Jordan's POV
The silence in the room was deafening, the layers of tension and undisguised fury surrounding me and almost choking me as my mind whirled. What could I say in response to that? They clearly for some twisted reason hated my lady and in my agreement of their statement I could be putting myself in more danger but another part of my brain remembered how much my lady had done for me over the years and how she had never given up on me, so why should I give up on her? It was a question of how I wanted to start out in this land, whether I wanted to be true to myself and risk potentially my life time and time again or whether I wanted to try and sneak my way into their good graces and uncover this town's secrets.
As my mind searched for the right answer, my gaze moved upwards into the rafters of the large hall. I hadn't noticed it before, but there was a shape in the corner of the rafters staring down at me. I blinked and took a double take; it was the figure of a young man. He had tousled brown hair and bright blue eyes, with a rather slender form and wore simple brown clothes, causing his rather pale skin to stand out in the low light. I saw a flicker of movement to the side of him and on focusing my vision; I noticed a pair of beautiful purple wings fluttering behind him, seemingly attached to the nerves in his back. I was awestruck and my stare moved to meet the eyes of this youth, who was staring at me with an expression of hope in his eyes – as if he was awaiting my answer to the King's question but feared that I might not be on his side. My mind immediately put the pieces together, he wanted me to admit to being a follower of Ianite despite the danger it would put me in, yet he was afraid to show his hope to the King in case it revealed some great secret of his. Furrowing my eyebrows, I shoved the strange young man to the back of my mind and faced the King, my voice strong once more.
"Yes, I am a follower of Lady Ianite. In the realm, we came from I was her champion and I am proud of that. I will worship her till the day I die."
The piercing glares that followed sent a shudder down my spine but I held firm. They looked in my eyes for what felt like an age, their fists unconsciously tightening into fists and fury burning in their very souls like I had murdered their entire family. I heard a quiet gasp above me but I didn't move my eyes from the King's, not wanting to seem weak and also not wanting to give away his position. I knew the young lad would find me later; it was just a matter of time. I went to stand up, pushing my legs out of my chair and turning to walk towards the door when a firm hand grasped my shoulder and I was spun around to face the cold fury of the men. Their tone was full of venom and malice, aimed towards me despite the fact they had no clue what I was or what I'd been through.
"You are not welcome in this town. If I find you across the threshold of this town without my explicit permission then I will have you thrown into a jail cell and left there to rot. Give you a taste of pain for once. Your Lady is a murderess and doesn't deserve to walk this ground never mind be a goddess, but you wouldn't understand because I bet you've never lost anyone in your entire happy little life. Wake up and smell the roses Jordan, otherwise, you will not survive."
A blast of pain and cold fury flowed through my veins for some unknown reason, the cruel insults aimed at my lady being fuelled by some unknown pain that was seizing my heart and squeezing it in a vice like grip. My fists clenched and I pulled my shoulder out of Lieutenant Al's grasp, deliberately being rough and hearing him cuss at the sharp pain that was hopefully lancing through his hand. I stared at the King for a moment, feeling my burning gaze fill with pain and anger as it seemed to burn through where he was standing. Meeting my gaze for a second, he stepped backwards in fear of me – shuffling behind the Lieutenant as I stormed out of the fancy hall.
I walked straight out of the town, ignoring Martha's shouts and began to break into a run, just wanting to get away and to try and understand what the hell was going on in my mind. Feet pounding against the hard ground and my arms pumping, I just let go of everything – letting my feet carry me to a new place, not wanting to face my friends or even to stop to pick my way carefully through thorns and branches, letting them cut into my skin as I tore through them. My vision began to blur after a while as tears flooded them, the world around me swimming as pain and loss ripped through me like the blade of a sword through my chest. I sank to my knees and allowed the sobs to wrack my chest, rocking back and forth as the pain enveloped me. Images of a woman, visions of pain and a constant flash of darkness filled my vision over and over again, none of it making any sense yet bringing waves upon waves of sadness and depression into my mind.
"Jordan?"
I heard Martha calling for me, her voice not too far off from where I was crouched. Frozen in place, I didn't know whether she was with or against me – my tears still running down my face as I fought the urge to flee or to fight. She rounded the corner, her purple hair windswept and her eyes filled with panic, a huge sigh of relief escaping her as her gaze settled on me, only to be replaced with concern as she did a double take and took in my broken form. No words were spoken as we stared at one another, our emotions displaying through our eyes as empathy filled hers to mirror my pain. She sat next to me, patting the spot next to her as she waited for me to speak – knowing that I couldn't ignore her forever. I sighed, settling myself back down again and focusing on a small spot at the edge of the field – staring at a flower like it would solve all of my problems.
"What's wrong Jordan?"
I snorted sarcastically. How did she not know? I had become an outcast, my goddess insulted and my friends potentially banned from seeing me.
"I can see the pain in your eyes Jordan. A pain of loss and fear, regret and self-loathing that will only boil inside you if you don't come to terms with it. As much as you don't know me or anyone here, I know that you would trust your friends with anything. Maybe you should talk to one of them, they're not forbidden from visiting you, it's just frowned upon. Not that some rules would stop Tom from what I've heard about him. If you don't want to talk to them, maybe you should talk to your goddess – she isn't the same as the one you know from home but she's an amazing woman no matter what the King says."
With that Martha walked off, grabbing an apple out of her pocket and biting into it – a satisfied smile on her face as she moved out of my vision, probably back to her home. I pulled myself up from where I was sitting and took in my surroundings, spotting a decent flat space for me to build a house in. Deciding to do what I did best, I grabbed some wood and began to make the foundations to it, creating a miniature cobblestone wall to stop the mobs from attacking me as I lost myself in the rhythm of the building. My house was quite simple, seeming to echo the one I had built for myself overseeing the ocean in the old world. The night passed and the sounds of footsteps broke me out of my trance, launching me back into reality as I tried to shove my thoughts into the back of my head. I caught a flash of purple out of the corner of my eye and sighed, wondering what wise words Martha was about to deliver to me now – that woman was far too good at seeing my secrets despite only having known her one day. A not so subtle cough and the sound of someone dancing from foot to foot caught my attention so I turned around to meet a familiar face. It was Tom! I launched forward and tackled him in a hug, a genuinely huge grin on my face for the first time since arriving in this realm.
"Tom! What are you doing here?"
Tom chuckled at my awed expression, pointing towards Martha who was leaning against a tree and grinning at the pair of us with an expression of a cat that's got the cream. He leant over to ruffle my hair before bounding into my house and looking around, rummaging through the chests and pulling out random things – being his usual silly self and making me laugh. Martha turned and walked off, giving us a quick wave as I grabbed some bread from the furnaces and chucked it at Tom, before gesturing for him to speak what was on his mind.
"So, Martha told me you got outcast from the town? The King gave this whole huge ass boring speech to everyone like, 'Jordan is a traitor he must be apprehended on sight! Anyone who does not worship the one true god Mianite must be punished and corrected!' So naturally, I slipped away from the crowd and came to speak to you, nice crib you got here! Needs a few touches, maybe some nice flowers on the wall to really tie the room together."
"I got banished because I refused to deny my devotion to Lady Ianite. Wait. How have you not been outcast as well, you are basically Dianite's lapdog!"
"Well you see Mr Sparkly Pants, I am very cunning. When asked this question, I merely replied with the best answer: 'Isn't it obvious.' Being the morons they are, they all assumed I was talking about Mianite instead of Dianite. By the way, have you heard? Dianite is dead and floating around as a ghost apparently. Kind of want to meet him and try and catch him like in Ghostbusters."
"Oh. That's news to me. Anyways, you should probably head back – they're probably looking for you. Tell the others where I live if they want to come... Oh, and say hello to James for me!"
As Tom left, he was burdened with a bag of blueberry pies I had made – most of them half eaten by the time he made it back to town. I continued building my house, ignoring the voices in my head that whispered malicious things to me and tried to drive my sanity out of my own mind. I busied myself with building, cooking, exercising and even creating miniature stories in my head to drown everything out but nothing seemed to be working. I was facing demons I didn't even know existed or why they had come to taunt me but nevertheless, they were my burden to bear.
Placing down my bed at the top of the house, I crawled under the covers and stared at the wooden roofing above me, my mind more awake then than it had been moments before getting into bed. Thoughts whirred endlessly and the darkness seemed to close in on me like I couldn't keep control over my own mind. I felt into a restless, nightmare-filled sleep.
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