V.A Comfort to the Wretched
The Citizen Errant
YC 1189
It is recommended that a Citizen remain on field work no longer than two years at a time.Some find it difficult to disentangle themselves from the suffering of the wider world.Many carry the pain they find back to the City, to the detriment of all.
Labyrinthine Library,The Initiate’s Handbook,YC855
Fola allowed herself a moment of quiet as the fury of the wind faded.To mourn Llewyn.To gather her thoughts.To think through the danger that lay ahead.
Only a moment.All she could afford, just then.There would be plenty of time to grieve and contemplate on the way home to the City.
‘Is it over?’Damon asked.He knelt over Siwan, gently holding her shoulders.‘Siwan?Are you all right?’
‘Not yet,’ Fola said.
Tension rewound itself through his shoulders.
‘I made a deal.’Fola pushed herself to her feet.‘The fae lady Llewyn served will keep the raven fiend at bay while I fulfil my side of it.I have to go back to Parwys.’
‘A five-day journey!’Damon shook his head.‘You can’t leave her like this for ten days!’
‘I can do it in three.I’ll make better time on my own.’
Frog could brew potions and she could write spells to keep away exhaustion, for a while.Long enough, she hoped, to free the Huntress and kill Torin—which in that moment she meant to do, regardless of her deal, for Llewyn’s sake.Not an attitude Arno would approve of.One he might point to as evidence that she had, indeed, stayed far too long in the wider world.A Citizen ought not to deal death easily, and ought to take no pleasure in it, but she had to admit a part of her would relish making that bastard inquisitor bleed.
A consequence of her errand she could sort out when she made it back to the City.
‘Damon, I need you to do something.Something you won’t like.’
He looked up at her, tears in his eyes.
‘If she starts to turn again, it will be because I failed.If that happens, you have to kill her.’
‘What?’He pulled Siwan close to him.She stirred, her eyes fluttering, showing yellow sclera beneath her lids.‘I won’t do that.’
‘Then she’ll become something terrible, and the world will suffer.’It hurt to say these things, but in that moment, they had to be said.There was no one else she could trust with this.Spil, maybe, but he might resent Siwan for what had happened to Harwick.Only Damon loved Siwan enough to wait until there was no other choice.‘I wouldn’t ask this of you if it weren’t vitally important.Do you trust me?’
‘Somewhat,’ he said gingerly, shaken.‘Not enough for this.’
Siwan groaned and opened her eyes.It took them a moment to find focus.Her gaze fell on Llewyn’s corpse.
She wailed, threw herself into Damon, and began to weep.He squeezed her close, whispered reassurances in her ear, and fixed Fola with a death glare.
‘I hate this.’He sobbed into Siwan’s hair.‘I just want it to stop.’
‘If the choice comes down to her and the world, you have to choose the world,’ Fola insisted, her eyes flitting to Siwan.These things had been hard enough to say when Siwan was unconscious.Now, every word drove a heated nail into her heart.‘But I know you will hesitate, which is why you have to be the one.If Llewyn were still with us, I would ask him, but he isn’t, so it falls to you.’
‘How could you ask that of me?’he said.
‘How could she not?’Siwan leaned away from him.‘Damon, you have to promise.I can feel it, even now, looming.Like a great weight hovering in my mind, ready to fall and crush me to nothing.If the time comes, it won’t be me that you kill.It will be… something else.Something terrible.’
Tears ran down his face.
‘I’m going to give everything I have to stop it, I swear to you,’ Fola said, and she meant it—was bound by it, from the depth of her being, as though she were a fae lady herself.‘But I might fail.’
‘Fine, then, bleed you both,’ he snarled.‘But you’d better be dead already.’
