//------------------------------//
// Souvenirs Noirs 
// Story: Voyage 
// by Comrade Bagel Muffin 
//------------------------------//

Escutcheon paced back and forth in front of the fire place as noon came and went, and still no one came to get him for lunch. Despite the governess’s behavior toward them he didn’t think that she was the type that would ignore her guest, or a schedule. He sighed and sat down on his bed. His room was remarkably barren. He floated out his combing stick and started combing his mane, and then tail.
"You know there is an invention called a brush right?" Myrrh asked walking into the room. Red Wine was right behind her. She was floating a small tray of food with her.
"I've never seen him use a brush just that stick."
"Well it just feels right," he said blushing slightly as he put the stick back into his saddlebag. He sat up on his bed as the tray of food was put down in his lap. The door was closed behind them. Escutcheon looked between the two of them. "What's going on?" He asked. Red Wine and Myrrh looked at each other.
"Escutcheon, Myrrh told me that the discussion with Iron Clad didn't go well." Red Wine as he sat down on the bed next to Escutcheon.
"Yes." He looked down. "I thought, I was hoping that she'd see that the bats aren't a threat. But I think I just shut down anyway of making her come to see that."
"That's not what she thinks, and to be honest she wasn't going to see your point of view anyways." Myrrh said as she sat down next to him.
"Escutcheon there's something else that I want to ask you as well."
"Okay what?"
"While I was reading though your files that Professor Atlas's team brought to us before we arrested the three of you. I read multiple times about your traveling through Tivi, and beyond. They mentioned three odd things corresponding to three incidents of lights in the sky."
"Those were caused by him?" Myrrh sat up in genuine surprise.
"He's capable of casting spells despite wearing multiple restraint rings. So I don't doubt it a bit." Red Wine turned his attention back to Escutcheon. "In there reports one was on a mountain near the griffon settlement."
"Yeah it was an undying storm. It was where I got this sapphire from." He held a hoof up to the sapphire necklace. "I got my cutie mark by cutting it off. I met Dusk under the mountain." He smiled and the sapphire started to glow with a faint blue light. Red Wine nodded.
"And then there was the one in the desert where the bats came from, correct." He asked scratching his chin
"Yeah, it was connected to the Dragon that was using them as slaves."
"Connected." Myrrh asked.
"The gemstones are acting as spell anchors, they seem to form a manifestation, that can't exist independently from the gem itself. The dragon and the storm wolf thing vanished as soon as I cut off the gems.
"And there was a third one correct?" Red Wine asked. Escutcheon felt his heart stop and his blood go cold. He just looked down at the floor and nodded, and wrapped his hooves around him. Red Wine waited a bit for him to answer casting a glance to Myrrh before continuing when Escutcheon remained quiet. "And it was in the forest where the bats moved, if I recall correctly?" Escutcheon swallowed and shock his head side to side, realizing to late what this was about."
"Was it in Tivi?" Myrrh asked putting a hoof on his shoulder. He pulled away and shrank trying to make himself as small as possible.
"I don't want to talk about this." Escutcheon pulled back to the middle of the bed knocking his uneaten lunch onto the floor. He didn't notice, at the moment he didn't care. They both looked at each other. "I don't want to talk about this," he said again his breathing becoming erratic. Myrrh's horn lit up, and the room filled with a soft smell. Escutcheon's hyperventilating stopped, but the odd smell did nothing to help his fried nerves.
"I just want to make sure that you cut it off that everything in Tivi is safe." Red Wine said softly.
"I cut it off. I don't want to talk about this anymore." He felt Red Wine's hoof on his shoulder a second later he screamed and curled up. He hated himself crying like this. Hated how weak he felt. Hated how Myrrh told Red Wine.
"You're okay Escutcheon." He felt odd as Red Wine's horn lit up, a moment later he was drifting in and out of sleep and the two guard captains looked at each other.
"This colt's been though a lot. Whatever happened it's probably worse than I thought." Myrrh looked to him and then Red Wine.
"I'm glad you told me about this, and left the other out of it. Escutcheon will tell them when, or if, he's ever able to," Red Wine said.
"I'd like to travel with you. To make sure that he doesn't have to deal with searches again." Myrrh stood up and her horn lit up as she cleaned up the spilled lunch.
"Under normal circumstances I'd tell you to go buck youself-"
"Under normal circumstances I'd have punted you back to Tivi." Myrrh interrupted.
"But these aren't normal circumstances."
"No they are not." Myrrh said. "I'll join you tomorrow at the city gate to begin the track south to the capital." She got up and left Red Wine followed her out. closing the door on Escutcheon still curled up in a ball, crying as he drifted in and out of consciousness.