Soo, it was the double 6th day from the prophecy. You know what, here is the prophecy again, as a reminder: ‘And it shall come to pass, the Ichau-line shall not be broken. When all hope seems lost, and a puppet of betrayers seeks the throne, the Crown will find the true heir. Do not despair, as these signs shall announce their presence.
On the first day of the CorFest, one day too soon, the last legend of the truth shall be humiliated for ye all to see.
The third day, this prophecy shall find the way to ye hearts.
On the fourth day of CorFest, a myth shall appear in the Square sky above, and ye shall all bow in awe for the magnificence. The coloured void shall judge ye all from the highest tower.
On the double sixth day, six days of CorFest and Six days till Coronation, the coloured black myth will drop brown gold which can not be spent.
Five days before Coronation, the myth shall prevent a fake prophecy. The legend shall appear on the myth.
The tenth day of Corfest, two days before the Crown finds the Queen, she shall appear amongst ye, as one of ye, carrying a PowerPooped Weapon.
The eleventh and final day of the Coronation festivities, ye shall all remain away from the centre of the Square, whence a miracle shall reveal.
In the morning after the Corfest ends, the day the Wooden Water Crown returns to the rightful heir, all shall be right, and all shall rejoyce.’
So yeah, not long to go before the day. With chests of chocolate coins stacked all around us, I began to full fill day 6: *sound of shuffling chests and chocolat*
[Music in background]
This is Nadec, my adventure. Written down in a better way than I can tell it.
[Music louder and solo]
Ch 52: Double sixth day
‘Ready?’
‘Flying,’ Blackie sing-songed back.
Nadec grunted in acknowledgement and wonder. Jodec’s journal had taught her many new and amazing things, but this one may be her favourite. Her connection with Blackie had gained an extra layer. She could feel where the dragon was. She could point in her direction, and she could skip straight towards her. Jodec had called it Tracking. It had given Nadec the solution for distribution of the prophecy’s coins.
Two chests in front of her sat open and full of chocolates. Farenk—Nadec still couldn’t wrap her head around him being Frank—hadn’t lied when he’d said he’d get his people to work longer and more productive. They managed to produce an incredible amount of chocolates.
Melia and Meralda stood next to her, ready to assist in removing empty chests and bringing full ones. Farenk stood near the door. He would help if necessary.
‘Spread your digits, here it comes.’ Nadec thought towards Blackie.
She bounced her knees together, moving her hands on top of them. Her thumbs pointed to each other. She kept her gaze into the first open chest, looking at the chocolates while focusing on the connection with Blackie. A bunch of chocolates disappeared.
‘Succes,’ Blackie sounded smug and excited.
Nadec continued Skipping the chocolates to the beacon of Blackie. Farenk had coated the chocolates with a thin and shining outer layer. Hopefully it looked like they intended, as if the dragon dropped brown gold.
The first chest almost emptied, Nadec already felt the strain in her knees and back. She hadn’t considered the physical exertion this would take. She took a short break to stand up straight and stretch before continuing.
‘Can I drop more at once without the coins all falling in the same area?’ she thought towards Blackie.
‘Yes. Flying spread out.’ Blackie’s reply painted a joyful picture in Nadec’s head. ‘Excited very everyone.’
Nadec didn’t bother sending a reply back. She had underestimated the concentration the whole endeavour took. As she moved her focus to the next full chest, Meralda removed the empty one and Melia replaced it with a full one. Nadec didn’t miss a Skip, her legs kept moving. She transported half of the box at once. When no protest came from Blackie, Nadec let a sigh escape her lips.
‘Things will go a bit quicker now, get ready and try to follow,’ she told the women. Her breath already came in shorter bursts, and sweat dripped down the sides of her face. ‘Farenk, if you have something to cool us down, it would be appreciated. We might also need a few more hands. I’m taking this up a notch.’
She emptied the third chest as she stopped talking, and didn’t say anything else. Two more people came in to help. It didn’t take long for all of them to develop a rhythm and fall into a pattern.
Everyone in the room panted as if they were running a marathon. Nadec loudest of all. Her legs began hurting excruciatingly. A pain crept up her lower back and intensified with every minute. Her head felt ready to explode with a headache trying to burst her skull apart. Black spots appeared in front of her eyes, and eventually a steady stream of tears flowed across her cheeks. For once, the grunts emanating from deep in her throat were not from amusement.
She was vaguely aware of someone standing at her side, helping keep her balance and speaking motivational words to her. The ankle she’d twisted the day before had been healed by Blackie’s warm tail point during the night, but a deep throbbing made it clear the healing had been partial.
She blinked. Where was the next full chest?
‘Next,’ she rasped. ‘Give me the next one.’
Her mouth contorted in a pained grimace.
‘That is it, Mistress. It is done.’ Melia’s voice sounded strange in Nadec’s plugged ears.
Nadec’s knees stopped moving on the outward position. She leaned her hands on them, sniffled, tried to straighten, and decided that wasn’t happening. Instead, she allowed her knees to bend more and lowered herself to the floor.
‘Easy now.’ Such a gentle, but strange voice. If hands hadn’t been holding her at the shoulders, she would’ve fallen, instead of the soft lay back she aimed for. The voice continued. She closed her eyes. ‘You can rest now, it’s alright. Can someone get a pillow and blanket?’
She’d been attracted to that voice from the first time she heard it. Many of her friends had mocked it, and teased her with it. They said it sounded as if he had a stick up his butt, and his speech impediment made them think he sounded like an idiot. She knew he wasn’t.
Her head floated, her thoughts jumping from one thing to the other. Wyny has a funny voice too, she thought. Others may think it made him sound slow, but Nadec knew better. Wyny was far from slow. The line between conscious and unconscious thought disappeared as she moved into a sleep, starting with a dream in which Wyny proved to be not slow at all.
‘We should wake her up.’ A female voice, familiar.
‘No, let’s give her a little bit longer.’ A male voice, also familiar.
Nadec groaned and let out a soft ‘auw’ as she opened her eyes and rolled over. She struggled onto hands and knees, squeezed her eyes shut hard for a second, and shook her head. Accompanied with flashes of sore muscle pains, she pushed her upper body up. ‘A little help?’ She looked at Melia and Meralda, ignoring Farenk. Exes shouldn’t be relied upon for anything, especially not the spy-type ex. The women helped her stand up. Her legs felt like constant stabs of agony.
‘Balls,’ she croaked. ‘I may have overdone it a bit. Chair?’
She hobbled towards the pile of chests. A stack of two provided the perfect height. She slumped. ‘How long was I out? Thanks for letting me lie on the bloody floor.’ She grinned, but it took an effort.
‘It has been about 2.5 hours, mistress. We are well into the afternoon.’ Melia couldn’t conceal her concern as she replied. ‘How do you feel? Here,’ she accepted a glass of water from Meralda, ‘you must be thirsty. That was an impressive feat.’
‘Blackie,’ Nadec whispered. The dragon had been left alone to roam above the Square, and hang from the tower. Blackie reassured Nadec as she contacted her. If Nadec understood correctly, Blackie had been happy to spend the last few hours watching the people. Nadec had a difficult time trying to decipher Blackie’s speech, who in her excitement jumbled words up even more than usual. At least she now knew things had gone well.
‘Are there any reports? Have you heard from people who were at the Square?’ She directed the questions towards Farenk.
‘Ah, yes. like we agreed, I had placed two of my people on the Square. They both came back while you were resting. When the coins first fell, they truly did look like coins. At first people were a bit disappointed at realising their fakeness, but when they discovered it to be chocolate, many cried out in joy. Chocolate is still rare enough to be considered a luxury, and most of the middle class and many of the lower class had never eaten it before.
‘About two thirds of the people present kept it civilised, the other ones broke out into brawls. Nothing serious though, as far as my man and woman could see. When the dragon stopped magically sprouting the chocolate coins from the claws—because that is what it looked like, apparently—’ Nadec allowed herself a satisfied grin at hearing this, ‘many kept picking the coins up from the ground. Eventually they all dispersed. All the talk they overheard was exciting, and my man reports he didn’t hear any bad words about you. My woman, who is more trustworthy to not embellish the truth, said she heard mostly positive, and only a few complaints.’
‘What were they?’ When Farenk didn’t reply straight away, she looked him in the eye, squinting slightly, and teased: ‘Come on, be more like your woman. I need to hear all feedback, good and bad. How else will I be able to improve things?’
Farenk gave her a slow nod. Nadec hesitated between it being a sign of respect, or a sign of acknowledging her request.
‘One was a critique on the dropping of the coins on the ground. The man who’d said it wasn’t too impressed with the idea of having to pick food off the ground like animals. She said the man looked like one of the nobles, and had his nose stuck up in the air.’
‘Hah,’ Nadec laughed, ‘a posh prick. Still, a valid thing to say. I have to admit, I hadn’t thought of that beforehand. I hope people won’t get sick.’
‘Doubtful,’ Farenk scoffed. ‘I assume the ones who picked up the fallen coins, are the ones who usually eat things found on the floor anyway.’
That saddened Nadec. She resolved to fix—or at least diminish—poverty once she held the Wooden Water Crown.
‘Other thing she heard was someone saying this whole prophecy thing was merely a way to validate you, and people shouldn’t fall into the trap. All in all, I would say this had been a brilliant success.’
Nadec nodded, staring at nothing.
‘They’ll know, or be able to assume, the chocolates came from here. Is that going to give any issues? I hope it won’t. I hope no one will be smart enough to make a connection. But I know that’s a wasted hope. We should beat them to it. How do you feel about proudly declaring the chocolate production as the official Royal chocolate distributor? It means you’d be the one to officially supply the castle with chocolates—which makes sense because no one else makes chocolate. We’ll make sure to add something on it to make it clear it’s the true heir officianating it, not the usurpers.’
‘I will need to think about that,’ Farenk said slowly. ‘I really shouldn’t be making decisions like that, but since mistress Kridec and master Stetem are a bit disposed for the moment… I think it may be a good idea. But like I said, let me think about it.’
‘Good.’ Exhaustion made it hard for Nadec to keep her eyes open. ‘It’s time for us to go now. Melia, do you want to come along or stay here? I’m afraid I won’t be able to return today, so if you stay, it’s for the night.’ Somewhere in her exhausted mind, Nadec knew no one would ever let a servant have such a choice, but she didn’t care about propriety, especially not now.
‘I will come with you, mistress. Really, it is not because you have Meralda now, that I don’t need to do my duties anymore.’
Nadec stood up, communicated with Blackie to keep ready for Skipping, told Melia and Meralda to hold on to her, and Skipped the four of them to the Statue. Kitty greeted her with a broken, half-awake meow as Nadec let herself collapse on her bed.
You have been listening to Nadec, chapter 52 Double sixth day
Narrated, adventured and lived through by myself, Nadec. Written in a better way than I can tell it, by Astrid Jef.
Don’t go just yet, we’ve got bloopers coming up. [music on background]
**bloopers**