Brighid of Gauwynn
The only cover Brighid could find was a small, dilapidated building that could very well have once belonged to a house. She cursed rotten luck and prayed that they would be fine until morning. She hissed out a string of curses as she led the horse, Trillion, into the shadow of the wall. She knew she was being confusing, but… there was still so much she didn’t know, specifically about these.. things. Looking up to Correl on the horse’s back she saw a puzzled young woman, with a million and one questions on her mind, none of which Brighid felt she could answer with clarity.
In a temporary fit of anger, Brighid punched the wall, letting it shake from the fore and earning a nice shower of dust and leave for her effort. This is why she wanted to to stay in town. But no, on her orders this needed to be very top secret, and there were far too many people around. Who would have stayed if they had stayed. She knew she was something of a big deal, but had hoped it wouldn’t be a problem, it’s the same reason she hadn’t gone to Caer Wren to retrieve Correl. The staff and knights at any training grounds were always the most gossipy- it would have been too much.
“Correl.” Brighid finally spoke, not so much above a whisper but it seemed to get her squire’s attention. “I was tasked with a mission from King Hedrick of Yor.” She saw even in the dark the younger girl’s eyes shining with curiosity.
“There have been a string of….murders. Mostly lower nobility and knights, all which were grisly, and random.” Brighid watched the curiosity turn to horror in an instant. Still she continued, feeling the need to owe this honesty to the girl who would work with her, “There seemed to be… magic involved and most of the attacks happened at night.”
“Night?!” Correl near shrieked, but a stern look turned it into a gasp instead.
Brighid nodded, and a silence fell over the pair. That was all she needed to say for now. She didn’t have to tell Correl about nightmares, or the people chasing Brighid herself… it would just cause an unnecessary panic.
The two sat behind that wall for what felt like ages, sometimes, Brighid’s head would turn towards a direction, and Correl would follow suit, but whatever noise or sight Brighid witnessed was inevitably nothing. It seemed as if the intensity had died after a hike, and Brighid tentatively led Trillion back onto the road. For a moment longer, the silence continued, until Correl spoke again, “D-did you tell Lord Wren about this?”
“Lord Wren and a handful of other respectable lords and ladies, along with their most trusted knights were present when King Hedrick brought the situation to mass attention.” Brighid rubbed her eyes, trying not to strain them in the now near-black night sky. At least there were stars out tonight. “They have known it was my quest for some months now.” she added.
“Were there no leads? No culprits to consider? You said there was magic involved… did you-” Correl started to trail off. “I’m sorry, this is your quest. I’m just here to assist you.”
Brighid let out a low chuckle, “No, I appreciate the chance to ask about it. I’ve been talking mostly with myself for months, so the new perspective is… nice.” She turned her head to catch the eye of her squire on horseback, “You’re meant to assist me so ask away. Whatever you want to ask that may assist your own understanding, ask away.”
“For the record,” Brighid continued to say, “There are only so few wizards in the kingdom, and none of them have any apprentices. But most were exonerated in my investigations, I am trying to look into the last few now.” Brighid could see Correl make a sort of contemplative face, and then nod, eyes wandering over the dark fields as they passed by.
“So where are we going now?” Correl asked, and to this Brighid had to pause, her mental map of the kingdom was… sometimes a bit iffy, but from what she remembered, from Loeb they were to take a few days journey to the major city of Odessa. Odessa was a three days ride for most, but coincidentally they were shaving off a fair amount of time by riding by night. And Trillion was one of the best horses Brighid had ever ridden so that was more time saved still.
“Odessa!” Brighid blurted out, realizing she hadn’t actually answered Correl’s question but zoned out for a good stretch of time. “We’re heading to Odessa to speak with another wizard.” Brighid could hear Correl laughing, and even Trillion’s well-timed whinnying sounded like a pointed chuckle. Brighid scoffed in response and kept watching the road.
She tried not to pay attention to the dancing lights among the darkness further off, hoping that either fireflies had decided to travel in the cold, autumn nights, or stars had fallen closer to the earth than they meant to. It was nothing.
It had to be nothing.
The next two days and a half almost flew by without major incident. There were no other towns between Odessa and Loeb, so the pair had to make due with eating rations that a Brighid had saved up and sleeping amongst the covers of trees. Well, Correl slept. Brighid could not afford to fully close her eyes, and especially not at night. Correl tried to insist her master take a rest when she began to drift off mid sentence, or stare blankly into the distance, but Brighid refused heartily each time. Brighid refused a lot of thing normal for a knight of her stature.
She did not ride on Trillion’s back, opting for Correl to do so instead. She ate last, each time, and took vigilance during any moment of rest even when Correl asked to help. Brighid could tell the shorter girl was becoming fed up with her. Correl was not some dainty maiden to play with, and Brighid knew that, but for what she wanted- no, needed Correl to do, she had to be in top form, more than Brighid herself was.
In the morning, when the pair was no more than three hundred feet out from Odessa’s stone gates, Correl had decided to confront Brighid. Hopping off of Trillion’s back and using the horse to lock her master’s path. “I am begging you to rest, Lord Brighid.” Her voice was shaky but commanding. Brighid tired gaze swept over her once, then she shook her head.
“There’s hardly a reason for that now, Correl. We are nearly to Odessa. Hell, I can see the gate, and vague people-shapes lined up for entry.” Brighid argued, “I can rest when we are in town.”
“I am supposed to take care of you as your squire. You are not taken care of! You’re half-dead on your feet.” Correl voice teetered on a scream
“Half-dead I might be, but I’m still on my feet. You’ve done a wonderful job.” Brighid countered.
“I haven’t even done my job! Let me do what I’ve trained to do!”
Correl had an eagerness set in her eyes, and a stubbornness in her stance that felt like she might fight Brighid if she needed to. Brighid could hardly doubt she wouldn’t. She considered making another half-hearted counter, but settled in walking off the road and sitting down, “You are the first I’ve seen to make such an easy job for yourself harder.” She said curtly.
Correl’s mood shifted immediately, and any tension or nervousness still held in her body seemed to wash away, she walked over and sat right beside Brighid.
“In all fairness, your lordship, we’ve only just met.”she countered, a cheeky grin on her face.
Brighid looked once again over to Odessa’s gates, “So will we be waiting until nightfall before we go into town?” Correl’s only response was something along the lines of just letting Brighid rest for a moment. Honestly, she had begun to nod off just as soon as she sat down. She could hear Correl asking questions, or stating facts, either way she was aware of only the noise and not the words spoken, and her vision fade to black. She was certainly more tired that she thought.
There were flashes of fire in her dreams.
And hot metal poured into what looked to be empty graves. It was as if all sound in the world was cut off, leaving only strange blurry, sepia-colored images, she could feel her body shaking and see was looked to be a sword being dragged along her arm, and yet she couldn’t move. No matter what she tried and was rooted to the spot, looking down, she saw tree roots holding her in place, and something setting everything on fire. The heat felt unbearable, and in the distance swords scraping along the ground. Like a line-up of punishment of torture, set up just for her. She screamed again, and was finally granted the right to open her eyes.
Brighid sat up like a bolt. She looked around and saw the bright greens and blues of midday, only being edged with the yellows, oranges, and red of nearby trees. She could hear birds singing and the whistle of winds as they picked up straggling leaves. Where was she? No- she was… she was outside of Odessa. Safe, still safe. Brighid’s hand were shaking, and she felt her face to wipe away stray tears. She was outside of Odessa, and had fallen asleep. There were no scars on her arms, no recent ones anyway, and her body had not been rooted to the ground and set ablaze.
Safe. She was still safe.
Correl, and to a lesser degree Trillion had been sitting not too far from her, and both were now looking at her with concern. Well, mostly Correl was. Brighid tried to play it off, standing to full height and muttering something about a leaf or bug probably landing near her face.
“Lord Brighid, are you alright-”
“I’ve rested, so according to our deal we can go into Odessa now right?” Brighid cut her off, she didn’t want to hear about it. At all. Even still the tingling hadn’t left her arms. There was a tense silent as she and Correl just stared at each other, Correl seemed to want to argue this, maybe a residual from her most recent victory. But this time, she nodded, gathering Trillion and their things while Brighid waited for them.
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