Rudimentum: Oracle

Chapter 15

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Swift stood in front of a large oval mirror, the midday sun leaking through the window behind him. The flowers in the courtyard danced in the reflection. Nathanael called it a sitting room, decorated with two cushioned chairs, two vases of yellow flowers and the mirror Swift stared at.

He rested on a walking stick, and he glared at it like it was a disfigured extra appendage. It had been three days and his leg ached less, but it made it no easier to walk. He felt the wound stretching and pulling against his every movement. He had complained multiple times of his desire to not simply sit around, but it seemed everyone had stopped listening.

He leaned forward, examining the small fading dots around his face where the embers had burned him. They were fading to a dull brown, almost matching that of his sun-tanned skin. He placed the walking stick against the mirror's bench and picked up the new headscarf he had pilfered from a nearby fabric stand. The red-burgundy colour reminded him of the cover of a book of poetry Anne had owned.

He tied it around his head like usual, his sandy-blonde hair sticking out underneath it. He stared into his own brown eyes. Eyes that had seen and done things, some that could not be defended. They were the eyes of two men.

As he stood there, his white shirt loose and clean, he was still reminded of Captain Ravus; a man who killed and pillaged and gained respect through blood. A man who would always loom behind him like a shadow.

"Hello, Ulric," said Anna leaning in the doorway.

His heart picked up. He turned to her, her red dress clean and her hands even more so. "Anna," he said in a breath. He furrowed his brows. "When did you arrive?"

"This morning," she said, "though I went home first to clean up and rest. How are you feeling? I heard you have been sulking about." A smile danced on her face.

"I am fine," he shrugged, standing up straight and leaving the walking stick. "And you?"

She approached and stood beside him, turning to the mirror and looking at him through it. "As you said, I am fine."

His heart pounded and he cursed the nerves that had sprung up like weeds at her arrival. His silver tongue had turned to stone. He stared at her through the mirror.

She said, "Some people at the troupe said you were a sea man."

"Aye, but I have not been out on the sea for a while now."

"You are far from the sea now. Why did you leave it?" she asked.

His eyes faltered for a moment. "It was not me anymore." The honesty sat uncomfortably in his chest like he had swallowed a stone and it was caught somewhere in his throat.

"What did you do out on the sea?" She stood so close her arm touched his.

He tried the truth once again. "I was a pirate."

Anna laughed. His eyes fell. She stopped and looked up at him, her eyebrows creasing. She whispered, "You are entirely serious."

He smiled pensively, a smile that touched only his lips and left his eyes spilling with melancholy. "Like I said, it is not me anymore. I have left that life behind."

She turned back to the mirror. "Who are you now?"

"Who am I?" He stared at himself in the mirror. His eyes full of memories.

"Where did you get the name Ravus, Swift?" said Ed downing another tankard of rum. He tilted in his chair, drunkenness slurring his smile. The room flashed with a flick of lightning across the purple sky. Waves slapped the side of the ship.