บท 43: A mother's love
Lighting strikes and burns the green grass revealing both Das and Ann. They stand in the middle of a road that cuts through the thick forests.
"Finally" Ann stretches and takes off her hood "Being in that tower all day gets pretty boring" she then turns to Das, a friendly smile on her face "What place did you say this was again?"
"My home" Das begins walking down the road with her following nearby "It's a little secluded town, they call it the three-headed serpent pass since it's very close to the borders of the Dominion and Grunland"
"I see" she takes a few glances at him, unsure if the next thing was the right thing to ask, but going through with it anyway "Any particular reason you wanted to come back? What happened yesterday?"
Ida's face strikes his memory like an arrow set lose and hitting the bullseye "I don't want to talk about it...just, felt like I had some unfinished business left behind" he walks to the side letting a cart pass by filled with fish "besides, Drachen is here"
"Oh, right. You still haven't learned how to mind read right?"
Das doesn't respond, instead, he ignores the question and keeps walking forward. The rest of the walk is silent except for the chirping birds until they reach the end of the forest.
Ann excitedly rushes forward, like a child stretching her arms in a fruitless attempt to hold everything she sees "I knew I remembered this smell correctly, do you have any idea of how long has it been since I last came to the sea? Decades"
The view is a peaceful, large empty field of only a few hills and at a distance, the endless expanse of the sea along with a fairly large town resting at its shores, a few small fishing ships can be seen at a distance. Seagulls counted on the dozens flying around the place.
After admiring the view for a few more seconds Ann notices Das walking ahead and rushes to his side, they are headed to the town "Business with the humans then?"
"My mother" he replies, taking her by surprise "I want to have a few words with her"
"Going to show me off to her? get her blessing?" she teases playfully, but Das's cold stare just makes her look away, leaving most of the walk in silence once again.
Soon the noise of the sea can be heard at a distance, along with the increasingly louder sound of carts and people going about their daily lives, selling fish and other foods or commodities in the streets.
The town is strikingly different in appearance to the usual stone buildings from the capital or other places, instead made out mostly of wood and quite similar to the houses in Jagerwald. However the style and influence of the capital can already be seen as many of the buildings being worked on are made out of stone, as well as the guard looking much more experienced and numerous.
Ann sees everything around her with eyes full of wonder, even if it isn't her first time so close to the sea, it's still a fantastic sight for her all the new things and little interesting gadgets she finds merchants offering on their traveling carts.
She follows Das around as he purchases white flowers, lilies. Along with a piece of apple pie and a small bottle of wine.
"Sorry," he says after placing all the bought items in a willow basket "Yesterday... It was hard, a lot of things happened and, it's left my head all messed up. I didn't mean to take it out on you"
Ann's corner of her mouth raises slightly "If you want to apologize then get another one of those" she says pointing at the bottle and giggling, earning a brief smile from the tired Das.
"And, forgive me for wanting to scramble your head"
"Stop apologizing Das, I said it was alright. You have all the correct reasons to be distrustful of me, I was well aware of it the first time we spoke"
"I supposed you did, but still, it's an awful thing asking someone to let you crack them open like an egg"
"Sometimes we have to make awful choices if we think they are necessary. Like with everything in life, we can be wrong. But that's just part of living isn't it?" she gently shoves her elbow on Das's side.
"But when they involve someone else's life? What if a wrong choice I make ends up hurting another person, or many?"
"then, you take responsibility" she takes off his hood "Hiding away inside our shells when things go bad is not right, if we make a mistake, the least we can do is make sure it doesn't affect others anymore. That's part of growing up"
"I feel like a scolded kid" Das puts his hood back on after anxiously looking around at the crowds of people.
"You are!" she playfully strikes him on the top of his head, both laughing lightheartedly.
Distracted, Das hits a guard with his shoulder, quickly making sure she is alright and bowing deeply as a sign of apology. Ann observes him, with a tender smile, the exchange as the guard seems about to shout at him, only to stop, raise her hand but just nod back and leave.
The two of them continue their walk, as Ann looks at the houses surrounding the streets, wondering how does Das's mother looks like? does he look like her? She can absolutely see someone as feminine-looking as him being extremely similar to his mother.
Entertained with her thoughts, she doesn't notice at first how the tall buildings are soon replaced by smaller, humbler ones until they are only old and abandoned households. Only when they stop at the old, mossy stone gates of the graveyard she realizes her questions will remain unanswered.
They enter crossing paths with an elderly woman that looks like a beggar, accompanied by a hooded figure whose body is hidden completely beneath the black cloak.
A cold breeze makes Ann stop and turns around, looking at the two strangers for a moment, a familiar, chilling sensation runs through her body for a few seconds, but she dismisses it and returns her attention to Das, who wanders the many tombstones at first glance aimlessly, but as they walk it becomes clear that he knows exactly where is he going, the furthest away part of the graveyard, away from all others.
There lays a rather common tombstone, obviously neglected, with the only words written on it a name.
"Blume" Ann whispers as she sits in front of the grave, next to Das who begins to place the items he bought on the ground "It doesn't say much about her here, if I may ask, what did she die of?"
"Purple tears, she got it from an old skeleton she found while gathering herbs in the woods. She was an amazing alchemist"
"So far away from the others, I take it she wasn't really liked by the townsfolk?"
"Her involvement with my father made her, a little distant from everyone else, but since he never stayed here, they treated her kindly but a little bit cold...she wasn't treated badly, that's what matters"
Having properly placed the pie, wine, and flowers, he takes out a few strands of hair and puts them inside the dirt, careful to not leave it looking bad.
"The old ways, now that's something I wasn't expecting"
"It's everything I can really do. I wasn't here when she passed away so they didn't give her a proper burial. She believed in the old ways so I hope this is enough to make her feel at peace"
"How long has it been since she died?"
"Four years" noticing her surprise, he continues "I was never sure if I should come here, I always felt that having magic was like taking away a part of her. I was forced to join the palace and leave her alone for years at a time when I was five years old, I couldn't bear coming here knowing that while she tried to never show it, she was sad"
"Well" Ann stands up "let me fix that then, by all means, I'm still a priestess of the Light"
"Even if you can raise the dead?"
"Don't look too deep into it or you will ruin it"
Ann holds her hands together and murmurs several passages from the Book of Deeds, the whole book containing the whole story of the Lightbringer, every struggle, every word of wisdom, and every prayer contained within its pages.
For a few minutes she goes on, Das looking at the tombstone in silence.
Remembering the few years of pure joy in this town.
The taste of freshly baked bread in the morning, how he would go with his mother to buy the daily goods in the market, or with her in the woods to gather herbs for her potions.
Helping her comb her long wavy brown hair in the mornings after she got him dressed. Playing around the beach and viewing the distant thunderstorms.
The smell of perfume of her own making always made him know exactly where she was no matter how big of a crowd he was in. Her fark green eyes watched with amazement his most mundane accomplishments. Her contagious laughter.
But along with those happy memories, he can't help but recall the darkest one. The day he was asked to lit the fireplace, and he made a spark with his hands, he remembers her face, the joy, the calm, and happiness, erased like the sands of the beach.
Then, his father.
Comming right when she was about to leave, intending on taking him away from the kingdom, deep into Grunland despite the dangers. He saw through her lies and fought with her.
They yelled, screamed, thrashed around. His mother screaming "Child" his father yelling "Danger"
Loud enough for the neighbors to listen, and when they did, his destiny was sealed.
How despite it all, she took him away, that night inside the carriage, he sleeping on her legs while she, sitting, gently caressed his head, with glassy eyes and shivering lips.
But she wouldn't get far, for his father soon came, and took him to the palace.
The rest was studying, and confinement. Reading books until it was Sunday, the day he could go out, and once every year he could return to this town, to her worried mother who looked elder each year.
More and more heartbroken.
When Ann stopped, he stood up.
"Thank you," he said
"A pleasure" she replied, doing a quick curtsy. Then she followed Das as he began walking back out of the graveyard " Where to now?"
"To the forests, to the other side from where we came from. That's where my father awaits" he hesitates for a moment "and where I want to see inside your mind"
"Just remember our agreement. In fact, why don't you fulfill it while we are headed there?"
"It's not really an interesting story"
"Just do it anyway, if it's THAT boring I will just forget about it"
"Very well" Das chuckled.
The two head out of the town, towards the faraway woods as Das tells the boring and uninteresting tale, of the trapped mage in a luxurious palace, earning jokingly yawning from the playful necromancer to his side.
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