Arvid was completely unprepared for the avalanche of complaints that followed his innocent question. It wasn't until much later, after Katherine and I had vented extensively to our hearts' content, recounting every ache and pain in vivid detail, that we finally shut up and gave him merciful silence.
"If it's truly that hard and painful, you honestly don't have to continue doing it—" he managed to say carefully before we interrupted him sharply with a unified, simultaneous "No!"
"No, precisely because it's this hard, that's all the more reason not to give up now," I told him with conviction. "Imagine if dangerous people were chasing us—if we can't outrun them, we will inevitably put all the people around us in grave danger too. So that's all the more reason to train hard and build our strength and endurance." Katherine agreed enthusiastically with an eager nod, her determination matching mine.
Arvid let out a soft chuckle at our stubborn resolve. His eyes visibly softened with affection, and he extended his arm to gently caress my hair in a tender gesture.
"Do as you wish then," he said simply, not arguing further.
---
The next day arrived bearing grave, devastating news. One of the three soldiers who had been attacked by Yasmine's poisoned darts had passed away during the night despite all treatment efforts. It was genuinely grave news, and the entire castle mourned his untimely death collectively. The atmosphere became heavy and somber, a pall settling over everyone. Arvid had immediately sent another urgent group of riders to procure medicine for the two remaining soldiers. They weren't in much better condition either, their lives still hanging precariously in the balance.
The funeral was held solemnly in the main courtyard. They had constructed a stone platform specifically for this purpose, and the soldier's body was placed carefully upon it with full military honors. Wood was stacked methodically around and covering him. And then they set the pyre ablaze according to sacred southern custom, the flames consuming everything. After the burning ritual concluded and the fire died down, his ashes were carefully collected into a decorative ceramic urn. The urn would be given to his family so they could keep the last physical remnant of him.
"He wasn't married yet," Gautham had said quietly, his voice heavy with a pained expression. "His only family is his elderly mother, who's waiting for him to return home."
The fallen soldier's comrades had gathered to say their final goodbyes to their prematurely departed friend. They each said a personal prayer with their hands pressed together and intertwined, then bowed deeply with profound respect before retreating. Arvid also followed the same custom precisely. And I followed his lead, wanting to show proper respect.
I said a prayer to Tumlin, the northern god of death.
"Oh Tumlin, God of death, guide of departed souls, may you guide this poor soul safely into his rightful afterlife. May he rest in eternal peace." I wished fervently.
---
The horsemen dispatched earlier reached Gorei castle just as the anticipated blizzard finally began in earnest. They had successfully obtained curry leaves. The physicians quickly prepared them into a medicinal juice. And they started carefully feeding the concentrated liquid to the remaining two poisoned soldiers. Their condition gradually turned better as the curry leaf compounds started actively detoxifying their poisoned bodies. They showed signs of improvement.
But we couldn't actually check on them personally. The blizzard had arrived with tremendous force—strong winds and heavy snowfall that reduced visibility to nearly nothing. We were effectively trapped inside the castle, unable to venture out.
It was the next day when the blizzard had finally stopped its assault. Arvid went immediately to check on the recovering soldiers. And miraculously, they had survived the ordeal. But the whole situation was far from over.
After the soldiers had laboriously cleaned away the massive piles of accumulated snow in the courtyard, they started constructing another wooden platform with a very particular, ominous design. When they tied the hangman's noose to the wooden beam overhead, I finally understood with a chill what it was for.
They were going to execute Yasmine. Publicly. Her adoptive family had long since disowned her completely after being informed about her true background and her heinous crimes. No one had visited her in her cell, no one had shown her pity or mercy. Yet despite everything, I felt a strange pity toward her. That's why, even though I knew I probably shouldn't, I decided to visit her once before her trial tomorrow. To offer some human comfort on her last day.
Katherine had insisted firmly that I shouldn't go alone to such a place, so even though she was visibly repulsed by the idea, she decided to come along with me for protection.
"Why are you doing this?" Katherine asked me as she skillfully avoided stepping in a puddle of foul mud on the prison floor. "She isn't going to thank you for this kindness, you know." She added pragmatically.
"I know that," I answered quietly. "But I just don't want her to feel so utterly alone on her last day alive."
When we finally reached her dingy cell, Yasmine was just laying there listlessly on the stone floor, staring at nothing in particular. Her eyes had completely lost their former luster and spark. It had been only days before that she had possessed sparkling eyes full of life and youthful vigor. She was still essentially a child, though she had already taken a life with her own hands.
She sat up with visible difficulty after she noticed me standing there.
"There you are—I was looking for you," she said with an unsettling grin spreading across her gaunt face.
"You were?" I asked her, genuinely confused.
"My God is generous to his faithful servants," she declared. "He has shown me something of the future in a vision, and that vision involves you specifically." She pointed her only remaining finger on her mutilated right hand directly toward me accusingly.
"You will burn the shores of Selon to ashes!" she spat out, her voice becoming ominous and prophetic. "You will take so many lives—and you will become the very monster that you feared the most!" The way she said it felt deeply creepy, raising the hairs on my arms.
But I firmly believed that I was the one who ultimately decided my own path and destiny. Not any god—and not even a dragon living inside me. So I consciously decided to ignore her dire prophecy. I offered the water flask and plate of food I had brought with Katherine's help to her.
"Do you believe in reincarnation?" I asked her when she started desperately gobbling down the food on the plate, eating like she was starving.
She nodded affirmatively while chewing.
"In your next life, please don't choose this kind of violent path again," I told her earnestly. "Choose peace."
---
After the first light of dawn shone the next morning, the formal trial started. It felt strangely one-sided from the beginning. Although Yasmine was officially allowed to speak and defend herself according to law, she did no such thing. Instead, only profanities and curses escaped her mouth continuously. And at the end of the two-hour-long trial, the verdict was finally given by the Duke of Gorei, who sat in the elevated judge's seat. He had officially sentenced Yasmine to death by hanging according to traditional southern custom. And after the execution, her body would be displayed hanging on the castle walls as a warning. Never to be burned so that her soul could never pass to the other side. It was absolutely brutal.
In the north, there hadn't been a single execution in centuries. The last recorded execution was almost two hundred and fifty years ago. Northern people, just like the dragon blood they carried in their veins, tended naturally to be law-abiding. So there really wasn't a need for executions. But I could clearly see that in the south, things were vastly different—harsher, more brutal.
After the noose was placed around her neck, she was asked formally for her last words before death.
She smiled eerily.
"The thing you love the most will become a monster, and you will be there to witness it," she said directly to Arvid.
Then the lever was pulled without hesitation.
I immediately turned my gaze elsewhere, unable to watch. I heard the trap door fall.
She was executed by hanging. Her life had left her body by the next time I looked. I asked Katherine quietly to take me back to our quarters. I felt genuinely dizzy and nauseous.
Could I really adopt and adjust to these brutal southern customs?