The Tale of Four

The Tale of Four

Chapter Ten

The next morning I got up early and tried to look for Brenda. It took me awhile but I finally found her in the library cleaning up. Apparently it was not her official job to keep me company, which I should have guessed. “Hey Brenda.” I said once I got close enough. She turned around and gave me a little wave. She was on top of a large ladder putting some books away. “This library is huge!” I exclaimed.

“Yes it is. We get books from all over the continent and bring them here. It has always been a tradition of Kings past to be as knowledgeable as possible about all things. As you can tell they kept to this tradition because this library has become quite large.” Brenda explained. She carefully got down the ladder and faced me. “What can I do for you Emma?”

“I was wondering if you could take me to Captain Eric so I could start my training.” I made sure to add that last part just in case she still thought that I was after him. I didn’t want her getting the wrong idea.

“But I thought you were going to wait until they came here again?” She questioned.

“I was, but I had a talk with King Vincent last night and we talked of many things. One of the things we talked about was the monsters roaming around. I was thinking that if they are the least of my worries, as long as I don’t go out at night, I might be in some trouble. I feel weak and I want to get stronger. Captain Eric can help me with that, but I don’t know when he will be back and I don’t want to wait.”

“I see. Well after I am done with my duties for the day I will take you to their barracks so you can talk to Eric. It might take a while though.” She paused and looked around. “I’m sure King Vincent wouldn’t mind if you read some of his books if you wanted to.”

“Sure I would like to know as much as possible.” I replied readily.

“Ok, give me a second to pick one for you.” Brenda said as she walked away. When she came back she brought with her a very thick book and placed it on the table in front of me. “This book contains the brief history of Bastion.”

“Brief?” I interjected poking at the book a little. “Are you sure it’s not the whole history?”

“I thought you wanted to learn?” She asked a little irritated.

“I do! It’s just a really big book.” I whined.

“Well just start with that while I work.” She said and walked off again.

“Thanks a lot.” I mumbled under my breath. She did have a point though; I did say that I wanted to learn. I looked at the book and knew it was going to be a tough read. The cover was bound in leather and had no markings at all on the front or spine. I opened the book and immediately noticed a problem, I couldn’t read a word. Whatever Willihem had done to make me understand the spoken language apparently didn’t include the written language. I stared at the book for a few minutes before shutting it and leaning back in my chair.

A while later Brenda came to check up on me. “Did you read it that quickly?” she asked impressed.

“Nope, I didn’t read any of it at all.” I answered honestly. When she gave me a look of irritation I told her my problem. “I can’t read this language.”

“What?” She asked disbelievingly. “This book was written in the common language so that people from every nation could read it. I find it hard to believe that you don’t know it.”

“Well it’s the truth.” I said defensively. “When I first came here Willihem had to use magic on me so that I could even talk to them.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I guess that is what you meant the first time that we met.”

“Yeah, I didn’t even think about the whole reading aspect of the language.”

“Well when Willihem returns maybe he can help you with that as well.” Brenda suggested.

“Hopefully you’re right. I just don’t know when that will be. Just another thing that I have to wait on I suppose. Not that I don’t appreciate what he is doing for me right now.”

“What is he doing?” she asked interested.

“He is looking into something for me. I don’t know how long it takes a warlock to move from one place to another.” I didn’t want to tell Brenda what exactly Willihem was doing for me. I don’t know if she would have believed me or not. Not to mention I didn’t think shouting to the world that I wasn’t from this world was the smartest idea. Perhaps in time I would be able to tell her the complete truth of the matter.

Brenda must have sensed my hesitation to tell her the truth so she dropped the issue. “Well I just don’t believe it.” She said.

“What?” I asked confused.

“You said to me that you weren’t any one important, but you were brought here by the King himself, and you can get Willihem to look into things for you, which normally no one is able to do but the King.”

“Well I guess it does seem a little strange, but I assure you that I am no one special.” Brenda once again looked at me like I was lying, but what else could I say. I wasn’t anyone special, the only reason I was here right now was because of Vincent’s kindness. Now that I knew about The Hollow I couldn’t even imagine what would have happened to me if I had been left behind.

Brenda pulled me out of my thoughts by telling me that she was done for the day and that we could go to the barracks now. I was rather excited about this because it would be my first time outside of the palace since I got here two days ago. I had no interest in exploring the palace and the library was off limits until I learned to read, so that left exploring the town.

We came to the front gate rather quickly and we were left out through a small door beside the massive gate. This door was normally used by servants and messengers so that they wouldn’t have to open the gates all the time. We left the palace behind us and continued down the long road towards the town. I didn’t get a good look at the place when I first arrived so now I was trying to take everything in. You really couldn’t tell that this was a desert from all the trees and vegetation that was around. I guess that is why it makes this place so important. The town itself was bustling with activity. Not only were there Lost Ones, but also Humans in the crowd. When I pointed this out Brenda told me that they trade with the Humans quite frequently. To be honest I really couldn’t tell the difference between the Lost Ones and the Humans visually. Sure the Lost Ones had more colorful hair at times as well as eyes, they also have markings on their skin that I eventually noticed, but all that wasn’t really shocking to me. Where I’m from people color their hair, have colorful contacts, and have tattoos. I can say though that even if I am human I could feel the difference between us. The Lost Ones have a certain air around them that is just different. I didn’t notice this until I came into town though, and it didn’t change my opinion of them either.

Through all of my ogling Brenda was telling me about where the barracks were located. “This town has three barracks that protect it.” She started. “One is near the Southern entrance and one each at the Western and Eastern entrance. Eric commands the Southern entrance.” She explained.
“How come there isn’t any barracks nearer the palace? Shouldn’t there be some military there so that they can protect the King easily.” I asked

“The King has his own personal body guards that are around him at all times. And the rest of the army can make it to the palace quickly if needed.”

“I have never seen anyone protecting King Vincent.”

“And you shouldn’t, they hide in shadows to catch any intruder unaware. But believe me when I say that they have seen you and are probably keeping a close eye on you.” She warned. “So don’t do something stupid in incur their wrath.”

“I would never do anything that bad.” I voiced paranoid.

We made our way to the Southern entrance in a short fashion and entered the barracks. The barracks formed a square and in the middle was an open courtyard. This courtyard contained some training equipment such as practice swords, bows and arrows, axes, and anything else you would need to train with. It wasn’t as impressive as the one near the palace, but it served its purpose. In the courtyard practicing was Captain Eric Graves himself. Just watching him practice made me realize once again why he was made captain. My little squabble with Martin probably looked like child’s play compared to what he was doing. As we were watching him, I was watching him to learn some of his techniques, Brenda was looking at him for other reasons, a voice beside us said, “Good afternoon ladies.” We turned to see Martin standing next to us.

“Hello Martin.” We both greeted him.

“What are you two doing here?” He asked

“We came; well I came, to see if I could start training right now.” I stated hopefully.

“Couldn’t wait to get started could you.” Martin said with a laugh. “Well I don’t see why not. Let’s go down and ask Captain Eric about it. I like your enthusiasm.” He finished smacking me hard on my back twice. With that we followed him down into the inner courtyard. Eric seemed surprised to see us so soon but wasn’t upset in the least.

“If you wanted to start sooner we could have arranged that.” He told me with a laugh. “You must really want to get stronger if you couldn’t even wait a day. I’m impressed.”

“I do want to grow stronger. I have things I need to do and at the level I’m at right now I can’t do anything.” I was frustrated and that must have come through in my voice.

“Well getting stronger to complete your goal is admirable. I was thinking about this yesterday after you left, maybe starting out with a mock battle isn’t such a good idea. Why don’t we see what you can do first and work from there? I will warn you though, I won’t be easy on you like your previous instructor, so be prepared.”

“Yes sir!” I replied with a salute. After that we got to business. He asked me to show him what I had learned from my instructor and I saw no harm in telling him. He seemed very interested in it. Once he saw what I was doing he pointed out my weaknesses bluntly. I appreciated his honesty, I would get nowhere if I took offense to every criticism I heard. By the time that we went over my weaknesses it was well on its way into the evening and Brenda and I had a long walk back. We stopped for the day and Captain Eric invited us back tomorrow for us to continue. Brenda said that she couldn’t come first thing in the morning but would come after she was done with her tasks. She told me that, since I knew where the barrack was now, that I could come whenever I wanted.

We made our way back to the palace quickly and entered through the little door. Brenda stopped to talk to the guards to make sure if I left on my own that I would be allowed back in. They assured both of us that they would and we gave our thanks. I was famished when we entered the palace so I headed for the kitchen. We had eaten a quick lunch at the barracks, but it wasn’t enough. After dinner I once again took a bath, but this time in the guests bathing room. I didn’t want to cause any more trouble for the girls. Once I was finished with that I headed for the Kings’ Study. I knocked gently on the door like I had the night before. Vincent told me to enter and sit down. He asked me what I had done that day so I told him about my realization in the library.

“So it doesn’t work for the written language. Well we both learned something today.” He responded.

“Yeah I was a little embarrassed, but it is what it is.”

“Why are you interested learning about Bastion?” He asked.

“Not just Bastion, but everything. I don’t know how long I will be stuck here, or if it is even possible to leave, so I can’t remain ignorant to the ways of this world. It is said that knowledge is power and I need as much of that as possible if I am going to survive in this world.” I explained.

“You are wise Emma. But please don’t over exert yourself. I heard you went down to the barracks today as well.”

“How…? Never mind I can guess. I did go down there. Captain Eric has kindly offered me help in the strength department. Hopefully I can get stronger physically with his help. Like I said I need all the power I can get.”

“I understand that you feel weak compared to us, but if you stay here safely in the palace why would you need such power?” Vincent asked.

“Do you remember me telling you about my friends?” Vincent nodded that he did. “Well I believe that they ended up here, in Altear, somewhere like I did. I want to search for them. I can’t keep relying on you forever. If I want to find my friends then I need the power and knowledge to defend myself.”

“You could always ask for my help Emma. I would provide it for you. I told you that first night that I would help you with anything that you needed.”

“You have already helped me with many things, I couldn’t ask for more. Besides you have many other things that need your attention that are more important than my missing friends.” I replied.

“I suppose, but if you do need anything the offer still stands.”

“Actually there is one thing that I just remembered.” Vincent perked up at this sentence. “Could you possibly take my title of ‘guest’ away and make me a servant or something?” I asked

“No I don’t think that would be a good idea.” He immediately replied. At the look of my down trodden face he explained why. “It wouldn’t look good if the guest that I had brought with me was suddenly turned into a servant. Why did you want that anyway?” He asked.

“Well I can’t do anything to help the staff out because I am a guest of the King. I just wanted to help out.”

“I understand, but the answer is still no. You should just enjoy while it lasts, besides if you want to do all the things you said then you will barely have time to do any chores.” With that last remark I left the study and went to my room to rest. He had a point, if I wanted to learn to be competent in a serious situation, learn a new language, learn about the history of Altear, and learn about magic then I was going to be busy for quite a while.