Eight Intertwined

110 - Uncertainty

The table fell silent after Olberic finished his explanation of everything he had heard from Gustav. Nobody seemed to know how they were meant to reply to something like that, and Ophilia was just one of many who was too caught up in her own surprise to find the words she need to fill the quiet. She was desperate to say something that would help Olberic to feel better about all of this, but she doubted anything she could have told him would have fixed it. 

Ophilia had taken note of the way in which Olberic spoke of Erhardt. Even though Erhardt was the reason for his life taking the turn it had, the one responsible for the fall of Hornburg, Olberic still wanted to believe in him. He was still hoping somehow that Erhardt had just been misguided when he acted this way, that he was still a good person beneath it all. Hearing the truth from Gustav had shattered all of that, and none of them knew how to help him through it. 

Ophilia could see the dark look in Olberic's eyes that told her he would never again be able to think fondly of Erhardt the way he once had, not anymore. In the past, Olberic had still held tightly to his positive memories of Erhardt from when they were younger, clinging with all he had to the ideals of his old friend that he had in his mind. Now though, it was becoming tragically apparent that the version of Erhardt Olberic had thought he knew was nothing but a lie. Erhardt had been planning on betraying him from the very beginning, and how could Olberic enjoy his memories of the past with a burden like that on his shoulders? Hindsight was a powerful thing, and it had completely distorted every emotion Olberic had ever felt for Erhardt. 

"I'm sorry," Ophilia finally forced herself to say. She didn't look up to meet his gaze, instead just staring down at the table before her. She was desperate to go on, to try and make all of this even a little bit easier, but she couldn't find the words. She doubted any words would have helped him much at this point anyway. He just had to sit with the tragedy of his situation as much as they all hated having to see it. 

Olberic closed his eyes and took in a long, slow breath. "So am I," he confessed. The betrayal was already eating away at him, and it had only been a few hours. The travelers should have been focused primarily on celebrating their victory in the tournament, but everyone at the table could see that Olberic was hardly in a mood to embrace their triumph, not when he knew what was waiting for him in Wellspring.

"What are you going to do now?" Primrose questioned after another lengthy pause. Olberic looked over to her slowly. "You understand his reasoning, and you know where to find him. Are you going to Wellspring to speak with him?"

Olberic hesitated before shaking his head. "Not yet," he told her. "I'm not ready to speak to him yet. I will be one day, but I'm not there yet. I want to wait until we go to Wellspring to investigate the black market auction. By then... I'll be ready to hear what he has to say."

"Do... Do you think you're gonna have to fight him?" Alfyn asked, afraid of the words as he spoke them. He had grown pale over the course of Olberic's story as well, and even opening his mouth to offer some vague sense of comfort seemed to be sapping his energy rapidly. 

Olberic's hand fell to his waist where the Sword of Stone was waiting. "I don't know," he confessed. "I'll do what I must when we see one another. As for what that entails... Only time will be able to tell."

"I suppose you're right," Tressa hummed. She tapped her foot against the ground desperately to try and get out her lingering traces of anxious energy, but it wasn't working anywhere near as well as she had been hoping. "I never would have thought he had been planning all of that from the start."

"It makes a lot of sense when I look back on it," Olberic confessed. "I wish that wasn't the case, but... He wouldn't have suddenly decided to turn against the king. He must have been planning the downfall of Hornburg for years just as Gustav said. He couldn't have done something on that scale if he hadn't been preparing for it. He... He was intending to betray us all from the very beginning. I simply never saw it."