Private Tales Light After Dark

[Gerrard]

Gerrard felt the magical binds on the construct he had formed from plantlife crumble. Hopefully the terror had cut its way through most of the archers to give them a clean break. Swinging the twilight spear he cut several pole arms in half and gave himself room to follow after Audreyn.

It was then that he sensed the magic building. The ground shifted, tremors pushing cracks up out of the road. Gerrard turned all of his attention into dispelling the magic. The noise started to wane.

"Show yourself coward!" he called out. He called it out about half a second before the blast of energy knocked him clean from the saddle and sent gum tumbling along the ground.

 

[Audreyn]

"Gerrard!" Audreyn screeched, her frightened horse carrying her around the bend... and away.

"Gerrard, no, dammit! Stop it you mule!" But no amount of fits calmed or soothed the mare. The ground moved too fast under them for Audreyn could eve conceptualize that she could jump. The ring of fire had died well and firm by the time the horse whined itself into a winded pause.

She slide down with shaky legs, looking out behind her. "Gerrard!" Her voice echoed out through the trees, amplified by a strange twist of magic.

What the hell. How did she keep doing all this.

 

[Gerrard]

He rolled across the ground and dragged himself to his knees. He felt every jolt as he tumbled, head ringing from the initial fall. The ground still rumbled. Heat from the flames still all around. He saw the assassin coming, boots walking towards him at a relaxed gait as his vision finally focused.

"No coin for you. Wouldn't even take payment from the families of those who lived in Murant for killing you," Jard called out. The bald assassin swung his arms around his body and dust swirled up from the ground around him. The shifting storm coalesced until several shapes formed within the cloud. Daggers shot forwards, striking the ground around Gerrard, several hitting a shimmering barrier and returning to dust.

"Run, if you must," Jard called out before starting on his next spell.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn cursed and cursed, grabbing at her reigns and pulling herself back up. "Of all the times for you to lose it," she cursed at the mare, yanking him back around and kicking into his side.

And back into the chaos they rode, the girl doing all she could to try and stoke the flame inside her fire. She needed spells! She needed more spells! What good was magic if all she could do was make a fireball?

She broke through the clearing, her expression fierce as said fireball was held in her hand.

Jard glanced up, half relieved, half grim to find she was still here for his taking.

And then she chucked the fireball at his face, her horse still galloping straight towards him.

 

[Gerrard]

Jard was an assassin who meticulously planned every move. He had expected to lose most of the mercenaries in the ambush, but had timed his appearance to finish off Duvont when he was vulnerable. Why the man had decided to look after the girl was still a mystery to him. Probably something nefarious.

He didn't like having his plans thrown off course. At no point had he expected that even Duvont would be reckless enough to teach the girl how to throw a fireball. He turned towards he desperate charge, frustration etched into every line of his face. An irredescent cube formed around the fireball. Starved of oxygen nothing but a cloud of smoke reached him.

A cloud of smoke that obscured his view as the startled mare slammed straight into him. The assassin tried to roll with the impact but the heavy creatures launched him through the air and he went tumbling across the ground. He pushed himself up onto all fours just in time to see Gerrard's boot swinging towards his face.

Perhaps hoping for a bonus for saving their employer, several mercenaries walked menacingly towards Gerrard, billhooks held towards him. He turned to face them, left hand coasted to his ribs with blood seeping between his fingers. There weren't many spells left in his arsenal

 

[Audreyn]

One. Two. Three more fireballs were tossed, the girl screaming in exheration as each one left her. The mercenaries each cried out as they were struck, the last unharmed one force to jump out of the way as Audreyn came charging through once more.

She reached a hand out for Gerrard, trying to offer him a lift up with a surprisingly strong grip. “Where’s your horse?” She asked, eyes shinning with fear.

 

[Gerrard]

He took the hand grateful and pulled his aching body up into the saddle behind Audreyn.

"Hold a second," he said quietly. He started muttering a spell quietly. The air over Jard shimmered and a shadow started to spread across the ground beneath him. Still holding his broken and profusely bleeding nose, a look of panic crossed the Assassin's face as he started to sink into the ground.

"There is my horse!" Gerrard called. With one arm wrapped around her waist he pointed towards his horse with the other. "Couldn't let him live." He hoped she wouldn't be too upset if she didn't get to strike the final blow. Jard tried to scrabble across the ground, but an unseen force was starting to drag him into the now liquid ground.

 

[Audreyn]

She didn't seem to care, not in the moment anyway. In that moment all she wanted was to get out alive. She knew nothing but how to make fire. Lotta good that could do. She wasn't prepared at all for a final blow.

She brought him to his horse, frantic. "Just get on! Ah-" She shoot a panicked fireball at the last remaining mercenary, looking pale for the effort.

He scattered back, circling back around to help his boss instead. That was the last thing she saw as she kicked her horse back into action, making sure Gerrard was on her heels as she galloped out. She rode them hard.

 

[Gerrard]

The fate of the assassin was kept from them. They rode hard. The horses could probably have galloped even harder but the inexperienced rider would have been thrown.

He managed to her them to head off the road. Circling around a copse of trees he pulled to a stop when they were well out of sight from the main road. With great care he dismounted, leaving a red streak of blood down the leather reigns.

He took two tentative steps and then dropped to his back. Gerrard let out a low groan and pressed his hand to his side.

"In hindsight, should have used my knife to finish the job," he muttered towards the sky.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn slid off her saddle and crumbled to her hands and knees,too panicked to be careful as she scrambled over to him.

"No, no, no, no-- you're bleeding. Oh gods," she fumbled at his clothing, trying to reveal the cause. "No, no, where is it? Are you okay? Where's your bandages!"

She shoved off him before she could even catch sight of the cause, wildly reeling onto his horse and yanking at the bags tied there. It bucked in protest but she didn't shy back, ripping it off and falling back to his side.

No no. He couldn't die too, was all she could think.

 

[Gerrard]

The hand that wasn't applying pressure to the wound gave her a dismissive wave.

"Its just a flesh wound!" he protested. He wasn't certain that it was true. He was still feeling the adrenaline draining away. The same chemical cocktail that had kept him strong enough to kick Jard square in the face was starting to give him the shakes.

One of those flying missiles made of compressed dirt had cut through his defences. He didn't know how deep it had gone.

"Get the bandages first, then we'll..." he took a pained breath and grimaced, "...see how bad it is. Bag with...bronze clasp."

 

[Audreyn]

Her own hands shook as she pried open the bag, nearly braking he clasp for how hard she yanked and tugged at it before simply twisting it open. The contents spilled out. She didn't know entirely what she was looking for. Bandages, certainly. Ointment. But the few times it was ever needed in her life, they always looked different from each other. Oh! And something to clean it with.

She grabbed his waterskin, opening it with her teeth.


"You said you could handle him," she accused softly, scooting back to him and tugging at the clothing. "You said you were strong!"

 

[Gerrard]

"He is one devious, sneaky little bald fucker," Gerrard declared. That was probably the nicest thing he would say about the assassin for some time to come.

He would have said more but his breathing became laboured as he slowly took his hands away from the wound. They trembled as he lifted his tunic, fresh blood welling up before being washed away by the ice cold water. Having to prop himself up on one elbow to take a look was torturous.

Crimson stained fingers touched the wound and felt something hard. There was a shard of rock, just a centimeter long stuck in the wound.

"Something...in the wound..." he groaned, not yet having the conviction to try and remove it.

 

[Audreyn]

She pushed him back down, firm as she eyed the rock grimly.

"It's nothing. You're a wimp," she dismissed, hitting his fingers away. She doused it with one last round of water before going in without hesitation.

With a steady motion, she slid her fingers in and yanked it out, the pain quick but fleeting as she pressed the heel of her palm to his side to stop the bleeding.

"See. Done already. You don't happen to uh, know magic that'll fix you, do you?" She asked, her voice strained. It wasn't nothing. it was a big something. Couldn't wounds like this kill? They did in the stories. The stress bit at the edges of her eyes, her gut twisting as she genuinely feared for his life.

 

[Gerrard]

She carried a strength of will that truly surprised him. If he had been through the week Audreyn had been through would he still been fighting? There wasn't much time to think about that. Searing hot pain blossomed out when she yanked the shard of rock free.

As he breathed slowly and tried to keep his focus he has to wonder why it hurt so much more now when he hadn't even noticed it during the fight?

What was she asking? Spells. Think. He pressed on through the wall of pain, through the racing beatnof his own heart. He didn't know any basic healing magic. The kind of conjurations that could offer more life energy had a great cost. Fire could sear the wound and stop the bleeding. Medicine was an art shrouded in nonsense and outright lies. Tinctures were sold that had no effect, surgeons killed as many as they saved. What came to mind were the many methods of stitching a wound that seemed to be as old as the world itself.

"Hold a cloth...over the wound...need a moment..." Gerrard had never looked fragile before. His words carried a weight of purpose and he moved with such energy that the grey of his hair was barely noticed. The lines drawn by the years suddenly looked deeper as the colour left his face. His palm fell to the ground and he started to etch something into the soil.

 

[Audreyn]

"Gerrard?" He would feel her shake him as his thoughts took too long to wrangle in, her face looming pale over his.

This couldn't be real, this couldn't be real, her mind insisted in a bubble of hysteria. She pushed it back down, grabbing the edges of his ruined tunic and using it to press against the wound.

"What are you doing?" She demanded, her attention snapping to the blood-covered hands drawing in dirt. "Magic? Are you strong enough for that?" He didn't look it. He looked like her father as he had crumbled to the ground. Feeble. Dying.

"Stop, let me!"

 

[Gerrard]

"It is not... A large spell..." his murmured. Fingers stopped etching. The markings faded from the ground and appeared on the back of his hand.

Gerrard couldn't summon the will to speak further. He simply pushed her away from the wound and brought his spellbound hand across the wound. When it took it away and black, sticky fluid was spread across the wound. Suddenly it developed a sheen and started to shrink.

Gerrard's eyes rolled back into his head. The substance formed a film over the wound, stuck fast to his skin and holding it tight. It was a spell to create a trap and it had taken every shred of creativity to shrink the conjuration down. Truly his best moments erte under pressure, he thought to himself.

Right before the prideful wizard passed out.

 

[Audreyn]

It was all the best the best that he remained out, the jostling he received from her as she tried to snap him to quite viscous.

When he did awake again it was be inside a clearing that weren't in before. Or rather, the clearing they had been in had now been thoroughly cleared out by a swath of fire that had left everything charred and crispy around them.

Intentional. Yup. Mhm.

Whatever loss of control she had endured, he had emerged from it unscathed. A haphazard fire was set up besides them. His body was wrapped in a blanket, his coats draped on top of him too. She sat besides him, her knees pulled up to her chest and her head resting on them, turned away from him, to the flames.

 

[Gerrard]

A low groan escaped his lips as he tried to sit up. He lowered his shoulders back to the floor very gingerly. He slid an arm under the blanket, placing a hand to his wound. It was bandaged, but he could feel the smooth substance pulling his skin tight. Still alive. That was a good thing at least.

"Why...Oh..." he turned his head to see the blackened earth they were in the centre of. Audreyn however had not been burned to a crisp. Neither had he it seemed.

"How long has it been?" he asked, voice quiet and raspy.

 

[Audreyn]

Her eyes peeled open, raw and stiff. Relief flooded her. Her head slowly turned his way, resting on her knees as she regarded him in exhaustion.

Alive. Yes. Good. This was a good thing.

She sat up, shrugging. "Half a day? A day? We spent the night." She rubbed her palms on her knees, grabbing her waterskin and bringing it to him.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, reserved.

 

[Gerrard]

"If I had to summarise: fucking dreadful," Gerrard declared. Taking the offered waterskin, he spilled some down his chest as he tried to drink without sitting upright.

"Alive though," he croaked. "Alive is good."

Gerrard decided to stay where he was until he could collect all of his thoughts. It was difficult to remember what had happened during the ambush. It had all happened so quickly and then everything else was drowned out in the pain.

"Did that assassin survive?" he asked.

 

[Audreyn]

"I don't know." She cleared out her throat, her voice growing smoother. "Last I saw-- looked like it." She didn't know how she felt about that. The longer she thought on it, the more she realized how much she felt like she was floating on a cloud.

Feelings over there ... reality over here...

She pulled her legs from her chest and stretched them out before scooting to his side. "I don't know medicine, really," she told him, gingerly peeling up the blankets, clothing, and bandages to get a look at his sealed side. "But... it looks alright. Well. Considering. Like you won't die?" It was more of a question than she cared for, some unsureness in her tone.

 

[Gerrard]

"It wasn't that deep, I'm sure I will be fine," Gerrard outright lied. A puncture right through the skill was enough to invite infection.

"That spell should bind like stitches for a few days. It's usually used to trap a whole person. How red is the skin around it?" he asked.

It had been a long time since he'd suffered an infected wound. First it had gone hot and inflamed. Then he had started to feel unwell. The fever had taken days to break. They couldn't afford that now.

 

[Audreyn]

"Like a whore's lipstick," she replied grimly, giving it all a gentle poke through the shield.

She sat back on her heels, pulling it all back down for him and half tucking him into place. "You need a doctor. A real doctor. we don't count. How far is the nearest village?" She asked, trying not to think about how predictable that move of action was. They had no clue who was still out there, what there orders were, and how much of a threat remained. Going to the closest nearby village for medical help was exactly the kinda stupid thing that got you caught.

But not getting a wound like that treated properly? Got you killed.

It was worth the risk.

 

[Gerrard]

"Your village wasn't even big enough to have a whore, let alone a doctor," he grunted. He tenderly brushed his fingers around the outside of the wound. It felt warm.

"Unless we can get somewhere large enough to have a real healer I am not..." he stopped for another breath, "...letting some quack bleed me or stuff beeswax up my arse."

Hearing the tone of his own voice, Gerrard tried to calm himself down. The pain didn't help. It clawed at his mind and he struck back out.

"Thank you for staying with me." With a grimace he rolled onto one side and planted a hand on the ground. First step towards getting to his feet. They did need to get moving and to a settlement.