Elara struggled against the tight hold, her breaths ragged and labored. “Let go of me!” she snarled, thrashing in the man’s grip, but her strength was failing fast. She could feel the heat of her blood soaking into the bandage on her shoulder, the relentless throbbing in her body a cruel reminder of her vulnerability.
The air around them crackled in tension as she fought against the man holding her. Their reassurances fell on deaf ears- her survival instincts screamed louder than their words. Every muscle in her body strained against the grip on her hands, her mind racing to find an escape.
“Calm down! You are only going to make your injuries worse!” one of the men said urgently, but Elara glared at him in response, her movements growing more erratic. She tried to kick the man holding her hands in place, but he skillfully avoided it too.
“Calm down?” she snapped, “You expect me to trust a group of armed strangers dragging me off against my will?”
One of the men stepped forward cautiously, he was taller than the other two, hands raised in a gesture of peace. “We’re not here to hurt you, My lady. If weapons are making you not trust us, we can get rid of them.” He looked at the man beside him who nodded in agreement and the two of them unhooked their swords from their belts and threw them to one side. The swords made clattering noised on the cold stone and rested there, abandoned.
Elara finally stopped thrashing around, her eyes still filled with distrust resting on the man with a deep voice. “Why are you here then? And why do you keep calling me, My Lady?” her gaze lingered on his clothes. The men wore what could only be described as medieval attire- black cloaks draped over leather armor underneath which they had worn loose greyish black shirts and pants with long boots, and swords strapped to their belts. Elara blinked, convinced her injuries were making her hallucinate. Who the hell wore costumes like this in the middle of nowhere? But her mind went to her own clothing, making her inner self shut.
“We were sent to find you- of course, it was not to hurt you.” The man answered, his voice not urgent but had a hint of something Elara couldn’t understand.
“By whom?” she demanded, her tone sharp, her mind still grasping at the situation.
The men looked at each other, though their faces were still not visible, Elara could feel the confusion in the air around them. “House Aeternum.”
Elara stood in silence, the name should have meant something, but it didn’t. Was it some kind of secret code or something? She had never heard of any House Aeternum, and her confusion and distrust only deepened. Before she could say anything, the taller man added, “Your knights have been looking for you for the last 4 days. They were lucky we were in the area, so they commissioned us.”
If Elara was confused before she was totally out of words now. Knights? And not just knights- Her Knights? What the hell were these people talking about? Were they playing role-play here? But she wasn’t sure if she should ask them about that, not when the situation was not clear to her yet. Masking her bewilderment with hostility, she spat, “My knights asked for your help? When you were coincidentally passing from the same area?”
Though the terms Knights and House Aeternum were strange to her, their story if anything was absurd.
Her supposed knights were looking for her and these people were conveniently passing by and were commissioned to find her. In this place, where people would only come once a year for tracking and these people were here in this cold?
“Ahm!! We are mercenaries, my lady. We travel from place to place with no actual resting place.” The taller one answered awkwardly, making sure to not directly look at her.
Mercenaries? What was going on? Elara’s head started buzzing with all the absurd information. The men looked too polished for mere mercenaries. She had heard about mercenaries of course, but looking at their clothing and weapons, the way they spoke, and what she heard before they entered the cave. She was sure they were more than they were pretending to be. But one thing was certain, they were not going to hurt her, at least not now.
Elara looked down at her hands, carefully held in place by the most quiet one. He had been observing her from the start, his grip on her hands, though strong but considerate so as not to hurt her.
“I never heard of mercenaries that travel from place to place, that sounds more like bandits or even rogues...” Elara commented, testing further. These people were mistaking her for someone else so she’d play along until she knew her situation exactly and if role-play is what they want she can do that too. She would mimic their way of talking and try to get information out of them.
Why had her hair turned silver? Why was she wearing different clothes but with tears and cuts at exactly the same places where she was injured? Who was this lady they were looking for and why were they confusing Elara with this Lady? Was it just her hair and clothes that changed or had she changed entirely and when?
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The phenomenon was absurd but that was all she could think of now. She had been through enough shocks in the past day that she no longer cared about how weird her inner thoughts sounded.
“Especially with such expensive gears,” Elara added, sensing the unease her questions were inflicting on these three men. Her body was getting exhausted from the continuous throbbing in her shoulder and ribs but she persisted. “Please, do enlighten me, what circumstances made you work as mercenaries? People don’t easily choose that kind of work and once they do they don’t splurge money on such expensive stuff.”
“Expensive, my lady, I am sure you have mistaken-” The tall man attempted but was stopped by a strong glare from Elara, her turquoise eyes shining even in the dim light of the cave.
“That only adds to my suspicion. If you weren’t wearing such not-so-expensive gear, my dagger should have made a serious cut on your side.” She nodded at a mark in the tall man’s armor, where a long mark was visible on it. “It is no leather is it?”
“Wha- When did you make this cut?! Your strength is no joke, my lady! Even in this condition, you could make such a deep cut in my armor! No one has been able to make a cut this deep on armor covered with Fortis Arboris’s sap!- OUCH! What?!” the tall man’s grumble earned him a sharp smack on the back of his neck, making him realize that he had revealed something he shouldn’t.
As for Elara, she was confused, her suspicion only growing from their reaction. Though she didn’t know what this Fortis Arboris was, but she was now sure it was not something ordinary.
“My lady, you are injured. I will advise you to return to your encampment with us and get yourself treated. You can ask us anything you want on our way and I promise to tell you the truth.” The man’s deep voice pleaded, his eyes traveling on various bandages on her body but he didn’t pry about them.
“You want me to go with strangers who won’t even reveal their real identities? Forget it! I would rather go to that jungle-“
“Aha! So you were actually going toward that jungle!” the tall man’s voice echoed in the cave getting a glare from the other two men in response. “What? We must stop her if she is...”
“What do you mean?” Elara asked, confused, the earlier conversation between these men played in her mind again. Even then they were thinking she’ll go to the jungle. Why?
The deep-voiced man looked at the man holding Elara’s hands in place, who instantly let her go. Surprised she looked at the two men, rubbing her wrists in turns. The deep-voiced man then bowed forward making Elara jump back in shock. Elara’s breath hitched as he picked the dagger carefully from the cold ground, “No wonder it could cut through your armor, Lester... It is an Aeternum heirloom...”
Aeternum heirloom? Elara thought, her mind a mess. The dagger was given to her by Riven, did he know about this Aeternum family? He was the one who asked her to go to the jungle. Could it be he has something to do with her current situation? But how will that explain her changed hair and outfit?
“My lady, are you really planning to go after your brother?” the man carefully asked, holding the dagger’s handle toward her for her to take.
Elara was shocked as she took the dagger from the man, her shock was not because of the reason they were thinking. Her mind was thinking of something entirely different. How did they know she was looking for her brother?
“You know my brother?” the words left her lips without her intending to. The fact that for them she was a different person and they might be talking about someone not actually her brother, momentarily forgotten.
“Of course, Who doesn’t know Sir Kaelion? Though some might know him for a different reason, but Sir Kaelion is remembered as the bravest hero in the whole empire.” The tall man answered again but this time the other two nodded in agreement. But Elara didn’t notice their nods, nor the way the quiet man was looking at her. Her mind was too occupied to observe anything.
These men, whom she thought were misking her for someone else knew her brother- Kaelion. But why did they call him Sir? And what did they mean by the whole empire?
Her head started aching with all these unanswered questions. Her brother had taught her to understand the situation first before making any choice. She was doing exactly that but the more she tried to understand her situation the more confused she became.
“What were your orders exactly?” Elara asked, her voice shaking slightly as uncertainty grasped her once more. The pain in her shoulder flared again, making her wince loudly.
“My lady, are you alright? We really need to... as soon as possible, your injuries aren’t healing... or they might worsen” Her head started buzzing, the voices coming in fragments. But she kept a tight hold on her consciousness that seemed to be failing her slowly as the pain increased with a new feeling of itching around her shoulder.
“Answer me!!” she shouted or tried to but it came only as a whimper.
The quiet man answered, uncertain of her reason but he complied with her order. “The commission we were given stated that we must help the Aeternum Knights in finding their commander, the youngest of House Aeternum, Lady Elara Aeternum.”
The world started to rotate once more, but Elara made sure to grasp each and every word this time.
They were actually looking for her- no, for someone with the same name as her. Someone who had a brother with the same name as her brother’s. But she didn’t know any Aeternums, she was not one of them, she was Elara Taylor and her brother was Kaelion Taylor also, not Aeternum.
All this time she tried to talk to these men, she thought she somehow turned into someone else. How? She didn’t know. Why? Not that either. Who? Someone with her name but not in her position. At least there were people coming to look for this Lady. As for Elara, her only relative was nowhere to be found. Heck, she wasn’t even sure if he was alive or not.
She had been just chasing his ghost for the last 2 years only to find out that there was a hope he might be alive just to shatter it the next moment by being trapped in an unknown world, surrounded by unknown people, not knowing how to go back. Would she even find her brother if she went back now?
Her chest tightened with all the questions and negative emotions. The world around her darkened once more, she could hear voices ringing in her head. But wasn’t sure if they belonged to the three men around her or someone in her head.
She didn’t feel her body colliding on the stone floor, instead, strong arms held her unconscious body and she didn’t remember the rest as she fully let the darkness swallow her.