Kapitel 392: The unlikely pair

Brenna inhaled and exhaled slowly, scraping moss off the slate gray stone. It was tasteless and had the texture of fabric, but contained enough nutrition to sustain a body. Barely.

Why did she even bother with it? This world was nothing short of absolute deprivation of all comfort.

The sky was grey. The stone beneath her feet was grey, as far as she could see. Even the moss she daily scraped off the ground to harvest the water within it was grey.

The stupid moss.

It was everything. It was her food, her water source, the most comfortable surface in this world, her blanket against the cold.

It was her clothing. If the days here were anything close in length to the days at home, it had been several years, at least, in this forsaken world. The only other living creatures were the same horrible, dull color as the rocks.

At least no one hated her here, she comforted herself with a sigh.

"Darling?" A voice called.

"I'm here." She answered, not bothering to correct Edmar's endearment. She'd given up long ago. It seemed the enchantment would never wear off, no matter what.

It was one of her greatest regrets in life, but it was probably the only reason she'd lived so long. Edmar was highly motivated to keep her alive. He'd eagerly eaten the moss to see if it was safe for her to have. He'd tried every way to get water before figuring out how to collect it from the moss. The muddy river they had both landed in on their arrival was nothing short of grey sludge that they had barely gotten out of alive.

He'd even figured out how to take the used moss, dry it, and burn it as fuel for a fire to keep them warm. Edmar was everything a woman could want as far as civility, deference, eagerness to please, and willingness to lay down his life for her good.

If only any of it were real, at all.

But it wasn't. Those stupid herbs had him eternally infatuated with her. It had been a hard thing, to resist his consistent attentions. The first months, especially, she had just known that the Void would find a way into this strange world to bring them back for its own purposes.

But it hadn't. They had remained, alone, the only two people in this world at all. Edmar often marveled aloud at how much of a salve it was to his soul that she was with him. If he had to be trapped with only one person for the rest of his life, of course it would only be her.

The consistency and earnestness of his affection slowly wore her down. She couldn't ignore him forever. If they lived to be eighty, what a waste of life it would be to reject him forever. Wouldn't it?

On the other hand, what a horrible thing it would be to give in. What if she got pregnant? Condemned children to live and die alone in this world? There would be no one for them for marry or keep them company. What a terrible life!

And so, Brenna had settled on keeping a close kind of friendship with Edmar that seemed to keep him happier than rejection, while making it clear that his romantic intentions were unwelcome.

It worked, for the most part, but his longing looks, even after all this time, were getting to her.

How wonderful it would feel to be loved! And Edmar did such a good impression of it, she could fool herself for a few moments into believing it was real.

She wanted to be loved. Would it be so terrible, if for an afternoon, or a day, or a week, she pretended it was genuine? That his feelings weren't the effects of herbs, but of his heart? Of her virtues?

A cruel, barking laugh escaped her lips.

Virtues indeed. She had been a servant of the Void. Was she any longer? She didn't really know the answer to that. Brenna had no real thought of ever seeing the Void again.

And yet… occasionally, ever so occasionally, she could swear she heard its voice on the air. The still, grey air. It was her imagination, of course, but it frightened her to the bone each time, and thrilled her as well.

Escape from this world would be wonderful, but returning to the service of such evil… a steep price to pay for freedom.

She'd paid the price before. Her service for her life. Her reputation and innocence for the opportunity to live another day. Brenna had refused to die innocent if no one would bother to believe it of her.

Most of all, through everything, she had wanted a quiet life. And see what she'd gotten?

It was a cruel way of getting her wish, this monochromatic exile. She still hadn't entirely pieced out what had happened that fateful day. She and Edmar had talked of it a few times over the years, but neither fully understood exactly why Tamas's necklace had exploded, nor how it formed a portal to this strange place.

"There you are, Dear," Edmar rounded the rock formation she was scraping clean.

"Where else would I be?" She asked a little sarcastically.

It wasn't for nothing. The landscape here was almost entirely flat, Occasional rocks jutted up from the surface of the land, but on the whole, it was easy to see miles in every direction due to the utter lack of anything interesting to look at.

Just grey. Forever in all directions.

There weren't even sunrises and sunsets to speak of. The dim light of the anemic orb overhead was nothing special. It didn't particularly warm them and wasn't even strong enough to cast a decent shadow to give some sort of depth to the color palette of this place.

The weather did nothing other than procure a dreary mist at the beginning and end of each day. Not even enough to rain, just moisten the moss that was the humans' life.

Brenna indicated her small but growing pile and gave Edmar a smile.

"Look, I made dinner," The joke was an old one between them, and delivered with barely a hint of irony.

"Thank you. I'm sure it will be delicious," He gave his standard reply. Everything she did was amazing in his eyes.

It made her feel funny inside to be complimented so… sincerely. It shouldn't be sincere, but he insisted that the moss she gathered was delicious, the clothes she made with it were comfortable and stylish somehow, the water she wrung from it sweeter.

Any other man, she would suspect of manipulating her into doing more than her share of the work, but Edmar was just so steadfastly sincere in everything he said to her. He also didn't let her do a fair share of the work, insisting on doing as much for her as she would let him.

If she were a lazy person, he would probably wait on her hand and foot.

Brenna had considered letting him do so on more than one occasion, curious if that would be enough to break him of his conjured infatuation with her, but her guilt held her back from trying the method.

Though she wouldn't quite admit it to herself, she was afraid of enjoying it too much and falling in love with a man who would never actually love her in return. That thought was heartbreaking and she couldn't entertain it.

So, their odd relationship continued.

"I saw another sparkle today," Edmar's habit was to walk as far as he could until the sun was directly overhead, and then run back to where Brenna was. It was how he'd found this one particular rock formation for their main living place.

He was of the opinion that every world deserves exploration, and if they didn't try, they would never know what was out there, would they?

Brenna was of the opinion that they should have stayed put until the Void came and got them, but… that hadn't exactly worked out.

"A sparkle?" She asked, humoring him. He liked to come up with stories to keep her attention and entertain her. She knew there was nothing to see out in the Grey. More rocks, perhaps. Occasional little grey lizards that weren't edible, or even bugs now and then.

Nothing worth talking about.

"Yes, like I saw a few months ago. This one was bigger. I think I know what it is now!" He exclaimed, and she put down her moss and turned her full attention to him. It pleased him greatly when she did, and so she made a point to look at him when he spoke about something important to him.

"Well? What is it, pray tell?" She tilted her head with interest, and he beamed.

"A portal! I think the sparkles are small portals! If we can find one big enough, we can leave and go home!" Edmar's smile cut through the grey of the world.

Brenna's heart sank. "That can't be true. Why now, after all these years?" She asked logically. His hopes were getting the better of him.

"I don't know why, but it's happening. Come on! Let's find one together."