Character Eighteen: Pets II Part Two

Acelin gives me a prideful look as I give him a confused look, and then he taps his head with a finger a couple of times. “You could probably think this up on your own if you used your brain more.” He then turns on his heels and walks down the hallway into a different room.

I take a moment to digest the information he gave, and then push it away from the front of mind for the moment since this is not the time to dwell on it.

I follow him into another room, and once again have to duck to enter it. I find Acelin sitting at the head of nice, dark wood table in a similarly nice chair, while idly tapping his fingers on the table.

He shoots me a look and gestures at the chairs, and I take a seat at the end of the table with my eyes not leaving his.

I wait a moment to see if he’ll say anything, but he seems content to tap his fingers. So I give a little cough and clear my lungs, getting his attention.

“Sooo, where’s this Eric at? You seem to think that he knows where my pets are.” I say casually.

He waits a moment and takes it to inspect his digits and their nails “I said no such thing, Eric is my cook and a good servant. I figured we could talk about who has your pets over breakfast,” He looks over his shoulder and says “He should be cooking, and not eavesdropping!”

He looks back over to me. “I didn’t hear any sounds over there,” I say frankly.

He chuckles briefly “Ah, that’s just a joke between us, I’d have any servant that does that impaled or stoned if they even thought about betraying me.”

“Sound a little harsh.”

He lets out a long tired sigh, and looks much older for a second “It is, isn’t it? But that’s the way things are, and that’s the way I’ve got to live with them.” He takes a deep breath and suddenly back to normal.

“So, if he doesn’t know-”

Acelin interrupts me “Ah, but I didn’t say he didn't know did I?”

I give a dark, heavy scowl “So which is it then? It’s very simple, a yes or no question, does this Eric know or not where my pets are?” Acelin looks at me unwaveringly, and drawls, “Maybe, or maybe not, guess you’ll just have to find out when he brings out breakfast, we’re having steak and eggs, with a morning side salad topped with fruit, by the way, in case, oh, who am I kidding you don’t care.”

My scowl drops and I give a long, exaggerated sigh while contemplating killing him.

Then we make eye contact again and there’s a long, but short silence in between us.

“I like steak,” I say with a huff.

“Good to know.” He says while smirking at me.

I let out a breath and sink back into my chair relaxing it, causing it to creak and strain under my weight but it holds. It’s pretty comfortable as far as wooden chairs go, and I rest against it while I wait for the food to arrive. Luckily, I’m still pretty full from the meal bar and should be for a day or two.

“You, know it’ll be about a half hour before he’s done cooking right?” Acelin says out of the blue.

“So?”

“Well, aren’t you bored at all?”

“I find doing nothing pretty fun, why so chatty? If you’re bored go play with one of your toys or something. I'm sure nobles like you can afford something to entertain yourselves.”

“They're all upstairs, and I don't want to be rude. Besides, just because I want no wait to talk about your pets doesn’t mean I don’t want to talk at all.” He says quickly.

I give him sigh, and ask “Alright, so what do you want to talk about?”

“Anything really, I’m quite bored.”

“So, where are you from?” I ask, saying the first thing that comes to mind.

He pauses for a moment and seems to ponder the question for a second, before saying “I come from a large, northern city on the coast near the front lines called Greyrock. Miserable, rainy, and quite dreary most of the year, and very, very cold. I hate it and love it at the same time, mostly because it has the best damn fish in the world.”

“Your family control most of it?”

“Sorta, why ask that?”

“Your a scion right?”

“Yeah, but my family are mostly distinguished military mages that were granted land around Greyrock a couple centuries back, and are what most ‘real’ nobles call ‘upstarts’ though we have some ‘real’ blood in us from a couple marriages. But, sadly no, while we have are pots in several pies up there we own actually very little of the city, the real power players are your friend Julian's family the Dormis. They control almost half the city, a couple other cities and more land than ten of my families.”

I let out a long whistle at that. “Damn, I knew that Julian was powerful but damn. He puts your family to shame.”

He gives me a scowl and say’s with distaste. “Usually that’s the part where you say no offenses.”

I raise an eyebrow and give him a smirk “I mean all the offense I give, but you know I’m right?” He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. “So, why’d you try to recruit him then If you knew he was so much more powerful than you?”

“I was drunk. Much less wise, and had much more loose skin, before I met him.”

“Oh,” I say surprised and now eager to turn the conversation around. “So who are the other power players in Grey Rock?”

He scowls some more, but it drops when he lets out another sigh, while shakes his head at me. “You really are an ass, you know?” He says tiredly.

“It’s part of the name,” I say proudly, with a winning smile.

He barks out a short laugh, and say with a smile. “That it is… So anyway back to Greyrock, there are to other two power player beside The Dormis, real old money too with connections to high ups in the union, powerful beyond belief, both individually and as a family, and allegedly part of the Union’s original founders who signed the Accords to stop The Hundred Years War, to come together as well, a Union.”

“So who are they?” I ask with excitement.

He leans in closer “The Lords and The Dreadnoughts,”

My blood ran cold at his words, and I froze in my seat as he uttered those words, but I don’t know why. It’s as if someone poured pure ice into my veins and then let them set to freeze me.

And then a memory surfaces in my mind, that causes my blood to reach absolute zero, and my mind goes blank.

A beautiful girl more pretty than anything I’ve ever seen, like a master artists perfect and final creation. She couldn’t have been more than thirteen, with skin as pale and lovely as ivory, and short, delicate locks of gold, and lips as red as cherries.

She was perfect, and each every way, like she could have only been made by the Arch Wizard himself to be so perfect.

She should have been perfect.

She would have been perfect.

She was perfect.

She’s bleeding out, and missing an arm. I’m holding that arm, and looking down at her as she grows paler, and ask in a voice from a time long passed. “What was your real name?”

She smiles and looks at me, looks at me in a way that I’ve never seen on a girl till then, with love and desire like I’m the only thing that matters to her. She barely manages to whispers out in a strained but still wonderful voice “Al-ali-alice Dreadnought.”

I then turn on my heels and walk out of the alley we’re in and turn to find my father leaning on a wall, watching me leave.

I don’t feel anything, just numbness and emptiness I’d had loss something I would never get back.

He stops watching me and strolls over to me standing barely beneath my chin, and hits me with a punch that launches me into a wall behind me, and knocks the breath out of me.

He looks at me, and I still feel nothing, the pain being absorbed by my own void. “You know why I did that right?”

I just nod my head, I knew that while I still felt nothing I wanted to live.

“Good, now say goodbye to your sweetheart.” I don’t even see him move, but a blinding light and heat overwhelm the area, and my vision is gone for a second. But when It returns the I’m being carried by one of my dad’s lackey over his shoulder and all I can see behind me is fire and more fire.

Then I’m roughly jerked off the lackey's shoulder and my dad looks me in the eyes. “I’m going to put you through training from the darkest reach of my mind for your little fuck up here son, I had a good thing going here. But” He then pats my head lovingly and says sinisterly, “Don’t worry all will be forgiven… Eventually.”

Then I’m consumed by darkness, and I stop remembering.

I come back to and nearly jump out of my chair, and Acelin looks at me skeptically.

“I know they’re powerful, but no need to exaggerate, I mean they’re fairly nice as far as high nobles like them, heck Julian's family is almost as powerful, if not as powerful and you hang around him pretty often.”

It takes a moment for the shivering to die down and the memory to fade back to the crevice. “It’s nothing, I guess I just got a chill at the exact moment you said that.”

He raises a brow, “Well, that’s convenient for storytelling purposes. But really, you're not getting sick are you I have a weak immune system? It’s the reason I’m not more muscular.” He raises a thin, gangly arm out of his sleeves and flexes it pitifully.

I bark out a short laugh. “Sure it is, sure it is.”

He grumbles out sadly “It’s true though…” His face then brightens up and looks over at me with interest. “Hey, I’ve shared some of my backstory why not enlighten me with your?”

I pause for a moment to think about what I should say, before settling on the tried and true one. “I and dad were travelers,”

He looks at me curiously, “Well, I know that. Anything else and what about your mother?”

I grimace and say sourly, and to my understanding true.“I think my mom was probably a whore or something, she abandoned me and dad after I was born.” I look at him seriously and say darkly “And if I ever find her I’ll string her up.”

He gulps at the tone of my voice, and say with a cracking voice. “Al-alright, but what of your dad, you said he was a traveler right? He must be fairly strong, and you said was a traveler so did something happen to him?”

I let out a bark of a laugh, “Oh, by the Archwizard no, my dad’s a complete and utter monster, he can fight in any way you can think of perfectly. He’s just” I pause and then say sadly, “… stopped traveling… till I’m done with my training here and when I’m done I’ll continue to travel with him....” I don’t finish and but I think he gets it.

A silence envelops the table, and I start to feel numb inside.

A minute or two later a cheerful voice say “Food’s ready!” And a tall, thin boy that I barely recognize appears and puts the food on the table. He freeze’s though when he sees me and barely mutters “The Mule…”

And I respond “Fly Boy….”

He looks at me confused and mutters “That’s not my name… It’s Eric.” Before he pales and sits down near Acelin.

Acelin then claps and say “Well, time to eat feel free to dig in, I assure that Eric is among the best cooks I’ve met.”

He snorts, and says “That doesn't say much coming from noble.”

I can’t help but laugh, and Acelin’s face reddens up, and he snaps his fingers and flyboy, I mean Eric jumps out of his seat with a yelp.

“Ignore him, I teach him to respect me soon enough.”

I end up laughing some more.

The meal was excellent, with a good cooked steak and eggs, and a fresh, flavorful salad.

I lean back into my chair contently, and begin to wonder why I came here… Oh, shit!

I raise up out of my chair and slam my palms onto the table, and roar “Where the fuck are my pets.”

Acelin raises a brow, and looks to Eric and hands him a card.

“I was wondering when he was going to ask?”

Eric looks to be a little pale, but says relaxed “Damon took them from me, so I guess they’re at Julian’s place.”

“Wait, I told you to look after them?” I ask skeptically.

“Not in those terms, more like you shoved a sword up to my throat while I was walking out of the guild form training with Acelin, I mean Lord Master Future King Sir Acelin,” He looks over Acelin who’s shaking his head. “Did I get all the titles this time, or do you have any more to add?”

“I told you that I was drunk.” He says embarrassed.

“And that’s the reason your immune system is weak,” Eric says strongly.

“The whiskey gives me strength!” Acelin roars, before looking around embarrassed.

And mumbles out a “Sorry.”

My emotions quickly calmed I looked at the two assholes before and say angrily. “If you could have told me where my pets were at any time, why waste my time when I could have gone at them?”

Acelin stands up and swoons into Eric's arms “Waste, you say? You wound me Atlas you truly do! So if you want to leave so be it, if you think our time together was such a waste!” He says very, over dramatically.

So I scoot my chair back and stand up.

“Wait, wait, sit back down! I’ll tell you why!”

“Hmm, okay.”

“Ok, here’s why waited till I fed you to give you information Atlas. I wanted to get you comfortable enough, to ask this,” He stands up and walks over to before holding a hand out to me. His hand is radiating energy with a spinning red, gold, and white symbol that look like a golden apple with white wings on a red backdrop. “ Atlas Mule I’d you to consider joining my faction.” He says seriously, as he looks me in the eyes searchingly.

I’m a little taken aback, but not surprised in the least. “Thank you, but no thanks, I don’t really have much of a choice in my future decisions. Or at least it seems that way.” I say sadly, but polite.

“Oh, that’s right,” Acelin say, but then his face brightens, “But, still think about it your dad can’t control you forever, you're going to outgrow him one-” I cut him short and get up, grab his shoulder and look him in the eyes.

“Never, he’s too strong he’d cut me down in an instant… And like I said think but no thanks... I’ll be going to Julian's now.”

“Wait, Atlas think on it at least!”

I give him a grim smile and walk out.