Fate - First Reply A Short Walk

[Amos]

Vel Anir - Outer City

Amos set down the small box that he had been carrying, a cough wracking his lungs. Hand quickly snapping up to cover his mouth. The sound of his sickness echoing through the nearly empty streets.

One or two people briefly glanced at him as they passed, though no one stopped to ask if he was alright. That wasn't too surprising in a place like this, at this hour. The outer city was hardly the poster-child for kindness to strangers. People were focused more on themselves, whatever errand they had to complete or return to. Amos knew that, and it was alright.

The Outer City, as far as he was concerned, was still better than the Gutters.

Shaking his head, Amos gathered himself.

A breath flowed steadily into his lungs, and slowly he moved to pick up the box once more. Had he been able to get what he needed in Vel Zaphris this wouldn't have been a problem, but unfortunately the University was only willing to pay so much. It had been easier to convince them to offer him more funding for the raw materials for the project if he retrieved it himself. A courier cost extra after all.

He would have asked Kaeden, but his friend had gone north to see to another part of their project. Thus he had simply gone himself, and he was glad he had in the end. During his travels he'd thought of another augmentation, something that would allow the wheels on their great project to better work. At least in theory.

A smile touched his face as he walked, despite the slight hobble in his step.

 

[Erren Serris]

There were few places Erren disliked traversing quite as much as Vel Anir. The Blightlands perhaps, maybe that scum infested Osteriam. Still, his job was one that precluded free choice of where he was sent, and rumor and innuendo had once again sent him to the city of Anir, home of the fearsome Dreadlords and their Republic. If ever there was a group he didn't wish to cross, it would be these folk.

Thankfully, the denizens of the Outer City were far too preoccupied with their own problems to worry about some well-dressed man with a suitcase and a compass wandering through the quiet streets. This wasn't a place where poking into the business of others was likely to land you anything but trouble, and the Mage knew that very well; it was far from his first trip here.

That had been to the Academy itself. Not entirely unlike the College where Erren had spent much of his years, but tainted with a dark and bloody past far grimmer than the comparatively tame scandals that the Foard back home hid from public eye. Physical proof that magic was far from inherently good, to say the least.

Thankfully his journey today should not take him that far. In fact, the golden device in his palm seemed to hum with life as though he were near what he sought now. Strange... perhaps his work was still a bit shoddy around the corners; he could have sworn that he was meant to go to--

A loud coughing fit broke the man's furrowed expression towards his unusual tool, luring his gaze to a young fellow, much younger than himself, hobbling in his direction with a strange box barely held aloft in his arms. It didn't take a doctor to see the boy was sickly, but it also didn't surprise him that none had offered him aid in a place such as this.

Luckily for his new acquaintance, Erren was a foreigner.

"You there, young man! Have you a moment to spare?"

 

[Amos]

Amos looked up almost immediately as a voice called to him. Folk shouting was ordinary enough on a street like this, but getting someones attention was simple. A frown almost immediately touched Amos' features, but he didn't shy away.

"I have one, but not many left I'm afraid." The young researcher said with a rather grim
smile.

As much as many might not have liked it, jokes about his conditions were one of the small coping mechanisms he maintained. Amos didn't know much about the disease that plagued him, but he knew that it was slowly eating away at him.

Just months ago he had been one of the best sprinters in Vel Zaphris.

Now he couldn't walk down the street without getting rundown. "Is there something you need assistance with?"

He asked with a smile, thanking the man inwardly for approaching him and adding to the time he could take to further rest.

 

[Erren Serris]

For such an ill-ridden lad, his spirit had seemingly been far from extinguished. The humorous response brought a smile to Erren's mustachioed lips, and he moved closer to the boy with a certain distinguished air to him despite his current location and the ragged state of his mane.

"So I see. Disease indeed takes it's time with you." Erren wouldn't be able to tell at a glance what ailed the young man, but it was a shame nonetheless.

Reaching into his pouch as he approaches, the mage retrieves a small vial of pale green liquid, holding it aloft to his eyes and shaking it as though verifying something, before offering it down to the fellow.

"Stamina booster." He explains. "It won't heal whatever is happening with you, but it will help you to catch your breath for a moment." After a moment, he smiles a bit in recognition of the situation. "I won't blame you if you refuse it, but I've no reason to poison a dying man, do I?"

Amos

 

[Amos]

Amos watched the man carefully, if only due to habit.

There wasn't anything particularly threatening about Erren, but a lifetime of living in the Gutters of Vel Anir had made Amos weary. For a few moments he stayed quiet, taking the small potion and glancing at the concoction. Interest flickered through his eyes.

"You'll have to forgive me." He said with a shake of his head. "Growing up in a place like I, well, we're cautious of such things."

A smaller cough echoed through his chest, but Amos tried his best to ignore it. "Perhaps if I knew you better."

Amos offered.

"I may not have much time, but enough, I think, to make a new friend?" He did not like to impose on others, but the stranger seemed inclined to be helpful. Perhaps he would find himself equally inclined to have a conversation.

As silly as that seemed in a world such as this.

 

[Erren Serris]

Erren offered a smile, taking the refused potion back and sliding it back into the small leather satchel it had come from. "I understand. I'd probably make much the same decision in your position, young man." The fellow may have been dying, but he held no desire to quicken that process. Were it not for Amos' obvious frailty, Erren too would have been suspicious of the young man's outgoing nature, it being such a rarity in this place.

His offer of friendship, though, was questionable even with illness taken into account.

As right as Serris would have been to turn down such attempts at nicety, his brow did furrow, a look of empathy crossing his lips. "Friends are few and far between in cities like this one, aren't they? The shadow that looms over this place chokes kindness from the soul..." It was spoken aloud, but more to himself than to Amos. Erren reaches for the golden circular instrument tucked into his pocket, holding it up to his gaze and humming thoughtfully once again.

Still it pointed only to this boy.

Slipping the device back into his coat, Erren nodded. "Very well. Allow me to help you with your cargo. In your condition I question whether you will make it alone. Where are we headed, Mister...?"

 

[Amos]

Amos offered only a simple smile as Erren spoke of friendship in cities like this one. He had nothing to say on the topic, mostly because Vel Anir was the only city he had ever known.

Sure he had visited others once or twice. Elbion so far away, and of course Vel Zaphris as well as others, but none had ever really been his home. None save for this one, and while it had treated him awfully sometimes, it had also treated him well.

He watched the odd instrument with interest for a few moments, but did not ask about it.

His own experience told him people prefer to volunteer mysterious information, rather than be interrogated about it. "University Aniria."

Amos said, his smile growing wider.

"Thank you, I was beginning to have the same question myself." He offered another chuckle, though it was interrupted mid-way through by a cough. Once the fit was done, the young man continued. "I am Amos, it's a pleasure to meet you."

The student said, extending his palm in greeting. "And don't worry, it's not infectious."

 

[Erren Serris]

Erren reached out without much hesitation, taking Amos's hand and shaking it firmly. It seemed whatever afflicted Amos didn't bother the older man terribly much. "Erren Serris. The pleasure is mine, Amos." He tilted his head slightly, seeming to look him over a bit. "Though I wish it was under better circumstances..."

It wasn't that he lacked knowledge that could have helped the poor soul now, but he did lack the tools such an attempt would require. He didn't wish to dole out any false hope only to quash it so quickly, so he held his profession for the time being. In truth, he would have liked a chance to help him, in a different time and place.

"University Aniria? Well, certainly a more welcoming destination than the other notorious 'academic' insitute of the city, isn't it?" Erren flashes a smile and then turns his attention to the box he'd been battling, leaning down to pick it up himself. It wasn't extraordinarily heavy, but he could see how the density it did have would be taxing on the sick body of Amos. "Are you a student, by any chance?"

Serris was quite familiar with the location of the University and began to set off in that direction with Amos's box in tow without direction, though he slowed his steps so that he did not outpace his companion. "Or perhaps..." He moved the box a bit as though demonstrating something. "You fancy yourself somewhat of a scientist?"

 

[Amos]

Amos moved alongside Erren, doing his best not to slow the man to a snails pace. Though his sickness taxed him, even after a short rest he could manage to move at the same pace as most. At least he liked to think that he could.

Even if it was only for a little while. "I am, of a sort."

He had never really thought to give himself a label, though most would dub him as so. He had no official 'job' of course, but the University here in Vel Anir and in Vel Zaphris allowed him and Kaeden to perform their experiment. Plus, the two of them were in fact advancing the sciences. Amos supposed that would be enough for the title.

"And yourself? What brings you here?" Amos asked warmly, genuinely curious. Many came to Vel Anir, though few as tourists. "I gather you're not from our city."

His manner of dress, the way he spoke, all were tiny clues.

 

[Erren Serris]

It was a shame, to see a youthful intellectual so crippled by disease. With many of Vel Anir's greatest minds devoting all of their efforts to warmongering and weaponizing children, the city could use more free thinkers and patrons of knowledge. Erren let out a low hum, having no problem matching his pace with Amos. He wished the boy would have accepted his potion, it would have eased his strain considerably for the time being, but he would not force the issue.

"I'm from Elbion, actually." He shared openly, looking over at his new acquaintance. "Until not too long ago, I was a Maester of the College. You could say I'm something of a scientist myself, though my days of research have come and gone." There was no hiding the hint of bitterness in that fact; He'd spent decades of his life reaching the level he had, and it was all for naught.

Still, his cheery demeanor didn't seem to fade much.

"I'm here on business, regardless. College business, so I can't share much. You understand how it is, I'm sure. There is a line where men of study become men of bureaucracy. I fear many in the upper echelon of Elbion have long since crossed that line."

 

[Amos]

"Ah, Elbion. A remarkable city." Amos had only just returned a few months hence, though his trip there had not been without it's own incidents. The venture had still been a rather positive one, even if it had not gone exactly as planned.

"Perhaps that is the natural progression." The sickly student offered. "After all, someone has to pave the way for the newer generation to learn."

He suggested. "And an unfortunate necessity for that is the system to support it."

More students meant more administrators, and of course more administrators meant the bureaucracy. Amos was no stranger to it himself. The Universities in Vel Zaphris was sometimes more structure than it was substance, that was why he and Kaeden so often had the need to...ignore certain rules.

Though only for the greater good of course.

"I hope you have all your documents, Professor." Amos said by way of warning. "Though the Republic has become more friendly, Vel Anir is still somewhat weary of outside mages."

Not that he would report the man, but he would hate to see a man of learning catch the eye of the Vigilite, or worse.

 

[Erren Serris]

Erren tilted his head in acknowledgement of Amos' point, but there was a look of resentment in his eyes. "Fair argument, but I can't help but feel there must be a better way to maintain the system than ensuring nobody has an opinion that clashes with your own. Many of those in stations above us have forgotten where they came from, Amos. Power corrupts worse than any illness either of us could contract, I assure you."

It was not meant as an insult towards the poor young man's situation, but a subtle hint that he'd seen people turn to far worse creatures over far less serious situations.

Even though The Republic and all its cities were probably best known for the questionable practices of those in power, historically, the truth was that Elbion was little better, if at all. True, one of Anir's premier Academies was meant for the training of killers from the age of children, but at least they'd always been somewhat open about that fact. The College trained the youth too, and the teachings within it's walls often skewed their viewpoint to a pro-Elbion mindset and set of ideals.

The issue was that they made such a habit of claiming innocence after the fact, once the consequences had already occured.

"Don't worry about me. The Republic has made obvious it's keenness to improve... 'relations' with Elbion in particular as of late. It's hard to miss the Dreadlords posing as exchange students when they're starting fights after hours. They want something, and I'm going to offer them a chance to find it."

With a small smirk and a lift of the cargo he held for Amos, he added lightly.

"Besides, my magic of choice is rather subtle. Even if I have to use it, I doubt they'll notice."

 

[Amos]

"A tale I have heard more than once." Amos admitted, frowning for a brief moment before shaking his head.

The world of politics and power was beyond him.

He had been born in the Gutters, and had only escaped them because of the charitable hearts of those who stood above him. Amos had never thought of himself as less than, and he never would, but he knew where to stick his nose and where not to.

The world of science was as welcoming as he needed it to be, or as he would make it. "I am glad to hear it."

He told Erren as they continued their trek through the streets.

Eventually they passed from the broke cobbles to newly christened marble streets. Passing into the middle city of Vel Anir and closer to the University. "It is not often I get to speak with practitioners of magic, as Ironic as that is."

Given his work.

"If you do not mind my asking, what it is you practice?" There was never a harm in asking, and if Erren did not wish to share then he would hold no insult to him.

 

[Erren Serris]

The number of suspicious eyes lingering on the pair of them lessened once they'd crossed into mid-city, but even outside of the dregs people were wary of strangers. There would be no cheery or cursory greetings coming his way on this second leg of their trip. That Erren was aware of that fact somewhat lessened the sting. After all, his circle of friends had shrunk even in his hometown.

"My practice?" Erren turned his head to look at Amos, a smirk on his lips as he wondered whether or not that was the word he would use. "I'm versed in many facets of the arcane, but my specialty is a branch of my own design." Serris had actually struggled as a student before he found his calling, and produced groundbreaking work on a form of magic that hadn't been focused on within the College before.

"I've discovered I have a particular talent for shifting the odds in my favor. Magic can alter many different elements of the world around us, but I always found the idea of manipulating fate and luck to be fascinating."

It was a vague description, and it no doubt would bring up more questions than it answered. Turning back to the road ahead of them, Erren, slowed and moved closer to Amos by a step or two, so that he could hear Erren over the increasing background noise of the pedestrians around them.

"I can make one outcome of a situation more likely than another. Tip the scales, so to speak. Somebody sits in an old chair, I can make it more likely that it'll finally give out and collapse under their weight. Granted, I can't guarantee an outcome, and the more outlandish the scenario, the less likely I can achieve it. But it's a school of magic still in its infancy. I was removed from my position before I could complete my studies on the topic."

Erren clams up slightly, holding back a swear. He'd let that last part slip far too carelessly.

 

[Amos]

"Fascinating." The way he said it made it clear that he absolutely meant what he said. No small amount of delight played over his features, though partially because of a fact which Erren might not yet know himself.

Amos had, in fact, heard of something quite like this before. Though not in a field of his own study.

"Perhaps it is why you are here, or perhaps it is a delightful coincidence." Amos began. "But are you aware that the Weiroon family, one of Vel Anir's Great Houses of Nobles, is apparently capable of such magics?"

Though this fact had been hidden for many centuries, after the Revolution it had come to the forefront that several of the Houses had in fact hidden magical talents. House Pirian, Sirl, Weiroon, and several others had all come out with this truth.

The announcement had sent ripples through Anirian society, though much of the outrage at these lies had been lost with the tithes placed upon the Houses which had rebuilt Vel Anir.

Amos, of course, had made requests to study and learn of each Houses magic, but had been summarily denied by all but two; Banick and Luana. One whom he worked with, and the other whom had practically adopted him. "I have not been able to do any further research, but it seems perhaps your work might bring new opportunities."

He mused.