The Fool
Sometime in the Summer of Year 691
Il' Aluk, Darkon
Chapter 12
The rest of my junior year went off without more additional excitement though now that Harmon and I had learned the source behind how the bodies came to the university we were on guard and watchful for other things that also seemed out of place. It was good that there were the four of us in the know, we had of course told Chanella and Tess everything, so that we could not be easily self deluded into thinking that everything we encountered that did not make immediate sense to us or seemed odd was somehow part of a this big underlying conspiracy that we were now suspicious of.
For example Master Professor Gunther continued to treat Harmon and me with just enough respect to not be considered outright contempt for us. It would have been easy for us two to rationalize that this was because he was the source of the college's troubles but Tess was quick to explain he was merely a cantankerous old bastard, her words and not a reflection upon his true parentage as far as I know, and that such behavior was not odd for him. In this way we tried to keep focused only on those events we could not truly find a logical answer for, such as the murder of Professor Henry.
And In doing all of this we modified and practiced those very skills that we were being taught here at the college, namely we observed and recorded possible symptoms as we tried to diagnose the actual ailment taking place inside these walls.
My personal life changed as well somewhat over the winter months when Ingrid wrote me and said that her mother had taken a fall on ice that year and now had trouble walking. I had come home over the weekend again by renting another, actually the very same, horse and with a quick check determined that Elsa had not broken anything but was suffering from a bad bone bruise that would likely take a month or more to fully heal. As she was not one to let Ingrid of my aunt take care of her except on days it really hurt that one month stretched to two. Ingrid kept me informed every other week on her progress through letters and I sent suggested cures back as well.
What we both came quickly to realize though was that her mother was advancing in age and while she might still claim to be healthy, she was actually getting closer to fifty. I read between the lines that my bride to be was worried she would have no family left by the time of our wedding which was scheduled for after my graduation, so I settled the issue by asking her to marry me this upcoming summer instead. Thankfully her answer was an immediate yes which took up the entire first page of the responding letter.
I had requested her to keep the idea to herself and that next weekend in early spring I came home again via horse, I was now actually considering buying this faithful animal I referred to as Tasha, so that we could tell Elsa and my aunt together. Thankfully between the two of us we were able to restrain her mother from literally jumping up for joy, though my aunt did enough of that for the two of them and almost landed herself in bed for a hip injury as well. Needless to say our idea was approved by our families.
The pair of them made the announcement to the town that very same day, something we had overlooked in our personal happiness, and Ingrid and I immediately found ourselves as the center of attention and the guests of honor at a village party quickly planned for that night. Please keep in mind this had little to do with me. I ascribe this to the fact that my father had been well respected, Ingrid was well loved (and pursued) by the village, the weather had turned warm, and our village's primary inhabitants were halflings who took any excuse to have a party and these criteria were enough for them.
Both Ingrid and I consumed a little too much wine that day, something I had not done since my trip to Lamordia so many years earlier, and were feeling quite relaxed and warm in each other's love by the time we returned home together that evening. Our kisses which had been just slightly more than chaste and proper at the event, now turned rather more passionate. It was only with the greatest of willpower on my part that we did not take our wedding vows early, so to speak. Let it never be said that there is any greater temptation than a woman's desire for her man.
I returned to college and my studies that week, often distracted by these memories, but still disciplined enough to ensure I was learning what I needed to. My alternate week letters from Ingrid did not do much to help me concentrate though they did keep me up to date on the health of her mother, which was thankfully improving, and the events taking place in the village in preparation for our marriage.
The spring party had been such an enjoyable event that the village elders had decided to throw us an involved wedding as well figuring the reception party would have to be even better than the announcement was. Part was said to be in honor of my intention to return as a doctor and serve the community since we had no true physician, but halflings do not need any real excuses for merriment. Whatever the true cause Ingrid found herself the center of attention throughout the community for the next few months.
All three of the town tailors had decided to work together to create her the most beautiful dress along with ones for her mother and my aunt as well which I got bi-weekly updates on their production but which Ingrid never actually described to me since it was considered bad luck. I also had directions to come home at least two weeks before the wedding so I could be measured for my own wedding clothes which I hoped would not be a fourth dress by the way she seemed so excited by the first three.
Ingrid also told me she was regularly stopped by villagers who wished her well in her upcoming marriage and offered advice on how to make her husband happy. Ingrid left updates on this advice purposefully vague so that I was required to ask after them in my own next letters which she somehow never actually answered anyway. When I pressed the issue she then explained that the advice had universally been various cooking recipes. She teasingly asked if that is all men required from their young wives was just an ability to set a good table. I sent my own answer back saying it depended upon how good of a cook she already was. Here next letter was teasingly brief and told me in no uncertain terms to expect porridge for breakfast lunch and dinner.
Ingrid also said that all the bustle in the village for our upcoming wedding was even noticed by strangers who were just passing through our village. One woman who left the strongest impression as was by Ingrid description an older foreign woman of stunning beauty, even sought my love out upon hearing of her and proclaimed before the town that Ingrid was the loveliest bride to be she had ever seen. She followed this up saying such a wife deserved only a loving and honest husband. I am happy to report my Ingrid immediate exclaimed that these virtues were my own and that pleasantly satisfied the two talked for a long time about my caring nature and my desire to become a doctor to heal others. The woman smiled at Ingrid's stories and answers and said then she offered her own prayers for our success, making my bride to be suspect this woman had been a priestess of some sort.
Spring progressed and my studies started to come to a close for this year as well. Of our original class of twelve only seven still remained, the two that had quit after the zombie incident were joined by three who could not keep up the necessary academic standards regardless of the donations their families made to university. Harmon and I remained the top two students academically and still despised by the rest of the class and some, but not all, of the faculty. With no false modesty I do think some of the latter resented that we were actually nearly as good in our medical knowledge as they were and we were still merely students not actually doctors.
While we still studied often together Harmon received a mysterious letter and was called home for a two week period so I found myself without my normal ally in class. I spent much of my free time during those two weeks in the library with Tess and/or Chanella depending upon which of them decided to work that day. Since I already was assured of passing my finals regarding the various curatives, I decided to spend more energy expanding my knowledge in the more general subjects that their level contained since that allowed me to spend time on Tess's floor.
It was during this period that I noticed a dark haired beautiful girl, who was obviously not from Darkon, or at least those parts which I was familiar, also studying on the same floor. At first we merely acknowledged the other such as when we need to pass by in the cramp aisles between shelves, or she might ask my assistance in reaching a book above her grasp. After a time we even went so far as to actually say hello upon first seeing each other in the library, which I assure you made her far more sociable by this simple action than almost any other student here in the school.
I found it odd that now and then my thoughts would wander to her, not because of her beauty, which I will say in all honesty there was an abundance of, but because I sensed something different about her and I could not determine what it is. That thought nagged in me much like a loose tooth that I could not stop wiggling.
It did not help that sometimes as I was deeply immersed in study of one of my books that I would get a sudden feeling of her presence and look up to find her looking my way and once caught then turning away shyly. I did not see that it was flirting, surely not, but rather she had her own interest in me as well, like we recognized each other but could not place from where. I knew that to be ridiculous of course since there was no way anyone who saw this woman could ever forget her.
I asked both Tess and Chanella about her casually but this being a busy time for other students meant the two were often kept hopping by finding the books that student required to be reviewed further, or for the first time in some cases of those who were not taking their studies seriously, before the upcoming finals for that year. Neither of my friends recognized who I was speaking of by my simple description and I hardly felt comfortable telling them, since they both knew I was engaged to marry soon, that this stranger was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I was resigned to have to figure out these answers all by myself rather than face this embarrassment.
I believe my chance came early in the following week when I was once more in the library studying a book on the properties of various metals. Since I had come to understand that metals like silver had some unique effect over certain types of undead I wondered if there were other base metals and alloys that had a similar or even more powerful effect. The book I was looking was however a text on the proper forging of such metals not on their properties but it was my hope to find some similarity in their creation process might be the catalyst for their unique abilities to affect undead.
As you can imagine from my description it was not in truth a fascinating or intriguing subject of study and it allowed my mind to wander away quite easily. I am happy to report that almost all of my time went to thinking of my Ingrid who had reported just this week that the mayor of Rivalis herself was going to officiate at our wedding ceremony. We would also be offered blessings by the towns two most notable priests, the family and fertility goddess of the halflings whose power in these spheres was evident in our hometown, and the new shrine to the healing goddess Erza that was growing in popularity among the human resident of Rivalis.
I had turned back forcefully to my studies once more, determined to get though this section on cold-forged iron, when that familiar sensation of being watched began to tingle at the base of my neck once more. I turned and was not particularly surprised to see the same strange and enticing young woman whose name I still did not know catch my eye momentarily and then return to whatever book she was looking at while sitting at table off to the side and away from everyone else. I decided then and there that I was going to learn at least something about her.
I stood up and closed my book, cold-forged iron would simply have to wait for another time, and strode slowly but purposefully toward her table. She kept her eyes looking downward at her book but I sense she was aware of my approach none the less by the subtle change in her posture to one a little more tense.
"Excuse me." I whispered politely as we were in a library. "But I have the oddest feeling that I know you." Over the past few days I had thought over what the best course of action in talking to this woman would be and decided like almost everything in my life I would trust honesty to be the proper starting point and see where it led.
"That is hardly an original line." She said back without taking her eyes from the page before her. I could hear more than a little annoyance in her dismissive tone as well.
I suddenly realized that while my statement had indeed been honest it was also open to interpretation as an opening bid to seduce her. I had no doubt that her beauty brought many such offers, likely more than she desired, but such of course was not my intention. I scrambled to get out of this closing hole that I had made for myself.
"My apologies but I truly meant nothing by my words beyond their meaning that you appear somehow familiar to me." I tried again to make my point but she only continued to read. "I had hoped you might help me understand why I feel this but I can see I am merely distracting you from your studies so I will apologize again and leave you to them." I bowed slightly and turned to go.
"Are you also so easily dissuaded from your course?" She asked making me turn as she lifted her eyes from the page before her and I got to look into them for the very first time at such close range and not merely in passing.
They were amber in color and sparkled in the light or in response to her laughter and smiles. Her hair was long, straight, and deep black and her skin was a light chocolate with the texture of fine porcelain. She was undoubtedly stunning on any category of beauty one might chose to rate her and this in and of itself made me feel she was cold and unapproachable, like the holy avatar of some divine goddess.
"My course was seeking knowledge." I said. "It is obvious though that it is my singular pursuit so I need not burden you or take you away from your studies in the process."
"My studies are not nearly so important or at the moment all that entertaining either so I do not mind the distraction." She answered. "In fact in honesty I too have found you oddly intriguing as well." She replied showing me the first hints of that lovely smile of pure white teeth and the warm effect this had upon her eyes.
"I am Rudolph.." I started.
"…Rudolph Van Richten, yes I know." She said. "I have heard much about you from a rather informed source." The smile now had an element of mystery to it and struck me on a base internal level. I must admit I do love an intellectual challenge.
"I can only hope that this source was fair in their representation of me good lady." I said with just a hint of a laugh. "I know there are many who would not be so objective in there reviews."
"Oh I assure you she was nothing if not praising." The stranger replied making me realize I still had not asked her name.
"And may I ask who this informed source was since I have so few admirers miss…" I paused to let her answer both questions.
"Ashanti." She replied. "My name is Ashanti. As for my source I will not answer since a woman should have her confidences. But are you such a young man who has a such a vast bevy of female admirers that you are unable to determine who might wish to speak your praises?" The smile, now fuller also played with a touch of wicked danger.
In truth there were only three such females here at the university that might have offered a good word about me that I was aware. Tess and Chanella of course, though neither immediately admitted to recognizing Ashanti from my earlier description but then again I would not put it past either to forget a simple conversation due to the numbers of people who regularly spoke to them and required their assistance.
The third female who may have spoken well of me was Professor Westridge though that was hardly a certainty. I still did not have a handle upon our relationship for while she always seemed to support me when I was conflict with Master Professor Gunther, at other times I was merely an entertainment to her. Could she have spoken well about me to Ashanti? Perhaps, if the conversation had been about spirits but I doubted this was a likely scenario. This review of those females I knew here at the college left me as unsure as when I originally asked the question.
Had she said her source was a man then I would have known it to be Harmon, as he is the only male here in the college that would likely have a fair and positive word about me. Knowing this I tried instead a different approach hoping perhaps to piece together clues.
"Are you a student of the College of Medicine or do you attend one of the other colleges?" I asked though I was certain I would have noted if she lived in our dormitory or ever dined in our college cafeteria. She also struck me as being a few years older than myself but I could chalk that off to entering school at an older age than I had which was far more normal.
"No I would never make a successful doctor." She laughed so loud that I expected the others sitting nearby to offer us looks or words of disapproval but a quick glance by me around the immediate area showed no one preparing to do so or even having heard her. I could only assume since most of them were males that Ashanti's beauty bought her more considerations than the rest of us could expect.
We chatted for a while more until she stretched and yawned, apologizing and making sure to say that she was not bored with me but rather that she needed to head back to her room and rest. Being a gentleman and without any less than honorable intentions I offered to see her to her residence. In truth this would allow me to hopefully learn by this which college she was attending in the process. But of course my plans never seem to work out quite so well in their execution.
"Why do you not let me see you to your dorm instead?" She said and I figured she wanted to not be seen having a man, most likely one who was an outcast in the eyes of most of the college, walk her back to her room and then have to explain this event to others. I nodded understanding the unspoken request and we departed. Surprising to me as we left none of the other people seated in the library even turned to look as we departed which for me was the norm so not all that unique. But the fact that none of the men's eyes followed Ashanti still surprised me.
We talked more as we walked and Ashanti slid her arm in mine which made me feel very conscious of myself and even more so of her. I will not say that this in any way was interpreted by me as intimate but beyond the kisses I had shared with Ingrid it was the most contact I had with a female of approximately my own age. Were it not for my engagement burning vividly in my mind I am not at all certain that I would have known what to do or what to say at this point.
"Rudolph!" A familiar voice of Harmon called to me from across the courtyard.
"Well I will leave you to your friend." Ashanti said unlatching her arm from mine and turning away. "Try to think kindly of me?" She smiled demurely and turned before I could answer.
"Of course." Is all I could say confused by the way this evening had progressed.
I must admit that I was expecting to hear some good natured ribbing from Harmon at the woman on my arm. In truth I now realized how such a thing might have looked and how the image might have broken Ingrid's heart had she seen it. Thankfully she had not but I still felt guilt over having let it take place. Now I would pay for it.
"I was looking for you but I guess you were busy." Harmon said nearly running across the courtyard to me.
"I can explain it was…" I started.
"Yes I know you were at the library." He laughed. "Like you would be anywhere else?"
"Well true but I went there only to study…"
"Like I or anyone else here in this university could possibly think there was any other reason!" He laughed. "But enough of that I needed to find you to tell you that my message of an emergency at home had been a lie!" He said these words with a growl of anger in his voice that I had never heard him express before.
In truth I could hardly doubt him. The fact that the note had been dropped of with the college clerk who said he found it on his desk and it was not signed by anyone had originally made the two of us suspicious as to its origins. But when such a missive tells you that members of your family are in dire straights and require you to return home do you really take a chance and ignore it when it could in fact be the truth. I know I could never live with having failed to help those I cared about if they asked for my aid. Harmon was every bit as decent in this regard as me.
Now though with this new information I had to wonder who was behind such a devious plan and more importantly what they had hoped to achieve through its execution. Harmon was the most accomplished student of our class, edging me out in tests by a few points, but he greatly outperforming all the others. It was conceivable that one or more of the other students had targeted him with this prank in order to make him miss a test or two while he was gone. He would not fail, but at least it might make the overall class performance a closer thing. That fortunately for him had not occurred since we had taken no tests so if that had been their intention then their plan had borne no fruit for them to suckle upon.
A more devious option was that someone had meant to do him harm on the trip home. We considered this and carefully ran through all the encounters he had on the five day trip each direction but there was nothing even remotely out of order that would seem to suggest such an attempt had been made. He had not even heard of highwaymen or other travelers encountering problems anywhere on that trip.
A third option was that this was somehow tied to the death of Professor Henry and our own subtle investigations into the problems surrounding the College of Medicine but that too did not make sense based on the facts. The reason in that case would have been to have an opportunity to search Harmon's room but I found out that he used a rather ingenious trick of placing a hair on his door and doorframe when he was out to see if anyone had entered without his permission. He said the hair was right where he had left it and nothing in the room seemed to have been touched.
Try as the two of us might, we just could not come up with a reason why this deception had been performed upon him. At best it was a simple act of pettiness and if this was the best they had to offer then we decided that we were not going to spend any additional time worrying about it.
For the next week Harmon and I were nearly inseparable, in fact on at least three of those nights when one of us fell asleep in the chair studying in the other's room. This year's finals were meant to be the most difficult because it was the last of the academics. Starting next year we would begin diagnosis of treatments on real patients as a class. But to get to this stage you had to demonstrate you had not forgotten any of the academic theory you had learned in the previous three years.
Thankfully I will say while we refreshed our minds over the various courseware subjects we had been introduced to over the previous semesters, our mental faculties did not let us down. We easily recalled details from our first year discussions with very little additional study required.
Harmon told me that it was his personal goal to not have any answer wrong on the final exam. Personally I though this was an overly ambitious goal as the highest score to date had been four hundred and fifty three questions right out of five hundred asked. Passing was three hundred and I would be happy with four hundred, but Harmon argued me into even higher goals by asking what type of doctor did I want to be if I settled for one out of five of my patients dying because I did not know the proper answers to their ailments. I note that was not his reasoning for pushing himself for he had already said his intention was to go into performing further research rather than actual practice, but he did know by this time how to motivate me.
I saw Ashanti only one time in the library during that week of study and wanted to go up and speak to her before Harmon joined me for another night of review but Chanella interrupted me with a call to help her pull down a rather large and dusty volume off a top shelf that was said to be a collection of bard's tales which was her current favorite topic of interest to read. By the time Chanella and I returned Ashanti had already left and Harmon was now sitting in the chair she had vacated.
I resigned myself solely back to my studies again and banished Ashanti from my mind so that Harmon and I might practice naming all the bones and muscle groups in the human body. After that exercise we began our challenge of asking which of these differed in the anatomy of dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings since along with humans these races make up the majority peoples in our land and for me would likely be patients.
The day of our final exam came and while I was nervous at first, once I settled down and actually began to read the questions the answers came to me again and again. It took me nearly four hours to complete the process, six minutes more than Harmon, but more than two hours faster than any other in our class.
In the end Harmon did not actually succeed in getting every question right as he had desired. He missed one and blamed this on the poor way it was worded which since Darkonese was his second language I could not really fault him for. Surprisingly I actually got all the questions right, stunning both myself and all the professors, especially a certain Master Professor, but making Harmon, Tess, and Chanella very proud of me in the process. I wrote Ingrid that night and told her of my success ad thanking her for without a doubt she also was responsible. I signed that letter saying no man had ever been blessed with a better mate to be.
Harmon insisted that we go out that night and celebrate in a true Lamordian fashion. It had been seven long years since my trip to Lamordia and I had forgotten in that interim how Lamordians like to celebrate, namely with their fists around a mug of frosty ale. He also explained it was bad form for friends to let their companions drink alone or get too far ahead. I tried to caution him that Darkon was not a city without dangers at night, but we agreed to drink at the tavern on campus, possibly the highest profit making establishment this university had.
I wanted, truly, to restrain myself for I had known what it was like to become too far in my cups twice before but the combination of the celebratory spirit and Harmon's insistence that I stick with him worked passed my normal cautious reserves. One might say that I allowed this to happen because I wanted it to, but I am cautious where the customs of other lands are involved. I certainly did not want to insult my friend in his ceremony because just that morning before the test had begun I had asked Harmon to stand as my witness at my wedding to Ingrid and he had accepted.
We were hardly the only ones celebrating completion of our studies for that year because the tavern was nearly wall to wall people throughout the night downing their own glasses in celebration or in misery based on the individual results of their examinations. I looked around on occasion hoping to see Ashanti celebrating as well to offer her congratulations or condolences on her results but she was not ever in sight that I could see.
By the time Harmon and I finally left the tavern, each with an arm around the other for support, I was not feeling good, I was merely feeling nothing at all. We were hardly the only ones in this state. In fact one of our classmates was so far out of his ability to make rational judgments that he actually bought a round of drinks for Harmon and me offering his praises, of all things, for our performance over the past years. This so shocked my drinking companion and I that we literally sobered back up three stages or so making Harmon immediately order two more rounds so we could get back to where we had been rather than have to talk about this incident.
We finally made it to the dormitories, though the steps were nearly the death of us and at one point seemed to me to be almost as comfortable as my own bed so might work as a convenient substitute until such time as I could gather my strength to finish my climb to my room. That recovery should take about a week or so by my estimation.
Harmon was of course there for me and somehow the two of us made it to the second floor where he even was able to set me before my door and ask to my wellbeing before turning away and seeking his own room further down the hall. I do not know the reason his overly concerned nature for I needed only to get the key from my pocket, and effort that took more than a minute, and insert it into the lock, which was damn near the death of me.
I let the door swing fully open before I tried to command my body to walk and found to my surprise that the last corner of my intellectual mind noted that a candle was still burning in my room. I tried to shake off the feeling of sleep going through my head and focus solely upon this fact for I know I never left a candle or any source of flame in my room when I departed for fear of the potential harm that it may cause others.
"Rudolph?" A warm and seductive voice called out from across the room in the still mostly dark areas where my bed sat. I turned to look and noted Ashanti sitting upon it wearing only the flimsiest night clothes of nearly see through silk. Her body seemed nearly ethereal in this attire and while my senses were adjusting to this I cannot say the sight of her was the most enchanting that I had ever witnessed.
"I wanted to spend this one night with you before your wedding." She said with a bit of a pout on her lips and a look bordering on fear of being rejected. My mind that had been clouded by drink and confused by what I saw now seemed to clear up of its own. Some part of my mind said we had been attracted to each other from the moment our eyes had met so who was I to deny her this moment she asked for? We were both adults and capable of making such choices were we not?
There is an old wives tale about how the over consumption of strong drink inhibits other performance capabilities, I believe it is something like 'wine doth create the desire but removith the capability.' Let me speak as a medical man and someone who now was able to first hand test this theory that it is certainly not true in all situations. While I had been attracted to others most specifically Ingriud, never had my desire for a single woman been so strong as it was currently.
It was as if a wild beast was now within me battling my mind for release. It was seeking sustenance after so many years of being starved and denied and now before it was placed a meal of delicacies. The beast would be denied no longer!
"Oh YES my love please take me." Ashanti stood up and held her arms open to me. I could see similar desire burning within her eyes as well. It was something not rationale, but simply primal and basely animalistic. It was something we had evolved away from but still carried inside of us, waiting, nay begging, to be released in such events. Now at this moment while I stood in the doorway the beast within had been set free.
"I am yours my love." Her words were now soft and seductive though she stepped no closer to me. I knew that she needed me to show her that I wanted her as well. She required me to stride boldly across the floor and sweep her up into my arms and onto my bed. I knew this and raised my foot for the first such step when a hand appeared upon my shoulder.
I turned to find Harmon standing beside me, his hand the one on my shoulder, with a questioning look in his eyes. "My friend what is it you do?" He asked seeking the rationale beyond the beast.
"Leave me Harmon." The beast growled. Perhaps he wanted to make more of an argument and tell my friend that moments such as these need to be seized when they arrived now passed by and regretted for the rest of one's life. A part of me thought perhaps my friend is jealous, that here was the most desirable woman we had ever seen and she had asked for me, to join me in my bed, rather than him who I can admit is far more handsome and charming than I ever would be.
"Is that truly your desire my friend?" He asked again, not rising to the alpha male call men tend to have in such situations but instead meekly submitting and offering no personal challenge.
"Please Rudolph do not make me wait." Ashanti said from across the room but my friend did not even acknowledge her keeping his eyes focused solely upon me.
"Are you mad?" I asked pointing to her which he only paid a casual glance out of respect for me. "No one will get hurt my friend." I said that allowed though the beast within knew that was not completely true. Both Ashanti and I would feel pain and pleasure this night but we desired this on a baser level than I was willing to acknowledge to my friend.
"Perhaps one of us is mad my friend." He conceded though I understood the subtly of his message. "And the one to get hurt may not be the one standing here in this room." He said staring me in the eyes before taking his hand from my shoulder as a statement that he accepted the decision was my own to make and no one else's.
"My love?" Ashanti now merely whispered and I closed my eyes at the sound letting it run through my body.
But it was not her calling me by these words that warmed my chest and filled me full of emotion at that moment. Ashanti's voice had done this about two feet lower but she had not tapped my heart. There in its confines it was another who had called to me in a similar soft tone each time she addressed me and that single phrase made me feel like a king among men.
Images of my Ingrid burst into my mind and pushed back the beast even further into the confines within. Memories flooded across my memories, walks we had together, the touch and warmth of her hand when I held it in him own, the feel of her body when she comforted me, and finally the sweet taste of her kisses that we had shared. These were all promises of even greater treasures to come but I was a rich man for having even these already.
I thought then of our marriage that would be held in less than two weeks, and how lovely my bride to be was going to be. I thought of how the village was making this an event to rival all others. I thought of how proud I would be making my parents. But finally I thought of how Ingrid would feel were she ever to find out.
With teary eyes I looked once more at Ashanti standing all alluring in her nearly transparent bed gown with open desire for me upon her face. The beast roared in its desire for her, but in my mind it was merely a distant echo, like that of thunder off on the horizon, hidden behind the giggles and warm sunshine smile of my Ingrid.
"I love my Ingrid." I said letting my foot return to the floor where it had been rather than stepping forward toward her. Now other memories flooded through my mind as well of things I had done and read over the past few years and I realized what I now faced.
"I will not be like the others Ashe." I said calling the ghost by her real name rather than this alias she used. "Those men were wrong for what they did to you and the dreams of yours they destroyed." I made my voice hold sympathy but still keep its steel edge of reason.
"But how many other women's dreams have you destroyed by tempting their husbands to be?" I asked. "Have you not become the very evil that hurt you?"
The ghost was shocked by the enormity of this revelation. In the past Ashe had always thought of herself as an avenging angel, trying to prevent other women from going through the hurt she herself had when her dreams had been used against her. She had felt bitter, not only for being used by the band of rogues who had deceived her, but also by her own dreams that had betrayed her into a life of solitude waiting for the perfect man who never came. She chose to save other women this hurt of seeing their own dreams of happiness torn away by a man as well, never realizing though that most people do not seek perfection as the gateway to happiness.
When she had torn the lives away by tempting me from their brides she had taken away the very chance of happiness most were willing to settle for and gave them instead the same feelings of cool betrayal she had felt. In her years as a ghost trying to save other, Ashe could only wonder how many other broken hearted women like herself her actions had left in her wake.
"It is time to put your anger aside Ashe and move on to the next life." I said. "Perhaps in this one you will find the perfection you were denied but deserved in this one."
The ghost smiled timidly at me at first though I could see the darkness within her seemingly melt away at my words.
"Ingrid said you were not like other men." Ashe spoke in respect. I realized now that Ashe had been the strange and beautiful woman who Ingrid had wrote to me about coming to our village and talking with her about our coming marriage.
"Thank you for showing me the error of my ways Rudolph." Ashe the ghost now began to fade away the way I had seen the elven warrior do years before when he too went to his final rest. "Ingrid is truly blessed to have such a man. Enjoy every moment you have together for the never seem to last as long as you want them to."
And then she was gone, leaving me standing still in my doorway with Harmon by my side once more. I turned to him and offered my thanks for his moral support in my time of trial but he waived this off.
"How many times have I told you my friend that one never seems to know what type of trouble I can get into standing next to you Van Richten!" He said with a laugh once more before seeking his own bed.
I went to my own and dreamt that night of a lovely and alluring woman who beg for me to join her. I am happy to report here that the image in that dream was my own Ingrid.
For the romantics among you I will report that my wedding was all that I had ever expected it to be and more. In truth I'm a man of simple tastes and as long as I was standing beside Ingrid I would have been happy to be married by a wandering friar beneath a weeping willow tree. The result for me would have been the same in that I would be now sharing my life with my beloved for all times to come.
For Ingrid the ceremony though had a special significance that I as a man will likely never fully understand. She got to stand before the entire village dressed in a gown of white, a tradition we almost dishonored when I finally returned to Rivalis and she kissed me with a passion I had never felt in her before. The thought of having to delay the wedding to order a blue dress instead was the only thing that seemed to stay our actions and in that light I have no regrets.
Thereafter Harmon stayed with me in my house while Ingrid moved back in temporarily with her mother and my aunt. Though they were a bit crowded, she explained it was not only for propriety sake, but because she would need help and motherly advice before her wedding night as well. Her excuse fooled neither woman but they chose to say nothing about it that would be embarrassing to the bride to be.
I can state here with all honesty that upon seeing Ingrid for the first time as she walked down the pathway to join me before the mayor and the pair of priests that I had never seen a more beautiful and alluring woman in my life, not even Ashanti when she had been sitting in my bed wearing next to nothing. I nodded a silent thanks to Harmon again for not letting me make a mistake even though in the intervening weeks he had proven to me that I had been subject to her spell of charm not nearly a creature trapped by his own lusts. Whether this was true or merely a friend's gift to allow me to maintain my pride I still thanked him for these words.
There before the gods of both humans and halflings Ingrid and I were wed. I noted while some women cried for the beauty of the moment or their jealousy at Ingrid's happiness, none of that jealousy was because of me. They simply wished they too had such a storybook ceremony and were with the one they truly loved. And as I said I was content to know I would have the woman of my dreams beside me.
On the opposite side of that coin I did see many of the younger men of the village look at me with open admiration, not for the ceremony but because I had married the most desirable woman in the entire village. The hats that were tipped toward me were not only for our wedding success but an acknowledgment of my own victory over them. While I had never consciously thought of such things, the thought left me with an odd twinge of warmth that I never expected to feel. Others were jealous and envious of me. I had no idea just how to react to this except to thank the gods once more.
I did that one last time that night when Ingrid came with me back to the home that we now shared. When we closed the door and she turned for another kiss she noted the tears in my eyes.
"My love why are you sad?" She asked, concerned that in her enjoyment of the ceremony she had somehow hurt me.
I waved this off kissing the fingers on both her hands as I used them to wipe away my tear. "I am not sad my love." I replied. "I just never expected that I would ever feel this happy."
She smiled at me and took a moment to blow out the only candle we carried before wrapping her body close to mine. "I love you too my love." She said quietly and I knew all at that moment was right in the world. And I thought it could not get any better.
I was wrong in this, like I am in so many aspects of life. In the week before I was to leave and return for my final year of college I noted that Ingrid had become a bit changed in her personality toward me over the past few days. She was not any less loving only that she seemed very distracted. Furthermore she spent more time than usually with her mother and my aunt, which I admit made me a bit jealous in that our time together was rapidly passing by and I did not want to give away more of it than I had to.
With four days to go Ingrid returned more to normal and I figured whatever the cause of her concern had passed and we were again a newly wed couple in love. In fact we were more in love than even on our wedding night, though I attributed this to my imminent departure and regrets for being apart even before we were.
I did promise that I would rent Tasha every other weekend so that I might come home for a day whenever possible and this made her happy. I even suggested that she might come visit me for two weeks in the winter by riding with my merchant friend.
That idea receive lukewarm response even when I said she could stay with Tess and Chanella rather than in my cramped dorm room if it was an issue of not having enough space. She only said she would think about it as space might be an issue by then.
I knew she had talked about spending more time with my mother-in-law and aunt after I left to help them out and share the burden of a house during the winter months. I was of course okay with that as the home they lived in actually had three separate bedrooms anyway. Ingrid's room was on the opposite side of the house so there would be no embarrassing issues when I came home for the weekends either.
It was the two nights before I left when finally Ingrid came to me with a look of both happiness and apprehension in her eyes. I had no idea what would make her so hesitant around me but I knew somehow that it was better I saw nothing at first and let her speak her mind.
"Rudolph." She took my hand in her own and placed it on her belly. "You are going to be a father." For a long time I stood there smiling but unable to find any words that would express my feelings.
Finally I scooped my wife up into my arms and carried her to a place more private. I looked into he eyes and leaned down to kiss her and whispered softly in her ear. "You shall always be my beloved."