Chapter 57

This chapter has been copied from the original and may contain typos and grammatical errors.

~*~

Blake opened his eyes to see the seer sitting at the table with a plate of food, reading a book and enjoying a sparkling beverage. She hadn’t yet dressed and was dressed as scandalously as she had been the night before.

He looked around the room, confused. “There’s no stove or oven, how did you make food?”

“Do I look like someone who toils just to eat? I summoned it off of someone else’s table. They can make another.” she regarded him with a smirk, then went back to eating. “There’s some here for you.”

Remembering what had happened last night, he touched his hair to see if anything was shorter than it should be. He had been unconscious, defenseless! How could he have been so careless?

“Relax, child, a gift stolen doesn’t work. If I took your hair without you giving it, it would have no power.” she didn’t even look at him as she spoke. “Now, come and eat. We have a ways to go today, if my assumptions are correct. The charm doesn’t tell me how far we have to go, it simply points me in the direction to find our target the fastest. So you can find your heir. No-” she corrected herself, “your love.”

“You speak in half truths and riddles; I don’t have time for it. As soon as we’re done eating, we can leave.” Blake grumbled.

She didn’t have anything to say to that, and they ate their breakfast in silence.

She finished eating first, and she walked to her chest of drawers and started to peel off her clothing. Blake turned around on the little stool, not appreciating the strip tease.

“I’m not sure why you shy away. The king certainly didn’t.” she teased.

“The king wouldn’t bed the likes of you,”

“Oh, he has. He liked a lot of unique girls back in his day, before his obsession with Queen Anywn. She was a surprise for sure, so plain.”

“I can’t speak to the queen’s beauty,” he muttered. “But the king would never sleep with a witch.”

“Child, life is long, and there are lots of things you don’t know or comprehend. The king isn’t a hero. He’s needed my services before, and I’ve… used his.” she giggled. “He’s had lots of practice.”

“I really don’t want to hear this.” he set his plate down on the table, his stomach now in knots from the conversation.

“You’re not married, but you’ve been with Gloria. That’s against the teachings of your Church, is it not? Once you’ve turned from their teachings, what’s another sin?” she turned her head to him.

“Gloria is my bride, she will be my one an only.”

Blake took the door handle in hand and opened the door, stepping out onto the small porch and inflating his lungs with chilly air. It had felt like an eternity since he had knocked on the door last night, but the sooner he found Gloria and rescued her, the sooner everything would be made right. He would marry her, take his seat at her side on the throne, and rule the kingdom with a firm grasp. The Church would crumble into submission and the people would be grateful to have a just king once again. To carry on what the king strove to do.

Moments later, the seer appeared soundlessly at his side. “Ready, dear?”

Blake flinched. “That really isn’t fair. You should make some noise or something. You’re going to give me a heart attack.”

“Oh, not now, darling. Not yet. Maybe later.” she winked, then started to walk down the dirt road that led to her cabin.

“Don’t you have to lock the door?” he asked, following.

“Do you think I’d leave my cabin unshielded? No one I’ve met in my long life would be able to get in if they tried for a year.” she didn’t turn her head, just kept walking.

Blake sped up to catch up to her. “Can’t witches teleport? The ones on the Islands could appear and disappear all the time.”

She glanced at him. “I specialize in the mind, not space. People come to me, I don’t go to people. If I had to get somewhere, I would go to Beatrice, but she was killed last decade. She had a pretty smooth ride towards the end too, it’s a pity.”

“So we’re walking?” he asked.

“We’re walking.”

~*~

Henry hadn’t had to answer that many questions in a long time, not since he was in school. The queen wasn’t at the compound- it had been abandoned with just a captain of the resistance to watch over the building. He had asked Henry every question under the sun: Is Seneca healthy? Has the spellcaster used any magic? How are they passing their time? Have they had any company on the island? Has anyone sailed close enough to see them? Do they need food? What was Henry on the mainland for?

He had written a letter to the queen himself, detailing how things had been going besides the fact that Gloria had the equipment taken off of her so she could use magic, or the fact that they were all getting along really well. He didn’t make the letter sound like any of them were enjoying themselves; the queen had never been one for merriment.

Once the captain was happy with the review, Henry was free to go into town and find the things that made life a bit more enjoyable. Gloria had taken to knitting, and if he didn’t want all of the spare clothing turned into stips to knit with, he should satiate her with some yarn. He needed spices that he had run out of that hadn’t been well stocked to begin with. A bit of oregano or cinnamon could make some dishes taste just that much better. And sugar was always a rare treat that he could hope to find at the market.

He had been there a few days already, but he could stay a few more. Gloria and Seneca would either find out they could be friends and get along or by the time he got back they would either be sitting at opposite ends of the house or Gloria could have killed Seneca with any one of her spells… Maybe he should get back sooner than he had planned.

~*~

“Look, I’m used to walking, but we’ve been at it all day without a break and the sun is setting. Where did you expect to rest for the night?”

The seer looked around the open field. “I guess here would do the job.”

Blake wrinkled his brow in confusion. “There’s no inn here. I have one tent, and it’s not really large enough for two people.”

“What you mean is that it isn’t big enough for the both of us. There’s a difference.” she winked. “Set up your tent.”

Blake looked at her with suspicion, then went to setting up the tent. The seer stood in front of the newly erected tent, hands starting to glow. With a flick of her wrist, sparks shimmered over the entrance of the tent, and she entered without asking to do so. “Follow me, child.”

The sides of the tent didn’t move the way he expected them to with someone entering a tent, touching the sides. He opened the tent flap and didn’t believe his eyes. The seer’s cabin was inside his tent.

“The cabin isn’t in your tent, your tent just leads to my cabin now. I linked the two entrances. I bet you never saw another spellcaster do that before.”

“Well, no.” he admitted as he entered.

“Ugh, I need a bath. Could you go to the brook and get some water? We’ll heat it up in the cauldron.” she asked.

“You can’t summon it?” he asked with snark.

“Water is tricky. It moves too much.” she swished her hand around summoning a tub to the middle of the room.

“Fine, I’ll get you your water.” he exited the door and went down to the brook as instructed.

Are we any closer to finding Gloria? She could be leading me to my death. With the overcast clouds, I’m not sure if we’re even headed south anymore, he thought as he filled the pail. I don’t even know her name.

When he entered the tent again, she had brought over a few different bubbling bottles full perfumes and soaps. “Gotta keep my youth somehow, right?” she laughed.

“How old are you?” he asked as she poured the water into the cauldron.

“Never ask a lady how old she is, child.” she smiled as she started to pour things into the tub. “But if I had to guess, I’m at least three of your normal lifespans old. I remember the king’s grandfather. He was a righteous man, but he still had a hunger, if you know what I mean.” she giggled. “All the kings did. Just like I know you do.”

“I’m not going to be king. With the birth of Gloria, the line of kings dies.” Blake looked around for where he could sit and not see her, but all the chairs in the room seemed to be pointed to the center of the room.

“But isn’t that why you’re marrying her? A wife cannot supersede her husband, thus making you the ruler of the kingdom, does it not?”

“I will rule the kingdom at the side of Gloria, and she at mine. We will rule, just as generations of rulers have. With the support of their spouse.” The sheer curtain would act as a bit of a film between the two of them; he could sit on the bed while she bathed.

“It’s too bad that you’ve always strived for the title of king, and yet that title belongs to someone else.” she stepped into the tub, letting out an exhalation as the water washed away the grime of the journey.

Blake bit his lip in thought. While anything he thought would be detected by her, there was no use in denying the fact that he had been raised to rule and govern the people, Gloria hadn’t. She had been raised on a backwater Island where people voted for anyone they wanted, whether they prepared for governing or not. Gloria thought about herself, her own hobbies, her own pursuits, her own life, and not the bigger picture. She didn’t know about government, or laws, or court life. She didn’t know how to dress, how to behave. And if she was a witch, what would that mean for other witches in the kingdom? Would she persecute them the way they were now or would she overrule the law that kept them from tearing the kingdom to the ground?

“Those are deep thoughts,” the seer remarked.

“Can I have a thought to myself for once?” Blake asked, not turning to her.

“I’ve been alone with my own thoughts for so long, it’s refreshing to see other’s. And someone with such a tidy mind, so black and white. But Gloria is a smudge of color. She doesn’t get sorted very easily, does she?”

“Do you know where we’re going? While we’re walking?” Blake asked, changing the subject.

The seer smiled. “I’m not sure. I’m trying to go in the right direction, but the charm is confused. It won’t tell me how close we are to the target, only which way to go, so we could be hours or weeks away from our target.”

Blake rolled his eyes and huffed, frustrated. “Is there any way to tell how far away from her we are?” he asked.

The seer stirred the water so it lapped at the edges of the tub. The cabin was silent other than the noise of the water and the crackling of the fire. “There is one way. We need the charm to be stronger.”

“Then do it! Why didn’t you do that to begin with?” he asked.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I did, child. You refused me.”

“No…” he started. “No, your advances were purely for personal benefit.”

“You’ve been with Gloria, she carries a shard of you. If you want me to be able to hone in to her better, the connection couldn't be better.”

Blake stood up from the bed, disgusted he was even sitting on it. “No, we’ll follow the charm as it is now. I’ll not dirty myself with you.”

“But I’m all clean now…” she called after him as he stormed out of the cabin, a smirk on her face.

Woo! Another chapter down. Today on how to block out the modern sims world:

1. I don't use the Forgotten Hollow very often (which is where the seer's cabin is located), so I wasn't ready for where the traffic would be, or the other buildings in the circle, so right past the edges of the shot are other buildings.

2. The picture with the seer walking down the path away from Blake, she's hiding a bridge with her body.

3. The picture of Blake against a tree, a townie is standing literally right behind him so I had to shift the camera so he wasn't in the shot.

4. The picture of Henry on the coast, his head is hiding a public bathroom.

5. The picture of Blake and the seer at dusk, her arm is hiding a rotting pile of leaves, and you can just barely see a roof on the very left of the picture. Her body is hiding another building in the neighborhood I didn't feel like deleting.

Blake is going to get wrinkles if his face doesn't relax soon .