Decisions

Meeting Lady Goldenheart

What Valdor had thought to be just an ordinary day off, had turned out to be something very different. If he would have just ignored the muffled scream he had heard, all of this wouldn’t have happened, and he wouldn’t be in this mess. Yet, he didn’t regret of what he had done; even if he knew he couldn’t have been able to help the poor woman, but at least his conscience was clear. He thought to himself, in the practical way he had learned on the streets, that she, most likely, had been a lowborn -and even if she would have survived the initial attack, she couldn’t have afforded the care she would have needed and eventually she would have, most likely, starved to death or she would have been eaten alive by hungry rats or insects or succumbed under some kind of other illness. He had seen it happening and those were much worse ways to go. At least it had been rather quick for her. He straightened his back, and nervously let his fingers fidget with the new necklace. He still couldn’t help but feel a bit down as he had not been able to do anything to help the woman, but from experience he also knew it would eventually pass. All he could now do was to get the real killer caught, so no one else would need to go through the same.

Meorise Goldenheart. Valdor had never heard such a name, nor had he ever been in such a place like the undead garden he had traveled through. He couldn’t deny it wouldn’t have freaked him out. Death was not his domain, or a thing he would have thought that much. Maybe, because death had always been accompanying him ever since he had been little. He had not been that far from dying of starvation himself, and he had experienced few other close calls in his life. It had always been there; not a thing to be scared of, but a part of the life itself. He had seen dead beggars and killed thieves on the streets before he even had had his first decade behind his back. Now it showed to him in a different light, perhaps encouraged by the meeting of the Lady Goldenheart and her words that he hadn’t had time to think. She had acted pleasant and assured him that she would not stand to oppose the Dark Dancer, which was very important to Valdor. If things would have been otherwise, it would have placed him in a difficult position to give any kind of an answer. Lady Goldenheart had felt like a pleasant person to talk with. She had helped him, even though she wouldn’t have needed to. So Valdor knew he owed her, if not just his life -the winged monster would have clearly loved to snap his neck, too- but the future of his family; his dear mother and sister, who were everything to him (even when he didn’t tell it to the mother who would probably just use his soft spot to her advantage if she’d know about it).

But this whole mess was a bit too much for a young man who was accustomed to lay low and being just another brick in the wall. How would he be able to explain this to the Yanta? It would solely depend on the one who he would be giving his statement to; if they were one of those’ my way or the highway’ ladies or gentlemen, Valdor knew he wouldn’t have much change to describe this to them in a way which would make them believe anything, however truthfully he would speak. There were so many things he had no explanation for; like, how that monster had been able to kill the poor woman with just its bare hands? How it could fly and then just puff away, him in tow, and how they had ended up on the attic? He had no way to explain it, as he had never seen anything like that man before. Nor had he any idea of how to explain the whispers coming from the closet and how he had taken the staff and how the voice -Lady Goldenheart, he guessed- had aided him to stop the monster by vines that had sprung out of the floor. He had seen his fair share of spells, but what Jargloth did seemed completely different, he had never seen the war wizard growing out any vines or flowers or even mushrooms. All of this sounded unbelievable even to himself. He wouldn’t blame them if they wouldn’t believe him. But he would have some proof if he would accept Lady Goldenheart’s proposal. Maybe she would be able to back him up for the doubters, as he knew that nobody would listen to him, especially if they wouldn’t know him, as he was not a highborn female, but a lowborn male, even if his track record was spotless during his years in the army. Tris would possibly back him up too, if this wouldn’t be too much a hassle for her.

Valdor nodded to himself and took a deep breath. He knew what he would need to do, even if it would make things even more complicated at first. He would survive this, like before. Maybe this would be just one of those things the higher ups would find too troublesome to dig into, now that there was a monster on the loose (and indeed, a monster who could make this into a diplomatic scandal) and they would swipe it under the rug. Well, at least he had done what he could do; his duty as a soldier and a citizen when he had stopped and investigated the noises, even if this had escalated a little. But before he would make his decision, Valdor knew he wanted to discuss with Tris or Jargloth about the situation, as he knew those two were more educated about magical things in general. He was not afraid to admit his own incompetence in the area of magic, and before doing hasty decisions he would want to converse with someone who could give him some insight. Yet, if that wouldn’t be possible before people would start to doubt the tale he was about to tell, he would take Lady Goldenheart’s deal without consulting anyone else. Even if he regarded undead creatures as an abomination like most of the commoners, this creepy lady hadn’t made his neck tingle in that certain way he knew he would be in danger. The decision between the fall out of the window, Lady Goldenheart, and the monstrous, multihorned man eventually been an easy one; He had had to think about his family -what they would do if he would break his leg or back when he would have jumped out of the window and thus became a burden to them?- and that strange man had set the alarms off and he had known immediately the guy had been DANGER, written on the wall of his mind with red kruthik-sized letters. Lady Goldenheart had been the best option in the situation, even if he wasn’t quite sure what a deal with her would really entail.

Valdor sent a silent prayer towards the Dark Dancer like many times before when he was troubled. Please, let me make the right decision. He braced himself and only then he noticed he was unarmed, as he had lost his dagger somewhere. He sighed and searched for a temporary weapon. There should have been a few stacked somewhere close, otherwise it would have been a violation of certain watchpost rules. Only Goddess would know what would come of this…