Abandoned

[Rainald de Sennis]

Emissary of West Frankia to Windstorm

: Shivers run through his body as the alcohol takes more effect. After a good hour Rainald manages to get up from his hunches, coming to sit in a chair near the fireplace, his arms wrapped around his chest, his eyes closed. He is totally lost in his thoughts, in his past, the papers he had been working on forgotten for the moment.

[Rainald de Sennis]

With eyes closed Rainald sat in front of the fire place in his chambers. In his mind he tried to recapture the sensation of gentle fingers on his skin, the slender fingers of a woman who had helped his ailing shoulder last night.

What a bliss this had been! How long had it been since he had felt the touch of a woman on his skin.

He smiled and opened his eyes, recalling the events of last night.

He had been taking a long ride with Mirage along the coast of Windstorm land. Maybe he had overexerted himself, in any case the wound of his left shoulder again had started to give him much pain. So much so that he had sought the help of a healer, yet none were to be found. In his despair he had tried to drown out the pain with cups of wine… not prudent, he knew, but the best he knew how to get over the stabbing and excruciating ache which made moving his shoulder almost impossible.

Likely he would have drunk himself into oblivion, had it not been for that kind and gentle Lady Beren. A former enemy, a lady to whom Rainald's family and kinsmen had done so much harm. Yet here she was, offering to help, with a potion she knew how to prepare and she had offered to apply it to his aching wound.

At that point Rainald had agreed to try anything to get rid of that pain and had allowed himself to be treated by her. What a strange sight if must have been had anyone entered the Great hall then! Never had Rainald felt so vulnerable before a woman! He sat in his chair, without his tunic or shirt, his bare chest and shoulders exposed to her while she applied the balm to his wound. How easy would it have been for her to take a dagger and end his life there and then. A thought which more than once occurred to Rainald as he enjoyed Lady Beren's tender ministrations. What an irony, that the lady he had hurt in the past now gave him such relief!

Again he closed his eyes and recalled the sensation of her fingers on his skin. So soft, so gentle.

When she had finished they still sat together for a while, talking, like old friends. The change between them had been remarkable. So much so that after a while the Lady herself dropped all her guards and showed him a glimpse of her sorrowed and pained soul. She, too, seemed so vulnerable then, and in turn Rainald had started to speak of his own sorrow and shame, had almost bared his whole guild in front of her, taken her as his confessor and judge.

Alas, this precious moment between them had been but a fleeting one for a servant had started to wander into the Hall. One moment there had been total openness and honesty between him and Lady Beren, and then – it was gone!

How much he was in need to confess, to someone, his sins and guild. How much he wished for absolution and peace. He begged his God to bring him someone soon, or else he would surely go insane!