Hey, guys! Welcome back to Hear a Tale! First things first - reviews!
Thanks so much to CitrusChickadee for reviewing! Haha, I'm glad you enjoyed! Therion may be snarky and sarcastic to no end, but he really does care, deep down XD
With that, on with the tale!
Relevant Events: Primrose's Chapter One
6. Break Away
The dancer's dagger flashed in the harsh desert sun, cutting across the thick skin of her "master's" neck with one swift movement. Helgenish let out a wet, garbled gasp as blood sprayed from his throat and spattered on the sand upon which he took his last steps. He staggered, swaying like a drunken marionette, until with a final spin, he collapsed face-first onto the dunes and moved no more.
"...quite the dancer yourself, in the end," Primrose murmured without turning to look at his slumped form. She pulled her pink dancing scarf from where she had cinched it at her waist, then gracefully swept it across her dagger's blade. It was a nice accessory, but she would rather it be tainted than the dagger her father had given her long ago. Once the length of fabric had been thoroughly soiled by her former master's vile blood, she tossed it aside, allowing the desert wind to carry it to Helgenish's body, where it covered him like a shroud.
The dancer's newfound traveling companions, the thief and the apothecary, watched her in shock.
"...damn," Therion mumbled, after giving a low whistle under his breath. "Wouldn't have guessed she'd have that in her at a glance…"
"N-No kidding…" Alfyn concurred, eyes wide. "Shucks…remind me not to get on her bad side."
"There's no need for either of you to worry, boys," Primrose drawled, tilting her head back to gaze at them over her shoulder. "So long as your behavior never becomes as reprehensible as that of this sorry excuse for a man, then you're in no danger of finding yourselves on my list."
With that, she daintily stepped over to Helgenish's body and began rummaging through the man's pockets.
"Wonderful," Therion hissed, glaring at Alfyn. "Out of all of the people in Orsterra that we could have ended up with, we find a woman with a list."
The apothecary shrugged, looking sheepish. "Well…she seemed nice enough at first, didn't she?"
The thief's only response was to pinch the bridge of his nose and heave a long-suffering sigh.
Either oblivious to or simply ignoring their conversation, Primrose reached into Helgenish's coat, where she had seen him tuck away the roll of parchment given to him by the crow-marked man back in Sunshade. Sure enough, she located it in a hidden pocket on the inside of the coat, then pulled it out, smirking at the thought that this would be the last time she would ever have to touch that repulsive man.
"Guess you won't be needing this anymore." The dancer unrolled the parchment, revealing the map printed on the inside. She eyed the circled location, one eyebrow raised.
"The village of Stillsnow…hm," Primrose mused. "I'll need to pack some warmer clothes."
Primrose rose to her feet, rolling the map back up and tucking it under her arm. She stared down her nose in disgust at the corpse lying at her feet, eyes narrowed into hazel slits. With every ounce of her dancer's grace, she spun on her heel in the sand, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she turned away from her former employer for the final time.
"And with that, Master…" she murmured, "...I do believe my debt is paid." The dancer strode away from the bloodied body, returning to her traveling companions' sides.
"So, um…congratulations, Primrose!" Alfyn said with a tentative grin. "You, uh…sure did beat him! And I'll, er, I'll do you a favor by not tryin' to treat that wound of his, okay?"
Therion rolled his eyes. "Pretty sure he's a little bit beyond treatment, medicine man."
The apothecary frowned. "W-Well sure, I just…you know, my profession and all…the sentiment kind of has to be there for me to feel right about all of this, yeah?"
Primrose couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "I appreciate it…Alfyn, was it? And Therion, as well…I may not have survived this fight had it not been for the two of you. You have my thanks for your aid."
Alfyn grinned. "All part of the job!"
"Technically, I was only dragged into this mess, but…you're welcome regardless, I suppose," Therion added with a nonchalant shrug.
The dancer smiled somewhat wryly at their contrasting responses, but her expression soon sobered as she remembered the first casualty of the day's conflict. Primrose turned back towards the cliff face, her gaze resting upon the slender, broken body still lying there in the sand.
"...there is but one more thing I must do before I leave this place," she said softly. With the thief and the apothecary following at a respectful distance, she crossed the dunes until she was back in the shadow of the cliff, then knelt down at Yusufa's side.
The girl's face was swollen and partially blackened with bruises, though a peaceful smile still lay frozen across her split lips. Primrose did not know the extent of the torture Helgenish and his lackeys had put her friend through in order to pry information out of her, but it hardly mattered anymore. Yusufa had died smiling, and Primrose had avenged her.
The repugnant bastard that had murdered her had not won.
"It is done, Yusufa," Primrose murmured softly, brushing her friend's blood-matted hair out of her face. "He is gone. You, me, and all of the rest of the dancers…we are free. He will torment us no longer…our shackles are gone, and we may break away from this place forever, if we so wish."
The dancer heard footsteps in the sand behind her, and, a few moments later, Alfyn dropped down to his knees beside her.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't save her," the apothecary murmured solemnly. "She seemed like a real sweet gal…but we can bury her, if you'd like."
Primrose exhaled, nodding quietly. "Yes…that would be nice…"
Though the bodies of Helgenish and his men would be left at the mercy of the sun, winds, and scavengers, Yusufa deserved a proper interment. They might not have had a coffin at their disposal, nor any sort of firm soil to speak of, but the least they could do was bury her deep enough beneath the sand that the shifting dunes would not uncover her anytime soon. It would not be an easy task, but Yusufa had been Primrose's only friend throughout all of the years she had spent in Sunshade. She deserved the utmost respect, even in death.
To the dancer's surprise, both of her newfound companions helped her create a makeshift grave from start to finish, without a hint of complaint. Even Therion, always so brusque, uttered not a single word of dissent as the three of them cleared away as much sand as they physically could.
In fact, the thief managed to shock her further by motioning for her and Alfyn to stand back, then lifting his arms and sending tendrils of magical flame spiraling down into the pit they had dug. He had poured so much energy into the fire that it burned a dazzling white, almost blue, and began to melt the sand at the bottom and sides of the grave. The apothecary, catching onto the other man's plan, then stepped forward, using his ice magic to rapidly cool the melted sand into rippling sheets of glass.
At the men's direction, Primrose carefully lowered her friend into the glass-lined grave, whispered a final goodbye, and stepped back, away from the edge of the hole. As she watched, Therion and Alfyn carefully melted and tempered the glass into a new shape, so that it bent and formed a dome over Yusufa's body. They had effectively created a glass coffin that would protect her from the elements should the winds ever shift the sands to an unfavorable extent, disturbing her final resting place.
Standing behind the two of them so that they could not watch her, Primrose allowed a few tears to streak down her face. She could not remember ever having been on the receiving end of this much consideration from anyone aside from perhaps Yusufa - she had especially never been treated so kindly by a couple of men, let alone ones she had only just met that day.
Perhaps there truly were still some good people left in this world.
Primrose wiped away her tears and took a deep breath, composing herself as Therion and Alfyn finished pushing the last of the sand back into the grave, effectively sealing it off from the world. "Alright," she exhaled as the young men turned to face her. "At last, I have everything I need to break away from this place at last. I must head north, to Stillsnow…I presume this is where we part ways?"
Alfyn grinned slightly. "Actually, it doesn't have to be! Therion and I were headed north ourselves, up towards Noblecourt. He's got business there, and I promised I'd help him out, since he helped me take down that Blotted Viper back in Clearbrook. Noblecourt's on the way to Stillsnow, of course, so…we could accompany you on the road! It'd be a whole lot safer if we all went together, yeah?"
Therion rolled his eyes, but Primrose paid him no mind, her brows lifting. "Noblecourt, hm…?"
It had been about a decade since she had last set foot in her old hometown. She had never gone back since she fled the day her father was murdered, both for fear of being captured and killed herself by those crow-marked men, and because of the memories that haunted the place. Truth be told, she was in no hurry to return there even now, but…at the very least, she doubted she'd be recognized by anyone after so much time had passed.
Besides, after all that the thief and the apothecary had done for her already, helping to slay Helgenish and his men, as well as creating a far better grave for Yusufa than she would have managed on her own, it was the least she could do to accompany them and help them with whatever business they had in the Flatlands.
"...very well," she said decisively. "I will join you on your journey. And…truly, I thank you for everything you have helped me accomplish today."
"Sure," Therion mumbled, looking away. "Whatever."
"It was our pleasure, Prim!" Alfyn added in a much more chipper tone, though after he spoke, he paused for a moment to think. "Er, rather…do you mind if I call you Prim?"
Prim. The same nickname that Yusufa had always used for her. The dancer almost expected the sound of the name to call the pain that she had buried alongside her friend back to the surface, but to her surprise, it did nothing of the sort.
In fact…it sounded quite nice.
She smiled, the first real smile that had graced her features in a long time. "It's quite alright, Alfyn. I don't mind at all."
The three travelers then returned to Sunshade, but only briefly. They remained in the City of Pleasures for just long enough to gather supplies for the road ahead before emerging back into the Sunlands proper once more. Nightfall was still a long ways away, so they had figured that they could easily reach the next town over, Cobbleston, before the sun dipped below the horizon. Primrose was not about to protest - she'd had more than her fill of Sunshade over the last several years, and she was not keen on remaining there for any longer.
The dancer's heart fluttered in her chest as she and her companions made their way across the dunes in the direction of the Highlands. It almost felt surreal to be free at last, to finally have made some small semblance of progress in her personal quest, and to be leaving her life of appeasing the dredges of society behind. Was it her imagination, or did the air seem cleaner? It was as though, with every step she took further away from the shadowed desert city, the shadows in her mind retreated just a little bit as well. With the thief and the apothecary at her side, Primrose strode onwards toward a new chapter in her story, leaving her time in Sunshade farther and farther behind her.
She did not look back even once.
See you guys next week for Tale 7: Heaven!