Hero Dyes - Blue

Bridget: The ceremony took place and Ulrik was pronounced lord over this land. I was thrilled and excited to see him finally receive what he has worked so hard for. His dream was coming true. Immediately after, the celebration began. I found myself mingling with the knights and alliance members, those that weren’t slaughtered by Magnus at least. Two topics kept repeating as I traveled throughout the different districts. One was the mage that used her teleportation magic to bring the brave warriors from the other kingdoms here. The second one was Yosin protecting me which resulted in his father using magic they’ve never seen before.

It turns out, Yosin wasn’t the only one to back out of that corridor. In fact, all of the storytellers that described Yohan’s ‘powerful magic’ never saw what happened to the other alliance members. No one saw the purple and red mist, and no one saw my triumph over Lord Magnus. They can only guess at what happened. Some people don’t believe Magnus is dead. There wasn’t a dead body for anyone to see. This could prove to be a problem later on for Ulrik. For this fact alone he is preparing in case some knights try to overthrow him because of their loyalty to the orc. Speaking of which, I asked around to see if anyone honestly knew what Magnus looked like. Not a single soul could tell me. All I managed to gather from the older folks was that he wasn’t a true Geminis citizen. He was a foreigner to this kingdom. Some hinted that he came from the desert while some gossiped that he was a mass murderer in a far off kingdom and he is concealing his identity because of it.

Obviously I know the truth of the matter. As I wandered back to the castle I thought about the mage and Yosin a lot. I set up an appointment to meet the mage personally in my chambers. This would buy me time before Ulrik would show up, and we’d finally be alone to celebrate in our own way.

“Excuse the intrusion, but Ellen the Mage is here to see you.” I perked up as I finished clipping a golden charm-pin on the left shoulder of my gown. I checked the mirror to make sure it wasn’t too obvious that I was wearing nothing but the gown.

“Send her in.” I demanded as I walked towards the middle of the room to greet her. I slowed my pace down and stared in awe. She was tall, and beautiful. Her hair glittered as the candle lights complemented her nearly pure-white blond hair. She didn’t look old, in fact her age was hard to tell but anyone would guess her to be younger than me. I needed to know if this was true. I needed to know her secret to such radiant beauty. Maybe it was magic, her being a mage of course.

“Hello, it is a pleasure to meet you. I’m Ellen. What an honor it is to finally meet the Twin Sword Knight.” She started off. I was stunned yet again as her accent wasn’t any I’ve heard before.

“The pleasure and honor is all mine. Without your key role in our previous victory, we would still be enslaved to that tyrant.” For some reason I almost tried to mimic her accent, as if to be on her level of elegance. I cleared my throat to correct any further embarrassment as she smiled nervously when I spoke. There was an awkward moment of silence as we simply just stared at each other, oddly smiling while waiting for the other to speak. I could feel the back of my neck and forehead start to sweat.

“So! How can I be of service to the Dye Heroes Alliance?” Her words broke this odd trance I was put in, which prevented me from thinking of anything to say until she spoke.

“Oh! Goodness no, this is an informal visit. Please, sit down and be at ease.” I told her. She shifted her eyes side to side as she looked for a chair to sit on. I didn’t realize there weren’t any chairs to sit on until I offered such a silly notion. I quickly covered this up by signaling her to join me at the edge of the bed with a smile and a nod. She smiled politely back and joined me as I asked a question.

“Your garments are splendid. Do all mages equip themselves with their own threading or does the college you teach at provide such wonderful pieces of clothing.” She paused for a moment as if thinking of an answer. Or maybe she was wondering why the heck did I ask her such a thing and what was the real purpose of this meeting.

“A little bit of both, actually.” She answered. I nodded as a reply since I wasn’t expecting her answer to be so short. She looked around the room as I tried to think of things we could talk about. Back at the barracks me and the other girls talked about combat and new swordplay maneuvers we’ve learned. Not to mention who was the hottest knight to come across our line of sight.

“It’s very dark in this room. Do you mind if I brighten it up?” She asked, to which I realized I had set the mood for my session with Ulrik and never changed it knowing she was coming. In all honesty my mind was more focused on my time with Ulrik than meeting with this elegant mage.

“Oh! Not at all, please do. I would love to see you perform some magic.” I replied like a little girl at a magic show. She smiled and winked at me as if I was one. I watched in amazement as she cupped her hands together and brought them to her lips. She gently blew into her hands and slowly a light began to shine. Within seconds she quickly opened her hands up and pushed the illuminating orb into the air. It began to float as it slowly ascended above us and lit the entire room with a marvelous light.

“That was great! Thank you! What else do you know how to do?” I asked in haste. She giggled a bit as she shook her head no and spoke out of modesty.

“Oh stop that now. I’m not so brilliant when it comes to some really grand magical displays.” I couldn’t help but think she was lying. For one, teleportation magic wasn’t easy to perform, let alone mastering it like she has. At least, that was the word being spread around. Before I could say another word a knight knocked and waited to be invited in.

“Enter please.”

“Heroic Hero, Lord Ulrik has a message for you. He will not be able to visit your chambers tonight. A certain matter has presented itself that requires his attention.”

“What is it, what happened!” I nearly shouted, almost scaring both Ellen and the knight. A pause was presented as the knight was thrown off by my sudden outburst.

“Due to the celebration and its contents of alcoholic drinks, some knights and town people began a small riot. They believe Magnus is not dead and demand proof. At the moment he is advocating for you, since you must be weary from battle. Lord Ulrik didn’t think it wise to bother you with such matters, since you need proper rest if you are to continue your journey as a Dye Hero.” I frightened the knight as he finished speaking with my glaring eyes alone. If it wasn’t for Ellen placing her hand on my shoulder I would have shouted more out of rage. I looked into her eyes as she lightly smiled and continued to ease my body. I sighed and thanked her with a nod for soothing my irritation with such a simple action.

“Very well… Wait.” A thought instantly jumped into my head as my heart started to flutter a bit.

“Please go and fetch Yosin, the young sage accompanying the elder sage.” I was trying to be polite and not say ‘old man’ in front of Ellen. She did give me a questioning look, as if wondering why I would summon him.

“Of course, I shall return with him.” As he left I smiled and began to explain to her the importance of him meeting me. Of course, I had my own ‘important’ reason but I wasn’t going to share that with her. She would think of me wrongly, I would assume.

“The young sage saved my life during our final rush for Lord Magnus. His bravery almost cost him his life. So-”

“So you intend on thanking him with your body, since you won’t be occupied with Lord Ulrik tonight.” My eyes widened as she saw right through my plot. My lips parted as words tried to come out but none did. I was angered yet ashamed at the same time.

“Not to worry, young warrior.” She started off as she fiddled with a thin, silver, onyx-jeweled, ring on her pointer finger.

“I was young once too.” She added as she gazed upon her ring with sadness yet her smile remained.

“I’m sorry, but may I ask you two questions?” I started off. She smiled and sniffed back her tears.

“You just now asked me one question, so you have one left.” She joked which caused us to giggle a bit before I continued.

“That ring, what happened to the person that gave it to you?” She paused again to sniff back the urge to cry as she blinked a few times. When she was ready, she sighed and answered.

“Can you keep a secret?” She started off. I quickly nodded my head and moved closer to her as if the walls had ears.

“I had two lovers in my life, at the same time as well.” She blushed the more she started to remember.

“My parents didn’t like the one, so I pretended to be with the one they approved of yet we both knew it was simply just for fun. Nothing too serious yet my parents swore to the Geminis that we belonged together.” She took another break as her smile slowly faded.

“My true ‘Romeo’ sacrificed his life to save mine. You see, and here is the secret part… My parents are Hero Dye Sages.” My jaw nearly dislocated from how fast it dropped in complete shock of this reveal. She saw this and giggled a bit as she waved her hand dismissively.

“I was adopted. I don’t know who my real parents are.” A sigh of relief swept over me, for what reason I hadn’t a clue. However, this still pointed in the direction I knew it was going.

“As we’re all aware, the tyrants would do Hero Dye purges.”

“Yes, I know of this. They would send out knights to collect the families of the Hero Dye Sages and either kill them on the spot, or bring them before Lord Magnus where they would be hanged and set on display as a warning to anyone who supported the cause. I would schedule my training days during these purges so I wouldn’t have to take part in it. If by chance I was sent out with another, I would make some excuse to not be there.” I added. Her expression changed as I finished speaking which worried me. She looked at me as if I was telling her a lie.

“But you were there, young knight.” My heart stopped beating as a tear streamed down her left cheek. She noticed this and quickly wiped it away. I waited suspensefully to hear this tale of how we met before now.

“You were accompanying High Knight Calad when my parents were exposed as Dye Hero Sages. My rebellious lover, the one my parents did not take a liking to, lied and took my place as their child. My neighbor held me back in their house as I watched from the window. You argued with Sir Calad, pleading to leave my lover alone because you somehow knew he wasn’t the one you two were looking for to kill. Your yelling and shouting only prolonged his death. He gave you a certain amount of time to find the right person, the right offspring of my parents for him to kill… You never came back, not even to say you failed in your search. Even if you had returned, the time between Sir Calad’s sword piercing through my lover’s heart, and your departure from the scene was literally a couple of minutes. He was destined to die regardless.” I could hear her voice becoming a bit hoarse as she tried to fight back the tears. My eyes were streaming with my own tears as my mouth remained open from disbelief. As she told the story I slowly began to remember that event. I also remembered why I never returned.

“Anyways, after that I was very much blinded by rage. I searched for you, remembering the name Sir Calad kept saying with annoyance. I used a bit of magic on some of the knights to finally get your whereabouts. When I found you, I was in complete shock. I found you being intimate with another knight. It looked like both of you were making love to each other to forget whatever tormented your minds. I have to admit, and I do apologize, but I stayed and watched both of your passionate love blooming within that equipment shed… I ended up stealing your idea and found my other lover and laid with him several times. Even though he tried to comfort me in other ways, I didn’t want it. I wanted to be like you, so carefree of your actions. Eventually we talked and I figured out I could never be as heartless as you. I don’t know the reason for your broken heart, or why you are damaged. I do know I could never remain that way. With all due respect, Bridget, I don’t see you going very far with this quest if you do not repair the damage that has been done to your heart.” Her last few words seemed aggressive, almost as if that vendetta she had against me was still there, deep within her heart. I swallowed hard as I wiped my face full of tears and soon cleared my throat. I didn’t know what to think nor to say in return.

“I’m sorry if I caused you any trauma in my youth. As you can see, I’ve evolved from such childish thinking.”

“Have you?” She questioned, which caused my blood to start boiling as I knew she wasn’t going to stop there.

“Then why did you have that knight go fetch the young sage when your lover was not able to meet you tonight?” I couldn’t answer her back. She had already figured out why I was doing it, so lying about it now would make me look stupid.

“I believe I have thanked you enough, Ellen the Mage. Please leave so I can prepare for my next visit.” She didn’t move when I basically kicked her out. To be honest, she didn’t need to either. Nor could I call for the guards to remove her. I sent them away so my passionate moans and screams of pleasure wouldn’t be gossiped about when I was supposed to be with Ulrik.

“Change your ways, young knight, or die a fool.” I glared at her as she decided to insult me before getting up and making her way to the door. She stopped and turned to face me to say one last thing.

“Did you mourn for your other lover that recently died? Word spread rapidly that High Knight Finnor was crushed, literally, by Magnus’s hand. Has his death made any impact in your life?” She paused as if I was supposed to answer. I know a rhetorical question when I hear one. However, how did she know I was with Finnor that day?

“I only asked because Lord Ulrik was caught weeping at Sir Finnor’s death ceremony. He was also the last one to leave his grave. Some say he was directing and giving orders to his knights from that very spot. Everyone knew where to find him, at his best friend’s tombstone…” With that said she walked out, leaving me to think about her words as my eyes became watery again. It made sense. While planning to invade Magnus’s fort, not once did Ulrik make an appearance. Not even when I asked for him specifically. We would communicate through messengers and that was it. I guess it wasn’t just to keep himself out of the raid. He was mourning over Finnor. Stupid, timid, weak, annoying Finnor. If that is how I truly feel about him, then why am I crying as my mind plays the memories of him.

“Excuse the intrusion, but the Young Sage is here.” I perked up and quickly wiped and sniffed away my tears as I adjusted myself to look alluring and pleasurable.

“Shall I send him in?” The knight added. Once I was done and found the proper seductive pose on the bed, sitting of course, I cleared my throat to speak.

“Send him in!” I called. However, no one entered. I waited a bit longer but not a voice or sound was heard in the hallway.

“Come in!” I tried again, this time getting off of the bed and moving closer to the door. Still nothing, which was becoming unsettling as I reached the door.

“Yosin?” I lightly called as I opened the door. My eyes widened as I saw Yosin standing over the knight’s body, along with a pool of blood under him. A dark aura shrouded him as two female beings slowly revealed themselves, like appearing out of thin air.

“Dark Geminis…” I softly uttered as my heart started to panic. Yosin seemed to be possessed by the two beings as they giggled menacingly. Soon, he started to walk towards my room as their whispering words echoed through the hallway.

“Kill her… End it… Die… Kill her… Do it… Don’t run… Kill her… Die… Kill her…”