Mania: The Beginning of All

I awoke from the unsuspected slumber that had stolen his guiding grace from me in my moment of attainment. Yet perhaps such thievery was made up for, as I awoke to a battlefield stained with the air of victory. My soldier and his grace were off near a tree left of me, discussing and dining on what was left of their rations. The first to notice my arrival was his grace, who was followed by my own soldier as they slowly came toward me.

"Well, my savior has awoken!" His face was painted with an inescapable smile, one that drew you in and refused to let you go. His rose-tainted cheeks indicated a clear lack of sobriety, yet he showed no other signs of any alcohol affliction.

My soldier on the other hand was not as lucky, she had struggled to both stay awake and upright as she stumbled over uprooted trees and disheveled collections of packed soil and broken boulders. Her speech was slurred unlike his which escaped any effects of the beer both of them had been downing as though it were water from the nearby rivers.

"Listen, you're one hell of an asshole," Burps and other bodily interruptions would not give her a break, she struggled through every impediment to deliver a single sentence. "But what you did back there was sick, and I've never seen anything like it."

"What did happen back there?" I elected to interject. "It seems I contributed in some positive way, but I do not have any memory of events after the helpful words from my grace."

They both looked at me momentarily without any words before his grace spoke to me.

"Do you truly not remember even an instant of your battle with the wizard?" His tone had changed, and as he finished his sentence my soldier had sat beside me, gracing me with a consistent gaze that would not relent.

"I do not, your grace. I remember your words of encouragement, and then I believe I saw a light similar to the one you emit upon usage of your power. After that sight, I was taken from this world to be at rest." The torch they had brought with them rested on the boulder closest to us, however, it offered only dim lighting and I could no longer view the expressions on their faces.

"Well let me clue you in, you absolutely ripped that thing to shreds." She had chimed in once more. "I don't suspect that even your prized lord could have done something like that, not in his state at least." She broke into a laugh after saying this.

I raised my hand to scold her, but my body would not listen. I was stuck in this position of barely keeping myself from lying back down on the cold hard surface beneath me.

"Do not move to punish her in any way, commander." His grace interjected. "Even I must concede that your performance was quite impressive. I understood you were capable but I did not truly know the level of that capability."

With no response, he continued after this. "The sun has set, and I will be departing to my new temporary camp. You will be responsible for your own survival tonight, and by you I actually mean your soldier seeing your current state."

As he started to walk away I responded. "Was your old camp not destroyed by the battle?"

He paused and turned around to face me. "It was."

"Then why have you not set up camp near us?"

He paused once more, staring at me as if my response was out of line. I immediately moved to apologize.

"I am sorry your grace- I-"

He held his hand up toward me, indicating that I should cease all noise.

"I have not bothered to explain to you any rationale behind my actions, and for good reason." He did not respond with any anger, I had worried there was a tinge of indignation in my undue questioning of his choices. "I am an untrusting person, and despite the events of these past few dawns, I will not lay my trust in a man who is not conscious at the peak of his strength, and a woman who seeks to desert my estate."

He walked away without any further objections from either of us, and after he had escaped from both of our sights we returned to the task at hand. She whisked my body from the ground and brought me over to the collection of trees she had chosen to reside in. Her place of shelter was not too different from his grace's, no doubt she received assistance from him after the battle I had not witnessed occurred.

She sat me down on a tree right in front of the large fire she had constructed in the middle of all the trees. She did not sit opposite to me, rather, she chose to lean on the tree adjacent to mine, perhaps to avoid any words being swallowed by the sound of wood burning and falling apart along with the accompanying flames attacking the air foolishly remaining close to it.

"Y'know, once this thing is over, why don't you escape the estate with me?"

I looked over to her and I was met with her gaze once more. It was not the same way she would usually look at me, glaring as though anticipating some move of a violent nature, waiting for the opportunity to counterattack. Her eyes had widened, the wrinkles surrounding them disappearing just as her aggression apparently had. With this in mind I chose not to respond with the aggression she had abandoned.

"You understand well why I cannot do such a thing. Look at all his grace has done for me-"

"Done for you? Look at what he's made you do for him. First, he sends an unorganized unit out to kill a wizard with a spell that can turn him into a monster capable of taking on an eikmar, and after you're done playing soldier and killing it, he goes on about how he can't trust you. That's the kind of person you want to stay serving?"

"It's not about what I want, it's about what's best for this country." My tone had changed, the aggression I thought let loose had returned.

She paused and sighed before responding. "All I'm saying is that if you ever decide you want more from this life, I have a place I'll be staying in down in the Halls of Vaeround."

We both neglected to offer anything more to the conversation after this until she mumbled something I could just barely make out over the flames before us.

"We have to worry more about killing this 'Francesca' person anyway."

Her name was as though a bolt of lightning had struck my body. I felt the urge to slip away once more as my entire body filled with rage, and indescribable anger toward my own soldier. I was unable to control this calling to drift asleep, and my eyes closed before yet another pivotal moment.

When I opened them again, she lay lifeless, a charred corpse with a hole the size of my arm in her stomach.

I watched as the fire accepted its feast, and I too accepted the warmth it offered in return.