Eden awoke early at dawn. Force of habit had her rise from bed quickly, but the pain in her shoulder caused her to lie back down. She took a deep breath and moved all her limbs carefully, judging the state she was in. She was relatively pleased, noting that her nearly paralyzing exhaustion was gone and only her lightly throbbing shoulder wound remained. Whether her high tolerance of pain was learned or natural, she didn't know, but she had an uncanny ability to force pain to the edges of her consciousness.
Eden pulled herself up a little in the bed and looked around, thankful that the curtain hanging from overhead was drawn back. The Hospital of St. John was a large hall, perforated with long, slender, stone columns that unfolded into arches underneath the ceiling. Lawrence had found her a bed somewhat in the corner of the hall so that she wasn't completely surrounded by other patients. It was relatively quiet now, so early in the morning, but the warrior could see that the battle had taken its toll- a little more than half of the simple beds were occupied with patients with a variety of wounds from head to foot.
Eden's attention was caught by a movement between the beds. She watched as the figure moved a little closer and she saw a tired, scrawny dog limping around. He seemed to be in a desperate search for food and when he turned sideways Eden could see that he was missing a hind leg. He sniffed the floor around the occupied beds and raised his head to catch Eden looking at him. He stopped and cocked his head, interested. The warrior instinctively lowered her hand to the floor as if she had something to eat for him. He cocked his head to the other side, blinked, and slowly began to trot up to her. Eden felt an instinctive bond with all animals and natural things. They were the only things that never killed just for killing's sake. And they knew nothing of revenge, greed, lies, cheating, jealously, and betrayal that took so much from people all too often. The dog was close when a sister passed by, noticed it, and shooed it away, the dog cowering away quickly. Eden frowned and put her hand back on her stomach. Two other Hospitaller sisters shuffled about close to Eden, checking on patients, giving water, redressing wounds.
"Sister," Eden asked quietly, "have you seen a blond maiden? The one who brought me in?"
"Oh, young lady," said the sister warmly, "I'm not sure whom you speak of, so many have wandered in and out recently... But I can say that there was a little, blond maiden who sat here for quite a while... A Templar came for her."
"A Templar?" Eden asked in surprise.
"Yes. A Templar came late at night and escorted her out of the hospital."
A loud moan from a man nearby with a bandage around his head drew the sister's attention and she walked over to him. Eden rested her head and looked at the ceiling and tried to think why a Templar would come for Arielle, feeling a strange alarm grow within her.
It was a confusing and tense time for Arielle. Lawrence had said little to her, but she reasoned that the battlefield isn't the best place for a conversation. Yet there was something different in him, his cheerful warmth was replaced with reserve. The bard wanted to talk to him and to Eden, yet there hadn't been any time and she doubted that she could find anything sensible to say. Lawrence had left at the physician's request and had not come back and Arielle wondered if it was because of her. She spent the entire time by Eden's side, but it didn't calm her much. She remembered the relief with which Eden had greeted her on the battlefield, but began to think that perhaps it was all dictated by a rush of emotion. Maybe now, when it was safe and quiet and the warrior had time to think, she would begin to see the bard for the disloyal and pathetic person she was. Arielle simply waited for Eden to wake up and send her home. Or for someone else to do it.
So when the Templar came for her later that night, she was somewhat frightened though not particularly surprised. He was civil and respectful and Arielle left with him sadly, but without a word of protest or waking the warrior. Bad deeds are meant to be punished and she wanted to take her punishment willingly, not causing any more trouble than she already had. She saw it as a path where all the signs were telling her to go back home.
The very quiet Templar took Arielle back to the House of the Templars that was situated right next to the Palace of the King of Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount. The rather large building was made of the same sandy stone as most others in the city. The main arch was flanked by three slightly smaller arches to either side, the architecture not having changed since the Templars chose to take the Al-Aqsa mosque and convert it to their headquarters. The bard and Templar entered and Arielle saw a group of different knights waiting around a large table that was placed in the middle of the spacious room. As Arielle approached, she turned her head to admire the different paintings of religious scenes that hung on the walls as if in proud display of the power guiding the Order. Arielle turned back to the knights and she found herself face to face with Garrett.
Garrett was a powerful figure among the Templars. Half of the Order respected him and his skill and the other half was scared half to death of his near madness. He was a tall and strong man with chiseled arms, wide shoulders, and a strong jaw, emanating a great energy of force and might and the bard imagined that if a God of War existed, he would look exactly like Garrett. His gray eyes matched his scarce compassion and his short, fiery blond hair all in disarray mirrored the hint of chaos and rebellion within him. Yet, though he resembled a human pillar, he moved with a dynamic grace and speed, his white cloak with red cross fluttering behind him as if possessed. He also held power in his sizable wealth, being the baron of Franconia as well as the lord of two minor castles in the Levant. He had the ability to make or break anyone he wanted... and he knew it.
"I welcome you to the House of the Order of the Temple." Garrett said to the bard, his voice low and rich with a hint of rumbling in it, "Do you know why you are here?"
"No. But I assume you will tell me." Arielle answered calmly.
"You have, my dear lady," Garrett explained as he abruptly turned from the bard and walked to the farther head of the table, "committed a crime... against a guardian."
"And what crime would that be?" Arielle ventured, swallowing, realizing that the whole situation was more serious than she had thought.
"Really, maiden?" Garrett scoffed, folding his muscular arms over his chest, "are we really going to play this game?"
"I'm not playing any game."
Arielle saw in the Templar's expression that he had no intention of being understanding or considerate and she began to feel a small shiver run up her spine. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lawrence emerge from the group and stand off to the side of the Templar.
"You almost lead to the death of a guardian and you dare to be impertinent?" Garrett asked, his voice rising abruptly and filling with anger and his eyes narrowing.
"Garrett, wait..." Lawrence interrupted, pleading the blond's case to everyone, "Arielle didn't seek Eden's harm... It was Eden who had decided to help Arielle, knowing well what the consequences were. I was there when she made the decision. And it was Arielle who had planned and helped with Eden's escape from Dorian. Eden told me this the day she returned... They aren't enemies... but friends."
"What? This is Eden's friend?" Garrett asked in disgusted surprise, pointing at the bard, "This... woman?"
"She is. And Eden holds no ill will towards her... Just let her go."
"How can we be certain of her intentions?" Garrett argued, getting over his surprise, "Maybe she's here to eavesdrop on us and then relay it back to Dorian?"
Some of the Templars nodded slightly at the valid suspicion and shifted their eyes towards the bard who was feeling more and more uncomfortable. Lawrence sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair.
"If she was still with Dorian then do you think that he would simply let her be taken here? You found her at Eden's side, not Dorian's..." Lawrence argued, "Garrett, Eden holds no grievance. This is ridiculous."
"Is it?" Garrett challenged, turning towards the Hospitaller, "Is it really? She was supposed to be Dorian's wife. To add to that, she almost cost Eden her life! Or am I wrong?... No, I'm not wrong, am I?... That maiden betrayed a guardian, something for which there is a very high price to pay."
"What does imprisoning her change?"
"Imprisonment?" Garrett almost chuckled, "You and I know very well what the punishment is for betraying or purposefully endangering a guardian..."
The two men both looked at the bard who had been staring at the floor. She looked up at them and immediately understood what punishment Garrett was speaking of. The Templar approached her slowly, giving her a menacing stare that she fidgeted under. His eyes showed her no mercy and she swallowed hard, her heart beginning to pound.
"She is Eden's friend." one of the Templars reminded meekly, "Shouldn't Eden at least be here as a witness?"
"Yes, but Eden wouldn't be... objective..." Garrett returned quickly, gritting his teeth and keeping his glare on Arielle whose stomach was turning into a ball of knots, "and it is our divine duty to fight in the name of our Lord against any and all evil found on this earth... And this... maiden... looks like that kind of evil."
"Garrett," Lawrence warned, "Eden is alive and so a trial can't be started without her invocation. It's forbidden..."
"I told you I would bring her to justice with or without you..." the Templar growled at him.
Garrett was no longer listening to anything, enveloped in his hunger for his own idea of God's order and justice. Garrett wrapped his hand around Arielle's throat and the bard felt an icy pang of fear shoot through her middle. It reminded her of the Turk, the dark jinn, and Dorian and her entire body revolted against the onslaught of bitter memories. Eden!
"Audi me: timorem Domini te docebo. You will pay for your transgressions, little one." he growled in a low and vicious tone.
"Please..." Arielle murmured, barely able to speak in her fear.
"There is nothing that you could possibly ask for that I would grant." he replied, tightening his hold.
With his other hand, he pulled out his dagger and brought it to the bard's neck.
"Deus, quis similis erit tibi? ne taceas, neque compescaris Deus: Quoniam ecce inimici tui sonuerunt: et qui oderunt te, extulerunt caput. Super populum tuum malignaverunt consilium: et cogitaverunt adversus sanctos tuos." he recited in a voice that seemed to carry the power to change things.
"Garrett, stop! You can't pass judgment!" Lawrence tried to interrupt, but a few Templars loyal to Garrett blocked his path and held him back.
"Silence!" the Templar roared.
With a quick flick of his powerful wrist, Garrett turned the bard around and pressed her back against his chest with one hand right under her chin and the other pressing the dagger to her neck. Arielle's heart began to hammer with such a panicked ferocity that she was afraid it would break through her bones and skin.
"Deus meus pone illos ut rotam: et sicut stipulam ante faciem venti." Garrett continued with an almost wild look in his eye, "Sicut ignis, qui comburit silvam: et sicut flamma comburens montes: Ita persequeris illos in tempestate tua: et in ira tua turbabis eos."
"Garrett, for the love of God, cease!" Lawrence yelled, struggling with the Templars.
"Imple facies eorum ignominia: et quærent nomen tuum, Domine. Erubescant, et conturbentur in sæculum sæculi: et confundantur, et pereant. Et cognoscant quia nomen tibi Dominus: tu solus Altissimus in omni terra."
"No!" Arielle cried, feeling the blade starting to dig in.
The door flew open and there stood a very angry guardian. Eden scanned the room and quickly found Garrett and saw his hold on Arielle. Her gaze fixed on him, she turned in his direction and stomped towards him with a look of menacing intent. It seemed that everyone in the room held their breaths, smart enough to not try to get in her way. Garrett absently loosened his hold as Eden approached and Arielle pulled herself free and took a few steps back. Eden's determined footsteps echoed through the hall until a whack was heard as Eden punched Garrett in the mouth.
The Templar fell back onto the ground, holding the side of his face and gazed at Eden with some astonishment. Eden's gaze shifted to Arielle.
"Are you alright?" she asked very quietly.
Arielle only nodded, but Eden saw the tears and fright in her green eyes, her entire body trembling, the thin line of blood trickling down her throat. Eden turned back to Garrett who had stood back up.
"Quis sicut Dominus Deus noster, qui in altis habitat et humilia respicit in cælo et in terra?" Eden demanded forcefully, burning holes into the Templar with her glare.
The Templar raised his hand to the corner of his mouth and drew his fingers away to see the tips lightly stained with blood. He looked at her half in question and half in a temper on the edge of control.
"Don't ever touch her again." she stated shortly.
"Eden, you don't understand. She's-"
"No, you don't understand!" Eden shouted as she suddenly grabbed him by his tunic and shoved him against the wall, "I'm warning you, Garrett. I swear that if you ever touch her again, I'll turn you into a messy pulp as red as that cross you wear."
Garrett said nothing, trying to show the guardian he wasn't scared. But he was scared and Eden wasn't impressed.
"Do you understand me?!" Eden shouted, shaking the Templar.
Garrett swallowed and nodded once. Eden gave a tiny, feral grin and roughly let go of him.
"Let it be clear that Arielle is my friend and my guest wherever I go. What is done to her is done to me. Is that understood?" she declared loudly to everyone, but still glowering at Garrett.
"Eden, they have every right to question-" Arielle whispered, barely glancing at Eden from under her brows.
Eden swirled around abruptly and glared at the bard, about to yell. But instead, the guardian was dumbfounded by how similar the current situation was to the one in which they had met. It struck the warrior so suddenly that her anger was quickly replaced by the gravity of a cruel reminder of what she had lost in the bard. A quiet anguish filled her eyes, turning ice to sea. Arielle wrung her hands nearly to the point of breaking to keep from throwing herself around the warrior's neck, wanting to tell her she was sorry, wanting to tell her that she would fix it all and that it would be alright. The look in her eyes right now would be the most grievous punishment I could think of.
Eden swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and her eyes froze again before spinning back around.
"Is that understood?" she repeated in a growl at Garrett through her clenched teeth.
"Of course." Garrett forced.
"Good."
Eden spun on her heel and stormed out the door. Quietly, slowly, and awkwardly, Arielle followed her. Once outside and away from the scrutinizing stare of the knights, Eden stopped and tried to catch her breath. Arielle looked at her and noticed her damp forehead, her working chest, and a spot of blood on her tunic that seemed to be growing larger. The bard instinctively took a step forward and then two larger ones when she saw Eden beginning to lose her balance. Arielle caught Eden in her arms and held on to her securely as Eden tried to stand upright again.
"Eden, you should be lying down. And your shoulder... We need to get you back to the hospital." Arielle said quietly.
Eden nodded faintly, her head spinning too much to argue. Lawrence appeared and silently trotted up to help. The three of them returned to the hospital, the Hospitaller and bard leading the guardian back to her bed. After Eden finally lay down, Lawrence took a deep breath and let it out slowly, running his hands through his hair slowly.
"I have to go and get this under control." he noted tiredly and then turned his eyes to Arielle, "Stay here. And for the love of God, could you both please stay out of trouble."
The women said nothing and Lawrence promptly left. Eden glanced over at the bard and saw her dejected look.
"Ignore him. He gets like that sometimes."
Arielle gave her a smile so weak that it hardly had a chance to appear on her face. She wanted to talk to Eden about everything; she wanted to explain, reason, and justify. She felt a layer of tension between them like a wall someone had built overnight, but she didn't know how to surmount it. She had lost her stories somewhere along the way and now she found that she seemed to have lost words altogether. Eden felt the uneasiness too, but didn't know what to do or whether she should do anything at all. On the one hand, the bard's decisions were her own, but on the other hand, Eden couldn't shake the feeling that none of them were what she had really wanted. The bard appeared to be only a small spark that happened to fall into a vat full of oil.
Eden remembered the pain the bard had caused her, but she also noticed the great danger she had put herself in orchestrating the warrior's escape. Not long after Arielle had left her cell, Aldric and the priest Albert had come for the guardian. They had wrapped her in a large cloth and began to carry her out of the dungeon. The guard that night was a new, young recruit and stopped them. There was one prisoner in that dungeon who had leprosy and Aldric claimed that they were carrying his dead body out. Afraid to be anywhere near a leper, the guard told them to be on their way. They took the back gate out where a horse stood waiting, unwrapped Eden, and Aldric pulled her onto his saddle and took her to the hospital, leaving her with Lawrence. While Eden was recovering, the priest had come once to see her and leave her a strange message. Aldric also came back a few days later with some things from Dorian's manor, most importantly Eden's sword and dagger, realizing they were no ordinary weapons. He left hurriedly promising to see her and Arielle again as soon as he could. It was, she mused, quite a plan and she didn't think that she would have been able to come up with a better one. In the end, Arielle had kept her promise to not leave Eden to die.
"I'm sorry about Garrett... Did... did he hurt you?" Eden asked softly.
Arielle simply shook her head quietly.
"Eden... How did you... how did you know where I was?" the bard finally asked.
"I felt... an indescribable fear within me... Then I heard you call my name... So I answered..."
"You heard me? How could you?... I only thought it..." the bard said in wonder.
"I don't know..." Eden admitted in a partial truth.
The next day, Eden was feeling better and being naturally restless, she decided to do a little roaming around. Of course, this didn't escape Arielle's attention. The bard argued that it didn't seem like such a good idea to go walking around Jerusalem wounded. Eden argued that she was hit with an arrow and not launched from a catapult. Eden had lingered around in bed the entire day like a good patient, but simply had to finally leave the hospital, which had become suddenly stuffy and constricting, for at least a little while. The bard reluctantly agreed.
The two women walked out onto the streets of Jerusalem. The sun had just set, leaving a fading sky to the rule of the evening. The air was pleasant and the daily bustle of the city had quieted down to a gentle murmur. Eden agreed that they would walk to the end of the street and then return to the hospital, a distance enough to stretch her legs. They strolled down the street, the tension in both of them evident for more than one reason.
Eden realized that the battle hadn't really been won. The Hospitallers had defeated Dorian's forces before the Templars intervened. She had nearly knocked over the physician who was wrapping up her wound when he told her of the battle and she charged out. She found the Templars in place, told them not to attack, and then flew into battle herself. And although Dorian's forces were crushed, Eden knew that it had all been just too simple. It bothered her that Paimon ran off in his duel with Lawrence and that Dorian was nowhere to be found. As far as Eden was concerned, as long as Dorian was alive then Arielle was in danger. And she knew that Arielle sensed that too. She saw the thin lines of tension spreading across her once naively happy face and that worried Eden most of all.
Arielle stole a glance at the warrior who was looking off into the distance, lost in thought. The cuts and bruises that she received in her cell were fading away, but still evident enough to pose an ugly reminder of what the guardian had gone through. The bard cringed at the thought. She had a hard time understanding how things had come to this; it was never something that she had wanted. After discovering Eden was still alive, Arielle couldn't find it in herself to leave the guardian's side even for a moment. Eden suspected that the bard kept close to her because she was afraid of Dorian's retribution or any of the military orders in Jerusalem, but the guardian didn't know that Arielle also couldn't seem to finally believe that Eden was still actually alive and that the bard never wanted to go through the thought of Eden dying again.
Both women noticed the scars, pain, and tension in each other's faces in stolen glances and wanted to tell each other that somehow it would be all right in the end. Yet neither knew how to put it into sensible words.
"It's a nice evening..." Arielle said, a little startled that she had actually said something, "Remember in..."
Arielle let the words fade away into the air, clamping her jaw in self-criticism at bringing back memories that she didn't know if Eden wanted to remember. She smoothed down her dark blue dress in nervousness. She shot a glance to see Eden still looking out ahead and it only made the bard more nervous. She opened her mouth to let out a flood of profuse apologies.
"Yes, I remember." Eden replied before Arielle let out a sound, "It was a nice evening."
Arielle closed her mouth slowly and turned her head towards the guardian to see her looking at her with a strange mixture of reserve and warmth. A youthful smile crept across the bard's face and she then ducked her head, afraid she might blush. Eden chuckled almost soundlessly.
"What is that pendant?" Eden asked, noticing it on the bard's dress, near her neckline.
"Ah, it's a daffodil... It's my favorite flower... One of the few trinkets I took with me from home..." Arielle explained.
"It suits you." Eden said simply and ahead of her again.
"You look good in that brown." Arielle noted after a while.
"You think so?" Eden asked, lightly stretching out the dark brown tunic that Lawrence had lent her.
"Yes. You could even think of wearing it more often." Arielle added lightly.
"Oh, I don't know... I look like a giant pile of dung."
"What?!" Arielle snorted loudly, "No you don't."
"Yes, well, still, remember that it's black that brings out my feminine side."
"How could I forget?"
They reached the end of the street and simultaneously turned around and started back.
"You know..." Arielle started again in a quiet, thoughtful voice laced with a bit of apprehension, "there are a lot of things that I never forgot... though it might have seemed so..."
Eden rested her eyes on an either overzealous or rather slow merchant still putting away his wares and closing his little store on the corner of the darkening street.
"I know..." Eden replied quietly.
They both noticed that the ease of each other's company still appeared to be there despite everything that happened. And that fact gave both of them hope. Arielle hoped that maybe Eden would forgive her. Eden hoped that maybe Arielle wouldn't leave.
"So how much longer is Lawrence going to insist that you stay at the hospital?" Arielle asked, looking at Eden with a slightly mischievous tone.
Eden stopped next to the merchant who had ducked inside for a moment. She turned to Arielle with a raised eyebrow which made a grin appear in the corner of the bard's mouth. But then Eden looked over the bard's shoulder and her eyebrows knotted. Arielle noticed the change in expression and turned to look in the direction Eden was looking.
Both women saw a dark, mounted horseman turned in their direction, waiting at the next corner. Eden noticed the sudden silence, the lack of people where there were several a moment ago, the abrupt chill.
"Oh damn..." she whispered.
Eden turned in the opposite direction to see another horseman and when she turned to look down towards the hospital, there was a third. With the three silent, menacing horseman and the end of the street in back of them, the women were boxed in with no route of escape. Eden cursed herself for leaving the hospital without a single weapon. She felt Arielle's hand suddenly and instinctively wrap around her own in fear and faith. Eden gave her hand a small squeeze and pulled her a little closer to her; she wasn't going anywhere without the bard. She made a mental note to find Dorian, hack him to pieces, and personally take him to Hell in a little bag tied with a fat, pink ribbon.
"Well, come on boys!" Eden yelled impatiently, "I don't have all day to be killed!"
The riders spurred into action, all three coming at them at the same time.
"Trust me?" Eden asked.
"Yes." Arielle whispered.
Eden bounded over to the merchant's store and quickly tore down the cloth awning and the wooden pole supporting it. She rushed back and the women stood close to each other. Thankfully, the riders didn't ride evenly and one approached earlier than the others. Eden flung the cloth in his direction. The awning covered the horse's head, blocking his view, and causing him to rear in fright and throw his rider back into a pile of barrels standing along the street. In complete focus, Eden turned to the next rider. She bounded forward a few steps, only to abruptly stop, brace herself, and hold up the pole. The rider collided with it with such force that the pole broke in two as the rider broke his ribs and was thrown backwards off his horse. Eden turned to see the last rider closing in quickly, swinging a large club over his head. And she saw that she had run out of options.
Time slowed down for the warrior as she took the broken pole and ran as fast as she could towards the bard who was taking tentative steps back away from the encroaching rider. Eden saw the rider raising the club over his head, the rising arm beginning its deadly swing. In a last attempt to do something, Eden crouched low on her knees, skidding to a halt. Right before reaching a complete stop, she tossed the pole right under the horse's hoof and then, using the rest of her momentum, turned around and simply grabbed hold of the startled bard tightly. Eden used the rest of her strength to jump up and forward into the air. She had foreseen that she wouldn't make it in time and was now desperately trying to lessen the blow. The horse stumbled on the pole, but not fast enough to save the women from the descending club. It crashed into Eden's back with such force that it knocked the wind out of her and propelled them forward. The horse finally slipped, sending the rider over its head and down onto the street with a thud. Eden and Arielle sailed into the air and the bard could feel the warrior twist and strain her muscles to somehow spin them around. Just as Arielle was wondering why, they collided with the wall of a building on the corner of the street.
Arielle heard a sickening thud, crack, cry of pain, dragging, and then silence. It took a few breaths for Arielle to finally open her eyes and figure out what happened.
"Eden?" she asked quietly.
Eden said nothing, her hands falling away slowly as Arielle shifted.
"Eden?" the bard repeated with more concern.
Still nothing. Arielle wiggled her way out of the guardian's now loose grip and kneeled next to her. Eden's eyes were closed, her breathing level, but slow. Arielle's eyes drifted over the unresponsive warrior until they reached her face. She tilted her head slightly and saw in the dim light the unmistakable bright, red blood ever so slowly trickling out of her ears and nose. For a moment, Arielle froze, thinking that perhaps Eden lay dead before her. But she shook the thought violently from her mind and took a deep breath. Now Eden needs me. She leaned over, gently grabbing Eden's shoulders.
"Eden? Eden? Can you hear me?" she asked, her voice trembling and her hands absently squeezing the warrior, "Listen, you're going to be alright. You're hurt, but you'll be fine..."
After a few minutes, Eden felt the scared pressure on her shoulders and willed her eyes to open. They fluttered open and closed as Eden battled with herself and the painfully loud ringing in her ears. She opened her mouth, but couldn't form a single word or catch a solid breath. She tried to get up, but couldn't coordinate her muscles. She caught glimpses of Arielle and saw her saying things to her.
"Eden, can you get up? Can you walk?... Good God, Eden, say something..." Arielle tried, but continued to get no response from the warrior.
In a moment of fright and determination, Arielle decided to at least try to be a quarter of the hero she had always wanted to be. She looked straight into Eden's eyes, cupped her face with her hands and brushed it a few times with her thumbs to calm the warrior down. The bard then ducked a little, pulling the warrior's arm around her neck and holding it in place while taking her other hand and wrapping it around Eden's waist. She pulled the both of them up with all her strength and Eden did everything in her power to stand on her own, fighting off the pain. They made their way for the hospital which was thankfully close, Eden half stumbling and half being dragged. Her mouth continued to move, trying to say something and breathe normally.
"I'll get you to the hospital, Eden," Arielle said through her gritting teeth, "We're almost there."
They finally reached the hospital and two sisters ran up to the bard to help. They managed to get Eden to her bed and one sister ran to get a physician after Arielle told them what had happened. Eden noticed the Hospitallers collecting around her and looked around frantically for the bard who crouched down next to her side. She pinned her gaze to the blond. She wanted to tell her that every bone in her body seemed to hurt. She wanted to tell her to bring her some water. She watched them all saying things around her. Arielle... I can't hear anything...
"My goodness," the physician sighed loudly, rushing over to Eden, "does this woman have a death wish?!"
Arielle felt her heart fall at the words. The helplessness she saw in those pained blue eyes haunted her to the core. This is my fault...
"Step aside, maiden." the physician said roughly and pushed Arielle away from Eden's bedside.
The physician tried to pull Eden's tunic up and turn her over to see her back, but Eden began to struggle, letting strange, disjointed sounds out of her throat. She didn't know what was going on, she couldn't hear a thing, and Arielle was gone from view. The physician called for some monks to help keep her down. When they approached, Eden only grew wilder. Eden thrashed around as the monks tried to hold her and the physician tried to tend to her; she acted much like a wounded animal. She was hurt and bewildered, surrounded by silent men who kept tugging at her. She couldn't hear the outside world, but everything in her head was screaming all at the same time and Eden thought that she was going to lose her mind. She wanted the incredible noise to stop, everyone to step away, and have someone explain to her what was going on. Finally, a determined and irritated bard pushed her way through the crowd to Eden.
"No! Get back! Don't touch her!" she cried, protectively covering the guardian's body with her arms, "She doesn't like being touched by strangers."
The monks looked at each other, but slowly took a few steps back. They watched Arielle turn to Eden who had her bewildered gaze locked on her and instinctively began to stroke the warrior's hair, telling her calming words the guardian couldn't hear, but seemed to respond to anyway. Eden stopped yelling, stopped thrashing about, and slowly her breathing calmed and she relaxed.
"Tell me what to do." the bard told the physician.
"This isn't a place for a woman-"
"Tell me what to do." the bard repeated, her tone indicating that this wasn't a discussion and a flash in her eyes telling him that she wasn't going to ask nicely again.
He thought to argue, but then let out a long breath. He gave her precise instructions which the bard carried out so well that he had to admit that he was impressed, but had no intention of letting the blond know it. The guardian's back was already covered in a gigantic bruise from the hits she took, but had saved herself from broken bones. And their was no telling what other internal damage she had received. The physician did some more precise tests, all the while keeping Arielle near. When he finished, he muttered that he had never seen such a battered warrior before, which was the last thing Arielle wanted to hear. He bandaged Eden's head and made her lay on her side and said that all they could do now was wait.
It became eerily quiet when the monks and sisters left, leaving the bard and guardian alone. Arielle sat next to Eden on a chair, holding her hand and stroking her cheek from time to time. The guardian was calmer, but her darting eyes betrayed her bewilderment. It made the bard's heart contort painfully. Why does it always have to be this way? Why does everything I do seem to bring you suffering?... I never wanted you to suffer... Never...
Somewhere in the night, they both finally fell into a troubled sleep.
The next day wasn't like the bard imagined. She wanted to believe that Eden would wake up all better, tearing off her bandage and muttering what a bastard Dorian was. The physician had come around dawn and unwrapped the bandages to reveal that the bleeding had indeed stopped and there didn't seem to be any swelling of the head. Pleased, he later checked the warrior's reflexes and other motor skills and found them all in order. Eden experienced a little dizziness when she stood up, but other than that and an extremely bruised and sore back, Eden seemed to be in good condition. But the warrior still couldn't hear a sound. The physician examined her head and ears from every angle and even called in a colleague to do the same and they both came to the same conclusion- they had no idea what was causing her deafness. They shrugged their shoulders and simply said that it was all in God's hands now.
Eden watched the physicians as they shook their heads grimly and walked away. She felt that something was very wrong, but was hoping that it was just her relentlessness towards herself obscuring her view. Yet a glance at the bard, who stood there looking at her as if she had just been defeated by a thousand armies told her that she was unfortunately right. The warrior's gaze longed for some kind of an answer and it prompted the bard find some paper and a quill which she borrowed from one of the monks and returned to Eden's bedside.
[You've lost your hearing. They don't really know why.] she wrote and handed the paper to Eden.
[When will my hearing return?] Eden scribbled back.
[They don't know.]
[Will it return at all?]
[They don't know.]
As the guardian read the words a couple of times, Arielle felt her pain and worry. Eden sighed and ran her hands through her hair slowly. She glanced at the bard and then back at the paper and shook her head.
[Go.]
Arielle looked up from the paper with a confused look on her face as Eden turned and laid down, back to the blond. Arielle's first reaction was to do something, to comfort the guardian, but she decided against it. It began to make sense to the bard as she saw her greatest fear become real. Eden blamed Arielle for her condition as much as she herself did. She had run out of chances and apologies and this time the warrior wouldn't find it in her heart to forgive her. She evidently didn't want to have anything to do with the bard. Arielle swallowed the large lump in her throat and took a shaking breath.
"I'll stay here until you fall asleep. And then I'll go like you asked." she whispered.
It was all too much for Arielle. She had met Eden in the desert, befriended her, then left with Dorian, then thought she had lost her to find her again only to now have her gravely injured. She began to think that she was nothing more than a bad omen looming over the warrior and constantly getting her into the most complicated and painful of trouble. She wrapped her arms around her raised knees and rested her head against the wall she was sitting against. The sun was beginning to lower in the sky, letting some of the heat of the day fade away. Arielle mused about all the things that had happened to her since that day in the desert and began to wonder whether she was simply being selfish in her attachment to the guardian. She loved the adventures and the guardian's company, but wasn't it peace and stability that she had always wanted? The bard let out a deep breath and shook her head. She had looked for exactly that in Dorian and that almost made her mad and Eden pay with her life. She remembered the blond angel's words; perhaps she was looking at it all wrong. But no matter what side or angle she looked at it, Arielle simply couldn't see the road, the signs, the answer she needed.
Her inhibitions and lack of confidence ran to the forefront of her mind. Following Eden around was fine until something happened. And something always seemed to happen around the bard. Could she ever do anything for Eden? Could she ever protect her, take care of her, support her just like the warrior had done for her so many times? She wanted more than anything to say 'yes', but the word stuck in her throat. Perhaps, in reality, I'm just a burden and nothing more. That made the most sense to her. I am nothing more than a burden...
Lawrence saw her sitting outside the hospital, walked up to her, and then leaned against the wall next to her. They remained in an unstrained silence for a while.
"I'm afraid that if you don't already hate me, then you soon will." Arielle finally said, looking out in front of her as if transfixed.
"I've never hated anyone in my life." Lawrence replied simply, turning to look at her.
"Then you will learn." she replied with a foreboding in her voice that worried the Hospitaller.
"Why?"
Arielle began to tremble and fight with the tears that were filling her eyes. She opened and closed her mouth a few times while struggling to shove words out of her throat that didn't want to go.
"I'm leaving." she admitted in a cracking whisper.
"Leaving?" Lawrence asked in evident surprise, "Now?"
"I just can't do anything... I just can't do this anymore..." Arielle said hurriedly.
Lawrence closed his eyes for moment, wishing the words away with all his might. He kept his irritation under control, frustrated with the two friends who simply couldn't or didn't want to see how much they meant to each other.
"And what about Eden?"
"Eden... is a warrior... she's God's chosen... Her life is determined by fighting for anyone or anything she chooses... She is so strong... I can't say any of that about myself... She doesn't need me..."
Lawrence observed her quietly and took a deep breath.
"So you want to leave the warrior with nothing more to fight for? And now?"
"I'm not the only thing in this world."
"No, but you are one of the more precious things to her in this world."
Arielle shook her head, a few tears falling, not wanting to believe the words that she so much liked to hear.
"I only bring her pain and loss... If it wasn't for me she would be able to hear now... I should go so that she can recover in peace... It's better this way..."
"She might not ever recover."
"She will!" the bard challenged sharply, looking up at Lawrence who looked at her with a knowing gaze.
"Faith is a powerful thing," he said slowly and clearly, "So powerful, in fact, that not believing in God simply makes Him cease to exist. So think what faith in one's self can do... And it's much easier to believe in yourself when someones already does."
"Faith in others got me where I am now..." the bard answered dejectedly, slipping into self-remorse, "If I stay maybe Eden will one day turn on me too..."
Lawrence took a deep, irritated breath.
"You know, I think I'm lucky to be able to call myself Eden's friend." he finally said angrily.
Arielle rose, along with some strange flame within her and faced Lawrence.
"Lawrence, she told me to go... She didn't ask me to stay..."
"Why does Eden always have to be the hero? Are you that focused on yourself and your own pain?"
The statement stung Arielle so deeply that she flinched. She had always wanted to be heroic, but never knew how. And she couldn't see how staying without being asked to was heroic.
"I've seen the darkest side of her; the one that most people have seen." Lawrence said sternly, an anger burning in the back of his eyes that Arielle was half afraid of and half jealous of, pointing a finger at the bard's chest, "But I've also seen the more hidden, better side to her- her trust, loyalty, and care. And I can tell you one thing- she would have loved you more than you'll know."
Eden awoke after a little time to find the bard no longer there. She picked up the paper that was left on the covers and stared at the 'go' she had written. Eden's shoulders slumped. She felt completely useless. What worth was a warrior who couldn't hear? She felt like a failure. For Eden it was a double-edged sword. She was unable to protect the bard in her current state, that was obvious. And they couldn't remain friends if Eden couldn't protect her because the warrior's reputation and enemies would follow her wherever she went, automatically putting the bard in danger. But what was even worse was that she had lost everything in this life, only her sword remained. Now even that was taken from her and she was left alone, helpless, and naked to the world. If I can't protect her, then what use am I to her? She's better off this way.
Eden closed her eyes and fell into the deep, silent cavern that her mind had become since the accident.
'We never give up.' a faint yet familiar voice said from out of the darkness.
'Angel?'
'Don't you dare give up.'
'I am incapacitated for Heaven's sake! What do you want from me?'
'To keep fighting. It's what we do.'
'How? For what?'
'What about Arielle?'
'What can I do for Arielle now? Nothing!... She's better off without me...'
'You promised...' the angel reminded after some time, 'and you've never broken your word.'
Eden opened her eyes and realized that that was the last thing she still had, the only thing that hadn't been taken from her and that she still had control and power over. She got up and despite her dizziness, began to search for the bard. Her wounded pride had made her turn the bard away so she wouldn't look at her as feeble or defenseless. She had to find Arielle and tell her that she didn't want for her to go forever. She would come up with a solution to everything. She would keep her word. I have to live to protect her... or die trying.
She stumbled out of the hospital and looked down the street where she caught sight of Arielle and Lawrence talking, the Hospitaller pointing at the bard which he only did when angry. After a few moments, the pair noticed Eden off in the distance. The warrior looked at the blond and tried to convey her message through eyes of apologetic confusion. Arielle saw Eden teetering slightly where she would always stand proud. She saw a man leaving the hospital brush against her where she wouldn't have ever let anyone that near. She saw the apples fall from the bundle of a passing woman and Eden noticed them only when they hit her feet. Arielle saw a friend she had destroyed. This is all my fault and I hate myself for it. And Arielle turned and ran, leaving a shouting Lawrence and a confused Eden behind.
Arielle decided to simply go back home; her pilgrimage was over. She went back to her room and realized with a heavy heart that she had nothing to pack. After the battle outside the gates of Jerusalem, Lawrence had found her a very inexpensive room at a nearby inn that was run by a friend of his. She looked around the room. All she had left were her personal belongings. There was nothing left of her armor, her bow or sword, nearly nothing to remind her of what she had seen and done. It almost seemed like her adventures with Eden had never happened and it made the bard feel empty. Why?
"Do you really think this is the best way?" she heard a voice from behind, "The only way?"
The bard swiveled around to see a familiar figure.
"Angel..."
"It seems to me you're a stubborn learner." the blond angel noted gently.
"No..." Arielle countered quietly, "I finally understand. I have to go. I have to stop hurting her... and everyone."
"Well, then that just shows that you don't understand a thing."
"Isn't taking my curse away from her right?" Arielle questioned.
"You really think that leaving her completely behind is the best thing?"
"Yes..."
"Then why is your heart so heavy?"
Arielle said nothing, but hung her head.
"You have a good heart, Arielle," the angel explained, "a very good one. It's seen so many evil and hateful things and yet hasn't changed in its longing for love and kindness. Follow it. It will show you the way."
"I don't know the way. I'm lost... I'm weak..."
"Strength is not only shown in force, Arielle. The greatest strength in shown in heart."
"No... I was tested and I failed the test... so dearly... I should bear the consequences..."
"Or perhaps this is all a test," the angel suggested, "to help you chose what you really want and who you really are."
"Why would God test me with such evil?" Arielle asked with a hurt look, "And bring such evil to others?"
"God doesn't send evil. You encounter evil everyday on your path. It's what you do in that encounter that is your test... and that's what God is watching..."
The angel left Arielle staring in her direction long after she had disappeared.
Lawrence helped Eden back to the hospital. She laid down on her side towards Lawrence and he sat on the edge of her bed. He gently caressed her shoulder, furiously thinking of ways to help Eden and even more ways to smack the bard upside the head and back to her senses.
[Why?] he read on a paper thrust into his lap by the warrior.
It was a simple, one-worded question that was much too profound for anyone to answer and take the hurt away.
Lawrence decided to try anything on his friends' behalf. It wasn't because he thought that Arielle deserved it, it was more to try to save the one thing left for Eden and that was dearer to her than she would ever admit. He picked up the quill and replied.
[She is scared.]
Eden looked at the words, sighed and answered, sliding the paper over to Lawrence.
[Isn't everyone?]
[Some let that fear rule them. I tried. I'm sorry.]
Eden read the words and looked up at the Hospitaller to meet his solemn gaze with her own filled with a knowing sadness that this is the way things always seem to turn out. He was angry at the bard's self pity and complete lack of gratitude. Eden simply felt foolish that she had thought she saw something greater and brighter in the bard, but still struggling with an unrelenting feeling that she wasn't wrong about her.
[Lawrence, don't you know by now that I was born to do great things that no one will ever notice or remember?]
He read the words and then looked at Eden with a great hurt for his good friend. And looking back at him was a face that held a light smile of helplessness and eyes that held the stare of a person who had silently accepted that this day was their last on earth.
Eden left the hospital the next day and went to stay with the Hospitaller sisters again. Lawrence came to check on her everyday, worried about Eden. Her state showed no change and Eden was very withdrawn. It was hard enough on the warrior to sit through the days without her sword, never knowing if she would ever pick it up again. She felt empty. And when she was no longer strong and formidable, but wounded and weaker, Arielle suddenly vanished. Eden felt lost.
After a few days, Eden had realized that her state was more than likely permanent and if it was, then she was completely useless. She paced up and down her room one night, unable to sleep, and decided that her guardianship had come to a very unexpected end. With a tight throat, a cracking heart, and watery eyes, she took her armor and weapons and put them away in a large chest at the bottom of the wooden closet she had. She locked it, turned around, and laid down on her bed, crying herself soundlessly to sleep.
Lawrence had asked Helen to take care of her and she had agreed, feeling indescribably sorry for the guardian's predicament. Eden simply nodded at Lawrence's suggestion without a sign of objection and silently made her way to the kitchen to assist Helen in cutting vegetables or stirring soups or stews. Helen would prattle away though Eden didn't hear a single word and Lawrence would have found it all amusing if it wasn't so regrettable. One day, a dog wandered into the kitchen while the Hospitaller was there and he moved to scare him off.
"No!" Helen called, seeing him and the dog, "That dog is a friend, Lawrence."
"Friend?" he asked stunned, turning to the sister.
"Yes, quite. Eden has taken him in and cares for him. The poor thing has been wandering around here looking for a scrap to eat. You've haven't noticed him around? I wouldn't think that Eden would like this dog. The poor thing is without a leg, you see? Well, he's Eden's dog now; they seem to get along so well. What do you think? I think it's wonderful." Helen explained while cutting some potatoes.
Lawrence simply watched as the dog avoided him and trotted up to Eden. When the warrior felt him brush against her leg, she crouched down and smiled at the dog, scratching it behind the ears and giving it a scrap of something to eat. The dog snapped it up and then licked Eden's hand in great appreciation and the warrior grinned at him. The Hospitaller was amazed to see such care and consideration shown to the disfigured animal and it made him smile. Perhaps the wounded always understand each other better.
Outside the kitchen door left ajar, the bard silently watched it all.
Almost a week after the attack, Arielle walked slowly and quietly up to the single room in the corner of the cloister where Eden was staying. She saw the window had been left open. She tried the door and surprisingly feeling it give way, took a couple of tentative steps inside.
The bard had come to say goodbye. She had gone over and over it in her mind and there was no reason that she could think of that anyone in their right mind would want to her to stay. Not only did she have nothing to offer, she only constantly kept dragging them into trouble. Arielle had had her pilgrimage and adventures and now should thank God for her experiences and opportunities and go back home. Arielle caught sight of the warrior lying on the bed, sleeping lightly in the light of the rising sun.
Eden looked so peaceful, so beautiful, so... fragile that it weighed on the bard's already heavy heart so much that she felt it practically fall to her feet. I don't want to go, I really don't want to. But I just don't see any other way... A gust of the gentle breeze blew through the open window and drew the bard's attention to an open journal that the breeze was flipping through. Arielle absently reached out and put her hand on the journal to still the pages. The breeze subsided and the blond withdrew her hand to see a short fragment of neatly written text in front of her.
[I look up from fields of paper lies and want to torch the earth as I gaze at her fading sight... whispering come back.]
Arielle read it over and over and over as if she couldn't comprehend what she was reading. She glanced at the still sleeping warrior and then back at the page and then through the window. And the sudden, single tear that fell from her eye led to an explosion in her mind. She would have never thought that the warrior was capable of verse. She would have never thought many things about the warrior. And there, in the middle of that room, Arielle suddenly felt ridiculously foolish. The words were about her. Eden had just did what the blond thought she would never do- Eden had asked her to stay.
Something finally snapped so loudly in Arielle's head, that it sent a shiver through the world. Not only had Eden asked her to stay, but she had done so in the bard's own language. And Arielle suddenly noticed that she had actually been wrong about so many things for such a long time. And she thought that maybe, if a woman could wield a sword, if a human could battle demons, and if a bandit could show compassion then maybe, just maybe she herself could be a friend, a confidant, a protector. Protector?...
Flooded with the emotions that she had tried to control and stifle for so long now, she found herself walking up to the sleeping warrior. She didn't know what to say or what to do, but she did know that she just had to be near. A strange tingle of the bard's close presence woke the warrior and she froze when her pale blue eyes met mossy green ones. The eyes she could never say no to. The eyes she thought that she would never see again.
They stood frozen for a while, caught in each other's gazes. Then Arielle took a deep breath and moved slowly forward towards the warrior who also took a breath and unconsciously pressed her back to the headboard of the bed. The bard saw the multitude of sad questions in the guardian's eyes and it cut her so deep that she shifted her gaze to the floor when she stood next to Eden. She fiddled with her fingers and her jaw moved, opening slightly about a hundred times to say the things she couldn't find the words for. Eden knotted her brows, trying to understand what the bard was doing there and what she wanted. She finally decided to be the braver one and put them both out of their misery and picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table beside her bed. She scribbled a single word down and handed it to Arielle.
[Going?]
Arielle read it and thought her heart might explode. A lump rose in her throat and tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She let out a long sigh, took the quill, answered, put the quill down and reread her answer. She looked up from the parchment and saw the warrior's intense, apprehensive yet kind gaze. She saw its hope and anticipation. But one tear spilled over its rim when she saw that, despite everything, there was no judgment in Eden's eyes. As the tear landed and splashed against the floor, Arielle felt her defenses and excuses topple like castles of sand and she tossed the paper forward and threw herself in utter abandon at the warrior. She was caught in a surprised, yet strong grasp and Arielle cried and cried into Eden's shoulder. Eden anxiously reached for the parchment, picked it up and read it.
[Staying.]
Arielle felt a deep breath escape the warrior. Then the embrace tightened and the tension evaporated and turned into a little of the comfort that had begun to share before Dorian. Arielle felt that feeling of acceptance and protection return and it made her happy since she had been so scared that it had been lost forever. that joy escaped her in a smile that crept across her face. Eden could feel the smile on her skin through her tunic and felt a warmth in her rekindle.
"I'm so sorry, Eden." Arielle whispered straight into the warrior's ear, huddling closer into the protective arms, "Will you ever forgive me?"
A small jolt went through Eden when she thought she had very faintly heard the bard.
"Arielle..." Eden answered so quietly that Arielle could have missed it.
But the bard heard it. And she cried to the sound of her name in the most beautiful voice she knew.
-Listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
-God, who is like you? Do not be silent, neither be still, oh God! Because, behold, your enemies are enraged and your foes rear their heads against your people! They forged a secret in their craftiness and counseled against your Holy Ones.
-Make them like tumble-weed, my God, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.
-Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they will seek your name. May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord – that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
-Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and on the earth?
Author's Note: Yeah, I know this is even longer than the last chapter, but it's all Eden and Arielle's fault, I swear.