Mortance: A Miscarriage of Hope

Aurora Ⅷ

It's all falling down, I despaired. It's all falling apart.

"Aurora."

The prince is gone, the kingdom's lost, the world is falling down. Tears welled up in my eyes. And there's nothing I can do to stop it.

"Aurora!" The sound of Vanessa's voice made the dog I was buried in stir. I groaned as my head dropped to the hardwood floor of my lover's room at Hoger's. That's right, we're at Hoger's. Then we'll be leaving Esson for somewhere far away and all this will be behind us. Sacreon will fall on someone else. But that felt so wrong.

"Aurora, please," Vanessa put a hand on my shoulder. "I know it's hard, but I need you right now."

I opened my eyes and looked into hers. My vision was blurred from the tears. Vanessa is here for me. Vanessa loves me, I told myself. But I could still feel the helplessness as Jacob Calder pushed me back to have his way with me. He was going to... to... rape me. The very idea of it made me shudder.

"Aurora, I need you," Vanessa said. Her voice saved me from the memories. I exhaled shakily, tears slipping down my face, and nodded.

"He was... he was..." my voice shook as I tried to speak.

"I know," Vanessa sighed. "But we're going away now." She took my hands in hers. "He will never touch you again. I swear it upon my life."

Thank you, I thought. The words came out of my mouth moments later.

Vanessa nodded. "Of course. I need your help now."

I sat up slowly on the floor. Vanessa stood before me, two dogs smiling at her heels, the third on the floor across the room. I love dogs. "What do I need to do?" I asked.

"Money," Vanessa said simply. "Everything's packed and ready to go, but there's no other way I'm willing to pay for our escape than with gold."

"Oh, yeah," I agreed. "They're not looking for me yet?"

"Not that I can tell," she said. "But they will be soon. We'll have to keep hidden."

I glanced over at our cloaks in the corner. "We can do that."

The dogs Benji, Breadstick, and Oaken whimpered as we left, though Vanessa assured them we'd be back for one last goodbye. Can dogs understand that? I wondered. There was so much intelligence behind their eyes, but was it that much?

But the issue left my mind as soon as we left Hoger's. Vanessa and I stood in the street, cloaked in blue. Underneath, I wore the same shade of orange I'd worn the first time I came to Hoger's. Vanessa wore the brown tunic she always wore. A cold sunlight illuminated the streets of Esson as we went out in search of the coin to pay for our escape. We'll take no more than we need, I told myself. Sacreon will need money for the war.

A light wind blew my hair across my face as I pulled my hood tight over my face. Vanessa did the same beside me. I took her hand in my own so I wouldn't lose her in the crowded streets. People are flooding into the city in anticipation of Ascenday. It was chaos, and chaos was easy to get lost in. It'll be hard to find us once they start looking, I hoped. But we should be gone by then.

The Castle of Kings loomed ahead of us. Its coffers of gold would be our salvation, I hoped. Vanessa's grip tightened on my hand, "nobody will know it's you," she assured me.

"Somebody will have to," I reminded her. The knights guarding the vault would only let us through if they knew it was me. "They'll only give money to the princess."