Vanya tightened her lips. She felt the unwelcomed gazes graze past her as she stood at the corner of the bustling and bellowing Tempest Inn, all the way at the South end of Elioth.
She squirmed doing her best to avoid the intruding looks by drunkards sitting scattered across the loud floor with ladies half naked bouncing around enticing the men for some coins.
It was the first time Vanya had ever been inside one. She gulped every time she met the disgusting gazes of lustful men mostly mistaking her for one of the ladies busy at work. If it wasn’t for Roza fearlessly walking inside, Vanya would have never stepped in here to put herself in such an uncomfortable situation.
“Oh darling, you have such beautiful hair,” a woman covered in pink lace curled a strand of Vanya’s dark hair around her finger, “Whatever is such a soft girl like you doing in a place like this?”
Vanya was taken aback. She didn't expect anyone to speak with her. While she was too busy trying to avoid everyone’s gazes, the woman next to her, with her eyes half shut and her lips curved into a drugged smile, had crept up on Vanya without her noticing at all.
“My friend…My friend is visiting a…a friend of mine,” Vanya stuttered.
“Well then, shouldn’t you be busy visiting that friend of yours with your friend too?” she asked, with a hint of alcohol on her breath.
Vanya gulped unable to come up with an answer. She was too disheveled by all the loud chaos on the floor and the off-tune violin ensemble playing at the corner messing with her flow of thought. She needed to see Roza now. She needed to be with Roza and right next to her.
“I…I need to find my friend,” Vanya barely excused herself and quickly slithered past everyone through open spaces to get to the staircase by the end.
Roza had made Vanya stand at the corner while she made her way confidently up the stairs and disappeared around the corner. Vanya had no idea where Roza disappeared, yet she wanted to get to Roza as soon as possible.
She was striding up the barely functioning stairs when she heard footsteps behind her. It was a man who had followed her and had his eyes glued to her before.
“My love, I would like to speak with you,” he almost caught her fingers if it wasn’t for one of the ladies that walked by and diverted the heavy drunkard off of Vanya’s scent.
She quickly took the opportunity to steer away from trouble. Halfway up the stairs with panic seeping into her mind she suddenly bumped into the very woman she was looking for.
“Roza,” Vanya’s eyes lit in joy seeing her savior in front of her.
“What absolute horse crap!” Roza hissed glancing back at the dark hallway up ahead.
“What happened?” Vanya asked sensing Roza’s flaming anger.
Roza caught Vanya’s hand and immediately strode down the stairs throwing curses at everyone’s face.
“Out of my way, damn it!” Roza bellowed at the same man who had returned for Vanya and shoved him away sending him stumbling down to the floor. Roza pushed the main doors open and whisked out onto the dark alleyway with Vanya right behind her shoulder.
Vanya felt the relief literally in her bones. The feeling of the chaos was past her. Her head had stopped reverberating with loud chatter, music, and her own fear building up in her mind.
Roza strode through the dark path still holding onto Vanya’s hand for quite some time before slowing down and releasing Vanya from her grasp.
“Sorry, I was a bit too much before,” Roza apologized while her brows furrowed in annoyance.
“What happened?” Vanya asked once more.
“That bloody idiot has withdrawn the amulet from his list.”
Vanya’s eyes widened in shock then faded into frustration.
“What do you mean withdrawn? He doesn’t have it with him? Or did he sell it off already?” Vanya pressed on with questions filling her mind.
“The man I met, name’s Tallon, he’s essentially a re-seller. The person who was supposed to sell the amulet to Tallon held it back. Apparently, they didn’t want to sell it anymore.” Roza kicked a rock in frustration sending it off the dark street and out of their view.
“What do we do? Is there any other amulet we could look for? Or does it have to be the same one?” Vanya started pacing while Roza stood staring into the night with her hands on her hips.
“An amulet that’s as powerful as this one is hard to come by, Jadie. This might be the only one we’d find around here. Tallon did say his seller will be in town tomorrow night. Looks like they’ll be dropping off their goods and getting their payment then,” Roza hushed into a whisper while the clogs in her brain started to spin faster.
Vanya scurried to Roza, “The seller meaning the one who’s got the amulet? He’ll be in town tomorrow? I say we go talk to them. I…” Vanya paused for a second realizing she had no money to really suggest buying the amulet but she continued regardless, “...I think we should convince them to sell it to us. What do you think?”
Roza scratched her chin, “I can convince them, alright. I’m just not sure if they still have the amulet with them. What if they’ve sold it away to someone else? And even if they agree to sell it to us the chances of them having the amulet with them tomorrow night will be slim. There’s a high chance we’d be going back home empty-handed.”
Roza calculated making Vanya’s hopes diminish by the second. Yet Vanya pressed on, “We should at least give it a try, don’t you think?”
Roza relaxed her furrowed brows to finally look to Vanya who was waiting for Roza to say something that was not in the lines of possibly quitting the task entirely.
“You are right. We should at least give it a try.”
***
It came as a shock to both the girls walking into the Mountain Home inn to suddenly find Rhohaz calling out their names and stopping them as they barely got to the stairs to scurry their way up and hide in their room.
Vanya held her breath seeing him draw closer with his angry gaze locked in on the two ladies who were missing for the entirety of dinner.
“You two must be starving,” Rhohaz mocked tilting his head to peer into his sister, whom he had not seen for over a day, standing with her shoulders apart confidently next to Vanya.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Actually, we had an early dinner,” Roza smirked taking Vanya’s hand and intertwining it with hers.
Vanya only stared at the food being decimated by the folks in the dining hall all the while trying not to drool. She had not had any dinner.
Rhohaz only passed a glance at Vanya before narrowing his gaze on his sister.
“You are in big trouble, young lady. You don’t get to write your name down to volunteer and not show up at all–” Rhohaz started but Roza was quick to cut him off.
“Well, you won’t have to split the pay with me. More money for everyone else,” she patted Rhohaz’s shoulder as if to shut him off and gently nudged Vanya before they both strode up the stairs and out of Rhohaz’s sight.
“That was close,” Vanya said catching a glimpse of Rhohaz thinking with his hand to his chin before they disappeared around the corner.
“No, it was not. Rhohaz never knows what I am up to. He can never guess,” Roza chuckled proudly.
“How are you so sure?”
“Oh, Jadie! He’s got other things to worry about like being the leader of Shalom. He’s all about his responsibilities and fulfilling them till they bleed him dry. He’s the only person who would run into the fire all in the name of being the leader of Shalom,” Roza curved her lips as if to mock her brother.
“I think that’s quite noble of him to take his role so seriously,” Vanya said, making Roza look towards her not expecting such a retort.
Realizing her words were defending Rhohaz, Vanya quickly tried to recoup her last statement, “But that helps us, nevertheless! He can continue to be outstanding while we do what we need to do without him watching our every move.”
Roza smiled back satisfied, yet she made a quick mental note of it, of the unexpected behavior of Vanya that she was quick to pick up on.
They stayed in their room for the rest of the night discussing the plans for tomorrow. Roza went over how she’d be going back to find Tallon and asked for details of the seller and his location. She counted her coins expecting Tallon to not spill the details without some convincing with something he would very much like to see shine in front of his greedy eyes. She even went as far as sharpening the little dagger she had hidden strapped to her thigh all this time, without Vanya knowing, mentioning how she would threaten Tallon if he were to keep his mouth shut.
Roza bit into an apple while going over the plan again and mentioned how she would return to collect Vanya by the evening before heading off to the seller. Vanya too took a bite of the ripe apple listening to Roza carefully hoping her stomach growls were not being heard.
Soon, Roza was snoring in her bed while Vanya was being consumed by the hunger that had only grown larger as she lay on hers trying to fall asleep. She sprung up unable to bear it any longer. She felt the growls grow louder.
She got out of her bed and put on one of Cecil’s thinner coats she had let her borrow over her nightgown hoping to run down the stairs and grab some food from the dining hall.
Her fingers grabbed the handle of the door and carefully turned it watching Roza who was fast asleep. The light of the candles still lit in the hallway flooded in through the cracks and Vanya slid out hoping to not have the sudden light wake Roza.
She closed the door and snuggled her coat with her head hung low and ready to make her way to the staircase when she spotted a shadow on the floor approaching her.
She looked up to stop in surprise.
It was Rhohaz, with his eyes half shut, and his hands holding two plates of food on either side.
“Perfect timing. I figured you two might be hungry,” he said with a yawn taking over his last few words.
Vanya smiled happy to see food in front of her eyes and secretly happier to see who was carrying it.
“I was just on my way to grab something to eat,” she said making her way to him and taking one of the plates off of his hands.
“The dining hall closed about an hour ago. I had them serve me two plates hoping you two would sneak back down to finally eat. I guess Roza didn’t let you leave to have dinner, did she?” Rhohaz asked seeing Vanya drooling over the food.
“Oh! She…she had an early dinner,” Vanya lied.
“Where is she now?” Rhohaz asked and immediately got an answer hearing a loud snore through Vanya’s room. Vanya simply smiled. He then turned to Vanya and paused.
“You need to eat. The dining hall is closed for cleaning…” he started.
“I can eat in my room–”
“...You can eat in my room.”
***
Vanya wondered why she had not insisted that she was okay to eat her food while listening to Roza snore right next to her ear. As soon as Rhohaz recommended the option of eating her cold plate of food in his room she said nothing but a simple and quick “Okay”.
She followed Rhohaz to the third floor. He opened his room door to a much smaller area compared to Vanya’s with one bed and a table against the window with a chair accompanying it. The window was half open letting the chilly freeze of the wintery nights ruffle the papers neatly lying on the table.
He invited her in and kept a shoe against the door so a sliver of the hallway candlelight crept into his dark room.
He quickly relocated his papers from his study to his bed, lit a candle, and drew the chair so Vanya could take a seat.
“Thank you,” she said feeling a certain sense of gentleman-ness exuding from Rhohaz who seemed slightly disheveled that Vanya had agreed to his suggestion right off the bat.
Vanya started to dig into her food not wanting to take any longer while Rhohaz perched himself on his bed grabbing a paper to keep him company. A memory flashed in his mind making him chuckle.
Vanya immediately whipped her head around to confront, “What?”
Rhohaz shook his head to reply, “At least this time you aren’t breaking into my room.”
Vanya rolled her eyes at him while her cheeks were full of food hurriedly stuffed as if they were disappearing right in front of her eyes.
“Do you always so easily agree to go into someone’s room?” Rhohaz poked.
Vanya flared animatedly till she swallowed her food to finally answer back, “No, I do not! You suggested it!”
“So did you! You suggested you would eat in your room. Why did you come with me?”
Vanya huffed, “Should I leave then?” and stood up.
Rhohaz pushed out his hands to stop her and chuckled, “I was only making fun of you. It was only a joke. Please sit and eat.”
Vanya wounded by embarrassment went on to stuff herself faster. “I didn’t know you were capable of making jokes,” she hissed unable to keep it inside.
Rhohaz looked up from his paper to laugh, “You see me as someone so rudimentary, don’t you?”
“Well, you were a complete asshole the first time I met you,” Vanya spilled not wanting to hold it in any longer.
“I don’t deny it. I was pretty rude,” Rhohaz seemed relaxed acknowledging it quite instantly.
“Oh yes! Especially when you tricked me and Joan into thinking you’d be helping us with convincing the council. You know, I thought you were on our side that day. I thought you were finally helping us.”
Vanya laid it all in front. Although it had been some time and the wounds had begun to heal, she felt she needed an answer. She would have never said so if Rhohaz hadn’t opened up in the past couple of days. She would have held it in and showed it by crossing him in every which way other than confronting him with words.
She watched as Rhohaz’s eyes dimmed in sadness. He took a moment to think and then looked up at her. The shadows of his ruffled hair formed on his face making his pale eyes almost hidden behind them.
“I think you should know I’m deeply sorry for that day. I deceived you and your sister and hoped you would all disappear to make my life easier.”
Vanya felt the rage bubble up again and without much thought, pressed on, “We could have been truly stranded. Out in the wild, defenseless.”
Rhohaz put his paper away to tilt closer to Vanya. He looked her in the eye to say, “I understand the gravity of my actions. I am truly sorry for how I behaved.”
Vanya watched as he gulped waiting for her to say something. He looked to her with his eyes filled with regret something she did not quite know back then that he was capable of showing. It was apparent to Vanya that he was genuine but also clear to her that he seemed almost afraid of her next words, hoping she would accept his apology. She stayed silent, lost for words.
He cleared his throat which seemed to have formed a lump as silence grew between them, “I am sorry it took this long for me to formally apologize for all of it. I am glad you stayed. Truly, I am. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”