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Laudna quickly excused herself from the other members of Bells Hells once they returned for the night at the tavern, they were staying in Bassuras
“I just need to be alone with my thoughts for a bit” she explained while unintentionally glaring at Imogen.
Maybe it was a small part of her mad at the way Imogen has been giving her the cold shoulder over the stupid rock that wasn’t even her fault, but also today of all days she just really needed to be alone in her own head with no one listening in, of course with one exception.
Laudna found one of the biggest trees she could find, granted it wasn’t no sun tree, but it would work just fine. She quicky sat down at the base and silently looked up at Catha, as she reminisced the last day of her life.
“LAUDNA” she heard her mother scream happily as she returned home from running errands.
She walked in and saw her mother clutching a letter in her hand.
“What is it mother”
Her mother put her hands on her shoulders as she said “This is an invitation to Whitestone castle, from Lord and Lady Briarwood themselves.”
Laudna’s eyes widened and quickly took the letter from her mother and began reading it for herself.
“It’s for tonight”
“Maybe word has reached to the Lady about your abilities, oh dear this can very well be your chance to study under the most promising tutors. We have no time to waste, we got to get you into your best clothes”
Her mother quickly grabbed her wrist and began pulling her up the stairs in their small little abode.
Laudna was broken out of her thoughts by no surprise by her patron herself.
Your mother wasn’t wrong, I did hear tale of the young farm girl with powerful magical capabilities.
Laudna couldn’t help but laugh and smile a bit “It seems my reputation as the weird farm girl did indeed spread to high places after all, and here I thought it was because I looked like one of those little elf girls from Vox Machina.”
It was never anything personal towards you my dear, and I can concede I was wrong about you when I saw you. Your innate magical abilities were so much stronger than I realized.
“This might be the most genuine thing you’ve ever said to me” Laudna said actually a bit touch by it.
Delilah said no more, which let Laudna continue on with her thoughts.
The night of the dinner, started out as well as she expected. Her parents and herself were surprised they weren’t the only ones invited, there were at least 7 others and 2 of them were children.
Then the Briarwoods had appeared and Lady Briarwood started making some sort of speech, though Laudna was too enthralled by being in such a castle as this. The dinner they had was fantastic the best Laudna had ever had in her entire life. If only she knew what was soon to transpire after that dinner.
For Laudna, everything after that was a bit hazy. She remembers the screaming, the blood, her being held down as someone was cutting at her ears before everything went dark.
The next time she woke, she was hanging from a tree with the other 7 strangers hanging alongside her, her parents nowhere to be found. She found herself wearing a completely different outfit, one that was blue in color and her hair in a side braid.
Again, Laudna was brought out of her thoughts, but not by Delilah this time, no this time it was obvious foot crushing on a fallen leaf from a nearby tree. Laudna looked over to where the sound came from, with a sly smile she sent a message with her usually sing song voice.
O-Orym, come out and play
It didn’t take long for Orym to come out from behind the tree, looking a bit sheepish.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t trying to intrude or anything.”
Laudna interrupted him “It’s alright, I find it quite sweet actually, you were worried about me. I mean after what happened to Bertrand, I would do the same if one of you walked off by yourself at night.”
Orym nodded “So was Imogen, she was taken aback by the glare you gave her before you left.”
“Well, when one wants to reminisce on their anniversary, one tends to not want someone else being in your head as you replay certain events.”
Orym took a deep breathe, and Laudna could see it on his face as he realized what she was talking about.
“The anniversary of your death” he said it more him than for her actually confirmation.
“Yes, and I’m sure you can imagine just how deeply personal that day was for me. I can talk about it all I want, but when I’m replaying it all in my head, I rather not have Imogen in my head. I love Imogen with all my heart, but there’s just certain stuff that I don’t want anyone to see.”
“If I may ask, how are you feeling”
That’s something Laudna has always loved about Orym since they met, he is never too pushy with his questions, trying not to overstep, and making her feel like she doesn’t have to answer if it makes her uncomfortable.
“You know the typical mourning, and the usual oh what if’s and what could have beens. Stuff that I try to not think about on a constant basis, and usually reserve for once a year on this day. Like I mentioned before, I try not to dwell too much on the past and what cannot be changed.”
“What about Anger and sadness, because and I apologize for overstepping but you can’t be that happy all the time if you’re not trying to bury those emotions.”
When was the last time I actually let those emotions really flow through Laudna actually wondered going through her memories?
“I would say, I became good at holding those emotions at bay once D had started to appear” Laudna said as she gestured to her head.
Orym just stayed silent, letting her continue
“Before I was quite angry over what had happened to me, a simple farm killed for what, just to make a point in someone else’s adventure. Then every town I went to I was ran out off because of what I was. Then she started to appear, and I quickly realized the more I let the worst of my emotions take over, then the more power I was going to give her and I don’t want to let that happen, not again.”
Laudna felt something drip from her eyes, and she reached a hand up to wipe it away and saw she was crying black ooze.
“Here” Orym said, as he held up a hankerchief to her.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry” Laudna said she wiped her black tears.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for, you are allowed to mourn for a life that could have been so vastly different form how it is now.
“Thank you Orym”
Orym just nodded “Yeah and if you need to you know like vent or just to talk, I’m an open ear. I can’t say I’ll understand everything, but you shouldn’t keep all that bottled up either”
“I appreciate that”
Suddenly a wolf started to howl.
“Well why don’t we head back to the tavern, before Chetney decides to come out and join the other wolf.”
Orym reached his hand up to Laudna, to which Laudna took as they walked back to the tavern.