"Rema never trusted anyone, always had her hand on the hilt of her dagger whenever anyone looked at us. But nevertheless we asked questions for this Simond. What shocked us most was that everyone seemed to know him. Simond of the Crimson Guard. We were begrudgingly given directions until finally, we stumbled upon him near the front lines."
Wymar let out a small smile, "He was training soldiers, an intimidating lot to two eleven years old's. I remember the mass or fear and nerves that rushed through me as they attacked each other, both magically and physically under Simond's command. I was so frightened, I was happy to just leave. Forget speaking to this guy, we can live on the streets as we had been over the last couple of months. But Rema was having none of it. She was always the stronger one, the more stubborn of us both. She said we made Nanna a promise, and we needed to honour it. And so she strode straight up to Simond, almost getting hurt in the process but she never flinched. She tapped him on the arm, demanded his attention and shoved the letter into his hand."
Wymar let out a small chuckle, "I'll never forget Simond's face. Here was this little girl he had never seen before, demanding his attention and protection. He read the letter Nanna had written, sorrow encompassing his face before he bent to one knee in front of Rema and swore to protect her. Instead of being impressed she demanded my protection too and proceeded to drag me out of the bush I was hiding in."
"I was so scared, all the other soldiers were looking at us, some with barely hid disdain but I had faith in my Nanna. She would have made sure we were safe. And so we lived with Simond on the front lines for a while. Some of the soldier's we horrible, which is what we were used to, however, Simond soon put a stop to that. But over time that only caused friction between Simond and the soldiers. One day Simond returned to the tent on the front line, anger in his eyes and told us we were all moving to the capital. That we had been summoned by King and Queen. Someone had some pull within the royal circle and has complained about our presence."
"The whole way there we were terrified. We were from Etha, we thought we will be killed. We were the enemy, even if we were born from an Orbain father and fled Etha. We made it to the Capital and it was so overwhelming. We had only come from a small village within Etha, and here was this giant city, towering beautiful buildings, and huge crowds. It all added to my terror. And the more terrified I become, the most stoic Rema becomes. And when we were brought towards the sovereigns, we were both so tense, so afraid that we may as well have been statues."
"The King and Queen...They were breathtaking and intimidating all in one. So refined, so dazzling in their jewel and materials. And as they gazed upon us, I felt the weight of their judgment. I basically cowered behind Simond but Rema stood in front of him, eyes defiant, her stubborn chin raised as though daring them to call for our execution. Instead, they called forth Volorn, a thirteen-year-old then, to escort us to the kitchens whilst they spoke to Simond. Those two hours seemed like an eternity as Volorn tried to make conversation with us, to ease us whilst we silently gazed upon the food given to us. My stomach was too tied in knots to eat, and Rema didn't want to be seen as vulnerable. Simond later came to join us and announced we were to be put into training to join the Crimson Guard. Rema asked what would happen if we weren't strong enough to join the Crimson Guard and silence was our answer. So there it was, become useful, or die.
"And so we trained, day and night nonstop. Sometimes people tried to belittle us, hurt us and sometimes go as far as to kill us. But we thrived, we made a small group of friends and formed our own unit, our own guard, until finally, we were all one of the Crimson Guards. We proved ourselves useful. And I fell in love with my powers, the culture, the people until slowly, to me, it was never a case of them and me. To me, I am as much a citizen of Orbain that anyone else. But Rema, she is always on guard. She remembers the threat, the lives we came from. In her world, everyone wants something, no one is to be trusted, with the small exception of our Crimson Guard."
I thought about everything he said, the tragic tale he told and replied, "So until I prove myself 100% trustworthy to Rema, she will always see me as an outsider, a threat."
Wymar let out a weary sigh that seemed to come straight from his soul, "I'm afraid so. I wouldn't take it personally though."
"I'm so sorry Wymar, for everything you've been through." I softly said, squeezing his hand in mine.
"And I'm sorry for everything you have been through too Fawn." He bumped his shoulder against mine, "Look at us, two lonely orphans reminiscing on sad times. Let's talk about something more uplifting."
"Like what?"
"Like how nice Axel's bum looked in his trousers today."
The reply to that statement was a sound wack with his pillow to his face. That boy sure couldn't keep his mind out of the gutter.
A knock sounded, causing us both to whip our heads to the door in guilt like we were naughty children. We both let out a snort of laughter as I jumped up from the bed and moved to answer.
I opened the door to find Axel standing casually on the other side, a slight smile on his face as though he heard out amusement, "Hey."
I felt a blush sweep through me as Wymar let out a barely contained squeal of delight. "Hey, what's up?"
"I managed to get some books from Orbain's great library sent here on loan. I thought you may have wanted to go down to the library and search for your family bloodline." He asked. His hand rubbed against his neck as though he was unsure how I would react.
I blinked in surprise. With how busy I had been lately with training, I had forgotten all about his promise to help me find out who my parents were. I smiled at him, letting him know how touched I was that he remembered, "Sure. That sounds great."
I looked behind me, finding Wymar dancing around my room with giddiness. Turning back to Axel, I tried to keep a straight face as I replied, "I'll meet you down there in two minutes?"
"Sure," He nodded, "See you in two." He turned and walked down the dimly lit corridor, the shadows pulling around his body, outlining his board strong shoulders. I couldn't stop my gaze trailing down to his rear, silently agreeing with Wymar's earlier observation.
"That is one good looking derriere isn't it?" Wymar's voice suddenly whispered in my ear.
"Aaaakk-" I jumped in fright, startled at his near proximity whilst he giggled in glee. Giving his shoulder a hard shove, I muttered, "Okay, out!"
He continued chuckling as he walked out of my room, close to skipping down to his room further down the corridor, shouting over his shoulder, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
I rolled my eyes but couldn't help a small grin. I didn't plan on making any moves toward Axel at all. Sure he had shown immense kindness toward me and I could appreciate how easy he was on the eyes...But I was here to avenge Tawney and help win the war. If I managed to learn about my history and make friends on the way, then I would be grateful. But anything more...I wasn't sure if I could handle that.
Making my way down to the first floor, I approached the library with a mixture of hope and anxiety. Maybe I'll finally find my parents. Maybe I'll finally obtain some answers about how they died, where I was born, how old I was exactly.
I gently opened the door, thoughts and questions fogging my brain as I looked up and saw Axel sat in one of the chairs before the fire, a small stack of books beside him.
He turned at my entrance, giving me another smile, "Hey. I'm sorry I bothered you. I didn't realise you and Wymar spent so much time together."
"Nearly every night," I answered back, lifting my lips in reply, "It's almost like clockwork now. After training, no matter the time, I'll come back to my room and find him sitting there with food for us both."
He gave a snort of laughter, "He decided to be your friend, whether you liked it or not."
"Thankfully, I rather enjoy his company." I retorted as I settled in the opposite chair, eyeing the stack of books.
He picked up a tomb, passing it to me before picking up another, "I could only reque
st a limited amount each time. So I requested birth records from Ebonhost. I have records from eighteen years ago to twenty-one years ago." He held up his book, "Hopefully your record and your parentage will be found in here."
I gave him a nod, heart pounding as I looked at the books. The key to my questions could be in there, in his hands. I looked to the book resting within my palms as asked, "Any this one?"
"You have records from thirty-five years ago to thirty-eight years ago. I hoped that would capture one of your parent's births, but since we don't know how old they were when they had you..." He trailed off and motioned to the leftover books, "In the stack are years dating back to fifty years ago. I wanted to be thorough."
I took a deep breath and slowly opened the hardback in my hands, searching over the first page of text.
Axel studied me before asking, "If these don't work...Do you have any idea how old Tawney was? Where he was born?"
I thought back to my time with Tawney, "We celebrated his birthday every year around winter, but never how old he actually was. He told me once you get past 50 there was no point in counting, just embracing every day like it's your last." I couldn't help the tenderness that overcame me at the memory, "As for where he was born...."
I felt my brow furrow as a very faint memory wiggled to my consciousness, "I can just about remember he told me he was born in a very small town, near the sea. That's all I remember."
"It's a start. A lead we can follow if we find nothing," He kindly replied.
I gave a nod in agreement before countering, "Well, we don't have all night. Let's search."
We buried our heads in texts until we were both barely conscious before retiring to bed. Although neither of us found anything, I felt optimistic that we would find some answers, something to help me detangle the web that Tawney's death left behind. And with Axel's support, my confidence only amplified.
Chapter 18
After an intense week of training, I sat up in my bed and took a full-body stretch, relieved that it was the morning of my day off. Volorn had announced we could all have a break to celebrate Orsaring, the first day of spring.
Since coming to the capital and joining the Crimson Guard a couple of months ago, my only focus had been training, learning more about my powers and researching my family with Axel. During the day, every moment was fixated around how to defend myself, how to attack an opponent, how to utilise my powers and how to channel my magic into an enchantment stone.
By night, my focus switched to scouring birthing documents. Over the many weeks of searching, we came to the conclusion that either my birth wasn't recorded, which was a strong possibility. Or I was not born in Ebonhost as I thought. Yet again, another strong possibility.
We searched for any signs of Tawney and my parents within the Ebonhost birth records too but also found nothing solid. There were links that we thought may have been them but they turned up as false trails. If I was more suspicious, I may have thought that this was all intentional, as though Tawney and my parents never wanted to be traced. But the more likely scenario was that none of us were born in Ebonhost. Which meant our attention had now changed to finding that small village near the sea that Tawney had talked about.
A needle in the haystack situation, which was why I changed my focus to my original goal, the goal that I had more control over. To train until I was strong enough to find and kill Tawney's murderer.
At first, it was the only thing that got me through the days and I felt I had made progress. I could see oncoming blows and block or dodge them before they hit me, I could find openings to deliver my own hits, I learned how to wield a weapon correctly and fight with precision.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't beat anyone within the training ring. Even Wymar, who was considered the weakest fighter of the group. Although I guess that didn't mean much when all of them were considered the best of the best. Axel had paired us up most evenings to train and improve both of our skills.
"Wymar seems to have gotten a little rusty since he been off-field. It will be good for both of you to train together." He remarked when I questioned him about it. "And the Elite would need you to prove your ability before they allow Volorn to send you on any missions."
I tried not to get frustrated. I still had made a lot of progress compared to when I first came to the guards and I had to remind myself I was surrounded by what was considered masters of battle. But at the same time, I couldn't help but berate myself. Every extra day that I was training was another day that Tawney's assassin was getting away. I reiterated the fact to Axel during one of our morning training sessions together when my frustration hit a boiling point.
" Volorn and I aren't working on it Fawn. We have spies and soldiers out there tracing every lead we have. We will find him." He assured me, his hand resting on my shoulder in a soothing touch. I let the reassurance wash over me before motioning for us to continue with our training.
Not long after that things started to change within the camp. Thorlan and Rema were sent on a mission together and upon their return, Simon and Tam had been sent out on a mission the week after, the goals of each mission unknown to me. When each group left, an atmosphere of urgency surrounded them that had me worried.
The whole unit had become to feel like a small surrogate family to me. Even though I hadn't grown close to all of them, they felt like my small safety net. But as I watched each of them rush to grab their weapons and supplies, a deep sense of foreboding settled in my gut.
I sighed and shook off my anxiety, determined to have a fun, relaxing day on my day off. I pushed myself off of my bed whilst contemplating what I wanted to do today.
A small knock sounded in my room and I grinned, striding towards the door and opened it, expecting Wymar to be on the other side.
Instead, I found striking ocean blue eyes, midnight black hair, and a six-foot male standing in my doorway. I barely contained my eyes from widening in shock as I smiled at Axel, who grinned back at me, "Hey."
"Hi, what's up?" I asked, feeling a little awkward standing there in my nightclothes.
"I wanted to ask if you wanted to visit the capitol center? People will be celebrating there, new foods, some acrobatic shows, gifts..."
"Oh," I was shocked, I had never thought to go to the capital center and if I had, I would only have thought to ask Wymar or Zan. "Sure, sounds great."
A wide smile stretched across Axel's face, a small dimple showing on his check, "Brill, I'll meet you at the tower entrance in ten?"
I smiled back and nodded, slowly shutting the door as he walked away.
I had just walked away from the door when another knock sounded, and I turned to open it, revealing Wymar on the other side,
"Morning buttercup! What shall we do today?!" He brightly announced whilst striding into the room and flopping himself on the bed, "I was thinking perhaps we can stuff our faces and go to the festival?"
"Oh, umm." I blinked at him, biting my lip, "Well just before you knocked Axel came over and invited me to go with him."
Wymar snapped upright, his eyes wide and his mouth open in astonishment, "Axel asked you to go to the festival with him?"
I nodded, my cheeks flushed red as he let out a surprisingly ladylike shriek, "Oh this is amazing!"
I felt my brow furrow, "It is?"
"Oh, how I wish to be you right now! Quick, you need to get changed," Wymar jumped up and started to rifle through my chest of clothing, "Tell me you have something in here other than night clothes and your armor."
"Well, it's not like I had time to bring and clothes with me or buy any," I murmured, embarrassed.
He straightened and places his hands on his hips, a small frown on his face as he scalded me, "That's no excuse." He rubbed his hand along his jaw before snapping his fingers and rushing out of the room.
I shook my head and looked for a hairbrush, taming the long auburn locks into its soft curls as Wymar came running back in with a small bundle of garments in his hands.
"I brought this for Rema for her birthday but it didn't fit. It should fit you perfectly."
He revealed a beautiful black corset with crimson swirls embroidered within it, matching the crimson swirls that carved our armor. A crisp white shirt with a puffed sleeve and a shoulder cut and a deep red coloured long skirt that flared at the bottom.
"Isn't that a bit much for a day trip to the center?"
Wymar snorted, "Believe me, you'll feel practically underdressed when you see people at the festival." He through the clothes at me, "Get changed, you don't want to keep him waiting."
I rolled my eyes but donned on the clothes, putting on the shirt and skirt before calling over Wymar to lace me in the corset. I turned around to face him once he was done and he let out a bright smile, "You look perfect!"
Crimson Guard Page 16
