Private Tales A Life to Live

[Edric]

He had fought a lich once, it's magic reaping some of the life he had taken over the years. Memories of that day still lingered in the back of his mind, and he couldn't help the shiver which crawled up his spine. "Yeah."

Edric agreed. "Lets avoid that."

Bringing Chasmine back meant bringing her back whole.

"So you have to build a phylactery." It made sense. She essentially needed to bridge the gaps between the two realms. Having an anchor on both sides only made sense. It surprised Ed how quickly that thought came to him. "What do we need?"

 

[Chasmine]

"We will need a special kind of metal ore that can be shaped through magic," Chasmine began recounting what Ziri had listed out as major components to such a complicated piece, "she said to speak with Maui's Smith. He would know what type we should seek out. We will also need a powerful soulgem which she believes we could find in one of several places, and an old Sorcerer's tome called the Book of Crossings which details how to create a living phylactery. Unfortunately she says that the tome was taken by the Radiant Church."

The frown persisted, "I am sorry. We came all this way..."

And now they had to travel half the world over more.

 

[Edric]

He nodded his head quickly, memorizing each thing on the list in turn. Never even hearing her apology. Edric's mind already racing as he thought of the quickest path for each thing she spoke of."Got it."

The Radiant Church meant Cortos, which meant getting close to Vel Anir. Maui's smith would know a thing or two about metals, and a Soulgem? Well that ought to be easy enough with some research.

"So we have a plan." At least the beginnings of ones. "Which one do we go for first?"

Half forgetting that he was still mostly naked Edric began to head towards the tent flap. "I think Grazgull will still be up, we can ask him about the metal."

There was almost the beginnings of a spring to his step as he moved.

 

[Chasmine]

"Well it-" Chas was about to say it would be pertinent to find out what type of metal they needed and where to find it first, otherwise there was no easy way to plan. Ed beat her to the chase, but probably not with the same logic.

"Edric," she said after him to stop his step, "take my book with you."

Even Ziri had warned against her going around manifested. It wouldn't do to spook the members of the warband right before battle.

Grazgull was still awake when Edric arrived to the smith's area of the encampment. The forge was still going strong and the orc quite covered in sweat and soot. Familiar enough with the strange human guest of Maui's the Smith offered Ed a curt nod of greeting as he paused in hammering away at a cracked breastplate, "Maui send?" he asked, not being particularly fluent in the trade tongue.

 

[Edric]

He had spun around quickly, taking a few dozen steps to grab the book from it's perch. Cutting through the rest of the warcamp with relative ease, the night chilly and quiet. By the time he made it to Grazgull Ed already had half a dozen questions.

"No." Edric shook his head as he stepped into the forge. "I'm here for me."

Sort of, anyway. "I need a special kind of metal."

A frown pulled at his lips as he considered, wondering exactly how to describe to the Orc what it was he actually needed. Graz wasn't fluent in the common tongue, and the language barrier alone would make it all the more difficult.

"Metal for ghosts?" He said slowly.

 

[Chasmine]

That earned him a very strange look from the Smith.

Chasmine could not see the look in question, but the prolonged moment of silence indicated there was something lost in translation. "Metal that can be shaped by magic..." she suggested to him in a low whisper that she wasn't entirely sure the orc could not hear.

Another odd look but when Edric repeated something seemed to click. He itched at the scruff on his chin and thumbed at a tusk in thought, "There is... ashmetal. Do not know name of place ... city of fire..." the orc grunted as he looked for the sun, then adjusted himself to point east, "very far."

 

[Edric]

There was only one city in all the world that he knew could be described as a place of fire. Edric had been there only once, but it was enough. "Tyr."

It had been a mission just a few years ago.

"I've been there." He remarked, remembering the ash wastes which surrounded the green farms splayed outside the city. Huge Black towers which seemed to climb into the sky taller than anything but the Keep in Vel Anir. "Their famous for their blades."

Alistair had bought one from a merchant there, a goblin as Edric recalled. It had been his first time ever meeting one. "That's going to be a long trip."

So the sooner they left, the better. "Thanks Graz."

 

[Chasmine]

Chasmine waited until it felt as though Edric had stepped away from the smithy before speaking again.

"Tyr... that is beyond the Ixchel?" she asked, "How do we get there?"

There was simply no way she was going to ask Edric to attempt to cross that massive jungle.

"Is there a portal stone?"

 

[Edric]

Edric shook his head. "The Portal stone is on the other side of the Island, the mountains are nearly impossible to cross."

He remembered that trip well enough, it had taken them nearly a month. They had the time, there was nothing pressing them, but Edric didn't want to stall Chasmine's return any longer than they had to.

"It's faster to take a ship from Mallian." He knew there was a Portal Stone near the city. He'd once been sent there by the Proctors. The trip into Wylds short, and of course disastrous as most expeditions were. "Maybe for our five days."

It was a guess, but he would stake on it. "I have coin saved up still, more than enough to pay my way."

 

[Chasmine]

"Then perhaps we should make that our first destination..." Chasmine thought aloud, "it seems to be the farthest one. Ziri said we may find a soulgem in Elbion or the cities to the far west."

 

[Edric]

Elbion, he'd already been there too.

Please, Edric quickly cut back towards his tent. "I can start packing tonight, let Maui know that we'll be gone for a few weeks."

No doubt the Orcess would be upset, but as she had said many times Edric was a free man. He had already helped the Warboss more than a little. She would not stand in his way, even if she might miss him while he was gone.

"Set out in the morning." Cutting a path to the Portal Stone would not be too difficult now that he knew where it was. From there they could head into the Wylds, and Mallian would not be too far from that.

They would be at sea in the blink of an eye.

 

[Chasmine]

"If you require another round with Maui in the tent before you leave," Chasmine began from the book, utterly nonchalant about such a private subject, "I can spend the evening with Ziri."

 

[Edric]

Edric's face flickered a shade of red. "I-ahhh, I mean..."

Did he?

No.

"It can wait." He decided, prioritizing his promise over pleasure. There would be more time for that sort of thing when Chasmine was back. "We'll stop off back with the tribe after we get the Metal."

Edric said as he began to throw his meager possessions into bag. Frowning slightly as he found it much more full than the last time, as though he hadn't quite realized just how many...things he'd acquired in just the last few weeks. "Maybe we can ask some of the others to look into the Book and Gem."

He'd have to spend more of his coin, but it's not like he was saving it for anything in particular.

"Then by the time we get back, we'll know where we're going." The Warband was made up of mercenaries, adventurers, and all kinds of thieves. Some of them wouldn't even have to leave the Camp to get information.

As long as he had enough money to make them interested. He would speak to them tonight after Maui, and then they would set out in the morning.

 

[Chasmine]

Was he blushing?

That got a stronger look of intrigue from the ghost than his naked self ever had. Mostly because nakedness had lost much of its luster within the communal living of the Academy. At least prior to the Revolution, it had not been uncommon to share the bath hall with the opposite gender. Chasmine had seen the naked bodies of most of those in her year, though she'd never paid them much mind.

It had never really mattered. No one had been looking at her anyway.

But blushing?

"Very well," she said with a blink, gesturing to the open book to shut it once more and place it back on the small pile. Ziri knew where his tent was and if she knew he was heading out, then she would know where to find her books. So long as Edric packed her personal book, that was all she needed him to take for herself.

"I have never traveled through a portal stone in this... condition. I wonder if it will be the same."

 

[Edric]

"I sure hope so." Mostly because if it didn't all of this was going to take a hell of a lot longer.

Not that it would stop him.

The next few hours were spent exactly the way Edric had said. After packing his first visit was to Maui, The Orcess first surprised by his visit, and then annoyed by it's reason. Though she would not have outright admitted it, losing Edric even for a few weeks was not something she desired. Whether it was because of his fighting stamina, or his same qualifications in other areas.

Nevertheless, she did not attempt to wrap a collar around his neck. Chewing on the words as she wished him luck, and giving him her blessing to leave the rest of his things here. He was well liked enough in Camp that someone would see it transported to wherever they ended up.

Next came quick words with several of the friends he'd made.

Coin was slipped into the hands of scouts, promises were offered to a few of the 'diplomats' in the camp, and he even managed to make a request of Ziri. Though he did so while standing outside of her tent.

True to his word, everything was done by morning.

Their journey then took them through the Steppe and directly east headed towards the Bystra Portal. A journey that took nearly four days on foot though would have been twice as much had he not been running the whole time. A day was spent enjoying the down of Brysta, allowing him to rest, and they the two of them stepped through the Portal stone and into the Ixchel Wylds.

Two days after that, through a short journey along the jungle coast, the pair of Anirian's arrived at the gates of Mallian. The small caravan they had joined for safety, and a bit of coin, slowly trundling through the gates of the verdant green City. A whistle escaped Edric's throat as they stepped through. Though his gawking slipped as the Caravan master called out to pay him.

Three silver coins were added to the pile of gold already in his satchel, Edric grinned as the other man departed. "Now we just find a ship."

The Dreadlord declared, already turning towards where he smelled the sea air.

 

[Chasmine]

The time spent traveling with Edric had grown in her an appreciation for the regimented way in which he acted, even if she did find it somewhat dismaying. While there truly was no hurry to be on their way and he might've taken the time to say his goodbyes with a bit more meaning and a bit less brusqueness, Chasmine recognized in him the want to stay true to his word.

He was the first in her life beyond Gilram that had ever bothered to make such an effort, and it endeared the exile to her in a way she hadn't quite expected. She had already begun to trust in him, little by little, but now she was finding that she had begun to count on him as well. Forgoing her innate desire to stand apart and alone in order to let herself rely on another - it was terrifying to let go of the thoughts of abandonment that pervaded her mind from day to day.

Rather than mire herself with wariness of what could go wrong, Chasmine allowed herself to be ... excited for the next step of their journey.

"You make it all seem quite effortless," his spectral companion remarked, "but you should take some time to enjoy the city, don't you think?"

 

[Edric]

A shrug rolled over his shoulder. This was how he had been taught, what he had been taught. The Proctors never much bothered with making Edric a strategist or tactician, never-mind anything near a scholar. No, they had molded him to complete the mission.

Whatever that might have been, whatever it took. That had always been his purpose, to be given a task and complete it no matter what lay in his path.

"We can enjoy it together when you're back." Edric told her simply, not seeing much of a point in stopping now. A small part of him was tempted to seek out a fighting pit, or something similar of the sort. The brief time he'd spent in the din of the crowd calling to him.

But the mission came first. Chasmine came first.

"Besides." He said as they continued their trek towards the docks. "I'm not entirely sure what I'd even enjoy here."

Mostly because he knew next to nothing about Mallian. His brief visit before had quite literally been less than a day. The ship he'd been on stopping over for supplies and providing only a brief glimpse into the city of the Wylds.

Though as he went, Edric couldn't help but feel the life in this place. Everywhere they stepped seemed to hold some spark of vitality. Vines grew on the buildings, moss sat between the cobbles, trees sprouted alongside the canals and stretched towards the heavens.

Mallian might have sat upon the edge of the Wylds, but the city felt very much apart of it to him.

 

[Chasmine]

This was the second time he'd brushed off the here and now for the unpromised later. The nagging doubt had continued to resist eradication in her mind. Chasmine could not help but continue believing that there was no guarantee she would come back at all and that he was giving up opportunities of joy on a farce.

"Well," she said after a few lingering moments, "there's always the local food and sights...." of course funds were limited so suggesting shopping the merchant district wasn't entirely within the realm of possibility, but there were plenty of things one could do for free.

"Don't boys like to pee in foreign bodies of water? I vaguely recall hearing some Initiates talk about it back at the Academy...."

 

[Edric]

"What?" Edric had almost stopped her when she suggested food. Although Edric technically didn't need to eat, especially here with so much life around him, he did like to. Food was one of the few pleasures that the Proctor's hadn't taken from him.

His favorite part of missions had usually been the meals he'd gotten to eat. Not that he'd ever thought about it.

"No." He told her with a bewildered shake of his head. "We don't do that."

At least he was pretty sure, Edric hadn't exactly been 'friends' with any of the other boys at the Academy. Wil was his only real male friend, maybe Henk but that had only been after the Revolution. He'd count Alistair in that number too, though he wasn't sure if feeling would be reciprocated.

Only Wil was the sort who'd know the more 'normal' boy things, but honestly they hadn't hung out that much. "Plus you've seen me pee enough with all that time we spent in the cell."

He grunted, but then relented. "We'll get a meal after we find a ship."

A pause.

"A nice one." Meal, not a ship. He'd take whatever was going to Tyr.

 

[Chasmine]

"I only watched you pee once," Chasmine admitted, "the penis is a curious organ, and they're all so... different."

He was still saying we when speaking on things that only he would do. Chasmine wondered if he did so on purpose to make her feel more included, or if it truly did not readily occur to him that he'd be eating alone.

Continual hauntings must make life quite confusing.

"I wonder what the local specialty is." She did not define whether she meant the local specialty of food or penises.

 

[Edric]

A chuckle rippled itself from his throat. "Yeah, seen many of em have you?"

Edric couldn't help but tease, the smile on his face.

His eyes flickered across a few of the signs around them. Among the foliage which had been either grown or molded hung beautiful pieces of art. Most of them had only a picture, though some included a name. Edric noted there were many bistro's.

Which, as he'd once learned, was a fancy Obann place for a place that cooked meat. "Wyld's Beasts, if I had to guess."

It made logical sense. Where else would Mallian hunt but the massive Jungle that sat next to their city. They probably had all sorts of spices from the same source.

His stomach growled. "Lets get to the docks."

He said, quickening his pace.

 

[Chasmine]

"It is easy to see things when you are invisible to others." Replied the spirit.

Invisible not just while dead, but also while living. Chasmine had been practically unseen and ignored by the rest of the Academy, save for those who took pleasure in harassing her and the rare instance of one who bothered to help. Edric likely had not even noticed her within many of his classes - though she supposed he hadn't noticed much of anything given all that he'd spoken of and confessed to her about the Academy.

"Duncan has a birthmark on his left butt cheek," she offered.

As for going to the docks, she made no remark. Not as if there was any reason to protest - they did need to charter a ride to their destination.

 

[Edric]

Edric processed the information she had just given him, choosing to ignore the bit about Duncan entirely. It was better forgotten. He liked the man, and he still wasn't entirely sure what he would do about Gilram. He knew eventually the Archon would come calling.

He was learning that sort always did.

The Rogue Dreadlord chewed over the thought for the next hour as the bartered for their journey to Tyr. Turned out trade with the Black City was regular, and there were a total of four ships leaving in the morning. Edric managed to haggle for his own cabin.

It was a meager accommodation, but the privacy would be worth it just in case. Not to mention the fact that he'd been given a week for a likely return voyage. That alone at the same guaranteed price would save them a bit more, he thought.

By the time the sun began to set Edric had forgotten entirely about Duncan's ass. He sat quietly in a restaurant, unaware that the first messengers from Vel Anir were arriving in the city. Too late for anything to be done about it. "I think half of these are things you catch in the Wylds."

He noted, flicking the menu.

 

[Chasmine]

"What kind of produce do they offer?" Chasmine asked curiously.

She, a vegetarian, had far less interest in the selection of meats.

 

[Edric]

"You want me to read an entire separate menu?" Edric whined, his eyes flickering over towards the other stack of well bound parchment.

The Wylds held an abundance of produce, and the locals were not shy when trading. Mallian was uniquely positioned as a cross section between land and sea. Traders from as far as Alliria made their way here, goods flowing through almost daily. Matched with what was picked outside.

It was quite something really. "Alright here we go."

He began to read down the massive lists of fruits and vegetables.