Chapter Text
The next day Aphmau had woken up, Emmalyn wasn't too happy that she was still at her house, which Aphmau might have to do something about that. She could move into one of the more empty houses around the village. She might speak to Garroth about it, since he was mostly the person to talk about these things with.
Aphmau got up from her spot on the floor, just like the day before. While it was a bit uncomfortable she didn't want to complain. Emmalyn and her were on okay-ish terms at the moment, even if Emmalyn still seemed to not like her much.
Aphmau grabbed her shoes, not sleeping in them this time. She wasn't sure how to tie them like Donna did, so she stuffed her laces into her shoes and walked out of the house.
Aphmau had been walking down the slightly better pathways. No one seemed to be out at the moment. Aphmau walked past the crop field she had healed just yesterday. She still was unsure about how she had done it. Maybe Emmalyn would help, if she didn't she had a bunch of books in her house. Aphmau sorta knew Emmalyn liked learning, and telling people passionately, about her interests. She had told Aphmau a bit about a magics book she had been reading when Aphmau had gotten ‘home’ yesterday. Maybe she had one about..plant magic?
Aphmau kept walking past the fields, it was still early in the day, the sun barely had risen. Then she remembered that she and Brendon never got his tools from the house they were taking down. Aphmau remembered the way, it was through the trees away from the hill on the one side of the town. She'd probably be able to find it easily. So she went in the direction she remembered from the day before.
After a bit of searching Aphmau found it, and headed into the half torn down house to find Brendon's tools. She hadn’t seen the tools when she entered the house, her eyes really quickly adjusted to the dark though and saw something she didn't remember being there, or she guessed didn't notice. A small desk in the corner, with no chair, she was intrigued, she looked at it and it looked normal.
She examined it, there were a few burns on it, but not much. She ran her hand over the top and it was smooth until she felt something odd. The desk had a little indent in it, while it didn't look like anything to the naked eye Aphmau pressed in like it was a button.
A little compartment opened up, and inside was an old looking book. That was sitting on top of what looked like clothes, she pulled everything out and looked at what she found. The clothes looked slightly fancy and there was a simple crown that had a note on it, ‘If you are the new lord this outfit will let you officially be one’. Aphmau wasn't too interested in them, instead looking at the book, sitting on the desk.
She grabbed the book, opening it. She was able to see the words perfectly fine. The first page read ‘It's my first day in the town of Phoenix Drop, I have met a lot of people. They were all very kind to me.’
Aphmau flipped a page and another entry was written ‘I think one of the villagers likes me, I think I'm gonna ask her out.’ Which Aphmau thought was sweet.
Aphmau flipped again just to see that the next page was ripped, she could only read some of the words that were still left, and a bunch of the other pages were like it as well. Until the last one, that read ‘If you are reading this, I am probably dead, I was able to teleport my pregnant wife away with our soon to be child. I will miss her, but I warn anyone who reads this that something in the world is not right. I don't know but I can't fully explain it myself. I loved this village and was willing to protect it with my life. But too many odd things in the world have been happening for it to be a coincidence. I'm worried, but if I am no longer alive I hope whoever finds this will help this village. May ire-’ before Aphmau could finish she dropped cold to the floor, passed out.
–
Gene glared at the girl now passed out on the ground, he might've over done it by hitting her with the butt of his dagger. But he didn't care, he looked at Sasha “Do you know who this girl is?” Sasha, despite it being dark, glared at him. “I've seen her around, slightly, she's new, I'll tell you that, it's odd that she's here again, alone no less, her and the black haired idiot had been tearing down the upper floor of this place, why she's back I have no clue.”
Gene sighed, besides that guard with the full helmet, no one else was up at this time. He looked down at the woman and noticed some marks on her arm that had been sticking out. Odd, in his years as a shadow night, he hadn't seen anything like this. “This woman radiates that she has used magic recently, very pure magic” Sasha said to him.
“We might want to keep an eye on this one.” He said, nudging the woman with his foot. “I agree, if a magics user just shows up when we're about to leave it can't be a coincidence..” Sasha paused for a moment, then continued with “maybe she the reason Vlayd has been acting off, maybe he noticed her as well”
Gene laughed coldly, “maybe, or he might be the reason she's here. You can never be too sure with him, he's a loose cannon.” Sasha nodded “Though it'll also give us time to look over the village once more, the lord is dead, but that high priest..he doesn't want mistakes or loose ends, and we still have no idea where the lord's wife or son is.” “I still can't believe we work for that bastard, we are so much stronger than him, and yet we're puppets to him, until we can get back to the nether” Sasha just sighed and Gene looked back down at the women.
He noticed a book near her that had fallen open, he picked it up, looking through it “wait, this says the old lord of this village used magic to teleport his wife away, that could help us” he kept reading until he got to the end, he sneered at the last line “geez, the last lord really was an Irene follower, ‘May Irene help us all’.” He mocked as he dropped the book back to the ground. What a stupid belief, people believed that the simple patron could help them, their master told them enough, that lady did not help. She never helped the villages she went to, or the battles she fought in. All she was good for was making destruction in her way.
“We should go, we got a bit of information, and if we can trace the old lord's magic we'll be able to kill the lord's wife and be done here.” Sasha nodded and looked at the clothes on the desk and grabbed the crown. “We can use this if the old lord touched this “Alright, let's go. I hear some endermen roaming around, so they should cover our tracks, you stay in the village I'll go report to the high priest.” Gene said and started walking back out the house, Sasha started following with the crown in hand. Not looking back at the passed out woman.
–
Aphmau slowly opened her eyes, a bit confused. Her head hurt a lot, she had looked around and saw the book she had been reading before she apparently passed out.
She sorta remembered why she was here, but when she looked towards one of the broken windows she noticed the sun was no longer on the horizon and outside was much brighter. Which meant time passed, and she hadn't meant to let any time pass.
She grabbed the book and stuffed it into her satchel. And slowly got up, her head still hurt, like she was hit with a bag of coal. She sighed and slowly walked out of the half torn down house, her eyes adjusted to the sun and made her way back to the village. She was right, the sun was in the middle of the sky when she got back, which was weird that she was out for so long.The first person she saw as she finally got through the trees, was surprisingly Zenix. As soon as he saw her he walked over quickly.
“Woah..are you good? You've been gone since this morning, Sir Garrotth had gone to where you were staying to talk to you, but you were not there, and when we asked Donna or Brendon, they hadn't seen you either. They all thought you left town, they all seemed to be worried, so where were you women?” Zenix asked, crossing his arms.
“I..was at the house that I was helping Brendon tear down, I had gone back to get Brendon's tools because he left them there, but..I passed out..I think.” She told him. Zenix's shoulders seemed to tense “what.. was anyone else there?” Aphmau shrugged and Zenix sighed “okay why don't you take it easy, go tell Garroth you're okay as well as the other two, they, mostly Brendon, was worried and has been a blubbering mess.” Aphmau nods and Zenix heads in the direction she had just come from, and Aphmau goes to find Brendon and Donna first.
Aphmau sees Brendon and Kiki sitting in front of Donna’s house, Brendon's a crying mess, while Kiki seems to comfort him, while Donna looks about just a bit from punching something. “Um, is he okay?” Aphmau asked as she stood just a bit away, she was on the pathway, everyone's head immediately snapped over to her and relief flooded all three faces.
The first one to reach her was Donna, since she was the closest. Donna carefully, but quickly, grabbed her face and checked it. “Sweet pea! You're okay! I was so worried, Garroth told me you weren't at the bookworm's house, I got worried, Garroth wouldn't let me go search for you, I may have yelled at him and stormed off, I told these two and they got worried as well checking around the village to find you. Garroth still wouldn't let us go, where were you sweet pea? Are you okay?"
Aphmau nodded slightly “yea, I'm sorry I worried you, I had gone back to get Brendon's tools from the house he was tearing down yesterday, I passed out..” “Oh sweet pea it's okay, I didn't know where you went off to, so we were all worried, especially since you don't have any memories.” Aphmau smiled and before she could say anything else she was given a hug by Donna, it was unexpected, but nice, despite her being only slightly shorter than Donna, she slowly leaned into the hug.
She heard quick footsteps and felt more arms wrap around her, she slightly looked up from Donna’s shoulder to see both Kiki and Brendon hugging her as well.
After a few minutes of the hug she was let go and now it was Brendon and Kiki's turn to be worried. “I was so worried Aph! I-I thought something had hap-happened or y-you left o-or-” Kiki promptly elbowed him. “I think she gets it, but yea Aphmau, we were very worried, I've only known you for a day, but you have been nothing but kind and honestly I was really worried for you.” Kiki said, giving her a small smile, then iconic her laugh.
“I am glad you are okay, but man did Brendon cry, you really made an impact in just the few days you've been in Phoenix Drop, especially with how much you've helped here, I came here because I thought Brendon and the village would need cheering up with some animal help, but you've managed to be so kind to everyone already.”
Aphmau smiled a lot at that "I'm glad, you all have been really kind to me and I don't think I'd want to leave, you guys and this town are important to me.” Aphmau said, smiling at them.
After they finally stopped checking if she was okay, she realized she needed to find Garroth. “Hey, do you guys know where Garroth is? Zenix said he should probably also know I'm back as well.” Brendon nodded “Yea Aphmau, I'll take you to him, Kiki can stay with Donna until I get back, especially since Donna’s screaming match with him earlier ” Aphmau nodded and followed Brendon waving to Kiki and Donna as they left.
Aphmau and Brendon walked a slightly different way to a part of the village she doesn't think she's been to. It was a plaza type of area, there were old stalls that looked like they hadn't been used in a good while. And Aphmau knew that was probably true, knowing a bit about this place in the few days she's been here.
Aphmau had immediately seen Garroth, he had bags of something by his feet, and he was talking to someone, Garroth's back was to them, and while she didn't want to spy, she did need to make sure he knew she was here.
She started walking closer as the conversation became more clear. “- I paid you extra for everything! Why don't you have it?” Aphmau heard and she stopped, because Garroth sounded mad, like a low kind of mad. Aphmau didn't think Garroth could get that mad, she still wasn't sure who this was and slowly made her way closer now. “Garroth, I understand your..upset, but that guard from Meteli bought more than usual, said that they ‘needed it’” Garroth stood straighter but was still radiating annoyance “And what about us!? We need it, I still have a village to feed.”
The guy laughed a bit “Garroth, Im gonna be real with you here, this isn't really a village anymore, I mean you have you and two other guards, and a few people, and barely any way to have a sustainable food source, you don't even have a lord” The guy said, a bit flat and a bit uncaring. “You know I've been fine with it for a few weeks but it's been almost 4 months since your lord died and his wife died as well” “there was no body for her, she still could just be missing-”
The guy sighed and interrupted Garroth “Really? Again with this? Garroth you have to accept that she is probably dead too, and either you have to tell people that they should leave, or you become lord " Garroth immediately tensed, seeming to not like that second option. "No! I told you I don't want that, look Paul, I told you that this village has been doing fine without a lord, and I'm working on sustainable food-” The guy cut into Garroth’s sentence.
“You're giving these people false hope, your village is literally falling apart, Garroth I'm being realistic, this village ain't gonna last much longer..I don't think I'll be able to supply you with much more food after this”
And with that Aphmau decided to fully walk up to them, standing next to Garroth, slightly mad at what she just heard. “Hi, mind I ask what is going on here?” Aphmau asked as a bit mad about the conversation she just overheard, but keeping a straight face. “Ah, hi miss I was just-” Aphmau cut him off “Aphmau, not miss, just Aphmau” she said, trying to keep a smile on her face.
She could feel Garroth staring at her, but she ignored him for right now wanting to talk to the apparent merchant. “Right, well, Aphmau, I'm Paul, Garroth was just telling me here that the rest of your town's folk are leaving.” And that ticked off Aphmau, she knew that wasn't true.
So with a smile still on her face she said, “Really? Because I was just standing a bit away and couldn't help but overhear that you sold the goods Garroth had bought from you, were given to someone else?” Aphmau had asked, letting annoyance seep into her tone.
Aphmau let her smile drop and she looked directly at him, “While I don't remember much, I do know I'm not dumb, I heard everything you said to him,” she then stepped closer and smacked him, she heard a slight gasp from Brendon who was still standing a bit away, while Garroth also spoke up “Lady Aphmau!” He said putting his hand on her shoulder.
She doesn't say anything to him and still looks at Paul, who was now holding his face where she smacked him.“I don't know who you think you are, but you should not tell Garroth how to do his job, he has been guarding this place greatly, it is not his fault to what happened to the previous lord, I have been here only a few days but they are here because they chose to be. Unlike you, know Kiki is here because of her brother, Donna seems to like it because she's away from home, and Brendon seems to just enjoy it here.”
At this point Aphmau had realized what she had done. But she wasn't backing down. “I am so sorry paul-” Garroth had started, but got cut off by a bark of laughter from the merchant. “Ha! Well, that was definitely deserved, I apologize miss Aphmau, I got carried away, you don’t deserve to be lied to.” He said and smiled at her.
He is still keeping his hand on his cheek, when he said more “And I do apologize Garroth, but I ain't wrong, if you want your village to truly thrive I suggest getting a merchant of your own, you'd have your personal merchant to trade with you and don't have to worry about them selling too much to one village. Now I know a few merchants who don't mind a village without a lord, there's only a few but there are such people. But if you would like one to genuinely stay in the village, fix up the town, and try have a place to grow your own crops and their own crops, and obviously a booth for them, I know of one that's about 3 days out, if I remember right, he doesn't care much if you have a lord, if you are able to have everything by then, you might have yourselves a merchant.” Garroth nodded and Aphmau was a bit shocked by the change. Paul handed Garroth a paper and walked off.
Aphmau was a bit shocked but looked back at Garroth. “That was..unexpected, but nice of him” Aphmau said, looking at Garroth, but he seemed a bit tense. “Garroth?” She was a bit confused. “Lady Aphmau..I appreciate what you did, really, but assaulting someone is not the best way to deal with issues. I know you have little memory of anything about yourself, but I am a guard and won't let that stand, so please, never do that again.” Aphmau nodded, realizing he was right, but was a little mad since she had done it because of the guy's rudeness.
Aphmau had also remembered why she was over here in the first place “oh right! I came over to tell you I was back in town, I had been at that old house in the woods to get Brendon's tools..I kinda forgot them..but I found this weird book then passed out.” Aphmau said, perfectly fine with the explanation and took out the book.
Garroth seemed a bit tense and even though he was wearing his helm he was giving off massive waves of worriedness. He grabbed the book from Aphmau and opened it reading like she did until he got to the last page. “Interesting.. this is the old lord's, how did you find this, we looked through that house?” Aphmau perked up “ah, it was in the desk, there was a secret compartment that had this and old clothes in a compartment.” Garroth nodded “I see, and you said you had passed out. Are you okay, was there anyone else at the house with you?”
Aphmau nodded “Im fine, when I got back in the village I told Zenix about it and he went to check it out” Garroth nodded and handed the book back to Aphmau and put it in her satchel, on that note, loud footsteps came storming into the plaza, Aphmau turned around and looked to see Zenix, he came into the plaza quickly his sword was unsheaved and he looked tense. As soon as he saw them he ran over and spoke up “Sir Garrotth! I saw a werewolf! I was about to check on the old lord's home when a werewolf that had run in front of me tried to attack me! I swear it did!” Garroth nodded “Alright Zenix, I'll help you check it out” Garroth turned to Aphmau
“Lady Aphmau, might I ask a few favors from you?” Aphmau nodded. “One of the favors is can you take these bags of goods from Paul to the guard tower, and this bag,” Garroth grabbed her hand and set a smaller bag in it “this has seeds in it, in the new patch of land.. I was hoping you could plant them. I had a feeling you'd be better at it.” Aphmau nodded “Of course”
Garroth seemed happy then continued talking “My second favor requires you and Brendon, if you two could, over the next few days, fix up the village to make it better, since the Merchant is heading this way. I would like them to stay in the village, so I ask of you two to do what Paul had said, make the village as nice as you can so the merchant stays.” Aphmau nods. And Garroth walked off with Zenix.
Brendon walked up to her as she picked up one of the bags of produce. “Do you need any help with those?” Aphmau nodded, “yea, did you hear what Garroth asked?” Brendon laughed awkwardly “yea..it was kinda hard not to. But we could probably get a lot done in a couple days.” Aphmau nodded agreeing as they both carried two bags to the guards tower. It wasn’t really like a proper guard tower, more so a sorta house that had a ladder in it to go up and down. Aphmau didn’t want to judge because she knew that this village was small, but she might ask Brendon about maybe making the place a bit bigger in the future.
The two of them dropped off the seeds in the guards Tower, it was pretty easy. After they did they headed back to Donna and Kiki. The two were sitting on Donna’s steps talking to each other.
“Hey you two, what took so long?” Donna asked, getting up and walking over to them. “You wouldn't believe what Aphmau did, she smacked Paul!” Brendon said way too excited. Donna’s eyes widened “What! Why would little Aphmau do that?” “It's a bit of a story” Donna nodded and looked at the sky, and Aphmau followed her gaze, the sun was no longer in the middle of the sky, it was more to the left from where she stood now. “Well might as well have something to eat, you two can tell me of it while we get lunch.”
And with that Donna, Aphmau, Brendon, and Kiki all went into Donna’s house and Donna made lunch while they explained the interesting story to them.
After a lot of “whats!” and slight laughs from Donna. They finished the retelling “Wow, I guess little Aphmau has a backbone, that's good, though I guess no one really warned you of Paul.” She sighs like she's had to go through this before.
“He likes to speak his mind a lot, and people don't like it. He is a merchant after all, so it's not uncommon for him to do that, but it was definitely deserved, and it was definitely coming to him eventually. You did good for standing up for the town, but Garroth was right, doing that was definitely risky, if you were anywhere else you'd be arrested by the guards in charge and your fate would be up to the lord of said village or you'd be put on trial.” Aphmau's eyes widened “Oh..” “Yeah, but thankfully Paul isn't that type of person.”
After a bit more talking Aphmau realized she should probably get going, the sun now much lower in the sky, outside turning a slight pink. She left, Kiki offered to walk her and she accepted.
They were walking when from a bit away Aphmau could see Garroth and Zenix talking, she couldn't hear about what but it made Zenix storm off, which left Garroth standing there, when he turned he saw Aphmau and Kiki. He walked over to them, and seemed to be looking at Aphmau. “Hello Lady Aphmau, and hello Miss Kiki, may I speak to Aphmau for a moment?” Kiki nodded and stepped a bit away.
Garroth now looked at Aphmau “Lady Aphmau, I wanted to ask you to do something, you may deny if you don't want to” Aphmau nodded and tilted her head “yes?” Garroth sighed and spoke up “Could you heal the other farmland like you did before?” Aphmau wasn't sure “I still don't know how I had did it before,” Garroth nodded “But could you try, it might look better if we had more than one patch of good land..but you don't have to of course..”
Aphmau thought about it, it'd be better to try than not. And so Aphmau nodded “Alright.” Garroth's stance seemed to be much more happy. “Great” Kiki seemed to notice they were walking and followed. They walked to the other farmland and Aphmau went through the gate and crouched down, she wasn't sure how she did it before, she remembered the soil calling to her. So she took a deep breath and listened and there they were small voices asking for help.
Aphmau listened and crouched down and put her hands to the soil, slowly she felt her body tingling and she opened one of her eyes to look and saw white lines flow down her arms as well as her odd symbols glowing as well, she heard a gasp from behind her, assuming it was Kiki.
She continued she felt her power be spread beyond her it reaching almost to the gate when she heard a few more gasps then something soft was thrown on top of her and her focus was lost, she opened her eyes confused and shocked she saw where her power had stopped, it did spread all the way to the fence like the other one, instead stopping way before it. She held the blanket that was around her and slowly got up and looked behind her.
She saw a new face, a guy taller than her, he had orange hair and a mustache, he had his hands on her shoulders and seemed to be keeping the blanket around her, he had a slightly ripped shirt on and pants. “Hello little lady, I think we need to have a chat,” he then looked at the others “I think all of us need to have a chat” the guy said looking at the others. She looked at everyone and now also saw Brendon and Donna that were standing a little off to the side, their eyes wide.
She looked at Kiki who had a somewhat similar shocked look, only slightly less shocked. And Garroth, she couldn't see his face, but he seemed to be radiating confusion with a bit of anger.
“Visher?”