The Tales of Miriela: Shadowborn

Chapter 46: Briggston Reed

Briggs had traveled East. It was a long night's journey, sneaking and hiding as best he could. But he had made it to the Eastern wall, where the Mountain Stream passed into the city, the very passage he so often used to leave Kessex. Only this time the entirety of the Keep's Guard was searching for him. This time, he was the Lord's Eye. This time, he was committing treason, against his father, against his mother, against Kessex. And this time, Briggston had no intention of returning.

Wherever the letter had ended up, Briggs knew he'd had it the night before. But maybe Ada was still safe, maybe she had somehow received the letter and was already waiting for Briggs. All that Briggs could think of, the sole focus of his mind, was getting he and Ada away from the city. She was right and Briggs now knew it. She had begged him time and time again to pay the fisherman and go South. But fear, or insecurity perhaps, kept Briggs at the shore, afraid to step his foot in the sea, and leave all that he knew.

Briggston ran as quickly as he could towards the tree in the creek where he and Ada met. The familiar path he had traveled so many times before seemed to feel strangely different. The same cool breeze kissed his cheek, and the same moonlight guided each step. The same trees swayed in the stillness of the night and the fields of grass still danced the same dance. It was not the path itself that Briggston found so unfamiliar, it was instead the thoughts that accompanied him.

He had never walked the path before with worry in his heart and uncertainty in his mind. Instead, sheer joy, born of his love for Ada, accompanied him each time before. But without it, Briggs felt lost. The worry, the fear, it blinded him, like a cloth that had fallen over his eyes.

Briggs arrived to the creek. The Great Tree waited, covered by a wall of brush and smaller trees. He hoped that she would be there waiting for him, by some chance. Maybe his letter had found her. But reality was never far from Briggston's thoughts. He knew that Ada was likely sleeping at this hour, inside the farmhouse, just a bit further South from the creek.

He had never approached Ada's home. She had warned him time and time again not to. Her father did not care for the nobles, and the son of Fey Reed was most definitely no exception. Neither of their families would ever approve. They would need to choose, their families or their love, for the two would never exist in unison.

The path twisted and turned and finally lead into the brush, where Briggs entered quietly. He crept low to the ground, hiding himself in the brush as he always did.

"Ada," He whispered. The crackle of dead tree branches, and the twisted vines that hung from them, were all that responded to his call.

"Ada, are you here? It's Briggston. You were right, Ada. We must go South," Briggs said. Still, no one spoke back. The eerie chill of loneliness pierced his spine.

Briggston peered his head out from the brush to look towards the farm house. The moonlight illuminated a path through the field for him to follow. He was afraid, the farmhouse was the last place he wanted to go. But, if coming face to face with Ada's father was what it took to be with her, then Briggs was willing to take the risk.

With a deep breath, Briggs stood to his feet. He pushed and pried his way through the thistle and weeds of the brush and finally found himself standing where he never before had, the Northern field of Ada's farm. The Southern Gate of Kessex was still in sight, just West of where he stood, the moonlit fields to the South.

It felt odd. Ada has always wanted him to leave and go South with her, but other than the shores, the furthest he had gone was the Great Tree, until now. With those steps onto the farm's fields Briggs has made his choice, not just in thought, but now in action. He would travel South. Golden water was where Sia had always planned, a Northern dock of Kylos, a land which lie South of Miriela, just across the Southernsea.