Chapter 2: Search for the Maiden
In the middle of the Grann Desert, in a small village, Garrus had lived among Branded like himself for three years. He had shortened his red hair to a few inches at longest, feeling no more shame with living with a mark. He was packing for a trip to the north, having heard of intriguing rumors. He stepped outside his tent, as the desert sands blew lightly, close to the ground. Garrus walked along the village, arriving at a small armory.
"This should do. Changed the armor and color enough so it doesn't look like the Begnion style," the smith told Garrus.
Garrus looked out north, even though the blowing sand limited visibility.
"Heading out soon, Garrus?" a woman asked from behind.
"In a few moments," Garrus answered. "Serina, did you tell Stefan?"
"Yes, I did, though he is wondering where you are going, and why," Serina replied.
"I've been told this rumor by the last merchant that passed by here. He said that Daein is being oppressed by the Begnion Occupation forces, and the country has fallen into poverty and despair," Garrus explained.
"Your family from Daein?"
"My father was, but the rumor is there is a silver-haired fortune teller with miraculous healing powers. She is leading a small group whose goal is to liberate and create a free Daein. Last I heard, the group is in the capital. I will be heading there," Garrus said. "The girl with the healing powers can heal those to the touch. It is a very curious thing for a Beorc to have."
"Oh, I see where you are going with this," Serina realized.
"She may be reluctant though. Even if she doesn't come, I'll help her fight for a free Daein even though I once served Begnion, and Daein had the Mad King. I highly disapprove of oppression occupation tatics," Garrus stated. "I will be leaving in a few moments, just need to pack a few last things."
"You are not going to take your lance?" Serina asked. She went into Garrus' tent and took out his Wishblade.
"No, only the most skilled soldiers in the Begnion army are allowed to have that lance," Garrus explained. "It is not a good idea for me to have that around. I'll just carry a normal one."
"It is a good idea to grow your hair though," Serina pointed out. "You need to hide that mark since you won't be among your own kind anymore."
"It will be long enough by the time I reach the border, don't worry." Garrus packed the last few items he needed, donned his armor, and waved goodbye to Serina and the rest of the village.
Daein-Begnion Border
Garrus had been traveling for just over a week, when he approached the border of the two countries. He was thankful that he hadn't come across a single person since he departed his village, even along the road he was traveling on. As Garrus neared the border, he saw Begnion guards ahead him. He can tell that they had noticed him. He checked to make sure his mark was hidden on is forehead. As Garrus came up to the gate, one of the guards walked directly to him, in the most autocratic mood possible.
"This territory is off-limits," the guard spoke firmly.
"Just passing through," Garrus asserted.
"This country is off-limits," the guard repeated. "You will need to turn around, and why are you in armor and armed?"
"I'm a traveling mercenary, on my way to Navassa. I'm wearing armor and carrying a weapon because of the recent riots I've heard on Daein lately," Garrus answered. "I've also heard your forces in the capital need some skilled fighters."
The guard observed Garrus and was easily impressed by Garrus' equipment. He walked over to his colleagues and had a small chat. The guard went back to Garrus and let him pass. "Very well, you may proceed. Be warned, if you cause problems, we will do more than interfere."
Garrus proceeded into Daein, and within hours reached a small town. Garrus had to deal with a patrolling soldier much the same way as the border guard. He quickly noticed the town only had children, women, and the elder. He was emotionally crushed at the sight of the town. The citizens were sitting on the side of the roads, depressed and exhausted. The buildings were deteriorating from neglect. The town carried a helpless brown and gray color. He decided to enter a small shop, quickly getting a suspicious glance from the senior lady behind the counter. She quickly became slightly confused when she noticed Garrus was not a Begnion soldier.
"You are armed, but you are new here, and not one of them," the senior lady said softly.
Garrus nodded.
The lady looked to the side and began pacing. "They robbed us, put the country into poverty, crushed the will of the people, dragged men into labor camps, and took all of our rights away." She stopped pacing and looked up at Garrus. "Daein will die if it continues."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Garrus frowned. "I am heading to Navassa. I am looking for…someone."
"The Silver-Haired Maiden, am I correct?" the lady inquired.
"Yes," Garrus' eyes lit up. "Do you know anything about her?"
"She is indeed in Navassa, the capital of Daein. She leads a group called the Dawn Brigade, who fight for us, for a free Daein. I will sell you supplies, but be wary out there. I can only wonder if the Apostle knows of this…"
Some time passed when Garrus approached another guard post just over a week's walk from Navassa. A guard approached him and asked predictable questions. What made this questioning different was the supervising general walked over to Garrus and the guard in the middle of their exchange. The general stopped right next to Garrus, and had a very familiar face.
"We meet again," the general smirked.
Garrus recognized the general as the same sergeant who discovered Garrus' secret and tried to bring him in over three years ago.
"Arrest him and take him to the prison near here," the general ordered.
Garrus wanted to kill the general, but he quickly observed his surroundings, seeing the many armed soliders and archers ready should he resist. Frustrated, his hands were tied behind his back, and he was forced to walk for an hour towards a large prison. As he entered the prison, he noticed many able-bodied men in their cells. The guards took Garrus' weapon taken away, but he kept his armor. He was shoved into his own small cell. He remained in there as the days rolled by. Steadily, Garrus' health began to deteriorate from the poor conditions in the prison, and the lack of necessities he was getting. The other prisoners were mostly Daein soldiers. The Daein soldiers would make small talk when the guards weren't around, their morale crushed. Garrus began to lose track of time after the first few days, maybe a couple weeks had passed before he eavesdropped on an interesting conversation that piqued his interest.
"I heard our other forces in the country are having major problems right now," the first soldier said.
"Problems?" a second soldier asked.
"Yeah. Our forces in other regions are getting pummeled by a liberation army led by King Ashnard's son and the silver-haired girl."
Garrus suddenly lifted up his head and began to give the conversation much more attention.
"King Ashnard had a son?"
"Yeah, and now that liberation army is only a few days away from here. I think they might attack here and free all these former soldiers."
"This is the largest prison, and that army doesn't have much momentum, does it? We better tell our general just in case."
"I don't think we need to tell him. He already knows and is getting egotistic about it."
Garrus sat there, giving thought to what he just heard. He continued to wait, hoping for the day the liberation army would arrive. The day came a few days later on a gloomy and cloudy day. The commanding general, who was different from the other that imprisoned him, walked by his cell and up to a guard.
"Sir, they are outside the prison gates!" the guard reported in a panic.
"Deal with them, my elite guard shall remain around me," the general ordered.
"But sir, if your elite guard remains here…" the guard started.
"Who do you think you're talking to soldier? Follow my orders and take down that damn army!" the general shot firmly.
"Yes sir!" The guard ran off towards the prison entrance.
It was silent for the next few moments before Garrus heard noise on the other side of the prison. It was the sound of fighting; swords clashing and magic being casted. The noise got louder as the fighting got closer. Soon he could see magic being casted across the gap from his cell. Cell gates were opened as the imprisoned former Daein soldiers were being freed. Garrus noticed one of the jailors about to run past his cell. Garrus quickly ran up to the door.
"Excuse me!" Garrus shouted.
"What do you want, prisoner?" the jailer shot, exhausted. "Can't you see I have a big problem to deal with right now?"
"Of course I can." Garrus threw a powerful punch up the jailor's chin through the jail door. The jailor collapsed onto the floor. "That's why I'm getting out of here."
Garrus grabbed the keys off the jailor and unlocked the cell door. He walked out and grabbed the lance on the ground. He quickly navigated through the prison, avoiding the chaos whenever possible. He was having slight trouble keeping balance, having not moved much in his armor in a while. Garrus thankfully only had to deal with one guard, who was quickly taken care of. He quickly ran towards the exit. As he ran around one of the corners, he was stunned in the head. Someone grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, and a knife was held up to his throat.
"Wait, I don't think he is one of the guards."
Garrus opened his eyes to see a young man with green hair in front of him, holding the knife at Garrus' throat. Standing behind him was a blue-haired swordsman.
"Hm…you're probably right," the young green-haired rouge said. He released his grip on Garrus and lowered the knife. "You look different from everyone else."
"Traveling through Daein when I was..." Garrus hesitated for a bit. "…randomly arrested." Garrus looked off into the distant fighting. "I would like to help you."
The rouge and swordsman looked an each other and the swordsman motioned a suggestion to have Garrus along.
"Follow us." The rouge and swordsman ran towards the east end of the prison, into the fighting. Garrus followed. By the time they arrived at the east end, the last of the fighting had ended, the general slain, and the prison seized. There was massive cheering as all the Daein soldiers were freed. As they departed the prison, Garrus walked alongside the blue-haired swordsman. The rouge ran off somewhere.
"May I ask your name?" the swordsman asked.
"It's Garrus," Garrus answered shortly.
"Zihark." They shook hands. "You look like a very seasoned soldier," Zihark commented.
"Been doing much mercenary work lately," Garrus answered. "By lately, I mean before I got thrown into a cell back there. Who was the person that was with you, the one that held a knife up at me?"
"That's Sothe," Zihark replied. "He is a very protective friend of Micaiah."
"Micaiah?"
"She is the head of the Liberation Army. The people know her as the Silver-Haired Maiden," Zihark answered.
"I see…" Garrus followed the march all the way back to camp, exchanging no more than small talk with Zihark. At the camp, Garrus walked around looking for the Silver-Haired Maiden, with no avail. He decided to look later, as she was likely busy with the debriefing of the earlier mission. With the sun quickly setting, he sat against a large tree on the outskirts of the camp, forgetting about dinner. He noticed a small group standing outside a large tent with a young girl. Garrus squinted and noticed the silver hair. He gave a sigh as he realized she is far too busy with the duties of command to have much free time to talk to an unknown mercenary.
I will have to try another time, he thought. He sat against the tree and fell asleep.
Garrus woke up to the smell of eggs and toast. Slightly startled, he sat up and looked down to find a fresh plate of breakfast next to him with a fork. The plate was still warm. He looked around to see if he could find the person who left it there for him. The only clue was a young priest chatting with a soldier in the distance. Garrus picked up the plate and tried the food. It was surprisingly delicious. He finished at a moderate pace and walked into the camp towards the priest. As he approached the short girl in a rugged dress, she turned around, noticed Garrus, and gave a big smile.
"Oh, hello. You must be the one I left the breakfast for," the priest said cheerfully. "I hope you liked it."
"I certainly did," Garrus replied with a light smile. "I just wanted to thank you."
"You're welcome," the girl continued with her perkiness. "You look like you are new here. Have you met Micaiah yet?"
"No, I haven't," Garrus answered. "You seem to know her. Do you know where she is?"
"Hm, I don't know. She has been all over the place lately," the girl noted.
That afternoon, Micaiah was busy tending to wounded soldiers. She had one heck of busy schedule, thought Garrus. At about midday she was running out of the camp with her personal friends, off to save citizens from Begnion soldiers trying to drown them in a swamp, from what Garrus heard. He spent the entire day simply standing and observing the camp. He should be training or simply enlist as a regular soldier, but something told him it would not be best for him. She arrived close to dinner, on a high ledge to the sound of cheering soldiers. She waved, sending the crowd into a cheering frenzy. Garrus was left in awe.
As almost the entire camp went to greet the Silver-Haired Maiden, Garrus observed for a couple moments before heading into one of the larger tents where the young girl and her friends would be dining for the night. He sat down at the large table to rest his legs from standing all day. All the china had been placed in an orderly fashion, along with a specially decorated chair. The prince eats here too. Garrus looked at the glasses and noticed the one placed next to him was filled. The drink had a rather delicious lemon color to it. Garrus picked up the glass and observed it. He shrugged and drank from the glass. He squirmed at the peculiar flavor which tasted much like sour medicine. Garrus placed down the glass and got up. As he approached the tent exit, he began to cough. Immediately, he collapsed onto his hands and knees as his head suffered from a piercing headache and his body burned with crippling pain. Suddenly, his thinking became very violent, his heart was pounding slowly against his chest, his breathing was shaky, he was very hot, and sweaty. He looked up, and through his severely blurred vision could barely make out a young boy looking down at him. The boy sprinted out of the tent. Garrus grunted as he turned onto his back. His body now feels as though it was mutating, now causing him to almost yell in pain. His thinking is now very chaotic, nothing but noise and the compulsion to violence. He wanted to kill now.
He did not notice the silver-haired girl, her close friend, or the young boy next to him, calling out to him. He could not hear through the chaos in his mind. They continued, with no avail. Garrus began to hear a muffled song through his ears. The violent compulsions in Garrus' mind began to calm, his body beginning to ease itself. The pounding of his heart waned. As the song became clearer, its beautiful tone eased Garrus into a blissful state of mind. The tones continued gently as he closed his eyes.