COMPASS OF TRUE LOVE - CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5: Heartbreak and Hatred – This is what a normal title looks like by the way, Sephie! You should try it sometime.

-Marion-

How could she possibly know about the real world? I felt my heart racing as a scary possibility crossed my mind. What if she was the real Sephie? Before I knew it the words tumbled out of my mouth. I watched as her face became even more confused than before. Then she grimaced. Was she… upset? Her eyes grew wide. “Sephie how did you get here? Please say something Sephie. I’m starting to get really worried. Sephie?” I watched as her form flickered. Then she vanished in a puff of thick, dark smoke. “SEPHIE!!” I screamed. Tears were running down my face.

She knew. She found out. She had to. And she left. Just like I thought she would. She could never love me like this. No one could. I was nothing more than a freak. I glared at the delicate, feminine hands I created for myself in dreamscape. None of this was real. It was just… a morbid fantasy. As the tears dropped into my palms, I felt the dreamworld around me fall apart.

Soft red light was flittering across the canvas above me. A large hand softly brushed over my head. “It’ll be aight kid. It’s only a nightmare. You’re safe here,” Gerden soothed. I sniffled and blinked until the tears stopped. After a long, deep breath, I felt okay enough to sit up. I was lying on top of a thick woollen blanket, with another cloth blanket covering half of my naked form. The form that I hated so much. I was in the back of our covered wagon. The sun was just getting up, if the red light was anything to go by. Gerden gave me a troubled look. He sat next to me, his bed already wrapped up and stowed.

“Must’ve been one hell of dream to shake you like that kid,” he grumbled.

“Yea… it- it was pretty fucked,” I managed to let out. My voice felt shaky. There was also the roughness I despised so much. I usually managed to sound mostly androgynous. It was times like this, where my mind was in total chaos, that I regressed to my native voice.

I took another deep breath. “I’ll be fine,” I assured Gerden. A grin crossed his face until it seemed to escape that bushy beard of his.

“Okay, kid. You know you can talk to me… I might not be as good as Gertrude with this whole ‘feelings’ thing, but I got an open ear all the same.” His voice was calm and comforting. He rustled my hair for a moment, before heaving himself out of the wagon.

Right. Sunrise. We needed to start early if we wanted to arrive at the capital today. I threw aside the blanket that was covering me and started pulling on my clothes. A pair of loose black trousers that almost touched the ground, a short black shirt that revealed part of my toned stomach and a long, oversized green flannel shirt. Lastly, I reached over to my gear and wrapped the brown belt around my waist. I quickly checked it for all my things.

My wand was in its holster on the left side. My ingredient pouch was right next to it. On the other side were two loose straps with chain links hanging down. My eyes dashed across the wagon floorboard until they spotted my spellbook leaning against the wall next to me. I grabbed it, slid it through the straps and clicked the chain links shut. Then I crawled out of the wagon.

Shortly after finishing my business with nature I sat on the front of the Wagon, reigns in hand. Gerden was just done hitching the horses to the wagon. He sauntered over and heaved himself up next to me. A few moments later we were back on what was hopefully our last day on the road to Segronne.

*****

It was around midday when we made our first stop of the day. We had made it to the Argon Crossroad. The last major crossroad before the capital. Here, along the banks of the river Argon, the road to the east, towards Littlehorn and Omar, met with the Tiled Road, that ran up to Segronne to the north and south towards Sateau, before crossing west into the Kingdom of Arang.

The Tiled Road was a remnant of the old Empire of Vilesia. Before the civil war, centuries ago, the Realms of Men were united as one powerful empire, todays Vilesia. The empire was incredibly advanced in construction and engineering for its time and many of the old buildings and roads stood until today. One of which was the Tiled Road. It ran from the rizishman capital of Izgorbashz all the way to Segronne, spanning almost the entire continent. It was named after its unique construction. Rather than being made of simple cobblestone, like most frequented roads, it was made of perfectly fitted puzzle pieces of flat stone tiles that were set on multiple layers of gravel.

For Gerden and me, that meant making a lot more progress from here on out. That is, after we ate our fill at the crossroad’s inn. This place was a lot busier than the inns and taverns I was used to. Not that Omar’s taverns were particularly empty. But the road trade between Arang and Argonne was always busier than the road trade between Thengel and Argonne. Our northern neighbour preferred trading over sea to major ports rather than set out in large caravans as we did.

“Well kid, almost there. You… still don’t wanna tell me what ya want over there?” Gerden asked, after setting down his massive pitcher of ale.

“I- I’ll tell you another time,” I lied. “It’s just… something I have to take care of.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “By myself,” I stressed.

“Alright, alright kid. Let an old man have his worries…” he flourished his hand in a dismissive way. “Either way, I just want ya to be happy, ya know Gertrude and I care- “he was quickly interrupted as the door of the inn swung open. Four figures clad in black, brown and green robes and leathers pushed themselves in.

One of them strutted over to a nearby table and hammered her fists down. “Listen up everyone. Important ranging business!” she shouted. A hush fell over the entire room in an instant. Another ranger stepped forward. “Alright folks we need you to pay attention now. Our ranging parties have stopped a large party of goblin riders leaving the mountains. As of our last information, they were about two days rides east of here. For you, that means caravanning up. Find our who goes where. Stay together. Those of you travelling east can join us. The rest should find themselves guards if they can.”

Gerden shot me a worried look. Two days east on horse is about the distance to Tumblewood. They wouldn’t assault a village, would they? Argonne had had a goblin problem for years now. They had a lair somewhere in the mountains to the south and frequently attacked travellers on the road. To combat them, the King built the outpost of Kalgor in those same mountains. From there regular ranging parties would scour the valley beyond for raiders. But every so often, a party would slip through. It was a goblin attack that killed Stephanie’s parents four years ago.

I could tell Gerden was worried about them, Gertrude and Stephanie. But so far, the raiders kept clear of settlements. Too many guards. Too easily barricaded against their riders. The hushed voices of the inn started to build back up into a roar as people tried to organise. Gerden still stared at me.

“Sephie…” he muttered. “And we took both horses… She’s on foot…”

I slowly started to piece together what he was trying to say. “Where is she going?” I asked, a panic starting to build inside me.

“I- I don’t know kid. She found this compass. Trying to find her True Love. But there were multiple needles. She could be anywhere right now.” I tried to swallow down the knot in my throat. Then scrambled for my spellbook. It didn’t take me long to find the message spell and I began writing.

*****

We found ourselves back on the road again soon after. Gerden managed to find the people travelling to Segronne and our little caravan was on the way, following the road alongside the Argon River. Time seemed to rush past. Clouds were rushing over my head. The sun kept crawling towards the horizon. My mind was constantly going back to Sephie. She was somewhere out there. On the road. On foot. Probably alone.

Out of the two of us, I was always the one who did better in the Martial Magics class. Be it offensive spells, defensive spells, or support spells. I was a fast caster and my attentive. Meanwhile Sephie was calm and calculated. She excelled in Potions class and Alchemy class. I often teased her about her witchiness. I mean, come on! Ginger hair? Check. Cunning personality? Check. Brews magic potions and knows about all manner of herbs and such? Check. The only thing missing was the big wart on her nose and a crooked hut in the woods. Although the former could also be hidden by a glamour.

A wry smile cracked over my face. She will be fine, I assured myself. I did send her a warning and she will be smart enough to find the nearest caravan for protection.

The sky had turned into a fiery mass of swirling colours. The setting sun was barely visible between the treetops in the distance. The air felt different now. Fresher. Spicier. Cooler. I took a deep breath. Gerden shot me a quick glance and his signature grin was quick to follow. “That, kid,” he declared, “is the sea you’re smelling.” I felt a rush of excitement fall over me. In my entire life I had never been to the sea. Back in Tumblewood we didn’t really have the time and money to travel to the capital and the Moorrest lake was nearby anyway.

It was less than an hour when the capital finally came into view. It sat like a sleeping giant, nestled in between the mouth of the river, the ocean and the edges of the old forest. Small buildings were scarred around that grew denser and denser, until they met the massive stone walls that circled the main city. In the centre of it all sat a massive wooden palace that towered over all other buildings. Once the caravan entered the outskirts it began to break apart as people found their way to whatever home, inn or other lodging they had in the city. Gerden took our wagon to a small two-story building near the city walls. Apparently, he knew the owners of the place and arranged for us to stay with them.

Herb was a skinny man. Roughly the same age as Gerden. That is, old enough to be my dad, but barely too young to be my grandpa. He worked as a postman in the central city, while his partner, Kerry, worked as a barkeep at the gates. Kerry was also still at work, so it was only Herb that greeted us and ushered us into the dining room for dinner.

“Now Gerden, I tell you, it is madness these days! City’s packed full of magical people from all over the country just to join that competition. No offense kiddo, I’m sure you have your reasons,” Herb ranted, with his slightly snarky voice. “But I don’t see what chances they think they have with so many competitors! I mean, there can only be one winner and all they get is a spell of their choosing from the Academy archives.” His hand was waving about wildly as he went on with his rant.

Well. I did have my reasons for joining the competition. You see, transformation magic as a whole was a legal grey area in Argonne, but using transformation magic on humans was strictly forbidden, due to their demonic nature. Illusory changes were of course fully allowed, but what I needed was something physical.

The competition was only a one-time thing. Princess Liana’s twelfth birthday and her official entry into the Segronne Academy of Applied Magics. The King decided that her enrolment should be celebrated. So he proposed a duelling competition. A tournament, like the knights in shining armour got. But this time for spellcasters. And the prize: A spell scroll from the forbidden archives of the Academy itself.

Sephie and I both spent ungodly amounts of time just reading through all those massive tomes at Gerden’s shop over the last year. Not much business to deal with in a little town like ours. One of the tomes I told of the exploits of an elven archmage named Zilfey. She and her sister Myrfey discovered an entire range of powerful spells that were fuelled by demonic magic. One of which was a spell that would turn a being into the form of their soul, their ideal self.

Magic like that was very popular at the time, but then a group of adventurers revealed that both Zilfey and Myrfey were demons in hiding all along. Both of them were never seen again afterwards and all their spells were locked away in the various academies’ vaults across the realms.

The tome also gave the final resting places of some of their spells and their Soul Self spell was locked away in Segronne.

That spell was what I was after. And I only had two ways to get it. Break into the most secure vault in the entire kingdom. Or win a magic competition against the most powerful mages of the realms.

Considering I would most likely die attempting the first, I choose to go for the latter.