Tags: F!Watcher, Edér, hurt/comfort
PoETober 2018
Prompt #2: History
Howls of pain and terror. Heavy, wet thuds, followed by the crack of breaking bone. Pleas – for forgiveness, for mercy – echoed down the damp hall made of cold stone.
What… What have I done?
En woke to hands shaking her by the shoulders. She blinked blearily at the worn desk she'd fallen asleep on, upon which lines of dust still streaked the surface from when she'd cursorily swept it earlier. The enchanted light stone she'd set on the far corner cast sharp shadows over the old books and crumbling scrolls piled around her. Any daylight through the aged windows had long since gone.
She turned in her chair to find Edér stooped over her, a crease in his brow. "I'd ask if you were all right, but I could hear you screaming from out in the hall, so…" He shrugged.
"Sorry." En rubbed her eyes. "Did I wake anyone else?"
"Aloth and the new guy, Kana. Told them to go back to sleep, that I'd handle it." He rubbed the back of his neck, then smiled. "Durance slept like a brick, though."
"Small miracles, I suppose."
He chuckled. "Yeah."
But she didn't miss the strained undertone in the sound, nor the fact he didn't leave, instead shifting from one foot to the other. She sighed around the unspoken question.
"It's fine, Edér," she said. "Just a dream. Or a memory, I think. Of my past life. It was… unpleasant."
"Figured that last part." He eyed the mess of the long forgotten library around her. "What were you doing anyway? Surprised if you found more book than mouse droppings and dirt in here."
"Searching," she said. "I'd hoped to perhaps find some notes from Maerwald on my condition. Or a journal, or some other account of his experiences. He'd at least have had that. Wouldn't he?"
Edér gave the room another long look.
"I think whatever you're looking for is history in more ways than one at this point," he finally said.
En rubbed her eyes again.
She was so tired. She was always so tired these days.
"Yeah, you're right. History."
Edér offered her a hand. "Come on. Let's get you someplace to sleep. Someplace nicer, at any rate."