A Scholar's travels with a Witcher

I found Marion next to the bee-hives just like she had promised. She was sat nearby, a reasonable distance from the hives themselves with her back to a fence-post. She had drawn her knees up to her chin and was staring into space with the kind of thousand mile stare that spoke of much practice or a great deal of thinking going on.

“I'm sorry,” I said as I got closer. “I spoke without thinking.” I held out a bottle of the local mead that I had been supplied with earlier along with the small sack of food that the innkeeper had forced on me. “Peace offering?”

She looked up at me for a long moment, her eyes searching my face for something that she didn't quite seem to find, before taking the bottle and lifting it to her lips and swallowing a surprisingly large amount of the liquid. I had sniffed it earlier and it made my eyes water.

“Don't be sorry,” she said, slowly unfolding and stretching out. “You have nothing to be sorry for. In fact it just shows you to be an unusually kind man compared to some of the people we get here.”

I sat down next to her and crossed my legs. The grass was a little damp but somehow I didn't feel like moving. “I also have bread, cheese, some smoked ham, a few apples and a large cherry tart that your mother insisted that I bring with me.”

Marion smiled, a little more genuinely this time as I started to pass out the food.

“She's not my mother but she sometimes acts like it.” She arranged the food around us with quick and expert movements. I noticed that the cherry tart was positioned behind her.

“Is that bad?”

“Sometimes, not always.”

We ate and it was almost possible to actually see her relaxing again. After a little while she reached out and grasped my arm and smiled.

“Thank you Frederick.”

“What for?”

She shook her head. “It's difficult to explain.”

“Fair enough.” My heart had started to beat faster when she reached out.

“Feeling better?” I managed.

“Much,” she grinned this time as she toasted the mead. “The medicine you brought is working. How are you feeling?”

“A bit tired if I'm honest.”

“Don't worry, that's perfectly natural. Try and eat as much as you can.”

“But not the cherry tart.”

“Not the cherry tart. Well, maybe a little bit of the tart.”

“So generous.”

She laughed then and it felt like rainfall after a long and heavy summer. I began to suspect that I was falling in love with this woman which only goes to show that the person to whom it's happening is often the most stupid.

“Why so keen to get me to eat anyway?” I asked.

“Of all the questions that you must have, that's the one you decide to begin with?”

“It's rather on my mind.” I belched then and she laughed again. “Better out than in,”

“My father says the same thing.” she said giggling. “The truth is that you have been asleep for four days, we managed to get some food into you during this but it was not easy. You fought us on one occasion and we had to pour some soup down a tube and into your stomach to stop you from dying of malnutrition.”

“Wow,” I stared at her for a moment.

“That's one word for it.”

“Do many people die of that?”

“Only if we don't find them. People who try and sneak in or get lost in the mountains occasionally trip over things and we need to step in.”

I nodded.

“I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself a bit but before I start at the beginning so to speak...”

“Generally the best way.”

“What?”

“To start at the beginning and work your way through until you get to the end.”

“That's a quote isn't it?”

“Yes, but it's also sensible.”

“True,” I got distracted for a moment by the curve of her neck. I sighed and looked away.

“It's ok,” she reached round and cupped my cheek in her hand before turning my face back towards her. “It's ok.” She said again and I realised that I was much closer to her than I thought I was.

“You, are a good, kind man.” she said after a while of staring at my face. “I can tell these things. There is no easy way to say this so I'll just come out with it. These things work best if you don't fight them. Just let them happen.”

I tried to avoid looking at her but she held my eyes. There was a pull to them that I could no longer avoid.

“I'm sorry,” I said and tried to pull away.

“Don't be,” she said with a smile as she gently released me. “What's her name?”

I sighed. “Am I that easy to read?”

She laughed again but it sounded gentle to me. Kind as though she cared.

“No, but it's not a new situation. Stop me when you start to recognise yourself. There is another woman. She is relatively new to your life and you are unsure about how you feel towards her. You are a noble man of noble birth which do not always go hand in hand and I would guess that the two of you are in the very early stages of a formal courtship. You like her, but you are unsure about how you feel about her. You worry about whether or not you are forcing yourself to feel things that are not really there for her sake, or for the sake of your family....”

“I won't lie but that's a little frightening.”

she laughed again. I somehow felt as though the constant laughter should make me angry but instead I found that I liked it.

“What's her name?”

“Ariadne.”

“Are you attracted to her?”

“She's a beautiful woman.”

“That's not what I asked.”

“I know.” I looked over at Marion. There was nothing judgemental in her eyes. Instead I saw kindness and understanding. “Is talking about people's problems part of what you...do.”

“Partially. I am your companion for a reason and that reason is what we call “compatibility”.”

“Is that “companion” business another thing that comes with extended questioning?” I was finding that if I kept the questions about less personal matters, then I was more comfortable.

“It is, but I also notice that you're diverting the conversation.” She was still smiling. “Very well though, I will let you off the hook, for now.” She smiled at me wickedly.

“I am grateful.”

“I'm sure I can think of some way to pay you back.”

My face must have reddened as she laughed again.

“Before we go any further and start at the beginning, as you say, there are a couple of questions that I want to get out of the way.”

She straightened her shoulders. “Go for it. I'll answer as much as I can, and if I don't know it then I can soon find someone who can.”

“Your people hate Kerrass. Not just the normal kind of dislike that often follows him around, but they hate Kerrass. Kerrass but not me, his companion. Why is that?”

“You had to start with one of the easy ones didn't you.” She sighed. “What did he tell you?”

“He told me that what he did, and why it's so bad require context and that context would need to be provided by you.”

“He is possible not wrong, however what he did, I cannot and will not tell you. In short, he committed sacrilege.”

“That's what he said.”

“He would. The fact that he was remorseful and has taken steps to correct the problem is, unfortunately, not a mitigating factor as far as we're concerned.”

“I see, but you don't feel the same about me.”

“No, his crime does not colour you. We are not the kind of people that would tarnish a man for another man's crimes.”

“Progressive of you.”

“Not really. We don't have time for that kind of nonsense. We make a lot of what money we have from what we are given by visitors and so... Pragmatism dictates that we not be idiots about such things. The fact that it's the right thing to do is a decent bonus as well.”

“It's always nice when ethics match up with pragmatism and practicality.”

“My thoughts exactly. Have I answered your question?”

“I think so, do you know why he brought me here?”

“Yes, he brought you here to help him wake her up.”

“What are your thoughts about that? If we were successful, is that a good thing? A bad thing?”

Marion smiled, there was a little sadness there but she hid it quickly with a swig from the bottle. “You must be really good at this scholaring stuff. You don't ask the easy questions do you.”

“It's the training.” I was rewarded with another smile.

“No it would not be a bad thing. I think that in the long run, it might be the best thing for us all. The people that live here. But not all of us would agree. The men, certainly wouldn't but they don't have a tendency to see the big picture.”

“Which is?”

“We're a dying people.”

“What?”

“Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not dying of a disease or anything. Neither is anyone else but... We can't survive like this for much longer. Another couple of generations at most. It is more than likely that my Great grandchildren, should I have any, will be among the first people who start to display overt signs of disfigurement.”

“It sounds like there is a lot of context here for me to get through.

“Again. You are not wrong.”

“Best get started then...”

I opened my mouth to start speaking.

“Very well, but first I need you to promise me that if you start to get tired then you will go to bed without complaint.

“Done,”

“Don't sound to keen yet. Also, if I decide that you need to go to sleep, then you will do so. Without complaint.”

“Why?”

“Just promise me or I stop talking here and now.”

“So serious all of a sudden.” I was trying for a lighter tone.

“I mean it Frederick.”

“Ok, Ok.” I held my hands up tow ward off an attack.

“Sorry,” she said “But it's just that men sometimes seem to get stubborn when they get challenged by a woman.”

“I will allow myself to be led by you.”

“Good. First question then.”

“It's actually around the fourth or fifth.”

“Small details like that are insignificant.”

“Ok, so here's my question. What the fuck is happening?”

Her long peal of laughter was lovely.

She passed the mead back to me.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I asked.

“Is that the scholarly question or a personal one?”

“Both,”

“Maybe.” She looked a little sly and it was unbearably cute. I cleared my throat desperately.

“So how much do you know about the legend of Sleeping Beauty?” she asked. “I don't want to start telling you stuff you already know.”

“I know what most people from the north know. I know that she was a Princess born to King Stefan and Queen Leah after a long period of childlessness.”

She nodded as I spoke and ate a piece of the tart.

“I know that three good “fairies” turned up at her naming ceremony to give the child magical gifts of beauty and song...”

Marion snorted in what I took to be amused disgust.

“But then an evil Witch arrived, angry that she hadn't been invited to the naming ceremony and as a result cursed the child to prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday where the girl would then die.”

Marion nodded again stealing the bottle of mead out of my hand.

“The last fairy tried to undo the majority of the curse by saying that she would not die but instead fall into a deep sleep until she should be woken by true love's kiss, or words to that effect. Long story short, she was forgotten about for a while but was woken up by the kiss of a visiting prince. They married and lived happily ever after.”

Marion nodded, taking a long drink from the bottle before passing it back to me.

“Almost completely false.” Was her verdict.

“Now that I'm here I can kind of see that, yes.”

“There are many variations of the story but the basis of it is always the same. Beautiful princess cursed by angry evil Witch to die due to pricking her finger on a spindle. The curse is then mitigated to eternal sleep to be woken by “True Love's kiss”. Whatever that means.”

“Cynical about True Love's kiss?”

“No, but here's a question for you. You are not a poet so answer me with this. What is Love? Answer that question without using the word Love.”

“I know this riddle though. I also know the poets answer which is that it's like a pear in that it is shapely, sweet and difficult to define. I agree that True Love is...undefinable and is different from one person to the next.”

“And the evidence of it having any kind of effect on a curse is circumstantial at best. One of the problems regarding this entire situation is that we don't really know what happened back then. My ancestors were simple folk who, for whatever reason, were out of the Kingdom at the time of the curse actually being enacted which means that they were hermits, merchants, shepherds and wanderers. Hardly any of them could read and it was a couple of generations before anyone actually started to write things down as to what was happening.

“One of the biggest things that we lost was the poor Princesses name. There are several versions of that including but not limited to, Princess Aurora, Princess Buttercup, Princess Talia and Briar Rose. All of those are possible although, personally I think that Aurora is a bit far fetched myself. Aurora describes the winter sky lights from the far north and as such I doubt that anyone from this far south would think of that as a name for their daughter.”

“It does seem a little unlikely.”

“Anyway. Here's what we know.”

Marion carefully set aside the last of the tart and kind of straightened herself up. I almost laughed as I had seen such gestures many times. Indeed I have used it myself as that's the attitude of someone who is getting ready to deliver a thesis.

“We know that King Stefan was a womaniser and as a result he didn't marry until much later in life. We also think that he was a bit of a romantic at heart as several records from the time describe him as always being vaguely unsatisfied. He would ride for miles to gaze at an attractive woman who would always tend to fall for his charms, whether of the looks, personality, rank or money variety, and he would have another conquest but, for whatever reason he didn't manage to secure a wife until well into his forties. Those reasons tended to fall into the categories of his dissatisfaction or the parents of any intended bride feeling a little nervous at the man's womanising.

“Another fact behind this could be that, at the time, anyone who owned and maintained a castle could call themselves King and as such, a lot of people were rather sceptical.

“But I digress.”

“But so well.” I managed to put in with a smile.

“Flattery will get you.... somewhere.” She tried to look mysterious but she couldn't help but laugh.

“Anyway, eventually he convinced a lady to marry him and much to everyone's astonishment, including hers, he settled down to marital bliss. He doted on his wife, lavishing her with gifts, affection and love so that no-one could be in any doubt that he loved her. She, in turn was astonished and pleased at this treatment and soon began to reciprocate with ardour.

“There was just one problem.”

“Lack of children.” I guessed.

“Top of the class.”

“Do I get a prize?” I asked quickly but I was unprepared when she moved forward with astonishing speed and kissed me on the cheek.

“Have I made you speechless?” she teased.

I gargled something and she laughed at me.

“Anyway, back there and back then, the production of an heir was still very important. Probably even more important than it is today due to the fact that there weren't extended royal families to find cousins or uncles or whatever to fill the gap. Again, King Stefan confounded his critics by absolutely refusing to set Queen Leah aside for a Younger and more fertile lady and instead sent out his people in “all the directions of the wind” to find some kind of cure, or remedy that would enable the royal couple to have children. Any advisor who tried to even faintly suggest that the Queen should be set aside was chastised if it was a mistake or meant in good faith but after a single warning then the perpetrator would be exiled. Sometimes to recalled if need arose but even so. It was a very real situation for them all to be in.”

“All the directions of the Wind,” I mused. “That sounds like a quote.”

“It is, and a very poetic one. One of the few written records that we have are some of the messages sent out from King Stefan at the time begging his nearest neighbours to send anything that they might have to help in his direction. At first he was mocked for his reactions to the entire thing but then people began to admire his... faithfulness to his wife. It was described as the great love affair of the times in these parts and there were several songs written on the subject although many of them lack the quality of polish that more modern verse might have. That line is from one of those songs.”

“I should like to read them.” I was fascinated despite myself and the beautiful woman in front of me. Those documents would be a treasure trove.

“We only have copies I'm afraid.”

“Why?”

“Imperial historians took them away, years ago. It was never explained as to why. We were told that it was “too preserve a living history,” and apparently they can still be viewed in the Imperial archive if you have enough clout or know the right person to ask.”

I smirked at that.

“Was there some scandal do you think?”

“Probably although at the time, those politics would have been a distant future that no-one cared about. Anyhow. Much to everyone's astonishment the Queen declared that she was pregnant one morning. There was much fuss and wrapping of the Queen in the softest blankets and she was whisked away to a remote castle in the Kingdom where she would be in seclusion until the child was born. The King would often visit his wife while also coming back to the capitol to take care of business during the day.

“Much wailing and gnashing of teeth was done and many of the other local Kingdoms viewed this place as a ripe fruit for the plucking as, again, the production of an heir was really important at the time but in the end a tiny baby girl was produced and presented to the populace to much rejoicing. The locals were a little bit more pragmatic about passing down titles to girls and it was often argued that, at the end of the day, marriage would be just as valid a way to get a King as the Queen giving birth to one. The locals stopped sharpening their knives and started grooming their sons instead and apparently this was one of the first signs that Kingdoms would start to join together to form the much larger nations and empires that we know today.

“But now we get to the crux of the matter. The Princesses first birthday and her naming ceremony. Sorry it's taken so long to get to the point.”

I waved off her objection. “Context is important in these things. So just to make sure I've got this right. King is a “player” who likes the ladies. Finds an unlikely love but they can't have Kids. Eventually, he manages to get his wife pregnant, whether by luck or by some other means is unclear.”

“Correct.”

“Right then.” I chose that moment to yawn. Her reaction was instant.

“Are you alright, do you need to take a break?”

“I'm fine,” but I yawned again just for the effect.

“I should point out that I'm not strong enough to get you into bed on my own.”

“Cheeky,” I tried for humour and although she did smile, I could tell that she wasn't really that amused.

“Look, just tell me about the ceremony and then I'll go to bed.”

“Promise.”

“I promise.”

She frowned a little teasingly at me before continuing.

“The royal family came down and child was presented. All the wealthy subjects came down to offer fealty, oaths and presents to the little princess including seven magical women.”

“Sorceresses?”

“Probably. All we know for sure about them is that they were definitely not fairy's. Even their names change according to the accounts. What we do know was that these Sorceresses gave the young Princess several blessings. These were, in no particular order: Beauty, Wit, Grace, Song, Dance and Goodness.”

“Awfully broad terms.”

“Quite. Of all the things that a woman wants in order to help her rule a country or to run her husbands castle, Song, Dance and Goodness, whatever Goodness means. Dance and Grace especially seem to cancel each other out as the one invariably means the other.

“Also, what does “wit” mean. Intelligence? Humour?”

“My thoughts the same.”

Marion gave a little snort.

“Anyway. Just as the seventh Sorceress was about to bestow her gift. The “dark Sorceress” appears. Now, before you ask. No, we don't know who she was. Nor do we know why she was referred to as “dark”. What we do know is that she wasn't invited and it was this that pissed her off. It should also be said that she was, by far, credited as being the most powerful of the magic users there at that time.”

“Of all the people to forget to invite.”

“Exactly. You would have thought that she would have been somewhere near the top of the list.” Marion laughed at something. “A few years ago, one of our guests commented that there is nothing quite like having an evil Sorceress as a friendly “Aunt” figure. A good one will comfort you in the dark times. An evil one will make the bastards suffer for it.”

I laughed with her.

“Anyway. Long story short as I can see you drooping, don't pretend you're not. The evil Sorceress cursed the Princess to die on her sixteenth birthday when she pricked her finger on a spinning wheel spindle.”

“That's a bit harsh. It wasn't the babies fault that her parents had been careless.”

Marion smiled at my comment. “Also, an awfully specific curse. Why not, pricks her finger? Why go to all the effort of specifying that it was on a spindle?”

“Interesting.”

“I knew you'd like it. Anyway. Evil Sorceress leaves in a huff. Final good Sorceress informs the royal couple that she can't reverse the curse as she wasn't strong enough. Instead the curse is changed to say that she would just sleep until a cure for the curse would be found. The whole “True Love's kiss” thing is one of those solutions rather than being a part of the actual curses.”

“Yes, well, “True love's kiss” is supposedly a traditional remedy for all kinds of magical ills.”

“Indeed. So, that was the naming ceremony. Time to get you to bed.”

“But...”

“But me no buts. You promised.” She pouted and I laughed as I submitted to her efforts to coddle me.

It felt like a long way back to the inn. The rhythmic sound that I now knew as being wood aces chopping into vines, made the afternoon air feel even more soporific. On the breeze I could still hear people singing and resolved once again to find those men and to learn that song.

Marion held my hand as we walked.

When she first took my hand I had almost felt as though I wanted to protest in some way but this was soon taken over by the fact that it felt quite... nice really.

She got me back into the room and helped me take off my boots which was a long, drawn out task that I had never before, really appreciated how complicated it was until I tried to do it under the influence of mead, magic and the presence of a beautiful woman.

“Can I ask you something?” I said suddenly, wondering at the sound of my own voice.

“Certainly. Not too complicated a question though as you need to get some rest before you fall over.”

“Did you know?” I asked. “I'm not judging you, nor will I think any the less of you, regardless of your answer but... did you know how I would react to all of this?”

She straightened and looked down at me.

“Did you know about Ariadne and my feelings for her and how I would behave? Do you know how to make me laugh, smile and get angry? In short... How substantial is your training?”

“Are you asking me if I'm a trained courtesan of some kind, a trained....whore?” her face was blank.

I thought about this for a moment.

“That makes it sound harsher than I meant it. You are a beautiful woman and you knew what I was thinking. You talk about companions here...”

I realised that I was beginning to lose focus a little and started blinking, stupidly.

“You talk about companions and you talk about them in a sexual context. You are... almost... my perfect woman.”

A certain part of my brain was screaming at me that this is not the way to talk about any woman. Especially not to her face, regardless of feeling.

“I don't want to upset you and I'm sorry if I have but... I find that I wonder about how easily you've disarmed me... I need to know how much of that is real and how much of that is trained.”

“Your fragile male ego is showing itself a little.” I thought that there was a hint of amusement in that tone.

“A little,” I admitted. “More than a little.”

“You are right in many ways.” she said after a long moment. “I am an educated woman and I was educated so that I could talk to people like you who are also educated to a substantial level and so that they, so that you, can see me as a clever woman. Yes I have been trained to be as good a companion to you as it is possible to be. Yes, that companionship contains a romantic and sexual element. I can explain more about how we pair up the right man or woman to the right visitor when you are more awake but for now I will say this. Yes, I know how to make you smile, or laugh or how to touch other more complex emotions should the need arise. Yes I know how to seduce you and how you would react under certain circumstances. Yes, in theory I could make you love me.”

“I see,”

“I'm not finished.” She was definitely smiling now. The smile seemed kind to me also a little sad and a little amused. “No, I was not briefed on your personal situation. You surprised me with how you reacted to the rules of the village. I have not seen so strong a reaction before although I will say that it improved my opinion of you by several notches.”

“Yes, I know how to do all of those things. I have been a companion to six men before now as well as one woman. The relationship is not always sexual unless certain circumstances present themselves which I will describe when you are more...awake.”

“Fair comment.”

“But you Frederick, you are a good and kind man. You are also not at all bad looking.”

“Talk about back handed compliments.”

“Shush. But I will say this. I know how to make you laugh, smile, relax and engage intellectually and react emotionally. But with you, I find that I want to do all of those things just because I want to give you those things. I would also say that, with you, I do not feel as though I have to pretend in any way. I am just myself. That is rare.”

“I see.”

“Do you?”

“Do you want the truth?”

“Always, even if it might hurt me.”

I nodded and considered my next words carefully. It was an odd feeling my eyes desperately wanted to close but at the same time, my mind was working furiously.

“I hear what you're saying and on some level, I understand what you're saying but at the same time, all I want to know is what your hair smells like.”

She laughed delightedly and it seemed that the tension between us had lifted. I started to turn myself to lie back on the bed but she stopped me.

“Wait. Is that truly all you want to know about me? Not in general but right here and now.”

“Right here and now?”

She nodded, I could see her clearly now and there was an impish amusement in her face.

I spoke without thinking.

“I want to know what the skin on the side of your neck feels like, that line from your jawline and cheek down to your collarbone.”

“Anything else?”

“Also that part of your midriff just above your hip. Not your belly or your breast because I don't think I could cope with that at the moment.”

She nodded and visibly tried to stifle a smile.

“Close your eyes,”

“Only too eager to obe...”

I stopped speaking when she took my right hand and brought it up, her own hand on the outside of mine, guiding it up to her face where she cupped my hand around her jaw. Ever so gently. There was a noise that I couldn't identify although it sounded like rustling cloth but then she took my left hand and placed it on her, still clothed hip.

I felt like a man who has just had some kind of beautiful wild animal walk up and climb into his lap. I was so startled that I hardly dare move or even breathe. Her skin was so soft and warm although I could feel the hard jawline underneath.

Her hip seemed to fit perfectly into my palm. I couldn't hold my breath any more and breathed in. Startled, though I found that she was holding her hair close to my face for me to smell.

It smelled of apple blossom.

“How does that feel?” her voice was gentle, curious.

I cleared my throat on my second attempt.

“I don't know, I'm just trying not to lose my mind at the moment.

She laughed again. That same, delighted sound.

“Then hold on tight.”

She leant forward and kissed me. Gently and softly. I don't know how long it lasted because my brain was overloading itself. She broke the kiss and pulled away. I must have reached for her or made some kind of disappointed sound because she spoke as she helped me into bed.

“Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere.”

She removed her shoes but I was already sinking towards sleep when she climbed into the bed next to me and took me in her arms.

“I will be here when you wake up.” She promised.

I don't know how long I slept. What I do know is that when I woke up, the world felt different somehow. I felt calm, at peace and so very relaxed. Marion laughed at me when I commented on this.

“It is not a new phenomenon. You've slept more in the last few days than you have in several months.”

I nodded as though that explained everything but I think there was another reason. There was no denying how I was feeling towards Marion now. I was falling in love with her, but at the same time there was a kind of, finite quality to our romance. Somehow I knew that this thing that was happening between us would not last forever but for the here and now I was enjoying myself immensely. The attentions of a beautiful woman will do that to a man although she seemed to be enjoying it just as much as I was.

That morning, we took a blanket and supplies out into the woods, further away from the sounds of woodcutting. There was a sense of inevitability about what was happening as well. We both knew what was going to happen and what we were going to do but it was unspoken and at the same time, more delicious for it.

I had the sack of food over one shoulder as we set out and Marion held onto the other hand.

“Do you mind if we continue our conversation from yesterday?” I asked as we walked. We took a gentle pace, the kind of feeling that we had some distance to go although neither of us had a destination in mind but had resolved to take our time getting there.

“Which one?”

“The one about you, me and about you and me.”

She smiled at me and hugged my arm.

“Feeling insecure?”

“A little. You talk about companionship as though it's some kind of task. An occupation, a thing that needs doing that is not always a particularly pleasant thing to do. What does this mean and why is it necessary?”

“The what, I can answer now. The why is more complicated and will need the other conversation to progress a little first. The task of being a persons companion is a necessary one. You have to understand that we've been doing this for over a hundred years now and we have it down to a fine art. Our rules have been brought into place due to necessity as a result of the magic that was cast over this place. The most obvious result of that spell is the fatigue that you have already experienced. It acts, not unlike a disease in that regard and I understand that someone has written many essays on the subject regarding the similarities between this spell and the spread of a virus in someone's system.”

“How so?”

“Well, you can inoculate yourself against it. If you expose yourself more gradually then you would notice a loss of energy levels and extended sleep periods until eventually you get to the point where you just realise that you're used to it now and that your body has adapted. It's true that the further into the heart of the forest you go, the stronger the effects are but even so. But that's another topic. The spell has other effects as well which include increased feelings of romantic longing. I should stress that we don't know too much about how this works but what little we know is that it doesn't arbitrarily cause you to fall in love with someone random. What it can and does do is to increase that feeling if there is any existing attraction.”

“Interesting.”

“I'm not done yet.” She smiled as she said it. “We first realised that this was a problem maybe ten years after the spell was first cast. Two men became attracted to the same woman. They fought and one of them died. It was noteworthy because up until that point, both men had seemed level headed and kind men, swearing eternal friendship. We realised what was happening and took steps to adjust our behaviour. It took us a number of attempts to get it right. One of the things that we tried to do was to segregate the male and female population but we found that both sides would simply hide, or sneak through the fences to visit their paramours. In the end we reached a point where we took a more...pragmatic view of romantic entanglements. We are taught from a young age that the heart desires what it desires and that it is wrong to try and deny it. To do so here is demonstrably unhealthy.”

“But that doesn't explain the enforcement of the companionship rule.”

“No it doesn't. There is another aspect to the magic and as I say, I must ask you to be patient here as the why is unknown but we are pretty sure we know what's going on. But as I say, that lies with the other conversation.”

“I see.”

“The thing is that sometimes, the romantic feelings are overwhelmed by another feeling. Overwhelmed is the right word by the way. When it happens it is...terrifying. It can be wonderful if you manage to catch it right but it is still a little frightening. The feeling that I'm talking about is one of lust. That lust is overwhelming as I say and it cannot be denied, no matter how hard that you might try. There are records of people going mad trying to deny themselves during this feeling. There is also a physical need for sexual congress and release that goes with this wave of lust. And again, otherwise calm, rational and normal people start tearing their own clothes off to get to their chosen partner. In the vast majority of cases this is absolutely fine and indeed, it is the desired outcome as the partner is also swept up in these moments but I'm sure you can imagine the problem.”

“Unrequited love, more than one person going for the same partner...”

“Yes. There have been deaths on this subject and also, otherwise good men have been horrified to wake up to discover that they have murdered their best friend while also raping the man's wife.”

I took a deep breath. “Wow.” My mind was still struggling to contain this and I will admit that at the time I thought that Marion was overstating things a little bit.

“The main problem was that some people would turn up and they would be without a partner. Onanism can only take you so far after all.”

“Onanism?”

“Self love.”

“huh,”

“So, very early on it was decided that there would be volunteers that partner up with incoming visitors if they have no-one with them or are outside established relationships. As I say it was born out of pragmatism more than anything. There is magic in the air here and to deny it would be pointless and as such, we need to protect ourselves, our visitors and learn to live with that increased level of magic and it's effects. We live off our visitors as our only real export is the massive amounts of lumber that we chop down on a daily basis but because we produce so much of it, the price is kept low on an almost permanent basis. It only needs one person to say, “Oh I went to visit the land of Sleeping Beauty, fell in love with a girl and murdered another man who was looking at her funny”.”

She made the voice sound funny and I laughed with her despite the very real and solemn sentiment that she expressed.

“The duty is not unpleasant. More often than not we are partnered with those people who suit our characters and interests. It is still mostly a volunteer thing.”

“What happens when someone turns up and no-one wants to partner up?”

“We draw lots.”

I stared at her for a moment.

“So that begs the question. Did you win, or lose?”

She grinned at me and ran off into the woods.

“That's not an answer,” I called after her. The musical sound of her laughter drew me on.

I found her in a wooded clearing. At first I thought she was dancing, jumping at the wind and laughing as she did so. It took me a while to realise that the very first, very early leaves of autumn were beginning to turn and fall and she was jumping to try and catch them as they fell. Her face flushed and was full of joy and I was struck still by the sight.

She finally caught her prize and crowed in triumph. I set the sack of food down next to a tree as she approached and offered her prize as though it was the most precious of gifts. I bowed as I took it and she curtsied her response.

An awareness of how close she was physically came over me as I looked into her shining eyes. I wanted to reach out to her but something held me back.

She caught my hand though and again she was close to me, gently turning my face until she was looking into hers again.

“What's wrong?” she asked gently.

I thought of all the reasons that I had. I wanted to tell her about Ariadne and about how I felt an obligation to her. I wanted to tell her about how it felt wrong to take advantage of this place and this moment.

“I'm afraid,” I said instead and was horrified of how my voice wavered.

“Of what? Hold that thought.”

She dove into the sack and pulled out a large blanket which she spread on the grass. Autumn it might be but it was far from cold. She pulled me down to a seated position.

“What are you afraid of?” she said gently.

“I don't want to hurt you.”

She smiled and stroked my face.

“You don't need to worry.”

“But I do. This place frightens me. I have fought monsters and demons. My soul has been torn from my body and kept in the dark where it was tortured to satisfy the whims of a dark creature. I have huddled, terrified in a villagers hovel while waiting the result of a Witchers hunt. I saw a dark cult worshipping their own depravity and discovered to my horror that those same appetites have run in my family for years. I look at you and I see a young, beautiful woman.”

She smiled and blushed a little at that,

“But I am scared that those family appetites will resurface. I am scared that what I feel at the moment is as a result of this place rather than because I am feeling those things for myself. I am afraid that I am taking advantage of you and your obligation to me. Taking advantage of your “companion” status. I understand everything that you've just said about how you have had to adapt to this place and the magic that is here but that doesn't make me feel as though it's right.”

She listened carefully. I hadn't wanted to look at her face as I spoke but then I turned back to her.

All I saw there was kindness, concern, a little humour and something else that I couldn't identify.

“This Ariadne that you speak of is a very lucky woman.” She said after a long time.

“Marion I...”

“Shhh, it's ok. I have lived in this place for the entirety of my life. Believe me when I say that all of this...” she waved at the surrounding area. “All of this has an effect. But all it does is accentuate what is already there. I am your companion yes, but I chose that. I knew what I was getting into and I chose you. We could always have had you thrown off our lands if we didn't like you. I did like you and as I say, I chose you. You asked me earlier if I won, or lost. I won and I am so pleased that I did.

“You are a good man Frederick. I can understand why you are afraid and I know that feelings can be terrifying, even overwhelming. But right here. Right now, here with me. You do not need to be afraid. If you are being affected then know that I am affected to. You do not have to worry.”

She had somehow got closer to me.

“I don't want to take advantage.”

She was so close then,

“You cannot take something if I give it to you,” she whispered. I could no longer see her face, only her eyes which were huge. She closed them and I kissed her.

It lasted a long time.

“Whoa,” I managed after a while.

She laughed gently. “Have I left you speechless again?”

I smiled at her. “Wha?”

She laughed again.

“Then that's a good start. Do you mind if I kiss you again?”

“Mind?”

Again we kissed and her arms wrapped around me.

“Gently,” I managed. “My mind is spinning.”

“It's ok. No rush.”

We lay there for a long time and we talked about many things. Her life, my life, our families and our histories. She told me that her father was one of the woodsmen who worked on the edge of town and that her mother, mostly worked alongside him, clearing branches and bundling up wood for use in kindling and other such things that people will always need and use wood for. She had always been curious and educated herself on the villages surprisingly large collection of books. As a child she had spent time as a guide to the many visitors that came here, explaining the history of the place and what had happened.

Every so often one of us would reach out to the other and stroke a cheek, or brush a stray piece of hair aside.

The tension was building between us though. We held it off with occasional periods of kissing.

She asked about my family and my recent history. She had read my travel diaries with great interest as although they universally dislike Kerrass they seem to be oddly fascinated with him and collect news of his travels. I suspect that Marion knows more about Kerrass than I ever will, and indeed, more than Kerrass himself is probably aware of.

She asked about local news and the politics of the north.

She asked about Ariadne and I found myself telling Marion everything. It was odd to discuss Ariadne with a woman who I was growing increasingly intimate with. I talked about my fears and my hopes. My dreams and my worries and Marion gently asked the questions that led me through that darkness.

She also told me to stop worrying about the potential desire for depravity telling me that the odd bit of depravity between two consenting adults is fine and can be fun. It's when it is forced on someone who is unaware of what they are getting into that it becomes a problem.

Marion was startling in her innocence but also surprising in her worldliness. She spoke of matters of the heart as though she was an old campaigner and had insights regarding myself, Ariadne and my sister's attraction to women that I could not have seen coming. I was glad that she approved of Emma. That still felt important.

I am aware that I should have been researching the situation that I found myself in in order to help Kerrass but at the same time. My mind was just too full.

In the end though, the inevitable happened. We were kissing and almost of their own accord our hands began to wander and I realised, almost independent of myself that things were moving to the next level.

We made love on that blanket in that forests clearing. It was a special thing, a wonderful thing that I cherish, even now.

Afterwards we wrapped ourselves in blankets and cloaks as getting redressed seemed like so much effort. We ate and giggled to each other and I marvelled in this woman and in this moment.

“How are you feeling?” She asked after we had eaten the food and sat down in a daze.

“Tired,” I said. “Not physically before you start trying to cart me off back to the tavern, but mentally tired. As though I've been working too hard at something and now I've stopped.

“A good orgasm will do that to you.”

“heh.”

“You are here for a reason though. Are you ready for another history lesson?”

“Yes and no.”

She laughed. “Don't worry, we have plenty of time. So where did we get to?”

“The curse at the presentation ceremony.”

“Ah yes. So the curse had been cast and relaxed a little bit. King Stefan went a little bit mad. Understandably so given that his longed for daughter had been threatened and went on a rampage throughout the Kingdom.”

“Let me guess, no Spindle or Spinning wheel were safe.”

“No, in a spectacular display of not giving a crap about major exports and clothing, the king outlawed spinning wheel. All future wool making would have to be spun by hand.”

“That sounds... Arduous.”

Marion smiled at that.

“But other than that, the Princess grew up healthy and strong. She was educated in all the proper feminine arts,” she said the word “feminine” as though it was some kind of insult. “And she became a beautiful, clever and caring young woman. The future for the Kingdom seemed assured, several marriages were explored with every expectation that the princess would be running the Kingdom from behind the scenes. There was just the spectre of her sixteenth birthday looming.

“Now this bit is important. No-one knew what happened that morning and anyone who claims to know is mistaken or simply lying. The reason for this is that the entire Kingdom promptly fell asleep when the curse was triggered. We know this due to those early expeditions into the Kingdom after we had started to become accustomed to the magical effects. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

“The first successful man who returned to the Kingdom was a knight called Sir Mannfred Crawley. By successful I mean that he returned and didn't immediately get overwhelmed by the sleeping spell. He himself describes the events in his own travel journals which were extensive and are the main source of our records from that time and place.

Sir Mannfred was quite open about his own faults and history, he had made several mistakes in his youth as well as having accrued several large debts due to living above his means and in the manner to which he had become accustomed. He married a young and pretty wife who took him for everything he had before running off with a younger version of him. To his credit he seems to maintain a fairly pragmatic view of the entire circumstance and treats it with more than a little humour.

He was away from the Kingdom visiting an old friend of his in an effort to borrow some more money to pay off the more angry of his creditors when his friends court Wizard came running into the room that he was using at the time to tell him that a disaster had befallen his Kingdom. Sir Mannfred then remembered that the Princesses sixteenth birthday had come and gone and guessed that the curse had come into effect. He bade his friend farewell while, at the same time, borrowing the unfortunate Wizard and brought them back to the Kingdom.

Sir Mannfred was far from a perfect man and he admits this himself but one thing that he did not shirk was his responsibilities to his fellow man. When the Wizard nearly fell off his horse in terror Sir Mannfred credits that Wizard with his survival and the survival of the others that were with them. He describes a line in the pathway, beyond which several travellers had simply fallen in their tracks. They looked, from that distance as though they had made some small efforts to their own comfort such as pillowing their heads on cloaks and such like but beyond that they appeared to have just fallen asleep where they had fallen.

Sir Mannfred organised the, by now, increasing numbers of people that were returning to their homeland and got them to work clearing a space for a camp which is the basis of the town that we now live in and set about rescuing those people that were just across the line of the spell.

Sir Mannfred draws some criticism from some of his immediate successors for not being able to break the curse and some have even gone so far as to accuse him of cowardice in the face of what was going on. If I'm honest though, I think that these people are rather unfair towards Sir Mannfred. By his own words, his first concerns were to those people who had survived on the outside as when he was working, no-one had figured out that you could properly acclimatise to the spells effects.

“They spend five or six days just rescuing those people that they could by asking for volunteers who would tie a rope around themselves before charging into the magical area as fast as they could and hoping to grab one of the sleeping people before they themselves were overwhelmed by the magical effects. They would then be dragged out by onlookers. This effort died out when they began to realise that those people who had fallen asleep, were still breathing,normal people. They were not preserved in any way and as such, those people who were in there for too long would eventually die of malnutrition and not taking care of themselves properly.

“Sir Mannfred set the pace for maybe that first decade. He set people to work and came up with many of the rules that we still abide by today. Not the rules for visitors as they would come later but it was him that decided that everyone must contribute to the efforts to keep the Kingdom moving forwards. Those nobility that returned did not like this as they had a sense of entitlement about the entire thing and thought that manual labour was beneath them. My personal theory is that this is where some of the later dislike for Sir Mannfred comes from but I can't prove it as the only real historical source from that time is Sir Mannfred's diary. It was also Sir Mannfred who hit on the idea of using the lumber harvested from the encroaching forest of thorns to provide some income for the ailing Kingdom.

“Sir Mannfred eventually went missing around eight years after the curse was first enacted. He had had enough of the criticisms that he had drawn at the hands of some of the others and set out on a quest to try and lift the curse. He went into the forest of thorns and was never seen again.”

“That seems a shame.”

“It was, to me and to some of the people that I agree with.”

We had finished eating and now she rested her head on my chest as we lay there together.

“As time went on it became clear that the stasis effect was not a thing, so all of those stories that you might have heard, or read about how her family and Kingdom will wake up when she does are, I'm afraid, false. We know from expeditions into the now ruined kingdom that many of those villagers and townsfolk who fell asleep themselves when the curse was enacted, died where they fell. We also know that the Princess lies in a protective casket. The casket itself can be moved within a limited field and it can be opened. But we would later find out that the curse is actually centred on her. So if we moved her then the curse would move with it. The casket has been moved to a former cellar of the castle as the encroaching thorns were causing the castle to crumble and as such, the room she was in was becoming unsafe.”

“Hang on,” I said as thought occurred. “If everyone fell asleep, the curse was triggered when she pricked her finger right? So how come she's in a casket?”

Marion smiled at me, “Another good question?”

“Do I get another prize?”

“Maybe later.”

“Fair enough. Where does the dragon fit into all of this?”

“Ah yes, the Dragon. Your guess is as good as mine I'm afraid. It was first sighted shortly after curse was first triggered. It is unusual for a dragon as I understand that most dragons vary in the colour from Green to brown and all varieties that come between those two colours, whereas our Dragon is black. Black and has two giant horns that sit atop it's head. It is also, seemingly unaffected by the curse and makes it's living off eating some of the many treasure hunters and adventurers that have gone down into the valley in an effort to kill it, rescue the princess or steal our Kingdoms former wealth.”

“Was there much wealth to steal?”

“Not as much as people seem to think but the more that we deny the existence of gold, the more people are convinced that we are keeping it from them. Go figure.”

“For my part there is at least one precious jewel on the outskirts.”

“Oh, that was a good line.” She kissed me thoroughly.

“I thought so,”

“I bet you say that sort of thing to all the girls.” She went back to resting her head on my chest.

“Not as many as you might think.”

She looked at me for a long moment before snorting her opinion on that and settling back down again. Her hand started to wander southwards and I suddenly started to struggle to think straight.

“Umm, So is that it?”

“Just about. That's the history in a nutshell. You're welcome to read through the books for yourself when you get back if you like.”

“I might, ah, do that.”

I gave up and hauled her up for another kiss.

One thing led to another and we didn't talk again for some time.

This time it was my turn to rest my head on her lap as she leant against a tree and stroked my hair. I felt astonishingly peaceful.

“Any more questions?”

“Oh Flame, many questions. So many questions but they are all spinning round in my head at the moment and I shall ask them as my brain settles down onto one or another.”

“Take your time.”

We sat in silence for a while as I allowed myself to be hypnotised by the sun shining through the leaves above us.

“Here's one.” I said after a while. “You know the cure for the curse. Even if there were people who didn't want the curse to be broken for some reason. Why hasn't it been broken before now? You know that she's in a casket which means that someone has been and come back right?”

“We don't know. It's easy to say that “True love's kiss” will wake her. But define true love for me and we'll still be here this time next week.”

“Not an unpleasant prospect.”

“It can get cold this time of year but still. We know that many people who have loved her, or have claimed to love her have been down into the valley, got to the princess and attempted to wake her up with a kiss. It has never worked. We also know that it has been tried since the one hundred years is up. It still didn't work.”

“Do you know why not?”

“We don't know, we think. There are several theories on the matter and most of those theories are founded on the nature of true love. No-one who ever knew the princess is still alive and so, how do you truly love them if you don't know that person. Most of the knights errant who have since tried that thing love the idea of Sleeping Beauty. They like the idea of being the knight in shining armour. The prince charming of legend who rides into the forest and rescues the beautiful princess from a fate worse than death. She is beautiful, we know that much and from a purely physical standpoint, she would be very easy to fall in love with. But personally? I don't see that as true love. There is another theory that says that True Love isn't True Love until it's reciprocated. She's been asleep know for at least a hundred and twenty years. None of the people that she knew then are still alive. How can she be expected to love anyone?”

“Good thoughts, all.”

I went back to staring at the leaves. Sometimes I have to allow the thoughts to settle randomly after a lot of information has passed. This is why it is always best to have a seminar after the lecture by a couple of hours to let the thoughts and questions mix and open up in the brain so that you can fill up all of the gaps that you might have missed.

“So what's with the rest of the stuff then?” I asked suddenly.

“What do you mean?”

I had to think for a minute to realise what I had spoken alive.

“All of this other stuff. The passions and lusts and things that you talked about.”

There was silence and I shifted so I could look at her face a little easier and she noticed my scrutiny.

“It's not that I don't know the answer. It's more that I don't understand it.”

“right?”

“When the curse was first triggered there was a sense of palpable panic. It was one of the events that triggered a lot of the historic dislike of magic users in our part of the world. It terrified the local barons and Kings that a magic user could cast such a thing, or do such a thing and they all felt, justifiably frightened. But after twenty or thirty years, the excitement started to die down and one of the things that happened, as it all seemed to become mundane was that we were visited by several Sorcerers and Wizards and so called “knowing-ones” who wanted to study the curse and see if they could figure it out. It's from a couple of their essays and books on the subject that we get most of our understanding on the subject.

“The objective of the curse was to kill the Princess and all of the people around her. That death was mitigated to sleep was only a small thing because only she was protected from an ageing effect. One person described it as though she had been put into stasis, whatever that means.”

I nodded. “Would you like to know?”

“Go on then,”

“It means that they are un-changing. She cannot affect the world but neither can the world affect her. She is separate from existence.”

Marion thought about this for a while.

“In which case she is not in stasis but lets not get distracted. The Curse was cast so that the rest of the people were safe, until she pricked her finger, at which point, everyone falls down dead. So it follows that the curse is centred on her before moving through the rest of the populace in, presumably, some kind of radius effect. She is the epicentre of the curse is what I'm trying to say. Patient one if you want to think of it in terms of a disease.”

“Right, I think I get that.”

“So the curse was mitigated to sleep. So therefore, her sleep is passed down to everyone else. It was her death that would be passed around but now it''s her sleep. You follow?”

“I think so.”

“Good, it took me years to get that. So our Princess has been asleep for a hundred and twenty years. So she dreams. Sometimes her sleep is relaxed and deep which is when the sleep part of things is so active. But sometimes she dreams of other things. Sometimes she dreams of her past, which are still recent things to her. Sometimes she dreams of her family and her hopes and dreams for the future. These dreams trigger similar dreams in the rest of us while we sleep but when we are awake, the dreams shift our behaviour and our thinking. When she dreams of her family we think of our own family, when she dreams of her hopes and dreams, we think of our own hopes and dreams.”

“I see. So if she is dreaming about a fantastic meal that she had the day before her birthday, we all get hungry.”

“That's right, although our tastes would naturally shift towards what she had. It was steak, in case you're wondering.”

I felt my mouth begin to water.”

“Wow, ok. So her dreams effect us as well. She loves her family therefore we love ours?”

“Correct.”

“Interesting.”

“Yes, but with a complication. Remember the six gifts she was given?”

“Beauty, Grace, Dance, Song, Wit and Goodness.”

“Well, done.”

“I was always a teachers pet.”

She laughed.

“Well, it turns out that our Princess was a romantic. She believed in romance and sunbeams and other such things. It's probable that she was a bit more realistic than that in real life as times could be brutal back then but when she dreams?”

“So that's why we all have this romantic overdrive.”

“Exactly.” She giggled at a thought. “One of our methods of gaining income is that we offer our services to married couples who have felt the spark leave their marriage. They come here and get it back as they suddenly remember why they loved each other in the first place.

“That doesn't sound too bad.”

“It's not but it does also create jealousy. We're pretty confident that the Princess had never had her heart broken but she still becomes afraid of it from time to time which causes an outbreak of jealousy and paranoia from time to time. It's thankfully rare though and we just tend to lock ourselves up with our chosen other and ride it out. It's an odd feeling to know that your brain is struggling with something. You feel the pain and worry and anxiety. You know why you're feeling it but somehow, that doesn't help.

“Then there are the nightmares. Which are hellish.”

“I can imagine.”

“Again, she had a fairly nice life which means that her nightmares aren't too bad but sometimes...”

She suddenly looked so afraid that I picked myself up and put my arm round her and she snuggled up.

“Then there is the fact that she's sixteen.” Marion went on. “She's sixteen with all of those hormones and things and sometimes when you're sixteen and a girl. You just want to get fucked senseless.”

I almost laughed but Marion's face was serious.

“It's true,” she went on. We're pretty sure that's what happens when the lust waves hit. She's sixteen. What did you want to do when you were sixteen?”

“You're right. I just wanted to drink and fuck.”

“She's the same and when she dreams those dreams, all the women in the realm that are above the age of fourteen and under the age of seventy suddenly, just want to be fucked. And all the men just want to do the fucking.”

“Wow,”

“As I've said before. In theory, it's not that unpleasant but in practice, it can be dangerous.”

“I... I was about to say that I could imagine. But I can't.”

“It's the kind of thing that we say that all visitors should experience it once. Just once though.”

“This is fascinating stuff.”

“You think so?”

“It really is. In many ways it sounds like she's some kind of living deity. Someone whose arbitrary mood decides what you all feel and what you all do from a day to day basis. Is there any kind of reflected thing so that when you all feel something then she does as well?”

“We don't know, but we do think there might be something. It's one of those things that's impossible to prove though.”

“Lovely.”

After a while we got up, dressed, tied the now empty sack to a tree so that we could come back for it and went for a gentle wander. I wanted to feel the fresh air on my face and let my brain work away on the problem without too much input from myself. She held onto my arm as though she was hugging it. Our stride was roughly even so we didn't hold each other up. I just let my mind wander.

Marion said nothing.

“I just have a couple more questions I think and then it's on to research, reading some of the books that you mention and trying to come up with a way to help Kerrass. You and your people don't like Kerrass right?”

“No although I think the term is hate.”

“Yet you don't hate me?”

“No, you did not do what he did?”

“But I am associated with him.”

“If a man hurts you, do you hate his wife, friends or children? What Kerrass did was unforgivable. It was a mistake and he knows it was a mistake. The fact that it was a crime against us and a crime against her makes it the most serious crime that we can conceive. We allow him to live because he keeps on attempting to make it right without seeking forgiveness. He is sorry but he doesn't beg our forgiveness as he knows that he will not get it.”

“It sounds harsh.”

“As I say, it was unforgivable.”

“What did he do?”

Marion smiled sadly. “You will need to ask him.”

“I will. But it leads onto another question. You know what he wants me to do?”

“Yes. He wants to try and wake her up and needs your help.”

“Right, so here's my question. Do you want him to succeed? Why? And is your opinion different from everyone else? You spoke about it a bit earlier but could you go into it in more detail.”

Marion thought about this for a long while. I was just glad that the question hadn't made her angry or hurt her in any way.

She seemed to come to a decision and took my hand. “Come with me, I want to show you something.”

We walked swiftly through the trees and we came out, a little further down the mountain side into another clearing. This one was deliberately kept away from the encroaching bank of thorns but it was a sea of wooden posts. They were flat on one side and there was writing there. They had been laid out in even rows and there was so many of them. So many that it boggled the mind. It kept drawing the eye away at the horrible lines and then my mind just rebelled at the thought that this could be true.

“Holy flame,”

It was a graveyard. Not a crypt like so many people would use but a graveyard and it had been planned out. I have sat in many graveyards now waiting for Kerrass to do his thing. Graveyards tend to be quite, disorganised, the graves are forced in wherever there is space. Sometimes a body is piled on top of another body in an effort to make more room and the headstones are worn, cracked and badly maintained.

“Most of these graves are empty.” Marion's voice came to me as though it was from a long distance. “When Sir Mannfred came back, at first his concern was rescuing those people that were trapped inside the Kingdom but he was self-aware enough to know that there was no easy way of identifying everyone. He managed to get hold of some records that stated how many people lived inside our little Kingdom in an effort to know how long they should keep going, you know, at what point have we rescued everyone. But after a week it became obvious that there was going to be no-one left alive inside the Kingdom. He ordered this cemetery built with one stone for everyone who we had records for. We didn't have enough stone but we have enough wood to last for years so we use a chunk of wood instead. We carve it, varnish it and then put it in place.

“Even with that the Cemetery has had to expand on four occasions.

“People just keep dying. They don't listen to our warnings or they find their way in from another direction, therefore missing us completely. Sometimes they do everything right and get eaten by a dragon. But then there are ourselves. As best as we can make out it's been a hundred and twenty years since the Princess first pricked her finger. We have never been a large settlement. Some people have not been able to cope with the rules, or knowing that what they are thinking or feeling is not necessarily their own thoughts or feelings. They leave and never come back. But that's still a hundred and twenty years of people who have lived, worked and died here while waiting for our Princess to wake up.

“Someday I will be buried here. Just over there, underneath the apple tree. Not because I like apple trees but because that is my allotted space.”

I had been unable to turn away from that awful field of graves and Marion took hold of me and turned my face to look at me. I had not realised it but there were tears streaming down my face. She kissed me.

“Come away now.”

She led me a short distance away and we sat on a bench that seemed as though it had been left there for this purpose.

“There is a practical reason as well. Something that we don't like to talk about. Twenty years ago another Sorceress came to visit us. It was just before I was born but she asked a lot of questions and did various physical examinations such as weight height, skin, eye, hair colour and so on. What I only found out recently was that she had picked up on something that we had known for years. There are maybe a hundred and twenty people who live and work here. That's not enough. Purely from the level of interbreeding. We have delayed the inevitable mutations and madnesses that come with that because we occasionally have influxes of new blood when one or other companion becomes pregnant. This is not a bad thing in our society as it really does mean that there is a new...person here. There is new, fresh blood.

“That Sorceress wrote in her book that there needs to be a minimum of three hundred people in a genetic base to be able to form a viable society. That model requires a larger portion of women to men and requires that polygamy is a thing so as to properly spread the gene pool about. That just doesn't happen here. We fall in love too easily. In theory that isn't a bad thing but for the spreading of our people it is deadly. As I say, we keep any children that are conceived here, and you don't need to worry as my last bleeding time was a week or so ago...”

“I wasn't worried. I would have been proud.”

She gave me a squeeze.

“But already there are signs that we have interbred too often. You can't tell it to look at us but we are dictated to by our Princesses dreams. Our women are all beautiful, our men are all handsome in the traditional sense. You won't have really met them yet but they are broad shouldered, lantern jawed men. Heavily muscled and beautiful to look at. Many women who visit us swoon at seeing them but if you spend too much time with them you realise where the problems are.

“From a young age, all our men do is swing axes at trees, they chop it all, dress and plank it up but beyond that?

“They are badly educated and don't see a need to. That's alright because they're not that clever either. Years of interbreeding and training to pursue purely physical activity means that that's all that they are good for.

“We think it's another unconscious prejudice of the Princess. Men have to be manly men who chop wood, fight wars and joust for the entertainment of the ladies. Not that she would think that that's a bad thing, that gift of goodness again but it means that she dreams of those men and as such, our men conform to her views.

“It's one of the reasons that I like you so much. It is so nice to be able to talk to a man who doesn't lose the thread of a conversation or who thinks that talking to a woman is more than just getting them into bed. Sometimes that is nice but sometimes, I want my mind to be complimented as well.”

“So there is a physical problem as well. I'm not sick and I imagine that it won't be until my Grandchildren are born that we might get some visible problems. But that time is coming.

“But the real problem is that there is no freedom here. We are born and live and die according to our Princesses dreams. You were right earlier when you said that she is like some kind of deity, her whims dictating our actions. As I say, our men work all day so the women have to do everything else. It was a woman who came up with the rule of companionship. It's a woman who organises the cometary. It's women who organises our trade deals and sees to the political actions of our country. Not because we want to but because we have to. The men have to do the physical labour so we do the other thing. We are a matriarchy by accident.

“We've tried to do it the other way round. We've had women take up the axe to help out the men and it doesn't work out. They are ungainly and clumsy. I've heard of women soldiers and axe-women and all kinds of things. I've even seen women fighters come here and when they get up to train, they find that they are incapable of even the most basic movement. Because it doesn't fit in with her dreamt view of the world. That's not a dig on her. She's dreaming and no-one can be held responsible for their dreams.

“We are tied here. Some people have left, that is true but most are tied here by a vow of duty that cannot be broken. I would like to go travelling. I really would but to do so I would have to leave here and I can't do that. These people need me here. My Princess needs me here and I love it here.

“I once did an experiment. I tried to hate this place. I tried to leave but then I just couldn't. I tried to walk out of town and I felt as though I was physically ill. I was nauseous and there was a pain in my head that made me dizzy.

“We are slaves to her will. She is the kindest, most wonderful person in the world. The best of Princesses and certainly a benign Goddess if that is what she has become but we are still slaves.

“All of those are good reasons for our wanting you to break the curse. All of them but there is one more.

“Ever since Sir Mannfred heard about the curse, we have had one purpose in life, which is to wait for her to wake up. That is our reason for existing. So that when she comes out of those woods, with her rescuers at her side... Her subjects will be waiting for her.

“No, I will not be sorry if you manage to break the curse.”

I nodded after a long time. She had been speaking so rapidly and with such passion that I thought there would be more. But she was done.

I held her close.

“I'm sorry.” she said. “I've realised that I went off a bit there.”

“No it was useful.”

“Good. What next?”

I took a deep breath.

“Kerrass is next. I need his story.”