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Chapter 2: The Stage has Been Set

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

-Sir Walter Scott

After a while, Kel closed her eyes, and she dreamed…

Kel found herself in a long corridor, the walls were seamless, and black. She could find no source of light except for an odd sort of glow that was the ceiling. Along the walls were door handles and what she assumed to be doors, although she saw no frames or hinges. She tried to open some, but all of them were locked.

She kept walking and trying doors until she came to one that opened. The room inside it was bare but for a single candle in the center. She edged into the room cautiously. Kel was fascinated with the candle, it was so small and yet it lit up the whole room. Kel realized that all the walls were made of what seemed to be mirrors. They were ruined though, imperfect. The only images that she could see within them were warped, and fragmented.

She tried not look at the deformed images of herself on the walls and walked towards the candle. Kel couldn't look away. She felt drawn to it, it seemed to call to her. She felt an odd sort of connection to the candle as strange as that seemed.

Without really understanding what she was doing, she reached out to the small dancing flame. She gasped in pain as her hand came into contact with it. But when she looked down at her hand, she didn't see the start of a burn, or the marred tender flesh that she expected. Instead she saw a word etched neatly into her skin, lies.

"Eh, wake up!" she felt someone nudge her shoulder, "Eh, Ed, you think this one's all right? She looks pretty beat up. I'm not havin' any dead wenches in my pub, ya hear! You gotta stop with all those damn brawls. Just because you get piss drunk and some guy won't get out of your way it doesn't mean that ya can make a mess! Ya can't just-"

"Oh, put a sock in it, she's fine, look she's stirring a little bit." Ed pointed to Kel, and then tapped her cheek, "Come on poppet, raise and shine."

Kel knew that she couldn't pretend anymore, and slowly opened her eyes. Standing above her were two men. One was a skinny, with long, thin, blonde hair, and the other had similar characteristics to the boulder that had been on her earlier. She assumed that his name was Ed. He was very large, not fat, just big. His hair was very short and black. He wasn't that bad looking either.

"See Charlie, I told you she was fine. The thing on her head was just a little flesh wound; she probably got hit with a bottle or something." Then he directed his focus to Kel, "Sorry I landed on you." Ed said casually, like a gash on the side of her head was no big deal at all and like he passed out drunk on top of girls all the time.

She looked around and noticed that she was on a pub bench, instead of on the floor. The odd thing was that she realized that she was wearing a dress, and being a girl, normally this would make sense, but Kel felt oddly out of place in it.

"Ya should know by now Lillian that ya can't get in the way when old Eddie here starts getting' riled up. I thought by now that ya were smarter than that."

She was a bit startled that this man knew her name. However, when she heard it, it did not sound familiar like she thought hearing her name would. The name Lillian sounded foreign and new, not how a name that she must have had her whole life would sound to her ears.

She was still so confused, and a little excited that these men knew her. Maybe they could help her, or maybe knew something about her. Maybe they knew where she lived, and about her family. Did she have one? She needed to know.

Then she remembered that strange, almost vision that she had of green eyes. Did those eyes belong to a family member? A lover? Did she have one? Knowing nothing about herself terrified Kel. And here were two men that might hold some of the answers that she so desperately wanted.

"Charlie," she used the name carefully, it felt very strange on her tongue, "who am I?"

Ed and Charlie exchanged a glance that she could only assume was one of shock. Then Charlie's face contorted in anger.

"Look what ya've done now! My best maid lost 'er memory. Ya've really done it now!"

Ed just looked upset, and maybe a little confused? He ignored Charlie's ranting and shouted over Charlie's voice, "Right then. I'll just take Lil to her room. Maybe some sleep will help."

Kel was slightly startled as Ed placed a hand on her shoulder and gently, but quickly guided her towards a doorway on one side of the bar. He led her down a hallway, and at the end of the hallway was a door. He opened it and let go of her shoulder.

"Well, here you go. This is your room. Why don't you get some sleep and me and Charlie will answer your questions after you've had some rest." He turned to leave, but Kel just stayed where she was, hovering on the threshold of her supposed home. She felt a little lost, and a little angry. Why were they ignoring her questions? She needed answers! She had gotten all the rest she needed for the next couple days, it felt like she had slept for ages. She glared at his back as he left, feeling betrayed by someone she didn't even remember.

He seemed to feel her eyes on him and turned around. "I am truly sorry about what happened and although I didn't actually do this to you, like Charlie said, it is my fault. You don't deserve to be in this situation, but the circumstances are out of my control. " She nodded at his apology, and then he stood awkwardly in the hallway before turning on his heels and leaving. What he had said at the end made no sense, but she would have to puzzle it out some other time.

She heard him and Charlie begin to yell at each other again and then proceeded into her room. Did this mean that she didn't have a family? Why did she live in the back of a bar?

Kel began to inspect her room. It was very neat. She was rather surprised. She had a trunk of dresses. A small bed and a night stand with a chair and mirror. She sat down at the stand and looked at herself.

She was a decently tall girl, and looked to be maybe sixteen or seventeen. She had hazel eyes, and straight hair, average looks really. It was somewhat hard to tell with a large bandage covering much of her forehead and the side of her head.

She filled the basin on the stand with some water from a pitcher that had been next to it. She winced slightly as she pulled her dress over her head as she prepared to clean herself up. But what she saw next shocked her. She not only had many small scars across her body, as well as some bruises, but something far more disturbing.

Written in blood, previously hidden by her dress were words. Written crudely across her mid section was: My name is Kel.

'Is that me, am I Kel?' she thought to herself. 'If I was, then why would I write my name on my body, did I know I was going to lose my memory?"

She began to scrutinize her clothes, and tried to find other clues. Kel found none. She also looked around her room, which she now realized was extremely empty. It looked like a room that a guest would stay in overnight, not a girl's permanent place to stay. She looked for clues there too, nothing.



She sighed and went back to the trunk and pulled out a night gown. It was plain, white, and shapeless. It didn't seem to be exactly tailor fit, and sure enough when she pulled it on, it fit her like a sack, a decently comfortable sack, but a sack none the less. Her suspicions grew. Nothing in this room seemed to belong to her, and none of the things in it sparked any memories like she hoped they would.

"Well, at least I have a name." Possibly having a true identity gave her only the smallest sense of comfort, because it almost guaranteed that she wasn't among friends. This meant that she had to be on her guard, she no longer had the luxury to take things at face value, but she had a strange feeling that she never had.

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"She's going to figure it out, she's not dumb." Ed whispered to Charlie. He had seen the look in her eyes when she had glared at him. She was too rational for this ploy. He could understand how she had become a knight. Keladry of Mindelan was no stranger to adversity.

"Ed, she can't possible know. We planned everythin'. They have plans for her!" Charlie hissed. Truth be told, he didn't care very much about long term secrecy . All he knew was that this Keladry girl would be taken off of his hands soon enough. And good riddance too, he could already tell the girl was going to be a hand full. He just wanted to be able to get back to running his pub.

"If you say so Charlie, but I'm just saying we have to be very careful, that's all." Ed didn't particularly like conflict. "I have to leave, but I'll be back later. I have to take care of one of the prisoners."

"Ya're lucky, go have some fun. I have to stay here with the girl." Charlie whined, "I wish I could go rough up Queens Cove a little bit, he needs to be taught a lesson."

"You know the, funny thing is, I was thinking the same thing." Ed smirked. "Well, see you later Charlie." He ambled towards the front of the pub, and was about to leave, but stopped. "Oh, and make sure to keep up the act. You told the staff how to behave, right?"

"Of course, they know all about it." Ed raised an eyebrow. "What? Ya know that most of the people I hire have the same...interests as us. Things are so much simpler that way. It makes it much easier to tidy up."

Ed shrugged, "Naturally." He decided this that it would be a good time to exit, he and Charlie had never been very good friends. They were just fellow operatives who had been assigned this mission together. They had more history together then he liked, though. Some things couldn't be forgotten.

Ed slipped out of the pub and onto the street. It was only a little after seven in the morning and the day had already gotten complicated.