View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHza3DbfwJ0&t=15s
[Seek out Brynhild]
She may have seen the same as you just did, and you have multiple questions for her… and a need to comfort her as well. You also… you don't even know.
Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!
—
Your mind was jumbled for only a moment, as something else fought from within you. A mission, a purpose. Someone needed you, and Baeran Anderghast does not leave someone in need. That had been true ever since you were a boy, you had the scars to prove it, proof of your service, proof of your mission. Your driving force would never change, you couldn't let it change, you had the ability, and the strength to help people, and you always would.
The door to your room closed behind you, and within half a minute you were in front of Brynhild's door. You didn't knock, you didn't even speak. Instead, you grasped the knob and turned it… it didn't budge, locked. No door in this place could remain locked to you, even without the key the servants would open any door the master demanded. But you didn't have the time or the patience. With the sound of crunching metal, the knob is
crushed in your fist, and you let the innards of the lock fall away as the door swings open. Brynhild's room is a simple thing, barely decorated, but then, they'd hardly had a thing to decorate
with. The woman herself was curled up atop the bed, awake. She had been crying, but now she was looking up at you, her face runny with tears.
You crossed the threshold and reduced the distance between you both to nothing as you grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her against you, pressing Brynhild's face against your chest even as you moved one hand to grip her hair. "I'm sorry Brynhild. I deeply and truly am. I saw it, all of it."
Brynhild could have said things and asked questions. She didn't do any of that, instead, Brynhild grabbed you by your jerkin and pulled you against her as hard as she could, as she began to sob openly into your chest. She wailed, cried, tearing at your clothes, her grip slipping. The confident woman you knew was gone, the persona she put on, was gone. Now there was just Brynhild, a young woman.
… That's all she was, wasn't it?
"I'm here Brynhild," you say quietly, running your hands through her hair. "I'll be here as long as you need me to be."
Then you said nothing further, you stood as a sentinel in the dark. You were clutching her to you as she cried her sorrows away. It could have been half an hour, it could have been an eternity before she pulled away. Gone was the supernatural beauty, the tears ruined the illusion. There was just Brynhild there now, vulnerable. "Sir… how did ya…?" she moves a hand to wipe at her face.
"My goddess," you say quietly. "She allowed me to see your past so that I might understand your kind better. I bore witness to the same dream you did."
Brynhild goes quiet at that, staring up at me lost for words.
You could apologize for the intrusion of privacy, but this was beyond that. You could whisper words of comfort and care, but for what? They were empty platitudes. She needed something else. You moved a hand to the side of her head and smiled at her. "You are very strong, you know that?"
"Sir?"
You move past her and sit on the bed, looking out into the room and away from her. "Trying… again, as you are. I apologize." You sigh, looking down. "For all my strengths I am rather poor with people. That was my mother's gift, and perhaps my father's, I wouldn't know, I never had a chance to meet him."
"Are ya… an orphan Sir?" Brynhild asks, her curiosity overtaking her sorrow.
"No," you reply. "My mother lives in a city far to the north and east of her, my father… well, he was just a passing man, my mother never bothered to chase him down." You look at her, your smile gone. "Compassion does that, I suppose." You close your eyes for a few moments, gathering yourself. Then open them once more, back on the job. "Those men, were they bandits?"
Brynhild grimaces but does not shy away. "The Order Sir, followers of ah god opposed to tha Demon Lord. Some would chase ma' kind out, others would merely kill us. Others…" Brynhild goes silent at that.
A being decides an eternal war must end, so she rewrites species to be about love instead of conquest, and for that, there are only more deaths. That does not surprise, the worlds and realms always found a way for there to be more deaths. No matter how much you tried, there were always going to be more deaths. But that wasn't what this was about, either.
"Sir, why did ya…" She pauses. "Say all of that earlier, outside tha mansion?"
"Because I thought you were no different than Succubi," you reply. "I spoke of them only briefly, and was one of the first points of divergence for our realities we discovered."
"Succubus…" Brynhild breathes. "Ah've only met one or two, but they…" Brynhild moves a hand to her chest. "We're all sexual beings Sir, it was how our Lord made us originally. But tha Succubus are the most
aggressive about it. Ah have pheromones, they are doused in them. They live in Human villages and seek out their destined man, and when they do." Brynhild shudders. "They are violent Sir, they would never harm, but one ripping off their clothes to have their way with their chosen mate in the middle of a marketplace
isn't unheard of. Then they are bound for life, the man and the woman."
"I assume the man doesn't get any choice in this? In regards to either case."
"My pheromones are difficult to resist," Brynhild says quietly, likely recalling her father… and you. "A Succubi's ar' near impossible. But the man is happy Sir, that's what ah need you to understand." Brynhild shakes her head. "Ah… cannot say ah fully understand yer view, but a man bonded with one of my kind, they are adored and live in bliss until the day they die. Ah could speak of those who
do harm their partners, but that's entirely due to exuberance. We are two halves of a whole that complete one another."
"Succubi kill, in this reality." You reply. "They are evil, cruel beings. They only care for their pleasures and are one of the vilest forms of evil. They will tempt a man
or woman into evil, seeding chaos and destruction, then seize their souls and damn them to an eternity of suffering. They do not love, marry, or
complete anyone." You reply. Then look to Brynhild, "That is what I had to compare to the lot of you. They are cruel, vicious creatures that take their pleasure and ruin entire kingdoms."
Brynhild gulps audibly, shifting on the bed. "Well… Sir, Ah can… say that they do not do that, nor do Salamanders, or Bicorns. There are those amongst us who are violent, and prideful. Dragons are one, and we are now dealing with that." Brynhild looks down to the floor. "But what Ilias said wasn't… entirely wrong Sir, we seek our partner with everything we have, Ignis would challenge 'im to a fight, and if she won, she would take 'im, if
he won, she would submit to 'im. It doesn't matter to one of her kind, just that she found her partner. Lizardwoman and others function the same, they used to be warriors, creatures made for killing, our Lord changed them to what ya see now."
"Brynhild, I will need to ask your forgiveness for what I am about to do."
Brynhild blinks, "Sir?"
You stretch out your right hand and go through a rapid series of gestures. A moment later a golden light erupts, and the floor begins to glow a soft gold. "Would you ever harm me or another?"
"To defend myself, yes," Brynhild replies, sounding confused, she then stretches her mouth, like it moved unnaturally, then her eyes narrow.
"What does it mean to find your partner? I have heard Ignis speak of it."
"Back when…" Brynhild shudders. "Back when ah was still a Unicorn Sir, ah was… Ah was meant ta find someone ah loved, someone virginal, and ah would give myself to him. Then we would've been wed forever. Now ah seek… you, ah seek for ya to surround yourself with love so that ah may sup from it like a well. My kind,
ah desire love to spread."
…
"I don't suppose you know what a Yuan-ti is?" you ask, looking towards the mirror on the opposite wall.
How long had you looked that tired?
"The name ain't familiar."
"Serpent people," you reply. "Evil and self-serving, some look like mere snakes, others fully human, most a mix of the two. They used to rule a large empire before they lost it, but now they deeply desire to have it back. To that end, they infiltrate, they spy, and they murder. They can shapeshift and can control the minds of others."
"No, there… ain't anything like that in ma' realm."
"Do you recall how aggrieved Fuyao was regarding Miki? How aggressive she was?"
Brynhild nods.
"Despite how I may look, I am only thirty." A useless description, your blessings made you look younger in any case. "I saved Fuyao's life five years ago, and it was shortly after that I was investigating a village that had several disappearances. To my surprise, and… to my foolishness, I wasn't prepared for it. I ran into one of the Yuan-ti's leader caste, and… I failed in my duties."
"How?" Brynhild asks, leaning closer to you.
"I nearly severed Fuyao's head from her shoulders and I butchered the village. From there I was taken back to the Yuan-ti's lair where I was used as a weapon for a full year of my life." You look back at Brynhild, your voice cracking. "It… I was aware of all of it. That's one of their cruelties, they can make themselves have full control over you, but you know precisely what you are doing. When I wasn't butchering, I was made to be her servant, and attend to… anything she or her ilk desired."
You smile bitterly. "I am blessed by my beauty."
"How did ya escape?" Brynhild asks.
"I didn't," you reply. "Fuyao spent a full year tracking me down and rescuing me, I then slew the cult myself the moment I was free of my bonds. I still haven't paid recompense for my failures. That Sune was willing to allow me to still maintain my powers is a kindness on her part I could never repay, and I could spend my life traveling and not undo all the damage I caused."
"People don't seem averse to yer presence."
"I was no conquering warlord," you reply. "But I was used as a tool and weapon, people died for my failures, and I will be working until the end of my days to fix that." You then smile. "So Fuyao has a dim view of mind-altering effects, I find myself… well." Your smile drops. "I believe you and I had words in the past."
Brynhild says nothing for several minutes, her hands clasped together. Then she looks at you, determined. "Ah… Ah'm no fighter, but ah would've joined Fuyao to save ya, such a thing is simply monstrous,
none of my kind would do that.
None of the Monster Lord's followers would have done that."
You twist your fingers, and the zone of truth dissipates. Then you reach up to tap your nose, "I know you aren't evil Brynhild."
Brynhild tilts her head. "Sir?"
You smile once more. "I can smell evil, it is a gift and a curse. The more vile something, or
someone is, the more repugnant it is to me. It is a miasma," your smile then turns a touch brittle. "One learns not to make faces in larger cities, there is no place in this realm that isn't painted in its stench, and to try and find all of it is a fool's errand that has driven more than one Paladin to madness."
"Do ah… Sir?"
You shake your head. "Only Ilias does of those we have run into, there was another back at that village, but that was a weak scent, an unrepentant thief most likely. And the Kobolds we fought, they were evil. It is why I worked with Isabella despite her proclamations, she isn't evil. Only Ilias, and she smells of it like nothing else."
"She makes me rather uncomfortable," Brynhild admits.
"I'm not fond of her myself, but for now she is my prisoner." You reply.
A silence then passes between the two of you, the only sound being that of a ticking clock on a nearby wall. The bedsprings shift, Brynhild adjusts herself. "Sir, if it's… alright." Brynhild swallows. "Baeran, ah don't want to be alone tonight, could you… stay here?"
You look back at her and say nothing as she moves her face close to you. You say nothing as she places her hands on either side of your head, and you say nothing as she presses her lips against your own. You don't move at all.
For she needs to be in control of this.
She pulls back, her eyes searching your face for a moment before she speaks once more. "Ah love ya Baeran, ah truly do, you're… everything ah ever dreamed of as a foal, finding ya was a miracle. But if ya cannot view us as such, if our realms are too different, then…" She goes silent at that.
Sune, in your divine wisdom. Help me as I aspire to your lofty heights to let my beauty be visible to others as a beacon. To guide, to protect, to let others see the beauty within themselves and the world.
You would stay with her, for she needed you here. It was what you would do as a Paladin, as a follower of Sune, and as Baeran Anderghast. "Of course I will," you reply.
But, could you love her?
—
Baeran isn't having sex with Brynhild, if you think this is what the vote is about. It isn't what either of them need at the moment.
[] [You could.]
[] [The differences are too great.]
This will also largely affect how he views Ignis, Miki, and everyone else from that world. Regardless, he will not spurn them, but he will never truly love them either or accept their advances. For he will view them as alien.
—
Relationship Stats___
Fuyao : 9/10
Ignis : 3/10
Brynhild :
9/10
Ilias : 1/10
Miki : 2/10
