(Untitled)

[white_flowers]

She walks silently away from them all as the last light fades from the sky.

(This one has her life and her potential. What do you have now, White Rider?)

She knows the answer, and it is bitter as ash on her tongue.

She has nothing. Not even her oldest name.

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[theravenboy]

After all that, the woman once known as Blodwen Rowlands lives. Seeing her, Bran turns away, almost angrily, from the men and women fighting on the side of Light.

(I would have killed her. And murder is a sin, boy.)

(I wish you had. I wish I had.)

(Do not say that.)

(Oh, it is all right. I could not have killed her anyway. Immortal, and all that.)

Bran takes four steps towards the woman and stops, staring at her departing back.

[white_flowers]

It may well have been the sound of footsteps on the ground behind her that caught her attention, for in truth she has not yet gone far.

In any case, she hesitates, then turns.

Blue eyes meet golden ones. She says nothing.

[theravenboy]

The senses that Bran uses to recognize Light and Darkness, perhaps damaged in the last strike against the Dark, say nothing at all about the woman before him. Bran's mortal eyes tell him that something has happened to her, at any rate. She is Blodwen Rowlands, and she is not.

Flatly, without very much lilt in his voice at all, Bran says, "Now what?"

[white_flowers]

"A good question it is, I do suppose," she replies.

The light soft voice, at least, is familiar.

"Do you mean to kill me, then?"

[theravenboy]

Bran has a list in his head of things the White Rider has done. It is not short.

At the top of the list, and again at the bottom, Bran thinks of Guinevere, alone with an infant in Owen Davies' cottage when Caradog Prichard came to the door. Once he dreamed of her with her black hair blown in knots and her gown falling off of her shoulder.

Guinevere has gone on to the silver-circled castle at the back of the North Wind. She does not need Bran to avenge her now.

Bran wraps his right hand around Caliburn's hilt. His palm burns. He lets go of the sword.

"No."

[white_flowers]

"A pity, that."

Each soft word is bitterly clear.

She turns from him once more, evidently meaning to start away again.

[theravenboy]

"I cannot say I feel sorry for you," Bran says to her back.

[white_flowers]

"I would not expect you to feel anything for me," she snaps back at him, whirling to face him once more. "Clear enough you made it, long ago."

"And I do not want your pity."

[theravenboy]

Coldly, "Good."

Bran turns away, walking shakily towards the bar. The fact that he dares have his back to her speaks of his disdain for the woman who was once the White Rider.

[white_flowers]

There is no sound from behind him.

She watches in silence as he leaves, his white hair gleaming in the twilight as brightly as the hilt of the sword at his side.

Only after the door of the bar shuts behind him does she turn away again, heading into the deepening shadows of the forest.