Magic

Chapter 5: Pardon My Past

"Lieutenant Larson?" the landlord asked. He quickly stood straight as he spun around to him. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the city?"

The small huddle all took a step back and allowed the lieutenant to stalk over to the landlord. "Last night, I took the train and left the city. Today is the prince's last day here so I had to report here before morning. Now, what is going—" When he saw the girl, he paused with a perplexed expression. "Ella? What are you doing here?"

Ella's eyes widened and she craned her head forward. "You know me?"

"Alright!" the landlord demanded. He shot a look at Ella before he fisted his hips and peered back at Lieutenant Larson while the residents muttered to each other in the background. "How do you know her?"

"Last night, I met her in the town square shortly before I left," Lieutenant Larson explained, stepping closer to Ella. "How did you end up here? You shouldn't be here already unless you took the train or a horse."

"I don't know," Ella stammered, nearly on the verge of tears. "I don't remember anything."

"She was crying out for help in the streets," one of the townspeople explained. "We brought her inside and she doesn't seem to remember anything."

"Well, when I saw her last night, she told me her name," Lieutenant Larson said. "She seemed to have her memory for she told me that she was not from The Northern Isles."

"By the looks of it, she must've been recently bewitched," an elderly man with a cane suggested. The entire room turned to him.

"Why would you say that?" the landlord asked.

"Her eyes," the elderly man answered. "They're bronze." Ella rapidly turned back to the long mirror. Her eyes were indeed bronze just like the elderly man stated. "When a witch or a wizard mind wipes someone, their eyes turn bronze as they are newly bewitched. Someone must've erased her memories shortly before she arrived here."

"That's impossible!" Lieutenant Larson denied. "There is no way that happened. There aren't any witches or wizards in this country."

"How do you know?" the elderly man asked. "You never met one. What color were her eyes when you saw her?"

"I don't know. I think brown?"

"See?" The elderly man asked. "And since you said that she remembered everything last night, she must have been bewitched."

Ella turned back to see that the Lieutenant and the landlord were staring right at her. In her short time here, she only learned two things about herself. She was a peasant named Ella and someone had bewitched her. But who was it and why?

"She's lucky that she didn't hit her head or anything," the elderly man said. "At least she came here before her eyes changed back to their color. If she had shown up here when her eyes changed back to her color, there would've been no proof that she was bewitched."

Ella crossed her arms while she stayed still in her seat. The old man was right that she was fortunate that she didn't have a head injury, but how would she get her memory back? How would she find out who had bewitched her? If she wasn't from this country, then what was she doing here?

Lieutenant Larson turned to the landlord and asked, "May I have a word in private?"

The landlord nodded and ordered the crowd to get back to their usual business while Ella sat in her seat, unsure of what to do next. Lieutenant Larson and the landlord went over to the center of the room and made sure that no one including Ella was paying any attention to them.

"Well, what do you think, Lieutenant?" the landlord asked, crossing his arms. "Do you think she's bewitched?"

"It appears so," the lieutenant answered. He shot a look at Ella before he turned back to the landlord.