To see a Darkened Sun
chapter 11
Another day passed similarly to the last one, Arias was awake for longer and shared some light conversation with Gwyndolin who seemed happy to talk. Gwyndolin even read him a book when things went silent, one of his snakes fetching one and propping it up for him to read, so his hands could continue to maintain the healing spell on Arias.
And soon the next day arrived, then the next. And by the fourth day they had something of a routine going. Arias wakes up, Gwyndolin would feed him breakfast, today it was pork and eggs, neatly prepared by the few remaining castle maids. Gwyndolin would then recast his healing spell, it's healing affects were always much better when he casted it and maintained it, though they were still felt when he wasn't.
Occasionally his attention would be forced away by a blade of the dark moon entering Gwyn's tomb to speak with him, then he cast his illusory self to speak with them, such meetings never lasted very long though. Then, after a short chat, Gwyndolin fetched one of his favorite books and read it to Arias while healing him.
It was a tragic tale of a knight tasked with safeguarding a church in a recently destroyed village. Very few villagers remained and the ones that did were bordering on starvation as they prayed for salvation. The village had been attacked by a foreign army possessed by demons. Some were mad while others retained their sanity, but all of them were driven by a primal hate for the living.
The possessed would attack only at night, and so the knight was forced to sleep during the day and guard the church at night. Every morning he was gravely wounded and his ability to fight wavered. He would usually wake up at late noon when most people slept, though some of the elderly remained awake to pray. A week after the initial attack, the demon's attacked in large numbers early in the morning. The knight tried to fight back but he was quickly beaten and battered to the point he could no longer even move, unable to defend the villagers, his people, as the foul demons raped, ate and tortured every living human in the church. Even the elderly and the young.
Come noon he was alone in a blood soaked church, the floor of which was coated in the organs of those he fought so painfully to protect. Barely alive and wracked with guilt, he let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony. He never saw the possessed again, it seemed they decided they would rather leave him to a torturous existence, with the same seething hate that burned within their own stomachs. After tending to his own wounds, he didn't allow himself even a day of full recovery before gathering the remaining food and leaving his destroyed home.
The knight travelled the lands, fighting off bandits with ease and trying to warn other villages of the possessed threat. Though no one ever took him seriously, calling him a liar and a dishonorable coward who would rather lie than admit he could not protect a village from a bandit raid. He was heavily frowned upon by almost everyone, being unofficially banished from every nearby village. Nothing ever proved him right either, the possessed never attacked another village, though they haunted his for the rest of time, turning it into a cursed land no sane person would ever set foot in.
Upon being banished from most places, he eventually committed to living a life on the road, travelling from village to village as a nameless nobody. Without noticing it he had abandoned the kingdom altogether within a year or so. Now no one knew who he was, now he was nobody.
Gwyndolin always thought this was a good ending to the tale, a nice way to wrap up a depressing story of how life can go so terribly wrong for absolutely no reason, there was no need to add on top of it. He hesitated to continue reading further, thinking that maybe it was best that he not spoil Arias' experience with the book. Though he ended up reading on anyway.
The knight continued his travels for many years, crossing continents as he aimlessly wandered. Though after countless months traversing the land, he encountered a strange wounded woman with one eye. Though it was customary for only men to be knights in the land he'd found himself in, she was wearing an ornate set of knight's armor. She'd fallen down a steep cliff in her travels and was injured badly.
The knight bandaged her wounds and took her to nearby town where she was taken care of in the local inn. As he left the next morning, he was surprised to see her follow him. She asked to come along with him, seemingly determined to join him on his travels. When asked as to why she didn't rest longer she told him she did not need it.
Eventually the knight gave in and took her along with him. It wasn't long before their similarities became clear. They fought the same way and they even thought of the same spots to camp at. One night by a campfire, the knightess told the knight her story. She was a knightess of a small castle, she deeply admired the Lord and her fellow knights but that admiration was not shared.
She remained blissfully unaware of this for many years, until one day it all fell apart. She was returning from a nearby village when she was attacked by a small group of bandits, nothing serious for her but something felt off, they didn't say a word, nothing. Most bandits would at least threaten a victim before attacking. As she was pondering this, the dead started to get back up, the wounds they'd sustained now showing a green slimy thing moving under the skin.
The knightess fought back for as long as she could but they could not be stopped, some of them biting into her horse and hanging on by their teeth even while being flung around. They ate it while she was mounted. Terrified, she jumped off the horse and sprinted away, towards the castle.
She ran for a long time, and the creatures following her weren't slackers either, they were keeping pace with her. After what felt like hours she saw the castle in the distance, completely exhausted she could barely keep up her sprint, driven only by the desperation to survive. She saw one of her fellow knights riding a horse nearby, she cried out for help, but they just turned around and hastily rode towards the castle.
As the knight passed the drawbridge, it was quickly lifted right in front of her. She called out desperately and it stopped for a brief moment, only to continue to close quickly after.
Her hope was crushed, those she'd admired had just stabbed her in the back and left her to die. She stopped at the edge of the moat in a daze, she couldn't believe it. Turning around she saw the creatures in human flesh still chasing her, and soon they reached her. They grabbed, slashed, bit and choked her with no reservation. She felt as skin was torn from her body, blood pouring from the large wounds. One of the creatures bit out one of her eyes, the force of it tearing the eye out was enough to push her over the edge into the moat.
She thought she was dead, any rational person would have. But to her surprise her remaining right eye opened once again. She'd awoken in a small room, seemingly carved out of a rock. Looking around her clothes were in a heap in the corner and her armor was on top of them, though there was nothing else of note. A large opening in the wall at the other end of the room revealed the moat she'd fallen into. Looking at herself most of her wounds had healed, though some skin was still missing.
She was confused as to how exactly she was still alive, thinking on how it was even possible as she tore up the sleeves from her shirt for makeshift bandages, barely having enough cloth to wrap over her wounds. She put on what remained of her clothes and almost put on her armor, but then she considered how she would swim out of the moat in full plate knight armor.
She would certainly need the defense once she escaped the moat. Sighing, she had to make to, putting on the bare minimum to be able to swim. Her chestplate, helmet, and one armored glove. The knightess swam out and made her way out of the moat onto the grass. Exhausted, she went to grab her sword from it's sheath, only to realize it wasn't there, it wasn't even in the cave.
She snuck around and saw the drawbridge had been let down. Creeping into the castle she saw blood and organs everywhere, half eaten corpses littering the streets. She soon saw the corpse of a knight and took the sword, immediately turning and running the other way.
From there on she lived on the road much like the knight she was now sharing her story with. Said knight also shared his own story with her. After that night they quickly bonded, sharing their burdens along with their travels. With that, the book concluded.
Gwyndolin was surprised to find himself enjoying parts of the story that he'd previously found annoying and disappointing, and pleasantly surprised by Arias enjoying them too. He smiled to him as his snake closed the book and took it back to it's spot on his shelf.
"Nice to see a happy ending for once!" Arias joked, getting a slight chuckle from Gwyndolin.
"Oh that it is! They can be so rare these days." With that Gwyndolin accidentally killed the conversation before it even started. An uncomfortable silence blanketing the room in it's sharp embrace.
"Gwyndolin... There's something I wanted to ask you..." Arias spoke, his gaze turning directly to the god.
"Hm?" Gwyndolin hummed, returning the gaze. There was a short moment of silence before Arias went ahead and asked his question.
"May I... See your face?"
The smile on Gwyndolin's face immediately disapeared. He knew all too well how this would go. Though none of his current subjects know of it, there is a reason he masks his appearance, a reason he hides from the world. Not only does his skin burn easily from rays of the real sun, but he looks disgusting, his elder brother and sister would commonly talk down to him and on the worst occasions they would compare him to a crossbreed. He was shunned and got disgusted looks from even those such as Seath the Scaleless. And of course that was not the end of it, he was meant to be a woman, born under the moon, a symbol of femininity, but he was born a man.
Everything about him was wrong, and he was barely hiding it from those that remained in the city he inherited. He could not let Arias of all people see the disgusting form that hid beneath his crown, he could not be looked down upon by his own knight, especially him.
"I... am sorry, my knight, but that is not possible. Know that I have reason to keep this crown on mine head. I only ask that thee not seeketh further answers on this subject." Gwyndolin tried his best to calmly speak, but it was clear something was scaring him, or at the very least he was incredibly uncomfortable. Arias took a mental note of this. He nodded, excepting the gods reasoning, afterwards they quickly moved on from the subject.
I'm working on these chapters bit by bit each day so don't worry, I haven't forgotten about this story yet! Progress will remain slow but steady!