Muriel IV

I hated waking up early this morning after such a weary day. But given the strange girl tied up in front of us, it was a lucky choice. If Eve and I had been asleep, she’d be dead for something as stupid as her eye color, and I’d be either dead or alone in this unfamiliar town and unfamiliar world.

The girl, Noelle, has stopped struggling against her bindings. From my experiences of Eve tying me up to practice her magic, I know she’s only making the situation worse for her. If there is one thing light magic is good for besides healing and shielding, it’s binding.

Eve stands aghast. “What do you mean, the reason we cannot use magic? You and I both used magic right now.”

Noelle’s sky-blue eyes seem to shine even in the darkness of the early morning. She’d be a rather pretty, if not exotic, girl if she weren’t trying to kill us. “If you go in my pouch, you should find a magic crystal. I’m sure it’s familiar to you – you ship them out monthly. Each one gives me three uses of magic. I was going to sell it for 600 marks, but you forced me to cut its value by a third.”

Eve pulls open the pouch lying on the ground and picks out a familiar hexagonal prism coming to points at the end. “These are supposed to be with the Angels. Why do you have them?”

“Angels?” asks Noelle.

Eve drops the crystal in the bag. “You live in Avignone and do not know who the Angels are? The people with white wings who created us and grant us every joy in our life?”

Noelle stares blankly at Eve for a second. As if a lightbulb clicks on in her head, she bursts out laughing so loud, I swear the Black Wings in Northern Aldridge can hear her.

“Angels? Them? Are you kidding me? They’re nothing more than us save their white wings and increased physical strength. No, if anything, we should be ruling them. And we did until your ancestor came along with her stupid wall. We had magic, they did not. But once she built her wall, we both had nothing, and they dominated us.”

Eve drops her staff. “You take that blasphemy back! You are lying!”

Noelle smirks. “No can do. The White Wings, or ‘Angels’ as you refer to them, are nothing more than a human with a deformity on their backs. Why do you think they call us ‘Wingless’? It’s because wings are the only things of importance in their mind.”

Eve reaches down for her staff. “I have two people to convert to the one true path in that case.” Will nothing ever shake her stubborn faith? Noelle’s obviously lived in Aldridge for a long time, so she’d know better than anyone who the “Angels,” or I suppose it’d be better to call them “White Wings,” are.

Noelle twists her wrist around, still searching for a weakness in the ropes. “I’ve answered your questions, so how about you answer some of mine. How did you get through the Gate of Heaven if you’re really from Northern Aldridge?”

Eve grabs the emerald lying on her breast. “We really do not know. We were ambushed by Black Wings, so we wanted to share one last kiss by the gate together, and then there was this big green light. Next thing we knew the gate lay in ruins around us, and devastation surrounded us a mile in any direction.”

“The Gate is gone?!” Noelle frantically struggles against her ropes. “Get this crap off me! I gotta get there before the magic in the wall repairs it! Let go of me!”

She’s like a horse with a thorn in its leg – thrashing and bucking uncontrollably. There’s a certain madness overtaking her. This isn’t just an extreme reaction to get loose. She really wants to go north.

I squat down to get at eye level with her. “Noelle, our homes were overrun with Black Wings. You’d find nothing but rubble and ruin, and possibly get killed by Black Wings yourself.”

“I don’t care about your stupid kingdom! I need to cross the mountains and get to Eastgard! My mom’s waiting for me!”

Eve and I look at each other, but we’re as confused as the other. “Eastgard?”

“Yeah, the prison to the east of your kingdom by the sea. The White Wings took my mom there, and I got to get her back! I was hoping to bribe some White Wings to open the Gate of Heaven for me so I could cross the mountains and reunite with her, but if it’s destroyed, I can go now! Untie me!”

Even if this prison exists, this girl is blinded by her love. Her mom wouldn’t be unguarded, and she’d wind up a prisoner herself by all accounts. Yet she’d charge in recklessly to save her, thinking she’d be some hero. “You can’t cross the Lural mountains. They’re nothing more than a cliff as far as Northern Aldridge is concerned. Unless you have wings, you’d be better off tunneling your way through them.”

“How would you know?”

I give her a soft smile. “I’ve lived there my entire life. I know my own country a little better than you, sweetie.”

She struggles for a bit more until the weight of my words hit her. The struggle of her thrashing and the pain of the ropes must’ve gotten to her, since she collapses exhausted on the ground.

“Do you want to make a deal?” she asks.

“A deal?”

The moon lights her face a silvery hue. “You two obviously don’t know where you’re going. You’re lucky to have made it this far, and you’ll be lucky to survive another two days at the rate you’re going. You need a guide, and I’ll be your guide for whatever your destination. In return, when we reach your destination, you’ll help me reach Eastgard. I don’t know why, but I feel like you two are the answer I’ve been seeking for all these years.”

Eve shrugs. “The Angels will guide us even without you.”

Noelle struggles again, but I push her back down.

“What Eve means to say is, we’ll get you to the ‘Angels’ so they can show you the true path. But we need some help getting there. Right, Eve?”

She shrugs again. “However you want to put it.”

She waves her hand, and Noelle’s bindings burst apart. Noelle massages her sore wrists and stretches her neck. The ropes really bit into her and created some nice red marks. But she doesn’t make for her knives or crystal. I grab the knives before she can realize they’re missing, and Eve pockets the crystal.

“Give those back!” she shouts.

I fit them in my belt. One is surprisingly cold while the other it rather warm. Bit surprising, but weapons usually aren’t what they appear. “Guides don’t need weapons. Especially guides who tried to kill us not even an hour ago. You’ll get them back when we reach our destination.”

Noelle bites her lip. “And where might that destination be?”

Eve slips the crystal in the only pocket available inside her dress. “The City of Angels.”

Noelle takes a step back. “You can’t be serious. Why would you ever want to go there?”

She lifts up the emerald on her neck. “My mother told me to find the elves to get the meaning of this. But she is a fool – there is no other side of the Beriac forest. It is a fairy tale. So we are seeking the Angels to find the meaning instead.”

Noelle hesitates for a second. “I can only take you as far as the first sight of it. The White Wings would arrest me the moment the see me. Is that all right?”

Rogues don’t exactly live the cleanest of lives, so I can understand her qualm. “Deal.”

We leave the ruined city as a party of three. I glance over my shoulder. The sky is even darker. It might be my imagination, but I can almost make out the dark wings beating against the sky, sucking in all good – even light. With Eve’s mass release of power back there, I knew we’d be detected. It’s not like she had any other choice with a girl aiming at our deaths, but sometimes we have to exchange one danger for another.

“How far is it to the City of Angels?” I ask.

“Probably about thirty days walk. It’s a distance.”

Eve freezes in place. “Thirty more days in this cold? Are you kidding me?”

Noelle grips on her one intact sleeve. “It’s not like this all the way south. The northern snowfields should be behind us tomorrow afternoon. Now, it is autumn, so don’t expect warm sunny days, but it’ll be better than here. Especially if you get some better clothes.”

The cold wind bites through the thin fabric of my uniform. Something like Noelle’s leathers would be a lot better than this. “Where? And how?”

“I told you I’m from the Yellow Herring Inn. It’s not far from here. With me as your guide, I’d say we’ll make it by nightfall. It’s a bit out of the way, but it’ll beat sleeping outside.”

As she said, the ground cover changes with ever mile. Little patches of green peek through the snow cover, and every so often I catch sight of a purple or blue flower poking its head through. But this isn’t all good, as instead of a flat snowy path, we now have to deal with rocks jutting through the white and blocking our route.

“I never thought I’d live to see the day,” I say mostly to myself.

“See what?” Noelle keeps her rapid walking pace despite the rougher terrain.

“My entire life I’ve lived in snow. If we wanted to see the solid ground below, we’d have to shovel or otherwise push the snow aside. I knew it’d melt further south, but I thought I’d be dead way before I ever walked on it.”

Noelle grins. “If what you said about the Black Wings on our tail is true, we’re probably damned in any case.”

The dark cloud behind us is nowhere as ominous as when we left the ruined city. “They may’ve lost our tail. If Eve doesn’t attract them casting magic again, we might make it out of here after all.”

Eve has stayed quiet almost the entire trip, brooding in her thoughts. I’m not particularly interested in comforting her when we have many miles ahead of us still. That can wait for the inn itself.

“I meant to ask about her magic before. How did she cast it inside here?”

Eve perks up. “Why would I not? I told you before, I am a Level Five, and freshly rested. With full magic banks, nothing can stop me.”

We approach a rather large rock. Noelle chooses to go around instead of going over. “There is no such thing as magic in Aldridge. The Wall prevents any magical energy from penetrating through, like I told you. But if the Gate of Heaven is really true, some magic is probably rushing in, sort of like how water rushes into an empty container once the barrier between them is removed. But the walls repair themselves, so it’s not like you can have unlimited magic use for your entire stay here. Your magic should already be weakening.”

Eve stops following and plants her staff in the ground.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

Her hand shakes on the staff. “The scab…”

Instinctually, I run my finger over my thigh. “It’s gone by now. There’s nothing to worry about.”

“No. There is no way to deny Noelle’s statement. You should never have had a scab in the first place. She is right. My powers are weakening in here.”

Is that all she’s worried about? “I lived without powers all my life. You can live without them for a month or two. Once we meet these ‘Angels’ of yours and they give us an answer, we’ll be back in some new kingdom.”

Noelle snickers. “Sure you will. Come on, we’ve been dawdling far too long. We’ll never make it to the inn at this rate.”

We reach the Yellow Herring Inn at the last light of day. True to its name, it has a wooden placard on the outside with a yellow bird adorning its boards. This is probably the only wooden piece of the entire inn. The two-story structure is made out of a sort of black stone interspersed with wet clay and leaves for insulation.

Noelle holds her hands out. “I’ll need my knives now, if you please.”

I take a step back. “Why? And how can I trust you?”

“Because I haven’t killed you yet.”

“You wouldn’t be able to.” I grip a tighter hold of my bow in case I need to take action.

“I wouldn’t be so keen to count on your luck, missy.” She curls her fingers to motion for the knife. “If Evelyn, or Eve as she wants me to call her, can use her Light Magic because of the tear in the wall, I can use my Shadow Magic too. I haven’t, because I need my knives back. So give them.”

Eve points her staff at Noelle. “Prove it. Show us some shadow magic right now.”

I pull her staff back. “Let’s not. The Black Wings are still on our tails, you know.” I place the two knives in Noelle’s hand. “But don’t think of trying anything. I’m a very light sleeper when I need to be.”

She runs her fingers along the steel. “I don’t doubt it. Come on.”

Noelle kicks the door open. Several tables are filled with guests, but they are nobody of importance. The real oddity is at the bar. A woman with dark blonde hair and tiny wings slams her fist on the table.

“Why is this 200 marks? It was 100 marks last time!”

The innkeep waves the bottle in front of the woman’s face. “Because I have bill to pay. These things aren’t cheap, you know. If you don’t, you can return to prancing around town like a commoner.”

The woman throws several coins on the table. “Despicable. Maybe I’ll have my dad raid this place like he raided those inhospitable heathens to the north.”

“Don’t think you can threaten me. I have ears all over the City of Angels. I know you begged him to spare the Wingless in Hestia, and he wouldn’t listen. So why don’t you stop playing princess and come to our side, Aria?”

Aria? The resemblance is there, but the Aria we met at the Gate during Eve’s ascension had been a little more graceful.

The woman snatches the bottle out of the innkeep’s hands. “Thank you, and good day.” Sure enough, she is the same person we met at the Gate, more a girl than a woman. She storms out the inn, barely paying us more than half a second’s glance.

Noelle motions us to the bar, where we take our seats. The innkeep is a rather thick woman with brilliant red hair and green eyes. She’s wearing a simple blue dress as I might see a servant wear, but given the aura around her, I know she owns this place.

“Pleasure to see you again, Madame Rosa. I brought some friends with me.”

The innkeep, Madame Rosa, takes a long hard look at Noelle. “And who are you?”

Noelle lays her knives on the table. “Proof enough?”

Obviously it is. Madame Rosa gives an approving nod and pushes the weapons away. “Find anything good in Hestia?”

Noelle pulls out a bracelet and a ring out of her bag. “Pure gold, finest quality. Five hundred marks at least.”

Madame Rosa picks the ring up and turns it around for a better examination. “Costume jewelry and gold-plated beads. Fifty marks.”

“Gold-plated? Give me a break. Gold-plated beads are not that light. And see the engraving on the ring? That’s a real treasure from some royalty. Possibly a White Wing.”

Madame Rosa slams the ring on the table. “White Wing? Bah. You want to devalue it? But I suppose I can melt it down. One hundred.”

“Four hundred. I’m not taking a mark less.”

“One fifty, final offer.”

Despite their talks, they meet at two hundred fifty marks. From the satisfaction on both of their faces, this is the price they both wanted. I wonder why they chose to haggle like that instead of settling on the real price initially.

Madame Rosa drapes the bracelet over her wrist and places the ring in her apron. “And who are these harlots you brought along?”

“Harlot?!” Eve slams her fist on the bar. “I will have you know I am the rightful Queen of Northern Aldridge and will be spoke to with respect!”

Madame Rosa slaps Eve across the face. “Keep your voice down, you moron. I can tell you’re something special from your eyes. You’re lucky Noelle took you in or I’d have killed you over them by now already.”

Eve rubs her face, but she at least has the sense not to protest.

Noelle leans on the table. “They’re girls I met in Hestia, and we made a deal. I bring them to the City of Angels, they bring me to Eastgard. So we’re going to need some supplies for the journey.”

Madame Rosa narrows her eyes. “You know what’s going to happen, right? You’ll get to the City of Angels, they’ll arrest you, and you’ll get sent to Eastgard in chains.”

“Don’t question me, hag,” sneers Noelle. “Can you get us the supplies or not?”

“What supplies?” Madame Rosa slumps her shoulders, coming to the understanding she won’t talk Noelle out of it.

“Two bags filled with dried food. Water pouches. A map and compass. Rope. Bandages. And some clothes more fitting for a journey than the thin crap the White Wings gave these girls as a ‘gift’ for their service.”

Madame Rosa picks up a glass and polishes it with her rag. “You don’t have enough money to cover all that. You’ve lived here for five years already. I know what you own to the letter, so don’t try to tell me otherwise.”

Noelle takes a hold of Eve’s sleeve. “This is fine silk. Don’t think I’m clueless as to the cost of this stuff. You can keep their clothes and make a nice hunk of profit of it. We’ll take our supplies, a meal for the night, and lodging. Agreed?”

Eve rips her sleeve away. “What? No! This is my ascension dress! You can’t just sell it!”

I can understand how she feels. Even if my clothes are cheap cotton, they do have some sentimental value. Eve did design them specifically for me.

Noelle grabs a knife off the table and leaps at Eve. What in the world? I reach for my bow to defend her, but it’s missing. Oh great. I left it in the pile of weapons at the door.

Noelle is too fast in any case. The knife slices into Eve with a horrible tearing sound. I close my eyes, not willing to watch.

I open them ever so slightly, knowing I have to at least see my lover one last time. But she’s not on the ground. There isn’t a spot of blood on her. Instead, her blue dress is split right down the middle with perfect precision and handling.

Noelle sheathes her knives. “Oh, isn’t that a shame. Your ‘ascension gown’ is ruined. I guess you’re going to have to sell it unless you want to enter the City of Angels naked.”

Eve holds her dress together as best she can, and her entire body turns a light shade of pink. “How dare you…”

Madame Rosa leans in. “You have yourself a deal if she agrees to it.”

The dress falls off her shoulders, barely more than a towel at this point. “I hate you all. But my new dress better be pretty!”