Gandon woke up with his head hurting. It felt like someone had smashed his head in with a mace. Had he really been drinking this much last night? He was usually pretty good at knowing his limits. What was wrong with him?

He suddenly remembered the red moon last night and started to get dressed while groaning. He wanted nothing more than laying in his bed all day, but his curiosity always got the better of him. Ilmur was right, if anyone knew something about this, it was their master.

He hurried to the master’s tower, rushing the stairs and banged the door open. To his surprise he saw Ilmur pouring a cup of tea to their master. Ilmur looked as bad as Gandon felt but he gave Gandon a warm smile.

“Ah, my best student has arrived,” said Yvan while looking at Ilmur. It was quite clear that Yvan was bitter that Ilmur didn’t visit so often anymore.

Ilmur scratched the back of his head. “Oh master, don’t be like that, I’ll try to visit more often from now on!”

“See that you do,” said master, curtly.

“Have you asked about the moon?” said Gandon.

“He did, but I didn’t want to repeat myself, so we waited for your arrival.”

“You knew I was going to come?”

“Of course, everyone is talking about the red moon that could be seen in the night sky last night. What were you going to do? Lay in bed all day? You are more curious than that.”

“Fair enough,” said Gandon and sat down. Master and he were on the same wavelength.

Ilmur was still standing and poured a cup for Gandon as well. “How is your head, Gandon?”

“It will be alright soon, I think. You?”

“I’ll manage, but I have been better. There will be no practice for me today, the soldiers will rejoice.”

“I can’t remember raising my students to become such drunkards, even though we are drinking quite a lot of potions around here,” said Yvan.

They both looked away uncomfortably, none of them liked to disappoint their master.

“Master, do you know anything about what happened last night?” asked Gandon.

Master was sipping on his tea, seemingly in no rush to answer their questions.

“This is a very rare event. I believe it has been more than thirty years since the people have seen the blood moon. I was older than you, but not by much when I saw my first blood moon. I must say I never thought I would see it again.”

“But why is it back now?” asked Ilmur. “What does this mean for the kingdom?”

Yvan put down his cup. “This is what some of the mages believe, but we have no evidence for it, so take it with a grain of salt. The mages are under the impression that if you would be able to travel through the sky you would eventually reach the world of the gods if you travelled long enough. There in their realm the gods live much like we do, but they are not as restricted as we are, they can’t die of old age, but they can be killed in battle.

“It is our belief that when a god or goddess gets slain, they travel as a comet to Elnyr to live their second life among normal humans. The blood moon’s presence is to announce to the whole world that one of the gods has descended to Elnyr.”

Gandon started laughing. “Master, surely you can’t be serious. Why would the gods come here and what evidence is there for such a proclaim?”

“Thirty years ago, me and some friends went to where the comet had landed. Can you guess what we found?”

“What a god? Maybe Hannela herself? The goddess of love and nature,” said Gandon mockingly.

“Not quite, but you aren’t entirely wrong, we found footsteps from the crater.”

Ilmur gasped, “No!”

“I think it’s more likely that someone made the footsteps to ridicule people,” said Gandon, “and what can we believe in the speculations that gods come to the world of men when they die?”

“Are you aware of who Liandrin is?” asked Yvan.

“Sounds familiar,” said Ilmur. “I don’t know the names of the gods as well as I should.”

“He is the god of stories, if my memory serves,” said Gandon hesitantly with his arms crossed.

“Right you are, the man who wrote all of this down, claims to be that god. That would explain why he could talk about the world of the gods in such detail. I don’t know if this man is a charlatan or not, but some people interpret his written words literally.”

Gandon snorted. “Well, I am not one of them.”

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, but you shouldn’t be defensive about everything either. The blood moon exists for a reason.”

“Where did the comet land this time?” asked Ilmur.

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“That is what we are trying to discover”, said Yvan. “I hope we can get words about it sooner rather than later.”

“Well, when you hear something new, let us know, master. In the meantime I’ll return to my books,” said Gandon.

*

Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the next two days, but on the third day House Bellouse came to court. Gandon and Ilmur Were summoned to the throne hall. The king was already there talking with a man in a similar age that Gandon assumed was Ravon.

“My sons, splendid that you are finally here,” said the king.

Ravon beamed at them. “My daughter should be here any second now.”

“They were tired from the journey, and we didn’t want to make a scene at the front gates, so they took one of the secret gates. Alexandra wanted to refresh herself before making an acquaintance.”

There are secret gates? Thought Gandon incredulously. I didn’t know about that.

The king and Ravon couldn’t stop touching each other on the shoulder when they were talking to one another. It was clear that they hadn’t seen each other in a long time.

“Lady Alexandra of House Bellouse!” bellowed the guard at the door before the doors were opened.

In came a woman walking gracefully in a light blue dress, holding her head high. She had brown cashew colored hair hanging from her left shoulder. That made Gandon think of a warm autumn breeze. Her eyes shone like pure starlight. In her hand Alexandra was holding a little red book, and Gandon recognized the author. When she gave Gandon a quick glance while walking to her father it felt like she could read his soul. She was not like the other ladies of the court. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He noticed that even Ilmur was taken aback, and he was much more experienced with the ladies of the court than Gandon was.

His majesty introduced her to Ilmur and he kissed her hand. A flash of rage was brought forth that Gandon had never felt before but he suppressed it until there was only a cold ember left. So this was the woman his majesty planned Ilmur to marry? How the gods mocked him.

Ilmur mentioned Gandon’s name to her, but he couldn’t do anything but nod. He knew nothing that he could say that would be of interest to her and it felt like his emotion was tearing him apart.

“The castle is as beautiful as the legends say, my prince,” said Alexandra.

It was quite clear that Ilmur had enjoyed being addressed as prince by her.

“It is about time that you came to the capital, I’ll make sure that it will be worth the journey.”

“Oh? And how will you do that?” said she back teasingly, and for once Ilmur didn’t have an answer.

“Ravon and I will leave you two alone so you can get to know each other better,” said the king.

No! screamed Gandon in his head. He had to say something so that she would be more aware of him. “Umm… Is it true that the sigil of House Bellouse is shaped like a mermaid?” Idiot! He hated people that asked questions that could be observed with their own eyes, and now he was doing the same thing!

“Why yes, that is true, according to legend my ancestor who founded House Bellouse, took a mermaid as his wife, but I don’t understand how he could have made any heirs then!” said Alexandra and laughed, while holding her hand in front of her mouth.

It was too much, it felt like she was laughing at him even though it probably wasn’t her intent. “Excuse me, I have to go back to my studies, good that you arrived safely.”

He didn’t know how he ended up there but suddenly he was walking in the halls of the last floor. Holding the window rail, he was walking forward uncertainty, like he was drunk. Could he be in love? Preposterous! He was Gandon, he didn’t fall in love. It was Ilmur who wasted time with the ladies of the court. Not bothering with how time consuming it was.

He looked down at the street where people were hurrying about like ants. Have I ever been truly happy? He felt stupid for thinking that he knew he had a much better life than the peasants walking below him. But what if he was one of them? He couldn’t know because no one was willing to tell him about his past.

His thoughts kept recirculating to Alexandra. The book she had been holding in his hand, had been by the author Alden Morill, his favorite author. Ilmur would never appreciate the fact that she liked to read, but he did. She and Ilmur had looked so good together, Gandon felt that he was close to screaming. He would never talk to her again, he couldn’t let this woman ruin everything he had built up in Everharn. He had a good relationship with his master and therefore a foot in with the mages, he could be on the council one day if he wanted to. Geor liked him as well, and the man was the king’s right hand man. He knew several people of importance, and therefore had several doors open for him. The king was already mad at him, the woman could only bring trouble. The king wanted Alexandra as his daughter in law.

He could hear her laugh in his head, it was a beautiful laugh, and he wanted to hear that again, but not aimed at him. Did anything he had been listening, matter? He hit himself on the cheek. Calm yourself your fool, you have only met her once. He couldn’t act like a love-struck maiden from the stories, how he detested them. He didn’t like to see himself as a hypocrite and he wasn’t planning on starting now.

He realized that he was late and started to bolt to Geor’s work room, how long had he been walking? He was never late; this wasn’t like him at all.

He banged the door open, not bothering to knock. What excuse would do? He wasn’t sure if any was good enough.

Geor’s head turned to him when Gandon stumbled into the room. He had been in a conversation with a woman? But why now? Geor tutored him in private.

He froze when he realized who the woman was, it was Alexandra! What was she doing here?

“Gandon, you are late. But no matter, that only gave us time to become more acquainted with each other. Alexandra is very anxious about continuing her studies. Looks like you two are going to see much more of each other from now on.”

No… Thought Gandon. This could not be happening, which god hated him so? Was this a punishment for being sceptical about master’s stories about the red moon?

Alexandra beamed at him. “Ilmur spoke very highly of you, and Geor said that you were his best student. I want to see if I can keep up with the best of the best.”

Geor looked embarrassed. “Wish you hadn’t told him that.”

Gandon sat down, feeling that the very essence of his being had shattered in a thousand pieces. Why did she have to keep smiling at him? He was not a jester! He was not!

Geor opened one of his brown leather books. “Well, then shall we begin?”

*

Ilmur was in utter disbelief, this gorgeous woman had entered the throne room and Gandon hadn’t even bothered looking at her. He himself had been unable to keep his eyes away. Could Gandon have told him the truth when he said that women didn’t interest him? But why then had he gotten so angry when Ilmur said he didn’t know how to talk with them?

He usually was not nervous when he talked with women, but now even he felt weak in the knees. She seemed to be of the bookish type, and he was a little bit insecure about that. He was better at talking about other topics, like dancing and riding. Luckily for him Gandon wasn’t interested in her at all, he could have been in trouble then. Good to know that Gandon wouldn’t be able to recognize a beautiful woman even if she slapped him in the face.

He felt tense in his entire body, was this his happily ever after? They already knew about father and Ravon’s plans. The didn’t seem to be a reason to strive against father’s plans. What to do now? Suddenly he got a big grin on the face. He knew how he could make a romantic evening easily; he made his way for the stables.