The Night I Died
I alone in the cold, nameless cave, half-drowned in darkness.
Water fell from the stone ceiling above, a drop at a time, striking my face again and again. I could not move. I could not speak. I had no body, no senses, no feelings; I could only lie there and listen to the silence between each drop.
Ten wounds had brought me to the end.
Ten wounds, and every single one had been dealt by someone I had once loved, trusted, or looked up to.
The girl I loved the one I had given my heart, my soul, everything I had drove a blade into my chest three times.
My closest friend, the one I trusted more than my own thoughts, buried his knife in my back three times.
And the man I once admired, the man I had looked up to as though he could never fall, struck my neck four times.
Ten wounds.
Ten betrayals.
And by the time the blood left my body, there was nothing left for me to hold onto but the bitter realization, the people closest to me had been the ones who killed me.
“So this is what they mean when they say your life flashes before your eyes when you die…”
I was born into a broken family, one of eight siblings, and I was the youngest. We were poor, and my father eventually had to sell me into slavery so my other siblings could eat.
Since I was three years old, I always felt smarter than ordinary people. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there.
My father tried to teach all my siblings how to read, but he failed miserably. Only my oldest brother managed to read a little, and even that was barely. He only taught me the alphabet, but I taught myself the rest, reading and writing on my own. That’s why he sold me to a noble house that was looking for new servants.
I wasn’t sad or angry at him. I was happy, knowing they would eat well for at least a year with that kind of money. Noble houses pay a lot for smart children.
After I was purchased, they took me to a distant castle belonging to the Marquess of Hanburg. I stayed there for three years, and they taught me everything: how to stand, how to walk, how to speak, how to serve, how to cook, how to listen, how to act. They even taught me swordfighting. I learned fast, fast enough that the teachers there were amazed by me. It took me half the time it took other children to learn the same things, and the teachers recommended I be sent to join the main mansion.
It didn’t take long before I joined the main mansion. It was a huge estate with many servants, each with his own role and responsibilities. I was assigned to serve the young master, a lazy, spoiled, terrible boy who lived only by spending his father’s unlimited wealth. He was a pain in my ass, and I hated being treated like a dog. After only three months working for him, I escaped. No one chased me. No one looked for me. I don’t think they even noticed I was gone.
I traveled to the next city, the City of Salu, a huge city that belonged to Count Karlsberg. I stayed there for a while, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I had some money saved up, so that wasn’t a problem for the moment.
If I joined an adventurer’s group, I would die fast; I didn’t have any survival skills. If I joined the mercenaries, I would just become a slave to the nobles again. So after a lot of thinking, I decided to become a treasure hunter. I was good at reading maps, and at least I wouldn’t have to risk my life. Or so I thought.
I spent the next couple of months searching for treasure, but I couldn’t find any. It was all false information, and my money was running out. If that happened, I’d be in serious trouble.
I was sitting alone in the treasure hunter’s guild, a small place where a few people came and went. It told you everything you needed to know, but it wasn’t a very profitable job. That’s when I got approached by a group of five.
There was a girl named Candia, with bright yellow hair, blue eyes, and black clothes, carrying herself with the firm look of a noble. A man named Franchis Rall, with black hair, a black beard, piercings, and tattoos all over his body. Another girl named Sara, small, with brown eyes and brown hair, cute-looking. Another man, older than the rest, with huge arms, some fat, bald, and a huge mustache; his name was Kris. And the last one was like a teenager, young, skinny, and a little shy, with brown hair and blue eyes, his name was Adam.
Candia took the lead, like she was the boss. She told me they were the Golden Age Party, treasure hunters looking for recruits to find a treasure lost in the Great Forest.
“We heard from the guild desk that you’re a good map reader and a good puzzle solver,” Candia said. “We don’t have anyone in our group who can do that. So how about you join us? We’ll give you five percent of whatever we find.”
I had nothing to lose. My money was already running low, and I didn’t have many options left, so I joined their party.
They were looking for a treasure the king had sent to the previous Count Karlsberg, but it had been lost in the Great Forest. After spending some time gathering information, we narrowed it down to an area of sixty klongs where the wagon carrying the treasure could have ended up. A klong is a unit of distance; one klong equals a thousand feet.
We bought enough supplies and set off. I led the way, reading the map. We spent a month searching before we finally found it and brought it back to the current count, who was overjoyed and gave us ten percent of the treasure, a fortune on its own. Even five percent would have been enough for me to walk away and live the rest of my life in comfort. But my greed got in the way.
I joined their group for good. Over time we became more than family. Candia was kind. Kris was like our father; he always looked out for us, cared for us, protected us the way a father should. I looked up to him, since I’d never felt anything like that for my real father. Sara was very sweet. She was raising her five younger siblings on her own after their parents died, the only provider they had left. I admired that about her, and I liked her a great deal. We grew closer and closer, until one night we ended up in the same bed.
To be continued...
