Vaterian looked at the candle in front of him, the tiny flame lightened up the room with its orange hue, the sole natural light source across the dark sky covered by clouds. Hundreds of men rely on this tiny thing to escape from the eternal darkness. However, it was unable to guide them out from their inevitable fate.
Gazing at the light, Vaterian wondered about his life, his eyelids became heavy and dropped down, even the smartest person can't run away from the call of his exhausted mind. The only thing that remained in his sight was the orange hue, but it turned black soon after.
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"Ilse! Came out and play with me!" Vaterian saw a boy appear in the dark, he had the same hair and eyes colour as Vaterian, but significantly younger than him. The boy knocking on a door, try to call the person within it to come out, a man standing behind the boy with his hand on his shoulder.
"Vaterian be quiet, don't yell in the court, your sister grew up with fully functional ears, she will hear you calling her. Remember that you are a proud Nobleman, don't behave like a commoner." The man told the kid to remain quiet, but the smile appeared on his face showing he was not taking it seriously.
Vaterian recognized that man, he was the person who exiled him from his motherland. This man single-handedly raised him after his Mother passed away, he remained kind and friendly until that thing happened.
"Hmm?" After waiting outside of the door for a while, the boy realized the door was not shut completely, he put his hand on the door and tried to open it. "No!" Vaterian rushed forward, trying to stop the boy from opening the door, but it was way too late.
The door opened, a pair of legs hanging in the air appeared in their sight.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" the boy shouted in the loudest voice he could.
"I wonder which was the worst, death, not knowing what was coming or witnessing your beloved pass away. Now I knew it, what worst was all of them happen at the same time." The quote of his father was whispered beside Vaterian's ears.
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"Ilse!" Vaterian woke up from his sleep, his cloth-covered in sweat. The candle had been turned out; Igor slept at the other side of the bed, he slept like a pig didn't wake up by Vaterian.
Vaterian was unable to sleep back after that nightmare, he went down from the bed and walked out of the room quietly.
"It seems like you didn't have a nice sleep today, Miseur?" Viridiana appeared in front of Vaterian after he opened the door, he wasn't surprised about it. His shout although wasn't that loud but enough to wake someone who didn't have a deep sleep.
She dressed in a baggy dress, might not be suited for going out, but good for sleeping comfort. Her curves were covered by the dress only able to be seen when she did the stretch. Her eyelash was long, enough to cover her eyes when she was sleepy, barely able to open it. It might fulfil the fetishes of some person, but the person stood in front of her had no interest in it.
"Maybe some wine will help you sleep better? There must be some of them in the cellar, we just need to tell the owner next morning and paid for it." Said Viridiana. She gazed across Vaterian, he dressed like usual and holding his sword in his hand even no threat was present.
"And we might also have some small talk about you putting me in danger, Mister Vaterian?"
"You heard that, From when?" For the first time Viridiana saw a huge emotional change in Vaterian, he was no longer the prophet during the daytime.
"Since Igor asked you a bunch of questions, his volume was so loud that I could hear all your conversation, but don't worry about it my father was taking his shower, so he heard nothing." Viridiana quickly explained about it after she saw Vaterian was pulling out his sword.
Vaterian put his sword back, he calmed down after hearing Viridiana's explanation "I don't have a choice then. Congratulation, this is the first time you had an advantage over me, hope this will give you a lesson about how important information was in negotiation."
Vaterian slowly walked down the stairs, he looked back and saw Viridiana just standing there, "What are you doing right there? Doesn't you say that you want to have a small talk with wine in our hand?"
Viridiana covered her mouth with her hand, laughing quietly, "Nothing, just not expecting you to admit that you lost, you always looked so ignorant and ego."
"I should inform you Miss, ignorant and ego was just the different ways to describe the same thing. If you want to portray me, I prefer 'person with extreme confidence'." After finishing his word, Vaterian walked down leaving Viridiana behind.
Viridiana saw Vaterian heading toward the room behind the bar when she arrived at the dining area, "Don't get into the basement by accident, we need wine, not blood." After she made that joke, she realized how arrogant she was.
"How do you know it? I just about to take some skull from the basement and use it as a mug, so we didn't need to wash the pantries." Viridiana needs to be thankful that the person she talking to is Vaterian instead of Igor, so she didn't need to feel guilty about making jokes over the boundaries, Vaterian will always follow up with a joke that was even worst.
Viridiana sat beside the table waiting for the wine. Fortunately, Vaterian comes back with some fancy wine class instead of skulls, alongside a candle on a stand.
"Those wine was well stored and aged, never been opened once since the owner inherited this Inn, but some of them has already been consumed by your crew, luckily we saved them before they finished all of the goodies."
Viridiana has been tickled by Vaterian words, she giggled hard but afterwards her emotions dropdown quickly after understanding what the first half of the sentence mean. "Why…, everybody wanted each other's life, wasn't that peace was the thing we aim to achieve?"
"We wanted to achieve eternal peace, we created the law to maintain peace and prosperity, but it won't suit everybody. Our law was created by the compromise of Nobles and serve for the Nobles, they called it 'The Principal of Noble Rule' but it just another way of consolidation of power." Vaterian gently shaking his wine, the wave of red brought his memory backed to the time.
He didn't stick in the past for long, he stared at the wine and decided to forget about those bad memories for just one time. "Don't need to worry about the death of those assassins, when they pointed their sword at the others, they already prepared to die under them. About the body in the basement? Who knows, maybe just the owner being a psychopath, you never knew how cold-blooded human would be."
Vaterian drink all the liquor in his glass and refilled it afterwards, he was speaking the word that didn't fit his age. "Mister Vaterian, do you mind to told me why you lied to me? Hiding your identity wasn't a manner of a noble."
"I did tell you before, I killed someone and ran away, that's what happened and what I couldn't deny."
"The person you killed must be a bad guy then." Vaterian lifted his browns, surprised by Viridiana's word.
"What made you think that way? I will never be picky over who I need to kill, I was never a person with a good personality." Vaterian smile, being considered as a hero might be the least expected thing for him.
"You can choose to not help me at the Inn when you can just watch and do nothing. You even humiliated that man, even it's unnecessary. I didn't believe all of that could be faked." Vaterian laughed, he even struggles to breathe because of it.
"It's just a trade-off, my dear! I get the chance to escape this god forbidden country, and you get my protection."
It seems like the alcohol started to affect his mind; words that won't usually appear from his lips started pumping out. "But it was never an equal trade! You can just pay other caravans for an easier ride and leave here without involving in all the trouble we get in." Viridiana yelled at Vaterian, but soon she discovered it was useless. Vaterian laid the table, sleeping deeply.
The necklace hanging on his neck was now leaned on the table, glowing gently when there was no other light source around, the candle had already been put out by Viridiana. It was a piece of ice closed in a complicated bronze cage, the ice was not melting despite being exposed in the air, within was something seems like a burning flame.
Some cold breeze flowing out from it calming down everybody who been reach by it, she tried to touch the necklace but the extreme cold force her to pull back her hand.
"By the name of God, what was that?" Sadly, the only one who can answer her question was sleeping, although she don't think he would answer it even he was awake.