Post by Seek on Apr 4, 2015 1:46:12 GMT 10
Series: A Pale View of Hills
Title: Redemption
Rating: PG-13
Event: Just In Jousting
Competition: Decathlon
Words: 477 words
Summary: AU. Years after Mastiff, Mattes and Beka meet again. One quote is from the Assassin's Creed Chronicles trailer.
-
His legs ache, more than ever. Too many things shouldn’t have been possible, Mattes thinks, dully. He should’ve died out there, that night, in the cold, beneath the distant gleam of the stars. He shouldn’t have killed the boy—Daeggan.
The hills are distant, now; more distant than ever. Wherever home was, it wasn’t out there. Not any longer. He saw them one night in a dream; green and mist-shrouded and fertile, as they must’ve been in the days of Mirkinias the Bold who stole the bountiful cattle of Medias the Generous. And then he woke up and tasted the dust on his tongue.
He leans against the door and waits. Eventually, it opens.
She isn’t carrying her baton. That, he figures, might be a good sign, though his trained eyes spot the daggers she has about her. Farmer Cape isn’t there. Just as well. Some things should be kept between family, and he’s never gotten on that well with Cape. Hard to think of Beka as a mother now; married to that man.
“Tell me why you’re doing this,” Beka says, finally.
There are many things he could say to that. Because Tortall will fall, and if he isn’t attached to the king and the Realm and their titles, they’re his friends and family now that his lie beneath the scarlet earth, and the crying shame is that it took him so long to see it. He knows Glaukias, knows that the man is the biggest threat to the city he’s bled out most of his life protecting.
But none of these reasons answer the question she’s asked.
He says, softly, “Until you have been disgraced, you cannot know the fire that burns for redemption.”
Beka’s eyes are hard—winter ice, Mattes thinks. Ghost eyes, startling, even now, when he’s come back from the very edge of death. “Daeggan was unforgivable,” she says.
“Glaukias is worse,” Mattes replies. He gestures—the movement somehow taking in the entire street, the sleeping city beyond them. He sees the glimmer of understanding in her narrowed eyes as a sleepy, blond boy pokes his head out of the doorframe.
“Ma?” he asks, yawning.
She stands as though she would shield the boy from him. “Shh, Mattes,” she whispers. “Go back to bed now, understand? Your ma’s got Dog business to settle.”
The boy almost opens his mouth to protest—Mattes can see the curiosity of the young at work—but then he sighs and says, dejectedly, “Yes, ma,” and trudges back into the depths of the house again.
This time, when their eyes meet, he knows she’s changed her mind.
“Fine,” Beka says, harshly. She hesitates, before adding, “I hope you don’t make a fool of me, Mattes. Because if you do, I’ll hunt you down to the sarden ends of the earth and make you face the Crown’s justice.”
Title: Redemption
Rating: PG-13
Event: Just In Jousting
Competition: Decathlon
Words: 477 words
Summary: AU. Years after Mastiff, Mattes and Beka meet again. One quote is from the Assassin's Creed Chronicles trailer.
-
His legs ache, more than ever. Too many things shouldn’t have been possible, Mattes thinks, dully. He should’ve died out there, that night, in the cold, beneath the distant gleam of the stars. He shouldn’t have killed the boy—Daeggan.
The hills are distant, now; more distant than ever. Wherever home was, it wasn’t out there. Not any longer. He saw them one night in a dream; green and mist-shrouded and fertile, as they must’ve been in the days of Mirkinias the Bold who stole the bountiful cattle of Medias the Generous. And then he woke up and tasted the dust on his tongue.
He leans against the door and waits. Eventually, it opens.
She isn’t carrying her baton. That, he figures, might be a good sign, though his trained eyes spot the daggers she has about her. Farmer Cape isn’t there. Just as well. Some things should be kept between family, and he’s never gotten on that well with Cape. Hard to think of Beka as a mother now; married to that man.
“Tell me why you’re doing this,” Beka says, finally.
There are many things he could say to that. Because Tortall will fall, and if he isn’t attached to the king and the Realm and their titles, they’re his friends and family now that his lie beneath the scarlet earth, and the crying shame is that it took him so long to see it. He knows Glaukias, knows that the man is the biggest threat to the city he’s bled out most of his life protecting.
But none of these reasons answer the question she’s asked.
He says, softly, “Until you have been disgraced, you cannot know the fire that burns for redemption.”
Beka’s eyes are hard—winter ice, Mattes thinks. Ghost eyes, startling, even now, when he’s come back from the very edge of death. “Daeggan was unforgivable,” she says.
“Glaukias is worse,” Mattes replies. He gestures—the movement somehow taking in the entire street, the sleeping city beyond them. He sees the glimmer of understanding in her narrowed eyes as a sleepy, blond boy pokes his head out of the doorframe.
“Ma?” he asks, yawning.
She stands as though she would shield the boy from him. “Shh, Mattes,” she whispers. “Go back to bed now, understand? Your ma’s got Dog business to settle.”
The boy almost opens his mouth to protest—Mattes can see the curiosity of the young at work—but then he sighs and says, dejectedly, “Yes, ma,” and trudges back into the depths of the house again.
This time, when their eyes meet, he knows she’s changed her mind.
“Fine,” Beka says, harshly. She hesitates, before adding, “I hope you don’t make a fool of me, Mattes. Because if you do, I’ll hunt you down to the sarden ends of the earth and make you face the Crown’s justice.”
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!