Vandorr stared curiously at the three women who sat before him for what seemed like minutes, his amazement had him in that position. He recognized the hair pattern, the nose rings, the triple ear piercing and more symbolically, the tattoos on their necks.
The symbol of a bear claw.
"I do not understand what is going on here.." He had turned to Aretha, the litte girl immediately. "You seek answers, don't you?!" She spoke. Vandorr swallowed hard, even if nothing made any sense at that moment, he felt the undying urge to ask questions. The mystery around him could only count as deluded, there were many things hidden beyond his very grasp and that feeling..., one as though something terrible was coming.
"You've lived a very long life for a man destined to die... Your past haunts you like a lion waiting for its next meal" One of the women spoke, he had only noticed their eyes at that moment, each one radiating a different combination of hue. "What do you mean?!" He frowned as he turned to her.
"You seek answers and you'll get them but first you must know that what you crave now leads to nowhere but destruction. Men crafted in attires of the dead will creep on the condemnation of your lands, your children will see things they ought not to see, your misery and pain will be food to the demons that roam the earth and revenge will not delay" Another lady had dragged him by his beards to herself that the only space between them was enough to fit a small cup.
Vandorr stood still as her hot breath of rage caressed his face, never had he seen something like that. "I do not understand what any of these things mean.." He spoke gently as she released him from her grip. He had turned to Aretha immediately. "My mother, they talk about what happened to her" She spoke.
"One A'rakuk you've seen, others you will see until you return what you've stolen" The third woman who had not spoken before did this time.
A'rakuk...
He would be a fool to not have heard that before but now his mind had settled for another. His destiny --. "How do you know about me?!" He asked with a mix of empathy and curiosity. "We lie if we say we do but your eyes speaks of more mystery than you've heard or seen. You must travel across Shaba(the mountains in the clouds), there your destiny might find you" The one who had spoken first did again.
Still unconvinced and unable to get a grasp of what he had heard, Vandorr heaved a sigh. "And A'rakuk?!" He looked up at them. "She speaks of the VANDOLSK" Aretha shook her head.
"That I have an understanding of, if you speak of the Crest, it's long gone from our very grasp. The Priests of Andorra have it. It might be impossible to retrieve it" He said with a flick of disappointment. "We know but be weary, a war looms and until you surrender Sekkeketh, you will perish" and while they spoke, their voices resounded in his ears like a fierce rippling of water that without much of any second wasted, it had died into an overwhelming still.
Was it a dream?! He opened his eyes slowly to see the figure in the line of his gaze. It was no other person but the little girl he had seen. Aretha, with a finger across her lips to gesture him not to speak,she turned and walked away. Had he been dreaming?! He frowned as he looked around him in the darkness as the moonlight pierced through the curtains of the room he and Armando had laid.
He looked away again, this time towards the door. Aretha was no longer there. His head soon flooded with the memories of what he had seen, words echoing deep into his subconscious, he had grown more thirsty at that moment. The more he felt the need to think less of what he had seen, the more dominant it became in his mind. He soon laid back on his bed, staring off but soon fallen asleep once more.
*****
"Vandorr, Vandorr, You f*cking sleepyhead!! Wake up!" Armando had patted him vigorously. "What is it now, Armando?!" He mumbled as he stirred into consciousness. "There's a problem, Gurhum is here in Settlescore!" Armando whispered sharply. Vandorr opened his eyes suddenly as though he were stung by a bee.
"Do you know what you're talking about?!" He took up his coat he had hung on a chair close to his bed. "You ask questions like this as though I were a foolish child. I had one of the maids tell me. We must leave!" Armando whispered again. "Is that Hermis?!" Vandorr frowned as he heard voices some distance away from them.
"Ha! I see you brought the family back to Settlescore, safekeeping I presume" Gurhum had said. It was easy to read the contempt in his voice as he spoke. "Only brought them on Marionetta's wishes, nothing more" Hermis had replied with a misfitting courage that failed to hide his cowardice.
"We should go!!" Armando whispered again, this time with a feat of rage but something held Vandorr back, a statement had been made. "They speak of your father now" He turned to look at Armando who had walked away from the stairway they had been eavesdropping from. "What do you mean?!" Armando walked back to him wuth a slight frown on his face.
"Hear for youself". Vandorr said calmly.
"Calques Indie.... One man I hear of often. I heard he had escaped with the skin of his teeth from the Court of Defiance" Gurhum spoke again. "So I've heard too, Might consider himself lucky" Hermis had replied with a nervous laugh. An awkward silence had followed, Vandorr understood what was happening. Gurhum needed information but wasn't getting any and it would only have made more sense that he had come to Settlescore when they had almost been assassinated the day before. It couldn't have been coincidental, would it?!.
"You should leave now, the whole building has been surrounded by guards" A familiar voice had sounded behind them, it was Aretha. "Little girl you scared me to death!" Armando had turned back in defensive posture. Vandorr locked eyes with her, she didn't flinch one bit. "I know a way, My mother waits you. I shall take you to where she is" She spoke, gesturing them to follow her.
"Vandorr! We must leave. The evil man is here!!" Celiona had walked up to him as they approached her where she stayed in the wine cellar of the castle. "That's the thing, I'm afraid with can't leave" he replied stroking his brown beard.
"What!!!!?" Celiona and Armando had said with a sharp whisper. "Are you mad?! Gurhum finds us, he wouldn't hesitate to kill us. You risk our lives for your very amusement" Armando said with a feat of rage before turning away. He had pulled out a bottle of wine and drank from it with a bit of rush. It was his way of staying calm.
"Gurhum isn't here to find us, I doubt he had anything to do with the Incanian Assassins.." Vandorr said again pulling away the win bottle from Armando as he had pulled out another one. "Here we go again with theories! I shall not risk my head again for you" Armando spat again, walking over to the already blocked door to see if anyone had found them.
"What is it that you mean?!" Celiona frowned with curiosity. "Finally someone who would listen perhaps you'd run out there and give yourself to Gurhum" Vandorr rolled his eyes at him. "I overheard the conversation between your father and the Flair. Nothing as controversial as Gurhum asking about the Trial at the Court of Defiance..." he spoke again this time to Celiona.
"What about it?!" Celiona stood confused. Vandorr heaved a sigh, one would expect that his companions would immediately grasp the essence of his own perception.
"They did talk about Calqués and Ashcroft Targeris...". This was the part that made him flinch a little, like a revelation, it occurred to him. "My God!!..." He exclaimed.
"What is it?! Armando had walked up to him with haste. They seemed to have forgotten about the little Aretha who only stood at the distance and watched them dramatize. Vandorr even more had most likely forgotten about his encounter with the three hooded women.
"Ha! Celiona, no Aretha...!!" He finally sparked. He looked around searching for her. "There you are!.... Any chances your family possesses a messenger bird, I must send words to Calqués immediately" he said to her in haste. "I shall need ink, pen amd parchment as well" he said after her.
In no time, she had returned with what he asked for. "You should keep us in the dark as well" Celiona said with arms folded and an unimpressed look on her face. Sensing the sarcasm in her voice, he turned away and went ahead to scribbling words on the piece of parchment on his hands. "I suppose that to be sarcasm....." He said as he scribbled on.
"What the hell is this?!" Armando asked with a slight frown as he watched Vandorr scribling out words that seemed to be nonsense to him. "Mere words only known to two men from here and quite a number towards the eastern sea. Asapth, so it's called, a coded language, nothing more" Vandorr replied with an self satisfying tone.
"But why do you write to my father then?!" Armando asked again.
"To tell him but one word. Gurhum is after John Hermings' Journal" Vandorr replied astutely.