Goodbye

[Elyna]

21st Ymiden 716

As Malcolm departed. Elyna shamelessly used her horse to support herself as she watched him ride away. With an arm wrapped around the warm neck finally turned her face against it and gathered herself. He was so angry and she was exhausted and tired once more, of fighting with him. Time passed and when she could breathe again, the Skyrider mounted up. She stared after him in the twilight, resisting the urge to follow him again. Finally, she found the strength to turn Ember around and rode back at a much gentler pace to the house. Looking behind her at every few bits of time, hopeful that Malcolm might change his mind. He didn’t.

Back at the paddock Elyna took time to rub the horse down after the sudden charge to action without warming any of the animal’s muscles. She laid out extra hay and dug out some oats for the horse, fussing over her and cooing. Next she collected the Hawk and put him in the makeshift pen again, securing him against foxes or anything else that thought the injured bird would make an easy meal. It was then she made the return to the tree and reclaimed her bow and quiver of arrows. Trudging back down the hill in the twilight she stood staring at the door. Malcolm wasn’t in the bedroom resting; and she missed him already. Elyna put away her belongings, stoked the fire and stood in the centre of the main room. It was so easy for the world to fall apart. She would have taken back the last trials she’d spent him with if she could. She would have done everything differently if it had meant he would have stayed.

Why didn’t he believe that she loved him? She had never been anything other than truthful and honest. He’d stripped away all of her ways of coping, she couldn’t drink, couldn’t train, couldn’t lose herself with a stranger – not that she wanted to. She was lost.

No matter how she tried to prepare herself against grief and loss, it hit like lightning and struck her down. Blind she stumbled to the bedroom and fell onto the bed. There was nothing she could do with the pain that coursed through her veins and she crumpled, crying. The sobs rose from the depths of her being and they overtook her. Everything she had been holding onto since the morning Yoreth had left came out in a flood that wouldn’t be stilled. Finally, she was welcomed into the sweet oblivion of sleep.

But not for long.

Elyna woke, throat sore and eyes scratchy, two breaks before the dawn and she lurched from the bed. Actions had always meant more to Malcolm than words. She crossed the room and back to the kitchen, her fingertips trailed over the worktops until she found what she was looking for and curled her fingers around the sharp knife she’d used for cutting meat.

Dawn broke and the Skyrider lent back from the table, her head was thumping with lack of sleep and concentration. She stared down at the result of her labour and let out a soft sigh, it still wouldn’t be enough. Nothing she did would ever be enough, but it was a start.

Another bright and sunny morning, Elyna bathed and dressed in the green dress she should have long returned to the Baroness in Krome. It was difficult to part with though. Malcolms medallion rested against her chest, until she tucked it away beneath her shirt. She pinned her hair up and found herself staring at the changed reflection in the mirror. This was not the same person who had started the season. Her bottom lip trembled, so she bit it. She was still a fighter.

Elyna passed the post over to the man who stopped by at the gate and returned once more to the house and poured boiling water with shaking hands into a mug of tea leaves and ginger. With the mug cupped between her hands she sat down on the front step of the house, watching the horizon, her heart in her throat every time a rider crested the horizon. She was worried about his stiches, and if he’d found a room for the night. If she’d hadn’t been so overwhelmed with misery, she doubted she would have slept the few breaks she had managed, drained from crying her eyes out. So far, she had to admit, pregnancy sucked. She took a sip of tea, hopeful that she’d be able to eat something later in the morning without rejecting it. Although she recognised that the last few arcs she hadn’t been the most emotionally stable person in the world, she could also recognise that she was all over the place. Partially down to circumstances and stress, partially the weight she’d been carrying her heart for so long, but part was also the hormones that sent her swinging down at the slightest word.

[Malcolm]

The road to Andaris had never seemed so long and that night as Malcolm's horse had crossed the drawbridge and carried him to the steps of the Inn, he steered the animal towards the overnight stables and saw to it that the gelding was watered before being brushed down and locked away. Inside the inn the mode was easygoing and quiet, the fireplaces were roaring, and the odd customer still lingered at the bar, slumped and really for sleep. Malcolm hadn't bothered to hazard a guess at the time, but he did know it was late, perhaps only a few breaks from dawn.
He had sat there on the bed for a while, head snug against the clean pillows, twisting his hair in loose knots with finger and thumb as he thought about everything, Vanessa, his sons, the arena, his injury, and the way he had treated Elyna. Malcolm thought about the future, as he often did, wondering which direction he would sail in this time and how many trails, arcs, or decades might pass before his return. Carefully he had unwrapped his wound after struggling out of the leather tabard. He took great care in cleaning and drying the arena before it was re-wrapped. Riding so soon had been reckless, but he couldn't be sure he wouldn't have done something even worse if he had stayed.
At first light he had washed up, struggling to remember whether or not sleep had been possible in the night, knowing that if it had taken him, it hadn't been for long, his eyes sore and tired, and body heavy. Before hitting the road, Malcolm sat and counted his remaining gold over breakfast, he would need at least thirty-five for travel, leaving him with just enough to pay Elyna back and keep a little silver in his pocket for the odd meal until he could get on his feet, wherever they landed.
The ride out to the cottage was bearable pain wise, but only just, and Malcolm fought to keep his horse restrained, setting a slow pace that the animal wasn't used to. Every now and then he was forced to readjust his path or shorten the reins in order to keep control, the chestnut biting at the bit, ears twisted back to listen for one of the usual commands the horse was used to hearing. As the house on the hill came into view, Malcolm felt his stomach tighten, dreading the looks, the arguments, and heated words he expected to receive upon walking through the door.
The horse was locked up alongside his paddock mate, and Malcolm made his way down to the house. He balled his right fist and knocked on the front door, one he had gone to the trouble of painting a warm, blood red colour. Ben had argued that he go with black or a nice navy blue, but Malcolm had gone with his gut and found that he preferred his own choice in the end. The Mortalborn didn't wait for Elyna to answer, instead letting himself in to find her in the kitchen with that pretty green dress on he had seen her in once before, had it been that day at the fair? Malcolm struggled to recall.
"Seventy," he threw the pounce of gold down on the countertop, planning to make a quiz exit but froze, surprised to find that she was wearing his gold medallion, one he thought she had sold in order to help buy his way out of prison. Would she expect all one hundred pieces then? The man didn't have the kind of money to spare. "And I suppose you can keep the necklace," he told her without making eye contact.

[Elyna]

Elyna had returned to the kitchen to refill her mug of water, more than a little relieved that her stomach had settled, only to lurch again when the door opened behind her. She set the mug down before she could drop it and lent her hands back on the worktop, eyes drifting to the pouch dropped without ceremony. Her heart was drumming in her throat, muscles in her belly and chest suddenly tight with adrenaline. This couldn’t be it. She wouldn’t let it be.

“Mal,” she reached for him with words and resisted the urge to walk towards him. He looked as though he’d slept as much as she had. The Skyrider was sure that she’d been told once, that love was easy. In many ways it was. Loving Malcolm was easy, no matter what he said, or did and how terrible he made her feel about herself. Even when he was too proud and stubborn to meet her gaze.

Surely he hadn’t come all the way back out of the city, to pay back the fine? She didn’t want his money, but fearing the argument it would cause, didn’t refuse it. She reached up to touch the golden medallion, a protective gesture. Really she should give it back, it didn’t belong to her.

“I was in the Arena, when they bought you out,” she swallowed and struggled to keep her voice even and without accusation, “if Ben hadn’t been there,” the woman paused, it didn’t matter. If Ben hadn’t been there, then she would have been down on the sand beside him without a second thought. It was only the new Captains intervention that had saved her life. But she wasn’t trying to prove her love.

“After you were taken away, Ben dropped me off at the infirmary and that’s when they told me. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I wanted to tell you every trial but...” but she hadn’t. She’d guarded her precious secret, protected it in case, somehow sharing the news would make it less real. Afraid that fate would rob her of her future, as it had already taken her past, "I’m sorry for hurting you."

“Ask me anything and I will only tell you the truth,” her voice was soft, but she wasn’t pleading with him, not yet.

The birds were singing outside and the grass was lush and dotted with flowers beneath a bright sun. The pair of horses raced gleefully down the length of the paddock and all she wanted to do, was reach out to touch Malcolm.

[Malcolm]

Malcolm chanced a look at the woman, the lids of her eyes puffy with lack of sleep or worse. They said one could tell whether or not a person was lying by looking into their eyes, liars fidgeted, flinched, twitched, and most importantly, often couldn't hold eye contact, something that Elyna had little trouble doing. She hadn't known long then, but long enough. She had given him time to recover, perhaps so that the shared news could be received as it had been initially, with excitement bubbling beneath the skin and lips turned up in hesitant but gleeful smile.
Ask her anything, the words floated around in his head unchecked, what kind of thing was that to say? She hadn't denied that she loved him, nor that by her own admission, he was her favoured choice, if only there hadn't been titles and responsibility in the way. If only they had both been common. If only all the things that perhaps made them love each other even more hadn't been the obstacles they sought to overcome, to seek and destroy in and of each other. If only Pre hadn't tasked him with a mission that took him from Rynmere. If only there had been a way to take her with him...
It had to be this way, perhaps not on these terms, but the outcome they each desired was reckless and irresponsible, for him to ask so much of her was not only selfish, but hurtful; these were the conclusions he had come to in the night, with space and room to breathe, and time to think it all over clearly.
"Will you sell the house or will I have a place to live when I return, a place to visit you and our child?" That was all that was important now, a future rather than dragging up the past.

Malcolm shut the front door, it was rude to stand in the doorway and rush the goodbye they both deserved. Instead he moved past her into the kitchen, took up a mug with tea and went to the stovetop above the fireplace to add the boiled water and take up a seat at the living room table. He pushed one of the wilting flowers in the vase back into place, fixing the arrangement before he set sight on her again. Despite the obviously lack of sleep, Elyna looked tidy as she often did, with her long dark hair arranged nicely, and the green dress fitting as if it had been made just for her. Malcolm blew on his tea before taking a sip and watched her again as he set the full mug down in front of him on the table, hands cupping the warm, glazed and fired clay.
"I'll be staying at the inn in case you need to reach me over the next few trials. I'll book a ticket soon, most likely somewhere west, I've always found the east to be so much more hostile, and as you know, the north is far too cold for a sun loving mortal like me."

Small talk, then it was done, he had decided to move past her offer of a round of twenty questions to something that might interest her all the same, surely she wanted to know these things? "I could write here or send letters to Ben, coin if I make any, whatever you need," his gaze had fallen to his hands.

[Elyna]

He was always stealing her drinks. Elyna could no more help the brief smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth, then she could stop the sun from rising in Saun. She collected another mug and carefully layered the tea leaves with the ginger root and filled the vessel with boiling water. She inhaled the sweet scent and looked across at Malcolm as he sat. He seemed to be moving more easily, that was good.

His first and only question stumped her. She had promised to speak openly and honestly and her brow furrowed with thought as she followed him around the worktops and took up the opposite seat, “I hadn’t thought so far ahead about living arrangements” she admitted and turned to look at the beautiful home he had made for them. Light flooded in through the windows and lit on the fresh paint. It was bright and airy with enough space for the horses and even her stupid hawk. But having spent the night without Malcolm, it had felt empty. They hadn’t made memories here together either, none that she wanted to keep. It was a logical, sensible choice though.

“I don’t think I could sell your house Malcolm, any more than I could sell your medallion.” She realised and looked up at him, glad to have made another decision. Silly to hold onto things, when he would be leaving her with the most permanent reminder of his existence.

As he had expected her expression lit with his talk of travels. She’d never left Rynmere and she wanted to badly. But then, when she pictured Malcolm adventuring alone her gaze dropped again. Resentful that he would see so much for the world, and that it was stealing him from her.

The Skyrider reached out and brushed her fingertips against the back of his hands without thinking, she set her mug to oneside and lent forward on the table, looking up to search his expression. The sea-green eyes that gave her a different sense of drowning.

“Don’t stay at the inn, stay here, and stay with me. If I could take back the last trials, I would. I would use every bit to make sure you never forgot me,” she was speaking with far more eloquence then she usually managed to pull off, and the heat started rising up her neck.

“Loving you is easy Mal,” he had never been a choice the woman had to make. Elyna moved her free hand over the pencil cast aside on the table and picked it up, sliding it into the knot of her hair to keep it out of the way. She’d already told him, that she would be his for as long as he wanted her. Despair had driven her into Marcus’s arms and nothing else, “it just…it was hard letting everything else go. But, now I’m free.”

[Malcolm]

Malcolm pulled his hand away and sliced his thick black hair with his burly fingers before folding his arms against his chest and leaning back on the chair. The tea smelt and tasted different than usual and Malcolm recognised the taste of ginger, even if he couldn't quite smell it. This was confirmed after seeing Elyna pour a second cup. He had felt no unease or resent when she had joined him at the table, and though she had offered for him to stay, Malcolm didn't think it was a smart idea.
"I don't want to sleep on the floor, and I don't want you sleeping on the floor anymore now that I know," he admitted. "What are you going to do?"

He wanted to know her plans or what she had been thinking regarding her mother's arrangements, what was best for her and the baby if he was to be gone, if they were to be realistic. Marrying Marcus was one of her choices, but she would be lonely as his work often took him away for a long time, sometimes for arcs, sailors had it rough in Rynmere, but maybe if he earned the title of captain, he would be able to sail closer to home.
Malcolm reached out across the table and took Elyna's hand. "I'm sorry, I don't want to leave on bad terms."

[Elyna]

For a man who she suspected had lived threes times her own lifespan, he could be really stupid sometimes. Awed by his ignorance she stared with silent shock, flinching when he reached for her hand in turn. She snapped her fingers back to her lap, out of reach. Then she took a deep breath and counted slowly to ten. She wasn't going to loose her temper, she wasn't going to try and hit him, again. Not even when he really deserved it. Confident that she'd managed to rein in her visceral reaction Elyna let the breath out.

"I have no intention of sleeping on the floor," she told him calmly, "and you're injured. There is no way to the Sevens you wouldn't be resting in a bed," she paused before carrying on with exaggerated slowness, trying to be clear, "and there is only one bed, Malcolm. For us. Stay. Stay with me."

She held his stare for as long as she could before swallowing the lump in her throat, "arrangements?" she reached up to run her hand along the back of her neck, "wait for the axe to fall I think...It was made clear on my visit home that I would either marry a man of my Mother's choosing, or cease to call myself a Burhan." The Skyrider bit the end of her tongue, weighing the words.

"I've told them everything. I've told them about the baby, and that I won't be marrying Marcus - though I suspect that will become moot point," she set her shoulders back in anticipation of the arguments she was going to have with her parents, and the bitter loss of their name against hers. But she had made her decision, and although it hadn't been easy, it was right.

Her lips twitched in a faint smile and she looked back at the man who'd claimed her heart so thoroughly, "I wonder if Pavoo will choke on his breakfast when they pass him my letter," it was a black humor but a way to dispel the anxiety that rose whenever she tried to imagine the forthcoming confrontation. They would send for her, she simply didn't know when. The young woman lifted her chin, determined. There was nothing they could say or do to change her mind. She had no name.

[Malcolm]

The trouble with woman was that they all expected their men to be exceptional mind-readers, and even after four hundred arcs, this untapped skill had become no easier for the man. She stole her hand away yet told him that she wanted him to stay. The mixed messages were enough to see him blink, not quite knowing how to take the news that followed. Was she being selfish or just plain reckless? Could he stop a letter, no, not if it had been sent by air and especially seen as the woman would have contacts being a Skyrider.
Malcolm got up quickly, the legs of his chair groaning as they where pushed across the wooden floor to stop in front of the fireplace. He was ready to absolutely explode at her with his anger and frustration over her ridiculous choices, but something stopped him, a look in her eye, or the way she sat there, pleased with herself. To grow angry now was to take back everything he had said, everything he had hoped they could share together. Was it to be twenty trials of bliss before he sailed away, leaving Elyna to her fate. Perhaps he was stupid because he stood now, speechless, not knowing what to tell her, she had chosen him and taken measures to ensure that there would be no backing out on his part, lest he leave her with nothing at all.
He knelt beside her chair and took her hands, not allowing her to wrestle them away from his grasp this time. Lips parted wordlessly, a smile offered were words really would have been preferred. "I need this," he told her and carefully took the necklace from around her neck with the golden medallion attached. "I'll be back tonight," the captain promised.

[Elyna]

The way he stood up, with the anger coursing through his expression and the lines of his body, had the Skyrider jumping to her own feet. Almost a decade of training and learning how to defend herself, meant she couldn't stop the automatic reaction to a threat. But the frustration seemed to leave as quickly as it had come and she sank back down, watching him with a wary expression, uncertain of what he was going to do next. He stole her hands and she searched his expression, confused.

"It's yours," she bent her head forward so that it was easier for him to relieve her of the necklace. But she missed the weight of it immediately.

"If you open up your stitches..." she warned. Why was he leaving? She didn't understand, panic jumped into her throat at the sudden thought he might follow the postman or intercept the letter. Even if he did though, even if he didn't come back, she would tell her parents again. She wasn't going to be their pawn. Elyna gulped, brows knitting in a frown with a faint suspicion of his plans, because he looked happy and almost reckless himself. Her brown eyes searched his rapidly before he took his leave and she was left, watching him ride away, again. She didn't want his pity, or for him to return out of a sense of duty and honor.

[Rend]

Elyna

Animal Husbandry +1
Cooking +1
Persuasion +1
Rhetoric +1

Basic Knowledge
Pregnancy: Sucks

+70 Gold Nel
-Gold Medallion

Malcolm

Medicine +1
Mount +1
Cooking +1

Basic Knowledge
Medicine: Changing Bandages

Specific Knowledge
Elyna: Chose you Over her Family

-70 Gold Nel
-7 Silver Nel to the Inn for a room and stabling
+Gold Medallion

As always, any questions or concerns, if you think anything is missing or are wondering why something is there, send me a PM!

Spoiler

This was another good thread to read, there wasn't a lot to give skills for as it was mostly story progression, sorry. Don't think the lack of skills reflects the quality! Gold as always!