Fate - First Reply Another Test

[Edric]

Edric was still somewhat at a loss about these strange pig men. They seemed at least...somewhat welcoming, but it was still so off. He had never even heard of anything like these creatures, and a part of him wondered if they were some sort of strange abomination.

Those musings did not leave him as they stepped into the hut. His expression flickering between a mixture of interest and outright confusion. Lips thinning as he saw the creature which sat within the throne in the room beyond.

It was...something to behold.

Grotesque some might have have offered in description, but Edric didn't have the vocabulary. His eyes flickered towards Noel, studying her expression with no small amount of interest as she peered at the monstrous creature. He was about to open his mouth to speak, but before he could Noel gave a quick word about their business.

Head tilted in a nod.

He was about to say something, and then the voice exploded in his head.

A shirk of pain lashed through his mind. The thoughts invading his own lashing something over the back of his mind that made every part of him suddenly cringe. Lips thinned, fingers tightened, and he had to fight back bile in his throat as he swore.

A hand came up to his head, and he tried to reel himself back in. "What price?"

He asked through gnashed teeth.

 

[Noel]

Noel clinched her fists and locked her jaw. The thought of attacking the pig-shaman that wormed its way through her head barely registered before the overwhelming "sound" of a shush echoed inside her skull. A stupefying sensation of non-violence overcame the raven haired dreadlord as tension released from her shoulders.

They wouldn't attack the shaman. The logical part of her brain had already concluded they probably couldn't attack the shaman even if they willed it.

"Price?" she echoed her fellow student's words.

”Slavers. Took my children." The voice emanated into their minds once more. Though this time it carried a certain weight. A sadness. "Took them many moons ago. You bring my children back to Teaobo." Her words trailed off, almost faded into the background as it seemed like her concentration slipped.

Tears filled her bulbous eyes and then the voice returned, "Do this and we will get you back to your family."

Is that how Noel saw the academy? Is that how Edric did? As their respective families? Or did the porcine leader know to use that sort of word to emit the right kind of emotions to get them to agree.

A half second of hesitation was all that followed as Noel replied in the affirmative. "Very well. We'll get them back here." She looked towards Edric to make sure he was in agreement as the pigman who had taken them here took out a map.

"Thank you."

 

[Edric]

A part of him seemed to buck at the thought of doing this creature any sort of favor. The part of him that had been raised by xenophobes and racists, the piece that saw anything non-human as lesser than.

It was a instinct he almost immediately tried to push down. Reminding himself of the equality he had seen in death. It was a grim thought, but the memory that pushed him to know that everyone, man or...pig was equal in some way.

As odd as it seemed.

When Noel glanced over towards him she would see the slight tilt of his head in a nod.

They had not come here willingly. They had been taken after an already arduous journey. By all rights they should have ached for home. Taken any resource, threatened any recourse, but...it seemed an easy enough task; Saving children from slavers.

So rarely did they get to do the right thing. So infrequently did their missions feel like they were doing something good. A part of Edric almost welcomed it.

For a moment more both of the Initiates lingered, and then one of the other pigmen gently tapped them on the shoulder. A few seconds passed, and Edric and Noel exited the tent. Their little elven friend was waiting for them, a smile on her face and what appeared to be a handful of food cradled in her arms.

She reached up, offering Edric a roll of bread.

A frown touched his lips, and slowly he reached out to take it from her. "We're supposed to go rescue some of their children from slavers."

He told her.

"Any idea where they would want us to start?" She knew the area far better than they did after all.

 

[Noel]

Noel took her bread roll as Edric began to speak. Her teeth sunk into the light crust of the roll, tearing out chunks and devouring the entire thing in a matter of seconds. Their rations aboard the slaver ship had been light and the food they were served was barely edible.

Alvernia tried to ignore Noel's chomping as she answered Edric. "The southern tip of the island is usually where slavers from Cerak dock. They don't come past the treeline into Teaobo."

They'd likely nabbed the stolen children as they were playing a bit too far from the village.

Or at least, that seemed reasonable enough to her.

"How many slavers?" Her throat was tight and on edge. The lack of proper sustenance and the explosion of magic she'd just used on the slaver ship was starting to take a toll. Not that she'd show it in front of Edric. Or the elven teenager they'd rescued.

"I don't know for sure. We try to avoid the southern coast. Most of the slavers avoid this island though," Alvernia couldn't help but cast a glance towards the shaman's hut as she finished her thought.

The dreadlord-in-training couldn't blame the slavers. She didn't want that woman probing around in her mind ever again if she could help it. "Very well," if they had to take down a dozen or three dozen slavers it hardly mattered. This was the way forward.

The curly haired elf looked up her two saviors and clasped her hands together. "Take me with you. I can guide you to them!"

"Absolutely not," it was far too dangerous.

 

[Edric]

Edric nodded in agreement. "You stay here."

It was an odd, almost protective feeling that washed over him. The compulsion was like a spell, a part of him wanting to make sure that Alvernia didn't get herself into trouble.

"You'll be safer here." Saying that seemed almost...odd, given the people that lived here in Teaobo. To many back home they would be monstrocities. Things of legends that should be wiped out for the 'evil' they represented.

Yet as far as Edric could tell they were just people.

Strange looking people that were probably somewhat tastier after a cook-fire than others, but still people.

"Noel and I will take care of this." Edric said, squatting down in front of the elf. His roll of bread in one hand as the other gently grabbed her shoulder. "Then we'll get out of here, all of us. Get you back home."

His voice was surprisingly gentle, soft. A tone not often found upon his tongue. "Alright?"

Edric asked with a gentle smile.

 

[Noel]

An eyebrow cocked in surprise.

Edric was being almost gentle with the elven girl. It was a kind of sympathy she didn't think he'd ever shown to anyone at the academy. Perhaps Alvernia reminded him of someone? Someone from his brief life before the academy.

Regardless, at least they were in agreement. She'd stay put with these pig-man-things. They'd looked after her before and there likely wasn't anywhere else in the Black Bay that was safer than Teaobo.

"Alright," she said with a shaky voice while nodding her head before looking directly into Edric's eyes, "but be careful." Her head tilted and she caught Noel's gaze before adding, "both of you."

"A few slavers won't be a problem for us. We'll be back before you know it."

As the two initiates departed Alvernia skipped over to a few of the other hog-children who were busy tying fishing lines to rods. No doubt she planned to catch the trio dinner for their return.

Once they were well out of earshot Noel spoke plainly to Edric, "that was kind of you. I didn't really expect it." Not wanting to let the moment become awkward she picked up her pace as the loose sandy shore began to give way to firmer ground as they approached the edge of a jungle. "How do you want to handle these slavers?"

They could move directly south, headlong into their foes. That'd be the quickest route. Or they could zig-zag through a tropical forest and pick them off more methodically. Once they found them of course.

 

[Edric]

Edric opened his mouth to say something, a quick remark, something cutting perhaps, but before he ever offered a single word his jaw simply snapped shut.

His only response to his remark of 'kindness' was a grunt.

As though it never happened at all. "We kill them."

He said bluntly.

"That type of scum doesn't deserve a measure of mercy." It was an opinion that Edric already knew both of them held. Noel wouldn't offer much of an argument for the why or the what, just the how. "Let's see what their camp is like first."

Edric said with a glance towards his companion. "From there we can wipe them out."

All of them.

 

[Noel]

”No argument here.” Killing was what they’d been trained for. The world was pretty simple to navigate when you boiled it all down to which group of people needed to be slaughtered that day.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that Edric had deflected her first comment. Neither of them were forthcoming about their feelings. Hell, he may not have even known why he was so kind to Alvernia.

As they stepped into the brush of the tropical jungle she kept her voice low and her eyes trained on every shadow or swaying branch. ”Their camp can’t be too far away.”

The island had appeared small when they arrived.

And it was likely that the beachhead they had chosen was selected precisely because this forestry provided cover. After a relatively short hike the pair of initiates found themselves near enough to a clearing to see out into the slaver camp.

A makeshift dock where their boat was anchored just off shore, wooden fencing which encircled a group of pig-children who’d been shackled, and a few shoddy tents with a dozen or so guards patrolling or passing time.

”Doesn’t look like they’ll pose much of a challenge,” she started until a final figure caught her eye.

A tall, imposing, figure emerged from one of the tents and began to bark orders. Clearly he was the ringleader here. But it wasn’t his demeanor or the curved blade affixed at his hip that gave Noel pause. Any regular human she and Edric could dispatch with ease, she was certain of it. What was causing alarm bells to go off was the patch proudly splayed on his chest…

”Do you see that?” she whispered as her eyes focused on the emblem of the Dreadlords. ”An exile?” He’d likely fled here after the revolution.

 

[Edric]

Edric frowned for a moment, lips thinning as he stared through the underbrush at the camp. He made many of the same assessments as Noel did. The camp alone and the men guarding it wouldn't last long against the two of them.

Especially after what Noel had done to that ship.

She could break the cages and use the iron to tear the men apart, and Edric? Well, Edric would give her the time to start. Yet as her eyes caught on the figure, his own gaze swept in turn with hers. Lips thinned for a brief moment.

A slow draw of life pulled in from the plants around them.

Not enough to kill, but enough to pull from his reserve.

Edric's eyes grew sharper, his vision a bit better. He saw the man with the Dreadlord patch more clearly. His face had a gnarled scar crossing it, one eye missing and the other seared a brilliant ruby red. He shouted, though the words were lost to distance. "I don't recognize him."

He said quietly, though that wasn't a surprise. There had been nearly ten thousand Dreadlords before the revolution, a good chunk of that had fled.

"You?" A Dreadlord was a problem, especially if they had no idea what he could do.

 

[Noel]

"No, I don't." Her voice was tight.

This development was fifty layers of bad. Very, very, bad. This was supposed to be easy. A few slavers to dispatch and then bring their captives home. But a fully trained Dreadlord?

Even if they were lucky and he was a level four or level three he would likely prove a challenge. Especially if he possessed a type of magic that was effective against Edric's or Noel's particular skills. On the bright side the fact that neither of them recognized him made it unlikely he was an Archon or a level one.

Noel's nose scrunched and her brow furrowed as she tried to think up a reasonable course of action. "Maybe we can try to catch him by surprise?"

If they killed him before he had time to react it wouldn't much matter what type of magic he possessed. And once he was out of the way they could take down his cohort with ease. The only flaw in the plan would be if they couldn't get the drop on him.

"Or we could try to cause a distraction?" All they really had to do was get the children away after all. And if they got close enough to Teaobo maybe they wouldn't be pursued.

There really weren't many good options here.

 

[Edric]

A frown touched Edric's face.

He knew his magic was strong, perhaps one of the strongest at the Academy, but he needed to get close to use it. Taking life over distance was impossible, at least every time he tried. A few meters at most, that was all he could manage.

Edric frowned as the Dreadlord moved through the camp, his lips still bursting apart in a shout neither he nor Noel could hear.

The man was probably a mile or so away still, perhaps a little less. They'd be able to make it to the camp easily enough, but what then? A distraction? A surprise? It might do it, but it might also fail. Lips thinned for a moment, and then slowly an idea crept into his mind. "How..."

He frowned.

"How far can you fling a piece of metal?" Edric asked, reaching into his pocket and plucking out a small strange shaped coin. A half moon curve with two suns attached. "Like this."

 

[Noel]

Noel's focus shifted towards the small metallic coin Edric produced. She debated for a moment how best to answer his question as despite all they'd been through the past few days she still viewed Edric as her competition.

"Far."

He wouldn't get an exact answer. But it was best for her to be truthful as both their lives were at stake. "But from this range I wouldn't be all that accurate." If their target moved or saw the object coming he likely could dodge it.

The charcoal haired student swallowed before taking in their surroundings again. There was some cover still but not too far out and the jungle fell away. They certainly couldn't just go out into the open clearing. "We'll need to get closer."

She scanned the edge of the tree line carefully. Trying to spot an adequate hiding spot.

After a time she stopped and considered exactly what he was asking of her. "Do you think that tiny piece of metal will kill a Dreadlord?" She had no doubt she could hit him from range but after the initial 'fling' of the metal she'd no longer have control of it. It'd be too far away. If they didn't kill him outright he'd be alerted to the assault.

 

[Edric]

"Yes." He said, a part of him not entirely believing what he was about to propose to Noel. In the old days it would have been the height of folly, and not in a million years would she have said yes. Now though? Now there was a chance. "If it goes through their skull."

Edric remarked, taking in a breath.

Lips thinned, and he continued. "My magic doesn't just heal me."

Most had probably already guessed at that. Edric, unlike others, had never much hid what he could do. At least not the basics.

"It enhances me. Makes me faster, stronger." He said. "Makes my eyes better."

His expression grew a bit more stern. "I can also give that ability to others."

Edric could only assume that along with everything else being enhanced...so would Noel's magic. If focused correctly anyway. He hoped, along with the better sight, that it would be enough to hurl the shard of metal directly into the Dreadlord's skull.

The two of them working in tandem to kill the man before he even knew there was a threat.

 

[Noel]

Hair rippled as she nodded along with his first statement. Sure, if she could land the coin through his skull he'd drop dead but at this range? No, they had to get closer, it was too risky.

But then Edric kept speaking. "You've tried this before?"

Noel wasn't really up for being made to be a guinea pig. No matter how dire this situation had become. She'd seen what his magic could do back when the religious freaks had held them captive. She'd heard murmurs from other students long before she'd witnessed it with her own eyes.

But, if he'd tried this technique before and he was confident in himself that would have to be good enough for her. That's what a real Dreadlord would do. Trust in their allies. Seize every advantage.

"Alright." She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyelids for a brief moment. "If you're certain of yourself let's try it."

In a worst case scenario Edric's magic would simply tear out her insides, right? Nothing to worry about.

 

[Edric]

”Close to it.” Edric admitted freely.

He had once used his magic to heal another Initiate, but…it was different than what he was proposing. This was more fine tuned. He had absolutely no idea what would happen if someone took power from him when they were whole.

A shrug rolled over his shoulder. ”I think it’s better than running down there and gambling on what that Dreadlord can do.”

Before Noel could make any other argument, Edric reached out and grasped her shoulder.

Almost as soon as he touched her she would feel a spike of something. Life, vitality, energy. Whatever it was would course through her in an instant. It rushed through her entire being. A shock to the system greater than any drug could ever hope to be.

The world would seem sharper. Colors more vibrant. Her entire body thrumming with an untold strength.

Around them things began to die. Plants whithered, insects curled upon themselves, and birds began to fall. Every second he held onto her more died, the heartbeats passing by where she held his strengths.

 

[Noel]

Frankly, Noel still wasn’t convinced that Edric’s logic was sound.

But before she could ask if they could explore other options his hand grabbed at her shoulder. One second she was herself and everything was fine. A fraction of a second later and something was different.

No. Everything was different.

Her vision sharpened. She could feel the faint breeze from the coast touching every hair on her skin. Sounds were vivid. Noel could actually pinpoint the precise movements of every beetle and ant around them.

More of this. She wanted more.

Gods was this how Edric lived every waking moment? So tuned in to every living thing. Feeling so alive.

For a few seconds - though they felt like hours - she just sat there staring forward. Almost in a trance. She didn’t even want to kill their foe because it would mean this would all end. All of this power. The thing she had craved since she was a young girl at the academy.

The coin floated out of Edric’s palm and broke apart into a dozen pieces before quickly reassembling back into perfect condition. Then it reassembled again, this time into dart with jagged edges on every side. ”This feels incredible,” Noel said much louder than she intended.

A half dozen eyes from the camp twisted towards the jungle at the sound of her voice. But they were all too slow, too late.

In a second the dart flew. It impaled the exiled Dreadlord through the skull before twisting around. It exploded into a dozen pieces and tore through his ribcage, and chest, and thighs, before it reformed itself and slung back towards the pair of initiates. Burying itself, in perfect condition, right before Edric.

”More.” Noel grabbed Edric's wrist so tightly that her knuckles glowed a stark white. Desperately wanting the spike in power to continue.

 

[Edric]

Eyes that had turned towards the sound of a voice flickered to a mangled mass of blood and bone that had fallen prone onto the beach.

Shock carried through the camp for a brief moment. Silence reigned, and then at the flip of a switch panic set through the entirety of the camp. Some men screamed, others called for assistance, but most simply began to run towards the ship.

Panic rushed through the whole place, but Edric paid no mind to that.

He stared into Noel's eyes as she regarded him. Felt her fingers digging into his wrist. The pressure of her grasp as she demanded more of the life that he carried. For a moment, a brief heartbeat he stayed quiet, utterly silent.

Then she would feel it.

The roiling lash of power.

A tidal wave sweeping away the life around them. Plants browned and curled, insects fell and died, birds ceased their chirping. A wave of death swept out from around the two Initiates. Crawling forward like an echo, consuming anything and everything.

Edric could have pretended not to know why he did it. He could have said it was simple instinct, but that was a lie.

He knew why he wanted this. Why he gave Noel the power she demanded. He wanted someone else to feel what it was like. He wanted someone else to understand. He wanted, no, he desperately needed that flimsy connection. For someone else to see what the reapers might truly was. What the temptation of death wrought upon this world could be.

Edric didn't tell her what to do with the power, the magic he offered, because she already knew.

 

[Noel]

Edric gave her a knowing stare. A brief pause was followed by a surge of additional power into her body. She exhaled loudly, kicking her head back, reveling in the moment. It wasn't just euphoric. It was liberating.

With power like this no Proctor could stand before her.

No one in all of Vel Anir could deny her the title of Archon. The success she craved. She could become a god amongst men with this level of power. Or at least, that was how she felt. That nothing could threaten her, nothing could stand against her. Not as she felt every atom of metallic alloy within a square mile.

Her vision blurred for a split second as she continued to indulge in the feeling. Then she re-entered reality.

Slavers were scurrying along the beach. Many of them rushing towards their ship. A few trying to secure the now crying and squealing pig-children they'd bound. It was fruitless. In a flurry of motion the iron-cast chains that kept the prisoners bound flew off before forming into long, spindly, strings. Those strings moved swiftly and eviscerated every last one of the slavers on the beach. Staining the sand red with blood.

The handful of men rushing towards the ship could feel the saltwater up to their ankles before every metal wince and pulley and hinge on the ship exploded. The shrapnel careened outwards before swarming in like a pack of locusts. Cutting through the air and creating an audible whistle as they carved through bone and flesh.

In a matter of twenty seconds Noel's metallic symphony had made short work of every slaver on the beach. The pig-children found themselves unbound and terrified at the carnage they'd just witnessed.

Then, like a rush of sobriety, she felt it. Every beetle and ant had stopped moving. A sparrow fell from the sky unto her lap and writhed in pain before dying. Every blade of grass. She felt all of it die around her. Actually felt their pain and sorrow and fear. It was agonizing.

"Stop it." Her words were suddenly stern as sweat beaded on her brow and tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

 

[Edric]

The second that Noel spoke, in the very iota of time that the words passed her, lips Edric's hand snapped away from her shoulder.

It was a reaction that came so quickly, that echoed so fast, that it was hard to question whether or not he had planned for it all along. His expression was utterly neutral, his face a mask of the ordinary, of calm and untold thousands of questions and admonishments.

Edric said not a word of those slaughtered.

He said not a single word of the death which surrounded them.

Not a single word was uttered about the destruction that they had wrought together. Of the death which loomed within their wake. Of the vitality they had taken.

The forest around them was a wisp of itself. Decaying trees. Dead birds. Mammals curled husks of what they might have been. Noel and Edric had taken the life around them. Had sacrificed and taken the tax of what might yet live in their surrounding. Thirty, forty, dozens of yards around them lay as little more than death and decay.

Slowly Edric's hand pulled away from her.

No glance was spared to the corpses on the beach, to the reason they were here.

Instead he stared at her. His eyes were desperate, detached. He looked to her, his voice quiet. "Do you understand?"

Edric asked in the silence of a graveyard.

 

[Noel]

Eyelids fluttered for a second as she came off the high Edric had provided. All around her was the desiccated, brown, clumps of grass and bushes. What had been a verdant green prior to the experience now looked as if they were standing in the epicenter of a centuries long drought.

Their targets on the beach were dead.

Their mission was essentially completed. All they had to do was escort the captured children back to Teaobo.

But Noel couldn't focus on any of that. All she could think about was that lingering feeling of the lives of everything around them they'd just stripped away. The death of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of individual lives they'd just slaughtered to achieve their goal.

Sure, for a time the power Edric bestowed upon her was intoxicating. Liberating even. But now all she could feel was sorrow. All she could think about was death.

"Stay away."

It was an instinctual response. For a brief second she wanted to slay Edric. A quick twirl of her magic and impale his skull the same as she had that Dreadlord. She wanted him far, far, away from her. But then that feeling subsided and the sorrow returned.

She looked at him, meeting his glance, "I'm sorry." Sorry for what? For everything? For the fact that he was born into Anirian society and was used as a tool to gain power no matter the consequences?

"I'm sorry." She repeated.

 

[Edric]

As Noel scrambled away from him Edric remained perfectly still.

He remained in the midst of the graveyard they had created together. His face was an inexpressive mask. Every emotion hidden, every little thought tucked deep away in a psyche that had suffered a decade of abuse and rejection.

Edric crouched in place, his eyes hollow, watching as Noel took another slow step back and away from him.

In his chest he could feel his heart pounding, thundering, echoing. The sound of it ringing in his ear, threatening to drown out everything else. Then she spoke again.

"I'm sorry."​

The words called out. Reached him.

"I'm sorry."​

Edric didn't know why. Couldn't have said, but he felt a relief within those words. A sacrosanct absolution he could not have asked for. Slowly he let out a breath that he hadn't even known he'd been holding, his entire body shaking. "It's okay."

He said, his voice soft.

"I know what I am." Slowly Edric stood. A reaper in his domain. "What I'll always be."

A smile, a sad, desperate smile touched his lips. "I'm sorry you had to see."

It was a lie.

As much as he wanted it not to be. As much as he wanted to feel a spark of innocence. He was glad that someone knew. That someone had an iota of understanding. That at the very least, Noel felt a fraction of the weight he carried.

 

[Noel]

Her boots crunched against the dried, dead, grass underfoot as she clumsily stood up. Edric was like a statue and it wasn't surprising. Whatever he really thought was impossible to say, the academy did a good job of teaching its students to hide their true feelings.

"You know what you are?" Did he truly? Noel didn't and she'd felt it all.

Was his life only sustainable by taking the lives of other living things? Or was it just limited to his magic? Had Edric been... feeding on the other initiates in the years they'd spent at the academy? Had he been feeding on her?

After a brief pause she allowed the lump in her throat to swallow. A hand passed rubbed at her temple to sooth the headache she'd felt coming over her. Eventually she gave him a hard stare and simply blurted it out.

"Edric. What are you?"

Unless he explained it to her in exact terms she couldn't believe that even he knew the answer to that question. Maybe it had a simple, magical, explanation. Or maybe the initiate she'd trained with since childhood was an abomination.

Before he could give any answer though she chimed up with an addendum. "I got to experience it. For a moment. Maybe it's unfair for me to judge whatever it was your magic did to me but I've never felt more of a rush in my life. And I've never felt so much regret and sorrow as I came down off it."

Noel kept rubbing at the bridge of her nose, maybe sheer will would cause the headache to subside. Maybe if they dropped this subject completely she could forget about all of the misery she'd just felt as they reaped every living thing in a twenty foot radius around them.

 

[Edric]

For a few seconds Edric stayed quiet, standing there like a statue. His face was a mask, but his eyes were filled with sorrow. "A plague."

He said quietly.

It was the answer that had settled in his mind long ago, for it was the only thing that he could think his equal. He was a plague. A thing that swept forward and took life. There was no purpose to it. No plan. No greater beckoning. A plague fell upon the world and wrought it's way through the land until it burnt itself out.

That was what Edric had decided he was.

"I shouldn't be alive." A dark, wry chuckle escaped his throat. Tinged with bitterness. "I've…I've died so many times. I know I have. I saw…"

A deep, almost aching longing entered his eyes. Edric's expression twisting into pain. "It always brings me back. Every time. I've tried to stop it. Tried just to…"

He trailed off.

"I'm a plague." Edric said again. "And I'll keep killing and killing and killing until finally something…"

Again that look entered his eyes, that longing look, and then slowly he turned away from Noel. "At least until then I can kill the right people."

With that he started off down the slope, heading towards the carnage they had unleashed together.

 

[Noel]

Her face was like marble initially. Simply listening to Edric describe himself as a plague. As someone who shouldn't be alive. The mask only slipped near the end when he repeated his line of being a plague. For the briefest of seconds a look of sympathy shone through.

Noel had, in the entirety of her time at the academy, very rarely showed any sympathy. Only on a few notable occasions had it occurred and the actions were usually punished until she viewed empathetic notions as a sign of weakness.

But now, so far away from the academy and in the wake of all they'd just done, it came through.

Until it faded. And Edric walked off towards the beachhead.

She had wanted to tell him that killing was their purpose. And that by killing the rest of Vel Anir benefitted. They killed to defend the honest and hardworking Anirians back home. They killed to advance their own stations in life. At least, that's what Noel had always told herself. But seeing what Edric could do, feeling what he felt, and hearing how he felt about it...

"The kids are unshackled. We just need to open where they're fenced in at," she said as she caught up to him. Best to leave what he said alone. There wasn't anything insightful she could speak to.

She'd dispatched the pig-children's bindings with her magic but their cage was made largely of wood. Simple enough to break though her magic could not be as relied upon.

With a sideways glance she said one last thing as their boots touched the sandy shore. "You aren't a plague."

 

[Edric]

He had thought she would do what she always did. That Noel would go back to business. Move past the interaction and simply set herself against the prize they could now claim.

His foot stopped though as she made her comment. Lips thinning for a brief moment as he tried to process the words. He had never once told others of what he thought himself, had never even mentioned the thought. It was one to be held private, close, never spoken of.

One that he had thought no one would get the opportunity to challenge, much less choose to do so.

For a moment Edric felt like he should have answered, argued, but the will wasn't there.

The truth of it was he wanted someone to think better of him. He wanted someone to think he wasn't the mindless death that roamed the land. Not once had Edric thought it would be Noel, but if it was to be here...then he was glad for it now.

Without another word he quickly caught up to Noel.

As they moved into bay the scattered corpses presented all around them, the caged children near the edge of the camp towards the water, and behind them a ship sitting within the bay. There was no sign of any more pirates, not even a motion of the ship.

"Get the kids." Edric said as he gestured towards the Dreadlord. "I'm going to check him."

If out of nothing more than pure curiosity.