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Pearl’s story is one that was made into a song, a song that twisted some of it, yet kept the majority of it intact. There was so much going on at the time that they found her, the inconsistencies were placed upon the amount of things they had been doing at the time.
In truth some things were taken out by Gem, hidden away, known only to her and Pearl. Known only to the long dead soldiers who saw what happened.
Pearl had never spent a day outside of the tower.
She grew up with only the scarce company of Xornoth. He came so rarely, yet she found that his scarce visiting was better than him living in the tower as he had when she was young. Even if the isolation was likely to drive her insane.
The moon beckoned her to join it each night, yet she knew if she tried to leave she would meet her end. There was a war outside, one deadly and sure to kill her before she could see the moon in its full glory.
Though maybe a death to war would be better than whatever death would await her in the tower she had been in since infancy.
She decided one day after an unknown number of years trapped in the tower of isolation and pain that she was going to escape. She was going to find her way out of the tower. Some semblance of freedom, if only to lead to death by the war, would be better than dying after only knowing isolation.
Pearl packed herself a bag of food, a spare set of clothes and began to unravel her rope to scale down when she was found. She hadn’t known that Xornoth would be returning so soon.
“If you want out, you can fall.”
With that there were hands on her back, shoving her away and she plummeted to the ground.
Pearl landed on a patch of bramble bushes. They cushioned her fall, made it so she didn’t die from it, yet in return they pierced her eyes and took her sight with them.
She wouldn’t be able to see if Xornoth was looking, watching, making sure she died. She wouldn’t be able to see the soldiers and hide from them to avoid dying to their war and worst of all she wouldn’t be able to see the moon again.
Pearl stumbled out of the bushes, hoping that Xornoth assumed she was dead, that he didn’t chase after her. She headed in whatever direction seemed to take her farthest from the tower. Some of the ground, grass and moss she assumed, was soft under her feet, some of it hurt like hell to walk on.
That was fine.
She walked on, not knowing where she was headed or how long she would be able to survive.
She’s not sure how long it was before someone found her, the feeling of metal rested at her chin.
“Who are you?”
She couldn’t look at the person holding whatever it was at her chin, yet she could hear the confidence in their voice. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.
“Pearl.”
“What are you doing out here, Pearl?”
“I wanted to see the moon.”
“So you came to a battlefield to do it?”
Pearl huffed out a laugh at the confusion in the person’s voice.
“No. Fell into brambles, can’t see anymore. Didn’t know where I was heading.”
The metal disappeared from under her chin, almost immediately replaced by hands. Hands that were rough and calloused, yet warm. The person tilted her chin down, a low whistle followed her movement before the hand moved from her chin and whoever it was looped their arm around Pearl’s.
“Well Pearl, I’m Gem. Let’s get you to my tent, I’ll try to clean your wound. You shouldn’t be out here, not in the middle of war.”
Gem led Pearl to her tent, once they were inside Gem guided Pearl to sit on her cot before stepping away, speaking the entire time.
“I’m not the best at fixing injuries, Joe’s better at that, but I can at least take any bramble thorns out and try and clean your wounds. I don’t know how you got all the way over here. Most wouldn’t have survived a fall into bramble bushes.”
“I’m not most people.”
“Good. Most people are boring.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Why’s that?”
There was nothing but a kind curiosity in Gem’s voice as she spoke, cleaning Pearl’s wounds.
“Being trapped in a tower isn’t usually helpful for meeting people.”
Gem sucked in a sharp breath before continuing to clean Pearl’s wounds, a gentleness to the motions that Pearl couldn’t remember feeling before. Gem’s hands were calloused, though gentle, she didn’t jerk Pearl around, instead gently moving her so that she faced whatever direction was most helpful to Gem at that moment.
“You know, some planets have several moons. I think I once saw one with over twenty.”
Over twenty moons?
“Really?”
“Really.”
“You’re not from here, are you?”
“Nope!”
“Then why are you here? Why fight in this war?”
“My brother asked me to. His boyfriend heard of the Briar Rose, wants to try and save her. Couldn’t let him go alone. Plus, the battlefield is a nice place to practice.”
“Practice what?”
“My swordsmanship.”
“What if you get shot?”
“Then I get shot. Bullets won’t slow me down. They’ll learn that eventually.”
Pearl’s mind short circuited at Gem’s words. Bullets killed people, thorns blinded people, that’s how the world worked, so what in the hell did she mean the bullets wouldn’t slow her down?
“What do you mean?”
Gem was silent for a moment as she began to cover Pearl’s eyes in a bandage.
“I mean what I said, bullets won’t stop me.”
“How?”
Gem’s breath hit her ear before she heard her whisper.
“I can’t die.”
“You can’t die?”
“Nope. Or, well, it doesn’t stick if I do.”
“So what, you go around joining wars on planets that aren’t yours?”
“We look for stories.”
“Stories? Really?”
“Yup!”
Something twisted in Pearl’s gut at that. At being nothing but a story. Not a person, just a story. She spent so long being locked in a tower, the thought of being a sad tale of a girl rotting in a tower only to blind herself in her search for freedom sounded horrible. Like a twisted tale someone would tell a child to get them to behave. She didn’t want to be a story, she wanted to live.
“Is that what I am then? A story?”
“We’ll see. You’re certainly interesting enough to be one.”
“I don’t think I’d want to be a story.”
“No? What do you want then?”
“I want to be free and I want to see the moon again.”
Gem made a small noise, likely to tell Pearl that she heard her before there was something in her hand.
“Sandwich. Eat, then get some rest, I’ll be back soon. Okay?”
Pearl nodded, beginning to eat the sandwich she was given. Once she was finished eating she fell asleep on Gem’s cot.
Pearl woke up an unknowing amount of time later to a room she didn’t recognize.
She closed her eyes.
Took a breath.
Opened her eyes.
She could see.
She shouldn’t be able to see.
She lost her sight falling into the brambles, why could she see?
There was a calloused hand holding hers. A calloused hand that she remembered feeling on her chin and cleaning her wounds.
Pearl turned her head and was met with the sight of a woman with curly orange hair wearing a light blue shirt, dark blue capelet held together with a golden chain, dark blue pants and at least three belts, one of which held the scabbard for her sword. She also wore brown boots that came up to her shins. The woman also had blue-green scales that seemed to crawl up her neck and likely covered her arms as well if her wrists were anything to go by.
“Gem?”
The woman’s eyes opened, green-blue eyes that seemed to pull you in like ocean waves stared at Pearl, a smile taking over her features.
“You’re awake!”
“I am. I- I can see.”
“You can see the moons now.”
“How? Why?”
Gem grinned, her smile more alike to photos of a deep sea predator than a human.
“Let me tell you the story of Pallas and Athena.”