Chapter 34: Secrets, saints and sweet revenge
Candlelight flickers softly over velvet table clothes and artistically prepared, gourmet foods. Crystal glasses clink with rare, fine wines and cutlery dances across plates, bringing morsels of ambrosial delight to eagerly awaiting mouths.
The team sits in Market's Town finest fine dining establishment, The Kings Plums.
The marbled marvel is abuzz with murmured chatter and gentle lute music. But all of it fades to background noise for Vuvela Blackthorn, who sits in silence, pushing her salad around with a fork as old, long-buried memories claw their way to the surface.
Penelo, sitting beside her, tilts her head, flopping her ears about. "Hey, Vuvi? So who were those cat-kin back there? They were total bullies. Are you okay?"
Vuvi sighs, "Raenly and Mysa Mystbern. Siblings." she groans, tossing her fork aside.
She leans back, eyes staring at nothing. "You ever live in a big, beautiful place where everything just... fits? Except you. And you end up feeling like the smallest, loudest, ugliest thing in the room. Just... existing in the wrong place."
Pip sighs with a slow, solemn whistle. He knew the feeling all too well.
Veena stops mid-chew and raises an eyebrow, listening more closely.
"I lived in a place like Market Town." Vuvi says, swirling her wine. "Before the curse... and the wars... and everything. My mother, Maribelle Blackthorn, The Twilight Blade, she was a noble. A war hero, honored by the Crown, rewarded lands and riches. We lived in a huge estate close to the capital... had everything."
She pauses, stares into her glass and takes a long sip.
"I hated all of it."