Death After Death

Simon awoke from his troubled dreams shivering from the cold in the pre-dawn light. For a brief moment, he wasn't sure where he was. He dreamed that he'd been off to a war, against the orcs and... well, it had been a true nightmare. When he woke in the field, though, he breathed a sigh of relief that everything'd he'd experienced was a dream. It wasn't though, and as soon as he noticed he was in a graveyard and not some forest clearing surrounded by the tents of his men he remembered that.

Then everything came rushing back. His grief hadn't gone anywhere. It had merely ebbed for a moment, and now it was back with a vengeance. Even as he tried to cope with that pain, though, it was overwhelmed by something else. His desire to wring the neck of his wife's murderer. That need had invaded his dreams, too. That was what confused him. He’d fought barehanded through an entire army of orcs led by the Baron to keep him from getting his due.

Simon regretted letting her murderer escape, but that was only in retrospect. If those precious seconds had let him save her, then he would have counted himself among the luckiest men ever to live. It hadn’t been enough, though, so he was a fool for not leaving his Lord a body of his own to bury.

He doubted that Baron Raithewait would make what had to happen to his heir next very easy, but Simon wasn’t worried. Not only was Varten likely to pass away from the gut wound he already possessed in this primitive world like this, but there wasn’t a force in this world that could keep him from ripping the man’s head off with his bare hands. More than anything, Simon wanted to watch the light leave his eyes.

So, he rose and stretched and started walking back toward the North gate. It was there he found his way barred.

“I’m sorry, Simon, but I have orders from the Baron,” the night watch commander said, “He said that your services are no longer necessary and that you are free to depart in peace. He also gave me the order that if you try to force the issue, I’m to have you arrested and hanged without delay on the charge of assaulting his son and heir, Varten Raithewait.”

Simon stood there momentarily, considering the words and deciding how best to proceed, so the commander continued. “That can’t be true though, can it? You just saved the city, so there has to be some kind of mistake, right? Heat of battle? Something like that?”

The night watch commander was a good man. Simon had learned that much over the past week while they’d worked hand in gauntlet to prepare the city’s defenses. He had no wish to strike him down, but fortunately, he lacked a sword just now, which greatly reduced the temptation.

“Actually, it isn’t true,” Simon said, letting the other man breathe a sigh of relief before he continued loudly enough that everyone on watch near the gate could hear. “My wife stabbed that lowlife son of a bitch while he was trying to rape her. I just happened to interrupt.”