PART 1 of 3
Just after dawn my morning began with the usual rituals, simultaneously pleasant and depressing. On the plus side I woke up with bright sunlight spilling in from a narrow window. I could smell the familiar scents of paper, papyrus, and old vellum. I was in the rare book room of Litera Scripta Manet. LSM to friends. Get up. Roll and stash my bedroll in the corner. Yes, the old one I carried across the Hinterlands during the Crusade… Use the water from the pitcher. Shave. Get dressed. I kept repeating the advice I got. Not to give in to despair. Mostly I succeeded. I am blessed by Altheres. I own a magnificent shop dedicated to preserving and spreading knowledge. I have a large number of friends. I own, a few, fabulous items…
Belt on Acuity. Maybe take a moment to draw the blade and admire the glassteel in the light. Run my fingers over the runes. Heroes of legend would have been proud to carry you.
That much of my life was pretty good.
On the downside…well the books smelled wonderful but even so, they didn’t smell as good as my wife's hair. Belinay wasn’t next to me. She was across the hall sleeping in the master bedroom. In our comfortable feather bed.
And I’m back to the bedroll. At least I don’t have to worry about scorpions …
Or do I? I lock the door to this room every night. And I hope and pray it's still really Belinay who looks back at me. But I don’t know with any certitude. Given the powers of Mattias and his influence in the Golden Court, I can’t be entirely sure. Whose soul stares out of her eyes now? Or are there other passengers in her body?
Yeah I know how that sounds. Paranoid.
I haven’t said these words out loud. Not even as a whisper. Still, thats where things stand. Somehow Matias “Spirit Mount” had the women of the Golden Court under his thumb. It wasn’t traditional mind control. I could detect and defeat that through my own use of the arcanum. Matias had done something else…
I’ll kill him.
Sometimes the heartache of Belinay’s enslavement and the rift that had opened between us bordered on physical pain. And on bad days I was tempted to consider that I was delusional - that Belinay had just fallen out of love with me. But then I thought about the woman I married, and I thought about that noose wearing weasel.
I’ll kill him.
Whatever else was happening, it wasn’t the natural charm of Matias I needed to worry about. Besides if Aunt Nasha could cut down Ys from behind, then it wasn’t just about me and Bel. It wasn’t just in my head. I might be caught up in a nightmare, but it wasn’t a paranoid delusion. I haven’t been hit in the head too often.
I’ll kill him…but how? He’s in the entourage of the … the Great General. Say “the Great General.” Even here in the privacy of my own head, never the “D” word. Never the “D” word.
My thoughts chased each other. Mostly in circles. I hated the feeling of powerlessness. That was pretty normal for how I woke up these days.
At least I was waking up. Poor Ys. The Tomal Khan had been a good ruler and a good man. Not a common combination. He deserved a better end. But his death was useful as an object lesson on balancing love and trust. If Aunt Nasha, under Matias’ influence, could kill Ys - then I had to keep it permanently fixed in my thoughts that I can't let my guard down around Belinay.
That much of my life is wretched… Well, time for breakfast.
_________________ Eric Gorman
AKA Ambassador Tukufu, man of letters, tomb raider and Master Sword Sage . . . and Sir Szymon val'Holryn, Order of the Phoenix Formerly Sir Jaeger val'Holryn. Weilder of the Holy Avenger: Thonanos. Gave his soul to help free King Noen
Last edited by val Holryn on Tue Jun 13, 2017 12:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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