Nostrum: Tales of Valor

Stratagem

"Explain yourself!" Snaps Lee in a whisper. "You said we were done with all this nonsense and yet, here we are."

"I am aware of what I said." Hael assures with a simple nod. "What I did not say is that there wouldn't be a little more of this work coming our way."

"You fooled me, is what you've done!" Lee flicks the reigns as he speaks, giving the horse a small dose of encouragement to continue on through the night.

"Oh, Lee. If it were so easy for me to fool you then it is not my trickery that is the issue here." Hael giggles out of pity and shakes her head before continuing to speak. "This is the moment we have been waiting for. For so many years we have tried to get to this point and finally, it is upon us!"

"At what cost? Hm?" Lee glares at Hael from the corner of his eye in an attempt to keep focused on the road ahead. "I could have understood this only a few seasons ago, but now?"

"The farm will still be there when we return. There is no cost-"

"The cost is the risk, Hael! What will become of it all if one of us is lost to these efforts?"

"There will be no more losses." Hael swallows harshly as she keeps a scowl tucked beneath her expressionless face. "We will come out of this stronger than we were."

"Right." Lee grits his teeth and irritably rolls his shoulders as he gives the horse another thwick. "Might I remind you that this is not the party we had originally agreed upon?"

"Cronn's decision can not be held against me."

"Like Hell it can't! Had the boy just listened, I'd have nothing to argue over in this moment."

"Do not speak ill of the dead to me, Lee."

Lee falls silent. Turning to face the rest of the wagon, he ensures that Yuler and Marne are still asleep before continuing to speak with Hael.

"I... I understand why we're out here. I am not opposed to helping you get better. In fact, I pray for it every single night before I rest my eyes. But... dearest, I need to know that it will work."

"It must."

Sighing, Lee gives the horse a third whip of the reigns before passing them off to Hael, who's lips become pursed in an effort to not worsen the situation. He then removes the lantern from its perch and shifts the light about in front of them. Finding nothing out of place, he proceeds with doing the same for the rear of the wagon. Certain that there is nothing to be worried about, he returns the lantern to its rightful place and leans back in his seat.

"How has the pain been of recent? More or less bearable?"

"More."

"Good. Still no signs of further progression?"

"Not since the day it came to be."

"Come now. We both know better than that."

"What happened with the rooks was not my fault." Hael's voice shakes as she speaks of such unfortunate past events. So much so, that she pauses to breathe before even attempting to do so once more. Lee, seeing this opportunity, takes it.

"Forget about those two. I'm talking about this." Lee runs a finger down the length of his face, where a large and deep scar remains. "The scar you gave me."

Hael remains silent. Having seemingly forgotten herself to be the source of such a wound. Her fingers loosen around the reigns as sadness takes hold. With a sniffle she clears her throat and attempts to act as if there is nothing wrong.

"I thought you'd forgiven me for that."

"I have, but that doesn't make it go away." Lee places a palm over the small of Hael's back and looks to her eyes, as if he can see right through the cloth. "it's been a while."

"Hm?" Hael continues to choke out her whimpers. Doing all that she can to show no signs of what she has perceived to be weakness.

"Last I saw you cry we were still with The Bethel. It's been a while."

"Well, don't get used to it." The wagon shakes for a moment as Hael lands a playful but firm punch against Lee's shoulder.

"Ow." Chuckling, he pulls his arm away from her and rolls it around in the air. Attempting to alleviate some of the pain.

"I've spent too much time away from the formalities of being a Nostrum. I'm losing my touch with intensity."

"I'd consider your current behavior to be a rather large improvement." Lee suggests, now stirring his hand around in the bottom of a large brown sack. "There is hardly disappointment to be had."

"There is much that can be had." Hael sighs as she listens to Lee cut the skin from a potato and take bites from the raw root. Humming a melody as he does so. She then places the reigns down at her side and rubs at her arms in an attempt to warm them up. Noticing this, Lee reaches into the wagon and removes a quilt from the pile that Marne and Yuler have fallen asleep on, and hands it over to Hael. "Thank you."

"Mm." Lee responds, his mouth full of matter.

"Why is it you chose to stay?"

Lee's obnoxious chewing ceases as he processes the question, but starts up once more only a few seconds later. Managing to swallow the oversized bite he had taken, he proceeds to pick at his teeth and seemingly avoid the question at hand a little longer.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play a fool with me, Lee." Hael puffs before repeating herself. "'Why is it you chose to stay?' You could have killed me the moment the opportunity had shown itself and proceeded to join another on their hunts instead, yet, you did neither. You kept in reach of me, even after the harm I caused you. Why?"

"I had no reason to do anything other than what I did."

"A simple-minded creature, you are."

"That may be so, but I'm not the who chooses to keep me around." Lee crunches on another piece of root while shooting Hael, who laughs at his remark, a devilish smirk.

"Hmm."

"What is it?" Lee wonders, working on what remains of his treat.

"It would seem we're coming up on our first stop."

Passing through a clearing, the glow of numerous lanterns comes into view. Each being amplified by a thin lay of fog that has found itself strewn about the valley. With newfound light to guide it, the horse picks up its pace and trots down the middle of an empty lane. Though the village appear to be well-lit, a lack of life is quickly noted. Even in the dead of night patrons and graveyard workers are a common and expected sight. Lee and Hael remain vigilant as they continue towards what seems to be the furthest corner of town.

"There." Lee states, pointing at a wooden sign with the words Crestwood Inn painted across it in bowed letters. "I'll take the reigns."

"Oh, come now. There's no need for that." Hael pulls the cord from Lee's grip almost as soon as he finds it and begins guiding the horse towards their temporary destination.

"Turn left right here and pull it around back."

Doing as instructed, Hael carefully guides the horse between two walls. One which appears to be that of a pub, and the other, the inn. With the streetlights behind them, Hael focuses on the rumbling of the ground beneath them. Using it to tell herself if they happen to go off course.

"Great, right here will do." Lee places a hand on Hael's arm, signalling for her to stop.

"Should we wake the others to keep our time here brief?"

"No," Lee insists, still maintaining the whispering tone in his voice from their earlier conversations, "let them rest. The wagon is locked up from within. They will be just fine out here." Securing the small opening behind where he had been sitting, he hops off the wagon and joins Hael in her walk towards Crestwood Inn's front entrance.

Once the pair of them have found their way inside, light thumping begins to come from the rear end of the wagon. Followed by sounds of wood sliding against wood. Moments later, one of the two large doors cracks open and Marne peaks out from his nest. Weary eyes tell of a sleep that has been disrupted, but the pupils within them suggest he has been awake for longer than what one might otherwise think. Checking about himself, he ensures that Hael and Lee have gone. Then, slips among the shadows until he finds himself alongside the large black horse that has brought them to where they are. Delirious and concerned, he takes note of the horse being far too tired to continue on.

"Seems we're going to be stuck here for the night." He tells himself, all-the-while still processing what all he has just come to know. "Did they say Hael had killed the last two Nostrum they worked alongside? What was it that was said about... Cronn and Yuler? The wrong one lived?" He scratches at the back of his head for a brief moment before rubbing his eyes and pulling the skin beneath them downwards. "No... none of that matters.... What is it that Hael has been sick with?" Unable to help himself, Marne continues to run the details over and over in his head until they stop making sense all together. Confused and annoyed, he pulls himself up to the reigns and rubs at his eyes yet again. Only this time, when he pulls his hands away from his face, he feels the wagon shift harshly. Looking up, he finds himself to be laying against the floorboards and taking in the light of an early morning sun. Tisking, he shakes his head and rolls over, allowing his face to be covered by the fabrics and enveloping himself in darkness once more.

"Nothing more than a strange dream."