Carmine

I sat on the red and yellow cotton that lined my bed. The servant wheeled around and apologized. She did it as fast as she was moved.

Arranging a bath, setting up the makeup on the dress table; she was busy making sure I harboured no complaint.

This one was different from the one in the hall, her hair was longer and more unkempt. She was not as polished like the first one.

Also, this one was impure like me.

The slaves I usually saw in Ascus were impure. I think that was how specific families paid off their debt to society and gained freedom for their children.

Sometimes I forgot what it was like to see an enslaved servant.

They were not a frequent occurrence back home in Ascus. Even as the wind blew pass the linen cloth that covered the window behind me, I was still hot.

Twelve years ago, there was a war between the nations. Well, it might have been a war in some people’s eyes. My father merely sneezed at it.

A simple cold it was. They were warring over a fort that neighbored Baska, and the deadlands leading into Elam.

Big Rock.

It was an important fort, for it was the only entrance between the high mountainous lands of Ascus' North-West that were frequented by ocelots and huge birds of prey.

Ascus' land was further east back then, but it became lost over time. The sickness that was the encroaching death of Elam scared them into moving the land borders inward.

No territory, except Amoth was right next to the Elam border; the land of demons and witches. It was forbidden to go there. Father warned me of that place.

Anyways, Ascus and Eathen had some scuffles over Big Rock for a year and my father let it go for some sea trade route clearance.

A knock was heard on the door. The servant strode forward forgetting a long stool was in front of her. She collapsed head first and dropped onto the floor. I groaned, what was wrong with the enslaved idiots in this place?

Were all the enslaved clumsy like this? This was why I did not like slavery. It produced quantity not quality.

“Come in." I stepped up to this servant, laid my hands on her shaking arms and drew her level. The servant was surprised at this. She tried to shake herself out of my grip, but I held her firm.

“Carmine, did this servant anger you?” It sounded like Para.

My face might have looked angered, but I was pitiful of this enslaved girl’s plight. She was not built for service in a royal keep much less any lowly noble house.

The life of retainer to a noble was a hard and strict life that was not for any random fool.

If It was me, this keep would be ran way better than this. I patted the girl and wagged my finger in her face. “Are you alright?”

She struggled. “Ye-yes my Lady, my apologies.”

“Be more careful, I do not want you to break anything in here, understand?”

The girl nodded and did a curtsy. “Yes my Lady.”

I smiled at her trying at least. The girl curtsied at Para, twirled and left to go toward the bath.

Para now beside me, smiled. “You are still a kindled soul like I remember you.”

I sighed. “Me? You sure?”

Para laughed and her hair rocked behind her. The sparks of light reflected off the smooth outline of it. “You are. I am sure you are still praying, I know I ain’t.”

Curses!

It had been a long time since I prayed to Ashuor. Then again, he took twelve years to deliver me from my prison.

Did he deserve my praise?

“I have not prayed in a while. But I will. Things have been chaotic.”

“Really, where have you been hon?! I heard you died,” she said.

I snickered at how she dropped the prestige from her words. Now she sounded like a little girl. The door was still open, so I moved to shut it. Turning to face her rosy smiling face, I smiled back. “I was living as a prisoner in your country.”

“Really, I was asking Kello. He had a feeling you were in some dangerous situation.”

“Kello is half-right.”

“Mmm.” Her fingers gripped her chin in thought. “Why though? Why would you be living like that?”

“No, I was banished.”

“Banis—“ Her eyes narrowed at me. Her fingers crept up her face and it gripped at the skull beneath her swept cheeks as the thought crossed her mind. “Why?!”

“I have no idea.”

I sat on the bed. “It was weird. I think something happened that night. Someone tried to kill me? Not sure. Men came in, killed the royal guards and almost took me. Then my father told me he would place me somewhere safe."

My chest compressed from the pressure on it. I blinked and everything blurred as the black shapes of my would-be attackers rushed around me with a steady drumming of my heart.

My eyelids crashed shut and broke it's hold over me. I opened my eyes and Para was what remained once I purged that history from my mind, for now anyway.

My lips twitched in hesitation. “I remember knights came for me. I was taken to that keep and I never left there all this time. I was afraid, scared. I kept sending letters, upon letters, asking begging. Pleading with him! To come home. I—” I sighed and breathed in. “I, all this time."

“What?” Para asked, concern stained on her face.

I nodded my head as the memory stung. “My father—I was already being punished by the fact that I could not leave that keep. It made no sense. We were Ascus! Why banish your only daugther?! Your only—" I waved my arms up in frustration.

“Maybe to protect you? I mean considering how things are now…” Para trailed off in thought.

I drew the sheet and wrapped it around my body.

“No, that made no sense. There must be a deeper reason to this. A more. A reason. That I probably do not want know yet. Protect me, maybe. Para, By the Gods I did not deserve that.”

I groaned and whipped my arms in frustration.

Para waved her hand and grabbed my shoulders. “Come, let us walk.”

We advanced from the room to a garden. The chalk white rock was thin and sectioned off the grass that rounded each bouquet of flowers with its various blend of colors. Beads of seeds were betwixt the colored petals.

We walked through the center. The wall was twice as high as myself. It looked so rough a touch could break the skin.

We reached a fountain that opened out in this space. The air was fresh and smelt of lavender. A delicate aroma of fruits I could not name in my trance.

The base of the fountain tapered out into low cut grass that became curved strips. Between each, cobbled reddish brown rock hugged the floor.

We sat on the edge of the fountain. The water did not hit us, yet drops reflected onto us from hitting the swell.

“What are you going to do Carmine? You are going back there, you realize that right?” Para asked.

“Don’t remind me. I am glad and I am scared at the same time.”

“Try to stay glad. You need to make some things assured on your arrival. You can’t be going in blind. Tell you what I have a friend in the Lady of Nuvember. I can ask that the men escort you there specifically. She will take care of you. She owes me and she has a good reason siding with you.”

Nuvember was a region in Ascus. “That regent wants me alive…I wonder if it is because she is struggling to gain control of Ascus.”

Para looked away. “You are still beautiful.”

My stomach got sick. It had to be that possibility. “I am not marrying my step-brother. That regent must be an idiot, I can call for the crown myself.”

“But you have been banished and your father is dead. Do you have any close family alive?”

“Hion sent someone to get me. I have cousins from my father’s sister. Though, she does not live in Ascus. But someone, or some group must want me back. Maybe the stricter vassels might be hesitant, but I am his only child by royal blood. I am not a half-blood like the rest.”

I was talking out of desperation, for I was still of impure blood and that factored into things. My brows scrunched together begrudgingly. Right, aren’t I supposed be dead?

I looked around. No one was around, and the upper floors surrounded the garden with thick columns. Not a soul walked those hollow halls.

Para held onto my hand, but loneliness gripped my heart.

“Keep the faith, you deserve the crown more than those pretenders,” Para replied.

“I just want to go home. I will see what awaits me when I get there. What about you, since when did you become second?”

Para's face flexed when her lips pulled inward. “That woman is a temporary fixture until he tires of her. I am permanent.”

I glowered at her. “Temporary, Para, she is standing beside him in the throne room. What did you do?”

“Why do you assume it was me Hon?”

“Because you and me are one and the same, we terrorize men for fun.”

She pushed into my shoulder. A cheeky wide smile blooming. "Ain’t that the truth.” Para looked around then gazed into my eyes. “Well, you know the Baska leader Walron right?”

I looked at her with a confused stare. “What about him?”

“He came here recently. Famine is spreading there. They have been begging us for supplies. I mean we could have easily given them some. But my hussy is quite resistant to giving them anything. Reason, the bastards, those nobles houses that were left in charge by us after we razed the countryside are hoarding food for themselves and leaving their people to starve.”

“That is horrible. Baska are vassels now?” I replied.

She nodded. “Aye. You didn't know since you were locked away. Baska became vassels only recently. My hussy burned down four cities and killed their King. Tiam and the other countries were not pleased.”

Many nobles idiotically did not know that Ascus, Baska and Amoth were the only defense against Elam. Baska to the west, Ascus to the south, Amoth to the East, It was said these countries would be the first bastion of defense against Elam’s evil.

So those three nations were always militarily the strongest. Well, times changed and Eathen shocked many including me by devouring Baska.

I found this out now. Now, Eathen looked like a threat.

“Yes hon, actually I heard rumors Elam’s demons have been raiding them. Rumors they are, I am not sure they are true. Regardless, my hussy was not feeling like helping them,” Para said.

Of course he would not. Baska could easily regain their senses and destroy Eathen. Strategically, he would not be stupid enough to give them food to survive long enough to do that.

Para continued, “But I still really wanted to help the people you know. Can’t let them starve you know, so I sent some supplies through a merchant and feed the towns on the border at least. You know where the nobles would never live. Can you believe he got angry with me? He literally called me an idiot and said the rebels were staying on the border. I did not even know that.”

Neither did I, but the longer I thought about it, the more sense it made. The nobles sought appeasing the King of Eathen so they probably have a frosty relationship with what was left of the army that did not defect to becoming Eathen’s slaves.

But those rebels still carried their duty to maintain the border from the demons of Elam. How honorable, for I harbored pity for their plight.

“Regardless, we had a heated argument and I told him he can touch the sheets for comfort. He…” She waved her hand as her eyes averted from my gaze. “Called her up to his room, not that I mind. Trust me he will soon be apologizing like he always does.”

I wanted to laugh, but I held it in. She continued, “So how about it? You want to go to Nuvember?”

“Sure I will go.”

“Anything for you my dear friend, but be careful.”

It would soon be evening, the day had not ended yet. I wished it was already over and I could still breathe as I did now. “I know.”