∼ The Ache of Memory ∼

Chapter - 034

At a steady gait through the foliage of a woodland on its fall, the trees shedding their leaves for a winter soon to come, the thickset buck carried on. Other than the sounds of morning birds and the crunch of leaves under hoof, it was a quiet morning. They had ridden all through the night and into the morn, their luck lasting as they went without being accosted by the horrors of the dark.

It went without saying that the closer to the bodies of civilization one was, the less the festering of monsters would be, and the weaker their ilk would be. But dangerous enough to kill any unwitting traveler, they still were.

Nyx laid leisurely across the lap of Aria, fingering the odd contraption that was one of his latest spoils. Besides its immaculate shine, he had yet to figure out what it was meant for, or what the intangible feeling that seemed to emanate from its confines was. The trinket itself did not taste particularly good either, nor did it shoot purple bolts of fire. It only kept making that strange ticking sound. So other than the gleam of its golden-bronze coat, it obviously had no other value or function.

Noting Nyx's obvious befuddlement, Aria's attention was drawn to the curious creature.

Tilting her head, she scrutinized the pendant. "Can I see it?"

Suddenly clutching the pendant to his chest possessively, as if she were to steal it, Nyx scowled.

Who was she to ask of his treasures?

"Please?" She tried. "I... think I can find out what it does for you."

As usual, Nyx was hesitant to comply but ultimately fell to her innate kinship, her smile hard to resist and that odd air about her rather convincing to the demonic being.

Handing over the pendant, grudgingly, Nyx fidgeted as she took her time to inspect it.

"This is an enchanted item, my father used to make similar tools," She mused, her smile waning a bit some distant memory. "Where exactly did you find it?"

"Stupid humans, unworthy..." Nyx grumbled simply before a certain prideful light came to his eyes. "Nyx takes-es! Nyx treasure now!"

He said it with such proud glee that Aria's smile couldn't help but be reignited.

Fiddling with the strange trinket, she nodded to herself. She closed her eyes, palming the watch in both her hands. It was with obvious concentration that she did something, and even Nyx, as inexperienced and new to magic as he was, could feel the mana within her move. Tendrils of power lathered the pendant.

Nyx was itching to see what would happen. She needed only a few seconds before she was done. "This has a lesser protection ward on it," Aria said, handing it back. "It will shield the user from any scrying or minor divination magic. While it is of quite poor make, it is still very valuable. Usually, only nobles or very wealthy merchants have access to these kinds of things."

Staring emptily up at her, it became clear that Nyx didn't grasp the faintest meaning of what she was saying.

Aria just sighed concededly, letting the impling go back to gnawing on the pendant.

Drawing her eyes to Eric, her smile dropped. His broad back was sturdy and firm as always. Yet somehow, today it felt almost... faltering. He had not spoken since their timely escape and hadn't even turned to face her all through the night.

She wanted to tell him that she knew how he felt, with what she herself had gone through. But, she wasn't actually sure she did know.

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She had her... demons. But there was more to his story than just neglect and harm.

Drawing upon the morning, they finally decided to lay camp, letting the horse rest and them get some shuteye. It was never a good idea to sleep alone in the woods, but they had no other real choice. The mid-morning to late midday was the safest time for them to sleep and relinquish their fatigue.

Especially with their latest troubles, they have been put through the wringer. Both physically and mentally.

As always, Nyx spent some time hunting, and upon returning with a belly full of good, collapsed into the divine softness that was Aria. But as for the two enlightened, they found themselves unable to catch any shuteye.

They merely sat there, Eric having drawn up a small campfire to dispel the morning cold from aching muscles, as it was obvious neither of them could fall asleep. Aria was too fretful of their pursuers, but more so by the state of Eric. And the reason why he couldn't sleep had something to do with that vacant stare in his eyes as he dully watched the flickering flames.

It was later into the morning that Eric suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. "The first girl I ever fell in love with-" Eric shook his head morosely. "The only girl I ever fell in love with was a maid to one of my half-sisters."

Aria did not speak, she just let Eric speak as he seemed to be finally opening up, the walls he usually had up going down one after the other as he spoke.

"I told you my father couldn't produce a proper male heir for the life of him, but that hadn't stopped him from trying." He snorted gloatingly. "I have nine half-sisters, three of them married off. Each one more wicked than the last. Of course, it made him a laughing stock to the nobles, the people, and even himself. Being incapable of producing even a single son. But that did not hinder him from doting on them and spoiling them rotten."

He paused, gritting his teeth. "-Rotten to the core."

"Bell, the maid. She had-" Eric smiled, shaking his head. "she had this smile, dimples to her full cheeks. And her eyes, they were so kind..." His smile faltered, his gaze ever so slowly growing haunted as he continued to speak. "She... she was the only one that ever..."

Eric had to stop to collect himself.

"We kept our relationship hidden for months. Spending our time sneaking behind their backs. Be it in the pantry, the stables, and abyss - even outside the walls if we had the chance. I was, for the first time, happy in that godforsaken place. No matter what cruelties that old prick made me endure, as long as I had her, it did not matter."

"One day, she came to me - panicked." He paused. "Bell had gotten pregnant..."

Aria was stunned but Eric continued. "We did not know what to do with the child, and I was still very young. It was only a matter of time before it would be found out after all. So we decided to have Bell resign as she was not a serf. I was going to provide for her. I was going to protect her. I was going to be a - father..." Fishing out a necklace from underneath his shirt, a simple string wrung around a small piece of bright amber, roughly-shapen like a thorn. "I made this for her, from the Heartweald - a symbol of my promise to her."

He clenched the necklace in his fist.

"But, it did not take long for my sister to figure it out months later at the end of Bell's service term. Worse, Bell was the maid to Mariella - arguably the cruelest of the wicked lot - as cunning as she is spiteful. When she discovered that I was having a child with her maid, the bastard brother of whom she loathed above all else, she did not confront me, she did not hinder me, she did not forbid Bell from having the child. Instead, she did the worst thing she could have ever done."

Eric finally looked at Aria, teary eyes reflected in the campfire light. "She went to my father..."

It looked like Eric wanted to curl into himself as his gaze fell to the ground, the necklace held tight to his chest. "She of course knew exactly what would happen - what he'd do - and that was precisely why she did it."

"When I was to give her this necklace, to cement my promise - she was nowhere to be found. It was the next day, I found her, dead by the creek of the river, her face pale and washed - eyes bloated and her stomach cut open. Someone had drowned her in inch-deep water, leaving her head by the bank to stare listlessly out into the blue, her beautiful brown hair trailing behind her in the stream like wet tendrils, and my unborn child cut from her womb."

"It was first a day later when what was left of the fetus was found further down the river."

Aria had not spoken a word, not uttered a sound - but as she reached to her face, she found herself crying.

He looked back up at Aria. "-So why? Why do I feel nothing but misery after seeing him like that?" Eric croaked, his deep voice breaking.

Walking over to him, she sat herself against the big lad, her hand held tight atop his. "I know... I know-" Was the only thing she could say, an image of her own father, lying dead on the floor, his face scorched and skull bare taking shape in her mind - accompanied by only the single emotion of regret.

Neither of them got any rest that morning. It was only the demon that had slept soundly through the entirety of the heartbreaking unbosoming that did. It snores a testament to its peaceful, undisturbed slumber.