Edwin nodded with a seemingly serious face.

"Certainly, I`ve seen more than enough of their plague on my travelers."

Edwin spoke with a slightly angered voice, all tough faked Edwin wondered if he was overdoing it, but he guessed that there might have been many fanatics and fools on the move that would have believed the lies about the mages.

"Aye, ye be careful, they can`t be too far"

The peasant said as Edwin made a quiet nod before starting to walk towards the direction pointed by the peasant, it was obvious that the only place they might peace anymore might be Wayreth, but there was no going there as they were in the past. Too many problems and too many questions yet all they could now do was to concentrate on finding the knight. It was clear as Ghyreian pointed out that this knight in particular had some connection to their current state, direct or indirect it didn`t matter. They made their way down to the creek where this Brom lived, it wasn`t too hard to realize, which building was his due to the stables.

Edwin gazed around before knocking at the door, no answer, Edwin knocked again, this time he got an answer.

"Ey! Who are ye?" A bulky man appeared into view to their right from the stables, Edwin didn`t want to appear jumpy, but he wasn`t too comfortable himself knowing that anyone of the villagers would be willing to skin him alive. Edwin still calmly raised his hand into a greeting.

"Good day there sir, I am Jerem and you must be Brom. I and my friend are in need of horses, you are obviously the man to get them from."

Edwin introduced himself with a wrong name as he again wanted to avoid trouble or anything that mind leave a trace. Brom listened with his other eye closed and crossed his hands on his bulky chest. He quietly nodded as a confirmation to Edwin`s words, but looked suspiciously at Ghyreian.

"What does an elf do `ere on human lands? Most rare occasions are when yer kin passes by these days"

Edwin gazed at Ghyreian with a grin, it was true actually, at that time elves might have been rare sight on the country side and rarely bothered to buy horses from humans or to travel with one for that matter.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

"Aye," Ghyreian returned, mimicking the peasants' country drawl. The wimple must have fallen back, revealing her pointed ears. Might as well make do. Her eyes flashed and she tilted her chin in disdain. All things considered, she played haughty Silvanesti elf well. "Don't rub it in, human. I've seen enough of your unkempt race as it is." She shifted, and the coins in her pouch jingled. "We're paying for horses, not for an interrogation."

Brom scowled but nevertheless gave ground. "All right, all right! Keep yer breeches on, woman. Er, dress." He led them inside the stables and waved expansively at the half-filled stalls. "Breeding's been bad this year. Lot o'fillies died last winter. We 'ave five fer sale. One good draft horse. Oh and uh... a mule too if ye like."

Ghyreian didn't try very hard to veil her distaste. Courtesy of Brom, the place was clean enough. Fresh straw, minimal manure. She was a passable rider, but she'd never enjoyed horses. A reliable teleport spell suited more her preferences by far. She leveled an unimpressed gaze at Brom. "Two of your fastest, saddled and ready."

Brom nodded and disappeared into the stalls. He emerged a moment later leading a mare and a stallion, one roan and the other a dappled gray, respectively. "Spitfire and Mist," he grunted. "Fine beasts, both of 'em. I'll be mighty sad to part with 'em. How much ye be willin' to pay?"

Ghyreian glanced at Edwin, the more experienced haggler.

_________________

Edwin grabbed a suitable sized pouch of coins from his belt and threw it to Brom, who barely caught it with his right hand and opened it to examine the coins.

"That might be enough for the horses"

"Aye, t`at it be, but tell me.... where ye get such coins?" Brom asked as he showed a coin that wouldn`t probably be even made in the near future.

Edwin hmhed in a careless way and shrugged before stepping closer towards the horses.

"Who knows? I am a merchant, I get all sorts of coins from many lands and who knows when one decides to make new coins?"

"Aye, off with ye now unless ye had something else in mind, I `ave work to do"

Brom commanded and Edwin grabbed spitfire by the reins, he didn`t want to continue the already awkward conversation with the blacksmith with all the suspicions. Yet suspicions were a virtue of a merchant in a way, there was always a chance that the opposing side was cheating you in order to gain more themselves. Edwin swung himself on Spitfire and gazed at Ghyreian who was getting onto her horse. Edwin was willing to cover ground quickly as possible, he had already grown to despise the time they were in. Yet couldn`t judge every person for their suspicions, it was a troubled time in it`s own way and it was terrifyingly clear how it all would end.

"Let`s just travel as quickly as we can, I`d rather avoid any kind of socializing with people of this age..."

Edwin said as he gazed at Ghyreian before rallying his horse onwards. Edwin wrapped the reins around his cut hand and used it to guide the horse, all tough there was little need for that as it stayed on the road that rarely crossed. With his other hand he took out his pipe as they didn`t actually gallop, he lit the pipe and blew a smoke cloud into the air. He gazed at Ghyreian quietly before starting off with one of his `awkward, unexpected and pondering` questions.

"Do you hate this?"

He asked before blowing another smoke cloud and raising his hand holding the pipe, indicating clearly that Edwin was referring to his pipe burning.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

They followed the creek half a mile west, through plowed fields and scattered copses of trees. The farmers working the fields hardly spared them a second glance. It was an idyllic scene, so much that Ghyreian almost relaxed. Almost. They found a dusty road, well used by the wagon ruts peppering its meandering path. They set off northwest at a moderate pace. She futilely tried to grow accustomed to the fact that it'd be days before they reached Solamnia.

Edwin had taken out his pipe again, which Ghyreian found a strangely soothing habit of his. She was just drifting into her own thoughts when his voice pierced her contemplations.

"Do you hate this?"

Surprised, Ghyreian glanced obliquely his way. She stared at him, wondering at some ulterior meaning. The question sounded innocent enough, so she relaxed and shrugged. "There's nothing to hate about it." She lapsed into silence again, grappling with pride and guilt. Guilt! To a human! Just a few years ago she would have laughed at the notion.

At last she inclined her head. Her hands clenched around the reins. "I should never have asked you to come," she said quietly.

_________________

At that moment, when Edwin heard those words, he couldn`t believe his ears and suspected he had gone mad. Was she feeling guilty about asking him to come along? The fact that she had not spoken them out loud was even more disturbing, now that she said those words, perhaps for the first time Edwin saw a crack in her cold emotionless armor. Edwin coughed smoke out of his lungs, but was finally able to say and partly mutter couple of badly chosen words.

"Was that an apology of some sort?"

He asked, but prepared for the worst, he prepared to see her normal face and cold eyes staring back in denial of the fact that she felt any kind of emotions towards him, even guilt.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian's heart was pounding. She'd steeled herself for this moment, when Edwin would either take her for a fool or... what? Forgive her? She clenched her jaw. Of course I forgive you, Ghyreian. Let us forget about the multiple times you've betrayed me, shall we... The words sounded hollow, even coming from Edwin's mouth.

Incensed without feasible cause, she drew herself up and flashed him an icy glare. "No! I..." Her fingernails dug into her palms. Inwardly she sneered at herself. "Why would you even follow me? Look where I've gotten us. Again!"

_________________

Edwin fell silent and put away his pipe, after a deep sigh he gather all the strength he had, but stopped to think for a while. Why indeed? Friendship? Please, we both know she has betrayed me multiple times and lead me into trouble. Friendship is such a naive reason to follow others into such madness. Edwin gazed at Ghyreian quietly, there was sympathy and care in his eyes, but there was also that hidden bit of hate for her. That little bit of hate had once urged him to turn around and kill her, to be free of her once and for all. Abandoning her would have been denying his other feelings. Edwin opened his mouth again and couldn`t help admitting to himself that the following was the truth.

"Because I need you, you are the only person who knows me and might even care for me. I have lost everyone else dear to me, but then only you who at the time were a treacherous, untrustworthy companion was the only one I had left. Yet I have not been able to believe myself when I have followed you into another mad adventure time and again, to be betrayed time and again.... Do you have any idea how much I have hated you sometimes? I have wanted to kill you, not because of power as you would have killed me, no, I would have killed you to end whatever would make me follow you into the abyss. I am a pitiful excuse for a living being as you might think.

I said it once along this trip and I`ll say it again, you will be the death of me."

Edwin said before falling quiet, he didn`t want to even look at her, he didn`t want to see her reaction or even hear her words. She would have laughed at him a year ago and it might have hardly changed now unless she had actually changed.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Because I need you...

Ghyreian nearly choked on her own disbelief. Her fingernails dug into her palms with greater intensity. She closed her eyes, acutely aware of her cold trembling though the sun still beat avidly upon her back. His hatred for her was rationally founded. Many had hated her in her life. Most of them were dead. Oh yes, she'd killed... all in the name of the power that Nuitari had promised her that long ago night, when she stood in her parents' bedchamber. When she'd plunged her dagger down, destroying her innocence and swearing herself forever more to the dark moon.

She'd cried once after that. She'd never cried again.

Emotions were a weakness, she knew. Opening her soul would only open her to the intolerance and suffering of the world. She lived for purpose, to die satisfied and knowing that'd she'd left her mark on history. But... what if there was something more to life - more than the knowledge and material gain she'd sought for so long? What did she feel for Edwin, for this pathetic human who, among all others, had managed to penetrate her icy shield? Had she finally learned to feel the pain of emotion?

When she opened her eyes again, something blurred her vision. Without thinking she raised a hand to wipe it off. Her finger returned strangely wet. It'd seemed like an eternity...

She blinked her tears away. "Edwin... I never..." Her throat stuck, and she lapsed into silence.

_________________

Edwin gazed only at her briefly and still couldn`t help hide his astonishment, she actually shed a tear. Was this his doing, had he changed her or was it everything they had went trough together? That was irrelevant, fact was she actually had emotions that Edwin had thought were a mere impossibility. Edwin turned to look at her with a somewhat embarrassed and sympathetic face.

"Knew? Never imagined what someone else must a felt like when you betrayed them?"

Edwin added to her words as she fell into silence, Edwin seemed helpless in this situation, he had never seen her so vulnerable and didn`t know how to react to the tears, then the silence. There was a deep awkward silence between them for a while before Edwin decided to gather his strength, but it also seemed slightly amusing to him. It was funny how he was able to start all of this by simply asking her whether she hated his pipe burning, if there was a god behind this then Edwin thanked that god for he had not lived in vain.

"I do not know what you did in the past and never judged you for that, not for what you did to your parents or to anyone else. I only judged you by what you did to me, but...in any case thanks to you I haven`t lived for nothing during the past year..."

He admitted with a quirk smile hoping that she wouldn`t cry, it wasn`t his goal, but telling the truth had been. The truth was such a simple yet powerful thing.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Ghyreian caught the smile and returned it with an ephemeral one of her own. Immediately after that she averted her gaze to stare with quiet intensity at the dusty road ahead. She needed time to think. A situation like this had never found her before. She was growing soft, she realized. And for some strange, insensible reason, the notion didn't bother her as much as it should have.

So lost was she in her thoughts that she didn't spot the horsemen until it was too late.

A cloud of dust kicked up in the road ahead. Startled, Ghyreian tightened the reins and shaded her eyes. The haze offered little visibility, but through it all she glimpsed eight, nine, at least ten riders... and a sunlit glint of silver.... Solamnic Knights!

Ghyreian swore under her breath. She glanced at Edwin and wheeled Mist around, kicking the horse off at a full gallop. Thirty seconds of flight told her it was useless. The Solamnics had faster steeds, and the terrain was flat farmland for miles around.

_________________

Soon enough after their flight, in which Edwin had also joined, but only to stop her yet she had reacted more quickly thus had the advantage and Edwin wasn`t able to stop her. He could only pray that the knights would believe their story, all tough false, and let them continue, he could make excuses for Ghyreian yet they might seem hollow. When the knights finally caught up with them, they were encircled and closed into a ring of steel. With their armors glimmering the the sunlight, the knight eyed the two suspicious and some whispered something to each others. Finally after a while, one bearing the insignia of a rose came forth and gazed from one to another.

"Where do you come from travelers, what might be your names and why did you flee from us travelers?"

The knight demanded to know with an almost frustrated tone, apparently he was in a hurry or something else was bothering him. Edwin breathed almost heavily and was clearly disturbed by the situation they were in, but it was hard not to. Edwin coughed and gazed at Ghyreian with rather desperate eyes as it would be hard to slither out of this one.

"We come from the south sir knight, I am Jerem, a traveling merchant seeking new business at Solamnia and this is my friend, we have come along way with little food or any rations..."

This was true as they had not really packed up at the village they had bought the horses from and their original supplies had diminished considerably.

"I am afraid that the sun together with the lack of rations clouded our thoughts and the fact that we were harassed by bandits or some other vile men on horses earlier on lead to our escape. We knew not that you were knights and paranoia has hounded us for quite sometime..."

Edwin explained as their excuse, it seemed like the most reasonable way out of this situation, but the knights had their doubts as they eyed Ghyreian with great interest. She had not spoken one single word and started questioning her in case she slipped anything wrong that would give them a reason to suspect them.

"Where do you come from exactly lady?"

The knight inquired with his eyebrow raised.

(lol why does this remind me of LOTR?)

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

The standard bearer did not escape Ghyreian's notice, and neither did the rose insignia on the banner. Her eyebrows nearly shot up out of her face. Wylliam Hammerhand had been Lord of the Rose. Perhaps these knights even knew him. Running had been foolish, she realized as the knights began interrogating them. But they might as well have tried it. There were ten knights, and once caught in their net, escape would be nigh impossible.

Then the captain turned to her. She answered his look with a glare. "Silvanesti," she replied haughtily.

His gaze swept over her slanted eyes and pointed ears. His own eyes narrowed. "And what would a Silvanesti elf be doing, traveling side by side with a human merchant?"

"That, sir knight, is none of your business."

To the knight's credit, his face remained perfectly impassive. "Forgive us," he said with a courteous bow. "We've received news of two renegade mages causing mischief in these parts. You wouldn't have come across them, now would you?"

"I?" Ghyreian sniffed. "I don't fraternize with such disgraces on E'li's soil. You insult me by suggesting such a thing, sir knight."

"Indeed. I apologize then, my lady, my lord. May Paladine walk with you." The captain evinced an elaborate bow. He signaled his men and nudged his horse past them. Just as he drew level with Ghyreian, his hand shot out for her hood.

She raised her arms to block, but he easily overpowered her. As soon as his fingers brushed her "dress," the illusion dissipated, revealing a fully fledged Black Robe in all her dark glory.

"Merchants, eh?" the captain demanded triumphantly. His men closed in. Swords glinted in the sunlight. Suddenly lightning crackled from Ghyreian's fingertips, striking the nearest knight full in the chest. Needless to say, the armor conducted electricity quite nicely. For a split second the knights fell back.

"Run!" Ghyreian shouted, digging her heels into her frantic horse's flanks. The stallion shot forth between a gap in the enemy ranks.

_________________

Edwin rallied Spitfire into a wild gallop, but kept his right, whole hand free and quickly sent a barrage of mini sized fireballs at the knights. It didn`t harm the knights too badly, but they and their horses received some burns that that slowed them down slightly. Edwin followed close behind Ghyreian as the knights galloped into a pursuit of them, Edwin knew that he would have to do something in order to stop them. Yet still, this was bad, very bad and their quest had turned into madness. He couldn`t blame Ghyreian for it, but go along with it as always, he had not adapted in the past he would not have been there to begin with.

Edwin gazed behind him and found out that the knights were painfully close so he concentrated the best he could. An illusion could save them, the earlier one he had created had not drained him too badly, but he couldn`t guarantee anything on this one. As one of the knights was about to reach a distance from where he could hit Edwin with a spear, everything turned grey and the mages disappeared. Edwin had cast an illusion of a fog, apparently it worked as the knights partly stopped or slowed down in horror. All tough trained to fight, it was obvious that they were not accustomed to magic and even, if they would get out of the fog then there would not a sign of the two escapees.

Edwin sighed in relief as the spells seemed to hold, but battled to keep these grand illusions on to cover their escape. Edwin leaned against the horses neck taking a deep breath and blinking his eyes, he hated how fate was able to throw them from bad to worse. Yet he believed that they would manage, they always had and would.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

The fog stalled the knights only for a moment before they broke free again, but even a moment was enough to let the mages draw ahead. Less than a mile away, the village's thatched cottages rose into view. Ghyreian bent low over her horse's neck and tugged the reins, veering Mist off the road. They crashed into a wheat field and plowed past a farmer waving his pitchfork. A bit more, over that hill, and they would be into the forest -

A rock came sailing out of nowhere, striking her horse's foreleg. The beast balked and whinnied in pain. Another rock impacted its heaving flank. Its legs buckled, nearly unseating its rider. In rapid succession a few more rocks assaulted Edwin's mount. Knowing her horse to be useless now, Ghyreian leaped off and whirled around.

Oh, what the hell...

Here came the commoners, galvanized by the sight of the escaping mages and noble Solamnics. As a giant mob they came flowing out of their village, waving whatever crude weapons they'd managed to grab. As one, they let out a ragged cry, "Burn the witches! Burn the witches!" To top it off, the knights were closing in on the opposite side.

Ghyreian released a set of fireballs the villagers' way. Gathering up her robes, she glanced at Edwin and launched into a full run for the forest.

_________________

The fog changed it`s place and now fogged the whole field as Edwin desperately stumbled after Ghyreian, his horse had as well fallen victim to the rocks and he grew weary because of the illusions he was creating. Admits the fog sounded angry and frightened shouts of the villagers and knights. Edwin finally rushed safely into the woods and heavily breathing he leaned onto the closest tree, but muttered a curse as he knew that they had to continue because the knights would not give up the pursuit so easily.

Edwin brushed past the few tree`s deeper into the woods and gazed at Ghyreian.

"I sincerely hope that the woods grant us the ability to shake them off, I wouldn`t imagine that the knights are too accustomed to tracking or for that matter, fighting in woods.... "

Or that was what he hoped for.

_________________

Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!

Once in the woods, Ghyreian paused only briefly to catch her breath. A look over her shoulder told her that although the villagers were hesitant to enter the forest, the Solamnics surged boldly ahead. No matter. The knights' clanking armor would alert them from a mile away.

It appeared soon enough that Edwin hoped accurately, for the deeper they pushed into the forest, the fainter the sounds of pursuit became. The first shadows of dusk were beginning to stretch from the east, casting patches of darkness on the forest floor. Near nightfall they reached a small stream. Ghyreian splashed cold water on her face and refilled their waterskins. It came to mind how ravenously hungry she was. It'd been almost a day since they'd both eaten, and they'd left their provisions in the saddlebags. Their transportation was lost as well; those horses hadn't been cheap.

She straightened and looked at Edwin. "We find ourselves in need of horses, food, and a map," she commented dryly. A perfectly mad thought struck her, and she paused to consider it. "Those Solamnics. Knights of the Rose. They might know where to find Wylliam Hammerhand. They're probably on no shortage of supplies as well."

_________________