Private Tales What Absence Makes

[Baise]

Brenna

It was his first glance of home in a very long time. He could just see the tops of some of the houses furthest from the water. Valthar could also see the bay which, in truth, was more familiar to him than the great hunting lodges of Faarin.

The coasts were clear of snow, so they had joined a caravan from. Nordengaard. The clear route meant they were going to make it back just in time for that deadline. He had wanted to be home sooner, but there was no avoiding orders from the Queen herself.

"I hope she did not come early because of the portal stone," he said to Bre. As forthcoming as he was not, Valthar had offered little more than a name and occupation for 'she'.

His people were not very welcoming of strangers. Having been in need in foreign lands, that brought him shame now where it had once brought pride.

 

[Brenna]

Brenna sat opposite her brother in the back of one of the carts that were trundling along the muddy road, cleaning the blade she had against her knees. It didn't necessarily need it but there was an anxiousness that had consumed her now they were heading back home and of what their uncle would say if she presented kit that was anything less than perfect. He was the trainer of the Cadets above her uncle and whilst he would probably be glad to see her alive, he would probably be more interested in grilling her about what had happened.

She was hoping arriving home with Valthar would mitigate the shove towards the training ground at least for a few hours. Even more if he was going to be meeting a girl.

Please, Valthar. I can't take it anymore - you have to tell me more!

It had been driving her insane every time Valthar had mentioned 'she' or 'her'. It hadn't been till the second week of travelling he'd even given her a name. Miriel. It had been another two before she had been given the woman's job and that was the end of it.

What's she like? How did you meet?

 

[Baise]

"Hmm," went Valthar. He drummed his fingers on wood and kept his eyes on Faarin. Soon he would be able to see his little house and then the docks.

He was thinking about how to describe Miriel. He also took a modicum of pleasure in his sister's impatience.

"She is more capable with a sword than even our father. I saw her surrounded by six wraiths and she looked like she was dancing, not fighting."

Valthar leaned his head back and grinned at the sky. It was often overcast up here but for once it was almost clear and the waters were calm.

 

[Brenna]

Brenna couldn't help the grin that spread across her face as Valthar spoke more about this woman. She rested her elbows on her knees and then cupped her face with her hands, watching him with adoration. This was what she had missed when he had been gone; talking. Her brother was a quiet man but he was her favourite person in the world - he always had been and always would be.

You're in loooooove.

Brenna put her hands over her heart and fluttered her eyelids.

Maybe mother is going to get her wish for grandchildren quicker than she thought.

At least it would take the pressure off of her.

 

[Baise]

"Did I mention that she is an elf?" Valthar replied. He couldn't meet her amused gaze for long. With a shake of his head he looked to the road ahead. He kept watch in the periphery for her starting to sign.

Having children with an outsider, an elf even, was certain to be interesting news. Valthar might have been uninteresting, but it would only compound how much of a disappointment he was after his father.

"And she knows how much you have taken up the sword?"

 

[Brenna]

Brenna's eyes went as round as two pennies. An elf? Her face had always been an open book and right now emotions warred for dominance. Excitement at the possibility of meeting an elf, meeting anyone, from the south. Sudden understanding of what it would be like for her if she arrived on her own here. Worry. Concern. No small amount of awe for her brother in his exotic inclinations in partner. She shook her head slightly and settled on a grin.

At least I know who is going to be the focus of all the gossip in town.

Her face twisted into a grimace when he asked about her own swordsmanship. Her fingers danced over the sword. She had sent her mother a letter before they had disembarked on their trip South - if she had tried to respond she had not received anything before they had left the capital for Faarin.

I do not think she will be able to argue with me after a mission with the Queen.

Bre may have had a protector but she hadn't been worthless on their trip. She had had Gylfi's back as he had had hers.

 

[Baise]

At least I know who is going to be the focus of all the gossip in town.

Valthar made a disconcerted noise at the back of his throat. He had always known it was going to be the case. It made it worse to hear it out loud.

Attention had never been good. In his experience it had always been from those people holding expectations based on his father's reputation. He was much more content having no one talk about him at all.

Once, his mother might have argued under any circumstances, but she was not that woman any more.

"I wonder if I can spread a rumour so they're more interested in you for a while. Perhaps that you're being considered to be one of the Queen' shield maidens? Or that one of the queen's harem spent the whole trip with his eyes on you?"

 

[Brenna]

Brenna looked absolutely horrified at the aspect though her cheeks heated as she thought of both Gylfi and Sol.

No, brother, I had all the attention I could stomach for a lifetime after the accident.

She grimaced and brushed her blonde hair back behind her ear as the wind picked up and carried it about her face. The flavours of summer washed over them. For the Tundra this was as warm as it was likely to get for the rest of the year and she tilted her face up towards the sun to enjoy it whilst it lasted. Summer was a fickle thing and the cold might claw its way back. Finally the first scents of smoke began to reach her and she sat up eagerly.

Here we are!

True enough the cart finally lumbered its way over the crest of the hill and afforded the pair with their first view of home.

 

[Baise]

Valthar still felt cold. The sky was crystal clear and the sun was high, but it barely chased away the chill. How long, he wondered, would it take for his home to feel more comfortable.

He stepped down from the cart. No fanfare, no welcoming crowd. It was the same as it had ever been in the middle of the day. Quiet.

There was a deep satisfaction to being home, but it wasn't the shock to the system he had expected. It was warm, but not jubilant.

With a soft sigh he laid an arm across Brenna's shoulders. The path was a gentle slope through the outer houses.

"We'll have to eat at the great Hall tonight you know? Probably. Once people realise we're here."

 

[Brenna]

Brenna jumped down from the cart when it was still moving and waited for her brother to clamber down after her as she shouldered her pack. There was a bright smile on her face as she looked around and breathed in the feeling of being home. When he slung his arm about her shoulders she laughed and leaned into him, her arm slipping about his waist and squeezing him tight. There was a joy she couldn't quite explain that he was back here; it hadn't been home without him.

Yes. Uncle will force us if we don't go willingly. We best go see mother first though.

They had moved quite soon after Valthar had disappeared. It had felt too empty in their house without him and their mother had disappeared more into herself, she had required more attention from Brenna and their uncle so it had been easier to move into his home closer to the city centre. It was in that direction she took him now, waving in her cheerful manner as they passed people, stopping every now and then when they were hailed by a friend.

Eventually they got to the squat house her mother and uncle lived in and as they rounded the corner a woman stepped out. She was tall and her blonde hair was pulled back into a loose braid. Her eyes had bags under them and she looked almost ... defeated by some unknown enemy. Pale blue eyes looked up and when she saw the two of them she dropped the basket she had been holding and put her hands over her mouth to hold in a cry.

"Valthar! Brenna!"

 

[Baise]

Valthar heard a few mutterings that could have included his name or Ardullsson on the way through the quiet town. He didn't acknowledge any of them. The town was almost the same as it had been, but it felt different. He didn't know whether the demonic attack had changed things or just his own perspective.

He wasn't ready for his own mothers expression. Over time the notion that everyone would have counted him among the dead had lost its emotional weight. He had become more intently focused on the hope he would reach home at all.

She had been almost as constant and unchanging as the rhythm of the tides and the little boat he rode them on. A hundred memories he thought to never relive rushed through his head.

"Mother," he said, his chest tight as he let out an emphatic sigh. "I made it back," he barely whispered.

 

[Brenna]

Yrsa had once been a great shield maiden. It had been how she had met Ardul and the pair had barely been able to keep their hands off of one another. Even beyond the birth of her children she had taken up sword and shield to defend the King when necessary, leaving the children to be cared by the community as was traditional. But when she had returned to find her youngest cub on the edge of death is had broken something in the proud woman and she hadn't been the same since. Ardul's death a year later and then Valthar's recent disappearance had stripped even more of that away. Gone was the strong, muscled physic but, when she threw her arms around her two children, the hint of the strength she had honed for years as still there.

"I thought you were dead," tears flowed freely down her cheeks. "Both of you, we heard such stories..." she littered them both with kisses until even Brenna was squirming in protest. Reluctantly, Yrsa let her youngest go and instead turned her full attention to Valthar to clasp his face in her hands. "Your father would be so proud of you," blue eyes swept to Brenna and she moved one hand to touch her daughters cheek too. "Both of you."

 

[Baise]

Whatever barrier he had felt abstracting himself from his home it shattered quickly. His expression rotated through a meddely of emotions, but the tears came freely.

He wept for everything he had missed, everything his family meant to him and in outright relief for reaching the end of his arduous journey.

"I think..." he started to say, leaning back and smiling at his mother, "...that it's unfair you're lumping us together when I went through hell itself and crossed half the world and Brenna went for a walk for a few weeks."

The laugh that followed was deeply uncharacteristic of Valthar. It was almost hysterical as he shook his head and wiped his eyes.

 

[Brenna]

Brenna threw a punch at her brothers ribs and offered him a scowl.

Yrsa laughed and there was warmth in her eyes for the first time in two years once more. With her children home and unharmed an ache in her heart had been eased. She cupped her sons face and wiped the tears from his cheeks in that way only a mother could.

"Come, come inside you must be tired!" she seemed to remember herself and slid her arm about her sons waist to guide him inside. "You must both be hungry, I still have some stew leftover. Your uncle is down at the training fields but you can just tell him everything tonight at the Great Hall. Everyone will want to hear about your trip, Valthar."

Brenna laughed softly under her breath; her brother, the centre of attention, it was probably his worst nightmare.

 

[Baise]

"Well then can't they ask about it instead of making me sit at the head table and tell a story?" he asked. He knew he wasn't even going to get an answer to that. It was theor way. It would be like asking if the sun could not rise the next day.

"Did you know..." Valthar started slowly, giving his sister a warning in his sidelong glance, "...that Brenna fought off some poisonous might terror all on her own?"

He made for the pot over the fire, but his mother waved him towards the chairs and collected a pair of wooden bowls herself.

 

[Brenna]

This time, Brenna threw her boot at her brother and scowled. Yrsa's head whipped across to her daughter with a horrified expression on her face and passed the bowl to Valthar.

"Brenna you know how dangerous this is for your..."

The girl waved her mother off angrily before taking off her other boot.

I'm old enough to make my own bad decisions, and it was a fluke anyway. I had a guardian the whole time. Besides, Valthar is bringing a girl home - an elf!

Yrsa's eyes widened and returned now to her son. Slowly she put her hands on her hips and shook her head, a laugh bubbling out of her.

"It has been too quiet without you both."

 

[Baise]

"Brenna did very well," Valthar said firmly, defending his sister after throwing her under the galloping horse.

He settled back into a chair and let it sink in. It didn't want to. Valthar had spent so much time convinced that he would never quite make it home. That had been matched by his stubborn resolve to put one foot in front of the other.

"It hasn't been quiet enough where I have been," Valthar replied. "I suppose there were many quiet moments travelling alone, but it was a quiet that worries you. Not one you can enjoy.

"And Miriel is not here in Faarin before you ask."

 

[Brenna]

"But there is a girl?" Yrsa's hands clapped together. It seemed 'stranger' and 'outsider' went down the list when compared to her son showing an interest in a woman more than just to warm her bed for a night. Brenna dived into her own chair with her bowl of food and scoffed it down as if she had had her throat slit. When her mother threw her a look she managed to swallow and eat a little slower.

Yrsa settled herself down on a sheepskin on the floor and looked a far lot younger than she had in many years.

"I want to ask you so much more but I don't want you to have to repeat yourself tonight," she smiled. "You must stay, rest, before tonight. This... Miriel when is she due to arrive? I have not seen any ships come in today that look different."

 

[Baise]

"Mmm," went Valthar. He would have much preferred recounting the last few months to just his family.

It chilled his heart far more to consider the evening ahead than my of the perils he had faced. There were be that strange sort of silence. Not a complete one; there was always someone talking in one corner of the hall. It was the kind of silence that came with the weight of attention upon someone. He hated the thought of that someone being him.

"She comes around the summer solstice. I wouldn't have thought she'd come on any kind of different ship. I also...I also found my svalen." He didn't reveal that with any excitement, but his slow solemn words conveyed the weight of the importance to him, to his whole culture of the change.

 

[Brenna]

"Summer Solstice isn't that far away, next week in fact," Yrsa stood and took her daughters bowl when it was empty and filled it without a word. Brenna blushed but accepted the second bowl; it had been a long time since they had had regular food and her stomach was feeling it. She managed to catch it when her mother dropped it as she heard Valthar's further admission about his svalen.

"Valthar that is wonderful news," she was across the room on long legs swiftly to embrace her son. It was an important step and she was proud. Gently she placed a kiss on his forehead and then smiled. "I told you it would come when you needed it most."

What news is there of the town? sensing her brothers discomfort she tried to change the topic and soon Yrsa was willing them in on the latest information; children who had been born, the training of new Cadets to replace those fallen, the latest fishing problems or troubles. Mundane but comforting small things.

 

[Baise]

The change had definitely come when he needed it most. Just as the others had been making for the portal stone in that demonic place. Foul creatures dragging him down and all hope lost. A power from within to get him over the line, even if he hadn't returned with the others.

Valthar shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He was glad of the reprieve of normality. He mouthed a 'thank you' to Brenna.

They had lost many in the mists of pandemonium, but now life had adjusted. It wasn't the first, and would not be the last, hardship they suffered as a people.

Hearing his mother talk news of the town, whilst he sat in silence, was almost as brilliantly mundane as being on his boat. That was something he was looking forward to. After this meeting in the hall he could head home. In the morning he would start looking through what equipment he had left and repair the nets.

He was here which meant his mind could turn to seeing Miriel again. It had been long months. Painful, to realise that if he had waited there, there portal stone would have opened to Eratejva. She could have beaten him here. Much could have changed. Her feelings could have changed. Despite pressing them deep down to focus on the journey, he knew that his hadn't.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

A journey that might have taken months was reduced now to days.

A Portal Stone.

Miriel could have kicked herself; she hadn't even thought to try and find out such information for Valthar when he stayed with her. She had simply assumed he would have known if one had existed that far North. Though, in fairness, from everything she had heard about the stone now she reasoned it must have appeared during the same incident that had caused him to be spat out on the other side of the world.

Still, she couldn't help but think her months of worrying and his of hardship could have been more than halved as she stood at the prow of the ship and watched the land approaching. She hated sailing. The rock of the ship beneath her feet hadn't gotten any better than the day she had first stepped on one but sailing had seemed a quicker and smarter alternative to hiking from the southern tip of Eretejva Tundra with only a rough idea of where she was going.

The South had been relatively pleasant. The people here were far more used to outsiders travelling and Miri had brought things to sell on her way. It was something they were familiar with. But, as she had sailed further North and they had picked up more and more Nordenfiir she found herself the centre of unwanted attention. By the time Faarin was approaching she had taken to wearing her swords around deck. She didn't think they would try anything but there was definitely tension there which seemed to at least mix with a little bit of wary respect when they saw her blades.

Gods he hadn't been lying about the Cold.

Miri hugged her arms about her waist as the ship came into port and a wind whipped around them. She had put the money into getting some of the thickest and warmest clothing she possibly could. Even so she still felt the sting on her cheeks and she pulled the hood up to protect her sensitive ears. Perhaps her cousins would have better suited clothing for the environment up here.

When people began piling off the ship the elf tugged up her bags and disembarked as one of the last. Her dark skin and height instantly marked her as different but at least her ears were hidden on the shore. She wandered down the dock glancing to the fishing boats and then paused by one man bent double over his nets.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Valthar Ardulsson?"

 

[Baise]

A man in his later years turned to face Miriel. Instead of a stooped posture, he straightened out to stand even taller than Valthar. Whilst very tall by souther standards, Valthar was distinctly average for a norden.

The man crossed his arms over his chest and rattled something off in the local language. A sharp reply came from a woman a few berths further down. The reply included the word Valthar.

"And why are you looking for him?" the man asked on common, his gaze falling to her swords. Valthar had been in several scrapes in the South. Then when he had returned he had been caught up in some trouble with old rebels in the capital.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

Miriel looked at him blankly when he spoke and though she had to tilt her chin a little more to look at him she didn't seem at all bothered by the height difference. She had long ago come to terms with the fact she hadn't inherited her mothers natural willowy height. Her hazel eyes drifted from him to the woman and back again before he spoke in the Common Tongue.

"We fought together in the Summer Isles," she decided to use the phrase Valthar had. She wasn't sure if they would even know what Alliria was let alone where it was. "I'm visiting relatives, I thought to call in on him whilst I was this far North," her lips twitched very slightly into the barest hint of a smile before she folded her arms over her chest. Though the action was more for warmth than anything else.

"I believe he's a fisherman up this way so I thought I might find him on the docks."

 

[Baise]

"Hmmph," went old man Thorrom. He hadn't been in the hall when Valthar had reluctantly recounted his story. He has still heard of it. The young fisherman left behind in hell who had clawed his way out.

"That's the Valthar been watching ships come in and asking about who got off?" Thorrom asked rhetorically.

He looked out across the bay, scratching thoughtfully at his ear. He let the silence stretch out a few seconds more.

"I wager that's Valthar rowing very quickly for shore!" he said. He waved towards a dark shape that could be seen through the mists.