Chapter 6: Resolve
“Lady Aria?” Fiora said as she opened the door to the bathing room.
“Just Aria, please Fiora.” I said, long past the point of being embarrassed. “What can I do for you?”
I watched as she entered the room the rest of the way, shutting the door behind her. Once she was sure it was shut, she sat down on the small bench next to the tub.
“Is it true?” She asked, hesitantly.
“Is what true?” I asked.
“You are going to rescue Lady Lysandra?” She asked.
She looked both hopeful and terrified, though I couldn’t tell if that was for me, or for Lysandra.
“I’m going to try. Someone has to.” I whispered. “I owe her more than I could repay with her year and a day service, much more. And we started something I would like to see through to its end.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. I picked up the glass of mead from the tray next to me and took a sip before continuing.
“No one else is doing anything about it. Yeah, I know, politics. I don’t understand human politics at the best of times. I’m even more confused about Fae politics. It doesn’t matter to me if I make someone mad, or insult someone. I’ve seen how she is being treated. I will not leave her to that treatment any longer than I have to. Once Lady Sèadna returns with the information I need, I hope to get her back.”
“T-thank you.” She said, tears in her eyes.
“Has there been any word?” I asked after a moment.
“Word from whom?” She asked, confused.
“Word about Lysandra, or any word from Lady Sèadna? She was supposed to be back this morning.” I said.
It was already midafternoon. I wasn’t sure if her delay was a good thing, or a bad thing, but with each passing hour, my fear grew. I had hoped the bath would distract me, and it did, for a little while.
“No, there hasn’t.” She said sadly. “I hope nothing wr…”
She trailed off, seeing the look of concentration on my face.
Something wasn’t right. It felt like a hand was squeezing my stomach. I held up a finger to Fiora. I felt fear. Alarm. I held my breath as I focused, straining my ears. Had I heard something?
I looked around the room, my eyes searching each corner, every shadow. Nothing looked out of place. Fiora hadn’t moved. My clothes were right where I left them. My eyes jerked to the door. It wasn’t flush with the wall. It had been opened a fraction of an inch. Whoever was opening it had paused.
“I’m sure nothing bad happened to her.” I said, trying to sound casual, as I pressed a finger to Fiora’s lips, whispering to her to act normal.
She swallowed and nodded.
“I, I hope not. She has always kept her own schedule.” She said, eyes wide.
The door crept open again, slowly, almost perceptively.
I grabbed the cold iron dagger from the tray next to me and motioned for Fiora to keep talking as I quietly climbed out of the tub, trying to not make any noise. I knocked the towel off of the bench onto the floor and walked over it to dry my feet off.
Fiora kept talking, explaining something trivial to me as I walked on the balls of my feet over to behind the door.
The door placement required the person to open it and enter the room before they could see the tub. I don’t know if it was intended for that, but it made this a lot easier.
Fiora kept talking. I only half paid attention as she went on and on about a dinner that had happened a month ago. She laughed as she recounted a young fae getting too drunk and flirting a little too openly with a married fae.
The door opened wide enough for the intruder to squeeze in. He had a dagger of his own in his left hand, and was still holding the doorknob with his right. I watched him as he came around the door far enough to see Fiora and the empty tub.
“Poor decision.” I said as I smashed him in the face with the dagger’s pommel, making him scream as the iron burned him and smashed the bones in his nose.
He stabbed at me with his dagger, but I stepped back, expecting it. As soon as the silver blade was past, I grabbed his wrist and yanked on him, pulling him into the edge of the heavy door, making him cry out.
I pulled him the rest of the way into the room, my right hand holding his left wrist, keeping his dagger at bay. Once he was past the door, I drove my knee into his crotch as hard as I could.
The breath left his body in a gasp as my knee drove his testicles back up into his body. He flailed at me with his free hand, but I blocked it as best I could as I drove him backwards.
He cried out as my dagger cut a gash along his forearm as I defended myself from another wild swing.
I kept shoving him back until he slammed into the wall. He was bigger than me, but not by much, and wasn’t expecting to be fighting for his life.
“Who sent you?” I demanded.
“Die you whore!” He spat his pale blood in my face.
“Answer my questions and I’ll let you live!” I spat back.
He swung at me again, with his now bloody arm. This time, instead of deflecting it, I ducked under it, using his momentum to spin him around till he was facing the wall.
I snaked my arm around him, holding the blade of my dagger to his throat.
“Answer me!” I hissed in his ear as I bashed his left hand against the wall until he dropped his dagger.
“Never!” He screamed as the iron burned into his skin.
I kicked his leg out from under him, forcing him down onto the floor,
Now that I didn’t need to hold off his dagger, I grabbed him by his hair and yanked back, pulling his head back as far as I could.
“Last chance to tell me what I want to know, or you die here.” I hissed as I pressed the blade of my dagger to his throat again.
“You’d better kill me. If I live, I will spend weeks torturing you before I let you die, you stupid human whore!” He growled.
“Wrong choice.” I said as I jerked my hand up and to the side, slicing his throat and spilling his pale blood onto the tile floor.
I stood up, panting, my heart pounding in my chest, and turned to Fiora.
She was standing, maybe a foot away from the bench she had been sitting on, face pale, holding one hand to her mouth.
“Are you okay?” I asked, trying to catch my breath.
She shook her head briefly before answering.
“Forget about me. Are you okay? It all happened so fast!” She said, rushing to me and grabbing me as I stumbled.
“Yeah. Adrenaline. Took a lot out of me, I guess.” I said after I regained my footing.
“Aria, that wasn’t adrenaline. You moved faster than should be possible for a human.” She said as she guided me back over to the tub.
“That’s because she’s not human. Not entirely.” A voice said from the doorway.
I tensed, bringing my dagger up and putting myself between Fiora and the doorway, before relaxing when I saw Sèadna step into the room.
“I apologize for the delay.” Sèadna said as she looked around the room, her eyes taking in the dead or dying fae, the dagger in my hand, and me keeping Fiora behind me. “Are you alright?”
I shook my head and let Fiora guide me to the bench. I let the dagger clatter to the tile floor as I sat down.
“I’ll get the first aid kit.” She said as she hurried out of the room.
“I don’t think a first aid kit is going to help him much.” I said, shaking my head.
“Not for him, child. For you,” Sèadna said, worry strong in her voice.
“For me?” I asked, bewildered.
As if someone flipped a switch, weariness flooded through me, and I suddenly felt pains I hadn’t before. I looked down at myself and saw blood. Bright red blood. There was a slice on the outside of my forearm. He must have grazed me with his dagger when I caught his wrist. Besides that, there was a trio of jagged cuts down my left bicep. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he clawed me. I looked down and saw a lump on one shin, and there was a throbbing pain in my thigh on the other leg.
“I didn’t even realize he had hurt me.” I said.
“I’m not surprised. I’m sorry I did not return sooner.” She said.
“What did you mean, not human?” I asked, remembering what she said.
“Precisely that. After our first visit, I started looking into you and your family. My delay was because a person I had looking into you returned.” She said.
“What’d you find out?” I asked.
“You do have Fae blood. Your grandmother on your mother’s side was Sidhe. I’m still working to identify her, but it is certain she was one of the Sidhe. That alone would make you one quarter Fae.” She said.
She paused as Fiora entered the room, carrying a large box. Fiora set the box down on the bench next to me and set to work cleaning and dressing my wounds. She covered the large cut on my arm with some strange dark brown paste and covered with gauze and wrapped. She cleaned the rest of the wounds with antiseptic and bandaged them.
“That alone?” I asked as she worked. “Does that mean there is more?”
“Yes. It is hard to be certain, as your ancestors seemed to go to great lengths to blend in to the human society. Perhaps too well. You have another fae ancestor, on your mother’s side, her paternal grandfather, I believe. Though I do not believe he was a Sidhe.” She explained. “That is not the troubling part. On your father’s side, you have some supernatural lineage. Your great grandfather on your father’s side immigrated from Norway, as best as I can determine. Though the Sidhe had little interaction with those lands back then, they had their own supernatural races. I am uncertain, but after seeing what I saw here tonight, I think it is safe to say you have berserkir ancestry.”
“Bear zerker?” I asked unfamiliar with the word.
“You never read much fantasy or mythology, did you?” She asked, bemused, before spelling out the word. “Berserkir. The humans thought they were people that fought while in a trance, overtaken by the spirit of a bear. Berserkir are an ancient line of supernatural beings. They didn’t get overtaken by the spirit of a bear. They went into a battle frenzy and the bear part of their spirit took over. Some could even turn into bears.”
I looked at her, bewildered.
“There are many human passing supernatural entities in the world. When I found out your great-grandfather came from Norway, I suspected Alfar, or Dwarf, possibly one of the Vanir even. But what I saw here today is powerful evidence for Berserkir.” She explained. “You moved faster than any human could, faster than a lot of supernatural entities can even. You are going to be exhausted for at least a day.”
“I don’t have time for that. We need to find Lysandra!” I demanded.
“She’s in Africa. In Morocco, likely along the strait of Gibraltar. I’m still working on narrowing down exactly where, and working out how to get you there, and the both of you back.” She said. “You are going to stay in your room. You are going to rest, eat, sleep, and eat some more. What you just did, you may start to feel the effects of it, but your body is going to need as much sustenance and rest as it can get for the next day.”
She looked up at Fiora before continuing.
“See that she has plenty to eat. For the first few hours, beef broth, with small chunks of meat in it. Twice as much as you think she can take. If she is indeed part berserkir, she is going to be famished, and will probably eat enough for five over the next day.” She said it kindly, but it was clear it was an order that she expected to be obeyed. “Make sure she rests. She will probably sleep a lot. Please make sure she left alone.”
Once Fiora agreed to what she was told, Sèadna turned back to me, and her face softened.
“I know you’ll likely have a lot of questions. I still do not have all the answers, but rest and eat all that you can. After a few hours, you can have solid foods, but the broth will help you recover the most right now.” She placed her hand on my arm before continuing. “I’m close to finding out exactly where she is. By tomorrow afternoon, we will have a plan, and now that I’ve seen you fight, I think there is a chance you will succeed.”