I’m tired.
I have one more day to produce a working explosive.
I was deep in the heart of the palace, slaving away to my own mind. But that was fine. At least, it wasn’t for that woman I despised.
Nora. Nora Van Vollaria.
But another issue was arising hiding under the surface. There was another unknown variable that entered the table. Zidane Albetros.
He always watched over me. He always followed me. He never let me out of his sight. It was likely he didn’t trust me or had some moral compass as a Royal Knight to be overly protective of his princess. Whatever the case was, it was him who had brought me to this apothecary, allowing me to network with chemists alike, helping me find resources. This was the palace after all, they seemed to have everything I needed.
But the only thing that stood in my way was that I didn’t know all the chemicals of this world, the materials or their properties. This is where Jay would have been perfect. If I had given him a list of properties, he would have sourced it for me instantly whereas here, I was alone with rows of shelves, boxes and small compartments containing so many unearthly materials.
I read the names and memorised them as much as I could while testing each of their properties until I could find the wrong one.
I was a slave to my own mind. But that was fine.
The day time came and I hadn’t even slept in my own room, just on this wooden chair with my head on the desk. Avante had woken me up after only a mere four hours. Sleep? What was that? I didn’t need it.
Last night, I had figured out the properties and chemistry of the materials I needed. So today, I needed to perform controlled experiments. I tested, I failed. I tested, I failed. I tested, I failed.
In this primitive world stuck in history, creating weapons from a civilisation that spent thousands of years cultivating it, came to be harder than expected.
My hands were black, my face was dirty and my eye bags drooped. I did not care.
The chemist that occupied this room was a short, nearly bald-man with hair circling his sides. The man had left for the night and returned as he was in charge of creating medicines and antidotes. Essentially, he was a chemist.
I was so deep in work that I hadn’t noticed how much the man was watching me from the other side of the room, peering through the gaps in the shelves.
I smashed the desk before me as everything jumped out of place.
“Avante, what’s fucking wrong?!” I exclaimed to which I heard a little squeal come from behind me. Turning around, I saw the man quickly spin back to face his work space, trying to avoid eye contact.
“Sir, the design before you is perfect, however, it’s your hand-work that needs improving. Also, you are working with materials I cannot identify,” Avante responded in my head.“Why fucking thank you,” I whispered.
The door suddenly creaked open, pulling away my frustration to which I saw Zidane stood at its centre.
Not you again. Fuck. Off.
“So you are still here,” he said, “The princess is calling for you. She has been wondering-”
“Tell her she can fucking wait!-”
I felt a slice of wind slash my face when the scrape of metal ripped into my ears. Right before my fragile neck, a sword threatened my life. Slowly pressing the tip onto me, I stepped back in panic and raised my hands.
“Who are you to speak of the princess like that?” He said, crossing his brows and staring me down, “There is something about you that I do not like. If you believe I do not trust you, take it as so.”
“Sorry, I apologise,” I said calmly, regaining my composure. I forced my heart to stop beating so frantically. “I apologise. I didn’t hear you properly.”
What a sorry excuse.
“Please tell her, I am still fixing my machine. She will understand, I can promise you that. If she doesn’t you’re free to slash me,” I continued to which the man said nothing, giving me one last squinting look before leaving abruptly.
How long would I be in the clutches of this palace? A princess who has me wrapped around her finger and her knight who doesn’t trust me for unknown reasons.
“Fuck!” I gritted my teeth as I slammed the desk with my fist. I go again.
The sun dropped into the ocean and the night took over. I made it. The first prototype but now the issue was testing it fully. I couldn’t just explode it in the room.
Agh fuck!
And time was running out. One was not good enough, I needed at least a few more and perhaps, it was time to go see the wretched woman once more. I left my workspace, and dragged myself to her floor. Still being in her domain, the guards began to recognise my presence and had directed me toward Nora after asking for directions. My brain felt tired, where normally I’d be able to remember the directions as if it were instinct. This time I didn’t even bother with trying to use brain power to rethink it.
I arrived at the big double door, and knocked on it sluggishly. I hoped she was inside and due to that uptight Royal Knight, I probably just couldn’t waltz in without knocking.
“You may enter.”
Opening the door, I was greeted by the moonlight shining rays onto her face as she stared out to the starry sky. She looked at me with a look of shock, and bear in mind, her look of shock was just raising her eyebrows slightly.
“Axure?”
“Nora, I need a favour,” I said while resting on the doorframe to my side. It looked like it was only her in the room.
“Are you alright, you look awfully tire-”
I raised my hand to stop her from stating the obvious.
“Nora. I need a favour.”
Sha paused for a moment, and now fully turned her body to look my way.
“I need to step outside of the city, somewhere open. I need to test some things out,” I said.
“Is it one of your machines?”
“Yes.”
“You can’t go alone.”
The comment enraged me. “Why?” I shot back.
“It’s dangerous,” she instantly flung back.
Nora Van fucking Vollaria. How much do you intend to keep me in this cage of yours?!
“So then what?” I riposted.
“I shall have someone accompany you,” she answered while going through her desk. I watched her pull out a piece of paper, and proceeded to write what seemed to be one line of a… message? It looked like that to me.
After folding up the page, she opened the side panel of the glass window, whistling a rhythm and in a few seconds, a shrieking eagle came darting to sit on her right hand. Placing the folded page in its mouth, the bird took off in lightning fashion as Nora smiled softly at the sight.
“Zidane shall accompany you.”
Part Two
The two of us sat in a small, open carriage, pulled by a horse as we left the city. I watched again in live time, this time in the opposite direction as we left the palace, the descending wealth. Come to think of it, at this point in time, I had never even left the city walls. It was surprising that I had managed to make my way into the Royal Palace, before I had ever left this city.
Zidane sat before me, arms folded and a stern face as he looked to his right. We sat in front of each other, on the small benches inside this wooden carriage, listening to the liveliness of the slums grow quieter as we left. We followed a path drawn into the grasslands as we left the black, metal gate that raised upon leaving.
For a moment, a thought sprung into my mind. What were these walls made for?
I listened to the screeching metal and clanking of gears rattle behind me as the guards closed the gate, leaving us with a breathtaking view. Empty grasslands, as far as the eye could see with millions of stars splattered across its dark canvas. The calmness was comforting with the soft breeze brushing my face and the tranquil swaying of the grass, spread across the smooth hills. The air felt fresh. Fresher than anything I had experienced in my life.
In a world with no pollution, I had to admire the beauty of true, untouched nature for the first time in my life and I welcomed it.
“How much space do you need?” Zidane asked, breaking my trail of thought.
Pointing over to an empty hill to my left, Zidane nodded and told the man riding the horse to take us there.
“Zidane,” I said as he turned his attention back to me, “I know you are the princesses knight, but is there another reason you devote your life so much to her other than your duty?”
“I’m under no obligation to tell you,” he replied.
That means there is something.
“I’m not trying to pry into your life. I’m just asking out of general curiosity. I mean, it seems like we’re going to be on the same boat now, so it wouldn’t hurt to know a little about each other.”
“I’m sure you know Axure. I don’t trust you,” he hurled back with his eyes closed, “I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to deduce that.”
“May I ask why you don’t?”
“That is definitely something I shall not tell you. I will just test you overtime and determine whether you are trustworthy or not.”
“That’s fine… I just initially asked because I felt like we maybe shared something in common about the princess. I mean, she saved my life after all,” I said quieter, as I looked to the sky. But I felt the silence grow a little too loud for a moment with no reply back, and so I looked to Zidane. For the first time on this stern man's face, I saw a softer look, one that had extinguished the cold look he always wore and looked into the corner of the carriage.
“Indeed, you are right about that at least,” he fell into a short silence again, as if flickering through his memory files but continued, “That woman saved my life once upon a time as well. When I was in a corner, with nowhere to go, nowhere to run, the beautiful princess saved my life.”
We are all slaves to something. And this man before me had just shown me his origins.
“And from then on, I served as her knight and I shall continue to do so even if she goes against the whole world.”
See. You are a fool Zidane. You are a slave, willingly chaining yourself down. You didn’t become a knight of your own belief, you were saved and gave your freedom up to the very woman who holds those shackles. Nora Van Vollaria, she sees usefulness and pounces on it. The woman will only save those backed in a corner, and use who she deems useful. And Zidane is a slave to it without knowing.
Zidane, a competent, strong man is useful to her cause. What better way than to save him in his greatest moment of despair, and lead him onto her strings?
Me, a man who shows competence in creation, ingenuity and survival. What better way than to save my life, and confine me endlessly under a false ruse of compassion?
Two people I despised the most.
One person who took my freedom away.
And one person who allowed their freedom to be taken.
Nora Van Vollaria and Zidane Albetros.
“We’re here,” a croaky voice came from the front. Zidane slowly stepped out from the carriage in an orderly fashion, truly keeping up the Royal Knight act.
A few minutes had passed and Zidane kept an eye on me from a distance with his arms folded. Placing the dynamite in a space relatively far from me, preparing to detonate it, I stood next to Zidane as I waited a few seconds.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Three… two… one…
I stood there, preparing for the shockwave, but nothing came.
It was dead silent. The rustling of the grass and whistling of the wind shattered my thoughts.
“So this is what you brought me out here for?” A snide remark from Zidane.
“Wait.” I pulled out another one from the carriage, examining it as I fiddled with its ins and outs.
“So this went wrong, ah, okay… this needs adjusting. Fine. Makes sense.”
I fiddled around for a little while longer, feeling Zidane's eyes stay transfixed on me. And without warning, I threw the dynamite toward the other with all my might, and with no waste, this time, a huge puff of smoke reached out to the sky as a burst of flames erupted from the floor. An echoing blast dragged Zidane’s and the horse riders' attention toward it, as they watched it in awe.
I smiled.
It worked. The stick of dynamite blew. I heard nothing from Zidane’s arrogant mouth this time.
Now, it’s time to make more.
I spent the whole night, reproducing the same dynamite, over and over again. Until I had a number of beautiful working dynamites in my possession , equipped all around me. I had taken whatever I could from the laboratory, pouches, pockets and anything else I could use to hold the dynamites on me.
The only downside to that, was that holding onto them all, would make my person much heavier.
So far, I wore a belt around my waist, with a holster for my gun with a small pouch containing all my bullets. Two big pouches were attached to my backside, hidden under my red coat, containing two dynamites in each. The final two were placed in the inside pockets of my jacket, near my legs so it didn’t look like I was carrying anything due to some massive bulge, since the bottom of my overcoat was just loosely hanging down.
I had modified the jacket a little, adding slightly bigger pockets and more openings to place things inside. Unfortunately I had to do this to my tailored, favourite piece of fashion.
However, time had passed and here I was, standing in front of the palace, in front of the very stairs I had watched Nora get assassinated.
With that vivid memory catching up to me, I quickly scoped the area for anything suspicious and it seemed that Nora beside me, had caught my concerns.
“Are you worried there’s someone out there?” She asked.
“Just checking,” I responded. There were five of us standing out in the open as cleaners and workers alike continued with their day around us, fulfilling their individual roles. That slightly explained how this massive white, circular floor surrounding the palace was so clean. Hundreds of cleaners came here every day, every quarter to clean them and for some reason, it seemed that the palace was growing busier by the day. Carriages had kept flooding in and out with important looking aristocrats making their appearances.
Zidane, Laura the maid, and Rumena stood in our group. Rumena being the brown skinned woman with a face that boasted confidence and a stance of a warrior. She held an axe, slumped over her shoulder and gazed onto the horizon with beautiful brown eyes. She wore a smile of excitement as her skin glowed orange in the sunlight.
“The palace is getting busier by the day,” I voiced to which Laura replied.
“The Throne Selection Of Eighteen is beginning so everything is starting to move.” Laura was a very well kept woman, she was always polite and respectful with the quietest personality in this group boasting of them.
She always wore a soft expression, with a welcoming smile and was probably the only person I actually tolerated out of these people. With Rumena, I hadn’t really gotten a chance to once converse with her but I wasn’t particularly fond of her constant confidence. She always oozed it, and seemed excited for adventure. She just seemed like a woman that would lead me to my death with a smile on her face.
And then we had Zidane, standing there, always acting like an exemplary Knight with his arms folded and a stern face. Like he was always looking into the future, looking at something grand that couldn’t even fit within his mind. I wondered, what goals in life did he have, if any? Or did he just give up on all his dreams to serve this princess.
And then we had this spiteful woman, Nora. She mostly carried an expressionless look, I had only ever seen her smile twice or thrice. And the rest was merely unreadable and that aggravated me even more.
And finally, we had me.
I just wanted to fucking go home and leave these people.
A relatively big dragon had made its way to us, blacked out with a hard shell scaled over him and yellow, lizard-like eyes with black slits inside them. Behind it, a huge dark carriage, shrouded in gold and purple, was pulled. And positioned in front of it, was another ground dragon, with a much smaller carriage, only fitting for a few individuals and before I got to say anything, a rather uninvited voice had cut my words off.
“Nora, although it makes my blood boil to sit in a carriage with you, I shall accompany you on your journey to Ballaad,” a woman in green declared, fanning herself with a repulsive smile. Following her, were two regular guards, both wearing shields over their faces and the woman they followed, was the one and only-
“Sylvia,” Nora replied as she turned her attention toward her, “Is there any reason you wish to accompany me?”
“Teh, don’t say that I wish to. Fix those words, I am saying that I will accompany you,” Sylvia spat.
“I understand, sister. But why the sudden decision?”
“My Knight, Rhyno is not here and my personal carriage has gone through some trouble. I had sent Rhyno and a few of my workers to Ballaad already to retrieve some things from my other mansion, but on the way back, he had fallen into some trouble and was unable to return until a few days later. And I have no time to sit around waiting for his arrival and I trust you have your Knight and people around, so I shall accompany you. I refuse to sit in those small carriages.”
Nora let out a sigh and responded, “Very well. We have two Knights accompanying us along with my maid and…” Nora directed her eyes at me, unable to look for a word to refer to me as.
“Who is this man?” Sylvia asked with the fan covering half her face, “He looks rather dirty.” A spiteful remark from the woman with a hint of laughter behind her tone.
But I had paid no attention to it, for something was brewing inside of me once again.
Fury.
How many fucking times, do I need to deal with an unknown variable.
All this time, I was coming along with this journey, with the notion that it would be just the five of us, but now this other arrogant fucking princess decides to waltz along.
How many times did this world have to give me hope then kick me down immediately?
Part Three
This was simple. Yes, Sylvia may have been an extra character that annoyingly drew herself onto the picture, but the rest of it was fairly simple. I had planned relatively far ahead, ever since I began creating the dynamites. And before we set out, I had asked Nora to take a look at the map of Vollaria on her desk. I had observed the distance and the relative terrain of where we were travelling through. I remember being told that the journey was a day and night, so not too long and using that timeframe, I calculated the distance from Ballaad where I would make my move.
You see, I couldn’t just leap out of the carriage and run away mindlessly, or else I would be abandoned with no idea of where to go next. I wasn’t trying to end up stranded, so I figured that in the night would be my perfect chance to make a move and I’d do it slightly later, so I could essentially escape closer to the city and navigate my way there.
I had secretly planted a dynamite onto the wheel of the carriage, in case of emergency and I needed to shoot it to blow it up. The only annoying thing about this plan was that I did need a degree of luck by my side, as all things in the universe went. I needed to figure out the guard cycles.
And what I meant by that, was that we had two Knights coming with us, Rumena and Zidane. And it would not make sense for both of them to stay awake the whole night or else they would just be fatigued in case an enemy came. So that was the main part I had to focus on. I had to memorise the sleep patterns and cycles they had, and in the small moment they changed over, I would take my leave. Another key factor to this was making it seem like I had died, so I had brought two things with me.
One being a dagger and the other being some fake blood I had stirred up back in the apothecary. The stage was all set, it would just depend on me timing it perfectly.
I had forced myself into Nora’s carriage before, to which Sylvia disagreed heavily due to my dirtiness, but Nora had convinced her saying I was useful.
The arrangement of the carriages were as follows: Rumena and Zidane in the carriage in front, with me, Nora, Laura and Sylvia in this royal one.
Throughout the journey, Sylvia and Nora had barely conversed, it was odd to even say they were sisters. I mean, they were competing for the throne but their relationship with each other seemed more than just a family feud. The carriage was cushioned with a velvet red, coated all around with gold linings and dim lights hanging down. There were two rooms in its long perimeter, perfect because now the two princesses would be out of my way.
The night had consumed the skies as I asked Avante for the time.
“Avante, time.”
“3:42AM”
Fucking perfect. I arose from my fake slumber and looked around the dark room, with only the moonbeams giving me some form of vision. Laura had fallen asleep on the cushioned bench in front of me, with Nora and Sylvia sleeping in their rooms. I had waited till a good enough time to confirm that they were asleep, and this deep into the night, they for sure were.
But there was one problem. This was where my luck had to take its form. Peering through the blinds, I looked through the front, past the Ground Dragon rider, out at the carriage before me.
And there he sat, cross legged, with his arms folded as he looked out to the front with his hair viciously swaying behind his back. I couldn’t see but I almost knew what face he had. Stern.
I needed him to changeover.
I assumed that he would make the changeover with Rumena maybe around half way into the night. We had left the palace at 12:42pm, traversing through the grasslands and going past the dark forest.
It was now 3:42AM, around fifteen and a half hours of our journey had passed meaning we had about a third of the journey left. I pulled out my map and inspected it, marking out in my head the likely area I was at currently. With one third of the journey left, if I escaped, I would easily be able to make my way to Ballaad on my own and seek refuge there quietly, away from all these people.
I had to estimate a time frame of when Zidane might switch over. The sun had dipped at around 8:45, and so far it had been around six hours since then. So it made the most sense for Zidane to switch soon since sunrise was around 6AM. Granted, he would get some sleep and Rumena would stay on guard for the remainder of the night and day since our estimated time of arrival was around 12pm.
Fine. I just have to wait.
I prepared, brandishing the dagger from my belt with blood and splattered a substantial amount of the liquid across the room, avoiding Laura’s face.
I waited and waited and waited.
And waited. And waited.
Now.
For a moment, I watched Zidane stand up, knocking onto the roof of the carriage. He then slipped into the side, probably to wake Rumena from her sleep and swap positions. And for just that moment, Zidane had disappeared, the only person active now was the Dragon Rider. That was fine since he wasn’t on alert, mostly focusing on the road in front of him.
I had quite literally a few seconds.
We were traveling at around ten miles per hour currently, this was the dragons lower speed since it was night and it was more fatigued than day time. Also allowing the princesses to sleep.
I had to do this quickly.
I peeked out of the carriage doors.
I pushed off the floor hard, hurling my body away from the frame of the carriage and the moment my feet had cleared the floor, I tucked my chin and arms, becoming a ball. My right shoulder slammed into the turf first and instead of fighting the relentless burns of the grass, I let the momentum carry me through. I spun and spun and spun, watching the world twist and turn as I kept my voice down. I grit my teeth, trying as hard as I could to keep the noise of pain from escaping.
And finally, the endless rolling had come to a stop, leaving me flat like a star as I gasped for air. I grabbed my shoulder, it was intact. I felt my face, no cuts or bruises. I probably had some on my legs and back, but all my bones remained steady.
I had fucking done it.
I lay there, looking at the starry sky, with a huge smile thinking of all the flashing memories I had, living in that cage called the palace. Living with the woman that chained me.
I had finally gotten away.
“Avante, time.”
“4:01AM.”
I chuckled.
Serves them right.
They would wake up to a scene. I imagined it vividly, laughing with my freedom.
The whole group, waking up, to a bloody mess with a dagger drenched in blood and me nowhere to be seen. And if in the morning, they decided to retrace their steps, I would leave a few of my dynamites around this location, and stain it with blood.
This was a world of magic.
I didn’t care how ridiculous it was, as long as I seemed dead, I didn’t care what mystery I left them. They could try to solve it as much as they wanted. How did I get kidnapped? How did I get killed? Why did it happen?
I did not care.
I was free.
Finally, free from them.
Now, I just had to leave some scattered evidence, so with the remaining fake blood I had left, I stained two of my dynamites, plotting them around the area.
As tired as I was, I had to keep pushing forward. I had lost an immense amount of sleep over the past two nights, including this one and had constantly been overworking my brain. But until I made my way to the city on my own, I could not rest.
My plan was simple, it was essentially restarting everything from scratch and as annoying as it seemed, this was my original plan at the end of the day. After Jay had died, I decided to pick up the pace and stop treating this world like I was trying to start a new life here. So I decided to go to the top of the country, hoping to find secrets through the royal family that may be linked to me. But to no avail, it just became a waste of time. So now, I thought, I may as well start from scratch and live in this city, starting by looking for a job and monetising my skills.
That part would be easy.
What came after that, I did not know. But for now, that was my goal. Get to the new city Ballaad, and get a job. Restart.
I pulled out the scrunched map from my pocket and followed it closely. I had to follow the forest and just walk for about… it was a long long time till I could get there, but there were villages on the way I could stop at. And the time wasn’t too bad with sunrise being around 6AM. I had decided that I may need to sell some things on my person, like these dynamites to anyone who could afford them, and then use the money from that to survive till I got to the city. Because once I reached the city, the rest was easy from there-
Hold on.
Hold on.
What’s this uneasiness?
I was out in the open, walking discreetly along the forest, hiding from any potential threats until daytime. All the receptors in my body suddenly began to scream in dread, my hairs all stood up in unison when a shiver cascaded down to my feet. My hairs did not stop, they remained standing. My heart began to beat vigorously. My mind trembled.
My legs felt the life slowly depleting from them, shaking in horror.
But why?
To what?
I didn’t have a sixth sense.
I spun around, looking all over. Beyond the grasslands, amongst the trees, through the bushes, along the path, in the sky, on the moon, ontheontheontheonthe
My leg flew back as my body was propelled forward, diving into the ground. Excruciating pain riled up from my thigh as tears leapt from my eye. I held my leg in agony, slowly looking down at it as I darted around in desperation.
Where? Where? What? What? No! What?
Please. Please what? What?
No. NO. NOT NOW. NOT NOW!
I saw the feathers of the bottom of the arrow that remained gouged into my leg, coming right out the other side. Blood poured out as the arrow drained my body dry.
Not fucking now.
Not fucking now.
Not. Fucking-
“NOOOOWW!” I screamed from the pits of my lungs until I heard the approach of footsteps scurrying closer. I looked up at him, and for a split second, I saw a pair of dark eyes.
Black eyes. Red pupils. Blood crawling out.
And that was the last thing I saw before I felt my eyes ripped in two and my vision instantly blackened. I heard the deep cuts, the gurgling of blood, oozing out of my eyes as I instantly let go of my thigh, reaching for my face. I clawed away at my own head, screaming with all the air I had left.
Nonononononononononono
Please.
It hurts, it hurts it hurtsithutsithurtsss please God. Please. God. God. Help me. I’m blind.
I screamed and screamed till my voice itself began to fail on me.
A low, deep voice crept into my ears as I continued.
“You… were not supposed to be here.”
I heard the crack of my bones, reverberating through my body, and felt a slit of blood erupt from my neck. And so once again.
I died.