Chapter 37 Every end is another beginning...

The ducal castle was a large and imposing structure, and unlike the city of Uljis that seemed to spill out around the raised structure like a set of kids building blocks dumped haphazardly. It was visible from any part of the city, which if my fragmented memories were anything to go by then might have either been a defensive thing, or a pride thing, or perhaps it was both. I looked up at it and shouldered my pack higher. It had been quite a while since I had worn more than the red underclothes, and so the Bronze armor that I had now donned felt like I was carrying a small Juji on my back, which was odd, seeing as Seri most definitely weighed more than my armor, but I never felt like she was weighing me down.

I turned to tell her this but bit back my words, after all, saying the woman you loved weighed more than a full suit of armor, or even speaking about weighed seemed to be a very very bad subject to speak of. She was clasping forearms with Aldria, the two of them giving each other a friendly smile in farewell. Aldria smiled at me and let go of Seri, holding out her hand to clasp forearms with me, but I was having none of it, pushing forward I gave her a hug, making sure to rub my face up under her throat and purr extra loud for her. It was typically something only did for family, and in my book, Seri was family already. But just this once I was going to bunt on a friend, a really good friend.

Pulling back I held her at arm's length and looked her up and down. “She hopes you achieve your goals,” I purred.

“Goals?” she asked confused, so I elaborated for her.

“The goals of mating with a demihuman, of course, like in that boo-” her hand clapped over my snout, and she turned a rather bright shade of reddish pink. Serina laughed for all she was worth as I struggled to get out of her grasp. She stood there looking at us and gave us a small melancholy smile.

“Are you two sure you have to go?” she asked looking rather sad.

“Yeah, it is past time we move on,” Seri nodded, “after we see the Duke I doubt we will want to stay, you know us, adventurers, we have stayed here much too long,” she smiled at Aldria, a composed look on her face, one that I found I respected immensely, seeing as it didn't show any of her feelings that had to no doubt be bouncing around inside her head. She was after all a proper adventurer, meaning she had taught herself to let go when she needed to move on, it hadn't made her colder, or even more detached, it just seemed like she had a good deal of strength.

“Seri and Rin will come to visit when they pass back this way, for sure,” I purred, feeling my heart drop at the sad look in Aldria’s eyes. “Besides, you can write to them, simply give it to the guild hall and it should be sent their way no?”

“That sounds like a plan,” she smiled, “well, I guess this is goodbye for now,” she sniffled slightly.

“No,” Seri said, “You should never say goodbye, goodbye is the end, instead you should say until we meet again,” she clapped Aldria on the shoulder, “Okay?”

“Okay,” she nodded and used the edge of her sleeve to wipe away the small amount of tears that had collected in the corners of her eyes. “Until we meet again then,” she nodded.

“Until that joyous day,” Seri smiled and then let go of Aldria’s shoulder, turning towards me she hiked the bag up on her shoulder, “Let's go kitten, we have a duke to meet,” she glanced up at the ducal castle and I followed her gaze. “Royalty does not wish to be kept waiting,” she said with a grimace.

“Rinmua wonders if they should stop at the Snarling Rotri, say goodbye to everyone?”

“Nah, why would I do that?” she laughed as she set off down the road.

“Not even Bartel?” she paused for half a step, but then kept going and shook her head.

“I’ll send him a letter,” she shrugged. “Speaking of which do you have any letters to send before we go? It might take some time for us to find another city in which to settle for a time.”

“She does, and she wishes to see if she has gotten a letter from Turu,” I nodded.

“That's fine, we will check the guild post after we stop by the duke’s, after all, we already have to go to the hall to let them know we will be moving on.”

“She thinks this sounds like a plan,” I responded and padded along to keep up with her. As we walked I looked around the city, just yesterday it had been almost at a boiling point, so close to spilling over that the violence and rioting could have destroyed many many things, but now it would seem as though everything was back to normal. People walked the streets openly, talking and conversing over the sound of merchants hawking their wares. “She wonders what will happen to the Brandmounts?” I asked as I walked with Sarena.

“Most likely they will be stripped of title and land, and it is likely their assets and silver will be seized by the Lord, and he will then send them to work in the mines until their debt is paid,” she said with a shrug. “It is a hard life, one full of toil and suffering, and it is highly likely that they will not last past the end of the year.” For some reason, the thought of Lady Brandmount toiling in the mines only brought a small amount of pleasure to me. “Doesn't feel good does it?” she asked with a smile, “that is because you are too kind of a person,” she scratched me behind my left ear, causing me to purr and lean into her hand. “Hold onto that, ok kitten?”

“She will try,” I nodded. It took us almost twenty minutes to make it up to the castle gates, once there we were stripped of weapons and packs, told to leave them at the door, and were shown into a rather well-made room by a well-dressed steward, who then bowed out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Redwood and oak gleamed beneath a lacquer, reflecting the entire room in a hazy red that seemed to catch the light, lovingly stroke it and then allow it to go back where it could be perceived by mortal eyes. The walls were covered in an intricate design, like that of a gold grape plant as the climbing vines covered the walls, leaving behind the tendrils of there outstretched vines, curling at the ends where it had found some purchase in the white paint that was its backdrop. The furniture was likewise just as opulent, an unassuming grey, covered in the intricate dance of birds during mating season, stitched, by hand of course, in a silver thread of the highest quality. But that was not what caught my eyes the most, instead the thing that did that was the man sitting behind the desk in the center of the room. He didn't look up at us, rather he busied himself studying books and papers spread out over his desk like we're not there.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Did you know that the Brandmounts were related to my line?” he asked, shuffling another paper and reading it, his finger drawing across the words as he made a tally on a separate paper and then placed the one he was reading in a small pile that was growing rather quickly it would seem. “By marriage of course, and just into the branch family, but still, I knew Grethon Brandmount personally for many many years, and it was even I who offered him the position of Lord of coin here in my lands,” Neither of us answered as he picked up another paper. “Imagine my surprise to receive this,” he without looking tossed a book at us, I reflexively caught it out of the air and looked at it.

It was the book that Bartel had stolen from the vault…

“Neverminding the rather disturbing way this book simply showed up on my bed during the night without any of my servants knowing how it was placed within my chamber without their knowledge,” he looked up at us then, pinning us with his grey eyes, “You two wouldn't know anything about this would you?“ he asked, but neither Seri nor I said anything, choosing silence as our answer. “I see,” he sighed, and pushed away a paper before sitting back in his rather plush chair. He hadn't asked us to sit down, so we remained standing as he scrutinized us. “Here is the deal, on one hand, I am glad I now know I was being robbed blind, after all, it is best to patch a broken fortification, but on the other, it pains me to have to treat family in such a way, and the two of you have… Helped enough,” he emphasized the word rather thickly, making sure we focused on it. “And in the spirit of that, I will not be arresting you for whatever crimes you have no doubt committed, however in the interest of keeping my city functioning I do not want you here, ever again.” He leaned forward, “Are we clear?” he growled, “This will be your only warning, if you are seen in my territory then you will be detained and tried and found guilty to whatever I deem fit.” he looked at us, “Now get out of my sight, and pray we don't cross paths again.”

Sarena bowed low and I followed suit before we walked out of the study. “Well,” she said, a small smile on her lips, “That went a lot smoother than I had thought it would,” I let out a breath I hadn't known I had been holding in, and plodded along behind her, weary all of a sudden after that…

***

“No, I am sorry there is no mail for you,” the clerk smiled at me, and I sighed, before handing over a small letter.

“Can she send this please?” I asked, and he took it and my bronze coins and dropped it into a basket of mail to be sorted. “Well Sarena, she is ready to go,” I said, turning back towards her, she opened her mouth to say something but the guild mail clerk behind me interrupted.

“Sarena?” he asked, and pulled out the list of names that had mail and started scanning through it, “I do believe I remember a letter addressed to that name, give me just a second...” he kept scanning and I looked over at Seri, who had to my knowledge never gotten mail the entire time I had known her. “Ah, yes, d63a, let me go fetch the letter, be right back,” he quickly scampered off and Seri caught sight of my look and simply shrugged. “Here we are,” he said, handing over a rather thick looking letter. She took it, and the color of her skin seemed to drain slightly as her fingers brushed over the wax seal on it. Carefully she broke the seal and removed the thick sheet of parchment, I glanced over her shoulder but soon realized I couldn't read the elegantly scrawled words, seeing as they were not in a language that I knew.

“She wonders what it is?” I asked, and she looked over at me, biting her lip.

“Ho-how do you feel about traveling to my home?” she asked, a worried look on her face as she stumbled through the question.

“Where Sarena goes Rinmua goes,” I said, reaching up and touching the earing in my ear with my pawpad. “Remember?” some of the worry leaked from her expression, but not all of it.

“Good, good,” she smiled as she absently scratched me on top of my head, tousling my hair as she turned back to her letter. “Because we need to hurry...”

Epilogue

She sighed as she settled back against her throne, this one made of both light and shadow, both physical and atherial, much like herself after all, should not a goddess have a suitable throne? She smiled at the thought, he had once argued against that, telling her that such thoughts were vain. Ahalfar, the only champion she had ever had that had spoken to her, not in reverent tones but rather as though the two of them were equals.

He had not been her equal of course, but she had tolerated it, seeing as he had been her most effective champion, and had been one of her favorite pets. She materialized a cup in her hand, and swirled the golden liquid around, looking into it with a smile, and seeing the figure of two people making their way down a path. “There you are Ahalfar,” she whispered with a smile, “its been too long, too long by far has it not?”

“What is your wish mistress?” she looked up from the cup and down at her champion, he was one of the bowing and scraping types, content with simply doing everything she ordered.

It was irksome…

She didn't answer, she simply looked down at the cup again and dipped a finger in the golden liquid stirring it delicately, thinking. “You thought you could lose me so easily Ahalfar?” she whispered, her lips curling into a mocking smile, “It was a good try, a very very good effort, ripping apart your soul and tearing out any and every part of me that I had imprinted there? Smart, so very like you,” she hissed the last words, the lights around her darkening. “Who am I?” She asked the new champion, looking over at him, new was a relative term, seeing as he had been serving her for the past hundred or so years, right after she had started to punish Ahalfar.

“You are the Goddess of life and death the-”

“That is enough,” she held up her hand and silenced him, “Indeed, goddess of life and death, and Ahalfar thought he could trick me by dying and being reborn?” the part that truly irked her was the fact that it had worked, for the past 16 years she had no idea where he had been, in which realm, in which body, and only by chance had she found him. “If only I could reach out and pluck him-” but she could not, gods and goddesses were not allowed to affect the mortal realm directly, had they been she would not have needed to have a champion, to begin with. “I cannot leave his crimes unpunished,” part of her wondered if he had not already paid enough, but no, she remembered the look he had given her when her mask had fallen…

Disgust and loathing…

For a goddess none the less, such things could not be forgiven, not now nor ever…

“I am sending you,” she said looking up once again, at the groveling man at her feet. “You are to capture the soul, and make sure there is plenty of pain before the flesh’s death,” she said, glancing at the woman walking next to Ahalfar. “As much as possible,” she hissed.

“As you command my goddess,” the man stood and bowed before her, she smiled to herself and waved a hand at him, causing him to vanish in a flash of light.

“Well this will be interesting to watch,” she said as she draped her legs over the arm of her throne. “I am not done with you Ahalfar,” she whispered, “Not by a long shot...”

End of book 1