For a long time, I sat on that ledge, unable to do anything but watch. I flicked Aspen’s dagger in my hand, balancing it by the tip for lack of anything better to do.
I know not how he managed to infiltrate that place, with its dark halls and dim windows and dead spaces, nor how he retrieved her body, but in the end, both Aspen and the little toad were covered in red, heaving as if the weight of the world were on their shoulders. Even his eyes, so whimsical and carefree before, were hardened like steel when he emerged from the den.
I leaped down, ready to give him a piece of my mind, before I saw blood running down Eliza’s forehead. Her eyes were closed. The words died on my tongue.
“What- What happened?”
He did not reply.
“Aspen? Aspen, what happened?” I shook his shoulder, jolting him out of whatever he was thinking. His eyes grew veiled and dark. He cleared his throat, setting his shoulders before tossing her on his back.
“We speak later. She is alive, but just barely. For now, we run.”
Nothing more was said as we raced through the backstreets, up and down the labyrinthian maze of the Black Market and up to the fields of Cheverton. No one chased us, yet it felt like we were being hounded by Ahavet’s crows, from the pace we were going at.
It took the fastest horses available and an entire day’s ride to get from the Dragon’s Inn to Valkyrie at the Triyaer villa. We retrieved the Archaic Order, our packs and enough medicine to stop the bleeding, then flew off past the Markyne forest. With the treeline to our right and the open plains to our left, there was not much we could talk about, and the only sound we could hear was the gallop of the horses racing down the path. Even as we rode, my heart would not stop pounding; it had been one week since she vanished from our sight, one week since that wretched Butterfly wench snatched up our precious little Liz, right from under my nos, and all the while I cursed the gods as well as myself. Why was I not more aware? Why was I caught lacking? Moriarty would certainly have kept her safe. If only Mori were here.
I felt blood well up on my tongue; I'd bitten down on it too hard.
After a long time of thundering hooves and the steady thud of the horses racing towards the Triyaer's villa, we showed up suddenly into the foyer, bursting through the doors. Valkyrie Sophia Von Triyaer, summoned by the valet, took one look at us from the stairs before leading us inside to the inner rooms. Our dirty, sweat-soaked clothes and blood-streaked skin contrasted heavily with the pristine and immaculate foyer, making us seem like vagabonds and ruffians at the feet of a princess. I felt as if I were made of mud, not skin, and my flesh tingled uncomfortably from being seen so unkempt.
“I shall not ask who your companion is, Lady Adrianne, but I trust in your judgement. The matter is urgent, yes?” Her voice echoed through the hallways.
I assented, “Forgive us, Lady Valkyrie. Eliza needs treatment immediately. I shall explain everything in due time.”
She nodded, quickly laying Eliza on a specialised mattress in the infirmary. The Triyaer doctors flooded in, beginning to unravel the makeshift bandages we placed on her, and we were soon pushed out as they began their work.
Valkyrie herself spent a good two nights finding every record pertaining to medicine in their library and asked us to scour their collection as well to see if they had missed anything. Still, Eliza did not wake. In her sleep, she murmured strange words, foreign words, as if she were speaking another tongue unknown to the living; her eyelids twitched to and fro, she was seeing something that was not real; her body jerked in a fake falling motion, and yet she never moved a muscle, save the rushed rise and fall of her breath. For each night she lay like that, I grew more and more desperate.
It was not even as if the girl was unfamiliar with sleeping either; every night we spent together during the holidays, she would stay in bed until the morning had long passed, asking for breakfast while we were eating lunch. In fact, there were days after school when we threw ourselves into the embrace of sleep, only for me to realise she would not wake until the early hours of the afternoon.
I grew accustomed to reading in Mori’s room while she dozed in those days, listening to the soft thrum of his piano as we shared subtle peeks at her sleeping face, but in that moment, seated by her bedside with doctors flocking around the room, all I could see was her sleeping face. It became a harbinger of death to me, eerie and still, and all the while I mourned for my friend who would not speak. I felt as if Lethe was mocking my sorrow again, with that horrid portrait hung right above the mantelpiece in full view of the bed, the same one Shah had put up on his wall. I seethed at the painting.
Even the old crow stayed there with us instead of leaving, and Valkyrie sequestered herself in her mother’s study to search for more answers.
“You ought to eat, Lady Adrianne. There is nothing worse than falling unconscious once Eliza wakes up.”
Her voice broke me out of my reverie, like a shaft of light on the forest floor. I looked up, seeing the morning of the third day outside.
Three days.
I had not expected her to speak to us for a good while, for the Lady Valkyrie Sophia was not what one would consider conventional. She was unusual, with green eyes that were dark, intelligent and alert, with gold-rimmed glasses, long brown hair and a figure that was perfectly poised at every moment. Even Mother was envious of her demeanour, and Eliza begrudgingly respected her for it. There was something about perfection that made others wary of it, and in that regard Valkyrie was odd and caused her peers distress. Otherwise, I would call her the most ideal woman in all of Valia, maybe even all of the Aedonian Continent.
I sighed, somewhat shaken out of my worries.
“If only it were that simple. Have you found any answers yet?”
“No, at least, none that would be available currently.”
“You mean there is nothing we can do?”
She shook her head, “Unfortunately not. There is no mention of convulsions paired with strange murmurings and unconsciousness in the archives. I even used up my daily book quotient trying to find material.”
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“Does the lady’s mother typically place such restrictions?” I wondered aloud, rather distracted, “After all, one would think reading to be a tame hobby.”
Valkyrie smiled a little at that, amused. She pushed up her glasses.
“Yes, one would think so. However, Triyears are never that simple, friend.”
“Careful now. If the toad heard you call me that, she would throw a fit.”
We shared a chuckle before she left, for the lady had been called by one of the physicians. Another long hour was spent in the empty room, with neither I nor the old crow breaking the silence. The light passed for a while up to midday, evaporating the morning dew. I watched as it trailed from one end of the room to the other.
“She is an odd one.” Aspen spoke up at last, his eyes pensive.
“Yes, yes indeed.”
“With the way you and the Lady Eliza speak, anyone would think that Triyaer girl to be insane, arrogant or distant.”
I did not say anything more. Was there even a need to speak?
He continued. “How did you two even meet, I wonder…”
Nothing more was said for a while, save the odd ramble from the little toad, and the long, golden evening dragged into the cold night. I could see the dust sprinkle all throughout the room, dancing in shafts of moonlight that twinkled and faded away. Before long, memories began to flow like water - after all, what can one do when their best friend is unnaturally asleep? At the dead of night, I chuckled, with old images keeping me company. How did we meet the lady? Was it not when we chased a rabbit?
Yes. I remember it now.
“It was an autumn day.” I began slowly, “we were forced to join the hunting festival. Eliza, Valkyrie and I were placed in a tent, alongside my brother Mori, our baby boy Marcus and her siblings, Dahlia and Lloyd.”
“Ah, I see,” He mumbled, brushing Eliza’s hair back from her face. “A party for nobles.”
“Yes. Rather, Liz and I saw a sweet little rabbit, a white one, graze peacefully at the edge of our enclosure. She dared me to get it, and I was not one to oppose her. We laughed, giving chase, until we finally cornered it. When I picked it up, I noticed the tag on its neck.”
I cleared my throat, “It was the Triyaers’ rabbit, Daisy. Apparently Valkyrie thought to bring her rabbit and lost it during our playtime. Eliza cried because she believed it to be ours by fate, but it was Valkyrie’s by right. The child was only around four summers old. She grew to hate that girl because of it, and it only grew worse as Valkyrie stayed the top student at the academy. It does not help that Valkyrie and I are the same age, while she is one summer younger.”
Aspen chuckled lightly, “Our Eliza certainly would do something like that.”
I grew quiet, staring at the moon. Neither of us spoke again for a while, him watching Eliza and I that gentle light in the sky. The room was rather clean, with a curtain to partition us from the rest of the space, books and flowers the only thing decorating the shelves. Everything was neat and pristine, but in the cold blue gaze of the night, it felt lifeless and void. I did not like to be there. Then again, it was my inability to help which sparked that whole incident. Looking at Eliza’s face, I desperately prayed that nothing like this would happen again. Perhaps I was a fool, praying in my disbelief, but it was the only thing I could do then.
I turned back to Aspen.
“Teach me to fight.”
He raised a brow.
“You already know how, little Kit.”
“I mean as a mercenary, Aspen. I know how to fight like a knight, but I cannot always fight like a noble. You saw how I was in Shah’s den.”
He pondered for a while, “Yes, I did. You were rather cute, with your tail tucked between your legs.” He smiled, mirth dancing in the depths of his pupils.
“Take me as an apprentice, old crow. I swear on my honour to follow you. I would give the world to be able to protect her better.”
His eyes grew dark as he turned to me.
“That is the first thing you must get rid of if you wish to be trained, little Kit. Honour is of no use to a rogue, much less an oath.”
I held his gaze. There was never a moment where I flinched then, and it seemed Aspen noted that point.
“Rule number one: stay alive.”
I scoffed, “Easy enough.”
“Is it?”
Suddenly, Aspen was no longer in his chair. He was no longer opposite Eliza, stroking her hair gingerly. No, suddenly he was in front of me, with two daggers at my throat and pricking blood.
I stared up at his eyes - they were dead. The man before me was not Aspen. That man, cold eyes and all, was a rogue, an assassin, and it was vividly evident to my younger self.
“I don’t give rules unless they can be followed, Kit. You will not make a good apprentice. I would have to babysit you ‘til Estray and back if you are like this.”
I bit my tongue.
“Really now?”
Quickly kicking his knee and forcing my chair back, I tumbled backwards onto the ground. As soon as I got my bearing, I whipped out his dagger and charged, veering away from Eliza’s bedside.
We exchanged blows, him and I in the centre of that room, but why was he so bored with it all? He seemed lazy, swerving this way and that with an ease only experience taught. I could only follow through with my blade, and as I slashed at him, I grew more and more tired. My arms flailed. The blade whistled through the air.
It infuriated me. The idea that I was not even worth his effort, nor his skill, as the warrior I knew I was. Father would not have been pleased. I bit my tongue again, trying to bite down the anger that raised its head.
With the butt of his dagger, Aspen jabbed into my arm, directly where I gained a bruise during some unfortunate bump along the way there. Pain crawled up my arm as I cried out, and with that, he threw me down on my back with the blade to my throat once more.
I said nothing as we stared at each other, our huffs the only sound in that room. Time seemed to stand still, until he sighed heavily.
“I mean it, Kit. It would be better for you if you stayed put.”
I glared, “Because I am not part of your oath, right?”
He stopped, stunned, and I used that opportunity to kick him off me. I suppose eavesdropping on them in the Markyne forest was not a wise choice, for the look the old crow gave me was cold and hard enough to chill my bones.
I pressed on still, eager to hear his answer as much as I seethed on the inside, “Because you were charged with Eliza’s safety, not mine, right? I would only get in your way, am I not wrong, Aspen?”
He said nothing.
I frowned, the words I had been hoping to spit out dying on my tongue. It was not worth pressing him now. I had never envisioned having a rogue as a friend, but then again, there was a reason why nobles did not associate with bandits.
I glared, moving back to my chair. I would not be swayed by this. There were more important things at hand, like my dearest friend still lying sickly in that wretched bed.
“If you have any sympathy for me, or Eliza,” I murmured quietly, “you will leave us at dawn. Valkyrie will compensate you heavily, and your oath will be fulfilled.”
The old crow still said nothing, his torn flesh and his cold eyes dead still in his seat. That was a strange image that I ingrained into my mind, and every so often I can still see him seated there in the moonlight, half hidden by the shadows. There was very little I could glean from those charcoal pupils, yet somehow, in some way I cannot quite describe, I felt an echo of sorrow ooze like blood from his eyes before he threw his hood over his head and left the room.
There I was left, in the dark, in the silence, to watch the toad’s body as it barely breathed, listening to words I could not understand and watching her shudder without any help I could offer. I passed the night like that, until Dawn peered over the clouds and Valkyrie shook me awake.