Chapter 50: Chapter 50

As Langrion bid his goodbye to Shia that morning, she said something to him that had started to bother him a bit.

“Mage Silas is not just a mere magician. He is actually a god himself. His real name is Galahad.”

He opened up the discussion on what to do now that Nana has passed away. Langrion remembered that the duchess’ last instruction for him was to oversee their wedding immediately, but they did not get to have their engagement announcement yet at the debutant ball. It could become harder now for them to make haste, especially since they are still in the period of mourning.

He had asked Shia what she would like to do about their engagement. She did not speak for a while, and instead of answering him directly, she revealed this information about Mage Silas.

He remembered the age-old myth between the Goddess of Light and the God of Reversals. He vaguely remembered the name of the god that had loved Freya based on the myths, but upon hearing her say his name, it rang a familiar bell.

“Galahad… You mean Freya’s lover?”

Shia began to avert his stare. Langrion gently tilted her head towards his with a hand, forcing her to look back at him. “Did he try to do anything funny with you?”

“Of course not,” she said.

“Are you sure of it?”

“I’m positive. I just remembered some bits and pieces about Freya, but that’s about it.”

“And how about Danterion, did he try to do something funny with you at the ball?”

“He didn’t.”

“Are you sure? When I went to your side after the dance, you looked quite pale.”

“It was because I spoke with the Ancient Evil. I think he also has control over your brother.”

“What did he say to you? Did he threaten you?”

A mist has started to cover her eyes. “He said that all of us belonged to him. All cursed ones and the two of you belong to him.”

“That’s alright, Shia,” Langrion said, hugging her as warmly as he could. “He has no hold over my heart or my spirit. He can only touch us because of our curse, but that does not mean he has complete control over us. We can fight this curse. We still have time.”

“I know, but I’m worried... So far, what’s keeping you away from the Devil is the mage’s magic. At first, I was counting on Mage Silas to help us out with this predicament, but I am afraid we could not trust him fully in account of what she feels about Freya.”

“Is that what’s bothering you about him?”

“Yes. I am inclined to think that he does not have our best interest at heart. In the end, he might only be staying because Freya meant something to him. We have to find a way to break our curses by ourselves if we want to live in peace.”

“Does that mean you’d want to live with me sometime soon?” Langrion asked, looking down at Shia with anticipation.

“I-I don’t know... Let’s see what happens,” she said, still not quite meeting his stare.

Perhaps it was in the way she said it, but Langrion was certain that something else was looming inside Shia’s pretty head, something that she probably thought would devastate him.

When he came home to the manor, he found Khailis waiting at the doorway of his bedroom.

“Sire, thank heavens you’re finally here!” she exclaimed.

“Why are you here so early, Lady Khailis?”

It’s not that he did not anticipate Khailis to be there. He had given her specific orders yesterday to find out about his abductors and about the burnt village of Leer. However, he absolutely did not expect her to come to his chambers in the wee hours of the morning, therefore exposing the fact that he failed to sleep there throughout the night.

As expected, Khailis started to inquire on his whereabouts as soon as he let her inside his bed chamber. “Where on earth did you go, Langrey? I half-thought you were kidnapped again!”

“Well, I wasn’t... Did you find out about the people who kidnapped me and about Leer?” Langrion replied, trying to divert her attention somewhere else.

“That’s what I wanted to tell you. A report came in this morning about Leer. Lord Fincher received the official manuscripts. It was funny that he did not want to show me what the report said although I was the one who brought it to their attention. He said that he would have to show it to the king first, so I sneaked in to the king’s study after he delivered it.”

Khailis looked around before producing the parchment from the folds of her cloak.

“I was waiting for you last night, but you didn’t come back. I didn’t want to barge in to Littman Manor lest I catch you and Shia doing something obscene.”

At the mere mention of the word ‘obscene,’ Langrion’s face started to turn as red as an apple, and Khailis began to clamp her hand against her mouth in recognition of what it had meant.

“No way! So, you mean to say that you two were really doing something obscene?”

Langrion coughed up once or twice to regain his composure. No matter how close he and his Second-in-Command was, there were still some things he absolutely could not share to her, no matter how much she pried.

“Ah, well, I’m glad that the two of you patched things up. Anyway, please read the contents quickly. I have to return those parchments before the king wakes up.” Khailis said impatiently after a while.

Langrion proceed to open the thick collection of papers, scanning the report as quickly as he can. In a minute, he finished it, and he looked back at Khailis sharply.

“Have you read this report beforehand?”

“No. I cannot read it before you. What does it say?”

Langrion, gritted his teeth. “We have to go now, Khailis. We have to meet Shia and get away from here as fast as we can!”

******************

Shia paced back and forth in her room, wringing her hands in anxiousness after Langrion left. She had tried packing up a couple of clothes as Langrion had instructed. He was to fetch her and bring her to the Rubiyah Manor by dinner time that day. He knew she was still grieving, and he did not want her to be alone while the burial preparation goes on for the duchess. Langrion suggested that she should stay for a couple of days with him until Nana’s burial and until she could feel all better by herself.

“Or maybe just stay with me for good,” he said, brushing away the wisp of hair that covered her face.

“Alright. I’ll stay with you for a few days...”

He hugged her closer. Although she and Langrion had shared a few moments of intimacy together, her heart still felt empty. Could this time with him last forever, or is it also a fleeting time, just like the ones she had spend with those closest to her heart?

It was still too early in the morning for her to be going through her stuff. The servants and Baroness Alessa are probably on their way back from the temple, and she was still too tired from last night. However, Shia could not bring herself to calm down and go back to bed. Being left alone only made her think more and more about Sirion and the conversation that they had at the ball.

“If you do what I bid you to do, Freya, I shall grant you a wish – any wish!”

“Then, what is it that you want? What is it that you want from me?...”

“I want you to join me in the Underworld, love. Let us be together. Let us seize this earth and take control of Teotroly! You and I know we can become better gods that the present heads!”

Sirion was mad to the core! What he wanted was not just earth, but Teotroly itself! He also knew that she was planning to kill him, but how did this knowledge come to him? Shia was sure that the only one whom she had confided this plan with, aside from Langrion and Khailis, was Mage Silas. Exactly how much can she trust this mage? Despite knowing him to be Galahad and discovering the truth as to why he is helping her, something still feels odd about the mage. Shia could not put her fingers on it, but she actually does not trust Mage Silas, no matter how pure his intentions seem to be.

Hearing the sound of hooves and horses, Shia peeked out from her bedroom window. She thought that Baroness Alessa and the servants had come home already, so it was a surprise to see Langrion and Khailis drawing their horses in front of her house.

“Why, what’s going on?” Shia said, breathless as she ran down the flight of stairs to meet them. It had only been about an hour since Langrion had left to go back to the Rubiyah Manor. Why is he suddenly back here?

“Shia, did you start packing like I said? I need you to pack lightly. Get only the things you need. We have to go away as soon as we can from here,” Langrion said.

“We have to go? But why?” she said anxiously.

“I have no time to explain for now. Just go and pack your belongings. Khailis will help you. I’ll go wind up on some supplied that we might need down here, alright?”

“A-alright,” Shia replied. The apprehension in his voice seemed real. What on earth could have possibly happened to make Langrey as anxious as this?

Khailis and Shia went upstairs to her bedroom. She actually did not have much to pack. She probably just needed a cloak, her dagger, a bag of gold and silver, and some jewellery should they need more money for the journey.

“What’s going on, Khailis?”

“The prince, he is -”

Before the two of them can finish their conversation, they heard the sound of more hooves and horses coming in front of the manor.

Both of them looked outside quickly just in time to see a troop of twenty to thirty men marching towards the house with Lord Fincher riding at the helm.

“Oh no,” Khailis mumbled. They quickly ran down towards the front door where they found Langrion surrounded by the men who had just come by.

“Prince Langrion, it is by order of the king that we have to detain you and Lady Khailista Humphrey.”

“What!” Shia said, coming forward confront the knight, “What are you doing? What is this about?”

“Lady Shia, our condolences to the House of Andry. We are sorry for the intrusion, but it under the order of his majesty, King Caldwell the First that Prince Langrion Zephiry Romualdi and Lady Khailista Humphrey be detained until further notice.”

A pair of guards had started to secure Lady Khailis’ arm as well as his majesty’s.

“Under what grounds? What are their charges?”

“It is for committing arson in the town of Leer, staging a heist, and for abetting cursed ones under their wings.”

“Cursed ones?”

“Yes,’ Lord Fincher sneered, “filthy, slimy, slinky cursed ones, Lady Shia...”