Hyrne: QUICKLY, PASS IT HERE! (panicking)
The woman standing behind the man handed over the bowl of herbal water and towels.
Without turning, he grabbed widely in the air; a pungent smell of yarrow flowed into his nose as it slushed around the bowl.
Hyrne: (coughing) GET ERAL!
(The woman turned to the bedroom door and bolted for the main hall, her feet pounding the wooden floor with every step she took.)
Standing beside a large bed, the man started to soak the towels in the bowl. He began to reach for something and moved it towards him.
A small arm came into view and pulled back when he placed the soaked towel on it. Hyrne grabbed for the little arm once more, holding it more firmly this time, wiping from the shoulder to the wrist.
A rapid set of breaths flowed into Hyrne's ears.
Hyrne: Don't be afraid; it's me, my lady.
The breathing slowed, recognising the voice. They were much calmer now, but the sounds of discomfort could be heard from the moans and groans of the soft, gentle voice of the young lady.
It was a deep line of cuts. Hyrne began to wipe the bleeding cuts that ran from the top of her right shoulder down to her wrist.
The cries of the young lady grew louder.
Hyrne: I am sorry; it will be over in a moment. just one more towel.
He dropped the blood-soaked towels onto the floor next to him.
-The bleeding started to slow down, still trickling in some areas.
Hyrne: Good. You did great!
He began to wrap the small arm with the spare towels and crumpled himself at the side of her bed.
The cries of the young girl stopped, but a whimpering took its place.
Hyrne: Please forgive me. (Tears started to form.) Please, God, save this child. Please! Not again... Eral, please hurry.
The blonde-haired girl lay on the bed. In and out of consciousness; dancing between the living and the dead.
Hyrne turned to the door, hearing the banging of wood in the distance.
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The echoes of feet faded. Then the banging of palms on wood filled the main hall.
Louvan: Healer? HEALER? PLEASE! ERALLLL!!!! (Her hands hit the door harder with each pound.)
-The turning of a lock could be heard.
The door in front of her room opened. A medium-sized man stood in the doorway rubbing his freshly shaven face, donning only his nightwear in a half-naked fashion, a man that looked like he was awoken from an eternal slumber, from the look of his hair that flowed in every direction but down.
Eral: Calm down or you will wake the dead...
Before he could finish his sarcastic remark
Louvan: (panting) It's the
Eral: Just breathe, what is it?
Louvan: The young lady, she's hurt!
The dreary eyes of the healer went wide.
Eral: Where is she now? (worried tone)
Louvan: Her... quarters... (still catching her breath)
Turning back into his room, he grabbed a small wooden staff with an ornate green crystal on top. He rushed forward, heading up the stairs where Louvan had just come from.
The maid crumpled to the floor, her legs giving way from the shock and pounding of feet that reverberated through the manor and her body; her heart was beating just as loudly as the door she was just banging on.
Louvan: Not again... Please, don't let her die. (gripping her chest)
Her hands fell back down into her lap, burning red from the flurry she brought down upon the door.
She instinctively turned towards the sound coming from outside; it started to get louder, permeating through the main doors of the manor.
horses neighing and the wheels of a carriage coming to a halt.
Louvan: Could it be you? My lord?
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All things are born from a moment in time: life and death, the light and the shadow, the lost and the found. This night is no exception to the rule of fate that governs this world, be it by the hands of the gods or something much darker that resides in-between.
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More footsteps could be heard heading up the stairs from the main hall.
As they came to an end, a man came bursting into the open room of the young lady's quarters.
Eral: How bad is it? (He looked around to find Hyrne sitting by the bedside, holding something in his hands.)
Still standing in the open doorway, he began to stare at the young lady on the bed. Her creamy white dress was covered in dirt, and large blotches of rain-soaked blood were diluting into the fabric and spreading further.
Eral turned back to Hyrne once more and noticed he wasn't looking at him but at something else. The servant of the household was facing to his right, looking at the back wall of the room.
As the body of the butler turned, Eral could see much more clearly that it was an arm wrapped in towels, slowly turning red.
Hyrne: What happened, Rubern?
Eral looked confused for a moment. As he turned to face the same direction, he squinted, and a shape took form in the darkness.
Sitting in the shadows of the dancing flame from the lanterns in the corner next to the young lady's bed, a small voice broke the veil of mystery.
Rubern: It was... it was... (stuttering).
Hyrne: WHAT WAS IT? (in a sharp but loud tone)
The young man (the second son of the Vayreban manor), no older than thirteen, gulped down and blurted in a stutter.
Rubern: C… CA… CARA!
The eyes of the healer went wide. He returned his eyes to the young lady; her breathing was rapid and she was sweating, pouring off her soaking the bed below.
The man in the doorway moved forward towards the bed.
He pulled away the towels; the bleeding had slowed. but the skin around the wound was festering a light purple at the edges.
Eral: BLOODY CARA! Quickly, hold her down! You to Rubern!
Hyrne: No potions?
barking back in a demanding order.
Eral: No time! HOLD HER DOWN! (demanding once more.)
Hyrne: Rubern, do as Eral says! Hold her legs! NOW!
Eral put his hands together, and the ornate crystal that sat atop his staff started to glow and sputter into life, crackling more and more as the seconds passed by.
Hyrne was now holding down the shoulders of the young lady with his arms and chest.
Eral: RUBERN!!! NOW! Your sister needs you!
The young man, in shock, slowly began to move to the bottom of the bed and proceeded to hold down the legs of his sister.
Rubern: Please, Sister. (whimpering) Please... (Tears started to flow from Rubern's eyes.)
(Eral began to recite the incantation, lightly muttering the words, then getting louder.)
Eral: Amer luminar, var rem. Amer luminar, var rem. AMER LUMINAR VAR REM!
A blinding glow of green enveloped the room and everyone in it, originating from the gem atop his staff.
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-Main hall.
The wide black wooden doors to the manor flung open, and the whistling of the wind slithered into the grand room that invited all who entered, even the coming darkness of the night.
Louvan: Lord Vayreban!
A large man towered over the kneeling maid, his shadow draped over her, shielding her from the wind and flickers of rain, almost surrounding her in the darkness that was this man's shadow.
Vayreban: What is going on? Why are you... Is that blood? Are you hurt?
The maid looked down; the frill that adorned the edges of her uniform flickered with red.
Louvan: Yes. I mean, no, it's not mine. It's (flustered.)
The eyes of Louvan and the large man went wide as they heard the screams and cries of a young girl mixed into the raving rants of a man.
A green light emanated from the upper floor, and silence soon followed from the fading glow of light and screams.
The towering form bolted for the stairs, heading towards the now non-existent bellows.
As the lord of the manor turned at the top of the stairs, he could see a splayed-out shape in the doorway.
Flat out on the floor was the man he knew as Eral. But his eyes shot to the figure in the bed as he entered the room, ignoring Eral, Hyrne, and even Rubern.
Without thinking, Vayreban stepped over the slumped body of the healer and walked forward towards the bed, where the golden-haired girl was lying slathered in dirt and blood.
Her once-open wound had disappeared. The purple edges were nowhere to be seen; she was healed in body but not in mind. She was now in a world of dreams, in a world of nightmares.
Vayreban: AMELIA! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!
Rubern began to rub his eyes with one hand while the other was holding his sister's leg. He let go and moved to the back of the room, back into the shadows.
Hyrne had already moved away from the bed and was now attending to the healer on the floor. He popped his head out of the room.
-Bellows filled the manor once more, not that of a woman, but a man now.
Hyrne: Louvan, I need a hand!