Rueln Layheart

Disgusting.

I have never felt so grossed out by something in my whole life. After that conversation with Bria, I got out of there so fast I forgot to even get my food, which left me miserable for the rest of the day. I could wash for a week and not feel clean again.

“What’s wrong with ya?” Finnley asked, walking beside me. He kept giving me strange looks every time I groaned or made another noise of complaint about my day. “Is ya bum stopped up or somethin?”

“How do you possibly come to that conclusion?” I demanded.

“Well, I’ve had it happin ta me,” he grumbled. “Right, uncomfortable, that is.”

“No,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I made ‘friends’ today. With Bria.”

“Oh, that,” he said, stuffing his pinky in his ear and digging out wax. “It went well then?”

“Ugh, I hate her.”

“Called it.”

“She called me mother,” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low.

Finnley burst out laughing, catching several people’s attention as we walked past. “She called ya what?!” He bent over and laughed harder until he could hardly breathe. “No. Ya have ta be lyin. Even she wouldn’ be that cruel.”

“It was in front of everyone,” I groaned. “It was horrible. I never want to go back. I can’t show my face again.”

“Well, ya have to, don’t ya?” He snickered at my misery. “Ya made ‘friends’.”

“It’s not funny,” I complained, pulling at my hair. He didn’t comment on the ink stains, but I was sure he noticed that too. “She gave me an invitation to a tea party and I’m supposed to invite Balec. I doubt he wants to broadcast to the entire aristocracy that he’s a sponsor.”

“Ask em,” Finnley shrugged. “Master Esra already got a letter from em.”

“What? What for?”

“Don’ know. Maybe he wants ta walk ya ta school again or something ridiculous like tha.”

“As ridiculous as you walking me home every day just to get out of Master Esra’s sight so you don’t have to do more chores?” I asked him pointedly.

“Hey,” he said, defensively. “I’m just tryn to get by and if ya don’ want ta get in extra practice with me anymore, then it’s up to ya.”

I was quick to back track with that one. I needed all the practice I could get. Finn had already caught me a few times staying up late after lights out to stuff it into my day. He was helping catch me up with lessons since I was at the academy most of the day, but I still felt leagues behind him.

“You have my undying gratitude,” I promised him, putting my hand over my heart.

“Ya bet I do,” he said, smirking and sticking his chin up. “Know ya place, peasant.” We both snorted at that. There was no one more ‘peasant’ than us.

As we turned down our street, I pursed my lips, stuffing my hands into my pockets. I was wearing the coat again, ink stains and all, to ward off the coat. It was still a toss up on how I was going to explain it to Master Esra. “Think she’ll skin me when she sees my clothes?”

“I think she’ll skin ya when she sees ya hair,” Finnley corrected. “Ya haven’t said what happened yet.”

“I know… Don’t really want to get into it again. It’s been a long day.”

“Uh, huh,” he said, unconvinced, then shrugged. “Guess it won’ be me cleanin the stables tonight.”

I groaned. “You’re probably right. Maybe I can hide my coat in the hay.”

“Nah, she’ll find it. She has a magic sense, that one.”

“You’re right. I couldn’t even sneak a scone out of the kitchen last night without her catching me. How did she even know I was in there? She went to bed hours before.”

“There’s a creak on tha last step,” Finnley explained. “Ya got ta step on the wall side and it won’ make the noise.”

“When did you figure that out?”

“The first week we were here.”

“Cheat and you didn’t share.”

He grinned and shook his head. “I’m sharin now. Besides, who else would’ve scrubbed those pots?”

We were wrestling in the front of Master Esra’s house when she opened the door and spotted us. The smile slipped off my face when I heard her walking down the steps toward me, demanding to know what I had done to myself. Knowing she would sniff out a lie if I told one, I admitted at least part of the truth, that I ran into another kid and got ink all over me. I just didn’t tell her that Marqus had done it on purpose.

“Well,” she sighed, her hands on my cheeks and tilting my head this way and that to see my hair at every angle. “We’ll have to cut it.”

“What?!” I yelled, jerking free of her hands and stumbling backwards, my hands on my head. “No!” I loved my hair. I didn’t want to lose even an inch of it.

“You can’t go walking around looking like that,” she huffed at me, sticking her hands on her hips. In these types of situations, she looked more motherly than she did in armor. It unnerved me sometimes how she could switch from mother to Master in an instant. “You look ridiculous.”

Finnley was pointedly trying to look as if he were minding own business, while listening to every word.

“I don’t want to cut my hair,” I insisted. “I like it long.”

“I don’t see why, but either way, you’ll need to cut it or dye it black to blend it in. Those are your options,” she said, waving her hand in a silent order for me to come back to her.

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“What if I don’t like those options,” I insisted, stubbornly staying put.

“Then I’ll shave it,” she warned.

That was worse.

“Master, no!” I near screamed. “Please. Why must I do anything to it?”

“Because I got a letter from Lord Balec today,” she said. “You are to have dinner with him at the capital tomorrow. There’s no getting out of it. You both have to play your parts, and I won’t have you shame me by sending you to dine with nobility looking like I dumped you into a pot of paint.”

“He won’t mind,” I argued. At least I hoped he wouldn’t mind. He didn’t seem the type to nitpick over stupid stuff like that.

“I mind,” Master Esra said, her eyes narrowing. “How about a deal, then?”

“What kind of deal?”

“I try every trick I know to get the black out and if it doesn’t work, then I get to cut it.” It was the only option that gave me even the slightest bit of hope, so in the end, I agreed to it.

I had to admit, Master Esra was true to her word. She tried everything she could think of to get the color out. She even went to a mage friend of hers and brought back a potion that the mage promised would work, but all it ended up doing was fading the black color, so it looked more gray. There was no hope of it. I didn’t know what Marqus put in that ink bottle, but I couldn’t beat it.

In the end, Master Esra sat me down and cut away at the hair I had lovingly grown for most of my life while I slumped miserably in the chair. “Stop pouting,” she said, cupping my chin. “It’ll grow back, and I promise you look fine. It’ll be easier to manage this way.”

“I hate it.”

“You haven’t even seen it yet.”

“She’s right,” Finnley said from where he sat on the stairs, munching on an apple, watching the show. “It don’ look that bad.”

“See? Finn likes it,” Master Esra said, pleased.

“I didn’ say that,” Finnley grinned and took another bite while I glared at him.

“Is there some magic hair growth formula or something?” I whined.

“No. If there were, then it would fly off the shelves at the shops,” Master Esra laughed, then brushed off the stray hairs that had fallen onto my shoulders. “I gave you the choice. Black hair or a cut. You picked this.”

“Black hair is too much like my past life,” I admitted, nearly going cross-eyed trying to look at my hair by stretching out a strand to see how long it was. It wasn’t even long enough to look at. It was going to take forever to get used to.

“What’s wrong with that?” Master Esra asked as she put away her clippers.

“It gets confusing,” I said, not really sure how to put it. How do you describe how something feels when it happens? I’m no poet. I could just do the best I could. “It’s like I think I’m in her body. My vision gets all stretched, like I’m in two places at once. It happens sometimes when I get too deep into her memories. I don’t like it.”

“Is that the problem that Cyrus mentioned you had when you practiced with a sword?”

“Yeah.”

Cyrus had spoken in depth with Master Esra about the issues with recall, especially in the early stages of learning how to use it. Ever since, she has taken the effort to ask me more questions and trying to understand it. Although she has never experienced it herself, her trying at all helped me to feel better. It was easier to talk to her about it. I didn’t get as angry and frustrated over practicing her sword techniques nearly as often.

She smiled at me, her eyes softening on my face before she messed my hair, or at least what was left of it. “Well, we can’t have that. Are you boys hungry?” Finnley was the first to announce that he was, although he still held the apple he was still eating. “Finish that first, you glutton,” Master Esra said, laughing.

“What are we having?”

“Why don’t we go out to eat?” she suggested thoughtfully. “It’ll be nice to get out of the house.

My eyes brightened at the idea, and for just a moment, I forgot about the grief I felt for my hair. “Master, can I invite Papa, Eidke, and Aleah? I have my coin you payed me saved. I can buy their food.”

“Sure,” she said, then glanced outside at the fading light. “But you better be quick to fetch them. It’s getting late.” I was off before she finished talking, running to grab my shoes. Finnley hurried to catch up, inviting himself along. “Don’t worry about paying, Rueln. I would love to treat them.”

“We’ll be quick Master!” I yelled, running back out the front door and into the streets only to have to turn around and run back for my pass for the portal. If you were underage, you had to carry it with you, if you wanted to go through the portal without an adult. We almost started off again when Finnley realized he had forgotten his wooden sword and went to fetch it.

On our way out the door for the last time, Master Esra told us to meet her at the Fresh Faire Eatery on the corner of Welcrest St. We’d eaten there before, so we knew how to find it. Waving out assent, we were gone. Finnley and I chased each other, using the run as a play on training and taking turns playing the sword wielding chaser. By the time we actually made it to the portal, I was the chaser and Finnley was proving how hard he was to catch.

“Slow down,” one guard scolded us when we ran up to the gate to present our passes. He looked them over, scrutinizing, and I could see wanted to deny us.

He was debating on it when the second guard stepped in. “You’ll have to wait. There’s too much traffic in other areas right now. Give it twenty minutes. If more people don’t show up to go to Nole, increasing the demand, then we’ll open it then.

Well, that’s a cheat, I complained internally even as Finnley and I stepped back and plopped ourselves down on the curb nearby to wait.

“This is stupid!” Finnley complained loud enough for the guards to hear us. The rude one who wanted to reject us looked our way and frowned at us.

“Hush,” I grumbled, nudging his side. “They’ll hear you.”

“Maybe I want em ta hear me,” he exclaimed again. “You don’ see em tellin’ the adults off. We weren’ doin no harm!”

“It doesn’t hurt us to wait our turn,” I said, though I felt the same way watching as a single man walked up to the guards, spoke to them, then the portal shifted colors, signaling it had a new destination.

“Ya see tha!” Finnley exclaimed, upset at the unfairness of it.

“Yes,” someone said behind us, making us both jump to our feet in surprise. A hooded figure stood only a few feet away, close enough that it would only take leaning forward for me to reach out and touch the fabric of their heavy cloak. Although I couldn’t see any features of her face, the voice had definitely been that of a woman. I could feel eyes locked on me as intensely as I set mine on her.

“Who are you?” I breathed, transfixed by a feeling of familiarity that I couldn’t quite explain.

“Does it matter?” She answered, walking past us and toward the portal guards. “You have somewhere to be, don’t you?”

I nodded, then glanced over at Finnley to see a confused expression on his own face. “I think I’ve seen er before, but I can’ think of where.”

“Maybe she lives here?” I suggested, not sure myself.

“Maybe,” he agreed, but not in a way that was all that convincing.

The guards straightened at the woman’s approach, much like they had done with the other adults we had seen. It was their job to work the portal for the common people while another team worked the portals for the merchants. The nobles took a different portal in another part of the city, as far as I knew. I’ve never seen one around here before, at least.

“Good evening Miss,” the more reasonable guard greeted her when she stopped in front of them. “How can we serve you?”

“I need a portal to Nole,” she answered confidently. “Business is my own,” she finished before they could ask the usual follow-up questions.

“Course it is,” the other guard grumbled, even as he worked the portal with expert hands to change the destination.

When it was set and the guards gave their assent, she turned to us and I could almost see the shadow of her face if I stared at it hard enough. “Are you just going to stand there?” She demanded.

Finnley was the first to push me toward the portal, breaking my line of sight from her. “You heard er,” he hissed before disappearing through the portal.

I paused, turning to look back at her when she made no move to follow me. “Aren’t you coming?” I asked.

What I could see of her lips barely curled up into what was unmistakably a soft smile. “No,” she answered and then, to the two guard’s horror, she walked away. I grinned and then bolted through the portal before they could change it back out of spite. Crafty stranger, I thought, delighting in the mischief of what she had done. I doubted it would improve the guard’s mood, though, but I don’t think I minded.