The barren land of Heartwarth was nothing. Haleen's death was spread around the high society of many kingdoms, one of which was Astrophy, a highly developed land ruled by a tyrant fairy king. (I know it sounds cliche, but :3).
Waren the First, a royal dark Jade fairy who was a moody vicious ruler, a devil, and a maniac. He sat on the iron throne, face tilted to the side, eyes filled with anger.
On his front, he sat six of the most high supreme elites. They call themselves the 'Omens'. The leaders who serve under the king's hand. But during this session only four omens attended.
"Sire, it's such a thrill to hear about your victory", said the fourth omen, Wane.
"Cheer up my king, moon witch Haleen was a big deal", said the third omen, Julius, "Defeating her means our strength is rapidly increasing, we are stronger than any of the kingdoms we've conquered".
The two boys started spouting nonsense about their victories, battles, and the enemies they killed. For a normal king, he would be celebrating his victory, but Waren was different. His anger only grew more and more. He kept tapping his finger constantly when his first omen Harper realised his king's orders.
"Julius, Wane, that's enough", ordered Harper. The boys didn't have to think twice after listening to him, they immediately quieted down. Finally the second omen, Amelia raised her question, "Sire, any news about the whereabouts of Mathias?".
Waren brushed his hair back when he spoke, "General Mathias, our sixth omen is not found yet. The fifth omen Roven, has sent a search party to find him but for now, we can only pray for him to be alive".
While the king was losing his mind, his trusted general was busy eating with an illegitimate princess. Rosette had cooked him meat strewed with herbal tea for digestion. She wanted him to quickly recover so that he could leave her. Her plan to spend at least two years in the village was slowly fading away.
On the other hand, Mathias loved his current treatment, Rosette was not only treating him with medicines but was also offering him to stay until his full recovery. Such kindness was not common in his kingdom and he loved how Rosette was spending her expenses on food for him.
The two opposites were busy thinking about one another when suddenly they heard a knocking sound. "Rosette! Are you there?". A familiar sound was heard, Jerry the newspaper boy. Rosette got up and opened the door to see Jerry shivering. His face was red and his forehead was full of sweat.
"You're interrupting my dinner kid", she said after looking at Jerry, she gave a signal to Mathias to clear up the room. Jerry was brought inside and was laid down on the bed. Rosette checked his temperature with a cylindrical glass tube that had mercury in it. It was getting high, sweat kept pouring out, and Jerry's breathing started to increase.
Rosette first placed a cold damped cloth over Jerry's forehead to calm him down. Then she started grinding herbs to make syrup. She fed Jerry a whole spoonful of the syrup. She let him rest until his body relaxed and left him to sleep.
Mathias behind the door was fascinated by her. He didn't know how Rosette took care of him, how she dragged his body to the bed, how she stitched him and gave him her bed. He didn't realize how much of a burden he was to her. Maybe he should try to do something for her but what?
Rosette exits the room to notice Mathias peeking at her. "Sorry for the sudden rudeness, the child you just saw is Jerry, he is a newspaper boy who suddenly got sick. I'll call his father to pick him up so please don't mind".
"Oh no, I don't, but wouldn't it be troublesome for you if his father accidentally saw me", he said.
"That's why you are going to hide", Rosette said with a straight face.
"I know I'm being kept a secret, but it's late night, in a small remote village anything could happen". He argued.
He was right. Most people in this village are merchants, ex-assassins, and retired thieves. Anything could happen in this small village. With a small deep sigh, Rosette finally spoke, "I'm going to regret this".
She went towards her drawer and pulled out a strange blue amulet. "Wear this", she handed the amulet to Mathias. He knew what it was, the saphique, it changes the person's appearance completely. Rosette was also a wearer when she found several of them being stacked in her father's closet. She grabbed three just in case.
Mathias wanted to know how she got it and why does she had it. He didn't want to suspect Rosette of anything except for her kindness. "How did you_"
"My father loved jewelry, he was tricked into buying this useless trinket", half was true and half was not. The amulet changed Mathias completely, his pale blue skin turned oak brown, and his long hair turned short and curly. His eyes turned blue and his hair turned blond. He was somewhat familiar with Rosette who had brown hair and blue eyes.
Mathias carefully got hold of Jerry and with Rosette, they made their way to Jerry's house. It was bigger than Rosette's house but the exterior was dreadful. Trees covered the top windows and the front garden was full of weeds. Rosette knocked at the door. Footsteps were heard.
"Who is it?", asked a woman. "It's me, Rosette".
The woman opened the door and saw Rosette with a hooded man who was carrying Jerry. "Mrs. Kindal, hi".
Mrs. Kindal was shocked to see her son, she turned to Rosette for an explanation. "Jerry caught a high fever so he rushed to me, I gave him medicine and calmed him down".
Mr.Kindal also arrived at the doorstep, "My oh my, Rosette! What happened to Jerry?". He asked immediately when he saw his son.
"Dear relax", said Mrs. Kindal, "Jerry caught a fever so Rosette helped him, we should be thanking her".
"Uh, yes. Rosette thank you". Mathias was amused with this treatment but he felt uncomfortable, maybe because of a sudden suspicion from Jerry's parents. Mr. Kindal took Jerry from Mathias, he didn't care to ask about him, but his wife wanted to know.
"Dear Rosette. Would you care to introduce your partner", Mrs. Kindal asked her with glowing eyes. "This young gentleman", Rosette pointed at Mathias, "This is my cousin, he came to visit me. He is a traveler so we don't meet often".
"And his name?", Mrs. Kindal was getting doubtful. Rosette needed to come up with a name, fast. "His name is_".
"Roven miss. Rosette's second cousin", said Mathias, who is now known as Roven to Mrs.Kindal. "What a nice name, do you both want to come inside?".
It was getting late so Rosette kindly declined her offer. Both headed home at midnight and prepared for bed. Mathias handed the amulet back to Rosette but she told him to keep it. She didn't want him to have any doubt so she chose to play her part. A girl who didn't want her father's trinkets.
Later that night, Mathias got up and headed outside to the front yard. He couldn't get a wink of sleep of what was bothering him. The amulet was still active on him, so he went outside with his disguise on. For a moment he might be known as the most handsome man in the village, but comparing him to humans he was no better than a dead man, I mean he was also a fairy himself, with the age of Three hundred and eighty-five which is considered as nineteen as a fairy.
He was alone and calm, his muscles relaxed while the wind blew his hair off. In a second, he rushed to the corner bush behind the tree and choked a person who was waiting for him, but the person didn't up. He twisted Mathias's arm and pulled him forward to kick his bottom, but Mathias had already grabbed his foot and lifted him to release him on the ground.
The person was down, his hood was off, and to Mathias's surprise, it was a man he knew. "Roven!?".