Blade of Erogrund

Chapter 28- Legends Within

For perhaps the hundredth time that night, Mira questioned why she continued to sit at the King's bedside. Night had continued in stillness after Theronin had departed, leaving in his wake only the shadows of the night and the cold words that had frozen her heart. 

He left. Fled. Dismal thoughts struck her one after another as arrows fired from some fleet-fingered archer despite her best effort to repel them. The weight of hopelessness threatened to pull tears from her eyes, but she refused to let them come. And now what was left? A dying king to rule a broken kingdom that held nothing for her. 

From somewhere inside a voice whispered that Godric would come back; he had to. Yet its otherwise reassuring message was drowned out by the chorus of reminders that the fact he had left in the first place remained, regardless of whether or not he would be back. The matter was that he didn't care enough to tell her, to even speak to her at the ball. The heat of the battle had sent him running, though not to her but to freedom. He had chosen to run alone....

A single tear raced down her cheek, cutting away a layer of gore that covered it like a hideous mask. It's warmth set a sudden deeper fire of anger as she thought more about it. He had left. Gone. Run like a coward. There was nothing to be done. He had made his choice and she would have to live with it. 

But then even as the roar of anger had exploded it succumbed to the tremors of terror that wracked her inside. I will have to live with it..... Live with what? Unless I do what I cannot there is nothing to live for. Ennor and the rest of us will fade....

"Do you want to talk about it?" 

Saracyir had been utterly still since speaking to the young Lord. Her sudden words startled Mira. 

"About what?" 

The elf noiselessly lifted her head from where it had been bowed toward the bed in order to meet Mira's eye. "Something troubles you deeply. It has worsened since Theronin delivered the news of your kins' fate. Even before that a great weight had burdened you." 

It was Mira's turn to bow her head. "How could you tell?" 

Sarah shrugged. "The eyes of Men are thin; much can be seen through them if one knows what to look for. But you hide behind your questions; if you wish not to speak about it, that is your right." 

"It's not that..." Mira waivered. The maiden that sat across from her spoke with such a calm reassurance that she was tempted to tell all that had crossed her mind since seeing Ennor. To tell her about the voices that spoke in her mind and the terror she felt. "I'm afraid," she finally answered. 

"Of what?" 

A deep breath escaped her lips that she had not realized was being held. What is it that I am afraid of? "The end." Even as she said the words she knew they carried more truth than she had thought any answer could carry. "I'm saddened by the end of all I have know," she continued. "I am shattered by the passing of Aeis. I am despairing for the leaving of Godric and the end of our companionship. I fear the end of the King. I quake at the thought of what lies outside the walls of the city. And most of all I fear that the end of this story will not be a bright one." 

"And what will you do about it?" The candidness in the elf's soft voice washed over Mira like sobering, cold water. Evidently her failure to answer was rightly assumed as confusion by the elf who continued. "I have lived to see the sun pass by more times than my memory may suitably recite. Always it rises in the East and sets in the West. Some say it shall never end, but I am more than familiar with the ends that befall us who walk upon the land beneath it.  My eyes have seen the building of kingdoms and the tearing of them down. I have seen the scorch of dragonfire consume and felt the heat of it on my skin. I have felt the loss of brothers and sisters, friends and comrades." Of all the words spoken by Saracyir these seemed the strangest to Mira; that she should have at one point tread beside those of her race - let alone of her bloodline - was somehow legendary. "But we who continue to fight, we are the characters of our story. The only time it may end is if we cease to fill its pages. Do you understand?"