Private Simple Tasks

[Euphemia Martell]

Effie's hand ran down the flank of the horse, the brush following after in her other hand. Caring for the horses had been one of the tasks that had been assigned to her as a child when she was first brought into the monastery. It had been hard initially, but over time the stables had become a refuge for the young girl. Now as a Knight, she took great care of the horse that she used going on missions. Having burrs in the fur could cause injuries from the saddle, so she was careful. Setting down the brush, her fingers ran over the items aligned neatly on the wall. Saddle, bridle, saddle bags. Everything hung in a particular place in a particular order. While she had developed an ability to "see", inanimate objects held only echoes of the shroud if any at all. So she made sure to order her supplies in a particular way. It almost seemed obsessive, if it wasn't done in order to simplify her life.

Grasping the saddle, she lifted it and placed it gently on the back of the horse. The soft glow of the shroud in her eyes, showing her the outline of the beast. Such was her sight. Everything living had the shroud, was filled with the magic of the world. It was this that helped Effie to see the world. Most things had the same soft glow, but those stronger in the shroud or crystals imbued with magic glowed brighter. Her hands ran along where she knew the straps were, pulling everything tight as she prepared for the mission ahead. The bridle and then her saddle bags were added soon after.

Ready, the knight stepped outside the stable and headed toward the gate of the monastery where her partner for this assignment waited. Willard waited there for her. "Sorry if I kept you waiting too long." She tended to be meticulous, which meant moving slower. Grabbing onto the pommel, she pulled herself into the saddle. Her sword strapped in easy reach on the saddle, a staff above it more to help her with walking than it being a weapon. There assignment was a simple one, just more like a patrol to check in on some of the villages toward the mountains, help out as needed and report back anything unusual. A simple assignment, one that everyone took on at some point. This would be a walk in the park.​

 

[Willard]

Willard waited in silence as Syr Martell made her preparations. Having risen early, he had already been set and ready to go by the time the dark-haired dusker had arrived at the stables. Clad in light clothes, gambeson and coif, he had hastened to the Knoll for a quick spot of breakfast before returning to find his horse exactly where he had left her, munching on grass beside the gatehouse.

Clambering up into the saddle, Willard gave the ol' bay an affectionate pat on the neck.

Euphemia appeared shortly thereafter. 'No need to apologise,' the young dawnling greeted her, belatedly lowering the hand he had raised in welcome. Fool-ass. Shroud-sight or no, Willard felt extremely foolish as he beckoned for the sentry on duty to open the gates. 'Sleep well?' He asked, a tug on his reins bringing his horse around.

@Euphemia Martell

 

[Euphemia Martell]

"Is it possible to sleep well the night before leaving on assignment?" She asked amusement in her tone. Even just a simple patrol still made her nervous now that she had finished her trial and was considered a full capable member of the Order. There had been something about having a more experienced Knight leading the way. If she remembered correctly, Willard wasn't too long past his own trials. She had close to six months as a proven Knight, sworn to the Order. Maybe after a couple of years she might feel differently. Still she was good at putting on a brave face when needed.

The horses began at a leisurely pace down the road. The horse that she rode was well trained to stay with the other beasts of the Order's stabled. Another downside of the shroud-sight, she could see the vast expanse of the ground with so many living things within, a bright expanse beneath the horses hooves, but there were oft pieces missing to the picture. Simple pieces that one might not readily realize they were missing. Something as simple as signs along the road or the sun in the sky to determine something as simple as east and west. Those were beyond the young woman.

"Did you manage to find some decent sleep?" She asked as her hands rested loosely on the top of her pommel, letting the horse follow Willard as it would.​

 

[Willard]

Sitting loosely in the saddle, the dawnling considered Euphemia's question, brown eyes settling upon the woman, if but for a moment. 'I did,' he replied, envisioning the cell he shared with three other Sworn, every one of them nigh a decade older than him, though arguably no wiser. 'A warm bed in a safe place. How could I not?'

Turning away, he smiled, shook his head.

'Relax, friend Martell. It may never happen.' Watching the road and trees and sky, the young knight led by example. So close to home, there was no cause for fear. Wards and watchtowers and friendly spirits kept the ne'er-do-wells at bay. As for those things worse than common bandits, well, that was why they were sent out on patrols in the first place.

'Is this your first time out?' Willard asked, glancing briefly at Euphemia. 'As a Sworn, I mean.' Frowning slightly, he made a mental note to be more specific in future, lest someone take undue offense.

@Euphemia Martell

 

[Euphemia Martell]

She chuckled softly. He was right, there was really no reason to be so ... anxious. The last few patrols of hers had gone just fine. Nothing too crazy, just some bandits that had been easy enough to deal with even if one had managed to break a rib.
"No, though it likely seems like it." She said with a wry smile. "I suppose there was just a small amount of comfort when being a squire. Responsibility hadn't fully fallen on our shoulders yet."

There was probably more to it than that, but she wasn't really ready to examine her feelings of inadequacy quite yet. The Captains had deemed her capable of taking the Oath and that should be good enough for her. The horses plodded along, uncaring of the conversation. "How have your assignments gone since becoming a Sworn?"

Mayhap hearing about someone else's work and how relatively calm it had been might help with her rolling emotions. She really should have more faith in the Captains. They wouldn't unduly send out the newly Knighted into dangerous situations after all. The Order would have collapsed if that was the case as all the young blood found themself sorely out of their league.​

 

[Willard]

He nodded. 'If you say so.' In truth, Willard felt differently. Even at a young age, he had known what was expected of him, by both kith and kin. Fortunately -though perhaps not- he had borne the weight of responsibility long enough to grow accustomed to it.

A question came and went, carted away on the breeze. A calm westerly, it ruffled his hair, tugged at the whiskers covering his chin and upper lip.

'Surprisingly smoothly,' he answered Euphemia, drawing on recent memory like a bowstring. Patrols and rangings, mostly. "Simple tasks", though Willard considered such to be a misnomer, since there was no guarantee the taskings would prove easy.

'It's... odd,' he confessed, a tug on his reins steering his horse towards the distant lights of Astenvale village. 'I am not one to entertain doubts, and yet I cannot help but feel as if I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.' Anticipation, or just nerves, he was no stranger to either, despite what he had told his counterpart earlier.

 

[Euphemia Martell]

"Smooth is welcome." She replied. She at least would welcome smooth. A breeze blew gently over them as their horses trotted along, the smell of the forest nearby blowing past her nose. Everything was going smoothly now in fact.

Willard's voice changed slightly, Effie catching a hint of doubt or anxiety there in his voice. She found herself nodding with his words. She understood what he meant. After so much had happened with those in the order, the blight, the battles - a few she even participated in as a squire, this seemed an odd calm before the storm. She didn't know if it was just because there was a moment of calm as the pieces were picked up and examined in this strange puzzle or if it was just in their heads.

"I feel it too. That lingering feeling that something is waiting just out of range of vision." An odd turn of phrase from one who, without the use of the shroud, was blind. Yet her shroud vision had allowed her to see more than just expected. The varying levels of shroud within a person or object, meant that she could see things others couldn't. Someone trying to hide behind a tree stood out in her sight when she really focused her attention. Unfocused however, things more than a hundred feet or so from her just became a blur.

"I suppose I should offer back your own words from earlier, that we should both do our best to relax." Easier said than done, she supposed. Yet at the same time, worry wouldn't exactly help either of them beside to draw on their mental fortitude until mistakes were made later on down the line. "I will choose to believe that this, will be a smooth patrol." Effie said with a grin, turning her milky eyes toward Willard, confidence that she didn't fully feel written on her features.​

 

[Willard]

'Well, however our little soiree turns out, know your optimism is much appreciated,' he chuckled quietly, like a squire in the library, afraid of getting caught doing something he shouldn't. Riding on, Willard led them eastwards, away from Astenvale, and the village nestled in its shadow.

The Mheara mountains were a distant blur behind them. A smear on the horizon, they served as useful landmarks to the order's rangers and questing knights. Few among their number had ever ventured beyond the natural barrier the Mheara formed, separating East from West. There was a reason for that. Several reasons, actually.

Willard looked skyward.

'Bright day ahead,' he smiled, promising Euphemia something most could only guess at. A Pursuant of the Wyld, he had spent the majority of his youth learning its ways, and yet still considered himself to be a novice when compared to the likes of Master Brambleshell and Syr Jarro, both of whom had dedicated more years to the Pursuit than he had been alive.

We all have to start somewhere, he reminded himself, thinking of the journeys he had shared so far, and taking comfort in them.

'Clear skies and calm winds abound. Maybe you were right, maybe this will go smoothly,' he smiled some more. 'Gods, why do I find that funny?'

@Euphemia Martell

 

[Euphemia Martell]

The bright sun shown down, the warmth caressing at her face. The sun, the sky was something that she always wished the could see. Storms, lightning, that had shape within the shroud, but not so the sun. "I hope you are right. Riding in armor in the rain is the worst experience." She said with a joking smile. It certainly wasn't great to be riding in the rain, there was certainly worse things. Leather, specially poorly cured leather just stunk in the rain. It was a clear smell that she remembered from childhood. Her father picking her up after herding their flock of sheep during a rainy day. The smell clinging to him.

"Don't say it'll be smooth too much, otherwise you'll jinx us." The more times they spoke of a smooth patrol, the more it felt like they were riding toward something greater than either of them. Or maybe this was just that lingering doubt that had been expressed earlier.

"What makes you able to tell?" She asked curious as to what tricks or tells there might be that he could sense or see that she could not. "That it'll be clear skies and calm winds?" ​

 

[Willard]

'Hey, you're the one that keeps saying it.' Shrugging, an innocent smile on his face, Willard stuck to the travelled path. Astenvale was a remote settlement, and the roads connecting it to the wider world reflected that. Wide enough for a cart or covered wagon. Or two knights riding abreast. There were other routes they could've taken, sure. But in this case the most direct one also happened to be the best.

'How do I know?' Glancing at Euphemia, the dawnling gauged the sincerity of her question. 'Well, I use my senses, of course. Sight, smell, hearing,' he listed a few before gesturing at the treetops nearby. 'I watch the birds and what they're up to, and always look to see what it's doing on the horizon.' Today, the skies weren't up to much of nothing. Lucky us, he thought, following Effie's gaze.

If only she could see things the way he did, maybe then she'd understand.

Like that's ever going to happen, he grimaced, a deep sadness burrowing into his chest, right where his heart was located. 'We can learn a great deal from the world around us, wouldn't you agree?' Pausing, he nodded, smiled. 'Close your eyes, Syr. Take a moment, and just... be.'

@Euphemia Martell

 

[Euphemia Martell]

Effie gave a smile back as he considered her question. As he spoke her eyes seemed to follow the motion of his hands as she took in the shroud glow of the birds in the sky. The rest, the rest she couldn't see. She didn't know what the sky looked like as it was just a dark expanse. Now of all the things that she could for some reason see were storms. Whether it was the lightning or something else that was charged with shroud, she couldn't tell. Yet on stormy nights as thunder rolled across the skies, she could see the flash of lightning racing behind it. The first time she'd seen something like that had been awe-inspiring.

She closed her eyes as bid, trusting in the horse to keep following alongside it's companion. Effie released the ever present hold on the shroud that allowed her to see in the first place. It was a simple spell that she'd managed to be able to hold most of the day at this point, even if it left her tired by the end. The knight didn't really need to close her eyes after she released the spell, everything turning dark. Her natural vision.

Yet as she did, as her mind didn't need to focus on seeing the shroud, her other senses that had once been honed began to focus in on their surroundings. She could smell the sweetness of fruit, that moment when fruit had fallen and was just beginning to turn. Sickly in it's sweet. She heard the hooves of the deer drawn in by the smell, finding something to eat. The birds called to each other, singing songs of spring as they began to try and find a partner as the world began to warm. "I used to be really good at listening to the world around me. Hearing what it said through the smells and sounds." She paused her head tilting slightly. "I think I had lost the importance of those things as I've strengthened my shroud sight."​

 

[Willard]

Euphemia's trust was well placed. The order's mounts, from the horses to the war-boars to a literal wyvern in one case, were well-trained and cared for. Willard's own charger was proof enough of that. We could get lost out here, and still they would carry us home, he mused, knowing it to be the truth as he eyed their surroundings warily.

'Hmm. I suppose that could not be helped,' he replied, a quiet swish of his reins encouraging his charger onwards, pace quickening to the sound of hooves beating the dry earth below. 'I sometimes wonder what it would be like, to view the world through the eyes of another. To share their thoughts and feelings, and see how they differ to mine.'

Blessed or cursed, it was likely a question Euphemia had pondered herself, at one time or another.

Falling into a thoughtful silence, Willard allowed the leagues to pass him by. Riding beneath the shade of grandfather oaks and drooping willows, they saw streams and bubbling brooks, and passed forest glades rich with game and wild flowers. Entire ecosystems thrived and perished around them, oft hidden from sight.

Helping the wylds achieve true balance was a part of his duties, though it seemed to Willard like he was fighting a never-ending battle. This brought with it its fair share of frustrations, mostly at his own limitations.

'Euphemia,' he said, an idea coming to mind. 'Would it be... rude of me, if I asked you to describe what you see? As in, what do you make of the world around you? Around us?'

@Euphemia Martell

 

[Euphemia Martell]

She heard Willard give his reins a soft whip, the sound of his horse's hooves growing a bit faster and hers did the same. The two horses kept pace with each other as the knight companions fell into a soft silence as they each thought on the idea. For the longest time, she had considered what would it be like to see through someone's eyes. To actually be able to see. What did the sun look like that it was able to feel so warm and tender on the face? Or the eight moons as they crossed the heavens? Even now, that she could seen in some ways, there were still things that were missing. Things she couldn't see and even those that she could, they were ... almost incomplete?

Willard's question drew her attention back to the moment as they trotted down the road. No true destination in mind, just making a loop through the territories that knights provided assistance in, helped try to protect as needed. She gave a reassuring smile, more thankful for his honest candor. So many just liked to avoid the topic, like they were afraid of it.

"It might be easier to show you. If you're willing." She nudged her horse a little so that they were riding more side by side, instead of her allowing her horse to just follow. "It's just a bit of shroud magic. A manipulation of the part of the mind that controls sight. It won't be permanent." She assured him as she held out her hand for him to take.

When he took her hand, she pulled on the shroud, feeding it through herself manipulating it in the way she did that led to her shroud vision, but instead allowing it to influence Willard. She always imagined that it was more, like an overly of her actual vision than true vision itself. So she imagine Willard likely saw a bit different than her. The soft glows of the shroud, most a pale hue, stood out on everything. Things that contained more shroud always had appeared brighter, animals and people. Those who could weave stood out even more, their natural connection making the shroud seem like it almost clung to them.

Then there were the things that she still couldn't see, weapons being one such example if they weren't spelled. Like her sword, she'd had specifically made so that it held shroud to it, if only to give it substance in her vision. "If it has shroud within, I can see the evidence of that shroud." She explained as she let him see as she did. "They teach that there is shroud in everything, but some things I still can't see. Whether it's because those things, like rocks and metals naturally just contain little shroud or perhaps I'm just not strong enough to see the evidences of it yet."


"People are the most interesting and the most varied. The stronger someone appears in the shroud, most of the time they're weavers. The Captains are quite bright, almost frustratingly so. And people have different hues." She imagined that they were different colors, but how could one understand color when she'd never seen colors to know.​

 

[Willard]

Slowing to a trot, Willard placed a reassuring hand on his mount's neck as Euphemia brought her horse in close. Almost all knights were trained in mounted warfare, except those who were either too large or too small to sit a horse. Fortunately, neither of them could be considered such.

'It's okay, I trust you.' Reaching for Euphemia's hand, Willard closed his eyes, took a breath in, out. 'Go ahead.'

As soon the words escaped his lips, perspective changed. Light, low yet immutable, spread across the dark of his eyelids, creating lines and patterns that resembled much of the world as he had seen it only moments before. Dull whites, mottled greys... and a rich blue colour that reminded Willard of the sky overhead. Apart, the patterns made no sense. But together?

'It's like a whole other world,' he smiled, shock, or perhaps surprise making his jaw drop. 'I see... streams of blue, interconnecting, overlapping. And grey. Lots of grey.' They formed trunks and towers, monoliths set against the deep black horizon.

Opening his eyes, and letting go of her hand, Willard winced as true light came flooding back to him.

'Thank... thank you, Euphemia,' he managed to say, blinking, rubbing the stars from his eyes. 'That was quite something, I must admit.' Creating a little distance between them, he paused, frowned. In all the excitement, he had forgotten to look at her, to check just how brightly she must've shone.

'When you say people have different hues, is that good or bad?' Letting the question linger, he glanced sidelong at Effie, wondering as he did what hue he might be.

@Euphemia Martell

 

[Euphemia Martell]

"No. Thank you." She said giving him a thankful smile. There was something about now having someone to understand her sight a little better. She didn't feel this was a burden, but it was hard for people to understand how she saw differently. How she could see people where other's couldn't, there glow in the shroud only muffled by other things. She could still see someone behind a tree. Still see particularly bright figures through the stone walls. Sometimes such ability could be helpful, preventing an ambush on the road. Others, it was not so great. Around the monastery there too many private moments, that she often just chose the aid of her walking stick instead of using the shroud.

"I don't think it's really either. It's just something uniquely them, a way to identify people. I imagine it might be like things having different colors, except I've never seen true colors to know what might be a color appear to be to be able to differentiate between them. It doesn't change. The hue, so it's not like it tells me someone's emotions or if they're lying or not. Nothing special like that." She had no idea what or why people were different hues, but there was one part of it she could understand.

"I am certain that the brightness relates to one's ability in the shroud. Someone who is stronger, more connected, glows much brighter." There were a few at the monastery who were particularly bright in her vision. The two Captains shone brilliantly, as well as most of the Masters. It was hard to be around them using her shroud sight for long. "I can't hold the spell long with the Captains because they can be so bright, give me a headache." She had it off right now, just to conserve her strength. On horseback, she relied on her stead and her companion.