Reconciliation
Clatter woke Farid with a start.
For a long moment he sat there, heart in his throat and mind filled with ash and soot, gallows and nooses and dark cellars, before he remembered the walk through the forest. Roxane in the doorway. And the blow of fatigue that had followed the relief.
Because Dustfinger was back. He was back.
A loud noise once again, and Farid turned towards the woman who had just set a cast iron pot with water in front of the fire place. The woman with hair the same reddish blonde as Dustfinger.
Farid's smile disappeared as quickly as it had come.
"They're not here, if you're wondering," Brianna said without turning around. "Mother's feeding the animals and Dustfinger," she hesitated on the name, "is at the stream with Jasper. Looking for sand edible enough for a glass man. He doesn't want you there," she added sharply when Farid immediately got to his feet. "Not until you've eaten something." The quiet rustle as she poured oats and salt in the pot almost drowned out her bitter, "At least that's what mother told me."
Farid reluctantly sat down again and silence descended over the kitchen, only interrupted by Brianna's muttered curses when the sparks from the fire striker didn't take in the kindling in the fireplace. Finally he couldn't resist and woke the flames with a whisper.
Brianna paused, an unreadable expression crossing her face, before she wordlessly put away the fire striker and hung the pot on the hook above the flames.
His mind wandered to the day before. To Dustfinger's words. Jasper coming to his rescue made sense, but that Brianna, despite her mixed feelings for her father and especially for him, had ridden for help… it felt impossible.
And yet that was how it had happened. Yet she was the reason he wasn't lying battered beyond recognition on the gallows' hill.
He watched her as she took out some bowls. Stirred the pot, whose contents had begun to simmer.
Maybe she likes Orpheus even less than you.
"Thank you." The words felt weird in his mouth, but he knew he had to say them. "I thought…"
"What? That just because I don't like you, I'm completely heartless?"
Before Farid had time to respond she slammed three bowls on the table and headed towards the bedrooms – probably to wake Roxane's son. She hesitated however in the doorway.
"How did he react? Orpheus?"
Farid ran his foot over the quilt, which at some point had fallen off him and onto the floor. "He was furious. Especially once he realised Silvertongue was the one who brought Dustfinger back." He smiled. "And because Dustfinger set fire to his cellar stairs."
Brianna didn't respond, but as she kept walking Farid swore he saw a smile on her lips. Before he could be sure however she disappeared from view.
Shrugging, Farid grabbed one of the bowls and a spoon. The porridge didn't taste much, but it was warm and smooth and far better than the other things he had eaten recently. He quickly inhaled the bowl's contents before hurrying out in the morning fog to find Dustfinger.
This was originally a part of the first chapter, but I felt it suited better as a bonus chapter or coda of sorts!
Thanks for reading :)
