“Ta-daaaa!” Suzie says, with a very proud look on her face.
“Wow,” Hadrik says. “That’s uh… quite the change. Are you the one who braided her hair, Suzie?”
“Yep!” the little girl says, beaming. “Isn’t she beautiful? Come on, Ella, don’t be shy, and turn around so everyone can see!”
Ella seems to be very flustered about all of this, and her cheeks could not be any more red. She probably isn’t used to getting this much attention. She turns around, just as ordered, so we could all have a look at her braided hair. Looking at it closely, you could clearly see that there’s been a lot of work put into it. The girl must have been at it for at least the better part of an hour.
“Come on, Ella!” Suzie says, as she grabs her hand, and she pulls her back towards the mansion. “Let’s play!”
Hadrik, Kate, Flower and I spent the rest of the day at one of the picnic tables, chatting and eating some more of Flower’s magically conceived delicacies. Daren did not come out of the mansion at all during the day, so he must have spent most of the time in his room. As we all sat down at the table, every once in a while, we’d catch a glimpse of Suzie and Ella, running around the yard, or playing hide and seek. As the sun was starting to set, it was becoming clear that Ella was making a great effort to keep up with the little girl’s demands, as she got more and more tired.
“Faster!” Suzie says, as Ella runs around the yard, giving her a piggyback ride. “You can do it, Ella! Faster!”
“Hey, Suzie,” Rose’s little brother says, as he watches Ella run circles around the yard. “Ella will do anything you say, right?”
“Yep!” the girl says.
“Tell her to stand on her hands!” the boy says.
“What?” Suzie ask, shocked. “No! Why would I tell her to do that?”
“Because it’d be fun to watch!” the boy says.
“I won’t tell her to stand on her hands, Kevin!” Suzie says.
“Why not?” Kevin says. “She’ll do everything you tell her to do, so where’s the problem?”
“That doesn’t mean we have to make fun of her!” Suzie says, visibly upset.
“Pffft!” Kevin says. “You’re no fun.”
“No, you’re no fun!” Suzie says. “You’re just a mean meanie head, and that’s why you don’t have any friends!”
Suzie gets down from Ella’s back and she hugs her tightly, while giving her brother a menacing look.
“Don’t worry, Ella,” the little girl says. “I would never do anything to hurt you!”
Ella now looks like she’s barely able to stand on her feet.
“Thank you… miss…” she says, with the last of her strength, and then she faints, due to exhaustion.
“Ella!” Suzie screams.
When we see what happened, Hadrik and I both rush simultaneously towards Ella, and the first thing we do is to make sure that she is still alive. The girl is still breathing, but she has a very high fever.
“I did this!” Suzie says, as tears start streaming down her face. “I killed her! I shouldn’t have asked her for that piggyback ride! I should have seen that she was too tired! Now she’s going to die and it’s all my fault!”
After she finishes her last sentence, the girl breaks down into uncontrollable crying, and she buries her head in her arms.
“Suzie, listen to me,” I tell the girl, as I put my hands on her shoulders. “Ella was going to work herself to exhaustion whether you ordered her to or not. It’s not your fault.”
“I’ll go get Daren,” Kate says, as she heads towards the mansion.
“You don’t know that!” Suzie tells me. “You can’t know that!”
“Yes, I can,” I tell the girl. “We tried to get Ella to rest, but she wouldn’t listen to us. Rose only entrusted her to you because she knew that you wouldn’t overwork her any more than she’d already overwork herself. She’s not going to die. She’s only exhausted, that’s all. She’ll recover after a good night’s sleep.”
“Barry, come on,” Hadrik says. “We need to get her to a bed somewhere. Do you know if there are any empty rooms still left in the mansion?”
“Yeah, there’s one at the end of the long hallway on the right,” I say. “I’ll show you the way. Come on, Suzie, you’re coming too!”
We manage to get Ella lying on a bed, and soon afterwards, Kate and Daren also come rushing into the room.
“Why didn’t anyone tell her to get some rest?” Daren says, as he casts a healing spell on the girl. “She was already exhausted enough when we first met her.”
“We tried to,” Kate says, “but she wouldn’t listen. She was too afraid that if she showed any weakness, we’d discard her without thinking, like that noble.”
“That lowlife bastard,” Daren says, as he clenches his fist. “I’d kill him if he weren’t already dead.”
After Daren finishes his spell, we can see that the girl’s breathing is starting to become more relaxed.
“I took care of the fever,” Daren says, “but the fatigue is still there. She’ll need to rest for a while in order to fully recover.”
“Oh gods, what happened here?” Rose says, as she enters the house, and she sees us all standing around Ella’s bed.
“The girl overworked herself, and she fainted from exhaustion,” Hadrik says.
“I figured that might happen…” Rose says. “Is she going to be okay?”
“She’s fine,” Daren says. “She’s just tired. But she won’t be able to work anymore for the rest of the day.”
“I can still… work…” Ella says, as she wakes up from hearing Daren’s words, and she tries to get out of bed, only to fall on her back soon afterwards.
“Ella, you’re alive!” Suzie shouts happily, and she hugs her with all her might. “You’re alive!”
“Master, I can still work,” Ella says, with a desperate look in her eyes, as she tries to get out of bed again but fails. “Please, just give me another order.”
“No,” Rose says, as she frowns at her. “You can’t work anymore today. You can’t even get out of bed. That means that as a slave, you are completely worthless to me now. And the only fate that awaits a worthless slave is death.”
Ella looks at Rose with fear in her eyes, but she no longer has the strength to fight back. Rose grabs the girl’s hand between her palms, she looks her in the eyes, and she gives her a warm smile.
“But you are not a slave anymore,” Rose says. “You have no longer been a slave ever since Barry saved you from that noble, today. I did not bring you here to work for me as a slave. I brought you here to work as a maid. If I truly considered you to be my slave, then nothing should have stopped me from ending your life when you became a burden to me. You of all people should know this better than anyone.”
The fear in Ella’s eyes is slowly starting to leave her, and it looks as if she’s finally beginning to understand what Rose really means.
“You are free, Ella,” Rose continues. “You are no longer bound by anyone, or anything. You can go wherever you want, and do whatever you want for as long as you want. You don’t have to listen to anyone’s orders ever again, and you can make your own choices without living in fear.”
Rose pauses.
“But if you’ll allow me to make a selfish request…” Rose says. “I would be very grateful if you chose to remain here. I don’t have a lot of money to give you, and the kids will probably drive you mad half of the time, but Suzie has already gotten very attached to you, and I think she’d really miss you if you were gone. I can’t promise you that you’ll have a good life here, but I can promise that we’ll try our hardest to make you feel at home. Ella, would it be too much to ask of you to keep working for us for a while longer?”
“No!” Ella says, as she looks like she’s about to cry. “Of course not! I would love to keep working here! My time spent here has been the happiest of my life! I don’t want to leave! I promise that I’ll work hard, and that I’ll never betray your tru
st!”
“Then our contract is complete!” Rose says, as she smiles, and she shakes the girl’s hand. “You can start working chores as soon as you’re fully recovered, but if you’re really keen on not slacking off today, you can still play with Suzie. I’m pretty sure that she’s not planning to leave your bedside anytime soon!”
Now that Rose had finally managed to put Ella’s worries to rest, we decided to leave her alone with Suzie, so that she could take her mind off her work for a few hours. Since it was getting close to bedtime, we each started heading towards our own rooms and said we’d meet up again in the morning, to plan what we wanted to do next.
Before going to bed, I took a nice long bath in one of the many bathrooms available in the mansion. It was nice to bathe in hot water, for a change, after all of those days of washing in cold lakes and rivers. As I entered my room, my stat device started beeping loudly. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten any new points to spend on my stats. I need to be extra careful with what I choose to upgrade this time, because at this rate, who knows when I’ll be getting my next batch of points.
I take the device out of my pocket and start thinking how to make the best use of these points. Given that I only have two of them, I ultimately decide to spend them both on my toughness stat. My reflexes may have helped me to avoid getting hit so far, but if I ever get shot with an arrow in the future, I would prefer to not get killed instantly by it.
As soon as I invest my two points, I can feel the whole skin around my body hardening, as well as my muscles. I attempt to pinch my arm very hard, in order to see how well this works, and I am pleased to find out that I can barely even feel any pain from it. I’m not sure how well this will work against arrows, or other piercing weapons, but at the very least this should be a great help against people using blunt weapons, or their fists while fighting. Now, the question is… when I get the next batch of points, should I keep increasing this stat, or should I max my speed and reflexes instead, since I already have them both at level three?
“Knock, knock!” Rose says, while standing near the door, as she sees me focusing intensely on the stat device. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No, no, I was just about done!” I say, as I put my stat booster back in my pocket.
“It’s a good thing that you didn’t go to sleep yet,” she says, as she walks into my room, carrying a tray full of muffins. “I know that these muffins will not compare to anything that Flower can cook up, but I really wanted to show you my appreciation for what you did today somehow!”
She places the tray on a small table near my bed, and she seats herself on the bed beside me.
“These are really good,” I tell her, after I take a bite, “but there was no need to go out of your way to make them just for me! I don’t remember doing anything special. You’re the one who came up with the idea to have Ella spend her day with Suzie. You’re the one who finally managed to calm her down, not me.”
“You know very well what I’m talking about, Barry,” Rose says. “I’m talking about the moment when you took it upon yourself to save that girl’s life, despite the enormous risks and dangers that you put yourself through because of it.”
“Oh, there’s no need to thank me for that!” I say. “I only did it because it felt right to me at the time, not because I wanted any reward.”
“I know,” Rose says, smiling. “And that’s why I’m thanking you. Your selfless actions are what gave me the courage to finally start addressing the problem that I’ve been trying to ignore for all these years. Seeing that girl’s face light up when I told her she could stay here made me happier than any other reward ever could. After all these years, I finally feel like I’m starting to make a difference. And it’s all thanks to you, Barry!”
All of a sudden, Rose looks away from me, as if she’d just remembered something.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be sitting here, talking like this,” Rose says. “I wouldn’t want to give Kate the wrong idea about us if she wonders by…”
“Hold on, I think you’re the one who might have gotten the wrong idea!” I say. “There was never anything going on between me and Kate. Honest! I didn’t feel my heart racing at all when I met her, unlike the time when I first saw you!”
Rose blushes when she hears what I said.
“You felt your heart racing when you first saw me?” Rose asks me, and then she pauses for a few seconds. “Do you… still feel the same way about me now?”
“Of course!” I say. “I always feel that way when I talk to you.”
Rose’s cheeks have now turned even redder than before. She doesn’t say a word for a few seconds, and then she suddenly gets a very determined look on her face.
“Alright, then!” Rose says, as she gets up from the bed, goes to close and lock the bedroom’s door and then comes back to place herself right in front of me.
“What are you—” I start to say, but I don’t get to finish, as Rose bends over and kisses my lips softly.
She then gets on top of me and slowly pushes me onto the bed, as her lips remain pressed against mine.
“Wait, wait, wait,” I say. “We’re doing this now?”
“Why not?” Rose asks me, with a playful smile. “Would you rather we do this in some ruins, while fighting a bunch of ogres?”
“Well, no, but… I mean, we’re still kind of in the middle of a deadly mage tournament,” I say.
“We’re not getting married, Barry,” Rose says, smiling. “It’s just one night. As long as I drink my tea of infertility in the morning, we may as well part ways tomorrow, and nothing will have changed.”
“Yes, but—”
Rose puts her index finger on my lips in order to silence me.
“I will not hear another word from you,” she says. “This is my thanks to you for everything you’ve done for me since we first met. We are doing this, and that’s final!”
She smiles.
“You don’t need to worry about anything, Barry,” she says. “Just close your eyes, and let me take care of everything. I promise you that neither of us is going to regret this!”
She then presses her lips against mine once more, as she starts to slowly unbutton my shirt. The next two hours seemed like they were almost a dream. Was I really still in the same place where I’ve been desperately fighting for my life for almost a week? The same place where I spent my time fighting dragons, dodging traps and stealing treasure from ogres? Actually, now that I pause to think about it, last week is starting to sound a lot more like a dream than what happened tonight. Maybe it really was a dream. I mean, seriously… Dragons? Who in their right mind would ever believe a story like that?
With these final thoughts, I put my head on the pillow, I hug Rose tightly in my arms, and I close my eyes. I wake up several hours later, to the sound of Daren’s voice.
“Barry, wake up!” he says. “You’re not planning on sleeping in again, are you? Come on, get up, or we’ll leave you behind!”
As Daren leaves, I take a look outside my window, and I see that the sun had only just risen about an hour ago. Everyone was already waiting outside, while Rose’s siblings were running around the yard, as lively as ever. I guess it wasn’t a dream after all.
I jump out of bed and get dressed, but I don’t take my backpack with me. Daren probably only meant that we were going downtown to get some supplies. I take some money with me, and my dagger, just in case, and then I head downstairs.
Rose wasn’t in my room when I woke up, which means that she most likely left early, in order to avoid turning us into today’s main headline. It was probably for the best. I don’t think I could bear to look at Hadrik’s smug grin if he ever found out about what happened last night.
“About time,” Daren says, as I approach everyone who was waiting in the yard. “What took you so long?”
“Where are we going?” I ask Rose, as I completely ignore Daren’s question.
“We’re going to a hospital from the Beggar’s d
istrict,” Rose says. “I went there yesterday, after visiting the Sparrow’s district, and I saw a lot of wounded who weren’t being treated properly due to a severe lack of qualified personnel. None of them seemed to be in critical condition, but Daren’s healing spells would be a godsend to those people. At first, I only wanted to bring Daren, but Hadrik insisted that we all go.”
“It’s safer if we all stick together,” Hadrik says. “Just because we’re in a city, it doesn’t mean that we can let our guards down. We’re still in the middle of a deadly tournament, after all.”
“Alright, is everyone ready?” Rose says.
“Wait, Rose, I just remembered I wanted to ask you something!” Flower says.
“Yes, Flower, what is it?” Rose asks.
“Did something happen to you while you were in your room, last night?” Flower says.
“No, nothing happened, why do you ask?” Rose says.
“Well,” Flower says, “I thought that you might have been afraid of getting attacked in your sleep, or something, since this morning I saw you come out of Barry’s room, instead of yours.”
After Flower finishes her sentence, her eyes suddenly turn bright blue, as Illuna smacks herself hard in the forehead. Rose’s face had turned completely red, and everyone was now looking straight at us.
“Rose,” Kate says, looking very flustered. “D-d-did you and Barry—”
“Hahahaha!” Hadrik laughs loudly. “Way to go, Barry! I always knew you had it in you!”
“Wait,” Rose says, trying hard not to panic. “This isn’t what you think! It was only for one night! We’re not—”
Daren coughs loudly, all of a sudden, and he drowns out Rose’s words.
“Rose,” he says. “Which way did you say the hospital was again? Are we taking the same route as yesterday?”
“No!” Rose says, as she rushes in front of us. “There’s no reason to take that roundabout way anymore. We can take a more direct path this time. Follow me, I’ll show you the way.”
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 32
