They made the wind elemental blow-dry their hair and clothes, then returned home. Albino thanked the elementals in the language of the Albiverse, causing them to tremble with gratitude and excitement. The language of the Albiverse was albiversally understood by anything with the capability to do so, and it hid nothing from the recipient. Brenda also felt the effect of this mystical tongue on her very being, though she couldn’t put her finger on it and decided to go along with it. Lancel would avoid the subject if she asked, or maybe he would craft another riddle for her to solve… The thought made her pout.
Brenda did feel cleaner than she had ever done before. The elementals’ work had been flawless, bringing a lushness out of her clothes she had never thought possible and a smooth feeling to her skin that Brenda feared she might get addicted to. “Hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to take another bath like this, would you… I mean… do you need to… be there for it?”
“No, Brenda. Just remember the payment. The firestone is a must, of course, and the mud and salt elements are easily sated when you come dirty. The difficult customers are the wind elemental and the water side of the fire-water elemental.” Albino shrugged. “I recommend letting your saliva drip into the pond. You can tell the elemental had enough when your saliva hits the surface. As for the wind… blow your breath over the pond’s surface. The elemental will most likely blow some wind back in your face when it has enough. It does not mean anything by it, so do not take it as an insult. They need to communicate with us somehow, aye?”
“…If you say so.” To Brenda, elementals were forces of nature that had neither a language to speak nor a morality to follow. They were just there. Sometimes, one was fortunate enough to come into their good graces. Obviously, Lancel held higher opinions of them, but how had he reached that conclusion?
“Am I correct in assuming that this was where our engagement would have become your shield? Perhaps even a temporary one to be discarded as soon as it had repelled those you wish to repel? What a cruel scheme to involve me with, and your father was in on it, too!”
“…Sorry. We planned to find some excuse to annul our engagement after warding those three off. Ultimately, we scrapped the idea before even asking you. I will be…” She gulped. “I will be at a marriageable age soon. My options are those who have returned from service and those who will leave for service even sooner than you. All of them have at least one wife already. We concluded that you are my best bet to find some semblance of happiness.”
“Sounds romantic. Does the thought frighten you?”
Brenda shook her head. “Marriage isn’t what I’m afraid of. It is what follows. Even if I end up enjoying our time together… then what? We have children, we love each other, and in a few years, you will die on the battlefield! Or be maimed, or captured and tortured, or mentally scarred beyond recognition! And… even I might be called upon to prove your loyalty. Our path isn’t paved with smooth stone.”
“Smooth stone has no character. The jagged edges make life worth living… though that does not mean I would allow you to cut yourself on them.” Albino took a deep breath, took Brenda’s hand, and pulled her in for an embrace. “You enjoy secrets, do you not? Let me tell you two more, then. There is space for more than one woman in my life. I can already promise that three others beyond you will receive my life in one of its many forms… Two of them are all but guaranteed to share the emotional love between husband and wife you would receive in our marriage. That is the first secret. Call me a jerk or an ass or an unfaithful bastard all you want, but this will not change. Please make your decision accordingly. As for secret number two…” Albino separated their bodies and placed a long kiss on Brenda’s forehead. “I value you enough to promise you this. No man but your chosen husband shall ever lay their hands on you. Whether you choose me or not, you but have to call for me, and I will rush to protect you from those heathens who would have you break your vows.”
Brenda was surprised at how easily she accepted his first secret. It wasn’t rare for boys to desire many wives, though it was rare for one to pursue that childish dream. If it was Lancel, Brenda kinda wanted to believe him. Weird how that didn’t bother her. Perhaps because of his second secret… That one connected with her. No matter what, he was on her side. He would come to her aid. Again, many men said the same thing when trouble was far away. Confront them with trouble directly, however, and how many would keep to this boastful sentiment? Lancel would. That much Brenda knew. He would definitely keep to his word.
She sobbed and laughed and cried all at the same time, clutching her sides while rubbing away the tears. “Why would you do that for someone like me?”
“What a silly question. No matter what happens in the future, are we not friends already? Friends stick together… Unless you do not want to be my friend? I did not wish to overstep your boundaries.”
Brenda lost it. Both the sobs and the laughs increased in volume and intensity. What a silly man he was. How much of it did he mean, and how much did he say to relieve her stress? She would guess it was a rather sizable portion. “Oh, Lancel-“
“Albino.”
“…What?”
“I lied. Let me expose a third secret right now. My true name is Albino. I would like you to use it when we are alone.”
“Al-Albino? Why would you hide your true name?”
He smiled, sending shivers down Brenda’s spine. What was going on with her? She hadn’t felt like this since… ever. Albino used his thumbs to wipe her tears away, exposing the increasingly furious blush on her cheeks. “I would like to decide who is worthy of knowing my true name and who is not.”
“That makes sense.” Brenda’s blush deepened. What made sense? Why did she have to say something so stupid and nonsensical? Lancel- No, his name was Albino. He didn’t seem to mind… but what if he did and didn’t show it? He seemed the type to do that-
“I do not mind, my silly friend,” he assured her, only furthering the inner turmoil of her mind. “That being said, I cannot shield you from those three by myself. Maybe they would come to avoid or even respect me, but that is not our goal. We want them to stop bugging you. You, Brenda, have to confront them. You have to tell them off. You have to put them in their place. Should they get violent, though I doubt they will, I will step in and protect you.”
Brenda shivered. Right. This situation had started with those buffoons. “Are you certain they won’t get violent?”
“I am,” Albino said with confidence. “They will be too tired to get physical with you. I will make sure of that.”
***
An Albion’s body struggled against growth like oil against water. These concepts avoided each other like the plague, never daring to stand in proximity unless explicitly forced to. Albino’s newly returned mortality alleviated these effects, but their influence remained strong. He had to train harder and longer to see a fraction of the usual growth. What else could he do but shrug and throw himself at the task? He was an Albion. The Albion. All he had to give was time.
Every day following the Verq Navan trio’s arrival at Verq Bavas, Albino sparred against the three for hours each, exhausting them to the bone and forcing his slow-growing body to adapt to its future circumstances. Blood was spilled in these confrontations, but it wasn’t theirs. They were ex-soldiers, after all. Albino’s body could not keep up with their brutality and frustration.
“You resilient cockroach! F****** die!” Dirk exclaimed, swinging his wooden sword with all his might. It clashed against Albino’s futile block and smashed right into Albino’s arm. “Hah! Got you good- Why are you still standing?”
Indeed, Albino stood up again. “I asked for this. What a coward I would be if I backed down from a little tough love!” He swung his sword and met only solid wood, rocking Albino’s hands from the recoil. Still, he smiled, which only furthered Dirk’s unease.
With every swing, a new insult dropped. “Maggot! Weakling! Loser! Asshole! F*****! Rat! Squealer! Cocky, little, annoying s***!” He really loved doing that. Perhaps it was his coping mechanism against stress.
Robert was a different beast. Robert loved to strike Albino in the same places repeatedly – mostly his sensitive bits. Mostly Albino’s nose, temple, jaw, ribs, knee, wrist, neck, and privates. At first, Robert snorted in barely suppressed laughter when Albino keeled over. Soon, that schadenfreude turned to wary tension. Robert wasn’t one for many words, but his eyes screamed the same frustration Dirk had shown.
Then there was Warren. He was big and strong, and he loved displaying his power. The few times Brenda had come to watch their sparring sessions, Warren had been so brutally focused on dominating and injuring Albino that she stormed off, crying at the sight. Warren was confused by this. Viola, his wife, had loved watching him beat his opponents to a bloody pulp… But even more baffling was the sheer resilience of Albino. Warren was used to his swings shattering (or at least cracking) bone. One solid strike would have been enough to dissuade most people from stepping anywhere near him again, but Albino kept at it. Even when his arms turned blue and purple, even when his legs shook with exhaustion, and even when blood poured from a few dozen cuts in convulsing swells, he did not stay down for long. After multiple days of this, Warren reluctantly began respecting this village boy, which only motivated him more.
To guarantee that all three of them got their aggression out of every day, Albino fought against them for about three hours each. That was nine hours, or one treon – a third of a day – spent on fighting. Brenda couldn’t bear to see him get brutalized, and Albino had refused to stop even after repeated begging on her part. All she could do was wait at his hut with a wet cloth… and wait, she did.
Brenda didn’t know where he went, and Albino never arrived before an hour had passed. She had tried to look for him, but Albino was nowhere to be found. “Search for me, and you will find me,” he had told her in his usual cryptic way, awakening the sudden urge to slap him with the wet cloth instead of cleaning his wounds with it.
“What does that even mean?” she whined to Cormali one evening. “Father told me not to pity the man who fights for my honor, but what should I do? I don’t want to pity Albino; I want to help him! Be there for him! Like friends would, you know?”
Cormali snorted as if in understanding. Her behavior had diverted from the usual cawdelli way after Albino had taken her in. Her legs had almost stabilized, as Albino had told Brenda. Cormali would be able to remove her casts soon, which everyone knew the cawdelli looked forward to very much. It had taken almost three months, but soon, she would be free and healthy. Albino still brought her to the herd every morning, but she seemingly got used to lazing around in the grass in front of his dankly little shack.
Small carvings of Cormali’s horns marked the path to the secret bathing pond, courtesy of Albino. Even though he had been against it before… The thought made Brenda smile.
She looked around. There was nothing to see but grass and wood. The latter had appeared during the month – one log at a time. Albino had promised to build them a house worth starting a family in, and she looked forward to what he would achieve… but building a home in half a year? He had some materials, but this puny amount would last him for a second shack or a single room, and that was a generous estimate. Brenda thought it was entirely impossible. Albino needed to sleep and eat and fight for her sake… Brenda smiled. “What an idiot he is! Truly!”
She leaned against Cormali’s massive frame, unbothered by her horns and muscles. Brenda hadn’t thought it possible for a behemoth cawdelli to grant her a feeling of security before becoming (semi-) engaged to Albino. He had shown her so many new things, and he still had many things left to show her…
Brenda sneezed. A butterfly had tickled her nose during flight… And again! “Come on,” she moaned, “I was just about to fall asleep!” But the butterfly was relentless. Now that she looked at it, wasn’t it too large for a butterfly? It flew in wide arcs towards the back of Albino’s shack, then came back when she didn’t follow. Even Cormali nudged Brenda towards this new curiosity, groaning with eager anticipation.
Unsure yet curious, Brenda trailed the butterfly. The creature landed on a tree, spreading its magnificent wings as wide as possible. Faintly, very faintly, Brenda spotted what looked like a rarely-used footpath on the ground. When the butterfly took off again, it left a butterfly carving in the bark.
Brenda tilted her head. One tree further down, she found another identical carving. And another on the tree after that, then another, and one more, and here and there! “Search for me, and you will find me… That damned idiot! Why would I look- But it’s right here! Oh, why do I have to marry this fool?” She sighed, straightened her hair and dress, and failed to suppress the giggles. “You will never bore me, will you?”
Down the path, thankfully marked extensively with more butterfly carvings, she found a clearing in the forest. Logs upon logs towered over Brenda in massive wood piles, already cut to form typically used in housings. The smaller pile near Albino’s shack was nothing against this mountain of material. Just how big did he want their house to be? He had promised her a home worth living in, not a mansion or- or a palace!
“Surprised?” Brenda whirled around when she heard him. Albino throned on one of the piles, holding a burning piece of wood under his arm. “I was busy making good on my promise. It remains unclear if these preparations were done in vain.”
Brenda barely heard him. “Your… your arm!”
“Oh… This?” Albino held the fire away, revealing perfectly unburnt flesh. The bruises shone in intense purples and greens, which wasn’t new. The fire dealt no damage to him. This mortal vessel wasn’t fire-immune as his original body was, but being infused with life-fire meant he retained much of his affinity for flames. “Warren broke my arm earlier… Or maybe it was Robert? I cannot remember. At some point, the nine hours of being beaten up bleed into one homogenous mass of pain. I try to burn the afflictions away with fire, but there are too many… Mere fire fails to keep up with my rate of injury.”
“That is nothing to be proud of!”
“I am not proud of being injured, but I am proud of my reason for standing in harm’s way,” Albino mused, allowing the fire to dance over his skin once more.
Before she could fully sort out her feelings, Brenda stormed over and took the torch from Albino.
“…You should see that fire does me no harm. I need this.”
“Brenda bit her lips. “…Let me do it, at least. As the one you protect.”
Albino shrugged. “Feel free.”
Not knowing what else to do, Brenda held the flame to every injury on Albino’s body until the spot looked somewhat less blue and black. He gave her pointers when she moved too quickly and informed her when she lingered too long. Dealing with Albino’s several broken or cracked bones required them to burn through multiple torches.
“How can you still move like this?” Brenda asked, almost afraid of the answer.
“I can move without muscle. I can move without bone. I can move without skin. I can move without blood.”
“…Is this another riddle?”
“Who knows. Wait one more month, and I will tell you.”
Brenda sighed. “This needs to stop. I want you to stop. You can’t keep sacrificing yourself for my sake.”
“For both our sakes. Resilience is important for a soldier to have.”
“…I’m serious, Albino.”
“So am I, Brenda.” She didn’t seem to like that answer, but she kept up with her work despite how tightly she pressed her lips together. “Do you believe in the Howler?”
Brenda groaned. “What’s this about, now? A children’s fairy tale-“
“Perhaps, but how can anyone be sure to disprove the existence of something that hates to be found?” He stood up and lifted a log, revealing a hollow space beneath. The dirt seemed indented… “Curious, right? You will get your wish soon, but every wish has a price.”
Greetings and salutations! You have earned my eternal gratitude for reading this humble mortal’s story. If you enjoyed yourself, I will have done my job well. If not… well, there is always room for improvement.
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