FOREVER KNIGHTS: #7 King of Assassins
RAESE - She's Loved Another

WhiteHall, Harridan Hamlet, Paladines (Lost for twenty years)

RAESE

The last few days, Raese had torn apart every library in the Paladines. Looking for any kind of a book that might help him in his quest to replace the staff. Or to bring my woman back to me. He’d excavated his own library and that of all his friends but could replace nothing more than the book she’d given him bespeaking creatures like him.

He understood now that the wizard the book depicted, who’d ventured from the UpperLands into Ardae, had been him. From a life before. When he’d done as his ‘Captain’ had bid him.

Captain. A shadowy man whose face he couldn’t see. And whose name I can’t recall.

If Raese could replace even a name of someone he knew, it might help in his endeavor. There has to be someone I know in the pages of one of these books. He tossed another to the chair next to him in his library. Disturbing the rising stack and causing a rise of dust.

“I hate this.” He paced. “Why is it so hard to replace anything?”

Why can’t I just remember?

Who was I? What am I? He clenched his fist in frustration, storming to the mantle where he tossed a decanter against a far wall. Satisfied to hear it shatter. Breaking something made him feel like he wasn’t in pieces himself.

“I give up! I give up!” He shouted. “There’s nothing here. Not one of these books will tell me about you. I need a bridge to get to you.” He shouted to her. Uncaring that he probably woke every servant in WhiteHall.

His desolation only grew, when she didn’t appear to offer her usual cold comfort.

Frustrated beyond what he could endure, he stormed from the library. Slamming the door behind him and heading upstairs to his chamber.

If she won’t come to me in my waking hours, I’ll search for her in my sleeping ones.

He was utterly unaware of the clear haze trembling next to the fire. Kneeling over the pieces of glass and desperately sweeping at them in an effort to manifest strong enough to reach him. Her sobs were soundless. The haze only barely disrupting the light of the fireplace as she stood and walked past it to try and replace her way upstairs.

***

Had Raese been more patient he would’ve been stunned at how fast it happened. His head had no more than hit his feathered pillow and he was transported.

To the sound of a drizzling creek and birds chirping high in Feglen’s towering trees. Rocks puttered through the water. He was positioned cozily on a grassy mound. Whiffing the aroma of meat cooking on the stick he turned over a small fire.

His lover sat across from him on the grass. Leaned back on her palms, unknowingly causing small pert breasts to jut. Luxurious black curls of hair folded along the ground under her. Her crossed ankles peeked from beneath the bottom of her skirt. Resting next to him. His free hand lightly rested on the toe of her leather shoe. Squeezing it methodically to relax her as she chatted happily.

They were asking each other questions. Getting to know each other more intimately.

I live for these days. He’d admitted to himself. Everytime he came here and saw her face he found her more gorgeous than he remembered.

“I’ve never loved a woman before.” He blurted. Hoping she wouldn’t catch the connotation behind his answer.

But your drawing me in like nothing ever before.

Her eyes flicked as though she did catch it and was tempted to ask. Instead, she focused on the meat he turned over the orange flame, in the fading light.

“Have you loved someone before?” He queried as he shifted to adjust the stick through the bit of meat.

She paused a long while before shifting onto her elbows. “I think I did. Perhaps I still, even now, harbor deeper feelings for him than I’d like.”

Ouch.

“Still?” He felt his chest tighten.