Author´s Note: This chapter is longer, mainly because it took me twice the time to wrote as a normal chapter. Well, if you like it, review it, favorite it or at least read it once more. Or share it, that would help. If you have any concern, question, or idea, send me a review. Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Outsider
The wind was cold, yet the sun was all bright and mighty. Beautiful morning to come back home. I felt how the wind moved individually my locks of hair, proving that it was just too long. I held the helm with strength, but I wasn´t moving it to either direction, as we were already in path. The boys, some were still sleeping, some were playing cards, fist fights, or just drinking at 11:00 am.
"Aye, Captain Finn, we´re only minutes away from port" Rus, who was captaining new and reformed Yavanna, was by the side of Ragnar with some meters to spare.
Without looking at him, I listened to the message. Held even tighter the helm, as I saw the shores of the south-west part of the continent.
"My men, lower the speed, as we´re not far" My tone was low, as getting nervous was law for me and Rus.
The sky was clean, and no clouds, excepting two or three, dared to show up. As blue as the waters we were sailing on top, as blue as my eyes, as blue as our flag. You could see some birds flying by the side of my barque mastiffs. As usual, there were seagulls, pigeons; some message hawks the Royal marine uses. Nothing special.
They opened their wings with all their might, as we recurred these seas, the only land to which we belong, around the mastiffs. There were some rocks, some islands, and some diving points signalled by the fallen mastiffs that still show their top over the calm water. Ragnar calmly continued its course, as it slowly followed the shores in front of us, going to our left.
The Lads quickly got bored of anything they were doing, some just woke up and walked to the main deck, and decided to join together and star to sing a shanty. The melody was nice, but their rough, cracking voices made it unpleasant at some points. I wasn´t paying attention anyway, as it was Rus, who was still driving smoothly Yavanna to our right, and I the job to be looking out for any Navy or Bounty hunter ships roaming this waters.
"Oi, Captain, land a´sight!" A young lad, in front of the ship screamed about what his eyes were showing him.
My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly took a step back, leaving the helm loose. Ragnar shake, making some of the lads fall, others, laugh about how retarded were those in the floor. Quickly, I took once more Ragnars reins, and quickly put it back to position once more. Some crewmen decided to look to the deck I was, their eyes asking a question, some used their mouth.
"Captain, the hell is wrong with ya´" A lad, still hangover because of last night pub´s visits, asked something I could not answer.
Silently, all of the crew went back to position, and, luckily, Rus did not notice, as captaining a Dreadnought requires all of a man´s attention.
Just like a lady
As Ragnar sailed through the water, I quickly took out from my inner pocket the pocket watch, which was waiting for me this morning inside that chest besides my bed. It read 11:09, which meant that the port would still be free to receive heavy cargo ships such as Yavanna, and military-expedition vessels in which Ragnar and Yavanna fell in. Tax free. After recovering my sense of time, that I lost because of past days insomnia, I saw how the port was easy to be seen by anyone who roamed the seas at this time.
Remembering well the map of the Kingdom continent, the port was located to the south west, really far from the south of the Mountain Kingdom, to the left of the fire kingdom. Every time I come to this port, even though I always stay for just one noon, it amazes me how the Queens turned the "Lost Cliffs" into the main port of a continent. It just proves, how a group of young princesses, turned ladies, became great leaders.
Yeah, they´re the best.
Victoria´s Lair, first time I will actually stay in it, a thought that makes me shiver. We were approaching the humongous port, and I decided to appreciate the form of the city. A modern city, full of merchants, privateers, marines and captains, rose over the ground. We were approaching it from the north east of the city, and we could see from our left how the beach curved inside, showing how it ended in an inverted v, to show another curved beach be born. Few isles, which belong to the city, were seen to our right.
Is known in the seas that Classism is a problem that hasn´t been solved in Victoria´s Lair, as those little Isles are settlements of different social-economic status. Three isles can be seen to our right. The first one we see is Alexander´s Town, named in honour of Sir Alexander of the Vik lands. It homes the richest people in the city, and it´s a walled city, hiding little citadels deep within.
Next, the biggest isle known as Elizabeth´s Lair. It´s a fairly normal place, as it hosts people from all places and economic or social status. There´s peace, but it has it certain amount of problems. Then, we have Shay´s landing. The smallest of the little isles, is a prison isle, in which the worst pirates, thieves, assassins are kept. Named in honour of my tutors granddad, Shay Ethan the Rogue. First captain of the Ragnar.
Ragnar continues his path through this water, and I calmly move the helm to our left, to finally stop at our destination. The port is amazing. Water as clear as the sky, a modern, yet classical city in front of us, and people from the 5 continents. A place that was built from scratch that has grown in this three years, and everything under this new place, it´s forgotten history.
"So this is what I have missed" I whisper to myself as I slowly leave Ragnar in the port. The port length is almost immeasurable for the common eye, but not for a privateer. You leave your ship to the right of the wooden deck, tie it up so it doesn´t run away, leave it, and explore the city. That´s mostly what you can do here, if you´re not a merchant or royalty of course.
After walking some rough 20 meters of wooden deck, I stand over a street made of bone colour concrete, with gray, white or black stones inside it, giving it a mountain like texture. I look behind me, and see Rus having trouble to bring the massive Yavanna to the port. With a mischievous smile, I turn back to the port, to admire the frontal face of the city.
Houses, storages, apartments, restaurants, pubs, shops, and privateers gathering points. If it´s profitable, it will be built in this city. I quickly look to my right and left, and realized there´s roughly 5 to 8 kilometers distance between each part. 16 kilometers in total of the main face of the city. How can I know this? Easy, I left Ragnar in the middle of the port.
I walked a bit through this street, in which there was a fair amount of people in it, with stands, outside movies, games and everything. Is an eternal carnival in this city, no wonder those girls love it so much. I walk through the crowd, and put on my hood.
I need to get something more decent
This whole clothing set that I wear every day, it has around twenty years. Better get something of quality, if not, I´ll alert the navy, and they´ll realize that Cormac is now in their city. I´ve already seen some wanted poster walls, in which, logically, the poster with my name it´s one with the biggest bounties.
As I start to move between the crowds, seeing people from the kingdoms in a long time, seeing how everything it´s still so beautiful, bright, some guards pass right in front of me doing their guard. Abruptly, I stop, and see how it was a group of pure rookies, easily distinctive of how light their uniform was, being led by an elderly officer.
They were a group of the new guards belonging to the candy kingdom. They looked meaner, smarter and more effective overall the those pretty stupid banana guards.
I stop my walking, and look as they pass right in front of me like a chivalry, seeing how they started to divide the crowd in two different rows. Most of the didn´t bother to see what was to their sides or behind them. Except one little rookie who decides to look back. He looks me right at me eyes, and I return the sight. He chokes for a second, and he decides to alert his fellow men, while turning back to me.
"Men! Th-there´s a pirate in he-here!" Said the Rookie, while shivers went through his body, aiming with his rifle and bayoneted where I was.
The officer went to him, and looked at both rows, seeing nothing. The young one earned himself a slap from his officer in command, being followed by a mock of his fellow men.
"Anschäwalser! Return to your place and continue the parade!" Said the officer while returning to his spot, right in front of the chivalry.
"Aye, aye my Officer!" Answered the rookie.
The guards decided to continue their daily journey through the city. As always, the people couldn´t contain and decided to look for the o´mighty pirate. They looked at faces, vessels, buildings and privateers, finding nothing.
"Good morning, mighty privateer! What could I offer to you today?" Said the bartender of the pub I was walking to from the docks.
Logically, they did not found me because when the rookie looked at me, and choked, I quickly decide to switch rows, and move forward to this lovely, cozy, little wood and brick pub.
"Thanks, ehh…" I answered, while taking off my hood.
"It´s Mavis, Captain" The Bartender answered.
"Aright, Mavis, gimme a cold glass of mead." I said, making a size suggestion with my palm, while resting the other one in the table while sitting down.
Mavis turned back to me, and approached the mead, wine or beer wooden kegs on top of the table in front of me. He started to serve a cold glass of mead, in a boot like tall glass. While approaching me with the glass, and taking an old cloth to clean the marble table, he decided to speak.
"Aren't you going to ask?"
"About what?" I said while taking the glass off the table.
"How I knew you´re a captain" He said while I gave my first gulp of mead.
After swallowing, a lowered the glass once more, and cleaned my mouth with my right hand glove. After that, I looked over both of my shoulders, to appreciate a little the people of this pub, and the pub itself. It's a nice, fancy place. Behind me, there were some high class people, and some rich privateers I had seen at some point, sitting in tables divided by a plank of ebony coloured wood, sitting in either the red velvet sofa´s attached to the wall, or in fancy designed black and white wood chairs.
To my right, after the bar extended around twenty more meters, we had the bathrooms. Two doors in a wall, which had either the symbol of an anchor, for men, or a mermaid, for the ladies.
To my left, after the end of this ten meter, crescent moon table I was resting laid the wooden door, which had crescent, moon shaped glass in them. Two pillars lay to both sides of the door, and to the right pillar there was a window with a view to the docks. That´s how I saw all the fuss.
In front of me, laid Mavis with a face of wonder, while cleaning the marble, crescent moon table. Behind him, and to his right, my left, shelves of liquor so fancy I could not even pronounced were hanged.
"The posters" I said with a smile.
He stopped the cleaning, and opened a drawer under the table. He passed me a key that was in that drawer, and signalled me something behind my back.
"Open it" He said, while returning to his cleaning
I turned my back, and saw a plank of wood, with a mechanism that had the lock in the middle, supposing that you could open in somehow.
"Come one" Said Mavis, seeing how I was still wondering what to do.
"Chill, man." My answered came when I was leaving my seat, and approaching such plank
After introducing the key, it opened itself. The mechanism divided the first layer, another plank of wood, and slid to the sides. What was inside was a wanted board, with lots of wanted posters.
"Do you see it?" Mavis asked, while I was looking at the other poster´s
I decided to look at the top, in which the biggest bounties are put. There it was, my wanted poster.
"Fuck" I whispered
"What´s the matter? Captain Finn, leader of the North White Bear fleet" Mavis tone was of one mocking.
I turned to him, and saw him coming forward to me with a lighter and a smiling face. I was astonished, because they had updated my picture. It wasn't anymore that blurry picture of me giving the back. That new picture was taken this year, as you could see that I was wearing this tunic. I wasn't exactly looking at whatever camera took the picture, but you could see my face covered by locks of long hair. Luckily, I was wearing my hood. Badly, I was wearing the tunic.
"Are you going to sell me out?" I asked Mavis, as the reward for my head was an amount of gold that doubled Ragnar. The most expensive ship of my whole fleet.
"Chill, man. I am not going to do nothing like that" Mavis answered while taking of the poster off the wall, and burning it with a lighter.
"Thanks." I said, while looking over to my right to see through a window, while a smile covered my face.
"It´s nothing. Come over here!" Mavis, after burning the poster, hugged me.
I laid there after the hug with an idiotic face. Mavis laughed, then I laughed. We returned to the bar table, and I slowly finished my mead.
"Hey, the reason why I hugged you, it´s because…well…" Mavis sighed before continuing. "My brother, your fleet saved his village from a raid. Thanks"
"How?" I asked, as his story seemed unreal to me
"You destroyed Red Crows southern fleet. Those guys destroy any place that doesn´t pay taxes, and the people of my brother´s Island didn´t"
"Destroyed" I corrected him.
He laughed once more, and looked down with a face of gratitude, almost crying. He then opened the drawer once more, and took an envelope, that looked like if it was of Royal purpose.
"That should take you to the best Tailor in the city. Get something proper of a captain, for Queen´s Bonnibel sake!" Mavis said with a smile.
The sound of her name hit me instantly. I took the envelope, and looked at it with an expression of sorrow.
"Yeah…thanks, Mavis" I said while getting up of my seat.
"What´s the matter?" Asked Mavis while I was at the door, ready for leaving.
"How is she?" I asked.
"Who?" Said Mavis, still concerned for me.
"Thy Queen" I answered.
The question startled Mavis, and he looked down with an expression similar to mine.
Did I look that weak?
"Goodbye, Mavis" I said while leaving the tavern.
I don´t know if he answered to anything, of it he heard anything at all. I just knew that I had to do something, or my conscience will eat me alive. I cannot stand more nights of insomnia.
I started to walk this city, as if it was the first time, when I heard the bells, meaning that it was already 12 o´clock. The envelope was in my inner jacket pocket, and, knowing how easily I would be spotted, I decide to open it.
29/12/XXX98
Dear Mavis
Your gentle and artistic handwritten request letter has been accepted. Please, approach the master Tailor, your appointment with him has been granted, at 12´o clock tomorrow.
Queensman Tailors
"Well, that was convenient" I said while still walking through the main street.
Knowing that it´s at this time that the Navy start their route, I decide to walk the smaller streets between each building. Sun was still bright, even more now, so it would be easy to spot me.
Wait, the direction
I did not ask Mavis the direction. Looking through the letter once more, and the envelope, I saw a watermark in both. It was a symbol of a Swan and two swords. It wasn´t going to be hard to find it, as the buildings, they are many, but they are not tall.
I climbed to the top of one three stores building, to recognize and exanimate where I was. In the middle of this city, there´s a chapel used for Royal Marriages.
Just climb that, and you will look like a King.
After walking four blocks north, three to the right, and two more ahead, I reached the chapel. It was a beautiful, gray and black chapel, and it had a deep, old well full of crystal water. You could see engravings in the stone, of both the chapel and the well. The faces of all the Queens were carved in the stone, as a memorial of them. They were set in an ached way, going up.
And thy Queen´s lie in the center
I went to the entrance, and decided to escalate from the point on. It was a long climb, but worth it, as I could see the small, yet great detail carved in the chapel.
The world lies at my feet
At the top, I felt like a King.
I could have been a King
I saw the immensity of the port, seeing the decks far south, in front of me, and the first set of houses in front of the docks. Behind me, more wood, concrete, bricks or marble buildings were attached to the ground.
Around eight blocks from the pub to my left, and three to the north, I saw the swan and two swords symbol, engraved in metal attached to the walls of a three stores, tailoring. It was white, with gray, northern symbols all around it. I was at the peak of the chapel, and I decided to jump to the well.
It was amazing, as the wind created a beautiful sound that I could only hear in thunderstorms, deep within the sea. The energy, the calm, and the adrenaline, were all washed away by the surprisingly clean and drinkable water. I fell right in the well, and after rising to the surface, I exited, and walked calmly, fully soaked, to the tailoring.
"Em… Good morning? Or Good afternoon? I am here to see the tailor" I said while entering the tailoring, totally soaked, dripping water all over the incredibly detailed carpet
"Lion fur…" I whispered, while kneeling down to caress the dead beauty.
"Don´t touch sire, please!" I heard a high pitched voice, screaming behind a door right in front of me.
A small candy lady, busted out of that door. She was running to me with a concerned expression, but she tripped because of her long dress.
"Milady, are you all right?" I asked her, as I saw that she fell right onto her face
"Ouch!" She screamed.
I walked to her, and helped her to get back on her feet. She had fell on her nose, which was heavily swollen.
"Thank you" She stopped for a moment to give a pain grunt "Young man"
She got on her feet, and went to the counter, which was located right to the table. She was walking slowly, so I took a quick glance at the place. A large window made of frosted glass was behind the counter, almost taking the entire place in such wall. You could see the street right in front of it, and you could see a bit of the docks. To the right and left of the door, pink velvet sofa´s attached to the walls.
In front, laid the door which I suppose it takes you to the other floors. To the left of the door, there was a zone, in which the carpet, instead of fur, was just a light, yellow colour. It had no door, and there were more sofa´s in that part.
"What can I offer you, young man?" She talked with pauses due to pain.
I walked to the counter, and gave her the soaked envelope with the letter inside.
Great job, Finn, you´re an idiot.
"I see…" She said with a calmed smile, like the one tree trunk used to give me.
After recovering everything that could be recovered, she read carefully the letter.
"You´re not Mavis Earnhardt, are you" She said with a laugh at the end.
She got off the chair which allowed her to see over the counter, which was not very big, as it was around my solar plexus height. There was a button to the right side of the glass, which she pressed after getting off the chair. A red light bulb attached to the wall to the left of the possible next floor door, got on.
"Bloody causalities! I´m coming darling!" A middle aged voice screamed, in a weird, yet fancy accent.
"All right, what´s the problem my dear?" An old man busted through the door, wearing what looked like the most detailed royalty like blue carmagnole, full of details, with a saints-culottes pants.
"Oh, dear, here we have this young…" The little lady was talking until she got interrupted
"Why the hell is a soaked, sea dog doing in my tailoring?!" He said while approaching me
He started to walk around me, glancing at my clothes. His expression changed from rage and irritation, to appreciation and happiness.
"Oh mon Glob! Where did you get such robes?" He asked like a kid asking for a candy.
"Look, man, I´m just looking here for the tailor. I need something decent" At the end of that phrase, he slapped in the face.
"How dare you disparage such a fine piece of cloth?! There´s more histories in this robe that you imagine!" With anger, while taking my measurements, or the tunic measurements, he screamed.
He saved his tape-ruler, and looked at me once more.
"What brings you to Queensman tailors?" He asked while combing his large, white moustache.
That man was weird, but he had style. His hair was white, his skin was a shade of gray, and was combed to the back. His pose was stiffer, than yet as magnificent as a navy general.
"I´m looking for the Taylor, a new friend of my, a pub bartender called Mavis, gave me his appointment. If it´s a matter of gold, I´ve plenty." I opened the little pocket I wore my left thigh, showing that I had a modestly big amount of gold coins.
He slapped the face again, and came really close to me.
"Listen me you little twat, the Saint-Cygne tailors family doesn´t make it for money! There´s a reason we´re called Queensman, we only dress those related to thy Queens."
He was angry, but decided to approach the little lady, and read the letter. He kneeled down to the lady, and she whispered something to him. His expression changed, and he turned back to me.
"Take off your clothes, now."
Globdammit
"Excuse me?" I asked with a 'come on dude' expression.
"Ja heard me, take off ze clothes now!" He replied this time angrily.
"Ok…"
While the dude was looking at me with a serious face, and an angry brow, and the lady with a smile and blushes, I started by taking off first my tunic and everything attached to it.
I´m feeling kind of raped…
After that, then I took off my tie and waistcoat, then the buttoned white shirt. Then my white shirt.
"You wear a white shirt under another shirt?" The little lady asked like if she was disappointed.
"Yeah" I said while taking off my shirt.
Then, the shoes, socks and finally my belt. I´m not going to take off my pants.
"Done" I said with an irritated tone.
And they just came to me, started to touch my arms, chest, neck and back.
I´m pretty sure that was rape
"Ok, that was messed up, I´m out." I said while kneeling down to get my clothes.
"Sister, please bring me my tools" The Tailor told the little candy lady her assignment, so she left the room through the door.
"Please, sit in our waiting room. I would like to have a word with you, young Captain"
How did him…
We approached the waiting room. I felt cold while we were approaching the sofa´s, but it was warm in the building, so it did not last long. We sat down, and he took some cigarettes out of his pocket. He lighted them up with a match he had inside the sofa.
"So, young man, already a Captain, where did you obtain that Tunic?" He got pretty serious about that question, and his eyes turned dead. It was almost scary.
"Someone inherited to me" I answered.
I was sitting in the sofa from the right side of the front door, he was sitting in front of me, and the sofa to my right was not being used. They were really comfortable.
"The fourth, am I right?" His question startled me.
He expulsed the smoke through his nose, looking classy as it gets.
"Why do you care?" I ask more in a sense of why instead of fuck off.
"Because it belonged to Sir Galahad" He answered
"I know" I lied in response
"No, you don´t. Or at least you did" He answered once more.
I sighed, looked down in shame. The old man got up from the sofa, and sited right beside me.
"Galahad was the greatest pirate of them all; he started modern piracy, and the pirate´s honour code. The first gentle privateers and monarch corsairs. You were the robe his father gave him when he was your age, when he became Captain of his first vessel."
Like a little kid looking at his mother, I looked at the old man. His story, which I believed instantly, gave me pride in the robes I had become infamous.
"They told me it was only twenty years old" I told the Tailor
"It´s around two hundred years old" He said while turning off the cigarette, and letting the ash fall on the ash tray on top of the table between sofa´s.
"Everything´s here!" The little lady screamed while she approached us with a bunch of tape rulers.
"I changed my mind; bring him a white plain shirt, skinny, black cargo pants, and…" He said while snapping his thumbs.
"What´s your favourite colour, young man?" The little candy lady asked me.
What the hell is going on? Fuck you, Mavis.
"Baby blue" I answered
"Bring him a hooded, black leather jacket. And bring me one those t-shirts in which the sleeves are a different colour. Make such shirt white and dark blue in the sleeves."
The lady left the room once more
"So now people dress me, great" I answered to whatever was happening.
"You look like a wet dog and smell like one. Wear something new, you´re a newcomer, aren't you?" The old man said, while looking at the half naked me.
"Aye"
She came really fast this time, with all of the clothes folded. I got off the sofa, the old man did too, and he walked in front of me.
"Not yet, dog. Go get that hear trimmed and get a shower"
He told me to do that, and, luckily there was a barber shop just outside.
"How was it?" He asked me, after one hour of leaving.
"It was good" I said, while caressing my short hair now.
What kind of barbershop has a shower with hot water?
The little, sweet lady was present no more. And a bunch of clothes were right beside the old man.
"Here, put it on" He passed me the promised clothing's, and an extra pair of boxers.
I looked at him with a question expression.
"Come on, I won´t look" He said while turning to his back.
He did not look through the whole process of me dressing up. And, when I finished, he instantly turned back to me with a mirror.
"Look at yourself" He said with a subtle smile.
It was a different style, which I had never worn before. Everything weirdly seemed fit, even though how fast he took the measurements. The jacket was cool, and it didn´t felt like plastic leather, but to actual leather, like the one the robe has. The pants were smaller, but I could still easily move. The most different thing was the white and blue sleeves shirt. It was comfortable, made partly of cotton, which brought back memories when I belonged to the land.
When I could call this place home.
"So you like it" He said with smile in his face and a soft tone.
"How can you tell" My tone was low and melancholic.
"Because of the expressions you´ve made" He said while going to the counter
"Like what?" I asked while patting the jacket a bit.
"Here, put them on" He while walking back with a wood box
"What´s this?" I asked while he passed me the box
"They´re called cestus. You´ll need them" He said while turning to the waiting room and looking at the window at the other side of the room.
The box had a smooth feel, and it was lacquered by an expensive, type of brown-gold lacquer. It had many engravings, mainly flowers and swans, and a little golden lock. I opened when he sat in the sofa, seeing two gloves, which extended to my fore arms. They were pretty slim, and had a dark, brown-maroon shade of leather. The weird part is that in the knuckles, the first half of the back of the hand, and in the fingers individual's plates extended individually for each section... I touched them, and they were drilled into the gloves.
I took them out of the box, and placed it on the table of the waiting room. After putting them on, they didn´t felt heavy but they weren´t really light as regular gloves either. You could still jab really fast. The plates were drilled with really short screws, attached to a really thin plate of thicker, yet softer, leather. I threw some punches here and there, and it felt right. I would never be the underdog again in a swordfight.
"Hit the wall a couple times" The old man said, while moving once more behind the counter.
I did, and it felt so good. It did not hurt, and I saw as the paint started to peel off the wall. I felt and heard how the planks of wood behind the layers of paint started to crack.
I stopped, as I was getting just too excited. The old man was making a receipt.
"Here, take this" He gave me another envelope, with had the same style as the one Mavis gave me.
"What is this?" I asked while touching it
"It´s an invitation, there will be a gale in two nights from today. All Queen´s will be present, and I want to dress a mighty privateer in the robes of a Sire." He answered smiling, looking at my shocked expression
I had not realized it, but he was taller than me. He was skinny, but he did not look weak. We were wearing a monocle.
"Why are you giving this to me?" I asked with innocence
"I know you want to go there. Something, I don´t know what exactly, tells me that you were once a Queensman. It´s my duty to deliver well-dressed gentleman to thy Queen´s."
"Thanks" I said with a sad smile, while saving the envelope in the inner pocket of the jacket.
"I´ll have you a dress similar to the one my great-great grandfather made for Grayson" He said while going to a counter.
He proceeded to sit, and opened a diary and started to shuffle pages, looking for a drawing or entry.
"Who is Grayson?" I said when he had found that precious entry, which had an inked illustration of a highly detailed outfit, with many layers and details.
"Oh, pardon my manners. Sir Galahad is a position given by the royal council. Even though there hasn´t been a Galahad in two centuries" He paused and sighed, and looked over from the diary to me. "As there was not a single queen in those two periods of time."
I smiled, knowing that those beautiful ladies had grown up to become magnificent rulers, as what I´ve been told.
"Is there any Queen you are eager to see?" He asked while looking back to the illustration.
He took a pen and another, smaller diary he was saving in his breast pocket, and started to sketch a new suit based on the one in the old diary.
"Just a dark haired lady and the sweetest queen of them all"
He stopped in that moment, and looked at me with concern. I could only expect the worst. Fear started to take over me, as my thought had made him stop his work, and look at me with a face of the worst of hopes.
"Thy Queen´s you´re eager to see, they are not…" He paused, and thought his thesis "…happy."
"What happened?" I asked with fear in my tone, while approaching the desk.
"Look, young man, there has been problems I cannot understand, as matters related to such events are not told to someone like me. Or maybe, I just don´t want to tell you." He said with a serious tone, looking menacing.
"Tell me!" I stated.
He stranded up, proving once more who was bigger. I felt no fear, as the cestus I wore, and the abilities I have, could easily take on a simple tailor. But his expression changed to understanding. He walked to my side, and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Kid, those Queens have problems. Their own problems. I cannot tell you, as I have decided to stay away of such matters. I can only tell you, that thy sweetest lady of them all, has had some sentimental problems. Ever since we opened this continent to the world, many peasants and princes, even Kings, have asked for her hand. She has grown to a quite sentimental disequilibrium, as she has negated those parts of herself over the years."
I felt calm now, as they were at least physically healthy. The old man started to fix my clothes, making them look proper.
"And thy dark haired lady, thy Queen of red eyes, she´s has tried to kill herself multiple times. Or at least I´m told. Stories say that she only cuts herself every night, screaming, singing melancholically violent songs, and spends day after day just withering away." He said while cleaning his monocle.
"I must go now" I said with little patience, walking to the door.
"Hey, Kid, don´t you have something to say?" He asked while I opened the door.
"Thanks...old man" I said, looking at him for the last time today.
"Call me Harry. Harry Gaheris" He said smiling.
"Whatever you say, old man Harry. Say goodbye to the little lady for me." I said laughing.
I stepped out of the tailoring, and started to run north of the city, to purchase myself a stallion. Harry walked out of the door too.
"Don´t forget to reclaim the suit! The evening from two days from today!" He screamed, while throwing at me a new, pocket watch, with a cover of silver and a ring of gold.
I catch it, and saw the time. It was 02:45 pm.
Marceline´s sleeping by now
If I could purchase a worthy stallion, I could get to her home in one and a half day.
"I won´t be able, Harry! Where I´m going is just too far!" I screamed in reply.
"Then purchase a steel beast!" He screamed an advice.
I smiled one last time at the old man, as my goodbye.
"Thank you" I whispered.
Then, I focused north, and started to run. It´s an incredibly big city, but the price is never too expensive, when it comes for a member of your family´s health. She´s part of it. I already left her once; I cannot commit the same mistake again.
Please, Marceline, wait for me.