Chapter 26 - The Loss
As the afternoon sun reached its zenith, the two men and their horse came upon a small brook flowing under the road, rambling on southward until it became obscured by trees. Noticing the clear running water, and not particularly concerned with any semblance of hurry, the stubborn mare veered towards the brook, dragging Schwarz behind her.
"Woah, girl," the nobleman exclaimed as she nearly pulled the lead from his hand in an effort to drink from the small stream. Without so much as a glance in acknowledgement, Kastanie continued drinking from the brook unbothered. Shrugging in resignation, Schwarz tied the lead off around a nearby tree and took a seat at the edge of the watercourse.
"Good choice," Wilhelm noted with a chuckle, "Once she's decided on something, there's no force on earth that can change her mind." Coming to sit beside the other man, Will dipped his hands into the brook, relishing the water's coolness before taking a long sip. Although anxious to keep moving, the older Grimm knew from experience that his mare would not take a step further until her thirst was satisfied. Peering over at the younger man in his once fine clothes, Wilhelm's curiosity overcame him. "What happened to you, Schwarz?" he asked pointedly.
Letting out a groan, Schwarz leaned back to recline on his elbows, avoiding Will's gaze. "A wondrous streak of bad luck, I suppose," he finally replied, keeping his eyes on the stream's bubbling flow of water. "It started with a thief," he continued, playing with a blade of grass, "I come from a long line of nobility, my full title is Schwarz von Prinz zu Aalen."
"My liege," Wilhelm interjected with a mocking bow.
Rolling his eyes in response, Schwarz continued, "My family's keep received a visitor over a month ago, a nobleman who was seeking refuge from an approaching storm. This blond fellow was quite amiable, arriving in a rather lavishly decorated carriage. I thought there was something peculiar about his mannerisms; however, my parents were both quite charmed and welcomed him to stay until the weather had cleared. They extended all sorts of hospitality to him, hoping to widen their sphere of influence to towns west of Aalen, I suppose." Schwarz paused, shaking his head sadly.
"I suppose it was their own fault, so blatantly flaunting their wealth to a stranger. On the third morning of his stay with us, I was alerted by my mother's screams. We'd been robbed. The thief had emptied enough of our stores to fill his carriage," The young nobleman sighed. "He'd taken many valuable heirlooms and some rather old relics as well, but truth be told it was not enough to change the state of our finances in any meaningful way. My father though, is a very prideful man and couldn't bear having been swindled by a lowly thief. Being his eldest son, I was sent out to catch the man and retrieve our family's heirlooms. I set off from my home on horseback, passing through this forest and continuing west beyond Hameln. I eventually came upon an overturned carriage by a pond, and while it certainly belonged to the thief, its contents had long since been emptied."
At Schwarz's words, Wilhelm thought back to the ring Jacob had found before they'd arrived in Hameln, and wondered whether it was part of the missing heirlooms.
"I continued west, and ran into a merchant along the road. He offered to show me his wares and I saw he had some very expensive and all too familiar trinkets for sale," Schwarz paused rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I pressed the merchant to determine where he'd gotten these items from, and finally after offering him some coin, he told me that he'd purchased the lot of them in Sélestat from a seller he'd never seen before. In retrospect, it's entirely possible that he was sending me on a fool's errand but I had no other avenues to pursue. Once I arrived in Sélestat, I spent the day scouring the market looking for the thief, but gained no leads. As night fell, I was past the point of exhaustion from having travelled such a distance with far too little rest, and made the mistake of taking a shortcut through an alleyway."
The dark-haired man shuddered involuntarily, looking away from Wilhelm before continuing, "I was attacked by a man with green eyes, or at least something that had been a man. He tore into my neck with his fangs before injuring me in far more… humiliating ways. I passed out and came to in the early hours when some young women from the town's convent stumbled upon me in the process of their morning routines. After their initial fright wore off, they were kind enough to wash and bandage my wounds, in what has been my only stroke of good fortune lately. I spent two days sleeping in the inn, not daring to leave its four walls lest I run into that monster again. On the third day, I had come to terms with the fact that not only had I been attacked but also that my assailant was in all likelihood a werewolf. Unlucky irony, really. I had always thought that werewolves were imaginary creatures used to warn little children about the dangers of wandering off at night."
Schwarz paused, pulling down his collar to show Wilhelm the shiny silvery-pink scars and scabs along his neck and collarbone. "Unfortunately, they are quite real," he continued softly, "I left the inn on the third day, with the intention of heading home. I decided to purchase some silver ammunition for my safety, as well as for the safety of others, which is when I ran into your dear brother Jacob. Following that, I rode back to Aalen against my better judgement. I had planned to say my farewells to my family before taking my own life, as I was terrified of imposing this wretched fate on another person. But talking with your brother gave me hope that there was another option, so much so that it stayed my hand. Instead, I returned home to see my family. In hearing that I had failed to retrieve what was stolen, my father was livid. Unbeknownst to me, the situation had been worsened by the fact that after I had failed to return, my father had sent our family's court theurgist out to retrieve the stolen items and he also failed to return. I pleaded my case to my father, foolishly explaining how I had been waylaid and injured during my attempts to relocate the heirlooms. My father is many things, including a superstitious fool, and he disowned me on the spot right before calling his guards. So I fled and didn't stop until I passed beyond the forest's edge."
Noticing that the mare had ceased her drinking, Schwarz immediately got to his feet and began loosing her lead from the tree. "So, Wilhelm, I will help you find Jacob because I owe what remains of my pathetic life to him," the ruined nobleman added with a melancholic smile.
Unsure of how to comfort someone who had experienced so much loss in such a short period of time, Will stood up and put a hand lightly on the other man's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Schwarz," the older Grimm said softly, "But I'm also very glad that you and Jacob met in Sélestat." Receiving a rueful smile in return, the two men continued down the road, as the late afternoon rays of sun scattered across the forest floor.
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. This is the updated version of Chapter 26, uploaded on 03/2023.