Fate - First Reply An iron songbird

[Zxandor]

The crowd had been gathering in the end of the market and had stayed to see the thing in the cage.

The sign above it read "The Wonder of Ages Past" and it was not undeserved for within the cage that had found its way to Elbion was a creature of magical construction of a kind not seen in many centuries.

All day they had come with questions for the thing in the cage. They wondered at where it's voice came from and how it filled it's clothing with no worldly body to see or touch.
It had stopped resisting days ago, when it realized that no matter how it tried to explain itself, how much it knew itself to no longer be property, they would not release it.

They did not even acknowledge its name after it had repeated it to them many times.
Despite this it never lost knowledge of what it was. Zxandor knew what it was and no restraint could prevent it from being so.

Being a thing of no living body it did not feel as others did but that did not mean that it did not know that being in the cage was a wrongness done to it and it remembered how much it had hurt them as they took it.
If it had emotions it might have felt satisfaction at that.

The ones that captured it were calling another group to come see and the tarp that covered the slim cage came down to gasps of surprise and awe.

They saw the empty winged helmet of a forgotten kingdom turn to face them and the gaps between chain shirt and gloves connect both with nought but empty air between.

"Is it not as I told you? Is this not a magical warrior as ever you have seen? Animated even after a hundred thousand years from the ancient age of magic. Found captured to bring to the living center of Arethil's most magical city."

Zxandor had heard this story told many times by now, at every town and port along the way to Elbion.
It had long ceased to be of any interest.

The stage was but the back of a cart and the speaker a woman in a fine cut suit of blue and gold. Her crew were six in total, they used to be ten, who between them took coin from the crowd to come closer, a silver for a question that Zxandor was to answer and a gold piece let one reach within the bars to touch its unliving body.

It had learned a word since it's awakening which matched it's treatment well as it understood things.

Abuse.

A head without eyes looked out into the crowd for something that might resemble assistance. It did not expect to see any but day after day, when the tarp was taken down, it raised it's helmet head and looked anyway.

 

[Elyon and Eshara]

Twin pairs of eyes fell upon Zxandor with intense curiosity. Ely'Esha had followed the trail of intrigue, the talk about town being of the curious set of animated armor that lied within a cage on a busy street. Some had said that it was a cheap ploy to get quick coin, that any half-competent college mage could likely conjure such a thing. Others denied the claim, stating that the thing was far too complex to be a simple set of enchanted clothing.

The twins, of course, were yet novices, and far flung travelers no less. Even if the being in the cage was merely a scam, they never would have known.

"How mysterious..." murmured Elyon thoughtfully.

"How enchanting!" Eshara returned with a squeal of delight.

Two distinct hands each placed a precious silver in the palm of the speaker woman, pushing their way through the small crowd to get closer.

"What are you, hollow man? What is your name? Where do you come from?" Elyon rattled off questions, eyes and grin wide.

"Why are you in this cage? How do you fare this day? Do you enjoy food?" Eshara followed suit, her expression practically shimmering with excitement.

"Oi! One question per silver, ya brats!" one of the crew shouted at them, but the twins paid him no mind. What lay in front of them was far too important to give care to such trifling things as "rules" at the moment.

 

[Zxandor]

Noting how irritated it's captors seemed at the small barrage of questions Zxandor reasoned that it would make them more irritated if it answered every one.

So it did, alternating between addressing the taller one, who spoke slightly ahead of the shorter one.

"I am a soldier."
The empty helmet swiveled between them as it replied in its flat genderless voice.
"Because I am not allowed to leave this cage else my captors will destroy me."
"My name is Zxandor."
"I do not understand what that means."
"I was found in a ruin north of The FallWood."
"I am unable to eat."

A sharp thud against the bars came from the chastising henchman when he struck them with a short steel baton.
"Don't say that, you answer one question only per customer!"

He was angry sounding even as he turned his attention to the Twins.
"You had your questions and more so sling yet hooks or cough up more coin."

 

[Elyon and Eshara]

"Oooohhh..." the twins marveled in concert. They were partly surprised that the construct before them was able to speak, but the nature of its voice seemed to match what they'd been expecting based on how it looked.

The pair looked at each other, a glimmer in their eyes, before Eshara wheeled towards the bully of a henchman. Mischief was written all over her mien as she skipped up to him, but she simply pulled another silver coin from her pocket, placed it in his hand, and smiled up at him. The man sneered at Eshara and let out a dissatisfied growl, but spat on the ground and reluctantly nodded.
"Alright, go on then. ONE more. Weird buggers..."

The moment Elyon saw the coin sit in the loud man's palm, he looked back to the creature in the cage.
"Zxandor, you call these people 'captors' and say 'they will destroy you.' If you could leave, would you?" he asked, leaning close and expressing the question in a hushed tone.

 

[Zxandor]

Two gloves hands gripped the bars of iron as Zxandor leaned in to give it's reply to the taller one. It was a simple thing this animated being, a soldier not given to spycraft but it knew the importance of selecting allies well as all good soldiers did.

"I would!"

Came the answer the fluid voice hushed from within by unseen will and innate understanding but recent events had effected it's trust so in the short interim of their privacy Zxandor's helm swiveled and without eyes it guaged the distance between them and the brute of a man who still seemed distracted with the shorter one.

"Would you two see me freed?"
It asked, helmet swiveling back to address the taller one with a question of its own, speaking quickly as it knew time was a factor.

 

[Elyon and Eshara]

Elyon answered Zxandor's question with an understanding smile and silence before leaning away from the cage. One of Eshara's ears flicked, and she turned to briefly make eye contact with her brother. Perhaps two or three seconds passed, the pair sharing an entire conversation that only they could understand, without ever uttering a word.

"Give us a moment," Elyon whispered before walking away.

Just then, Eshara stamped her foot on the ground.
"This is no magical warrior at all! It is a man with an invisibility spell on him, dressed in tattered scraps!" she announced loudly so that all the crowd could hear. Several individuals and even a couple of the other members of the traveling band had their attention drawn to the shouting girl.

"Oi, ya daft bint, what the 'ell do you think you're doing?!" the large man who'd taken her coin growled.

"Revealing your scam!" she huffed.

As murmurs of doubt began to roll through the crowd regarding the street crew's legitimacy, the workers quickly became distracted with trying to assure their patrons that the show was indeed real, and that the captive entity was genuine.

Elyon took this opportunity to make use of his sticky fingers, and quietly relieved fully half of the crew of their coin purses. He then hopped up on a bench and held the purses aloft.

"Charlatans! Your coin is forfeit!" he shouted, waving the jingling bags for the mortified workers to see.

The ringleader pointed and hollered at her crew:
"GET HIS ARSE!"

And Elyon promptly hopped down and bolted, all but the ringleader herself giving chase. No sooner had they gone did Eshara use the chaos to slink up to the cage and start casting a spell on the lock.
"Almost done!" she chirped cheerily.

 

[Zxandor]

*Tattered scraps*
Zxandor wondered at the words as it regarded it's glove hands and scarf, they were old and worn indeed but there was little time to dwell as the two who decided to help it began a masterful heist, simple but effective.

It readied itself as the troupe chased the taller one and left the small one to do her work.
Hands and words of a kind Zxandor had seen before told him this one was using magic though it did not know more than that.

"Hey, stop don't do that it's dangerous!"
The leader in her fine clothes approached swiftly drawing a short blade.

The lock clicked and the leaders hand reached out for the smaller one, blade raised.
"STOP YOU FOOL!"

Zxandor exploded from the cage and took the blow, placing it's body of cloth and steel between the leader and the smaller one to the sound of scraping metal.
"Thank you."

It's head swiveled like an owl and the gloved hands gripped the leaders wrists squeezing hard, harder than most mortals might manage until a crack came and the weapon dropped with a cry of pain and a face full of fear.
"No, no no no don't! Don't kill me, please!"
Turning the rest of its body the face it's captor Zxandor's head tilted as if considering her.
The crowd about them that had remained were struck dumb in awe at the sight of it bending low to pick up the blade.

"I made a promise to not kill anyone unless I had to."
By her arm it held its former captor tight.
"Do not give me a reason to think that I do!"

Defeated she crumpled to the ground.
"I won't, I swear, I'm sorry."

Satisfied with her word Zxandor let her go and turned once more to the smaller one but caught sight of the crowd, they looked frightened, alarmed even and some held each other for comfort.

"Is it safe?"
"What is that girl thinking?"
"It's got a weapon!"
The murmur of the gathered citizens began to teeter on panic but was held in check by the tension of the moment.

"Why are these people afraid?"
Zxandor asked, heedless of the unspoken threat of the weapon in its hand.

The broken woman behind him stumbled back nursing her arm and swore. Her eyes promised revenge though Zxandor could not see it.

Elyon and Eshara

 

[Elyon and Eshara]

Eshara was briefly elated as the lock came undone, but her elation was cut short by the approach of the troupe leader. The woman looked as though she meant to cut Eshara down, and she winced her eyes shut as she expected to take the blow.

Instead, the dull sound of metal on metal and the rush of wind took the place of being wounded.

"Dangerous? It seems the only dangerous one here is you, Miss Cage Lady. Jailing this poor thing and then looking to slash me for helping it!" Eshara scolded the woman, peering out from behind her new construct friend.

The murmurs of the crowd did not escape her, however, and even as unadjusted to Elbion's culture as the twins were, she understood their situation.

"It is safe!" she hollered out, but was unsure of how effective just saying so could be. The Yan'Katma girl looked to the hollow space where her companion's face should have been.

"Bad presentation thanks to your captor, and silly judgment from the crowd, new friend. We should not take the weapon," Eshara told the thing. Her head craned slightly and her ear flicked, a soft hum coming from her as she listened for something that Zxandor couldn't have ever heard.

"My brother thinks we should leave now. I think he is right. There is forest not far from here, where he waits for us."

 

[Zxandor]

The helmet head jerked sideways in obvious confusion at the instruction to not take the weapon but it complied and let the weapon fall with a clatter. It did not seem to help the crowd feel any better.

"Celestial Veils! She commands it!"
"Why did that girl free the funny man Dad?"
"We should call the Guards, they... they'll know what to do!"
"Alright! fight the power Lady!"

Zxandor gave one last look of its shoulder at the woman who had captured it.
"That thing is a killer, you'll regret throwing your lot in with it!"

Zxandor ignored her.
"We are exposed and outnumbered. A retreat to a safe location would be an advisable..."
The helmet looked at the smaller ones face and it remembered some advice about keeping it's explanations brief.

"Lead the way..."
And being polite.
"...please!"

Elyon and Eshara

 

[Elyon and Eshara]

There was no sense in trying to speak to the crowd, Ely'Esha had decided. They would think as they would, and the twins would struggle to understand them. This was how it always had been, and how it would likely continue to be for a long time to come.

Eshara took the hollow gauntlet that served as Zxandor's hand, unsure if she'd be able to pull it along, but attempted to do so anyways.
"You are quite correct. Come!"

And off she would dash, in the direction she could feel her other half was waiting. It took but a few minutes, and a few minutes longer as Eshara tried to lead Zxandor through back alleys and rarely trodden routes to lose any attention that might have been on them. In due time, however, the forest appeared before them, and Elyon along with it.

"This way!" Elyon ushered them onwards. "Few come very far beyond the tree line here!"

 

[Zxandor]

Zxandor followed, though it seemed inefficient to be led by the "hand". It was solid as if filled by a physical being and led the rest with just the same kind of connection one may expect bar one fact. Zxandor was terribly heavy, moreso than a person of his size had any right to be so in the instant between being led and deciding to be led Eshara would sense that weight.

By the time they got out and into the woods the sun had moved, beginning it's apex over the world. The shade of trees took the heat off its helmet and
mail.
When at last the three had breached the Forest and made their ways inside a bit Zxandor was still holding Eshara's hand for no other reason than it was not in Zxandor to pull itself free. It merely waited for the smaller one to be done leading though it did wonder at this behaviour.

"Thank you!"
It said simply, not out of breath or sounding tired, the genderless voice as calm as a lake on spring mornings.

"I am Zxandor and I appreciate your risk at coming to my aid."
Several practical instructions were recalled at once to Zxandor's mind regarding being grateful. Though it could not actually feel it, Zxandor understood the concept and thought it actively.

"I have no money to repay your kindness but I am skilled and..."
No killing, that was one of the rules, it was not to kill not unless it had to.

"... I am at your disposal. Though I do not know why you chose to help me."

It was still under the trees with only the gentle swivel of its head from one of its saviours to the other, addressing them both.

Elyon and Eshara