Chapter Ten
It was that time of the year again.
The halls around Bowerstone Castle were noticeably quiet, and it was not from lack of staff. The nation's Queen wandered aimlessly through her home dressed in her plainclothes, a sullen forlorn expression always present on her angular features. The staff kept out of her way and did not strike up any conversation, no words were exchanged in the dining hall as her morning meal was prepared before her, no maid came in to wake her, no butler to throw a log on the fire, even Jasper was not there to fret through her wardrobe. It was not fear that kept them silent, merely respect and their own feelings of grief.
Today was the anniversary of the old Queen's death.
It had been almost seven years since her passing, and yet the wound had not yet healed entirely for Adelynn and most of Albion for that matter. From her view outside her chamber windows, she could see the decorative flowers, candles, wreaths, and every other possible respectable gift mounting the final resting place of the old Queen. The entrance to the tomb was covered in such things, even a few peasants had taken up residence for the day near the old doors. Briefly, Adelynn wondered how so many people could find the time away from their work and priorities to travel all the way here to dump some flowers on an old grave. The memory struck her than, four years ago Logan in his reign had pronounced this day a national holiday in honour of Sparrow's death.
Logan...her brother...
Another pained sigh ripped its way out of her lungs, she hadn't really seen or even spoken much to her older sibling since she had pardoned his execution and replaced the throne. He had taken up residence in the family's old vacation home in Mistpeak Valley, the house was a place Adelynn hadn't seen since early childhood. She supposed their mother had never anticipated such a divide between her two children, and if she could see them now she'd be boxing their royal ears for an apology. Truly, Adelynn could not vision a better way to spend her grief than with the old Hero's other offspring. The young Queen rose from her seat and made a steady path for the stables, Logan was long since due for a visit.
OOOO
She rode through the valley as plainly as any commoner, no crown, no royal attire, mud on her heels, and blades securely strapped to her waist, and went unrecognized through the entire ride. Her spirits were significantly lightened, it was nice to travel without a crowd hollering after her or dropping to their feet in front of her. She hadn't felt this free since before her crowning, and before the Crawler she noted with a hint of disdain.
Finally the countryside faded from view and was replaced with the sight of towering mountains and blinding snow. It was amazing how after all these years she still knew the route to the family lodge, and as the delicate little mountain trail came into view she was hit with a wave of hesitation. Adelynn had made no announcement of her impending arrival, and didn't even know if Logan would be home to receive her. Secondly, she had no idea of his opinion of her since the brutal rebellion that claimed his title. She stopped her mount several paces before the lodge itself, another tidal wave of emotion crushed her and almost threatened to force her on her knees.
The vacation house had not changed in the decade she had seen it, the pine trees still surrounded the house in a cradle of nature, the front courtyard where mother had first taught her how to use a sword, the old swing that Logan had once pushed her out of breaking her arm in the process, none of it had changed a day.
She found herself panicking and unable to breathe, hastily she turned her horse and made to take off back home before an untimely bullet soared past her head, narrowly missing the Queen of Albion.
Instincts kicked in, her swords would be of no advantage from long distance but her spell work would, she scanned the horizon for the perpetrator whilst charging a fire spell.
"Damn bloody kids! Cursed nuisances! Get off the master's property before I put a bullet in your left arse cheek!"
Adelynn frowned, she recognized that old voice. Sure enough a limping figure appeared from the snow drift, an old man waving a shotgun with a finely pressed butler's suit on.
"Victor? Is that you?"
Victor was the grounds keeper for the winter lodge, he served the family in the months that they visited and maintained the house year round. It had been some years since she had seen him last, and the man who had once given her a spanking for breaking a dish had faded from her memory. For some odd reason she had suspected that he had died or had at least, gone bat shit crazy from the time alone in the old house.
The butler stopped a yard away from her, aiming his shotgun towards her but with terrible aim.
"Who are ye? And how do you know my name?"
Adelynn sighed with irritation as she dismounted, "Victor it's me, Adelynn, remember?"
The old man's face brightened with recognition for only a moment, "The prostitute from Brightwall?"
"I beg your pardon!"
He approached her closer, still with firearm in hand scrutinizing her closely, "Adelynn eh? Hmph, did anyone tell you that you look like the old Hero Queen?"
"Funny, I get that a lot. Considering that she is my mother and all."
"Your mother?"
Victor eyed her again and suddenly as if a lamp was lit, his face brightened again, "Bless me! It is you! Why, you were just a surly little runt last I seen of yeh."
He dropped his shotgun and pulled the Queen into an unprecedented hug, "I haven't seen any of the royal family in years, except that brother of yours."
"Yes," Adelynn replied pulling herself away from the crazed coon, "Speaking of which, is he in?"
"Oh yes, yes he is, would you be requesting an audience with him?"
"Well yes, if he'll take me."
Victor folded into a bow, "Right this way, follow me," he added hastily, grabbing her horse's reins and leading the beast along at a slow shuffle.
She shook her head, if this was the kind of company her brother had to look forward to it would be a wonder if he didn't accept her visit.
OOOO
The interior of the house had been redone since Adelynn's last memories. The old family portrait had been removed, no doubt to rid of painful failures. The rugs had been replaced, the furniture looked new and more comfortable, the old gaudy war artifacts were gone, and rather charming wallpaper had been put up. She would say that it was a house of a rich gentleman rather than that of a former King, and perhaps that had been Logan's wishes.
She waited for Victor to announce herself, feeling as if she could throw up her stomach contents into the nearest flower arrangement. Finally, in what seemed like an eternity, a door in the far off hallway opened and the echo of heavy footfalls could be heard. Adelynn folded her hands in her lap with a jerky motion, she felt like she was preparing to be punished or even worse – executed. Sparrow's eldest entered the room and stopped by the door frame, dark eyes seemed to drink her in entirely. She let out a silent gasp of air as she beheld her brother for the first time since his dethroning, for Logan had changed greatly.
The man himself looked good, excellent even. The gauntness of his face was gone, the tired black circles that had been a permanent fixture on his face had vanished, and he had retained some colour to his face, he looked his age not old or weary as before. The same proud stance he had as King was still embedded in his posture, and Adelynn was sure that would never leave him.
"Adelynn."
He said her name as if it was something he had almost forgotten, or something that pained him. For a moment she lost her voice and dumbly repeated his name in effort to avoid silence.
"Its been awhile," He countered.
"Truly it has, almost too long and for that I am sorry," Adelynn found herself avoiding eye contact until her brother sat down on the chair opposite her.
"Why are you here?" He asked her slowly.
She sighed, feeling a surmounting weight on her shoulders, "Today is the day mom died seven years ago, and all I can think about is how upset she'd be if she knew about the rift that has divide our family."
"You look terrible." He stated casually.
At that the Queen quirked an eyebrow at her host before feeling a bubble of dark laughter rise up, "I finally understand all the things you did as King, all the sacrifices that were made for Albion's questionable future."
They had certainly switched roles, the bitter tortured former King was now free of his burdens and was loose and well, while his once youthful and carefree sister was now tired and wasted. Adelynn watched her brother's eyes roam over her face seeming to read every hardship.
"It is a most daunting task, isn't it?"
She nodded solemnly, "Almost as daunting as facing you again," She added with a nervous laugh.
She thought she saw his lips upturn it what could have been an almost smile, "Is that why you're here? To talk about this hardship?"
"No it's not, I came here to apologize for everything. In my youth I failed to understand your methods and mistook them for tyranny, in my anger I abandoned you and forged a rebellion against you, I took your title, your throne, your castle, everything and left you with little. And now in my fear, I failed to keep you as a brother."
A moment of pregnant silence passed between the two, Adelynn prepared to be led out and cast back into the snow where she came from.
"You gave me the greatest gift of all, sister. Where most would want to see me hung for my crimes, you were filled with pity and compassion. You spared my life when I hardly deserved such, especially after the choice I gave you."
A flicker of sorrow passed through his gaze, "I made a murderer out of you that day, I deserved nothing less than you turning your back against me."
The Queen's heart split in half at the sheer memory of that day, a choice between her childhood love or her devoted people.
"Secretly I don't think he will ever forgive me, his blames himself for their deaths because I choose him," She muttered coldly.
She had loved Elliot dearly with all the love an inexperienced and youthful heart could hold for another, but in the end he had chosen another. It had been wrong of her to suddenly appear in his newly rebuilt life, even worse to expect his love again and make him choose between her or that slum girl he had betrothed. So in the end, as was expected, she did the noble thing and walked away.
Logan looked away, "My actions have had many effects on the lives of so many."
She shook her head vehemently, "The past is done and cannot be changed, it's not good to dwell in regret. Therefore I can easily forgive all the trespasses made against me if you will forgive all that I have done against you. Dear brother, will you not ease some of my grief and spend the anniversary of mom's death with me?"
Adelynn gave him a hopeful smile and after a moment's pause it was returned to her in tenfold.
"Certainly, sister."
OOOO
"I have a gift for you," Logan stated, after a bottle of wine and some long conversation.
Adelynn bit back a giggle, "The last time you said that to me you gave me a pet toad."
The eldest smirked, rising from his seat and crossing the room to the simple bookcase in the corner, "Perhaps you'll enjoy this better then."
He returned to her with a simple leather-bound book that looked as if it had taken a severe beating at some point in time. Adelynn smiled dumbly, "What is that? Hardly a present."
Logan handed her the book with an enlightened smile, "Ahh, but it is. Open it."
The first pages were severely old and grungy, they looked like pieces of strip wood that had been sewn into the book. Stick figures were drawn childishly with a substance like burnt char, the drawings depicted two children one smaller than the other, the taller one having pigtails sprouting madly from its head. They stood under a wooden structure of some sort with a small fire burning in the middle.
Adelynn looked at her brother with confusion, "Keep flipping the pages," He stated firmly.
The next few pages appeared to have been written some time later, large words replacing the drawings, the letters were often backwards and the words were mispelt horrendously. She skipped a few chunky sections until the words changed, the script became fluid and well written and it was likely that the writer had grown into an adult.
"Today my first child was born, it is a boy, I named him Logan."
Adelynn's mouth dropped an inch or two, the book started to make sense. She skipped to another section.
"I'm afraid that my children will end up like me, a servant to the protection of others – a Hero. I wish for them to lead normal lives, to never experience the sacrifices and losses that I have, to love their families without fear. I never asked to be a Hero I only wanted the power to avenge Rose, but now after all these years I realize that I have always been a slave to Albion and its people."
"It was mother's journal," Adelynn whispered.
Logan nodded, "She gave it to me shortly before she died, it has proven to be a comfort during these past few years."
"I couldn't accept it Logan, it would be wrong of me." She stuttered.
"Nonsense, I have read it a hundred times over word for word. I believe now more than ever, that you may find solace in it – perhaps even some advice. I think she would have wanted me to share it with you eventually."
Adelynn cradled the book in her arms, struggling to find the words to express her gratitude and awe.
"Thank you, brother."
Her sibling waved her off with a shrug of his shoulders, "Think nothing of it."
OOOO
Late that night, Adelynn found herself buried in the sheets of her bed with her mother's journal in hand. The only light in the room provided by one small oil lamp burning close to the Queen as she flipped feverishly through the old book. At many times the Queen found she had to stop her progress to sit and think. Her mother's life had never been a mystery to her, Sparrow had always been open to her children about her own ill fortune or courageous feats, giving her children the honest truth instead of the irrational exaggerated claims. They knew all the details of her time in the Spire, her trek against Lucien, even her life after.
Yet currently, Adelynn found herself slightly disturbed at the knowledge that Sparrow had enlisted the help of other Heroes in Albion to stop Lucien, one such being the infamous Reaver. At first, she thought the name a common coincidence even if it was a rather rare name. Until her mother described said Hero's talent with rifles, his arrogant, pompous, irritating personality and his complete disregard for human life. So she put the book down and mentally did the math, if Reaver had lived in the era of her mother's prime and was roughly around the same age as Sparrow, that would currently put him at least eighty-seven years old. She blinked profusely, Reaver certainly did not have the appearance or mobility of an eighty year old man.
How was it even possible?
Nonetheless, Adelynn pressed on with her reading now wholly intrigued. Sparrow had described the history of each of the other Heroes and how she had come across them. Adelynn began to skip whole pages and entries until she came across one that was written in shaky handwriting.
"That bastard! That hideous bastard! He sent me to the Shadow Court today to deliver what I believed to be common parcel. It never crossed my mind the entire trek back through Wraithmarsh about exactly who would live in such a wasteland and what purpose would they have for any mail. When I entered the sealed off tomb I was immediately assaulted by a woman's shrieking cries and went to her rescue right away."
"A child! A child stuck in a place like this! With no recollection of how she got here or why! I thought to myself that this was Reaver's work until three shadowy figures formed in front of us. The three of them talked of a deal made with Reaver eons ago, a human sacrifice must be made in order for the man to retain his eternal youth, if a sacrifice is delivered to them every year Reaver will never be subject to the withering of age. They only needed one of us to choose who would die and who would live, and I'm sorry to say that I choose her..."
Adelynn felt her heart sink to her stomach, this was a side of her mother she had never seen, the side that had made decisions for herself and not the benefit of others.
"As I left Wraithmarsh burning with rage, sorrow, and murderous intent for the ancient monster who was responsible for this, Theresa told me the rest of the madman's life story. He was born a simple commoner in the village of Oakvale, and even then he was obsessed with his own beauty and the blessing of youth. He sought a way to keep himself forever preserved and soon discovered the Shadow Court. He made a deal with them, one life every year and they will keep him immortal, little did he know that the Shadow Court wanted much more. They flew through the town on death's wings like a black cloud, slaughtering the lives of every single villager without mercy and taking their souls. Oakvale was no more, and now the memories of this place are only his to keep.
"I wonder though, if his heartless demeanour and maniacal tendencies are a direct result of this tragedy. Maybe it is his own way of forgetting what he did..."
Adelynn froze, suddenly remembering only weeks ago when she had heard him mutter the word Oakvale in his sleep. He must be plagued nightly by dreams, nightmares of that day and what was the price to pay. Despite all the venom she had for him, all the reasoning behind her hatred and loathe for the despicable deviant, she felt the slight stirrings of...pity.
She closed the journal and put it aside, plunging further into the covers. She didn't want to read anymore.
xxx Author's note: At last! Another update...schooling and Christmas has been keeping me from my muse unfortunately, but here it is! Do enjoy!