Reliable Friend

I swallowed dry saliva as the red haired knight pointed her sword at me. Her eyes held nothing but contempt for me, they were the same eyes Ophelia used to glare at me. I sigh and decide to address her.

“So, what do I owe you for being held at bladepoint?”

“Don’t you dare get clever with me, because of you…Because of you I’ll never see her again!”

The knight took a few steps towards me, on the inside I wanted to step back and scream in fear. Instead, I stood firm and stared directly in her eyes. This course of action caught her off guard, it even caught me off guard, but then again I understood why I was doing this. I promised Ophelia I’d hold the weight of my sins and not run away. If I pussy foot around this, I’d be spitting in her face. The knight’s mouth quivered, she looked at me with a panicked expression and yelled at me.

“Why aren’t you screaming? Why aren’t you running? Aren’t you afraid of me!?!”

“Why should I be?”

“What!?!”

“At the end of the day, you’re one of my people. On top of that, I can tell that you’re hurt.”

I started stepping closer to her, she moved back for a moment. Eventually I was right in front of her, she trembled while holding her sword. She started to tremble again, but I realized it wasn’t because of me. She began to speak with a shaky voice.

“W-why are you doing this!?! What if I kill you?”

“So what if you did?”

My words made her go silent, but I wasn’t done being real with her.

“I’m guessing your friend died in the recent bandit raid, I’m sorry for that. However, as much as I want to cry for the loss of your friends, I can’t. As a princess I was raised to know that loss comes with the job, even though I want to mourn the people who protect me, I can’t.”

“...why? Why don’t you cry for them?”

“Because that would be the last thing they’d want, these proud warriors died to protect my smile. So I have to spend my days smiling for them.”

She looked at me with a mix of emotions: Bewilderment, rage, sadness, and even understanding. In the end she raised her sword.

“What you just said, all of it. All of it was just convenient excuses!”

She made a strike towards me, I stood in place to receive it. I knew I would have to pay for my sins eventually, I just didn’t think it would be so soon. I stood with my eyes closed entrusting the knight with my execution, but my death never came. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the blade barely moved. Not only that, my executioner, she was crying. She dropped the blade, and fell to her knees. She began wailing and sobbing, and looked at me with a tear stained face.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

I froze seeing her change in character, until I heard what came next.

“I tried running away, I tried to blame you for her death, but in reality I was scared. I was scared because I didn’t want to feel responsible.”

…You tried to run away? I looked at the knight now crying on the ground, and saw myself. I saw myself covered in blood and wearing torn rags, I felt a tear fall from my eyes. I broke out in laughter, catching the knight off guard. I looked at her with my teary eyes and spoke to her as my regular self.

“You know what, screw it! Hey crybaby what’s your name?”

“*Sniff* I’m not a crybaby, you’re crying too. My name is Matilda Ferris, I’m a cadet in my squad.”

I walked in front of her and sat down, Matilda was confused. I then pointed at her and smirked.

“I hate you.”

“Eh?”

“I hate how cowardly you are, I hate how you scared the crap outta me, I hate how you tried running from your problems, I hate how sad you look right now, I hate how you stained your cute face with tears.”

I playfully messed with Matilda’s cheeks during my last comment, she grabbed my hands softly and sniffled.

“Princess, can I file harassment against you?”

“Nope, but I’ll allow you a turn. Now go on, hate on me.”

Matilda looked scared, but eventually she relented.

“I hate how serious you look sometimes, I hate how pretty your hair looks, I hate how you bullied me, I hate how strong you are, I hate how unfair your situation is, I hate that you can’t cry…”

I placed my hands on Matilda’s shoulders, she looked at me and I at her.

“We’re terrible Matilda, we tried to run from our problems. We’re the worst aren’t we.”

“Yeah, we suck Princess Ophelia.”

“That’s why we have to do better, okay. It might be one step at a time, but we have to get better.”

Matilda sniffled again and asked if I thought we could change.

“I know we can, that’s why the people we loved sacrificed themselves.”

“Yeah, Kesandra said the same thing.”

“Kesandra, so that’s the name of your friend.”

“U-huh, she was smart, funny, charming…and I got her killed. I got her killed, but I have to keep living.”

Matilda started to cry again, and I hugged her. She hugged me back and we sat there crying for a while. It felt nice having a friend to talk to, my heart doesn’t feel like it’s in a vice anymore. I gave Matilda the same gift I give to people I trust, I promised to be my true self around her and that I’d confide in her when my other confidants weren’t around. I also told her as my friend I wanted her to do the same. She replied saying she wasn’t deserving, but then I mentioned that it’s the least she could do for her rude comments. This changed her tune nicely, I think this will be the start of a beautiful friendship.

****

I walked back to my inn cheerfully, I felt like a weight I held for years was finally off my shoulders. As I walked back, I saw Whitney carrying a crate of books from the Rusty Nail. I decided to chat with her a bit.

“Whitney, you’re not a book thief are you?”

“Really? I was just grabbing any potential documents before someone could dispose of them.”

That’s right, Twigo most likely has plants in the town. The last thing we need is for them to erase any potential evidence we can use against him. I sighed realizing the clean up efforts after all this would probably be messy. That’s when a peculiar thought arose.

“Whitney, what will happen to Lena and Stahn when all is said and done.”

“Well, Stahn will either be imprisoned here or exiled from town. Whether they’ll toss Lena with him or not is still up in the air.”

“Exiled from her birthplace, that’s a little harsh even for me.”

Whitney looked at me in shock, what did I say something wrong?

“Birthplace? Who told you that Opal?”

“That’s what everyone has said, Lena and Stahn have always lived here.”

“That’s right, you have no idea.”

I was confused by her statement, and that’s when Whitney told me the truth.

“It’s a lie Opal, Stahn and Lena aren’t natives of Pewter. However, everyone’s forgotten that fact and thinks they’ve always lived here.”

…Huh? How is that possible, how could so many people confuse a detail like that. On top of that, why would Whitney know something is off?

“Whitney, what’s going on?”

“Opal, it’s about time you found out another reason I don’t trust Lena. For some odd reason, those who spend too much time around her end up having their memories altered.”