FE: The Sharlan Curse

Chapter 8: Conflict

     A howling wind blows across the barren streets of Chantelle, the capital city of Sharla.  Its forlorn scream echoed across the mountainous landscape, eventually reaching the windows of Castle Desroches, the home of King Carolus and the other members of House Durand.  A man stood, gazing out of one of the castle's tallest spires.  His long beard rustled in the frigid wind and as he looks down upon the snowy land, a twisted grin stretches across his face.
     "Can you hear that gentlemen?"  The man chuckles.  "Sharla has gone silent.  Soon the time will be upon us."
     Turning away from the window, the man walks forward and takes a seat down at the large table in the center of the room.  Flickers from the candlelit lamps bounced off of the man's balding head and his gnarled teeth seemed to twinkle in the dim light.  Sitting at the head of the table, the man found himself in scattered company:  lords and ladies from different regions in the kingdom, wealthy merchants and various other members of Sharla's haughty aristocracy.  All of the seats had been filled save for two, and upon seeing this the bearded man sighs.
     "I expected our beloved king to be fashionably late, but where's Belrose?  If he wasn't going to show, the least he could've done was send one of his men."
     The room door is flung open as a thin man dressed in tattered leathers appears.
     "A scout?  My, what impeccable timing."  The man smiles.  "Tell us boy, what news do you bring?"
     "It's about the southern troops sir."  The scout replies.  "Many of them have been eliminated."
     "Is that all?  I'm a tad surprised, but no matter.  Scurry along now and tell Belrose that he needs to send in more men."
     "I'm afraid I can't do that.  Lord Belrose is dead sir."
     "Oh?  Who did him in?"
     "I've heard from some of the other scouts that it was a man by the name of Grier sir."
     "Grier hm?"  One of the men at the table sighs.  "From what I've heard, he's a pretty well renowned sellsword and racketeer.  I figured Belrose would've hired such a man to his job for him, but it would seem that someone beat him to it."
     "Is that right?"  The bearded man's twisted smile had morphed into an annoyed scowl.  "Tell me, did he have company?"
     "I heard through the Marchand grapevine that he was supposedly seen with the prince sir."  The scout says.  "And they said that the prince had company of his own."
     The bearded man growls.  "The prince is still alive?  Tch, how irksome.  No matter, do you know where they're headed boy?"
     "Janine sir."
     "Excellent.  Go and tell Lord Merle to send some of his men that way.  Don't let them rest until that town is painted red."
     "Yessir."  The scout quickly says as he heads out the door.
     "Right then gentlemen."  The bearded man says.  "The prince's wellbeing is a minor setback, but we shall perservere.  Soon we can begin the blood rite, and once his pesky company is out of the way, there will be nothing stopping us from enacting the ritual.  Soon the Rebirth will be upon us!  Glory to Lady Eoforhild!"
     The bearded man slams his hands down on the table and begins to laugh raucously.  Soon the other members of the table join in, some laughing while others clap, all chanting "Glory to Lady Eoforhild."  Once again, the door opens and a towering man steps inside.  His heavy armor clanks as his metal boots scrape against the stone floor.  He wore a tired expression upon his face and sighs at the group.
     "Such incessant babble."  He grumbles.  "You'll wake the dead shouting like that Ganelon."
     "That's the plan Your Majesty."  The bearded man says, turning his gaze to King Carolus.  "Come and have a seat.  We have a great deal to discuss, I want to let you in on a little secret of mine..."

~~~

     As the sun began to rise again in the city of Marchand, Vivian sat at the foot of one of the hospital beds, a worried expression on her face.
     "He's been gone all night."  She says.  "Where could he have gone?  Alyssa, Reed, you two haven't seen Milo have you?"
     "No, not since the attack in the streets."  Alyssa sighs.  "He was with you wasn't he?  Someone was making a horrible noise out back."
     "That would be me.  I asked Milo to help me get stronger and had me do a bunch of lifting to work my arms.  They're still sore..."  Vivian groans.  "But that was yesterday morning, after the attack.  He left at about noon without saying much.  I should've gone after him, what if he does something rash?"
     "If there's something eatin' him then it's probably best ta let him be."  Reed says.  "Everyone needs some space sometimes and he's got a lot on his plate.  We should let 'im breathe."
     "I know."  She sighs.  "He's probably just taking a minute to cool off.  Milo did say we'd be staying here for a little while longer."
     Alyssa smiles.  "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you cared for him Vivian."
     "Well don't you?  We're all friends here, and friends look out for each other."
     A faint creak echoes down the hallway as the hospital's old wooden doors are pushed open.  Vivian bolts up, expecting it to be Miles, but promptly sits back down in disappoint as Grier enters the room.
     "What, were you expecting someone else?"  He smiles.
     "Yes."  Vivian says bluntly.  "What do you want?  This is a charity building, so you'd best turn around.  You won't find any coin here."
     "I know, I know, I'm only here on an errand from Blondie."  Grier sighs and turns to Alyssa.  Reaching into his pants pocket, he pulls out a crumpled piece of parchment and hands it to her.  "That's from him, read it quick, I don't have all day."
     "And what are you in a hurry for?"  Alyssa asks as she unfolds the parchment.
     "He wanted me to take you to Janine of all places, though don't ask me why, he didn't spare me any details."
     "Why Janine?  That's nowhere near Fort Rayne."
     "Don't you listen?"  Grier shakes his head.  "Tch, just read the paper."
     Alyssa skims over the parchment, her eyes darting from line to line.  "It'd be easier to read this if you hadn't crumpled it up, now the ink's gone and smudged."  She sighs.  "But from what I can make out, Miles doesn't want to travel with us anymore."
     "What?"  Vivian sounded hurt.  "Why not?"
     Alyssa reads aloud the parchment.  "'My friends, I'm dreadfully sorry for the mess I have roped you into.  While I appreciate the help you've given me, I cannot in good conscience allow you to continue with me down this path of blood.  The road to Chantelle has proven itself to be a difficult one, and as your friend, I can no longer let the blood I spill stain your hands.  Though we have all fought, allow me to don the mantle of criminal and take full responsibilities for the actions we've taken along the way.  Allow me and me alone to shoulder this burden; my life is already set in stone, please allow me to spend the rest of it behind bars so that you all may live free.  It is selfish of me to ask such high demands of you all, but I beseech you to go and retreat to Janine.  Following me will only cause you all to be branded felon as well, please, stay behind and out of this chaos so that you may continue to live your lives freely.'"
     "That's so flowery."  Reed sighs.  "If he wanted to tell us something, couldn't he just tell it to our faces?  What's he talking about anyway, 'criminal?'"
     Grier scoffs.  "How pompous, the kid thinks he's some kinda fiend all because he took up a blade."
     "And what do you know about this?"  Alyssa shoots Grier a steely glance.
     "I was there in the streets the other night with him, basically saved his hide, and he went and turned it into a talk about morality.  I offered a rebuttal and now it looks like he's gotten all huffy."  Grier smirks.  "Once a noble always a noble I suppose."
     "You did what?  What did you say to him?"
     "He and I confronted the source of the trouble and he wanted to have the guy tried and jailed.  Can you imagine?  I killed the guy and moved on, and yet Blondie got all uppity.  What I did is no different from what you all are doing, right?  Hell, you're getting rid of these curse victims like they're old toys."
     "Our cause is just."  Alyssa retorts.  "These people are hurting themselves and others.  If we don't do something about it, there will just be all the more carnage.  From the sound of it, you committed a murder, we're acting in defense."
     Grier laughs.  "Hah, he said about the same thing.  At the end of the day, these people are dead, nothing's changin' that, it's done and over with, so who cares about what somebody else has to say?  Murder, self-defense, who cares?  I don't, get over yourselves and move on."
     "How can you be so callous?"
     "Love, if I wasn't, I couldn't do my job.  Simple as that."  Grier turns and walks back towards the door.  "Don't spend too much time packing, I hate waiting on people."
     "We're not going anywhere with you."
     "The kid already promised me payment for it, so I'm holding it to him."  Grier chuckles.  "I'm not afraid to do a bit of kidnapping you know.  Look, just make this easy for the lot of us, all I'm going to do is take ya there, after that I'll be out of your hair and you'll all be on your own.  I'll give you girls a minute to deliberate, but don't take too long.  I'll be down at the bar, come and see me when you've got your answer."
     With a sarcastic wave, Grier heads down the hall and out of the hospital.  Alyssa sits, her face marked with a quiet fury.  Reed sighs and Vivian looked devastated.
     "What we do isn't wrong, is it?"  Vivian asks.  "We aren't criminals..."
     "No, we're doing the right thing here."  Alyssa says reassuringly, doing her best to hide the quaking anger that Grier's presence instilled in her.  "Miles shouldn't have taken his words with anything more than a grain of salt.  Nevertheless, I can't believe he'd leave us like this..."
     "Never mind that, are we going or not?"  Reed asks.  "I say we at least go to Janine and get rid of that snake.  From there we can continue lookin' for Milo.  If we get moving now and keep moving through the night, we could probably make it to Fort Rayne at about the same time he does."
     "That's assuming he still goes to the fort."  Alyssa sighs.  "He's brazen, but I highly doubt that Milo would try to take on such a place himself.  Do you think he might try and go through the mountains?"
     Reed shakes her head.  "Not unless he wants ta kill himself, those mountains are hell, even for experienced trekkers."
     "What do you think Vivian?"
     "I agree with Reed."  She says.  "We can look for Milo after we make it Janine.  He can't have gone far right?  Not on his own.  We should get moving."
     With the three in agreement, they gather up their belongings before exiting the hospital and make their way down the streets of Marchand.