Information Castor

Purpose. Everyone has one, like little bees buzzing around a hive, trying to make more honey then his neighbor. Thankfully, this is a slot that I have never fallen into, having never felt the need to keep up with anyone. Not that anyone really notices me, I tend to disappear in a crowd, which is precisely the way I like it.

But there are times I have to trade my invisibility for information. Today was one of those days, and I found myself waiting in a small café on the square to talk to Gabriel. About Kain.

I had to know where he was, if he was alive, any tidbit of information that might put my fears at ease.

Castor has fled to Schendi. Aiden is being held as a heretic and a rapist. And there is little I can do for either of them.

I am confused and my heart aches for both men.

I miss Kain so.

A Charming Return

I took Guenther with me in order to retrieve Charm and although I knew he might have been able to steal my daughter from under Gabe and Zarah’s nose, I felt the need to confront them directly. I knew if I stole my child back, we would be on the run forever and that would not be fair to her. I’m tired of running. I’m tried of hiding. I’m tired of not being able to hold my little girl.

Both refused me, Zarah in all her arrogance and Gabriel in all his ignorance. It was as I thought, he did not know what his companion had done. He has accused me of running away and abandoning her, when nothing could have been farther from the truth.

He bid me goodnight and that we would again talk in the morning, and we were forcefully ushered out. I would give him until the morning if need be, after that, I would put the retrieval of my daughter in Guenther’s hands.

But I didn’t have to. Less then fifteen ehns later Gabriel stumbled outside, with Charm in hand, bundled up and ready for me to take her. He almost tripped over me, since I had decided that the best place I could be was on his doorstep.

He apologized for his companion, explaining that he did not know what she had done. He also asked that I not keep my daughter from them. I think he loves her as much as I do and being that he may be the closest thing to a father she’ll ever have, I agreed. Gabriel will be a part of Charm’s life, no matter what.

I’m not even sure I blame Zarah for what she has done. Despite what happened to me, Charm has been very well cared for.. and I can see, loved, and for that I am grateful.

Gabriel is going to see what he can find out about Kain for me. Aiden too. I do hope they are both alive.

The Scribe

I found him at the arena, bottle in hand and bleary eyed. I’m not sure if he was trying to wash his sins away or simply drown in them.

It has been two years since he had asked me to come and work for him, a job that never happened due to unforeseen events. Now that was something I could relate to.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me down next to him, where cards were dealt between us. Small talk eventually gave way to my situation with Charm, but only after he had asked where my daughter was, for such is not usually readily available for discussion. He has given me the name of a man who he is sure can help me. But more than that, he has given me something I have not had in a very long time.

Hope.

And a job. I’ve promised him I can cook. I need to buy books.

Perfect Perversity

The dark of night presses in on me as if it were a horrific vise, one that squeezes the very life from my body with each turn of the screw. Inwardly I scream, crying out to any that would help me, but outside I am the same unchanging woman, silent, reserved and always a breath away from the emotions I continually try to hold at bay.

I do my duty as rence commands, unable to block the brooding whispers that harbor themselves in my thoughts. Curse or kindness, the blackness smothers me, closing in like an optical illusion, an illusion that refuses to allow me to see past it. Hort by hort I feel my sanity slipping away, draining into a sea of intelligent madness.

And yet I linger, surrounded by the ghosts of my past and the fears of my present, awaiting an answer that may never come. “Read.” Proof preys at the edge of my reality, even though I am unable to touch it. But that does not make it any less tangible.

There are nights I can hear her crying, gulping sobs that threaten to rip my heart from my chest, a grief that turns me inside out, bearing every last sensitivity I have to a world that has betrayed me time after time. But it is not the world I despise.

For now, the past is dead.. silent.. still. But soon, even that shall change. I can feel the twist in futures fold, its clawing hand set to rip me from the vortex of my present. I am but a pawn. Perfect perversity. Full Circle.