Light began to appear from the lantern the bald man held up in his hand. Now that they were nearing their destination and this area was well-protected according to them, they didn’t have to fear any danger rushing towards them as they shone like a beacon amidst a sea of darkness.
They strode along a worn cobbled path through a clearing within a large dead forested area. He stepped over tree limbs that covered the path trying his best to not trip over them.
“Now that we’re almost there,” Kiran said, “can you finally tell me who exactly we’re going to see?”
“We are to meet with Lady Meredith Duvaughn, a person to whom I loyally devote myself towards. She also helps to administer these lands.”
“So she’s the ruler in other words.”
“That term isn’t entirely accurate. These western lands are for the most part self-governed by the individual villages and towns themselves within their general areas. Lady Meredith merely helps to tie it all together in certain capacities.”
“A more decentralized approach then.”
“Indeed. But she is largely responsible for keeping these lands somewhat united along with distributing food and much-needed supplies to keep everything running sufficiently.”
The number of trees around them began to become more and more clustered together the further in they went. Up a short bit away along the path, however, a fountain covered in dry withering foliage appeared with a black iron fence behind it.
As they neared the dry fountain circling along the sides of it, he briefly eyed the cracked statue of an angelic winged figure atop the fountain. It was quite a beautiful figure of a woman with arms stretched out to welcome them and anyone else who might walk beside it.
They neared the tall iron fence with pointy ends. Felghan pulled out a key and put it into the lock keeping the gate closed. With a simple twist, the gate became unlocked granting them passage through. They continued to walk along the worn cobbled road and thankfully Felghan’s lantern made traversing this heavily forested area on both sides of them a lot easier. The trees hung over them from above connecting themselves to each other from both sides as if the trees themselves couldn’t stand to be detached from one another. Though they were dead, these connections hadn’t been severed.
He began to see what looked like an old manor that was quite large. Faint yellowish light glowed from one room on the top floor. A shadow moved over the window making him wonder if that was the lady he was to meet who would presumably help him.
Soon enough they approached the front door to the manor. Felghan opened it and gestured for him to go inside.
As he stepped in, his feet tapped against an incredibly dusty wooden floor. Dust covered the wooden side tables and fine lavish finishes within. Candles were lit on dusty candle stands and in certain places to keep the inside lit enough so that he could see. Even the black candle-lit chandelier up above was quite a bit dusty.
The door closed behind him. Felghan walked up ahead and stopped. “My lady,” he said loudly. “I have returned.”
For a moment they waited. For several more moments, they waited only for there to not be a response.
“Please wait down here for a moment,” he said and began to walk up a wraparound staircase at the back of the manor’s foyer.
Kiran walked slowly towards the right wall spotting a giant painting spread out along the cracked dark wall. It depicted a regal manly figure with a crow’s head. How odd. This reminds me of that creature Lar and I fought a while back.
“Who are you?”
Out of the corner of his eye, a woman appeared wearing a black dress that almost hit the floor. She had dark gray eyes and kept her hands clasped together in front of herself. She must’ve been someone in her mid-twenties or so he figured. She had long black hair and her skin was entirely pale.
He thought of how he ought to respond to the lady who had chosen to greet him. He did not want to disappoint her so he knew to choose his words carefully when in the company of those in esteemed positions.
“Allow me to introduce myself,” he said with a slight bow. “My name is Kiran.”
“How did you get in here, Kiran? I am not expecting any guests.” Her eyes drifted over towards a drawer near her. She appeared on edge and ready to take potentially a hostile action at a moment’s notice if need be. He also did not get the impression that she was the person Felghan wanted to introduce him to.
“I’ve been traveling with Felghan you see and he wants to introduce me to Lady Meredith Duvaughn.”
She began to move carefully towards a nearby closed drawer looking eager to get something out of it. However, when Felghan began moving down the wraparound staircase to be with them, she stopped in her attempt to grab something from it.
“What do you think you are doing allowing this stranger into our manor unattended?”
“You have nothing to fear from him Evalia. As for Lady Meredith, is she here?”
“Mother isn’t here at this time.”
“I see. Then you will have to wait to see her,” Felghan said eying him. “In the meantime,” he said gesturing for him to follow. “You shall be provided a room temporarily.”
The young lady’s heels hit harshly against the dusty floor from behind as he and Felghan went down the dark hall. “What do you think you’re doing allowing him to stay here? I don’t feel safe having this, stranger staying here in my midst.”
He began to open the door to a room for Kiran. He pushed it open exposing the dusty interior. Even the bed was dusty and there were cobwebs in every corner.
“My dearest Evalia, you have nothing to fear from our guest. I am certain that this man would not cause you or anyone else here any harm whatsoever.”
“Fine then,” she said with a bit of a snooty scoff. “Just wait till Mother returns. We’ll see what she has to say about you letting this person be in our home.”
She stomped off from them. He could hear her heels long after she had left. If the manor was a mile long he thought if she were that far away he would still be able to hear her heals.
“If it’s a problem for me to be here then—”
“Nonsense,” Felghan said going over to an unlit candle and lighting it for him. “You are our guest. Lady Meredith’s daughter Evalia I fear is quite aversive towards anyone other than her immediate family or to the staff who work here. I would try not to take it personally. Even I required years of effort to eventually gain her trust.”
“It took you years?”
“Yes, it indeed took me that long.”
What had led her to be so distrustful of other people? It made him wonder. In a domain as dark as this one, perhaps it was a requirement to survive in it.
“Since Lady Meredith is absent currently, I would expect her to return in a day or two at most. I also realize you are most likely eager to rush off to find your people, but I believe she may be able to help you if you can tell her personally about your situation.”
“I can wait,” he said. He knew if he went off towards the east on his own, there was no way he’d find them. He needed help so he intended to accomplish that by being here briefly.
“In the meantime, you may remain here to rest up.”
“The bed’s a bit dusty.” He ran his finger along the surface of the bed. “ Is there anything that can be done about this?”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“I’m sure someone here can help with that. Give me a moment.”
While he left him alone, he further observed the inside of this room. Dust did in fact cover practically everything. The windows, the bed frame, the dark wooden floors, and even the candle holders that hung on the walls had dust on them. If he gathered up all the dust in the room, he thought he could make a note-worthy hill out of it.
There was only darkness outside the window as he looked through it. Due to the little bit of candlelight inside, he saw his reflection as he gazed out into that eternal night. Something that glowed a bit began to appear however slowly approaching from outside.
He began to recognize the source of that glow. It was in fact that butterfly surrounded in a translucent orb. It neared the window and moved through it lighting up the inside of this room even more brightly than the few candles inside.
“Where have you been?” he said towards the butterfly.
It moved up and down slightly acknowledging his words.
A knock erupted on the door causing the butterfly to lower, and then rush out through the window disappearing from sight.
“May I come in?” a soft feminine voice said.
“Of course.”
He unbuttoned the top button on his white shirt and sat in a dusty chair so he could take his boots off. As he thrust one boot off, a woman came inside.
When he looked up, he hadn’t expected to find someone so beautiful. She had soft features on her face with smooth round cheeks and an unwrinkled forehead. Her eyes were brown with a bit of gold in them and she had short black hair neatly cut all around.
She pulled the dusty covers off of the bed putting new fresh ones on top of it. She also began to replace the pillows with non-dusty ones. She hunched over as she redid the bed a bit straightening it out with her smooth delicate pale hands. She wore a maid outfit that didn’t have a single speck of dirt or wrinkles on it.
“There you go sir,” she said and bowed to him.
He was almost taken aback by her actually bowing for him. I’m certainly not all that important to receive a bow.
As she turned her back and began to leave, he couldn’t help but get her attention. “May I ask what your name is?”
“Aphelia,” she said softly.
“I’m Kiran.”
“Enjoy your stay while you’re here Kiran.” She left the room and quietly closed the door managing to prevent the door from making a sound as she did so.
He thought that with her gone, the butterfly might return giving him a chance to maybe communicate with it further, but when he looked out the window, it wouldn’t return. It stayed out of sight choosing to not come back at least for now.
After having freed his sore feet from those—at times—restrictive and uncomfortable boots he regularly wore, he threw his body into the bed face first. Oh how I have missed having a bed. Having to sleep without one for the last couple of weeks really reminded him of how things were back when he had first awakened in the jail. It was like he was getting to experience a little bit of those rough days again since he arrived at the fourth domain.
* * *
He had eventually drifted off to sleep only to reawaken.
When he awakened in an immensely tired state of being, he opened one of his eyes. He immediately froze as a white silvery blade hovered above his body with the edge of it pointing downwards towards him.
The edge was just an inch or two away from his heart. He could not make out the figure of the person who wielded it clearly in the darkness but the blade was bright enough that he could accurately make it out.
If he even so moved just a little bit, this person fully intended on killing him or so he thought. He swallowed the thick saliva that gathered inside his throat. Whatever tiredness he just a moment ago felt, fully disappeared. He was as awake as an awake person could get.
“If you’ve ever had the thought,” they began to say, “to get up to no good whilst you are here, let this be a clear warning.” He thought the feminine voice was in some way familiar, but the way they spoke made him think that he hadn’t actually met this person before. “I will not hesitate to kill you if I find out you are here to harm or undermine Lady Meredith or anyone else here for that matter. Do you understand me?”
A trickle of sweat ran down the side of his face. “I do.”
For a moment more, the edge of the blade hovered above him. It lifted away and the figure disappeared without making even a sound as they left his room.
He breathed out and his tense shoulders sunk into the bed. Well then, that was quite the lovely thing to wake up to.
They hadn’t killed him so he could be thankful for that. However, he did not expect that he was going to be falling asleep again any time soon. For that reason, he decided to get up and light a candle and look through the variety of dusty books on the bookshelf.
Many of the books were giant tomes. He grabbed an old book with a green cover. With a puff of air from his lungs, dust flew off the cover and then he ran a hand over it to try to read the title on the front. “The Dissolution of the Sacred Covenant by Milas Yeora.”
He was unaware of what sacred covenant the title hinted towards. He decided to give the book a try to distract himself from the fact that he nearly died so casually a moment ago. He opened the book to the first chapter and sat as comfortably as he good in the rickety old chair at a desk near the bed.
The chapter itself began with a focus on summarizing the beginnings and dissolution of the sacred covenant that humanity and the familiars had kept for many centuries. When humanity first arrived on the planet of Hilnora, the familiars decided to bond with them. Humanity had been battered down when they first arrived and the familiars wanted to help them so they agreed to bond their souls to them and create a sacred covenant that the two sentient beings thought would keep them united as one.
This relationship that the two shared allowed for a lot of peace and prosperity until the two sides began to encounter intense turmoil and conflict a couple of centuries after the covenant was created.
Kiran found the first chapter’s summary of sorts to be of interest. He had been so ignorant about the history of this world due to his memory loss. He thought it would be smart of him to keep reading the large tome that would go further into the details of this bit of history.
He decided to read on getting through several more chapters. However, the more he read, the more he found himself reading even further. By the time he neared the middle of the giant tome, a couple of particular paragraphs stood out to him.
When the familiars found that their own kind were becoming little more than slaves to humanity, they began to plan for a war that would decimate the human race. From their perspective, humanity had broken the sacred covenant uniting their two kinds. The covenant—while still intact technically speaking—was viewed less and less as a legitimate thing by many familiars at the time. As a result, they thusly took on actions that would precipitate war.
Specific groups of familiars amassed themselves around the year 743 near the start of spring. They chose to strike in a surprising way attempting to kill as many nobles, lords, and rulers within human society. Their campaign to assassinate as many important figures within human society within a several-day period was one that only partially succeeded. Humanity responded to this egregious assault by declaring war and thus the two sides began their swift unending assault against each other officially ending the sacred covenant that had been in existence for many centuries.
According to the author, humanity had indeed broken the sacred covenant by beginning to enslave familiars and using them for their bidding. This enslavement thus caused certain groups of familiars to pursue a large-scale assassination effort across the world in human-controlled territories.
Kiran understood the plight of the familiars enslavement. And yet, he thought their way of retaliation against it only made things worse for them. Eventually, their outright hatred for humanity led them to want to eradicate all of humanity.
But humanity, being the flawed beings that they were and still are now, also eventually sought to eradicate the familiars coming to bear the same sins as them as the war ensued.
Reading this history is depressing. I don’t think I can read anymore for today. He recalled the page number so he could continue reading it at a later point and then closed the book that he had managed to read quite a lot of.
He blew air out of his nose and leaned back in his chair. A crackling noise erupted and the chair tilted to the right harshly. His body fell over onto the ground kicking up the dust that got up in his eyes and into his nose.
Really? What the heck!
He rolled over and heard the door open. As he stood back up with dust covering his clothes, he saw the maid with the sideways bun. “Oh no. Are you alright sir?”
“Uh, yes. It appears this chair decided to break while I was sitting in it.”
“My apologies sir,” Aphelia said with a bow. “Are you sure you aren’t hurt?”
“No, no. I’m quite alright I assure you,” he said whilst getting up. That chair was fine this entire time and then all of a sudden it decides to break. How fantastic.
Those big eyes of hers appeared relieved when he insisted that he was in fact alright. She seems like she genuinely cares. How about that?
“Is Lady Meredith here?”
She kept her hands clasped together ahead of her. “No sir. She’s still gone.”
“May I ask where she is?”
“That…is not for me to say,” she replied solemnly.
Well, I guess I and Felghan will be waiting a while longer then. He smiled and nodded his head.
She left with pieces of the broken chair and all he could think was what exactly should he do in the meantime?
Oh I know what I can do to keep myself busy. Perhaps I’ll do something about all of this dust.
If no one else was going to do anything about it, he might as well do something to spruce things up a bit. The manor sure could do with a bit of housekeeping that the maid was strangely not handling.