Stuck in Time

"Why do you think you ended up like this?"

"..."

"So you don't have an answer? Or is it that the answer is too hard for you to say? If you hadn't been so full of yourself, you could have saved everything. Well, you are my daughter, after all, we are just the same. Always thinking we know everything, that's in our blood. And this pride isn't something to be resented either. After all you and I...we are living for one singular goal, aren't we? I know...you understand, don't you? And that's why no matter what comes, we have to keep fighting, for our lives and for our children too."

****************

Even though I now had the horse with me, I had no idea where to go. I kept going at a steady pace in an arbitrary direction, under the assumption that I had the horse's reins in my hands. Little did I know it was going where it pleased without any regard for me. I wonder why I didn't realize it but it kept on running until we were near the orphanage. I had never intended to go there.

I tried to change its course but it kept on following its nose. Eventually, we had come a little further ahead of the orphanage and upon realizing this, I wondered if the horse had forgotten the course it was supposed to take. We kept going until we reached a small settlement that looked as if it had been plagued by some sort of deathly disease. Some of the huts had smoke rising through their chimneys and I saw an old hunchback making her way to one such hut. The horse went in a little further.

"Oi", an old voice called me.

I turned around to find an old woman, carrying a basket of coal. I got down from the horse and approached her.

"Why have you come to this cursed land, stranger?", she asked, disgruntled.

"Uh...", I hesitated a little, "I'm looking for someone. Have you seen a woman in a fur coat? She is about as tall as me and has short hair. You...haven't seen her, have you?"

"No one comes here. You must have taken a wrong turn yourself", she looked at me with those infinite wrinkles on her forehead.

"What is this place?"

It was strange that such a place existed on the outskirts of such a prosperous Versailles.

"Can't you tell? This whole region is Wallach. Didn't you notice the palace? Have you been sleeping on that horse?", the old woman fixed the basket under her arm and began to move towards her hut.

"Please wait, I need to know some things", I followed the old lady.

"Keep it down and come inside if you want to ask something. But leave your weapons with me if you want to enter".

I handed Ebony over to her and she let me inside. I sat on the dining table in the middle of that small hut and she brought some tea from the kitchen. It was nothing more than hot water really and she knew it perfectly well.

"Why are you living in a place like this, old lady? Wouldn't you be better off in Versailles somewhere? It looks to me like you live alone, is a hut like this really worth staying here for?"

The woman eyed me bitterly, I flinched and indulged myself in the tea.

"What's this Vaselle... what you speak of?"

"Well don't you know about Versailles? It's right over...", I forgot which direction it was supposed to be, "You are living right outside it, you know."

"Stop kidding!", the hag blasted, "I don't live outside of anything, this here is the center of the country. Wallach is the capital city, you fool."

"Huh? Capital...of what? This is the capital?", I began doubting if the hag wasn't half senile.

"Vaselle...Versal...", she mumbled in deep thought.

"Versailles!", I interrupted.

"Ah! That! You fiend, you come from that place?!"

I was confused at her abrupt reaction.

"Not really, well...yes-"

"You fool!", she might have just started throwing things at me, "That's where they took her! Our lady! What tyranny!"

"Hey lady...are you fine?", she was beating her head, of course, she wasn't fine.

"Oh, what misfortune. All our children taken, all our babies starved and died. We were erased...and all for what! Vesalle would be next. Oh our children!", she continued her wailing.

I stared at her perplexed. Versailles was right next door...right?

"When will this curse die out? And you! What have you come here for? Do you seek their deaths too? Those abominations!"

"I'm not here seeking for anyone to die, lady. What are you even on about? Versailles is the city next over."

"Fool! Don't you dare trick me with your lies. I know about Ruman more than you know yourself!"

"Ruman?"

"Why, this country Ruman!"

I was lost for a while. Was it the old woman who was crazy or was I missing out on something?

"Uh...lady, this country...and Wallach...could you tell me more?"

"Oh Ruman! All throughout the times we know of, Ruman is the home of Count Vlad. He was here before anyone else was and now his family flourishes thousands of years later. In that castle up the hill, they live and die and live again and till eternity they will continue to live and die. Here in Wallach, where we bear no children, we are their serfs. And now they have married their daughter into your country...Mercae! It is an agreement to stop the war, what else could it be?"

"The war? The Great war? That ended 7 years ago..."

"You fool! The Great War ends? Are you a dreaming fool?!"

I couldn't have been wrong, right? This woman was nuts. I hurriedly got out of my chair and dashed outside of the hut. I was panting as if all the oxygen around me had disappeared.

Even though the wind almost formed the beginning of a storm outside, I felt suffocated in that place. I began looking around for my horse which wasn't where I had bound it. I noticed eventually that it was freely roaming around, with its pure black main and flowing hair carelessly feeling the wind. And I thought to myself why it had even brought me to a place like this when a piece of paper flew across and got stuck to my leg.

It read, "Banquet at the castle" and then was written the time and then was written the date and that was enough to shut my brain for a while. That fresh paper in my hand couldn't survive 10 years...right? This was neither Mercae nor Versailles. My head was spinning and I didn't know what to do at all.

I looked towards the horse who was neighing like it was the king of the world.

"Where the hell did you bring me, you damn horse?!"