Private Tales Light After Dark

[Gerrard]

Both eyebrows went up together. They came down slowly with a sigh and a shake of his head. The corner of his lip twitched, putting a dimple in his cheek.

"Come on, up you get and try. We will need to make sure you can manage at least one dance. Unless you want to spend your first one having a boy tread on your toes over and over!"

 

[Audreyn]

Her smile crumbled to distaste. "Ew. No." She stood, heeding his warning and sobering up a tad. The apple was discarded and her hands wiped off before she gave it a clumsy try herself.

It wasn't graceful, but she didn't fall over?

"Are ... boys really gonna wanna... dance with me?" She asked skeptically, practicing the motion a few more times. There were only a few boys her age in her village and as fate had it there had been no flames found between them. It almost felt like a far away concept-- like little bugs that float in the air and make you sick.

 

[Gerrard]

"You? No, but they'll be expected to because of etiquette," he lied. His voice barely gave away the fact that he was attempting to make a joke himself. "I am sure that plenty will. Though they will be... third and fourth sons. The older ones are always expected to marry for position and will have their parents watching them like hawks to ensure they're paying attention to the right people."

 

[Audreyn]

"Oh. Right. 'Course." Her brows pulled in and she was silent for a pause, blithe to his antics. Whether or not she was bothered by his words was unclear on her face. The truth was, she didn't know how she felt herself. This was the first time the thought had fluttered through and caught her attention.

Now it was sticking to her like wet bathroom paper. "...Am I doing this right?" She asked, dismissing her thoughts and carefully going down in a curtsy before him again.

 

[Gerrard]

"Yes, that's all there is to it. You're better off doing it as if it's second nature - even if not perfect - than making it obvious it's new and you're thinking about it carefully.

"None of the nobles go to great pains over their bows and curtseys. Not unless they're meeting some foreign royal. Try again...as if youre not even thinking about it. Does that even make sense?"

 

[Audreyn]

"You fancy people do a lot of not thinking about stuff while doing it," she commented, going silent as she concentrated on not thinking. It was messy, but as she went around the room practicing the motion, it eased up.

Especially when she took it upon herself to start trying to do the ball of light mid curtsy as well. She only spoke once she could manage both without issue, which admittedly took some time. But not as much as it rightly should have.

"You know... we don't have to go if you don't want to," she told him, gaze locked on the massive ball of light she had now brought into existence into the middle of the room. She seemed to care less about making it change colors as she did just making it as big as she possibly could.

It was threatening to engulf his chair.

 

[Gerrard]

"Well, you don't have to if you don't want to. Once I've been invited it would be terribly rude of me not to," Gerrard replied.

There were plenty of times he had done so anyway. He could claim he was unwell or say that his work was at a critical point. Once he had simply not turned up and claimed that it had slipped his mind. They had joked, but everyone had believe it possible.

It had been a long time since he had enjoyed a good feast. It seemed like a good way to finish their times on the road. The excuses could be wheeled out for the next invitation.

"Collapse that back into your palm please," he said. His voice was calm and level. Yet the magical energy in the room shifted as he prepared to choke the life out of her flare.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn gave a heavy sigh, but did so. It whoomphed and blinked out of existence, leaving the room feeling horrendously dark. She stood from her curtsy, brushing her hands over the silk of her dress.

"It's just, what if they don't like me?" She asked, her small and lacking confidence.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard was about to mock her words. Then he remembered how young she was, how alone she was. Audreyn only had him right now. The poor girl.

"If they don't then they don't. You're a better person than almost anyone we'll meet at one of these events. Knowing the latest gossip, fashion trends and dance moves is a poor substitute for having courage, talent and determination. Most of these people got where they are by the chance of being born to the right people, not by being interesting."

Gerrard wasn't always a fair man when it came to the lower classes. Their superstitions and mistreatment of Audreyn only seemed to reinforce some of the views he held. There was a difference between a group of people and the ability of the individual to stand out in his mind.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn continued to look rather small, her self doubt no less reassured despite his kind words.

"... What's a ... binding spell?" She asked, her tone careful and non revealing as the random question came out of her.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard felt a little small inside. He wasn't used to meeting a problem that it seemed his intellect wasn't going to immediately fix. Those that it wasn't were usually the most complex and exciting problems.

He was pulled away from that by her question. His brow furrowed in suspicion.

"Did I mention that?" he asked in return.

 

[Audreyn]

She gave a vague shrug, rubbing the fabric between her fingers as she walked over and sat rigidly across from him.

"So what are they?" She insisted, watching his face for signs of deceit.

 

[Gerrard]

"There are a lot of different types of binding spells. In the vaguest sense the hold two things together. I suppose the simplest example could... hold a rock to this floor. There are more complicated kinds. You could bind a person to a promise. Difficult magic that and excruciating if broken."

"Why?" he asked, a curious smile on his face.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn's expression crumbled, understanding found in a heart beat.

Oh.

The ramifications were quick to follow. She couldn't help the heartbreak that crashed its way through her. She shook her head, taking quick steps back as hot tears abruptly bubbled up in her eyes. With no explanation and no hesitation, she turned and run from the room.

Pain tore at her chest, the grief overwhelming as she blindly pushed her way down the stairs, aiming to leave the house all together.

 

[Gerrard]

"Audreyn?" he asked as she stepped away.

"Wait? What's wrong?" he called after her. Joints complained at how suddenly he leapt from his chair. She was already half way down the stairs.

"What has a binding spell on it?" he demanded as he started coming down them after her.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn spilled out onto the cobbled street. The thick heat of the afternoon washed over her, hitting her lungs with a force. She bent over for a breath, her world spinning. Magic buzzed around her, wild and uncontrolled as tears simply poured down her face.

They had known. They had known and they didn't want her that way.

Monster, came the villager's voices, the memory of their words bubbling up through her.

"Audreyn?" Gerrard's voice called out, cutting through it all.

A sob caught in her chest. She was running without thought, blind to the gaping facade of the house keeper standing in her garden.

 

[Gerrard]

"Audreyn!" he called more sharply from the door. She was racing down the street away from the house now. Why was this so difficult?

He hopped just inside the doorway as he tried to slip on his shoes. By the time he had them on and had locked the door behind him she was gone from his sight.

"What did you do then?" asked the gardener in a cheerful voice. Gerrard gave him a look that could have melted stone.

He set out in the direction she had fled. If he had to he would resort to a spell to work out which way she had gone. It was a large, sprawling city and she could easily get lost. Gerrard turned towards the parks as a first guess.

 

[Audreyn]

She wouldn't be found in the park, instead the magic would leave him to the bottom of the Keep's walls, the steps just off to her right. She had tried to go up on it and had been denied, naturally.

She had slid down it onto her bottom, heedless of the red dust staining her and her new dress. She cried relentlessly into her hands, noises of frustration, anger and pain being screamed out as she begrudged all the events that left her feeling so small and broken at this moment.

She had garnered some attention, people moving with wary caution around her, giving her and that dangerous magic a wide birth. Appropriately so, little bolts of static and lightening were fizzing into existence sporadically.

 

[Gerrard]

"No, no, it will all be fine," came Gerrard's hushed voice. She had attracted some attention with the sparks. Gerrard stood in front of several guards, waving them away. If she had been dressed as a peasant one of the mages, the dreadlords, might have been summoned instead.

Gerrard approached cautiously and sat on the step beneath her, just to the right of her knees.

"What am I missing about binding spells Audreyn?" he asked quietly. He sounded tired. He looked tired. His tunic clung to his chest, his hair had escaped its bread and stuck to sweat-slick skin. Gerrard hadn't been forced to go running for a very long time.

 

[Audreyn]

For weeks now Audreyn had been trying to make sense of her past. How could she never have shown any magic before and suddenly now become so overwhelmed by it. The more she thought about the encounter with those men and the words she heard said to her father ... well only one explanation made sense.

"They had me binded. My parents, they knew, and-" she hitched a breath, a bolt going into the ground. She was dangerous, and she knew in her that it was the binding that had damaged her. The betrayal turned her world upside down, every confidence that she had in the kind of person she was shattered.

She let out an angry scream, the magic going crazy as she failed to gain any control over it. "Go away!"

 

[Gerrard]

"I can't go away Audreyn," he said softly. He turned and looked at her just once before looking forward towards the guards.

A binding spell on her. To restrain her? Either the assassins had broken it, or it had been anchored to her parents and gone with them.

"Remember at the crossroads town? We said we would work through this all together." Gerrard couldn't even remember exactly what had been said when she had been sobbing into his chest now.

 

[Audreyn]

The crossroads town. That felt so far away now. She had broken down then too. Despite her best efforts she kept busting out at the seems, she hated it.

She cried softly into her hands, feeling helpless in that moment. "I'm a monster, Gerrard. A monster. Even my parents knew it. ...I don't deserve this, Monsters don't deserve this!" She yanked at the dress, magic coursing through it.

 

[Gerrard]

"I won't apologise for them. Even though they were frightened and likely trying to do what they thought was best. It wasn't. What they did was ignorant and dangerous. It was stupid."

Gerrars turned to face her. He reached out and dared to place one hand atop hers. There was a spark of light and he winced in pain.

 

[Audreyn]

She winced too, looking helplessly down at the static flickering off their hands now. "They were right to. I got them killed. I hurt you-- all the time. I think they broke me, Gerrard. It's not suppose to be like this, is it?" She challenged.

It was as if the audience didn't exist to her, too afraid to look up and acknowledge them least the embarrassment make her lash out and burn them all. At home there were woods and fields to run out into. Here.... well... there wasn't much solace to be found amongst the brick and motor of a city.

 

[Gerrard]

"It wasn't right to. Doing the wrong things for the right reasons is still wrong."

He looked up at Audreyn, full of regret that he couldn't truly empathise with her situation. There was so little common ground here. He had never been put through such an ordeal just because of who he was.

"You're better than those whose fault this is. I know you are. They are monsters. You and I, we could change the world. Make it a better place."

He was grasping as straws now. Even if it was true. That was what he wanted. If he wanted the recognition for his brilliance that came with it, that seems a small price to ask. He took her hand fully in his own. Despite how coarse her hands were they were also small and delicate. They were damp with her tears. A silent spell grounded some of the energy emanating from her.