Dullahan

7 - Middle Ground - 3

He struggled to open his eyes, his eyelashes feeling almost glued together. He raised a hand to his face, rubbing away grit and sleep from his eyes. Cold light filled the room, daylight illuminating how small the room truly was. He blinked a few times, pulling the blanket a little tighter around himself. He had moved in the night, migrating toward the centre of the bed and away from the wall, but his back still felt cold, and he shivered.

Eldred sat up, swaying a little, and looked around the room. Ness sat at the table, still in just her shirt, trousers, and heavy boots. She had her back to him, a pen in hand as she wrote.

"Good morning," she said after a moment, not turning from her work.

He blinked a few times, and then stammered out a "Morning-" of his own as he wiped more grit from his eyes, crystallised tears still clinging to his eyelids. He felt embarrassed now, thinking about on the night before, chiding himself for crying. He stifled another yawn, stretching his arms either side of him.

Ness's pen was returned to the table with a soft click, and she turned toward him. She wore the glamour again, face the same as he had seen the night before, and he was glad of it. He wasn't sure how he would have felt, waking up to see a headless woman sitting beside him, even if she had been looking away from him. "I think it would be a good idea to walk around the castle," she said after a moment, "The two of us, I mean. I will ask the castle staff to bring food and clothes to this room, but it would be good for you to know where everything is regardless."

There was room in her suggestion for protest- it was not an order, not something he needed to do, and Eldred appreciated the consideration. He nodded his affirmation, the room no longer feeling as safe or comforting without the warm fire and it's orange glow. He found himself wanting to leave, experience fresh air and the outside once more.

She dipped her head in assent, turning back toward the desk and tidying whatever she had been writing on. He started to edge toward the far end of the bed, leaning forward and over to locate his shoes as Ness shrugged back into her gambeson.

He frowned, watching her start to refasten the metal plates around herself. "Why are you putting it back on?" he asked, one shoe in hand, foot half inside.

She did not slow as she answered his question, tightening the straps around her calves and thigh. "It is a uniform of sorts- to leave and walk among the castle folk without it would be like walking through the castle with no clothes at all."

That sounded uncomfortable to Eldred. "But you are wearing clothes," he pointed out. "Isn't it more comfortable to leave it off?"

She lifted a shoulder in a shrug as she fastened the gorget around her neck. "It is like a second skin to me, to go without outside is actually less comfortable. It is a barrier between myself and the outside world."

"Like you're safer?" he asked, finally pulling the shoe fully onto his foot.

She lowered the helmet carefully over her false head. "Exactly so," she answered, her voice taking on the metallic echo of the metal.

He slowed again, frowning up at the helmet, able to see her shadowed face within. "Are you going to keep the- your face?"

"No, I need to conserve my magic. Does it bother you, my helmet being empty?" She turned away from him, hand reaching up toward her neck, the edge of the helmet lifting slightly. When she turned back toward him, he could no longer see anything within the visor.

Eldred considered the question as he started on his second shoe, fingers clumsy with his lack of focus. Eventually, he shook his head. "No," he decided, squinting at her visor just in case he could see something within, but finding the attempt fruitless. Seeing nothing but black through the slit was something he had slowly been growing accustomed to- it was familiar now, and something he could explain away in his mind. It wasn't something he knew to be impossible, something that reminded him of how strange this very place was, how different and alien the person before him was.

"I am glad," Ness answered, buckling the last straps that held her helmet atop her neck. "In that case, let us go."