Runelords 12.1 - It Has to Be Alright

Luna and Aldern sat in the pouring rain, a short distance away from the manor. They sat on the edge of the road, surrounded by trees but not yet engulfed by them; the monsoon season was beginning in earnest, and the heavy rain couldn’t be stopped by the branches, soaking them through. The other three men had gone back to talk to the remaining ghouls to encourage their surrender, but not a one among them thought for a moment that the ghouls would listen: it was merely a pleasant justification for the reality that a group of remorseless murderers couldn’t be left there, and their undead natures made it no crime or shame to bring back only their heads. Luna accepted the reality, but wanted nothing to do with it; someone had to stay with Aldern anyways.
The pair sat silently for a while, soaking wet though really in no discomfort. Aldern sat slumped back against a tree, staring into space as if dead, while Luna sat curled over beside him, clutching her knees about her chin. She was the one to break the silence, “What happened?” There was no immediate response, so she asked again, “How did you get there?”
His voice was hoarse and low, “I don’t know.”
“Why did you go back there? ...To the house.”
His response was longer, “I...I was born there. I guess...I’ve always been there. I was going to fix it up, and live there again…” he said slowly.
She glanced at him over her knees, “Do you remember anything?”
“Not really.”
Uncomfortable silence returned, cut only by the sound of the rain around them. Aldern curled forwards, and he brought his shaking hands to his temples, staring into space. Luna sat up and leaned towards him carefully. “Are you alright?...Is something wrong?”
“No,” was his blunt reply, but he still sat shaking, pressing his hands to his head.
Tentatively, Luna brought her hand up to his shoulder, “Please...please let me help. ...Please, please tell me…” He shook his head slowly. “Is...is it Vorel?” 
“What?”
Brokenly, she explained, “Vorel, the Lordship...he, we think, when we went through the house, because of the things we found, and saw, that he wanted to be immortal. He wanted to live forever, so he wanted to become undead. A lich, or, or I guess, it’s an undead that...he wanted to take out his soul and put it in a box so he would never die. But his wife interrupted it, and broke it, and it went wrong and his soul went into the house instead. He was angry, and all of that hate and anger at her and the failure went into the house and his soul is haunting it. And then the house killed his wife and his child and, and it cursed his family so that it kills everyone, and...and we couldn’t really figure out, who was he to you?”
He put his hands down slowly, replying, “Vorel...was my great-great-granduncle…”
Luna nodded slowly. “His soul is in the house, and he’s cursing your family. The house has to be destroyed...somehow. I don’t...don’t know how, yet, it’s probably something specific…”
“I’m never going back there…” Aldern said, his voice shaky but his resolve apparent. “I don’t care what happens to it; I’m never going there again.”
Nodding again, Luna said, “It can’t be left there. It’s a blight. Hurting so many people…” she shook her head slowly, “...We have to figure out how to destroy it. And when it’s gone, if it’s a phylactery, maybe, that might end the curse on you. It should. I...I don’t think it’s his actual soul that’s cursing you, like, it should be entirely in the house, not in you, so, when it’s gone the curse should be lifted...If it’s not, we’ll find something else. Some sort of magic will fix it. We’ll break it.” Aldern just sat frozen, staring into space. Luna looked at him sadly. “Is...is it any better, out here?”
“He’s always here…” Aldern muttered. “I can’t get away. When I hide it gets worse. He’s always watching. Waiting for his chance.” Luna’s expression only grew more concerned, and she moved her hand over to hold his. He tried to pull away, but she held it firmly and he gave up. They sat silently for a few minutes, until Aldern spoke again, “You keep saving me...I can’t...You shouldn’t get mixed up in this. You’ll only get hurt.”
She looked confused, “What do you mean?” Looking down, she added, “I’m pretty sure that the Lordship doesn’t want to hurt me, based on...what happened. And you aren’t going to hurt me.”
“They will,” he said cryptically.
“Who?”
He shook his head, “You shouldn’t...You shouldn’t get involved. It’s nothing to do with you.”
“What?” He didn’t reply immediately, so she pressed, “Please...if people are going to get hurt, I want to help. What’s going on? Who’s going to hurt me?”
He said quietly, “I shouldn’t tell you…”
“Please…” she implored. “Please let me help…”
Eventually, Aldern muttered, “The Brotherhood.”
“Who…?” she trailed off, before having an idea, “Are they the cult?” 
It was Aldern’s turn to be confused, “No. No, they aren’t a cult.”
“Oh,” she said, embarrassed. 
Aldern continued, “The Brotherhood of Seven. They’re a...a group, I guess. Of wealthy families. It goes back a long way, and I’m, well, my family, was part of it. It’s very secret; everything is hush-hush, so no one knows anything about them. I...I ran out of money. Got into a lot of debt, to them, and they...they just wanted some of the rats, some of the mould from the basement.” His voice grew excited, for a moment, “They’d wipe away my debt! That’s all! And now...” he trailed off again.
Luna looked at him, confused, “...But...but who are they? Is it...is it like a collusion? What do they do? Why are they secret?” Aldern just shook his head, unwilling to offer more.
“They’re going to come…” he said. “I owed them...a thousand gold,” he said after a pause, suggesting that that wasn’t really the true number. 
“That’s...that’s not too much…” Luna offered. “I’m sure we could get that.” She gave a small, hollow laugh, “We could find that crab. It was probably worth a grand…”
He didn’t respond to that, but rather muttered, “It’s too late for that...too late...They’ll find me. I shouldn’t have told you. Shouldn’t have said anything. They don’t know you...you’re safe if they don’t know you, if you don’t know anything. You’re a nice girl. You shouldn’t get involved.”
She shook her head, “I don’t understand; why did they send you here? Did they know about the curse? Why did they want the diseased rats? And why you? Couldn’t they have sent someone else?”
“It was my debt,” he replied. “You don’t ask questions when someone says they’ll wipe the slate. It was all I needed to do…” he said almost wistfully. Shaking his head sadly, he added, “It was my debt to pay, and my house. Or, at least for the next twenty years…”
“Huh?” that stopped her.
“It’s mine for the next twenty years. Or it would be. Tear up the deed; give it back. It can be someone else’s problem. I want nothing to do with it.”
“Give it back…? Back to who? Isn’t it your house?”
He said flatly, “It’s a hundred-year lease.”
This didn’t assuage any of her confusion, “You’re leasing it to someone else? Or, you were only leasing it yourself?”
Shaking his head, he explained, “Well, it’s not really a lease...my family borrowed to build it. There was no interest, no repayment, but the land and everything on it reverts back to the lender in twenty years. They can have it.”
Luna sat confused before shaking her head, “...That house is evil and needs to be destroyed. It won’t be standing in twenty years. If those three have any say about it, it won’t be standing in three days.” Aldern just sat silently. 
After a long few minutes of silence, Aldern reached into his shirt pocket and handed something over to Luna: a ring of keys. As she started to question him, he said, “They’re the keys to my townhouse in Medinipur. I don’t need them anymore.” With that, he stood up and started to walk away, down the road with an empty expression. Luna lept up in a flash and threw herself bodily on to Aldern’s shoulders, hanging off of him. “Let go…!” he said, pulling weakly from her, but she held on furiously. “I have to go. I have to hide somewhere. I have to leave.”
“No!” she said, clinging to him. She was a slight woman, and honestly Foxglove could likely have continued walking without too much difficulty, even with her hanging on.
He didn’t keep walking, however; he tugged at her arms in an effort to remove her. “Let go…!”
She buried her face into his shoulder, “No!...No...no…” she repeated herself again and again, her voice getting quieter as she did, but no less insistent. “No, no you can’t. You just can’t. You’ll have to drag me. You can’t just run away and hide. You can’t...” She gained a tone of desperation as she whispered hoarsely, on the edge of crying though she couldn’t shed tears. “You’re the only one. I’ve never met another one that wasn’t insane, or completely mindless. You just...just can’t. It has to be ok. It has to be ok, because you’re the only one…” She barely whispered, “You have to be ok...I can’t be the only one…” She sobbed slightly, “I’m sorry. ...I’m sorry…” she continued whispering apologies over and over. Aldern had stopped trying to pull away, and as she cried her continual apologies, he sunk down to his knees in the muddy grass, Luna still grasping tight to his shoulders. She clung to him for a long while, sobbing soundlessly and apologizing intermittently, while he stared vacantly at the ground. Eventually, she pulled back, still repeating her apology, and without her to prop him up, he sank down and lay passively in the dirt, staring sightlessly. She curled up on herself again, and they both lay in the rain.
A long while passed in silence before she muttered through her sodden skirt, “...I’m sorry...It’s not my place to stop you...I shouldn’t have...I shouldn’t have done that. I was...I’m sorry. If...if you want to leave, that’s your decision. Not mine. I want to help, though. Please...let me help.” She trailed off, and Aldern didn’t respond. Eventually, she added, “If you...really want to leave...then you should before they come back. Because they’ll want to help too. And they won’t give you a choice. They’ll inflict their help on you, whether you want it or not, and they won’t let you leave if they think they can do something.”
Slowly, Aldern replied hoarsely, “I have nothing to go to. I’ve lost everything.” They let a long silence linger once more. “I shouldn’t have said anything. You shouldn’t get involved.” 
Her voice was tiny as she replied, “Please...please let me help. It’s...it’s all I have. It’s all I exist for.” She buried her face deeper, sobs catching her throat, “I’m...I’m a failed experiment. I was only made for that, to try and learn something to help people. But it fell through and had no point and now I’m just here. If I can’t help...If I can’t do anything for people, I’m useless...a useless object…” She trailed off, and added, “I just...want to help...and there’s so much wrong here. It’s only been a month, and everything is so terrible, I’ve never seen so much that’s so terrible…” There was a pause before she added, even more quietly, fumbling, “I’m sorry...that was insensitive...I didn’t mean, I know you, what you went through...I’m sorry…” As the minutes passed, she glanced at her wrist and pulled back her sleeve, revealing the charm bracelet that Aldern had gifted her a few weeks ago. It seemed like an eternity, before the glassworks, Thistletop and now the events of the last few days; she fiddled with the bracelet, tugging on it and pulling it around her wrist. “...You’re...the only friend I’ve made, in a very long time. Basically the only friend who wasn’t someone taking advantage, who didn’t just...decide I needed to be taken on like a charity...I sit alone, a lot...You’re a nice person, and...and it...it has to be alright…” As she trailed off, the only sound was from the rain.
Aldern eventually muttered, “Please don’t...the last time someone…” he stopped his sentence short, and backpedalled, “You shouldn’t get involved. You’re a nice girl...I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Luna almost made a scoffing noise, “How could they hurt me? What do I have to lose?” 
“They’ll kill you.”
Glancing in the direction of the house, she muttered, “They’d have to get through them first. I doubt they could." She paused before continuing, "...We need to know more about them, this Brotherhood. Now that we know someone wanted those rats, that cursed mould, and for all we know, they wanted you dead. We have to do something. They might be being using those things as a weapon. We need to find out more, and make sure nothing's wrong."
"You shouldn't."
"Please...let us help..."
With a pause and a sigh, Aldern relented, "I don't know anything. I don't know anyone. No one ever knows more than they need to, and I've never needed to know anything. I was meeting a messenger, on the second day of the second week of the month, at Sawmill Seven in Medinipur. You'll need the signet ring, in the hidden compartment of the third lion statue on the second floor hallway in my townhouse." He sat quietly for a moment, "None of you should get involved. I shouldn’t have said anything. You all just need to leave it alone.”
"We can't."
“You already saved me twice. I can’t ask for a third,” he said, staring passively up at the sky.
“I guess...the thing is, we don’t really need to be asked. Especially them. Virgil...is a horrible person, but he will help you, whether you want it or not. And Eamon...I think that’s all he can do. He’s only here to help people, so that’s what he’s going to do. ...I don’t know what Khyrralien is here for…"
"They'll kill all of you."
With a snort, Luna said, “I doubt they could kill them. They don’t have the means. At least...at least they wouldn’t start with the right way, and by then it’s too late for them.” She sat quietly for a few long seconds, before saying quietly, “They...they’re not human either. Any of them. They’re extraplanars...summons, without anything better to do. They’re only here to help protect people...they probably shouldn’t be, but they’re helping, so I can’t really complain…So...don’t worry about us getting hurt...” She added as an afterthought, “You probably shouldn’t tell them that you know, though.”
“They’re immortal?” he asked, his voice almost showing an emotion for the first time in a long while.
“Functionally.”
He let a few seconds pass before he said dryly, “No wonder I was terrible at being an adventurer…” He slipped back into his passive gaze.
Luna asked eventually, disturbing the silence again, “Are...are you going to come back to town…?”
“I can’t go back. I have nothing. And look at me,” he said, holding up his clawed, deformed hands, “I’m a monster.”
She retorted quietly, “No more or less than I am…”
“At least...you don’t look it.”
She shook her head, “I have to wear a lot of make-up, and a scarf...and there are lots of ways to disguise it.” He didn’t reply, but his affect didn’t change. He continued to stare up into the sky listlessly. “We’ll...we’ll figure out something,” she said quietly. “We’ll destroy the house, lift the curse...we can’t fix it...but we can help…” Trailing off, she let the conversation end, and the two sat motionlessly in silence, letting the rain fall on them until the others returned.
Category:Rise of the Runelords