¤ Future Well-being

Silver walked into the room first after Ariex, followed by Ida and Jaysen. What struck her the most was how oppressing the vaulted ceiling of the room appeared to be. Faintly, Silver heard Jaysen mutter ‘Fridge’ under his breathe. She wanted to tell him that a morgue was more accurate, but she was quickly distracted by the sight of Hedwig sitting in a low throne placed on the lower steps of the dais at the far side of the room.

Higher up on the dais was a vacant golden throne, more ornate than the one that Hedwig sat in. I guess that is where the King would have sat. Silver thought. At least we know now that Hedwig doesn’t have all the power in Orbis.

Ariex led them closer to the dais, then went to stand next to Hedwig, watching them steadily. There was a few moments of silence at first as Silver, Jaysen and Ida stood awkwardly at the foot of the dais, before Ariex said contemptuously, ‘Bow before the Regent, mortals.’ Her voice echoed in the vaulted room.

Shaking, Ida dropped into a clumsy curtsy. But to her shock, Silver and Jaysen remained standing stiffly before Hedwig, their spines ramrod straight in defiance.

Equally shocked, Ariex opened her mouth to reprimand them, but Hedwig waved her protest away. The fairy leant back casually in her seat as her painted nails curled around her golden staff. Her amethyst eyes were veiled by her thick lashes, studying the mortals that had entered the room with careless indifference.

Finally, Hedwig said, ‘Let us get down to business, Ariex. Have they the necklace?’

Ariex addressed Silver. ‘Do you have my mistress’ garnet necklace?’

‘Yes.’ Silver replied curtly.

‘They do, Lady Hedwig.’ Ariex relayed the message to her.

‘Let them pass it to me.’

Silver’s grey eyes narrowed. If the rest of this meeting were to continue in that manner, it will get tiresome quickly. So you are still pretending that we don’t exist? ‘Mistress Ariex,’ Silver interrupted before Ariex could parrot her mistress again. ‘Tell Lady Hedwig that we have the necklace as promised, and we would appreciate it if she would keep her part of the bargain and return the journal to us.’ She glared at Hedwig, who met Silver’s eyes unflinchingly.

A moment or so later, a soft impatient sigh escaped from Hedwig. ‘Leave us, Ariex.’

‘Lady-’

‘Do you doubt my ability to deal with these mere mortals? Leave us now.’ At Hedwig’s sharp rebuke Ariex retreated from the room reluctantly.

‘I see that our brief time apart has not persuaded you well of my honourable intentions.’ Hedwig started to say in an inflectionless tone. She brought her golden staff closer to her, her eyes cold specks of amethyst. ‘I have the book here, you can have it if you will leave the necklace with me.’

‘Show us the book,’ said Silver.

With a wave of her hand, Hedwig made the leather-bound book at the arm of her chair hover out before the trio, too high up for them to reach, but close enough for Silver to inspect it.

‘Let the cleric bring me the necklace.’ Hedwig said when Silver was satisfied that it was indeed Salmer’s journal.

Jaysen handed the garnet necklace to Ida, whose hands shook as she took it. Jaysen gripped her hand reassuringly, giving her a comforting smile. ‘Chill, Ida, it’ll be okay.’ Ida smiled weakly. Turning, she started in unsteady steps towards Hedwig.

Once Ida set the necklace in Hedwig’s lap, Hedwig sent the journal flying towards Silver with a sharp gesture. Her heart leaping into her throat, Silver caught hold of the journal in mid-flight. It was only after she laid fingers on the familiar leather cover of the book then did she finally believe that she had the journal back. Finally! Thank heavens. Silver hugged the book to herself in relief.

A sudden gasp made Silver look up. Trying hard to control her trembling, Ida had turned away from Hedwig to return to Silver and Jaysen. However, before she could walk away, Hedwig had grabbed her by the arm, and twisted her around viciously to face herself. Silver saw the fairy hiss something into the cleric’s ear, then shove the frightened Ida away from her.

Silver caught Ida as she stumbled towards them, supporting the now thoroughly scared cleric. She could feel Ida’s hand grow cold in fear. ‘Let’s go.’ She told Jaysen, who nodded and helped her guide Ida to the door.

‘Remember what I said, Librarian.’ Hedwig’s voice followed Silver through the doorway. ‘Further interference from you will not guarantee your… future well-being.’ The fairy deliberately let her voice trail at the last two words.

Turning, Silver caught the heavy tapestry before it fell. She stared Hedwig, her grey eyes narrowing at the haughty look on the Regent’s face. ‘I will keep that in mind.’ Silver replied stonily. Turning away as the tapestry fell over the doorway, she grinned to herself humourlessly. But you will never get my promise that I’ll obey.

¤ Worse

‘What in Ossyria?!’ Silver stared down at the tattered pages within the covers of Salmer’s journal. The paper was scorched black at most places, blacking out most of the words, and any remaining parts that had been ipped apart viciously. Even as she stared down now, some of the pages gave up their last hold on the spine of the journal and fluttered to the floor of Jaysen’s room desolately with a papery sigh.

Jaysen dropped to his knees beside Silver, scrambling to pick up the lost pages. ‘I knew something like this would happen. Her Frigidness was all too happy to let us get the book back.’

‘How could she break her promise like this?’ Ida said in a mournful voice, looking sadly at the fallen pages.

Slowly, Silver sat down on the single bed in the room, and flipped through the ravaged book. The first half or so of the book was relatively intact, Salmer’s neat writing still visible through the thin layer of soot on the pages. ‘Looks like something in the later parts of the book offended her so bad, she just had to blast them apart.’ She spat out in a disgusted voice.

‘Are they still readable?’ Jaysen straightened up and handed her the loose pages.

Silver checked through the book again. ‘There are some parts after where we last stopped that are intact. The rest of it…’ She fell silent, unable to speak through the knot of anger and dismay at her throat.

Ida laid a hand on Silver’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry.’

Silver smiled wanly at the cleric, ‘It’s not your fault.’

‘I-’

‘At least Her Frigidness left some of the book untouched. Not all is lost, right?’ said Jaysen. Gingerly, he took the worn book from Silver’s hands, and started to slot back the loose pages.

‘But… my Project would never be completed this way.’ Silver said in a low voice, looking helplessly down at her hands. She noticed that her fingers had streaks of soot from touching the burnt pages; numbly, she rubbed at them, but only succeed in making the soot spread further.

I always only manage to make things worse, she thought dejectedly.Always.

——————————————————————-
Next chapter: link

Links to previous chapters:
link link link link link link link link link link link link link link link link link link link

I actually have an illustration of Hedwig in her Regent’s throne, but when I was about to start CG-ing it last night, I realised how sucky it looked. So I decided to spare you, my cherished reader, the horror. Maybe I’ll post it another time, when I fix it good enough.

Hmm. No cookies today. How about fruit tarts? I do love strawberry ones so.

[Edit] I just realised that there was entirely no reference as to where the three protagonists were after the confrontation. :/ Fixed that now.