This Drawing, Too, Might Stave Off the Dark

15th of Byrn, the forest of Auðr, the lands of Ragnvaldr

(A few hours later)

Deep into the night when she was by herself, Fin would look through her sketchbook. It was something she always did, but she would feel its draw the most after she witnessed what she called ‘the ugly side of the world.’ This evening, her mind went back to the refugees they’d seen earlier, to their faces, to their expressions. It should have been one of those moments that forced her to dig deep into her sketchbook for the trees and flowers, to the valleys and the sunsets, to remind herself that there is still beauty in the world.

However, as she opened to the first page, Fin saw the drawing she’d made of Rei playing the flute. A rare smile spread across her face, a genuine one that hadn’t required any teasing. She knew that Rei only did what she thought was right in that moment, but Fin hadn’t expected it to work.

Perhaps she really was too jaded.

Fin glanced at Hal to her right, now sleeping soundly in her cot. Her eyes then fell onto her own right shoulder, her reflection staring blankly back at her from myriad shards of glass. She was still herself. For a moment, she felt pity for the one looking back at her, only for a hollow laugh to graze her throat.

Fin turned back to her sketchbook, turning it over. Opening it, she could see the strings that traced from place to place, most of them tying back to the tree.

It was the tree that stood at the base of Urðarbrunnr, otherwise called ‘the holy capital of the kingdom.’ Unlike Himinbjörg, the official capital and where the royal family lived, Urðarbrunnr was the faith center of the continent. Their teachings spread everywhere, those same teachings being one of the reasons this kingdom was at war in the first place.

“Just a little bit more…” Her fingers traced the ethereal lines, her hands reaching a sketch that she had erased and redrawn many times before.

Without meaning to, her mind took her once more to that place.

* * *

In the scorching sun of summer, the leaves of the Great Tree, forming its familiar canopy over the entire city, did nothing to protect her from the heat. The sun was too bright, it felt like light passed straight through its leaves and settled onto her clothes, her skin. Fin stood at the base of the central plaza, the fountain in the center doing nothing but making the heat worse. She looked up at the Tree, its form twisted as if layers upon layers of white wood laid intertwined upon one another. It was larger than the whole city and then some, at its base a large cathedral built around it.

She had never been inside the cathedral, nor was she allowed to. Only people that were considered worthy could. It was just as well, Fin figured, since she’d never been particularly interested in going, anyway. It was odd that her friend, Forn, wanted to meet in front of such a place, but even stranger was the fact that he was late.

Forn was amongst those that could enter the grand cathedral, or rather his family could, so Fin supposed that meeting here wasn’t entirely unusual. However, he’d never been one to flaunt his status over her. It was that way with more than his access to the cathedral, too. By now, they’d been friends for nearly twenty years, and while it was obvious that he was the better warrior, he never bragged. Instead, he usually just attributed it to his family’s armor, passed down through generations; not to any personal superiority.

As the colors of the day shifted from noon’s bright whites to dusk’s blueish greys, Fin grew nervous. At some point during the afternoon, people began quickly moving to and fro, some taking into a run. She didn’t notice them, though, her attention fixed on the front gate. It was the first time he didn’t show up on time. Well, maybe not, she realized - they had known each other for so long, after all. But at the very least, she knew this was the first time he failed to send word that he’d be late. She kept glancing towards the entrance of the cathedral, but she was distracted when someone yelled.

The fire raged in the distance, smoke bellowing high into the air, its heat displacing the leaves of the Tree’s canopy. Even though there should have been mages or clergymen around that could have easily put a stop to it, the fire seemed completely uncontained.

Fin’s eyes squinted, processing the scene, before they widened in fear. She took off into a sprint, realizing that the flames were in the direction of Forn’s family mansion. She’d only visited a couple of times, but she could still tell it apart with ease; it was hard to miss, as one of the largest pieces of property in the city.

As she reached it, Fin’s worst fears were confirmed: the fire raged uncontrollably on and past the family’s property, taking with it anything and everything in its path: the buildings, the gardens, the people inside. She felt the wind being knocked out of her in disbelief, but adrenaline made her legs faster than her subconscious. Without a coherent thought, Fin tried to get in, only to be held back by a number of clergymen.

“You have to let me in!”░

Fin desperately tried to ▒░push through the wall of clergymen, pulling against and pushing away, clawing, ▓▒░yelling.

But as she came face █▓▒░to face with that woman, everything else seemed to come to a screeching█▓▒░ halt. Fin froze.

The woman was tall, █▓▒░her black hair falling down a little past her shoulders. She didn’t wear any uniform█▓▒░ that Fin recognized, but her robes░▒ looked like those a high priest would█▓▒░ wear, only dyed a deep black instead▒▓ of the usual white. In one hand she held █▓▒ a sword, stained and dripping with blood.▓█

Before the woman, beyond the█▓ edge of the gate, amongst the charred remnants of the garden, Fin’s dearest friend’s body laid in a pool of blood.

The woman looked down, a nauseous smile on her face. The ringing in Fin’s ears rendered the words that the woman said inaudible, her lips moving to the sound of static before she turned from the fire and walked away into the road, towards Fin. The woman’s expression turned into one of serene calm as she did, her face stunningly beautiful but her eyes cold as ice.

Fin didn’t need to be held back by the clergymen anymore. She was already on her knees, trembling, as the woman came closer.

The woman’s blade almost grazed Fin as she started to walk past, which in turn made Fin jump and bump her right shoulder into her. In that moment, it shattered in a thousand pieces, blood and bone littering the ground. The woman merely glanced at her over her shoulder, and suddenly the pain that Fin felt no longer mattered. A primal fear overtook her, instead, as she froze in place, her muscles all contracting, as if turning her to stone. That brief second felt like it stretched onto infinity, and yet, it was also over in an instant. The woman in black just turned her head away and kept walking.

The rigidness in her body released and Fin went limp. The clergymen holding her back released her, let her fall, and slowly dispersed one by one, leaving Fin alone on the burnt, blood-soaked ground. After a few moments, she suddenly gasped for air, realizing that she had been holding her breath. She didn’t dare glance backwards towards the woman, instead slowly standing on her own two feet and walking over to where her friend had met his undeserved demise.

Fin looked at her shattered shoulder, still bleeding, then to the armor that Forn still wore.

It was not a hard decision to make. None of them were.

* * *

Fin looked over the sketch of the woman she’d drawn so long ago. Nobody had ever seen her, or at least so they claimed. She did not exist within the holy capital, she did not exist anywhere she’d looked. But it was her that had pushed Fin so far, and it was her that would keep doing so.

“Not that way… It’s dangerous…” Hal suddenly said in her sleep, startling Fin.

She rolled her eyes at herself, then looked over at Hal. In her sleep, she was smiling. Fin didn’t know what she was dreaming of, but she felt safe assuming that it had something to do with her heroics, as usual. Only she would smile while giving such a warning, after all.

From the moment Fin first saw her, Hal acted like a hero, like she would bear the world on her shoulders if she could. To Fin, it was both endearing and deeply stupid. Fin knew of the horrors and injustices of the world, and she knew of beings that could destroy a life with but a glance. To her, Hal seemed naive.

And yet, just like how Fin often looked over to flowers and trees and sunsets to get her mind off the terrible things she had seen, perhaps it was up to people like Hal to do that same thing for others.

To be there as a pillar of light in the darkest of times.

“No.” She smiled, speaking quietly to herself, “It’s not just her.”

Fin glanced over at Rei, also sleeping soundly.

“You too, are a hero in my books.”

By the light of the fire, Fin started sketching the two of them as they slept. At some point, she thought, this drawing, too, might stave off the dark.