Staring down at the dirt road, Rozaria frowned. They still weren't far enough. She sped her horse up to a trot.
Noticing the change of pace, Raizel did the same, "Is there something wrong?"
"The faster we get to the midway point between the capital and nearest village, the faster I can teleport us to the south of the kingdom." And she wanted to get rid of him quick. He was much too boring.
"Very well." Raizel wondered whether the king had made the announcement to his mother and brother. Would they come for him if they knew?
When she finally saw the marker depicting the point, she slowed, and dismounted beside it. A flower? Well, the king chose what he chose. "Once we go, you cannot return. Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I am." He replied, determined to do this, he'd promised the king after all, and he would keep his word.
Rozaria sighed, and placed her hand out over the tiny blue flower. Slowly a dark mist gathered around them, and once they were obscured from view, it started to dissipate, showing a new place.
Raizel looked around, in wonder. It really was beautiful here. "How much further?"
"There should be a village nearby, and then the castle is deep in the forest after that." She looked over the path, studying which direction they were supposed to go.
"Will you be taking me to the castle?" He wasn't good with directions, he didn't want to get lost, not when it was something this important.
"Yes." Mounting her horse again, she pointed out a direction. "There to the village. We can do some scouting too."
Raizel nodded, riding with Rozaria in the direction she had pointed. He was relieved that he would be taken to the castle, rather than left to find his way.
Once at the village, Rozaria looked it over. It was in a much better state than she would have thought, and all the people were well. "I do hope we aren't in the wrong place."
Raizel hoped so, as well, he wasn't good with directions in general, so there wouldn't be much he could do to help, if they were lost.
As they rode through the village, she kept an eye out. There! The elder's house! Like his majesty had said there were statues of people outside the house. Very lifelike ones; it was quite impressive. She dismounted again, gesturing at Raizel to do the same.
Raizel followed suit, dismounting and following Rozaria to the house. He wasn't sure what the situation required, so he'd leave the talking to her.
Knocking on the door, a young girl (a naga, so probably not as youthful as she appeared to be) opened it, hissing at seeing them, almost as though she was laughing. "Ah yess, it'ss that time of the year issn't it? Come in."
Rozaria followed, being careful not to step on her tail. Raizel did so too. Were they going to stay here before heading out to the castle?
"We're here to see the elder."
The girl laughed again as she led them to the sitting room, curling up on a pillow. "That'ss me-" then she looked to Raizel- "Now magician, you need make hasste or the ssuplement to your power will wilt, and you will need to return on horsse alone."
Raizel looked at the girl's tail, intrigued. He'd never seen a naga before. Would the monster at the castle be the same? "How long do we have to wait here before we move on to the castle?" he asked politely, he wasn't sure how long it'd be before his family found out and tried to stop him.
Rozaria coughed politely. It seemed there were several misinterpretations going on. "Thank you for the advice elder but, Lord Raizel is this year's sacrifice. On the other hand-" she stood- "I'd better return. Thank you." She practically ran out.
The scene made the naga laugh, and she looked at Raizel again. "Sso you're the ssacrifice? I'll be the one leading you to the casstle."
Raizel had planned to thank Rozaria for her help, but wasn't able to with the speed she left, still, he hoped she'd know, how grateful he was for her help. He looked at the naga, nodding once, before getting up, ready to follow her.
The girl rolled her eyes as the magician stood. "Rude, aren't you? Ssit for a bit before we go. I have questionss to assk of you."
Raizel sat back down- "Very well, ask whatever you wish."
"What about your name, magician? I'm Arakei. You may refer to me asss Elder or Elder Arakei."
"Cadis Etrama Di Raizel," he stated simply.
She snorted. "Long ain't it? Sso you're that famed one? Sstrongesst magician of thiss kingdom? I wouldn't have thought that they'd ssend ssuch an important persson. And a damned magician to boot."
"I volunteered."
"Let me repeat again. I wouldn't have thought the king of your wretched kingdom would be sso foolissh to ssend a magician here." This man was just like every other human it seemed. They never bothered to learn the truth, and knew nothing of history.
"I don't understand, why does it matter whether I'm a magician or not?" The king hadn't mentioned there'd be any problems with him volunteering.
"Astra, you know that it iss the land just ssouth of here yess? The border iss but a few dayss walk for you humanss from thiss village."
Raizel looked at her questioningly, did he have to travel to this village? He'd get lost without an escort.
Ugh he was one of the quiet types then? How annoying. They were never as interesting as the quiet ones of her people in Astra either. "Do you know Astra or not?"
He shook his head, "I don't travel much." He didn't want to say, he lost his way far too easily, and his family forbade him from going out alone.
"What hasss your family been teaching you? Ssuch an important noble, and you don't know of the neighbouring territoriess? Are you sstraight up fucking with me here, magician?" Her fury showed on her face, and she was hissing loudly. He better not be fooling around with her.
Raizel shook his head once more, "I have lived a rather sheltered life, I mostly watch the world from my window. I don't know people, places or much of anything." He didn't read much, it was far more rewarding to stare out of his window.
"Well!" she huffed, "Pathetic. And you think you can end the... cursse? Even though you don't know enough to even be trusted to maintain relationships with other territoriess?"
"Curse?" Raizel thought he was supposed to be a sacrifice, he didn't know he had to break a curse as well.
Oh fuck. She'd gotten too angry and said something she hadn't meant to. She would need to rectify that. "Yess. Cursse. Ssacrifice. You humanss have your ssynonymss don't you?"
Raizel nodded, "What is the nature of this curse, and how do I break it?" If that was why he was here, then he'd have to know as much about the curse as possible.
"How sshould I know?" She did but it wasn't her place to say anything. "I only know of the hisstory that you humanss ignore becausse of your cold-hearted wayss."
"I see, this is something I need to work out for myself." He'd figure something out; he was a powerful magician after all.
Ugh she really didn't like this man. "I'll tell you of this area'ss hisstory."
Raizel nodded, he needed to learn all he could. "Yes, thank you."
"About a thoussand yearss ago iss when everything sstarted. You sshould know that at leasst right?" If he didn't know when the monster in the castle had appeared then, that would be proof he was an absolute failure.
Raizel nodded, "Yes." The king had told him that much at least.
"But there'ss ssomething you humanss alwayss leave out. A thoussand years ago, this land belonged to Astra." Her birthplace.
Raizel listened to her intently, as he continued to nod. "What happened?"
"In that time, your people were sso much more violent. Sso cruel," she murmured. "The thingss they would do are... They would cut off the hair of our gorgonss, and the tailss of my folk. They took sscaless and hornss ass trophiess. Do you want to guess what they did here?"
Raizel shook his head, he was terrible at guesswork. "What did they do?"
What an emotionless man, but what had she expected from a Sol? "Your ancesstorss declared war and ambushed our people here. Tortured uss, and drove uss out of our homess. That dark night... wass horrible. It wass lit up with flamess, and when our crown prince came, they took him captive. And you know why they did it? Becausse our empress at the time had rejected your prime minisster!"
Raizel's eyes widened in horror, "I'm sorry," his voice was filled with sadness, "What became of the crown prince?" If he was still alive, perhaps there was a way to rescue him.
"How would I know!" Of course, she did know. After all, there was only one place here they could have held him captive. "It doessn't matter. After all that, your kingdom of Ssol declared its boundariess included thiss territory too. Not that I cared. The resst of this village is Ssol, but me? I'm from the Astra village that wass here a thoussand years ago."
"That's terrible, is there no way to return things to the way they were?"
"Your people die in a hundred yearss: what can you do now? Even you magicianss live for a thoussand years at mosst. I'm happy asss long asss you know what happened here."
Raizel nodded, "Thank you for telling me, I won't forget what you've said."
"You better not." She rose, tail uncoiling. "Let'ss go then; you don't need to worry about ssuppliess. We deliver to the cassstle every fortnight."
Raizel stood to follow her, thankful she'd be taking him to the castle. "How far is the castle from here?"
"Hmm I can sslither there in fifteen minutess sso..." Arakei looked over the statues outside carefully, adjusting a few- "maybe two hourss with you."
Raizel nodded, "Do you know anything of the monster that lives in the castle?"
"He'ss handssome," she said, matter-of-fact, "our empress had children with him."
"I see, what's his personality like?" Raizel asked, he'd be staying with him, so wanted to know as much as he could find out.
"He'ss rude and annoying and a brat-" but she adored him. "I don't really ssee him often, only when the empress comess around. She doess it more ever ssince sshe abdicated."
"I see, where is the empress now?" He asked, wondering if he'd see her, while staying at the castle.
"Sshe likess to travel. Ssometimess sshe leavess her twinss here for the monsster to look after while sshe'ss out exploring."
"I don't travel much, but it sounds nice."
"You wouldn't like it the way sshe doess it."
Raizel cocked his head to the side, in confusion. Maybe travelling wasn't as much fun as he'd heard.
"The empress is crazy-" the same sort that Arakei was- "and cravess adventure. The ssort of ssituationss sshe getss into, you'd find terrifying."
Raizel smiled, perhaps, after he'd broken the curse, he could have a few adventures of his own. Though not the crazy ones Arakei was talking about.
They continued on for another hour, Arakei bringing up one topic or another. Sometimes she would remove her eyepatch for a moment to let her wound breathe but, never long enough for Raizel to be able to see it. Only when the castle was in view did Arakei pause, her red scales glistening under the sunlight. She took out a wooden charm and pressed it to her lips, closing her eyes, before offering it to him. "Here."
Raizel took the charm, "Thank you. What is it for?"
"Luck-" another lie but she felt no shame, for he wouldn't know what it was for- "I have given it to all thosse who come here."
Raizel nodded, "I'll be sure to keep it with me then." He smiled, thanking her for accompanying him to the castle.
"I won't go up to the gatess with you; that brat doesn't like to ssee me. It should be fine though; the gatess are usually open and sso are all the doorss."
"Alright, thank you for everything." He walked towards the gates, and pushed it gently, only for it to open easily. He headed down the path, towards the door of the castle. He wasn't sure what his time here would be like, but he was certain, he would do everything in his power to break the curse.