Sorpeli Week 2025 | Prompt: Silence/Voice
Opeli blew out the candle, plunging the infirmary into darkness once more. She took the moment of silence to close her eyes and take a deep breath. It had been a long day. The pearl was in Katolis. It felt like a horrible idea. But King Ezran had approved of it, and who was she to argue? She would simply have to be more vigilant. More attentive than she already was.
She’d never thought she’d agree with High Mage Callum. It was best if it was destroyed. But all of that could wait until the morning. Or so she hoped.
Opeli turned to go, but paused at the faint sound of fabric swishing, of boots on the hard stone floor. She rolled her eyes, leaning in the doorway as she waited for Soren to extricate himself from the tapestry, arms folded across her chest.
“Still?” she asked as he emerged from the secret passage, making him jump.
He gave her a sheepish smile, “Oh, hey, Opeli. Funny running into you here.”
She pushed off from the wall, going to reignite the candle. No rest for the weary, she supposed. “Two years and you still do this. Why not just walk through the front door?”
“Because it’s our little tradition.”
She turned, candle held before her, just in time to catch his wink. Her cheeks colored, but she caught herself quickly and shook the feeling off. He was like that with everyone.
“And what is it this time?” she asked, going to rifle through the cupboards. It was always something with him. Usually left untreated far too long, no matter how many times she scolded him for it. She’d noticed the bruises and scarcely closed cuts when he returned with the others, but wouldn’t have been surprised if there was something else, too. Hidden just below the surface.
“I, uh, got a little bit beat up on our last mission,” Soren admitted, taking his usual seat on the cot. Opeli shook her head. That was an understatement.
“Angered a dragon? Fought an army by yourself? Got in a quarrel with a giant glow toad?” she guessed, placing the salves and bandages she’d need beside him on the bed.
He chuckled, “Pirates, actually.”
“But you weren’t too far off with that last one! Except we liberated the glow toads and that, uhm, angered the pirates.”
Opeli sighed, “Of course it did.”
“But!” Soren held up a finger, “We made a new friend, and that’s what really matters.”
“I suppose.” Opeli dabbed a bit of antiseptic onto a cut on the side of his face and he winced.
“Do you want me to help or not?”
He sighed, holding still as she cleaned the cuts. She narrowed her eyes. There appeared to be bits of wood and bark in some of them. “Pirates, you say?” she asked, carefully dislodging the detritus. “Are you sure you didn’t run into a tree?”
“Oh, so the pirates had this big-” Soren held his arms out for emphasis, nearly knocking over a nearby bottle of salve “-tree dude. His name’s Elmer. We’re friends now. But at first he was kind of choking Callum-”
“What!?” Opeli stared at him, eyes widening.
“-so I tried to be like ‘you don’t have to do that’” Soren continued, voice dropping as he delivered his own line, as though he thought he sounded tougher than he did, “but then the pirate captain guy, he was a jerk, he had Elmer beat me up and-”
“Soren, were you all captured?”
“Oh, um, yeah. Wasn’t that obvious?”
Opeli took in a sharp breath, looking over the injuries again. It was far more obvious now why she’d never seen him look quite like this. He had been defenseless. He could have-
“Soren, you could have died,” she practically whispered it.
“I mean, I could die any day,” Soren pointed out. “But I didn’t.”
“You were captured and- and tortured.”
Soren winced, “Tortured is a strong word.”
“But it’s accurate.” Opeli stared at him, “Soren, are you all right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” he gave her a weary smile. “Sorry if I stressed you out.”
“No, that’s-” she pinched the bridge of her nose, brow furrowing. “That’s not the concern here. The point is that you were hurt, that you were in danger-”
“Opeli.” Soren’s voice was gentle, and he placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him. He gave her a half smile, “I’ve had worse, and I’m fine. Really. I’m Captain of the Crownguard. It’s sort of in the job description.”
Opeli opened her mouth to object, but closed it again, realizing he was right. She didn’t know what had come over her.
“But, uh, could you maybe get on to the part that makes the cuts feel better and not worse?”
“Yes. Yes, of course.” Opeli shook her head, beginning to dab on the salve and placing bandages over the worst spots. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry,” he leaned back on his hands, watching her. She tried not to meet his eyes. The ones that always seemed to see right through her. “Can I say something kind of weird?”
“When has that stopped you?”
He chuckled, “It was sort of nice that you were worried.”
She did meet his eyes, then. A little surprised. He gave her an awkward smile, glancing away.
“That was probably too weird to say, sorry.”
“It’s not weird to want people to care about you,” she told him, placing a bandage over a large cut on his nose. He was lucky it wasn’t broken. Again. “Everyone deserves to have people in their life who care.”
“Well, thanks for being one of those people, I guess.” Soren scratched the back of his head, gaze still averted. “I think. If you’re not then that’s also fi-”
“Mhm.” Opeli finished and pushed herself back to her feet, going to put away the salves and what things she hadn’t used. She turned back to him, brushing the residual herbs off her hands. “I’m going to go and get something from the apothecary. I’ll be right back.”
“For the swelling,” she explained. “I’ll just be a moment.”
He nodded and she swept from the room, leaving the candle with him. The halls were dark and quiet, inhabited only by the soft sound of her footsteps and her own thoughts. Opeli didn’t understand how Soren could be so nonchalant about what had happened. What he and the others had clearly been through. Getting captured by pirates and attacked by a living tree was not in the job description of a knight. Not even a knight captain.
She paused, hovering in the doorway of the apothecary. Opeli realized that she would, perhaps, like if he were not a knight. If their meetings could be in the library, discussing poetry, rather than in the infirmary, tending wounds. If when he told her a story it could be funny instead of sad. If he did not view capture and torture and injury as a normal part of life. If he and death were not so familiar.
She knew, also, that if she were to mention to him that he should try taking a step back, he would consider it. That a word from her to King Ezran would be enough to get him stationed at the castle while his wounds healed, rather than running off on more adventures. Rather than getting hurt again while his last injuries still had yet to close over.
Opeli shook her head, letting the apothecary door swing shut behind her. It was not her place to intercede. And it didn’t make sense, anyway. Not when he was the best Captain of the Crownguard that King Ezran could ask for. Not when their king was far safer with Soren at his side than anyone else. She could have excused stepping in if it was rooted in some sort of incompetence or shortcoming, but not when it was merely based in worry. And why should she worry, anyway?
That question she did have an answer to, at least. She had just told Soren that she was one of the people who cared for him. And that was true. She pondered, also, the fact she had had to tell him that. That he hadn’t thought it a given there would be people who cared for him.
Pushing the thoughts from her mind, she gathered what she had come for, bundling all the little herbs together before making her way quietly back to the infirmary. She would say nothing, she decided, other than perhaps urging Soren to be more careful. That was all she could do.
Voices slowly became audible as she approached the open door of the infirmary and her steps slowed.
“-be more careful, okay?”
“I know, Corvus. I will be.”
Corvus. Opeli had known she recognized the other voice. She came to a halt just shy of the doorway, watching as the other guard brushed the hair out of Soren’s face, inspecting her handiwork.
“It doesn’t look too bad.”
“You’re not fine, Soren.” Corvus scolded, “You could have died.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that? I didn’t, did I?”
Corvus sighed, “No. I guess you didn’t. I’m really glad you didn’t.”
Soren smiled at him, scooting over on the cot so that his and Corvus’ shoulders touched. Opeli set her bundle of herbs on the small table beside the door and crept away, not wanting to disturb them. She was happy Soren had more people that cared for him. Someone who could make him happy.
She swallowed any concerns she might have had. Corvus would see to it that he was safe. That he was taken care of. She cleared her mind of any half formed feelings that might have been forming there, at the corners of her thoughts. They were as nonsensical as her idea of asking Soren to retire from the guard.
Silly thoughts had in the dead of night. She just needed to sleep.
