Chapter 15 - Campfire: Part Two

Evanna grabbed the bag that she left next to Midknight, bringing it with her as she and Ger returned back to the campfire. They sat down across from Ronan, who now had Cilv sitting next to him, eating some berries. Once the stew that Axel made was dished up and eaten, Evanna decided to show the others the parchments she brought with her.

She inhaled deeply; this decision had not been made lightly. She had only been with this group for a day, but she felt it was only right that she show them the parchments and the secrets they held. Reaching into her bag, she brought the leather tube out, looking at it before noticing Ger looking at her, searching her face, silently asking if she was okay with revealing the scrolls and her own secret. She nodded once and proceeded to open the tube.

"These parchments", She started as she looked around the campfire, making sure that she had everybody's attention.

"I have brought with me are proof that the gemstone exists. On one, you will find the instructions needed for the gem to work and on the other is a painting of how it looks."

She passed the parchments to Ger, who passed them on to Ronan. Each person in the group took their time looking at the scrolls and, in turn, one after the other looked up at Evanna in surprise and a little bit of suspicion. Cilv was the last to look at the papers; she scanned the gemstone painting first, admiring its beauty, then opened the other parchment. She tried to read the writing on the paper then looked up at Evanna after realising she could not understand the language it was written in.

But before her brain ran wildly with thoughts, she asked, "You can read what is on here?"

Evanna nodded her head, which made the men at her side, not including Ger, look at her again in shock.

"Prove it," Cilv stood up and handed back the scrolls to her.

Evanna scanned the top line and read out loud, "* Though the gem is nothing but a myth to mere humans, it is indeed real...*"

"It reads, 'Though the gem is nothing but a myth to mere humans, it is indeed real.' It then explains how to use it" She looked back up to now see Cilv staring at her,

"And? How does it work?" Cilv asked, narrowing her eyes; she then looked back down at the parchment in her hands.

"It says to use it, you must break it in half and move it around the area that is injured. For anybody that is ill, the stone still needs to be broken in half, but the instructions are different. It says: keep it hovered above their body and rotate the gem clockwise three times around the person's body," Evanna responded after reading the instructions in front of her and translating it to the others.

"How is it that you know how to read and speak Muranthian?" Ronan asked curiously; Evanna shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

"I was taught from a young age."

"But the King, your father, forbids it? It is the law?" Axel spoke up this time.

"I heard the King despises the elves," Cilv said. Evanna turned back to look at the woman; she watched her expression and could almost see the gears in her head, spinning at the possibilities.

"It is not that uncommon for the nobles and royals to learn Muranthian. It is against the law, but money and power tend to rule above everything else." Ger said, defusing the many questions that started to come to the group's lips.

Ronan and Axel did not question his reply, agreeing with him. It was true. The more money a person had, the more they seemed to be able to get away with breaking the law. Of course, that did not mean laws such as murder.

"Thank you for showing us. It could not have been easy," Ronan spoke up.

Evanna smiled gently back at him before saying,

"I would appreciate it if you could all keep it a secret. As you all know, it is against the law, and if it became known, the King's daughter openly broke the rules-"

"You seem to do that already.." Ronan interrupted with a mischievous smile playing on his lips. Evanna tried not to grimace at his remark.

"We will, of course, keep your secret, princess", Axel spoke up, his word a finality.

"Remember.. it's Raven now" The men laughed at her response; they had to stick to her new alias in public from now on.

Ger watched Cilv the whole time the discussion was going on; he had no fears about his men keeping Evanna's secret. But Cilv, she had already blackmailed the princess once, what would stop her from doing it again?

Speaking Muranthian may not seem like a colossal offence, but to the King, it was. The human and elven kingdoms had been on and off at war with each other over the centuries, though they were technically at peace now, that peace was merely hanging by a thread. The two kinds hated each other. It was only over the last 100 years that an agreement was put in place between the four kingdoms. Those kingdoms on this part of the land were the Kingdom of Dunhurst, Hatherland, Kingdom of Lyvaria and the Florian Kingdom.

The agreement stated that the kingdoms would keep their kind off each other's lands unless deemed absolutely necessary. Both kinds were happy with this agreement, it prevented war, and they did not need to see each other. There were many different stories about the origin of the first war, but both sides blamed the other.

Although, out of all the kingdoms, Lyvaria was the most tolerable towards the humans, helping them when needed. However, the human's lifespan was short in comparison to an elf, and many past good deeds went unnoticed.

The previous King then put a set of rules only in the Kingdom of Dunhurst. These rules kept the existence of elves and of any other kind nearly a myth in some villages. By not having such items or speaking the language stopped the people from being too curious and venture towards the elven and magical lands.

Cilv glanced over at Ger after feeling his gaze on her for longer than usual. She kept her unblinking eyes on his until he finally moved them away. Though the reward was great for this quest, she was already starting to feel restless; she worked independently and preferred her own company to others.

Sitting and sleeping with people next to her felt very abnormal; even when she slept with somebody, she was always on high alert and left before the other woke up. She felt restricted with the people around her. Her freedom felt tethered to the princess now.

The look that Ger had been giving her annoyed her immensely; he was keeping a close eye on her. She may well have been thinking of plots with the new information Evanna provided, ways in which would prove very useful for her. But in her mind, she kept it under lock and key until the time was right to reveal such plots. She will need to keep her face more neutral from now on in front of watchful eyes.

Axel, unaware of the thoughts going through both Ger's and Cilv's minds, proceeded with the conversation. They still needed to plan for tomorrow.

"We will need to make our way to Kuramji town tomorrow", Axel started; Ger twisted his head quickly to look at the man.

"We cannot take her to Kuramji", He argued.

"Aye, we do. Even if we did not need to go there, we would still need to pass through it"

"Ohhh, I have never been to Kuramji. The black market is meant to have the craziest items for sale," Cilv squealed in excitement, which was the first sign of emotion other than disdain shown on her face since the beginning of their journey.

"What do we need to get?" Ronan asked, confused; he was unsure why they needed to go to the Kuramji black market. That was the only reason for going to the town; many criminals lived in the area purely for the market. He agreed with Ger; their crime rates were high; he did not want to take the princess to such a place.

"Are you forgetting the last time we tried to go through even a small section of Direwood forest? We were lost for days, so dehydrated we would have died if it were not for our luck," Axel replied.

"What happened?" Evanna asked.

Evanna asked Ger about his adventures at dinner before they had their meeting the other day, but he did not say much, and she wondered if not all of his stories ended happily.

"We luckily stumbled across the river passing through, which we drank from. We had been delirious for days. We were mad to go in without a map. And that is exactly what we will get from the black market tomorrow."

The two men, against the idea, nodded their heads meekly, even they knew their chances of survival would be nought without a map. There were no other places that would sell such a map either; it was, after all, an illegal document.

"You will need to come with us tomorrow to the market. I have not seen a map for Direwood forest, but if it ends up being in Muranthian, you would be able to translate it." Axel continued as he looked at Evanna; the mention of the elven language piqued her interest. She wondered what else they sold at this market; maybe her mother had brought some of her rare items from there before.

"How long will it take us to get to Kuramji from here?" Evanna asked; Axel put his massive hand on his beard as he thought.

"Half a day, give or take?" Evanna frowned at his response.

She noticed today how vast the countryside was since they left the Hawk's Nest Lodge; they only came across two more villages throughout the day. Both had been near enough ghost towns, the buildings old and run down; the filth in the air made them gag at the time. The people they had seen looked like walking skeletons; it made her stomach drop at the thought of the living conditions they lived in.

"I know Kuramji is not part of Dunhurst, but the villages we passed on the way after the Hawk's Nest and the land we are on now, who owns it?" Evanna asked.

She knew Dunhurst and Hatherland kingdom's lands, but she was unsure about where they were at the moment. Her teacher did not exactly teach her the black market's geographic locations. Why would a princess need to go to such a place?

Axel shrugged in response, unable to answer her question. He had travelled more than the other two, knowing the lands more, but he did not know who owned these parts; he was always quick to travel through such areas. If it was one of the king's lands, he would expect them to be in much better conditions.

"The bandits probably own these lands; they are called the 'Wastelands'. Any area in the human realm that is not presumably owned by anybody tend to be the Wastelands. A lot of lawlessness goes on in these areas," Ger answered her question; he looked down as he started filling up a pipe he held in his hands, preparing to smoke from it. Evanna frowned at his response,

"How did this come about? Did neither of the kingdoms take claim over the land?" Evanna continued; she could not understand why there were these 'Wastelands'. Surely the people there deserved more than criminals to be in charge of their land.

"From what I have gathered, no. The Wastelands have been there for years; it would take an army to get rid of the filth that lives there," Ger replied.

The pipe was now in Ger's mouth as he lit the end with a stick he removed from the campfire. Taking a deep drag from the pipe, he let the smoke out as he glanced back at Evanna with a small smile; she was watching him with a look of surprise on her face. She did not notice what he was doing earlier; her attention had been on the information he had been providing her. It really had been two years since she last saw him; he did not smoke before he left on his adventure.

As ever, her curiosity got the better of her. She took the pipe from Ger's mouth and put it in her own. Ger's eyes widened; Ronan and Axel were shocked then burst out laughing. In front of their eyes, they saw a princess draw from a pipe; it was extraordinary. Even Cilv had a small smile on her face before it turned into a smirk.

Evanna's face scrunched up at the smoke inhaled; she then started to cough as she handed the pipe back to Ger. He looked at her, his eyes creasing as he tried not to laugh but failed. He started to chuckle as he watched her drink from the water pouch before putting the pipe back into his mouth. Evanna had not changed much, still too curious for her own good, he thought to himself.