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Post by Malanara on May 9, 2014 7:40:06 GMT -8
The clop of hooves had been droning on for hours as they rode through Pendrakkan. The gentle rolling hills and fields were punctuated by swaths of forest and it was in those forests that bandits plied their trade to rid travelers of their coin. The last rabble looked barely old enough to wield the swords they carried and Mala suspected that they were given this task to win entrance into a thieves guild.
Bad luck.
They shouted at Viktor, since outside of Ishtar, men held power, which was fine with her as it allowed her to channel herself and release a wave of fire, burning the first three in the clearing. Smoke began to pour from Vasili's nostrils and fire shown in his eyes. The other two, frightened to be so close to a nightmare, dragged the injured ones out of the way as Mala nudged her horse forward, muttering curses at the foolish youth as the Ishtari left them to their failure.
The sun was dipping down low over the horizon as they came upon a clearing in the woods and she reined in Vasili, looking over at Viktor, her heavily accented voice barking an order to him in Arkspiel.
"It grows late. We camp here."
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 9, 2014 8:35:11 GMT -8
Viktor ordinarily may have taken offense to her tone, was he not lost in his own thoughts. Soon he would once again sleep in his own house, given to him out of respect for his knighthood by the Luccari. Wordlessly he stopped his horse and dismounted, removing the hammer that marked his pact from the saddle and slipping it into its loop on his belt. He quietly spoke an order to her in his own accented ark-spiel, seeming to fuss a bit with his beard while he did so.
"Build a firepit, da? I will go for wood."
He walked off silently into the woods to find some decent kindling. He was excited that he would soon be in Freehold once again.
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Post by Malanara on May 9, 2014 9:01:06 GMT -8
It did not take long to clear an area and set up some stones to mark the edges and corral the embers. Her task completed she turned her attention to pulling off the saddles and tending the horses. While Viktor was adept at stripping his own mount, Vasili never let any but Mala touch him. With the saddle off, she pulled out his brushes and smoothed down the black stallion. She was lost in the small tasks trying desperately not to think about the deepest fears that had been growing stronger since the moment his matriarch issued the order.
Tenebrous. The Vault.
She ran away.
Again.
Did she ever do anything but?
Angry with herself and angry at the fear, she finished grooming Vasili and dropped the brushes back into her pack. She knew she should eat, but she wasn't hungry.
Something else Viktor said today stuck with her. He mentioned friends long past of who spoke of her to him. Would they still be there? Would she see them? Was Viktor truly a creature of his matriarch?
The closer they got, the more he relaxed and the moodier she got.
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 9, 2014 9:25:48 GMT -8
Viktor returned with an armful of firewood. Wordlessly he knelt beside the firepit, arranging the wood just so, before muttering an incantation to himself and forcing the wood to combust into fiery life. He smiled and began to look through his pack for food.
"Malanara, what shall we eat?"
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Post by Malanara on May 9, 2014 10:54:25 GMT -8
"There are rations in my pack, if you grow tired of yours. I am unwell."
She didn't bother to elaborate, merely turning her back to him and unpacking her bedroll. She wanted to be asleep already, in dreams she could be free of this nagging anxiety and fear. She paused in her preparations, sitting back on her haunches, her long hair free of the veil that she normally wore. Her chestnut locks were well down past her shoulders now, and she longed to be clad in something other than the trappings of her lowered station.
Her bright turquoise tunic was in her bag. It would be helpful to pass a someone right now. But she saved it. Viktor did not know it was in her things, that she carried disguises with her. Instead, she garbed herself in the trimmings of her people. And felt soured for it. She looked over her shoulder.
"How is it that your burdens seem to lessen as we draw closer to Freehold and mine seem to grow?"
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 9, 2014 11:29:49 GMT -8
Viktor shrugged and produced rice, beans, and cured sausage from his pack, enough for both of them. He would command her to eat if he must. He started to cook with water from his skin, remembering he would need to refill it in the morning. At her question he chuckled, lighting an alchemy stick from a small twig he dipped in the flame. As he exhaled, he began to relax from the road, and turned toward her.
"How is it yours grow? Our business is there, and your task will be half completed when we arrive. One would think you would be pleased."
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Post by Malanara on May 9, 2014 15:13:09 GMT -8
She shook her head, finishing laying out her bedroll, the saddle blanket from Vasili folded up for a pillow.
"No, your business lies there. My business lies where Ilyana tells me it is. And my task is only a third complete when we get there. Safeguard you to Freehold, protect you there and then make sure you return home. And if it is anything like I remember, the front lines of the war are safer than Freehold on a Friday night."
She chortled at the jest, but she eased down against her saddle and packs, watching him cook. Their dynamic was an interesting one. He was born Ashurai, but he was male. She was Kshatriya, but she was punished. Each assumed they were higher in the social caste system than the other but neither could openly question who was in charge yet they both answered to the same Matriarch; Ilyana.
The pot was bubbling and her stomach growled at the scent of the food but the thought of eating still vanished on her tongue like melting snow. She decided to take a page from his book, speaking to him loosely for the first time since they they left Ashragrad.
"What is your business in Freehold so pressing that you would travel for a month to get there?"
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 9, 2014 16:40:23 GMT -8
Viktor smiled as the food finished cooking and Malanara asked her question. He spooned some out for both of them, walking over to where Malanara was laying, pressing the bowl of food toward her.
"My business is for those who follow the goddess along the left-hand path. Suffice to say it is of sufficient importance to warrant releasing me from the front lines for a time. There must be some one you look forward to seeing once again."
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Post by Malanara on May 9, 2014 16:53:03 GMT -8
If there was a spark of remembrance in her eyes, it quickly flared out and died. She shook her head, lying to him as she decided to busy herself with tending her blade.
"No. I was not very close with anyone in town. I am sure those who remember me only do so to make conversation with you. I was an outcast there as I am now. But what of you? You are far more congenial than I. Who waits to greet you warmly?"
With whetstone and a small amount of oil, she began to work the edge and grind it to deadly precision. She kept her eyes on her scimitar, lest they betray her to his judgment.
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 9, 2014 17:26:17 GMT -8
Viktor was not dissuaded by her apathy toward food and his expression grew stern.
"Must I command you to eat? You've barely touched food on this journey."
He put the bowl down right beside her, his tone and expression brooking no argument. He went over to his bowl and sat crosslegged on the soft ground.
"As for who awaits me, I have friends and allies, and my colleagues in the cabal. I am sure my good comrade Elias will be very glad to see you, he spoke of you often."
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Post by Malanara on May 9, 2014 17:43:52 GMT -8
"That is curious. Elias was wrapped tightly around a silver elf last I saw him. We barely spoke. He is a good man. And a good fighter." She felt a flutter in her chest, a whisper of something she buried once a long time ago. It was pointless to indulge except to cause herself pain. Glory to the Goddess.
Once she was satisfied with her blade, the tools were packed away and her hands wiped off, she scooped up the bowl and made the effort to partake of the meal. Viktor was a fairly good cook, and she wondered why he had not be taken as a husband. But again, Ilyana. She probably killed any chances he might have had to be wed off because she wants more power and influence. Viktor deserved better. As much as she grumbled and hated this task, his spirits could not be dampened.
After a few mouthfuls of beans and rice, she decided to test the waters.
"I will be glad when these trials are over. Ilyana is a hard woman and you have my awe. Your family's glory to the Goddess shames us all."
A polite Ishtari way of calling his grandmother a rather nasty sort.
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 9, 2014 18:17:36 GMT -8
Viktor chuckled as he finished his bowl of food. He recognized and appreciated what Malanara was saying, and was amused at how even her light exposure to Ilyana was telling.
"Da, My grandmother's devotion to the Murderer is all-consuming indeed. None can doubt her piety."
He began to smoke again, and smiled at her warmly. Despite his responsibility for her soul's welfare, he could not help but allow his natural warmth and kindness, likely developed in opposition to the cruelty of his grandmother, to come through.
"Da, you speak of Limn'al ni Eldressar. Their love failed, and she had not been in Freehold for some time when last I was there."
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Post by Malanara on May 9, 2014 19:07:10 GMT -8
"That is unfortunate. They seemed a lovely pair." She meant it, they had. The elf was slender and lovely, delicate and generous. Everything Mala could never be. She finished off the bowl, wiping it out with a bit of water from her skin and a piece of crusty bread she produced from her pack. Her face squished up in thought, she remembered the mercenaries with whom she drank. And Qi. And the dwarf. And Nayesh. And Gerard. Viktor had not been so long away that he would not know these names if yet they lived, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Instead, she would rather keep him talking.
"Who is in this cabal? I seem to remember the rumblings of it when last I was at Annie's."
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 10, 2014 3:25:22 GMT -8
Viktor enjoyed his smoke, and smiled at her question. Had it truly been so long she was in Freehold? He cleared his throat and began to speak once again.
"When last I was in Freehold, the cabal consisted of the necromancer Nayesh of Dammerung as Master of the Order, myself as Master of Diabolists and the discipline of Destruction. the shadow-binder Gerard Jacobs, who did briefly appear once again the last moon I was there. Several shaedlings as well, including my apprentice Blaze. Elias is a member as well, though not a sorcerer, something of an outside councilor. Who can say what has changed in the moons since?"
Viktor regarded her carefully as he spoke, seeing if any of these names registered any reaction with her.
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Post by Malanara on May 10, 2014 9:19:56 GMT -8
"Blaze is not a name I am familiar with, but I have not been back to Freehold in just over 3 years." He was involved in the cabal with Nayesh. Consorting with demonkin. Joyful to be away from Kali-Ishtar. Freehold lived up to its name for those from the Sunless Kingdom. Free from the hold of the restrictive and rigid life back home. Mala sunk down into her bedroll, her arms stretched up behind her head. She looked up at the forest canopy, the leaves and branches blocking the stars above them. She couldn't see the crow, but she felt he was still there. The more she thought of her time spent in Freehold, the more she knew Viktor's experiences were similar to her own. Her telling started to fall from her lips like water.
"I first came there 5 years past. We were fighting in the western wastes, and we had been ambushed by the demons. I had lost my husband in that battle and when I returned to the camp, I slew the Kshatriya who gave the order that lead to our defeat. I was mortified, stripped of caste, stripped of name. Stripped of everything. I was locked and turned out to wander without home or friend. I became a trader, unable to even lift a blade in my own defense. I was left enough magic to dissolve into night and flee from harm. Like a coward, because that is what they called me for my vengeance. My mourning should have glorified my husband and the Goddess, but I could only think of my loss."
She reached into a pouch at her waist and removed a small piece of candy, popping it into her mouth to ease the dryness on her tongue.
"In Freehold, I found people who did not care of my crimes. I kept them at bay, I prayed to the Goddess and I found acceptance among people who defended me from harm without thought to their own safety. I found kindnesses. I found compassion. And I treated it like a suspicious child would. I did not trust it. I was sent word that there was a way to regain my standing at home. But it required me to spy on certain members of town. So I did it. The last night I was there, Tenebrous attacked the Inn and I felt my binds loosen. I could fight once more. I helped to save the people who had defended my life. And I knew I had to repay them by facing my crimes back home. Ilyana sponsored that path. I am no longer pariah. This is the last task. And the more I get closer to Freehold, the more I fear you will die and my life will be forfeit. Three years is a long time to have been a servant of your Matriarch, to be bled for the glory of the Goddess only to fail at the final bit."
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 10, 2014 10:23:42 GMT -8
Viktor smiled gravely at her last words, he knew the truth of them all too well.
"My first moon in Freehold, the Solari declared it New Dawnholme, and we swore to fight them to the last. We chose a king and I sat on his council, while concealing myself from the occupiers. I sat in the vault alongside my fellows in the resistance. I survived because of the people of Freehold. I understand your fear, but you must have faith. I will do my best not to die until I am out of your charge."
He chuckled at that, smiling more brightly at her, though there was a sadness in his gaze. He knew his time was short, and that he would never have a wife or children. He hid his feelings under the smile and laugh. It was all he could do.
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Post by Malanara on May 10, 2014 12:04:16 GMT -8
"Faith is a fine word from the lips of the Ashurai. What hardships they are born to." She waved his canned response away; she knew it was coming. The last thing she needed was another lecture from another priest about the path of the Goddess and heresy. "I have lived as pariah. I have been hunted. I prefer to fight for...other reasons."
She sat up and pulled off her boots, and unclasped her belt. Her journal was safely folded up into the saddle blanket under head, she laid down and pulled her blanket up over her. "I am going to sleep. We need an early start in the morning."
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Dar'Toral
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Post by Dar'Toral on May 10, 2014 12:46:10 GMT -8
Viktor, though he could not say so, understood her sense of disillusionment. He knew why she might feel the way she does, and he could understand why his words were a small comfort. When she stretched out to sleep, he merely nodded and smiled, enjoying the warm flame.
"Sleep well Malanara, I shall take the first watch. Kali keep you while you sleep."
Viktor lit another stick and looked out into the darkness. His mind began to wander, he thought first of his friends in Freehold. Of Teslavich, Elias, Ulrik, Jackal and the Chainsmasher. Then he thought of Katya, her darksome beauty and fierce piety, then his mind turned to the other woman. The savage girl who danced and sung so lively and free. He shook his head to banish her, and produced his journal and began to write, soaking in the beauty of the night.
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