December Desolation Chapter 33
"What did he mean the place where it all began?" Porthos murmured aside to Athos, sparing a suspicious glance for Luc where he sat by the fire with D'artagnan "what is going on?"
The older man sighed in exasperation, scrubbing at his bearded face with a hand and fixing his brother with an apologetic look. "I cannot even begin to put into words the depth of remorse I feel for getting you all involved in this. I would that I could have put this all behind me and left you lot out of all this, but it looks like it was not meant to be."
Athos gritted his teeth, only sheer stubbornness and force of will preventing him from flinching away from Porthos as he all but exploded. It was not that he was afraid of his brother, goodness knows he would never intentionally hurt him unless it was for his own good, no it was more to do with the fact that he was incredibly guilty about the whole debacle. Plus he had a reputation for being stoic, no way was he going to display emotion and ruin that despite knowing his brothers knew it for the absolute rubbish it was.
"I don't care about your self-deprecating rubbish Athos!" Porthos bellowed, drawing the startled attention of the two men by the fire, darting nervous glances at the ticking time bomb of a man and sincerely hoping they could stay inconspicuously over in their corner away from his wrath. "No matter what happened it's always your fault and nothing I can say will convince you otherwise, even if you had broken all four limbs or were incarcerated on the other side of the country it would still somehow be down to you. So I have learnt to ignore whatever comes out of your mouth when it begins with I and contains anything to do with remorse." Giving a low chuckle, he clapped Athos on the shoulder, "now we must get to the root of this issue, please tell me what he meant"
They were interrupted by D'artagnan as he rolled his eyes and ushered the two over to rejoin them by the fire. "I think we all need to hear this" he murmured, genuine empathy in his deep brown eyes, "for your sake as much as ours."
"As much as it pains me to say, you are completely right" Athos concurred, face resuming its emotionless state "as you now all know, I was once the Comte de la Fere. You were there in Pinon and you saw the house, what you were not aware of was that Anne was not the only evil to plague the region, my father was as dangerous if not more so. Luc can attest to that"
Focus switched to their newest addition who nodded earnestly, hair flopping across his face "All of the servants knew of him, he was the most feared of all the visiting lords. You kept out of the way for fear of losing your life, or worse your job. He was essentially a demon in an even uglier demons clothing. Or is that going too far, he was your dad?"
"No I would say that is fair. I was familiar with his methods, not only was he violent but he was a shrewd businessman. Perhaps shrewd is the wrong word, he was unscrupulous and stripped many of all they had. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone became upset with this and plotted revenge, I just wasn't expecting it to be in the form of my wife." Athos sighed heavily.
"Wait Milady married you because of your father?" D'artagnan asked in disbelief
"Not quite but you're almost right." The older man conceded with as much of a wry smile as he ever gave, just a slight twitch of the lips "originally we met in Paris whilst my brother and I were travelling, she was unaware as to our identity until much later when I can only assume she found her position as my wife to be advantageous. Her family were made bankrupt by mine and she was forced to grow up as a thief and murderess which my brother discovered and you know the story from there, what better revenge?"
"But what has this got to do with Aramis?" Porthos asked in a hushed tone, mindful of his brother's sacrifice and struggle in revealing even this much.
"Well, the woman I was intended to marry prior to meeting Anne was the daughter of a wealthy Comte, when I broke off the engagement for a woman of unknown origins he was furious. He attempted to ruin my father in the eyes of the King but it backfired and he disappeared off the face of the earth, not before swearing to take revenge. Luc here was and still is in the employ of this man, the Comte de Albert. This is how I know he is involved, I can only imagine who it is that has teamed up with him but it has something to do with Savoy."
"Of course it does" Porthos couldn't restrain himself from rolling his eyes in exasperation, "what else could it be? That was rhetorical" he continued, glaring as Luc opened his mouth to respond. He turned back to Athos "Where did it all begin Ath?"
"A manor house not too far from Pinon. It is where I first met Aramis, Anne and Albert. We can be there in around five hours if we travel light and we travel fast."
"You met Aramis there?" D'artagnan asked "how on earth did that happen?"
"Aramis was a soldier for years before we joined the Musketeers, he was on an errand for the infantry when we met. It was nothing serious but he met Albert also, I cannot help but think it all stems from there somehow."
All four men had migrated gradually to settle around the fire while they were talking, casting furtive glances at Gabriel to ensure he remained asleep. After mutual agreement, they had decided that Athos would take first watch and they would leave at first light, travel all day if they had to, to reach Aramis.
Athos remained at his post, deceptively relaxed as he gazed into the fire with every fibre of his being on high alert, ears straining for any noise that was out of place, eyes watching for movement. In his mind the images of Aramis, his wife and his brother lying dead on the floor played in a disturbing loop, with Aramis taking the place of his brother, lifeless brown eyes in the place of blue. He could not shake the feeling of foreboding that settled deep in his gut and set to cleaning his weapons with methodical, economical movements and prepared for a long night.
A/N: Hey guys, sorry for how late this chapter was and how heavy it is with dialogue but it's setting up the action for the next chapters and giving you some teasers for the culprits. I hope to have the next chapter quite soon but not sure when, stay tuned :D
Knight and day
