Anguish
Nearly one year ago
"Kes Zelorius?"
She jumped, startled, as the gray-skinned roegadyn approached the bench near that lake upon which she was seated. Her fingers delicately held a pen over a sheet of paper - a response to a letter that she had received from her fiancee earlier that day. Her tension subsided slightly when she noticed his left arm was held firmly in place over his chest by a large cotton sling. It wasn't unheard of for strangers to approach this secluded spot near the lake, but his sudden arrival had startled her, jolting her away from her writing. The forlorn expression on his face signaled some great sorrow though.
"Yes?" She spoke timidly, unsure at what the stranger's intentions were.
"You know Pemenicaux Ianneira, right? I mean, you're his girl?"
She nodded, a knot forming in the back of her throat as she grew more and more concerned by the grim expression on his face.
"There... w-was an accident..." The roegadyn looked down at his feet as he stuttered. Kes only stared blankly at him.
"Pemenicaux... d-didn't make it..." He looked as though he wanted to reach out with his good arm to pat her consolingly but was restraining himself. He was clearly not accustomed to delivering news of misfortune like this.
"No... No, no, no..." Tears began to form in the fair-skinned elezen's eyes as the roegadyn fidgeted awkwardly.
"We were in the s-same unit, and early this m-morning there was... an ex- an explosion. My arm..." The large man gave a sidelong glance at the lame arm slung over his chest as though it no longer belonged to him. He then seemed to realize his own injury was rather trivial compared to what she had lost and cut off his explanation.
"I... I'm sorry. There was nothing we could do. In his last minutes alive, he said that no one would have told you. He and I had become... g-good friends. It was... it was his last wish that I find you and tell you. He said you came to this spot often." He cleared his throat before continuing, "An envoy will be deployed to carry word to his f-f-family, but he said no one would have found you and told you..." He seemed confused about all of this, and it would have made perfect sense to her if she hadn't been overcome with grief.
Tears streamed down her face as she wept openly. He looked shaken, as though he might join her and break down bawling at any moment himself. Opening her mouth to speak, the knot that had formed in her throat blocked any kind of sound from projecting, and she began crying more intensely.
"He had a gentle way about him..." He finally sat down on one of the adjacent benches. "N-never really made much sense for him to be a s-s-soldier. Didn't really suit the man..." Sighing, he shrugged, his good hand wiping an imaginary smudge from his face. It was clear he wasn't sure what to say.
"He... spoke about you a great deal. It was obvious he was in l-love with you." The roegadyn looked down at the ground between his feet as her sobs grew louder. "I am so sorry..."
After several moments of her crying and his sitting nervously beside her, she wiped her face and peered at the man through still-watery eyes. He sat awkwardly on his bench, scratching an itch that wasn't real, unable to make eye contact with her. She took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat, "I'm sorry about your arm, Mister...?" She sniffled. It seemed silly and deflective, but she was ashamed at her response and wanted to find something, anything else to talk about for the moment.
"Oh, it's Thormi. Just Thormi. And thank you. They say I might be able to use it again someday..."
Sensing his nervousness, she nodded absently and looked away from him, staring blankly out at the rippling surface of the nearby lake. "You can go Thormi. Thank you for letting me know..."
He looked relieved as he stood back up from his bench. "If you need me, I'll be at the inn until tomorrow. I am so s-sorry for your loss..." Bowing his head, he trudged away slowly with his head hung low, walking across the grass parallel to a field of overgrown sunflowers until he finally disappeared from sight.
Once he was gone, she allowed the floodgates to open, crying unabashedly for hours over the loss of the only man she had ever truly loved.
"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others." Â ~ Lewis Carol
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
Eva's Journals  |  Eva's Wiki Page (coming soon)  |  RP Handbook
