[Closed] What Comes After [Memory]

[Catriona Fraser]

48th Of Roalis 2711

“What happened?”
Cat shrank back at her Father’s aggressive tone. Her Mother put her hand on his shoulder but he pushed her away and stormed across the room at Cat, throwing a chair out of his way. “What did that clocking piece of Galdor shit do to you?”

Catriona could only sob as she backed against the wall of the kitchen. They’d eaten here every night since Cat was a baby. It was a tradition and a rule. We eat together as a family, no matter what. Last night was the first time in years they’d broken that tradition. The last time, her Father was arrested for conspiring against the crown. Thankfully Mr. Feldwyn had been there to get him out. He was the last person Cat wanted to see right now, but then who would get her out?

“Joseph, please, you’re scaring her.”

“She should be scared! She should be terrified! He could say anything and she’ll be blamed! She should have never gone with him in the first place!”

Catriona clung to her Father’s arm, trying desperately to say she was sorry but failing miserably. The words were choked back with tears and her injury made it near impossible to speak.

“She is a child, Joseph.” Her Mother’s form voice cut through the din as her Father sent another chair across the room. “And we need those chairs.” She pushed past him to wrap her daughter in an embrace and ushered her out of the room.

Joseph stopped suddenly, taking shaky breaths, trying not to cry. “I’m calling on his Father. I will lose my land and my home before I let some Vita forsaken Galdor ruin my daughter!” He was holding another chair now as he struggled to stand, eventually falling in the floor to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably.
His workers had brought her to him. Her tongue had been cut out. Her dress was gone. It wasn’t hard to connect the dots. The only thing she was wearing was some cloak that- Joseph froze. He knew what he needed to do.



He walked through the woods with purpose, only knowing a general direction. Years ago he’d gone to jail for them and they’d been grateful. He’d hidden one of their own and they’d been able to rescue them as he was being arrested. It was a debt they said they’d never be able to repay. But it looked like they might have done just that.

“I know you’re out here! Show yourselves! Please. It’s Joseph and I- I need-”

He was surrounded by cloaked figures. He could see them in the trees, just atop a ridge. All keeping just out of his discernible eye. Joseph has never realized how many of them there were. A whole civilization just beyond the borders of Bad Aisling. None of them approached him right away. He was struggling to keep himself calm. His wife had a full time job at that, keeping him calm. But he could not have brought her here. He didn’t know what he would find. If he was honest he thought he’d find the Wick who’d helped his daughter hanging from a tree. Still he pulled the cloak from his bag and held it aloft. He spoke quietly this time, respectful and unsure if they could hear. “I need to know...what happened to my daughter.”

One hooded figure approached and took Joseph’s head in their hands. Joseph looked under the hood to see a woman’s face, a burn scar still healing on her forehead and a black eye. “I will tell you what happened, but we are moving on. So that when you reveal where you heard the tale, we will not be here to reap any more consequences.”

Joseph nodded silently and the other figures retreated into the woods, the woman leading him by the hand to an answer he wasn’t sure he would ever be ready to hear.

[Catriona Fraser]

48th Of Roalis 2711

Catriona regarded herself in the mirror, running her hands over her bare body. She remembered a time when this mirror was a gift. Something she wanted as a girl who cared about her looks. Something her Father had paid a pretty penny for because he loved his eldest daughter. Now the mirror was a curse, showing each and every scar. But none of the scars were as terrifying as the one left on her hip by a burning iron. Something he’d seen fit to bring with him, proof that he’d planned this from the beginning. A symbol of the house of Feldwyn. It was a brand, meant for livestock. Could magic remove it? Could they cut it away? That would hurt like hell for sure.

When their Feldwyn’s doctor had come to examine her, she’d backed into a corner, trying to signal to the Galdor woman to leave.

“Now don’t be as dramatic as that, dear. I have two reasons for being here. One, I’m going to finish healing you to the best of my ability. You’ll have a scar but none so bad as if I didn’t heal you.”

She led the frightened girl to her bed and placed her hands on Catriona. Then she noticed the mark. She cringed inwardly focusing only on her casting to heal up the girl’s scarred face.

“Did he do that to you as well? I’m almost certain it’s not Mr. Feldwyn’s custom to mark his farmers in such a fashion.”

Cat only closed her eyes and shook her head. By now her Mother had spoken with her. If she accused Hugh Feldwyn of anything, and if she lived to make it to trial, nothing would be done, he wouldn’t be punished, and she most likely would be thrown in jail for something and then would be murdered there. They had to tread carefully for all but one course of action lead to her hanging from a tree. Denial. So no matter the evidence, no matter what they said to her, she was to close her eyes and refuse.

The Doctor reported back to Mr. Feldwyn and told him everything. Feldwyn himself had just been into the woods himself, having found a dismal crime scene. It wasn’t difficult at all to understand what had happened to the young girl.

“People can make their assumptions, but is there any way it can be proven?”

“Well the testimony of a human against a Galdor is next to nothing. There is the brand he left on her, likely thinking to spirit her away somewhere.”

“Do you think we need to worry about her testimony?”

There was a long pause.

“No. No I don’t think you do.”

[Catriona Fraser]

49th Of Roalis 2711

“Catriona Fraser, do you know what a lie is?”

Cat stared into the face of the man who held the deed to their farm, to their livelihood. This was her ultimate test. Her father wanted her to spill everything to this Galdor. Mr. Feldwyn, who was often seen as a benevolent land owner, who had often appeared during harvest feasts with treats for the kids and even handed out coins on occasion. But now Cat knew the truth. Alyson Fraser had warned her daughter well. She nodded, tearfully. Aye, she knew what a lie was, and she would use it well.

“That’s good. I see your parents raised a good child. I’m going to ask you some things and as long as you tell the truth, no harm will come to you.”

Fire rose up in Catriona as she gestured to the wounds on her face, but Feldwyn ignored it.

“Now my Doctor examined you so I know some things already but I am going to ask you. Did my son attack you in the woods?”

Cat looked at her parents and siblings standing behind Mr. Feldwyn. She looked back at him and shook her head, trying to keep her composure.

“Damnit Cat!” Her Father threw his hands in the air.

“Now, Joseph, your daughter is obviously afraid that I will hurt you or take away the farm if she tells me what happened, isn’t that right Catriona Fraser?”

The way he used her name, her full name, terrified her, as if he knew something she didn’t. Still, she shook her head and retreated backwards. Feldwyn took a step forward in turn. “It’s alright. I believe we are done here, aren’t we Catriona?”

As her Mother shielded her from her Father’s ire and took her away to her room, she could hear them talking.

“What happened to your daughter is a tragedy, Joseph. I am asking you, however to keep a cool head. Do not worry about your taxes this year.”

“My- my taxes. Do you think I care who pays my taxes?”

“Joseph-“

“No! Get out of my house!”

The Galdor rose to his full height barely over Joseph Fraser but imposing all the same. Catriona and her Mother froze in the hallway watching the exchange. For that alone, Feldwyn could kill him, but he was, of course, ever the benevolent landlord. “Because I know you are grieving, I am going to leave here and pretend you did not disrespect me in such a manner. My son will be going back to school soon and I will see to it that he does not return here to cause you any more pain. I will leave you to pull yourself together, so you can continue to harvest.”

Joseph only screamed bloody murder as the Galdor walked out of the farmhouse. Alyson sighed, as she heard the breaking of furniture. “We really can’t afford new things.” She said quietly, almost to herself as she led Cat to her room.

They weren’t trying to make her feel like a prisoner but all the same Cat felt like one. They were keeping her safe. Keeping her hidden until she was ready. It wasn’t their fault that she was grotesquely ruined beyond repair. Cat threw herself into the bed among the books that had been brought to her. She’d found solace in one. A Brief History Of Vitanism. It was written by a Galdor from a scholarly perspective. Her family had told her stories and they’d honored timeless rituals for seeding and sowing but this book painted a picture of all the known information of the religion. How humans seemed to look to Vita as a comfort in times of strife, and how they believed the deity would bring them peace so long as they honored the earth it created. The author got many things wrong too and Catriona enjoyed picking them out, choosing to write her own notes in the margins.

This calmed her, and she tried desperately to read and ignore the sound of the smashing of kitchen chairs in the next room.

[Catriona Fraser]

49th Of Roalis 2711
An Afterthought

“What do you mean I’m not going back to Brunnhold?”

Feldwyn shoved his namesake into a wall, holding him by the throat. “Why the clocking hell would you think I’d ever let you around society again, after what you did to that girl?”

“That little bitch lies! She was all over me!”

“So you cut her tongue out eh? Is that the way they’re flirting now in Brunnhold?”

“I’m 16, not 11, you can’t tell me where I can and can’t go.”

Feldwyn lost it, punching his son square in the face. “I met some very charming Wicks when I went to investigate. I found your fire, the burning dress the iron- MY iron. The one you used on a human girl who, lets face it, had you not used magic, could have beaten the shit out of you. Those Wicks told me what they saw, so no that ‘little bitch’ didn’t have to say anything. You. Had. Witnesses!”

With each word he punched his son until Hugh was curled into a ball trying to protect his face. When the monite curled out of him, his father all but slapped him with a counterspell.

“You keep relying on that magic of yours. Go ahead and cast at me and see that I don’t put you up in bed for the next year.”

“Dad, don’t. Don’t take me out of Brunnhold. I’m doing well there. My friends will all wonder where I am!”

“It’s a school, Hugh. Kids leave all the time and your friends will get over it. Something tells me they didn’t spend their Summer break destroying lives. You will go to my home in Plugit and you will learn there from a private tutor. You will not go out past curfew, you will not have contact with your friends and, believe me, if I get reports that you even looked at a woman for more than a tick, I will find my way there to give you a beating that will make today look like a gentle hug. Is. That. Understood?”

Hugh slid down against the wall looking for all the world like he couldn’t believe this was happening. That was what angered Feldwyn most of all. That his stupid son thought he could destroy that girl and no one would find out. That she would just crawl back, tongueless, and pretend like nothing had happened. And she basically had. Now he had to pick up the pieces because the farmers were already a restless people. He was kind to them in a way that made them mostly content. But if anything could incite a mob, if anything could drive men to murder, it was the honor of their daughters.

[Catriona Fraser]

10th Of Vortas 2711

“A few months later, things had returned to a somewhat normal existence. Their landlord had paid their taxes as promised, which meant that they had more than enough food to go around. They shared with their neighbors and held a small harvest celebration. Catriona did not attend and neither did her Uncle. Instead, with the full moon lighting up the small forge, her Uncle sat her down and gave her the reality check she needed.

“Listen lass, yer nearly 14. Plenty old enough to ‘ave been promised to a lad by now were it not fer...yer situation.”

Catriona began writing on the folded paper she kept at the forge. ‘I’m never getting married. I know I am damaged.’

“No lass, not damaged, just meant for better things. Ye always were, even before all this. I’ve been...I’ve been talking to a fellow blacksmith in Vienda. We send letters ye ken? He’s willing to take ye on. An apprenticeship Cat. And he’s old, for a Galdor, so he could use the assistance.”

At the word, Galdor, she visibly cringed.

“Now don’t be that way. Yer not yer Father. They aren’t all terrible and this one doesn’t even use his magic. He’s a smith as much as you or I.”

Cat shifted, obviously uncomfortable. She stood up and began hammering hard onto the anvil. Her uncle spoke between hammer falls.

“Ye can- always come back- and visit- ye just need- a change- of scenery!”

Cat turned on him and glared before saying in a barely discernible voice, ‘It isn’t fair!’ Only her Uncle was able to really understand when she actually spoke.

“Fair? Who e’er said anything about fair? Ye make yer own way. Ent nobody ye can blame fer yer misery. Admit that to yerself! He hurt ye, broke ye, but ye survived! Is anything in our lives fair? Is it fair that the Galdori take half our livelihood fer themselves? Is it fair that we have to teach our children beneath the earth just so they can read? Is it fair that they can use their magic to manipulate and control us? No, lass. None of it’s fair. But that’s how it is and ye have a choice. Stay here where the whole of creation knows yer business and looks on ye like a lost lamb, or go to Vienda, train under a great blacksmith and make a name fer yourself that doesn’t start with ‘That poor girl on the Fraser farm’.”

Cat stopped hammering. Her small fists shook as she listened to her Uncle’s words. He was right. He always was. And as the tears streamed down her face, the gruff man sighed, “Oh lass.” He pulled her in and wrapped his burly arms around her. “Yer goin’ to be okay. Ye hafta be. May even be be’er than me?”

A choked giggle emerged from the girl who had her face buried in his apron.

“Ye laugh but if ye train with Raynarus, ye mose certain will be. Now it’s near time for supper, yeah? Let’s go see what yer Mum’s made work tonight.”

Two days later, Cat’s Mother packed her bag with spare clothes, some food and a letter, written by their Galdor contact in Vienda, in case she was stopped by Seventens along the way, and a paper with a drawing of her family on it, made by the youngest of the children, was tucked into her pocket.

Mr. Feldwyn appeared as the family was saying goodbye and held his hand up. “Wait please.”

Joseph turned red with anger and once again Cat’s Mother pulled him back.

“I wish to speak to Catriona alone.”

As he pulled her aside, the rest of her family waited a few yards away. Feldwyn didn’t know what he was going to say until he said it.
“I’m giving you this pad and pencil, right now, because I don’t want you to think you just have to listen to me.”

Cat looked down at the fine stationary and the wooden pencil and carefully poised it over the paper before looking back up at him.

“I know there is absolutely nothing I can do to take back what my son did. And I want you to know that I did learn of everything. He is going far away. But I have some things to say to you. First, I humbly apologize for what happened. As Galdor we are held to a higher standard and my son failed that and so much more. Second, I have some promises. Your family’s farm will always be in your family. My brother is going to take over the deed since I want my son nowhere near it when I pass. Also, I hear you are going to become a blacksmith. It’s a noble trade and I want you to know that if you ever want to go anywhere other than Vienda, anywhere at all, you need only make contact with me and I will get you there. If you ever need anything at all, I will provide it. I also have some coin to get you started in Vienda.” He held up a pouch of what had to be a hundred coins.

Cat was scribbling furiously on the given notepad. He waited patiently, for several minutes as she wrote in the less than elegant penmanship that was far faster than script, before Cat handed it to him, shouldered her bag and walked away.

I believe I have suffered enough at the hand of your family. My family has always been poor because of you and the way you run your business. You may feel remorse now for what happened to me. You most certainly are sure you’d never do something like that yourself. But I would take no gift, no money, from you to be a reminder of my past. I walk away because I cannot bear to look at you and think of what your son has caused me. If you wish to give me a gift, give me the gift of forgiving whatever disrespect this may be and never having to see you or your son ever again.

Although she didn’t see it, and her family seemed shocked as even her body language screamed hostility, the Galdor nodded, bowed, and held both hands up toward Joseph Fraser, as if in surrender. Joseph, still red faced, still being held futilely by his wife, nodded curtly in return.

As the third Seventen checked her writ since she’d arrived in Vienda, Cat finally found herself in front of a very large house, modest, perhaps for Galdor standards but to her it could be a mansion. As the door opened to welcome her, Cat wondered at the thought of becoming a great smithy. If nothing else, she’d show her family that she could move forward, that she could be more than ‘that poor girl from the Fraser farm’. She would make them proud. She had to.