The soft white of spell light crept into Seth's craggy eyelids as he woke. The world rocked and jumbled, his ears filling with wheels creaking and mail shuffling.
“You’ve woken sooner than I expected,” the voice behind the light said. He narrowed his tired eyes to note it belonged to a balding priest with a sizable beard and a warm smile.
“General Roko’s instructed me to look after you in particular. With everything that has happened and all, I’m surprised you’re even awake.”
“My friends,” Seth croaked as he inspected the small healing wagon he found himself. He saw salves, balms, bloodied bandages, and a bowl of murky red water sitting to his side. The cart was barely large enough to fit him and the healing Priest, but no one else. “Where are they?”
“Don’t worry your head,” the Priest said and drew his palms from Seth’s open chest. The streams of elaborate light that stretched over most of his fingers faded. “There are other carts with trained healing priests like myself,” he said with some pride. “As I said, Roko ordered nothing but the best for the heroes that battled the plotting vampires and shadow mages.”
Seth cringed at the mention of the Shadow mage, pulling hard on bandages that covered his hands and sides. It was like a spear lanced through his head. Glimpses of the mission came to him. A conversation he took part in but never spoke in. A fading stream of darkness washed through him when he snapped his fingers. His screams as his body snapped and twisted, and his mind collapsed on itself. He grabbed his head.
“You are still too weak to be awake. You need more rest,” the shaggy Priest said with a soothing voice.
“My head.”
“I’ve got you, boy." The Priest lit up the runes that tattooed his soft hands. It sent a wave of relief that eased his addled mind. His eyelids grew heavy. He had so much to ask the man, but he could only manage a phrase before sleep took him.
“Thank you.”
Ellie’s aqua blue eyes reflected the dull flickering light of her Priest's healing runes. She was a fidgety young redhead barely out of her teens, and she'd asked and asked again if Ellie felt any discomfort all through the journey while she worked. She was not particularly talented or gentle, but Ellie gave a reassuring smile each time she asked. She knew how fragile young rune holders could be.
“I’m fine, and you’re doing great, er?" she said, only now realizing she never really got the girl's name.
“Rosaline,” she eagerly said. “I’m sorry if I am a bit overbearing. It’s not every day you get to meet a hero in the flesh.”
Ah, so there's the real reason why she's all shaky.
Ellie sat up and fixed her eyes on the young thing. “Who told you that?” She didn’t feel like a hero. The mission had been a disaster through and through. Her first major failure since she took command of the Raven nearly four years ago, and it had nearly cost her everything. Her brother lost faith in her, and her team most likely loathed her. It was dumb luck they were not all dead.
Rosaline seemed to panic under Ellie’s penetrative glare, and her spell fizzled out. “It was Lord Harkness himself. He went through camp convoy announcing it.”
“Harkness, of course.”
He was an old rival. A pompous Junior knight who’d done everything except outright said he was better than her. They enlisted the same year. He was the Son of Roko and had gotten his Runes upon Judgement, and she’d not. Watching him soar while she floundered was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do, aside from completing this wretched mission, which came her way in the first place because he could not do his damn job.
It was his fault!
“After leaving me to clean up his mess, he comes and pulls this,” she muttered, her nostrils flaring, but her anger felt empty, misplaced even. She’d spied on him and brought up his inadequacies to Roko and had accepted the mission to scout. Everything was on her.
“Is something the matter?” Rosaline asked as she motioned to begin to channel her rune, but Ellie stopped her with a gentle hold. “You have helped enough, Rosaline. I’m well enough to walk. I need to check up on the others.”
“But you still need more healing. You might seem fine on the outside, but the mage did considerable damage on your insides. You should rest.”
“I will be back, Rosaline,” Ellie said, “and I promise not to get you in any trouble either. Harkness never has to know,” she winked. The young Priest bit her upper lip in thought, and Ellie pressed on. “They’re my team, Rosaline. I am responsible for each of them. I need to know if they’re okay. I’ll come back as soon as I am done." There was a sadness in her voice as she spoke.
“Alright,” she agreed after a brief moment of silence, “but you have to be quick about it.” Ellie nodded in appreciation and squeezed her hand before she jumped down from the healing wagon.
The camp bustled with eager soldiers huddled around campfires telling stories and sharing meals. The army had stopped and camped in a large open field, ways away from a borderland town of Red Water. A cold chill swept through her simple dress, tousling it and her loose hair.
She let it pass through her without so much as a shiver. She was used to the cold, the discomfort. Stepping forward, Ellie's eyes fixed on a gathering of small Caravans with the healing order’s symbol scrawled on its side. It was right near a sprawling dull-golden tent with Uvu knights posted in front. They were clad in gold and dull silver chainmail and armor. Their vigilant eyes swept through the camp with a calculative efficiency, all the while their gauntlets clutched their halberds.
“Slave knights,” she muttered under her breath as she crossed over to the nearest caravan, her distaste plain, yet the irony did not escape her. In a few weeks, she will be one of them. She’d be under a different master, but she’d be someone’s blade all the same. For years she'd convinced herself it would be worth it, but after nearly losing everything-- she looked at her exposed forearm where her single rune shone-- now she was not so sure.
To the corner of her eyes, Ellie saw the tent flap swish and Sera emerge. She had a wide smile on her face and gave a low bow to an old priest draped in a long white robe with reams of gold on the trim of his robe. She turned to leave, and her face soured when she saw Ellie. She slowly strode over, her plain identical healing garment buffering in the low wind.
“It’s good to see you’re fully healed and on your feet,” she said but didn't look at her directly.
“Not entirely. My priests still think I need to have some work done, but I had to check up on you and the boys."
Sera’s lips formed a tight smile. “I healed up nicely, and Brick’s healer said he’s coming along. He should be up by the time we reach Brightmont..”
“Brightmont?” Ellie asked. That was weeks away. “When I treated him, there was so much blood, but with a priest, I thought...I didn’t think it was that bad.”
“They had to open his chest to dig out all the bones the vampire left in there when he healed him. He lost a lot of blood,” Sera sniffed, then cast a look at a slightly larger Caravan sitting between two others. Priests with red-stained healing robes rushed to and from the wagon, and an older priest with a golden sash stood at the lip of the entrance barking orders.
“Gods,” Ellie whispered.
There was a brief silence between them before Sera finally said. “I’m going to be with him. He needs someone to be there when he wakes up.” She drifted back and started toward the Caravan when Ellie called out.
“Wait.” Her lips pursed for a moment as she searched for the words. “I-- you’re all important to me. I didn’t mean for things to get this bad, I swear.” Sera stood still with her back turned, listening.
“I just-- I thought we could handle it. Me and Seth, before all this, we faced all sorts of monsters and people. I…” her voice trailed off. The words escaped her.
“Is that supposed to be an apology?” she snapped, her voice low and scathing. She flipped around and glared at her. “We trusted you. You could have told us, you know. Said something earlier, and maybe we could have avoided all this, convinced you to turn down that scouting mission.”
“Sera… it just came. I was eager to prove myself to him. I had heard of Roko’s knights and the privileges they enjoyed, and I thought we would have the support of a team of knights. We were supposed to be back up, I never thought--”
“We would have been fine,” Sera said, cutting her off. “We are the best of the best. This entire army knows it,” she waved at soldiers behind her, some of which had begun to pay them both attention. “We would have been ordered to the capital, called to the Altar of the six gods, and be rewarded with everything we wanted. Everything you wanted.”
Ellie ground her teeth but shook her head. “I’m sorry, but it would not have been, not nearly. Maybe for you, it might have been, but for me, my brother, Brick. We would have been cast to the side, again! For mewling nobles and scions who can’t tell their head from their asses on the battlefield.”
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It boiled her blood that she was so oblivious to their truths. They might have fought and drunk together for years, but she’s still that little snot-nosed merchant brat who never quite understood what it was like to truly struggle.
“You don’t know that for sure,” Sera said. “We were all satisfied to wait. You made a decision for us, and look at what it wrought, Ellie. Look.”
No. She was wrong. She had to do what she did. “They would not have been. Brick had more ambition than any of us ever gave him credit for, and Seth, he wanted runes almost as badly as I did. I did what I did for us.”
“Seth was scared out of his mind,” Sera huffed, “ and don’t pretend like this was not always about you. You did for you, Ellie. Not for me, or Brick, and not for Seth.”
“Don’t say that--” She paused mid-sentence when the murmurs reached her ears. More than a few eyes were on her. Everyone, from the stationed knights at the Priest’s tent to the nearby soldiers gathered around steaming pots hanging over the fire were watching them. A familiar face approached from deep within the camp. He had salt and pepper hair, a low beard, and Gambeson barely contained his bulk.
“Is something the matter, ladies,” he said with a charming smile. “Our heroes of Blackfire should be resting and celebrating, not bickering in front of battle-worn soldiers.”
“Harkness,” Ellie said with an even voice. It barely masked her disgust.
“Ellie," he said with a clear baritone." It’s good to see you on your two feet. I had given the Priest explicit instructions to care for your every need. I'm surprised she'd already done."
"Rosaline is very gifted. She healed most of my wounds with a simple wave," Ellie supplied.
"She's from father's personal's stock, so there's no surprise there," he said with a pleased smile before turning to Sera, then Ellie. " You should join me in my tent. Celebrate a little. I'm hosting a small gathering retelling my battle with the mage. I'm sure the rest of the nobles will be eager to hear of your battles with the vampires and half-bloods."
Ellie's face stiffened at the offer. The bastard. He was lapping up all the glory. She was more surprised that he offered to share and nearly let her face slip when she realized why he'd wanted them there: to make him look better. She ground her teeth under a tight lip. He was scum.
"I shouldn't. I haven't seen my brother,” she said in a measured voice. “I should be with him. He fought harder than any of us. I need to be with him when he wakes."
Harkness made a face, "Come on, Ellie, he's still asleep, healing. I’ve heard that the healing process is delicate, as it is mysterious. Besides, I’ll know the moment he wakes, and so would you if you were with me,” he raised a communication crystal. It had more runes than the one Hanson had used.
What was his game? Why would he care if or when Seth wakes. Ellie shook her head, “What kind of sister would I be if I left him. While I appreciate the opportunity to dine with you and the finest knights in General Roko’s army, I would rather watch over him.”
Harkness' charming facade dropped for a moment, and an irritated grunt slipped through, but he schooled his face when it was time to speak. “ I suppose you’re right, Ellie. I would never leave my Sister’s side had she been injured.” His green eyes fixed on Sera, who had been silently watching, “But what about you Sera, Will you be joining us?”
“Brick needs all the support he can get, Lord Harkness. I will also have to respectfully decline.”
He clicked his tongue. “Shame. Perhaps some other time then. Maybe after our visit to the Cathedral.”
“Our?” both women said.
“I expect to be receiving a pathing rune soon for dealing with the shadow mage, or perhaps a new rune entirely,” he mused to himself, rubbing his chin. “Who knows, I might be promoted to Lieutenant knight for this,” he smirked. “And I might even have the honor of being your squad leader if my father wished for it.”
Both women simply stared at him, neither showing emotion at what he’d said.
“I suppose we’ll have to wait and see,” he added after a pause, sounding almost disappointed, and gave a wave as he disappeared back into the camp. “Send my wishes to both of your teammates. Tell them that I could have never defeated the vampire without your help.”
"That fuckwit," Ellie muttered under her breath.
“My family would never let me serve someone like him,” Sera said as soon as Harkness was out of sight.
“I suppose you’re lucky then,” Ellie said with both eyes tucked low, her mind processing everything that had been said.
“I have to go, Ellie,” Sera said, finally.
“Oh.” She hid most of the disappointment from her voice, but she knew Sera still heard her. “Will I see you before we return to the capital?”
Looking away, she answered, “I suspect we won’t.”
“Goodbye then,” Ellie said, and Sera gave a stiff nod and walked towards Brick’s Caravan. Ellie blinked several times, fighting back the urge to swear or curse. That had gone horribly.
Tucking both arms under her elbow, she moved towards Seth’s caravan, feeling the chill for the first time that night.
She was only a bit glassy-eyed when she smiled at Herbert, the Uvu priest who sat in the tent treating her brother. “How goes it, Herbert?”
“You're fully healed,” Herbert said, looking at her as she broached the canvas of the wagon. “The vitality must run in your family. He was up before we even set up camp.” He picked up a clean rag he must have saved away while he treated Seth and wiped his wrinkling face.
Several bowls, potion bottles, and bloody bandages laid bunched up at the rear end of the wood tent, a fair distance below Seth’s leg.
Casting a long look at her brother, Ellie's eyes roamed from his braided hair that she thought was absolutely ridiculous to his chest that still bore scars of the strange runes that the vampire forced on him during interrogation, and finally to his bandaged sides and arms. I nearly killed him. She touched his forehead and asked.
“How is he?”
“His body is mostly healed, but his mind is a mess. The General chose me to tend for him specifically for my Mind mending rune, but I couldn’t do much for him. He woke up, so that is a good sign. I don’t know what else to tell you,” the man said, looking down at Seth with a faint concern in his eyes.
“I should have known better, Herbert.” Ellie found herself thinking out loud to the Priest. She’d known him for nearly ten years. He’d been the one to patch her up whenever she stepped out of a battle or needed someone to talk to. His Soothing Touch rune was half why half of the surviving knight candidates had not gone mad yet.
“Don’t beat yourself up. You were just following orders,” Herbert said. “Most of being a soldier is following orders, good and bad.”
“I could have left it alone. Another scouting team might’ve picked up on the patrolling soldiers instead." But she knew that wasn’t true. She’d been the only one that had been watching Harkness close enough to notice his mistake, but it hadn’t been worth it. Looking down at her brother, she realized that it might have cost her too much.
Herbert gave her a meaningful look. “I don’t know the full story Ellie,” Herbert began, “but I know you well enough to know that you’d never turn down an opportunity to please the General or Betray Mormon."
Ellie looked up at Herbert, fully aware of the irony in his words. He had that same unmistakable intensity in his eyes that made her keep things vague when they talked. She didn’t trust him, or anyone else really-- well except Seth, but that had changed too, hadn’t it?
“You’re a Hero,” he said with a hint of respect in his voice. “All of you are.”
“Don’t say that." She rubbed deep into her forehead. She couldn’t bear hearing more of Harkness’s lies. “We nearly died to those monsters.”
Herbert shook his head and gave a small smile, “that’s not what the General said.”
Ellie’s eyes went wide in realization. He’d personally been called by the General to tend to Seth’s wounds and had said as much, but she’d missed it somehow. “What did he say?”
“He said, and I quote, ‘the Ravens, Harkness, and Hanson was instrumental in weakening enemy forces and tearing down the temple. Without them, the vampire would have enacted his plan, and the borderlands, which we’ve fought so hard to protect, would have been lost. They are heroes.’”
So, that snake didn’t get all the glory, was her first thought, and her second was pure delight at receiving praise from the General. The man had known and worked with her for a decade, but he’d never outright congratulated her before. For the slightest moment, those two emotions filled her with some false sense of vindication like it had all been worth it. She crushed the feeling immediately and turned her focus back to her brother.
“Herbert, do you think a priest...farther along your path of Mind mending could help him?” She asked, careful in verbiage. Herbert was not a prideful man, but all Uvu priests were peculiar, even those that served under General Roko.
“No need to mince words with me, Ellie.” He gave her a look, seemingly more annoyed than her attempt than the comment itself. “I know early on my path, but healing priests who specialize in mind mending are exceedingly rare, but with the General’s assistance, I’m sure we could get someone from the capital or the southern cities.”
Healing priests were uncommon, and the mind-mending rune was even rarer. Judgment was different for everybody. You never quite leave the Cathedral with what you expect. Herbert was stationed at a fort overtaken by a wild band of raiding Dragonkin and had been rewarded with healing runes, mind mending ones no less, despite being a soldier. Herbert was the only Mind Mender under General Roko’s army. Ellie hated to think what the General might ask of her if she asked for his help finding one.
“Don't worry about it too much,” Herbert said. “He might not even need help at all. Your brother’s always healed faster than most, and he’s tough. His mind might just be overwhelmed by everything that has happened. Taking some time off might do him a lot of good.”
Taking deep breaths, she decided to listen to him and not panic, but her mind still worked on ways she’d approach the General for help if it came to that, though she suspected that it wouldn't; be too much of a favor to ask for. From everything she knew about him, he took care of knights, and after completing the mission as he’d asked, they were part of his inner circle now, for better or worse.
She gently stroked her brother’s head and looked to Herbert. “Do you mind? I would like to be alone with him now.”
“Say no more,” he said, getting up.
“Thank you, Herbert,” she said to him just as he touched the canvas of the caravan. He gave a quick nod before exiting.
Elle’s mind began to wander as she sat with her brother, gently stroking his head. She wanted nothing more than for him to wake up with his warm smile and tell he was fine, and he forgave her, but her decision had driven a wedge between, so deep she feared he would never forgive her. She feared none of them would. Looking down, she gently stroked his face. “I’m sorry.”
For so long the runes had consumed her. She knew why she wanted it, and she’d fought so hard to get it, but she’d hadn’t quite thought of what came next.
Her future was uncertain yet strangely predictable. She and every freshly minted knight were going to be cordoned off to serve at a town or city, or she might get the unfortunate pleasure of guarding a noble house, hunting down bandits, or joining hunting parties to take down monstrous creatures. Knights were glorified magic weapons the Empire could point to a problem, and that was simply the way of things. Whatever she ended up with, she wanted to make sure he was with her, awake or not.
The last time she’d hurt him this bad was when she enlisted in the army for the first time and left him with their father. I'm so sorry. She kissed him on the forehead again.
The mission had been a mistake, a catastrophic error on her part, and it would be the last of it, she swore. No more risky suicide missions, Roko be damned. She still sought to climb to the top, but she'd be more careful this time.