Absolution (closed)

[KieranSoares]

On the second hit, Tamblin snarled in pain, his expression breaking into a grimace. But he retaliated on instinct, his sword's honed edge biting into her armor and ripping open a long gash in Selena's thigh as it broke her chain mail. Tamblin staggered back a couple steps, blood now running freely down his side and dripping into the snow. It took a moment to register that he'd wounded her, but he didn't hesitate long before rushing her again with an upward slash.

 

[heartofcourage]

Selena let out a cry as his sword slashed through her armor and cut into her upper leg. She strumbled backwards and struggled to keep her feet. She pushed herself up and gripped her sword tightly, her father’s sword slicing through the top layer of her chest plate.

She did stumble then, landing hard on her backside in the snow. Rolling to the side, she was up in an instant, limping out of the way to gain her bearings again.

 

[KieranSoares]

Tamblin drew back a couple paces as Selena rolled back to her feet, staring hard at her now. "Good girl," he encouraged in a growl. "Tha's what a Ghis does, take those hits an' keep going."

At this point, Brogan was struggling to hold Boar back, and Durban finally left Kitty to Ghell to help Brogan. Tamblin glanced over at this and leveled his blade at Boar. "Lynn. Don' you dare, lad. This is your sister's fight. Don' disgrace her." That earned him the most murderous glare that Boar could muster.

"You can do this, Selena," Boar growled deeply. "No matter what, he's nothin' compared t'you."

 

[heartofcourage]

Selena glanced over at her brother as he growled out his encouragement, his murderous gaze set on their father. She understood his anger but it wouldn’t do her any good in the moment. Centering jerself, she put more weight on her injured leg, ignoring the burning pain as she prepared for another attack.

 

[KieranSoares]

Tamblin bolted in when she braced, unleashing a flurry of blows and taking a few himself. It wasn't until she struck his ruined leg that he finally ended the back and forth with a roar of effort. His blade struck her own, but threw it back against her and cutting a shallow gash in her jaw. The real damage was the sheer force which threw her on the ground. Tamblin's boot planted on her sword arm, the bone snapping like a twig under his weight.

The point of the blade came to her throat and as he lifted it high with another snarl to finish her, Ghell grabbed Kitty and turned her away from the sight of her daughter being slaughtered by her own father.

But that strike never came. Both hands on the hilt and the point hovering a foot above Selena's chest, Tamblin froze. His dark stare bored down into Selena's, ready to kill. But there was something else there. Confusion, anger, but most of all, pain.

 

[heartofcourage]

The sword hitting her in the fact startled Selena and she nearly dropped her blade. The small sting of the cut was nothing compared to her father's arm throwing her to the ground hard enough that the breath left her body rather violently. Then his boot was on her arm, stepping on it until it broke with an audible crack. Selena shrieked in pain, curling in on herself until Tamblin held her in place with the point of his sword.

"Tamblin!" Kitty screamed as Ghell turned her away from the scene, Selena's pained gaze the last thing she saw as the wolf guarded her from the brutal scene.

Tears were in Selena's dark eyes as she stared up at her father, the blade threatening to come down to end her life. She shivered, watching as he hesitated. She had no clue why he wasn't ending her life right then and there. He had every right to do so.

"Da." Selena said in a shaking voice, trapped in limbo and in so much pain. "It's alright."

 

[KieranSoares]

Tamblin's entire form tensed as Selena's eyes filled with tears and she faced her death bravely despite pain and fear. He drew the sword higher, but he couldn't make himself drive it down into her vulnerable neck. Slowly, he lowered it, and then suddenly drove the point into the ground a foot from her head. Staggering with the pain in his leg, he stepped back and wordlessly leaned down to gather her broken arm against her stomach before scooping her up out of the bloody snow. Slowly, he began making the trek back up the hill to the keep, not a word to anyone, and leaving his blade behind.

Ghell and the boys watched him go in shock, and Ghell let Kitty go as she saw her little girl still breathing.

 

[heartofcourage]

Selena bit back another cry of pain as Tamblin leaned down and arranged her arm and then scooped her up. It seemed that he had decided to show her mercy and let her live. As he started to limp down the hill, she saw the devastated look on her brothers faces, the way her Ma held Ghell so tightly in the fear that she really would have been killed.

Kitty watched the entire thing, shaking. She was barely standing as Ghell stepped away. Reaching out, she took hold of Boar and then Durban, holding them both tightly.

"Learn from this lesson. He won't go so easy on the both of you." Kitty murmured, hugging Boar tightly to her side. "Promise me."

 

[KieranSoares]

Boar simply stared after his father with a look of pure confusion, unsure whether to be angry that Tamblin had won, relieved that he'd spared Selena, or hopeless that an attempt against Tamblin had been thwarted. While Selena was no expert swordswoman, the way Tamblin easily took the blows and retaliated so viciously made Boar nervous for any future attempts. Durban simply stood with his eyes on Selena. A part of him had selfishly hoped she'd win and take all the responsibility of Inverness off his shoulders. Ancient Invernessian law would've made her Queen with no exceptions if she'd succeeded. But another part of him was relieved she'd lost and lived, as he knew she'd have come to suffer as a monarch as well, just as trapped if not more so.

"Boar won' be fightin' Da. Nobody will be... At least fer a while," Durban muttered.

 

[heartofcourage]

"None of you will. Not while I'm alive." Kitty said softly, allowing Brogan to escort her back to the keep so she could check up on Selena. She wasn't about to leave her daughter alone with anyone, especially not Oliver and his men when she was injured.

"The three of you go to your rooms." Kitty said as they entered the keep, her stern gaze turning towards them. "I don't want to hear a peep out of any of you, understand?"

 

[KieranSoares]

Each of the boys silently nodded as Ghell took over beside Kitty, watching them head for the hall that led to the stairs. Tamblin had made his way to the small keep infirmary which had been set up beside Kitty's room for whenever traveling doctors visited. Usually it was run by Ghell if needed, or some of the military medics of soldiers were there.

Tamblin set Selena on the edge of a cot, having her sit up while he removed her ruined armor and chain mail til she was in just her bloodied shirt and trousers. Having a bit of field medic experience himself, he temporarily bound some clean bandages around her lower chest and thigh to help staunch the bleeding. Ghell would deal with stitches and proper care once the bleeding stopped. He took her good hand, making her press a bundle of gauze to her jawline. He did all of this without a word, until he took a look at her arm, broken cleanly in the center of the forearm. "Here, lass. Bite down," he muttered as he took a strap from one of his gauntlets so she wouldn't crack her teeth gritting through the pain. This was the sight Kitty and Ghell came upon, Tamblin carefully setting the bone and then binding the arm tightly after cleaning her arm up.

Ghell immediately stepped forward, ignoring Tamblin's presence to kiss Selena's forehead. When Tamblin finally backed off, Ghell inspected the quickly-assembled cast and splint to find it completely acceptable.

 

[heartofcourage]

Selena was trembling from loss of blood and pain by the time her father set her down on the bed. She tried her hardest not to have any reaction as he stripped the armor from her wounded body. She was breathing heavily, clenching her uninjured hand against it all as he wrapped her wounds tightly and moved her to press a wad of gauze against her jaw.

Glancing down as Tamblin gently held her arm, Selena could see the break clearly. Her arm was already swollen and purple with bruising. It looked grotesque, but it seemed that he was confident that he could set it. She wanted to tell him no, but she kept her mouth shut and took the leather strap as he offered it. It was the only thing that stifled her screaming moments later when he started to set the bone.

Kitty and Ghell entered the room a few moments after that, Selena pale and covered in sweat. She looked ill as she struggled with everything that had just happened. Kitty let Ghell go to her, Tamblin backing off to allow the both of them their moment together.

"I tried." Selena murmured softly, shaking again as a blanket was pulled around her shoulders. "And I lost."

 

[KieranSoares]

"You may have lost, eli," Ghell whispered as Tamblin retreated to the opposite side of the room. "But you're alive. There is still hope," Ghell looked her in the eye as he said this, as if to remind her of the promise he'd made when she was much younger. "And you've proven yourself in a way. No one can doubt your fire and conviction."

As Ghell whispered to Selena, Tamblin stood a good ten feet from Kitty, blood having finally stopped trickling down his armor. He glanced to Kitty briefly, his rage tamed by guilt and worry, but he remained silent as he picked up a few rolls of bandages and other medical supplies, retreating to his own quarters to tend his wounds alone.

 

[heartofcourage]

Kitty watched Ghell murmur softly to Selena, calming her down as only a father could. He would make sure that she would be alright following the fight. However, Kitty had other things that she needed to tend to.

As Selena leaned into Ghell's chest, Kitty retreated behind Tamblin. She walked slowly, hesitantly, her hand gripping the walls of the keep firmly as she struggled. She came to the room that he had long since claimed as his own, separate from her own. Opening the door, she stepped in and quietly watched as he tended to his own wounds.

"You had every right to kill her and you didn't. Why?" Kitty asked him in a soft voice.

 

[KieranSoares]

Tamblin had set aside his heavy armor on its stand to clean later, and Kitty found him with his shirt off tending to his badly wounded shoulder, a temporary staunching bandage around his thigh. He glanced up as Kitty stepped in, but cast his gaze back down to his work with a sigh. "Any answer I 'ave is gonna sound hypocritical..."

He rose and limped over to his wardrobe, opening it up to reach for the top shelf where he kept a small medical kit, retrieving a needle and thread to begin stitching his own thigh as the cut was too deep to heal normally.

 

[heartofcourage]

“Humor me, Tamblin. We both know that she won’t be the last of our children to try this, no matter how I forbid them from even thinking about it.” Kitty said, watching Tamblin as he tended to his wounds that Selena had inflicted.

 

[KieranSoares]

"... She's th'first t'try, an' she did it fer more than jus' her own sake. Durban'll need her when I'm gone. She has a sense o' right an' wrong tha' doesn't give in t'cruelty 'r oppression, an' she's brave even when she's terrified. Even when I had 'er pinned t'the ground, she faced me without flinching... Even told me it was alright. She knew the rules of th'fight, she accepted them, and she never cowered... A young woman like tha' doesn' deserve t'die."

He glanced up then, a slightly shamed, exhausted look on his face. "Or maybe I'm just a coward. Tha's probably what she thinks... But she's th'warning. I can't go easy on th'boys if they try it."

 

[heartofcourage]

“They are your children, Tamblin. Born from the both of us. It’s not shameful to love them and admit that’s why you didn’t kill our daughter just now.” Kitty said, knowing Tamblin carried a wealth of guilt and anger at himself over how he treated his family. “You don’t have to fight them at all. You do realize that, right?”

“You know, I’m almost afraid to ask how this entire thing started.” She knew Selena had been irritated for weeks over something but her stubborn daughter refused to talk to her about it.

 

[KieranSoares]

"I've made it clear fer years tha' Durban will only be kind when I'm dead. An' I'm holdin' to it. I won' step aside. I need him t'prove himself t'these isles... An' I need to know tha' he can make th'hard decisions, but not out o' hate. He's a good soldier, a good family man, an' a good heir. I need him t'prove he can be a good king, capable o' putting down threats even on th'inside. He can't hesitate even if tha' threat is a family member. He has t'put th'well-being of th'whole Clan first. An' as fer me an' Selena... You know exactly why this started. She wants t'be free, Kayla too, no' a pawn fer a kingdom. An' since I've been seriously considerin' a few matches... She got scared."

 

[heartofcourage]

Kitty let out a long and tired sigh as Tamblin insisted that he would only step down when Durban could take him out. It was a bleak view on his family, but one he had never wavered from in his entire life. And now Selena had taken up arms against him to win her freedom.

“This isn’t something I can talk them out of either. If you are so stubborn as to believe that the only way to prove anything is with a fight, then you truly are a lost cause.” Kitty said, shaking her head as she turned to leave. “And leave Selena alone. You’ve done more than enough to her. Let her be and stop trying to marry her off.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"She knew th'terms if she lost 'r walked away," Tamblin muttered simply. "You have no say in what I need t'do t'keep Inverness from bein' destroyed."

 

[heartofcourage]

“Well, maybe it’s time that it was.” Kitty murmured back, leaving him alone with his own thoughts and guilt.

Selena was soon moved to her bedroom, resting comfortably in a nest of pillows and hazy from some herbs Ghell had given her to dull the pain of his stitches. She was dozing when the door open and she opened her eyes to watch Durban quietly enter. She gave him a small smile, her dark gaze bleary.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t finish it for you.” She said softly. “I really tried.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"Yer a damn fool," Durban murmured, coming to sit at her side. He reached down to smooth her hair out and brush a few strands from her forehead. "Boar nearly went an' got his armor an' challenged Da outright without givin' 'im any time t'recover..."

 

[heartofcourage]

“Da wouldn’t take the challenge. It’s not honorable.” Selena said, her eyes closing as Durban smoothed her hair back from her forehead. “I suppose now I have nothing to say when it comes to Abel Dunland. Da will marry me off and that will be it. I just hope that Kayla can be saved from all of this. She’s too sweet to be married off to someone she doesn’t know.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"Don' give up hope, love... You lost, but I haven't." Durban sighed and rose to step around the bed to the empty side, where he laid down with his back to Selena. He seemed intent on being near, just in case. He blamed himself for not acting sooner.