Frozen Stars Over Wonderland - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

Alfre was bored. Terribly, terribly bored. Even with her position as Ren’s personal guard, she had little to nothing to do. She and Spica followed Ren pretty much everywhere (her in broad daylight and Spica in the shadows), and you’d think that would mean she was present for some pretty exciting things. But you’d be wrong. You’d be so wrong. Ever since Ren put on the Royal Armor (or whatever the item was called) it was like no one wanted to mess with her. Well, very few people wanted to mess with Ren in the first place, she was one of the highest level monks on the whole continent and had a reputation for overkill. Alfre didn’t even know why she thought she needed a personal guard; she could easily take care of any threat herself.

Alfre sighed heavily, sharing a look of discontent with Spica from where she could barely see the assassin in the shadows of the throne room. Ren was meeting with some ambassadors from the City of Spade, specifically members of the Sweet Summer Children and Knights of the Burning Oak guilds. No one else was willing to make the three-day trek to the Crystal Moon Kingdom. 

“Alfre?” The winter blade twitched at the sound of Ren’s voice, looking up at the queen. “Take a break, I can hear your sighing from over here. You too, Spica. We’re among friends here. I’ll be fine.”

Alfre turned and exited through a side door just behind the throne, leaving it ajar for Spica to slip through, the assassin closing it silently behind her.

“Three months,” Alfre groaned. “Three months of nothing!”

“Hard for me to do her dirty work when she has no dirty work for me to do,” Spica agreed. “I think the only one who’s busy is Elias…and Izo if the rumors about him and Ran are true.”

“Maybe Traveler had the right idea, leaving when she did,” Alfre murmured.

Traveler’s sudden and unannounced departure was still a sore subject among the four of them. They’d simply woken up one morning to find Traveler’s chambers bare and her name scratched out of the guild ledger. A note had been left, pretty obviously written by her, thanking them for their companionship. But her name was Traveler for a reason, and the winds were taking her off to other corners of the world. Ren had been particularly bitter about it. While she had expected Alfre to leave, Traveler had been pretty adamant about joining the guild. They’d all thought she would stay. 

It was for this reason Alfre was so hesitant about leaving, even when she was itching for adventure, for some new goal to set her mind to. She remembered her little cottage in the woods. Did she have enough to buy it? And after that did she have enough to fix it? Was it even still there? Had it been destroyed by the monsters that haunted the Wilds? Had someone taken it from her without her knowledge? 

“If you leave, you aren’t leaving without me,” Spica told her plainly. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Alfre assured her. “But would Elias come with us?”

Spica flinched, most people wouldn’t have noticed it but Alfre knew her well enough to see past the mask of perfection the assassin tried to wear. 

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “He seems awfully happy here.” 

“We need to talk to him about it,” Alfre said, though it sounded like she didn’t really want to do what she was suggesting. “The worst thing he can say is no.”

They found him out in the garden, setting up some kind of teatime by the lotus pond. They didn’t really know why, Ren never drank tea. So unless the teapot poured warm sake, the whole thing was going to go to waste. Elias hummed quietly to himself, smiling as he set the delicate china on the table about a tea tower of cookies and tiny cakes. 

“Elias,” she called.

His long white ears turned towards them before the rest of him did. He smiled at them before fully processing their unhappy expressions. His smile quickly fell into a concerned frown. 

“What is it?” he asked, taking a few quick, long strides towards them. “What’s wrong?”

“We need to leave, Elias,” Spica told him. “There’s nothing for us here. All Alfre and I do is sit around and follow Ren up and down the same halls day in and day out. We’re wasted here.” 

Elias’ ears dropped, his eyes fell from their faces. “I see.”

“We won’t go now, but soon. We’re going to tell Ren, and give her plenty of time to get used to the idea before we go,” Alfre said. “We won’t be like Traveler.” 

“But you’ll leave the guild when you go,” Elias guessed.

It was Alfre’s turn to look away. “Yes.”

“We were wanting to know if you were going to come with us if we left,” Spica admitted. Her too blue eyes met Elias’ scarlet and held his gaze. 

Elias took a deep breath and gave her a small, reassuring smile. “I’d never let my girls go without me. Who’d keep you two out of trouble?”

“To be fair, magician, you’ve never been able to keep us out of trouble.”

Elias laughed, clear and joyful. “It’s true, I suppose. But I can always try.”

Alfre felt better about leaving knowing Elias was coming with them. She briefly thought about asking Izo to come with them. He’d been a part of their party for a long time, and they’d need a healer. But then she caught him standing close to Ran as they held hands and spoke in whispers. The way Izo smiled as Ran rubbed his thumb in little circles on the back on his hand told her that there was no way she’d ever convince him to leave. She didn’t even feel like it would right to try. 

She cornered Ren the next night, catching Ren as she was entering her private chambers.

“We’re leaving,” she said, telling her as simply as she could. Like ripping off a Band-Aid, she thought. “Spica, Elias, and I. At the beginning of next week. I wanted to let you know.”

For a brief moment, Alfre swore Ren would argue. The queen’s shoulders squared, her hands clenched into fists, and a dark look flickered through her golden eyes. But then, as quickly as it built, the tension faded. Her shoulders slumped and her hands fell open. She met Alfre’s eyes; a sad smile on her face, so different from the wild grin Alfre was used to.

“I knew you would eventually,” Ren admitted, stepping further in to the room. “I tried my damnedest to stop you, or at least prolong the inevitable. I guess I couldn’t. You never gave your heart to the guild, not like I did.”

“It’s your guild, your kingdom,” Alfre agreed. “It would be strange if you weren’t emotionally invested in it.”

Ren nodded. She sat on her bed, settling next to Alfre. “Where will you go? What goal has caught your eye?”

Alfre shrugged. “I don’t know. When…when we were in Sapfir, the prince mentioned that Alice Liddell was the first Fell. She made it home eventually. Maybe we can try and find that? I don’t know if I want to though. I miss my family, of course, but…I’m so much more here than I was back home, you know?”

“Of course I know.” Ren laughed, a soft, bitter noise. “Here, I am a queen. There…I’m no one.”

Alfre reached out and placed her hand over Ren’s and squeezed. “You’re a great queen, Ren. And probably one of the best friends I could have here. Thank you for looking after me all this time.”

“Don’t get sappy on me, snowflake,” Ren joked. Despite her words, she pulled her hand free and wrapped her arms around Alfre’s shoulders, squeezing her tight. “And just so you know, even when you leave the guild, you’re always welcome here. So try and visit every so often. Izo would get sad if you forgot about him.” 

Ren, Ran, Silver, and Izo saw them off at the city gate the morning they left. And like every other time Ren wandered out to do something, she amassed a small army as she went. Half the kingdom came out to see them off, it seemed. Alfre recognized faces, but knew no names. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she could bring herself to stay if she had bothered to get to know more members of the guild. It felt like she’d done herself a great disservice in keeping to herself for so long. But there was no time to dwell. 

They set out into the early spring morning as the dew was still clinging to the grass. Their first destination was the City of Spade. Alfre had the wild idea to make the three of them a guild. Any group of three or more players could form a guild, and guilds had a much easier time doing things than individual players. She’d come up with the name already, something that had been rolling around her head since the Christmas party, standing out in the cold staring up at the apparently unmoving stars. 

The trip took them three days by foot, walking all day and half the night. Boars and goblins did nothing to stop them now. The last time Alfre had checked her little journal she was level fifty. Which was an impressive feat considering a little over half a year ago she had been level one. 

By the time they reached the city they were all exhausted, dirty, and in need of a decent meal that consisted of something other than hunks of cheese, dried meat, and plain bread. They stopped by the Knights of the Burning Oak to say hello to Lance and Atticus, who looked both excited and saddened to see them. Apparently Ren had sent word ahead that the three of them were heading their way and would be in need of accommodation until they could get settled. The Crystal Moon guildhall was left abandoned, vacated when the guild left for its kingdom. No one had bought it up in the meantime, most guilds already having halls of their own, and as such no one could access it. 

Atticus offered to let them rooms to stay in for the time being. Well, Lance offered the rooms, and Atticus just shrugged behind him. Lance would always be fond of Alfre for how she had helped Izo all those months ago, it seemed. Alfre was certainly grateful for the warm bath and soft bed. 

They stopped by Sweet Summer Children the next day, June and Doremi sweeping them up into hugs. Or, they swept Alfre up into hugs. They couldn’t really sweep Spica or Elias up into anything, let alone a hug. When they mentioned registering as a guild, June immediately launched into a half-rant about the types of guildhalls they could or couldn’t afford. 

“Do you think you’d buy the old Crystal Moon Kingdom guildhall?” she asked. “The pub would be a good source of income if you kept it open to the public. I’d be harder to make as much profit as Ren and them did, since they manned the kitchen with guild members, but you could probably hire a few Wonderlanders at a decent price.”

“That’s a little big for us,” Elias admitted. “It’s a shame the space is going to waste, but I don’t think that’s something we were considering.”

“I like the idea of a tall guildhall, though,” Alfre said thoughtfully. “Maybe not as wide. I’d love to have a rooftop garden. My uncle had one of those at his flat.” 

June’s eyes glimmered and she ducked down and pulled out a thin pamphlet out from her inventory bag. She slapped it down on the table, quickly thumbing through it. “The Market Council has started putting out this real estate brochure every month, it’s freaking great. Here!” She turned the brochure around and pushed it across the table for Alfre and the others to see. On the page was a series of pictures of a four story, sandy colored brick building. One of the photos was of a roof top garden area, complete with open-air planter boxes and a small greenhouse. 

“This baby has been on the market for months,” June said excitedly. “It’s labeled as a guildhall, but it’s too small for most of the guilds around here. There’s no shop or anything on the first floor, which most people consider a downside as well. But it might be just what you’re looking for.”

Spica snatched up the brochure, getting a better look at the property. “Looks cute. But photos can lie. Can you take us there?” 

“Of course,” June chirped. “Now, you won’t be able to purchase it until you’ve registered your guild. Have you done that yet?”

“No,” Elias said. “But I can do that while you’re taking Spica to the property. Alfre?”

Alfre flinched, turning back to the conversation and away from the windows she’d been staring out of. “I want to let Canus know we’re back.” 

Elias chuckled fondly and Spica hid her smirk behind the brochure. 

“Let’s meet back here later, shall we,” June proposed. “Say, at dinner time? It shouldn’t take too long to register the guild. And Canus always seems to know where you are, Alfre, so I doubt it’ll take long to find him.”