Red Glass

22.

Divided by a beam of light from the small opening, Faris watches Miya have blistering cold water thrown over her again from the opposite cell.

"Please stop, why do you keep doing this?"
Faris asks, crushing the flaked paint over rusted bars.

Tears of anger roll down Faris's cheek.

Standing in front arms wide.
"Whatchu gunn do bout it?"
Challenges the scrawny bag of bones.

Faris reaches through the bars but his hand falls short.
"Come closer!"

The rat laughs, ascending to safety.

Miya is lying on the floor, crying in the puddle, arms wrapped around herself. Faris's brows curve upwards as the fire in his heart has nobody to burn but himself.

Miya looks through the bars and softly asks
"Please,..tell me something about your wife,..something to distract me from the cold,.. it hurts so much."
Barely able to string the sentence together as her body chatters vigorously.

"What can I say except that I love her? She is the mother of our child, my friend and the one I'll be with for all eternity, no other could compare. Tamara, she has always supported and stood by me; when I left the guard, the fight in the Square. Whenever I'm around her I feel afraid. Afraid that she will see who I am inside, the side of me that does not deserve her. She pushes me to be better, not through her words but her presence. She brings out the best in people and never judges anyone."
Faris lowers his head as his chest tightens. The grit in his voice over rides it's softness.

"I, I've not seen her in the longest time, a little over three full moons. Last time we spoke, it was the day she left for Filosteen. Her mother is dying and she needed to be there for both her parents. I wanted to go with her but we both knew it would be better for Schenade, our daughter who's twelve now, for us to stay behind for her schooling and my work.
Without her I'm nothing. With each prayer, I ask for her to return back to Vatala safe."

-

Rohain, Daniella and phantom sit by the campfire after a long cold day of travel towards the city of Vatala under a light foggy night.

Eating grilled turkey, Daniella looks at her silver bodyguard
"What were you like, you know, before?"

"Before?"

"Before you slept in a suit of armour."
She says as she nibbles away at a bone.

Rohain's head turns towards her, Daniella knows she asked something she was not in a position to ask.

"It's... I'm sorry I asked."
Daniella says to the lowered head of Rohain.

Rohain looks at the girl a moment, he clears his throat.
"My brother and I were very close, inseparable. As children, we would often swap clothing to fool our parents. Good times. One day, when our parents were away to sell furs, some people came to attack our home. Me and my brother defended the house against the attackers but Ayhaan was struck hard by a mace, leaving him scarred.
As reward, our parents gifted us with a dagger and a crossbow. Ayhaan preferred the dagger but our parents would not allow us to swap. I begged, but mother and father refused.
Father trained me how to use a knife: how to kill, gut and skin. My mother taught my brother how to use a crossbow, how to breathe, how to predict a target's movements and where to aim for a kill. At night he would teach me how to use the crossbow and I would teach him what I had learned about knife arts.

One day, Father had taken me and my brother out hunting with the weapons we had trained with all Autumn. My brother and I had never hunted ourselves before and both made mistakes boys nervous and excited make. My brother missed his mark which led us to having to track it. Eventually, we caught up and father had me finish Ayhaan's target.
I had no choice but to do as father told.
The whole way home my brother would not look at me.
When we got home I ran upstairs and cut my own face in the same place my brother had scarred, hoping to make it up to him that by the next time he could have trained with father with the knife in my place. He caught me. .

Ayhaan told me he never wanted to see me ever again and stormed out of the house. I wanted to chase him but father told me that he must be given his own space. It was not like him to get angry but he felt betrayed."

Sounds of life stem from the darkness through the bare trees. Daniella's expression frightens towards the noise while Rohain rises to his feet, crossbow in hand.

"Shhh"
Rohain listens while Daniella shakes the heavy Bowie in her hands.

"It's just a hog, relax, it's okay."
Says Rohain as he sits back down by the fire and places his crossbow down.

"Then what happened, did you follow him?"

"I waited by the door for his return as my face bled. Mother and father cooked in the light of the fire as the crackling of embers echoed through our empty home. Eventually, the wound on my face stopped bleeding but my tears still flowed. Time moved slow, every second without my dear brother was a silent torture no confession could end. My young mind kept praying he would be okay as my feet just kept tapping the bottom step.
Outside from a clear night reached a thick fog. It was very strange but all that entered my mind was how would he be able to find his way back?
Father put on his coat and grabbed his lantern when finally, urgent banging came from the door. I wiped my face dry and smiled bigger than I ever had before, but, it was not my brother.

A woman had managed to find our home through the fog and darkness. She was crying, begging to be let in. From where I stood I could only see the door and my father who invited her in. I saw she never had a coat and I remember thinking how lucky she was to have survived out there, how lucky she was to have found us. Surely she would have frozen to death sooner or later.
My mother placed a bear's fur over the strangers shoulders while my father plated some venison and told me to fetch more wood from the basement for the fire. I ran down the stairs and quickly returned but when I came back, everything had changed..."