Conlin Jr.'s long, blonde hair whipped wildly in the wind as he stomped toward us. Anger raged like a forest fire in his eyes. What drew my attention though was the white cloak he was wearing, I had only seen it once before.
"You approached us in Elren's Rest," I said, realizing he was the blonde in that group.
"That's beside the point, where did you fools just come from?" He answered. He looked ready to attack with his bare hands.
The crowd of people that was following him finally made its way to us and gathered around us. An older man wearing worn heavy armor stepped beside Conlin Jr. He was old and gray now, but his armor reminded me who he was.
"Mr. Whittens, is that you?" I asked the old soldier.
"Do I know you?" He asked with confusion in his eyes.
"Yes, it's me, Simeon, Sigma's son," I said and hoped he would remember me.
"Little Simeon, from the bakery? That can't really be you can it?It rocked the village when you suddenly disappeared all those years ago," he said with a smile.
"You should have stayed away, now why the hell are you here?" Conlin Jr. asked again.
The wind harshened as he glared at me.
"You need to fix your tone, your title as governor is the only reason I haven't already taken your head," Teresa said and stepped closer to Conlin Jr.
Mr. Whittens, who I understood to be Conlin Jr.'s bodyguard didn't step forward to protect him. That piqued my interest. I decided to dig into their relationship and see what would come up.
"Teresa, was Mr. Whittens the man that told you to come back when the job was done?" I asked, already knowing he was.
"Yes," Teresa answered with a nod.
"What job are they referring to Reginald?" Conlin Jr. asked cautiously as though he already knew the answer.
"The beast had to go sir, it was killing our village, and with the threats coming in from...."
Conlin Jr. shut the old man up with a vicious backhanded slap across the mouth. To my surprise Mr.Whittens just took it and stopped speaking.
"I don't care about any threats, you murdered my son!" Conlin Jr. screamed in his face.
I felt my jaw drop and hurried to close my mouth. Murmurs began coming from the crowd around us.
"Wait, that thing was your child? How the hell did your child become that beast?" Teresa said.
"He wasn't a beast, his name was Atreyus, and I was going to fix him." Conlin Jr. said as tears ran down his face.
"Sir, i keep telling you there is no fixing a life sealing curse," Mr. Whittens said calmly.
"Shut your mouth traitor, you'll die for what you did!" Conlin Jr. said in a raspy voice. His body trembled as rage overtook him.
"Before you go all bloodlusty, I'm gonna need more information. What's a life sealing curse, and why was that poor child afflicted with it?" Teresa asked with her hand on her sword.
"It had nothing to do with the child. The fault lies completely with the governor and his father. Shortly after you went missing, Simeon, the mother of a girl named....."
"Gabrielle," I said, cutting him off as memories of her smile flashed in my head.
"Yes, Gabrielle was her name. Apparently she took her own life and afterward her mother pleaded with Conlin Sr. to arrest his son for causing it," he said.
"Why would she say that?" Teresa asked while shaking her head.
I knew why she killed herself, I was the person that found her hanging in her tiny room. She had told me what happened to her a few hours earlier. We had planned to leave together.
"Conlin Jr. raped Gabrielle, that's why she killed herself," I said as I wiped tears out of my face.
I suddenly felt a wave of hatred wash over me. Conlin Jr. looked like an even bigger monster than his son was. I wanted to cut him in half.
"Calm down love," Teresa said with a hand on my shoulder. I apparently had drawn my sword.
"How do you know, she accused him of that? If I'm not mistaken you were already gone when this took place,"Mr. Whittens said.
"Gabrielle was my best friend. The night it happened she told me and I tried to report it to Conlin Sr. He told me that since he knew I was lying on his son, he was taking my report as a confession. Then he told me that since he didn't want to ruin my family's name he would give me until dawn to leave the village and never come back. When I told Gabrielle what happened we planned to run away together. I went home to pack my things, but when I came back it was too late," I said while staring at the ground.
Conlin Jr. had his arms folded across his chest as he listened to the story. It was almost like he found it entertaining somehow. The rage in him had settled down. As if hearing about her suffering was cheering him up.
"Oh wow, I had no idea about that part of this sad ordeal. I did, however, witness Conlin Sr throw that poor woman into his dungeon for her accusations against his son. When the guard locked the cell door she looked Conlin Sr. directly in his eyes and prayed this prayer to Nemesis: I pray to the goddess of vengeance that no joy, or happiness, or rest of any kind will ever grace your spirit, until the end of time, and any child born into your household shall be as wicked a beast as you and your son. After her prayer was done she vanished into black flames. In that moment a cursed seal appeared on Conlin Sr.'s chest," Mr Whittens said.
"Wait, so Conlin Sr. went through the trouble of hiding a rape, and being cursed just to be killed by his own grandchild. This family is seriously messed up," Teresa said disapprovingly.
"He wasn't just a victim, he was the very first victim," I said and tossed his ring to Mr Whittens.
"Where did you get this?" Mr. Whittens said as his eyes went wide with shock.
"He knows where it was, don't you? You evil, rotten bastard," I said as the hate overtook me again.
"What, the old man had outlived his usefulness, and he wanted to kill Atreyus too. All I did was let Atreyus plead his case. It's not on me that father looked more like a meal than an authority figure to him," Conlin Jr. said with a grin on his face.
"Did you know leaving his and all those other bodies in that cave is what caused your water to become poisonous?" I asked.
"Oops, but in my defense they had to go somewhere and it was the most convenient place," Conlin Jr. said nonchalantly.
"Whoa, you're an even bigger lowlife than I thought you were. At this point it would be irresponsible not to kill you," Teresa said and actually drew her sword.
"You could certainly try," Conlin Jr. said before raising his hands and lifting several feet from the ground.
"Yeah, of course the psycho can fly," Teresa said with a sigh.