Brenna's unending nightmare

Edmar woke to Brenna's screams. His eyes widened, and he gripped her hand.

"Brenna, wake up. Wake up!" He yelled, too overcome by fear to use her fake name.

Her screech broke, and she thrashed and curled in on herself. The pitch of her wails rose beyond what a human should be vocally capable of.

"No, no, no, no," He chanted. "Not her! Take me, not her! Stop it!"

His cries did no good, and soldiers suddenly ripped open the tent flaps, swords drawn to see what was happening.

"Help us! Help her!" Edmar cried, but the lamplight revealed only the two of them in the tent, and the soldiers were at a loss.

"Nightmares?" One blinked uncomprehendingly.

"HELP HER!" He begged.

"How?" The soldier stared with bewilderment. "What can we do?"

"Something! Do something!" Edmar gathered the thrashing woman into his arms, pinning her limbs to keep her from harming herself. She screamed again, nearly splitting his eardrums.

His heart broke at the way her face contorted in pain. He knew of the Void's ability to invade the dreams of its former followers, but he'd never seen it firsthand. It was torture. His mind was nearly blank with panic, his only desire to wake her so that her suffering might end.

"Brenna, Brenna please wake up!" He cried, barely feeling her kicks and flailing, though he would doubtless have bruises from it later. He didn't care. His only worry was her.

"GET HER OUT!" A commanding voice from outside the tent preceded the soldiers reaching in to drag Edmar and Brenna into the night.

He held tightly to her, unwilling to be parted, despite the rough handling he was enduring. They tried to pry him away from her, to no avail.

"LEAVE ME! LEAVE US!" He attempted to headbutt one who came too close. The man backed away, and three figures stood before him. He glanced up only briefly. 

Two, he recognized. Caspian, his brother, stared at him with an impassive expression, a wide array of emotion visible in the lamplight reflecting in his eyes.

Next to Caspian stood Roland, who Edmar only recognized because the two men stood side by side. He'd only seen the man briefly in Ceto.

With them was a boy with hair so red it looked almost to be part of the flame of a torch. The boy's eyes were on Brenna.

"Papa?" He glanced at Roland. The king nodded, fixing Edmar with a steady stare.

"Do not move, Edmar, or both your lives will be forfeit," He warned.

Edmar cared nothing for his own, but he couldn't risk Brenna's. He clenched his jaw as the child stepped forward, moving around him to place his hand on the woman's head.

She was foaming at the mouth, her screams garbled and terrifying, as if possessed, or being killed from the inside out. The boy closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

Brenna went limp in his arms.

"What have you done?" Edmar's voice cracked. "Have you killed her? Brenna, my love–"

He clutched her motionless form to his chest, as he sat on the ground cradling her in his lap.

"What has he done? What have they done to you?" He whimpered.

"Peace, Edmar," Caspian said calmly. "She breathes."

Blinking the searing hot tears away to clear his vision, Edmar desperately looked at his wife. "Please, please," He whispered, placing a finger under her nose.

A gentle breath stirred there, and he sighed. The child had backed away to stand by his father, and Edmar looked at the boy suspiciously.

"What have you done?" He demanded.

The child looked at Roland for permission to answer, but the king spoke for him. "The Void has been driven from Brenna's dreams. She is free from its influence unless she chooses to serve it again."

"Again? How did you know…?" Edmar shook his head, and Roland looked at him frankly.

"The Void would have no reason to torture its follower." The king glanced at his son. "Despite being under constant guard last time Brenna was in Klain's custody, she never exhibited such behavior. The primary question I have is 'where have you two been for the last ten years?'"

Edmar glanced between the trio, wishing Brenna were awake. She was very smart about when to deceive… but he saw no reason to now.

"When the war raged, The Void's necklace sort of broke. Tamas screamed and threw it to the ground, and it made a portal there. Brenna fell into it, and I dove in after her. It closed behind us, and for all this time we have been trapped in a world of grey stone and moss. Recently, portals began opening, and our world began disappearing. We went through a portal that I thought was into the misty world that Ceto visited, but we found ourselves here."

He wondered if that was too much information, if he should have kept his answer shorter. He added after a moment,

"We haven't seen or talked to the Void since that day… until Brenna's dream just now. We had decided not to serve it anymore, but to seek our own way."

Maybe they wouldn't kill Brenna if they knew that. Edmar could hope. He and Caspian had never had a particularly close brotherly bond, but it was the closest one Edmar had in his family. Perhaps there would be mercy. 

Roland was silent for a moment, his eyes calculating, unfocusing for a moment as if recalling some memory, matching Edmar's story against his recollection.

"And do you stand by your decision not to serve the Void any longer?" He asked at length.

"My only desire is to serve Brenna, to make her life happier." Edmar replied easily. "She does not wish to serve the Void, so neither do I."

Roland blinked for a moment. "This may be a strange question for you to answer, but are you still…" He paused.

"Enchanted by her herbs?" Edmar finished. "She says so. Well, said so. We have not talked of it in a long time. It upsets her to speak of. I love her. She will never be convinced my love is real, and looks sad when I tell her it is. So I show it instead."

Caspian and Roland looked surprised, while the child looked confused. Edmar hadn't had anyone but Brenna to open up to in so long, that he'd probably said far too much, but he found he couldn't help it. Talking about Brenna was his favorite thing, and she never had much patience for hearing how wonderful she was.

"She married me, in the town. Under fake names, of course, but I still think it was valid. She agreed to be my wife in front of the officiant." Edmar smiled. "She will come around."

"Ed, she's had ten years to come around. If she hasn't yet…" Caspian paused awkwardly.

"I don't expect you to understand," Edmar shook his head. "When you love someone, it doesn't matter how long it takes. You keep up hope."

Brenna began to stir, and Edmar helped her to sit up. She leaned heavily against him as if physically exhausted from exertion, and pulled her eyelids open.

"I had the strangest dream…" She began before spotting the newcomers, and the fact that they were outside. Blinking several times, she sat up and began to scramble backwards.

"Hello, Brenna," Roland's mouth twisted as he greeted the woman.

A mild jealousy stirred in Edmar as he remembered the story that once she had sought to marry the heir to the Rhone crown. It subsided when he saw the fear in her eyes. He shifted to hold her a little closer, ready to protect her if anyone should make a sudden move to hurt her.

"We're all right," He assured Brenna quietly. "I will protect you, no matter what. Tell me your dream."

His curiosity was intense after watching what had happened. Brenna glanced at him and paused for several moments before she looked around. Her eyes landed on the fiery-haired boy and her expression changed from disorientation into wonder. "You…"

He smiled. "Are you feeling better?"

Roland glanced at the boy with a guarded and protective expression. Caspian still watched Edmar, one hand on the sword at his side. Apparently he still thought of them as a threat.

"You… you drove it away," Brenna said to the child. "How?"

"Darkness cannot stand the light," The boy answered. "So I gave you my light to quench it and drive it out."

Her eyes widened as Roland hushed his son. Edmar watched as the boy knelt and looked into Brenna's face, ignoring his father for a moment. "You're better now. I don't think it can come back unless you invite it. Of course, it can be outside you, but not inside. Don't let it."

"I won't," Brenna whispered as tears streaked down her face. "I can't, ever again. I'll never let it back in."