The Circle Ends: Briar & Sandry
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
Darkness: The partial or total absence of light.
Darkness… Twisting, claustrophobic, darkness…
Those are the nightmares that woke Sandrilene Fa Toren well before dawn. She sat in her chambers at the Duke's citadel breathing heavily, sweat pouring down her temples as she gripped her light crystal to her chest and let it's comforting glow chase away the chills.
You alright Sandry? Briar's voice filled her head, letting her know that he'd felt her fear.
Yes, I'm alright… just night terrors sorry to wake you. She pushed sweaty golden-brown curls off of her forehead and slid out of bed, wrapping her thick winter robe over her nightgown.
Nah, you didn't wake me-I was already up. Do you want to talk about it?
No. I'd rather not. Sandry replied curtly as she slid out of her room and began to make her way down to the kitchens thinking that hot tea would chase the rest of the chills away. On her way she checked her connections with Tris and Daja, both were sound asleep-Daja in her own bed with the covers thrown off and Tris slumped in a rather uncomfortable looking chair with an open book on her lap.
Well thats too bad because I'm outside. Briar's mind-voice chuckled mirthlessly, Now are you going to come let me in or am I going to have to charm some sleepy maid into letting me in?
With a roll of her eyes Sandry let her senses expand until she found out which entrance her foster-brother was standing at and made her way there.
"You are expressly forbidden to charm any of the maids here Briar Moss." she scolded as she pulled open the door to let him in. It seemed to be raining lightly outside because Briar's inky black curls were damp.
"Aw you're no fun." Briar pouted as he stepped inside, the plant-mage was seemingly relaxed but his eyes took in Sandry's pale face and haunted eyes. "C'mon lets get some tea in you."
"Yes mother." Sandry rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at her brother, glad that the tremors in her hands had finally ceased, turning he resumed her walk to the kitchen.
"What are you doing wandering around at this hour?" she asked as she entered the kitchen with Briar on her heels and put a kettle over the fire.
"Couldn't sleep." was all he said with a shrug as he headed over to the window where a planter sat on the sill, the herbs that had been planted there turned their leaves towards him in greeting.
Sandry opened her mouth to ask him why but he cut her off "Sandry, I'm not here for me I'm here for you. You've been having these dreams a lot lately. I know you try to cut your emotions off from us but that doesn't really work. Now spill."
Sandry was saved from answering for a moment by the teakettle whistling, grateful for the distraction she busied herself with pouring them both a cup of tea and putting sugar (one lump for her, three for Briar) in it. Turning she handed him his cup and sat at the table next to him, holding the cup close to her face and inhaling the comforting scent of tea.
"I keep having dreams about being locked in that box. It's ridiculous since I know that no one will ever put me in a box again… but I can't seem to shake it."
Briar nodded sympathetically, he'd been the only one that she'd been able to connect with that night and he could still feel her soul crushing fear into the marrow of his bones. He also remembered her bloodied hands and feet-wounds she'd gotten from repeatedly trying to kick her confined prison open. It was not a good memory to have.
"What happened in Namorn is hard to shake." Briar agreed.
Sandry didn't reply and after a moment Briar's hand clasped hers-the rough pads of his fingers gripping her hand. "It won't happen again, all of our connections are open now so if you're trapped somewhere we can come and get you."
Sandry nodded but her face was still troubled, "Now you tell me why you were wandering around at four o clock in the morning." Sandry leveled a stare at him as she abruptly changed the subject.
Briar grimaced "You have a one track mind, you know that right?" Sandry lifted her nose regally and didn't reply, sighing he drew his hand back to his person and took a burning gulp of tea "I got a letter in the post today that I don't know what to make of." he pulled out a piece of thick parchment and reluctantly gave it over to her.
Sandry took it and skimmed the letter, her eyes widening as she reached the end of it. She sat for a few minutes in deep thought before looking up at him and saying "Your father wants to meet you?"
"Apparently." Briar grimaced at the word 'father'.
"I thought you said you didn't know who your father was."
"I didn't-I don't. This man, whoever he is, is not my father. No good man would leave a woman to fend for herself and an infant." Briar's chin set stubbornly.
"You don't even want to meet him? To see what he's like? We could go to Sotat you know-all of us." By all of us she meant her, Daja, Tris and himself. She looked back down at the letter and ran her fingers over the name Bronwyn Furlidan, the name sounded familiar to her but she couldn't quite place it.
"No. I don't want to meet him and don't you go yapping to Tris or Daja-I don't want you girls to make a huge deal out of it."
"But it is a huge deal," Sandry said quietly "It's got you wandering around Summersea before the sun even rises."
"No it does-" but whatever Briar said next was drowned out by the sound of the door slamming open, revealing a dark figure standing in the doorway. Lightning flashed behind the figure, illuminating the figure's face.
Briar had moved to stand in front of Sandry; but Sandry, who stood just below his shoulder, peered around him and gasped "Gospard!"
Sandry rushed passed Briar and jumped into her favorite cousin's arms "I thought you were out at sea for another month!" she exclaimed as she leaned back to get a good look at her Uncle's second son.
Out of the four of the Duke's sons Gospard Fer Toren resembled his father the most, he had broad shoulders that exuded power and warm brown eyes that always seemed to hold a trace of laughter in them. His head, however, was covered in thick black hair that curled at the ends unlike his father's head which was completely bald. His face, which was normally clean-shaven, was covered in a fine black stubble.
"Hello little chickadee," Gospard greeted her fondly with his pet name for her, "my plans changed. I need to speak with my father can you send a maid to wake him?" Sandry examined her cousin's face for a moment, noticing it's sallowness. Turning she promptly hurried out of the kitchen to wake a chambermaid.
Briar and Gospard stared at each other, sizing one another up, the last time that the plant-mage had seen the Duke's second son he'd been a scrawny kid. Now the former street-rat had sprouted and was nearly the Naval officer's height. Briar had a lean figure but none could mistake the sinewy muscles writing under his skin from long hard days doing manual labor in his gardens.
"Moss." Gospard finally said, looking down his beaky nose at Briar who refused to flinch.
"Fer Toren." the mage replied easily, and that was the end of the interaction.
Sandry returned from waking a chambermaid and hurried back over to her cousin's side "Now you will tell me what has happened?" she asked as she hastily poured him a cup of tea.
"In good time chickadee, I must tell my father before anyone else."
"But you look so sad." Sandry wanted to insist that he tell her what was going on as she hated to not be in the know, but she bit her lip and waited with her cousin and Briar who was oddly silent.
Ten minutes later the Duke swept into the room and took one look at his son before gesturing for the man to follow him leaving Briar and Sandry alone again.
"So now what do we do?" Briar asked settling back in his chair, determined to wait with Sandry until they found out what had happened.
"We could talk about the letter." Sandry offered.
"Or we could talk about your nightmare." Briar shot back and they both lapsed into silence.
Almost two hours later Sandry had fallen asleep slumped against Briar who was trying his best not to jostle her awake. He'd asked her if she wanted to return to her room and sleep in her own bed but she'd yawned and shook her head, muttering something about him chasing away her nightmares before dropping off into oblivion.
Briar's thoughts were all over the place, from Gospard Fer Toren's appearance to the letter from his father. He was all jumbled up on the inside about his father in particular, it had taken everything in him to keep his emotions cloaked the entire day. But when he'd felt Sandry's panic he couldn't just leave her by herself and once he'd seen her face he knew that the letter wasn't something he could keep from her.
Somehow he knew Sandry would take charge of the situation, she always knew what to do and he'd almost found himself agreeing to go to Sotat and meet his father. But his only memory of his mother had flashed in his mind-how she used to cry over him at night and how she'd been consumed by the solitude of raising a child on her own and it had kept him from agreeing.
He'd told himself he'd never do that to a woman, and he'd taken every precaution with his dalliances so there wouldn't be any green eyed children running about Emelan or otherwise. He enjoyed the company of women sure, but he would never marry or become a father. He was far more interested in his plants than any woman he'd ever met and probably always would be.
The sound of a door clicking brought Briar back to the present, Vedris had stepped into the room looking more haggard than Briar had ever seen him. An immense sadness had set in the usually cheerful brown eyes as he met Briar's eyes before looking at his sleeping niece.
Nudging Sandry gently awake he watched her big blue eyes look at him with confusion before she turned to look at her uncle.
"Sandry," the Duke said gravely and Briar felt Sandry's hand slide into his gripping onto him for support. "Come we must speak."
Sandry stood, practically dragging Briar with her. The Duke looked at him for a moment but turned instead of saying something. A bad feeling settled deep in Briar's stomach, he fact that he hadn't been told to wait meant that Sandry was going to need him-that meant the news that Gospard had brought was not good.
- Author's Note -
Hello! If you've found this story then you are either a Tamora Pierce fan (like myself) or you're someone who has favorited me as an Author (which is amazing by the way) and are curious about this story. The Circle of Magic series will always be one of my favorite childhood books and I love how they began to start introducing romance in The Will of the Empress and I just want to keep the ball rolling with that with my favorite ship: Briar and Sandry.
Anyways, this will be a multi-chap fic (and by multi I really mean I don't know how long but probably more than ten chapters) and there will hopefully be three fics that will all tie in with each other.
I.e;
The Circle Ends [1]: Briar & Sandry
The Circle Ends [2]: Daja
The Circle Ends [3]: Tris
I'm not sure of the order for Tris & Daja but you get the gist.
I just want to add a quick disclaimer that I don't own the Circle opens series or the characters they firmly belong to Tamora Pierce.
Please read & review!
-LittleMoonLover-