Aether Nexus: Curse of Love & Hatred

“Yeah, no one's here! Is this some joke?” Another annoyed guard commented.

“Oy, there's an abnormal amount of shattered glass all over the ground…” A third guard pointed out to the others.

The girl watched bewildered as the guards scanned every inch of the alleyway. “What's happening? We're right here out in the open… How can they not see us?”

Another fleet of helmet wearing guards soon appeared from the shadows of the alley's other end. A guard with golden linings on his armor and tunic, indicative of a higher authority, led the fleet. “Unit C! Why are you dawdling here? Where’s Captain Bush?” The leading guard commanded an answer.

A similar looking guard pushed through the crowd until he was face to face with the commanding individual. “Captain Husk, Captain Bush reporting. We were searching the streets when a pair of brothers came out of this alley, one heavily injured. One brother stated they were attacked by the possible intruder.”

“When was this!?”

“Just a few seconds ago actually—" Bush said, pointing behind him. "—The brothers are being treated and interrogated right now by two of my men.”

Captain Husk perked up in confusion. “A few seconds? That's not possible! If they were attacked in this alley, and you haven’t caught them, my squadron would have ran into them.”

Captain Bush grasped his helmet's chin, agreeing with Husk. “Indeed, this intruder seems dangerous… All the more reason to find and capture them, see why they're here.”

“Why? The fact they've already attacked some of our citizens is all I need.” Captain Husk turned and pointed at his squadron behind him. “Men! I want every square inch of Reaon searched for this fool! Move out!!”

“Yessir!!” Husk’s squadron all saluted and slammed their legs together in unison. Their synchronized shouts echoed throughout the very kingdom. Once finished, they heeded their captain's orders and left the alley.

Captain Bush turned to his squadron in kind. “Unit C! I want you men to do the same! Move out!!”

Unit C mirrored Husk's Unit every action in response. “Yessir!!”

Once both units dispatched, Captain Husk made his way to the two brothers in the street. “Sorry about this, boys, but I'm going to have to take you two into custody of the kingdom. Not only did you break quarantine rules, but you have information we need. Don't worry though, you both will be given the proper treatment back at the castle.”

With a snap of his fingers, Bush commanded his two men to take the brothers back to the castle, with him and Husk in tow.

Now alone in the alley, Alaric waited a few more seconds until finally uncovering the girl's mouth.

The girl staggered forward, coughing and gasping for air before turning to Alaric. “Wha… What just happened? Who are you? What’s your name?”

Alaric took a moment to reply. “I… I don’t have a name…” He said solemnly as he walked towards the exit of the alley. Making it part way, Alaric suddenly hugged the wall, coughing up blood.

“Ah! Are you okay!?” The girl ran up to Alaric to support him.

“Damn it… I overexerted… Myself…” Alaric said through ragged breaths, his body slowly crumpling to the ground. “I’ll be… Fi…ne… ” With his words trailing off in the end, Alaric fell face first into a puddle, unconscious.

The girl rushed by his side and checked for any signs of life, breathing a sigh of relief feeling his heartbeat. “He’s alive! But still… Who is he…” She thought as she turned him on his back, lifted his hood and took off his jester mask.

Doing so, Alaric’s desperate situation became clear to the girl. His long red hair was unkempt and matted from lack of care. His face was pale with sunken cheeks and eyes. Dark circles surrounded his eyes, telling of his insomnia. The only other color on his face were the flushed spots on his cheeks and forehead.

“Oh my goodness…! It’s as if he hasn’t eaten for weeks!! The flushing seems to also be a fever. If I leave him like this, he’ll die!” The girl panicked, contemplating on what she should do. Though, a husky voice from around the corner would alleviate her worries almost instantly.

“Perlone! Perlone, where are you!?”

“F-Father!?”

-

As his consciousness started to tiptoe back into place, Alaric opened his eyes to total darkness. He could feel a thin blanket and a pair of clothes cuddling him. His senses and memories slowly reawakening as he rubbed his head.

Once the brief haze of sleep inertia went away, Alaric started to panic at his current situation. “Shit! Where am I—!?” He thought as he sat straight up, bonking his head hard on something above him.

Flopping back onto the floor, eyes welling up with tears and holding his forehead from the pain, Alaric realized something. The floor he was sleeping on was patterned with wooden planks, like a typical house.

After this realization, sounds of rustling bed sheets and creaking reverberated from all around Alaric. Paralyzed with confusion for the first time in a while, Alaric then heard the distinct click of a lamp, followed by his immediate area being illuminated.

Turning his head to the side, he could only see a glimpse of the room he was in from underneath a canopy-like structure. It was then that Alaric pieced it together. “I—I’m under someone’s bed…?”

A mischievous giggle sounded from all around Alaric, followed by its owner popping her head down to peer beneath the bed. It was the girl he saved, her face framed by strands of her tied-up golden hair. “My bed to be specific!” She exclaimed with a blushing smile.

“Y-You!”

The girl pouted with puffed cheeks. “You? I have a name ya know, Perlone.”

“R-Right…” Alaric said while preparing to climb from underneath the bed, something Perlone stopped.

“Hold on, it may have been three days, but the guards could still kick in our door any minute! They’re searching every house for you!”

Alaric's eyes stretched wide open in an instant. “Huh!? I was out for three days!?”

“Yeah, it was kind of scary to be honest, especially with the fever you had, but you pulled through! It’s like your body is used to such harsh ailments.”

Alaric averted his gaze, the truth being his body was indeed trained to survive such conditions by the Nightstalkers. “Yeah… I guess you could say that…”

Tilting her head while smiling, Perlone got off her bed. “Just hold still for a little bit longer, I’m sure you’re very hungry and thirsty. I’ll get you something and tell my father you’re awake.” Taking a few steps, she perked up, seemingly remembering something, and kneeled down to meet Alaric’s gaze again. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Thank you for saving me… Because of you, my mother’s symptoms have improved. Again, thank you.” After smiling again, Perlone stood up and rushed out of her room calling for her father.

Alaric himself could only look up at the wooden beams that supported the underside of the bed, a blush forming as Perlone’s voice echoed in his head—no one had ever said that to him before, much less show him even an ounce of kindness, with one exception.

"Benny..."

Slowly, the wooden beams of the bed morphed into the wooden beams that supported the Glided Chalice Tavern’s roof. Alaric was now back in the present from his reminiscing.

Finnegan laughed at Alaric’s blushing face. “That’s what I thought, har har! Either way my boy, you're basically part of the family, like my own son at this point! So no need for formalities!”

“Hm… Alright alright… Speaking of family, how's your wife and daughter bo—" Alaric stopped himself, coughing into his left hand. "Ahem, Finnegan?”

“Darn, no ‘Pops’?”

“We'll get there once we get there.”

“Right… Well, they're doing fine lad, thank you for asking. The wife still really likes how respectful you are, and I gotta agree! My darling Perlone is also doing fine! Ah," Finnegan perked up, "that reminds me! Perlone was asking about you last night.”

Alaric raised an eyebrow in response. “She was? Hope it wasn't anything bad.”

“Of course not, she was asking how you were doing. Seems you're living in her head,” Finnegan closed his eyes and grasped at his own chin in contemplation. “As a father, I woooould be more pressed, but if it's you lad…”

Alaric became flustered after catching on. “I don't like what you're insinuating…”

“Oh come on lad! If she became your bride, I wouldn't have to worry about the business going under! Think about it!” Finnegan exclaimed while patting Alaric's back.

Alaric only closed his eyes and chuckled. “Heh, so it's all about the business to you?”

“You know what I meant! I've known you for four years now, I practically watched you grow up into the fine young man you are now. You've lived on your own ever since working here. You even got that magic of yours where you basically become invisible! Not to mention how surprisingly strong you are, breaking up drunken fights between men twice your size with ease! You're like a golden needle in a haystack, if I don't say so myself!”

“I understand and appreciate the compliments sir, but… Are you sure me? You don't even know about my history before we met. What if…" Alaric paused as he rubbed the back of his head, full of regret. "What if I did bad things in the past…”

“Lad… I don’t need to. You don't realize it, but you exude strength, protection, respect, and dignity. Qualities of a man—a man people can automatically trust. If you were a bad person in the past, I can say with the utmost confidence that he's no more.” Finishing a table order of drinks and preparing to serve them out, Finnegan continued. “Either way, you were never a bad person to begin with. What I saw that night, when you saved my daughter from those punks, was nothing but a diamond in the rough.”

As Finnegan walked into the endless sea of patrons within the tavern, Alaric looked down, trying to hide the battle he was fighting against his own tears. “Hehe, thanks… Pops…” He said under his breath with the biggest smile on his face.

Alas, despite his efforts, one tear still crept out.

-

Next: (Act 2: Chapter 21) Another Fateful Encounter?