Two Graves - The Song of Nephiah and Brelyna

Chapter 23: Bound Together

"There is nothing here!" They had collected their equipment and made their way to the spot marked on the map. It was a vast open space with nothing but rocks, a few trees and snow on it. The spot was only a few hours out, so they arrived mid day. A cold sun stood high above them, making the snow covered scenery seem even more bright. Nephiah covered her aching eyes and leaned against a rock. "Midnight.", she said.

"Really?" Brelyna kept looking around, trying to find the trap that Wuunferth had undoubtedly prepared for them. There was nothing, not even any distinctive features save for a few rock formations sticking out of the snow. She checked the bushes between a handful of lonely trees. Nothing. An icy wind blew downhill, carrying snow with it. "I don't get it, what's his trick?" Nephiah was still leaning against the rock, a hand over her eyes. "We won't know until it's time." "All right?" Brelyna stepped closer to her through the knee high snow. "That gives us time to lay a trap of our own!" Nephiah opened her eyes and looked at her. Then she began to look around and scan the environment. Brelyna tried to find the things her warrior was examining. "Setting traps is your area of expertise. Any ideas?"

Nephiah silently stepped into the middle of the field and looked up hill. Trees and bushes to her left, high rock formations to her right. The mountain led further down behind her, that was where they had come from. High up in the distance in front of her she spotted a structure. She pointed at it. "Look." Brelyna joined her at her side and put a hand over her eyes to provide shadow as she spied into the distance. "Is that a Dwemer ruin?" Nephiah looked to her right, scanning the rocks. "Could be close enough." She stepped over to the largest of the rock formations, it towered over her a fair amount. The top of it blended into the hill like a ramp, the vertical side in front of which she stood was covered in plant life, moss, ranks of flora that was somehow resistant to the cold. Ice spikes were hanging over her head, the wind blew snow over the ramp on occasion. She brushed away a few of the plants, revealing cracks in the rocks. She moved her head close. After a moment she waved for Brelyna to come to her.

"Well?" "Shh." Brelyna listened. The wind was howling. Eventually she could make out something else from inside the rock. "Ohnonononono." They moved their heads back. "That's just going to make it worse!" "For emergencies." Nephiah unsheathed one of her swords and moved around the rocky wall, up the hill and onto the ramp now standing above Brelyna. "Step back." Brelyna took a few steps back. "I don't like where this is going." Nephiah raised the sword high up above her head, holding it in both hands, then brought it down with all her might, implanting it into the wall at a point where in had naturally formed a small crack. Brelyna couldn't help but smile at the sight of the maneuver. She knew nobody else who could implant swords into walls of solid rock, she loved it when Nephiah did that. Nephiah covered up the hilt of the sword with some hanging moss and moved back down beside her. "We'll just have to make some noise." Brelyna crossed her arms recounting the various times they had been in combat. "Somehow I don't' think that will be a problem." They looked around, the wind howling down from the mountain already began to displace snow, covering up their footsteps. "Now what." "Now we wait for midnight."

Dusk was falling over the land, the sky transforming into shades of blue that got progressively darker. The last rays of sunshine loomed behind the mountains, covering it in colors of deep red and orange. They had picked a direction at random and walked half an hour until they found a place that was protected from wind and made camp. Their fire crackled calmly, Nephiah tossed away the last bone of a rabbit they had caught and roasted. Brelyna gazed upon the horizon, drinking in every bit of red and orange as it slowly faded and turned to blue and then to black. "Wuunferth...", she said eventually, "...he is the last one, isn't he?" Nephiah was poking the fire with a stick, sending bits of glowing ash dancing up into the night sky. She nodded. Brelyna lay down on her back, looking at the stars above. "All right." She took a deep breath. "And then we find ourselves a lake. Somewhere without snow. And we build us a house with a porch to sit on." Her mind drew lines between the stars, forming all the images she described. Her warrior lay down beside her. She turned to her side, took Nephiah's hand and lead it up, resting her head on her strong shoulder. The flickering fire illuminated half of the branding, she gently moved her thumb over it. "And when we sit there, waiting for the fishing rod to twitch, none of this will matter anymore. There will be no pain, no conflict, just us. And how it is when it's just us." She placed a kiss onto the scar. It didn't hurt when she did that.