Chapter Text
The next day, Imogen can’t focus at all. Fortunately, no one ever bothers to spend more than five minutes in her vicinity, so it goes unnoticed. Her duties take longer to complete, and she messes up a few times, but it’s because her mind is somewhere else. For once, though, not in the midst of others thoughts, but rather back in the woods, where an odd, beautiful, undead looking woman had smiled at her and treated her like something to be unafraid of.
On a rare occasion, Imogen is sent out into town to buy some items her father needs, and while usually she’d be having to try her hardest to keep the voices out by distracting herself with anything from counting her steps to reciting lines from books she’s read when she can’t sleep, today other people’s thoughts barely register.
All she can hear is Laudna.
Laudna’s melodic voice, Laudna’s kind words, Laudna’s laugh, Laudna’s musical thoughts.
She can still feel Laudna’s cold hand against her own, and see her smile that looked unnaturally perfect for her features.
She can still remember the genuine kindness and interest when Imogen had spoken in her mind. She doesn’t know why she did it in the first place. Usually she’d find it too invasive, but she simply couldn’t help herself with Laudna. She knew her for mere minutes at the time and she was willing to give up everything to show the woman the parts of herself she struggled with the most. For some reason, it felt easy. For some reason, she’s desperate to go back.
The two of them hadn’t spent much time together the previous night. Imogen didn’t want to bother Laudna too much, and upon realising that Imogen should be getting some sort of rest, Laudna was determined to ensure her new friend didn’t go without. Still, Imogen had asked Laudna if she could see her again, and without any hesitation Laudna had accepted. As the day passes, all Imogen can think is that it’s one less minute spent without time with her new undead friend.
That night, Imogen doesn’t bother resting her eyes, or even waiting for the sun to completely disappear beyond the horizon. Her father doesn’t eat with her, and disappears into the barn by the end of the day, so she just grabs Flora and rides steadfast into the woods.
It’s strange what one interaction with a person can do. Imogen would never reach out to people like this, not any time since she got her powers, and not even before then when she was a child. Sure, she wanted friends, but she somehow always knew that she was destined not to have some great group of friends who go on adventures and change the world. Then Laudna comes along, and it feels like everything has shifted.
When she comes across the opening in the woods where she met Laudna last night, it’s slightly different. There’s a neatly placed campfire in the centre of the opening, with a tree trunk by its side, acting as a seat. There’s also a pile of flowers that Imogen knows grows slightly east from here on a nearby farm. Laudna, however, is nowhere in sight.
For a second, Imogen worries, dismantling from her horse's back and attaching her to a nearby tree branch. She glances around, searching for any signs of Laudna, to no avail.
But then, she senses it, the melodic tune of Laudna’s thoughts. The thoughts are louder than Imogen expected, meaning she must be nearby, which surprises Imogen on how quickly she suddenly appears…unless-
“Boo!”
Imogen jolts, gasping as she takes a step back and spins around, coming face to face with Laudna, grinning wildly with her hands out almost like jazz hands. For a moment, Imogen tries to pretend to be a little annoyed, but it’s somehow impossible for her to restrain the smile that is so desperate to appear on her own features.
“Ha. Ha. Very funny,”
Laudna tilts her head, “it was, wasn’t it?”
Imogen crosses her arms, but the grin is ever present on her face.
“You came back,” Laudna comments, as if she only has just realised.
“Course. Didn’t want to just leave you alone with Pâté,”
“He does provide great company…however, it’s nice to be around someone not as…vulgar,”
Imogen chuckles, finally tearing her eyes away from Laudna to look back at the mini campfire set up.
“D’you do all this? Seems like you’ve been busy,”
At this, Laudna absolutely beams, walking around Imogen towards her little setup.
“I made us a little spot! I thought it’d be nice for you to be able to see, with the fire, and for us to sit and converse!”
Imogen’s mouth opens slightly, before she closes it again.
“You did this…for us?”
Laudna turns to face Imogen again, her expression softer than ever, “of course. I had a feeling you’d be coming back. Well, I hoped you’d be coming back.” Laudna pauses, before her eyes widen and she rushes over to the small pile of flowers laid out on the ground, “and I picked these for you. I don’t know what your favourite flowers are, or your favourite colours, but I got yellow because I thought you might like your yellow scarf,”
Imogen looks down at the flowers in Laudna’s cold hands, unable to look away from the gift.
She never really had a favourite colour in particular, but looking down at these flowers, yellow might just start being her favourite colour in the world.
It takes Imogen a few seconds to notice, but Laudna begins awkwardly shifting, about to bring her arm away.
“You don’t have to take them, you probably see them all the time. I just thought-,”
“No,” Imogen hastily cuts her off, “I mean, yes, I want them. They’re- they’re beautiful, Laudna. Thank you,”
At this, Laudna giggles , her voice low and her smile wide. Imogen feels like she could never get bored of the sound.
“Well I suppose we should make use of your seating arrangement, huh Laud?”
Laudna nods, before the two of them walk and sit down on the log beside the campfire. Laudna leans down and after a few minutes, is able to light the fire itself, and Imogen gets the sense she’s had to do this many times.
“Where are you originally from?” Imogen suddenly asks, unable to prevent the words from tumbling out of her mouth.
Laudna pauses in her movements for a moment, and subconsciously Imogen can hear the slight murmuring in Laudna’s thoughts returning again, before Laudna seems to push the murmur away.
She looks over at Imogen, her expression thoughtful. Imogen suddenly feels the urge to apologise, say that she didn’t mean to push, but from the slight glances into Laudna’s surface level thoughts, she knows that Laudna is not mad at her for the question.
“Originally?” Laudna questions, and Imogen nods. “Originally I am from Whitestone,”
“In Tal’Dorei?”
“Yes. That’s where I was born…and where I died,”
Imogen freezes. For a moment, all she can do is stare. It’s not that she didn’t assume Laudna was undead, meaning that she probably had to die at some point, but hearing it so plainly and simply shocks Imogen. Laudna doesn’t stop looking at Imogen, as if taking in her reaction.
“I’m sorry,” Imogen says, just above a whisper.
“Don’t be, I understand if this means you want to leave. Or makes you uncomfortable,” Laudna responds. As she says it, her voice is steady, but Imogen can hear the disappointment through the words.
“No,” Imogen replies, “No, I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m not sorry that I’m learning about it, and I’m sorry but I am certainly not leavin’ over it,”
Laudna blinks at her for a moment, the fire dancing between them. Then slowly, her lips begin to curl up into a smile, softer and more hesitant than her typical bright grin.
“Well…” she starts, “that’s nice to hear,”
Imogen offers a small smile, taking in the sight of her undead friend by the fire.
The two of them fall into a comfortable silence, Imogen rolling the stem of one of the flowers between her fingers, before she remembers one of the things that has been playing on her mind.
“Laudna,”
Laudna hums in acknowledgement.
“This is gonna sound real strange,” she continues.
“ Darling , I love strange,” Laudna cuts in, and despite the serious thought on her mind, Imogen can’t help but smile at the name and Laudna’s genuinity.
“I told you, yesterday, that I saw you in my dream-,” she waits for Laudna to respond, but the woman is just watching her, and listening intently. “When I go to sleep, I get these dreams…of a red storm. It’s always the same dream, where I’m in the field and my mother’s voice tells me to run, and the storm is comin’, and I’m terrified, and so I do. I run as fast as I can, and then I wake up just before the storm reaches me.”
Imogen pauses, it’s hard for her to talk about the dreams sometimes, and she finds herself starting to panic for a moment. Then she looks up, and into Laudna’s dark eyes, the fire making them shine in the darkness, and she somehow feels the strength to continue on.
“Once, I saw a boy…Samuel, walk into the storm, and the next day I woke up and found out he was dead. Then, a few years later, when I was nineteen, for the second time, I saw someone else in my dream. It was you. It was you, Laudna, I saw you in my dream, and you were walkin’ out of the storm. And the next morning, I woke up…” she trails off, focusing her voice into Laudna’s mind.
And I could do this.
Imogen watches Laudna as she intakes the information, genuinely looking thoughtful over Imogen’s words.
“I think I saw you coming back, Laudna. I think the day you walked out of that storm is when you came back to life. Or at least, symbolised that day…and I don’t know why,” Imogen finally concludes, voice quiet.
Laudna doesn’t respond for a few moments, and Imogen resists the strong urge to skim her thoughts, to see what’s going on in that big beautiful head of hers.
Finally, the soft smile that Imogen is getting comfortably used to appears on Laudna’s face once more.
“That’s…unsettlingly poetic, isn’t it?”
Imogen can’t help but smile, because of course the first thing Laudna thinks about is how this is just as beautiful as it is creepy.
“Yeah, I suppose it is,”
Comfortable silence falls upon them again, and Imogen suddenly feels the urge to touch Laudna. So she does, silently and slowly, so that Laudna can pull away, Laudna reaches over and places her hand on top of Laudna’s resting on the log between them. Laudna tenses just for a moment, before she flips her own cold hand around, interlocking Imogen’s fingers in her own.
“Is it strange to say that it feels as if I have known you for a lifetime? Rather than a singular day?” Laudna questions, and immediately Imogen shakes her head, squeezing Laudna’s hand in her own.
“No, I think this all proves it isn’t crazy to think that. I dreamt of you when you were on another continent, Laudna. I don’t know what it all means, I don’t know why that night gave me these powers, I don’t know how any of this happened, but it all feels like it’s meant to. I think I was always meant to meet you,”
“I like that,” Launda whispers, tiling her head.
They talk for a while longer, until Imogen’s eyes start to ache from a lack of sleep, and Laudna quickly notices. She tells Imogen to go home, but Imogen doesn’t want to leave her new friend’s side. She doesn’t want to miss this, she doesn’t want to lose even a second of time with Laudna. The thought of walking away seems almost unbearable right now. So instead of standing, Imogen stays. She moves closer to Laudna on the log, letting her head fall onto Laudna’s bony shoulder. Laudna doesn’t protest, just gently and wordlessly squeezes Imogen’s hand, as if she understands the feeling, she too knows that for some strange reason the two of them cannot find the ability to walk away.
Imogen is so used to being terrified of sleep finding her, but for the first time in years, she doesn’t feel the urge to run. For the first time in years, she finds comfort in the idea of gentle dreams. For the first time in years, Imogen doesn’t fear falling asleep.
***
From that night on, the two of them become almost inseparable. During the night, they go to their spot in the woods, where they talk until they fall asleep hand in hand. The dreams don’t stop even with Laudna at her side, but they definitely come less often, and seeing Laudna’s concerned face with a flask of water by her side makes the after effects of the dream a lot less extreme. During the days, when Imogen has to work on the farm, Laudna simply follows. If anyone comes close to the two of them, Laudna slinks into the nearby shadows, but the majority of the time, people keep a distance away from Imogen anyways, so they don’t notice the smiley undead girl by her side. During those days, Imogen and Laudna talk telepathically a lot more, and it’s strange, no one has really bothered to speak back to her before, but Laudna says it can help Imogen improve her confidence, because as Laudna has begun to love to say, she believes Imogen is very capable .
At first, Imogen is worried that Laudna will tire of just following her around the farm, but she never seems to. She always finds something to entertain the two of them, whether it be picking more flowers for Imogen, or trying (and failing) to befriend any of the animals.
Imogen works, and Laudna lingers. It becomes second nature for the two of them to go off on Imogen’s daily tasks, and Imogen finds out that Laudna is excellent at fixing things like broken fences or furniture.
By the time night falls, they sit with one another, talking about deeply serious topics that neither of them had previously spoken aloud, or whispering silly jokes and riddles back and forth, or sometimes saying nothing at all. Imogen appreciates it all. She doesn’t think she has ever been happier.
She has known isolation so well, she has known the darkness of people’s thoughts, she has known the silence and the otherworldly noise that is human being’s thoughts. But Laudna is different to everything. She is peace, and she is comfort. She is Imogen’s tether, and she is so much more. She is everything.
***
The peace doesn’t last long enough.
One night, with Ruidus and Catha shining brightly down on them in their little clearing in the woods, Laudna is carefully tracing the lines on Imogen’s hands, pretending as if she can read them.
“See, this one here means you’re going to live a long and prosperous life, because you’re so capable,”
“That’s what it says, does it? Didn’t know palms can tell you that you’re capable,” Imogen teases, and Laudna smirks.
“Don’t try and act like you know better than the master of palms, Imogen,”
Imogen rolls her eyes, lightheartedly shoving Laudna and reaching out to grab one of Laudna’s palms. The two of them look down at her palm, and Laudna’s face falls slightly.
“That short one there, is my life line,” Laudna comments, nodding to the shortest line on her hand.
Imogen doesn’t know what to say to that, instead just grabs Laudna’s other palm, holding them both up to the dark sky.
“Your other hand has the same line that goes a lot longer,” she replies, matter of factly. “Your first life may have been cut short, but this one? Now you’ve got me, this one isn’t goin’ away for some time, Laudna,”
Laudna smiles halfheartedly, and Imogen can tell that even that hurts her a bit, knowing that she’s going to have to live forever, or at least for a very long time, much longer than Imogen. At this, Imogen lifts her own palm again, holding it beside Laudna to compare palm lines. She almost gasps when she notices.
“Look Laudna, they’re the same,”
Laudna looks down, her smile returning as she realises. Her and Imogen’s palm line is almost the exact same in length and size.
“Well then,” Laudna starts, smiling, “I suppose we are even more intertwined than we thought,”
Imogen smiles, dropping both hands and linking her arm with Laudna’s, her head falling onto the other woman’s shoulder.
For a moment, everything is as perfect as ever.
Laudna’s arm around her own, the undead woman humming gently as Imogen rests her head on her shoulder. Imogen wants to hold onto this forever. She won’t ever let Laudna go.
That’s when she hears it. The familiar mumbling sound of thoughts.
It’s only one person.
No, two .
Wait.
How many people are there?
It must be this way.
The devil.
A demon.
Unnatural.
Imogen stiffens.
Laudna notices immediately.
“Are you alright, darling?”
Imogen barely hears her, but her arm instinctively tightens on Laudna’s.
The thoughts are too close. They’re too dark. They’re all about Laudna.
“Launda,” Imogen breathes out, “we need to go,”
“Imogen?”
Imogen stands, pulling Laudna up with her. Laudna looks confused, but Imogen doesn’t have time to explain. She doesn’t think she can even say it out loud.
We found them.
Imogen freezes.
That thought wasn’t her own.
That thought wasn’t far away.
That thought was here, right behind them.
Imogen whips around, Laudna following suit.
Figures emerge from the trees, faces half-hidden by the shadows. More than a handful of them, maybe seven or eight. Too many.
She wonders if this is what Laudna saw, the night they met, Imogen hiding behind some trees. She wonders if Laudna was as afraid as Imogen is for her now.
“We found ya,” one of the men says, stepping forward out of the shadows with his torch.
“What can we help you with?” Imogen questions, putting on her sweetest voice. Ignoring the horrid thoughts that are encroaching in the corners of her mind.
The man’s gaze shifts to Laudna, and Imogen finds herself automatically stepping in front of her friend.
“Step out of the way Imogen,”
That’s when Imogen realises who it is. The butcher from town. She used to visit his shop with her father when she was younger, and he’d sneak her a lollipop on her way out. The memory suddenly makes her feel sick.
“I don’t see what the problem is, fellas,” Imogen responds, trying to make sure her voice doesn’t shake. It still does.
“You know what we want. That thing isn’t right, it’s not natural. Step aside.” This time it’s another voice that speaks, a woman. Imogen recognises her as a farm owner north of the town.
Imogen’s heart is pounding in her chest, and she clenches her fist.
It corrupted her.
No wonder she’s been acting so strange recently, this demon got to her.
I want to see them both on a stake.
Imogen takes a step forward, her fear slowly being overtaken by fury.
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request, girl. She told you to step aside .” The butcher replies.
Imogen plants her feet.
“I said…no,”
The man lunges at her.
Imogen doesn’t think, she simply reacts.
A surge of purple energy explodes from her hands, surging the butcher backwards as his back suddenly crashes violently against a nearby tree. He falls to his knees, gasping for air and looking terrified.
Imogen pauses, breathing heavily. She doesn’t want to hurt them. She’s just trying to protect her friend.
The others don’t seem to see that, as their faces curl up in fury and madness.
“It’s already taken a hold of her. It did something to her!” One of the other men exclaim.
“She hasn’t done anything to me, and she especially hasn’t done anything to yo-,”
Imogen doesn’t get a chance to complete her sentence, as she is shoved to her left roughly onto the ground. She gasps, shocked by who could have possibly appeared so quickly by her side. But as she lifts her head, she doesn’t see a townsperson looking down at her, no. Instead she sees Laudna. Except, she’s different. She’s taller and her body looks… wrong . Her limbs are continuously stretching, and her jaw falls further down her face, her mouth widening in a terrible fashion. Her eyes fade to complete darkness. She looks…terrifying. She looks beautiful. That’s when Imogen sees it, an arrow caught in elongated Laudna’s torso, an arrow that must have been flying right at Imogen’s head. Imogen watches, mouth wide as Laudna stares down the townspeople, a couple of them screaming in fear as they run away from the sight. The ones that stay, Laudna charges after, dodging the flames of the torches they wave at her. After a few moments, they’re all scrambling away, abandoning their weapons and their torches as they yell out for help.
Imogen sits, her heart beating fast in her chest as she watches the figures all disappear into the darkness.
Then, Launda turns to her.
Her limbs are still too long, her jaw still unhinged, but the moment their eyes meet, Imogen knows there is absolutely no real change between this Laudna and the one she’s known.
Laudna pauses, and then she seems to sway a little, as her body begins to revert back to its usual state. That’s when Imogen remembers the arrow still sticking out of her friend’s torso.
“Laudna,” she breathes out, scrambling to her feet, catching Laudna just as she’s about to fall backwards.
“It’s alright, I’m alright, just a little scratch,” Laudna explains. She sounds a little weaker, but there are no signs of true danger that the arrow can cause. Imogen feels herself instinctively release a sigh of relief.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Imogen whispers, bringing her forehead to Laudna’s.
Laudna offers a small smile, shaking her head slightly against Imogen’s.
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Imogen. A stupid arrow is nothing,”
Imogen closes her eyes, breathing Laudna in.
“I’m so sorry Laudna,”
“Darling, don’t apologise,”
“I don’t know how they found you, but it’s probably because of me. If it weren’t for me you could’ve left by now and moved to twenty new towns at this point,”
Laudna scoffs quietly, “from the moment I met you, I knew there was no chance I’d ever leave you,”
“You should have, this wouldn’t have happened,”
Laudna’s face grows determined, as she makes eye contact with Imogen.
“Don’t blame yourself, Imogen. This happens. This has happened, and known my luck it always will happen.”
There’s a pause, before Imogen speaks again.
“It won’t always happen, not if we keep running.”
“Imogen, I could never ask you to leave here,” Laudna argues, flinching slightly as she moves her torso.
“You’re not asking me to, I’m asking you. Run away with me. They’ll come back soon, and they won’t stop. Let’s leave. You and I, tethered as one.”
Laudna pauses, thinking deeply about it, before she finally smiles her terrifyingly beautiful smile.
“Alright. But only if you get this damned arrow out of me before we go anywhere. The blood is getting all over my nice clothes,”
Imogen can’t help but smile at Laudna’s attempt to lighten the mood when talking about her injury.
“They always say you shouldn’t pull something like that out, Laud,”
“Sorry to say darling, but I doubt anyone in town will be willing to remove it for me,”
Imogen breathes out, before nodding. She carefully reaches to graze her fingers along Laudna’s stomach, before she grips the arrow protruding from her.
“On three,” Imogen murmurs.
“Imogen, you can just do-,” Laudna starts, but she trails off when Imogen swiftly yanks the arrow out in one motion.
Laudna tilts her head, inhaling sharply, but after a second, she completely relaxes.
“Worse than I thought, but definitely not as bad as dying,”
Imogen realises she’s been holding her breath, but as soon as Laudna says that, she shoves her lightheartedly.
“So brave,” Imogen teases, and the smile reappears on Laudna’s face.
Despite everything that happened only a couple of minutes prior, Imogen wants to keep this image of Laudna like this, silly, and soft, and brave, and willing to run away with a purple haired farm girl, in her mind forever.
Laudna simply stares back at her, and they remain like that for a few moments, before Imogen finally pushes herself to a stand. She stretches out her hand, and Laudna takes it, standing beside her.
“I love you so much, Laudna,” Imogen whispers, and for some reason, the words feel so much heavier to her than they have ever felt before. Despite her simply telling her friend how much she means to her.
“I love you more than anything,” Laudna immediately replies, as if it were obvious.
Imogen can’t help but smile brighter than she ever has before at that.
“I mean it though, I’m happy to keep running forever as long as you’re by my side,” Imogen says, and Laudna looks at the ground, almost sheepish. It’s hard to imagine she was just a large elongated form minutes earlier.
“We’ll run for as long as we have to. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll be able to find somewhere to settle down, and make friends,”
Laudna smiles softly, “maybe a little cottage-,”
“In the woods,” Imogen completes for her, eagerly smiling.
“Let’s go find somewhere to stitch you up,” Imoge whispers, nodding to the injury still present in Laudna’s stomach.
Laudna looks at her for a long moment, something unreadable in her dark eyes. Then, finally, she nods.
Imogen grabs her by the hand, squeezing once.
“Tethered as one,” Laudna almost whispers, as if saying the words simply to comfort herself.
Tethered as one. Imogen repeats in her head.
And then together, the two of them disappear into the night.
Running until they find where they belong.