Vanya’s heart pounded as she sat in the dark room barely lit with one candle in a corner. She held the piece of cloth she was handed, to her neck, making her check on it from time to time to only see little blood collecting as time passed.

She wondered again realizing the rumble of rocks she almost drowned in together with Anton was Rhohaz’s doing. She saw his eyes, and that was enough to confirm there was no other way a pile of rocks would have magically appeared so conveniently right above their heads. Taru too made a sly comment about it before changing the subject altogether and commanding his men to take Anton and the Ravagers in for questioning. They were cuffed and taken away while Vanya and Roza were guided away from the South end of Elioth and back to their Mountain Home Inn.

But that was not the end of it. Vanya was asked to step into a room, separating her from Roza. And despite Roza’s objections Rhohaz nodded in compliance with Taru and dragged his sister away leaving Vanya to remain seated patiently in a room by herself until further notice.

Soon Taru trotted in and knocked on the open door to ask politely, “May I?”

Vanya nodded directing him to take a seat yet he only stood leaning against the table in front of her.

He crossed his arms and sighed before asking, “First, I must ask you, are you okay?”

Vanya cleared her throat to answer, “I am. Thank you for asking.”

Taru nodded and continued, “I apologize for what happened–”

“It is not your fault.”

“We do take safety very seriously here in Elioth. Tonight should not have happened.”

Vanya edged her seat wanting to explain, “It is not your fault. We…we should not have wandered off into such an area. We should have been more alert.” She tried to smoothen it over not knowing what Roza may have said.

Taru only remained stoic. “I feel ashamed. I should have made it more clear to everyone as soon as you all got here to stay away from the South of Elioth. If it wasn’t for Rhohaz alerting us we wouldn’t have found you in time. And that could have cost you your life.”

Vanya’s brows rose in curiosity, “Rhohaz?”

Taru nodded, “He was the one that got to us and let us know you two have not returned for some time.”

Vanya could understand that but she pressed on, “And you scoured the entire city? All of Elioth looking for us?”

Taru opened his mouth to explain yet he held back as his brows furrowed in thought, “Well, not exactly. He just led us to you–”

“It was Timmie. He knew where you were. It was a guess, really,” a deep voice sounded out. Both Vanya and Taru looked ahead to see Rhohaz by the door, the candlelight barely shining on him.

It had been some time since Vanya saw Rhohaz after having his gentle fingers covering the slender cut on her neck in the middle of the chaotic streets of Elioth like nobody was watching them. It was electrifying, to say the least, to have him so close to her while dust filled up the air like a cloud shielding them and for a moment they seemed so distant from all the chaos around them. But that only lasted for a heartbeat before the artificial smog settled and Rhohaz had already whipped his hand to himself and was heading to his sister who was ready to claw Anton’s face off.

“Oh good, you are here. Is she willing to say anything?” Taru asked, his posture open and relaxed.

Rhohaz shook his head and looked ahead at Vanya, who was sitting meekly on the chair.

“Roza is not willing to give it up, but you should,” Rhohaz said to Vanya.

“Give what up?” Vanya retorted not knowing what they were talking about. Clearly, she was very much in the dark.

Taru leaned in, “You two were found in the South of Elioth and closer to the Temptest Inn. That’s not the ideal place to wander off to especially if your primary reason for visiting Elioth is to sell fish in the market. The reports of the incident will reach my father soon, and he will come to ask you why you were there tomorrow if you don’t tell us your reasons now.”

Vanya was confused. She supposed that the questioning was only for the actual perpetrators who clearly were ready to slit her throat at the chance of it. Yet she felt the weight of the situation on her chest. She had to come up with a lie. There was in no way could she ever oust herself and Roza to reveal the real reason, that they were simply there for a rare amulet needed for their delicate and secret plan to cure Joan from the venomous bite of an Ombrah.

She gulped and looked to Taru and Rhohaz peering into her, “I…um…we were, honestly, wandering off. We lost track of—”

Just then, they heard a loud thud from outside in the hallway. Footsteps scurried before the door thrashed open and Rhohaz fell with it.

“How dare you, Taru!” Roza bellowed at him almost ready to punch him in the face. She quickly made her way to Vanya and shook her shoulders to say, “You don’t have to say anything. They are just being pricks.”

“Roza, let Taru do his job!” Rhohaz shouted as he stood back up regaining his balance.

“What job? Being the son of the Chief isn’t a job!” Roza spat back.

“I’m only trying to help you. My father will come back to ask you the same questions. I might as well have it ready for him so he wouldn’t have you two dragged into the musky cell he questions everyone in,” Taru pleaded.

Roza whipped her head back with her hands on her hip, “Well then, you can come up with a lie for us. You’ve always been so brilliant at those, haven’t you?”

Taru let out a smirk as if she finally managed to tick him off and lose his calm, “You must have something deliciously precious to hide if you are so adamant about not revealing the reason for your trip down to the South.”

“Oh please! I have nothing to hide. I detested how you’ve treated us women as if we are the culprits from the moment we made our way back home,” Roza shouted back.

“And that’s your reason for hurling curses at me?!”

“Oh no no! I was all fine until you called me a liar when I said the men dragged us to the South! Tell him, Jade,” Roza nudged Vanya, who was still catching up, “Tell him the men chased us all the way to the South.”

Vanya only looked around in confusion and found Rhohaz palm his face in embarrassment seeing his sister high pitched, on her toes, and going at Taru’s throat.

“Enough!” Rhohaz grumbled.

It must have been his voice and how deep it felt to their bones, both Taru and Roza stopped instantly and looked away in anger. Rhohaz looked to Vanya, disappointment etched across his face but most of all he looked too tired to deal with it right now.

“Let’s go with what you have to say. Just say the reason as to why you two were there,” Rhohaz asked Vanya. Both Roza and Taru edged to her in anticipation.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“We…we lost track of time and our surroundings. We got lost,” her soft voice trailed off to a whisper.

“There you have it,” Rhohaz clasped his hands and turned around to walk away from it all.

***

The next day was nothing but awkward silence between everyone. Roza was present at the market grounds for the first time. The word had already gotten around the folk from Shalom that Roza and Vanya were found in the South last night. They were mostly hushed about it. The rumors were pointing to a craftily mended story that Roza was introducing the best of alcohol in all of Elioth to Vanya, and they were found piss drunk and flashing men on the streets. The brilliant spinner of this story was Timmie, obviously.

“Really? You couldn’t leave the flashing out of it?” Vanya whispered harshly at Timmie who burst out laughing satisfied that Vanya took his joke better than Rhohaz did.

“Please, it’s better to have a ridiculous rumor spread even amongst our own than to have Chief Han question you and Roza,” Timmie whispered back while passing an empty crate to Vanya as she carefully stacked them at the back of the tent.

“Well, we already explained to them that we got lost,” Vanya said.

“Sure, but if in any case, Chief Han were to not believe that he would not hesitate to make Rhohaz leave you two behind for questioning. Hence, a more believable rumor such as two girls wanting to get drunk in the middle of the night and hide it from their folk and make their way to the South unknowingly to find trouble.”

Vanya rolled her eyes, “Why wouldn’t Chief Han believe us anyway?”

“South of Elioth has been the corrupt end for a long time. That’s where you go to break the rules. And if you don’t want trouble you stay away from there. Chief Han and his people have been trying for years to clean it up, to rid the South of its crime-filled alleys. There was a time when Rhohaz, Taru, and I went down there, a couple of years ago, out of interest and for fun. The next day Taru was beaten with a cane by his father. And we were strongly advised not to go there without prior permission,” Timmie said, gulping remembering the day.

Vanya knitted her brows in confusion, “Is it because…the South is somewhere one would go to perhaps find out about magic?”

Timmie looked up at her shocked and immediately placed his finger to his mouth shushing her.

“Careful what you say, Jadie.”

Vanya cracked a smile and whispered back, “Am I right?”

Timmie leaned closer to her, “The South used to be a bustling melting pot of everything related to magic two decades ago. It has been wiped out of anything relating to it now, however, there have always been illegal trades in the South of Elioth. Chief Han is not happy about it. To have any of our people from Shalom involved in such trades would get us banned from ever selling at the Elioth markets again.”

Vanya gulped hearing that one of Shalom’s primary sources of outside income could have been wiped away if the Elioth officials found out what Vanya and Roza were doing last night. She stacked the last of the empty wooden crates Timmie passed over to her with a sigh trying to calm herself.

Timmie inched closer and whispered, “What were you doing last night anyway?”

She startled and nudged him to answer, “I told you, we got lost.”

“No, you didn’t. How could you get lost when Roza’s been so familiar with the city for years? Don’t lie to me, Jadie.”

Vanya huffed placing her hands on her hips and retorted, “Then why don’t you tell me how you knew where exactly we were? Rhohaz told us that it was you who told him we could be in the South.”

Timmie tilted in surprise cocking his brow and shook his head, “I did not tell him anything. I had no clue where you would be.”

Vanya gave out a sly laugh. She remembered how Timmie tried bribing Rhohaz the previous night to let Rhohaz keep him company by telling Rhohaz how he knew what Roza was up to.

“Oh really? That’s strange. I thought I remembered Rhohaz mentioning how you knew what Roza was up to in Elioth.”

Timmie narrowed his gaze, “Is that so? You are spending an awful lot of time with our leader to have him tell you so much detail. Tell me, Jadie. Are you perhaps actually courting our beloved Rho?”

Vanya punched Timmie in the shoulder while he laughed aloud sending some customers to the front to peer in.

“Rhohaz doesn’t need me to track his sister. For all we know he already knows exactly where everyone is.”

“What do you mean?” Vanya asked back.

“Hmm, how should I put it?... Let’s just say it’s one of his many gifts,” Timmie winked before he patted Vanya on the shoulder and turned around to leave her wondering what he even meant.

He’s speaking about magic, isn’t he? He’s saying Rhohaz knows exactly where everyone is through magic. Like a spell?

She thought to herself unable to comprehend if Rhohaz had cast a spell on Roza or perhaps on her to find them so easily last night.

She was biting into her nails, deep in thought, while crammed into a corner between the empty wooden crates when Taru tapped her on the shoulder releasing her from her own trance.

“Daydreaming or plotting revenge?” he asked with a smile crossing his face.

Vanya shook her head to stand greeting him.

“Taru, what brings you here?” she asked looking around to see if there was anyone else besides her to greet the Elioth’s Chief’s son.

He waved his hands in an attempt to calm Vanya who seemed panicked, “I just wanted to let you know my father has accepted your explanation for yesterday’s mistake. He only wished it never happened and that you were safe. He also apologizes for it.”

Vanya let out a sigh that had formed in her chest while Taru was speaking. She nodded partly in excitement, “No, please. You all do not have to apologize. It is not your fault.”

“I must add that Anton and the rest of his men who were at the Temptest Inn are under arrest. They are being searched and questioned, and they will be punished accordingly, I promise.”

Vanya smiled in relief. She had not thought about how Anton had followed her and Roza last night. She had not thought about the fact that she had a knife to her throat that could have easily passed through leaving her losing blood on the dark alleyways of Elioth. It seemed that Anton was more than determined to kill her, especially since he thought she was a Yelhi.

“Anton…he said he was a part of some group called ‘the Ravagers’,” she asked halting Taru who was about to take his leave on his heels.

“Oh yes, well, they are an extremist group that travels from town to town preaching their beliefs. You don’t need to worry about them, my father has them under control–”

“What do you mean an extremist group? What are their beliefs?”

Taru looked at her baffled as if she should have somehow known some general fact. He leaned in and spoke in a hushed tone, “They believe the King has become comfortable with not carrying out what he promised when he first assumed his position.”

“What was that?” Vanya asked without missing a beat.

“To rid the Northen Kingdom of anyone with magic. The Ravagers essentially preach to civilians to take matters into their own hands and do what must be done.”

Vanya furrowed her brows. She wondered if Taru was only exaggerating what he was saying but she understood that what he meant was that the Ravagers wanted anyone with ties to magic to be gone from the face of the earth.

“I must say, Jade. I know you two were not lost last night. And obviously, you weren’t drunk beyond belief as everyone is saying. You may have gone to the South for something in particular. I trust Roza and I don’t want her to get in trouble for something trivial. Just know that if you need any help you can always let me know and I will not speak a word of it to anyone,” Taru pursed his lips and waited for Vanya to reply.

She looked at him, his eyes genuine. For a moment she faltered. She wondered if it was okay to confide in him now. After all, this was her best chance for she had only one more night left in Elioth.

“There’s a man…” she made Taru look at her, surprised to see her speak, “...I need your help finding him. He’s old, with a long white beard, and half-moon glasses. He was at the Temptest Inn last night. I…” she paused for a second seeing Taru’s brows knot, “...I need to find him. It might be my only chance.”

She fell silent remembering how Roza described the seller and his arrogant self and how sure Vanya felt in her heart that it was Aren, her history tutor, in Elioth only a few moments away from her. He could end her suffering then and there. He could help her end her life as a stranded princess in hiding, bring her back to safety, and take her back to home. She could finally return to being the heir to the throne in the care of her beloved father.

She gulped seeing Taru silent and thinking. She was ready to answer him, push him back if he were to fight her, but all she saw was him sigh deeply a few times before turning to her with conviction in his eyes and saying, “I will help you find him.”

“I hope this stays between you and me. I…I cannot afford for anyone to know that I am looking for him. Not even Rhohaz,” she said almost immediately.

He paused longer before finally adding, “You have my word.”