Crimson and Gold

While Lysandra was away, Saria didn’t have much to do around the Palace. She decided to use this opportunity to visit Asteria in the Temple.

It’s been quite some time since her first visit, so her mind should be ready for another session of recovering memories.

Traveling on a horse instead of a carriage was a bit less comfortable, but in return, it was much faster. In no time, Saria reached the crowded city of Nivelis, this time without issues, pushing through the people densely filling the streets.

She even had some time to look around and admire the colonnades surrounding various pavilions built on top of the many hills rising in this area.

With swift steps, Saria reached the top of the stairs leading to the Temple of Astesis, where she immediately found Asteria.

“Asteria, I was not expecting to run into you so fast. Were you waiting for me?” she asked jokingly.

“I was.”

Saria looked at her, puzzled. “How did you know I was coming?”

“My Lady told me.”

“Your Lady must be a very free deity if she has time to monitor daily plans of an ordinary person,” Saria smirked while glancing at the giant statue of the Goddess she had just slightly offended.

Asteria, however, didn’t seem to take it to heart. She looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Or, perhaps, you’re not as ordinary as you think.”

“Sounds like your Lady has some plans for me.”

“Maybe she does. Maybe she doesn’t. Only time will tell.”

Saria furrowed her brows. “But I’m not even her follower. In fact, I have no deity I swore to.”

This world knew many Gods and Goddesses. Each pantheon had their own dominion and their own region of influence.

The Aelian Pantheon, also known as the Ten Elven Masters, was the most common faith in the continent. Mostly due to the very aggressive expansion politics of Aelius rulers, but also due to the fact that other deities weren’t that proactive at seeking new followers.

The only other big religions on the Helis continent was the worship of the Shape-shifting Goddess in Faolán and the Lords of Āsmānar in Shahriz.

None nearly as meddlesome as the Elven Masters.

While Saria was Shahrezi by blood, she was raised by Sekaris from an early age. Among them, the only voice they were supposed to follow belonged to Father.

Up till now, she never thought of following any god. Even if being faithless meant that she would not enter any afterlife, destined to roam the lands as a Lost Soul, she didn’t really care about what would happen to her after her death.

Part of her simply believed that she should leave it to fate to decide her next life. The other felt deep down that she didn’t deserve an afterlife.

“Not everyone is given a chance to pick who they want to follow,” Asteria’s voice snapped her out of her drifting thoughts. “Sometimes it’s the deity who chooses someone to guide.”

“And your Lady decided to pick an amnesiac assassin with more blood on her hands than water in the Asis Ocean?” Saria asked, then added in her heart: The entry bar is too low.

Asteria walked into the familiar chamber and turned around. “You remind her of someone,” she said with a slight amusement in her voice and sat down on one of the pillows on the ground. “We can start whenever you’re ready.”

Saria swiftly jumped over the tall wall surrounding the Palace grounds and landed quietly on the other side.

Holding her breath, she looked around, making sure that nobody noticed her. She knew that there were no guards around, but in her line of work, there was no such thing as too much caution.

Confirming that she was still hidden, she headed towards the pavilion where her target was located.

Today’s job was easy. Breaking in and stealing a letter. No killing.

When she heard the task, for a moment, she thought that she was mistakenly assigned a rookie mission.

It was only when Father explained where she had to break in, it became clearer why she was the one chosen.

Running up, she scaled the wall of the Royal Palace, then, in a one fluid motion, she climbed over the railing and landed on the second-floor balcony.

The room was quiet, enveloped in the peaceful darkness of the night.

Among the gentle fluttering of the curtains, Saria heard a faint sound of breathing. Judging by the steady rhythm, the inhabitant of the room was sound asleep, blissfully unaware of the trespasser.

With soft steps, Saria went inside.

According to the information she was given beforehand, the letter was supposed to be in a wooden jewelry box somewhere in the room.

She looked around and, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she quickly located the target.

A few hasty steps and a heartbeat later, she was standing before the box holding the letter with a broken seal.

It was probably her fastest and easiest job so far. She wasn’t going to complain, however. Being able to relax and, for once, not having to kill anybody, was actually quite enjoyable. She could get used to that.

Having everything she came here for, Saria put the letter in her pocket and headed back to the balcony.

As she was leaving, she cast one last glance towards the bed.

In that moment, the person sleeping soundly among the pillows turned around.

Saria stopped in her tracks, unable to take another step.

In the gentle moonlight, she noticed a woman lying on the lavish bed.

Her long golden hair spilled all over the satin pillows like waves. Her beautiful face seemed blissfully unaware of her presence, absorbed by the soothing images painted by her dreams.

The path was clear, but Saria didn’t move.

She remained rooted to the ground, unable to look away, lured by the stunning beauty of the person before her. Her gaze swept from the long, graceful eyebrows to her elegant, straight nose, then dipped to the full peach lips.

Only when a quiet groan escaped the woman’s lips was Saria brought back to reality.

She turned away and quickly went back to the balcony, leaving the estate in a few jumps.

Even when the Palace was long gone on the horizon, she could still feel the frantic pounding of her heart and the heat burning her ears.

The unfamiliar sensation both worried her and thrilled her.

Just then, the memory rippled and swirled, moving to another scene.

Saria left a dark alley and entered the main street. It was long past midnight, so aside from a few shady-looking fellows sitting here and there, the city was mostly empty.

She fixed the cloak on her shoulders, making sure that the blood stains were well hidden under it, and walked down the street.

She had just finished a job Father gave her, although it didn’t go as smoothly as she wished for.

The kill wasn’t clean. The woman didn’t die right away.

The image of the desperation in her fading eyes was still vivid in her mind, fueling the chaos in her heart.

Saria couldn’t understand why it happened, why she made such a basic mistake.

Why did she hesitate?

Father gave her orders, important orders. She was to hunt down and kill one of the leaders of a dangerous cult that was spreading like wildfire across the continent.

It should have been an easy task. She did it so many times. It was something she was good at, and her skills were used for a noble cause.

By killing the leader, she was protecting the people from falling into the cult’s claws and having their lives ruined.

So why?

Why, when the time came, why did her hand hesitate? Why did she feel like she was doing something terribly wrong?

She should never have let the woman talk. Father warned her not to speak with her, and she didn’t listen. It was her mistake, her error that she had to pay for.

The doubt sprouting in her heart was her punishment for disobeying the orders. It was her burden to bear.

Absorbed by her thoughts, Saria walked for quite some time.

Pulled back to reality, she blinked twice, looking around the area her legs brought her to.

Without realizing it, she walked all the way to the Royal Palace, where she had stolen the letter some time ago.

Standing at the back of it, she glanced at the balcony in the lone pavilion.

Despite the late hour, the chambers were still illuminated by the golden light of lanterns.

Without thinking much, Saria climbed a tall tree growing directly across from it, beyond the Palace grounds, and sat down on a branch, hiding among the leaves.

From there, she had the perfect view of the room. And when the wind stilled, she could hear a vague laughter coming from it.

It was faint, distant, but even then, she could clearly tell that it was the most beautiful voice she had ever heard. It soothed her heart and calmed the chaos in her mind.

Absorbed by the sound, she couldn’t tell how long she spent sitting on that branch. By the time she awoke from the daze, the sun was already peaking over the horizon.

Reluctantly, Saria left her hiding spot and rushed back to Father.

From that day on, however, she would often find herself returning to that place, hiding on that branch, watching the woman she saw that night.

As time went on, she learned that she was the daughter of the current Emperor.

Princess Lysandra became someone she rushed to after every mission. Sometimes purposefully seeking tasks way below her skill level, just to find another excuse to gaze upon her from afar.

Saria woke up from the vision, pressing her hand to her sore forehead.

The headache this time wasn’t as intense as before, but it still forced her to take a moment to recollect herself.

“Did you see it too?” she asked once the pain faded.

“I did,” Asteria answered calmly.

“Don’t tell Lysandra about it.”

The Oracle gave her a nod. “I will do as you say. But may I ask in return why?”

Saria took a sip of the water, using this time to find the right words. “Because first I need to make sure that I wasn’t the one to cause her so much pain,” she said eventually.

From the second it became clear that she knew Lysandra before, her chest became full of anxiety.

What were the chances that she was the one to end the life of the mysterious friend who was helping the Princess?

Saria didn’t know exactly, but she knew it wasn’t impossible.

And if it wasn’t impossible, then the chances were already too high in her opinion.

Knowing how blackened her heart was back then and how ruthless she was, she could imagine only one outcome if their paths were to cross.

Seeing how she was still here and the mysterious friend was missing…

“There is no point in troubling her with this for now,” Saria said and took another sip, hoping it would wash the bitterness in her heart.

“What will you do if the answers you get aren’t what you hoped for?” she heard Asteria ask the question she was avoiding herself.

Saria cast her gaze down and became quiet for a moment.

“Then I’ll help her as much as I can and disappear from her life,” she said at last.

She put away the cup and said her goodbyes to Asteria.

The Oracle was left alone in the chamber, but even as the sounds of Saria’s footsteps faded, she didn’t move.

After some time, she finally got up and approached the incense cabinet to light up another stick.

“It seems she’s still unwilling to accept the truth,” she sighed quietly.