RP:Aid from Aela
Part of the Silver Oaths Unrelenting Arc
Frostmaw Tavern
Aela moves gingerly out of her room and down to the tavern area. Her movements are slow and labored, her hand continually finding its way to massage her aching forehead. The note left by Hildegarde clears things up slightly. The girl must have been knocked unconscious by some flying piece of debris. Settling down into a chair, Aela begins to stretch out her achy muscles with a groan of displeasure.
Hildegarde was already downstairs in the tavern area, yelling at Drargon as he poured alcohol over a wound in her leg. She hissed with pain and clenched her fist, muttering darkly, "You're so lucky I am understanding what's happening right now!" which seemed to make the giant bartender laugh. The knight rocked back in her chair as Drargon pressed an alcohol drenched rag to the wound and bound it, the process obviously painful. With a pat to her shoulder, the giant moved back to the bar to fetch some food for the Silver and then some more supplies to mend the wound.
Aela : The knight's yell's of pain quickly draw the paladin's attention. In fact, the noise increases the throbbing in her head tenfold. She is about to make a comment about keeping the noise down when she actually sees who it is making it. Forgetting her own pain momentarily, the girl rises from her seat and rushes to Hilde's side. "Milady... Are you okay?"
Hildegarde heard the familiar voice and tensed, looking to see Aela. She attempted to put on a brave face with a little smile, "Fine, m'lady, just fine. Exile giant took me unawares, nothing more," she said, in an effort to placate the paladin.
Aela settles into a chair near the knight, eyes filled with concern. "Well, you did not sound fine a minute ago. I cannot have my saviour in pain now can I?" The paladin looks down at the bound rag on Hilde's leg, noting that the blood was already beginning to soak through. "I can try to heal that as well as I can if you would like."
Hildegarde laughed gently at the remark, "I am hardly your saviour, m'lady, just a good friend who cares." At the mention of healing, she looking a bit nervous, wondering if it would be too much of a strain on the paladin. "I do not wish to strain you, Aela."
Aela waves a dismissive hand, scoffing at the idea of a strain. "Oh, no. It is really nothing. I am as fit as can be..." Raising her eyes, the woman smiles at the knight and reaches out to set her hand atop the bloody rag. "This should not hurt. If it does, then you must let me know. That means that it is infected with some sort of evil..." Lowering her throbbing head, Aela begins to chant in an arcane, unrecognizable language. For a moment nothing happens, but the chanting continues. Suddenly, a burst of white light blinds any that would be looking as the Divine healing flows through the paladin. The light subsides to a gentle glow after a moment flowing into the knight's leg. If anyone were to pay attention, they would see that as the wound on Hilde's leg begins to subside, a similar wound forms on Aela's leg, the skin slowly beginning to pull open as if the wound has moved from one leg to another. The paladin does her best to grit her teeth and keep the knight from seeing this.
Hildegarde nodded, too intrigued about the holy method of healing to decline. "Yes, m'lady," she said, obediently. She watched with a quiet interest, until the blinding light came forth: forcing her to shield her eyes and thus be unable to see the wound transfer from her leg to Aela's. Truly, if she had any idea what was going on, she would have stopped the woman. Fortunately for the Silver, it is a painless process, having only been wounded by an ordinary weapon and no foul evil. "M'lady..." she said, finally chancing a look at her leg, "My pain is gone! You, ah, you truly are wonderful."
Aela allows her chanting to softly fade away, the light slowly disappearing along with it. Lifting her hands from Hilde's leg, she smiles weakly up at the Silver. "Ah, it is nothing really. Just a gift that has been given to me by my faith." The paladin closes her eyes for a moment, willing the pain to subside, though the pain takes no heed of her will. On the bright side, she thinks to herself, at least the wound has taken her attention off of her pounding headache. Opening her eyes once more, she regards Hilde. "You must be more careful in your fighting. You risk too much by your fighting style."
Hildegarde took note of the weakness in Aela's smile, immediately getting out of her seat and putting her hands on either shoulder of the paladin. "M'lady, are you well? Was it too much of strain?" she asked, worried. The knight attempted to gently ease Aela into a chair, so she would get off her feet and rest for a moment. "What makes you say that, m'lady?" In truth, the attack had been an ambush: an angry survivor promising revenge on the knight, only to be felled.
Aela sinks into the chair wearily, waving away Hilde's concern as if it is nothing. "I am fine. Just a little light-headed from the blow I took in the race. It will pass." Shifting in the seat, she slips her leg to the side slightly to ease the pressure on the wound. The paladin knows that the wound will heal quickly. It should be gone by morning. the transfer of wounds was a temporary thing meant for minor injuries that teach a paladin to handle pain. "As for your fighting, milady. I have seen your style. You rush headlong into battle, giving little heed to defense. You fight as if you have nothing to lose, as if you have everything to prove, and with no care of dying. While formidable and intimidating, it leaves you open when your attacks overreach. You must learn to understand that you have people that would be hurt if you were lost. You must learn to take greater care."
Hildegarde nodded, smiling in assurance that nothing was wrong and that the paladin was just a bit light-heated from her previous accident. “For which I am most grievously sorry, m’lady,” she said, genuine in her apology. But at the mention of her fighting style, the knight fell quiet, sinking back into her seat as though it might hide her sad expression. “M’lady, there would be few who would miss me, I believe. I…” she sighed, “I have found my will to live diminish greatly over past events,” she confessed, looking terribly ashamed at her words. Her hand covered her eyes for a brief moment as she inhaled deeply to calm or steady herself, “I… Forgive me, m’lady, I speak out of turn.”
Aela leans forward in her seat, reaching out to take the knight's hand. With her other hand, the paladin touches Hilde's cheek tenderly. "It matters not how many would miss you, Hilde. It matters more how great a hole you would leave in the hearts of those that would." She meets the dragon's gaze squarely as she continues. "I would be beside myself if anything happened to you. You are my hero..." She pauses for several moments to allow her words to sink in. "Bad things happen to good people, milady. It is an uncomfortable fact for us all. If you serve, you will sometimes be forced to do things that hurt. Things that will always haunt you, but you will sleep again... I promise that the nightmares will fade, they always do. And with each day, we grow stronger from our pain. You cannot let it defeat you, Lady Knight! You are stronger than you think. When things seem to get beyond our threshold for tolerance, we must find others upon which to lean. That is why we have friends."
Hildegarde looked to Aela with such sad eyes, it may well have been difficult to look upon. For a girl who was so kind and naïve, she had seen such horrible things and actually done such terrible deeds. The knight sighed, looking to Aela and saying quietly, “M’lady… That may all be well and good, but… but I have done horrible things. I have killed without a second thought, I have done such awful things. I just… I have only ever wanted my family to be proud of me and yet, they tell me I have had enough time playing at war. That I must come home to be sold off to some… to some stranger! Men and women alike mock me constantly for my choice of being a knight, they call me beast and ugly. They are not wrong, but it still stings to hear it. I cannot sleep, Aela, I cannot. Every time I close my eyes, I see the faces of those I have slain, of Calhoun as I… as I broke his back.” It was clear, throughout her speech, that it became increasingly difficult to talk with the overwhelming emotions she felt. “I am no hero. I am just a craven.”
Aela squeezes Hilde's hand, listening as the knight allows her emotions to spew forth through her words. Once the dragon has finished, the paladin takes a deep breath, wanting nothing more than to just console the woman before her, but knowing that she needs so much more than just a shoulder to cry on. "You have killed... you have done horrible things... You only want to make your family proud... People are call you mean things and you are beginning to believe them." Scooting closer to Hilde, though wincing at the pain of the movement, Aela lays an arm across the other girl's shoulders as she speak softly. "The things that your family says and the things that others say about you. They are only as true as you allow them to be. If you believe in other's words, you give those words power over you. It is not for anyone else to decide who you are, or what you are. That choice is your's alone. But you have given that choice away. When I look at you, I do not see any of what you are saying. I see a strong, worthy knight who cares about her friends deeply and honors her duty like no one else. Are my words any less true than your family's, or anyone else out there? I see a beautiful woman. Is that any less true than what anyone else tells you? I tell you that my words are truth to me, but they cannot be truth to you unless you choose them to be. Stop letting others tell you who you are." She pauses again, her words hanging heavily in the air. "It is like looking in a mirror when I look at you, milady. I was where you are not so long ago. Then I decided that I was no longer going to give others such power over me. My life is mine to live. I get to choose who I am. You can do the same."
Hildegarde listened to Aela quietly, finding wisdom and strength in those words. She nodded, as in agreement. “There is a great wisdom to your words, m’lady. I dread to think of how you became so wise or even found such knowledge, for it must not have been an easy path to take.” She smiled a little, before saying gently: “I… I find that when people talk to me about murder and death, that I get this,” her hand pressed to her gut, “this sickly feeling? Deep in my gut. I sometimes find it hard to breathe, like I am in the water and I am drowning, my body is so heavy with all these woes; with all the memories of the people I have killed. It pains me. I wake up screaming or do not sleep at all, I feel ill at the mention of poachers and sometimes… sometimes I just do not remember where I am, I am here one moment and the next I am out in the wilds of Frostmaw, half expecting battle. I do not know what is wrong with me, but I wish it’d end.”
Aela gently holds the knight close as her words are spoken. She finds herself nodding along with half of them, feeling the Hilde's pain as it is mirrored within her. "There are those that grow numb to that feeling. That forget what it is like to take life from somebody. It is a sort of inhumanity that keeps them calloused and cold. You will never be that sort of person. You must take care in how you deal death, that it is never done in vain, that there is always good in your cause. As I said, the nightmares will pass as well as the blackouts. It is a testament to your goodness that these things affect you such. You do not murder, you deal justice as is your duty. How you view such things matters a lot."
Hildegarde sighed heavily as she half leaned into the paladin, nodding some as she spoke. Indeed, there was great wisdom to her words and she appreciated it. She could not disagree with the words, she shared the ideals of the paladin, it was obvious. “I… I want to thank you, Aela. You are too kind. You have been a… well, I don’t know, you have truly been a wonderful part of my life. You have helped me in so many ways, I do not know how to repay you. I would be lost if you were not a part of my life.”
Aela gently strokes the knight's hair, just holding her close and letting her rest. "You are a wonderful friend, Lady Hildegarde. Your care for those that you love is an inspiration to me. And I see so much of myself in you. Gods willing, I will be a part of your life for a long time to come. The world is a better place because you are in it."