99: Lost Innocence

The obrec lodge had been altered by its inhabitants since I had built it. They had added all sorts of little things, like a balcony over the entrance. The biggest addition was the large slate roofed patio on one side, which they used to store their wagons out of the rain and work on any crafting that couldn’t be done inside.

Obrec rangers were posted out the front of the patio and main lodge entrance, but with my magic, I could sense several more lurking in the windows where humans couldn’t see them. Guess they trusted the general Avonsider population as much as I did right now.

Underneath the patio was a wagon that didn’t look like it belonged to the obrec, and it was pretty busted up to boot. Functional, but dented and slashed like it had been assaulted by an angry bear. There was even some charring along the back. Just what had happened to this thing, and to the person who owned it?

My guide ushered me in towards the entrance into the lodge, and I followed, marveling at how well the obrec had settled in. The Stonechasers were certainly an industrious lot, that’s for sure.

At a table off to the side were Otho, Jerril, and a human third I didn’t recognise. Otho had an arm around the third guy’s shoulders while Jerril spoke to him. All of them looked serious, but the third guy— hold on, that was…

“Cad?” I asked in surprise. It was the dude who had let me ride on his wagon! Him and his old mercenary protector. What was her name? Va— Valda, that’s right. Except… she wasn’t here.

Cad looked worn and tired compared to when I’d first met him. Worry lines had manifested on his forehead, harbouring dirt from the road. His characteristic easygoing and open expression was missing too, and his brown hair looked like it had only had the most hasty of washes in many many days. His clothes were worn and dirty too, the trousers in particular had a large rent in their fabric on the leg, where something or someone had slashed at him.

“Ryn!” the exhausted merchant exclaimed, standing up out of his seat with a faintly noticeable wobble.

He rushed around the table like a kid seeing their parents for the first time in months, only to slow and redden. “A-ah, hello. I’m sorry, I’m presuming. I um, I… Valda told me to come find you after she… after she…”

“Oh,” I said, my stomach dropping as I realised what he was saying. “How did she… are you okay?”

“It was that guy, Lord Fennimore,” he said, looking sad but not like he was about to fall apart entirely. “He found out we helped you somehow, hunted us. We realised we needed to come to this… this Avonside place, if we wanted to be safe. If we could find you, you could protect us. Valda said… she said you owed us, after all.”

“I did, and I do,” I replied forlornly. God, Fennimore was a fucking piece of work.

His expression wobbled its way into a smile of relief for a moment, before dropping down into one of haunted memory. “They caught us just before we crossed into empire lands. Ambushed us. Valda… she um, she… she jumped off the wagon, smacked the horses and told me to go. Then she just kept fighting until they… until she couldn’t anymore. I saw it from a distance. I escaped, obviously. At least she went out fighting. She always said she hated growing old.”

I swallowed and braced as guilt washed over me. God, Valda had died protecting Cad from my enemy. It was— 

“Don’t pull blame onto yourself which is rightfully that of someone else,” Otho said quietly in the obrec tongue, interrupting my train of thought.

Turning, I met his eyes with surprise. All he did was shrug and smile.

Blowing out a long breath, I nodded and turned my gaze back to Cad. Otho could tell me that it wasn’t my fault all he wanted, but that didn’t change much. I was still responsible, even if the blame for the actual act was squarely on Fennimore’s shoulders.

I’d liked Valda too, although I hadn’t known her for long. She’d been kind to me, even when she found out I was a mage. Yeah, I’d forgotten about her in the mess of shit that had happened since, but god… it sucked that she was dead.

At least I could take care of Cad for her. Help the guy get back on his feet, or even just join the order. We could definitely use a guy like him, that was for sure, and he’d be more than safe ensconced in my grove.

Cad’s big brown eyes were glancing between me and Otho in obvious confusion, and with a start I realised that I hadn’t spoken in a few moments. I gave him a smile to let him know everything was chill, then turned and closed my eyes. Running a hand through my long, magenta hair, I tried to pull enough thought juice together to function.

“Fucking Fennimore,” I said at last, bitter and frustrated. If it weren’t for him, I’d be on a much more chill and relaxed timeline than I was. If it weren’t for him, a good woman wouldn’t be dead. Well, and like a whole ton of other shit that the bastard had done.

“A-ah, yeah,” Cad agreed awkwardly, sounding a little intimidated. I guess there had been more venom in my tone than I realised.

“Let’s sit down,” I said , taking care with my tone this time. “Tell me everything.”

Placing my weary butt down on the rough wooden bench beside Jerril and opposite the two younger men, I settled in to listen.

"Well, we kept going after you left us," he began. "Buying goods in one town then shipping them to another. We never mentioned you to anyone, Valda made sure. She knew that association with a mage tends to draw the wrong kind of attention."

I found myself nodding at that. I could only imagine what people would do for a chance at getting the ear of a powerful mage.

“About a month ago, we were a few days' ride from Theorden to sell some Kildierian wool at the market there,” he said, tracing a knot on the wooden table with a finger. “Valda noticed some suspicious riders behind us as we gained the top of a rise and told me to get ready to run if we needed to. Said her bones were telling her something was wrong.”

“Sounds like her,” I said, trying for an amused expression and failing. Gah, I’d actually quite liked the gruff mercenary woman.

Surprisingly, Cad actually smiled at my remark. “Yeah. I’ve known her for a few years now, she’s always been so grumpy but also really nice.” His face fell as he realised the tense he’d used, and he murmured, “Ah… was. She was… yeah.”

Silently, I reached over the table to give his hand an awkward pat. Maybe it was stupid and rude of me, but I was a little wary about touching him, considering how he’d been last time. I just didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.

“Anyway, um… so they gained on us, obviously. Hard to outrun riders using a fully burdened wagon,” he continued bitterly. “It was pretty clear they were after us when they increased their pace to catch us, so Valda threw all the merchandise out the back to clutter the road and free up weight. It only helped for a little while, though, and that’s when she… when she told me to keep going and jumped off the back. Since then I’ve just been on my own, fleeing… yeah. I got a good look at them when they got closer and it was definitely Fennimore’s guys.”

“And you never mentioned me after we parted ways?” I asked, frowning as I tried to figure out how in the ring they found him and Valda.

He shook his head. “We did not.”

“I never mentioned you two either,” I said, confused. “I mean, besides… oh, that slimy fucking cunt!”

The last part had been said in english, but it was clear Cad understood the tone of outrage. “W-what?”

“One of the Avonsiders who I found,” I said, seething with frustrated, impotent anger. “He got captured by Fennimore and swapped sides. I mentioned you two when I was telling them my story.”

“Oh, that would do it, I guess,” he sighed.

It made me want to throw my mage senses wide and hunt him down, regardless of the migraine it would give me with so many people around. What the hell did Fennimore even want with Cad and Valda? They weren’t exactly important in the grand scheme of things. Fuck, first things first though, help the poor, road-weary guy on the other side of the table.

Slapping a smile on my face like that one guy in the meme about stopping a leak in a tank of water, I met his sorrowful gaze. “Well, shit. I’m really sorry about Valda. I’m sorry you got dragged into my problems. I guess, the least I can do is offer to help you do whatever it is you’d like to do from here on out. Assuming you want my help, that is.”

“I don’t even know what I want to do,” he said forlornly. “I can’t go back to trading in Anve lands, the lord will just come after me again. I don’t speak obrec, I don’t speak… um, engleese, and I don’t speak Aber, so I can’t move. I can’t go back to my village because that will put all of them in danger. I... I have nowhere to go.”

“Well… I have a proposition for you then…” I said, hoping he’d be happy with the idea of joining the Order.

QuietValerie