A Dyad of Dunces

            It had been six days since two kingdoms fell around them. The Lady and the Brute could only listen from their cell within the castle walls as opposing armies ripped each other to pieces. The invasion came swiftly, whereas the moans of the dying lasted far too long after the battle was finished.

            Neither the Lady nor the Brute were certain that it was safe to leave their cell until the day after the killing ended. It wasn’t until the fourth day that they gave up on trying to escape. After the invading forces made their way into the stronghold, the Lady made her way through the labyrinth of halls deep beneath the inner fortifications, knowing that if escape weren’t an option, she could at least seal herself away in one of the former regent’s secret cells.

            What she hadn’t expected was for a lone Brute to rush down the same hall with the same thought in his mind. Even if she had, she certainly wouldn’t have expected him to sweep her up and bring her with him.

It was exhilarating in the moment. It was terrifying in the moments after.

            Thankfully, the Brute was not a dishonorable or desperate man. If anything, he was the best company the Lady could have asked for, apart from anyone more competent with locks. He was stronger than most, yet even he was not strong enough to rip an iron door from the stone fortress walls.

            Then again, if the Brute had proven to be like so many other men on either side of the war that now rotted away just outside their cell. The Lady was certain she would have no problem cutting him down. Everyone had always underestimated her, which is exactly how the Lady made her way into the royal court in the first place. Tragically, her cunning, like the Brute’s strength, was not a match for a lock with a broken key in it and a lack of resources.

            For a time, the Brute and the Lady both believed they would be found. That someone would come to clear out the bodies and claim what remained. Hope waned on the fifth day, leading to an intense conversation which neither of them seemed capable of moving past.

            It ate at them both, albeit in different ways. While the Brute sulked in silence, the Lady seethed, replaying the moments leading up to their shared captivity and everything that had happened since ad nauseum.

            Still, the Lady was determined that she would not die there. Her mind raced, spiraling into doubt as she paced from one end of the cell to the other. It was all she could think.

I will not die in this damned cell.

Someone will come.

Someone will find me.

Someone WILL find me.

“Us,” the Brute said, almost in a whisper. “Someone will find us.”

The Lady stopped in her tracks and turned her head to the corner the Brute had been sitting in for the past few hours. “What?”

“Someone’s not going to find you. Someone is going to find us,” the Brute replied, his deep, gentle voice subtly cracking from thirst.

“What?” the Lady asked again.

“You said-“
“I know what I thought,” the Lady shot back. “Why did you say what you said?”

“You didn’t say it, but you think real loud.”

The Brute’s response came as if it were supposed to make sense, but the Lady could only stare in wonder at the turn things were taking.

“What do you mean-“ the Lady began.

“You think real loud, Lady. It was fine when you were sad, but now you’re something else, and you get loud in your head when you start feeling something else.”

The Lady’s eyes widened further than they had in here entire life. And, for just a moment, her heart fluttered with hope.

“Brute, are you Attuned?”

“No?”

The Lady’s gaze narrowed. The Brute could only stare back with that not-quite-blank gaze she had unwittingly grown so accustomed to during their time together. It wasn’t a dumb gaze, even if the Brute was a bit of a dumb man.

“I’m not dumb,” the Brute scoffed. “I just don’t know a lot about a lot of things. And that’s rude to say about someone even if you do think they’re pretty.”

The Lady stepped back. “I didn’t say anything! How are you in my head right now?”

The Brute pushed back his soft brown bangs and uncovered an ornate gold headband adorned with ancient runes that the Lady only half recognized. The Lady’s heart fluttered again when he did.

The Brute quickly dropped his hair back where it was and shifted slightly, pulling his thighs together awkwardly. “It gets louder if it I don’t cover it.”

The Lady let out her first chuckle since the third day. “Brute… Are you wearing a magic headband?”

The Brute averted his gaze as the Lady leaned over towards him.

“Brute. I am Attuned. If you give me the headband, I can call for help. We can leave this place, and we don’t have to starve to death under a mountain of dead bodies.”

The Brute did not look back, instead only shuffling where he sat against the stone wall.

“BRUTE!”

The Brute’s eyes shot over the cell, then up to the Lady’s eyeline.

“Okay, but first… I think you’re real pretty, too, and if I give you this, you’re gonna know that.”

“Brute,” the Lady whispered as she leaned in closer. “Give me the fucking headband, and I promise I won’t care what you think of me.”

The Brute looked up at the Lady, her green eyes beaming back at him. He had never seen something so wondrous, nor had he ever tried so hard to keep looking at something in all his days. Carefully, with both hands, the Brute freed the headband from its resting place before gently placing it atop the Lady’s crown.

Again, the Lady’s heart fluttered. Again, it was not hope.