Brighid (???)
Brighid and Correl went about cleaning up the stairs, the floors where blood had spilled, the study, pretty much everywhere their fight had caused damage. Correl had tried to take this time to ask more questions, but Brighid decided that she was done answering anything else for the day. They mostly worked in silence, aside from Correl’s questions. Though there were two that Brighid felt important enough to answer.
The first was after they’d cleaned and cleared the blood and books in the study, when Correl asked, “We should bury the body of Lord Brighid right?” A question that came with an undertone of venom. Brighid looked to the squire for a moment before denying the request, tossing more papers aside to be thrown away.
“Why not?” Correl countered, trying to block Brighid from working.
“Because here in the study, no one is going to come looking for her. It’s not dignified, but for keeping my true identity a secret, she has to stay here. Besides, you weren’t just going to create some unmarked grave near House Gauwynn, were you?” Brighid stated, weaving around Correl to finish her task, being sure to leave wide berth around the corpse. She watched Correl flounder on the question before huffing, “Someone’s going to notice the smell before long.” She tried to argue, earning a quick shake of the head from Brighid.
“No one has noticed their beloved Lord Gauwynn in months, and no one aside from myself is allowed to come down here, no one even has access.” Brighid briefly pulled out the key to the first door of the study, before hiding it back on her person, “And definitely no one has mentioned the smell to me.”
And while that was all the argument Brighid was willing to have over it, she did allow Correl to cover the body in a cloth they brought down. As well as helping her with a makeshift tower of books that served as a grave marker. It wasn’t much, but for the moment, it was enough. While she didn’t say it aloud, Brighid hoped in the future they’d be able to bury Lord Brighid properly.
As odd as it was she never had any ill-will towards the woman, even in the end. She was scared mostly, but she always assumed that the prominent knight had been scared as well. Wrapped up in a mystery with lives on the line could not have been easy, and Brighid felt the lord had made the best calls she could with all the stress on her plate. She was pulled from her musings and from staring at the book tower, by the second most answered questioned in Correl’s repertoire.
“You still never told me your name…?” Correl offered. She said it like a bargaining chip, like it would be in Brighid’s best interest to give up her name and who she was willingly. Brighid sighed, shaking her head at the attempt.
“I think it’s better if you call me Brighid, Correl.” She responded, ignoring the sound of protest beside her, “You don’t want to have to juggle when to call me by name, or when to use Lord Brighid. It’s just easier.”
“When did we start doing things the easy way?” Correl grumbled, folding her arms across her chest. Brighid ignored her whining to collect some of their tools they used to clean.
“What do we do now, Brighid?” Correl said after a moment, rolling her eyes and helping to take put things away. They had finally cleaned the last of the study and were now sitting the door before the stairs.
Brighid ignored the sarcasm in her squire’s voice. “Now we prepare to leave in the morning for Carneggan. Or maybe we’ll leave the day after? Is it morning yet you think? We should probably rest first before we head out.” Brighid had Correl go up the stairs first then followed her up, as they exited the study and made their way into the main hall, Brighid could tell it was actually becoming daytime. The presence of servants who were beginning their jobs for the day, and giving them questioning looks was a tell tale sign that the sun was starting to rise.
Correl’s voice snapped Brighid back to attention, coming out as a harsh whisper, “Brighid! …We’re still doing the plan on that map of yours? But what about…Winston?” Brighid looked at her for a moment and sighed again, a new recurrence “We don’t have the time to create another map, really, and I already told everyone that we’d be heading out soon. I don’t want to get stuck in Gauwynn another fortnight doing paperwork.” She answered.
At that point they parted ways, with Correl returning to her room, and Brighid making time to meet with the head of her guards and the head of the servants. She told both of them about Winston, saying that he’d attacked Correl and herself last night before running into the night. Brighid apologized to both of them, adding that it seemed he was far more troubled than he originally appeared, more than even they could help him with. They tried to ask more questions about it, if Brighid needed to rest or if either Correl or herself had seen medical attention… Brighid gave them the answers they wanted to hear, that everything was fine, that they had made sure to see to their wounds, etc.
Brighid was glad when they stopped asking questions and went back to their day-to-day tasks, as well as telling everyone else in the house about the incident. It was a weight of of her shoulders at least for the moment. The very next thing she did was return to her room. As restless as she was she hoped she could get even a few hours of sleep in. The moment her head hit the pillow, she was unconscious.
Brighid woke only a few hours later, suddenly from a nightmare of iron bars and fire. After collecting her thoughts, she could see the light of dusk outside her windows. She’d slept the whole day away. As she gathered out of bed she felt more tired than before she slept. Her limbs felt sore, and everything hurt to move. It was like she suddenly remembered that she was in a fight for her life yesterday. She checked herself over and made sure none of her bandages had bled through, and pulled herself together enough to leave her room.
The whole house was alive now, people running back and forth, working on their respective tasks. The mess hall was alive too, as Brighid checked, with everyone inside, eating, drinking and telling stories as usual. She could see Correl among the knights as well, spacing out and staring off into the distance.
She probably wouldn’t say it it she was happy that Correl wasn’t freaking out. Well maybe she was, like internally, but at least not trying to actively kill her. Especially after everything. After everything Brighid had told her, Correl just wanted more answers, and was being incredibly patient (if not childish) waiting for them to be answered.
Maybe one day, in the future, Brighid would answer everything, like what her name was. She just had a fear that the more she told Correl about herself, the less inclined the squire would be to keep her alive. She made a sharp, low trill in her throat, an old habit, before moving over to where the knights were. They greeted her loudly as usual, though she could tell they were trying to be sensitive. Correl met her gaze but went back to her staring at nothing soon after.
On the brighter side, they left any questions they may have had about her wellbeing or person alone. Instead asking if she was still planning on leaving so soon. Brighid admitted that she wanted to go today, but that she’d slept the day away and would have to start her journey tomorrow at first light. They tried to argue with her that neither she nor Correl were ready to journey that far out after being recently injured, but Brighid shut that down immediately. So, instead they took to giving verbal instructions to Correl, who seemed to take them in, but was otherwise off in her head.
Brighid figured they would be having more interesting conversations when they set off to Carneggan tomorrow.
When dinner was over and everyone began to head back to their rooms, Brighid felt something tug at her shirt, only to turn and see Correl. She still looked like she was having every thought at once, but there was some focus trapped in those autumn-colored eyes of hers, “We need to talk.”
“Sure.” Brighid agreed, leading them out of the mess hall and closer to her office, which was different from her personal study. And even though the study was closer, she had a feeling they really didn’t want to hang out there for the time being. Once they were in the office, Correl spoke again, “We’re not really still going to Carneggan just because you don’t want to think of another plan right? I… Winston saw that entire map, even if it’s just him we’re still going to be chased down by assassins. And that’s only if he chooses to not tell anyone else!”
“…But maybe that’s better.” Brighid responded
“What?!” Correl snapped back into her old self immediately, the one that was constantly questioning if Brighid was a dumbass. Seeing that she wasn’t really Brighid, maybe it could be said that now Correl was just confirming she was.
“We will never learn more about where these…monsters are coming from, or who sent them and why unless we talk to them, and we can’t really avoid them now. So maybe, maybe we try to capture one.” Brighid said, slowly creating a new plan in her mind as the words left her mouth.
“What?!”
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