Curselock

Chapter 225: Err What

Chapter 225: Err What

In the field hospital housing most of the city’s wounded soldiers, along the back wall was a row of beds labeled “stable.” While the stink of death and the rush of healers made the place feel closer to a morgue than a place of respite, the same could not be said for the patients.

They, despite mostly being injured, were smiling.

They had won, the battle was over, the enemies were slain. Many had died, that was very true, but no more would fall. The rush of the hospital would slowly dwindle, loved ones would be reunited, others would say goodbyes, but just like the patients resting along the back wall, the city would heal.

That was the way of war. That was the way of the Palemarrow citizen.

Gathered around one particular bed were multiple people. Most were older, one was younger. Parents, friends, allies. The people one wished to go into battle with, the people trusted enough to bring everyone home safe and sound.

And yet, the group was missing a few... that was, until they entered the hospital.

“Glenny!?” Leland shouted upon seeing his friend for the first time since before the battle. “You dyed your hair!?”

All eyes shifted from the newcomers then back to the boy in bed. Only one other had brought up the fact that Glenny’s fiery red hair had turned bone white, and that was Jude, the first person he saw when he woke up. The others, his dad especially, didn’t want to trouble him about the oddity until after he was fully healed up.

Glenny, however, thought it was quite odd that neither his dad nor Jude’s parents had brought it up. He was honestly starting to believe someone was pranking him. Jude would be the type to dye someone’s hair white while they were unconscious just for a gag, then have everyone play it off like it was perfectly normal... Suddenly, Glenny had an idea for a great prank.

He sighed deeply, the pain in his chest still not fully dissolved. It was his punishment for doing what he did, Glenny knew. He had tapped into something he wasn’t quite ready for, and now it was time to pay it back in full. But still, he would do it again and again. Anything to kill the monster hiding in his mind.

“Side effect,” he said back to Leland. “Does it look okay?”

Leland’s face scrunched. He didn’t want to lie to his friend, but... “Yeah.”

The frankness caught everyone off guard, mostly Jude, who found the single word to be the funniest thing ever.

“You look like a snow covered pine cone covered in red sand!” Jude cackled, whatever previous worry he felt for his friend gone like the wind.

“Sand?” Glenny asked, smiling somewhat himself.

Leland filled him in, describing his head exactly like a pinecone covered in snow and sand. Glenny’s hair had always been longer, and when it wasn’t properly styled, it plopped down like a paintbrush pushed into a table. But now, layers of white mixed with his natural red, especially at the roots. It was patchy and mangled too, something the boys were quick to point out.

Diana rubbed his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Glenny. Some dye and a proper stylist and everything will be sorted out. Girls love stories of heroics, especially when the hero pushes themselves to their physical and mental limit so hard that their hair turns white from the stress.”

The last word was said with a deathly glare to both her son and Leland. Lucia, Leland’s mother, was aptly doing the same from behind them.

“Oh, uh—”

“Ah, sorry,” Leland muttered, glancing at his wounded friend. “We’re just messing with you. It does look kind of coo—” He cut himself before quickly yelling, “Glenn! Did you dye your eyes!”

Glenny sighed, dejected. Again, Jude had already questioned his eyes. Instead of their usual color, they had turned solid black with a ring of centralized white – if the berserker’s description was anything to go off of. Again, an after effect of using the power of the Void, a power he now knew he did not fully understand.

The Void was a pure white wasteland. Not a pure white and black wasteland. He was doing something wrong when he invoked the Void, or he was tapping into something far beyond his current understanding of the Void. Regardless, he now had weird eyes.

After Leland described how Glenny’s eyes looked somewhat like Lodestar , a white ring filled in with black, the atmosphere turned sour. Oblivion wasn’t something anyone wanted to be compared to.

Glenny sighed after it all. “Even though you two are being complete jerks right now,” he said to Jude and Leland, “I’m glad you two are safe.”

“Us two?” Jude scoffed. “You’re the only one who was injured!”

Leland tugged at his shirt, finding the nearby wall very interesting. “Right, you were the only one in danger of dying. How can you be glad we are safe?”

Softly, Glenny smiled. “Love you guys.”

Jude let out a yelp, leaned over, and promptly hurdled one of his best friends into a great big hug. His other best friend soon joined as well, crowding the small hospital bed.

“What are you blabbering about?”

Giving a slow eyeroll, she said, “You feel responsible for their deaths. That if you had killed Ashford faster, or rather, killed him months ago, none of this would have happened. You can’t face them because it’s your fault.”

“No,” Leland mulled, drawing the syllable long. “It’s that they scream incoherently at me.”

“At you, or at you?’

“Is there a difference?”

Isobel took a step forward and patted him on the shoulder. “There always is. Goodbye Leland.”

And just like that, she walked off, disappearing into the city’s dark night. Isobel didn’t attend the award ceremony, nor did she return to the inn.

“Where is she?” Leland asked as he, Jude, Glenny, and their parents walked up the steps leading to the castle.

There were hundreds of soldiers around, each uniformed and saluting. The ceremony wasn’t just for a few boys and their parents, but rather everyone who went above and beyond in the battle. Dozens ventured up the steps, some soldiers, others family members holding memorabilia of their loved ones. All were being honored, even the dead.

“She’s never been one for formal events,” Jude muttered, trying to keep his mouth as still as possible. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to be talking during this.

“Who cares?” Glenny asked, subconsciously eying up at his hair. Not that he could see anything, but the Legacy of Beauty who had fixed him right up had done a wonderful job given his circumstance. “She’s kind of rude.”

Leland shook his head. “She should be here.”

The ceremony lasted, for them, all of five minutes. They reached the top of the stairs, waited a short bit for their turn, then stepped onto the main landing. With the backdrop of the castle, Aunty P pinned an ivory badge to Roy’s chest. She then moved on to Diana, then Jude, then Carmon. At Glenny, the badge changed shape and design into something grander. She pinned it on him with a smile. Lucia and Spencer got a matching pair, the magic-version of the one Glenny received.

But she didn’t give Leland anything. His neck tingled as the moment dragged on, the staring populace like ants. She then cleared her throat and spoke, something she had not done for most of the other awards.

“I, Regent Queen, would love to present you, Leland Silver, with what is dutiful yours. But someone else wished to do the honors despite being warned by several royal healers.”

Somewhere, a troop of low-brass instruments started playing. Then, the castle gates clicked, their mighty doors opening.

“Chin up,” Aunty P whispered to Leland. “This is her first appearance as Queen. Don’t ruin it.”

Confusion marked his face, at least until Queen Sybil Palemarrow took a step out of her home. She walked with precious efficiency, a movement that neither dragged her long regal dress, nor caused her lifted heels problems. She wore ivory and red, her kingdom’s colors, or rather, her colors.

She smiled at him as she walked, her eyes locked only on his. With lips as red as an apple, her scars were hardly visible. A bygone reminder of a time of childhood, a time of weakness, a time of innocence. It hadn’t been long since she had woken up, only two days, but in that time her mother and all the previous queens had taught her many things.

She was neither the person she once was, nor was she anyone different. She was simply her, a girl who longed to leave the cage that was her home, only to realize her home was a paradise all along.

She stopped a comfortable distance from Leland. An attendant quickly passed a box to Aunty P who then opened it for her Queen.

Sybil removed a custom made badge. It was violet and familiarly circular, like a ring or a halo. She brought it close to her own heart before closing the distance between her and its true owner. She reached out, pinning it on Leland.

Leland quickly realized his mouth was agape and he was staring. Then he realized his friends and family had departed the stage, leaving him up there alone, the traitors. He then remembered he could speak.

“How was the nap?”

Smooth.

Sybil smiled gently, a mix of emotions fluttering through her mind. “It was good. Until someone’s magic lit-up the whole city. Although I do have to say, it made finding that accursed statue much easier.”

Leland blinked a few times. “Er, what?”