Seeking the Veil, Part 2

What Was

Putting the ruins behind them, the Band moved out early in the morning, but not early enough to skip breakfast. Orangebeard had sat on a bench in the mess, eyes squinted half-closed as Nish and Trish danced around the tables, showing smiles and teeth, the men hooting at the new delicacies on the menu.

Hestea heard the kopf mutter, "It will be grass and berries, it will. Blasted women."

But then Nish set the platter down, clapped her hands, "Enjoy!" and danced back to the fires with Trish, their hips swaying, and at least one of them slapping away a wayward mercenary hand.

Orangebeard had opened his eyes and breathed in deep of the steaming eggs; nary a green impediment in sight. The eggs were good, better than Amott's, though Hestea felt sad at the admission as he enjoyed the omelette, mixed with potatoes and spices.

Orangebeard let out a satisfied belch and nodded at the women. The men rejoiced and Nish and Trish hugged each other with delight.

But the Band grew silent as they marched through the morning toward noon, the cold air swirled tight and they came to an icy ridge where the wind rose. The land spread out below them, the horizon hidden in cold mists.

"Storm coming," noted Rufus, pointing to the east to thick clouds of gray and some heavy and strangely white.

Hestea glanced behind, scanning the sky, and saw Gunter trailing behind, head low, walking apart. No Dietra in sight. Hestea gestured and waved at the two mercenaries. "Need to talk to Gunter. I'll catch up with you later."

Smallhands nodded, but Rufus narrowed his eyes. "Magus don't look like he want to talk, Hammerblood."

Hestea forced a grin. "I need a name for my hammer, who better to ask?" Hestea left the two and trudged back through the snow, taking care to not slip as he pulled his cloak tighter about his face and fell into step beside Gunter. The magus looked up, but said nothing.

Something was wrong, Hestea was sure of it. He was no magus, but he knew enough and ever since the battle, there had been a difference. They had all faced death, him and Gunter for the first time, but fear had not colored the magus since the ambush. If Hestea was to put a name to it, he would have called it frustration. Like a master using a tool, long tried and true, and suddenly finding he could not swing his own hammer. It left Hestea with a nagging suspicion, one he knew he should ask Gunter about. Better than letting it sit in the quiet. But after the village... The time wasn't right.

Hestea watched his feet plod on the cold ground, half-frozen. It seemed an odd thing that anything grew in the highlands at all.

They continued that way for a while, Hestea glancing at the magus out of the corner of his eye, half opening his mouth, stirring around, trying to find something to say, something to lead in to. Finally, Gunter himself said, "You saw?"

Hestea puckered his lips and tilted his head. How could he say that he had seen him the magi master break down, sobbing in the middle of a broken village. "So, you're Becken?"

Gunter heaved a sigh that came out as a puff of mist, whisking away in the wind. "I knew there would be no one left. I didn't truly expect to see any." He kicked at a frozen stick that went skittering down a bare slope to the right, sliding between two trees coated in white. "It's been forty-two years. I knew they would all be dead, or too old to remember, but I thought— No, I hoped..."

Hestea reached out a hand as they walked. He could feel the pain in Gunter's voice, but his hand hovered, unsure.

"Everyone I knew is dead and now..." Gunter rolled his shoulders forward. "And now, even the village is gone."

Hestea had no words. What could he say to that? He had left everything behind. Left it all to fight in a war that seemed to have no end, and perhaps no hope. But he had made the choice, nearly full grown. A man in all rights.

Hestea stopped searching, realized there were no words and simply laid a hand on Gunter's shoulder as they trod along the ridge, the wind colder than before and cutting like the swords of Saeorda.