"Ouch! Ouch! That hurts!"
A darkness of murmurs and hissing voices abruptly stopped in Evandro's mind.
In his stupor, Evandro awoke under the morning sunlight shining on his face.
He slowly regained his senses as he began to hear the sounds of tree birds and other birds in the sky.
Evandro then realized he was leaning against a tree.
"Hey, great hero! You're awake!"
Evandro felt a slight chill down his spine and instinctively placed his hand on his chest in surprise.
Alexander spoke ironically a few meters away, mouth full.
Evandro smiled in relief.
"Where are we?"
"Woah… You slept… Well… for a whole day!" He laughed at what he said.
"But to summarize… I carried you unconscious on my back to a part of the Dásos All-Earth."
Evandro stood up slowly, still a bit sleepy.
"But what about the soldiers? What happened to them?"
"Oh… That? Well… Uh… You killed two of them, and I killed the other one… But I think it all made less noise than it seemed to have made; they were probably rookies and tried to handle everything on their own…
"Why don't you eat? CHOMP! There's a bread container next to you… But ration it, please! CHOMP!"
Evandro frowned and bent down to pick up the bread container.
"This is called furoá-bread…"
He paused for a moment.
"What did you say? CHOMP!"
Evandro pretended to be talking to himself.
"Nothing…"
Alexander shrugged; however, Evandro was thoughtful.
'Now I remember he said it was the soldiers who gave him food, so he probably doesn't have a very broad palate nor a sense of organization…'
"Alexander. What else did you bring?"
He rubbed his hands together, dropping bread crumbs to the ground, and hiccupped discreetly.
"Uh… If I'm not mistaken, I brought the bread and three more jars."
Evandro pondered for a few seconds.
"Oh… The potions!"
His eyes widened for a moment.
"Wait… Which backpack were they in?!" Because if they were in mine, they were crushed while I was u—"
He was interrupted by Alexander approaching him with his hands on his shoulders.
"Relax, 'friend,' they were in my bag, and they're intact… But tell me, what are they for?" He said, smiling.
"They're potions Óla Se One [1]… Actually, I shouldn't call them 'potions'; the correct term would be 'tea.'"
"What is tea?" he asked, frowning.
"Well… An infusion of boiled leaves and herbs… So, if we drink it, it should be hot."
Alexander just nodded and sat under the shade of the tree on the other side of the clearing.
Evandro carefully opened the bread container and tore off a small piece of wheat bread — the piece was about the size of half a medium hand — and ate slowly while thinking. 'This should last for 5 days… The anonymous guy in the book never said how long it took him to get there.'
He looked up with the purpose of determining from the position of the sun which direction they should go.
"Alexander! CHOMP! We should head that way." Pointing to the side of the clearing near Alexander.
"Great! My intuition said that was the right direction…"
Evandro rolled his eyes in disdain and brushed his hand, letting the bread crumbs fall to the ground.
They picked up their backpacks and went into the forest with the idea of trying to reach the alchemist's residence in 6 days if they were lucky.
The part of the Dásos All-Earth they were in was undoubtedly ethereal in every sense: the most common trees, brown in color, called kastanós-common [2]; the singing of birds among the branches of the trees; the smell of leaves; some unknown white flowers sprinkled on some of the kastanós-common; and the distant and unknown rumble of the waters of the Potamós All-Earth.
All of it was magical and invigorated the souls of Alexander and Evandro, but especially Evandro, who was always taught to appreciate and connect with nature.
Alexander stopped for a moment and looked into the distance, a blur…
'That duty is from the palace… Always in sight, even in the farthest parts of the kingdom.'
He was pensive for a while; sometimes a feeling would arise in him that he was being watched all the time, as if there were two presences, one the enemy of the other, one lurking and the other blessing. That led him to think about how the king still gave him chills; after all, he always seemed very powerful, making Alexander seriously doubt the success of his endeavor while looking at the palace through the small escapes of light between the tree leaves…
…
…
"Majesty Ângela Bárbara, the king awaits you in the imperial chamber." Her lady-in-waiting finished letting down her hair and making sure there wasn't a single strand caught in her long dress — which extended to her feet — smooth, red in color, and laced at the straps and neckline.
'It's Violet, you cow…' She thought in an internal scream of anger.
Her mother gave her the name Violet, but disgusted at the thought of such a name being spoken by the king, she changed it to Ângela, and the king added Bárbara [3].
She pushed the woman aside and, barefoot, left the room.
Violet walked through several empty corridors — most of the soldiers had gone to a part of the palace a bit further from the corridors nearest the king and queen's rooms—while she occasionally ran short distances.
On her face was a cold expression, like someone devoid of any kind of emotion…
Violet finally reached the front of the luxurious iron door encrusted with polished gold and ruby details on the edges, with a round polished bronze handle.
There were no soldiers guarding the door to ensure maximum privacy.
Violet took a deep breath and forced a graceful but fake smile on her beautiful face.
'It won't be today that you take my purity, you demon… Surely that will never happen… I'll kill you first, along with everyone who supports you.'
She pushed the door violently and entered slowly.
Ahead of her was a bed completely encrusted with precious stones; the king was in his usual red tunic and stood in front of the window looking at the horizon.
"It's time for husband and wife… My dear."
She smiled again.
"About that… I'd like to propose that we do something… different."
King Tarquinus frowned and clenched his fists.
...
[1] All in One: Heals all wounds, hunger, and purifies the body
[2] Brown-Common
[3] Means foreign