Private Tales Light After Dark

[Audreyn]

Audreyn didn't laugh, not an eye bat.

"Right. Avoid nepotism. Got it." She grabbed the wrapped bread, turning to peel out of the place in excitement when-- she stopped short, blinking hard and walking almost embarrassingly over to him.

"Themoneyforthethings," she whispered, almost incomprehensibly.

 

[Gerrard]

"Of course," he said, passing her a purse of coin. The words were spoken more kindly than almost anything he had said to her. Money had never been a goal of his in life. It was a means to an end at times. If there had been a time to leave him with what possession he carried it would have been on the side of the road.

He offered a brief smile, but his eyes looked tired now. "If I'm asleep when you get back just wake me."

He would be, but there was the scrying spell to work on.

 

[Audreyn]

She flashed him an embarrassed smile, pocket the coin and nodding almost shyly. "Rest well." She shoved a bite of bread in her mouth. "I'll be back~" And with that vow, she left.

And didn't return till dusk had well set, her hair a mess, her clothing dirty. Something smelt burnt, though the wide look to her eyes as she crept in showed she was well enough, if not just horrendously late. And aware of it.

 

[Gerrard]

"Did you set fire to something?" came a murmur from his bed. After years of experimenting, Gerrard had a nose for trouble. Something starting to burn or give off fumes was always a bad sign unless expected.

The glassware on his table was distinctly empty. Nothing but burgundy stains left of the wine he had used to find a comfortable sleep.

 

[Audreyn]

She startled, the door latch slamming behind her at the motion. "I- wha- Nooo," she flustered, leaving the door to hurry to her bed and toss a satchel onto the edge. She quickly kicked off her shoes, mud and guick flicking off of them, and fussed to tuck away her equally stained portion of dress.

"Did I-Did I just wake you? Soooorry," she winced, trying to sit down quietly.

"Go back to sleep," came the whisper.

 

[Gerrard]

Unfortunately her response had something of the opposite effect. Gerrard pushed himself up to his elbows and looked around. It wasn't a candle. Was there something else burning?

"Oh. It's late. Is that the fire downstairs I can smell?" he asked. Confusion started to subside, but the wine hadn't quite worn off yet.

 

[Audreyn]

"Y-Yeah," she agreed, almost too quickly. "One of the flutes, it didn't open properly so they-uh, yanno. Smoked themselves out a bit but it's all good now. I'll open a widow." And she quickly hoped off the bed to do just that, the smell of smoke drifting with her as she scampered by him.

The cool air kissed the room, and just as quickly she was reaching for her nightgown and dipping behind a changing screen before the disoriented bloke had time to pause. She reemerged moments later, the dress kicked well and into the corner of the space before she quietly went to wash up dirt-covered hands and mud-smeared face.

Or at least it looked like dirt in the dim candle light.

 

[Gerrard]

"Audreyn..." came a soft prompt. With a quiet grunt he sat himself upright. Silver hair fell loose over his nightshirt.

"I'm not going to be angry if you lost control again."

But he really did want to know if another angry, ignorant mob was about to start throwing rocks at the windows.

 

[Audreyn]

Audreyn's fervent scrubbing slowed, her hands hanging limply in the washing basin. Shoot swirled amongst the water, the remnants of it stuck under her finger nails.

"...I'm sorry," she replied quietly, a tight pinch to her tone. "...I didn't mean to." She slowly wiped dry her hands, the rest catching in her throat.

 

[Gerrard]

"It is fine," he said quietly. It might not be but he was tired and realised that he had done very little to help her control her abilities over the last few days.

"Are you hurt?" he said, gaze falling to her hands.

 

[Audreyn]

"...I have cream," she admitted, clutching her hands to her. "I'll be fine. I have your money." She walked quickly to the clothing, digging through its defiled folds to pull out an equally muddy coin bag. She grimaced, slowly walking it back to him.

"...Sorry. I-I dropped it." Understatement of the year. It smelt like sewage. "S'all there though," she offered sincerely.

 

[Gerrard]

Canting his head to one side, he regarded the purse curiously. He was looking for more alert by the second. By the seventh realm it had only been a day. His nose crinkled before he looked back up at Audreyn.

"Let me see," he asked. He was sat upright now and held out his own hands. They were marred by age, old burns were lessons he had learned at the college. Some of them were lessons he had stubbornly refused to learn. None as much as the permanent scars barely visible below his neck above the line of his shirt.

"Why don't you give me the full story?"

 

[Audreyn]

She hesitated, but it was his calm nature that coaxed her forward. She slowly placed her hands in his palms, body alert for the stronger reaction that would send her leaping away. Her father wasn't a cruel man, but wasn't level headed either. I mean what rational man would sell their daughter's soul, right?

The burns licked up her palms, scrubbed raw and screaming at the treatment. She didn't feel them through the adrenaline. Not yet.

"I got the horse like you wanted," she started, giving a story. Just not the the story. "And then- the apothecary. I found there again too. She's pretty weird... pretty sure that skeleton was your friend..."

 

[Gerrard]

"Well, healers need skeletons to learn and they don't grow and trees," he replied in a rather macabre deadpan. He looked over her hands. She had so few of the lines of age, but her palms showed she had worked. Rather than the faint white lines he carried from beaker or gauze, there were hot pink blotches from fresh burns.

"Keep your hands in the cold water for longer," he suggested. "And the mud and smoke and burns..." he prompted.

 

[Audreyn]

She grimaced, taking back her hands and wringing them.

"...well see. It was really cloudy today... And this place is big..." She edged back slowly, till she hit her bed and could sit with ample space between them. She picked at her nail, fussing over her next words.

"I know which way is North, I really do! But... I dunno. I got overwhelmed. It was a crowded square, there were all these things, and I guess I musta went the wrong way..."

South, actually.

"Yoooou're right... it's pretty bad down there..." She took a deep breath, gauging his temper before giving him the rest. "I musta been obvious about it cause, well this guy tried to grab me. Well not me, I think they wanted the money, at least they said so. But I couldn't help it-- I couldn't give it to them, and when he touched me I just-..."

"I think he okay?" she tried to reason, her voice rising octaves.

"We we on fire and then we fell into-into some water and ... well he got up and ran?"

 

[Gerrard]

He could almost feel the bile creeping up his throat as she finally got to the heart of the matter. Cowardly peasants who could think of no way to better themselves than stealing from a woman alone on the street. The anger he felt was not directed at her.

"I'm glad you're safe," he said with a sigh. He didn't have the energy to let that anger take hold. "Sounds like the thief got a surprise at the very least."

Realising that they were not clear of the possibility of her light another fire he slightly moved the subject away.

"Cool your hands in the water again. Did you get the healing kit? I'll help bind them if you did or send for someone if not.

"Did the stables have any spare pack horses for the tent?"

 

[Audreyn]

"I do. They did," she quibbled, trying to calm herself down from her own distress. She was fine really, in the end. Just frightened. A little burned. Perhaps a lesson would be learned not to walk so doe eyed down strange streets, for now she just felt tired and stupid. She stood back up, handing him the satchel she had come back with. Most gratefully it had not fallen in the water. Imagine the waste that would have been, sewage water leaking into healing ointments. Oi.

She went back to the water and dipped her hands in it again, a chill starting to break across the room from the open window. She shivered, eyeing him carefully.

"I'm sorry for waking you. How are you feeling?"

 

[Gerrard]

"Better, though I have not yet quite slept off the wine. Which in some respects is a good thing as its just right for the dull pain I still have."

He dragged his fingers back through his hair and pushed his legs out of the covers to move himself to the edge of the bed.

There wasn't much light to look through the bag, but it was easy enough to find some fresh bandages.

"Would you like me to get dressed and go get some food so they can pour you another bath. And to get those clothes washed. Or burned." Gerrard tried a faint smile to ease her nerves.

 

[Audreyn]

"No," she answered easily, weariness entering her voice. "I think I'm gonna sleep. You can burn the dress. It's um. Well, it's mostly gone anyways." And what a waste at that. One might say it was a good thing it was already the stained one, but to her a stain was no reason to put a dress down.

"Deep round jar, that's for burns. You can use the square one on yourself. Suppose to kill bad things. Did you know there's bad things all over us we can't see?" She pulled her hands from the water, too lazy to stand there any longer. She walked over, gingerly drying off and grimacing as feeling was prickling to life. She sat on the edge of his bed as he fussed with the kit, flexing her fingers and watching a blister bend and stretch.

 

[Gerrard]

"Ah, Paniver's theorum that infection is caused by a tiny creature we cannot see," Gerrard said. His tone suggested that he was rather skeptical about the notion. Glassware wasnt far enough along to truly prove the notion one way or another yet.

He sucked air through his teeth at the sight of her burns. "Trust me, I know how that feels," he said. He twisted the lid from the jar she had indicated. He worked out a dollap with a finger and smeared it across the worst areas. Her skin was smooth and tender to the touch. He wondered how many times she might have burned herself trying to control her powers.

"Can you rub that in a little?" he asked, turning to the bandages.

 

[Audreyn]

She did so, a sweat beading on her forehead as the burn really kicked up. By the time she held back out her hands, they shook ever so slightly. Regreeeet...

"Tiny?" She mused, trying to distract herself. "She said they were like spirits. Jealous that we're healthy so they make us sick until we join them. Are... our spirits tiny? Why are our bodies so big then?" Came the flow of questions, true curiosity coloring her tone.

 

[Gerrard]

"Paniver published a theory that tiny creatures eating us is what causes infection. He proved fairly well that infection causes more infection, but I hardly think that's cause to believe in tiny flesh eating things."

He circled her wrist delicately. Those pale lines were lessons that had given him exceptionally steady hands.

"I'll try and keep your fingers and thumbs free," he said.

"There are some decidedly malevolent spirits, but I don't think they are that prevalent, nor that easy to dissuade with balms. Then again...it is not my area of expertise." He was focused on what he was doing now. Brow furrowed in concentration and he wrapped the worst of the burns with surprising care.

 

[Audreyn]

"I don't think they're real," she concluded, just like that. "It wouldn't be very handy, to be tiny. They'd get squished with anything we'd do. Then you could just squish infections to make them go away. We both know that doesn't work," she concluded with pointed sass, glancing at his side. She took back her first hand when he was done with it, her mouth working against the pain that pressure against it cause.

"Okay, this is starting to hurt now." The tension in her voice suggested it more than just starting. She let out a shaky breath, squirming. "O-ow. Hm. M-mh. Ok,ok, that's okay now." She squirmed off the bed, holding her hands awkwardly around her.

 

[Gerrard]

"I...well...yes I suppose that would be true." He hadn't thought of it like that. In hindsight it would have been quite an insightful thing to say when one of his students had come to the college to tell them about the subject.

"I suggest wine for the pain," he said. "Or maybe something stronger. In my lab I typically keep a whiskey on hand for...accidents."

It was one thing to cause a small explosion or burn yourself with chemicals. It wasn't enough to earn him the moniker that followed him around elbion.

 

[Audreyn]

“Okay,” she agreed readily enough, no qualms over endulging over something heavier to dull the burn. She never really reached for more than weak ale to sate her thirst but this. This was medical.

She floundered in place, realizing she had already dressed down, she’d have to cover herself. But really she was abruptly unwilling to even grab something. Never mind run an errand.

She gave him an helpless, pleading look.

“You don’t happen to travel with your lab stuff, do you?”