Leonidas began feeling the day’s events hit him when he reached the bottom of the stairs. He gripped the stair rail to steady himself as he went down the last few steps and his legs and arms felt heavier than they had been in a long time. The others were sitting at a large round table, casually chattering amongst themselves. While they were still well worn from the day’s events, their spirits seemed to have improved greatly since Leonidas first met them.
As the others spotted the doctor, Benkin called out, “There’s the man of the hour!” Benkin lifted his flagon, the others following suit.
Leonidas lifted his hand to the others. “I’ll be over there in a moment,” he said before moving to the counter.
“What can I get for ya?” the innkeeper asked.
Leonidas pulled out a coin purse and started placing out the gold coins individually on the counter. “This is for a new set of bedsheets. This is for a room. And this is for whatever food and drink you use for one of those days.”
The innkeeper nodded calmly at first, half listening to the requests, before jerking their head up near the end. “Wait, why do I need new bedsheets? Is someone dead?”
“No, just performed some surgery.”
“On a dead person?”
“No, that’s an autopsy. Surgeries are for living people.”
The innkeeper nodded suspiciously as they picked up the gold and walked to fetch some food and drinks. Leonidas went over to the table with the others. Leonidas felt himself having issue stepping towards them. He saw other tables, empty of plates and people which he would’ve rather prefer to sit and be alone with his thoughts. His fingers rapped against the plate nervously as he tried to figure what the best move was.
“Just a professional courtesy,” he told himself, “don’t make this more than you are.”
“How’s Kveldulf doing?” Maeryn asked with a low voice as she leaned towards the doctor.
“A lot better,” Leonidas assured her, “He’s just sleeping right now.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Cid. “And Jeanne?”
“A couple broken ribs, but nothing to worry about,” Leonidas replied, feeling his muslces beginning to burn and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “She should be back on her feet and driving you all nuts in no time.”
“Well, I owe you five silver,” Benkin said to Silvius.
“You can pay me when we’re done with the ruins.”
“Oh gods, the ruins!” Hypatia said, her head shooting up sharply.
“The ruins?” Leonidas asked, suddenly remembering what Jeanne had told him earlier.
“We originally came to explore some nearby ruins. Reputed to being a place of rest and worship for the Wraith King,” Hypatia replied.
Leonidas’s gaze turned towards Hypatia almost completely still. His legs began curling closer to him as shook his head and recollected his thoughts. “The Wraith King Callanband?”
“Yes,” Silvius confirmed.
“You all are diving into a place where the Wraith King used to call home?”
“Well,” Silvius insisted, “we’ve done our fair share of research beforehand. And this isn’t our first time delving into ruins like this. So we know to mind precautions to avoid setting off traps and letting loose some ungodly creature of wanton destruction.”
“That’s a good start,” Leonidas said, “and what is it you expected to find anyways?”
“To be honest, I can’t say. But whatever might be there, I’d rather it be in the hands of someone who understands its importance than some brigand.”
Leonidas closed his eyes tightly, lowering his head and letting out a low moan.
“Everything well, doctor?” Cid asked.
Leonidas nodded with his head still on the table. “It is just now I’m now remembering why I normally try to avoid Jeanne’s beckons and calls.”
“Has she done this to you before?” Hypatia asked.
“Every … god damn … time!” Leonidas replied, not bothering to lift his head.
“She does have a penchant for that,” Cid said, taking a sip from his flagon.
“At least you get to have an interesting tale to tell people,” Hypatia said to Leonidas, patting his back.
Leonidas lifted his head slightly, looking at Hypatia out of the corner of his eye. “You’re a glass half full person, aren’t ya?”
“I do try to see the positive side of things.”
Leonidas put his head back on the table. Hypatia still patting his back with a concerned expression on her face.
“Well,” said Cid, “Since Kel and Jeanne are both seem on the mend, I think it might be time to consider our next move in the meantime.”
“There’s still the ruins that we need to explore,” said Silvius.
“Have we taken out all the bandits?” Benkin asked.
“Wasn’t that the leader we fought last time?” Maeryn asked.
“I wouldn’t assume that until we know otherwise,” said Cid, “The ogre was more than likely just muscle, especially since many of those inclined to leadership left these lands after pledging their service to the Lord Rexum Carnifex during The Great Treason. Of course, having the creature out of the way certainly makes our job easier, but not complete.”
“We could scout the ruins first, see if the bandits are using the place as a base to work from,” said Maeryn.
“Not a bad idea,” said Cid, “Do a little scouting before until Kel and Jeanne are back on their feet.”
“Maeryn and I can take care of that,” said Silvius.
“And I’ll go get our equipment some badly needed care,” said Benkin.
“Excellent idea,” said Cid. “Doctor, what were you planning to do?”
“I was going to stay here until tomorrow, keep an eye on Kel and Jeanne. And then check back with a family I was tending to this morning.”
“Why don’t Hypatia and I accompany you?” Silvius suggested.
“You think that’s needed?”
“Never hurts to have someone watching your back,” said Hypatia.
“Fair enough.”
“We could all go together?” Benkin asked, “Take tomorrow to recover and head out the day after.”
“Wouldn’t be a terrible idea,” said Silvius.
“I know my nerves are still a little unsettled,” followed Sianna.
“Then I think it’s settled,” said Cid. “Tomorrow, we rest, take care of errands, and afterwards, we go for a little adventure, eh?”
***
Leonidas frowned slightly, his eyes darting back and forth, and his fingers fidgeting as he noted his undershirt beginning to stick to his skin as he and the others made their way through the wooded path back to Moire’s farmstead. He stopped, feeling his eyes began straining when he tried to open.
He saw Cid riding at the front of their group, the Felidan’s ears perked up and looking around the area with careful intent. When he first rode through the forest, Leonidas didn’t have the time to think of any threats lurking in the shadows of the forest. But now, it was all he could think of as they moved down the road.
The doctor admired the coolness of Cid’s demeanor. Maintaining an alert gaze as they moved down the road, making slow and precise movements with his head, and keeping his breathing calm and controlled. Even with everything that occurred Cid seemed to take in all in stride.
Leonidas thought back to The Outlands. Back to where warriors cared for glory over victory. Boasting over survival. Posturing themselves as people worthy of praise and admiration than showing they were worthy of such things. The boastful nature left an ill taste in the doctor’s mouth. Especially when considering how many of his friends were hurt from the foolish escapades, or the sad few who paid a blood price to appease the fragile arrogance of those skills never matched their vaunts.
It helped to calm Leonidas’s nerves to see a group who practiced prudence over fleeting splendor. He felt the faintest sensation to lower his guard with them around. To not feel the need to expect them to rush out and compromise all their safety simply win vain glory. Entertaining the hope he would not need to recall minute details to avoid taking the blame for someone’s failure placed on him. The worry causing his chest to tighten at the mere thought.
But he held himself back. These weren’t the first people he invested such trust with. Those who he felt safe to disclose the fuller extent of his knowledge and capabilities with and not fear violent recourse. Not having to hide himself from the world and being more than a façade for protection. Only to find himself without friend or shelter once he began to feel some modicum of ease. His muscles tensed as he tried to keep his thoughts from turning to complete doubt.
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He looked at the others and wondered if this was going to be any different. If the fates would allow him the chance to find some who he could call friend and not fear there is some obscene condition needed for it exist. He pushed the thought from his mind as he focused attention back to the task at hand.
Still, seeing how their leader conducted themselves gave him some confidence this was not the usual fair of sell-swords he’d met in the past. It helped calm Leonidas’s nerves about the immediate situation at least. He noticed Benkin checking the path behind them regularly.
“Expecting anyone behind us?” Leonidas asked.
“Hopefully not. But first thing I learned was to keep my head on a swivel when on the move,” Benkin replied.
Leonidas nodded, turning to spot Maeryn to his left, deep in thought as they rode forward. “Everything well?” he asked her. She was silent, her grip tightening and loosening on the reins rhythmically.
“Maeryn?” Leonidas said to her. She shook her head quickly before turning back to him.
“Hmm?” she said, still in a stupor.
“Is everything all right? You seem troubled,” the doctor asked her.
Maeryn nodded. “I’m fine,” she said, trying to assure him, “Just thinking to myself.”
“Are you still troubled about what happened to Kveldulf?” Hypatia asked Maeryn.
“No one blames you for any of that,” said Silvius, trying to console her.
“Couldn’t have guess it from Jeanne’s demeanor,” Maeryn said sullenly.
“I should’ve heard them coming behind us.”
Cid, pulled back on the reins, letting the others catch up. “Jeanne and Kveldulf are close, almost closer than some people hold for their own kin. Between the situation and her own wounds, I would place good money she didn’t mean anything by it.”
Maeryn looked at Cid with a narrow gaze and a set jaw. Leonidas noted a lack of warmth in her bearing. A cold look in her eyes. He felt his skin crawl as it brought him back to his time to The Outlands. On a day bright and hot, without a cloud to blemish the sun’s rays. How he looked back at the same type of cold eyes staring down at him. Seeing his blood dripping from beaten fists and the look of bloodlust in the fiend’s eyes.
Leonidas felt a shiver rush up his spine as the memory came back. He rubbed the back of his neck to steady his nerves. Reminding himself the moment was in the past, far behind him and where he was. He forced himself to steady his breathing, so his anxiety did not reach a level beyond his control. He had to keep himself from the darkness, push away from thoughts he knew would begin to take him if he wasn’t careful.
The doctor turned his attention back to Cid, still trying to comfort Maeryn. The coldness had now left her eyes, though with her slumped shoulders and lowered gaze, there seemed little of a fighting spirit in her at the moment.
“Maeryn,” Cid said to her in a comforting tone, “We were in the middle of a fight with bandits and an ogre. Things were loud, chaotic. There was no way you could’ve heard everything around us.”
Maeryn looked down. Her clenched fist tapping the horn on her saddle.
“You did everything you could, have done you even made sure the two who got Kel didn’t fire a second volley. You performed well.”
She turned her gaze to the side, not making eye contact.
“I know, I’d be doing the same too. But he’s alive, he’ll be back on his feet soon, we’ll all have a story to tell.”
Maeryn looked up at him, her lips tucked in as she frowned.
“There was a thing my father used to say, when I would hard on myself when I couldn’t live up to what I thought was my potential. And it’s helped me out on many occasions. Failure is complete only when you refuse rise back up. We are all bound to slip up, its what makes us humble in whatever we do. It’s what we do afterwards which decides what the ending to our stories.”
“Thanks, Cid,” said Maeryn, taking a deep breath to clear her throat. “That helps a lot.”
Leonidas opened his mouth to inquire more, but decided against the idea. His stomach beginning to turn as he fathomed the ways such questions would turn against him. He looked over to Hypatia on his right, leaning forward with her head high up and fiddling with her reins scenery around them.
“You look like you’re having a good time,” he said to her.
She nodded at him with gleaming eyes and moving around in her saddle, rapidly nodding, “I’ve always loved the forests and the wilds of the world. And living in the city as a child I never had the chance to explore such places until I began working at the university.”
“Oh, is that how you met, Silvius?”
She nodded. “Back when we were first started at the university.”
“The one at Orumus?”
Hypatia nodded. “My parents made sure I went to the best. Nothing less for their darling angel. Course I don’t know how thrilled they’d be about all this. But I’m not telling them after all of this is all done.”
“And was this part of your original research?”
“Yes and no,” Hypatia replied. “We were on another expedition where Silvius found a tablet which when he translated to reveal the location to these ruins. But when he presented it to the committees, they mostly ignored him.”
“So, is this an official expedition?”
“If we find something worth their while,” Hypatia replied. “We are, as the university is concerned, an independent research group exploring these ruins under our own volition. So we don’t have to adhere to any academic guidelines when getting anything interesting here. But it also means they get everything we find.”
Leonidas nodded. “Ah, one of those situations. I’m not unfamiliar with that wonderful side of academic research.”
“Separates those who long to find for knowledge from those willing to find it.”
“Gods forbid you find more within that middle range.”
“True. But then they’re be less need of those who are willing to jump into that greater world.”
“Also true. Though it would be nice to seem the ones around to get their due respect.”
“Hopefully we’ll be one of the lucky ones to enjoy such things in our time,” Hypatia said, giving him a warm smile.
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” Leonidas said, smiling back.
We were sent here as a team to explore and archive our findings. Course, things have taken an intriguing turn, as you might say.”
“That’s putting it one way,” he said.
Cid pulled on the reins, halting his horse as his head and ears perked up while sniffing the air. “I think I smell smoke,” Cid said, turning back to the others.
Leonidas nudged his horse to catch up to Cid’s and spotted a large plume smoke rising into the air. His skin became cold and shivered while his mind went hazy for a long moment. Whispering, “Gods no,” he urged his horse into a full gallop with the others racing behind him.
The scent of smoke and ash now touched his nose. Once the farmhouse was in view he could see smoke coming from the windows and doorway. The uneasy now turned to panic, plaguing every thought, with unyielding fury. Silently pleading with merciful Ellien until he saw the door battered down and splintered and mangled throughout. Dismounting his horse, Leonidas stumbled over his feet before he bolted towards the doorway, still clinging to the hinges.
Reaching the entrance Leonidas move an overturned table out of the way. Coughing as the thick smoke began making it hard to breathe. “Moire! Siomon!” he called out, but only silence answered his cries. He moved further, negotiating around some of the broken furniture pieces, before reaching the stairway.
Benkin and Cid arrived to the front door. “Doc!” Benkin shouted, “What are you doing?”
“Look down here and see if you can find a mother and child,” Leonidas shouted back before bolting up the stairs. Reaching the top of, he saw more doors broken off from their hinges. At the doorway to Siomon’s room, he could see blood splattered on the walls. He felt his muscles tense up to where he could barely move them. His arm flinching up as if to his him from the horrors waiting for him on the other side of the threshold. He tried to step forward, but found his legs almost giving in under his own weight. Only with some effort did he move forward towards the room and he could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest.
He raced to the room. The smell of blood arrested his approach and the sensation from the day before began overcoming every thought. He stopped moving, remembering his breathing exercises, Death is the path we all must walk, Death is the end of the beginning to the unseen path, Death is resolution of all things, Death is the one who guides us to the next journey.
His breathing returned to a slower pace, and the dark sensations finally ebbed away. Opening his eyes, he moved into the room and found blood covered walls, torn bedsheets, broken furniture and two corpses. A mother and child. Leonidas took a heavy breath before looking up at the heavens. He could think of neither prayer or curse to utter as came upon the terrible sight.
He stood there looking the wretched scene, saying nothing, unable to move before calling out to the others. His heart deep in pain as his whole body went numb. Hearing the others calling out to him, he could barely summon the strength to say the words, “I … I found them,” before finally said as he made his way out the room.
The others dared not to ask, seeing Leonidas’s sullen face was enough for them to know what had happened. As the doctor left the home he leaned against a railing and stared out into a field of rye. Slumping forward, his head hung low as he tried to hold back tears beading in the corners of his eyes.
Looking up, he saw a woman, elven, fair skin, tall and lithe figure. She was clad fine rich turquoise robes, adorned in jewels and wearing a golden shawl around her shoulder and arms. She bore the stance of one born into royalty, just as he remembered her when they first met. She stretched her hand towards him, beckoning him towards her. “S-Selreen?” Leonidas said, beginning to stretching his hand out before he pulled it back. Memories of their parting coming back to him. The emptiness and shame making him long to run off in to the darkness, never be seen by the light anymore.
But he knew this wasn’t his fate. He knew he would linger on this world, watching those he felt kinship fade away into the oblivion. Leaving him to remain, to linger, to watch the world change and move past all he knew, with only bittersweet memories to stay with him until even they would abandon him.
He looked back up at the field, the figure now gone. He heard the rest leave the farmhouse, and after a moment to regain his composure, he made his way back to them. Silvius walked down to the other side of the path and vomited on the ground. Benkin closed his eyes and looked up, taking several deep breaths to steady himself. Hypatia lost most of the color in her face, with tears flowing down her cheeks. Maeryn leaned her head against the outer wall of the door, a clenched fist shaking as she uttered a prayer under her breath. Cid bowed his head and took a moment to collect himself before taking a deep breath and turning to the others.
“All right, we need to get back to the inn and figure our next move out.”
“What about the ruins?” Benkin asked.
“We can handle that later,” Cid replied. “This just became our priority.”
“Why would they attack here?” Maeryn asked.
“If they saw Doc racing back from here,” said Cid, “Then they could’ve thought this was his home or something along those lines?”
“I think some of us should get back to Kel and Jeanne,” said Silvius weakly.
“Agreed,” said Cid, “We’re all coming back together. No sense giving them the chance to pick us off one by one.”
“Come on, Doc,” said Benkin, waving him over to the horses.
Leonidas, said nothing, only nodding and following them back to their horses. His chest felt sharp pain in his chest as a lump seemed to form in his throat with it becoming difficult to pull himself up on his horse and nudge it forward. He kept his gaze for much of the ride back to town, barely looking up long enough to get his bearing.
No one spoke as they galloped back to town. Leonidas was in a limpness state barely keeping his mind on maneuvering his horse. Reaching the inn, they hitched their animals, slowly entered inside as the innkeeper called out to them.
“You’re lady friend was chatting with a man not too long ago.”
“What do you mean?” Benkin asked.
“This man came off the road, was having a drink when he spotted your friend and they got to chatting. Wasn’t that long before they went up—”
Before the innkeeper could finish, all of them hastened up the stairs to hallway. Their weapons unsheathed as they reached the opened doorway to Jeanne’s room. Inside they found Jeanne, skin covered in stone and sitting a battered and bloodied man underneath her, her arm wrapped around her waist.
“So … guess what happened to me today?” she said cheerfully.
“Are you all right?” Cid asked, sheathing his blade.
“I think I aggravated the ribs a bit, I might’ve let loose some scentful winds a little while waiting for everyone, but otherwise I’m fine,” she said. “This dunce however,” she continued while lifting herself up an inch and then landing on his back hard , “not so much.”
“Well, looks like we got ourselves a little bird,” said Cid, “Let’s how well he can sing.”