Five

Matins, Eleventh Day Before Kalends of May

Eastern Sthruls, Estrul, Tarrin, Drum

Logan awoke at dawn, as he always did. As he sat up his wounds ached deeply. As he inspected his dressed wounds he remembered last night’s dreamlike encounter with Kate, whom he had not seen for several years.

“Good morning,” said a voice from the corner of his room.

He looked up to see Kate in lotus position, floating about a foot from the ground. Her eyes were closed but was smiling.

“Why are you here,” said Logan.

Kate opened her eyes and her bright blue eyes made her smile all the more unsettling.

“To see an old friend,” she said.

“Who sent you.”

“Hazel Drina.”

Logan hesitated. He had heard the rumours in the streets, about Hazel Drina. She was planning a revolt, they were saying, a coup! And though it was unlikely that the people truly believed the utopia that the Young Kardas claimed was possible could really come into fruition, they perhaps adored the idea of it. Hazel Drina was often called the Child of Light, whom the Old Philosophers prophesied would defeat man’s eternal oppressor. The light would cleave the darkness in two, and there will be a new world, claimed the prophecies. And when a young woman, who was braxin, meaning not of noble blood, appeared with the Connexion with Light, the Young Kardas spared no moment to claim that this was the arrival of the messiah come to topple the nobility and bring freedom to all.

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“You know Hazel Drina,” said Logan. It was an unlikely acquaintanceship.

Kate shrugged.

“What does she want.”

“Let her tell you herself,” she said, and handed him a folded piece of paper.

He gingerly opened it and grimaced at Hazel’s unschooled script, full of errors and odd phrasings. The letter began by reminding of the debt Logan owed. This was true. He owed her a debt for when she had helped him defect from the nobility two years ago by hiding him in her personal carriage as they passed from Cyrill to Drum. They had made love that night. Logan remembered this clearly, because that was the only time he ever made love.

The letter continued, asking him to pay her a visit. She had a mission for him and if he completed the mission she would consider the debt settled.

“Go back,” said Logan, handing the note back to Kate. “Tell Hazel that I am already employed. I will settle the debt another time.”

And just like that, Logan left for work. Kate was left alone and she bit her lips until they bled. Why did she not stop him? It was not because she did not think she could. He was badly wounded, after all. It was rather because she desired the thrill of making him acquiesce by his own will. She would get at him, little by little. She had time, anyhow. Logan was needed for everything to begin. Yes, to her the thrill of the act was more important than the act itself.