Chapter 108 - The Long Quiet Road

I'd sort of lost track of when we actually departed, but I stared out the window at the landscape passing by as Eira took a nap on the carriage bench, which, honestly, was more comfortable than the dorm beds. Not quite as comfortable as the bed at the Jewelers Bower, but it would do.

I had the window slightly open, and I was enjoying the breeze as we plodded along. The Ptarms they used to pull this fancy multi-compartment carriage were strong and steady. We were making really good time. The Ptarms we used on the trip to Burgotova paled in comparison.

I had mentally prepared for a week of travel if not more, but at this rate, I was sure we'd get their quicker. And so, I stared out the window.

Summer in Revenstahd territory was very different from Burgotova, in the best ways. It was warm, the skies were a clear sapphire blue, with little sheep-like clouds above. The grass was an emerald green and waved in the wind gently. Beside us, I watched the Scarlet Aegis on their Ptarms, the birds' barding matching their riders. Even during my life as a noble, I felt more pampered than I ever had as part of the Marchesi family.

Of course, I was hardly allowed outside except for social functions. The rest of the time was etiquette, spell, and sword training, and awkwardly disastrous courtship meetings. Other than that, I stayed in the family manor.

Here, I had freedom. Here I had Eira. Getting exiled was the best thing that could have happened to me.

I turned from the window and looked at Eira's sleeping face. She was drooling a bit from the corner of her mouth, and her hair was splayed out in a dozen different directions, and she snored a little bit. And she was the most beautiful person in all of creation.

I couldn't help but smile at her as I watched her. There was still a lot I didn't know about her. She kept a lot about her past close to her chest, which I could understand. People didn't come to dungeon school to crawl through the underground guts of some eldritch space warping spheroids because they had good upbringings or pasts.

But I knew I wanted to learn more. And share more. Hopefully, this trip together would be the perfect opportunity to do just that.

I just watched her for a little longer before turning back to the window. There was part of me that hoped we got to see some monsters. Outside of what I had faced in dungeons and the weird undead in the mountains, I had very few opportunities to see proper monsters in the wild.

Of course, I knew that was always dangerous. I'm not stupid, but there was always that part of me that craved the excitement. I think at some point I had gotten hooked on the danger of my career choice, which was not always the best thing, but the thoughts still hung on.

After a while, you can only look at so much grass, farmland, and forest before you get bored, so I decided to grab one of the books I had packed.

It was a decidedly tawdry romance novel. I claimed Smitty had gotten it for me, which she technically did, but I gave her the money for it, and now it was mine. My secret shame was how much I loved these silly romances, with longing sighs, long lost royalty, and more torn bodices than one could conveniently count. While my attractions in the real physical world leaned in the direction of fellow women, and a black-haired half-elf in particular, I didn't mind reading about the trysts of princes and princesses with the rakish rogue of the hour.

I had gotten only a few chapters deep when I heard a sleepy "Bwuh" from the other side of our compartment.

I looked up and saw a very sleepy and far from put-together Eira blinking at me.

"Good morrow, my sleepy spellsong seductress. Have a good nap?" I said, with a smile.

"How long was I out?" She rubbed her eyes before stretching her arms towards the ceiling. I winced at the popping sounds from her joints.

"Just a few hours. We're underway and making good time. Nothing interesting has happened. You should fix your blouse, though. You're gonna give those poor mercenaries a start with you hanging out like that." I pointed out how her clothing was failing to do its intended task.

The sleepiness of her eyes vanished as they flew fully open. She quickly fixed herself as I dropped the shades on the window to attempt to give her some privacy.

"Might want to consider putting a binder on or something. Ride's been smooth but not completely perfect." I smirked, trying not to make her feel too awkward, as I tossed her said garment.

"Bless you, Alta. Though I know you enjoyed the show yourself." She winked at me.

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"Guilty as charged." I shrugged and returned to my book while she addressed her wardrobe issues.

After she finished, I tossed her one of the chilled water-skins, and she drank it happily. She opened the shades and looked at the passing of the landscape just as I had.

As much as I was loath to interrupt her, I had some nagging concerns on my mind. I put a bookmark in my reading and put it aside.

"So, Eira. About earlier, I kind of have some questions." I said seriously.

Eira didn't look at me, but I saw her visibly wince.

"It's about the guard asking about my name, isn't it?" She looked over at me without turning her head.

"Yeah. It definitely is about that. We've got time, and I'm curious. You haven't mentioned much about your family, other than that they do 'shipping' stuff. Are you in trouble? Do I need to be ready to stab someone? I'll do it, Eira. I have no qualms about that." I said firmly. I would too.

"It's honestly, really complicated, and I don't know where to start. I can explain more when we get there, because I think you really need to see it to understand. But the short version is that the Medwin family has a bit of a reputation. And not a shining or stellar one at that." She grimaced as she looked at me. She seemed bashful in a way I'd never seen before.

"Well, I guess I can understand. Marchesi isn't really well-regarded these days either. But why keep it from me?" I asked.

"Because I'm really ashamed of it. I left Hastera because I wanted to get away from all of that. Go someplace where Medwin means absolutely nothing. Where the ocean never touches the land. Revenstahd is perfect, and the furthest thing from the family business I could think of." She looked back out the window, her chin resting on her hand.

I sat quietly for a moment, thinking of what to say.

"And you're sure they're going to be fine with seeing you again? I know reunions like that can be, well, strained to say the least." I stood up and joined her at her side, wrapping an arm around her. She nestled her head against my shoulder.

"It'll be fine. My parents might have issues with it, but my siblings are understanding. I'm not the only one who left. I'm just the only one who didn't change my name." She sighed, nuzzling my shoulder gently.

"Why didn't you change your name, anyway?" I asked as I stroked her hair softly.

"Couldn't remember my aliases, and it always slipped up anyway. I tried staying in Hastera for a while, learning Spellsong arts, and learning fighting styles as I wandered, but I'd slip up, mention I was a Medwin, and I'd have to move on." She sniffled just a bit, so I held her tighter.

"If it's too painful, beloved, you don't have to say more right now. Just want you to know that I'm here. You can talk to me. I don't just love you for the make-outs and steamy sex. I love you for you, and I want to know more about you and support you." I said, and meant every word of it.

"And I want to do the same. It's a nice feeling, like I don't have to hide. Make outs and steamy sex are nice too." She giggled through her sniffles.

"There's my sweetness! Take your time, we have our whole vacation. No dungeons, no quests, no monster fighting, and no conspiracies or politics yanking us around! The only adventure is us getting to know each other better. I mean, we're going to be living together after all, we might as well, right?" I gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Gods above and below, you're sappy, and I love it." She giggled and buried her face in my neck, which made me giggle from the ticklishness of it.

The moment was shattered by the sounding of some kind of bell. It sounded louder and different from the one we used to signal the Aegis. The caravan slowed to a halt.

"What in all the hells is going on?" I asked, looking outside, trying to get an idea of what was going on. I could see some of the Aegis members scrambling around on their Ptarms, shouting orders at each other, and pointing at something that we couldn't see from our side of the carriage.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared, blocking the sun from above. I swore as I looked up. I recognized the shape from the bestiaries I had read in the library. Long neck, lashing tail with a stinger at the end, and leathery wings. Dripping venom from fangs as long as my arm that burned the grass under the top of the carriage upon which it perched.

Which, curse my damnable luck, was ours.

"I jinxed it! I knew I would jinx it when I said it! A gods damn wyvern? Really? We're not even out of Revenstahd yet! It's not even lunch time!" I continued cursing as I pulled Eira away from the windows.

Something struck the beast with a loud crack, and it screamed, a sound that caused my teeth to rattle in resonance with the glass of the windows.

The winged monster dropped to the grass below, and I saw that a long rod of some kind had pierced the beast, and attached to it was a chain.

Another crack and scream. Another and another. The beast thrashed angrily, but whatever had struck it was keeping it from moving. The Scarlet Aegis mercenaries had anchored the thing down, pulling it off our carriage. Our carriage quickly moved, but I returned to the window to get a look at was going on.

I saw Corswain stride confidently to the Wyvern and, without even a shout of effort, struck it on the head, causing its roaring and thrashing to come to a halt.

Eira and I sat there in stunned silence as the carriage continued before stopping quite a ways from the quickly cooling corpse of the wyvern. I was so used to creatures in the dungeons liquifying that the idea of a monster corpse seemed deeply foreign to me.

It all happened so fast, too.

There was a knock on our door. I opened it and saw Langhurst outside.

"Anyone injured?" She asked brusquely, her early demeanor nowhere to be seen.

"Yes, we're fine. It just rattled us, is all." Eira said, as I was still collecting my thoughts.

"Very good. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we will not be stopping for the midday meal as planned. There is a higher occurrence of monsters today than anticipated, so for safety reasons, we will be bringing it to you. Thank you for your understanding." And she closed the door on us, without so much as a 'by your leave.'

We continued to sit there, side by side, as the carriage continued onwards.

"Well. This is a hell of a way to start a trip, huh?" I finally said.

"This had better not be an omen of the rest of the trip, or I swear to all gods in every direction that I will burn down the heavens," Eira growled.

I laughed at her serious expression, not able to help myself. I embraced her, and we sat there in each other's arms for a long time.