The War (All Chapters + Synopsis)

Chapter 8.2 - Katlyn

The days following pass by in a constant blur. Through a combination of shortcuts, main roads, and small trails, I make it to the ninety-seventh ring of the Spiraled Mountain. From here I can see the defining features of Cyfala. I catch glimpses of houses and manors all along the top of the mountain, but I'm not quite there yet. It's half a day's ride from the town where I decide to stop for the night.

I have just enough coin left in my pack to pay for clean clothes, a room, and some warm food. The village I stop at can barely be called that, seeing as it's a strange assortment of less than thirty buildings. The tavern, inn, and stables are all the same building. A cat is lapping up some milk from a bowl when I put my horse up in the stable with some dry hay and clean water. A warm homely lady greets me and accepts my coin for a room, clothes, and food for two days.

"Where would ya be from then miss?" The woman asks me.

"Feralis," I say, deciding that I shouldn't lie when I'm so close to my target.

"Ya don' say, only two weeks ago we had two of 'em Feralins. An' wouldn' ya know, it turned out that our guests were King Lues an' his pretty little guard. He looks so young, if ya ask me, I always thought he'd be a little older."

"King Lues was here?" I ask, shocked at the coincidence.

"Sure was, sent coin and clothes back from the royal capital with a note explaining everythin'. He said to watch out for a certain young maid who might be passin' through. Yer name wouldn' happen to be Katlyn Marx now would it?" The woman asked in such a way that suggested she already knew the answer to the question.

"It is," I answer hesitantly, unsure of the response I will get.

"Then there be no need to pay for anythin', yer king sent plenty'o money to pay fer room and board fer a night. He also sent clothes down from the palace fer ya," the woman smiles at me, handing me a brown paper package and sliding my money back across the counter.

I take it all carefully, recognizing the king's perfect script on the card with my name on it. I heard rumors in other taverns, about how I was a traitor to my king. That he would kill me on sight. Apparently they were wrong though, because Lues Conclamata remembered that I served him and his sister. That I may agree with the rebels, but I would never go against him or Ilena; the woman I've known and loved since I was a young girl in the army training school.

Loved, not only as a sister, but more. In the way where your heart flutters, and your pupils dilate. The sort of love that I know she doesn't reciprocate. She hasn't loved anyone since long before the harrowing year she was missing, since she was made to kill her beloved cousin in her Coronation Battle.

The Coronation Battle, the battle of the century that I saw, thinking she was a spoiled brat and it was all an act. Only later did I learn how she suffered before and after that day. How kind, generous, and wonderful she was and is.

I thank the tavern owner for her kindness, and head to the room she gave me. It's a moderately sized room, but much better than sleeping on the cold hard ground outside. I tear the package open carefully, and find the neat red coat of the Feralin Royal Army. The full red sleeves seem strange to me. I'm not a full General, I haven't earned it yet.

I look at the card, reading it's familiar yet strange handwriting.

Dear Katlyn,

If you're reading this I hope it's because my sister sent you.

Things have been a bit difficult here in terms of getting the Brein to help, but it's beautiful here. I have many questions for you, and would like to see you the moment you arrive in Cyfala.