Legends of Belariath
Simplicity
"Nobility in this day and age is a rare breed, especially when one falls from their place. It was to the amusement of the Fates that the very night that my daughter was born that the turmoil in my village began. -Agrest Kindreth"
Those words from my father, I found in an old diary when I was twelve. I had no idea what they meant, no idea what he could possibly be talking about. I, as far as I knew, was his only daughter - in fact, he had died when I was still a young child. My mother too. I was taken in by an elderly woman who kept me until I was six years old. I ran away at six and never looked back. Odd how the past was away of coming back and making us relive things we do not want to. At six, I learned quickly that I had to fend for myself. I could for the most part survive on the kindness of strangers for some things. As I got older, still living on my own, I had taken to using my cuteness to distract as I pilfered a few coins here and there.
Shortly after I turned eighteen, I found that I could use my body to distract men and women alike to pilfer coins and other things. That was until the night I met Jaydan. He was a well-to-do man, with wings in all shades of blues. I remember the first day I saw him, I had been a month past sixteen and arrogant that I could take from anyone. I was dared to steal from him by Elois who was my closest companion at the time. He had caught me with my fingers coming out of his coin purse.
"If you'd needed the coin, all you had do was ask for it." His voice was iron encased in velvet. "Go tell your friend you can't play any more." I was terrified and quickly did as he said. I never saw Elois again, because we left that Inn the next morning.
"What do you plan on doing to me? Turning me into the guard as a thief?" I asked quietly when we were in the privacy of his room.
"No little siren, for if I had intended to do that you'd be turned in by now." He brushed his hand through my hair. "Who are you little siren and where are you from? Your beauty is unnatural to this area." He questioned, studying me as if trying to unravel a difficult mystery. He was patient and would be exceedingly so with me right now and in the time we spent together. His sapphire and emerald swirled eyes held a calming patience and serenity as I thought about how to answer him. Did I trust him enough? The answer was yes and I did not know why.
"My name is Simplicity, and I do not remember the name of the place I was born. I do remember my mother and father's names: Agrest and Laorie Kindreth." I studied his face as I told him this, watching the emotions flicker through his swirled eyes. Surprise and shock were among them. It was my turn for shock and surprise when he prostrated himself as one would before a noble or even Emperor. "What are you doing Jaydan? Get up you have no need to do that.” I tugged on him to get him up.
“Just surprised to find that you survived that night My Lady.” He now spoke formally. He pressed a kiss to the back of my hand in an almost courtly manner. He did not yet register the shock at his behavior shift that my face showed. I tugged my hand back and took a step back from him. My heart was pounding in my ears and I was trembling visibly. Did Jaydan really think me nobility or something foolish like that? Apparently he did.
“You my darling siren are the last of the Kindreth family. A noble family thought to be no longer.” Jaydan said sitting across from me at the small table in his room. “My mother and father also were in the horrible massacre. My mother survived but my father was brutally murdered. Though nothing was as bad…” He trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.
I fought the urge as long as I could before softly asking. “Not as bad as what Jaydan?” Then I held my breath because I know with the deepest part of me that I would not like what he was about to say. Even having known what I was going to ask, he did not want to tell me. “Jaydan, please tell me. You know everything about my childhood and I know nothing. I was only a few months old when this happened, please Jaydan.” I pleaded with this man, this strange the Fates had placed in this Inn this night…to tell me what I had been too young to even acknowledge.
He closed his eyes, still debating internally if he was going to tell me or not. “Jaydan.” I said his name in a soft plea before my teeth caught my bottom lip and began worrying the lush flesh. He sighed and went first to retrieve a bottle of brandy from his bag, pouring two glasses. “Very well, but do not be angry with me when you hear it.” He downed his first glass and chased it quickly with a second before he started speaking.
”It started the night you were born. There were riots and groups of raiders setting fire to houses, shops and even people. The strife was caused by noble arrogance. Your grandfather had been greedy and nearly taxed the citizens to death. They thought your father would be the same, even though he’d been exceedingly kind during his first two years. That, had been the honeymoon period with your grandfather, so they were ready for things to go down hill very quickly. Yet, things hadn’t begun to show the same signs that had been there with him. No one knows why they descended like they did.”
Jaydan paused, taking another drink watching me closely. “Do you wish me to continue or have you heard enough little siren?” He questioned watching the multitude of emotions flickering over my face. I swallowed several sips of my drink and attempted to compose myself. But how does one remain calm, cool and collected when being told of their parent’s demise? Wringing my hands in the blanket he’d draped over my lap I looked up at him finally. “Please continue Jaydan, because I need to know. As much as I’d rather run away, scream and cry I need to stay here and listen to this.”
Jaydan nodded lightly and rose, unable to sit still any longer. “They caught your parents returning to their home, their Keep. They never made it. The ambush happened so fast they never saw it coming. They were left to bleed on the road’s edge. The keep was burned to the ground. You were thankfully not in the keep, though we did not know this at the time. After everything happened, those surviving the blaze that consumed half of the village, began searching the rubble. We found loved ones that had been badly burnt or crushed beneath falling rubble. They picked up the pieces and we moved on. I never laid eyes upon the village again. I started traveling by myself at age seventeen. A year ago I heard rumors of a flame-tressed child, no woman, who had been seen in this area. I came here to find her, A year I survived on rumors, clinging to the hopes that she was the last Kindreth. Then, tonight I find you.” Jaydan fell silent, turning away from the fire and watching me.
Tears were streaming down my cheeks and it took me several moments to calm down, for obvious reasons. “Thank you for telling me Jaydan. It was not easy to hear, and I know it was not easy to tell.” I closed my eyes, took another moment before I rose, and circled my arms around Jaydan’s waist. I did nothing more than that, merely keeping myself pressed against his back, needing the comfort of another person, specifically this person. It was he that drew me around him and pulled me close to him, and pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth.
”Stay with me Simplicity?” There was a soft pleading in his voice as he looked down at me. Everything in me said that I should stay with him. He was, albeit a small piece, part of my history and I needed to cling to it as long as possible. I took several moments to respond, but I finally gave him my answer with actions instead of words. Rising on tiptoe, I pressed my lips to his in a kiss. “Yes Jaydan. I will stay with you.” That night seemed to still and linger on forever after that moment.
We slept for only a few hours and were out of the Inn before the first rays of sun began peeking through the trees. We traveled by horse, his horse, only, I rode curled against his chest, his wings draped over us like a blanket. We talked as if we had been old friends, as if we had not just met one another the night before.
We’d been gone three weeks from the Inn where we’d met, traveling only by horse and keeping very little in the form of physical possessions. Our wealth was in coin, both ill-gotten and otherwise. Everything changed one night. We were camping in the woods, because we did not want to deal with the crowded confines of the town we were near. Jaydan went into town and got us food stuffs for the night, and we rested. Sleep had finally come for both of us, shortly after midnight. It was then that the thieves descended quick and deadly. Jaydan was dead before he could even wrap his fingers about his dagger’s hilt. Me, however, they kept alive. At the time I knew not to what end, but it would be made clear soon enough.
I was bound and given a drought of some potion that made me loose consciousness. In my blackness they took me, they had their way with me, leaving the pretty dress Jaydan had bought me in tatters. Eventually I came to and could recall nothing save for vague memories of Jaydan. Those thoughts made me said, and I did not know why. I had only a vague idea of how I’d left the Inn I’d been staying in the night I’d met Jaydan, but all memories after that were fuzzy and made my head hurt to try and sort them out.
I wandered, wearing only a few small tatters of my once beautiful dress until I found a town, more importantly the Inn in that town. The slivers of moonlight fell on the sign allowing me to read it. “The Lonely Inn.” Stepping up the porch steps and pushing open the door, opened a new chapter in my life – one that would hopefully lead to me regaining my memory and learning who I am.So begins my life in Nanthalion.