Chapter 3: Inner Thoughts

The young girl dipped through the alleyways with the hooded man hot on her tail. Bobbing and weaving, she ran into an alleyway with a guard standing in surprise. As he drew his sword, the hooded man pierced his sword into the heart of the guard. He pulled the sword out as the corpse fell to the ground. He slashed his sword through the air and the blood splattered on the alleyway walls.

“This is the 9thguard already. How close are we?”

“Ummm… we’re probably a third of the way there.”

“This isn’t going to work. I got held up too long and gave them too much time to gather themselves. The rate that we meet them is increasing, and there’s no point in escaping the city if I have a team of pursuers on my heels.”

“What was your original plan?” The girl asked with curious eyes.

“I had intended to exit on horse and get into the mountains. They couldn’t follow far without being at risk of running into a Giant camp. Of course, if they catch me before I make it there, then I’ll be tortured and executed.”

“Wah! Tortured?!”

“Don’t act so surprised. I did attempt to kill the-”

“STOP!”

The girl covered her ears and sat in a squatting position as if to say ‘I can’t hear you!’ She spoke with her hands loosening grip of her head.

“I don’t want to hear… what you’ve done. As far as I’m concerned, you are an innocent person in need of help…”

“I’m no innocent man.”

Stella’s hands drooped back down as her view fixed onto the snow on the ground. Her eyes showed a nostalgic look.

“My mother died when I was born. My father raised me in the slums completely on his own. He truly loved me and cared for me, so I was happy. He began to tell me about my mother and how wonderful she was.”

Stella brought a slight grin onto her face, but her eyes were gloomy. She tightened her fists. She hesitated before continuing.

“She truly was wonderful. Caring, kind, and loving. Apparently, she wasn’t always poor. She came from a merchant family, but she met my dad while on the way home from buying goods. She had taken a wrong turn and ended up in the slums, but my father escorted her to safety. They fell in love.”

The hooded man listened to her words with some interest. Or, possibly, he was trying to distract himself from his situation.

“My mother told her parents, but they disapproved. Basically, my mother got disowned and kicked to the street when she told them she wouldn’t change her mind. She began living in the slums with my father, and she was incredibly popular. She helped the other people with their problems out of pure generosity. My father loved her more than anything in the world.”

“So, tell me…”

A cold breeze rolled through the alleyway once more. Stella turned to the hooded man with eyes full of tears. Her voice was cracking.

“Tell me… if you’re not innocent for killing bad people… if you’re a bad person for killing evil people… does that make me a bad person for killing such a wonderful person?!”

The hooded man’s eyes widened as his mouth opened slightly with surprise. The girl looked back to the ground and wiped her tears with her ragged sleeves and sobbed. In the dead of night, the sobbing was the only sound in the darkness. This continued for a few minutes when the hooded man finally broke the sobbing with his own words.

“My name is Julius Payne. I’m also known as The Dreamer throughout Stormfell.”

The girl stopped crying as she looked at Julius with curious eyes once again.

“I’m known as The Dreamer because I was born from a lineage of people with visual prowess. I can influence the minds of others through the power of my eyes, which is a magic otherwise impossible through normal means.”

Stella had stopped crying and listened with interest. After all, in her years in the slums, she had never met someone like Julius, much less left the city.

“My eyes that you saw before… They are my most prized possession. After all, my appearance and my eyes are the only things I have to remember them by…”

“Did… something happen to them? Your family?”

Julius was released from his mind that was lost in reminiscence. The girl’s eyes snapped him back from some horrifying memories. He was shocked that he had spoken so much. He wasn’t the type to carry on about the past anymore.

“You think this is storytime or something? You think I’m an innocent person? Listen. You didn’t kill your mom. That is the way life is. Things happen and you must either move forward or remain stuck in the past. I can tell you from experience that the ladder is hell.”

The girl looked up while her eyes widened. Her previously gloomy eyes showed no trace of themselves.

“I am The Dreamer. I entrance my foes into a dream. I torture them and put them through hell. I’m a murderer. I’m a sinister person. No, I’m sinister itself.”

“Hahaha!”

The girl broke into laughter at the man’s monologue. She showed an incredibly innocent grin with the whites of her teeth seemingly illuminating the dark alley.

“Sorry… I’m sorry. You’re just so clearly not a bad person, it was funny to see yourself lie for no reason.”

The man stared at her with a shocked expression on his face.

“Also, you may be The Dreamer, but that’s not the reason!”

He shifted his head slightly at the anticipation and curiosity of her words.

“You are called The Dreamer because you have a dream for the people like us. Those of us that live in poverty, with no voice in the kingdom. Stuck in the shadows of the rest of the kingdom, helpless beyond belief. You have a dream that the kingdom will take care of people like us! You, The Dreamer, are a good person!”

He could no longer remain silent. He laughed loudly at the young girl before him. For some reason, for a faint moment, it looked like she had grown wings and ascended into the heavens.

“I’ve never thought about it that way. The things that I do are for the people, huh?”

Stella laughed as well. She had finally told someone her deepest feelings, and she had learned that she must move forward. She had lived her life trying to atone for what she had believed to be her sins, but she learned that it was pointless to fret over something she had no control over. ‘The way life is, huh…’

“Anyway, Julius. You can’t leave the city, right?”

Julius looked at her with frustrated eyes.

“I completely forgot for a moment! I can’t. Why?”

“I think I know a place that you can hide until the hunt blows over.”

Julius stared at the girl that had a mischievous smile on her face.