deep breath, deep breath
Prompt from reka1207 on tumblr—and last chapter was from inappropriate-shenanigans.
Secret of Kells © Cartoon Saloon
fallacy
He hears Cellach talk on about how the Wall will protect them, the Wall will be finished within two years, the Wall is more important than the Book, and none of his protests are heeded.
He hears how Brendan has never walked beyond the Wall in all of his life, and Aidan bites his tongue about berries and ink and the beauty of the Forest. It is dangerous, and a young boy getting it into his head to run into a place with wolves and worse could deprive the world of a joyful soul. (The world needs joyful souls now more than ever.)
Aidan thinks about going with Brendan the day after, when his thoughts clear with the dawn that the Wall nearly hides. That joy would most certainly be of use for the Book, and when he goes to the Scriptorium and speaks with the Brothers about the boy he hears praise over his enthusiasm and potential talent—if not for the Wall, they mutter.
He still asks them to rearrange the desks like he had been used to on Iona, and they agree quickly—but Cellach interrupts with his cold voice, Brendan trailing nervously behind him.
They argue. His words are, as always, not heeded. Brendan keeps himself out of the way, but Aidan catches frightened and sad looks pointed his way from the corner of his eye. 'Sorry', he reads on his lips. 'I'm really sorry…'
This is not Iona, the Abbot of Kells says with eyes full of steel, and Aidan feels something within his chest crack.
He finds a scrap of half-ruined vellum and writes a note of apology in shaky handwriting, and leaves it on the desk by the fireplace. He does not address it to anyone.
No, this is not Iona. This is not his home and his family and the life he'd lived, and it never would be. I will keep going.
I hope to see you again.
And he runs and does not stop—and that, perhaps, is his undoing, he thinks when his hands and knees are bloody and dirty as a roughhousing child over roots and stone and darkness.
The Book is left, abandoned, at the bottom of a great oak tree, and the black wolves go on to find more filling prey.