Private Tales Alive Twice

[Risen Soleil Verdane]

VEL YUNA​

Marris Verdane stood outside his small and dilapidated house on a winter's morning. He had just then come back from gathering raw firewood from the surrounding forest, and now, axe in hand, he had begun the work of splitting the logs into smaller pieces. He placed a new log upright on the tree stump.

"Where the hell is that damn woman," he grumbled to himself as he dragged the back of his hand across his brow.

He spoke, as he always did in accusations of this sort, of his wife, Gertrude Verdane. But his wife was many years dead by now, and Marris, much to the perennial worry of his fellow Vel Yunans, did not seem to notice or acknowledge this fact. Indeed, he had always been...a queer one about the village. Sometimes he spoke aloud to people who were not there. Sometimes he mistook long time "friends", enemies, and acquaintances for other people...some of them actually real people. He was an uncleanly man, especially now in his old age, and very much so after the death of Gertrude, the deaths of his sons, and the further estrangement from the villagers of Vel Yuna that followed. His beard and hair grew long and unkempt, and his erratic nature worsened over time.

He did love one thing, though: his granddaughter, Soleil Verdane. He kept telling anyone and everyone who would lend him an ear how proud he was of her, how the best thing that could've ever happened to her was her magic and her being shuttled away to become a Dreadlord. She was going to do Vel Anir well, he always said, well indeed, yes siree.

A dog, not one that Marris owned, but a bitch that the Vel Yunans collectively fed, and one who had recently bore some pups, came sniffing around Marris and his stump.

"Git," said Marris to the dog. Then he swung his axe down and split the log, and shoved the pieces off. He was about to grab another log, but the bitch kept near, friendly and with its tail wagging. She did not git.

"I SAID GIT!" And Marris hauled off and kicked the dog in its jaw, and the dog gave out a pitiful yelp and scampered away quickly.

Marris placed the new log on the tree stump. But he heard, then, someone approaching from behind.

Marris sighed in annoyance and turned around, and he said to this person so approaching: "Yeah? What do you want?"

 

[Risen Soleil Verdane]

IN THE HALLS OF VEL AERELOS
VEL ANIR
MANY DAYS BEFORE​

At last, after what Heller likely may have found an interminable waiting, the door opened, and in came Vigilite Jon Rennick. The room belonged to neither man, but for the purpose of this meeting, they would use it.

"Apologies for the wait," said Rennick, meaning none of it. Precisely did he, and any other Vigilite worth his salt, show at the exact time when he meant to.

He went then to the seat across from Heller. The table at which they sat was a large one, meant of course for conferences between Councilors, dignitaries, envoys from afar, nobility, all of which would have many attendants in their talks. But it would be these two men, and their secret purpose, for today.

"I am a man who prizes brevity," said Rennick, "so I will come right to it."

And he leaned a touch forward in his chair.

"The Vigilite have need of your...specific talents, Dreadlord Heller."

Kian Heller

 

[Kian Heller]

"The Vigilite do, do they?" Heller's smile was small, but it held all the crookedness in that small action. It was not the first time someone wanted him for his unique talent. To play the hands of gods, such a feat was at his discretion of granting. It always came down to price, and if the Vigilite were in need of his assistance, then perhaps he better consider working with them.

He was slouched in his chair, as that was the only way he could sit comfortably while waiting in this room. Heller didn't bother readjusting to sitting upright, to appear as if this business was important.

"Right then, let's hear it."

Risen Soleil Verdane

 

[Risen Soleil Verdane]

Vigilite Rennick offered a wan smile, and then said, "There's just...one little complication."

He clapped his hands and the door to the meeting room opened. Armed and armored men could be seen on the outside on either side of the door, evidently those in the employ of Rennick and who served as his bludgeons, when such a bludgeoning was called for. No such action was needed here, and those men merely stood sentinel outside the room. Indeed a different man came in, one dressed similarly to Rennick in a dark uniform, perhaps a Vigilite underling or apprentice. This man had but one purpose though: he carried a thick sack, which he placed upon the table between Rennick and Heller, and then he left, and he shut the door behind him.

Rennick did the honors, and untied the cord from the throat of the sack. He opened it wide, and showed the contents to Heller.

Inside the sack...was sand. Merely sand. And a Pendant of a strange kind, of a dark amber color and crystalline in its apparent composition. It rested atop the sand.

"Not the usual material you might be used to working with, I would assume."

Kian Heller