Five months passed. Most of the students had failed. Others had quit. One was hospitalized.

Booker had been back for a couple months, but he was already improving far beyond the other students. If it came down to a matter of placement, it was difficult to rank anyone. Everyone seemed so evenly matched, at this point.

Except Reinholdt, of course. He hadn’t improved much at all. Every day I wondered how he was able to endure where others that were much stronger than him failed.

I suppose willpower is it’s own strength, in a way, but surely it can only take you so far.

“Hey, Red.”

Mercedes said as she took the seat across from me in the empty mess hall.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that.”

“At least one more time, Red.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Booker calls you that all the time, though.” Mercedes said with a pout.

“I’ve told him to stop, too. I don’t know why you both feel the need to give me a nickname.”

In the middle of our meal, I felt it for the first time.

“I heard Jaekyll call you a nickname once, when he was talking to Jendryng.”

Sitting in the mess hall of the castle we trained in, I felt a hand wrap around my heart.

“It was something really weird, but kind of catchy, too.”

I clutched at my chest, but there was no beat.

“I think he called you the ‘Sanguine Son’, or something like that. Any idea what that means?”

I’m not sure when I started falling back, but I knew when I hit the floor.

Mercedes was quick to react, scooping her arms under me and running me to the infirmary. She moved faster than I’d ever seen her move.

There wasn’t any pain at all. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt. It felt like something was pressing against all sides of my heart, and squeezing lightly.

I couldn’t breathe, and so I couldn’t speak, to tell her I was okay. I wasn’t actually sure that I was okay. Afterall, it wasn’t ordinary to feel a hand inside your chest, was it?

More importantly, why was I so sure it was a hand? It was just a pressure inside my chest, it could be any number of things.

No, it was a hand. Slender fingers were folding over it, holding it with such gentle care.

Do you see me?

“Somebody, help! Please, help!”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, he suddenly grabbed his chest and collapsed!”

“Put him on the bed, there. Go boil some water for me.”

The doctor placed a hand on my chest, and held my wrist lightly in the other.

He went pale, dropped my hand, stumbled back, and ran out the door.

Do you see me, trapped in my cage?

Mercedes eventually returned with a steaming bucket, and was dumbfounded to find the doctor missing.

“It’s going to be okay, Mekaile.”

At least she’d stopped calling me by that terrible nickname. It only took me on my death bed for her to give that up.

“That can’t be. Is he conscious?”

A deep voice in the hallway spoke.

Halton, the knight-commander, entered the room.

It was the first time I’d seen him in person. He was much older than I expected. He had probably been handsome, in his youth, but now his face was cracked and wrinkled, his hair receding and gray.

The squeezing in my chest tightened.

Tighter, until it finally began to hurt.

Pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before.

Like I was being set on fire from the inside.

Black.

Everything went black.

When I woke up, everything was the same, but also entirely different.

I was in the infirmary, lying on a bed, but I had to throw a sheet off to see all of that.

The room was dark, but it wasn’t just a lack of light. There was an unnatural presence of darkness.

Still, under this uncomfortable blanket of gloom, I could see the parts of the room closest to me. I stepped off the bed and followed the wall, until I made it to the door.

Or, at least, where the door should have been. It had been torn off it’s hinges, with a crack in the doorframe.

In the hall, scratches covered the walls, and bones littered the floor.

Careful not to step on them, I navigated around them until I made it outside, in the courtyard.

There was nothing.

No sun or moon or stars above.

No people around.

No sounds, just deafening silence.

Silence, and a terrible chill.

Do you see me, trapped in my cage?

I see you, trapped in yours.

“Who’s there?” I called out to the emptiness.

The void gave no response.

I couldn’t see more than my outstretched hand, and then I noticed it.

The mark on my hand was gone.

Free me, and I shall free you. I have already given you the key.

There was a rustling behind me, and I turned just in time to see it.

A black shape crawling just on the outskirts of my vision.

It drew closer, revealing a massive jaw of teeth, dripping with blood. It snarled, and lunged, and was on me in an instant. It snapped its jaw around me, and--

When I came to, I was back in the infirmary, with Mercedes holding a steaming bucket, and Halton standing in the doorway.

“What?” I asked.

Halton strode over to the bed and placed his hand against my chest.

“This is a strong, healthy beat if ever I’ve felt one. That doctor is useless.”

Mercedes looked at Halton, then back to me.

“I just felt a little dizzy for a moment, but I’m feeling better now.” I said to Halton.

“Fine, fine. Be sure you’re drinking plenty of water. If Jendryng pushes you too hard, be sure to let me know.”

With that, the knight-commander left as swiftly as he had entered.

Mercedes stood, still holding the bucket, with a look of shock.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

I looked at my hand, to make sure the mark was still there.

“Alright, Mercedes.” I said, taking a deep breath. “Tell me everything about this mark.”

I had only half-listened to her attempts at an explanation before, wholly believing the girl to be somewhat crazy.

This time, I listened intently, never taking my eyes off of her.

“So, there are other people with these marks, and they all have unique powers. Is that all you know?”

“...I don’t really know what else to tell you. I don’t really know that much myself.”

“Have you ever had any… visions?”

“No, I don’t think so. Why are you suddenly so interested? What happened?”

“I’m not sure how to explain it, really. It felt like a warning. Or, a threat. I don’t know. Whatever it was, it had something to do with this mark, I just know it.”

“Have you told anyone else?”

“No, just you.”

“Oh.” Mercedes said, her cheeks burning red.

Booker poked his head into the room.

“Hey, uh, Red. I heard you died.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“You can’t die. We haven’t had a rematch, yet. Oh, that reminds me. During class today, Jendryng announced that we’re going to be sparring against each other again, like we did when we first met.”

“We’ll all get a chance to redeem ourselves, it seems.” Mercedes said with a sidelong glare at Booker.

“I, uh, should probably go. Sorry, for, uh, you know. Interrupting.”

I hadn’t given it much thought before, but there was another student among us. He didn’t stand out match, like Booker and Mercedes did, but he didn’t seem incompetent, like Reinholdt. I couldn’t even remember his name.

As the five of us were preparing for our mission, he caught my attention for the first time.

His rust-colored hair, which was usually unkempt and fell over his eyes, was pulled back in a tight tail, revealing the burns around his face.

I was surprised by the extended hand.

“I don’t think we’ve officially met.”

When I finally took his hand, he squeezed so tightly I was afraid he was going to break my hand.

“I…suppose we haven’t, really. I’m Mekaile.”

“Do you mind if I call you Red, like your friends do?”

Not another one.

“Sure.”

I had given up trying to put out that nickname, since it seemed to spread like a wildfire. Everyone outside of our class had started calling me that now too.

“Then, call me Birro. That’s what my friends call me.”

“Birro it is, then.”

Why was he introducing himself now? I suppose he wanted to get to know the team he was going to be working with. It made sense, if I let it.

“Mekaile, are you in here?” Jaekyll called out.

“I’m here!”

“There you are. I need to speak to you before you leave.”

In the center of Jaekyll’s office, there was a mannequin, with a full set of steel armor, painted black. He held the helmet out to me.

It had horns built into it, sweeping back, just like my hair. The eyes had streaks of red painted across them.

“I’d heard your friends have started calling you the ‘Red Devil’, though I’m sure you didn’t come up with such a name. Nonetheless, I’ve seen you come to embrace it. It suits you, after all. I think it’s good. Earn it right beside a good reputation, and people will come to respect the parts of you that are red. Hopefully this armor protects you while you make a name for yourself.”

It was the first time I’d ever received a gift of any kind. It was the first time someone had decided to give me something I wanted. The first time I had ever felt like I had earned it.

“Leaving on your first mission is important. It’s your start as a knight of the sovereignty. That’s why we hold a ceremony for your graduation just before you depart.”

It was the first time I had cried while I was happy, and I didn’t understand why.

“I’m proud of you, Mekaile.”

I took the helmet from him. It was incredibly well made, and must have been very expensive to have commissioned with such a specific and ornate design.

“Thank you, Jaekyll.” I said. “Thank you. I--”

I didn’t know what else to say.

He helped me put it on, and he walked out with me to join my companions at the castle gate.

“It looks really good on you, Red.” Mercedes said.

Booker snickered. “You’re making the rest of us look bad.”

As Reinholdt and Birro said their goodbyes to their families, Booker, Mercedes, and I bid our farewells to Jaekyll and Jendryng. Even Halton, the ever-busy knight-commander, came to see us off.

And then we were off.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

We were headed to a village south of Helcaste to find and remove a bandit gang in the area that was plaguing the locals. It would take us a couple days to get there. Half a day on the main road, then a day and a half to get to the village itself.

“Spingwater, eh? I’ve never heard of it. Had no idea it was so close.” I grumbled.

“It’s small, even for a village. That’s probably why these fools think they can get away with terrorizing it so close to a sovereign city.”

We were excited and fearless. It was five well-trained young knights against a few backwoods bandits. We thought we were all going to make it back from such an easy task.

I have such a vivid image of the five of us, in the back of that cart, smiling as we talked about it. When I look back, I think it’s one of my fondest memories. It seems odd, picking such a small memory out of them all to call one of my happiest, but it really was one of the best days of my life. Not only did I have friends, but I had companions. That’s something I won’t ever be able to get back. It was a moment of youth, not intended to be resurrected. It’s painful enough just to remember it.

The rotting, wooden sign was dangling from one rusted hinge, hanging limply from the overhang that we went under as we entered the village. Vines had grown up around the few, scattered houses, reclaiming this area for nature. It looked abandoned.

“Does anybody actually live here?” Reinholdt asked.

“I guess we ought to find out.”

Birro went up to the nearest house and knocked on the door.

With one tap, it creaked open, but stopped against something inside. He pushed, and eventually the door gave out, pulled right out of the doorframe. Birro immediately dropped the door and came rushing out.

“It smells horrid in there.” He groaned.

“Something about all this doesn’t feel right. Everyone, stay alert. Mercedes, Birro, and Reinholdt, check the other houses, see if anybody is still here. Red, with me. We’re going inside.” Booker took the lead so quickly and confidently, that none of us bothered to decline his ascent. We all did as we were told.

Reinholdt reluctantly handed Booker the lantern he had brought along, and we parted ways.

The dim light of the brass lantern was enough to illuminate the crimson blood that had stained the wood around the bodies. One was just in front of the door, while the other was near the broken window in the back. They had been crushed, their bodies crumpled and their faces caved in.

“This wasn’t exactly recent. The bodies have already started breaking down.” He said. “Why were we sent to a graveyard?”

“I thought we were dealing with some bandits harassing a village. This is something else entirely.”

Booker stood and went over to check out the rest of the house. “Well, if it becomes too much for us, we can certainly call for help. However, I’d like to find out as much as we can before that, and solve this ourselves if possible.” He turned back and flashed a smile, but the shadows dancing across his face made his expression more frightening than inspiring. “For now, let’s go meet up with the others. Maybe they found something.”

They found more bodies, and nothing else. Booker had described this place as a graveyard, and that was becoming a chillingly accurate description.

Beyond that, though, I felt a constant tension in the air. There was a change in pressure every now and then, slowly rising and falling, and it was putting me on edge for reasons I could not understand.

“W-what now?” Reinholdt asked. “Maybe w-we should head b-b-back.”

Booker shook his head. “If it really was bandits that killed these people, then we still have a duty to find and stop them. That’s why we came here, after all.”

“I thought we came to help the villagers.” Mercedes put in.

“Well, nobody can help them now. We should at least make sure that this doesn’t happen again to another village, if we can.”

Mercedes crossed her arms and huffed, but she debated the issue no further.

Booker nodded, taking in everyone’s agreement to continue. “Alright. We’ll probably have to spend the night here. Was there an inn, or something like it?”

“There was a tavern near the entrance. I’m sure they have empty rooms there.”

“Alright, why don’t you all bring your stuff there and unpack the carriage. Red and I are going to look around a bit and try to find some clue as to where the attackers went.”

“Why don’t I go with you?” Mercedes said.

“No, that’s, uh, alright. We’ll be fine.”

Mercedes pouted again, but I didn’t have a chance to apologize. Booker rushed me along with him.

“What’s this about? Mercedes just wants to help, you know.”

“I needed to talk to you. Alone.”

“You aren’t going to confess, are you?”

“You’re really not my type.”

“Then, what is it?”

“I don’t trust her.”

“Mercedes?”

“Yeah. I think she’s hiding something.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. But I couldn’t tell him that. How was I supposed to explain to him now what she had explained to me? I hadn’t believed it until I had that vision, and even then I hardly believed it. Even after Mercedes had shown me the mark’s effect in action. When even seeing was enough to believe, how could words stand a chance at convincing someone?

“What do you think? You’ve spent the most time with her.” He asked.

“I have?”

“She doesn’t spend time with the rest of us, the way she does with you. When you aren’t around, she doesn’t really talk to anyone.”

“Well, I haven’t noticed anything suspicious about her. What makes you think she’s hiding something?”

Booker paused, then spoke softly. “It’s just a feeling I get, I guess. When she’s fighting.”

He could feel the mark, like Mercedes could? Does that mean he had a mark, too? Then, why didn’t Mercedes ever sense him?

“Booker, I have something to tell--”

Before I could finish, a wild scream cut through the air. It came from the tavern.

“What happened?” I called out as we dashed up the stairs. “Is everyone okay?”

Reinholdt was in the hall, holding his knees to his chest. Booker and I drew our swords, and we swung around the corner to enter the opened bedroom.

Mercedes and Birro stood dumbfounded as they stood in the room, looking all around. They were pale white against a backdrop of red.

The cribs were mostly empty.

Booker cursed and left the room in a hurry.

“What kind of fucking monster…” Birro muttered.

Mercedes silently hung her head and walked out, leaving to sit next to Reinholdt.

“This wasn’t murder. It was a slaughter.” I said. “I don’t think we’re dealing with simple bandits, here.”

“I don’t think we’re up against humans, Red.”

There was something wrong with Birro’s reaction. It was like he was saying what he expected I wanted to hear, but he didn’t mean what he said. He was just regurgitating some words he thought fit at the moment.

He wasn’t bothered by the scene.

“Hey, Birro, can I ask you something?”

“It depends on the question.”

“Could you do something like this, if you were ordered to?”

“No. Everybody’s got a limit to how cruel they can be to another person. This is well beyond mine.”

It was in his eyes. No matter how much he scrunched his nose, or how deep his frown, his eyes couldn’t lie.

He was lying.

“Hey, can you guys come here?” Mercedes called out.

“What’s wrong?”

“Reinholdt passed out.”

We had to carry the boy back to the carriage, where we decided to stay for the night. It was the only shelter without a body in it.

“What are we going to do now?” Birro asked when Booker returned to the light of the campfire.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what do you think we should do?”

“I really don’t know. We’ll look around more tomorrow, I guess. If we don’t find any leads, we’ll send a letter back, letting them know what we found here.”

“Okay.”

I couldn’t sleep that night, but it wasn’t because of what had happened. I’d seen savagery like that before. What had kept me up was the enigma that was Birro.

His strange reaction, and the uneasiness that I got from his answer. Why did he lie about something like that? What was he hiding?

Booker was wrong to cast his doubts upon Mercedes. It was Birro who had captured all of my distrust.

I sat next to the window, but I was watching the others in the cabin. Mostly, I was watching Reinholdt, who hadn’t woken up yet.

He was just as weak as I had always thought him to be, and now he was hindering us. How did he graduate? Why did he want to be a knight? He obviously wasn’t cut out for this kind of work.

Though, I suppose this particular case was an exception of mass cruelty, it doesn’t change the fact that Reinholdt was an incredibly weak person, in both body and mind.

Reinholdt, the weak. Birro, the liar. Mercedes, the insane. Booker, the distrustful.

And then there was me, who was no exception to the madness. The boy with red eyes.

Mekaile, the freak.

Mekaile, the Red Devil.

I’m not sure when I fell asleep, but when I woke up, the sun was just beginning to rise over the tallest mountain, and a faint light was filtering into the cabin through the window.

Mercedes held a hand over my mouth, and a finger against her lips. When I nodded, she motioned for me to follow, and we slipped out of the cabin. We crept into the town, and when I was just about to ask what this was all about, I heard the voices.

They were coming from the tavern.

Mercedes held me back from entering. “It’s here.” She whispered.

“What’s here?”

“A mark.”

Now I absolutely had to go in. What if they knew something that we didn’t? They had to!

“Is that why we left the others behind?”

“The only other person in the cabin was Booker. I think the others are in here.”

I hadn’t even noticed that Reinholdt and Birro were missing.

“Alright, then what’s the plan?”

“I’m not sure, that’s why I woke you up. I don’t know what to do. We have no idea what kind of mark this person has, or who they are. It could be one of the bandits.”

“Well, we won’t know until we get in there. It sounds like they’re on the main floor. Maybe we can go in through one of the windows on the second floor?”

Mercedes looked down, took a deep breath, and looked back at me with a nod. We shuffled around the edge of the building, and I boosted Mercedes up to the window of one of the rooms on the second story. Once she was in, she held her hand out, and I kicked off the wall and caught it in my own. She pulled me up, and into the room with her.

“...Isn’t personal, it really isn’t.”

The voice, while still muffled, was coherent. It sounded like Birro.

We crawled over towards the balcony that looked over the main bar area, where we could see Reinholdt, shaking with a sword in his hand, the tip pointed towards Birro, who was grinning wickedly.

“Go get Booker, as quickly as you can, and come in through the front door. If this goes too far, I’ll intervene.” I whispered to Mercedes. She nodded, and silently slipped back into the room we came in through.

“W-w-why are you d-d-doing this?” Reinholdt asked.

“Why? Because I want war.”

“You want...war?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t. Someone as innocent as you could never understand. But, you see, I love war. It’s the only time when killing becomes worthy of national praise. I can get paid, by the empire itself, to go and do exactly what I love doing, what I would be doing anyways. Assassins will always be betrayed, eventually. But a war hero can kill as much as he likes, and he only grows more loved by his country for it. There’s nothing in this world that I love more than war. This peace has lasted too long, and I’ve grown quite bored. I haven’t had the chance to use my brand in a long time. You’ll forgive me, I hope, if I’m not able to restrain myself.”

He put himself into a stance, and Reinholdt began to breathe heavier, still shaking. He looked so frail going up against him. When Birro attacked, however, striking his fist out, Reinholdt expertly dodged to the side and swung with an uppercut, aiming to slice off Birro’s arm.

This had already gone too far. I knew I should be getting between them, trying to stop this.

But I didn’t.

I wouldn’t say I was afraid, but I certainly wasn’t going to get myself involved with another mark without knowing anything about it.

Mercedes had mentioned she could move faster when she used her mark, but that her ability was unique to her, as far as she knew. So, before I revealed myself, I decided to watch, and see if I could figure out what Birro could do. If I needed to fight him, I didn’t want to do it blindly.

“Woah! That was quite close, Reinholdt!” Birro said.

The sword had cleaved into Birro’s arm. Or, so it had seemed. In reality, the sword had no breached skin.

Reinholdt’s shoulders drooped. “W-w-what are you?!” He cried out as he took a step back, letting the tip of his blade touch the wooden floor.

“I am the inheritance of god.” Birro said. He brought his fist back, and for the first time, I saw it. The glow coming from his palm was radiant enough to slip out through cracks in his fist.

He thrust his arm forward, cutting Reinholdt’s sword arm clean from his body.

‘Cutting’ may not be the right word. Where Birro struck, the flesh seemed to explode upon impact, as if an incredible force had come into contact with it. At first, I assumed he had simply moved his arm inhumanly quick, as Mercedes could do, but that didn’t explain how he had resisted the sharp edge of a steel blade.

Reinholdt screamed, and grabbed his bleeding stump with his other hand. Birro began to chuckle as he wrapped his hand around Reinholdt’s face. By raising his arm, he picked Reinholdt up by his head, lifting him until his feet dangled about the bloody ground.

“I’ll try to be more gentle this time.” He said, as he dug his fingers into Reinholdt’s eyes. Instead of crying out, he started wheezing, and his body began convulsing.

Gentle. That was it. Birro’s mark must give him strength. He had to make a conscious effort to hold himself back while he was using it. That strength must also affect his body, allowing him to ignore being hit with a sword. So, if a sword wouldn’t work, how was I supposed to fight him? If I didn’t move, Reinholdt was dead. Actually, he was probably dead already. His body had gone limp.

The door flew open, and Mercedes came charging in with her sword drawn.

That idiot.

She was going to get herself killed, too.

She crossed the distance across the tavern in a fraction of a second, and thrust the tip of her blade into Birro. He was pushed back, and was forced to throw Reinholdt down.

That was it! Birro may have been incredibly strong, but he wasn’t fast! He was no match for Mercedes, and that strength wouldn’t help him if he couldn’t land a hit.

Birro held his chest where he had been struck, and it was obvious the wind had been knocked out of him, as he put a hand on the nearest chair and struggled to breathe in.

An edge didn’t work, but it seemed a blunt weapon, if struck with enough force, still injured him internally. That meant it was only his skin that was strengthened.

Mercedes charged in again, this time with a swing.

Her arm seemed to disappear and reappear as she finished the strike, and when she stopped moving, her blade was broken in half.

The tip came to the ground behind him with a dull thud.

Birro laughed as he kicked off his planted foot, tackling Mercedes and bringing her to the ground. He brought back his fist.

I got up on the railing, and was about to jump on him. I had to save her.

Everything stopped.

Time, stopped.

My body went cold and numb almost immediately.

Do you see me, trapped in my cage?

Let me out.

A subtle warmth filled my fist, and slowly began to seep into my arm, spreading up my body. When it reached my heart, there was a burst of pain, and everything quickly came back into motion.

I came down on Birro, bringing my fist down into the back of his head. His body twisted, and his punch missed Mercedes, finding its way into the floor, breaking through the wooden floorboards.

Mercedes quickly squirmed away, and scrambled to wipe the blood from her face.

Birro’s head had exploded under the weight of my blow.

No, that wasn’t something the added weight from my fall should have done. My fist was completely fine, yet it had demolished this man’s head, skull and all, reducing it to a splattering of blood and brain that had covered the girl beneath him.

No, that punch wasn’t ordinary. It was…

Just like the punch Birro had used on Reinholdt.

Suddenly, my attention snapped back to reality, and I found Reinhold sitting against the wall. He was unconscious, but he was breathing.

“Mercedes, help me get Reinholdt back to the carriage!”

She wasn’t moving. She was staring dumbly at Birro’s body.

“Mercedes!”

“I...almost died…I was...about to die…” She mumbled.

Realizing she wasn’t going to be any help anytime soon, and painfully aware of how little time we had, I lifted Reinholdt over my shoulders.

I expected him to be heavy. Even though he was smaller than average, he still ought to have weighed more than he did.

He was light enough for me to pick up with one hand.

I carried him over to the carriage as quickly as I could, and woke Booker up.

“Booker, I need your help! Reinholdt’s hurt, bad!”

Booker rubbed the groggy haze out of his eyes as he came to grasp the situation.

“Where are the others? What happened?”

“I’ll tell you everything later. For now, we’re safe, but Reinholdt will die without help. Please, help me bind these wounds.”

“Bind these… His arm is gone! He’s lost too much blood. He’s already gone, Red.”

“Don’t say that, he’s still alive!”

“Mekaile, he-”

“Just bind his fucking wounds!” I spat out.

Booker’s ever expressionless face was impossible to read, but his silence was deafening.

I decided to go back for Mercedes, to make sure she was okay, too.

She was sitting in the same spot, with her knees tucked into her body, shivering.

She looked so fragile, and I felt an overwhelming desire to protect her. So, I tried to fix what I saw that I could fix. I took off my coat and wrapped it around her. She flinched when I touched her, but when her eyes met with mine, she came out of her stupor.

“You saved me.” She said. “You saved my life. Nobody has ever...saved me before. You’re my hero.”

She thought of me as her hero.

It may not have started there, but that was the first time Mercedes had given me that longing stare that I would come to be very familiar with. That I would come to appreciate, and that I would come to despise.

It was the moment that a tumorous love began to grow inside her, that would only grow more cancerous by the day, eventually becoming an unbearable sickness that brought her over the edge of a bridge.

But, that’s another story.

This was the story of how Mercedes and I had met.

***

“So, what do you think?”

It had only taken the better part of a day to tell the whole story. I had meant to shy away from the crueler details of it, but as my mind wandered into memory, it all dragged itself out through me. I ended up telling Alys everything, leaving nothing out.

How foolish of me. She was only a child, after all. I had no place to be telling this.

I hadn’t realized how off-topic I had gotten. She had simply listened in patient silence to it all.

“Mama never used to tell me stories like that.” She said quietly. “Will you tell me another story?”

She wanted another story. After that, she wanted to hear more.

“Your mother and I had a few adventures, after that. We spent the next few years traveling together, and I suppose a lot happened. Is there anything particular you want to hear about?”

She rubbed her cheek as she thought.

There was a moment where I was sitting beside my daughter, while she was thinking about the story I had just told her, where I realized I was a father. I had brought life into this world. A real person, with her own personality. Such a concept had never crossed my mind before. I had never entertained the idea of having a kid before, yet here she was.

I had never been happier.

“Papa!” She said, finally. “Mama once told me the story about the Pale Princess. Can you tell me that story, too? It’s one of my favorites. I want to hear you tell it like you told the other story, though.”

“Ah, that must be Ellyn. But, what do you mean, ‘Like the other story?’”

“Mama never talked about people dying, or getting hurt, like you do.”

“You want to hear about death?”

“I want to hear the real story. It feels more real when you tell stories.”

“More real, eh?”

I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, but maybe it was the thing she wanted, and that was enough for me. So, I decided to tell her everything. Exactly how it happened. Nothing held back.

Every miserable story of my life, with the story of the Pale Princess coming up next.