In the darkest hours just before dawn started to disperse the night sky the rest of the family returned. When they did Eirene and her younger brothers were still awake, there was no chance that one of them could fall asleep in the middle of this. They had just been sitting in the living room area in front of the fireplace and stared into it. Neither of them had spoken a word, there was nothing to say. Sure, they could sit there and pat each other's back, try to make each other feel better, cheer each other up with pretty words. But the words got stuck on the way up, neither of them could lie like that. Neither of them wanted to bring it up, the topic was too heavy to even think about. Even though Eirene wanted to think about something else, and she tried so hard to change the pictures in her mind she couldn't. The thought of Embla always snuck back and screamed inside her head. Screamed at her that Embla was out there when something like an assassin snuck around.
But as soon as Eirene and Eli's father and older brothers returned they quickly got up onto their feet’s again. Just about to rush out to the main entrance to welcome them all back and Embla as well. They never got the time to do so though, the four men wandered into the room without even taking off their coats. As they did both Eirene and Eli searched behind them with their eyes, looking after Embla. But she never showed up and the youngest children could understand what it meant even before their father tried to explain it with a cracked voice. Even though he tried to act strong in front of them they both could see that his heart was filled with sorrow.
After their father had told everyone about Embla's death every one of them was sent to bed. Well, her oldest brother was sent to the couch since neither of the other family members felt like letting him walk through the city by himself to his own house. Once inside her own bed, tucked down carefully by her father Embla lied there and stared up into the ceiling. She found it a bit odd that her father had been there to tell her goodnight, it been had aged since he had done something like that. She was an adult now so there was no need for such things. But she guessed that it was the shock from losing his oldest daughter that made him act like this towards her. She was his only daughter left now.
Time had continued to go forward like it was cogwheels that hadn't been oiled in a long time, it moved slowly, creakingly and stood completely still at other times. Cailu wasn't being himself, he felt more hated than ever. He was hiding inside the leader's mansion most of the time, inside his room, in his bed and refused to go out of bed. He was like a sulky child, feeling bad for himself for something he had brought upon himself as well. It was as if Ara somehow had spoiled him with just her presence and now he was being like this. Servants or other's came to knock on the door from time to time and asked him to perform his duties as the
leader. It was a funny thing however since he wasn't the leader and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. It was Ara who told him what to do, now he was like a lost puppy.
In the end the servants gave up and the only thing they did was bring him food. After a while they stopped doing that as well since they just got so angry with him. They knew it was his fault that Ara had been sent away, it was his idea. And of course they all disliked him for it but they just tried to act nice, but in the end their friendliness had a limit and they had reached it. So he was all alone in the big mansion. Listening to the noises from the outside, there life carried on but in there - in the cold, empty, dusty mansion it was only silence. Silence and Cailu's groans of agony. He was not a strong person, not by himself, not without Ara. He needed her to show the way first.
In the end he reached his limit as well, he couldn't go on without a proper meal. His stomach was so empty it felt like it had started to eat itself up. So since Cailu himself couldn't cook at all he swept his cloak around himself, covering this face. He knew it was a simple and probably failure as an disguise but he just didn't feel like showing his face to the townspeople. He didn't want to see their either. He just wanted to be left alone and be without their dark gazes.
So out he went, in his so discreet disguise. Even though he couldn't see them he knew that everyone was looking and that everyone knew who he was. But at least he didn't have to see them and that was all that counted. He walked over the trampled dirt paths, he knew where he was going. The only place he could get a cooked meal as long as he paid them, the inn. There was only one in the small village Airedale. But at least there was one.
When he reached it he pushed the heavy oak door out of his way and walked as far into the inn as possible, sitting down in one of the darkest corners. There he waited for someone to just take his order and then go again, leave him alone so he could sulk in his solitude.
The castle life wasn't as fun as Deborah probably had imagined it to be while still living in the slums, being there and gaze towards the castle you imagine that their life was easy. Carefree. That somehow disaster didn't strike them at any time. How now that could work since everyone dies, get sick, wounded and so on at some point in life. But being on the outside you just can't imagine things like that, at least Deborah couldn't. But even though Deborah didn't care the slightest about the dead queen or king the rest of the castle seemed to care an awfully lot. Even though time moved on most of the people still seemed to mourn like there was no ending to it. Not that Deborah had gotten time to think about such things much, she had been busy reading. Not being the best at it she had to put all of her focus on those strange curlicues to understand what they tried to tell her.
Deborah had spent almost every day since she had moved into the castle inside the library doing something she would rather not do. She flipped through book after book, eyed parchment after parchment. There was no end to it. So many books and so little that were relevant at all. It had gotten so far that she had started to see letters haunt her in her dreams when she was asleep, they were everywhere.
But one day it happened. As she tiredly eyed through yet another really old parchment something captured her eyes. Or at first she was just about to miss it and put the parchment with all the other's that she was already done with when some words stood out a little more than the other's.
The Element stones, the parchment itself didn't say much. It was basically just an old fairy tale or myth. Or so it seemed at first when she looked at it. It told the story of four stones or jewels, they each held the ability to control one of the elements by touching them. As she read it over and over Deborah started to wonder if it really just was a fairy tale and why it would be kept in the library if that was the case. It just seemed odd, even though it was old and had probably been lying there for ages, why? Why would someone even put a fairy tale in here, she had always thought it was supposed to hold the history of the Fire tribe and Murtovaara intact. So something about the fairy tale just seemed so... strange. Even though she wasn't sure if it was something she should bring to the king she decided to do it. It was something, better than nothing. And if he also thought that it sounded unlikely that the library would keep myths and bed time stories intact perhaps she was right in her suspicion.
So when she left the library she brought the parchment with her, dead set on showing it to him when he had time over to come down to her room. And there she waited for him while reading the lines over and over again. Thinking, or at least trying to think about it.
When he finally arrived she rose from her chair and held out the parchment for him to see, "I found this today. At first I thought it was just a myth or perhaps a fairy tale but then I realized that it was very strange that your library would contain something like fairy tales. So what do you think?"