Post by Liessel on Apr 18, 2024 20:27:46 GMT -5
There was a steady knock at the door at the Knightsbridge House... Tom stood on the front porch, waiting for an answer at the door. He had his cane, but he pointedly had a travel bag. And he had on a weird little brace on his leg that fit over his boot on his bad leg. He was dressed like a good old fashioned American cowboy, but one that knew money and hadn't been in the field in a while. But still 100% more western fashion. He had his hat on, tucked under one arm was a bootstrap with a stack of books in it.
The door answered several moments later, Liessel Erphale opening it only to pause as she found Tomlin Jefferson standing on her front porch. "Mister Jefferson," a quick glance at the air around him told her that he was the only one out there. In quick order she was opening the door wider and saying,"Come in, please. What brings you by today? Is everything alright?"
She was wearing a skirt of dark blue and a blouse of white with pearlescent buttons running down the front of it. Her hair was pulled up, halfway, and secured at the back of her head in a small, thin braid.
“I can't stay. But something has come up... I've been given orders to seek out Gerold and another on behalf of the Grand Eye... The one relaying those orders had a very strange man with him and I do not trust him as far as I could toss his pompous ass... I was wondering if Ethan could stay with you while I'm away on assignment?”
It took a second for the ends of that to connect for her. Something about Gerold -- The Grand Eye -- a strange man -- Ethan -- "Of course," she answered with a blink, "But isn't the Grand Eye suspect -- what do they want with Gerold?" As she spoke, Liessel felt her brow draw inward, wrinkling the mark on her forehead.
“The one who relayed the orders to me insinuated that Gerold is being hunted by an unknown faction... It doesn't matter who's hunting him, even if its the Frontiersmen themselves, they're not gonna get him and find him because I'm going to go back home myself to find him personally... I know the Grand Eye is still under suspicion with this whole coup thing, but I can't look like I'm just straight up ignoring orders.”
The former priestess felt her blood turn to ice, causing her to steady herself by reaching to place her hand on the doorframe.
Hunted.
Liessel had to shut her eyes and feel her breath for a moment, solidifying the fact that her heart was, indeed, still beating. Her voice would come several seconds after that, quiet and low, "Please, find him before they do, Mister Jefferson."
"I will," he said out loud. His voice betrayed the emotion. It was a grim determination and an underlying streak of anger and worry. He lowered the bootstrap to the ground. “These are Ethan's school books... He'll be returning home soon. I left him a note to come here if I wasn't at home. I've given him instructions to not go anywhere but to school and back and to leave off the job until I return.”
The young woman didn't open her eyes to see where the books had been laid, but she did give Tomlin a small nod, the motion barely there. "He'll be well looked after," she heard herself whisper, unable to drum up more volume than that right then, "Call me, if you can, when you find him. Let me know you are both alright -- if you are able."
In just those few seconds she had become a spring wound up tight within herself.
He reached across the threshold to take Liessel's hand.” Listen to me. I am going to find him and I will keep him safe. You know I don't make fake promises, Miss Erphale. I promise I will do everything I can to bring him home to you.”
Her hand, when Tom took it, was trembling. She was doing everything she could to hold herself in, to hold herself up, there in the open doorway.
Her hand squeezed his in an acknowledgement that she couldn't voice just then. She knew, that tight grasp said. It was a more real touch than any she'd given to him before, even when she had helped tend his wounds.
"Thank you," the words were mouthed, but so softly said that there was no sound to them. She lost the battle with keeping that part of herself from becoming part of that wound up spring. "Travel safe, travel swift. Travel true, Mister Jefferson."
He nodded to her. He turned to go, tucking his hat down... And then he turned back to look at her. "Please... Tell Ethan to be wary of any Mediterranean men with a strange sense of fashion... And don't try to scry this", he said, pulling out a card and offering it to her. As soon as her fingers touch the card in a firm grip, he turned to go.
She had given Tomlin a blind nod, working on opening her disobedient eyes. They wanted to stay closed against the world, closed against her fears, closed against the knowledge that this was Gerold's work and danger like this was inherent within that work. None of that made a whit of difference just then. None of it.
Gerold.
His name rolled through her thoughts, but those thoughts were cut through by the words: Don't try to scry this.
She had to force her eyes open in order to see what Tomlin was holding out to her. It seemed like such a strange and alien thing, that little crisp white piece of cardstock, just then. Liessel swallowed hard and reached to take the card from him with shaking fingers, "I --" her voice was still a whisper. She could not get more than that from herself, "Will pass the along the message."
He had only partially turned to go. He looked back at her. He met her eyes and nodded. "This thing-- this stupid, little seemingly insignificant card....hurt me... Miss Erphale," he said very softly. "Don't let anyone else touch it."
Hers were eyes that couldn't hold Tomlin's gaze for more than a moment when he turned back. She met that gaze and was then looking at the card. Somewhere, in the fog of desperate feelings that had welled up within her with the suddenness of a summer storm, logic sank into her thoughts, and she caught up her skirt, using that as a barrier between her fingers and the cardstock.
"No," She uttered quietly, feeling the edge of that desperation turning into something else, "No one else will touch it."
He nodded. "Thank you. And for taking care of Ethan in my absence." He leaned forward to give her hand another comforting squeeze. "I'll be back. One way or another."
Bring him home.
Went the prayer that came with Tomlin reaching for her shaking hand again.
"Bring him home," She said to the Fronstiersman on her doorstep, her eyes shutting and shaking tears free from the corners of them.
Heaven, help them.
She prayed for Tomlin and Gerold, both, and any Frontiersman who was fighting on their side.
And heaven help the soulless, bloodsucking, brimstone breathing, Satan-spawn if they ever got their hands on him.