Private Tales Light After Dark

[Audreyn]

A gentle breeze puffed out from the contact, the air around her growing almost stale in the aftermath of her chaos.

This seemed to help her relax if just a bit, half the reason so was so worked up being that she was afraid of a loss of control. "Why couldn't they see that?" She croaked at him, her voice raw with pain. "Why did they do it, why did they have to lie?" There would be no answers for her parents actions. She would never know the truth behind their motivation.

All she had was unanswered questions and pain. Pain so large she was sure she'd never heal. "They had to be afraid of me. They had to think the worst."

 

[Gerrard]

"You've seen what the Order of the Steel Coin do. They take magically gifted children and use them for their own means. They're not the only ones either. Your parents might have thought that they were protecting you. Or perhaps they just wanted a girl that would grow up like them."

Gerrard was not in the habit of apologising for the ignorant, but Audreyn could have that at least. He had no way to know if it was true or not. He tried a smile. It didn't suit his face when it was forced like that.

Turning over his shoulder he gave the guards a look that suggested they should go and be somewhere else. They took a few steps away but stayed within line of sight.

 

[Audreyn]

That was a pretty thought. That was a very pretty thought. Naturally, as any child would, she clung to it.

"You think they were trying to protect me?" She echoed, letting that process of reasoning run through her. She sniffled, wiping at her face. "It got them killed." Her grief bleed out of her, leaving her feeling numb and exhausted. The energy dissipated in turn. Audreyn was left feeling foggy and heavy.

She did not smile back at him, looking over his head in a disheartened manner. "My parents are dead," she stated, acknowledging this fact verbally for the first time.

 

[Gerrard]

"They are, which means we won't know," Gerrard said quietly. "But I don't imagine they ever wanted to harm you," he said quickly, backtracking.

"Well it stands to reason doesn't it? Would have been easy enough to just be rid of you when you were younger, but they kept you. Were they...good parents?"

Gerrard was trying to provide some comfort. It just wasn't a problem with an obvious solution. Or at least a problem that a few nights of alchemical equations could work out.

 

[Audreyn]

"I thought so..." the past tense could not be ignored. Good intentions or not, there was now so much that Audreyn didn't know about them and her past.

How could she answer that? They were strangers to her now.

She fell silent, heavy in her thoughts. She stirred, becoming aware of the faces around her.

"Gerrard... Everyone's staring..."

 

[Gerrard]

"Yes, I know."

Gerrard turned to look at the semi-circle. Some of them were dispersing now the light show had mostly finished. The guards still watched like hawks. If they had thought she was a peasant then this would have gone very differently. Gerrard hadn't had the stark differences between the classes thrown into his view so many times before.

"Obscuria," he murmured. The air between them and the crowd shimmered. It was like a sheet of ice spreading between them.

"Would you like to get away from here?" he asked.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn swallowed hard, giving a sharp nod. She was becoming aware of the guards too. Aware of their attention and their uneasy looks. "I thought you said they weren't scared of magic here..." She comment, the ice obscuring her from their tense expression and them from her wary confusion.

She stood, feeling more shaky and weak than she was use to after so much magic in one day. Her sweaty palms were wiped across the dress she didn't realize had just saved her from a much crueler reaction. She wordlessly offered Gerrard a hand up, the realization that running from the house had been dangerous slowly dawning on her.

 

[Gerrard]

"They're used to seeing swords and understand what they are too," Gerrard replied. "It doesn't mean they would take notice if a woman ran down the streets waving one over head head."

His voice wasn't scathing. The touch of humour in his tone was gentle. Gerrard took the offered hand and was drawn back to his feet. He ached. He was getting older and wasn't used to chasing after people down the streets.

"Let's get back to the house?" he offered. It wasn't truly ice that would melt, but the opaque barrier would still fade within a few minutes.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn blushed, looking down in something akin to shame. Yeah, definitely shouldn't have run out of the house. That was a reaction suited for countryside villages were outdoors spilled into trees and privacy. Out here? Call it culture shock.

She stepped into Gerrards side, this morning's independence lost to respectable fear of prosecution for her little light show. The more she lingered on it the worse she felt about it-- a moment of cringe that would likely pop up in the nights she couldn't sleep for years to come.

Damn those moments.

"I'm sorry," she murmured quickly, wanting to acknowledge it but not linger. She walked with an equally fast pace, unable to slow until the incident was left behind her.

 

[Gerrard]

"No harm done," he insisted. It was a stark reminder that Gerrard was deeply under qualified for the job of dealing with a young woman who had suffered such lost.

"We could stop at Ouki's on the way back?" he turned his eyes towards the sinking sun. "It should still be open and has the most amazing things you can make with pastry and sugar."

Attempting to distract her with wondrous things wasn't a tactic he could string out forever.

 

[Audreyn]

She knew what he was doing. She slowly nodded her head regardless, the motion slow and languid.

She wasn’t hungry. She has zero interest in even anything sweet, a first as of late. But she agreed for him, trying to throw him a bone.

There was the pressing, subconscious fear that she would grow to be too much of a burdened for him. The outbursts were growing more frequent, her emotions bursting out at her in times that even startled her.

She let him take her there, wanting him to feel like he was solving something. ... knowing he needed to feel like he was solving something.

Even if what was going on inside of her wasn’t fixable.

They pressed inside. She did her best to look around with an expression that imparted excitement. She chose a pretty cupcake with little flair, swallowing hard to try and pull herself from her swirling heavy thoughts.

“Can we eat it at the house? I still have to learn that dance.” Motivated to a fault, at least.

 

[Gerrard]

Her deception was more than enough to convince Gerrard. He was desperate to find any sign that she was feeling better. It wasn't far back to the house but the evening chill was already creeping into the city. Whilst it seemed to gather heat through the day it could become very cold at night here.

Gerrard wasn't sure if it was going to get cold enough for the fire trough the evening but he lit a small one anyone. Mostly so he could brew some tea. He set out some plates and cutlery and let Audreyn pick at her cake.

He returned from the fire with a steaming pot and set it down. Everything felt easier when there was tea he found.

"I know you probably don't want to hear this now, but it's important." Gerrard took his seat and poured his cup. He looked across the table at Audreyn and scratched at the corner of his jaw.

"A binding spell is a powerful thing - especially one made to last for years. They can be dangerous if broken suddenly." He couldnt quite meet her eyes as he said the last part, but his gaze returned to hers.

"If you feel strange - and I know I say that with everything being strange right now - talk to me about it. There's someone I know who we might need to see."

Soneone wise enough to perhaps know who put the bind there, but that was a conversation for another day entirely.

 

[Audreyn]

Auderyn froze to stone. Thought they had an unspoken agreement not to bring this stuff back up when it was over...

Her gut churned, in both heated embarrassment and heavy dread. She saw his words not as an offer of help, but as a punishing reminder for how utterly ridiculous she was. The frosting soured in her mouth. She nodded stiffly before returning back to new career path as a gargoyle impersonator.

This wasn't moving on. This wasn't moving forward. Right, ignore feels. Act normal. She tried to nudge herself in that direction, a shaky hand breaking rank to wipe itself off on a napkin.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard grimaced as he turned away. He wasn't quite so oblivious to other people that he couldn't tell that it wasn't something he wanted to hear.

He lifted his left hand, palm up and gave a slow nod. "Just...keep talking to me about your magic. Something untoward could just as easily be caused by practising some new spell unsupervised."

He tried a hint of a smile at that, trying to lighten the moment. It was another thing he wasn't very good at. Gerrard was finding out just how many of those things there were and it was beginning to threaten his pride.

"Did you still want to learn a dance or two?" he asked.

 

[Audreyn]

No. She wanted to go to bed and cry. Why was it so hard today?

It took her another moment, but she managed a nod, pushing back her plate and leaving most of the pretty messy smushed to a pulp from anxious pickings. "But we need music," she croaked, clearing out her throat. She looked to him then, moving forward as she always did.

"Don't tell me you play too?"

 

[Gerrard]

"Music? Goodness you'll be lucky if I can count a beat properly!" he replied. "But I do have books..."

Gerrard stepped towards his bookshelf. He made a soft murmur of concentration as he let his finger drag along a row of spines.

"Aha!" he returned triumphantly with a book bound in deep scarlet leather. He laid it down and flicked through a few pages. There were diagrams showing formations of people as well as step patterns. Gerrard found a fairly simple dance called the Tulip Square.

"Can you see how the diagrams show the steps? Red is the man's steps."

 

[Audreyn]

Auderyn stared on in nothing short of confusion, not use to looking at paper and inking and fussing out meanings from them.

"You really do have books for everything..." She picked it up, bringing it closer to her face and trying to squint at it from near nose level. It remained a bunch of inconsequential scribbles to her, the girl unfamiliar where even letters stopped and the drawing began, despite the color coding.

She turned a few pages, hoping for clarity, but only found a deep headache.

"Maybe it's better I just don't dance..." She pushed it back towards him, doubly wary of such a task now. First there was all the material of the fabric of the stress to contend with. Then the shoes. Now even learning the movements!

"I'm not very... study-able." Studious. The work she was looking for but lacked was studious.

 

[Gerrard]

"No, I suppose not. It is good as a reference though." He gave a broad shrug. "You don't have to dance if you don't want to. Watch them when we're there and you can decide for yourself."

He leaned closer to the book and pointed to several diagrams. Gerrard was fairly certain that there would be at least one young gentleman more than willing to be patient helping her through the dances.

"See how the men start in one line facing their partners. Come to the middle, take a few steps and then end up where your partner was. I do at least know this one and can show you the steps?"

 

[Audreyn]

She hesitated, more in self doubt than a lack of interest. She have a hesitant nod, resolving to push on regardless. There was only one way she'd ever fit in out here. And that, she acknowledged, was all she wanted in the end.

"If I step on your toes..." She warned, pushing away from the unhelpful book. Oh god. What if she stepped on a cute boy's toes.

Yet another thing to fret over. It sure was hard being a fancy person.

She stepped out into the center of the room, glancing unsure at him and trying to match whatever pose he approached her with.

 

[Gerrard]

What he mentally scoffed at first soon brought about a new thought: would life not be better if he was more concerned with stepping on toes than trying to change the world without repeating his past mistakes? It almost seemed like it would be a better life.

Gerrard stood opposite Audreyn. He swept his hands out to the side to indicate a line where he stood.

"So imagine a line of ten men here and then the line of women where you stand. When he starts to bow..." he said, giving a very shallow bow and nod of his head. "...you curtsey."

"Music starts and you put your right foot in and outside of your right hand to mine," Gerrard explained, stepping into the space between them. "Then circle around each other to your left and we end up where each other started."

He didn't bother drumming out a beat yet. He would continue to walk her through the pattern that the group followed first.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn fumbled to keep up, mirroring his steps taking a little more effort than not. "Alright... that's not so bad. We do stuff like this at home too. Except people are yelling. I take it people don't yell in this one..."

She repeated the pattern with him, growing more relaxed and familiar with it with each go. Though she kept trying to hop at certain points, her 'grassland' roots showing.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard had never been to a country village dance. If he had, he probably would have remarked that there were some strong similarities. Social orders being worked out, young couples being formed. The events for the upper classes were merely covered in a veneer of formality and wrapped up in a display of wealth.

"What do you mean 'yelling'?" he asked before returning to quietly counting out a beat. He was starting to increase them to the tempo to the usual for this dance.

 

[Audreyn]

She turned red, for the first time showing any embarrassment over where she had come from. She hesitated for a moment before giving an unwilling holler as they switched places, the noise of joy rather lackluster and subdued compared to what one would hear during the joyful chaos.

 

[Gerrard]

Gerrard chuckled at the noise. He could imagine a barn dance with them all whooping and hollering. It would probably seem a cheerier occasional than the balls they might have to attend.

"Yes, touch more reserved. Well, until the drink sets in." Gerrard came to a stop and gave a bow for the end of the song. "Though the rumours of the debauchery at the Akoan's masquerade balls..." Gerrard gave a sharp shake of his head.

 

[Audreyn]

"Debauchery?" She echoed, uncomprehending. The dance ended. She gave an almost natural curtsy in return. Her cheeks remained red but she had to admit. That wasn't so bad. Alright, even. She had the feeling that watching a few of the dances might be enough to teach her the steps. They repeated themselves a lot after all.

That was a small relief amongst the pile of concerns, her mind running wild despite the lateness of the hour that was slowly encroaching on them.