….…..
It has been a week since my unfortunate encounter with mother. Or so I thought.
I'm quite sure it had something to do with the bastard upstairs. I had merely fainted but the next moment when I awoke, the pain had miraculously subsided overnight. As if poppy seeds had such anesthetic capacity to be completely healed from the pain. I would've believed it if I hadn't felt his energy so I know that he had something to do with it. His terrible stench lingered in the air.
Other than fainting there was no way for me to have slept that night, I would keep waking up to take another seed the moment the anesthetic effects subsides.
Did he know that if left untreated I would develop a hideous infection? Thanks to him I didn't have to deal with the pain for long.
The burns are permanently imprinted on me now. I wrapped myself in my self-made bandages (I had to sacrifice 1 of the only 3 dresses I have for it). Although it doesn't pain me as much but the healed flesh is still fresh and tight so it feels terribly itchy. There is also the terrible smell coming from the dead skin layered atop of it, which I dislike the most.
Not only that but, I am forced to wear a hood over myself because the villagers found it to be unsightly. They found me out because I was spotted while stealing food. But no matter, I'll have a way of fixing this later on.
Beauty is an important asset in this world and I can't afford to be lesser. I consider it to be a bountiful cost because it proceeded similarly in the story, this avoids suspicion on my part to his. With half my body burned off, I have successfully escaped mother and the brothel, I am unable to work there now. I've eliminated a major threat.
Aside from my challenging struggles at essentially just trying to stay alive until I could escape my death set, I have many other problems to deal with. Pressing matters that involves the point of my life in this play. I know that the protagonist's first appearance in my chapter is getting nearer which poses as my biggest current problem. I did not have enough time to inquire knowledge about his culture that's why I begged that fat fuck of a book keeper to let me stay because I had yet to find any foreign literature in his store.
In the story, there were only ever illustrations of him in my memory from his early childhood, most where his face is not even shown. We are both foreigner's to each other. So I know that he is a foreigner but of what exactly? It's a simple shrug off the shoulder like reading a story book when the oracles showed it to me in the vision but when you are trying to figure that out in a real world, that becomes tedious. I do not even know what his language is.
All I know is that he is from the nation closest to this border which is none other than the Dominion Solkara, the neighboring country of this kingdom.Their national language is called Beorhi but that's just about what I know from lurking in that gossipy market place and their strange tradition of covering a royal's face. Which makes it even the more difficult to identify him.
There are many travelers and patriots visiting the temple by day and night, in and out a few times from what I have observed. Each visitor may look similar or different from the last and one may even wear a mask to simply hide their identity, it's customary because one would only visit the temple for a serious ailment. They get many visitors because after all, this is the temple where the most powerful priestess of this world resides despite her popularity. Nobles and aristocrats of all over the place often come here to be treated by her.
It wasn't stated in the vision the exact date the protagonist will arrive, only that it was around the last days of summer. And as those days get closer, I'm beginning to feel anxious. Anxious that I might accidentally miss his arrival due to my miscalculations. Because although the path choices is given according to the story, my god could chose the outlying choice included which then forces things to take a different turn into the story. It all depends on him, which gives me anxiety.
I have no power over which path he'll chose for the scenario and therefore have no idea what exactly will happen, so I must calculate all odds of possibility. I'll control what I can control in the story to avoid complications in the future. My anxiousness was exerted even more when I got permanently kicked out from the bookshop because I have no way of distinguishing him from other folks who'd also wear masks. The only distinction I have is the difference in fashion between cultures. But I could still simply mistake it for another culture.
He's from the dessert and wealthy, so probably… something lightweight like silk and loads of fashionable jewelries?
I've been observing every traveler who wears a mask (especially kids) to the temple ever since my recovery and even more in detail as the days of his arrival got closer. So much so that observing alone wasn't enough for me. I follow them to listen in on their conversations as to what language they use and the rumors about them from the nosy villagers. And if their fashion in clothing is even slightly different, I get even more invested.
A few times I even snuck up on the kids to check. And all ends with them running away from me and crying after I lifted their masks. Most are just kids with awful skin conditions. Because of that, a rumor even started about me being a ghost child wondering about the temple haunting the place as to test visitors. I even heard the monks talking that it might've been the poor girl they treated awhile back (me) and felt sorry for me.
Although I could just base whether the mask poser is really the protagonist by his features alone but then again, they are a powerful race so he could have disguised himself to alter his appearance. So that thought comes last.
And would you look at that, 5 carriages in a row. A far secluded temple suddenly getting a lot of visitors in just one day? This is clearly just another one of the 7th god's ploy to mess with me in order to make my job harder, he knows the purpose of my role. But I do not really have any other choice but to fix his sabotage, otherwise all my efforts would be wasted from fulfilling my role.
I know we would meet eventually because it is just how the story goes but my god is a nut job. If he finds out that I was trying to met with the protagonist through these he could change the path in a snap and he would most probably not let me met with him at all cost. He must have thought I wouldn't notice. All that he is seeing now is that, I had gotten so bored that I decided to scare children visiting my territory.
I got into big trouble for what I did to the village children a while back and they have been hunting me ever since so I had been scarce. I don't hang around the market anymore where most of them live and when I do, I had to be on edge and hid from them. If they were to catch me I'd be beaten again. Another tedious task that I have is checking on my parents since my main plot depends on the severity of my family's circumstances.
But as of this moment I still don't want to see mother, besides I already know what she is going to do because I burned down half of the entertainment house. The fire was a big issue so I used her popularity here to check, according to the village gossipers, the brothel had basically ran out of business. The stingy madame refused to pay and repair all the damages and the whores are left to fend for themselves. Most of them went down the mountain.
I only got to physically check on my father. He is as sick-looking as he ever was, enjoying a couple of drinks with his so called friends. The soldiers are on post -duty but I guess they are currently slacking. I still stole some rum for him and left it at the house.
It's crowded in the market today so I did not stay long. I stole some bread from the baker's stand for my food stock then headed back for my tent but as I walked past the market place, the annoying shriek of some kid crying rang my ears while it's was calling out to its parents and as I walked and kept hearing it cry out more, I learned that this kid has quite of a different accent than the usual folks here.
I had a feeling in my gut that made me stop and turn back to look at the kid. It was crying in the middle of the busy street of the market, I wouldn't care less but this kid had an obvious difference in style. Obviously rich with their adorned cloak with a vibrant ruby pin and silk gloves, what caught my eye even more was the mask it was wearing.
My usual paranoia wandered my thoughts again, 'What if it's him?'. Seeing as this kid is attracting unwanted attention, should I go check? It's not rare here for nobles to get robbed let alone their kids being kidnapped for some ransom. And my assumption had proven to be correct when as the kid continued to wander around some goons were starting to follow along. It seems foreign so as bothersome as it is, I still have to go check.
Maybe the protagonist and his father decided to make a stop in the market for something and he evidently got lost? I don't fucking know but might as well go look.
"Mama! Papa!"
I walked up behind the kid, unexpectedly she's shorter than how she looks from afar.
"Hey. Are you lost?", I asked and instantly grabbed their mask thinking it may be another poser but to add the disappointment, it wasn't him. It wasn't even a boy, it was a girl.
I should have noticed the gown she was wearing under that cloak but I didn't get to see it when I was far away with only good eye. Even if the protagonist did have abilities, it wouldn't be one as to go so far as disguising himself as a girl.
"Oh please help, I can't find my parents!", she gestured to touch me but she moved forward instead of beside her which was where I am. Seems she's blind too. Not foreign too because she speaks Edzhilan fluently just with a more refined accent.
"Please help me", she begged. I looked around and saw that the goons were getting closer. I'd hate to be involve with grown ups. But, if I take her back to her parents they'll give me money. I have no choice but to save the poor thing.
"Come with me". I grabbed her hand and began dragging her out of the crowd as the goons continued to follow us.
"Where were they last?", I asked her.
"Hey! You there!", noticing that I am taking her, one of the goons called out so I pulled her even more to guide her to run.
"I don't know. One of our horses fell sick so we decided to make a stop", she quickly answered while looking nowhere and wiping her tears.
'The stables'. Why'd she wander off anyway, stupid kid.
"This way". I turned to a corner and made a run for it but she fell.
"Shit! They're getting away!",the goons yelled.
"Get up!", I ordered her and she hurriedly followed. Even though she had scrapped her knee, she was brave enough to continue our run.
"Hey! Stop!".They were closing in but luckily we were passing by the basket weavers. There were stacks of baskets around so I disrupted it so it fell and scattered on the ground to block their path. Whilst getting an earful from the weavers we continued with our run. I held her through until we eventually reached the stables.
"There! There's your parents", I pointed to the worried couple with similar features to her while I am also out of breath from running.
"Mama! Papa!", when they heard her and saw her they immediately rushed to her.
"Oh thank heavens! We thought we lost you!"
I catch my breath and watched as the family was reunited. Crying and hugging their daughter. But as I was about to be celebrated and claim my reward, I spotted the village kids near by who were already pointing at me and started running towards here.
'Fuck!'
I had to make a run for it before they reached me because if I did get a reward they'd just rob me. Even if I'm covered in bandages they'd still recognize my hair. After what I did to them they wouldn't just simply let it go because I threatened them. I ran back to the hill and as scarcely as I could to hide from them. The only thing I got from the girl was her ruby brooch.
This day is filled with inconvenience.