there’s glory ahead but our love will be forgotten
If my heart was still mine I would go to the bottom
And apologize to you until the day it went rotten
If my heart was still mine I would go to the bottom
And apologize to you until the day it went rotten
It was hard to see the emotion that swam upon Marisol’s face, the moisture in her eyes from unshed tears and the tension that lined her brow. Typically so stoic in the face of tumultuous uncertainty, Erd could only fathom how the heavy mantle of sovereignship mixed with the dutiful lifestyle of a Commander might alter the woman’s capabilities. Hopefully they would always be close to help her in whatever way she needed, but just as well he hoped that she knew she wasn’t alone in this endeavor.
Situating himself close against Ard’s side once again, their shared warmth a reassuring balm to their mutual anxieties, the elder twin listened as Ard curtly explained where he had been. Erd smiled pensively, an unsteady pinch to his eyes as he did so. Marisol stated to tell her everything, and so with an unsteady inhale followed by a trembling exhale, he did just that.
“I had been fetching some charcoals for Ard as a surprise when I met a woman on the cliff’s named Manon, from Denocte,” he began, picking his words carefully as he thrust his mind back to the evening of his capture, “She pretended she was hurt with a sprained fetlock, and asked me for help, and I… I believed her, so I agreed. I shouldn’t have, but.” He paused, shrugging a slender shoulder with blatant uncertainty. Ard had always told him that his bleeding heart would get him in trouble someday. Erd knew he shouldn’t be surprised when it finally came true, but he still felt like the world’s largest fool once he had realized what had happened.
“At first I was a little uncertain, but she said she was friends with Miss Moira, and I guess that chased away my worries. We’re friends with Miss Moira, and I didn’t think that she would keep friends that were untruthful. Anyway, I helped her back to her boat, and I… I honestly don’t remember much else after that. I don’t know what happened. When I woke up next, I was locked up in a room in Denocte. Manon wasn’t there, but I met a few others. Um. August and Agvhani. Turns out I was somewhere called the ‘White Scarab’. Have you ever heard of it, Mari?”
Erd hadn’t, not before that day. During his stay he had learned a little bit about the somewhat lucrative organization, quickly realizing that they had their hooves in quite a number of pies. There had been more than just a few rather infamous names being dropped during his time there, but the boy had kept quiet, knowing better than to offer much resistance in a place he knew so little about. ’Raum’ and ’the Proprietor’ were a particular two that he continued to pick up on, and every time he heard Raum’s name he would shiver.
“August and Aghavni didn’t seem very bad. They seemed just as confused that I was there as I was, but that Manon… I don’t think I like her very much, and I think we should keep an eye out for her. She can’t be trusted.” And from the sounds of it, she couldn’t even be trusted within the halls of the White Scarab, judging by the mutual reactions between Aghavni and August.
“Anyway, um. They let me go after figuring out that I wasn’t the one that Manon was meant to kidnap, and then Rhone and Ard found me and brought me home.” For emphasis, he puffed out his chest and stood a little taller, even though it hardly mattered when he barely reached twelve hands in height. Still, Erd smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way, not wanting Marisol to truly worry. He was unharmed and fine, and other than maybe a little more cautious of women in peril, nothing had really changed. “I’m really sorry that I worried you and Theo. Ard told me that you two were really upset. I-I should’ve been more careful, and I’m sorry.” All he had wanted to do was help someone in need. Wasn’t that what the Halcyon were about? Protecting and helping those who couldn’t help themselves? Yet now that trust was broken, and perhaps now he understood Ard’s paranoid tendencies better than ever.
