Private Tales Light After Dark

[Audreyn]

Well why was she drinking something that would make her vomit?! Oh right, the- the hands. Really stupid getting lost like that, something to be grumpy over.

"I dun wanna be a farmer," she protested. She slumped into the bed, blinking past the fuzz that reached her head.

"A few spells? Thats-that nothing. Few spells- 12 years. So what- you know-..." her mouth worked against the math that her brain could not deliver. "Six spells?! How am I gonna-" She made a gesture, sparks of magic fizzling across her fingertips.

 

[Gerrard]

The myriad of colours that etched into his sight before slowly fading were quite sobering. His eyes widened and he reached out to take the glass back.

"No more whisky for a few minutes," he said. He helped out by taking the glass back. "Set fire to my bed and you'll be on the floor," he chuckled.

Gerrard should have been taking this more seriously, but he had a nice warm buzz as the whisky joined the remains of the red wine in his system.

"By twelve years I knew more spells that n I care to count right now. Basics in a year. A few spells and some healing. Then you can...branch out into other things. No farming. No popping out twenty children and milking cows."

 

[Audreyn]

"Teach me another one," she insisted, relinquishing the glass without resistance. "Lesay- letsay he's back and- and he's attacking you. What'dif I wanna... turn em to stone?" She asked, trying to visualize it. "La stono?" She hazard, snapping her fingers. Magic rippled, the air grew stale. But no crushing boulders landed on his head.

 

[Gerrard]

That sobered him up fairly sharply. He wagged a finger.

"No concentrating on magic and speaking random words. That's..."

He waved his arms around as if juggling a collection of words, trying to find the right one. His vocabulary failed him.

"Bad. Very bad. I will show you how to...make a light. Or..."

A spark of mischief appeared in his eyes that made him look ten years younger.

"We can find out what the bald bastard us..is up to?"

 

[Audreyn]

She grinned conspiratorially at him, leaning across the space. "Or if he's even dead?" She leveled back, a spark of excitement in her tone.

"Lesdoit."

 

[Gerrard]

With a grunt he pulled himself back to his feet.

"A scrying spell can be delicate magic," he said as he went through his bag for ingredients, "but if I get it wrong the worst we get is a view of the outside privvy."

He opened the small jar of ground jiar flaxon. It gave off a particularly acrid scent as he crushed it between his palms. The blue powder was dropped into the ceramic wash basin.

Closing his eyes he poured out the vial of tincture of hermion. He spoke a few words and then gave the water a swirl with one finger. The surface span before going unnaturally still. The water became calm and reflective. Almost like a mirror until it started to give off its own light.

Gerrard leaned over the water and barked out a laugh.

"Well, he's still alive. Come. See."

The bald assassin was alive. Most of him anyway. He was lying on a pile of straw. The way he occasionally shifted suggested they were viewing the back of a wagon. His left arm and leg stopped suddenly above the joints, wrapped in bloodied bandages.

It didn't occur to him that she might not find the sight of a half-dead man being carted home as amusing as he did.

 

[Audreyn]

She stood and nearly tipped back over into the bed, the world swirling around her with surprising velocity. "Whoa." She huffed, catching herself. She stood back up, the effort almost painstaking as she willing her limbs to function properly. "And you find this fun?" She murmured under her breath, shaking out her head as she went over to him.

She had to admit though, it was effective. She leaned heavily against the basin, squinting in.

There was a moment of silence, comprehension forming into a tight gasp in her throat. And then she fell over, taking the basin with her as she landed heavily in an ever so brief faint. So brief in fact, she was already groaning on the floor as he might go to reach her, her face sheet white despite the warm candle light.

"No-no-no."

 

[Gerrard]

"Crap," Gerrard murmured. He didn't react as quickly as he should have. The basin managed to stay in one piece, rolling noisily across the floor having deposited most of the water on Audreyn.

He dropped to one knee, cold water immediately seeping through his thin night trousers.

"Audreyn...?" he said quietly, reaching for her. At least she was awake, pale as a ghost.

 

[Audreyn]

She felt sick, unable to think past the cold sweats and the shock. He was alive. Oh- he was in bloody pieces. And he was alive.

She hadn't expected that.

The air roared to life with the magic her emotions awoken. Even as she tried to sit up, she spun back down. A wave of magic caught her and like that, she was floating. But the space around her only grew more dangerous. A lifetime of her magic, the potential that had grown behind a wall was now flooding out of a body that had no control.

"No," she protested, flailing towards the ground as sparkles of lightening crackled in the air around her.

 

[Gerrard]

He took a step closer. It was an unsteady step despite the determination. When this had happened the first time he had been forced to knock her out. Audreyn had woken up at the edge of a lake.

The energy swirling around her form avoided him. Like the flow of water around a rock. There was steely determination in his eyes, where mirth had been.

He reached out and took her hand.

"Audreyn."

There was more than sound behind his voice as he demanded her attention.

 

[Audreyn]

Her eyes snapped to him, fear swimming inside of them as tears began to fall without restraint. Fear and grief and even confusion-- she wanted to ask him why. Why this, why her?

Her parents were dead and he was alive. This wasn't over. This wasn't over!

But she could only shake her head at him, fat tears floating off her skin and vibrating through the air as a wave of grief sent a pulse off her. Things around the room came crashing down.

"No," she groaned again, the violence frightening her. "I don't want to do this, Gerrard. Make it stop, m-m-make it-"

 

[Gerrard]

Half a step placed himself directly in front of her. The water that had soaked her dress now rose from her in steam. He couldn't stand in the eye of the maelstrom for long.

He didn't shout this time. His voice was level but firm.

"You can make this stop. I know you can, you know..." he winced as the unleashed energy sent pain lancing through his nerves. "...you know you can stop it too."

 

[Audreyn]

The hand that he held tightened, returning the grip as she tried- she truly tried to focus. But her thoughts were liquid, she just felt pain. Pain she couldn't even identify, maybe some of this shock, some of this grief. But truly, at the heart of it all, it was a flared up response to the sight of so much blood ... and that face. A traumatic response not unlike that night that broke free from her liquored mind when she looked into that basin.

But these were not explanations she could comprehend. All she wanted was for it to stop. She reached out to Gerrard with her other hand, grabbing desperately at him and pulling against the magic until she was wrapped around his torso in a bear hug. Her legs remained floating, but he grounded her.

And the air 'whoomped' as the magic lessened a promising degree.

"I can't- I-"

 

[Gerrard]

The scent of keratin burning reached his nose. Several hairs singed as the magical energy that occupied the space desperately sought an outlet.

Between her shoulder blades his hands gathered the fabric of her nightshirt and pulled her tight against him. His pulse raced and he closed his eyes tight shut. Placing his faith in her to calm down went against his very nature. Audreyn had been hurt so much already, he couldn't bear to hurt her again to bring this to an end.

When they had met he had impatiently dismissed the peasants trying to harm her. Disappointed in finding an errant wizard rather than a crack in the veil his temper had been directed their way. Then had come the assassin. A fool that he had no interest in tolerating.

And now she had stayed with him when she could have left. Her stubborn nature and strange outlook on life had already grown on him a little.

One hand almost reluctantly relinquished its hold on her shirt, sliding upwards until he cradled the back of her head.

"Just breathe Audreyn, just breathe."

 

[Audreyn]

She could be felt trying to against him-- shaky sobs in and out, bringing air back to her mind. "Ididn'taskforthisIdidn'taskforthis," she hitched. But with each breath came more oxygen, loosening the tension inside her chest. Her body slowly lowered from the air. The pain bled out into exhaustion and soft cries.

The storm dissolved out into a crinkling static as numb as her. Her full weight fell out on him and she went crumbling downwards. But she in that moment was abruptly too drunk, or too drained to care. The static sizzled out, leaving a coppery taste to the air.

 

[Gerrard]

Someone should have found her much younger. Even if those fucking assassins had come and taken her at a younger age. At least her family wouldn't have been killed.

It finally dawned on him that it wasn't the magic she hated, but the circumstances it had placed her in. The tragedy that had come to pass because of it. Gerrard wasn't always quick on the uptake, but at least he wouldn't chastise her for it again.

He had just enough grip to support her weight against his chest. The tension bled out of his muscles too as he felt the air itself relax around him. Gerrard let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding in.

His bed had lost two legs. He took a half step back towards hers.

"Its alright, I know you didn't. Not your fault." All that power, but now she felt fragile in his arms.

 

[Audreyn]

"Yes it is," she whispered, her shirt growing wet with her tears as she did not let go. "Everyone gets 'urt cause of m-me. Blood- blood everywhere- my fault-my fault." She tried to help him move her, stumbling for her feet, a hand pressing into the wound on his side as she tried to right herself.

At the sound of both their pain, magic jerked to life in the air around her hand. "No- my fault. I'msorry,makeitgo-magiccan stop." She slurred. And with no sense of judgement to her decision, she pressed her hand back to his abs. A heat abruptly sparked between it, the sharp presence of magic doing something to the wound.

Healing it, in fact.

 

[Gerrard]

He tensed suddenly, involuntarily. The shift of magic and the surge of heat made him fear for his safety. Gerrard half expected to find that she has set fire to his skin.

It took a second to realise that he knew that sensation. Not quite pain. An uncomfortable warmth that slowly spread from where she touched him and out through his veins.

Instead of saying more to reassure her he simply asked: "she taught you some healing?"

 

[Audreyn]

She didn't answer. It flickered away, ending even though her hand did not move. "...no'ore.No'ore 'urt. I'll be... i'll be 'ood," she sighed heavily, calming down fully as she let her eyes close against him.

Well that wasn't helpful, but the full amount of liquor finally seemed to be running its course through her, sedating her through more trauma than he had meant to. The magic had left the air too, almost as if a conscious spell had been caste, though nothing had been said.

 

[Gerrard]

Pride dictated that he could not admit this was his fault. At least not fully. Yet the suspicion was growing that he was biting off more than he could chew.

Even the scars across his chest from his greatest failure he managed to attribute to the college for pulling his funding.

Gerrard smoothed out her wayward hair and kept her close. He came close to mentally admitting that his mistakes had put them in this mess.

At the very least, it would take both of them - and sober heads - to work through this.

"No more hurting. We'll make sure of that."

 

[Audreyn]

The morning was not a welcomed one. It seemed Gerrard would receive at least a days more rest, Audreyn sleeping deep into the morning and making sounds of discomfort for several hours more. But soon enough she was sitting up, a bandaged hand clutching at her head as she squinted grumpily at the light in the room.

"I think I'm dying," she finally informed him, swaying and plopping face first back into a pillow. "Areyoudying?" She sat up a little straighter, something nagging at her. "Did I kill us last night?"

 

[Gerrard]

"Nearly," Gerrard called up towards her. He rolled onto his side on a pile of bedding on the floor, the other bed still being at an angle on two legs.

"You have a hangover from the drink," he muttered, pulling a sheet over his eyes. "But you are young and will be feeling fine by noon. Unlike me."

 

[Audreyn]

She blinked, looking over at the empty bed ... then down to the floor.

She grimaced, wincing backwards ever so slightly. "Oh no..." she murmured, looking around the chaos of the room. The basin laid on its side. The table was on the other side of the room, its chairs tangled up in a corner. Her stuff was scattered everywhere. She sunk backwards, recollection quick to follow.

"Oh no, Gerrard, I'm so sorry..."

Twice in one day, dammit, how could she.

 

[Gerrard]

"I gave you more alcohol than I should have, tried to teach you how to make a barrier and then showed you something awful," came his voice.

He dared let the sheets slip down to his nose, concerned that he might have started another chain reaction.

"Feel hungry yet?" he asked. Poor deflection.

 

[Audreyn]

No chain reaction, just mortification. "Are you hurt?" She asked back, not letting it go. "Why are you on the on floor? Is your side okay?" She scrambled down from the bed with grace he could only envy after a night like that, her own discomfort abruptly shoved off in the face of ....this.

She scrambled under the bed for her kit. "I'll patch you back up," she swore, almost manic in her attempt to amend this.