“Are you sure you feel well, Sir Auric?”
The redhead cast a rather perplexed look down at the boy he’d come to view as the younger brother he’d never had – of the time he could remember anyway. Fiedad looked up at him quietly, worry evident in his eyes.
Auric gave him a reassuring smile. “Worry not Fiedad, I have been worse and recovered just as quickly.” He dodged the question as he always had; not admitting weakness but not dismissing it either. He knew Fiedad would read between the lines and he knew he’d seen the exhaustion in his eyes but the boy would trust him to admit if there was an urgent problem that needed their attention. Foolish boy; even Virridus knew him better than that but then Virridus had been his life long partner for four years – if he didn’t know him better by now then he never would.
“Fiedad, mount your horse; we’re leaving.” The dark haired man called, casting Auric another assessing look as he did. Auric had to roll his eyes before urging his faithful chestnut mare, Syrian, onwards to take the lead. Fiedad did as he was told and followed Auric’s horse as the man set an easy pace up the track. Virridus took the rear where he could keep an eye on his two charges and also keep an eye on the road ahead and behind them.
It had only been two days since Auric had woken but Virridus couldn’t sit still. He felt antsy and paranoid over something but he wouldn’t share his bothersome thoughts. Besides, with Auric up and about a few hours after he’d left him to sleep a bit, he really had no reason to stay any longer. Though Fiedad’s new friends still got their very quick fighting lesson before they were due to leave.
Auric had been annoyed with him (and still was) for cutting their stay short with no real reason, but Virridus had insisted they leave. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to worry his friend, quite the opposite actually; he wanted Auric to know what he felt might be coming their way, just so they could better account for it. The problem was that he couldn’t explain the feeling he had rationally. Everything he thought of saying just sounded so insubstantial… baseless. It felt as though someone was watching their every move but he had yet to find the culprit. Maybe he was losing his mind? Maybe all those assassination jobs he’d embarked on, before he was teamed with Auric, were finally wearing him down? He didn’t know but he knew that if they kept moving, they had little chance to be ambushed by whoever was stalking them, especially with Virridus watching for one.
He cast his eyes up ahead to judge the path before them but his gaze was blocked by Auric’s back swaying to the rhythm of his horse’s step. Virridus turned thoughtful for a second, pondering the man in front. Auric was as mysterious to himself as he was to everyone around him, even within the segregation of Gatekeepers. One could never read his emotions or tell if he was joking or being deadly serious, unless you knew him like Virridus did. Even in the most skilled of Gatekeepers there was always a sign to read from but Auric had mastered the mask; he would have made an unimaginable assassin had he been that way inclined. But alas, he did not like death. It was understandable but to Auric, it was unforgivable; his reason? “I never know if could be slaying my past family and friends…” That had put a new light in Virridus’ eyes but that just brought him back to Auric’s obsession. His past.
Auric longed to remember who he was and what happened, but he was afraid of what it might reveal. He had admitted to Virridus, one overly moonshine induced night, that he had a feeling something awful had happened in his past life and that whatever it was, was trying to worm its way back into this life he had now. He could have asked the Guild to investigate this claim but his faith in the investigative department had dwindled; they usually came up empty handed anyway which always irked Virridus to some extent. The Guild could find out exactly what you had for breakfast two months ago but couldn’t seem to trace back who you were before you became a Gatekeeper.
