Seeking answers

[Aoife Lee Frye]

Aoife may have relaxed somewhat, but she was still watching the stranger like a hawk- and the way he visibly relaxed, his shoulders falling, did not escape her notice. He even seemed to relax enough to find humour in the mystic’s words: a snort coming from his nose as he recalled the repercussions of hitting the captain. The lesson was, at least in Aoife’s opinion, well deserved and well earned. Aoife wished that she could have at least landed one pot shot before making her way up Nephim peak. 

Whatever the man had said in the moments before handing Aoife the note fled her memory as though he had never even spoken. It was his hand, she knew it. The words, well the strange code, swam in and out of focus as the woman scanned the page. She couldn’t make out a single word of the code, no matter which way up she held the page. Not knowing what to think or how to feel, Aoife felt and thought everything all at once- and for a moment the mystic thought her knees might give way beneath her. 

”I’m sorry, for your loss.” Aoife said, somewhat awkwardly- eyes not even glancing up from the page as she tried once again in vain to make some kind of sense of it. ”I need to know what this means? Captured? It doesn’t make any sense- ‘do not look back’, what does that mean?” The frustration was rising in her once again. More questions, less answers, and now a strange note in a hand she had once known almost as well as her own. ”The guard who wrote this, do you know where he is? What happened to him?”

The woman tried to keep the desperation from her voice, but she couldn’t keep her lip from wobbling, couldn’t keep the tears pooling behind her eyes. Every second bringing her closer to breaking point.

[Logan Baird]

The lesson hadn't been one he had thought he needed. Logan had a healthy respect for authority. But in that moment, he had had more pressing concerns than authority. It had been...worth it, if not something he wanted to repeat.

It didn't take much for Logan to realize she hadn't listened to everything he said once she looked at the note. There was...something both distant and more palpable about the woman as she looked at it. Clearly it meant something to her too. Just...not the same something.

He nodded at her condolences. He wasn't okay with what had happened, but even just having shared some of it, even with a stranger, whether she had heard him or not...he did believe she meant it. But her tone changed after that. Between the barrage of questions and her frustrated tone, he tensed again. And then, at least to him, it made sense.

"That's why he sent you," he mumbled with a sad look, and then as if worried his lack of answer would see her frustration directed at him, Logan raised his hands again, this time more in an attempt to calm than in a gesture of surrender, but close enough. He didn't know much more than what he had already told her. Even after talking to his family, they had only been able to speak to so much. They didn't see what had happened after they ran. Anders hadn't said anything about the events at all, but being as the boy was only three, he hadn't wanted to traumatize him further. He liked to think Ainsleigh had done something to help, little lady knight she had always been.

The question of where, however, that he could answer. He'd asked Arcturis the day he first showed him this place. Logan grit his teeth awkwardly, a sinking feeling in his own stomach. He half turned and side stepped out and around the small shrine and gestured toward one of standing stones, this one with a creeping vine slowly scaling one side of it.

There were a lot of things he could say, but none of them wanted to come out, so instead he opted for clarity. "He's buried over there." He hadn't asked for names, largely because he knew the captain wouldn't say anything. But he had wanted to pay respects to the man who had saved the rest of his family. It was clear from his lack of helpful answers that Logan didn't know anything more.

[Aoife Lee Frye]

She still hadn’t looked up from the page, turning it over and looking at the strange writing from each and every angle- Aoife had known he was a warden, had known he was out that night, but he had never taught her to read the strange glyphs and codes they used. She had never even seen this one before, but it was his hand, unmistakable even if the note’s meaning eluded her. So she didn’t see the way his hands raised to calm her, barely heard the stranger’s words. Everything seemed so far away, as though it was happening to someone else and she was merely watching it all- powerless to stop it. She wasn’t angry, wasn’t mad, wasn’t even upset… in that moment, Aoife felt almost nothing but a crushing emptiness. So he was gone.

Aoife had clambered up this mountain in hope of answers, and yet the one she had found brought her no satisfaction. Before, there was at least a grain of hope. Now though, there wasn’t even that to cling onto. If it hadn’t happened here, why had they brought him to this place to bury him? Why hadn’t they brought him home? 

The mystic felt the full force of her grief wash over her once again, nearly knocking her from her feet as tears pooled- forcing her vision in and out of focus with each blink of her eyes. 

After an age, Aoife found the strength to look up: first at the guard whose name she’d never asked for, and then towards the standing stone which now served as a grave marker for the man she had loved and the life they had lost. It was clear the stranger didn’t know much more, unlike the captain, he had been helpful- sharing the little knowledge he had. Aoife opened her mouth to thank him, but her lips couldn’t form the words, instead she managed only a half nod- clenching her jaw in the hopes the tension would hold her together.

[Logan Baird]

The guard had no idea who she was or who poor unnamed soldier had been to her, but he could tell he had meant a lot more to the woman as a companion in life than he ever had as a protector in death to Logan. "Keep the note," he mumbled. Not that he expected he would be able to get it back. He had other nicer memories, after all. Perhaps it was a good thing, to stop dwelling on the murky past.

He wasn't sure what else to do after that. He didn't want to simply abandon the woman, but he also felt it wasn't his place to watch her grief or impose upon whatever else she might wish to do.

After a moment, he excused himself, though he doubted the woman heard him, and made his way out of the clearing with a last misty look toward the faintly darkening sky.