Somewhere within the confines of the castle, King Victor Fiske had escaped the assassins that had been sent to kill him. Whether the Mad King knew his life was forfeit or was simply just being cautious, however, was unknown. Hell, the assassins had reported back that they didn’t even know if Victor Fiske had even left the castle. To them, it appeared that the Helvetian had left the castle and simply… vanished into the castle town’s streets.
The news was met with unease by the anxious Princes, and even greater unrest by the citizens when King Blayney gave a speech preparing the country for yet another war. What had initially turned out to be a quiet day for many had been twisted into darkness as the wounds of their perils during the war with Helvetia were reopened in their hearts. Arwen didn’t quite know how to react, and had spent many evenings with her mother simply talking about… things. Anything they could think of that would distract them from the stress. Her father had grown dim after the failed assassination and was rarely seen, plotting defences against the oncoming Helvetian forces. When he spoke to Arwen, gone was the loving and affectionate tone in his voice, replaced with a nostalgic tinge of dread, as if the King himself knew that Cyfoeth was lost.
But as the days, then weeks, and even a full-blown month had gone by with no activity reported on the border, the people began to relax, Arwen included. Perhaps King Fiske was bluffing, or was simply too distracted with his war against the Keep to properly mount an offense. The latter possibility was something Arwen did not want to dwell on, for it revealed an uncomfortable truth. Helvetia could afford to wait until the war with the Vampire Keep is over before turning their sights on Cyfoeth, and there was little the weaker country could do. Cyfoeth simply did not have the strength to hold a candle against their neighbouring Kingdom.
Then, one day, as the summer had blazed through the country with a roaring heat, Arwen’s father called for her in private. “It’s time,” he said to her, all business. He had been reading some documents that were on his desk, but had placed them down to speak to his daughter. “Glannau has been under siege by pirates, of all people, for several weeks now. They lie hidden in Pwynt estuary and strike trading ships from Cyfoeth Port in order to rob them of their supplies. These ruffians have been sapping at the Kingdom’s resources, and we simply need all that we can get in preparation for war against Helvetia. We cannot afford to be leaking resources, insignificant as it may be, and my soldiers are too stretched thin across the border and on Tristwch to deal with them personally.”
Arwen inwardly sighed. She had often considered just giving up and refusing to continue with anymore missions, but she didn’t bother arguing with her father, for she knew it would go nowhere. King Blayney had turned in on himself as of late, and Arwen did not have to heart to raise any more issues for him. Like it or not, she’d have to just suck it up. “Do you want them arrested, father?”
“No,” her father shook his head. “I don’t want the bother of processing these fools. Kill them, Arwen.”
When his ruthless apathy sparked an alarmed expression from his daughter, King Blayney elaborated. “These men are attempting to rob innocent men, women, and children of their livelihoods for their own gain. Many of my seamen are traumatised because of them, and are now refusing to sail, leaving Glannau starving for resources. They are far from innocent, Arwen.”
Alright, then… Arwen had never killed a human, thought she’d never have to outside of self-defence, yet she was now tasked with the planning the deaths of pirates she had never met. Pirates that were dead set on ruining the livelihoods of innocent citizens. Did it justify their deaths? Was she even strong enough to enact such a choice for her father? When she next spoke, it was with as much determination as she could muster. She wanted to show her father that she was strong. “When do we leave?”
Her father sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “As soon as possible, please.”
Tomorrow, then. Arwen nodded and turned to leave, but hesitated. She had grown so distant from her father within such a short time span, and he didn’t even seem to realise or care that it bothered her, even after their heart-to-heart the month before. “I love you, Dad.”
“Yes,” King Blayney simply nodded, already too engrossed in some sort of document to truly engage. “I know, dear.”
-cut-
When Arwen met with Cai, Gwyn, and Owen the next day, she half expected Eryk to show up as well, but he of course never came. “All this travelling’s getting to me,” Cai joked as he stretched in preparation for the long walk down Tristwch. “I should just retire.”
“And forfeit your pay?” Gwyn arched a brow. “That’s a bold move.”
“At least you’re all getting paid,” Arwen muttered. “I get this misery for free…”
“Ah,” Cai smirked teasingly. “Forgive us for not having a cushy job running the Kingdom lined up for us after this.”
“You know it is far from cushy,” the Princess knew Cai had simply misinterpreted her words as an attempt at levity, but she couldn’t help but grow touchy. “At this rate, I’ll be left with a war-torn country fighting a titan of a Kingdom.”
“Your father is doing the best he can,” Gwyn tried to diffuse the onset awkward silence.
“I know.”
With that demure reminder, they set off from Cyfoeth and down Tristwch Road. The first two days towards the travel stop went as normal, and after the night and ensuring her Light Gem and dagger were secure along with their belongings, they set off south-east off of a by-road named Eiledu Path which led first to their destination for the night, Marwhol, before cutting through Traeth Forest and into the surrounding Continent Garden which stretched south-eastwards from the north around the forest, whereupon their destination, Glannau, would await. As Arwen’s father had alluded to, soldiers frequently patrolled the road, though they all looked tired and bleary. Cai and Gwyn had recognised a few, and had stopped for a brief chat. Almost every single soldier complained of their unforgiving hours.
It seemed Cyfoeth was already stretched thin, and Helvetia hadn’t even attacked yet.
Regardless, the new territory down Eiledu Path had injected some vigour into the Princess, who awaited the famous Lake Swyno with glee. When a small hill crested into a wide valley, all woes and were temporarily forgotten as the sparkling lake came into view.
Lake Swyno was huge. Absolutely massive! It easily spanned a two-hour walk wide and stretched far into the valley towards Traeth Forest, where it bottlenecked into a wide gushing river. The water glittered as if it were a liquid mirror, sending pulsing flashes of yellow across its surface so intensely that it made it nigh-impossible to tell what was underneath the shimmering water. The basin of the lake itself was incredibly odd, with the water’s surface lying a good two or three metres below the rim of the natural bowl, forming almost a cliff-edge into the lake. Surrounding the lake, the rich greenery had inherited the sparkling nature of the water, refracting the sunlight in viridescent and, occasionally, even rainbow hues. Multi-coloured flowers jutted from the grassland, adding flows of colour to the lush and watery scene. “I’ve never seen Lake Swyno before,” even the usually-nonplussed knight seemed enchanted by such shimmering beauty. “It’s beautiful.”
But Arwen wasn’t fazed. She could see its beauty, she could even muster up a slight sense of wonderment at the sight, but for all its magic and lustre, the Princess simply couldn’t break through the numbness that had been encasing her for so long. Arwen had felt as though she was getting better for a time. She felt that the nightmares would soon stop, that her anxieties and feelings of worthlessness would fade, and she actually held hope. But then she had noticed how effectively her retainers had moved on from what had been so traumatic to Arwen, and the little voices telling her she wasn’t good enough were suddenly reinforced.
“The water’s being pushed into the lakebed by the moon’s gravity,” Gwyn was speaking to Cai and Owen, utterly unaware of the Princess’s quiet contemplation of her own dark thoughts. By this point, they had all noticed that something was wrong with Arwen, but they gave up trying to find out what after she kept refusing to tell them. “As the moon glides across the sky during the day, the water sloshes onto one side of the basin before it lifts into the air and floats at night. Some legends claim it’s as if the water itself is attempting to fly sky-high to the moon itself.”
“The water floats?” Owen frowned. He sounded sceptical. “Floats in the air?”
Gwyn nodded. “Apparently, it’s tied to the moon’s gravity more than ours, but we’re not sure why yet. No one knows why it sparkles like that, too, though stories tell of the Gods using Lake Swyno as some sort of divine forge for the artifacts and artifices.”
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“What does the Church say about it?” Cai turned around to Arwen, trying to engage her in the conversation.
Arwen shrugged in response. “I don’t know.”
The awe-inspiring beauty of Lake Swyno and its subsequent river clung to Eiledu Path as long as it could, but it eventually snaked farther south away from them until it disappeared completely into the mountainous terrain of Traeth Forest. It was during the transition towards the late afternoon when they arrived at Marwhol village.
Their timing was perfect, for the sun just past its zenith illuminated one of the prettiest villages Arwen had ever lain eyes on. The road they were on bisected into two main paths down the village, each surrounded on the outside by rows of attached brick houses with large windows atypical of Cyfoethian architecture. The inside of the two paths were cordoned off by a quiet river filled with ducks and tiny fish, enjoying the gentle wafting motion of the water as it slowly trickled downstream. Attached to the outskirts of the river were multiple wooden rowing boats smoothly rocking from side to side in a slow, calming rhythm. Yet as she walked slowly onto one of its paved roads, Arwen was staring downcast.
Her retainers, contrarily, all equally admired the lengths to which the villagers had decorated their beloved homes. The usually dull brick houses were alighted with blue, yellow, lilac, and red flowers adorned upon the lightly painted wooden fencing that separated the front doors from the main paths. At the river’s narrowest point about two-hundred metres down the road, a quaint little bridge connected the two pathways, culminating in a staired walkway that snaked underneath the bridge for those looking for a scenic walk. Trees dotted the free spaces within the village, a symptom of the nearby Traeth Forest, casting shadows along with the puffy white clouds in the sky above onto the ground, providing much appreciated relief from the baking summer heat. “This is our stop,” Cai allowed his relief to show through his otherwise impassive mien. “Thankfully no trouble out on Tristwch.”
Arwen briefly paused to let herself enjoy the sheer quiet of the village, which so far had not a single person in sight save for the small quacks of the nearby ducks, before answering in a dull voice. “It appears father truly was concerned over our attack, after all.” If anything, the number of soldiers patrolling the road seemed overkill to Arwen, but she was relieved at their presence.
Due to the narrow path nestled between the river and the home’s wood fences, the foursome had to walk in pairs down the road. Therefore, when Owen spoke, Arwen had to listen to his voice from behind. “Where is everyone?”
“I don’t know,” Gwyn admitted. “I’ve been to Marwhol a few times, but it was never like this.”
“I’ve never been myself,” Cai shrugged. “I wonder what it is they do here.”
“They cultivate flowers and supply medicines to Cyfoeth.” Gwyn supplied helpfully.
When they had finally found an inn, distinguished by the metal sign jutting out from its chain post above the entrance, they entered and half-expected the place to be deserted. Thankfully, however, a rather bored man of average height and fair youth, with acne scarring his freckled face, perked up in interest upon their entry. “Hello,” he greeted amicably. “What can I do for you?”
“You got a place for four?” Cai handled the finances, and so took the lead.
“Sure do,” the youth smiled and supplied the knight his price. “Truthfully, we’re pretty empty lately. A lot of the soldiers stationed here high-tailed it out once Helvetia declared war,” he immediately averted his gaze. “A true disappointment after such small glimpses of peace.”
“What about the other villagers?” Gwyn couldn’t help his own curiosity. “I’ve visited before, and it’s always been so busy.”
“It’s their rest day,” the innkeeper had brightened upon the change of topic. “We take rest here in Marwhol very seriously, so most don’t even bother leaving their homes. Otherwise, there’d usually be loads of chaps walking around and whatnot.”
Cai finished counting out his coins and offered it to the young man. “Here you go.”
“Awesome,” the man didn’t even bother counting the amount. “Let me get my keys one second… hey,” he suddenly hesitated and cocked his head at Arwen, “you look a lot like the Princess.”
“I get that a lot…” Arwen mumbled vaguely. Thankfully, the man simply nodded and ducked into a small room behind the counter. It seemed most people didn’t recognise her face much when she was in uniform, but interestingly failed to even question why hers were adorned in royal colouring. Was it because people attributed her to the black dresses and clothing she often wore?
Overnight, the village remained as peaceful as it was during the day, and as the sun began its climb into the sky, they left the inn and left the village onto Eiledu Path into Traeth Forest, ready to make the two-day journey towards Glannau.
The entirety of Traeth Forest was filled with vertical, near mountainous terrain, allowing the trees to poke out of the multi-green coloured canopy at random intervals. The path through the forest had its ups and downs, yet the trees were consistent in their desire to completely cover the sky above with its arching branches and leaves. It made Arwen feel as if they were walking within shelter, and would’ve made it hard to recall that she was actually outside if it weren’t for the songful chirps of distant birds. Thankfully, Eiledu Path cut through the thinnest section of the forest, and therefore their day was marked an end once they emerged from Traeth onto the outskirts of the Lliwio Plains that had wrapped around the forest northwards to greet them anew on the other side. Eventually, just like on Triswch, the plains terminated not far from the forest’s exit, culminating into the familiar lush scenery of Continent Garden.
Within the soft grass of the Garden, Arwen slept horribly. The summer air hardly cooled at night, and the Garden had turned evil in its humidity levels. She also kept having those recurring nightmares. Sometimes, Elain would strangle her to death in an empty void. Other times, the Helvetians who had attacked her would brutally torture her before finally allowing her to die. She was thankful when her nightmares finally released her as night broke into day, and she was able to properly awaken and eat before the last leg of the journey.
Unlike Triswch, which tended to twist and turn gently around Continent’s Garden and Coed’s Forest, Eiledu cut a straight path directly to Glannau, though Arwen wondered if any of the gigantic Fugg trees had to be cut down in order to make it so. Still, the lush environment was a pleasant eye-soother, and a few Bwa Bushes, the ones that formed natural arches, rose and fell over the path, making a natural archway through the road sometimes. The spring flowers that had been blooming in full colour upon the bushes, however, was disappointingly absent, having shrivelled back to hide away from the summer heat.
It was almost entirely dark when they reached Glannau, marking the longest day Arwen had ever travelled in terms of raw hours. The resulting sight, however, was almost worth it.
It appeared as though southern Cyfoeth favoured its beautiful villages, for Glannau was even more impressive than Marwhol, even in the darkness. The small fishing hamlet was littered with surprisingly large houses, each with lovingly slanted roofs which formed a multi-layered hat like effect below the triangular tops. Each house was made predominantly of some sort of pale white material, with black struts intersecting the walls into tasteful square shapes which terminated pleasingly into the roof above. Instead of plain wooden doors, Glannau’s houses had opted instead for more exotic sliding doors, with their ‘windows’ composed not of glass but of small slits positioned high into the walls, allowing for airflow into the buildings. Paper lanterns swung lazily in the gentle sea breeze, bathing the village in a soothing orange glow, however it was the fireflies that truly lit the place up.
There must have been thousands of them! Arwen’s woes were momentarily forgotten as she marvelled at the small yellow bodies, alone insignificant, but sufficiently gathered to form high densities of slow-moving yellow light shows. Contrarily to Marwhol, which had a river running vertically through it, Glannau’s river cut across horizontally, which effectively sliced the village into two segments connected by a narrow bridge suitable enough for two to walk through side-by-side. Its wooden décor arched into a slanted roof that was the theme of the village, it appeared to Arwen, and had been decorated with potted plants to complement the wild vines that hung loosely from the bridge’s side, slightly waving in motion with the gently running water.
It was also quiet, but not entirely so like in Marwhol. Instead, the gentle voices of chatting citizens waxed and waned as Arwen and her retainers walked by, the villagers noticing the newcomers but not really interested in examining them. Instead, the place had a rather comely vibe to the Princess, who met the sights with tired but grateful eyes.
Once assigned four separate rooms in the large Wrth y Traeth Inn, a first for Arwen so far, she fell instantly into a dreamless sleep and awoke the next morning feeling achy and sore from her travels, but rather refreshed. After breakfasting outside, enjoying the gentle rustling noise of the river nearby, Cai turned to Gwyn. “Where do you think we should go now?”
“The port, I’d guess.” Gwyn replied. “We’ll ask around- see if we can get in touch with anyone.”
Reaching the port required a trip across the quaint little bridge with all the vines and potted plants, which revealed the second half of Glannau leading down towards the sandy beach towards Pwynt estuary, where a small but well looked after port sat with sailing vessels aplenty. Five tall masts reached high into the sky, with sails rolled up and furled to prevent them from snagging in the wind.
The sight of four uniformed arrivals brought out a man dressed in grey overalls from the dockyard. His boots clacked across the wooden floorboards as he strode confidently towards the foursome. Upon closer inspection, the man was of average height with a jovial-looking face weathered by at least thirty-something years of aging. Blue eyes stood out among his tan lined face and, although it was hard to tell underneath the baggy looking overalls, the man had an average build. “Good day,” he greeted with a smile, using a hand to wipe away his shaggy blonde hair from his eyes. “Who are you?”
Cai stepped forward and introduced himself. “I am Cai Huws, serving alongside Owen Voyle, and Gwyn Myrick as retainers to Princess Arwen Blayney.”
The man’s eyebrows immediately smashed together. “My name’s Cain,” he reciprocated the greeting in a much more cautious tone, “Cain Elisedd. I’m in charge of the docks here… what brings your Teyrn and her knights to the Glannau docks?”
“King Blayney sent us,” Cai explained. “He told us you have a pirate problem.”
Cain’s face immediately lit up in relief. “Thank goodness! I thought you were going to tell me the Helvetians were invading the village or something! Hah, what a relief. But, isn’t everyone busy with the border right now?”
“We’re stretched thin,” Cai admitted in a diplomatic tone. “Which is why he sent us.”
While the two conversed, Arwen was secretly growing worried. What if the pirate problem had already been dealt with? After all, why assume they were here, if not to help? She certainly hoped she hadn’t travelled all this way for nothing.