Talen entered his room nearly in a daze. His sword training today had been particularly brutal. He had pushed himself nearly to his limits, and was now ready to fall into his bed to end his day. Therefore, it was much to his dismay when the figure on his balcony, who had up to that point gone unnoticed, finally spoke up.

“You’re a busy man,”

The voice was little more than a whisper, yet seemed to echo against the stone walls of Talen’s room. It was nearly hoarse, but not from dehydration or exertion, but from a voice which had been pushed to its breaking point in the past.

Talen, noticing the figure for the first time, froze, staring at the moonlit silhouette. He thought he heard a chuckle from the figure as it took a step closer to him.

“That’s something they never teach you in sparring, huh?” he said, prowling closer, his footsteps quiet, like a cat stalking towards its prey. “How to not freeze up when you’re in danger. Because in sparring, you know there’s never any real threat, no matter how many times they whack you.”

Every step the stranger took was silent, barely a whisper upon the flagstones. Talen took a step back, gathering up the courage to call for help.

“Don’t bother calling the guards,” the figure said, stepping away from the balcony, allowing himself to be better seen under the moonlight. “If I wanted to hurt you, you would be already,”

Talen finally worked up the courage. He stood, back straight, facing the figure, who was covered with a poncho.

“Blackmail, then?”

The figure tilted his head, shrouded with a wide straw hat, as if he had never considered that possibility.

“Alright, well you’ll just have to trust me that I’m not here to blackmail you. I just want to talk.”

“Should I believe you?”

The figure shrugged. “You have no reason to. But I have a sword, and you don’t, so it seems to you have to listen to me regardless.”

The figure walked to the side of Talen’s bed, pulling a chair over, and taking a seat in it. It was only now that Talen noticed that the figure only had one arm, his left. He thought it best not to comment on it, as the man had found his way into Talen’s room with only that single arm.

“You’re the heir to Count Argath,” The figure said, leaning back into his chair. “Quite the shoes to fill, aren’t they?”

“I love my lord father and am happy to be his-”

“We’re not in the courts,” the figure said, leaning forward, looking into his eyes. It was the first time he saw the stranger’s face, pocked with burn marks on its right side. “And I’m not your father. You don’t need to lie to me.” He gestured to the bed with his one arm. “You can sit down in my presence, as well.”

“I’m fine stand-”

“I just said,” the stranger spoke, his voice low. “You don’t need to lie to me and you don’t need to stand, now sit down.”

After a moment of reluctance, Talen acquiesced. There was something... comforting in how plainly the man spoke. After hearing half-truths for most of his life, the simplicity brought a strange relief to him.

He walked over, and sat on the edge of his bed, next to the figure.

“As I was asking,” the stranger said, “Count Argath is quite the man to take over for, isn’t he?”

“He’s... my father. It’s my duty, and I’ll perform it well.”

“He may be your father,” the figure said, “But he’s always been your lord first, hasn’t he? I know him too well to think otherwise.”

Talen’s furrowed his eyebrows. “How can you know him well? Forgive me, but... You look like a common gutter rat.”

The figure chuckled at Talen’s comment. “Whenever nobility ‘asks to be forgiven’ they never really mean it, do they? The details don’t matter, but I’m very familiar with your father, and also with the intricacies of the noble court, and noble lies.”

Elscer stood, pacing towards the balcony.

“But I’m not here to discuss politics with you, I’m here to help you solve your realm’s problems.”

“What problems?” Talen asked.

“That’s the first one,” Elscer said, turning back around and smiling condescendingly at the lordling. “It will be your realm soon enough; you need to be aware of the happenings in it.”

The stranger’s statement caused Talen to laugh wryly. “Very well, enlighten me.”

“I hope you’re familiar with the village of Eilswhere?”

Elscer, of course, knew that Talen was. It was the lordling’s reaction he was after. Talen had been well trained in the courts; the Ronin would certainly give him that credit. But Elscer was far too discerning. Talen masked it well, but his back straightened and his eyes slightly dilated. No matter how well one tried to hide it, the body always reacted how it saw fit.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Yes, I am. Small farming village, south of here. Why?”

Elscer could tell that Talen was very interested in the “why”, so he let silence hang in the air for a moment, to let the tension simmer in the lordling.

“I’ve traveled the world a lot,” Elscer said, continuing to pace around the room, not allowing Talen to get comfortable in his seat as he continued to try and view the Ronin. “I’ve encountered a lot of wild animals. Most of them, even the more aggressive ones, will run and scatter away from groups of humans. Animals attacking people is actually quite rare, unless they’re provoked, especially so close to civilization.”

“This is very interesting,” Talen said, “But-”

“But nothing,” Elscer said. “This is important information. We live in this world; we cannot afford to ignore it.”

Elscer took another moment before speaking.

“Wild animals are not prone to attacking people, let alone so close to a village. Bears, for instance, are rarely seen this far from the mountains. Yet not long ago, a bear attacked a group of children. I’ve heard from the other villagers of people being attacked outside their homes by birds, deer, foxes, all manner of beast and fowl. I’ve even seen wolves prowling with deer, hunting humans together. This is not natural behavior.”

Talen leaned forward. “And why are you telling me this? My lord father commands the garrison, he can-”

“If I wanted to speak with your father, I would,” Elscer said, stopping to turn towards Talen. “But I’m here, talking to you. So, answer me this: how would you solve this problem?”

“Surely, you’re better equipped to solve this. Why are you asking for my help?”

Elscer chuckled. “I’m not asking for your help. I already know what course of action I plan on taking. But I’m not going to be lord of this region in the coming years. When I solve this problem, I leave. If something like this happens again, how will you solve it?”

Talen leaned back. Was this strange man... trying to tutor him? He had given sound advice so far...

“I would send some of the men from the garrison to help protect the town,” Talen said. “We don’t need them here right now, and we can certainly spare them. Maybe we could also send some extra weapons to help arm the peasants?”

Elscer nodded. “Not a bad idea, especially letting the peasants help themselves, though I would send a marshal as well to give them some basic training. But think a little longer. The animals are a problem, true, but this doesn’t seem natural. It seems to be a byproduct of something else. Protecting the town is nice, but that’s only a stop-gap solution. Think deeper, sending men doesn’t solve the problem.”

“I don’t know what’s causing this,” Talen said, “I don’t know how I can ‘solve’ this, short of protecting my people.”

“You may not,” Elscer said. “But you aren’t expected to know everything. What is expected of you is to ask people who do know.”

Talen perked up, excited with his realization. “The village priest, Father Heneroe!”

Elscer nodded. “I’ve already talked with him. He told me a very interesting thing. You see, Father Heneroe is actually quite familiar with old pagan traditions, he has to be as a village priest. He told me of a strange sect of ancient witchcraft having to do pregnancy and fertility,”

Elscer saw Talen visibly deflate at the mention of pregnancy. They both knew what the Ronin was referring to. Talen, however, was still unsure if Elscer knew. He suspected so, but couldn’t be certain yet.

“You see, ancient fertility goddesses used to be quite fickle and spiteful. Old witches used to take advantage of that. If a pregnancy was unwanted, out of wedlock, a witch could curse that child. Generally, witches would have that child themselves, but in this situation, I don’t believe that to be the case.”

Elscer was silent for a moment, letting Talen sit with his thoughts before continuing. “The Father told me that a part of the curse that is often overlooked by both scholars and modern-day witches is that the curse required royal blood, or more widely, simply noble blood. When that bastard noble child was cursed, it would become a Wild Prince, an almost... demonic being, who rules over the forest with malice and contempt for the civilized world that brought it about. Even before it is born, it can call the animals around it to defend the mother...”

There was in emptiness in Talen’s eyes. He had been listening passively, but absorbing the information, and its implications.

“Of course, most people believe witchcraft to be a myth, ephemeral. After all, there couldn’t be any such pregnancy, could there? But we know better, don’t we?”

Talen finally looked up to Elscer, his mouth agape, twitching for a moment before he could finally speak.

“I-I’m sorry, I-”

“I don’t blame you for the curse, son,” Elscer said, finally walking up to Talen. “You didn’t cast it and you couldn’t have known about it. I do blame you for the state Lanya finds herself in.”

Mentioning Lanya’s name was like a strike to Talen’s gut. Elscer saw the lordling visibly flinch when her name was mentioned.

“You’re a noble.” Elscer continued, “You carry a lot of responsibility. You need to act like it. It’s easy for you to take what you want from the peasantry, but you need to think about how it affects them. They’re the ones that deal with the consequences, not you.”

Talen looked down, trying to bury his shame into the ground. He finally looked back up to Elscer.

“How can I help her?”

“You can help her by never interacting with her again,” Elscer said firmly, more fire in his voice than there had been for the entire conversation. “She still thinks you love her. I don’t care if that’s true or not, we both know you can’t wed her. Don’t give her hope where there is none.”

Talen looked back down at the ground, hunching over, trying not to cry. Elscer finally sat down next to him on the bed. “You’ll be the villain of her story. Take heart in knowing that it will be the thing that will keep her going.”

“I wish... I could do something...” Talen said.

“You can be better,” Elscer said. “Live your life and learn from this mistake. You can’t fix what’s already happened, you can only try to make the future better than the past was.”

Talen took a deep breath, and turned to look Elscer in the eye, a conviction in his eyes, behind the tears. “If you need any help from the garrison, they’re at your disposal.”

Elscer smiled, despite himself. “Follow your original plan. Send a detachment of men to the village, help them protect themselves. It will get worse before it gets better. I will look after Lanya, and find out what more I can about the curse.”

Elscer stood and walked towards the balcony once more. He looked out, towards the fields, the splotches of forest, and the mountains in the distance.

“Someday you’ll be the lord of this land. Make sure you take care of it.”

Talen couldn’t reply before the figure was gone, as quickly as he had come. With his absence, he could scarcely tell if it had all been a dream. But dream or not, the stranger had been right on many accounts. Though the sun had long fallen into the horizon, he sat down at his desk, to draft orders for the House Guard. Regardless of what the stranger had said, he would protect Lanya.