Sarah's Story Chapter 005 - Oath

Sarah sat down at the dinner table with her parents and was struck by how different everything felt. Her father was sitting next to her mother, close enough to bump elbows with her. Normally they sat across from each other.

And James was missing.

How could a house feel so much emptier with just one fewer person?

Her mother mechanically moved food from her plate to her mouth at a slow and steady pace as Stephen spoke to Sarah.

The search in the forest had ended. After a thorough investigation, they had traced the tracks of the presumed kidnapper to a road leading out of the barony and beyond the kingdom’s borders.

Stephen continued that the Baron was committed to finding James, but that he had limited resources and power outside his barony, and that the odds were slim. A petition had been sent to the King, as well as a request with the Adventurer’s Guild, but there was no telling when, or if, either would result in James’ return.

Sarah ate numbly, hardly tasting the food as her father wrapped up by telling her that the Baron could still tell that James was alive, he just couldn’t tell where.

Helen had finished the food on her plate and now just sat next to her husband, head down, hands in her lap.

Sarah put her fork down as well, and looked at her parents across the table.

“I’m going to find James,” she declared.

“No!” Her mother’s head whipped up. “You can’t!” she shouted. She started to rise from her seat but Stephen clamped a hand over her mouth and pushed her back down into her seat.

“Helen, let her finish.” he said soothingly. “We’re here to talk this out. Nobody’s rushing off right this second. Right?” This last question he directed to Sarah with a raised eyebrow.

Sarah nodded. “Yeah, I know. I can’t, not without my classes.”

Stephen nodded, but Helen remained agitated. He took a deep breath and said “So, what do you mean, exactly, that you’re ‘going to find James’?”

He could feel Helen tense under his hands.

“I mean I’m going to train and study and get my classes, and then if nobody has found James by then, I’m going to go and find him and bring him home.” Her gaze bounced back and forth between her father’s expression of forced calm and her mother’s barely contained wild desperation.

She saw her father’s eyebrows furrow and her mother pause as she processed what Sarah had said. Her father kept his hand over her mother’s mouth as he responded.

“So, to be clear, you’re not planning to race off on your own chasing after James tonight, or tomorrow, or any time soon, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.” A hint of bitterness crept into Sarah’s tone, but she pushed the emotion down. It wouldn’t be helpful, because she was about to make a request. “It wouldn’t do any good anyway, a classless girl chasing after a kidnapper, even if I knew where he was. So…”

She took a deep breath, and turned to face her mother.

“Mom…” she started, hesitated, and then took the plunge. “Please teach me how to fight. How to really fight. I want to go and get James and I don’t want anyone to be able to stop me.”

Her parents froze for a moment, and then Stephen looked at Helen’s face, noting the receding tension. He took his hand off her mouth, and stopped pushing her into the chair, and she sat – not calmly – but with poise.

And she continued to sit for a minute, gazing into her daughter’s eyes, measuring the determination within them.

Appreciating that her little girl had just grown up, all at once, right before her eyes.

She thought for another moment, and then slowly nodded.

“I will… but only if you swear two oaths.”

“Okay.” Sarah’s reply came quick. Too quick, Stephen thought.

“I haven’t told you what they are yet.”

“Well what are they, then.” Sarah retorted impatiently.

“First, swear to me that for your first class, you will choose Brawler.” Helen stared piercingly into Sarah’s.

“Okay, that was my plan anyway.” Sarah replied seriously but simply.

Stephen’s lips parted like he was going to stay something, but he stopped and remained silent.

“Second, swear to me that before you choose your second class, you will hold off on the decision, confirm with me that you chose Brawler, and consult with me on what to choose next.”

This time, Stephen did speak. “Helen, there’s no way to enforce that, even if she-”

“Fine.” Sarah interrupted. “I’ll choose Brawler as my first class, I’ll show you that I have, and I’ll consult with you before I choose my second. I swear it.”

Stephen sighed, but Sarah’s resolve was clear.

There was no chance of changing her mind, at least not tonight, at this dinner table.

Sarah continued. “And I want to start immediately, not just when I’ve chosen my cl-”

There was a sharp sound and a gust of wind caressed Sarah’s face, and she blinked and finally perceived her mother’s hand an inch from her face, with her father’s hand wrapped around her mother’s wrist, holding her back. Far, far too late, she flinched back and nearly fell out of her chair.

“That,” Stephen said, pushing Helen back into her chair, “will not happen.” He summoned all his authority as the head of the house as he made his declaration. Sarah’s heart sank, and Helen turned her head towards his with a frown on her face.

Stephen met his wife’s gaze. “Helen,” he said gently, “you are far too strong to train anyone unclassed, and you owe the Baron training for his knights. Focus on that, and on not injuring them so bad they need potions.”

He then turned to Sarah. “I will train you until your Class Choosing Day. I know your mother’s the best Brawler there is, but I hope you can settle for the second best until you get your class.” He smiled at her in that slightly awkward way fathers do with their daughters.

Sarah hardly noticed as her heart pounded and adrenaline raced through her, fading slowly now that the threat was gone. She gulped, and nodded. “Uh, y-yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Thanks Dad.”

Helen cleared her throat and pouted a little. “Fine, I suppose I will be a little too busy to give Sarah my full attention. Stephen, you train her in the meantime.” She said, as though it was her own decision all along. She then stood up and quickly gathered the plates and tableware and carried them to the kitchen.

Sarah and her father remained in the kitchen and started discussing what kind of training Sarah would do before she got her classes, and Sarah found herself momentarily distracted at the sight of her mother standing still over the sink, shoulders trembling, silently weeping.

Sarah made one more oath that night – silently, to herself: I’m going to become the strongest Brawler ever, and I’m going to find my brother.