Location: In the capital city of Celpeia

Time: Midnight, 13 October 1429

The atmosphere in the tavern is as typical as you would see in any novel: men revelling, drinking, intimidating each other for a brawl for no apparent reasons other than the beer that makes everyone hot-headed. There was one girl who was out of tune with the environment around her. She wore knee high boots, a jacket beneath a hooded cloak, which had a rose pattern embroiled on the back of the cloak. Her cup was still half full of beer from one and a half hours ago. Ever so often, she would take a light sip into the cup, and then listen to the gossips and rumors around the tavern. As you could never guess, that girl was me.

On a table five yards to my right, a man with bulging muscle shot up, and grabbed a thinner man beside him, slammed him onto the table, and shouted.

"Theif! Return what you have stolen from me at once!"

The thinner man looked drastically shocked with more fear and less surprise.

"What? Sir, I do not understand. I am not a theif."

"A theif and a liar I see. What is that pouch in your belt?" He proceeds to grab the pouch, making clattering noises that I estimated to sum up to more than few denars.

"Excuse me. This is my pouch. You must have mistaken it for yours." The thinner man has regained his composure.

"It has twenty three and a half denars. If it isn't mine, how would I know it's contents?" He emptied his pouch on to the table before him. Everyone counted the coins up. There were twenty three and a half denars indeed. Everyone turned to glaring at the apparent theif, who went all silent, and would storm out of the tavern at any chance.

"What say you now, theif? I am a law enforcement officer, and I have the right to execute the law right here right now. How should I charge you?" He proclaimed loudly. As he said this, he took out a badge. I recognized that badge. It was the badge for the local garrison. The man was evidently in the militia, and has powers to enforce the law. It was up to him to punish the theif by law. The theif too recognized the badge, and was clearly shaken.

"Kick him out and never let him back in again!"

"Fine all the money he has and split it and share it with everyone here in the tavern tonight!"

"Make him do three barrel rolls in the horse manure trough! We have one behind the tavern."

"What the hell, barrel rolls? What's wrong with you?"

Everyone in the tavern became excited like the audiences of a public demonstration of law. Everyone was shouting things till the militia hammered the table with his fist.

"Three fingers. That is the price of stealing."

Everyone became silent.

The theif already crumbled to the floor, on his two knees, and begged for the militias mercy.

"Please forgive me, officer. I am a poor man who has an sickness stricken elderly mother he must care for. I recently lost my job as a bricklayer, for the architects have no money themselves to pay us. Let me go here, I'll learn an honest trade, and I'll go away from this land. You will never hear of me again."

"Three fingers. Such is the price of thievery, especially from me. Let it be known that no matter who commits a crime against me, they will receive punishments."

People's countenance swiftly switched from excitement to fear. I was silent with the rest of the crowd before the militia took out his sword, and then I became the only person who spoke.

"It's unlawful." I pushed my self before him, muttering out these two words. All faces were immediately turned to me, all eyes were fixed on me. They were all waiting for me to say something. The theif, the militia, everyone.

"Punishing a theif by cutting off three of their fingers was legal back before the old Celpeian Empire, but it was primitive and brutal, which is why it is not used anymore." There was a short period of silence within two seconds of me finishing my speech.

After a short pause, the militia replied in a deathly manner. "You think I care for the bickering lawyers? I am a law enforcement officer. The law is as I say it is. I have said that the price of his thievery is three fingers, and that's the full content of the law."

"But it's illegal!" I cried, having nothing more to say.

"Look. You're hindering law enforcement right now. Go away."

"I won't leave until you declare a less brutish penalty for the theif." I stood up for the theif. I didn't know why I would bring trouble upon myself, but I've always found the need to act on behalf of troubled people. It's not a good habit, but it's difficult to change.

"I will now take his left hand. As for you, you are guilty of hindering law enforcement, so that's a finger from you."

"That's unreasonable! You're meant to be upholding the law, and here you are counteracting it!"

He responded my words with a grab to my arm, but I evaded by turn sideways. He went for another grab and I ducked away. He caught me in another grab, and pull me into him, and twisted my arm so that I couldn't escape, and struggling will only hurt my own arm.

"Let me go!" I screamed as anyone would in that situation, and the response is universally and typically no response at all.

"Ha. Not such a nuisance anymore, are we? I should make you learn your lesson..."

Then he saw the symbol on the back of my cloak, and he seemed to stop to think for a moment, and then he immediately unhanded me.

He pointed at the rose symbol on the back of my cloak, fear and terror crawled up his face. "I know that pattern! You are from the house of Valerie aren't you, somehow related to the Duke of Culum!"

I was indeed. In fact, I was the only daughter of the Duke of Culum, daughter to the teacher of the young Prince, the heir to the peerage - Vrynscyth Valerie, that I told him so.

"Vrynscyth Valerie! But why are you in this tavern down in the poorest side of the capital of Celpeia?" Someone on the corner asked.

"I wouldn't be allowed to drink if I hadn't came to a tavern this unregulated, and unregulated it is."

The militia knelt down with his face on the stone floors, and the theif's kneeling direction changed to me.

"Forgive me please, my Lady! I will forever regret my crime of handing against you! Let me go this one time, and I'll go home, and I will buy a book of law, and I'll execute the law exactly as it says, but please forgive me." The milita lost all his fierce, and was as powerless as the theif in this position.

"Death for assaulting me. You, your family, your friends, anyone close to you will be hang, and beheaded, and sliced into pieces. Your head will be boiled, burnt to ashes, and fed to dogs. Your chopped up body will be sent for parades around the city so that everyone knows your sins." I declared in a serious manner. People's faces became grim.

"What? No! Please! Madame, you advocated for three saying that three fingers was brutish, but now you want to kill everyone I know?!" The militia was banging his head hard against the floor, resembling the actions of the theif not a moment ago, only with a slightly better fed body and a slightly less slippery tougue.

"Hmm... Maybe it is indeed too barbarous. Give me your pouch. It's filled with ill collected money. They say you'll never miss what you never had, and you thought it was stolen."

He gave me his pouch. I saw him gritting his teeth. It was  understandable. He must have himself and a family to feed, and I just took his monthly wage.

"You may leave now."

The militia ran out of the tavern like a dog with its tails stuck in-between its legs.

I turned to the theif after the militia ran away. All the men in the tavern were still gazing at me, processing their thoughts from what happened a minute ago.

"Albeit I do empathize your condition, stealing is still stealing. Give me all your money, and you can leave."

"You have saved me three fingers, my Lady. Even if you do not ask for all my money, I would gladly give them all to you."

He gave me all his money in a small pile of only five and a quarter denars. Normally, I would expect such a person to lie saying he has no money or only give me a portion of his money, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was all he had. He left then. I looked at his expression as he left the tavern. Unhappy, but more or less grateful. Like all the poorer men of this land.

I saw that everyone was still staring at me, most eager to ask me questions, but no one did. With today's purpose of having fun fully fulfilled, I too, left the tavern.

I arrived home hurriedly. The stars and moon already dominated the night light. Most people have abandoned the streets. Only a few remaining criminal still lurks about in the darkness. They were not uncommon around these areas, but they won't bother you if you don't bother them. Looking steadily at the ground, which was the number one rule on the night streets, I walked safely home. The butler and servants were unaware of my arrival as much as they were ignorant of my leaving. I simply climbed back up into my bedroom. As soon as my head touched the pillows, I fell fast asleep.

During my sleep, I dreamt of myself in a blank space. Not void, but blank. For a while, it remained that way, until I randomly thought of a rose, the very same rose on my cloak. I didn't know why I thought of the symbol of my family, but thoughts in dreams can be strange. This is my dream, I thought to myself. I can think of anything I want, and it will appear in my dream. In my dream, I can do anything I want. Perhaps that's the reason why most people have a life goal to make their dreams come true.

I thought of a grass field, and instantly, my surroundings weren't blank anymore. It was filled instead with vast plains of grassland under a beautiful blue sky, and herds of horses running across the plain. I thought of a pile of money, and piles of money started to rain down from the sky. Instinctively, I anticipated that I might get hit by one of the coins, and that brief thought caused a denar to drop straight onto my head. But there are no pain in a dream. For some reason, my thoughts wandered off into the horses also being hit by the coins, and that did happen in my dream. It was a strange thing to say the least, but it was indeed a delightful sight, for I thought the horses would catch all the coins with their teeth, and that happened indeed.

"This is fun", I thought. Dreams are really the best places to be to be free to do anything you want. I became more imaginative in my dream. I created a river amidst the field, and houses, and people, and then some strange hellish looking animals. I never knew I had that sort of strange taste, but it was fun. So I kept going.

Something strange happened though, I saw a person who I have never seen before standing before me. I couldn't have pictured him in my dreams even if I wanted to, but there he was. He was a black skinned fellow in his later years. Beard and hair all white, wearing a white robe too. Freaky, but I knew he was kind, and full of wisdom. He spoke to me before I could ask him anything.

"You have very bizzare imagination, I must say."

"When your life is too comfortable and too fun like mine, weird thoughts starts to appear in your dreams. You, for example, look very weird." I said to him, completely honest of what I thought. There are no flatterings in dreams.

"Oh, I am not your thoughts. Realise how I'm saying things that you are not thinking of? The rest of your dream is shaped completely by your thought, not me though."

"That's strange. How do you exist if I don't think of you, if I don't make you?"

"I just do, why can't I exist? Also, I do have a recommendation, the coin that fell on the horses? They are currently falling in stacks of three coins. You should make them fall in stacks of ten coins."

"How does that make anything better?"

"Ten is better than three."

"You're not making any sense. Look. Who really are you, and how come you're intruding my dream. This was meant to be my private place. You're violating my personal space."

He took a few steps backwards, but still short enough for me to see and hear him clearly.

"I am I am, but they call me yhwh. I just thought I'd visit you in your dream since we haven't talked since forever."

"You seem to lack reason, but nice to meet you, ywgwhgh."

"Its yhwh."

"Ok yhwh, sorry."

"I'll be going now, if you want me, just invoke my name, and I'll be there, OK?"

"Yeah."

I briefly woke up for a moment, feeling a need for water, so I sipped a bit of water from the cup on the nightstand next to my bed that I always requested to be there, because I always had a need for water. I fell back asleep after.

When I went back to my dream, it changed slightly. The old man had faded away, and the grass and horses were dead. Probably caused by another fraction of my thoughts.

A man even stranger than the one before appeared unsolicited in my dream. He was a man in his thirties, and possessed a reddish feverish skin tone. He even had horns growing from his head. He was similar to yhwh in a way, but completely different in another way. I could feel his anger, his fear, his hatred towards yhwh. But I still asked, politely.

"Hi. Are you a friend of yhwh?"

"I am not a friend of that old man! He is senseless! He had came into your dream and said to you things with no logic! I am unrelated. My name is Lucriatan."

"Ah. Nice to meet you Lucriatan. You're not that close. I see. Well, in any case, could you guys knock before entering my dreams? I had a nice grassy plain and a herd going before you came."

"This is all your dream! It doesn't matter! It is what happens in reality that does! I can make reality happen!"

He didn't seem like the typical nice guy, but I was courteous to a visitor to my dream.

"That's very nice, but could you please not shout?"

His face maddened with ferocity. "You are truly stupid. How about this, you ask for me to do something in reality, and I will do for you. I can make anything happen in real life. Just ask."

"I want to get close to my childhood friend prince Alathorn again. We kind of drifted apart since he became named the Prince who will take the throne. Can you make us good friends again?"

"By tommorow, you will be the closest person to him."

The red man grinned, machiavellious and malicious in intents. His appearence didn't matter to me however. If he does do what I ask of him, then it's good. If not, then it would just be another normal day.

Again I woke up, and it was still midnight. The difference is this time I was woken by one of the maids. I put on again what I wore to the tavern not long ago. She took me downstairs, where I saw my father conversing quite anxiously with a man who turned out to be a messenger.

"We have to go to the palace now Vry. I have received urgent information about the King."

As soon as we walked out, a horse drawn carriage was already waiting. My father went in the front, and I hopped in the back. Then the horse rode of in to the starry night.

It was on the journey had I finally noticed the beautiful scenery at night near my home. Scintillating stars encircling the Polaris, illuminating the dark branches and twigs. I often crept outside midnight, but I never observed the magnificence of the natural beauty. I had almost forgot that I came out with dismal news. What my father had told me made me dreadful, and possibly a hundred more citizens feel the same way. - He told me that the King had died.

The palace guard didn't stop us, we were recognizable enough in court. When we arrived at the King's dormitory howevers, we were immediately intercepted by two servants of the King. It was not only me and my father who went. A dozen more ministers who I recognized were present aswell.

"Step aside, I must speak with the King." My father loudly announced to the two servants.

The shorter of the two servants bowed at us politely, but still maintained his stance.

"The King has orders. No one shall enter his bedchambers tonight. If you must speak with the King, speak with him tommorow."

"I report extremely urgent news which will affect the affairs of the national. If you don't want to be responsible for the kingdom being attacked unprepared by the barbarians to the north, you will let me in."

"The King's orders must be obeyed. If you enter now, you will be rebelling against his will!"

The taller servant came and blocked my father's path. Knowing that these servants will not step aside no matter what, he drew his sword, and the servant shouted.

"Insurgent traitor! You dare to draw your sword before the King?"

Without bandying another word with the servant, my father cut them down like wheat to a reaper. The other officials and ministers were all petrified, but that didn't stop them all clumping in with us. We entered, and we saw the passes King. We all witnessed his death. It was a passing of a weak King, but that made me even sadder for the present Celpeia, occupying less than an eighth of the land before unified under the name of the Celpeian Empire.

My father turned to me. I couldn't read his expression after what had happened under the dim lights, but I saw his lips move.

"Vry. Now is not the time to be sad. You must go and find Prince Alathorn now. You are the only one who might know where he is now!"

The late King had two sons. Prince Alathorn, and Prince Mortimer. He had named Prince Alathorn as his heir to the throne, and for that, Mortimer had always been jealous. Prince Alathorn is my childhood friend. We've known each other since we were born. My mother was a teacher of arts in the Royal Institution, and later became the private tutor of Prince Alathorn and Prince Mortimer exclusively. Alathorn had never attended a single lesson of hers despite being a pupil, and I knew he always went to his uncle, the ministers of arms. He was too fond of violence, and I never took a liking for him. Prince Alathorn, on the other hand, was noble, and I saw him everyday. My father was always in court, and my mother's lessons did not last forever, so I always hanged out with Alathorn in the palace gardens. Our time spent with each other built us a good relationship, but ever since my mother left, I had less of a chance to see him. I understood my father's intentions and urgency of finding him now. He, like me, is worried that Prince Mortimer, with his support from his uncle the minister of arms and troops stationed in the capital, will come with his army, and take Alathorn's rightful throne.

My worst anticipations became reality, as I heard cacophonies of  war cries, but not metal clashing against each other. Why were there no fighting between the palace guards and the coup troops of Mortimer? Were they all bought? I heard chants such as "We'll clean King Mortimer's road and prepare his entrance", "Purge the evil ministers from the Kings court", but no sound for Prince Alathorn. In simpler terms, we were in a situation whete an army has charged into the palace, and will likely kill anyone they could find, and everyone around me were on that list. Their actions served multiple purposes. To kill Alathorn, to force all of Alathorn's supporters to join him, and to demonstrate his power so that no future vessels of his dare to defy him.

The ministers all sworn their allegiance to Mortimer as soon as him and the soldiers came near. My father was alone defending the King's resting place with his sword. He would not allow any soldiers to defy the sacred King's bedroom. I asked him to leave, but he just told me he'll survive through this and he has his methods surviving in court to his current age. He told me that the task of grave importance is me finding Prince Alathorn, and escorting him out of the palace to come back again and ascend to his throne on a safer account.

I was a small girl, and the soldiers paid me no attention in the chaos. I was able to evade all of them and sneak to a quiter place till everything settled down. I was anxious to know how my father fared, but I couldn't backtrack myself to the place where Mortimer's soldiers are highly concerntrated. I only hid behind a bush and waited for all the soldiers to walk pass. The truth was I didn't know Alathorn's whereabouts, and I prayed that he wouldn't be captured. Unlike me, he is the main target of Mortimer, so he must have hid in a place so discreet where Mortimer could not find. The palace was large, and there was no where to start searching. I searched in every corner of every building and insides, in between every pebble and stone in the palace, and I still could not find him. I started to panic. I knew the palace inside out, since I always played inside. I hoped that Alathorn hasn't been captured by the soldiers, and I hoped he hid himself, but I don't know where he hid.

After two hours of evading anyone I see in the palace whilst continuously searching for  Prince Alathorn. Following my instinct and where I felt he might be, I ended up in a storehouse. It was dark and damp inside, filled with the odour of rotten flaxen. One rat skirted around my boots till eventually I kicked it away. It was really the kind of place where I could hide from the soldiers for days if I had food, because even if they came into the storehouse, they wouldn't search beneath a pile of wheat when there are so many. They might try to pike the pile a few times, but it's size being larger than the pikes and the numbers of the piles in the storehouse made that impossible.

"Alathorn?" I called. There were no responses.

"Alathorn." I called again.

I had a feeling that he was present. It was a kind of feeling you get from bonding with people when you were still a kid. I called again and again, but he wouldn't answer me. I had to find him and tell him we had to go, but it will do no good searching in here. If he is indeed in here, then I will have to convince him that I was not bribed nor threatened with death to seek him out only to betray him.

"I know you're in here. Mortimer's soldiers are already searching through everywhere in the palace. We have got to escape from here and hide in the capital. This may be a brilliant hiding spot, but eventually, they will find you. Go with me now, and we'll together escape this place. Only then will you be safe. You must trust me now, because you can rely on nothing else, and I have always been worthy of your trust." I shouted across the storehouse as loud as anyone in here will hear me, but not loud enough to go beyond, so my voice echoed within.

He came out from a hay bale near at the back, scruffy and dulled. Looking at his face, there are no remaining spirit of a Prince. Even the value of his extravagant clothes reduced. He stared at me, and looked around me. After he saw no one, he ran over to me, but he didn't hug me, he didn't cry. He was waiting for me to say what plan I had to escape the palace.

The number of soldiers still searching for us is numerous, and every entrance and exits are guarded. To find Alathorn who was in the storehouse not far from where I was took me two hours evading the guards. There was one good underground tunnel for Kings to escape dug by Kings before, but Mortimer ofcourse knows this.

The architecture of the palace makes our escape nearly impossible, for it is layered like concentric castles. Each wall is what we call a ring. Beyond this layer however, I could only hope that Mortimer hasn't placed more soldiers.

Can we go through the drainage system of the castle? That will lead us out of the first ring, but it's network is complex even for us who lived in this palace as children. That is acceptable considering the situation, but where are it's exits? All within the first ring and only two massive pipes leading towards the first moat. Could we distract a soldiers and then sneak past him? Likely not. The palace isn't patrolled by a few guards, but an army of soldiers. An idea came into my mind as I thought back to my childhood. Alathorn and I dug a small hole beneath one of the walls in the parts that even the wall inspectors could not find, but will allow us to fit through. It's a place where no one will know it's there. On the flip side, I don't either. I told Alathorn what I thought we should try. He couldn't object, because in this entire palace, there was not a single exit unguarded by Mortimer's soldiers.

With the same dexterity I used to find Alathorn, I traversed along the corners and the walls, whilst Alathorn was hiding behind trees and bushes. we sneaked past everyone we saw till we reached the first ring of walls within the palace. We circled around the palace, searching for our saving rope in a well surrounded by hungry wolves. It was only one barrier preventing us from leaving the castle, but if we overcome this ring, the subsequent ones will be much less guarded. We looked for our escape aswell as frequently ducking behind a few trees near the wall. Then our hope came. We saw in a hundred yards the stone slab we used to cover up the hole. There were no one in the vincinity.

I removed the slab, and our escape path was intact, there was no light from the other also being covered by a stone slab, so there's no way for us to tell whether we'll encounter with a soldier the moment we push open that exit. I made Alathorn go in first, because if there is indeed soldiers on the other side, and if I was caught, Alathorn is certain to be captured. If he was caught instead, then I would still have a chance to rescue him.

He crawled inside, and I did too. It was dark inside, I couldn't even see where my hands were crawling on. The wall's thickness made the journey similar to travelling through a tunnel, only with less space and less light. It was a long way to the other side.

"I think I've reached the exit. I'm gonna try push it open."

Once again, we saw the sky. We were out of the palace walls. I didn't see the relived expression on Alathorn's face. It was the first time I saw sorrow written upon there.

"Look at how quickly the world had turned, how quiet the palace has become. Have you not seen how my supporters kneeling so easily before Mortimer's army and pleading to him as their liege? Truly, I spent a decade and half in court trying to get on everyone's good side. Giving out countless rewards of land and wealth to my subjects. Feasting and talking every day. I had thought I could made a few vassels loyal to me, but at this moment standing beside you with dirty and ripped rags and scratched knees after three hours hiding in the dark do I realise how little friends had I made in the palace. Not a single soldier. Not a single palace guard. No one tried to defend me. In all my life, Vrynscyth, you're the only loyal and trustworthy friend who would stand by me now. You truly are my best friend."

Wait. Is this not what the red skinned man proclaimed yesterday? That he could make me close with Alathorn again? If this was indeed his doing, then I should hate myself for causing imminent havoc across the kingdom, for I allowed him to do it by disbelieving him. However, if he can indeed do this, why can't I ask him to do other things for me instead? My mind opened to a new possibility. That thought is not for now. The troubles had not disappeared. Mortimer will not give up easily, having not found Alathorn. He must have sent his troops all around the town. Our priority now was to find a temporary shelter where we can stay and not be found by Mortimer. Where could that be? Who would accept us into their doors now? As we walked on the streets just out of the palace, the this what we thought.

Then, I saw a thin light of hope. I saw a man I knew, and he could provide us with the shelter that we want.