Artemis suddenly felt the depths of his stomach burst with hunger, a rumble that echoed a beast's roar sounding out into the empty ruined hall.
Ruffliette looked rather entertained when hearing this. Even though he had fought such inhuman monsters, even almost becoming one himself, he was still human…
"How long has it been since you've eaten, Maester Artemis?"
His brows furrowed, a little embarassed as he replied coyly, "I… ah…"
He couldn't quite recall how long it had been. He had some vague sense that it had been days since he had requested that his attendants bring him food and wine, but that couldn't possibly be right. Even though he had certainly been buried in his studies and training in preparation for August's return, he couldn't have gone that long without noticing his own hunger and requesting that food be brought to him.
So why couldn't he remember eating?
"It's been… quite some time."
His eyes sunk to the loamy soil below, contemplative.
"It's alright, I'll make you something. There's many things that observing your surroundings are good for, but if there's one true benefit to it all… you know what you can use to make a meal."
That was a point he hadn't considered. Of course, it was true that foraging was a natural tool for humanity, it was what they had built entire societies upon. But he had viewed this woman as a… bookish hermit. In reality, he shouldn't have judged her so shallowly, there was far more to her than he could imagine with his impish brain.
She was a survivor.
"We shouldn't wander too far out… if that 'light' is close by, it would be best to shelter ourselves here. What point is there to this? Don't worry too much about it." He waved his hand dismissively.
He really did want to eat, desperately so. But there was no point in risking their lives, especially hers, just to gather food. He wasn't ravenous. He could stand this much.
But to his surprise, his worries were met with a curt laugh.
"Go far? There's food no more than two steps away, Maester."
Ruffliette reached into her yellow cloak, procuring a small stone dagger from an interior pocket before walking over to the edge of the ruined hall. In her other hand, she carried a small sheet of parchment taken from her journal, which she bunched up into a wrinkled mess before raising her blade.
She ran the sharpest point of the jagged dagger along the length of the damp ruined wall, carving away a sheet of thick, insipid moss before dropping it into her handful of parchment. Measuring Artemis's nervous expression, she casually answered, "this is a tasteless moss. It's hardly poisonous… if… you don't eat a lot of it. Boiled… it will be fine. It's filling, even if made into a simple tea. Besides, you can't drink the water here without boiling it first, so you might as well make something like this…"
What? Poisonous moss…? Did I actually pick up a stray lunatic?
His head spun with countless thoughts as he watched her proceed with searching the dilapidated cupboards to the side, pulling out a set of harsh, charred cookware from within.
"I stored some things here on my last run through the city." She smiled eagerly. "They kept well, didn't they?"
I wouldn't say that, exactly… they… kept their shape, at least…
"The cookware, it's made of clay, so I can heat it up well enough…"
"You seem like you're prepared for anything." He mused. "You said you left it here on your last run… what does that entail exactly?"
"This isn't my first time through this city. It isn't my second, either. I've certainly learned things doing so."
She was able to survive getting through the ruined city so many times, despite all the monsters that seem to populate it?
I suppose with her size… she might be able to hide effectively. Not to mention her adamant observation skills. It's no doubt that she's able to navigate this place quite well. It's definitely a testament to her skill!
Perhaps she's a very crazy woman, but also a very useful one.
Although, thinking of her like that is a little odd, perhaps even rude…
"You're worried about something, aren't you? You always lose yourself in thought like that. What are you thinking of when you do that?"
She spoke to him from the side as she filled one of the vessels with water, collecting twigs and grass into a pile before striking a stone with the blunt of her knife, sending a hail sparks crashing into the pile before becoming a torrent of flames.
"Maybe you'll think it strange… but I came to this city very suddenly-"
She interrupted, shaking her head as she added the moss into the slowly-heating vessel.
"I don't think that strange at all. Isn't this city far weirder than anything we could think of ourselves? You came to me quite suddenly, saved me in an instant. I'd believe you if you said you were a genie who came to grant my wishes… if that's the case, I would wish for some meat. I'm a little tired of foraged greens..." She smiled in an amused fashion as she scooped up a large spoonful of jade-green liquid into one of the clay cups.
"I don't really know what a genie is…"
She shook her head, handing the cup over to Artemis. "Never mind it, it's just a joke. You were saying?"
For a time, he talked about the place he came from, he wasn't quite sure that Ruffliette was too familiar with the Blackbaast. After all, she seemed far unfamiliar with it when he had spoken of it before. He talked about his father, who brought him up to be a guard-dog, leaving him uncertain of his origin. How he despised this Witch-King, the man he had to call father, even though he had no clue why he was raised under his name.
How he thought that maybe this cursed city was a fitting place for him to end up despite it all.
Even though they were effectively strangers, it all came pouring out of him. Perhaps it was because he had some idea that telling her these things wouldn't matter, that after the fact, they would never meet again. Maybe it was because they had grown close after having saved her life that she felt he could trust her, or even that after two years of being a recluse, he was eager to dump himself onto the first person he met afterwards.
But no matter the reason, he felt comfortable sharing this aspect of his life with her, so selfishly explaining his troubles to some who had no reason to care at all.
Then again, she had asked why he was worried. So maybe it was her fault anyway.
He took a sip of the steaming liquid. It was quite bitter at first, but a broad sweetness emerged soon afterwards, like the hint of the very first sight of spring in a new year. Cold, light, and airy, it was reverie past the sting of the earth.
This warmth, in the cold… it made his hands shake. Laughable, wasn't it?
Even something as small as this is a blessing in this cursed city…
Will I be forced to re-examine my system of values after this event, like some odd novel character?
"I have a brother, someone who's… quite far away now. Someone I care for… but…" he pursed his lips, contemplating the man who had grown up alongside him. This was someone who had only ever showed him immense kindness. Sure, at times he had a sharp tongue and a wit that could do more harm than good, but he was the gentlest soul that Artemis had ever come to know. He knew that August knew that they were not related by blood, it was far too obvious. But he still treated him like it anyway. And now it was something laughable, something that made him feverish with guilt. "He was someone I could only think of in recent times as an obstacle. An obstacle to me. I wasn't excited to see him return because he was my brother, I was excited to see him return so that I could lash out at him with my blade and spill his blood. Not to kill him, but… oh, only because I was terrified of him. Of his shadow he cast over me. I didn't despise him, but who he was, that I wasn't…"
He suddenly realised what he had said aloud. And so he felt nauseous, terrible, vile.
Because he was certain that he was the worst younger brother that had ever been cast into the hands of the world.
"Do you wish to leave this city? To get back to him? Is this the worry that plagues you, that causes you to lose yourself in thought so often?"
Artemis nodded his head solemnly.
"I'm worried that when he returns, he'll discover that I'm missing, and cause a frenzy in his panic…"
Indeed, what if it turned out to be the case that August went to speak with him after returning, and ended up finding that he had disappeared, whisked away to the otherworld without so much as an inkling of his whereabouts? Certainly, his father wouldn't care, but August…
"That's not the whole truth, is it?"
He stopped sipping on the moss tea, glancing over towards Ruffliette out of the corner of his eye. She hadn't bothered to pay him mind enough to meet his gaze, but she had been listening quite intently. And so she echoed his fear. Blatantly, without masking it in kindness. Because she saw through him like grass, a constant and masterful observer to her core.
His lip quivered slightly, a bitter smile painted onto his face as he responded, "no, you're right."
It wasn't exactly a lie, it was a hope. A belief that it was the way that events would turn, the path that Fate would take once he had been discovered missing.
Because the far more terrifying alternative was that August did not care that he was missing at all. Because of the way they had left things, fractured, broken. He always operated under the impression that above all bonds, brotherhood was the most unbreakable thing that a person could experience.
But what if it wasn't?
And that shaking of his belief made him truly afraid.
So he had to make it out of the city. He had to return home.
He had to fix things with August.