The Archman

Chapter 15 - An Irksome Return, Part 1

The sound of the bedroom door creaking open, accompanied with a flood of sunlight into the once dark room instantly rouses Eira from her slumber. She sits up with an impulsive panic, forgetting for a moment that she went to sleep somewhere other than the brig. Despite last night's frightening and perplexing experience, she is still ultimately grateful to spend the night in an actual bed, instead of the unwelcoming hardwood floor.

Eira looks up and squints in the direction of the open doorway, inside of which the Archman is standing. The sunlight directly behind him casts him completely in shadow, reducing him to a silhouetted figure. It reminds Eira of the first time she laid eyes upon him.

The Archman steps into the room and walks over to the bed. He's wearing his usual protective black cloak, the hood drawn over his head.

"Morning..." Eira's words slip into a yawn as she looks up at the Archman. Something about his state is different from usual. There is a kind of languished exhaustion resting on his face, manifesting in two dark rings under his eyes.

On anyone else it would have been a sign of unhealthy gauntness, but in this case it paired quite well with the Archman's mysterious persona, like some kind of complementary aesthetic.

"Afternoon." The Archman says with a tone befitting his tired expression.

"Oh...really?" Eira swings her legs to the side so she is sitting on the edge of the bed, simultaneously adjusting the collar on her neck. She must have been more tired than she thought.

"Ah, right!" Suddenly Eira remembered her little discovery from last night, turning back to the Archman with rising urgency. "What happened last night?"

"What do you mean?" The Archman raises a fatigued eyebrow.

"You...you brought me here..." Eira isn't sure how to appropriately formulate her question.

"You'd rather sleep back in the brig?" The Archman crosses his arms, his eyebrow staying fixed in its raised position.

"No! That's not..." Eira brushes her hair out of her eyes, hoping it will somehow clear up her thoughts. "How could I sleep there with that beast?"

The Archman's eyes widen, the rest of his face remaining completely static. The drowsy countenance on his face melts away almost instantly, replaced with a piercing conjecture.

"What?"

"That creature down in the brig! Where did it come from?!" Eira gestures to the floor beneath them as she probes.

"You saw him?" The Archman steps towards Eira, towering over her with an indomitable presence. His voice has a deadly timbre to it, which causes Eira to hold her breath. She wants to stand up off the bed to balance out the massive difference in height at least a bit, but her legs don't respond to her commands.

"I...I just-"

The Archman looks down to the corner of the bed where he secured the chain to the foot of the bed. Sure enough, the chain lays slack on the ground, removed from the spot where it had been locked. He turns back to Eira slowly, trying not to speak impulsively.

"I told you to stay here, didn't I?" The Archman's words have a fiery heat behind them, which evidently takes a concerted effort to contain.

"How could I just stay here with that beast howling like that?" Eira protests, recognizing that her assertion isn't inherently logical.

"If he wasn't locked up, he would have torn you to shreds! Is that what you want?!" The Archman's typically undemonstrative face is contorted into a vicious frown, bearing down on her with a crippling force. Combined with his blood-red eyes, it is a truly petrifying sight. It is the first time Eira had seen even a hint of his temper. It made her aware of just how calm and composed he usually is, and this is clearly only a fraction of the fervor he could conjure.