~Chapter 7~

Gothel

I didn't know how or where to start, but that wretched girl was gone and the power of the flower was fading from my veins. I used the flyer to ask around this pathetic excuse for a pub. Run down, rats scurrying around, and all the hunting trophies I saw on the walls were collecting layers of dust. I spoke to men with hatchets and spears and many with iron helmets. Each man barely glanced at the flyer and kept their mouths shut feigning ignorance. I knew better. Who knew there was actually honor among thieves.

I stepped back outside of the pub sitting on the front stoop contemplating my next move. Rapunzel was headstrong about seeing those stupid lanterns. I should have cut my losses and not been so agreeable. Though I thought I'd go mad if I heard her ask to see them another year in the row. My only mistake was entrusting simple theatrics to a trio of thieves. The door opened behind me as I heard a loud burp as a glass bottle was thrown against the closest tree. A short, white-haired man with a bright red nose sat right next to me, staring.

"Can I help you?" I rolled my eyes, not in the mood for drunken antics.

"I hear, you're looking for people,'' he said, after a hiccup.

"Yes," I said standing up brushing off my dress, "So you best leave me alone." I grumbled.

I took a few steps as I heard his klutzy steps followed. Pulling my knife out, I turned around to face him again showing I meant business. His eyes widened in awe upon seeing the blade rather than in fear.

"Mighty fine craftsmanship. It's not a Corona smithed blade is it?"

"It was a gift from someone long ago. I don't know where it came from."

"Whatever," The man said gruffly, I was merely going to tell you, I saw those twin brothers at the harbor yesterday. They were taking some large cargo to Ravadyn."

"Cargo? Like what?"

"I dunno, lady. Do with the information that you want."

I blew a kiss to the drunken idiot whomever he was, but at least he gifted me a small lead. Though this meant I'd have to return to the tower before heading to the harbor. Another stop, more time wasted, but that drunken idiot mentioned Ravadyn. It rang a bell deep within my memory. I hurried back to the tower as fast as my feet could get me there to not waste more time. Upon reaching my room, I pulled out a large trunk I had stored beneath my bed. I opened the latch and began rifling through the contents, none of it I had locked eyes on in years. Memories not soon forgotten. Dresses my mother made me, an old silver hand mirror, and journals written in my mother's hand. I hesitated grabbing the mirror, but I dared to look at the reflection that gazed back at me. I felt the power of the sunflower waning, but seeing it was another matter. Tired eyes, wrinkled lines on my skin, and frayed ends on my hair looking less vibrant. Voices of lies filled my mind of a man who once had my heart. A man who favored beauty above all else. A man who never saw my worth and whom I was never enough for.

"Emeila, more rouge," He'd say, "Emelia, your hair should be black like the night sky."

I once had a head of beautiful auburn hair, but that wretched man made me permanently dye it black and keep it long. We were engaged for a number of years before I called it off leaving that man for good. I returned home to mother who told me our family kept secret of the Sol Lillitalus. A flower with healing capabilities bestowed upon singing a song to awaken the flower's power. It was a gift my family had chosen to protect for centuries. Though I saw its value when mother taught me the song. I began using it with each passing year, which I later found was forbidden by my family. Our job was to protect the flower, nothing else. Having such power and not being able to use it seemed ridiculous. By the time I was nearing sixty decades of age, I unearthed the flower and stole it away from my family's ever watchful eye. I obsessively abused its power year after year, hiding it from anyone else. The forests of Corona was its home for years and I made sure its hiding place was never found. Until I made a mistake and it was found by the king and queen's guards. I will forever curse the day I was unusually careless. I picked up some of mothers journal's paging through their contents, mostly daily entries of her life. One entry was dated shortly after my disappearance and she spoke of another flower whose magic was a plague to those who seek its power. This rare bloom grows in the colder regions of the north in a place called Ravadyn. My mother spoke of the place like an omen at least for those of us using the sunflower's magic. The sun and moon cannot survive together otherwise it can lead to corruption. If Rapunzel was taken to Ravadyn like that drunken fool mentioned, that didn't give me much time. I put mother's journals in my satchel just in case she wrote more on Ravadyn. I didn't have time to read it all now. I descended from the tower for a final time and left for the kingdom.

It was difficult finding captains near the harbor since many were already out on the water enjoying the lantern festival. Those I did find were passed out from too much ale. By the time I found a sober sea captain to take me out on their ship, they denied immediate departure. When I demanded to know why, he pointed up to the sky. Apparently, a storm was coming. If I wasn't on the water today, there would be another storm the captain would face and I'd wager the weather would be more merciful.