BELLRAM V02 - Ambivalence of Light and Shadow II

BP002-P01 - The Bridge 1

Violet Siobelga walked ahead of the carriage towards a bridge. The horses followed her with difficulty. Soon it was night, but it was already as dark as it had been all day. The difference was barely noticeable. The light from the lanterns at the corners of the carriage didn't even reach the horses. Violet could barely make out what lay ahead of her steps. The sky was completely black.

She stopped a long way before the bridge. It started raining again. The first drops shook the old puddles next to her boots and dull rings pulsed in the white reflection of her swords. "Umm..." Violet murmured discontentedly. It really was the worst possible moment for rain...

Perhaps it would be wiser to wait, but she had a schedule she wanted to keep and there was no guarantee it would stop in the next few days. In the current season, it could rain for a week straight. Officially the rainy season was over next week, but the weather didn't care about that schedule as much as Violet cared about hers.

Violet was the leader of this convoy. She didn't work directly for the king, the queen or the country. She was a mercenary. She was promised sufficient pay, so she accepted the job. She had often escorted convoys in the past, but rarely did she ever actually had her weapons with her on such missions. This time was a special case.

In the corner of her eye, Violet noticed someone jumping off the carriage into the mud behind her and then running to catch up with her. She already knew who it was. But she would also recognize it by the fact that the person didn't seem to care about her clothes, otherwise she would not be running right now. The woman with the mask reached her.

"Ah, you're here." Violet pointed ahead of herself into the darkness. "The bridge is over there." she explained.

In the darkness, they could only make out the outline of the bridge, but at least that much.

"Um." the woman nodded. That was all. Nothing more came back from her.

Violet was used to this behavior by now. The woman didn't belong to her. Her presence was a condition of being given the job. They had hired her, but they probably didn't trust her that much after all. The name of the woman in the mask was Yuri. She was a member of the Kingsguard of Jena. Violet didn't necessarily had to take her along. The Kingsguard consisted of five people and she had been given a free choice of three of them. Unfortunately, the person Violet would have liked was not among those three. Out of them, Violet didn't get along with one of the men since he was an ass, and maybe also because he had the title she would have liked. From the other two, she chose Yuri by process of elimination.

Violet had nothing against her, but the weather meant that the journey took around six days in total and, as Violet had to discover that she was not necessarily talkative. The biggest danger of the journey was death. However, not at the hands of a third party, but from boredom. How could Yuri herself bear the constant silence? It was really a mystery.

Violet also had the feeling that Yuri resented her for being chosen by her. But maybe that was just imagination.

The scrap of fabric was still following Violet. Now that Yuri was around, two tiny hands came out from underneath and turned one side of the fabric up.

A small face was revealed. It was a fairy. She went by the name of Lyr. Her eyes were all red and deeply undermined. Her face was wet and strands of hair stuck to her forehead. A raindrop fell from her nose ... Arguably, it was a raindrop. - In any case, the journey and the weather had not been kind to her, as was visible. It was known in advance how the weather would be. There were dozens of reasons why Violet had taken her along anyway. The first was that she wanted to. Another, was of course that she could fly. Unfortunately, her wings glistened in the moonlight, so she had to wear the fabric over herself to avoid being spotted.