haebin

Please enjoy the newest chapter. It is a little bit smaller for this week and I hope you don't mind it. Nevertheless, thank you so much for reading! ♥

“Make sure you tie him up, gag him and lock him in his room,” gasped Trálír, the elder, who grabbed his throat and sank heavily against the wall behind him, breathing with difficulty. His gray eyes flashed with rage as he held the broken, blood-stained wine bottle in his trembling hands, with which he had struck down his son. He stared at Trálír, who lay unconscious and bleeding heavily on the floor at his feet. With a grim face and an angry look, he watched as the two soldiers grabbed and dragged him through the large room toward the door.
“Is this really necessary?” asked Neererin, flinching unconsciously when he met the ruler's gaze.
“Do you want to be the next one to fear for your life in the dungeon, Neererin?” Tralir, the elder, gritted his teeth and looked at him angrily. The look in his eyes, which now appeared almost black, was a clear warning to his First Hand. Neererin quickly shook his head.
“I will take care of it, my lord,” he replied quietly and turned away from his ruler, following the soldiers who were dragging the firstborn behind them. Trálír's head wound left a streaky trail of blood on the floor of the ruler's chamber.
“And take care of my son's whore,” Neererin heard behind him as he left the room.
“Certainly, my lord,” he replied gloomily as he closed the door behind him. He looked down at the floor and saw that his boots were standing in a pool of blood.

***

Eleri woke up abruptly and felt her heart beating wildly. As she rubbed her sleepy eyes, she tried to understand what had torn her from her deep slumber. Was it her maternal instinct that had awakened her? Was something wrong with the children? With Conall? She quickly glanced at her companion lying next to her, but he was sleeping peacefully beside her. The full moon was high in the sky, casting a bright light into the room, so Eleri could see that her two sons were also fast asleep. She was about to sink back into bed when she heard something. There! There was something... or someone?

Eleri slowly slid to the edge of the camp so as not to wake Conall and got up quietly. She left her men behind, went into the front room of her house and slowly crept to a window to look out into the courtyard. And to her surprise, her instincts had not deceived her. She turned around, lit the candle on the table and took it in her hand, then quietly tiptoed out of the room, opened the door, and stepped out into the night.
Taking one quiet step after another, Eleri crossed the courtyard until she stood behind the person who was staring lost into the night sky.

“Anwyn? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” she whispered, touching her gently on the upper arm. Slowly, her friend turned to the half-elf, and her heart sank in her chest when she saw the tear-stained eyes of Anwyn.
Eleri leaned toward her and gently wiped away her tears with her thumb.
“What happened, my dear? Did you have a nightmare again?” she asked in a soft voice, looking at Anwyn sympathetically.
“Trálír...” The sob rising in her throat broke through and she turned away again, toward the courtyard entrance. She said something that Eleri couldn't understand, so she took two steps forward to stand next to her friend.
“Did you have a nightmare about Trálír?”
Anwyn's quiet crying made Eleri's heart heavy. What had happened to make her friend suffer so much?
“Danger... must go...” the half-elf heard the quiet words Anwyn uttered and frowned. Go?
“Anwyn, what are you talking about?” she asked urgently, while the fisherman's daughter continued to cry and stare into the darkness. She wore a light, sleeveless nightgown, was barefoot, and her curls fell untamed over her shoulders.

“I have to go to him. To Trálír,” Anwyn replied with a trembling voice and looked at Eleri, whose expression darkened with concern. She looked at her friend in horror.
“You can't just go to the castle, Anwyn,” the half-elf replied, alarmed. “No one knows you, they'd throw you in the dungeon immediately!”
“But I have to go, I have to help him,” Anwyn replied, sobbing quietly, and started to move.
“No, no, no,” Eleri exclaimed in alarm, grabbing her wrist to hold her back. Her friend looked at her with her large, teary eyes, distraught.
“I don't know what made you think you could just walk into the castle, Anwyn, but I won't let you.”
“But you have to understand, Eleri! He's in danger!” she cried, urgency in her voice, mixed with a pleading request for her friend to let her go. She tried to free herself from Eleri's grip, but her hand held her firmly.
“I don't understand why you think that, Anwyn. He promised you he would return after three days and three nights. Only two have passed.”
“I know he needs me, that he needs my help. I can feel it,” replied Anwyn, her shoulders slumping as she closed her eyes in anguish.

“You can feel it?” Eleri repeated questioningly, but her counterpart remained silent. "Well, I believe you and your feelings. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you run to the castle in the middle of the night. Who knows what monsters lurk in the shadows. And yet I promise you that I will help. Conall still knows enough half-elves at the castle who can surely tell him one thing or another. Or at least some hearsay. Besides, the next delivery to the castle is coming soon, you just need a little patience and we'll find out if your feelings have deceived you."
Anwyn nodded slowly and Eleri sighed with relief. Nevertheless, she still believed her friend capable of sneaking out of the house in her panic and fear for her lover and running to the castle. The half-elf's stomach cramped painfully as she thought about the dangers she would expose herself to. Not only the possibility that, assuming she made it to the castle unscathed, she would almost certainly end up in the dungeon, but also that wild animals and many a sinister creature in the forest or on the beach were waiting to prey on a lone wanderer. How many people had simply disappeared in recent decades, only to be found years later as faded bones in the forest? Eleri wanted to prevent her friend from suffering a similar fate.

“Come with me, Anwyn,” she urged her friend in a gentle voice, who looked uncertain. “I think you need someone to take care of you now.”
“But... Conall?” she asked quietly.
“Conall sleeps like a bear and won't mind you. You're like a sister to him and he'll understand.”
Eleri's fingers released Anwyn's wrist, but instead grasped her fingers, which were now intertwined. The two women walked quietly across the courtyard to Eleri and Conall's house and entered. When Anwyn stepped into the back room with her friend, she stood uncertainly as Eleri released her hand, walked over to the camp and leaned over Conall.
“Darling, wake up,” she whispered close to his ear and placed her hand on his upper arm. Conall woke up abruptly and looked at his wife in surprise.

“Is something wrong with the children?” he asked, alarmed, but breathed a sigh of relief when his wife gently shook her head.
“No, don't worry. But Anwyn needs my help and I'd like to spend the night with her,” she replied quietly, noticing her husband's gaze sliding over her shoulder to the young woman standing behind her. He frowned with concern when he saw her frightened face, her eyes still wet and the streaks left by the numerous tears that had rolled down her cheeks. He nodded.
“I'll sleep with the boys,” he whispered, sitting up. His gaze met Anwyn's and he gave her a comforting smile.
He quickly crept over to the boys' camp, lay down, and pulled the blanket that the two had pulled off their bodies during the night over himself. Elyan was still sleeping peacefully, even as the camp sank briefly under Conall's weight as he lay down. Brin, however, woke up and looked sleepily at his father. When he stroked his son's hair with a gentle smile, the boy closed his eyes again and snuggled up to his father's chest.
Eleri, who had been watching this scene, reached out her hand to Anwyn, who hesitantly took it. She settled down next to her friend on the camp and began to cry softly as her friend stroked her tousled curls comfortingly.