Braya looked down at her feet as she walked through the forest, thinking about her brother and his death. Every detail down to them both rushing to get away from the fire, to the blur of his body as he tripped over a body, to the snapping sound of his skull cracking after his head slammed onto a rock, to the color of the blood spilling out of his bashed head looped in her mind over and over again.
The man who gave up his own childhood to take care of her after their parents died, risked his life to make sure she had a roof over her head, and protected from the dangers of the world, was gone. Dead. Moved on to his next life and left her behind.
But something was blocking her from accepting that he was gone. Something that weighed them both down since the moment that wretched lizard showed up.
The debt… That lizard.
If she didn’t have anything for him by the end of the month, he would do unimaginable things to her. Things she’d seen him do to other people. Images of people’s faces being peeled off ran through her head, putting her in a fear-caused trance. Her heart began racing.
I need to find something.
A glisten caused by the light of the trees in the Luminescent Forest caught her eye. Lifting her head, she could see the man with bright blue eyes adjusting his belt as he walked far in front of her. She squinted her eyes, fishing out something shiny embedded in the belt.
Then, she saw it. A beautiful blue gem embedded in it, the same color as the man’s eyes. Whatever it was, it was definitely important. Important and valuable.
Just one more time, she thought, gazing at the gem until he was done adjusting his belt. One more time and you’ll never have to steal for him again.
But how could she do it? She couldn’t just snatch off his waist. Nor could she just run off with it.
Braya quickly began to feel defeated. If she couldn’t take the belt, then she was out of options. She wouldn’t be free from the lizard’s chains. Her brother wouldn’t be free.
Pulling her out of her fear-filled thoughts, a slightly familiar voice spoke to her.
“Hey.” it said.
She turned to her right and saw the man she’d last spoken to at the Evergreen Festival walking beside her. He was behind her still, but close enough to be seen. The last time she saw her brother alive.
But he wasn’t blushing this time. In her eyes, he looked calm and more beautiful than before now that he was closer to her.
“I’m sorry about your friend.” he said to her.
“How do you know about that?” she asked, forehead scrunched.
“Alaris told me.” the man answered, briefly pointing at the other man with curly blonde hair walking alongside the one with the eye catching belt.
Braya sighed and dropped her head. “He was my brother,” she said, looking back at the man. “And you don’t have to apologize. You're not the one who sent Frostland.”
“Frostland?” questioned the man.
“The kingdom that invaded. I recognized the snowflake on their armor. My brother and I were from there, but we left because-”
Braya didn’t know what to say. If she told him about their past and their debt, her debt, he would probably tell the others and the belt, that shiny, precious, valuable belt, would be gone.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” she said instead. “He was always overprotective of me. My name is Braya.”
“My name is James.”
The name fit him perfectly, she thought. A beautiful name for a beautiful man.
“Is he your friend?” she asked, pointing to the blonde haired man. “I saw you with him earlier today.”
“Yes, but I see him more as my brother than a friend,” James answered. “My parents went missing when we were children. So his dad, or the man who’s supposed to be his dad, adopted me and raised me as his own.”
Braya noticed when James spoke of his parents, he seemed briefly distracted and distressed. It was like another voice was speaking to him. One she couldn’t hear.
“You don’t see his dad as yours?” she questioned.
“No. Not anymore.”
I’m sorry to hear about your parents,” she said. “Mine died when I was still a baby, so I don’t really remember them.”
Braya then looked ahead of her and asked, “Who are they?”
“He’s Alaris,” James answered, pointing to the man with blonde hair. “And she’s the Princess.”
She was the one person Braya didn’t need an introduction to given the amount of times she and her brother stole from the castle in the past. I hope she doesn’t recognize me.
“What about the man with the belt?”
“Oh,” James eventually said after figuring out who she was talking about, “He’s Aviar.”
“Is he a friend of yours?” she asked, once again eyeing the belt even though she couldn’t see the gem anymore.
“Yes, but I don’t know much about him.” James said.
“His belt,” she began. “Is it important to him?”
“Of all things, why do you want to know that?” James questioned with a slight smile.
“Just curious.”
“I think he said it’s the source of his magic.”
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Braya’s eyes widened. Never would she have thought that a belt of all things could allow somebody to possess magical abilities. Nor did she think the belt was that valuable. He would definitely let us go if I took it for him.
“How come you chose to move to Rosepost of all places?” James asked.
Losing her words, Braya’s heart dropped. She couldn’t tell him that she and her brother were running from a barbaric guild of thieves they made the unfortunate mistake of joining.
Their footsteps came to a stop before they could bump into Aviar, Princess Rosepost, and Alaris, who too were stopped right where the Luminescent Forest ended and Butterfly Grove began.
“Is something wrong?” James asked Aviar.
“No,” Aviar said slowly, squirting at his map. “I’m just trying to figure out where to go from here. But we’re going in the right direction.”
The bright, amber light from the forest smoothly faded away as the yellow, dim lights of the fireflies in Butterfly Grove took over.
“Should we rest here and continue tomorrow?” Aviar suggested. “We’re far from the kingdom, so we should be safe.”
“We probably should.” Aviar said, rolling his map.
They all settled down near a tree, lying their heads down in the cushiony, tall grass.
As James, Alaris, Aviar, and the Princess quickly drifted off to sleep, their raging adrenaline finally subsiding after the events at the kingdom, Braya’s head and eyes fought slumber as she stared at the wizard’s belt. Each time it glistened in the soft lights of the moon and the fireflies, she was more and more tempted to snatch off his unsuspecting waist and run off with it, leaving without a trace and never having to steal anything ever again.
One more time and you’ll be free.
But there were forces preventing her from doing so, the obvious one being her inability to take his belt without him waking up. Other than that, there was James. She didn’t want to leave him. She couldn’t leave. Something unfathomable by her connected the two. Perhaps it was love, the very thing anyone would want to feel at least once. Or maybe she saw attributes of her brother in him, causing her to form an attachment to the man she figured he was. Either way, he had a grasp on her she’d never felt before. A pleasant one. Unlike the one that the lizard had.
Giving up on what she longed to do that night, she focused her eyes on the stars above instead of Aviar’s belt, watching them twinkle and glow in the sky before she fell asleep.
Maybe tomorrow will be different.
Despite forcing his eyes shut and adjusting the position in which he laid, Alaris still couldn’t fall asleep. The things his father said to him were stuck in his head, tattooed on the forefront of his brain.
Hellspawn, he thought. That’s what you are.
He sighed and opened his eyes, sitting up as he wiped his face with his hands.
A disgusting hellspawn.
He decided to walk around in an attempt to tire himself. After all, he couldn’t go where he normally did when he felt this way. He probably would have burned to ashes along with it had James not been pounding on the door.
Once he arose, he saw Princess Rosepost was also awake, staring into the star-filled night sky.
He just walked away instead of speaking to her, despite being curious why she wasn’t sleeping.
Walking in the tall grass and feeling the cold air beat against his arms didn’t bring Alaris the comfort he thought it might. Nor did it tire him in the slightest.
The beautiful, vibrant colors of the flowers reminded too much of the dresses his mother used to wear. Though the memories were lovely, the guilt bestowed upon him by his father wasn’t.
Stopping his footsteps at a stream of water he came across, he sat down on the ground. The stream, glowing from the light of the fireflies, was mesmerizing and enchanting. But Alaris wasn’t focused on that. A tree with brown bark and green leaves shading the water from most of the moonlight shining through the branches and leaves caught had a grip on his wet eyes.
He envisioned himself hanging from the tree, a rope tied around his neck as his blueish, lifeless body slowly swung in the air as it dangled, the same way his mother’s was the day he found her.
It was like a dream for him. Something he longed for the same way a child longs for its parents. Unfortunately for him, Alaris knew the one thing he wanted would bring pain to the last person he loved.
I wish he hated me. Then it would be easier to-
“I’m assuming you couldn’t sleep either?”
The soft feminine voice startled Alaris, making him jump briefly.
Upon turning around, he saw the Princess standing there. He quickly looked back at the water and wiped his eyes with his arm before turning back to her.
“Did you follow me?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said, walking over to him and sitting next to him. “I’m sorry. I was just curious where you were going.”
“It’s okay,” Alaris replied with a smile, slightly amused by her curiosity. “What is it that’s keeping you awake?”
She sighed and paused, as though whatever it was had been eating at her for a while.
“It’s the kingdom,” she answered eventually. “I never thought it would fall the way it did. But, for some reason, I’m not surprised.”
“What do you mean, exactly?” Alaris questioned, eyebrows lowered.
“You live downtown, don't you?”
Alaris nodded.
“The only time I’ve ever been there was when Lord Darkstar kidnapped me and James brought me back. I didn’t think it was that bad down there.” Princess Rosepost said.
“Well, once you get used to it, it’s not bad at all.” stated Alaris.
“Compared to uptown, it’s terrible. There aren't any knights anywhere for security, the entrance to the kingdom wasn’t even guarded, most of the houses looked like they were crumbling, the road was nothing but dirt, and what I assume were workplaces had been closed due to lack of money to pay for it. There were more whore houses than there were actual workplaces. Nobody should have to sell their body just to survive. Unless, of course, that’s what they actually wanted to do. It’s like you’ve all been left to fend for yourselves while still paying taxes to the very thing that’s destroying you.” blurted the Princess.
There wasn’t anything Alaris could say in disagreement. She had not missed a single target for all the arrows she shot with her words.
“If the previous kings and queens saw how he, the King, treated you all, they’d have his head,” Princess Rosepost continued. “I’ve read stories about how things used to be before he took the throne. Rosepost was the most feared kingdom. We had the entirety of southern Lyrid under our feet. The knights were actually trained to protect the kingdom and not just be the king’s servants. People were allowed to live freely, believe whatever they wanted to believe, love whoever they wanted, unrestricted by the confines of a single religion. Nobody was separated based on wealth. And no one was more important than the other. Everyone and everything was equal.”
“How long has this been bothering you?” Alaris asked.
“For months now.”
“You’re his heir, aren’t you?”
“I suppose.”
“Then fix it.”
The Princess looked confused.
“What I mean is,” Alaris began, “Think of this as a new start for Rosepost. Sometimes bad things make way for better things. I’m sure you’ll be a much better ruler than your dad.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Alaris.”
“Well, Alaris,” she said as she stood up, “I promise when all this is over, I’ll do my best to make life easier for you and everyone else who lives downtown.”
Alaris smiled. “Don’t worry about it too much.”
Though he wasn’t focused on it, he couldn’t help but notice Princess Rosepost’s beauty.
Her white gown complemented her smooth skin perfectly and enhanced her brown hair. Any man would’ve been lucky to marry her, he thought. But he wouldn’t have been one of them due to her lack of masculinity, as his usual type consists of.
“Should we head back?” she suggested.
“Yes.”
Alaris wiped the dirt off his legs once he stood. Then he and Princess Rosepost proceeded to walk back to the tree which everyone else rested near, both of the sun wouldn’t rise too fast so they could sleep a little.