Six of Ruin (Heirs of Irenwell #1)

The feeling of someone watching me woke me up from my peaceful slumber. When I opened my eyes, I found Ace staring down at me with impatience.

“Goddess!” I shouted, moving away from him. “Can you be creepier?”

“Get up, we have work to do.” The mage said.

I yawned, “It’s barely dawn.”

My head pounded and sleep almost immediately pulled me back in.

“Yes, we have to get to the post before they send out the birds.” Ace gestured to get up.

“Can’t someone else come with you?” I grunted. “I thought Nickeltinker was your little helper.”

“Hmm, yes, yes.” Ace walked up and down the room. “But the thief doesn’t have what I need right now.”

“Which is?” I kicked off the rough covers, hating the sudden cold.

“The ability to distract men.” Ace said. “Hurry up!”

The town was asleep as we exited the Inn. Dawn barely broke and people were still sleeping off the last night’s celebration. Early birds chirped. The only people awake were the fishermen in the marina. I glanced at the three large ships, still eerily waiting for their passengers.

And I had a feeling we were the passengers. Or at least that was what the world was supposed to believe.

Ace led me to a stone-dressed house in the middle of the town. It loomed slightly over the other buildings and it gaped empty.

“What’s this place?” I asked, glancing around, wary of people seeing us.

“This is the post.” Ace entered the building. “It’s where people come to send letters and receive news. But not just individuals, the officials, too. This is where the propaganda gets created.”

The room was full of scrolls and quills, scattered all over wooden tables. It looked like a chaotic library. The only sound inside were the birds, walking and chirping, as if sharing information in their own secret language.

“And what exactly are we doing here?” I narrowed my eyes as Ace closed the door behind us.

“Controlling the narrative.” Ace said. “Wait here. If someone comes in, use your witchy powers to send them away.”

“What?” My eyes snapped at the mage. “I can’t use magic! I only managed yesterday because my life was in jeopardy!”

Ace arched his eyebrow, “Would it help knowing we’ll both hang if someone catches us here?”

“No!”

“Ha! Too bad. Because we will.”

“And what do I do if my magic fails?” I asked, suddenly feeling nervous all over.

“Show them your boobs, that ought to do the trick.” Ace disappeared around the corner.

“Can’t argue with that.” I murmured and leaned against a wall. “So, what exactly is that you do?”

A sound of rustling paper reached my ears as Ace went through the scrolls, “You mean, in general? I run a bar, and a brothel, and a couple of other things here and there.”

“Why would you even need to do all that? Can’t you conjure up money out of thin air?”

The mage peeked behind the wall, “And where’s the fun in that?”

He carried a bunch of scrolls to the table and spread them around. I stood by and glanced at the letters, trying to read them. The most I caught were the titles.

Cultists on the Rise – New Threat From the North.

The Highest Demand for Weapons in the Last Ten Years.

Is Kingdom of Bastia Crumbling? Experts Say No.

Ace cocked his head the side and murmured to himself, “Last time experts said a kingdom wasn’t crumbling, Orathia fell. Sign this.” Ace handed a scroll to me. “This one goes to your brother.”

I glanced at the paper, “This is the letter I wrote in the forest!”

“Yes.” Ace scribbled on other papers as well. “It’s the one where you claim we’re crossing the Northern Ocean by ship. I love the part where you mention how much you hate it here, very personal, very you.”

I signed it, “I don’t really hate it here.”

Ace sat down, grabbed a new scroll, dipped the quill in ink and began to write, not bothering to answer me. I stared at the mage and his quick, precise words. He was rewriting the scrolls that had already reached Balr from some other place. It took me a moment, but I figured it out. He was changing information, not just the letters we were sending out, but general, official information.

I frowned, “Ace?”

“What?” He didn’t lift his gaze.

“Are you evil?”

The mage pouted and looked up, as if in deep thought, “I’ve been evil three times. And I’ve been good four. So, I suppose it’s time to be evil again.”

“How can you speak so casually about it?” I asked, leaning against the wall nearby and crossing my hands on my chest. “Like being good or evil does not concern you.”

“When you live long enough, you have time for both corruption and redemption.” Ace scribbled on the scrolls. “And you begin to realise that good and evil aren’t defined, unchangeable states, they’re perspectives.”

“In which way?” I pushed.

“There are people in Bastia who firmly believe King Bernard is their god-given saviour.” Ace shrugged. “And there are those who believe he’s a tyrant waiting for an opportunity to gain more power. So, which is it? Probably both. Does that make him good or evil?”

“One side must be right.” I said.

“Both sides are right.” Ace said. “And both sides are wrong. And they tug the rope between each other, constantly leaning towards one or the other. And that is what the world does all the time, it walks the line between chaos and order. If one side grows too strong, it’s up to the other to pull back, to correct. King Bernard crossed that line when he enslaved the Orathians escaping from disease-ridden Orathia fifty years ago. And the world failed to correct it.”

My eyes snapped from the scrolls to him, “Wait, what?”

Ace looked at me with confusion, then he let out a short laugh, “Irenwell truly fails to teach their young history. I assumed they wanted to keep their peasants dumb, but it seems they don’t mind fooling their royalty, as well.”

My heartbeat accelerated, “What do you mean, enslaved Orathians?”

“Fifty years ago, when Orathia finally fell, the rest of its people fled to Bastia.” Ace said. “King Bernard killed half of them and enslaved the rest.”

Realisation hit me, “Rixen’s mother was Orathian.”

“And what do you think King Bernard did to her?” Ace chuckled.

I was afraid to guess. Unfortunately, fear rarely cared for the whims of the rational mind. And so the truth made itself known no matter how hard I tried to ignore it. King Bernard raped Rixen’s mother.

It all made sense. Rixen’s hatred towards King Bernard. King Bernard’s hatred towards Rixen.

“Doesn’t that make King Bernard evil?” I asked. “There are some deeds that are unredeemable.”

“And are there people who are incorruptible?” Ace looked at me.

For a moment, I thought about the question, “I suppose not.”

“Ha, then I suppose we do lean to a side in the ‘good or evil’ dilemma.”

“So you think people are evil.” I frowned. “Is that why you didn’t want to help us in the first place?”

“People aren’t evil. People are selfish. And when you put yourself first, it doesn’t matter whom you need to sacrifice to help yourself.” Ace said. “I’ve helped humanity one too many times. The funny thing is, their problems were always their own fault. It seemed as if I was saving them from themselves. But they failed to learn from their mistakes. And if you will not bother to learn, you are not worth teaching a lesson.”

“We disappointed you.” I nodded, hoping I would eventually get to the bottom of his character.

“Trust me, Princess,” Ace chuckled, “The only thing certain in life is bitter disappointment.”

“If humans disappointed you so greatly, why are you still meddling?” I glanced at the rewritten scrolls.

Ace lifted his head towards the wall, “It seems as if I’m also stuck in my own loop of perpetual suffering and I’m, once again, helping.”

“By “correcting” the news?”

“If there’s anything you can learn from me, let it be this.” Ace said. “Never trust anyone that’s been paid to speak; whatever comes out of their mouth is a lie. Therefore, yes, I am correcting. Do you want to know what’s been going on in the world?”

I nodded. Ace handed the scroll he had just written to me.

The threat from the north grows stronger. With nearly three Bastian villages wiped out, King Bernard of Bastia has issued a curfew – no person is allowed outside after nightfall. In addition, the capital, as well as some larger towns, forbid leaving the town’s area. This measure greatly affects peasants working in the fields, who are not allowed to leave even to reach their crops.

King Bernard of Bastia claims the threat from the cultists is too great to ignore. With the northernmost towns most exposed, there are concerns that people will be relocated to the south.

“Come on,” Ace took the scroll from my hands the moment I read it, “Let’s release the birds.”

As he turned his back to me, I snatched the one he threw away, the one that has not been corrected. I had to know what he changed. Fortunately, of all my secrets, Ace didn’t seem to know I could remember the text I had seen once.

We entered the room full of cages with birds. Gorgeous Goshawks stared at me with their deep, knowing eyes, their claws holding the bars firmly, in alert. But the moment Ace snapped his fingers, all the birds looked at him. It was eerie, almost like they knew who he was.

“Are you commanding them somehow?” I asked as Ace put the scrolls in front of the birds.

“I can speak to animals.” He answered. “And these birds will deliver any message I desire.”

“Does that mean they can deliver messages back to you?” I asked, hoping the question, and the intention behind it, weren’t too blatant.

“Aha.” The mage opened the cages and tied the letters to the birds.

I lingered behind, realising this ability allowed him to know... everything. If he could speak to the birds and the birds could bring messages to him, he would know everything that was going on the world. That was how he knew who we were.

I switched the subject, “Which bird is sending out Nick’s letter?”

Ace pointed at the striped, white and grey bird.

“Is it going to Shira?”

“Yes.”

Remembering the conversation from last night, how Nick desperately tried to make some money for his family, I took off my bracelet. It was made out of Irenwell silver and it was worth much more on Shira than in Irenwell. I had at least fifteen of those and I didn’t need it. But Nick’s family might.

“Can you keep the bird still?” I asked, reaching for the cage. The bird immediately stopped moving, staring at me with interest. “Do you think it would lose the bracelet?”

“George?” Ace cooed to the bird, patting its head while I put the bracelet around its neck. It was neither too tight nor too loose. “George would never, he only finds stuff along the way.”

The bird let out a happy shriek.

“Alright.” Ace suddenly turned around. “We have to get out of here before someone finds us. Come on, the ships are leaving soon. Which means we must, too.”

“Wait, wait,” I followed him, “How is anyone going to believe we’re on those ships?”

“There are people pretending to be us” Ace rushed through the rooms. “Pull the hood over your head and hide your hair.”

In a moment, the old, wrinkled man stood in front of me in the mage’s place. I had no idea how he did it, but he was almost instantly unrecognizable. My heart began to beat loudly. I hid my hair as he asked and bowed my head.

The sunshine blinded me the moment we stepped outside. The streets were empty. All the people gathered in the marina, around the ships. Ace hurried down the street and the only thing that gave him away were his swift movements. No regular old man could walk so quickly.

We didn’t stop until we reached the edge of the town. There, our little gang waited, annoyed looks on their faces. Torvald seemed much better now, his stoic expression was back, no signs of the man crumbling beneath the weight of his own fate. Danilo was better, too, no signs of wounds or pain.

The only one looking as if he was about to drop dead was Nickeltinker. And I was inclined to believe it was due to trying to outdrink Ace last night.

“Where have you been?” Rixen stepped towards us.

“Here and there.” Ace answered, pulling off the hood and revealing himself again. “Are we ready?”

“Wait, where are our horses?” I glanced around, noticing only Ace’s warthog Frank, carrying all our stuff, including my suitcase.

I felt sorry for the beast.

“No horses.” Rixen said. “They’re too loud.”

“But- but-” I whined. “Fluffy?”

“Fluffy stays here.” Rixen looked at the town beneath us. “He’ll be safer than us.”

We stood on a hill overlooking the town. People of Balr gathered in the marina, clapping and cheering. A sudden feeling of detachment overwhelmed me. The strange feeling of not truly existing. The entire world would believe we were on those ships. But we were here, continuing our journey on foot.

No one knew where we were. No one knew what would happen to us.

“And so the journey begins.” Danilo said seriously, the light in his blue eyes dimming.

“What happens after Balr?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

“Once we cross the Bastian border, the forest will grow quieter.” Rixen answered.

“Which doesn’t mean it’s empty.” Ace warned. “And after we cross the lake of Liu Raj, we’ll enter the Spirit territory, the northern equivalent of Fae territory.”

“What happens there?” Their words offered little comfort.

“If we’re lucky,” Ace said, “We’ll have what it takes to pay for passage.”

“And we’ll still be nowhere near Orathia.” Danilo cut in. “We’ll have to start thinking of ways to cross the Frozen Sea.”

“It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” Rixen sighed. “We better get going.”

The ships in the distance began moving.

Just as I turned around, a sudden, violent burst of energy, followed by a loud noise, pushed me to the ground. I had no time to protect myself and my head hit against the rocks. The sound hummed in my ears; everything turned muffled. A moment later, earth quaked.

Desperately holding onto the ground itself, I tried to lift my head, pain spreading through my skull. Everyone was on the ground. The world shook shortly and then it stopped. That was when the screams finally reached me.

Potent, almost corporeal panic tightened the air.

“For the love of God!” Danilo’s voice was muffled, distanced, but I still heard it.

I tried to get up, finding it difficult to move or breathe. The intensity of the impact pushed all air out of my lungs.

Ace’s wild laughter reached my ears. I turned around, my body dragging over the rocky ground.

“Fuck me!” Nick shouted. “My hangover did not need this!”

Smoke covered the skies, blocking out the warm sun that lingered over Balr moments before. The sea was on fire. People standing the closest to the dock were injured, their painful screams reaching us all the way to the hill. I stared at the fiery mess where there used to be three ships.

Rixen pulled me up, “We have to move.”

But I couldn’t, “Our ships exploded. They exploded.”

The sound began to normalize and I could suddenly hear my breathing. My heart raced in my chest. My limbs were numb. I was weak, too weak to move.

“Come on.” Danilo grabbed my forearm.

The only one laughing was Ace.

“They killed us.” Nickeltinker shook his head, a wild flabbergasted expression lingering on his face. “They killed us.”

“No.” Rixen pushed. “We outsmarted them, we knew this might happen.”

Ace laughed some more, “Finally! This journey is getting interesting!”

“We have to leave.” Rixen walked away from the town. “Before someone realises they killed the wrong passengers.”

As they pulled me from the hill, I felt an almost out-of-body experience. The letters we sent, claiming we would be travelling by ship. The stories people believed, that we were their last hope before something terrible happened. The realisation that someone was out to kill us for real. It all clashed into me at once.

My brothers, my people, the world – they would all think we had died on those ships.

As we left Balr on that chilly summer morning, we stopped existing.