Worlds Apart

Fight

I have no way of knowing what time it is when the guards rush into my cell to finally unchain me. Long enough for the blood along my wrists to have dried over the steel securing them, for a dull ache to have emerged in my body and a chill to seep into my bones, long enough for my eyes to burn against my apparent exhaustion. But when I am finally unchained and moved to one of the holding cells right outside the arena, housing a wall of metal lockers with blood red banners hanging over the walls, I find there is no relief. There is no sense of urgency, however, either as I take a seat along the cool metal bench beneath me, flexing my hands under my gloves and adjusting the positioning of my tactical vest and knives given all my other weapons were taken from me. No guns in the arena, just brute weapons. With my elbows resting along my knees and forehead ducked over my entwined fingers, I close my eyes in an attempt to try to find some semblance of peace while I still can.

It is not long, however, until the door to my chained cell buzzes as someone keys in, and walking into the space is none other than Eadric here to greet me with a new ebony and crimson variation of his old armor, a daunting mask of black war paint streaked down his face in sharp angles as it once was with his hair pulled back in a similar fashion as well. His large form hugs the heavy armor comfortably, like a second skin, his fingerless gloves flexing against the numerous blades strapped to his belt with his large claymore strapped over his shoulder, and in my current state, sleep deprived and glancing over him with a glazed over gaze, he could amount to a devilish spawn terrifying enough to shock me still.

But then this terrifying form slowly steps forward to kneel in front of me, his lips parted and eyes wide under the angry shadow his frayed fringe casts over his head as he leans forward to catch my downward casted gaze.

"Do you remember the night I dislocated my shoulder hunting down that black panther?" He begins, his tone low, gravelly, rumbling against the walling closing us in. "We barely knew one another then and yet you were the one who popped it back in place. You fed me the medicine I needed to get through the night comfortably, and for the first time, you faced me in bed, holding tight to my hands all through the night to keep me warm."

I shuffle uncomfortably against the emotions beginning to well in my chest, forcing my eyes to remain locked over my hands wrung together before me.

"You managed to fall asleep shortly after you thought I did. But the truth was, that night, I stayed up for a long time, spending hours trying to decipher why I wanted so badly to trust someone. Never once in my life have I ever wanted to put myself in someone else's power, yet here I was, slowing giving myself away to you piece by piece in a way that was beyond my control as we continued to get to know one another. But that night was the first night in so long that I got to experience what it felt like to be held... to be cared for. For the first time in years, that deep seated desire to have my passions reciprocated was fueled in a way that made me feel fulfilled with you by my side. Of all the women I could have found on the ground, and you with the men in the sky, instead we managed to find each other, and five years later, we found each other again."

I tense as Eadric slowly reaches forward to take my gloved hand in his own, and he hesitates when I do so, his gaze flitting up to find mine still stubbornly refusing to meet it.

Abruptly, Eadric leans back in a huff before deadpanning, "Long way from that to barely being able to look at me."

"Not really." I mutter, finally raising my eyes to meet his own.

"How is that?" Eadric asks, his jaw clenched.

"The last five years you spent comforting another woman from the ground." I remind him, my tone bitter. "I spent those years with no one but Maaike there to look out for me, and now you're willing to allow her to die in a war by your sister's side all for the sake of protecting that woman."