On the evening before the night when the Temple attacked the crown, in the desert of Sousa, the dwellers of Imba threw a celebration party without a single knowledge of what would be happening soon in Midlake city.

"We are the followers of the old true gods!" A warrior stood up on the table, drunk, and made a speech. "Hear! Hear!" The rest followed him and lifted their cups. The warrior continued, "We shall walk freely again in the streets of Midland. We are the Revenant!"

The crowds cheered and emptied their cups in one go. Jonah was annoyed looking at them being joyful and excited over the fact that they could leave the desert soon. Jonah had been in the desert for twenty years. He knew every spot and trick of the desert after all those years. It became his backyard and he hated to leave it. There, he had the role of 'The great pathfinder of the desert'. On the greeny grass, he would become a nameless brawn who lost his lover.

Before the desert life, he was proposing to his lover near a beautiful lake by the side of the road. A travelling Templer overheard the conversation and approached them, saying he would bless the bride for free. If they had to go to the temple and prepare the ceremony of service, it would cost a lot. His lover agreed to the Templer's offer but Jonah didn't. He promised he would work hard to make money. The next day he saw his lover with the Templer by the lake. His anger boiled up uncontrollably and hit the Templer with a rock. It landed on the crown and killed the Templer instantly. Frightened by punishment, his lover left him and reported Jonah to Temple.

Jonah poured another drink down his throat.

Ethan saw Jonah quietly chunking down the drinks into his throat in the opposite corner. He walked to Jonah to talk to him but he was intercepted by a woman. The woman talked to him friendly as soon as they met. "Hey, our warrior of god. I saw you drinking alone in the corner. Why don't you join me?"

Ethan declined and said he had somewhere to be. The woman insisted. "Come on. You can't deny a woman whom you have seen her body. That's rude." Ethan didn't understand so she introduced herself that she was Sincyll, the cousin of Signard and he came into her room while she was bathing once.

What a ridiculous cringe backstory, Ethan noted. He recalled his memory and she was telling the truth. It was when he came back from saving Signard from a beargum. It was also when he met Cleo for the first time. He apologized for the accidental mistake but she insisted that he had to drink with her at least a cup. "Fine." Ethan gave in.

"Are you taken?" She charged in immediately. Ethan didn't answer. He showed her the gold ring around his ring finger. "So, you have a wife." "Someone I promised to." "Where is she now?" Sincyll asked. A flashback of his memories with Leila came back to Ethan like a tsunami. He dropped his head and answered, "I don't know." He didn't want to accept that Leila was dead. "Did she leave you? Or is she dead?" Sincyll said. "Don't be surprised. It is the same story with everyone here. They had a conflict with the Temple. Either the lover or someone dear died and they came here. Anyway, let's forget the past and move on to the future. The future where there will be no Templers to fuck us." Sincyll tossed the drink into his and gulped it down.

Ethan followed. But his mind was still lingering in the past. "Leila." He mumbled alone to his late lover.

At the same time, in the Castle of Gambit,

Metal clanked as the gold-coated knife met a gold-coated plate when lord Ducan, the Duke of Rode, cut the meat rigorously. He filled his stomach with an exquisite dinner full of meats, wines and exotic fruits. He celebrated alone in his glittering castle for the fulfilment of his long-awaited dream. He soon might be sitting on the purple throne.

Wealth-wise, he might be richer than Louise and Cleo since the crown's influence declined after James's failed rebellion. Ducan had his own golden throne in his room. However, he still eyed for the purple throne in Midlake. After all, the throne of Midlake was the one with history, glory and honour. It was the one King Dane the unifier sat and ruled the kingdom.

When the congregation decided that he should be the one to sit on the purple throne after Adders were thrown out, Ducan was exhilarated. He donated tons of gold for that but he believed it was worth it. At first, the place was considered to be given to Afzal Vincentino, the lord of Sousa. Afzal was younger and had an heir ready to take his place in Sousa. Also, Sousa was closer and had a land connection with Midlake to govern both regions. Afzal was in favour of taking the purple throne until Ducan buried those ideas with gold.

Ducan drank a whole glass of wine deliciously after chewing a chunk of roasted chicken. He put down the glass aside and pulled a plate of fruit toward him. He snapped four to five blueberries from the stem and put them in his mouth. The sweet juices overflew his mouth, and a few drooled outside as he ate greedily. He picked up the glass again and gulped down the wine. However, his glass was empty. The server didn't refill the glass thinking he wouldn't drink again after putting the glass aside. He had already finished a whole jar, so.

Ducan called the server girl with his fingers silently. As soon as she got near, he threw the glass on the floor furiously. It flustered the girl but she quickly recollected herself and picked up the broken pieces. When she put out her hand, Ducan suddenly stepped on her hand with one leg while he was still sitting on his chair. Then, he crushed her hand along with the broken pieces of glass.

The blood oozed out onto the floor, staining the white marble with red. The girl whimpered from pain but she didn't dare to cry out loud. After hearing the commotion from the dining hall, an older servant rushed into the room to save the girl. She begged for the girl saying the girl was new so she didn't know. The older one scolded the new girl to apologize to the Duke quickly. "I apologize, your Grace. It won't happen again." In tears, the girl begged for forgiveness. She also added excuses hoping the Duke would forgive her quicker if she told her reason. "Your grace had drank a lot so I thought it would be wise not to refill again for your health." She tried to be thoughtful to her lord. It backfired her.

The duke kicked her in the chest angrily. "A mere servant thinking she could decide how much her lord drink. You have some nerves. I decide. Everything. Even your life. When I decide that you die, you die."

He told the older servant to bring more glasses and broke them into pieces onto the floor. Then, he told the girl to strip down and roll over the shards naked until he finished the meal. Terrified that she might be executed immediately, the girl did so as he ordered. She placed her naked flesh over the shards. The sharp pieces sank into her skin, blood pooled out.

"Damnit. She ruined my appetite. I need my toy."

He snapped his fingers and the older servant moved according to his will. She went to the Duke's office and approached the paintings hung on the wall. They were the portraits of the Duke, the late Duchess and Leila Longbart. Ducan had this obsession that once he got a thing he liked, he never let go. Leila was the only woman he was truly interested in after his wife. So, even after Temple hanged her, he still couldn't throw away.

The servant grabbed the frame of Leila's portrait and tilted it. After a click, the wall below the painting revealed a spiral staircase to the secret dungeon. After some long walk, she finally reached the ground and saw a tunnel with rooms on each side. She walked to the far end. On her way, she grabbed a small bottle of palm oil in her hand. She stopped at a wooden door with a gold lock. Through a small opening, she peeked inside the room. Although it was in the dungeon, unlike the other rooms, it was well furnished with a bed and blankets, a chair and a small dining table, a closet and a mirror, standing curtains and a bath.

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She saw a woman in a beautiful golden laced robe. The woman was sitting by the mirror and busy doing something. The servant put the bottle inside a basket hung by the door through the opening. She told the woman that the Duke was calling for her. She also reminded the woman not to say anything even if she saw something outside. "The lord is in a bad mood. Please, don't make him angrier."

The woman looked back at the servant through the mirror and sighed. She put the thing she was busied with inside the closet and exchanged it with a comb. "I shall be with you in a minute," said Leila.

Leila

Several months before the event of Revenant and exodus of crown;

She was executed publicly by the Temple in front of the crowd of Gambit. Except she wasn't. After the noose around her neck tightly strangled her, she fell unconscious. When she woke up, she was shocked to find herself detained inside a small room, not in the next life. There were shackles on both her arms and legs as if she was a violent convict. She couldn't breathe well as her neck was injured and still swollen. It hurt just by swallowing the saliva. Tears poured out unintentionally because it was so painful.

A servant entered the room while she felt desolated. Leila remembered the servant was the same girl from Temple who bathed her before her ceremony of service. She deduced that she must be in the dungeon under the Temple, a different one. Not the one she was placed during the trial. Why there were two separate dungeons under one Temple, she couldn't understand. When the servant girl saw Leila was awake, she went back to notify the news. Soon, his benevolence came inside the room and checked on Leila. "Good. She has passed the life-threatening stage. Tell them that they can transfer her now." The Ayeegyee told to the servant but he didn't say a word to his patient. He didn't answer what happened to her or explain anything as if she was an object they could do whatever they liked.

Another group of servants came, with different clothing, and carried her on a cart. After several steps, they reached the dead end of the tunnel. One of them approached the stone wall and knocked on it rhythmically.

*Tap tap tap tap *Tap tap tap *Tap tap

As soon as he finished knocking, the wall opened like a door and appeared another tunnel. There, Leila saw a tall figure waiting for her. Even under dim light, she could tell who that was.

Ducan welcomed her with a creepy smile. He washed her, put her clothes and combed her hair. He decorated her like a doll he owned. Leila wanted to scream or push away but she couldn't. Her throat didn't allow her. In shackles, she was forced to stay like his doll.

After a month, she was free from shackles. Leila took the chance to run away but she found herself trapped inside the tunnel. The staircase was blocked by a guard. She tried to knock the stone wall at the side of the Temple just as the servants did but it didn't open. She found no other way to escape from this hellhole and the duke, except one way. To end her life. With a fork, she stabbed her neck.

She noticed her plan failed when she woke up in the same room with the shackles on again. During the whole detention, Ducan visited her every day and whispered into her ears how much he loved her and how much he sacrificed to save her life, twice. He bought her jewellery, beautiful clothes and pretty shoes. He fed her delicious meals and drinks. But same as before, he never asked her wish. She was just a doll he adored.

One day, Leila heard a conversation between the guards outside her room. It was about the monsters ravaging a wealthy man's homestead.

"I tell you. Geckans are the scariest monsters. They are sneaky and fast. You won't even see them coming and the next thing you know is, your leg is gone." One of the guards said.

Another one denied his argument. He believed mantilas were scarier.

"Come on. They are just big-sized house lizards. I have heard stories of Mantila destroying a whole village. I never heard geckans do that."

"Just so you have never heard didn't mean they haven't. I once fought them along with six other men and three mercenaries. We entered the barn to exterminate a nest. Only four came back alive. Even one mercenary was killed by those lizards. And those mercenaries are from two faces coin band. They are known as the strongest in the mercenary world."

"Maybe they aren't really the best like the public thought to be."

"Heck. They are the best. It was because they saved me that I am still standing here." The guard retold his experience.

Leila eavesdropped on their conversation. One of the warriors reminded her of Ethanial so she asked the guard if there was a man named Ethan or Ethanial. "Does that man wear a gold ring?" She asked. The guard thought for a moment then said yes. He remembered the ring because it was odd for a warrior to wear a wedding ring. Most hid it so that they could get laid with women everywhere.

Another guard cut their conversation when they seemed to be getting closer. He warned the man not to get close to the Duke's belongings.

The conversation was cut off but Leila had already gotten what she wanted. She was sure it was Ethan. "I am sorry for trying to leave you behind, Ethan. I shall live on and one day, I will reunite with you again. I shall keep my promise."

After that day, Leila acted like she was an obedient doll. She tried to be on his good side so that she would get a chance to get out of the dungeon and see the free blue sky again. In the meantime, she broke a piece from the mirror and would sharpen it till she could use it as a dagger.

Leila nonchalantly put her glass dagger in the drawer when the servant called her. She went up to the ground. A clear beautiful sky was waiting for her. She stared at the vast blue sky through the window for a while. A hawk was soaring through the white cloud, heading in any direction it wished to. It made her sad and jealous. Tears came out unintentionally. Suddenly, a hand snapped her out of it. It was her own hand. She slapped herself to remind her that she had no time to cry and act weak and pitiful.

When she opened the big door, she saw a naked girl rolling on the bloody mess with shards of glasses. Leila had faced and endured many ill-treatment by the duke. Yet the unsightly sight made her puke. Thanks to it, the girl was saved.

When Ducan saw his favourite doll feel unwell by the ugly mess, he told the girl to get out of sight. The other servants removed the poor girl from his sight quickly while the others cleaned the floor.

"I am sorry. That girl must have shocked you quite a lot. Here. Drink some wine to calm your mind." Ducan offered her his exquisite drink. She took it and gulped it down in one go. Then she looked at the Duke. 'It was not the girl who shocked me. It was your brutality. Do you think it is entertaining to watch a person suffer' was what she wanted to say. But she kept it herself. If she made him angrier, the girl might be punished more severely later. She said nothing but poured the wine into her glass again while her eyes kept moving to the puddle of blood.

Ducan noticed Leila was distracted by the mess so he yelled at his servants to clean it quicker. "Don't worry my sweet love. We may leave this ugly fort and live in a castle soon." Ducan told Leila. In his mind, his gold glided magnificent castle was just a fort King Dane once used to conquer the Rode region. It was not enough for him even after being painted with gold and jewels. He believed it was pale in comparison to the real abode of King in Midlake; although any average man would concur that the castle in Gambit was on par with the crown in Midlake.

While Ducan was dreaming about the days he would sit on the purple throne, Leila also dreamt about the days she would be free and reunite with Ethan. She decided to run away during the move.