image [https://i.imgur.com/UvduvtT.png]
Perhaps I don't cut the figure of a horseman in your eyes, and in truth I'm not much of one; however, I've always found the care for animals to be incredibly therapeutic for my own latent anxieties. And so I was grateful for an excuse to tend to Spinner when Abbard had approached me, and readily followed him down to the stables.
Once in the stables I found Spinner chewing calmly on some feed.
“What was she doing?” I asked.
“I dunno, freaking out I guess,” Abbard looked over his shoulder. “Just watch her for a minute and see if she does it again.”
I sidled into her stall to begin brushing her down. With all the rain she was not even dusty, but it was helpful to sooth her against the rumbling outside. The percussive thump of fat raindrops on the low roof.
Suddenly a silent golden rectangle of candlelight grew up the wall only to vanish as the door clicked shut.
"Is someone else there?" I asked Abbard, who had stepped back from me. He did not respond or even look at me.
An armored being that was nearly a head taller than me had appeared between us, blocking the stall door. It was the chevalier from earlier. His furred forehead bulged in frustration as he looked me over, his voice a growl. “This is it? The Berry Longfellow?”
“It’s him,” said Abbard.
Before I could react he bared his fangs and shoved me backwards. I fell, tripping over my own legs into the hay beside Spinner. Hay covered my face as I struggled up only to feel the strike of a steel covered foot into my rib cage.
The blow struck the air from my lungs and sent me rolling onto my back. Spinner, bless her stupid soul, watched impassively as the chevalier kicked me twice more before stomping over top of me.
"Mercy!" I cried, attempting to sit up with vision blurred by tears (stress induced). My blubbering silenced as I looked up the length of his rapier into a face twisted by beastial rage.
“The wizard utters one word, the thought of a spell even, and Ro'kash will bleed it. His Holiness will accept the head or the man, but Ro'kash is sworn to take this prey in while still breathing,” growled the chevalier.
“I already told ya they got antimagic cuffs on him. He can’t hurt ya.”
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The chevalier, Ro'kash I realized to be his name based on the self-referential way he spoke in that way common among the Khajiit, only half turned to Abbard. “Its mere presence poisons Ro'kash, twists his mind.” He pressed the blade against my throat so that I could feel a trickle of wetness. “What did it do to Ro'kash? His memory torn to shreds. His kittens know the name of Berry Longfellow, His Holiness speaks its name, but Ro'kash knows nothing. What did it do… will it speak?”
I stammered, the obvious answer being that we had never met before, yet I doubted Chevalier Ro'kash would find that satisfying. "I don't know," I finally admitted, and "if it's any consolation to you, I don't remember meeting you either."
He snorted. "It is not through memories that the God's judge, but by our actions. By order of our one true and holy Mane, the treasonous Berry Longfellow is in Ro'kash’s keeping."
"Please I—"
He pulled the blade back but kicked me twice more for good measure before turning to Abbard. “It knows where to take the wizard. Ro'kash cannot stand to look at this filth any longer.”
I lay facing the wooden wall of the stall, listening to him stride away, numbly aware as Abbard hastily bound my hands and feet with some rope. He stepped away to ready his own horse a few stalls over when I realized his mistake—he had not bothered to confirm my antimagic cuffs were still in place.
Reaching out to the ethereal, I felt with my mind for the warmth of the energy flows and pulled some into myself. I rolled over as quietly as I could and snapped my fingers to bring a spark to life on the rope. It burned my skin like hell, but they lit easily enough and once weakened I was able to tear them in half and shove the smoking ends into the wall to smother the fire.
Abbard still worked in the other stall, his horse bucking ferociously for some reason. I peered out into the empty hall before jogging bent over double as quietly as could be back into the main building. I did not stop to listen if he’d heard me.
I swallowed back some vomit as I snuck into my own room, sighing with relief to find Benezia gone. I made a mad dash of throwing my few possessions back into my satchel. Some of her dry food, and a few of the travel goods we shared such as the tent and a hairbrush of hers that I fancied also found themselves stuffed into my pack.
Satchel slung over my shoulder, I was about to step out the door when a pang of guilt twisted my gut again. I ripped a page from her novel and jotted down a note to her:
Dearest Benezia,
Turns out I may not be innocent after all, I really didn't know! I'm going to make my own way into Elsweyr to make this right. Not safe to explain here but do not tell anyone you know me — safer for us both. Do not trust anyone.
I'm taking the tent, sorry.
Your servant,
Berry L.
P.S. Again, very sorry. Perhaps we don't need to tell Caius until after I've fixed everything?
With a heavy heart I laid the note on her pillow.
I locked the door as heavy footsteps thundered down the hall. I climbed out the window, before sliding down the sloped roof and making a rough landing into an alley where I found an urchin who in exchange for a quarter denarii ran ahead to confirm the stables were empty before I ran after to liberate Spinner, rushing into the street only half saddled.
Once mounted, a drizzle began to tap against my hood as I set off down a twilit street. I realized it was only the beginning of a very long and sleepless night, and perhaps my true journey as well.