Two Graves: Souls of the Lost

Chapter 2

Remember Me

"Nephiah?" Brelyna's voice echoed through her head. She looked down and saw her looking up into her eyes, her head resting on her shoulder. The light from the campfire was casting the delicate curves of her face into light and shadow in a way that was not tangible. It was poetry. How such a being of pure warmth, pure light could ever have found it in her to love the hideously deformed creature she had become, she did not know. Brelyna began to play with the ring on her finger. "Look." She put her own hand on top, placing the rings side by side. "Bonds of Matrimony...", she said, "We never had a ceremony. Maybe we could go to Riften some time. Visit the Temple of Mara." "Some day...", Nephiah replied, contemplating the trial that was ahead of them. If they made it through the night, she would fulfill her every wish, she had only to name them. The strength to say 'no' to her had long since left her.

"You, my love...", Brelyna continued, "...are the bravest person I have ever known..." Nephiah noticed tears in her loves eyes, she was confused why she looked so sad. "You must continue to be brave... for me... please do..." Brelyna took a quick breath, she was in pain. A drop of blood left the side of her mouth. "Please do me this kindness... Please Nephiah, you have such a good heart..." Nephiah looked down and noticed the arrow sticking out of Brelyna's chest. In shock she lifted her hand that had been resting on her stomach, it was wet with her blood. In panic she looked back into Brelyna's eyes, she was beginning to loose conciousness. "No, Brelyna, no!" She began to shake her to try to keep her awake but to no avail. She released a bone chilling scream of agony that echoed far across the icy field.

She heard it still as she opened her eyes and a tear made its way down her temple. As her vision came into focus, she saw the wooden ceiling. She turned her head, she didn't recognise the room nor the bed she was in. She sat up and turned and tried to get her bearings. She closed her eyes and put her hands to her forehead, she had a splitting headache. It all seemed a haze, she was in a bad mood but couldn't put her finger on any particular reason. "You're awake." She looked up, two Dunmer had entered, they looked worried. "Nevrith was it?" She looked at him, not understanding what he was talking about. "Wasn't that your name?" She closed her eyes again, her headache wasn't getting any better. "I'm Ambarys. We're at the New Gnisis Corner Club, remember?"

A memory flashed into her head. She sat across Brelyna at a wooden table in an Inn. "Nevrith...", she said. Brelyna smiled back at her and replied "Shhh, we're in disguise!" "Those wouldn't happen to be the Nords you 'don't want any trouble with yet'?", Ambarys said, now also sitting at the table. "The ones standing behind Ulfric are even worse than he is!"

She opened her eyes. Ambarys was standing on the end of a flight of stairs that lead down, his help a couple of steps below him. He began to carefully step closer. She stood up from the bed and quickly realized her sense of balance wasn't all there. She stumbled a couple of steps to the side until she got hold of a wooden cubboard. He quickly moved to a table and pulled one of the chairs back. He walked over to her, and gave her support as he lead her to sit down. She put her elbows on the table's surface and rested her forehead in her palms. She gave off a faint moan, she felt like she was about to explode. Her headache was now joined by strange pressure in her chest, an uncomfortable feeling that something was wrong. Her entire body tensed up, the pressure rose and rose and she knew it would burst as soon as she found out why it was there in the first place.

He sat down opposite of her. "A Hunter dropped you off a couple of nights ago. Said you'd saved his life and he was returning the favor." She barely heard a word he said, she was focusing on taking deep breaths so that she might not lose control of them. "We warmed you up and got you something to wear, you've been asleep ever since. Had a rough night, huh." She opened her eyes and looked down on herself, she was dressed in simple merchant's clothes. "So, did you get him?", Ambarys inquired. "Who...", she said while exhaling. "Wuunferth. Wasn't he the man you were after?" A memory flashed through her head. She stood over the mage, both her swords raised. She brought them down, impaling him, driving them deep into the frozen earth he lay upon. Flashes of lightning left his fingers and shot all across the field as his life faded away in front of her. "Or was he not the one?", Ambarys' voice echoed through her head. She turned around and spotted Brelyna and the arrow that burst through her chest.

She opened her eyes and looked at Ambarys, shock of her face. "No...", she whispered. Ambarys looked confused. "He wasn't the one?" Nephiah jumped up, knocking over the chair she was sitting on. She walked a couple of aimless steps, a hand on her forehead. "Nonononono..." She ran to the stairs, then down, Ambarys and his help instantly followed. Downstairs she ran past the many wooden chairs and tables and went straight for the door, which she burst through without stopping. The sudden brightness of the cold winter sun above and snow covered streets below pierced her eyes, she squeezed them shut. She made fists and took in deep breaths of fresh air, hoping it would lessen the immense pressure in her chest. It did not. Ambarys and his aid stepped out but kept a safe distance. He had whitnessed her short temper and tendency to get violent and by her stance he could not predict what she would do if approached. "Nevrith!", he shoutet, "Come back in, you don't want to be out here!"

"There she is! That's her!", a voice echoed throught the high stone walls. A man whose right arm was bandaged and tied to his chest walked towards them at a brisk pace, six guards followed behind him. "That's the one who broke my arm!" "Rolff Stone-Fist." Ambarys muttered to himself. "Figures." Nephiah gave him a quick glance through squinted eyes but quickly focused on her breathing again. She pressed her lips together and began to moan. She sounded like someone who had recently been stabbed in the gut. Tears began flowing down her cheeks, agony showed on her face. As they reached them, the guards positioned themselves around her. One grabbed her her left arm, one her right, securing them both behind her back. "In the name of the Yarl, you are under arrest!"

"Come on, Rolff." Ambarys interjected, "I didn't think Nords were this petty." "Stay out of this!", Rolff yelled, pointing at him with his free hand. "I remember you clapping when she held me down, Grey Skin! Get involved now and you'll become more involved than you like!" Ambarys raised his hands and backed away until he was back in his tavern, he closed the door. Rolff stepped up to Nephiah, hatred in his eyes. Her eyes were still closed, pain written all over her face. She didn't notice much of the world around her anymore. He moved his face close to hers and whispered "Remember me?" He presented his broken arm. "You will pay for this, Elf, you will all pay."

Here eyes opened. The agony it displayed vanished in an instant, replaced by a cold stare into Rolff's eyes. The sudden change in demeanor gave him pause. Unsure he looked to the guards to her left and right, that were holding her secure by the arms. Then he looked back at her. "You will rot in priso..." He was interupted by her forehead impacting on his nose. He screamed and turned away, the guards instantly tightened their grip. She began pushing backwards, dragging along the unsuspecting guards that held her arms behind her back. The other four drew their swords as she hit a wall behind her, the impact shook lose her captors. The other guards raised the shields in their left arms and pointed their swords at her as they slowly moved in on her. "Easy now, Elf!" She carefully scanned all of them, her stance revealing she was ready to jump the one who'd let his guard down. The other two got back to their feet and took hold of her upper arms again. She was tensed up, it wasn't as easy anymore to get her arms behind her back. "Come in peace and you won't be hurt.", the guard in front of her said firmly. Her eyes formed slits, she knew that lie well.

She moved her hands up to grab the guards trying to bind her by the collar of their armor, then flung them forward untl they crashed into each other in front of her. She was clapping, but with guards instead of hands. So the noise produced was a metalic clash of armor against armor and two short screams of pain. The other four instntly moved a step back as they fortified their defensive stance. She held her catch up and pushed forward to the wooden steps that led from the club down into the stone streets. The reaction time of the guards in front of her was longer than she needed to reach them. Using the ones she held as shields, she crashed into them and continued to push until they toppled over at the edge of the stairs and fell until landing on the stone pavement in positions that looked incredibly uncomfortable. No armor to weigh her down, Nephiah got to her feet quickly and turned around and faced the two guards that remained on top of the stairs. They looked startled and profoundly disturbed. She looked down on herself, the steel blade of one of the guards was sticking out of the side of her stomach. Her merchant robes provided no protection when she flung herself down the stairs.

She pressed her lips together, took hold of it's handle and slowly pulled it out, not even giving off as much as a whimper. The guards looked at each other and back to her, trying to decide if they should engage or not. The guard that was lying face down to her feet began to moan and push himself up. She took the bloodied sword in her hand and lead it down, pointy end first, it pierced his neck and exited below until it hit the now blood soaked stone. Her cold gaze instantly found the guards up top which had found an undeniable reason to attack. As they quickly moved down the stairs, Nephiah put a foot under a guard's shield and flung it up to catch it. She had to bring it up immediately for the attackers had arrived and the one to her left started swinging. Adapting to the situation, Nephiah was just blocking the blows coming from both of them while slowly moving backwards. She needed but a second to counter attack but the guards were coordinating their strikes well enough for this opening to not to occur. As her back hit the wall of the opposite side of the street, she noticed the old wooden barrel standing next to her. She kicked it over, making her attackers evade and give her that second she was waiting for. She smached the shield's surface into the torso of the guard to her left, then brought it up and down again to hit the one to her right into the side of the neck with the shield's edge. He went down right away, the remaining guard was still fighting for secure footing. She stepped close and drove the blade in her right into his stomach in a diagonal moving up, until the tip of the sword stuck out between his shoulder plates. Fire burned in her eyes as she retracted the blade and he dropped to the floor.

She turned her gaze left. Rolff was standing a few meters in the distance, shock on his face. As she turned and took a step towards him, he instantly ran into the opposite direction. She looked down to the bodies at her feet. As she realized, the fight was over, the fire in her eyes faded. She was breathing heavily, the expression of pain returned to her face, she let her arms fall to her side and the weapons fall to the floor. The door of the club opened, Ambarys stuck his head out. He marveled at the sight, when he had closed the door, she had been unarmed and surrounded by six guards. Now she was the only one standing. And she was still frozen in movement like before. "Hey!", he whispered a shout, she looked at him. "Run!" She looked around. She needed to be alone in her agony, it was unfortunate that they had dragged her to one of the biggest cities around. She turned and ran.

Staying away from the bigger more populated streets, Nephiah squeezed herself through narrow alleyways that were packed with wooden crates and barrels. She was limping, holding the still bleeding wound in her side. She put her free hand to the wall to stabilise her position. Eventually the only exit lead to a bigger street, she approached with caution. A memory flashed through her head.. She saw Brelyna, leading her through the street by the hand, she hab been here before. It was the inner edge of the Grey Quarters, the alley on the other side would eventually lead to the city gates. She counted only a hand full of Dunmer scattered around, if she crossed quickly, nobody would notice. And so she stepped out and tried to hide her limp as well as possible.

Entering the alley, her stance immediately collapsed and she leaned her back on the wall to catch her breath. The wound was hurting badly. From the way she was still walking, the blade seemed to have missed vital organs but the blood loss became problematic. She heard the high pitched scream of a child nearby. She instantly tensed up and looked down the alley, where it came from. She followed it, eventually finding a doorway into a small stone court. Sofie, the orphined flower girl was there, backed up against a wall, holding her basket up in front of her like a shield. A memory flashed through her head. She was looking at Brelyna and said under her breath, "I may have made her an orphin." Her love took her hand and said "I know." Her tone of voice and her worried eyes seemed to grant Nephiah forgiveness, it meant the world to her.

Another scream brought her back to reality. A Dunmer beggar was slowly moving closer to the girl. He was very skinny and dressed in nothing but rags. "Give me that gold, young one!", he said in a threatening tone of voice. "I'm not afraid of you!", Sofie said with a quivering voice, backing up from his approach. "Yes you are! Look at you!", the beggar yelled, "Now give me that gold!" As he was about to lunge out at her, a hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. His surprise to see Nephiah there didn't last long as her fist met his jaw immediately after. He fell into the snow and looked up with a pain distorted face. "Please!", he began to plead, "I just want to survive!" Nephiah looked down on the pittiful creature, her fists relaxed. She pointed to the door. "Survive there." The beggar took his chance without a second thought and ran as fast as he was able.

She turned to the girl. As Sofie recognised the woman that had sheltered her before, her face lit up. "It's you!" She rushed forward to embrace her at hip height, resting her head on her stomach. The impact made Nephiah's wound all the more noticable, the sudden pain showed on her face. She put her hands on the child's shoulders and untangled her, then went down on one knee and looked her in the eye. "You alright?", she asked, breathing heavily. Sofie's smile vanished as she looked at the sweaty face of her savior, who was clearly in a lot of pain. "Are... are you?", she replied. Nephiah would have ansered the question, but the swarm of fireflies that appeared in front of the child was very distracting. She looked around and noticed that the swarm was in fact everywhere. Then she lost ballance, fell to the side and stopped moving. "Miss?" Sofie shook her shoulder, only to get no reaction. She got to her feet, looked to the exit and back at Nephiah. "I'll go get help!"