The watch field was quiet, everyone waited in anticipation for all the contenders to arrive for the second riddle.
Awin smirked as he watched the entrance and there was no sign of Qaya. "I'm disappointed but still, this is good"
Betram the King's advisor got up "it seems that we are missing a contender, it is time for the second riddle and I regret that I'll have to announce the disqualification of Ms Qaya of the Heris..."
He was cut short as sounds of running hooves reverberated through the field, and through the forests and trees, a hooded Qaya appeared.
"I am here" she breathed as she dismounted from her horse
"I'm sorry but you were a minute late" Betram noted
"Still you can't disqualify me, not when I'm the only one with the correct answer to the riddle"
"What?" This was the lady from the inn "I assure you, Ms. Qaya that you're mistaken"
Qaya shrugged "I doubt the decision is one for you to make"
Betram turned to the king for help.
"I will request Lady Daluan's answer first, since she arrived on time" this was Awin talking
The lady bowed to the king and unveiled a box. "I present to you, the coffin of the golden box"
Awin gave her a satisfied smile "tell me how you arrived at this answer"
This was where she could no longer talk, she looked away and her hands started trembling. Everyone was confused as to why she was acting this way because they were certain that as the most respected scholar in the country she knew the answer.
Qaya shook her head, of course lady Daluan knew the answer but it wasn't something to say, how could she reveal the sacrilegious life of a respected king. She would be branded an heretic and a traitor.
"Did you not answer the question yourself?" Awin answered annoyed
"I did. I will first of all recount the riddle and provide you with an answer
the box of gold comes from humble beginnings, some might even say it has lowly leanings, like every of its kind, it doesn't stray far from it's home
Like a man will return to the womb in a tomb.
Here you were referring to the king, it is common knowledge that our king did not have the kingdom as a birthright but worked hard for it, so I was supposed to find the tomb of the king as he is the box being referred to in the riddle...uhm so this box is the answer to the riddle, now , I posit the answer:
With apotheosis and glorification comes Gold
But they all come to naught at the end of the day people with humble beginnings and those with lavish ones will all have humble endings"
The king nodded and slowly clapped causing the field to erupt in applause "I must say that you are very intelligent and you gave a thoughtful and thorough analysis that's why I regret to tell you that your answer is not what I seek"
Lady Daluan looked on in shock and embarrassment "so you mean to tell me that Ms. Qaya is right"
"I can't say until I've heard her answer" Awin turned to Qaya as if asking for her reply.
"Lazarus the courageous was born in a brothel" this statement that fell from Qaya's lips threw the entire party into disarray. Qaya stole a look at Awin, who seemed taken aback by this, but gave her a wry smile.
"I do not see why everyone must fret, our beloved King had no power over his birth but he directed his life and made something useful of the cards, life dealt him. This riddle and the exposition provided by Lord Bertram makes us understand that the term 'box' is a term that simultaneously means the king and his achievements. After all Lazarus the courageous believed a man is defined by his deeds.
Nothing strays from home: is the expression to mean that at the end of the day when you excel as well as king Lazarus did, your roots will start to call out for you, in this case the brothel wanted to lay claim to glory and so the box had to return home for rest.
So I went to the closest brothel and found this" Qaya stretched out her arm and in it was a rusty key.
"This ordinary key opens the magnificent golden box and so I present the answer to the riddle:
A box with such humble beginnings, meets tired endings"
For a while everywhere was quiet, all eyes were on the king for his reaction. He let out a pleasant smile "I couldn't have said it better"
With that everyone softly clapped and began murmuring to themselves, how could such a controversial answer take the cake?
"While you are the only one with the right answer, by the provisions of the rules, you have been disqualified" Betram cut in
Qaya scowled and turned to the king "will it not be unfair to me and to the whole world if others were to benefit from my own hard work, I was only late because I was the only one that bothered to find the real answer so wouldn't it be wise to let me participate"
"She makes a good point Lord Betram, today we shall make an exception, that's the least we can do for such a brilliant answer, don't you think"
Betram seemed offended but he reluctantly agreed to let Qaya remain in the game.
Begrudgingly, he announced the second riddle
"Humble beginning, tired endings
The box seeks to break free
With what's left of it, it'll flee
Into the arms of one you would deem evil
The box lies in the bosom of the devil"
That was it, the second riddle was announced and Qaya was still a participant.
Everyone started to retire to their homes in preparation for the next day.
Qaya heaved a sigh of relief and trudged to the carriage that was to take her home.
The riddle stirred her heart, it rend her heart. The closer she was to uncovering the riddle, the more torn she felt.
She felt like Lazarus. She was consoled by his story. While people like Lady Daluan and Awin believed that things should remain as they were and people should remain where they are in life, she knew they were wrong, Lazarus, no matter how perilous or sacrilegious the life he lived, was a testament that one should do well and rise in spite of his background. That's all Qaya Wright wanted to do.
"Though she might have gone about it the wrong way" Qaya said out loud.
Her heart pounded as she thought about the next half of the hunt, this was when the real work began. She knew that Awin would try his best to sabotage her and the fact that he'd done nothing the first day only made her anxious.
"I've really fallen into his hands this time" she murmured as she caught sight of the family chatelet up ahead.
***
Melinda pouted as she stared at the painting on the corridor wall of the king's countryside Palace. The painting depicted the depressing sight of a child offering his mother as a sacrifice to the gods.
She could not seem to understand why such an eerie thing was placed in a glamorous place.
"Here you are?" A voice called behind her
"Rivan, it is you. It's been quite the time since we last met" she stated flashing him a warm smile
He nodded, he seemed taken aback but quickly regained his composure. "I've been looking for you, your carriage is about to leave"
"Then it should" she responded still gazing upon the painting.
"Pardon?"
"I asked and the king let me stay in one of his chambers"
Rivan's gaze fell "you're close with the king"
Melinda turned to him, surprised "why do you say that?"
"I only say what I see but it is troubling how swiftly you change sides, what conviction are you? Surely it's not the same as your former mentor's?"
"Are we talking about Sir Milton?" The lady laughed heartily "people are allowed to evolve, you know that much"
"Not this radically, it's not normal"
Melinda rolled her eyes "maybe, just maybe, I'm tired of being normal"
"And why's that? What's wrong with being normal"
Melinda walked away, she could not talk but she knew the answer to Rivan's question; she couldn't be normal because normal didn't work on Awin.
**
The second day of the hunt began, and everyone was excited for the outcome, the participants had reduced because some families either decided to drop out of the competition or lost the game the day before.
Qaya was beginning to regret being a sole contender, because in this portion of the competition she needed teamwork. She had already answered the second riddle, in fact, that was the simplest part of the hunt.
From the riddle, she knew that the place to look for the golden box was in the Canary's nest.
The Canary's nest, do not be deceived by its sweet sounding name, was the lair of the great beast. The beast was known by all of Easteford and the whole continent as the bird of punishment, because in the days before, tyrants would send 'offenders' to the mouth of the cave where the beast lay. Hence being an instrument of punishment the beast was nicknamed the devil.
Qaya was thinking long and hard; why would they put the treasure there? How would they even do that? It seemed unreasonable to have influential nobles risk their lives for something no matter how precious.
She needed a plan because she obviously could not dream of battling the great beast. She thought hard, the person who had the greatest chance of winning was the duke, he had numbers on his side and then all the members of his team were trained soldiers that fought in the top ranked unit. It might be a little difficult but they could manage to retrieve the golden box. If they did, she would make a trade with the duke, he wasn't that desperate for the King's affection and being the daughter of the wealthiest man in the country, she could make an enticing offer. That being settled all she had to do was wait for the duke (or any family for that matter) to win and then make the trade.
She waited close by the mouth of the cave called the Canary's nest. It seemed the safest bet, she couldn't risk following the Duke's team everywhere.
The sunlight was becoming harsher as she waited.
"I'm patched" Qaya muttered as she searched for her water flask. After taking a gulp of refreshing cold water, she sat idly waiting for something interesting to happen.
"I should pack my hair, it's becoming a bit annoying" she thought and suddenly remembered that someone had given her an ornamental rope for her sword.
She smiled as she looked at the pretty ornament. The young girl who gave it to her was so meek and nice. She'd said something about how she admired Qaya's bravery, how she could emerge successful on the first day even when she was a sole competitor.
Qaya blushed as she tied up her hair, that girl had called her, her role model. How nice.
Everywhere was becoming boring and Qaya was reconsidering her whole plan. What was taking everyone this long to come to Canary's nest? Or did they forfeit because of how insane the challenge was? These thoughts that were crossing her mind came to a halt as the first drop of rainfall touched her scalp.
The rain was heavy but brief. It stopped after about ten minutes but it was already too late, Qaya was soaked from head to toe and was beginning to feel feverish.
"At this point, I should go back and see if I can find what the others are up to, because they shouldn't take too long to get here"
Qaya turned to leave, squeezing out water from her clothes as she walked away, but suddenly she felt a mild vibration from the earth.
An eerie feeling swept through her, and a tingling chill went down her spine.
She hastened her pace and was almost running when something pushed her forward and threw her against a bush.
"Oww" she lamented but worse was still to come. Before her was a creature about nine feet tall and as wide as a hill. It was ghastly looking with fearsome eyes and a haggard wing, the master of Canary's nest, the great beast.
With great agility, Qaya got to her feet and ran for her life but the beast was quick to block her path.
Maybe it was fear that skewed her senses but Qaya could sense a desire in the monsters eyes. She trembled as she held onto her sword for dear life.
The beast made a move to chomp at her head but she dodged and lodged her sword into its jaw. It stumbled back in pain, this time Qaya made sure to run quicker but the birds scaly tail got a hold of her.
At this point she had resigned to her fate, her mind wandered to the golden box, it was nowhere to be seen, it must have been inside the cave but why did the beast leave its lair. "Not like any of that matters when I'm about to die" she said and closed her eyes in resignation.
A bullet flew past her and into the space between the beast's two eyes. The pain made the beast let go of Qaya and just when she thought she would fall to her death. Something or rather someone caught her.
In that short moment, Qaya fainted. She heard faint words being said above her. Was she in a slave market? She saw haggard people, dressed in rags, wailing and fighting each other, she sat down watching them in spite and disgust. Her clothes were bloodied as the sole of her feet and her body was riddled with wounds. Qaya wright muttered at the sight before her "I wish you'll all die" she snapped out of her trance.
She slowly opened her eyes to see a tired Rivan panting and using all his energy to hold her up.
He placed her down and took time to recover while the beast nursed it's wound.
"Thank you ..." Qaya was interrupted
"Take it off" he said in between breaths
"Excuse you?" Before she could process his demand, he drew her close and ran his hand through her hair.
"Just what are you doing?..."
He didn't answer her, he just yanked out the rope she used to tie her hair and her curls graciously fell.
He threw the ornament and dragged her, running with all his might.
Qaya thought she would faint they'd been running so fast and her fever only increased. Thankfully, Rivan stopped and she could catch her breath.
"What just happened?" She breathed and fell to the ground. Her knees failed her, she couldn't keep standing.
"You were framed"
"What?"
"The person who sent you that sword ornament wanted you dead"
Qaya immediately started shaking, she wasn't sure if it was the fear or the fever but she felt horrible. She was in such a panic as her mind went to the day when Melinda killed her.
"Qaya calm down, Qaya breath. Please, don't be scared. Canary wasn't after you but the ornament." Rivan assured her as he saw her hyperventilating, he wanted to console her.
"What do you mean? How's that even possible?"
"The ornament was made from the stem of the Oculius plant, it emits an ordor that becomes incredibly pungent only to the canary beast after rainfall. Even if you were miles away, if the rain hit the ornament while it was with you, the beast would have found you."
Qaya broke into tears, she wanted to be strong, she wanted to be an invincible force that would destroy Awin but this encounter greatly shrunk her resolve. "Was she really up to the task? She was better off just living ordinarily and minding her own business, would have family have gone through this if they went instead of her?
Rivan gently shook her "look at me, you can cry here as much as you want but you must show your enemy that you came out of this unscathed"
Qaya absentmindedly nodded and stood to her feet. She wiped her tears and gave Rivan a sad smile "of course, I might have lost the battle but the war is far from over".
***
The duke returned to the watch field with the golden box and was named the winner of the great treasure hunt.
And people began to merry but Awin couldn't celebrate yet, he scanned the environs searching for Qaya but she was nowhere to be found.
Shortly after, she appeared looking defiant and proud like she didn't just lose.
He smiled as their eyes met and mouthed "you lost" but Qaya smirked and looked away, and he was certain that her smirk had been replaced with a scowl.
He stood up and congratulated the duke again, drawing the older man into a brief hug.
He then took to the podium.
"I am grateful that this event ended smoothly and to celebrate not only the Duke's victory but the Kingdom prosperity, I invite you all to the grand banquet."
Everyone cheered.
Awin smiled as he saw Qaya rolling her eyes. He muttered to himself "now, it is time, Qaya"