Iorrjaer

Chapter 25

Yophiel woke up in the house and on the floor. Graphiel was holding her in his arms and looking concerned. She saw him relax upon seeing her open her eyes, blink and look around. She was still shaking off the whole ordeal and still confused as to everything that was going on. The last thing that she could remember, fully, was being in the tavern. She could not recall why she had been there nor what happened. For her, it was being in the tavern, for unknown reasons, then waking up on the floor of a very poorly constructed house. She sat up, with Graphiel's help and tried to recall anything. Coming up with nothing, she looked over at Graphiel.

"Where am I?"

"In a house that Victor built for us. It's not much."

"Pretty shitty."

"Agreed." Graphiel laughed.

"Why am I on the floor?"

"You were pretty sick when I found you."

"Sick? Found me?"

"Aye. You had been gone for a long time. Kârael and I split up to find you. I found you on the street outside of the town's tavern. You were nearly catatonic but the guards wanted to get you. Kârael, Sorâth and I kept them away and I got you back here."

She put a hand on her head and felt a dull ache. "I don't remember..."

"Don't rush yourself. We found something on your neck that was not natural."

She reached back and felt around. Finding nothing she gave him a quizzical and perturbed look.

Graphiel sighed. "Häsmæl saved you."

She did not have a response. She kept her hand on her neck, thinking that maybe, somehow, if she waited long enough, something would stir and she would remember everything. However, nothing stirred. Not even Chami's voice. She felt tears form in her eyes and Graphiel wrapped an arm around her.

"Häs... saved me?"

"Aye. Well, it was Malka's idea; Häsmæl just carried out the action."

"Why... why would he...?"

"He never saw you as an enemy. As far as he's concerned, and I learned this from Sorâth, as long as you are on his team, he doesn't want you harmed. He saved you from a bear, twice."

"A bear..."

Her memory flashed to the first night, she stole Häsmæl's bow and went into the woods. She thought that she could prove herself; she struggled with the bow, it was far too heavy for her to lift, let alone draw. Still, she insisted and failed. Then the bear attacked. She remembered that her armour had been damaged and was loose - no longer able to protect her.

That's when the bear stopped attacking.

She had convinced herself that she had somehow managed to kill the bear. It had been Häsmæl all along. She could not recall the second time.

"I don't... there was a second time?"

"Aye," Graphiel said with a smile. "The same bear. It was brought back by some pretty gnarly magic and even augmented to be stronger. It came after you again, it's original target. Häsmæl killed it again. That's why we all first saw how strong he really is. Damned thing didn't stand a chance."

"Didn't stand a chance..." She remembered trying to pierce his thumb with her sword. How she could not even get her sword to bite in at all. How, despite all of her strength and effort, he did not budge or even flinch. How he had pinched her blade between his thumb and finger and she had no chance of removing it.

"All this time, I thought..."

"Just a stupid pig." Graphiel repeated, leaving out a lot of her colourful adjectives. "Aye, I know."