Axel dragged Ezmeralda into the tavern by one arm. However, when the tavern’s owner – the only person in the empty tavern, a man by the name of Orvar – turned his head towards them, he released the girl in an instant. He realized that it would make him look like he was up to no good, and at the very least such treatment of her was not the behavior of a knight. However, his mind couldn’t stop to think about any of that in the moment. His daughter was in danger. Anything that caused that danger did not deserve courtesy or respect.

The better part of wisdom that he had accumulated over his years caught up to the thoughts though, and he didn’t grab her as she retreated back outside. Instead he scolded himself, before approaching the shocked Ovar.

“I need a room for the night.” Axel said, trying to pretend the situation a moment ago had not been occurring.

“A room?” the man said, and raised an eyebrow. He was a plump fellow, with a balding head, though was much younger than he looked. “You know you’re lucky I know you well enough by now Axel, some of the younger men in this village who aren’t as familiar with you would have jumped to the defense of that poor lass. What’d she do to piss you off so?”

Axel rolled his eyes. “Look, it isn’t what it seems.”

“Well, that may be.” Orvar said, cutting him off. “But askin’ for a room is a tad suspicious too you know. So you’ve better got a good explanation for why the situation seems the way it does.”

“Look,” Axel began, rubbing his brow with his thumb and forefinger, trying to figure out how to explain his situation to a more simple man like Orvar, who wasn’t well traveled. Stars above, he’d probably never traveled outside of the village. Why the man even kept an inn at the end of the world was a mystery to the disgraced paladin. “,she’s a witch, Orvar. She showed up at my door a few days ago, half dead, and when I took her in she somehow got my daughter sick. I – I can’t really think of a better way to put it. That’s the truth.”

“What?” Orvar said, looking concerned. “What is she here for then? She didn’t look like some witch. Just a pretty girl.”

“I don’t know, Orvar, that is precisely why I brought her here, to question her. I don’t think she’s dangerous, but I’m not sure. I need to question her in private though, and I need a place to sleep for the night. Lisa is caring for my daughter, and she lifted the curse, so I’ll be here perhaps a couple days till Eira is recovered. That is all.” Axel explained.

“Well, as long as your intentions are good. If I find out anything else, then I don’t care if you are a knight, I’ll give you a boot in the ass myself.” Orvar threatened. His brow then furrowed, and he looked Axel in the eyes. “I’m glad to have you in this village Axel. We all are. Nobody has said it, but over these last few years you’ve been a great help. When you killed the troll that attacked the Hearthstead’s farm, and when you helped hunt down those wolves, you helped end a lot of our troubles and worries. People feel safe here now. I trust you. Don’t break it.”

“I won’t Orvar.” Axel reassured, feeling a bit of warmth in his heart at the kind comments. When he’d arrived in Northstar he’d been worried that his presence wouldn’t be met with acceptance, and there had always seemed to be an air of suspicion to the villagers around him. He’d always supposed it was because of his Aerician heritage, now though he wondered if it was the fact that his wife had been Veyorn. It was good to know that the villagers did appreciate him. “I’ll go get her, and I promise this time I won’t be dragging her along. She may want her own separate room.”

“Alright then. None of the three upstairs are occupied, as usual, so you can take your pick, but I’d go for the farthest to the right. Its not over this common room like the other two, so you’ll have less chance of being overheard when the crowd comes in.”

“When will that normally be?” Axel asked.

“Oh, the first few are gonna be here in about half an hour, I’m sure. The sun’s getting close to setting. Then there will be a few more after that. Only about…errr, ten or twelve usually. The regulars.” Orvar estimated, counting a bit on his hands till he got over ten.

“Alright then. Thank you.” Axel said, reaching into his satchel and snatching one of the coins from within it. He had precious few, and currency was rarely used this far north, but he knew that Orvar could use it. Besides, he had no crops to trade or any ongoing deal with Orvar for lodging, food, or drink, so this was the best he had.

Then, with some frustration, and the realization that he would have to hunt Ezmeralda down inside the village, he walked back outside to fetch the girl.

*****

“So, what you’re saying is, that the curse…bounced off you?” Axel asked, feeling a little incredulous.

Ezmeralda nodded. Her face was turned away from him like a child that had been caught in some mischief, but her eyes were solemn. Axel had no reason to not believe her, but the explanation was too convenient.

“I don’t believe you.” He said, crossing his arms in front of him. “How would that happen?”

“Do you know how curses work?” Ezmeralda replied, as she looked up towards him with inquisitive eyes.

He shook his head. “No. I was a knight of the silver order, not a traditional paladin. I was not trained in magic like the others, and I am not consecrated to light. Thus, I had no business learning magic.”

She shrugged. “Well, then why would you not believe me?”

“Because I’ve lived far too long to accept such a simple explanation. Since you apparently know so much though, answer my question, how does that happen? “

Ezmeralda sighed. “I don’t have time to teach you magic. You have no business knowing, either.”

“So you expect me to just believe this explanation of yours about my daughter’s illness? That some wizard you’re hunting just happened to have cast a curse on you, form far, far away, and that it just so happened to bounce off of you and sicken my daughter?” he said, incredulous. Then, his eyes narrowed, and he leaned in close to Ezmeralda. They were alone in the room, and Ezmeralda sat in a chair cowering beneath Axel’s large frame. She was small, only a few inches above five feet, while Axel stood over six feet in height. “Do you know what I think is a more likely explanation?”

“What?” she whispered out, sheepishly trying to ignore him.

“I think you made a mistake. The former is more likely. You’re a girl who thinks she is on some sort of adventure, barely experienced in her own craft, and you accidentally hurt my daughter. That is it, right?” he accused.

In a moment Ezmeralda’s face hardened and she glared back at Axel, meeting his gaze. The knight, towering over her, was taken aback by her sudden confidence and defiance. He leaned away, sensing that he was about to be struck or worse. There was a fire in her bright emerald eyes, a will that a felt tangible and dangerous.

“I would never, and I am not a foolish child. I’ve traveled, I’ve learned, and I’m not here to play games or worry about accusations from some brute like you.” She said, and her voice raised itself to a yell as she spoke. “I gave you the best explanation I have.”

“Not good enough.”

She stood up, a finger pointed at Axel and then began poking him in the chest. He thought about swatting it away but decided to ignore it instead. He had already put hands on her this evening, and that alone had been wrong.

“I’m here to hunt down someone that wronged my family…another mage, and your daughter got caught in the mess. Curses are unpredictable things. They’re just pieces of a soul, the will of the original sent out into the world to ravage and cause pain. If the target is too strong willed or too powerful the curse won’t be able to do anything and will take out its purpose on anything that it can, a mindless little soul of destruction with nowhere to run.” Ezmeralda explained, reciting the same thing she had said before but with more detail. Tears started forming in her eyes as she looked less angry and more sad. “I’m sorry that this happened Axel. I’m sorry that I had to show up at your door in a blizzard. I didn’t want anyone hurt. I tried to help…I’m sorry…You shouldn’t have rescued me, and I’ll be on my way now. Thank you.”

The girl then stormed out of the room, leaving Axel to stand there alone. As she opened the rickety wooden door to the room, Axel could hear men talking in the tavern below. They were drinking, laughing, and someone was playing on a violin. The music and talking stopped momentarily when Ezmeralda got to the bottom of the flight of stairs. Axel presumed that Ezmeralda had just stormed into the room and shocked the regulars of the tavern with her sudden and angry appearance.

Then, to his surprise, the talking and violin soon continued. He had not heard the front door of the tavern open and close again. Ezmeralda was down there, speaking with the locals. Every now and then, he could hear her voice among the louder and deeper voice of the men.

He sighed. Then he sat down on the chair the wrong way, crossed his arms in front of him, and rested his head upon them. This was never going to go anywhere, he realized. It wasn’t that he had been looking for an explanation, just that he had been angry about his daughter. He had been worried and hadn’t cared to listen to the young mage. Her insolence was just so difficult to deal with. She had no respect, and acted as if she were perfect, when she was far from it.

However, she was young and naïve. She needed to learn, and if he understood her story she hadn’t had much in the way of teaching or wisdom given to her. The young woman’s life had been filled with turmoil, moving from the north to Aericia when she was young. Then to be raised as nobility, that must have been a mess. It was no wonder she had run away on this adventure of hers. It was a miracle in and of itself that she wasn’t dead or crippled. Perhaps that spoke to her sheer will.

As Axel continued to think about her situation, and how stupid he’d acted, he paused. It dawned on him that she had never told him what had happened to her parents. In talking about herself she’d said that she had moved south, to live with her uncle, but nothing else. She had not mentioned visiting her parents, or ever returning to the north for that matter. She had not even come back to Ursulam to visit them on this quest of hers, but rather to…to take some form of vengeance. Axel stood and moved towards the door of the room.

He stopped himself as he heard the violin downstairs begin to be played.

It was like a sob had come from the instrument. It was beautiful and yet wretched. It whined out sorrowful tones as the bow was brought across it in deep and longing notes. It was a piece that Axel knew. His late wife had once played it, long ago, at a funeral. It was a lament of the Veyorn, one of many that their sorrowful people had. Here in the north of Ursulam it would be known by few, but whether or not one recognized the tune, it evoked a sadness that everyone felt at some point in life.

What was more, there was magic in the notes. Axel exited the room and walked down the stairs with reverence. He made his steps slow and quiet, so as to not disturb anything, and when he reached the bottom he peaked into the main room of the tavern.

Night had fallen when he and Ezmeralda had been talking, or rather while he had been interrogating Ezmeralda. The room was thus lit only by the fire’s light and a few candles on the four tables in the small tavern. The shadows of the men sitting around the fire danced across the walls as the flames in the fire licked away at their fuel. There, amid a semicircle they had made, was Ezmeralda.

She held a violin up to her cheek, and the bow moved across the instrument with delicate motions. Behind her the fire seemed to move at the beck and call of the music, growing slow in its dancing and flickering. The candles in the room grew and then faded as notes were slowly played, as feelings of sorrow were evoked from the instrument.

Axel found himself frozen in time, enchanted by the music. Was this really the same girl that he had just been confronting and chastising? It was with some guilt that he realized the girl had been terrified as a result of his daughter’s illness, and that she had legitimately tried to help. After all, she had trudged through the snow an entire day to try and help find a cure and had suggested all manner of things the day before that. He had become angry with her because of what Liss had said, but how was he to trust Liss anymore than Ezmeralda? He knew neither more than the other and had only trusted the old hag as a last resort anyway.

Now she was playing a song of mourning, and Axel was left to realize that she was not on some uppity fantasy of adventure. She was trying to stop others from being hurt by magics that had already hurt her, and perhaps taken family from her.

Years had passed since his wife had died in childbirth, and he’d run away from the Silver Order. And yet, he said to himself, you are as judgmental and hypocritical as ever.

When Ezmeralda stopped playing, she handed the instrument back to its owner, and apologized that she had ruined the kind mood of the evening with such said music. She made the excuse that it was the only sort of song she knew on the violin, though none of the men gathered were at all perturbed. Rather, they were quite awed by her skill, and a few complimented her.

The girl did not wait for the drunken remarks though, and certainly did not stick around to have anything more flirtatious said to her. She walked with a quick pace to the exit, and left the tavern, much to the surprise of the tavern’s owner and patrons.

“She’ll freeze out there.” Orvar said, then looked around the room till he saw Axel. He wasn’t wrong. The chill of the evening swept in when she opened the door, and it was clear that the temperature was well below freezing outside.

“No, she won’t. I’ll go fetch her.” Axel said, and walked to the open door. He exited into the cold night, bracing himself to the chill. Even after living in the north for over five years, he was not used to the cold.

“Lady Elefthera! Ezmeralda!” he shouted, and the girl ahead of him stopped walking. She kept her back turned to him when she responded.

“What?!” the words were spat from her mouth, making it clear that she was still mad at him.

“I- I should apologize for my behavior. I realize that as someone who isn’t versed in magic, I shouldn’t judge your explanation for why my daughter became sick. I was just being protective, and I did not give the situation the…care, it needed.” He explained while approaching her. For a moment he paused, gathering his thoughts. At that time, Ezmeralda turned around, sad puppy eyes greeting Axel.

“You don’t need to apologize, Axel. I should be doing that. I endangered your daughter. I didn’t want anyone else caught up in this nonsense, but I stayed too long at your house and that…that evil person found me there with their magic. It was my fault, and I shouldn’t-“

“No.” Axel corrected. He wasn’t going to let her turn this that way. He had been the one that had dragged her to the tavern, interrogated her, and then refused to believe her sincere explanation. “I looked at this like a protective father, not like the knight that I should be. You say this wizard wronged your family? That he hurt them?”

Ezmeralda nodded ever so slightly, breaking eye contact with him as she did so.

“Let me ask you, did he hurt your parents? Did he kill them? Is that why you began to live in Aericia, and your uncle adopted you?”

Once more, she nodded, but met his gaze this time. There was that fire in her eyes again. She was a determined soul, if anything. This topic did not sadden her, quite the opposite, it angered her.

“Well then.” Axel said, placing a hand on the sword at his side. “If I am to ensure my daughter’s safety, and that of this village, I can’t have a wizard like that running around near here. You’ll have to tell me the whole story. Then, I can help you with your goal. It isn’t just my duty to this village, but a matter of honor now.”

Her eyes widened, and she began to shake her head. “No…you don’t. You don’t have to do that Axel. Really, I’ll be fine. You’ve already done plenty for me, and I’ve brought something terrible to-”

Axel waved his hand towards her. “I won’t hear it. I won’t hold you responsible. This way will be better. You’ll be able to prove your story, I’ll be able to take ensure the safety of this village and my daughter, and I’ll be fulfilling what honor I have left, as a knight. As a silver knight I hunted many any evil sorcerer with my paladin companions. Doing so again, and succeeding, may well restore the honor I lost when I was cast out from my fellow knights.”

“No, you mustn’t-“ she began again, but this time Axel turned himself away from her. He wouldn’t be swayed by generosity now. Now, he saw what he had to do, and he set his sights on it. This is what he should have proposed from the beginning. It was perfect. Raven could recover with Lissa, while he went out to put an end to what had brought Ezmeralda out to the frontier in the first place. It would prove her story and ensure his daughter’s safety. If she were lying, then at least she would be far from his daughter and the village, and he could deal with her then. If she were truthful, which he suspected was the case, then he would be defending the village, his daughter, and redeeming his harsh actions towards a noble lady. He began walking towards the tavern, beckoning her to follow him back inside.

“I’ll get you your own room for the evening. Tomorrow, we’ll buy some supplies and set out. I’ll leave Raven with Lissa and a friend I have in this village, and together they’ll watch over her. I have another friend in mind that we’ll have to meet along the way. He’ll help us find this evil wizard of yours. You were very foolish to set out on a quest like this alone, but it is ultimately admirable, I think. However, you will need all the help that you can get.” He said, and after finishing his spiel he opened the tavern door and stepped inside.

******

Standing alone in the cold, and stunned by the change of attitude from Axel, Ezmeralda began to shake. She hadn’t wanted this. She had not wanted to get someone else caught up in her crazy quest. She had weaved magic into the music that she had played, but not to sway him into this sort of apology. That magic had only been directed at the villages, so that they would not think she as a witch if Axel accused her of such. None of that magic had been directed at Axel.

She was frightened inside, thinking about what could happen to the knight. If he died, would Raven be left alone? A little child left alone, after her parents had been burned to death by magical fire.

Would she be to blame for that? For Axel’s death?

Yet some part inside of her felt relief to have the apology, and the promise of company. It was something she had been longing for, to have some support in the quest, but she had never realized it. Finally, after years, someone was willing to help her bring the justice that she wanted.

“Thank you.” She whispered out and followed him into the tavern.