(closed) it's a hundred bad dreams

[lancifolium]

WHO: Lily Evans and Eleven
WHEN: A few days after this
WHERE: Camp
WHAT: Two good beans stressed out by ghosts having a chat.
WARNINGS: None yet, will add as needed

The days following the carriage crash had carried a hostile tension with them. Lily was always on her guard, aware of the stares from the soldiers and now - almost as distressingly - the presence of a bear nearby.

All told, she thought her odds were better with the bear.

She wondered if Izahad’s disappearance would be linked to her eventually, after what Eleven had said happened to him, she did not expect that if discovered she would be met with compassion. It wasn’t that she regretted her choice, Lily was firm in the knowledge that she had done the right thing and if pressed on it she would say the same no matter what, but, that didn’t make her any less afraid of what was coming. The ghosts were unhappy, and every day their anger made it harder to breathe.

Aware that if anyone understood being sneered at by specters (and then some!) it was Eleven, she sought him out as the caravan stopped to break for camp one evening. No longer able to keep this pervasive unease and wariness to herself, she went to him because at the very least she thought he might be feeling similarly.

Clearing her throat as she approached, Lily held her pack to her chest with one arm, while leading Bronson behind her.

“Is it alright to camp next to you tonight?” Just how troubled she was, was written all over her face, but that didn’t stop her from swiftly raising a hand, laughing tiredly and nervously.

“It’s silly I know but I’d just rather set up beside someone I know I can trust.” Not to mention, two of them against the ghosts was better than one of them, though she hoped it wouldn’t come to that, and didn’t dare voice it aloud.

Comments

[bearshermark]

It would be a more terrifying thought if he didn't have a bodyguard.

"We'll be okay," he assured, "Hendrik will put his axe through anything that tries without hesitation. And your wards protected the medical ward during the siege, didn't they? Besides which, we aren't defenseless ourselves."

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"I've begun to set alarms too, there's one that screams when it's crossed." Lily's frown remained, but she was obviously more at ease now that she wasn't alone. It felt good to be making plans and approaching this at least with some sense of preparedness.

"We're not, and I'm thankful for that, but it would be bloody lovely if we weren't constantly made to prove that to ourselves."

[bearshermark]

He smiled, then brushed past to lead her toward their camping spot for the night.

"I know what you mean. If we're lucky, Taravast will be nothing like Sa-Hareth. I'm sure all of us could use some time to relax a little."

i never got the email for this!!!!

[lancifolium]

Busying herself with setting up her tent - a task speeded along by a spell or two carefully cast once she could be sure no one saw her do it - Lily considered having space to relax.

"Sounds almost too good to be true," she said quietly, stepping back from her tent to look it over and make sure she did it right. "Though I suppose if I'm camped close to you it might diminish the chances that someone in the group will try something again, so perhaps relaxing might happen."

[bearshermark]

Eleven bent to set his own tent up- albeit manually, without the brand of wonderfully convenient magic Lily seemed to have. Still, he was a practiced hand at it now.

It took a few moments for the implications of her words to sink in, preoccupied as he was and the given threat of the undead army. He paused in his effort to sink a wooden peg into the ground to look up at her.

"Someone in the group?" he repeated, heart falling. "What- did something happen?"

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Caught between being relieved that she had finally mentioned something about what had happened to her during the siege, and feeling horribly sheepish that she had Lily made a face at Eleven.

"Can we talk inside, where I can cast a silencing charm?" She had tried to tell herself that it was likely just a product of whatever dark forces had been afoot at the time, but that didn't mean she felt particularly safe, especially now with the ghosts everywhere.

Lily looked around and made sure the coast was clear before she flicked her wand subtly in the direction of Eleven's tent. After it sprang up, fully assembled she frowned at him again before ducking inside of her own tent.

[bearshermark]

Eleven blinked, abandoning his tools as his tent propped up seeming on its own, everything neatly in place.

"A-ah.. yeah, okay." He swallowed, concerned, then followed after her with dread pitting his stomach. But at least, if he knew, maybe he could help keep it from happening again.

Eleven tucked himself in the corner of her tent and looked her over, concerned. "..Are you okay?"

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Not saying anything more until they were both inside and she had the chance to cast the muffling charm Sev had dreamed up one year, she sat down on the floor of the tent with a sigh. Anyone who got too close would begin to suffer from an inexplicable buzzing in their ears, affording them a good deal more privacy than the typical tent.

"During the siege when I brought Five to you in my makeup bag," she looked rather somber as she began to speak, drawing her knees up to rest her chin on them. "I had to petrify him because he wasn't himself, at least - I hope he wasn't." How troubling the occurrence was hadn't really sunk in until the attack on the farm was over and they were safe again.

"He demanded I remove the ward I put on the entrance of the room we were in, but the undead were right outside. When I wouldn't he did that mad, jumping thing he does. I had been about to blast the undead waiting outside of the room when he popped in front of me, he swung his sword and me so I froze him, stuffed him in my bag, and brought him to you."

[bearshermark]

Eleven's brows pinched as she spoke. He'd noticed that look in Five's eyes that had prompted him to put the boy to sleep, but he'd been too exhausted to think too much further about it.

But the sword- Eleven's heart jumped into his throat, feeling abruptly terrible for ever having forged a weapon for Five.

"I'm sorry," he breathed, guilt threading through and weighting down his limbs. "I knew he wasn't well then, but I'd never imagined he'd attacked someone." Goddess, he'd had the injured in there- Archeval, exhausted and vulnerable.

[lancifolium]

Shaking her head Lily reached up to push her hair back from her face, aware that dumping a possibly murderous Five in the infirmary had been a cowardly decision.

"I should be apologizing to you, I dropped him on you and disappeared. I didn't know what else to do."

[bearshermark]

It was, at the very least, rather irresponsible not to at least tell him about the potential threat, but.. the siege had been stressful for all of them. Relief won out as he breathed a quiet sigh. No one under his care had come to harm in the end. He would have defended them if it had come to it- or had Hendrik subdue him in the worst-case- but it hadn't.

"I put him to sleep," he assured, "And he remained that way until near the end of the battle. When he came to, he was poorly, but clear-minded enough. ..I wonder if the stress of the battle had been too much for him."

He mused on that a moment. His opinions on Five had shifted so many times, he wasn't sure what to think anymore. But it was obvious he'd rattled Lily- and for good reason. Eleven couldn't say he trusted Five before, but now.. well, he'd certainly exert a bit more caution.

"We didn't have many other options, then, so I think you did all you could."

[lancifolium]

"Clear-minded?" She looked thoughtful, sitting up straight and crossing her arms over her chest. "I could say the same thing - that's the strangest part. I saw him a day or so after the siege, and it was like nothing happened. If he remembered what he did it was like he didn't care, but it appeared like he'd forgotten it completely."

Not about to admit she had been afraid when Five had approached her after the siege, she squared her jaw, looking more annoyed than upset or scared. The experience had rattled her and made her overly cautious about certain things - like setting up her wards and not being alone with Five again, - but she flatly refused to be afraid.

[bearshermark]

Eleven pulled at a corner of his lip with his teeth, thinking back.

"He didn't remember being put to sleep," he ventured after a moment. "Perhaps it really was the stress of battle. I guess we know to keep a cautious eye on him, now. I don't like to sleep people against their will, but if they're a danger to others.."

[lancifolium]

Lily's eyebrows raised when Eleven mentioned Five's lack of recollection of his time in the infirmary and she glanced around the tent tensely, mulling it over.

"I hope it was the stress. His demanding I let the undead into the room we were inside of was," she shook her head, blinking at how absurd the thought was, even now. "He couldn't have been of sound mind."

[bearshermark]

He shivered, attempting to imagine what may have prompted such madness. Stress, or some sort of magic cast over his mind. The latter was far more unsettling to consider.

"No. The only other thing I could think would be some sort of dark influence cast on him. ..In either case, I pray the effects haven't lingered."