Rhythmically, the ethereal equine held his gallop, mild and steady at the behest of his rider for the sake of his passenger. The structure housing a lift to the Siofra River made itself clear despite the plentiful trees all around. The two disembarked, knight helping down maiden, and Torrent faded, seemingly into a sun-ray poking through the trees.
The darkness inside, lit by the pulsating blue light that seemed engraved in the descending circular platform, gave them precious moments to think their own thoughts - hers of anticipation, his of giddy.
It was a long way down. Longer than most other elevators, at least, though every one of them would be a lethal fall all the same.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Are you sure that I can't know? The anticipation is really getting me…"
"You can know… simply not yet."
"..."
"..."
The descent stopped, and Roderika was still hardly wrapping her blonde head around the fact that they were this far underground. She'd never been into a mineshaft, let alone this deep.
It was dark. That much was to be expected. Still, it was brighter than she had imagined; lifting her vision to the 'sky', confused and intrigued in equal measure, she saw (backgrounded by the towering structures and stone underground walls) that stars shone. Stars! It made no sense, but they were there, more plentiful than even those of the overworld!
"Arthur! Stars! Those're… oh, my. How is that possible?"
The sheer wonderment in her voice made him smile.
She deserves this joy. This excitement. Please, let this be only one of many times I can bring it to her.
In all truth he had no clue of the circumstances behind these stars' being. Moonlight appeared to beam down, though it was still mid-day, and that contravened all rational thinking. A perfect night sky at midday? Perhaps there were some things men were not destined to comprehend; this, he reasoned, just may be one of them. That was alright with him. He understood well enough that these stars, regardless of circumstance, were beautiful, and that they brought Roderika the joy she deserved. They're stars, if not in being then in function.
Torches, high-up on massive circular pillars, brought a warm orange light to the ruins before them. Large ruined bricks told of a place once magnificent, and left something still magnificent. Less so. Palatial structures, perhaps, now little more than a chipped and crumbled remembrance known to few.
"We have arrived. I cleared this area quite thoroughly not too long before I met you, so we should have no company tonight. Well, I suppose I could say today, as the sun still shines far above, but…"
"I'm glad. I'm not much of the fighting sort… at all, really. I can hardly use a dagger, and I rarely even carry one. Kind of pathetic, isn't it?"
"Not at all… not at all. If you would like, I could impart some knowledge onto you in the art of battle. It is an intricate art, despite all you may think."
"I'd love that… so long as you don't start me off with the great-sword."
The two of them smiled.
"Hah, no, we will start small. I say we begin with a shortsword and then graduate you to something with more weight to it… unless you would prefer the dagger."
"I've scarcely ever held a sword, let alone swung one… if I've got to make a fool out of myself in it, I'll be glad to do it in front of you and not a more impatient instructor. I still haven't a clue as to my purpose, but if I knew how to defend myself, I could come along with you on the full extent of your journey, maybe."
Her inflection of the last sentence was halfway between a supposition's and a request's.
"It is dangerous, dangerous more than I can say. I would never wish for you to live the life I do. To endure the hardships I must. I… I want you to stay at the Roundtable Hold with the blacksmith Hewg."
"With Master Hewg? Why? I'm sure he has more important matters to attend to than looking over a milksop like me."
Knight Arthur turned to her and smiled once more.
Milksop? Hardly.
"Because you have a… gift, Roderika. A gift of attunement with the spirits. I handed you the brooch, and in the moments before we… before we kissed each other, as you spoke to me with your kind words, you mentioned the spirits of your men lingering around it, speaking to you."
The green-eyed girl blushed slightly at the mention of their kiss.
'The way he said that word, as though it were something sweet and dear to him… as though I were… but that can't be.'
"Well… yes, what of it? Could you not see them, as well? Did they not speak to you as they did to me? The spirits seem to look rather fondly upon you."
The knight shook his head, still smiling. "No. I felt their spirits, but their forms and whispers were… indistinct. Vague, and unknown. You have a gift. Hewg told me it was in the hue of your eyes; he knew it from a spirit tuner he had met long ago. It is a talent, something I cannot naturally reach or instruct you on. He can. He will. He agreed to it."
"Oh, my… well, if I do have this gift, or talent, it would be my first, and… I suppose I should try to hone it. What if I… I did both? He could instruct me, and then I'd come with you. I could assist you with it, somehow."
"No. I would never allow anything to befall you, and within my power I would protect you even at the cost of my own life, but… you are much too bright to take up the sword like I have. Any dull man or woman can learn to battle, and to slaughter, just as I have, but the sort of communion with spirits you possess is nothing that can be taught. Our paths are separate, and I am so very happy that you will never roam mine. You are in a privileged position, in your own manner… I would not dare to drag you from it to my struggle."
"I know you never would… that's why I won't make you. I'll come with you because it's what I'd like. I might not know anything about fighting, but I want to be with you."
'I want to be with you, in more ways than just travelling…'
Arthur shook his head once more, this time with insistence.
"It is a road of toil and death, Roderika… I walk it so that someday, perhaps, another man will be spared from it. Part of my dream… you remember? I yearn for a world where men and women are free to leave the sword behind. That includes you. I ask you, remain with Hewg and you will be safe."
"The sword's already taken its place in my life. I met it on the same day where I began the crossing over the sea with my men, and even when they were grafted so horribly it never left me. I've never carried it, but it's set my course nonetheless. I may be gifted with an alignment with the spirits, but I'm still a Tarnished, just like you."
She had seen violence and was expelled despite never seeing grace. This was true. Her route was that of a Tarnished. Birds of a feather should flock together… yes?
A sigh, rare from Arthur, took form in the serene soundscape of the underground. "It seems that you are set on this… I cannot imagine it to be especially wise, but… alright. First, though, you must speak to Hewg about it. This gift you have been blessed with ought not to remain raw and unrefined."
His agreement (or, rather, concession) to her travelling with him brought Roderika a bounty of happiness.
Danger be damned, she had a person who understood and protected her, both from beasts and from her own doubt. A person who would teach her to protect herself, both from thrusted sword and scathing thought.
There was no way she could consign herself to sit idly by as he struggled alone against the battering force of the gods.
Her knight offered his bare left hand, and the maiden took it gladly, its gauntlet held in his right.
A river, shallow as any ankle-high water could be, separated soil and grass from brick not far after stepping off of the lift.
"If you shall permit it, I find it suitable that I should carry you across. That, or I could set down my chestplate as a raft for you to float. Either way I would not want your fine silk to be soaked!"
Roderika nodded, face reddened like he had just suggested passionate necking, though she knew he never would (not in those terms); she was not used to the feeling of being treated like some princess when she was little more than an exiled noble girl, a stranger in a strange land.
She loved it.
Arthur swept her off of her feet, in the most literal physical and emotional sense.
She loved it more.
His bulk lent him the means to carry her with ease, and he did so with care as well; she never felt in fear of being dropped, which meant he must have done it right. Though the river's boundary ended as quickly as it began, he 'did not notice' and, in his ignorance, held her in his arms as he ascended the many stairs through the ruins. It was only when they reached the rushing artificial waterfall on the other side that he set her down.
It was quite an experience, his first visit here; he had wandered into the midst of a slow-moving ambush by one- or two-dozen harpooner claymen, which he found no difficulty in dispatching.
Such a time was prior, though, and he had eradicated those pathetic remains there and elsewhere. It was all stillness along the riverside, now.
The two daring explorers of treacherous depths halted to take in the waterfall… from a distance, of course; being soaked would hardly benefit them, though after a battle Arthur did cherish the feeling of blood washing off in a torrent of waters. No battle today, fortunately.
The sight, as lovely as it was, could only entertain them for so long before they advanced up the stairs to the right and stepped forth onto another lift.
"This is where we meet the true beauty of this place.", he commented during the way up, which was a good deal shorter than the first lift (though still high enough). The most frightening enemy of his journey had been met up the river here, once, and even a devil could not pronounce a name more hateful to Arthur's ear - giant crab. It had not landed a hit upon him, but it had threatened to smash him into the ground with its absurdly large claw. A strong upward thrust had split the shell and indubitably slain the beast, leaving him with more meat than he could hope to cook, consume or store. Presently only small crab offspring remained, and they were less than aggressive.
Tall white trees hugged the left side of the river, and Roderika could see the stars better from this higher point. "Ah, the river again. I don't much mind getting my boots wet, really; you haven't got to carry me. I'm no… pretty princess, or something akin to it."
"You are. I want to… if you will permit it again. I insist, my lady!", the knight replied without any hint of doubt or less-than-sincerity. In his eyes she was. Even if not a literal princess, she was a dignified lady, though stripped of any title she may have once held.
Roderika blushed at 'my lady'. Arthur got exactly what he wanted out of that address.
Contrary to her statement, she did love being held up in his arms. It was clear from the way that she did not protest when Arthur took her in them again, and how she leaned into him with her arms looped around his neck. The soft splish splrrsh splonsh of the river surface underneath his sabatons was a soothing sound. Many noises of an earthen nature were soothing, to them both, and this place seemed almost like an idyll in that. If only it could have been such for those fellow exiles who dwelled here in times prior… but not all are so lucky. Arthur and Roderika were. Even a paradise serves to be a prison when exit loses possibility.
Dewkissed herba swayed gently to greet them as they reached dry terrain upriver and saw the true beauty of it all.
Knight and maiden went across dirt and stone and, regardless of where they looked, could not elude the sight.
Stars, as freckles on a young lass' face, speckled the midnight sky and lent it grace. White, and topaz, and misty red, they cast a heaven over Arthur's head.
There were so many.
Myriads.
Myriads, with beating hearts of fire, beating hearts that aeons cannot vex or tire.
Roderika took notice. She peered up with delight and took it in, as Arthur set her down. She hadn't had much cause to revel in the cosmos' wonders along the way of her despairing journey that left her in a lonesome shack on Stormhill. She had plenty now, especially given the 'otherworldly' nature of the underground. It was magical, though perhaps more literally than either of them ever suspected.
She turned to face him and let loose her thoughts.
"Oh, goodness me… it's astounding, isn't it? I can hardly imagine now sleeping in the woods by myself, but this sight would be decent company… wouldn't it? When I was travelling alongside my men, we'd never go to sleep in the woods if we could help it. 'Cold'll get you before the runebears', they would say. As hard as it was for me, hard as it is knowing what became of them… I sort of miss those times."
'Lady' Roderika's expression did not dim as she spoke of them… as she recalled them. She was not wistful… in prior times the subject would leave her so, but not tonight.
"I know of what you speak quite well, Roderika. As miserable as it could be to awaken alone in the dirt and continue a punishing journey… there was a certain, consoling aspect of solitude in it. I awoke alone, with only the crickets and pale moonlight to greet me, and returned to slumber alone. Those in-between moments… they brought some serenity back to my better part of man..."
A long pause intervened, not awkward but instead contemplative. They soaked in the sight and the smell and the sound of what it was like to stargaze with another.
A long pause died as the two stepped forward.
"Look up once more and see the fire in those stars. Celestial bonfires… the mercenary I told you of, who claimed his camp's fires burned with the dreams of his comrades… his words changed everything in how I view the cosmos. I can see the fires burning in them, and I swear to you that I can glimpse the dreams of everyone across time and land preserved within them… I swear it. I wonder if mine is alongside them…"
Roderika, indeed, looked up once more, but for the longest while, she had been gazing directly at him as he spoke. The expression he wore… it was like none she had seen on him since their first encounter. None at all. It was childlike in all the best ways, but subtly adapted to the weathered nature of an adult. A warrior. She wondered where that innocence hid the rest of the time.
'His smile… his eyes… he truly believes in this, I can tell. I can't help but believe in it, too…'
"I see it… Arthur. I see what you mean. It's… well, I've got no words."
She had no words, but she did have thoughts. Thoughts of how, maybe, just maybe, her men's dreams lived on in these 'celestial bonfires', as well... these things of forever-burning.
Content silence, pondering, scanning what twinkled above… it all affirmed to the both of them, individually, how sweet life could be in its tender moments.
"..."
"Even below the surface of our land, in the one place they shouldn't dwell, there exist stars… there exist dreams. They exist against all odds of darkness. Doesn't that say something wonderful about… well, about humanity? Even plunged into a darkness so thick it can strip one of the idea of sight, our hopes persist still."
Arthur was surprised that these words did not come from him; he felt the same way, and was close to verbalizing such sentiments when she unwittingly pre-empted him. He realized, more than ever, how much he and Roderika were alike in spirit… in heart. He was a knight, and had accepted as much, and she was a maiden, and was treated as such. They filled opposite roles of a dynamic, took opposite places in society, fractured as it may be, but they were more than just those roles.
He turned to her.
She turned to him.
With his intended words already said, he felt the impulse to gamble using words that he was considerably more nervous of.
… but you barely know her.
I know enough! We have a bond most precious, most deep!
You cannot love a woman truly with such little time.
Love is not just knowing a person's every emotional crevice, or growing up with them!
You cannot love her.
I do! Against you, my wiser judgment, I do!
She cannot love you.
I condemn you!
Both gauntlets came off. The metal clanked against itself as they impacted the dirt, and Arthur dared to set his two hands on her shoulders.
It was now just as it had been the first time… exposed flesh on a silk shoulder. More of it now. Twice the vulnerability… twice the risk.
"I love you."
"Oh? I'm flattered. I… I never…"
"... I see."
Arthur's face began to drop, along with his hands. He held up the brave front once again, though. He always had and always would. She knew this stoic effort from him too well.
Have I done it again? Is this another… misstep? Oh, you damned fool…
"..."
He stepped back, and made peace with it.
'I never thought you could love a sad craven like me.'
"..."
'No. I have to be brave… brave as he believes I am.'
This was no occasion for words to stumble like this and defile her meaning. Roderika knew that she couldn't tell him anything but what she really felt… not if she truly…
"..."
She took his hands.
"I love you, too."
The stars bore witness, and millions of dreams looked upon two dreamers. Among them, their lights would burn side-by-side forever, their tales etched into the flames.
The bonfire of dreams smoldered on as soul met soul on lovers' lips.
