4 months after Pattons death

It's strange to think of all the powers magical beings posses. They can control the elements and sometimes make pictures using them. They can move objects with a pointed look. Illness and famine could easily be magiced into the kingdom. There are so many things magic can do. So many beautiful and marvelous things. It really is a terrible thing that magic is no longer welcome although I do suppose there is the darkside of magic. The side of pain and destruction. But surely that side can be managed just as the bad side of non-magic users is. History has truly screwed us over... But I, Roman Rodrigo Garcia Lionheart the 3rd, swear to bring upon justice to those who have been wronged by the troubles of the past. I shall bring upon peace to the lands I walk upon. But I could never do it on my own and not with the troubles ailing my mind. So with the help of my dear friend Themis we shall release my mind of the burdens of a hundred years.

It had been but a year but for me it seems like hundreds. I don't know how I can ever live with the aching truth that you have been murdered. By whom I do not know but I do know that great malice was behind there actions for none could ever hurt such a wonderful soul with no malice at all. The only cure to my aging mind would be the capture of the malicious man who has brought pain upon my dearest companion.

With graceful feet I glide through the halls, narrowly avoiding those who wish to stop on my perilous journey. I will never allow them the pleasure of such a thing, it would be disgraceful in every way. Despite my marvelous foot work it can not be helped that narrow escapes would come. But that is no need to worry. Because narrow no longer holds the same terrible feelings once passed as it does when in use. Once used it means we made it only by a strand of hair but made it nonetheless. Words are truly a marvelous thing, their meanings changing as each second passes.

Having escaped the castle without a single hair out of place my blue friend and I head off into the moonlit night on my pearly white mare. Everything shone in a milky white hue. Everything looked as if it had something to say something to hide. Everything illuminated is only what they want you to see, everything right about them, but everything hidden in the shadows are their flaws, their sins. People two are like these trees, illuminated in their own light to hid their true faces of sin.

~~{❈}~~

Passing through rigid mountains and rushing rivers, risking our lives every which way. Sleeping in the cold windy air on rough terrain, wolves howling in the not to far distance. Finally we made it to the River Styx. The river where souls pass from the land of the living to the Underworld with the fee of one Oblo. Of course the dead have no money so it is up to the land of the living to place the fee of the ferryman into the mouths of the deceased.

It had always been a curious question of mine whether or not a live human could cross the River Styx for just the price of one Oblo, just as the dead may do. Does the ferryman really care if you are dead or alive? Perhaps he only cares of the price that must be paid. I must not have been the only one to think of such a thought but I do suppose no others before me have had the power to actually answer this question. River Styx, you see, if not visible to eyes of the living, the ferryman also not visible. But Themis clams to be able to give me the power to see River Styx.

Though I reckon it really would do me no good to find the answer to my question. You see even if I could see the ferryman and he did take my Oblo then I would be sent off to the Underworld, where I would spend the rest of eternity, according to popular belief, no one ever coming back from the Underworld to say so or otherwise.

Just because I can not find the answer to my question doesn't mean this opportunity is completely useless. Themis and I believe that the ferryman may know Patton's cause of death. Both of us know that the magical famine hadn't been the weighing factor of Patton's death. Patton was unwatched and was close to my heart, anyone who cared to look close enough could see it. With no guards and Patton having no way to defend himself, his whole body being shut off, anyone could have snuck in and killed him.

Well, why would someone try and kill Patton if he was already dying?

Simple. They knew I was going to rid of the curse that plagued Patton. Somehow they knew, before we did, that with the sorcerer dead the infected would be cured. We have come up with an almost solid theory as to how someone would have known.

1. The redhead maiden that we had found was indeed not the sorcerer. The sorcerer used her to take their fall. It is likely the sorcerer holds some kind of grudge against the kingdom and wanted to much the royals suffer, starting with me.

The only problem with this theory is Virgil. Virgil had claimed that the redhead was the sorcerer and with such confidence to. I do not believe Virgil a lier and he certainly knows more about sorcerers than I do/had at the time. However, with her being a sorcerer, there is no telling what kind of magic she could have used and, with us knowing little to nothing about her, we do not know who she could have been working with.

Of course with the combined brains of Themis and I we were able to figure out a way to prove/un prove our theory. We shall ask the ferryman. It is possible that he knows how Patton died, this is only an educated guess. It's my only hope of avenging my love and I'm willing to find hope in an educated guess. 

"Roman, I'm ready!"

I stood next to Themis as she began to chant in a language unfamiliar to myself. Steadily the lake began to glow an eerie white. The whole of the landscape began to change. The once lush trees were now shriveled and black with decay as was the grass that lay upon the earth. This was to be expected. River Styx flows with poison, allowing no life to grow near it's banks.

The glow settled into a light fog, one unsettling similar to the one that plagued Terrasen. Through the fog cam a small boat and on it a lanky man, lit by the singular lantern hanging from it's post. Slowly the boat costed to a stop by the old dock that stretched into the black lake. Slowly Themis and I moved towards the man who, undoubtedly, was the ferryman. 

With Themis behind be, hiding from the sight of Charon, the ferryman. Without fear and hesitation I presented my Oblo. With pale bony hands Charon reached out for the Oblo to be dropped into his hand. I recreted my hand and placed the Oblo safely into my pocket.

"I have not come to be taken by your ghostly hands, for I am not of the dead. I am instead of the living. I have come seeking knowledge that i'm afraid only you can give me. The price of this knowledge I offer one Oblo, the same amount for which to cross."

A haunting chuckle came from the black figure that was Charon. Flipping one Oblo in his hand he began to speak in a deep croaky voice.

"I suppose I could answer your question, but only a question it should be."

A warning it was and heed I would for I do not wish to join him on his ride of death. Reaching into my pocket for the toll I find that my Oblo is not longer there but in the hands of the ferryman. Tossed up and down by bony fingers was my Oblo my toll payed unwillingly. He had taken away my Oblo and with it the insurance of an answer. But the chance I must take for I have nothing to lose, only more to gain.

"I wonder the cause of death of my dear beloved, Patton. Can you answer what I ask?"

"Oh, but why yes of course"

"Then answer it you shall"

Hope filled my chest. Not all was lost. Hope of avenging my love was to be given for the price of just one Oblo.

"Oh, but I'm afraid I can not. For only a question I have granted."

Just like that my hope drifted away just as the ferryman had drifted my way. But the ferryman was sure to drift away so why would my hope not dirsts back my way? For one Oblo I was granted a question for one Oblo more another shall be granted. It was as simple as that and my not so simple brain had come prepared, an event like such not entirely in mind. Pulling out another Oblo I allowed my mouth to form a smile.

"I'm afraid you think to simple. You have given me your Oblo and what fun would it be to have yet another? None I must say."

My lips formed a thin line as I retreated my hand once more. I placed my Oblo into my pocket where it would stay, the ferryman no longer interested in such a thing. Staring into where I believed his eyes to be I picked at my sleeve. With one last tug the last item came loose. In my hand lay my golden cufflink. One of a kind it is, a pair even more so, but he did not ask for two Oblo but only one so I shall only give his one cufflink.

Once again I held out my hand with the full intent to hand the item over. A bony hand reached out from the black robes and waited for its toll to be paid. With no hesitation and a straight face I drop into the hands of Charon my golden cufflink. I retreated my hand once the deed was done, watching as Charon inspected the cufflink, comparing it to the Oblo.

"A question you are granted."

"How has my dearly beloved Patton deceased?"

With a toss of the gold it disappeared from sight along with the hand that had reached out so many times to gather it's tolls.

"By poison it would seem. Which poison I know to..."

My teeth gritted together as my eyes narrowed into a glare. I would feel the smile even though I can not see it. My hand went for my other cufflink but I stopped mid action. Charon does not wish for two of the same. Tightly entangled upon my finger lay a gold band, rubies embedded into the band. I slipped the ring off and, with no patience, tossed it at the ferryman. Just as he had done the cufflink he inspected it and compared it.

"Wolfsbane. Slow and painful I must say. "

My heart welled at those three words. 'Slow and painful'. Logan had insisted the his death was nothing of the such. Painless he had said. Oh how it feels to be lied to but worse than that pain, the pain of my love. To know he had suffered when I had thought he had not. To have not shed tear for the pain he must have gone through. I do not think I can ever live the same knowing that such an event had happened.

"You answer as if I have asked more than a question of you, what do you do this for?"

I could feel his smile grow wider. His frail hand wrapped around the post of the small row boat. His rode of black fell back down his arm revealing his meatless arms. I could only imagine the rest of his body would just the same as his arm. All skin and bones.

"Though I am a creature of death I do enjoy a nice laugh"

A sicking laugh eminated from the boney male as his boat drifted away. His laughter seemed to echo throughout the dead landscape and even as we went back to the land of the living I could still here the faint echo of the ferryman's laugh. A laugh I suppose not many can say they've heard.

2104 words not including these

Would you look at me go! I suppose all these words have something to do with the fact that this update was written in my guilty pleasure style. I wish I could write like this all the time! Well, I guess I could but I don't really think it fits the other characters to well along with a 3rd person point of view. I think I'll just save this kind of writing for Roman chapters.

Oh, I forgot to ask, how do you like my guilty pleasure writing? Do you think it's an improvement from my usual writing or do you think it's a downgrade? Whatever one you chose can you tell me why?

Also how do you think this writing style fits Roman? If you don't can you tell me what I can change to make it fit Roman more?

I thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day, afternoon, or night! Until next time you beautiful, no, beautiful doesn't begin to describe you. Not word in the english dictionary can ever describe just how wonderful you are. It is merely impossible to put everything you are into one word, one word would never be enough, neither would a thousand. But I do suppose beautiful is one word that describes one out of a million wonderful things about you, so I guess it will do.

Until next time you beautiful beans!

Bye!