Distress: Day 11

Word Count: 66,031

Summary of Events:

Olwyn discovered only two of the medical books she'd found talked about non-superstitious medicine and gave her a list of supplies to look for. She had much time to do the hunting because the Queen, among others, was spending extra hours every day worshipping at the temple within the fortress — worship that Olwyn found highly disturbing and was grateful to hide away from. She had only a few supplies left to gather when the Queen, her warriors, half of her ladies in waiting, and a large number of supply wagons departed, which Olwyn watched from a window . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Exiting the room, Olwyn made her way to a door she’d found that exited onto the rampart of the courtyard, seeking a clearer view than the window she’d been looking through afforded her.

Since she could see the grey and blue tents of the encampment about the city, Olwyn suspected that she would be able to see the Queen and her warriors depart from Wygþmynd, and wanted to see how visible it might be to the camp, as it had seemed odd to her to hear that the reason no siege had happened was because of the fact that it was so notoriously difficult to determine when the Queen was within her fortress or not.

Knowing that it didn’t take long — especially not at a good speed — to hurry from the main gate of Wygþmynd to the main gate of Sæbyrgealh, Olwyn was sure that the same would be true in reverse, but Olwyn felt like she was waiting forever before finally she saw what looked to be some horses striking out across the decently flat grassland that surrounded Wygþmynd on every side but to the northwest, where a large, thick, dark wood loomed.

The horses were striking out west, but as Olwyn focused on them she realised that they were the supply wagons, which were plodding on a bit more slowly than the rest of the party had departed.

Olwyn watched them until the end of their line appeared. All that she could see was supply wagons, none of the warriors, and most certainly not the Queen. It was as if they had all disappeared.

Immediately upon thinking such Olwyn was struck by the realisation: that had to be what had happened. Some magic had made the Queen and her warriors invisible, leaving them at the front of the party, but unseen by the hordes encamped around the city and ready to attack.

No wonder nobody knew when the Queen was around, she used magic — probably by the aid of a druid — to disguise her comings and goings and keep her enemies from knowing where she was, a strategic manoeuvre to keep her capital from being taken.

Olwyn felt a little disappointed to think that no one at the encampment had suspected that the Queen might use some magic to disguise her comings and goings, seeing how the idea that she had some sort of malevolent magic force aiding her was such a pervasive theme in much of what Olwyn had heard over the years.

And if they suspected magic, surely even Uncle Elaþa could get a druid to undo the magic or allow him to overcome the magic and see who was being hidden and be able to plan an attack so that the Queen would lose her capital and even potentially her own life.