Chapter 8: Episode 31-"House of Oddities"

“What was that?” Regal suddenly bolted upright in his chair at the loud crash that sounded above him. He turned his head and stared at the ceiling as if he could see through it through to the upstairs of the house.

“I’m not sure.” Aliyah said, alert and already out of her chair on her way to the stairs too investigate. “But I’m going to find out.”

Regal was on her heels in and instant. Aliyah stopped as her foot hit the first step and turned to face Regal, concern playing in her expression. “You had better stay here while I check things out, it could be guards or… well- who knows. I can’t risk you two being seen here.” She shot a glance at Hercule, who stood totally unaware and staring at a potted plant hanging from the ceiling.

“If it is dangerous, I’m definitely not letting you go alone.” Regal said sternly, gripping Aliyah’s wrist as if to ensure they went together. Aliyah nodded in submission and they both raced up the stairs to discover the source of the commotion. No further sounds had come from the upstairs since the initial sound of impact, as if intruders had dropped loudly through the roof. Was is an Imperial raid? Did they know the Savoor brothers were here?

Aliyah took the last two stairs in one stride then crept to a sudden slow pace, feeling the need for caution. Whoever or whatever it was that had caused the noise had been eerily silent since then. Aliyah did not know what to expect as she walked sideways, one foot after the other, barely making a sound: her movements steady and calculated, honed by a lifetime of smuggling and theft. Regal did his best to keep up and also remain as quite as Aliyah as the two made their way slowly but certainly to the room at the end of the hall.

Behind that last door, Aliyah knew the layout, where to look, where someone might easily hide. It was a simple bedroom: a guest room often given to her smuggled in visitors as it had several escape routes in case the house was inspected by Imperial Guards, which was not uncommon for a house owned by a woman on the dubious side of the city. Regal had stayed there many times journeying to and from the palace on conspicuous missions for the Rebellion. Though he was not accredited for much in the wars, he served as a valued spy of the rebels in the first and second conflict. He knew the room at the end of the hall well.

Aliyah reached for the handle of the door carefully and turned it without making a noise. Then she slowly pushed it open enough to see into the room, but perhaps not enough to be immediately noticed by the room’s occupants, if there were any. The room looked empty, from what she could see of the small living space.

Taking a breath to ready herself for whatever was sure to follow, Aliyah pushed open the door all the way. At least, she would have, had it not stopped after about two feet, hitting something on the floor. Regal pushed passed Aliyah and into the room, seeing something she did not: a form on the bed. But as he squeezed through the narrow space in the doorway he also noted a second figure on the floor. To his astonishment he recognized them both.

“Felix? Khali? What in blazes are you doing here?” Regal said far louder than he intended to. Aliyah slipped in through the doorway after Regal, slightly perturbed at being shoved by in the hallway, but also curious as to what lay behind the door. She knew the man on the floor, that was the handsome gent who always tried to hit on her: a prideful sort, but kept to himself enough to not be entirely annoying. She had often smuggled him in and out of the city on escapades, always with that huge, shiny flail that was currently splitting the wood of her floor. Aliyah growled under her breath.

But the woman, the woman she did not know. The woman had violet hair, looking shorn off by an axe at shoulder length, pale, almost sickly skin with a dull and faded luster, bearing markings of a ranger, at least she was dressed like one. Her all-encompassing cloak was a new feature of a ranger’s wardrobe that usually did not accompany the brown boots with crisscross buckles, forest green pants and dark brown leather shirt. But otherwise she looked… small, typical ranger build: thin, well-knit, extremely fit looking if a bit malnourished. It was news to Aliyah that the two were Regal’s siblings. There was little to no resemblance between them. Perhaps it was the effort each took to the distinguishing of their appearance from others that set them all apart, but Aliyah would not have took them for family.

“How did they get in my house?” It may not have been the most pertinent question to the situation, but it was definitely the most important one to Aliyah in the moment. Regal immediately guessed the answer.

“His ring.” He pointed down at Felix hand and the simple silver band on his index finger. “It’s a transportation ring imbued with the power to locate him and whoever he touches to a place he can fully envision in his mind. Evidently this place was memorable to him.” Regal looked around, trying to see why Felix would have chosen here to transport himself and Khali. “But why they arrived here seems to be unimportant. They are here now…” he thought for a moment, “it may have been that he was under an immense amount of pressure of mental strain and this was perhaps not the preferred location, but the first to materialize in his mind.” Regal shrugged.

“I thought that wasn’t important.” Aliyah mocked as she stepped over the body of Felix on the floor and lifted his flail out of the gash on the flooring it had made with one of its spikes. “Look what they did to my floor!” She nearly sobbed, moving the flail carefully so as to make no further markings on the wooden base of the room.

“It’s not, really. Just thinking.” Regal said, shaking himself from a wandering thought train. “The important thing is that they are here and what we do next. Yes.” He spoke as if to affirm things he had just said to himself. Regal often thought out loud, particularly when figuring a situation. Aliyah had always found this habit of his annoying.

“Well, you stay here and figure it out. I’m going to make some supper downstairs with the crazy man. When they wake up you three can join us.” Aliyah was clearly frustrated with the sudden intrusion into her life by this family. It was supposed to be a clean job, get them in, wait ’til dark, send them away on their mission. Now it appeared they would be staying a while longer than planned. Aliyah stepped back over the body of Felix and passed by Regal who was speaking his thoughts out loud again as if someone there was listening. She rolled her eyes as she left the room and shut the door behind her. Walking down the hall and down the stairs she halted as her gaze fell upon Hercule, who had been in his own world, unwitting of anything that had transpired since he entered the house.

The man just stood there, one hand on a pillar which opened the house up on that side into a grassy yard. The house was built as a villa with several interconnected buildings, joined by stone paths and arches surrounding this one grass patch in the center. He just stood there, leaning out into the sunlight and fresh air, holding a single, small flower up to his face with his free hand and inhaling deeply its fragrance. Hercule wore a peaceful expression, not a smile, but something infinitely more calm and serene: an effortless expression of serenity. Bliss in the midst of chaos and frustration.

Aliyah tilted her head at the spectacle of it all, then continued walking to the kitchen, an open cooking space just beyond the living area where she began preparing the meal. All the while as she ready the food for the evening meal she watched Hercule as he stood there in the fading light of the day, keeping an eye on the setting sun as it slowly laid itself to rest beyond the mountains. Aliyah watched Hercule and thought, how wonderful it was to be insane.

“What are you making?” Hercule asked in a pleasant voice that carried to the kitchen almost as a soft whisper in the dead of night. Aliyah didn’t know how to respond. How does one reply to an insane man? Her previous conversation with Hercule, if you could call it that, was in the heat of a smuggling scheme and not in the comfort of her own house. This was the first coherent sentence he had spoken to her and she was sightly caught off guard, which was unlike a woman who made her living off of deception.

“Dinner.” She replied gently, as if to a child. That was how she viewed him, as a child who was tender of spirit and must be treated with compassion as it did not know any better. Hercule laughed, his strong voice bearing such beautiful tones that they brought a smile to Aliyah’s face. His very spirit calmed her and exuded a joy and mirth in innocence and purity.

“I know that. I meant what type of dinner are you making.” Hercule corrected her. And as the last fading light of the sun disappeared beyond the Eastern mountains, he left his watch post by the pillar and walked over to the kitchen where Aliyah was working. She looked up from her work to see his approach, but was not threatened by it as she had thought she would be. Here was a man who was clearly insane, she’d seen that, and could snap at any moment—perhaps even kill her—, yet she was not afraid. She smiled at him.

“You look rather silly holding the flower like it’s a precious stone.” Aliyah said as she threw some spices on the meat roasting on a spike in a stone oven. Hercule leaned over the counter top the separated the kitchen from the living area and offered the flower to Aliyah.

“Then you take it.” Hercule opened his hand and allowed the woman to take the flower from him. “It will look much better in your hair than it would in mine.” They both smiled. How totally insane this all was, Aliyah thought. It felt like a dream. She half expected to wake up groggy from narcotics. But for now, she allowed herself a moment of happiness.