The Warden | A For Honor Fanfiction

Questioning

Being forced to bed rest may very well be one of the most excruciating experiences a person can go through. Don't get me wrong, it's far from being stabbed or nearly freezing to death, but at least in those cases you still have some level of autonomy. With bed rest, you're stuck in one place, for hours or even days at a time, until some other person decides you're capable of literally anything else. In my case, even walking around was considered too strenuous, "could disturb the recovering injury" and all that mess. Eventually the attending physician decided that the stab wound had properly healed, and that I had returned to a healthy enough state that I could walk around without much complication.

All that to say I was glad to be up and moving again, and even happier to be back to some state of normalcy. My lute was in my hands, my fingers were strumming along to a gathered crowd of patrons, and they were enraptured by my performance. No dancing or jumping just yet though, I was still feeling a bit too stiff and sore to try any of that. Even after two full days of rest, I figured it was better to take it easy on day three. Besides, I wouldn't want to get another earful from the good doctor.

The patrons were just some off duty guards who had gathered in an empty corner of a dining hall, pretty standard all things considered. The whole thing only consisted of two decently sized tables, an open fireplace, and a crusty looking blue and gray rug that probably had its fair share of old food. Still, coin was coin, and any excuse to play was a welcome one for me. They'd heard two songs already, and I was just about finished with the third. It was an old song, written some several hundred years ago about a young queen who committed adultery, no points for guessing how that went for the poor girl. The song never mentioned that she was a good twenty years younger than her king, but that was neither here nor there. It was a favorite for its somber tones, and that was good for keeping audiences invested.

With a gentle exhale, I strummed the last chord of the song, letting it echo within the hall as I closed my eyes. A gentle smattering of applause followed as I adjusted a bit, being careful not to move my left side too much. When I opened my eyes again, the guards had settled, one of them even tossed a silver into a slow growing pile in front of me. The whole thing was maybe ten silver in total, hardly breaking the bank, but plenty generous from people who had no reason to give me anything. For that reason, I smiled and rested my arms on my lute, placing my head gently atop them.

"Well, that's always a fun one. Care for another, boys?" I asked, adding just a hint of playfulness in my voice. The guards took turns looking at one another before one of them sat straight, as though trying to appear taller. It was a cute effort, but all the armor and posturing in the world could only do so much for a short guy.

"Lady Bard, you've given us three well known songs, and while they've all been beautiful, I was wondering if you had anything original?" He said, his voice tapering off towards the end. While he tried acting confident, I could still hear the slight tremble in his voice. I knew the question was coming at some point, and the truth was I did have a few original pieces. But they were far from ready, half of them were more incoherent rambling than proper songs or epics. As for the other half, they were still in progress, with maybe a verse or two written. Certainly not something people would pay to hear, at the very least. So I smiled sweetly and shook my head at the man.

"Not today, friend. A lady needs proper rest before wandering into the unknown." I said sweetly. He seemed disappointed and pulled away a bit, but he stayed sitting down. I was glad to see him accept my response, more than once that explanation had driven away potential patrons, once it had even gotten me a tomato, and not in a nice way. The rest of the guards seemed to converse among themselves for a moment, until one that seemed older than the rest nodded and stood up. I raised my head a bit to meet him.

"There's a song we sing when marching to battle, we were hoping that if we gave it to you, you could sing it back?" His voice did not tremble, I could tell right away that he was the proper leader of these men. Before I could give a reply, however, we were interrupted by a new voice.