Chapter 3: The Messenger Part 3
With about 11 hours left until his boat leaves at noon on that fateful new year's day. Rodrick had spotted a woman that he believed to be Princess Athena Bela of Deodalion shortly after leaving the castle. As she dipped into an alleyway, he decided to follow her as silently as possible. He waited a few seconds, then ran into the alleyway. At the end of the alleyway he could see another street and the woman making sure there was no one else on the street in front of her. As she finally finished her assessment of the street, she ran across it.
Once she ran across it, Rodrick ran up to the end of the alleyway, dodging any trashcan and other pieces of trash that people threw in there. After he arrived at the end of the alleyway he looked down the street while peeking past a corner. He saw the woman had already made a dash to the end of the street. "Shit," he whispered as he too made a dash down the street. He paused before he started, "My shoes make too much noise," he took them off and put them in his bag. All the while he made sure to keep track of the woman.
He made a dash for it down the street, but by the time he got to the end of it, she had turned the corner. He looked in the direction she turned. She was gone. "Damn," he said as he brushed his back hair with his hands and looked around for her. He started walking down the street that she turned into and checked every alleyway. The closer he got to the middle of the street, the more he started to hear a feminine voice speaking.
It was at the 8th alleyway where he heard the feminine voice say, "Athena, did Medusa make sure no one followed you." Rodrick stood behind the corner of the alleyway as he leaned in slowly to hear. Now at this point he has heard the name of Athena and he most definitely believes that this is the same woman that he was following. He also believes that this is indeed Princess Athena Bela. However, the ever growing mystery that surrounded her within the peasant population of Marigold, caused his curiosity to consume him. Was she going to some secret lover? Rodrick would be heartbroken if that happened. He had to know, but who was Medusa?
"Yes, I did make sure no one followed us, do you think I'm ineffective at my job," he heard another feminine voice say, this time more raspier than the other two.
"Well I feel like someone is following us."
"You worry too much Pandora."
"No Athena, you worry too little."
"I worry too little? Are you kidding me? I'm the one who made sure we left after midnight. You two wanted to leave an hour earlier."
"We would have been caught, I said to not go an hour earlier fool."
"Medusa! It was me who said that. Not you, you dumb bitch."
"Athena, that isn't ladylike."
"Hehe, sorry about that Aphrodite."
"Please, if you were sorry you would have listened to me the other times I've told you."
Rodrick was confused.
How many people were there? The more he listened in on the conversation the more he started to realize that the voices he heard all had one base tone to it. To him it was like a bard trying to tell a story by using different voices while his friend would steal money from the watchers who were in absolute awe. He was unfortunately a victim of this. He had to make sure, he ducked into the alleyway and hid behind a trash can that was near the entrance. The trash can stunk so badly that he almost passed out from the smell, in fact he did pass out for a split second, only to kick the trash can. Causing the woman to look over in his direction.
"What the hell is in this thing," he whispered.
"Hello," Athena asked in Rodrick's direction. Rodrick panicked, he was unaware of the fact that he kicked the trash can. "How did she find me," he whispered.
"Whoever is behind that noise. Please come out. I promise I won't hurt you. Damn, why did you say that Athena. I'm sorry."
Rodrick heard a shift in her voice as she criticized herself. He was way too curious now, was she truly alone? He stood up. He looked at Athena and practically turned to stone. Her beauty truly was unmatched in the city of Marigold. But one thing was for certain, she was alone. "Who are you," she asked with more aggression in her undertones.
"Rodrick Messenger. I have- I uh. I have a message for Princess Athena Bela."
"How did you find me?"
"I've been following you since the- Wait wait, I'm sorry I didn't mean to follow you, I just-" Rodrick looked down, then looked up at Athena whose head was completely thrown back. She took a breath in and a breath out. As she lowered her head, and smiled. "It's okay darling."
"What the fuck," Rodrick whispered as Athena seemed to leap at him with impressive speed. By the time he realized that she had moved, she had already punched him in the face and knocked him out. As he slipped out of consciousness he heard Athena say, "What have you done? He had a message for me. You're the one who panicked Athena, I just did you a favor, fool."
Once Rodrick woke up, he found himself upside down, his hands chained. In a dimly lit room with gray walls. The floors were hard stone, and the ceiling had vines growing from it. Rodrick screamed, "Where am I? What just happened?" He looked down the best he could and saw a bucket of water below him. Above him he saw a rope tied around his ankle, the rope hung on a hook.
"Do not panic. We just have a few questions for you," a masculine voice said. Rodrick quickly turned his head toward the direction the voice came from. He saw two figures standing in the darkness. One looked slender while wearing some type of robe, and the other looked muscular as his muscles [protruded out of his robes. Both wore a mask that resembled a different animal with markings that he could not make out. "Pandora, can you give us some light."
"Lah, Eye, Jie, Hah, Teh," Pandora spoke as a ghastly figure emerged from her and screeched out a harrowing, "Light!" Then from her hand emerged a ball of light, revealing the two figures to Rodrick. Pandora, who held the light in her palm, wore a white mask that resembled the face of a lion, attached to the top of the mask were black goat horns. The man had a white mask that resembled the face of an elephant with a trunk that seemed to fit an actual nose.
"Was that rune-speak," Rodrick asked Pandora as she walked closer to him. "We are the ones asking the questions here." As she spoke the man made his way to the side of Rodrick. "Are you against your very nature?"
"What?"
"Can your soul not hear me? I'm screaming right now."
Rodrick looked around the room, he noticed the man put his hands around his neck, not touching it, but close enough to feel the heat emit from his hand.
"For a long time now, my kind has been oppressed," Rodrick heard a liquid drop into the bucket of water below him. He looked down and he saw the water dyed red with what he assumed to be blood. "My brother once told me that I was a dirty rune speaker. My own brother, born from the same womb as I. Now what separates us as people in that case? We share the same blood, but our souls hear a bit differently, so we are a whole different creature? A whole new race of humans that should be ostracized from society? Don't you believe that that kind of thinking is wrong?"
"Yes! Mages are cool. I respect your kind's abilities!"
"My kind? Is that how you identify me? As just a mage? My kind? My body is as human as yours. Everyone's soul is different as well, if everyone's soul was the same there wouldn't be individuality. My kind? Are you saying that we are separate from every other human! Elephanta look away."
The man turned his head as Pandora came so close to Rodrick that he could hear her soft breathing. She took off her mask and he saw her make a facial expression so pained that he himself grimaced. Her nose was bleeding, and she had a single tear running down the side of her face. Pandora's beauty turned him to stone, she seemed unmatched in all of the city of Marigold. Yet in her eyes she was not alone. It was as though Rodrick stared at the abyss, and the abyss had friends looking back. She whispered, "What was the message you had for Princess Athena Bela."
"Are you not-"
She put her mask back on as she backed up, "YOU SPOKE OF A LETTER IN MY PRESENCE. WHO WAS IT FOR AND WHY," Pandora screamed.
Rodrick was confused but continued on as though he was playing a part in a play. "I have a message for Princess Athena Bela!"
Elephanta turned his head back at Rodrick. "But why would you be around these parts if you were looking for the Princess," he asked.
"That is a stupid question Elephanta. He clearly lies, if he did have a message for a royal he would have a royal messenger hat."
"That is true," Elephanta responded.
"Tell me, sir messenger, what exactly would the message be that you had to deliver to her."
Rodrick gulped, he hesitated as he stuttered out, "I cannot disclose the contents of letters due to company policy."
Pandora sighed, "Here I thought maybe, just maybe you had the will to commit to our cause. Curse him, Elephanta."
Elephanta gripped his hand around Rodrick's neck. "Kye, Hah, Ogb, Yev, Une." Elephanta said as a ghastly figure emerged from him and screeched, "Choke" He let go of Rodrick's neck and backed off away from him. Rodrick watched as he made his way to a lever placed on the wall. "How much of your soul did you put into it," Pandora asked Elephanta.
"Enough to last about 5 seconds," Elephanta said as Rodrick began coughing. He tried to catch his breath but his chained hands could only curl in pain as his face turned purple and an imprint of a hand began appearing on his neck. He gasped for air as Pandora nodded towards Elephanta. Rodrick heard a lever being pulled down as he was dunked into the bucket of water.
His breath was gone, and the flood of water entered his lungs as he desperately tried to cling onto his life. Those 5 seconds he stayed underwater seemed like an eternity to him. He saw his life flash before him, the only prominent memory of his was his father telling him the same old speech. "No matter the cost," he said as he was lifted out of the water and he felt his breath return to him.
As he coughed up water and recovered his breath, he screamed out. "His majesty is dead! I must deliver his will to Princess Athena Bela."
Pandora froze.
"Is this true," Elephanta asked. "If that's true then, Pandora, we must tell everyone else."
The whole room was silent save for the dripping of water from Rodrick's hair to the water in the bucket. Elephanta made his way to Pandora after a moment of silence. "Hey Pandora?" Still no answer from her, he waited yet another moment before grabbing her by the shoulder and shouting, "Pandora!"
She slowly turned her head to him, "Tell everyone else. Go now, I'll take care of this boy." Elephanta nodded his head then left the room through a door that was still within the darkness of the room. Light emitted from the door as it was opened and from that Rodrick could make out a line of people waiting outside dressed in the same black robes and white mask that Pandora and Elephanta was wearing.
Once the door closed Pandora fell to her knees, she took her mask off and wiped the blood from her nose. The ball of light that floated above her hand the whole time disappeared as she began to crawl over to Rodrick. "My father. He's dead? How did he die? What did he leave behind for me? What were the contents of his will to me," she said meekly.
"Are you Athena Bela?" Rodrick asked, wheezing.
"At the moment, yes."
"Your father wants you to marry Prince Tut of Amenti-Aaru. That is all."
"Ah," Athena said, lowering her head. "If that is all, then I guess you can die now."
"Wait wait! I must deliver the news to your brothers! Please let me go!"
Athena raised her head, "I see. I'll only let you go if you promise not to tell a single soul about what you've seen here. I'm going to have to put you to sleep now. I'll drop you off at the whore house my brother Jeremy owns."
"Thank you, thank you."
"No need to thank me, you'll feel pain anyway once you wake up."
"Huh? Why?"
Silence rose between them as she got up and lifted her opened hand in front of his face. He could just barely make out the blood that began dripping from her nose as she waited a moment before whispering, "Snu Lah Une Une Fwe." A ghastly figure emerged from her and harrowing screeched, "Sleep."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
CarltonThe
CarltonThe - I am thankful and appreciative of all of you for reading. Vote up the-
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone