Promises of Glory

“Think of happy times when the world is not gracious.”

-The teachings of Greica

“I don’t think that you understand how important this is to us.” He sat back, disguised as a human, sitting in a pub without a care in the world. Rhode bit her lip and continued, “Merek, please, for my mother’s sake.”

“You know I don’t care about that traitor, she abandoned her family to chase after some human trash.” He banged his fists down on the table, drawing in several long gazes. “I don’t know why you bring the woman up anyway, she left her race behind just to chase some ass, you’ll get no sympathy from me.”

“Merek, it took me days to get here from the city.” She complained, “And I lost a shoe in the muck.”

He gave her feet a glance, she wriggled her toes at him. “What happened to your other shoe?” Rhode shrugged, giving him no answer. Merek huffed, “Whatever.” He took a long drag of the cigar in his left hand, then puffed smoke into the girl’s face. She coughed, he smiled, she noted what hand he favored. “Now, what exactly do you want?”

She took a copy Livinus made her out of per pocket. She slid it towards him, unfolding it carefully, watching him choke on his saliva at the sight. “Do you recognize these characters?”

A storm raged behind his eyes, debating the pros and cons, deciding how much the girl already knew, how much he could get out of her. A devious grin took up his whole face, though he tried to hide it. Rhode could feel her boy move back and her eyes narrow. He thought he could swindle her. “Where did you get that?”

“Does it matter?”

“No, I guess not.” His clammy hand came down on hers, crushing her fingers beneath his. The sound of paper crumpling beneath their clasped hands was an echo in her ears. “Give me the original paper, lass. You don’t know what you’re getting into.”

She gritted her teeth, “Enlighten me.”

Wind whipped through the inn pub, blowing smoke from the kitchen all around them. She noticed that some swords were almost drawn. People were eyeing her uncle warily, like he was a shark about to snap. A few gaze snapped to her and she realized they were worried for her. The whole thing almost warmed her heart. Almost.

Rhode stood up, cheerily saying, “Oh pa, you know I love you, why do you tease me like this? Ma wants you home by dinner and you’ve traveled quite the distance, I suggest you pack up your things and get moving, lest you incur her wrath.” She drawled in the neighboring town’s dialect. A few men nodded to themselves and each other and went back to relaxing. To them it was just a drunken father and his daughter, nothing they didn’t see often enough. She went in for a hug, trying not to laugh at the sullen look on his face. He was not amused by her antics. She whispered in his ear, almost squirming at the feeling that it gave her stomach. “Meet me by the stables tonight and we’ll talk about this.”

He grunted something unintelligible and she took it as an okay.

She waited in the shadows of the stable, not even bothering with the hood of her cloak. There was no point in hiding her face when she had just made the arrangements. She sighed to herself, flipping her dagger in the air. It would of no consequence anyway, he did not know of her client and her task.

Her uncle stalked into the alleyway behind the stable, nobody behind him that she could tell. She wanted to smile, he was not playing it safe.

She knew her uncle to be the careful type, always watching out for himself, paying others to stand behind him and become his muscle. That he now stood before her alone means that he was underestimating Rhode. She put the dagger away and eased off the wall she was resting on.

“Uncle.”

“Don’t call me that. I don’t want to know that in some way I’m related to a human.” He didn’t seem that sincere in his threats though. Actually, something was off with him entirely.

“Touchy.”

He spit onto the ground right by her shoe. Most likely he was aiming for her shoes, which were a pair of brand new boots she had gotten in the market today, and he missed.

“Tell me what I’m getting myself into.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then why did you even come.”

She knew it was a good point when his eyes narrowed at her, “Tell me what you know and I may tell you what I have.”

“So you do have a piece of the puzzle.” She surveyed her nails, making an effort to look more interested in them then the conversation. “Tell me about this iron crown.”

His gruff voice filled the alleyway a good five minutes after she asked the question, “Well, for one it’s a crown.” Rhode rolled her eyes and he scratched the back of his neck. “It’s a crown that when worn, by someone with the virtues it sees fit, can become king, or I guess queen-” she had forgotten that Merek was a man who saw little use in women and their abilities “-but if worn by someone that it does not see fit, it kills them.”

“Wow, how does it do that?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure.”

“You’re helpful.”

He barked at her, “I’m doing my best with very little explanation dearie, why don’t you calm your knackers down and see that not even I have all the answers.” There was a long pause before he spoke again, his eyes were lowered, “By the gods, how old are you?” He seemed to be breaking apart in front of her eyes and the whole thing was terrifying. All that Rhode knew of this man was that he was a well built, very skilled, killing machine.

“Sixteen.”

“Gods, it’s been so long.” Rhode looked on with confusion, startled by the guilt that marked his face. “I’m sorry-” he began, but she couldn’t take it.

“Don’t! Don’t apologize.” She sneered at him, “I didn’t come here for this sappy crap and I don’t want to get an apology from you. You threw my mother away, kicked her to the curb, and when you needed her, you came back. You only loved her when it suited your taste. And worst of all, you asked a dying woman to leave her child behind just to fulfill your own greedy desires.”

His eyes widened, “She was dying?”

“I thought Fae could smell sickness, that is what the folklore says. Why else would they stay away from the short-lived humans that have the sickness of mortality?” She was baiting him now, though she wasn’t sure why. She wanted to see him squirm in his discomfort.

“No, we can’t tell any such thing.” He was distancing himself from her now, not physically, but mentally. Emotionally. He must have seen the hatred that fumed beneath the subtle angered exterior. She was seething.

“Just give me what I want.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because you’re family.”

She spit at him, “You’ve said time and time again that you want no relation with any humans. And for that matter, what are you even doing here? I would expect you to be in Fae country, not down here, playing and drinking with the plebs.”

“I got kicked out of the household.”

Rhode was taken aback for a moment, “What?”

He smothered his face in his hands, “They kicked me out because I didn’t succeed in getting back your mother. They were angry with me. And being on the street and stuck in this human form was the first time I realized what it must have been like for my sister. And she even had to raise a child all by herself on top of that? Lords, I can not beg forgiveness for the amount of guilt I feel.”

Rhode thought for a moment, sealing off her heart and all the emotion she felt. Now was a time for business, and she would get what she came here for. “Do you have a piece of the puzzle?” He nodded. “Give it to me.”

“No.”

“Give it to me.”

“No!”

“Give it to me!” Rhode screamed, forgetting herself. She lowered her voice, “Please, I need it. There’s a boy, and he deserves to be king.”

Merek’s face softened, he pulled a piece of folded up paper from his inner pocket. “I stole this when I heard they were kicking me out of the family. I couldn’t leave empty handed, so I took what they held most precious.” He held it out to her, “I can’t read it, the dialect isn’t anything I’ve ever come across. The accent is so thick it’s almost like another language. That’s why I was sent out to get your mother, she was in love with history and studying the old stuff, so we thought maybe she could read it. She never did leave you though.”

Rhode took it from his hands, “Livinus, the boy, already decoded the one we found. He used a book written by a human in the old language. It’s no wonder you can’t read it, Fae hated humans back then, they’d never think to learn their language. Especially after the two separated.”

“Learn all that in school, did you?”

“Livinus told me. I never went to school.”

His eyebrows raised, but before he could ask a thing about her, she slashed her arm out, effectively slicing his throat. He gurgled, and she realised it was a tid bit too shallow. So she bent down to his writhing body on the dirt and stuck her blade in deep. He would bleed out within minutes, and she left him there.

While she walked away she felt cold, the blood that had splattered onto her was now dry in the night’s frosty wind. She forgot that up this way was always colder than the city. She shivered, her heart was empty. It wasn’t like he was the first person she had killed, nor even the first family member. But the whole thing still left a bad taste in her mouth.