. Not withered and scarred adults.
I let the both of them talk with each other, about what they wanted to do after hanging out in my shop, if it was to go outside the town's wall and play at the fields, look for new interesting shops in town, or go and annoy Koll.
While they talked I tended to the shop, handled the few customers and made sure that the supplies were all up to date.
Until a particular customer entered.
She was an elf, her appearance was disheveled and even though she looked at the floor, her eyes were distant and had deep dark circles around them.
I immediately gestured to Dante to get up from his chair. He did so and went to Eleanor and stood in front of her, all the while eyeing the elf.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Are you alright? Come, sit down.” I told the elf who shook and looked at me. She nodded and sat down. “What happened to you?” I asked as gently as possible and crouched beside her chair.
She opened her trembling mouth. “I-I need a potion, something… Something to h-help me forget. Please.” Without saying anything else, she took a leather purse and put it on the table.
My body stiffened for a moment. I looked at Dante and Eleanor. “Children, could the both of you stay outside for a moment?”
Dante Immediately nodded, he held Eleanor’s hand and took her with him outside the shop.
When they were finally out, I pushed the sweets on the table towards the elf, made some tea from whatever calming herbs I had left, and sat on the other side of the table.
The aroma clearly did calm her a bit as she absentmindedly ate and drank, But the distant look in her eyes told a different story all together.
“Did a man force you to do something? I have a friend in the towns guard, he’s a good-”
“No.” The elf shook her head, but her eyes didn’t meet mine. “I came from a distant village.”
“...What happened?”
The elf clamped down, until her lips started to tremble, tears started to fall from her glistening eyes and she started to sob, almost uncontrollably.
I came to her side, gently laid one hand on her shoulder and waited.
“There were bandits.” She said through small sobs. “about half a month ago. T-they came to our village a-and…” Her sobs grew stronger again.
“It's alright, you are safe now, everything will be alright.” I said gently while giving her a hug. “Nothing will harm you here.”
“No.” She shook her head weakly. “T-they didn’t look normal, they were wild, I could see it in their eyes! They managed to kill Fizen, and they were looking for someone - or something a-and-”
I grabbed her shoulders tightly and she stopped her ranting. Sweat rolled down her forehead and for the first time since she entered she looked into my eyes.
“Everything is going to be alright, Pinefort has walls and guards, you will be safe here.” I let my words hang in the air, letting them sip into her until she slowly nodded.
“Now, did you tell the town’s guard about the attack? Did anyone else… survive?” I asked her gently and she nodded.
“The town’s guard was alerted, and there were other survivors… I simply…” She shook her head and clasped her clothing. “I had to forget what they did there, It was a nightmare.” Tears flowed on her cheeks again. “They weren’t people, they were monsters.”
The elf sobbed and shook.
I understood her, or at least I knew what she was going through. New recruits and inexperienced soldiers had similar reactions after their first battles.
A very strong amnesia potion could make it better for her, for a while. Help her forget what she went through, but she would also forget how the people she loved came to an end. And there would always be a hole in her memories.
I stood up and looked down on her. “You have a choice.” I caught her attention. “I can give you a very potent alchemical amnesia potion, take it before you go to sleep and it will be as if the last month were naught.”
“You will forget how you got to this town, you will forget how your loved ones died, and you will forget what you saw.”
The elf’s eyes brightened at me. “Then plea!-”
“But.” I stopped her before she could continue. “From that point on, you will always have a hole in your memory, an itchy spot, an item you crave in the bottom of a dark well. With time you will ask yourself ‘what happened?’ or ‘how did they die?’”
“With a sage’s help, you might be able to return those memories, and then, like open flood gates, it will come crashing down on you, harder than ever.”
The elf froze entirely, and what I told to Dante before came to my mind.
Running or hiding away from your problems, will never solve them.
I lifted my chin up and looked at her. “I was there when the mountain fell.” I declared. The frozen elf blinked twice in confusion only to freeze again, looking at me with a pale face. “ I know what it's like to see horrors, right in front of your face. Hiding or running away can’t solve it permanently.”
I went to my potions stock, took an amnesia potion, and put it on the table. “I won’t take your money if you take it, this can be as good as poison for you, remember, you have a choice.”
The elf looked between the bottle and me. “...I couldn’t sleep.” She said offhandedly after a moment. “I can barely sleep anymore… I just want it to be over.”
She gently took the bottle in her hand, and I pressed my lips together.
“Will this help me sleep? Will anything, ever, get better?” She asked, her voice quiet and trembling.
The images of Charlotte and James looking happy, Koll laughing, and Dante and Eleanor smiling, flashed through my mind. “It won’t help you sleep, no, it might make it worse, but things do get better, given time and effort.” I took another potion from my stock and put it on the table. “A calming potion, take it before you go to sleep, and it will help you.”
The elf put the amnesia back and took the other potion in her hands, she brought the potion to her forehead and pressed it until she nodded.
I didn’t let even the faintest of smiles cover my face, even though I felt as if my body had gotten lighter. I knew that the elf might come to hate me one day over this.
“Thank you, kind lady. I won’t forget your help.” The elf said, her voice hoarse from her earlier sobbing. She stepped out of the shop with the calming potion without looking back.
Before I could even breath to calm myself, The door opened again, Dante strode in, his face taut, Eleanor followed behind him.
“Amara. There are people talking about bandits in the streets.” Dante stated and I nodded.
“That woman was one of the survivors. Don’t go outside the walls today to play.” I closed my eyes to gather my thoughts and remembered that Charlotte and James lived right outside the town's walls.
The town is safe, not even bandits are foolish eno-
“They killed people.” Dante’s low voice broke my line of thoughts. his fists were clenched and his eyes had a piercing quality to them. “They. Killed. People.”
Strands of mana gathered around the shop, I could feel my blood boil as they gently passed through me.
Eleanor grabbed his shirt from behind, and he instantly relaxed. She was looking at him as if he was another person all together.
“They will be stopped, that’s for certain, I’m sure that the town’s guard will send a messenger to Dreokpis about their presence.” I tried to reassure him as I felt my heart calm down .
“And how long will it take? Certainly more than two weeks, those killers will already be long gone.” He retorted back.
He’s right.
But I couldn’t admit it, I narrowed my eyes on him and gave a quick glance to Eleanor behind him who was holding his clothes even tighter.
He got the message, and stopped. His mood however turned into the same one he had when he first got into the store. With furrowed brows he looked away from me.
“All you both need to know is that you are safe, the village is distant from us, and they won’t be foolish enough to attack a well prepared town.” I said as gently as possible.
Their moods however didn’t change, Eleanor stopped holding Dante’s clothes and instead came to my side, looking at Dante with a concerned expression.
After a while they both calmed down a bit, When their parents came to get them, Eleanor left with a smile, while Dante was adamant about James telling him more details about the bandits as he left the store.
I, on the other hand, closed my shop and walked to Koll’s smithy.
When I arrived, I knocked with full force on the door until I heard his stumpy feet and shouts.
“I heard ya tha first time ya old hag!” I faintly heard him shout.
But I kept knocking as hard as I could, until the door slammed open.
“By Cysan, ya damned old hag, whad’ya think yer doin?!” Koll roared at me.
“Oh.” I said as casually as I could. “I thought your hearing worsened. you know how it is, being an old dwarf.”
Koll’s eyes twitched. “Eat shite, Gordul, if it weren’t for ya malth glaekama, I wou’ be twenty years young’er.” He snarled at me.
I huffed and entered the smithy while Koll closed the door.
“Ya heard?”
“Yes, if only that darned civil war would end, things would be better.”
“Aye, but yer have already seen orcs and dark elves, ya know how they ken be.” Koll scoffed and walked to his counter, took a bottle from behind and eyed me.
I nodded and he took two cups and put them on the counter.
He poured for the both of us and lifted his cup to the air. “zhol”
“zhol.” I cheered back in dwarvish. The sour dwarvish spirits passed down my throat, leaving a burning sensation in it.
We both put the cups back on the counter and Koll started to pour again.
“I saw that trick you’ve taught Eleanor today.” I smiled at him.
Koll barked a laugh and grinned. “Well? Did it work?”
Eleanor’s cute face popped into my mind. “I don’t think anyone could ever tell her no. Except for Dante.”
Koll groaned at Dante’s name. He took his filled cup and drank it whole and so did I.
I couldn’t help but cough as the liquid fire poured down my throat.
Koll huffed. “Weaklin’.”
My entire body started to get warmer. I put down the cup on the counter and shook my head when Koll offered more.
“Did tha brat hear ‘bout the bandits?”
I nodded slowly and grimaced. “He was furious, if it weren’t for Eleanor, I think he would have gone out of town to search for them by himself.”
“Aye, I’ll try not ta talk ‘bout it near ‘im.” Koll nodded while rubbing his beard. “But never mind that. Let’s get to tha talk of tha town.”
Koll leaned forward on the counter. “Who were tha bandits lookin’ for?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”
“Ya dinna hear? All the survivors say that they were searchin’ for somethin’ or someone.”
The frantic words of the shocked elf came to my mind.
They were looking for someone - or something.
I could feel my mind get a little numb from the spirits, so I shook my head and forced myself to focus. “Are there no leads at all?”
Koll shook his head, he poured himself a new one, drank, and focused on me. “But, I had a survivor at me shop today, and I think I might have an inklin’”
I leaned on the counter while Koll grinned slightly.
“So, as ya know, I was busy with me customers, brimin’ to the full, barely had any time to me-self. And then all of a sudden-”
“Brimming to the full, my ass.” I snorted and covered my mouth, feeling my cheeks get warmer while Koll laughed.
“Get to the point.” I said while fanning my face with my own hands.
Koll looked as if he wanted to continue, but instead, he poured himself another and drank.
And he’s still barely drunk. I thought to myself as he finished and grinned.
“Aye. Anyway, this survivor comes in me smithy. Younglin’ no older than fifteen, start’s ramblin’ ‘bout forgin’ ‘im a weapon to slay the bandits.”
“Foolish.” I muttered. My mind tried to make me grimace, but my face, stuck in a perpetual smile, wouldn’t allow it.
Koll nodded. “I refused, and he refused my refusal! So I made ‘im a bargain, I told ‘im that if he’ll beat me, I might think ‘bout it. He had some moves, and he knew how ta use mana, but I knocked ‘im down with barely any effort.”
Koll stopped to pour himself another, he poured everything left in the bottle, drank, and put the empty bottle aside.
He was about to continue when a burp came out of his mouth.
His eyes shot wide open and we both laughed.
“Aye, tis a good one.” Koll eyed the bottle for a moment and returned to look at me. “Now where was I? Ah, yes.”
“So the boy starts losing’ ‘is Noggin’, starts to plead, then, cry for forgiveness from ‘is dead mentor, some guy, what was ‘is name.” Koll closed his eyes. “Fiern? Foren? Nae-”
“Perhaps Fizen?”
Koll’s eyes opened, he wore a smile on his face. “Aye! that’s ‘is name, so, tha kid starts tellin’ me about it all, this Fizen guy, he served in the mountain, until it got too much for ‘im, moved to the village, and started to train the kid because he kept annoyin’ ‘im.”
His expression grew darker. “When the bandits came, tha kid was barely a match, wanted to stay by ‘is side, but. Ya’know…” Koll grunted. “What’s troubling is how he described ‘is last moments.”
“He said that Fizen saw tha bandits take a small child, so, he went and killed ‘bout a dozen of ‘em! They dinna back down! Said that they had somethin’ wrong with them, like they dinna feel any pain. He managed to save the baby, but. He had to stay there to hold ‘em off.”
Koll leaned back and started to rub his beard.
I felt as if the world was slowly swirling, I shook my head, tried to focus on what Koll had said and started to think.
Why would they go after a small child? What do they have to gain?
“Tha question is, why would they want to take a small babe.” Koll repeated after my thoughts. “And kill everyone else.”
The elf who came to my store flashed in my mind. Thinking back on her appearance, she was pretty, elfs were always pretty. Even though she’d looked ragged and disoriented.
Why go through all the effort, for a small child instead of a grown female elf?
Both of us were silent, my drunken mind tried to spin its wheels, while Koll kept rubbing his beard with closed eyes.
I started to rub my temples. “I know that it might be a foolish question, but, was there anything special about the baby?”
Koll huffed in return. “just a babe, nothin’ more.”
Dante popped into my mind, but I disregarded him quickly.
“Mayhaps, they all took some sort of an alchemical potion? To numb their senses, and one of them, in his delirious drug induced state, thought that it might be fun… To kidnap a baby?” I suggested, sounding less convinced towards the end.
“I was think’ more of, ‘tha bandits were crazy, and tha younglin’ was in deep shock when he saw everythin’.” Koll nodded to himself and clapped. “Aye, I see no reason in it. What I do know is that tha sooner the civil war ends, tha better. Zhol!” Koll lifted his cup to the air and I instinctively did the same with my own.
“Zhol!” I put the cup on my lips and felt nothing.
Oh, right.
I chuckled, and looked at Koll, who was looking at the bottom of his cup.
“Where did it all go?” He asked, tilting his cup up and down with a puzzled look.
“We already finished the bottle, Koll.”
“We did?”
“Yes, you drunkard.”
Koll gently slammed his cup on the counter with a sigh, while I twirled my own in my hands.
My thoughts slowly started to wonder, they left the bandits and wandered far away, until I remembered what Dante had asked me.
“Koll, what would you do if the entire world was against you?” I asked, my voice dreamy.
“Wha?”
“You heard me.”
Koll took a deep breath. “That’s stupid.” We both looked at each other in silence until he grimaced. “I would run away.” The dwarf said in a hushed tone.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “You wouldn’t fight?”
“How can ya fight the entire world?” Koll shook his head.
“How can you run away from the entire world?” I put the cup down on the counter and leaned on it.
Koll’s eyes stared off into the distance, for a moment his stare turned distant, reminding of how he used to smoke herbs. His eyes refocused and he tilted his head at me. “Then what would ya do?”
My mind felt foggy and slow. I pressed my lips together. I was about to say that I didn’t know when Koll lifted his hand to stop me from talking.
“Let’s promise, that if tha world is ever against us, we’ll stand together, aye?”
My heart stopped for a moment. I smiled gently at him and nodded. “As long as you are in front of me, taking the bulk of the troubles.”
Koll laughed and I laughed with him.