The Road to Forgiveness Be Damned

In Living Memory

The chorus of birds chirping outside alerted Ven to the time. Sunlight shone in from the window as she fell back on the bed with a thump. She set her mother's journal aside and rubbed her eyes to rid herself of the drowsiness she felt. Did she really spend the rest of the night reading?

A yawn escaped from her mouth before she could try and stop it. She was tired yet she didn't dare go to sleep. Not after what her nightmares decided to bring her the night before...

They were terrifying at first but they became normal for her over time. As normal as being forced to relive your worst memories was, at any rate. She stopped being scared of them a long time ago. Last night, however, was different.

She didn't even want to remember that dream, it was so horrible. Hearing their screams of agony while their bodies contorted in pain... When would life cease heaping its torment on her? The best she could do was bury the images of that nightmare deep, deep down and try not to think about it.

With a knock at her door came a voice asking, "Ven, you awake?"

Sitting back up, she replied with "Yeah, I'm awake," and sent a tendril of darkness to open the door.

She noticed the fresh bandages on Ferreth's arms upon his entering. He must've cleaned and dressed them before coming here. Hopefully, he didn't have too much trouble with doing that. If she had known, she would've helped him since she wanted to repay him for all he had done for her yesterday.

Kneeling down beside the bed, he asked, "You doing okay after yesterday?"

"Yeah, I'm just--" Another yawn slipped out before she continued-- "a little tired, is all."

"Any nightmares?"

"No more than usual."

She hated lying to him. Despite her saying she'd tell him if they got worse, she didn't want to give him yet another thing to worry about. His crying over her yesterday freaked her out and she didn't want that to happen again. Maybe, just maybe, the nightmare turned out to be a one time thing, a fluke.

"Well, we won't need to report back to Filaurel till tomorrow so--" he stood up, stretching out his arms and back-- "anything you wanted to do today?"

"If it's okay with you, there is something I wanted to do sometime soon." She grabbed the journal, opened it up to a specific page, and handed it over for him to read.

On the page was an entry Thessalia wrote about someone named Nithenoel. They apparently became fast friends after she found herself captivated by the "beautiful yet mysterious traveler". She was naturally curious about this woman since it marked the first time her mother seemed so enamored with someone. If she still lived in Thal Esari, she was her best lead in knowing what Thessalia was personally like.

"So you wanna check to see if this Nithenoel still lives in town, right?" he asked, giving the journal back to her.

"Yeah," she replied, "I feel like this'll be the closest I'll ever get to finding someone connected to Thessalia and I can't let it slip by. Is it okay if we do this? I know it may take the whole day and it may not be fun but---"

"Ven, it's okay, we can do this," he interrupted, stopping her from rambling. "We can go right now, if you want."

Excited, she said happily, "Yes, let's go right now!"

She leapt off the bed, grabbing his hand and dragging him along. She couldn't help smiling as she bounded towards the marketplace with Ferreth in tow. This was her only chance and she wasn't going to let it pass her by. She might've been setting herself up for failure but the slimmest lead was better than none.