Heirs of Hyarch

Still a little sleepy, Edeline slowly sat up, a few strands of hairs falling in front of her face. Brushing them aside with a hand, she took a moment to gather her thoughts. Yesterday...definitely not her proudest moment, but strangely enough, she found herself not caring about how unladylike it had been.

The truth was, the numerous lessons on proper manners that had been drilled into her since childhood by Lendra and her mother were not going to help her now. No amount of proper politeness would save Hallowscroft. Her practice with the sword, her own thaumaturgical skills she had taught herself, those were the tools she had to lean on now.

After all, she had planned on leaving it behind anyway, right?

Starting now just made a certain sense to her. If she waited until after she regained access to her home, Edeline knew in her heart, she would be tempted to remain there. If she was able to...no, she would set this matter straight, and then depart the town to make her own way in the world.

"I guess this is farewell, Lady Hallowscroft," Edeline said quietly to herself, addressing that part of her life as if it was a separate person.

A snorting sound from the other bed in the room answered her.

Edeline barely held herself back from leaping off the bed in panic. Looking over, she saw a figure, half covered by a twisted blanket, exposed legs and arms extended out over the sides of the bed. A woman, she realized, still apparently asleep without a care in the world.

Hamond apparently had brought in someone else this past night.

Edeline supposed that was to be expected. As important as it was that she wrested control of Hallowscroft back, there were other people he needed to tend to. Not that it stopped her face from flushing at the thought of Hamond being in there with her, seeing her asleep and...

Cheeks still tingling, Edeline quickly and quietly dressed herself. This was not some storybook romance, nor a tale straight from one of the poetry collections she kept at home. It was simply a passing fancy, not the first she had had, and likely would not be the last.

Turning around, she could see the other woman had sat up, staring blankly at the opposite wall. Now that Edeline could get a clearer look, she could see it was an Elefae...from last night. It was the one from last night, Morgivel's granddaughter. What she was doing here, Edeline had no idea, but that was easy enough to find out. She slipped out of the room, leaving Nela to fully wake up.

Hamond was already up, and judging from the smell that greeted her, had something cooking over the fire. Meanwhile, he was seated at his table, looking through what looked like a small plain book.

"Good morning," Hamond said, closing the book. "You feeling better?"

"I am," Edeline answered, taking a seat. "I did sleep well. Although I was a little...startled, finding I was not alone in that room."

"Well, I didn't want to wake you, and she insisted on staying here, so..." Hamond trailed off, shrugging. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." It did not entirely explain why Nela had come here, but again, asking directly would work, and Edeline knew she could wait. She chose instead to change the subject. "What are you cooking?"

"More pottage," Hamond admitted sheepishly, "I hope you don't mind it again."

"I think I can live with that," Edeline said. Honestly, it was a small wonder why Hamond did not just become a cook at some tavern. He certainly seemed to have a natural talent for it.

The door to the sickroom swung open, revealing a grumpy looking Nela. "What happened to first light?" she asked sourly.

"You can't blame me, since I was up and ready," Hamond told her, an obviously smug look on his face. Edeline had to stifle a chuckle at Nela's indignant glare.

"Real funny, aren't you?" the Elefae muttered, before pulling a chair out and sitting opposite Edeline, before addressing her. "So, you're her, then."

"I am...me, yes." Edeline was not sure what to make of that.

"Well, suppose I'd better get to it, then," Nela continued, "Unless the food's going to be ready soon, because I'm definitely hungry."

"It'll be a while more," Hamond said, glancing over at the pot.

"So...Lady Hallowscroft," Nela looked Edeline right in the eyes, making her feel a bit uncomfortable. She should have supposed that setting aside her noble title and birthright would not be that simple. "I'm guessing things have gone a little rough for you."

"Only a little?" Edeline couldn't help but ask. Either Nela was not well informed as to what had happened, or she was specifically trying to be aggravating.

"A lot then. Thing is, someone's after you, and as it turns out, they're after something else too."

"Tell me," Edeline stated flatly. Whatever Nela knew, she needed to learn as well.

"Let me back up a bit," Nela said, "You probably know this, but me and the rest of the returning folks got here a few days back, along with your brother. We set up camp just outside of town, and with your brother being in charge and all, he went into town to meet you and take care of getting us a better place to stay."

"He did meet with me," Edeline noted.

"Right, and then he was supposed to see to getting food and roofs over our heads for the night, and then arranging our pay. Some of us were getting paid in pikers, others were planning on getting some land."

"What were you getting paid?" Hamond asked.

"That's my business, not yours," Nela said, sounding a little snappy, "But none of that happened...and the young lord never came back."

That all but confirmed it. It was likely they had used the same scheme for Myron, sending members of the town watch to lure him wherever they wanted. And Edeline could see her brother, tired after his long journey and eager to meet back up with Lord Hallowscroft, falling for it.

It didn't exactly help, though, since it told them nothing about where Myron was now. "Then what did you do?" Edeline asked.

"We just waited. A couple of the captains insisted on it, and most of us knew if we left, we risked not getting paid." Nela shrugged. "But patience ran out. A number of men left to go home, and some of the others decided they wanted to go bother the lord about it. Good luck with that, I'd say."

Edeline glanced over at Hamond, wondering if he was thinking the same as her. If those men ended up walking right into the hands of whoever was behind this...well, fighting the watch captains was one thing, but a small army was another.

"But patience wasn't the only thing running out," Nela continued, "Yesterday, the rest of us that were left realized we didn't have all that much food stored away, and we'd either have to get more or just go home. One thing led to another, and a number of us split up to try to figure out how to get some supplies. I volunteered to go as well."

"Somehow I don't think Morgivel could have helped with that," Hamond said.

"I'm not to that part yet. I did go poke around for the elf elders to see if they would rally some help or something, but I couldn't find any of them. I wasn't counting on them anyway, but had to try, you know?"

"Given what I've heard from your grandfather, probably not." Hamond scratched at his chin.

"Since that wasn't working out, I decided to go see if I could...well..." Nela trailed off, looking away.

"Yes?" Edeline asked after a moment.

"Well...I decided I might as well go find your brother. Thought if I tracked him down, I'd be able to figure out what happened. Not the greatest plan, but I didn't have anything better to do."

"Why not go home and see your family?" Edeline asked. After years away, she would have thought Nela would have wanted to go see them.

Nela's face fell immediately. "Let's just say they don't want to see me, and I feel the same."

"My apologies." Edeline had no intention to offend, and here she was...stop it, she told herself. She didn't need to berate herself endlessly over everything. Just move on.

"You couldn't know," Nela said, taking a deep breath. "So, I made my way over to your house. And...well, I found him."

"My brother was there?" Edeline blinked, thinking hard. If he was being allowed to move around openly, that spoke of a high level of confidence in the situation. "They really think they're in control of Hallowscroft, it would appear."

"Except for us," Hamond said grimly.

"What have I gotten my arse into?" Nela whispered audibly.

Edeline could not help but chuckle, despite the crude language. "Essentially my thoughts. Anyway, what happened next?"

"I tried approaching him, see if I could get him to come back. It was really weird, because he kept repeating something about a more important project, no matter what I said."

The same as the watch captain, then. While the only way to be sure was to find him and have Hamond confirm it, it did appear Myron was under the influence of this spell. It would definitely be safe to proceed assuming that was the case.

"At that point, I knew something was wrong. Didn't exactly know what to do, and ended up walking back to the camp." Nela stopped, looking back and forth between Edeline and Hamond. "Everyone was gone. None of the others who'd gone out like me had come back, and the men who had stayed behind had just left. Just a few tents and sacks left there."

"Do you think they have control of those men now?" Edeline turned to Hamond, now very worried. It wasn't an enormous force, but it would easily be able to hold Hallowscroft against any real threat. Turned on the king...Edeline didn't think Hyarch could afford to divert men to defend against an internal threat.

"Probably not right now, but given a few more days, it'd be possible," Hamond sighed, "We don't have a lot of time."

"Then we should get moving today," Nela said, "First things first, I need to know how to remove this spell myself."

"Is there a reason you're so insistent on that?" Hamond asked, voice taking on a slight edge.

Nela noticed it. "Is there a reason you're insisting on not? What's got under your skin?" she countered.

"For starters," Hamond began to say angrily.

"Stop it, both of you," Edeline cut them both off. She wasn't sure what the issue was, but this whole argument was pointless.

"Fine. What's your plan then?" The look Nela was giving Edeline told her she was fishing for support. While Hamond said nothing, Edeline could guess this was about protecting his secret.

A thorny situation, but given what they were dealing with, there was only one answer.

"Nela does have a point," Edeline said, hoping this wouldn't upset Hamond too much, "We have to prepare for the possibility of you being placed under this spell. We need a backup for that case."

Nela beamed, and Edeline found herself regretting it immediately. She did not know the Elefae that well, but so far it seemed like this would make her insufferable. Edeline just hoped that she did not try and rub this in Hamond's face.

Hamond sighed, closing his eyes for a long moment. "Very well," he finally said, "This spell will remove all active enchantment spells on the person you touch. You'll need to practice the incantation first, of course. The words are-"

A loud knocking on the house's door interrupted him.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Nela spun to face the door.

"Who is it?" Hamond called out. Edeline fell back, ready to duck into Hamond's room if needed. It really was the worst timing.

"We know you have the Lady Hallowscroft in there!" a voice shouted back, "Don't try any games! Come out now!"

Edeline felt her blood run cold. They were out of time. The men had followed them here, they were cornered. The house only had the one door, and no windows in either of the bedrooms. There was no way out.

"Guess you weren't kidding about this place not being safe," Nela commented, sounding strangely flippant.

"I can hold them off, but you'll need to rush past them," Hamond said quietly, raising his hands. "Get ready on my signal."

"Oh, don't go trying to play the hero here." Nela moved towards the door, taking a half-crouched position. "I'll handle this."

Before either Edeline or Hamond could respond, Nela yanked the door open, then bolted through, slamming it behind her. A muffled yelp followed.

Without thinking, Edeline darted over to the door, pulling it open as she moved to help Nela. There was no way she was going to allow Nela to take them on alone, even if she didn't have a weapon at the ready. She'd figure something out.

Outside, she saw one of the town watch laying prone on the street in front of the house. Nela was closing in on another watchman. Spotting the watchman's dropped sword, Edeline snatched it up. This was getting to be a pattern, she realized. She really just needed to get her own sword back.

"You witch! What did you do?" the man exclaimed as Nela strode up, her hand outstretched.

"Here, you can find out. Doroneiroi." Nela reached out and touched the man's hand as she said this, and he instantly collapsed, only barely caught by Nela. The Elefae lowered the man to the ground.

"What did you do to them?" Hamond burst out of the house, looking back and forth between Edeline, Nela, and the two men.

"Sleep spell," Nela said, smirking. "Don't worry, they aren't going to wake up for a while. Surprised you weren't going to try that yourself. Well then, mister wise teacher, do either of them have the other enchantment on them or not?"

Edeline wished she had had that spell earlier, for the captain or the other men. She'd have to consider learning it as well, just to have the option of not shedding unnecessary blood.

"Teleios horama," Hamond said, looking over the pair. "No, it doesn't appear to be currently cast on them."

Edeline, meanwhile, was looking up and down the street. There were no other watchmen in sight, but a few passerby were staring at the scene. More men would probably come soon, and they had no time to waste.

"We need to move," she said, not taking her eyes off the street.

"Agreed. Guess learning the spell will have to wait," Nela grumbled, "Where do we go, though?"

"I don't know." Hamond was still staring down at the sleeping men.

"Simple," Edeline told them, taking a few practice swings with the sword, getting a feel for its weight. "We're going on the offense."