Page 33 of Blood Red Woes

I push away from the wall and turn away from the beautiful nighttime view as I wander inside the tower and collapse on the nearest bed. “It’s okay,” I whisper back. “I’ve had years to deal with it.”

The tattoo on my wrist glows, illuminating the room in a dull yellowish white, like a dim bulb. “I know I mentioned it before, but perhaps it really would do you good to stay here in Laconia. You can survive the shadowstorms. You might be the only one who can save these people. They need you, even if they don’t want to admit it.”

The last time he mentioned my life at home not being much to go back to, I told him it was my life. That, at least, it was mine.

I don’t say that this time, though. I ask, “Why should I care? Do I feel sorry for them? Sure. But my world has problems too, and I don’t see any of them leaping to help out. Just because I can do things they can’t doesn’t mean I have to be their hero. Their problems aren’t mine.”

“You’re right, of course. Their problems aren’t yours. Still, perhaps helping them would help you, in turn. You can save what’s left of Laconia. You can probably take down theirempresses, if you try hard enough. Rey, you could wipe the slate clean for these people—”

“Why should I? They locked me up and called me a demon.”

“And they also helped you escape.”

“And then promptly asked for my help,” I remind him. “I’m only doing this because Frederick might be able to help with the portals. I’m not doing this out of the kindness of my heart. I want to go home.”

Rune is smart enough not to say anything after that, and I roll onto my side and close my eyes. Sleep takes its good old time in coming, and once it arrives it’s a sheer black embrace welcoming me in its arms.

I dream of nothing. I dream of the void, a pitch-blackness that envelops me and tries to devour me. I’m so homesick, so lost, that I almost let it.

Chapter Ten

I sleep in way too long, but whatever. After that little chat with Rune last night, I’m kind of depressed. When I finally stir, Rune remarks dryly, “Good morning, princess.” Some girls might like being called princess by a guy with an accent like that, but me? Nah.

“Shut up,” I mutter as I lumber out of the bed and stretch.

“Were you dreaming last night?”

I sit near my bag and pull out some food. Nothing like forced rations to make food last longer; I’m probably losing weight like crazy—and I don’t have much extra weight to lose. “Uh, I don’t think so, why?”

“It sounded like you were. It was a very… fitful sleep,” Rune explains, the mark on my wrist glowing with each word he speaks. “I was a tad concerned.”

“You, concerned about me? Awe, shucks. You know exactly what to say to a girl to make her blush.” I rip off a chunk of meat and take a bite, mostly to stop myself from saying anything else. I… don’t really remember my dream, whatever it was, so it couldn’t have been that bad.

Rune groans a guttural sound. “Back to your insufferable self, I see.”

I shrug, though it’s not like he can see it.

After I finish my small breakfast, I get searching. Now that there’s daylight, the tower is illuminated. The top floor is a bedroom, basically, full of nothing but beds and chests at the foot of each bed, where the researchers must’ve kept their belongings while stationed here.

I almost don’t look around, figuring if there’s going to be something it’s going to be on one of the lower levels, but out ofthe corner of my eye, I spot a leather-bound journal on the floor, near the bed in the far corner.

Just to be certain, I go check it out. I pick the journal up and flip it open, expecting to see a language I can’t read, but to my surprise, it’s in English—or maybe it’s not, and I can simply understand it because of the bond I have with Rune. Either way, I can make out the words. Some of them barely, because it’s in a messy cursive script.

And what’s on the first page?Property of Frederick LaRoe, First Researcher for Empress Krotas.

“Holy shit,” I say, breathless as I sit on the nearby bed. “This was his. Frederick’s dad was here.” And he’s also named Frederick LaRoe. How confusing. I’m gonna refer to him as Fred from now on, just to differentiate the two.

“What a stroke of luck,” Rune says.

I flip to the next page. It’s full of writing. I scan the rest of the book and find it’s the same. “This has to be his journal or something.” In other words, a diary. There’s a lot of reading here; I don’t think I can sit here in this tower and read it all today. I’ll have to take it with me and read it bit by bit.

This can’t be the research. There has to be more.

I go to the last entry and read that. Fred talks about regretting leaving his family in Laconia, but he knows he did what he had to. Empress Krotas contracted the madness, and one of her last wishes was for him to see Empress Morimento. If there was anyone who could fight the madness seeping into her veins, it was surely the empress of the just. It was too late for Krotas, but perhaps Fred could save Morimento.

The last paragraph of the journal entry talks about Frederick. How, if by some miracle of chance, Frederick ever finds this journal, that Fred loves him more than life itself. That he’s sorry he could not make the world better for him. He’s sorry he failed.

It’s… reminiscent of something my own dad might’ve said, if he kept a journal. After he got sick, he kept apologizing to me, like he owed it to me.

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