Speranzi awoke to the feel of the cheap, rough cloth on her upper body, that bothersome itchy feeling of cheap wool that just wouldn’t go away… and a feeling of numbness that was slowly turning into pain on her back. ‘Where… what happened?’ She wondered as her eyes fluttered into wakefulness, the pulsing of the glowstone on the far wall didn’t illuminate the whole room, but whether it was one pace or half the world, she was no less confused by what she saw. “Hello?” She asked, her throat burned when she tried to speak, and she briefly wondered, ‘Was I captured or-?’
“No.” Speranzi clenched her jaw tight as memory slowly returned to her, the feel of the lash, the sound of her own blood spattering onto the stone around her legs. “That bastard… wait…” Her near burning rage gave way to the previous confusion. “If that happened then… where am I?”
There were chains on neither wrists nor ankles, the far door where the stone pulsed out its pale white light had no bars. ‘That rules out a dungeon cell somewhere.’ She tried to move, and fire seemed to lance through her body, she sucked in her teeth and let herself fall limp.
The numbness was receding faster and with it, a rising tide of pain that was far too close to what she so recently survived.
“I suppose it’s good that I can’t see how bad the damage is… I wonder how badly it’s bleeding? If I don’t get help soon…” She stopped speaking as the visual memory of the soldiers who died of fever within hours of their injuries if there was no one to provide proper care, herb, potions, or spells. ‘Whatever numbed the pain might help… that’s probably why I’m even able to wake up.’
That thought let her lose at least some of the tension carried by uncertainty. ‘Whoever brought me here wants me alive. That is something at least.’ Speranzi muttered before catching sight of her equipment off to one side. If there were doubts about her safety, the presence of her arms and armor dispelled them.
The door cracked open and Speranzi closed her eyes, her body relaxed and she resumed normal breathing.
“Good, you’re alive.” Skana sighed deeply with relief when she saw Speranzi’s steady breathing.
‘That’s a relief, she’s one of mine.’ Speranzi thought when she recognized Skana’s voice. She went ahead and opened her eyes, “You expected me to die?”
Skana jumped down the stairs and raced to the bedside of her commander. “My Lady, if you could see your back, you’d be as shocked as me.” She shivered as she looked down at the ripped up lines where blood still seeped despite the herb she’d applied.
“Then why does it only feel like I’m on fire, instead of like shattered glass that’s been rubbed with salt and then set on fire?” Speranzi asked, and Skana answered by reaching down with one finger to touch the outer edge of an injury.
“This is why.” Skana held the finger down at eye level with Speranzi, “The same reason I survived through the night after you injured me. “It’s a simple herb, I had some left over. The fact that you can’t smell it means that it is starting to lose effectiveness, and I don’t have enough to apply more.”
“So get me out of here, get me back to Micah.” Speranzi ordered as she stared at the little green smudge.
“If I move you, I’ll open up more wounds. You might very well die before we get out of here, and that’s if I can get over the wall while carrying you.” Skana pointed out.
“Then what? You just sit with me while I suffer until morning? What a grand old time…” She hissed, “This is really starting to hurt… gods… why… how could this have happened…” Speranzi gasped and squeezed her eyes shut again.
“Just relax, I got a low tier potion from an apothecary shop.” Skana said in a soft little voice as she heard a faint angry whimper from deep in Speranzi’s throat. She did her best to ignore it. “It may leave some marks behind, but it definitely has some mana infusion into it, I’m sure. You just have to hold still and let me apply it.”
“The apothecary shop was open at this hour?” Speranzi asked.
“You just have to hold still and let me apply it.” Skana retorted dryly.
Speranzi buried her face into the straw stuffed pillow surface. “Just do it… gods of old… this is getting worse every second!” Speranzi’s body was starting to tremble as the pain reasserted itself.
“Focus on something else. Tell me what exactly happened.” Skana asked and taking up the wet cloth, she wrung it clean over the water basin and after puncturing the wax with one jab of her thumb, she pressed the cloth against the opening and tilted the glass to soak part of the rag.
She listened as Speranzi explained it all, she wet the rag with the mana infused red liquid and touched each wound individually, tracing the mystic formula over the injury sites one streak after the other.
“...And the last thing I remember is screaming, then falling limp. Until I woke up here.” Speranzi answered just as Skana finished her work.
The wounds had faint blue hues glowing around them as the magic began to take effect and close up the gaps. It was only a low ranked potion, even though it would regrow ripped flesh in small quantities, Skana knew from watching the slow healing take place that the scars of the day would be there for the rest of her Lady’s life. ‘Her back will never be clean again… and that is why…’ She shook her head.
It was at once noble… to be expected out of the Maiden of the Door and the Hero of Prioche, but also… ‘That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.’
She coughed into her hand, “My Lady, at the village you killed the priest. Why not kill this one? Why let him try you? How did you not see this coming?”
Speranzi looked up, her face was no longer twisted in physical pain, leaving her looking more confused than anything. “Villages are places where the popular ones get their way and that’s all it takes. Be loved and trusted and you can get away with anything even if you don’t deserve to be loved or trusted at all. Villages are places of tradition, darkness, ignorance. They’re places of fear and weakness. But cities are where real law can exist. Where people of learning gather to bring justice and order out of chaos and just being old does not make you right.”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Speranzi let out a sigh of relief, “Ahhh, that really is feeling better…” She murmured, “My father,” she continued, “said that if I ever had a hope of being worth anything to anyone, get away from country estates and go for cities… I guess… I guess I put them on a pedestal. I thought if I brought true charges, that would be enough.”
“With respect… Ma’am… you’re the commander of a mercenary company, you must have been to a lot of cities other than the one to make your name. How could you expect that?” Skana was dumbstruck by the seeming naivete and barely kept her mouth from dropping open.
“Houses of Law don’t hire many swords. And I keep my unit disciplined, I have no real experience with things like… like court politics or…” Speranzi stretched her limbs out and sat up a little, “Take a good long look at me, do I look like the sort of woman that spent a lot of time on… anything but war?”
“I suppose not.” Skana hung her head, “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have questioned you that way. Not after you endured that to say our lives are worth something… this is why I struggled so hard, My Lady… a noble that bleeds for the common people? I could walk for a thousand days in any direction and not find more than a handful like that.”
Speranzi snorted with derision and began to push herself up on the bed. “Don’t be too impressed. The Jadara line may have some of the old blood on both sides of the family, but we’re hardly high nobles. We can’t even say which of the old gods our lines are descended from for sure. I spent more time with peasants than with people of my class, especially when war broke out.” She reached behind her and traced her hand over her back.
“Ugh, it must be ugly back there.” Speranzi remarked and after she swung her legs over the side of the bed, she leaned forward and rested her other forearm over her knees. She saw the apologetic expression of Skana, and immediately got ahead of it. “Don’t apologize. It doesn’t hurt, I’m alive, what’s it matter if I’m a little uglier for it?”
Skana was far from innocent, but seeing Speranzi so casual about being without her shirt was unexpected and she immediately looked away.
“Relax, we’re both women and I’m sure you’ve seen breasts before.” Speranzi said and slowly rose to unsteady feet to stretch out. “I guess a little of my nobility comes out, you peasants are very shy. Nobles are more sensible about this kind of thing, it’s just bare skin. Nothing to be ashamed about, especially when nobody will want to touch it from a bowshot away.” She laughed and looked down at her tattered shirt. “But I guess I do need something to wear…”
“Ah, if we wait till morning I can go buy you something.” Skana offered and let out a gulp as she stared at the half naked noble in front of her.
“I suppose…” Speranzi looked past Skana toward the door, “Yes, that would be for the best, a few more hours here wouldn’t hurt. Where are we, anyway?”
“Beneath an inn, in their basement. A pair of guards were sympathetic, they helped you… if they hadn’t, I don’t know what I would have done.” Skana admitted. “How’s your back feeling? I’m no magic caster, but I know those low grade potions aren’t the best.”
“A basement?” Speranzi asked rhetorically and looked around, then overhead toward the stone ceiling. She ignored the latter question and strode over to a barrel, took a deep breath, and then bellowed an outraged… “Fuck!” Her fist came out faster than Skana could track and struck an innocent rotting barrel.
The force of her blow shattered the wood and Skana all but jumped out of her skin at the display of rage and the noise of the snarling fury that followed. As the barrel tumbled to pieces, Speranzi drew her fist back to her side. “I’m such a bleeding fool.” She spoke through grinding teeth. “I just got so… angry… I was right, and still… still… I end up that way. Just a tool to terrify the weak into compliance, satisfy the sadistic, and show off the very power of the people I spoke against. If I had one thimbleful of sense this wouldn’t have happened!” She yelled, and Skana had to force her body not to react, staring at the sea of scars on her commander’s bare back in silence.
“I’m sorry.” It was all Skana could think to say. “But you’re not wrong.”
“About which part?” Speranzi asked as she looked down at the ruined pieces of the barrel that suffered her wrath.
“All of it, really. That was stupid and naive. But it was also a noble thing to do. But now you know better. There’s no real justice.” Skana said, unable to conceal the bitterness in her voice, “Not for peasants. Not for you. Not for anyone. I’m alive because you chose to spare me, but I was only where I was because it was the only place to go to learn. They beat you without killing you because you’re a noble. If it were me, I would have been simply killed. Maybe beaten to death to entertain the mob. And you saw yourself with that peasant, what they were going to do to him and his wife. None of us get justice, none of us ever will. And if there are any gods, they don’t give a flying shit, Ma’am.”
Skana felt tears of anger jump into being in her eyes, her body shook with frustration.
Speranzi stared down at the broken pile of wood and rusted metal bands and said, “Speranzi. Call me by my name. It’s the least I can offer after you put yourself at risk for me.”
Skana was shocked into silence.
“If you want to.” Speranzi added when the silence stretched. “If you don’t, that’s fine. I know I make people feel uncomfortable.”
“No! That’s not it! I-I’d be honored!” Skana hastened to answer, the words tumbling out of her mouth as fast as they could be formed.
“I just, I- you caught me by surprise. I am lowborn and… given the way you found me, even after this I- I don’t know what to say.” Her stumbled words came to a halt, and Speranzi gave a low chuckle.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. But listen, I wasn’t raised like a regular noble. I wasn’t going to inherit my family estate because my family already had living sons, and by the time I was five… well, let’s just say I learned there was no way in all the god’s hells that any man was going to marry me. I knew that before I even properly understood what marriage was. So I didn’t grow up learning the things most people in my station did. Being a proper ‘noble lady’ was never in the stars for me. So I learned other things, things that turned out to be useful when all Qadish went to hell. I guess you could just say I’m comfortable around people like you. Like my cast-off bastards.” She gestured toward the door, and thought of the encamped soldiers of her unit.
She returned to the bed and sat at the edge. “My back feels fine, by the way, thank you.” Speranzi finally answered the question. “I, on the other hand, could really use a drink. And by ‘a’, I mean all of them.”
Skana shifted a little on her feet and looked over toward the door.
“No. Don’t even think about it.” Speranzi said at once. “I’m not asking you to go rob a brewery. I was making a joke.” She smiled, or tried to. But it was clearly uncomfortable, with lots of little false starts before it formed properly on her face as if she were little used to making the expression.
“Oh. Well… it wasn’t very good… Speranzi” Skana answered, using the commander’s name for herself, she then took a dusty chair in hand and brought it to the side of the bed where Speranzi sat, and after placing it there she sat down herself.
“They never are. I never socialized enough to get any good at it.” Speranzi didn’t appear angry, instead she took the criticism in stride and just looked at the door across the room.
“We’ve got some time to kill until I can go get what you need. So, why not practice on me?” Skana suggested, “What else is there to do?”
“Are you serious? You want me, Speranzi Jadara… to practice telling jokes to you?” Speranzi asked, and Skana stared blankly at her until Speranzi met her eyes.
“Do you have something else to do… Speranzi?” She asked, and Speranzi’s fleeting smile returned.
“I suppose not. We might as well do something to pass the time, and that’s as good as anything else at this point.” Speranzi answered with a shrug, and Skana let her expression relax and become smugly confident. She leaned back in the old wooden chair, and waited while the mercenary commander tried to think of something funny.