In Times To Come

After another two hours of food and wine, the crowd began to die down.

General Travis had matters of his own to attend to, and so, he was the first to leave the dining hall. An hour later, Sir Basi was decidedly too drunk to do anything but lay on the table; he was escorted home. A few of Captain Reed’s men had duties to perform this evening and they took the opportunity to leave as well. Eventually it was just Captain Reed, his highness, Zarek, and me.

The once carefree conversation suddenly took a more serious turn.

“Should we not discuss the details now that we have a chance?” asked the captain. He placed his cup back onto the table and sat looking at the prince.

He sighed. “We might as well get this over with,” he said with uneasiness.

Zarek moved his head just slightly in my direction. “Are you sure here is the best place?”

“She has just as much a right to hear this as any,” commented his highness.

“You know that isn’t what I meant,” he retorted.

“If you think I’ll be worried about this stuff,” I piped in. “Then you’re right, but your concern is a bit late. I want to hear.” I was standing firm. I had been kept in the dark for too long!

“Then let’s begin,” said the captain. “We might as well have the affected party tell the story.”

‘Did he mean me?’ I inquired to myself.

“Go ahead, Sara,” Zarek told me.

“Uh…where do I start?” I asked nervously.

“Tell me about the man you met,” added my brother.

I nodded. “The first time I ran into him was on the way home, I guess I said that before. Zarek was with me and nothing happened. We left the next day and that following night was when we met him again. We stopped at an underground bar somewhere in the desert-Zarek knows more about the place than I do. Anyway, I could see the man through a crack in the wall out at the bar. It took me a minute but I recognized him from the previous day.”

“And he was just having a drink?” questioned Captain Reed.

“No, I mean, he did order a drink, but only after he had asked Phyllis about us.” I saw the quizzical looks on their faces-all except Zarek, of course-so I decided to elaborate. “Phyllis owned the bar along with her husband, Samuel.”

“Continue,” said his highness, waving his hand in the air.

“Well, he asked if she had seen an elf and a girl pass through. Phyllis said she hadn’t and that is when Zarek came. We had to leave through a tunnel that lead to a boulder field, but he found us anyway-I think, General Travis, called him, Bin.

“He was absolutely the most enormous and bullish man I have ever set eyes on. He also had a giant sword. He and Zarek started to fight, so I hid among the rocks. Eventually, it was all over and Bin was unconscious in the sand.” I left out the part where Zarek got hurt. “After that, Samuel said he would take care of everything there and we left for Vash.”

“We can trust this Samuel fellow?” asked the captain skeptically.

“We can,” added Zarek.

“I was given the details from the general about what happened in Travitt, so there is no need to explain that. You mentioned a letter earlier.” His highness sat forward in his seat.

“Yes,” I looked over at Zarek nervously. The first time I saw the letter Zarek wasn’t exactly happy about it, so I was reluctant to speak about it. He didn’t seem too bothered at the moment and I continued. “I found it just after we ran into, Bin, for the first time. I had dropped my basket and he was the one who picked it up. That is also where I found the letter.”

“Do you have it on you?” dug the captain.

“No, it-it got burnt,” I said hesitantly.

“Burnt?”

“It wasn’t safe to keep around,” informed Zarek.

“What did it say?” the prince asked me.

I responded quietly, “‘We know who you are’, signed ‘IS’.”

A tension filled the room that wasn’t there before.

“Does she speak the truth?” Captain Reed asked in disbelief.

“Unfortunately,” answered Zarek simply.

“As I feared,” breathed his highness. His head hung as he spoke. “We thought that might be the case. You hid so well all these years, it would take something big for you to suddenly reappear.”

‘Was the situation that awful?’

“What is that?” I prodded. “IS?” The three merely glanced at me.

“Now that is something I wouldn’t mind keeping from you.” My brother looked severely dejected, but I wasn’t about to give up. If just asking wasn’t going to work, then I would have to change my tactics.

“If you don’t tell me it will be left to my imagination to conjure up frightening demons and fearsome nightmares, until the day where I go totally insane!” I gave the best angry face I could muster.

“No,” was the response I got. The prince got up from his seat. “Come, Sara. I’ll take you to bed.”