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Harry Gage

“A non-important piece’’

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The sun reflected itself against the glass of the room’s window… It felt warm but in a chilling way. Harry’s eyes fluttered open… Where was he? What happened? How was he not dead? All those questions quickly flooded through his mind. His eyes ran down toward the arm he knew had been torn off by the… ‘‘soft’’ landing he had experienced back in the forest. It had been bandaged… By who…? His eyes scanned the room, the place around him… It felt familiar… Was this his home? How was he back here? had he not passed out in the forest, …? Who brought him here?

Sudden steps from outside the window took his focus… A figure was walking away from him… The energy emanating from it, It was familiar… He knew that person. It definitely wasn’t Elaria’s energy… Not Luke… Definitely not him; he is dead. Maybe it was one of the Silver Helmets? That would explain why it was so familiar… No… It was just an animal…

He let out a soft chuckle… Did he really bring himself here? In this shape?… Guess that explains why he didn’t remember… But that is quite a distance… He probably spent days doing so while half conscious… That is quite the feat. Most people wouldn’t go that far with this much blood loss, and yet he did. Of course this would be the one place his body would walk back after it all… Whatever, he should probably deal with that bleeding arm… He stood up gently using his blade to steady himself as he stumbled toward the fireplace nearby his late mother’s room… He collapsed to his knees before it before lighting a match and tossing it in… The fire roared as if it knew what kind of stupid move he was about to do…

Harry grabbed a piece of wood and bit into it as he suddenly put his arm into the flames, cauterizing the wound… With a flame. Had he lost it? A loud scream echoed through the silence of the empty house. His jaw snapped down onto the piece of wood he had inside of his mouth. The pressure from his teeth nearly snapped it in pieces. A loud gasp of relief came out of his mouth as he finally pulled away from the place… This was one stupid way to close a wound, but it sure did work.

He collapsed onto his back, gasping for air and for the excruciating pain to finally stop. The pain was overwhelming; it was as if he was plunged into a bath of acid. But… It also was a funny feeling. This was the first time in his life that he had experienced this much physical pain and for some reasons… It made him burst out into laughter. His laugh echoed against the walls of the living room; it could have woken up his neighbors if he had any. His house may have been located near the border of the Elarian’s Queendom, but it was still located in a forest with no one living for kilometers on end. His head fell flat against the ground… Rolling slightly to the side with his laughter until his gaze locked onto his mother’s bedroom… At that exact moment… A memory of a sentence hit him like a battering ram.

‘‘My guards told me something they found in your mother’s room—’’

What… Did her guards find her in her room? Stumbling upward to his feet using his blade once more… He stumbled toward her bedroom door… Sheathing his sword, he reached forward with his hand and opened the door gently. Standing on the ground before him… A broken picture frame of his family… But it wasn’t just his mother and him… There was someone else… He kneeled down to grip the picture frame to examine it closely—why was the guy who killed his mom that night next to her in the picture…? Did they know each other? Whatever… That man was dead. By his hands. He gripped the picture and walked back to the living room… Tossing it into the living flames right where it belonged.

The flames wrapped themselves around the piece of paper covered in picture film, tearing through it with vivid ease. His gaze focused on the face of the murderer on the picture for a moment… Wait—he suddenly reached out into the flames to try and pull the photo out but it was way too hot… That wasn’t just any man… That—his father. He never knew him… But it was definitely him… He looked just like him. Why the hell would he kill his mother and try to kill him…? What made him do this? His eyes locked onto the ash of the picture… Hoping that if he stared at it long enough… It would answer all his questions… But it was mere ash, and he was a broken cog.

Only ashes remained …sitting silently in their last resting place. The one place memory could never escape its own fate. Harry collapsed against the wall behind him… The weight of everything that had happened recently to him finally hitting him… He may have been trying to downplay everything… To say it was just a cause of fate. But deep down, it hurt. His nose scar would always be a reminder of his acceptance by the hand of Elaria… But his mangled arm… It would always be a reminder of his ultimate failure. He may have been a right hand to a broken and unjust system… But he still failed as a right hand and now he physically only has his right arm left… A cruel reminder.

A small, exhausted sigh escaped his mouth… He was tired… The blood loss, everything, the distance he had just walked to get here… It was all too much for him But he couldn’t stay here… What if this entity… The red gem was tracking him down as of right now… If it was—why did it let him stay alive…? His head stayed still against the hard surface of the wall… The same wall where he had found his mother’s corpse…that night… His head was filled with so many questions that it felt like it was about to explode.

How did this gem even work in the first place… How was it able to take her over…? That was the first thing he knew he had to figure out… Without that information, he wouldn’t go far. Despite how much he hated the thought that had came to his mind… He knew he couldn’t gather that alone… He could try asking the different royal squadron… If the possessed queen didn’t destroy them already… With one arm left it would be quite difficult… Perhaps he should visit a nearby forgeron village to get himself some kind of prosthetic to help himself…

He glared out of the living room window, knowing the closest forgeron village was quite a distance away… But it was a necessary distance… Without both of his arms… There was no way he could… Ugh…save the queen… As he went to fall asleep to rest out his exhaustion… He heard a small groan from the basement where he had been tied in during the death of his mother… So he was, in fact, not alone all this time …?

Harry gently stood up without a sound, pressing his back against the wall and shut his eyes… Listening for movement… For something to tell him that the person walking up the stairs was coming toward him… The waves shifted and at that was the exact moment he struck—His blade froze at the neck of the person before him… It was a woman… Looked to be in her twenties… She clearly was malnourished… When was the last time she had eaten something? His gaze moved toward the basement… A makeshift bed? She was just trying to live.

“Is there a name I can associate with that face, ma’am?” He said gently…slowly lowering his blade to show he wasn’t going to hurt her.

The woman’s eyes softened… Still shocked to have a blade to her neck mere moments ago…

‘I’m Diana…’’ Her voice was jumpy… She clearly was scared of the man before her.

Diana… That was a soft name on the tongue… She looked quite scared… But was she worth keeping alive…? She could stab him in the back the second he turned away for all he knew… She was a survivor after all… Survivors would do anything to survive. What could he use her for …?

‘‘… Give me one reason to not kill you swiftly Diana… and none of the pleading shit, will you, dear?’’ He said softly… His face cold… But inside it was hurting him.

‘‘I hm… I know how to…hm… Im good at hunting… When there are animals to hunt…’’

Hunt? Well… That was certainly useful… So she’s able to be sneaky enough to take out a target…? She could be used to actually infiltrate the castle, perhaps…

‘‘Good news then. You live.’’ The words came out of his mouth coldly with a warm undertone to them. He gently sheathed his blade and motioned for her to sit on the couch, which she quietly obeyed.

‘What will you do to me…?’’ She said, cowering in fear, refusing to look toward the imposing figure standing before her.

He let out a small sigh and leaned against the wall. “Nothing harsh, don’t you worry… I simply wish for you to… Follow me in my travels. That is all. You will, of course have to make yourself useful…’’

Diana’s eyes widened at his answer… Was that truly all she had to do? Wait… What would she gain from this?

‘‘You won’t have to hunt for food anymore… Lady Diana.’’ He said softly, glancing toward the window once more to look at the rays of sunshine hitting between the trees.

Harry didn’t need to hear her answer to his proposal… The face she made was enough to know that she had agreed to his terms. Tomorrow morning… After making sure she was fed enough, they would depart together for the forgeron village…