"And what, priestess, has Aston done that requires your constant vigilance and prayer?"br /br /I shake my head. "My services for him are not spiritual in nature. Aston was to be my guide home. Things went wrong, and he was badly injured fighting while trying to get me out of the city safely. I owe him a great debt of gratitude, and keeping him safe is my priority second only to returning to my duties at home. It's been almost all I could do to make sure that his injuries didn't claim his life."br /
Saul nods. "So I can expect you to return to the infirmary. I'll call for you there after sundown to ensure you have shelter for the night. As a priestess, I'm assuming you'll need a special arrangement." He pauses in front of a heavy door, looking to me for an /br /I look at him. I'm surprised that he would know that. "As you wish." I bow. "But Saul, please." I turn to make eye contact. "Will Aston be safe here tonight?"br /br /"Yes." Saul knocks on the door and a slot at the top opens. "Prisoner?" asks a cracked voice. br /br /"Gala. Arrested for disputing an arrest under the hue and cry. Revealed under questioning to be the infirmary nurse for the man. Being released back to the infirmary without further punishment." br /br /"Aye," the voice says before closing the slot. You hear a man yelling behind the door a minute later. Saul waits quietly by the /
I feel relieved. If Aston trusts him, then I can. Quietly, "Thank you." br /br /The door unlocks loudly and sharply and opens, and I can see a small court area that has open arches to the courtyard, showing late afternoon. br /br /"No objections from the people, sir." Saul nods and starts to walk away. "You're free to go, Gala. If I do not find you at the infirmary after sundown, I'll assume you found your own shelter for the night."br /
I bow my head respectfully in acknowledgement and thanks, and without another word I make my way towards the infirmary. I have nowhere else to be, and they still desperately need hands. I also don't want to miss out on his offer of a secluded place to sleep tonight. As I walk, I realize that my eyes are surreptitiously being drawn to strangers' /
As I walk through the town, I note how much different this city feels than Islingard. Sickness or no, the mood here was-more carefree, alive and vibrant. Islingard had been a town of order, but there had been a palpable undercurrent of fear. How strange to remember that I had been part of the cause. At least, they don't seem to fear me here, and if anyone recognizes that I'm Abandoned, they haven't made any sign of it /
I pass by some children playing with the bones left by a meat peddler. When I reach the infirmary, the cart is gone and the nurse is helping a new patient to a bed, slight relief in her eyes when she sees /
"Good afternoon. I apologize for my extended absence." And with that, I once again allow my hands to fall into the familiar rhythm and cadence of the never ending task of caring for the sick and /
Between cleaning wipes with a wet rag on a patients wounds and sores, the nurse asks "I saw you were arrested. How'd you get out so soon?"br /br / "I'm- not sure. I saw a fight break out with one of our patients in the square, and I intervened. I suppose I wasn't of any interest to them."br /
"You mean the man you knew?"
br /"Yes. I saw him being attacked and I stepped between them."
br /She shakes her head as she opens the patient's shirt. "The guard here is strict, you're lucky to be out so soon. Your friend must be important to them."br /
"I just hope to have the matter resolved quickly. Strict, you say? Your kingdom seems much more lax and accepting than others I've seen. Giving free aid to the destitute and wounded, at the very least."br /
"You can thank the church for the charity of your lunch and the work of your hands... Thank then also the generosity of the people in their alms."br /br /"They've done great work here." I look around at the people on cots. "Your town must enjoy unusual prosperity, then, for a church as powerful and citizens with enough extra coin for charity. Do you get many refugees from neighboring towns?"br /
"No. Our town is too far North. Islingard is our closest neighbor, but it's a long journey to the nearest square from there. Most don't take the journey. The ruins keep the passionately superstitious away."
br /There's an uneasy twisting in my gut. "Superstitious? About what?"
br /"Aye, couldn't fancy myself, I'm not of the witching lot. Just tales of people disappearing and it's always foggy. Makes the mind go crazy. Really lets the imagination off the bit."br /
The stone settles somewhere in my stomach. "Disappearing, you say? People from town, do you mean?"
br /"Not any more than usual, I doubt everyone announces their intents and travels. More like ghost stories. I saw a man in the woods fade into the fog. Superstitious, as I stated."
br /"And that's why they avoid the... Ruins? Because of the fog and the ghost stories?"br /
"Yeah, their idiocy." She looks up at the worry in my face. "My apologies if that's what brought you to Anshire."
"I am indeed traveling to the kingdom, but I have no intention of chasing any ghosts." I am thankful that I have the bandaging to keep my hands busy for this conversation. "You said that you yourself watched a man disappear... You've been to see the mists yourself, then?"
"Just hearsay." She finishes prepping the new patient and moves nearer to help pack herbs. "Sorry if I offended your beliefs, I've never met a nurse whom was superstitious. Too practical as I see it"
I smile wryly. "I have many years of experience in tending sickness and injury, but I am not a nurse by trade. I am a priestess."br /
"As a woman of God, what draws you to the ruins?"
br /"I'm returning home."
br /The patient the nurse is working on lets out a yelp. She looks at him and then across at me with the same apologetic eyes. "... Avalon is a ruin I played in when I was a little girl. It's no longer safe, nor holy there. If you are a woman of God, I'd find a new home."br /
"As a... little girl?" My eyes furrowed in shock and confusion. How could that be? How could that possibly be? The woman before me was much older than I. She was a child years before I was born. How could she have known Avalon that way as a child? This doesn't make sense. Nothing I've seen or heard in the mere days since I woke up makes any sense. She must be mistaken, or confused, or something. I need to talk to Aston. He needs to help me make this make sense. I need to understand. I grab a handful of bandages and herbs and head towards the door muttering, "I need to tend to... the prisoner... " and I hurry again towards the soldiers /
The guards at the door to the barracks see me running at them from across the square and /br /"M'LADY! What is your business here that is so urgent?!"
br /Huffing and distressed, I lie. "I'm the nurse responsible for the man in your custody. The wrong herbs were used in his dressings, and he may end up poisoned if I don't change them. If you want him to survive long enough to face judgement for his crimes, you will allow me through to see him."br /
"We have several men in custody, some of them too dangerous for medical attention, some deemed undeserving by trial. Which man are you discussing?" The other guard squints his eyes in recognition, "do you mean the prisoner we brought in this morning on the hue and cry?"br /br /"Yes, it is he. I came because I didn't want your actions to be called into question should the prisoner go to his Maker in his sleep tonight, if the dead man's comrades are hoping for satisfaction at trial."br /
The second soldier speaks again. "Despite your best intentions we'll still need to ask our superior." He nods to the first soldier who nods reluctantly and sets off across town. When he is out of sight, the remaining, known guard says in a softer voice. "Gala. A message from Saul: 'As long as you stay in our castle and enjoy the luxury of my kindness, please respect my requests, while they are still requests.'
He continues. "You have little time before my companion returns." He opens the door. br /br /I thank him quietly and earnestly, and hurry towards the room in which I last saw /
Turning into the soldier's quarters, I find that Aston has made himself at home in the bunks. The room is no longer dark, Aston has started a small fire in a bucket, giving the room a comforting glow. The beds have been pushed out of the way. He is opposite the fire from the door, against the wall with the window, watching the smoke slowly escape.
br /"Aston!" I rush across the room towards him. I'm out of breath, and there are tears in my eyes.
br /Aston startles upright, a puff of blue smoke escaping from his mouth. "What happened, Gala? Are you alright?" He stands up and walks /br /My words are all tumbling out in a rush. "I was speaking with the nurse in the infirmary ... She knows Avalon, she's been there...everyone keeps saying, they all are talking as though it's gone, I don't understand it, but she says she's been there... The man with the boat called me a grave robber, do you remember? And they keep calling it the ruins, and I don't understand... She's talking about ghost stories, all these things, but the ruins, she said she played there, in the ruins in Avalon as a child. How can that be, Aston?" I want him to have the answers, just like he did when we first /
"Gala." He takes me firmly by the shoulders. "I told you Avalon was a ruin. I did. You just wanted to see it for yourself. Remember?"br /br /"You've got to be wrong! She's got to be- I lived there! I live there! My people are there! How could it be a ruin? How could it have been a ruin when she was a child, Aston? There was grey in her hair. I'm nineteen years old! I was raised there!"
"There are ways. Are we sure it's the right castle? Could there be another Avalon in another land?"
br /"How would I know that? This is where I woke up. The coins, my language... Don't you remember? How could there be another Avalon?"
"You're right, but Gala, surely you knew it was a ruin. You knew that before we set out."
"I didn't... Believe..." I feel the strength draining from my knees, as they begin to buckle.
Aston catches me under the arm with his strong one. The other hand lifts a twist of burning paper, stuffed with tobacco, to his mouth before he mumbles an invitation to sit on the bed beside him. Listlessly, I comply, staring at the ground.
br /I feel the cot give as Aston sits down beside me. A plume of blue smoke swirls into my vision before Aston asks quietly, "Do you still want to go?"
br /"Yes. My fate lies there. I'm bound to that land. If it has perished, then so shall I."br /
Aston's lips smack open, but he exhales and says nothing.
br /"When can we leave?"
br /"According to Saul, not till sundown. I'd recommend dawn, after food and rest. I'd definitely trust Saul's word." He exhales more fiery blue smoke. The guard who let me in appears silently at the door.
br /"Aston... Please... You had all of the answers before. What am I going to do?"
br /After a pause, and rising to the guard's presence, he turns to face me. "I've been wondering that for myself. Fate has taken us both far. You'll find your way home in the end... whether it's Avalon or not."br /br /I hear him, but his words don't seem to sink into my ears, spoken in a language that I don't understand. There is no home that isn't Avalon. Avalon means home. It were as though he had suggested I spend some time in another's skin. br /br /"How will I find you at dawn?"
"I'm sure Saul will arrest you again if it means keeping his word." Aston smiles reassuringly.
I can't return his smile. I seem to be unable to process any but the most banal thoughts. "Have you seen to the bandage on your side? It will fester if you haven't changed it."
br /Aston lets another pull of his tobacco plume over his face. He lifts his shirt to reveal that his side appears slightly burnt, but not gaping or stitched. br /br /"Where... When did it close?"br /br /Aston eyes the guard and simply looks back with raised eyebrows as a reply. The guard is looking back to the door /br /"I see." I shouldn't have been surprised, perhaps, to find that more than his leg had been healed. Finally noticing the anxiety of the guard and not wishing to press my luck or cause trouble for him, I begin to move towards the door, mechanically. My legs feel like stone. "Dawn, then?"br /
"Dawn. Meet me here, and I will go with you at dawn." Aston says confidently. The guard looks relieved as he sets the pace down the hallway towards the door.
br /Almost a whisper, "Thank you, Aston." My heart is still as stone as I allow myself to be led back out once more./pre