A Kingdom of Tales

Chapter 4

"We should get you some new papers. I thought I wouldn't find you honestly, so I had no papers made in advance." He grumbles the last part under his breath, and a slight blush creeps up his cheeks.

It's the cutest thing I've ever seen, and I have to stop myself from pinching his cheeks. "Way ahead of you, pretty boy."

I'd started walking to my favorite forger's place. She's trustworthy. I've been dealing with her and two others for the past two years. It's better to be safe than sorry, especially since all three know who I am. That's why I usually have three different identities at a time. I'd had to throw away the other two since they were found out, so I was only walking around with one.

"You think I'm pretty?" He mocks me, giving me puppy eyes. As fun as this conversation is, he's getting awfully close to me, and over the years, I've learned that it's better to keep my distance. Physically and emotionally. That way, I'm less likely to get hurt. God knows I've had enough of that for a lifetime.

I walk away quickly, hoping to put some ground between us, but that plan obviously doesn't work when I see him jogging to catch up to me.

"So... Do you live alone?" I stop in my tracks. This doesn't sound good. Any trust I had in him was immediately replaced with fear.

"What?" I ask. I'm not even trying to hide my fear at this point.

"Oh no. No. That's not what I meant. I'm sorry, Jasmine. I only meant to ask if you know who your parents are." This does little to ease my fear.

"Shit. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I don't mean you any harm, Jasmine. I know you're used to being alone, but I promise you that is going to change. In Avenlea, you'll never be alone again." He speaks slowly, as if trying to convince me of just how harmless he is.

I swallow the lump in my throat and continue walking. He walks a step in front of me, even though he doesn't know where he's supposed to go, so he has to look back at me every few steps. My heart warms at the gesture, and I decide that no matter what, I will trust this boy with the silky black hair and the bluest eyes I've ever seen. I know I've only known him for a few hours, but something inside me is telling me he's telling the truth. Or maybe it's the light in his eyes when he mentioned Avenlea earlier. If anything, he truly believes it exists, and for that, I will trust him.

I jog ahead to catch up with him, and the sadness in his eyes disappears when he sees my smile.

***

"So this is where your forger lives?" He says, looking incredulous. It's the largest building in the city.

"Just because she works a sketchy job doesn't mean she's poor." I grumble. Birla actually does this kind of work to annoy her parents. They practically own everything in the city.

"Wow. Just wow. Foreigners truly are crazy." He whispers under his breath.

"Foreigners?" I ask.

"Well, anyone outside Avenlea is a foreigner to me. Not you, though. You belong in Avenlea." He looks away, blushing.

I can't possibly begin to decipher what he meant by that. In any case, now is not the time for riddles. I'll ask him later. Birla is waiting for me.

"Stay here and wait. No one can know her identity. She prefers keeping it a secret." I leave no room for discussion before entering through the large doors.

***

"Birla! Hi! How have you been?" I ask, giving her a hug.

"Great, girl! I have your papers ready." She pulls out a stack of papers from her drawer and hands them to me. I rummage through my bag for my wallet before she stops me.

"It's on the house today." At my quizzed look, she explains. "I'm going to stop forging. For good. You know, I never did it for the money anyway."

I laugh and put the papers in my bag. "What changed?"

"I met someone." She leaves it at that.

"And it seems you did too." She nods towards her front door. I turn to look, and there stands Miles, breathing rapidly.

"I just met him." I whisper.

"All the better."

"Why are you breathing so heavily?" I ask as we walk down the stairs.

"I had to knock on every door. You didn't tell me which apartment it was." He says.

"I thought you were "blessed with super strength and speed," Mr Avenlea." I laugh.

"I am, but our powers don't work outside of Avenlea. No one really knows why. It's the reason I was falling all over my feet the first time you saw me. I was still accommodating to the loss of super strength."

"Oh. That makes more sense." Now that he mentioned it, I remember Melody saying this before.

***

"The Avenlean abilities don't work outside of the gates of Avenlea. It's why you don't see any flying people around. It is assumed the emperor of Edessa had something to do with this, but no one knows for sure." Melody said, standing up and waking a sleeping Bastian from the couch.

"Why doesn't King Archeron do anything about it?" I asked.

"King Archeron was new to power. He didn't know how to approach the situation, sweety." She plants a delicate kiss on my forehead and tucks me in well.

"I'll break the magic barrier one day, Melody." I said proudly.

"Of course you will, darling, but for now you need to sleep. You can't break the barrier if you're tired."