"When we caught up with him, he stood with his arms about my daughters as they stood before my wife's body. The other three healers were trying to heal themselves as best they could. Off to the side lay three bodies of people I didn't know. They were Necromancers, one of which had been in the process of draining my wife's life force. Unfortunately there wasn't anything that could be done to save her. By the time he felled the one attacking her, the act had already been completed and her life force was gone. Lord Walter had stopped to save my daughters first. In truth I was a bit upset with him over it. But my daughters told me that my wife had called out before her death for him to save her children. I was instantly contrite." Sir Fredrick recounted.
"Oh Sir Frederick, we are so sorry for what you have experienced." Louise said with tears.
"I do feel for your grief and pain Sir Frederick, but it makes me wonder. Are you a friend in this to Sylvester or someone who hates him and can't wait to see him dead?" Megan said with a mix between sorrow and anger.
Sir Frederick gave her a slight smile.
"Thank you both. No Mistress Megan, I don't hate Sylvester, nor do I wish to see him dead. I merely serve my Lord and took charge of the detail that will be ensuring Sylvester's safety at the Lord's request. If anything happens that has you concerned for your safety Sylvester, call for me immediately." Sir Frederick explained before he left.
Lord Walter and Lady Paige sat in Raynold's office going over the next several months after school is out with him and Elizabeth, so that they might take the time to journey to the other five towns of the lands so that those who had been unable to journey to the Keep to see the Lady Paige might have the opportunity as well as meeting the children of the Lord and Lady.
"I am now thinking for both Sylvester's task and our trip we'll leave together and travel to Harris first. Tempers will be their hottest in the first month. Our presence with Sylvester there the first few days will help to cool them. Then by the time he gets to the next town the tempers will be cooler still. I want them to travel back to the Keep after each town. To give Sylvester a bit of a rest and to ensure he is okay. That will also allow me to work with my Mistress on the task at hand of investigating this John. I'd much rather work with her over this." Lord Walter finally decided.
Paige smiled as she gripped his hand. She was so proud of him but she still hadn't really dealt with the thoughts of what had happened to him or rather the thoughts his words brought up when he made it clear that Sylvester was culpable in the attack against him.
"I think unless you need me for something else my love I'm going to go back to our chambers. To check in on the twins among other things I need to do." Paige told him.
Walter smiled and shook his head.
"You are always needed by me, but unless you have thoughts about our trip you haven't expressed yet then I think we can muddle through this without you." Walter kissed her tenderly.
"Is there anything you need me to do with your schedule during your trip my Lady?" Elizabeth asked.
"No Elizabeth, I trust your judgment on that." Paige smiled and shook her head as she stood after Walter and Raynold both stood. She brushed her hand along Walter's shoulder as she left the office.
"Harry, it is Harry isn't it? Would you do a favor for me and get word to Sylvester that I would like to see him in our chambers as soon as possible?" Paige stopped the first servant she saw.
"It is my Lady and of course, it would be my pleasure." Harry told her with a smile at being remembered.
"Thank you." Paige smiled.
Paige smiled at Lisa as she entered the bedroom.
"They are both sleeping soundly my Lady. Your Mother just left a few minutes ago." Lisa told her.
"Thank you Lisa. Sylvester should be up here shortly." Paige told her.
Lisa's face went dark.
"Of course my Lady, I will come get you as soon as he does." Lisa told her.
Paige frowned.
"Lisa, what's wrong?" Paige asked as she stopped her from leaving the bedroom.
"I'm just very upset with Sylvester my Lady. I can't believe he let that man live among us all this time. He nearly killed our Lord." Lisa told her.
Paige nodded.
"I've not yet had the chance to process my thoughts over it. Is there some reason you are so upset other than Walter being hurt?" Paige asked.
"When I was fourteen I lived in Dusksong with my family. Lord Walter and Happy arrived one day, about a week after my family was killed by the forces of the Necromancers. They came to liberate us from the nightmare we had been living in. At the time my mind was reeling so much. It could have been longer than a week I really don't recall. The town's Blacksmith and his family took me in after they were killed. Sometimes I worried he did it to have someone to offer up to protect his family." Lisa told her.
Paige nodded as she hugged her tightly.
"I'm so sorry Lisa. I can't imagine that pain. But I am so glad you are part of our family now. Walter and I will be taking the children and traveling to the other five towns once his investigations conclude on the life that this John was living in town. Would you be interested in coming with us?" Paige asked.
"In truth my Lady? I would welcome any chance to serve you and my Lord." Lisa grinned. Just then they heard a knock on the door and she frowned. "I suppose I best go see who it is."
Paige nodded as she smiled.
Lisa opened the door steeling her self for seeing Sylvester and as the door opened she was shocked to see Megan.
"Mistress Megan, please, won't you come in? The Lord isn't here but the Lady is, I'll go get her." Lisa told her even as she paused in closing the door noting the two guards standing outside.
"Thank you Lisa, but Megan is fine, I'm not a noble or anyone important." Megan smile at her.
Lisa smile as she nodded while closing the door. She walked over and opened the bedroom door and looked in.
"My Lady, Megan is here." Lisa said as she stepped into the bedroom holding the door open.
Lady Paige stepped out smiling.
"Sister, what a pleasant surprise, what can I do for you?" Lady Paige said as she moved over and hugged her.
"I wasn't sure if this was a ruse by my brother so I came to be sure nothing unseemly was going on." Megan said as she stepped back.
Paige frowned.
"Why would you ever think something like that about me? Do you really think I could be party to that? I just wanted to talk with Sylvester. Speaking of which, where is Sylvester?" Paige asked looking about.
Slowly Sylvester appeared in the room.
"Megan thought because of the Lord's concern for my well being that perhaps I should use my magic to travel the Keep invisibly. How may I serve my Lady?" Sylvester asked.
Paige looked to the bedroom and saw Lisa standing there and she held her hand out to her. Lisa slowly stepped out and Paige draped her arm across her shoulders.
"I thought perhaps you could take this time to explain to us, just what it was about this John and Necromancers in general that you afford them such considerations." Paige said as she gestured to the couch.
Sylvester and Megan moved over and sat down even as Lady Paige pulled Lisa along with her to the loveseat and gestured for her to sit before sitting herself.
"It isn't too difficult my Lady, Lisa. You see, when I work magic, magic is neutral. What a Magic User does with it, is what is evil or good. And so I always thought it was the same way with necromancy. That the magic was neutral, it was how a person used it that made it good or evil. And so while most of the people I knew that were Necromancers used it for evil I thought there were some that used it for good. I've even seen people use it to heal injuries of others." Sylvester explained.
Lady Paige nodded as she thought.
"I see and with that mindset it is understandable that you thought that way. As was explained to me earlier their magic comes at a price. For their magic to work they have to draw it out of another life. The people you've seen healed and aided by that magic cost someone or some creature their life. The energy you use to perform magic comes from the forces of the universe. I suppose even all of the planes of existence. Necromancy pulls the energy of a living creature out of them and either uses immediately or is stored in special crystals to be used later. It is probably what Merrick really wanted to do with me. But he couldn't tip his hand since no one knew he was a Necromancer. Who knows, it is possible he could have had me tortured while draining my life at the same time for all I know. "
"Did you know that Lisa and many of the other people living in these lands have all lost loved ones to Necromancers?" Lady Paige asked.
Sylvester nodded.
"Not quite on the scale that I do now. Sir Frederick came to advise me of the guards who will be safeguarding me until the Lord makes up his mind as to when he will put me to death. Louise and Megan both asked about it and he was kind enough to explain what I only knew part of. Including what happened to your family Lisa. I can't apologize to you enough over this. I know how much you love Lord Walter and this had to really anger you." Sylvester told them with tears in his eyes.
"That is an understatement Sylvester. I'm trying very hard not to leap on you this very minute and try to kill you myself. You knew that most of my fellow citizens in Brightsong had suffered horrors and loss because of Necromancers. Even though you knew that, knew the laws governing these lands you allowed a man who practiced necromancy to live among us. Regardless to if you think he was good, you owed us the truth. So that we could know who was around us, to know how to protect ourselves. Do you know what this is going to do to the confidence of every one of my friends? We're going to constantly second guess everyone of Lord Walter's company now."
"You chose to protect a stranger over the citizens of these lands. People you have joined together, to drink and make merry with, celebrating and being celebrated. Citizens you swore and oath to safeguard. And don't give me crap saying you were protecting him according to that oath as your first responsibility is to the greater good of the community not an individual of it. I've had you, Happy, Toby and Sir Cabe over for dinner on my days off to thank you for being here to help ensure our safety. What you have done is a huge betrayal that will not be forgotten."
"I am looking forward to the day of your execution. I have never attended one of them before, but I will be attending yours. I'm sorry it has to happen, but it is happening because of your decision to break your first oath of duty. A decision you made, which almost cost all of us, our Lord. It may even have a longer reaching effect of making people question if he is able to continue protecting them or if he is trustworthy anymore." Lisa spat out with her face a deep red, nearly purple in anger and hate.
She slowly drew in her breath trying to calm down even as Lady Paige put her arm around her and hugged her against her.
Paige wanted to tell her the truth but she didn't dare, without the context of the wise Lady's words, without the Mistress to attest to the validity she worried it would cause even more animosity to filter out into the community.
"Even if he is healed from the attack, I still hurt for my Lady, for my Lord. Now he must be grieving what he has to do to someone he loves. You will be the first person of the Lord's lands he's had to order the death of. It had always been someone from outside of our community. Someone he works closely with every day. Imagine for a moment if you had to order the death of Toby. Imagine what that would feel like to you. He never liked ordering the death of strangers, so I can only imagine what pain he is going through right now over it." Lisa said and then grew quiet as she buried her face into Lady Paige's shoulder. "I'm sorry my Lady."
Paige smiled down as she stroked Lisa's hair and hugged her tightly. She cooed at her for several minutes.
"It is okay Lisa, I know you would rather not have to feel this, but you have a right to feel as you do over this. I know it is over whelming you. It is why I had to have you sit here with me. The only way to heal is to give voice to the pain." Paige finally told her as she looked at Sylvester sitting there with tears running down his cheeks.
"Thank you for coming Sylvester. You may leave now." Paige told him.
Sylvester nodded before he stood.
"Lisa, I am so sorry for this. If there is anything I can do in the time I have left to help make this any better, to help restore belief in our Lord and his company you have but to tell me and I will do all that is within my being to accomplish it." Sylvester told her before taking Megan's hand.
"I lied before, I don't want you put to death and I have no desire to see it." Lisa said weakly into Paige's shoulder.
As they walked out of the room Lisa began crying and Paige just held her tightly.
Lord Walter frowned as he came to the door of their rooms and heard crying. He quickly opened the door and moved into the room. He saw Paige holding Lisa and Lisa was crying so hard.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! Doing okay here. Well, chapter 15 finally makes it to the dinner. lol I know there is a lot of retelling things in this and it is just the way the story wanted to be told. At this time I think I will just let chapter 15 run long unless it gets too long, it is currently just over 3300 words. If it doesn't go much over 4k words I'll leave it as a large chapter, I'm anxious to get TMC posted.
Lucy - Indeed, the worst seems over, for now. lol Megan appears to be biting her tongue for the moment, that can only mean something bad is coming. lol
Railman - Thank you! So glad you are enjoying it. Hopefully it will return soon! Originally I hadn't planned on writing anything about their trip, just letting it happen in the background but I've been thinking the last day or so that it might be a nice vehicle to tell more backstory about the early days...we'll see how it goes, I got a lot of stuff on the burners before that though. lol
Margaret - I'm so sorry it was so difficult for you to read! I hope that Sylvester's words here help enlighten it a little. He ends up explaining again to everyone at dinner what he tells Lady Paige and Lisa here. So hopefully it makes better sense for you at some point here. I've been taking a lot of "self" time since all of this began, I've even been playing an old favorite game a lot.
Susan - Thank you! Yep, Sly has some thinking to do, but I think he is finally on the right track now. I can't wait until Megan finds out their wedding has to be postponed. LOL As for the twins...that would be telling. LOL
To the Adventure! -Tim