A day passed as I prepared myself to go to their grand church and receive a blessing to cleanse myself of whatever bad luck that was following me before I would be meeting the king. The day started quietly as I woke up and got dressed into the royal purple outfit I would wear for the day. After a long discussion it was determined that when I was going to meet the king I would be wearing the colors of house Portage since they were my current patron. I stood before the full mirror and took care of slicking and taming my hair with a thin wax that smelled of honey. I slowly worked a blade across my face until it was smooth and hairless.
Breakfast was a humble affair. When going to be blessed it was common to abstain from anything that was seen to be delicious or decadent so as to keep yourself pure for the gods. Only when the blessing was given and the gods recognized someone as blessed would they then be allowed to indulge once more in what was good in life. The porridge was tasteless and smelled of nothing but plain oats. Boiled and mashed into a thick paste with no fruits or meats to sustain someone.
I would take this seriously. I was walking proof that the gods existed. I was the child of them after all and my deep well of magical power was thanks to their divine gift of my collection. After I was prepared physically I needed to prepare spiritually. I moved and knelt at the foot of the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Imagining the grand sky and standing upon the gateway to the heavens once more. I began to pray.
Gods, I beg and beseech that you look over me in the coming days. I am surrounded by those that would not accept me for the truth that I am. I know that many of them reject the teachings you have handed down and that I have not crusaded for them to return to the ways of the gods. I ask for your forgiveness in this but it feels like you are calling me to do something else. I know whatever is coming that I would struggle to fight it alone. The first calamity I would be facing without the aid of a brother or sister. I’m not sure I have the strength to do it on my own.
I ask that you look over any brother or sister I have in this world. That they are living and growing in a way that will save this world that has strayed from your guidance and instead lives on new tenets and beliefs. Their reliance on the kings and queens said to be descended from your children are false idols. May they one day be replaced by the dragons that hide in the world. I fear for the foolishness of the mortals and that one day they will be their own undoing.
Today I will be asking you for your blessings in the grand church of this nation. The seat of their beliefs. I ask that you look upon your child and see that I am doing my best and need the guidance of your Wisdom. I await any of your calls, I await a purpose that is defined by the will of you greater beings.
So please, if I have failed you look past it and give me the blessings of Wisdom, Courage, and Strength.
I kept my eyes closed as I repeated the mantra several times in a row in my mind. Willing the thoughts to reach the gods above so that they would know the plight of a dragon. I slowly stood bracing myself with my mangled hand and looked down at the missing fingers. Soon I promised myself. As soon as I knew the fate of Profitable I would take a new identity and be whole once more.
There was a quiet knock on my door, “Enter,” I called.
The door opened and Heather stepped into the room. “Good morning Dolan.” She looked crazed once more and no longer as submissive as she was in the presence of her father. The growing feeling that there was something wrong with her mind grew in me as she approached me.
“Lady Portage,” I said and bowed at the waist trying to show deference. “How may I help you this fine day?”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
She walked up to me and stroked my face with one hand. “I do think I am with child but I have come to ask you. Would you run away with me. Would you join me in a simpler life on the edges of society. Would you look after me and cherish me till we grow old. I know no noblemen will do this for me. I know that I would just be a sow to them to bring on a new heir to continue their lineage. Claim me, and I will claim you. I can arrange a carriage, I can bribe guards to bring us to the edge of the lands and we can disappear into another country.” She looked at me pleading and demanding at the same time.
“I’m sorry Heather. I would not be able to provide for you and a child. I make barely enough to sustain myself on the roads and most days I grow hungry. I have no skills to survive in the woods and bring food from the ground the way farmers do. You, the child, and I would starve and be forever plunged into poverty and suffering. I don’t think you want that for yourself. Would you want that for a child?” I met her eyes fearlessly and touched her hand with my own slowly closing it and bringing it back to her chest, “If I was whole, if I did not have the dream of serving the court so close at my fingertips I would.”
“If I stay, will you be my concubine? My secret lover that would serve me and whatever husband I am married to? We would not have our first child to cherish with our own eyes but I could bear more for you. I could bring your bloodline to nobility and have them run a dukedom, a county, something more for their lives. Wouldn’t you like that?” The glimmers of desperation was in her eyes and voice.
“I cannot even play the lute anymore. No one that does not owe me the debt of a life saved would take my on only as a storyteller to entertain them. I struggle to even play the most simple song now that my hand has been destroyed. I’m sorry Heather but I don’t think you will have what you want.” Her eyes were on my hand as I talked to her. Looking at the mangled fingers. “Plus you were going to be in the arms of a king’s family member. I’m sure that you would be killed if you were found with a lover.”
She reared back to slap me. Then she stopped and some sense of responsibility filled her eyes once more. “You’re right. I cannot seem to get what I want. I always thought that I would have a choice in these things.” A tear ran down her face. “I’m going to make this child someone important. I will name them after a song I once heard since its father was a minstrel.”
I nodded and watched as she turned and lifted her chi. No shedding a tear at the loss of whatever dream she had been harboring and wishing to attain. I would not have been able to give any sort of a good life to a child as Dolan.
Please gods, let at least one of my children live a long and happy life. If she is bearing one please I beg you more than anything let them live a good life. Strike them barren if you have to but let them live.
I straightened my clothes and fought off my own tears as the memories of dozens of lost children and bloodlines I watched die out. I cleared my throat and left the room. No sign of Heather was in the hallway. It was time to report and head to the church. As I entered the foyer a large contingent of guards was with the Duke and his father Reginald. They looked upon me and nodded in recognition of my readiness.
We loaded up into a closed carriage with cushioned seats, slow and bouncing we moved through the town. I could see lines of guards on both sides of the carriage matched along keeping us safe. I watched as the city passed by as we got closer and closer to the castle that towered above us all. Turning down a grand building came into view.
It had a tall single tower that sat with a bell. Great stained glass windows lined the tower as it descended to a wide and strong based church with grand pillars holding up a great overhang of stone. Steps led up to the great double doors the size of city gates that was propped open and a milling of people filed in and out of it receiving their daily blessings on this fine day. The people dispersed at the approach of the noble carriage and guards. We slowed and came to a halt in front of the great stairs. I stepped out first and turned, bowing to the nobles as they unloaded behind me and stared up at the church. The guards led us inside and a line of priests in their finest robes stood before the many altars to the gods that lined the walls. I could see some stragglers now trapped in the church with the guards blocking the entrance.
I approached the first altar and the priest that stood before it. A small pool of water sat there with a depiction of a carved mountain. Bars of precious metal stood on the altar behind the water.
“You kneel before Klaxu the god of nature’s gifts. If not for him we would not have metals to forge our weapons and armor. We would not have the water to drink that flows from the mountains. Our crops would not grow and we would not be able to survive without him. Do you ask to receive his blessing?”
I nodded and knelt deep, bowing my head. The dipping of a finger in the water sounded to my ears before it was slowly settled upon my head as a drop made its way down my hair and dripped from my nose. “Thank you for this blessing oh Mighty Klaxu.”
Slowly I went from shrine to shrine receiving the blessings of the gods. Each one had the gifts that the gods gave the people and last but not least I knelt before the one that fathered me. The god of songs and stories.
“May your life be storied and logged in the great library of Verutruth. God of song and story. Watcher of minstrels and wanderers. Holder of the great stories.”
Watch over me father.