I had called him “foolish knight.”
Eight hundred years ago, a crude young knight happened upon my tree in search of the legendary relic. I had asked him to turn away as I’d always done. He refused.
He came and went day after day to try to overcome the mystical barrier or at least learn of its weaknesses. He would set up camp, persisting to engage me in conversation.
After a while, it became futile to resist and despite his being incredibly stubborn, I’d found him quite tolerable. We would often talk for hours.
He made me laugh.
In those days, I wore a necklace I’d fashioned myself with a pendant made of enchanted ice, almost like glass.
I remembered giving it to him in place of the relic, to sell, so he would pursue the relic no further.
But instead, he kept it as a token, a remembrance of me.
One day he left and when he returned some time later, it was to his demise.
I glanced up to study Lance’s face several times as he led me by the arm to a huge dining hall.
He looked so much like Dantilian. The way he nodded, the way he smiled.
I frowned as I recalled his treachery. His greed. He had still tried to take the relic, despite wise words from me, and had died because of it.
Men were so weak…and so was I. For all I knew, Dantilian could have simply also been manipulating me.
Lance pulled out a chair for me beside him at the long dining table.
The table was covered with exquisite food served on golden platters, with golden candlesticks, gold-stitched tablecloths. The chandeliers on the high ceiling above us were crystal and gold. The sunlight streamed in through the high windows, glinting off of every shiny surface. About everything in the room glittered in finery.
“Please help yourself.” He gestured to the food as he sat down and waited for me to take the first bite.
I was still sort of stunned. I gawked at all the food then at him then back at the food. “I’m sorry, I’m—still sort of confused,” I started. “What was it that you wanted from me?”
“Do not look so worried.” He smiled. “Please help yourself to anything you like.”
I grimaced, still unable to believe it. “Sort of like a last meal?” I guessed, joking—so hoped I was joking.
Lance chuckled.
I bit my lip in a half-smile. I wasn’t as out of practice in some things as I’d thought as I could still tell jokes. “I’m sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I just don’t understand why…you would do this after all this time.”
His expression was gentle. “I’ve always been intrigued by my ancestry’s history, especially the ones dating back during the Mystic Ages. There are a lot of legends pertaining to that time. And since as you so eloquently bear witness to—” His smile widened. “I do so much resemble my ancestor, Dantilian of the Fourth Cephiron Reign. It’s difficult not to get fascinated by it all.”
I nodded, hanging on to his every word.
I had no idea that Dantilian had written about what had happened eight hundred years ago, much less kept scrolls of records, which according to Lance, filled a room.
My hand unconsciously went up to my neck where I was again wearing my necklace.
His gaze went to my throat. “I’ve looked past that necklace several times in my study and read all about your encounters. Only the other day, while I was reading, the necklace seemed to glow for a brief moment before its light faded. As if…as if it had lost its life force. After that, it would light up in certain directions like a beacon, which when followed led directly to that village where you were found.”
I kept nodding, totally entranced.
“I’d…like to apologize for the manner in which you were brought here,” he said, not meeting my gaze. “My men apparently thought we were capturing some sort of enemy. I know I specifically told them to bring you upstairs and not to the dungeon. I apologize for the misunderstanding.”
I shrugged to dismiss it. “It’s okay, I guess.”
He smiled at me again.
A warm rush streaked through me. Dantilian never was a slouch in the looks department. I cleared my throat and raised my eyebrows as if to ask permission, reaching my hand out toward the bread rolls.
Lance nodded. “This is all in your honor,” he informed me. “As long as you are here, think of everything as your own.”
I still could not believe he was being so nice for nothing. I shook my head. “That’s very nice of you but why?”
“I’m one of those people who do not think life is a series of accidents. I think that I was meant to find you. You may remain here for as long as you wish.”
As long as I wished? Have all this food and luxury for as long as I wished? Somebody up there was blessing me.
Or more likely, somebody up there hadn’t found out yet that I’d screwed up guarding the ancient relic.
I paused, looking back over at Lance who once I had grabbed a piece of bread had begun to eat as well. “Um, might I ask what will happen to that other one in the dungeon? The boy?” I didn’t want my question to sound too impertinent.
Lance shrugged. “There is nothing here that concerns him. I will have him killed if he attempts to escape.”
My eyes widened. “No!” I squeaked. “I—I mean,” I stammered to amend as casually as I could, “why don’t you just let him go? He’s just a common boy. Surely he would not even survive the dangers of the forest were you to let him loose.”
He shot me a questioning look. “I’m afraid, in these times, we cannot afford to be careless. He could be a spy from another country in disguise. We cannot just let him go.”
“Oh, why not?” I implored with a dismissive wave. “It’s not like we’re in a war or something, are we? What would it hurt?”
Lance looked at me for a long time. “You needn’t worry about things like that right now. Just trust me that it is better to be always careful.”
Trust me… The phrase bounced around in my head. I looked back at Lance. I wondered if I could truly trust him.
I had begun to trust his great-great-great-great-whatever-grandfather so many years ago but he had betrayed me. I had only just met Lance and Dantilian’s blood flowed in his veins.
I supposed I hadn’t trusted anyone for a long time.
I wondered if he would trust me.
I took a deep breath. “That boy has the legendary relic.”
Lance simply looked up at me from his food.
Okay. I furrowed my eyebrows, even more confused. I had thought that that revelation would have brought about some fuss, maybe some shouting, some running down the dungeon to seize the powerful relic, but nooo…
I nodded to confirm. “It’s true. He has succeeded in taking that which had been sealed away within the Mystic Lake. If you believe all things are meant to be, perhaps the relic was meant for him. Perhaps he has a purpose. You cannot just kill him.”
Lance turned his attention back to his food. “I do not care about the relic.”
I blinked. What? Did he just say—what did he just say—? Did he just say he didn’t care about the relic? He wasn’t at all interested that probably the most powerful object in existence was sitting in his dungeon? What the hell was wrong with him?
He noted my flustered look and seemed to hesitate to explain. “There’s a lot of glory in my ancestry’s history. I’m not particularly proud of how some of them were acquired. I don’t want to share it. I don’t want to pursue it. That is not my wish.”
My jaw had dropped earlier and I stared at him in awe. I didn’t even know what to say. I felt like bowing down in gratitude, in reverence.
He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable, and went back to eating. “After we’re done with the meal, maybe you’d like to see the kingdom? I could give you a tour,” he offered, changing the subject completely.
I blinked out of my trance and got my bearings back. “Actually,” I started quietly. “There is something I would like to see.”
I sneezed. Dantilian may have kept a lot of records but he sure wasn’t one about fastidiousness. I sneezed again as I unrolled a dusty page from one of the thick compiled records from those days.
After a quick tour inside the castle, Lance had taken me to the library where there was indeed a whole section in the back reserved for Dantilian’s chronicles.
Lance had helped me to bring some of the readings back to my room. I’d thanked him before he left to see to something.
I pulled out another set of parchments from the pile and wrinkled my nose, trying not to disturb the dust as I unrolled it.
I released a breath in a gasp of wonder once I saw that the set of parchments contained lots of drawings.
Sketches of the castle at Cephiron itself and some of my Forest. Some of the trees as seen from a distance near the Mystic Lake. There were quite a lot of me—well, a hazy forest nymph wearing pink that is.
Dantilian, it seemed, also had a good hand for sketching.
I fiddled with my necklace again and sighed, saddened at the fact that he’d turned out to be just another treacherous human. The relic just wasn’t meant for you… I traced the sketches with my fingers gingerly. And Lance doesn’t want it.
My thoughts turned to the boy, whom by this time tomorrow may already have been executed.
Hundreds upon hundreds have died for the relic. What was the consequence of another one? I mused. Even the one who actually succeeded in obtaining it?
You protect something in a lake that’s so important, you’re willing to take people’s lives for it…
I pursed my lips before I set aside the sketches and pulled out another set of rolled-up parchments and spread each of them out.
My lips parted at what I read. They were Dantilian’s journals during his trips to the Forest. I pulled out what looked like the very first encounter and scanned it. My eyes caught ‘forest fairy’ in the middle and started to read.
“…an unpleasant and rude forest fairy seems to stand guard near the accursed lake. She hovers atop a very tall tree and snaps at people who pass by.”
I wrinkled my nose, almost in mirth.
“There have been many before me who have attempted to seek the glory of the relic. I have seen some of them fall with my own eyes…”
I blinked. It seemed he had also been around watching the others for a while before he walked up to attempt the relic himself.
I moved on to another scroll.
“I can sense her loneliness—”
That was the first line. I held my breath and continued to read.
“—it is a hard task to comfort her. I cannot even get her to come down. The tree must be her sanctuary. This forest, her only home… I wonder if it is best for me to accomplish my duty, leaving her with no reason to be…”
I sighed again. Oh, Dantilian… I paused for a moment and something occurred to me.
Tossing scrolls around, I searched for the last written piece of record hoping to discover what I’d wanted to know for eight hundred years.
What was it that had made Dantilian leave those last few days and then return only to take his own life?
My shoulders sagged lower as I read off the tops of each page. I pulled out what looked like the last scroll out of the pile and scanned through to the end of it.
“Let it end like this for there is no other way. I must endure…”
That was it. I skimmed the page again. Nothing. There was no reason stated to say why he did it.
Damn, I groaned. Damn it to hell. I shook my head. You idiot, I thought and swallowed hard to keep tears eight hundred years unshed back.