A Court of Flame & Shadow - Eris x OC

The Burrow & The Lake

The water was cool and it made her wounds sting, but she took a moment to kick her feet and flex her fingers, to appreciate the sweet taste of freedom. Not true freedom, not yet. Her wrists tensed painfully underneath the Faebane cuffs. She poked her head out of the water, careful to check for any sentries watching. Without her heightened senses she was mostly blind to her surroundings but she trudged through the water quietly and pulled herself out at the edge of the forest.

The sound of the waterfall was loud enough to cover any splashing. She wrung her hair out and the water that came out was red under the pale light of the moon. She hoped there would be time for a proper bath later ... and a change of clothes. Even with a dulled sense of smell, the metallic scent of blood clung to her like a shadow. She squeezed out the rags she was wearing, careful to not pull too hard on the frayed fabric. The water had been cold, but being wet in the frigid autumn wind made her teeth chatter. She had to get moving.

Vel looked at the sky for a long minute, the moon visible through scattered clouds, bathing the forest in an ethereal glow. The stars twinkled brightly overhead between the clouds and, to the north, the brightest of them all, flanked on either side by two smaller ones – Arktos, Carynth, and Oristes. The Night Court had never felt further away than it did in that moment. She sighed and turned around, starting her long trek in the opposite direction.

The first few hours had gone by quickly. She jogged at a brisk pace, trying to keep the temperature in her core up. But as the moon dipped behind the mountains to the west, the lack of light made the forest much more difficult to navigate. Under the thick layer of leaves were branches and sharp stones and, after falling and scraping her knees twice, Vel decided to sacrifice some speed for caution. She was barefoot and her wounds would take a long time to close, so any infection could prove deadly.

She cursed at the Faebane, at Beron, and then at herself for letting her guard down. She had thought herself untouchable and now she paid the price. Which could have been much higher if not for Eris. Eris ... Vel thought of the strange male, so full of contradictions. Those warm amber eyes, and the scowling lips. She thought of all his ambition and scheming. She owed him much. Exactly as he'd wanted. A nagging suspicion crossed her mind that this could have all been planned. That he might have known of his father's plot – surely, Nyoka would have told him. And Eris let it all play out so that she would be indebted to him. A small part of her heart seemed to crack at the thought.

Exhaustion swept over her. The adrenaline in her system had finally faded, leaving only weariness behind. She had not slept in days. The only respite she'd found was in the oblivion of unconsciousness. But the Forest House loomed just behind her, like a cold breath down her neck. She couldn't rest just yet.

The sky started lighting up with the golden light of dawn and she tried to pick up the pace again. The colors of the Autumn Court were much less vibrant without her Fae sight. Or maybe it was the events of the previous days that cast everything in a more dreary light.

Vel fidgeted with the pouches Eris had given her. Holding a small loaf of soggy bread up to the morning light, she gave it a tentative sniff, though in her current state, discerning traces of poison wouldn't be much use – not that her senses had helped her before. The Faebane had certainly tainted the bread and likely all the baked goods Nyoka had plied her with. Bread was all they'd provided in the dungeons, and by then, the Faebane was so concentrated that she couldn't rid herself of the metallic aftertaste. It had likely infiltrated more than just the bread – water, sauces, and teas, all designed as failsafes by a careful, scheming High Lord who had been plotting for two hundred years. However, Eris had no reason to poison her food. It was in his interest to help her escape so that she would live to pay back her debt. With that thought in mind, she broke the mushy loaf in half and squeezed one of the hardboiled eggs out of its shell and into the mostly intact crust. A miserable breakfast but made all the more flavorful by the taste of freedom that accompanied it.