11/11/11
Yesterday was exactly one year since Fairy Tales and Brave Vesperia debuted. To commemorate this, I managed to crank this chapter out a bit early (despite getting blocked about a third of the way through). And in honor of this occasion?
EXPOSITION GALORE. Yeah, this chapter will probably feel slower than the previous ones. But I am finally explaining some REALLY BIG THINGS.
DemonicAzure:
Somebody noticed! I don't know about anyone else, but I usually don't look at when a fic was first published, but at when it was most recently updated. So I didn't really think anyone would notice this milestone for FTaBV. And yes, Rita punching someone is always priceless~
Angelic:
Verte is definitely something. I love even my hateable characters, but jeez, Verte, you really are a piece of work.
Sooo...I suppose we have another cliffhanger here. Of sorts.
Christine:
Yep. I guess I can't deny it. We're definitely getting another cliffhanger. And here I promised myself I'd cut back on them for awhile... We're not getting to that particular scene just yet, but this may be the next best thing?
x x x
Chapter 54: When Dreamers Wake Up
x x x
Heavy...
Water soaked through my clothes in an instant, seeping into my boots, weighing me down. Finding my way to the surface of the water to gasp for air was a struggle.
Have to lose it...
Gulping down a last breath, I ducked my head back under water and curled down to reach for my boots. Fumbling in the dark water, unable to see, I clawed at the laces until I loosened them enough to yank the footwear off, doing away with my socks in the process. By then my lungs felt like they were about to burst, and I began to thrash and kick to try and swim back up to the air again.
...Too far?
I wasn't breaking the surface, my chest felt like it was being squeezed painfully.
...Too heavy? Lighter...
My fingers were starting to turn numb, but I managed to undo the zipper off my leather vest and wrestled out of it. Like the boots it sank down deeper into the harbor.
I reached up, up, up and broke through into the cold air. A wave splashed into my face, blinding me and making me cough when I nearly swallowed some.
No good...can't keep this up...
If I didn't reach land soon I'd be in trouble. That way... I kicked out behind me and started swimming towards the docks.
Keep swimming...keep swimming...don't stop...
Finally my reaching hand banged against a pier. Together my questing hands found the edge and grasped at it weakly.
Keep going...
My arms pulled, succeeding in lifting me part way out of the water. My bare feet braced themselves against the submerged wall, trying to push me upwards. Shoulder blades cleared the water, my wet turtleneck making the night chill ten times worse as it clung to me. I pulled again, but couldn't seem to get any further. If fact...the wet chill was going away, my shoulders slipping back into the water.
No... I need to go...
My numbed fingers clawed, trying not to lose their grip. Then something hard and cold latched itself around my wrist, and with a heave helped me in my efforts to clamber onto solid ground.
On my hands and knees, I stared as the water streamed off of me to puddle on the stone of the street. Then to thin dribbles like from a leaky faucet, and finally lazy drips falling from my stringy hair, chin, and nose.
The cold and hard thing that had grabbed my wrist now had a hold of my shoulders, moving me so that I sat back on my heels and looked up.
A knight...
A knight, a female knight, holding me with a gauntleted hand on each of my shoulders. Saying something, words that hardly reached me, as if they were being spoken under water.
"...ight? ...fall off...?"
"Fall..." I murmured, remembering the sensation of gravity pulling me down and down.
"So you... ...rry, I'll help... ...warm..."
I stood, wobbling on my feet, and walked past the female knight. She wasn't the one...
"Hey!"
But I walked straight through a passing crowd, easily finding gaps between the people to slip through so that I was hardly slowed at all. The knight did not follow. Or could not.
Does it matter?
I wandered down the street, somehow knowing which way I needed to go. I passed by doors and people alike, ignoring both, until I reached the mouth of an alley. Without hesitating I turned and walked into the darkened passage.
Here...
At the far end, waiting, was a woman in green clothing. She was holding a flower, delicately spinning it by the stem between her thumb and index finger. Seeing me she stopped twirling the flower. "Come." Her voice was clear, ringing in my head as if being said over and over. A recording set on an endless loop. Or, had it been playing in my head all along?
No...something else...
It felt like there was a name, someone's name, still whispering itself in my ears.
Meekly I walked up and stopped before her. Somehow, although her expression did not change, I had the impression that she was smiling in satisfaction. Reaching up, she tucked the flower behind my left ear. "Forget," she commanded.
The name in my ears shattered.
It felt like ice cold water had been thrown in my face, and I gasped at the shock. My body shuddered involuntarily and I hugged myself to try and recover some warmth. "Wh-wha-at th-the he-ell?" I hissed through chattering teeth. "Wh-at did yo-u do?"
Verte was watching me impassively, arms folded across her chest with the flower basket still hanging from the one elbow. Easily within reach for the other hand to pick out a flower. "It seems you were as receptive as I could have hoped, considering the unusual circumstances," she said, more to herself than in response to my question. "It's a shame the charm and command both needed to be erased, but the side effects in this case made its continued use more of a hindrance than a help."
"What are you babbling about?" I was managing to keep my teeth still and repress the shivers that had been wracking through me, but still sounded about as pathetic as I looked. My long hair was a tangled mess partially drawn across my face, I ran my fingers through it to at least get it out of my eyes and felt something stuck in it. I pulled it out.
"Huh?" In my hand was the spent and twisted shape of a daylily. They bloom in the morning, petals spreading wide at the top of long stalk like stems, and when the Sun sets they close and never open again. But, I knew, this particular lily would have had a warm tawny orange color while it bloomed.
Verte plucked it from my hand. "Hemerocallis fulva," she commented idly, "Short lived, edible, on your Earth originated in the Eastern countries, and is symbolic as a flower of forgetfulness. As the flower withers, one forgets what they wish not to remember." She popped the flower into her mouth, chewing it and swallowing, all the while watching me.
That was a mildly creepy thing to do.
"What did you do?" I asked again, "How did you make me leave the Fiertia?" Not that long beforehand I would have loved at this chance to smack the fairy around in payback for Belius, but this hardly seemed the best option for me. If nothing else, I ought to try and unearth some information first. Besides, I had apparently gone and forgotten my dao and my daggers so I wasn't particularly threatening to anyone anymore...
Verte dropped a seed to the ground. I was startled by this, taking a wary step back, but was still utterly surprised when the seed sprouted and grew as I watched into a small...shrubbery type of plant. It was more gnarled branches than anything, all bunched in one spot and bending back on themselves at odd angles. Which made a warped kind of sense when the green fairy sat on the coiling branches as if it was a regular chair.
"We weren't able to have a proper talk before, and I didn't want to miss this rare opportunity," she arranged the flower basket in her lap, giving it more attention than the conversation she was having with me. "There are certain matters I would like to discuss with you, so I merely called you back."
"Called me back? I jumped off of a boat in a harbor full of knights trying to catch us because you called me?" I couldn't believe it. Even I wasn't that stupid, I could have been run over by a ship, pulled under by the currents it made in passing and cracked my skull open against the hull. So why the bloody hell did I jump? "And what call? I don't remember hearing anything!"
"I called you," she repeated, looking at me as if I were a specimen with particularly slow mental capabilities. "Summoned you. Of course you came, whether or not you could hear my voice. I used your True Name."
"My...?" I was stunned. Another shudder ran through me, but my mind was only on the implications of my True Name. It was not an uncommon concept, that names had power. A name was a very personal thing, after all, that embodied all one was and would be in their life. Symbolic of one's self, it could be argued. Plenty of myths and cultures believed that knowing a person's name would give you power over their life and soul, meaning the name was a secret shared only with trusted friends and family.
I had lost my name, the name that I had been given at my birth. I had forgotten it, replaced it with a new one, but it seemed it still had power over me.
"Where did you learn my name?" I demanded. "What is it?"
Her head tilted, the ends of her green hair brushing against her chin. "Bianca and Alastor, of course. When I came to check up on their progress, I learned that that toady Alastor took something from Nevys' pawn with personal information inscribed on it."
Took something? Personal information? Some of the chill I'd been trying to ignore retreated as blood rushed to my head. That's right! That bastard took my wallet and ID! I fumed at the reminder of one of my grudges against the fairies as a whole.
"It seems," Verte was continuing, "the sentimental pair were under the impression that they were keeping your True Name safe for you. Keeping it away from others."
"Safe?" A passing thought wished I'd had my own shrubbery thing to sit on. That was the last explanation I would have expected to get.
"Yes," the woman tapped a finger against the rim of her basket in an irritated fashion, "As always, Bianca is overly soft, in either the heart or the head. Dancing around such a golden opportunity instead of seizing it!" Her green eyes flashed.
Her finger stroked the wicker weave of her basket before she suddenly snatched my chin and pulled me down to her eye level. I felt unbearably uneasy at the sight of her eyes. They were like jade marbles, carved and set inside her head. Even the pupils didn't seem quite right, more like a dark shade of green than true black.
"Nevys," the name was uttered as if it had been coated with poison, "is a treacherous sneak, but it must be acknowledged that he is good at what he does. A master in enchantments and misdirection. Even knowing the part he played, we can do nothing to punish him if he cannot be caught! But you..." her hand caressed my cheek while her jade eyes seemed to impossibly grow colder, "We can use you to finally track him down."
"Wait, wait," I protested, pulling away, "I don't know how to find him either! I've no idea where he runs off to when he's on his own."
She seized my hand before I could get any further away. "You are the link, marked as his tool." I couldn't help glancing down at the sodden glove hiding the mark on my hand. As if in response to my thoughts, Verte peeled the glove from my hand to reveal the stark lines of the tattoo. "He formed a connection, did he not? Through this he knows at all times where you are and what you are doing. But this," her grip tightened painfully on my hand, "works both ways."
I tried to put up a confident front, but that was hard to do with cold water trickling down my neck and back and my bare feet freezing on the stone pavement of the street. "So now you've found me, your 'link', and want me to help you find Nevi? Why should I cooperate with you for that?"
"Because, if you do not," her slim fingers traced the mark on my hand, "you will bear this until the end of your days. And until the end of your days, you will live in fear of your True Name being invoked as before."
"You..." I felt speechless, "Blackmail..."
That almost smiling curve of her lips passed almost invisibly across the fairy's face before that impassive expression returned. "Whatever works in the end."
This woman is dangerous.
Starting to echo down the alleyway was the clanking of metal armor. It was a horrible reminder of what had happened earlier, hardly an hour ago? Surely not much more than that. Verte made a soft tsking noise while finally looking away from me and just over my shoulder. "Those knights, bringing so much cold iron into the city. As if there wasn't more than enough here already."
She stood, and the shrubbery chair shook. Then, amazingly, it actually retracted its trunk and branches back downwards. It's...it's reversing its growth? Impossible as that should have been, in seconds there was nothing more than a seed which Verte plucked up and dropped into her basket. "I'll take my leave now, for the time being, but we'll continue this later." She swept past me, the long trailing half skirt whispering over the ground. "Dawn tomorrow. Be waiting outside the city gates, unless you want me to Summon you once again."
"Wait a minute, I-" but when I turned around she was already gone. Just then a knight rounded the corner of the alley, stopping when he saw me. No, she, the uniform was for a female knight, like the one Sodia wore.
"There you are!" a peppy female voice echoed from under her helm. "Wow, you didn't even go that far, but I lost you just like that!" She reached up and pulled the helm off, revealing sparkling green eyes and a long blond braid that coiled around her head like a coronet.
Immediately I was on my guard, expecting I was going to be arrested like everyone else the knights had been apprehending. Would be just my luck if Flynn found out I was still here, and took me aside to ask questions about before. I needed to-to-
I sneezed. Followed up by another. The knight laughed at me. "There, see? You shouldn't have wandered off before. Now you'll be lucky if you didn't catch a cold like that." She approached me, I stiffened but made no move to run (I'd have to get past her anyway) since she didn't seem very threatening. "Hey, c'mon. Let's go get you something dry and warm to change into."
"Why?" I asked suspiciously, "Right now, shouldn't you be under orders to help subdue the city or something?"
She shrugged, "Yeah, sure, but it's a Knight's job to help people, right? So I wanna help you!" She nodded as if that settled everything. "So that's it, let's go!" Helplessly, I smiled and let her draw me along by the hand. "By the way, my name's Sarah. What about you?"
"Le-" I coughed, thinking that under the circumstances it might not be wise to use my 'real' name, "Lena. It's Lena."
x x x
"All that about it being a knight's job to help people..."
"Well sorry! But it's not like there's barracks or dorms here like in cities under the protection of the Empire! Besides, we'll be leaving again soon enough, and this place can go back to normal."
As Sarah had said, Nordopolica was not an Empire friendly city, so there wasn't any place established for the knights. So what else could the Imperials do but occupy buildings in the city? They'd claimed the coliseum and the wings connected to it as their temporary base. We were in some of the inn rooms that had been (reluctantly) given over to the knights.
"You seriously don't have anything?" Sarah wheedled as she tossed me a blanket in lieu of a towel.
"I keep telling you I don't. I'm not from around here and I lost my bag," and boy, did I hope it was on the Fiertia and not the bottom of the harbor. "What about you? Don't tell me the only clothes you have is that uniform you're wearing."
"Er, no, but I haven't had the chance to wash them for awhile. Ah, wait! I think I have a spare uniform left that's still clean!"
"Spare?" And sure enough, Sarah was pulling a neatly folded blue and brown uniform from her standard issue packs. I eyed it dubiously, "Hey, you sure that's a good idea? Letting a complete stranger use your uniform, there's all kinds of mischief I could get up to while looking like one of you guys."
My point was a bit spoiled when I sneezed again. Sarah raised her eyebrows and smirked at me. "Heh, do you really have the luxury to get worried over something like that? Here," she tossed the uniform onto one of the beds, "better change quick." And with a careless wave she ducked out the door again.
"...Weird knight..." Taking advantage of the privacy I quickly stripped the wet clothes that were trying to turn themselves into my second skin. Briskly rubbing myself down with the blanket, it occurred to me for the first time that earlier, when Sarah asked me if there was anyone I could go to for some help, I could have directed her to Bill and Gretchen's shop. ...No, I wouldn't feel right imposing on them, and I wouldn't be able to pay for new clothes or weapons either. Not that I know what I could do to pay Sarah back either...
I grabbed the uniform and tried to sort out how to put it on. "Dammit, what practical reason could a military have for putting its female personnel in skirts?" Ah, Roy Mustang, could your influence have stretched as far as other worlds?
The door banged open behind me and made me jump. "Ah ha ha~! You look good, Lena!" the crazy knight woman sang out behind me.
"Don't you knock?" I spluttered, glad I'd managed to figure it out just before she'd come in.
"Nope~" And then she had the gall to giggle. "Aaah, I bet everyone'll think you're an authentic Knight! And then you'll do good deeds for the poor, with the knowledge of having fulfilled justice being the only reward you accept-" I stared at her as she visibly withdrew into her own imaginary world, eyes all asparkle. "-and the rumor will spread until it reaches the captains! Then the Commandant will want to personally commend you, and you'll be given a brigade of your own, and-"
"Did you hit your head or something?"
She stopped mid ramble and gave me a grin that reminded me of Raven. "What? I can dream, can't I?"
I shook my head at that. "Even dreamers have to wake up eventually."
Sarah marched over in front of me and stood with her hands on her hips, giving me a stern look. "And why is that? Who says I have to stop dreaming?"
"I used to dream a lot too," I said bitterly, "But if all you do is dream, when the real world catches up to you it'll be all the more painful."
"So what?" She spread her arms as she shrugged, "I know well enough what's going on in the world. There's all the tension between the guilds and the Empire, even with the new treaty that Captain Flynn and Ioder have been working so hard for. What we've done here today probably won't win us any of the people's favor, but on the other hand we kept the Hunting Blades from going totally crazy and making worse damage than they did. Though that was easier than I expected, I wonder if there was someone else doing the same?" the knight mused. I decided not to mention that it was probably because of Yuri and the others. From what I knew of her, that would set Sarah off on another rambling dissertation of great deeds for the sake of great deeds.
And then suddenly Sarah was in my face again, "So yeah, I know perfectly well that there's stuff going on with no real winners and everybody's a loser. But that's the point of epic and outrageous stories, right? So even during bad times we can believe that the best can still happen?"
"I suppose..."
"Repeat after me!" she practically shouted in my face, startling me again. "Great stories and great Heroes make great role models!"
"You don't seriously want me..."
"GREAT STORIES and GREAT HEROES make GREAT ROLE MODELS!" she declared even more loudly.
"Er..." I grimace as I realized I couldn't get out of it, "Great stories and great heroes-"
"Louder!" she ordered, stamping a foot. "Or do you want me to take the uniform back?"
"Great stories and heroes make great role models!" I yelped.
Sarah beamed at me. "Yeah! From now on, that should be our motto!"
"'Our motto'?"
"Alright!" she clapped her hands together. "I'm gonna go see what we're doing about food tonight, I'll try to bring some back for you. Tonight you can use my bed, I can just get Tina to share her's with me," and of course I had no idea who Tina was, "or I'll just steal her bedroll again. You stay here and try to get warm again! I'll be right back, Lena!" And the door banged open and shut as she left again before she was even finished speaking.
I stared at the door she'd just left through. "...Really weird knight..." Shivering again, I looked around for where I'd left the blanket from before. My eye was caught by the mirror in the corner of the room. I walked over and stood in front of it.
My hair was lank and stringy, starting to frizz now that it had time to dry but hadn't been combed properly. I was still barefoot, and my skin looked paler than usual. The uniform Sarah was loaning me was about two sizes too big as she was considerably taller than me. And, er, she filled it out in certain areas better. I wasn't wearing any of the armored parts, it wasn't necessary after all.
Frowning, I pulled my hair back with one hand and used the other to wrap my braid around the base of the tail formed, knotting it in on itself to tie it in place. With my distinctive hairstyle so altered and with the uniform no one would recognize me at a glance. I suppose that's a good thing right now. But it was terribly depressing, seeing myself playing the role of another person again.
What was I going to do next? "I only have two options," I told myself bleakly, "Find a ship that'll take me across the ocean so I can follow the others, or go talk to Verte tomorrow."
"Dawn tomorrow. Be waiting outside the city gates, unless you want me to Summon you once again."
"No," I told my reflection, "I guess there really is only one choice, and it was made for me."
x x x
I was up unbearably early the next morning, before the Sun had even started to rise. Not only did I want to get out before all the knights were active, or before Verte decided it would be fun to puppeteer me out of the city, but I'd had troubled sleep the whole night. I'd dreamed of standing on a cliff, watching the sunset shining on waves, and wondering if maybe the thing to do was throw myself into the waves and swim to the other side. What, I still wondered, would I have found across the water? At one point I had actually stepped forward, ready to trust myself to the mercy of the fall and the water, but then a fog had rolled in from behind me and I woke up.
I'd meant to change back into my dried clothes and leave Sarah's uniform behind, but there were still knights posted as sentries all over Nordopolica. If I were dressed like one of them, the odds that they'd stop me were drastically lowered. And I never knew if one of Flynn's knights might actually recognize me. After an internal struggle, I'd left her a note apologizing and promising I'd find a way to return it, that I'd take it to Zaphias and have someone there hold it for her if necessary. The folded note was sitting on my pillow, where she'd find it once she realized I'd left.
The memory of the oddball knight made me smile. She certainly meant well, and it was nice to know that there were people like her serving under Flynn. Sarah might not have shared his exact ideals, but there seemed to be plenty in common. If he could find more people like her to follow him...
And maybe people like Tina. She, it turned out, was another female knight who was usually assigned to share a room or missions with Sarah. Unlike her exuberant partner, Tina was petite and quiet with mousy brown hair. She hadn't questioned my presence at all, most likely already well used to Sarah's whims and spontaneity. Her only reaction was to stare at the blonde woman and say, "I get the pillow."
I snickered a bit at the memory. Then glanced around nervously. So far no one had stopped me as I walked down the streets. I'd been a bit worried, since I wasn't wearing the full uniform. And, most questionable, I didn't have boots. Neither Sarah or Tina had been my size, even if they'd had extra shoes, so I'd ripped the sleeves off of my turtleneck and wrapped them around my feet. It kept some of the cold from them and provided scant protection, but was better than nothing. I probably had the early hour's poor lighting to thank for no one noticing that.
Without any trouble I made it to Nordopolica's gate and thought I was home free.
"Hey!" Of course it wouldn't be so easy. I sighed and turned back. The two knights I'd overlooked guarding the main entrance were coming towards me with pikes pointed my way. But when they got closer one said, "Oh, you're one of ours!" and the weapons were held at ease.
"No one is allowed to leave the city at this time," the other guard said. "We'll have to ask you to go back."
"Um..." I tried to think of an excuse, "The captain asked me to deliver an urgent message. I need to leave right away."
"We haven't heard anything about this..." the first one said uncertainly.
The second remained steadfast, "I'll have to ask you to show us the message."
"It's not written down," I tried, "so there's no mix ups like last time. I have it memorized."
But the second knight was looking me over more closely. "If it's so urgent, why aren't you mounted? In fact, you're hardly prepared for a journey outside a barrier." Crap. "You're going to have to come with me, we can go speak with the Captain directly about your orders."
"But I really really have to leave now..." I was nervously trying to figure out a way to take them both down with my bare hands before they managed to restrain me. Just then the wind picked up, blowing in through the gate from the outside. It seemed to carry a dust that tickled at my nose, and hit both of the guards full in the face.
The suspicious one leaned against his pike. "Suddenly I...can't keep my eyes open..." His partner slumped and fell right over, armor jangling noisily but not waking him up. And the suspicious one collapsed on him a moment later, snoring.
"Verte?" I guessed, turning to look in the direction the breeze had come from. And the fairy was indeed standing there, wiping what looked like traces of yellow pollen from her hands. ...Is she part grass pokemon or something? Sleep powder attack?
"Come," the fairy said, "We'll speak where we won't be observed." Without waiting for me to reply or any sign that I'd follow, she turned with a swish of skirts and walked away from the city.
My jaw clenched as I tried to hold the reigns on my dislike for her attitude. For the time being, unfortunately, she held the upper hand. So I followed her and hoped I wasn't making a mistake.
We kept walking, the sky growing lighter and colored above the horizon with pink, yellow gold rays starting to touch the grass. Finally, in a small act of rebellion, I stopped. "This should be far enough. What do you have to say to me?"
Verte turned to face me, unbothered as if she'd been the one to decide we'd talk there. "Your current name is Letha, is it not? And its meaning is along the lines of 'forgetfulness'."
"Yeah," I responded, wondering where she was going with this.
"Correct me if I'm mistaken, but you've been suffering from memory problems since you became Nevys' pawn, have you not?"
"Yes, that's right," I had to say. Was she going to finally give me an answer to what that was about? Back when I'd first realized it was happening, I'd gotten Nevi to promise he'd look into it, but I was sincerely doubting he'd had any intentions of fixing it. If he tried to learn anything about it in the first place.
"Tell me, then, what was the first thing you forgot?"
I wanted to sarcastically say, 'Well I don't know, I seem to have forgotten.' But I bit my tongue and said, "I didn't realize I'd forgotten anything until I couldn't remember my real name."
There was that flicker of smile across her face again, vanishing just a hint slower than previously. Now, from her cool manner tones and generally impassive face, it would seem she was a nearly emotionless woman. But her hateful words when speaking of Nevi, the derisive scorn directed at Alastor and Sybelle, and those brief flashes of expression were starting to clue me into the fact that there was a lot more going on under the surface.
"One more question, Letha. Have you forgotten anything that occurred after you arrived on Terca Lumireis?"
"N-no, I haven't..." It had never occurred to me before, but that was strange... Why lose only memories of Earth? And why was there something so selective about that memory loss, taking away all my personal life and information, but leaving snatches of conversation or lessons learned that provided useful information?
Verte seemed to radiate triumph. As much as she could without changing expression. "What Nevys had done," she finally began to explain, "was to layer more than one spell on you."
I frowned, rubbing my left hand with my thumb. "You mean how the mark can sense that heirloom thing, and the weird permeability power he gave me that makes things go through me."
"Oh, there is far more than just that. Sly as he is, he does his work well enough that it could even be called a work of art," she grudgingly conceded. "There is one particularly insidious geis he's crafted on you. One that ties into that very name of yours. He renamed you, or near enough, and with a name that is constantly reconstructing your identity."
"He what? What's that supposed to mean?" Oh, I already was catching on, but there were implications I didn't want to consider. That I was refusing to consider.
"Must I spell it out?" The words sounded put upon, but there was a sense that she may in fact be relishing the moment. "When you came here, you left your name behind, tied to everything you were when you lived on Earth, and started calling yourself by a new name he chose for you. As you accepted the name as your own and answered to it, time after time, the spell worked into the name took root and flourished. And the first memory it erased was of the name it had replaced."
"No, that can't be right..." I continued to deny. "Nevys didn't name me anything... I chose to use a different name myself... And Ludwig-" and there was the possibility I didn't want to look closer at.
"Yes, Ludwig," Verte agreed. "Ludwig gave you your name. Even if you hadn't made the decision yourself to create a new identity, he could have suggested it to you. For your own safety of course."
"You know...this might not be the best solution..."
"What I mean to say is, you could tell people that you're my niece."
"You've lived alone with me most of your life, so that can cover any holes in what you know about other towns and current events."
"The Letha River supposedly makes anyone who drinks it waters forget things. Ghosts that do not drink from it are trapped in this world by their lingering attachments. Maybe you found it and fell in...little Letha."
"No..." I whispered.
"Yes," Verte confirmed. "Ludwig has been following Nevys' bidding admirably this whole time."
x x x
And there the chapter ends. Shorter than usual, but even if I took my usual length of time writing this, I think we were in for a short chapter. Till next time, my lovelies!