Daniel looked upon the silver-haired beauty beside him on the bed, eyes closed, chest rising and falling in slow rhythm. A work of art, sleeping for the first time.
How hard must you have worked to have slept through my visit?
He left the bed and looked more closely at her cage. Every place he moved to and examined showed a little piece of her. He found a little secret in the back of her closet; he knew she would scream if she knew he’d found it.
An easel and canvas from the wagon stood behind a sheet.
On it was the beginning of a painting of her isolated and chained in the darkness of a moon’s rim. He was flying into the sun of a silver city, rising in glory.
Daniel paused at a desk left over with papers across from it. His fingers slid over something she wrote that he whispered.
“I let every thought, thread a weft of yarn, weaving through the warps, a tapestry of us. I’ll be anything you ever ask. I don’t ever want to be the selfish reason you don’t ever find yourself. Inside, I feel every thought claw the strands apart, weaving into knots. He told me these flaws in the stitching make everything more beautiful, but I don’t see it at all. A travesty of us.”
In it he saw her sitting at her craftsman’s table, threading her dress into works of art.
He took out another piece of paper and dipped the quill into the ink to spread across the page:
If I make my arms the home you seek, if I sway my brush, would I capture thee? May I clear your slate and wipe your conscience? Lay it on another shelf. I will take your doubts and hang them on the gallery of my heart as a work of artistry. Allow me to take this broken brush and mend it with the vision of this tapestry of ours.
He slotted a new canvas on the stand, and his hand moved with the surety of lungs drawing air. The vision of him sitting on her bed, and an angel carefully stitching his wings back into place with the thread of her dress.
By the time he was drawn out, he’d only managed to finish the impression of the art bleeding out of his heart. It would have to do.
Looking back at her sleeping form as the morning light drew him out of this dream, he smiled.
“Your cuts run deeper than the skin. I love you, my broken and scarred angel.”
Waking, he sat there in the inn’s bed for a minute, listening to the movement of morning travelers leaving. A divide separated Clara and him. Now he knew Carl’s words weren’t only meant to sow doubt in his own heart.
My darling wife, even if you are everything he says, what is the fruit of your labor? Can you not see that it is you who is being consumed? Without you, our kingdom erodes in darkness.
So I will stand here in your paint as it pools on the ground, colored with empathy, blending with your doubt. If you will trust in me, as I trust in you, then I will witness everything melting around us until we drown into one.
Daniel got up and readied himself for the day.
He met Alys and Julia downstairs. Both women looked like they’d gotten a much better night’s rest. The bags were still there, but retreating.
“How was Three last night?”
Alys almost looked like she wanted to cry.
“A true angel. The wisdom and empathy… Thank you, Daniel.”
Julia sank to the table like a slime.
“Woman has magic fingers. She worked out knots I didn’t know I had. Three gave a head massage that evaporated Alys’s headache and knocked her out in minutes. A lot stronger than she looks. And hands as soft as a baby’s bottom.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
He was glad Three could work her talents, because he didn’t know what else he could do for the women. One and Three seemed to be quite different. She likely wouldn’t be in the farmstead yet until they had more houses built.
Maybe an inn-style house would solve the problem?
“I’m glad to hear that. Do you think we can find a tailor to commission some clothes for me and run a few other errands on the way to the Temple of Light? We can stop by the mortician, as well, Julia. It would be good to get an update on the timeline.”
Alys took a deep breath and smiled.
“A busy morning sounds like just what I need.”
However, Julia’s lips became a line.
“What about, you know…”
Her eyes darted to his side as morning travelers moved about the commons area. The sound was loud enough that their conversation bled into the mayhem and the serving staff.
Daniel answered by sliding the official identification card across the table.
Julia read it out with growing bewilderment.
“Race: Human. Diagnosed amnesia. Wife: Clara. Class ID: upper-class. And Occupation: Department of Shadow hired Summoner… How in the Light’s name did you get this?”
Daniel flashed his teeth.
“My dazzling charm.”
That had both women giggling, Alys trying not to spit out orange juice.
The conversation after that grew brighter. Julia commented on drinking a morning mug of ale for her brother. He made sure to stop her from doing more. It wasn’t even 9 a.m. The nineteen-year-old was coping in her own way. Still, he didn’t want her to pick up a bad habit if he could help it. He wasn’t sure what kind of drunk she was.
Once finished eating, they went out into the city. He didn’t need the map for the gritty Trade District, with the two women guiding him to the sites he was interested in. He did notice he was getting a lot of attention again.
Is my face really that eye-catching?
I think I’m pretty meh compared to Clara.
He dismissed the eyes and focused on what needed to be done. Hours passed as they moved from shop to shop, Daniel stacking order sheets that would be fulfilled over the next few weeks.
I had no idea a single gold piece could buy so much wood. We should be able to build a small town with this much stock. Tools were a bit more expensive than I thought, though. I guess minor enchantments are the biggest expense there.
He flipped through the next papers.
25 silver for all the domestic animals I want for the farmstead, too… There’s a problem with how much I’m getting.
Alys was studying him closely as Julia kept marveling over half of the recipes he’d gathered throughout the morning.
“You look troubled, Daniel.”
He scratched his temple and sighed, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. There were plenty of people looking, but no one close enough to hear them over the hammering of blacksmiths and buzz of saws in the nearby mill.
“There are 35 people in the farmstead, excluding One and Butler. 10 children. That makes 6 men and 19 women. I don’t think they can make everything at the pace they need. They have horses. But they’re also not the healthiest. I can’t just hire people to go in and help them, too. I’m a little stumped.”
Julia was snacking on a fresh piece of bread as she glanced up at him.
“Why not buy more slaves? Plenty in the market since we’re at the tri-area border.”
Daniel scratched his arm, frown deepening.
“I don’t like the idea of owning people. My idea of my kingdom is that every citizen has chosen me as their king. Now, maybe that’s not true,” he admitted with a tilt of his head, “but that is what I feel, is what I desire.”
“Wait.” Alys brought them to a stop, her brow furrowed, and a small smile grew. “Julia is onto something.”
“I am?” The teen looked mildly surprised. “I thought I’d have to argue the case more.”
“But you weren’t wrong, Julia. If Daniel buys them, they can have the same choice he gave the others. When he goes to their homeland, he can offer them release. It is moral.”
Daniel rubbed his jaw, considering the position.
“Hmm. But I’d be supporting the slave industry by doing it… Then again, I can’t really topple the whole world’s concept of slaves. And people are still suffering. Is it really moral if your values leave them in suffering just to feel better about yourself?”
He shook his head.
“I’ll think about it and decide by dinner… Let’s keep going.”
Daniel let the question mull around his skull. The map was pulled out for the next areas in the upper-class area. He first noticed the fashion when they entered the car-filled district.
Three-piece suits, ties, and shiny dress shoes for men.
Dresses, heels, corsets, and fancy hats for women.
It felt like a totally different world from the grungy adventurers and working-class areas.
They found a fancy-looking tailor’s shop and went inside.