‹ Prequel: Underestimate Me

Conquer Me.

I Will Find The Best Part Of Me.

Merek took a deep breath as his hands shook. He hadn’t had anything stronger than summer ale with his meals in two days. Sir Uwen finally agreed that his hand was getting better with his newly fashioned sword. It was lighter than Rowen’s old practice blade, and double edged. Day and night he worked his fingers until his palms were raw. His father would have to agree to send him into the forest with his own party to find Rowen.

“Father!” Merek called as he walked into the dining hall. Elrik sat at the head of his table with a plate of salted meats and cheese before him. He sipped a cup of wine and waved his youngest into the room. “I want to speak with you about…”

“I told you no, Boy! Uwen explained what you have been up too. Acquiring a new sword you have no use for. You are not a soldier!” Elrik’s voice boomed through the room, shaking some of the wooden dishes in front of him. Merek shivered.

“No one else can seem to do the job. How do you know I can’t do better?” Merek spoke with strength he didn’t know he had. He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to match the glare that Elrik wielded so boldly and Rowen mocked so clearly.

“I know because you are nothing more than a silly child who wants to go play with the men. This is not a job for a boy like you. Stop trying to gain my approval, you will not get it!” Elrik slammed his fist against the table knocking his mug of wine to the floor as he stood. “My answer is final!”

Elrik stormed out of the room. He took his council cloak with him. Merek noticed those meetings growing in number, and he also noticed the maid keeping a close watch. He ignored her as she reached for the servants’ drawer. However, her fast paced scribbling drew his attention. “What are you scrawling?”

“Master Elrik does not permit me to write to my betrothed since he is on your brother’s mission, but I haven’t heard from him since I wrote a week ago. I’m worried.” Her words were as rushed as her fingers.

Merek watched her fingers fly. He wondered what she wrote, though a letter between a man and his woman was none of his business. His attempts to peek over her shoulder were unjust and unsatisfying as she rolled the paper quickly and rushed out of the door. “I must get this on a dove.”

“Wait!” Merek called. She returned, fiddling with the note. “Might you add a bit for me in your letter? In case your man has found my brother?”

The chamber maiden nodded as she took up her pen and unfolded her paper. “Tell my brother that I will find him. He has nothing to apologize for, and I will not rest until his is safely returned to his home.”

The woman’s face scrunched as she scribbled something. Merek couldn’t be sure she wrote what he instructed her to write, but he hoped that letter would find his brother and give Rowen what he needed to survive this situation. She raced passed him toward the barn.

“May your dove fly true, Balor,” Merek whispered as she left the house.

He left the house and headed to the training field. Uwen might have betrayed Merek’s trust, but Merek was still determined to prove himself. One way or another he would find himself in his skin whether his father appreciated his discovery or not. He needed to be better, not for Elrik, not even for Rowen. No, Merek needed to be better for himself.

“I will find the best part of me,” Merek whispered as he walked. “The part of me that is worthy of praise, the part of me that will end Elrik’s insults and make him use my name.”

~~~

“Hello, my love,” the blonde woman whispered. Her whisper cracked, voice weak, and sweat rolled down her neck, into the crevice of her collarbone. The light in her sparkling blue eyes was fading as her skin paled.

“Mommy,” Rowen whispered, wiping beads of sweat from her forehead, “when can we go outside?”

A small smile filled the woman’s features, bringing that sparkle back to her eyes for just a moment. “As soon as your brother arrives.” She smoothed back Rowen’s dark hair and kissed his head. “You have to promise me you will look after him, be good to him.” Her face turned serious.

Elrik stepped into the room. He pulled Rowen from his mother’s bed. “You shouldn’t be here. Your mother needs her rest.”

“I don’t want to leave,” Rowen whined. Elrik grunted and shook his head.

“The apothecary needs to see her now!”

“Stop being so ill, Elrik.” A tall man with salt and pepper hair walked into the room. His eyes squinted together as he rubbed his beard. “Just take the boy out to play. Your new child will be here soon.”

“But she looks so…” Elrik turned to Rowen, not wanting to reveal his dark thoughts to his son. This was Balor’s way of making her pay for her sins, but the boy need not know of his mother’s undoing.

The woman took another deep breath before a sharp growl left her body. “Take him out now, Elrik.”

“Gregory!”

That man’s eyes turned on Elrik. Rowen had never seen someone look more frightening than his father but this man completed the task beyond necessary tactics. “He is just a child he doesn’t need to see…” He was cut off by the woman’s scream.

The woman faded before Rowen’s eyes into a different blonde, a colder blonde. Salt and pepper hair met Rowen’s gaze with a smile. Something about his smile was wrong though. It was not one of sadness. His mother was lying in that bed dying and this man just stood there grinning as if he won something important.

“Mommy!” Rowen screamed as Elrik lifted the boy in his arms. He watched his mother’s body begin to writhe. She took a heaving gasp before the man, Gregory, spoke words Rowen could not understand.

“No! I want to go back,” Rowen cried.

“Hush now, Boy,” Elrik scolded. “Your mother needs you to be calm. She needs you to take care of your family, and that does not mean being selfish, stop whining!”


Rowen wiped his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Girls! It is always a pleasure,” the old man said with a happiness that left Rowen feeling uneasy.

“I am so sorry, Elrik,” Gregory stated. He let out a deep sigh before he handed the swaddled bundle to Elrik. “Your wife is with the Gods now.”

While he spoke, Rowen snuck to the door his mother was behind. He opened it just enough to see his mother’s blonde hair falling awkwardly in her face, her head lolled to the side. “Mommy,” Rowen whispered.

She didn’t move. “Mommy?” He tried again, louder.

Gregory snatched his arm from the door, pulling him away. “Child, your mother is helping Balor now. You must leave her to do her work.”


The man’s arm wound around Josselyn’s neck. He was the last person to see Rowen’s mother alive, and now he wrapped his large snake like arms around Josselyn’s neck.

Rowen rushed forward without a second thought. He saw his mother’s body in Gregory eyes. He saw Josselyn’s second death before him. Rowen could not let her die again.

“Don’t touch her!” He screamed both aloud and in his dream world.

Rowen’s fingers found their way around Gregory’s thick neck. Meredith and Evelyn snatched his chain until he was forced to his knees, his hands bound behind him again.

“Chain him down, and then explain yourselves,” Gregory hissed through deep breaths.

“Gladly,” Meredith growled, leaving Josselyn behind.

Rowen pushed and pulled against Evelyn and Meredith until he nearly slipped out of their grasp. He screamed for Josselyn, over and over again. Exhaustion finally took over as Meredith shoved him on the cot in the corner of Gregory’s cabin. She shackled his wrists and ankles before securing his collar on the wall. Rowen could not move.

The tall man with salt and pepper hair and matching beard lead the procession as the wagon came to take his mother away. Elrik said she was leaving to help Balor, but would never return. Rowen held his little brother tightly as a single tear slipped from his eye. His father was right; he needed to be a man now so he could keep his promise to his mother. “I will take care of my little brother…for you mommy.”

Rowen felt the rain leak from his eye as sweet darkness overcame his senses. He knew the beautiful relaxation of the darkness would not keep. It would awaken much darker things than his mother’s death before his demons would release him.
♠ ♠ ♠
The way it was supposed to be

Meet Gregory!

I hope I am not speaking to a complete void when I type this; but if any of you joined us from Underestimate me to Conquer me; Thanks for the support. Our story will continue here as the rebels will take a new path; dark and unsure but determined.

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