Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter CXV - Secunda Waning

The next few hours felt like they dragged on forever.

It was probably the anticipation. Aeyrin kept nervously watching the sun disappear behind the mountains before the entire plateau finally drowned in somber shadow. Secunda was not visible in the sky yet, but Messer was already peeking up over the horizon.

Technically, she knew that she was safe for another couple of hours, but she couldn't help but worry. What if the twins were wrong? What if she turned before midnight? Vilkas said that the little things were different for everyone – maybe this was part of it?

Would she even be able to tell when it was about to happen?

Last time everything happened in such chaos. She couldn't even remember what it felt like. She barely remembered anything properly. It was all a blur.

"I... I should probably go... find some place..." she let out a sigh. They'd been done with their dinner and setting up camp, except for the traps, but there wasn't really the right mood to do anything else but lie on their bedroll together, mostly silently. It was time though. She needed to find some place where to chain herself, as far away from anyone as possible. She still had her doubts, even though the brothers had sworn by those chains. They did look very sturdy, but she couldn't help it. Everything about this was terrifying, especially the loss of control.

"What?" Bishop turned his face to her with surprise in his voice. It felt like they had just been lying there together in a casual embrace, staring at the sky silently for ages. First it actually surprised him to hear any sound from her at all, but it was even more baffling when he realized what she had just said. "What are you talking about?"

"W-well... the chains... and stuff. You know. I should find a good place to do it," she explained. How could he ever forget what was about to happen?

"Yeah. You're doing that here," Bishop scowled. What was she thinking?

Aeyrin let out a sigh in response. She almost prolonged this conversation, asking him whether he was going to be the one to leave instead, but she already knew that it wasn't what he meant. She knew exactly what he meant. In fact, she suspected such a response from the very start.

"Bishop..."

"Stop doing that already," Bishop groaned. "Why do you keep trying to chase me away?"

"It's too dangerous, Bish, what if the chains don't hold? You'd be the first to..." She wasn't even sure how to finish that sentence. She didn't want to imagine what that monster could do to him.

"I'd be the first to actually expect it," Bishop smirked. "Princess, you're so fucking worried about hurting anyone, if the chains break, who's gonna stop you?"

"How are you going to stop a werewolf?" she scoffed at him. He would get mauled. Or even worse. She really didn't want to imagine that.

"Well, for one, as much as I would fucking hate shooting at you, I can paralyze you with one arrow to the arm or leg. Then I can run into the pass and find something to barricade you out here." It wasn't as if the possibility never crossed his mind.

Aeyrin's eyes went wide at him. Divines, he actually had a plan on how to subdue her? Granted, it was a pretty decent plan. At least she thought as much. Still... it was a little disturbing. She wasn't sure why. Was it because he had so much better handle on all of this than her? He was always so calm and reasonable. Well... maybe except for when he found out about the Shouts not working. But still. He already chased away Karnwyr and risked getting killed by the brothers for the bounty. It was still staggering how much he was willing to do to make all of this easier on her.