Madam Olivia looked around her rose garden from her chair, but couldn’t find a single trace of Bella.
“That’s odd, she should have been back by now.”
“Maybe she just ran into someone and got stuck talking?”
“No, Bella isn’t one for chitchat, perhaps something…”
Madam Olivia’s eyes suddenly fixated on something behind me, her body tensing with anticipation. She stood up from her chair, her grip on her walking stick tightening, and exclaimed,
“Rodrick!”
I also stood up, shocked, to face our uninvited visitor.
“Rodrick? Is it really you?”
He looked terrible, with a rough crimson beard covering his sunken face. His clothes were covered in dirt and old blood. Especially his right shoulder and his lower right arm were drenched in dried blood. And in his left hand, he was holding a rapier, half hidden behind his left leg.
While I was already planning on how to get out of this, Madam Olivia had already begun to hobble towards him with unsteady steps.
“Madam, don’t go near him, have you forgotten. Sir Rodrick is a traitor; he cut off Sir Titus’ leg.”
Finally, Madam Olivia seemed to snap out of it as she took a step back. She must have briefly forgotten that Rodrick stabbed Titus in the back. Should I scream for help, or would it prompt him to do something crazy? Could I use that against him? Would he attack me or Olivia? Why was he here? This is Fort Rosedorn, one of the most militarized places in the entire kingdom, not the best place to visit as a traitor. How did he get in?
While I was busy getting lost in my own mind, Rodrick decided to talk,
“Olivia, I believed you would still be in bed. Is it all right for you to be out here while it is this cold?”
He believed she was in bed? Had he been in her bedroom before coming to look for her in the rose garden? Maybe he…
“I’m much better. But more importantly… is it true? What they wrote about you, did you really betray us?”
“Olivia, I would never betray you. Everything I have ever done was to protect you. You have to believe me.”
“But why would they say something like that about you. Titus wouldn’t do such a thing. You would never…”
Tears began to stream down her face as she stopped talking, choking on her own tears.
“Olivia, I… I have found someone. They promised me they could heal you. You will be able to run again. You just must come with me and…”
Olivia’s heart wanted to believe him; it was written all over her face. But her mind wouldn’t let her. Rooted in place, she gripped her stick until her knuckles turned white.
For a while, no one said anything until Rodrick took a step forward, stretching out his calloused right hand. However, while he stepped forward, I could see the unmistakable traces of fresh blood that had stained his left hand.
“Where is Bella?”
For the first time since Rodrick’s arrival, all eyes were on me. Olivia looked confused as to why I would suddenly bring up Bella, but Rodricks’ face lost all color.
“You said that you would have expected Madam Olivia to still be in her bedroom. So, you must have gone there first, right? And since Madam’s tea is stored in her bedroom, you would have run straight into Bella, who went to make tea.”
Rodrick’s eyes hardened on me with a glint of madness rising from their depths. While Madam Olivia stammered question after question, unwilling to believe that Sir Rodrick, the man who had protected her for more than thirty years, had harmed her maid.
“Rodrick? Where is Bella?”
Rodrick’s shoulders fell as a defeated, hollow laugh escaped from his lips.
“Where is Bella? Rodrick, please tell me. This can’t be. Please, Rodrick, what have you done!?”
Madam Olivia’s scream echoed through the garden, but Rodrick’s response was chilling. He raised his rapier and charged towards me, his intentions clear.
The Blade stopped mere inches before my stomach as the rapier’s steel was about to impale me. I had just been able to put up a quick shield before he reached me. A mere second later, and he would have stabbed through not only me but also my unborn son.
Rodrick’s face registered a moment of shock. Still, it quickly vanished as he prepared for a second thrust, infusing his rapier with a pale blue aura. I managed to jump back and put my arms in front of me just in time before my shield was pierced with the sound of shattering glass.
My lower right arm fell into the trimmed rose bed, sprinkling the leaves and cut stems in droplets of blood.
It was just a stab, but it had enough force behind it to straight up sever my arm at the merest touch. And of course, he wouldn’t stop after just getting my arm. Before, I might have just been a bystander, but after pointing out that he must be responsible for Bella’s “delay” and after stopping his sword, all while temporarily. By now, from his view, I must have been promoted to an obstacle. Me and my stupid big mouth. Not that it would change much. From the very beginning, by the way he held his rapier, I could tell that he would use it. So rather than getting surprised by him, I wanted to trigger an attack that I could anticipate. But what I didn’t expect was him being so dam quick.
But all this reflecting and thinking wouldn’t help me at all right now, as I was about to die. Rodrick’s sword was now just mere inches away from my throat when Olivia collapsed.
“Olivia!”
She must have fainted from seeing me losing my arm. Rodrick spun around as he saw Olivia falling, catching her before she could hit the ground.
And with that, I won.
I erected shields all around him, completely sealing his body, making it impossible for him to move.
As Rodrick struggled, I began to notice the bloody stump where my lower arm should have been, and a pain more intense than what I had ever felt before ran through my body. Due to pain and blood loss, I lacked the awareness and mental fortitude to do anything fancy with healing magic. So instead of regrowing my arm completely or shutting off the pain, I crouched down to grab my lost arm. And with another Jolt of unprecedented pain, I pressed the two pieces together, fusing them with a spark of healing magic, reconnecting my right arm.
While I was screaming in pain, Rodrick had been busy breaking out of my cage. But even with all of his aura, he simply lacked the momentum to do anything except waste his strength. Meanwhile, the unconscious Olivia peacefully slept in his arms.
“Set me free, you good dam witch. This can’t be how this ends. This can’t be. She was supposed to be mine. I was supposed to be… argh, dam it!
Thankfully, that was when the guards arrived. They were shocked about my appearance since there was blood all over me, but when they saw Rodrick, they immediately understood, or at least correctly guessed, what had happened. I immediately asked them to take Olivia away from him. Then I told them to look for Bella and other potential victims of Rodricks’ break-in.
They quickly found Bella in Madam Olivia’s Bedroom, unconscious from blood loss. Rodrick had pierced her stomach just like he had attempted with me. A bit longer and she would have died. She only didn’t die because she fell backward instead of forward.
I healed her up, and we brought both Bella and Madam Olivia to the clinic so I could monitor them. Rodrick was put in heavy iron cuffs and thrown into the dungeon.