Llyr's House and Important conversations
Llyr’s house was a modest little thing, the wood of the walls giving the entire place a hint of pinewood and cedar. There was a fire in the center flames flickering between blackened logs, an iron pot simmering, hints of clove and oranges filling the air. As he listened to Vanna’s plan, he chopped apples, walnuts and even pecans on his wood board, before adding it to the pot. He stirred as he nodded before he sat heavily on one of the cushioned chairs that were scattered through the place. Shazir sat on one of them himself as he surveyed the room. Besides the modest kitchen, on the other side was an oaken desk and chair, littered with papers, Quills and knick-knacks, near the desk was a single ladder leaned against the wall, no doubt leading to where Llyr slept.
“I think there’s a better way than just rushing in with our swords raised.” Llyr mused.
“The Queen’s sister used a distraction to steal the Queen away.” Shazir mused.
“What kind of distraction?” Llyr asked curiously.
“Dancing in the aisles, distracting me enough not to notice when the Queen disappeared right in front of me.” Shazir sighed glancing at Vanna, who was smiling at his words. “Technically if we could get those like me who chose revenge and ended up with a lifetime of servitude, we might be able to cause enough of a distraction.”
“The children from our town would take our side, everyone they’d once loved is no more, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they would want to stay beholden to Kagan for any longer.” Llyr turned to Vanna, who sighed.
“Violet could help us in getting enough people to cause a distraction. But the guards chose to be on Kagan’s side.” Vanna reminded them.
“That’s simple enough.” Shazir grinned.
“How would twenty guards be simple?” Vanna scoffed.
“Leave it to me.” Shazir murmured, he glanced outside seeing the sun had fully risen. “We should head back before anyone realizes we’re gone.”
“Or we could just stay gone.” Vanna muttered.
“No.” Shazir’s gaze sharpened. “It’s about time the Queen and I had a proper conversation.”
“Hopefully one that doesn’t end with you in the dungeon?” She asked.
“A drink for the road?” Llyr asked with a smile, as he ladled the pots contents into clay cups.
Shazir laughed as he rose up from the chair, “All of that simmering and it’s tea?”
“Not exactly.” Llyr grinned back.
Shazir took the cup from him and drank deep. “This is definitely not tea.” He murmured as the liquid burned all the way down his throat.
Vanna gulped down hers with a smack of lips. “Be ready, we’ll come for you soon.”
Llyr smiled. “I’ve been ready for decades,”
“As are we all.”
They turned surprised to hear a feminine voice speak behind them. “Violet.” Llyr murmured.
Vanna glanced from her sister’s ghostly form to Llyr’s white face. She walked back to where Shazir stood a single hand on his shoulder. “We’ll leave the both of you to talk.”
It seemed to happen in as fast as a blink, and then Shazir found himself back in a familiar sun-soaked room. With no idea how he got there. He stepped away from Vanna who looked troubled, her gaze on the window. “That was your sister?” Shazir asked quietly.
“She wasn’t really there.” Vanna replied.
“How does she know Llyr?” Shazir asked.
“We tried to save her once before, when we were children. But it didn’t work.”
“Were you able to get to the monster realm?”
“There are always ways of doing that,” Vanna sighed, plopping herself on the cushioned bench below the window, an arm braced against the ledge as she looked back at him. “Forget about me, how do you suppose your plan is going to work with the twenty or so guards? Half of them are monsters, and impervious to magic.”
“That’s why I need to talk to the Queen.”
“But will she talk to you?”
“She will.”
Vanna’s eyebrows raised. “Confident, are we?”
“She knows what I know that we have long avoided each other, and now that her sister is possibly in danger, we will need to work together, if we have any chance of our loved ones returning to us once more.”
“That’s the thing about loved ones. They are the weakness we inherited since birth. People we will always be beholden to. Just like you will always be beholden to your dragon.”
Shazir crossed his arms leaning against the bed frame. “How do you know about Seraphina?”
“I could smell her on you. When we first met.”
“I’m curious what does dragons smell like?”
“An odd mix of sulphur and ocean.” Vanna shrugged. “not totally unpleasant, actually.”
Xoxoxoxox
“What are you doing here?” Llyr asked as he surveyed Violet walking towards him. She folded her hands in front of herself surveying him.
“I could ask you the same.”
“I live here.” Llyr drawled.
“No, you know what I mean. You don’t have to do this again.” Violet murmured. She looked down and realized that where she stood, was currently an iron pot above a fire pit. She took a step to the side with a sigh.
“How are you even doing that?” Llyr asked.
“I’ve lived too long in this monstrous realm.” She confessed. “I’ve had to learn things, to survive.”
“Life isn’t about just surviving. How dare you come here to tell me what I can and cannot do.”
Violet looked stricken. “You could’ve had a life. You didn’t have to stay stagnant in this forest!”
“MY LIFE ENDED WHEN YOU WERE TAKEN.” Llyr shouted. “YOU WERE IN MY ARMS. We were inches from safety. Until Kagan.”
“I barely saved you from his cruelty.” Violet stated, her voice shaky as tears flew out of her ghostly face.
“Do not ask me not to save you. Not to save everyone.” Llyr asked.
“What can I do? I love you.”
“As do I. It’s been my curse for years.”
“What can I do.” Violet asked determinedly.
“We think that we can cause a distraction with those people already in the castle. Enough to get close to him.”
“He has guards.”
“I believe the plan takes in account of that, but if you could get people on our side, any side that isn’t Kagan’s really.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Violet murmured stepping closer to Llyr. She seemed to search his face, almost if she was committing it to memory. “but if this fails, do not ask me to live without you.”
Llyr stared as she disappeared with those words, a trail of tears falling down his own face, as he realized what she meant. He climbed up to where he slept, falling down on the lumpy mattress pulling out the single drawing, of the child-version of Violet that he’d drawn from memory.
“You’ve grown, my love.”