Glimmer of Hope

Londra stretched and rubbed her neck. “After three years, eleven months, and eight days one would think I would know how to sleep on a floor,” she said to her green walls.

Slowly moving around the room she headed to the little kitchen, a perk of making it to green. Yet, there wasn’t any food to be prepared, just a hard, thick, piece of bread left from yesterday in the small oven. Her frail, thin body slowly shuffled to the small bathroom with no warm water. Sighing she dressed in her clean, grey, uniform still wishing it wasn’t a dress. She remembered how snug it had been in the beginning but now it was hard to keep on. She tied her apron on, wrapping it around her. She brushed her hair with boney fingers then washed down the bread with unsanitary water.

Time really didn’t matter, but then again it was only seven in the morning. She left her room traveling down two doors to knock. “Zeke? You awake?”

A moan was her answer, one she understood too well. She let herself in pulling a chair closer to the pile of blankets that held a proud Warrior Goblin that was now more grey than green who had lost his treasured muscles with most of his body mass. He used the chair to stand. “Stupid legs won’t work. Thanks for the assist.”

“Seen you going up and down yesterday, horrible on our weak bodies. Bread and poison water just doesn’t give one any kind of nutrients. You work today?” She asked with worry all over her wrinkly face.

“No, I will try to check in on the twins and Robbie while you are gone. I am worried too,” he added with a sigh, shaking his deteriorating form.

“Too big, need to stay positive,” she instructed, moving towards his kitchen to find his last piece of bread. They had bought them together, so she knew he had part left.

“In the oven,” he mumbled, “and it is hard.”

“I know, but once we reach the four year mark… one of them will break. They are frail and starving too. Even if they can eat anything. Makes my day a little brighter,” she added returning to him with the bread.

“You have an evil streak,” he said ripping into the bread with his large, once gleaming white, teeth. “Then you are a mother to everyone.” He leaned back into the chair. “I heard you need to visit the Nest today around five. Maybe it will speed things up. Then again, breaking them would be fun. Well at least three of them. I feel a little bit sorry for the other three.”

“Agreed,” Londra said eyeing the other chair. If she sat down, would she be able to get back up. Her memories of both lives were gone, only vague feelings remained. Like how she was sixty-eight when she was killed to be reunited with a fragment of her soul here that was almost sixteen. It would make her almost twenty now but she was back to moving like she was sixty-eight again. “I heard that too. I am heading in now to see how many times I get to climb the stairs today. I don’t think Rus works today either. The two of you could lean on each other while making your way to the twins.”

“You are not kind, I take it all back,” Zeke smiled, working on chewing another small bite of bread. “At least he lives on the first floor of building two. I hate climbing two sets of stairs after working. Now I sound like an old man again,” he chuckled.

Londra waved, making her way out of green building three. A little voice caught her attention. Sitting on the ground next to the door of the building was a Fairy that no longer looked healthy. “You want a ride, Fenten?”

“Please? I made it from building one to here but…” the little voice mumbled, barely loud enough for her to hear. She slowly bent down, using the building behind her to keep her balance. Once her hand was on the ground Fenten crawled into it. His long, oval shaped wings had once been so full of color but now they were grey like his skin. “I know, I look horrible,” he sighed, taking his place on her shoulder so she could hear him. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this. I have only been here six months and would have never made it this far without you guys. I swear, everyone just wrote me off.”

“I can take you back to your room if you…” she started.

“Don’t, I have a bit of pride left. It is only three hours of work in my human form. I will do it! Are you heading to the Falcon’s Nest around three?” he asked, once she was slowly walking towards the Duke’s Manor.

“Yea, from what everyone has said the Archduke’s Knights will be having a meal there around five and if I want to speak to them this time…” she closed her hazel eyes. “Part of me just wants to go there and wait. I know Matthew would let me sleep in the back but I don’t want him to pay a fine, like last time. I may have saved his son but they don’t owe me anything. I wonder if Lord Aslin will be waiting with Mary for today’s assignments.”

“You just want him to hit you, so he cries,” Fenten chuckled. “He is a horrible wimp.” Londra smiled when she opened the servant’s door to the kitchen. “Oh, he is here,” Fenten said before turning into his human size. Now he was the same height as Londra and just as unhealthy looking. His pale, oval face and dull green eyes showed so much.

“Good, you are on time,” Lord Aslin spat. He too was skin and bones because of the Life Curse. All he had to do was pay and free her then he would be healthy again. Pride was funny but also annoying. “I want you to clean all the bathrooms but in my order! Mary has to put a time on your apron so I can see you have done them in order. Put it on the counter, now!”

Londra untied her apron and placed it on the counter for him to write on. Usually, it was Mary who gave out the assignments and signed off on them. After, they took their aprons to Johnathan who would give them the fifty bronze for the day’s work. Fenten took off his apron, handing it to Mary. Lord Aslin just waved her off. He didn’t care what the dying Fairy did. He just wished his hand wasn’t shaking… five bathrooms all on different floors. That should work. He and the others would feel her fatigue after going up and down the stairs but that was all. She would be the one reaching into the gross toilets. “There!” he tossed it back to her. She looked at the list and nodded. “Are you not going to say anything to me? Are you ignoring me!?”

Londra said nothing, just headed to get her supplies. He reached out to grab her arm but instead of her stopping he screamed out in pain as the force was tripled and his arm became limp. She rubbed her right arm but then went on with her tasks as he stormed out.

“Londra,” Mary started, “I will be in the kitchen all day. You need to leave by three at the latest. We need to get you to the Nest. There are a few vendors that will help get you there but still it will be close. We need to end this. Last year when the Archduke visited they hid us all and used people from the village… I can’t keep doing this. I am living for my children but…” she paused looking down at her thin body. “We all look like walking skeletons.”

“I will,” Londra stated with conviction. “It will end one way or another. When the curse reaches four years they will lose either their sight or hearing. I don’t think Aslin will live long after that then… in a way he will free me once he dies. But I agree, getting the Archduke involved is a simpler way. One that doesn’t make me look like a monster.”

“Thank you,” Mary said trying to smile at the two of them.

True to her word Mary could be found in the kitchen all day even if nothing was being baked. Londra didn’t mind cleaning toilets and soon she was standing with Fenten for the frail looking Jonhathan to look at their aprons. He gave them their wages then motioned for Londra to follow him out the back door. Fenten returned to his Fairy form and rode on her shoulder. He was going with her no matter what anyone said. Jonhathan just smiled as did Henry who helped Londra into the wagon.

“Londra,” a familiar voice said, gently shaking her awake. “We are here.”

“Martin?” Londra asked a bit confused. She checked to make sure Fenten was still with her and he was gently tucked in a pocket of her apron. She took him out and placed him on her shoulder. “Just passed me around, did you?”

“That would be it,” Martin said with worry in his brown eyes, and cognac round face. “It is only four and they are already done with the main meal. Our intel was wrong, but they haven’t left yet. Matthew is waiting for you at the bar with some non-poisoned water and soft bread. He knows you have a stow away too.”

“Our thanks,” Londra said, almost giddy. “Real water and soft bread just sounds wonderful!” With that Martin watched them enter the Nest with a sigh. He, like so many others in this town, hoped this worked. The Spectrum Challenge was a blight on this whole Dukedom. Not only was it happening in Duke Eldwin’s Manor Village but also the Manor Village of Lord Jordan and Lord Greco, creating a triangle of negative energy. It had to be stopped. He fisted his hands then went back to unloading his cargo.

“Oh, you made it,” Matthew practically yelled in relief. This got the attention of the group of Knights. They were occupying two of his large circle tables and a rectangular one in the back corner watching people enter and exit the Falcon’s Nest. “Fenten, are you remaining small?” he asked producing two glasses of water and large slices of fresh bread. A moment later Fenten was standing, leaning on the bar with Londra.

The twenty-five Knights were now watching the two very closely as was everyone else in the room. A strange feeling for the two being watched. Londra knew everyone was counting on her, but this bread was too good to gobble and that would just make her empty stomach queasy. Two of the Knights stood and walked slowly to the bar. Using magic, they scanned the two then quickly excused themselves, heading towards the bathroom. Both were about to be sick. Londra tried not to smile, “I have that effect on the healthy.”

“In more ways than one,” Matthew mumbled. He cleared his throat, “Captain, this is the woman I told you about. The one that knows why so many are sick. As you can see, she is quite sickly herself. May I bring a chair so she may join you? I am sure her Fairy friend will revert and also come.”

“We don’t mind,” the captain responded as the others exchanged looks.

Londra’s eyes weren’t too focused, nor was her mind but she could tell that the Knights were a wide variety of races. As Matthew settled her into the chair on the long side of the rectangular table with Fenten sitting on the table, the other two returned to the table whispering to those near just what they had found. The Knights weren’t overly dressed but any could tell who they were. The Captain sat tall, maybe a bit over six feet with short, thick, fluffy, dirty blond hair with strands of silver, blue eyes, and a strong, square face. He was toned but not muscular yet his presence was commanding. “So, who do I have the pleasure of meeting?”

“Hello, I am Londra and this is Fenten,” she started, a nervous hand on her stomach. “I would like to show you three Mana Memory Spells…”

“Wait,” a large female started, her fluffy dog-like ears standing up while her golden brown eyes showed her confusion. “Gerry just scanned you. According to her you are battling eight different poison spells while keeping two hundred and eighteen alive with low level healing spells. How could you afford to preform such a high level truth spell?”

“Kailea has a point,” the captain said hoping for an explanation.

Fenten chuckled, “because she has gobs of mana and no real way to use it all. You could put three High Elves together and even they wouldn’t have the amount of mana Londra has. That is why the horrible…” he trailed off then started to sway as if he hadn’t been speaking to them all. A moment later he said, “did I do something?”

Londra smiled weakly, “he isn’t wrong. That is why I want to show you. One of the poisons messes with our minds after four o’clock, which it is… right? Oh, that bread was so yummy.”

“Captain,” Meko started, his long, green face full of concern, while his golden eyes conveyed more. “I say let her try. If three stories can answer what is going on then…”

“Oh, you are a Goblin Mage!” Londra said excitedly. “I hear they have great control of earth magic. Is it true? My first friend is a Goblin Warrior… or he was now he looks like me…”

“Okay, do it,” the captain said. “Show us. For those who don’t know… if you are standing in the circle on the floor, you will either see the memory from the view of others or through the person. If it becomes too much you just excuse yourself nicely and back out of the circle. I am sure Matthew doesn’t mind us taking up his time or business since he set this up. Okay, we will keep her at this table and I will stay beside her while Zeona stays on her other side.”

A tall, slim, female Elf stood to take the chair next to Londra. Her pure blue eyes wondering what this shadow of a human could do and why the others though so much of her… until she sat down and felt the mana surrounding her.