Open Chronicles Bandits or Merchants

[Autumn Whispergrove]

Autumn understood how things were run. She knew that each place had a specific thing it deemed important enough to cause people to clamor for it or for it to decide how people were ranked, like he said. Every city needed something like coin to run. But was it running properly?

"Is that all there is though?" She sipped her far too hot tea with a verbal curse as reaction, and a quick covering of her mouth when she realized she was being far too loud.

"Is that all that drives people? That doesn't seem right to me. I know that I NEED coin to survive, but it doesn't feel like it determines everything. People do things for other people, or out of the kindness of their heart. Even if it is less common I know it to be real." Thorne was a living example of that. He could have left her behind that fateful day and been free from the enormous burden she was. Yet he still chose to be by her side and protect her from the Dreadlords and herself.

She looked longingly out the window. What she was longing for not even she could answer.

"I don't want to believe people are that easily manipulated."

 

[Elise Virak]

The Carriage twisted and turned through the pathways of the Inner-City, eventually reaching a large walled structure that separated itself from the street through stone and wrought iron.

Just inside of it's gates stood Several Anirian Guardsmen, each dressed in the fine armor of Vel Anir and holding weapons. They signaled with a loud whistle upon Elise's carriage, opening the wrought iron gate and allowing the carriage to pass through.

Immediately after the door closed. "Send a missive to the City Watch."

She told the Guardsmen as she stepped out of the carriage.

"And sit for a depiction of this girl. Alert them that she may be dangerous." For a second the Baroness paused. "But make it clear that Vel Anir only wishes to ensure Alliria itself is safe."

This girl was a fugitive and a danger. She had to be painted as such.

Nobody wanted a dangerous renegade in their lands.

 

[Acteon Cass]

Hector looked at the young woman with a tad bit of amusement cracking through his perpetual frown. Between what she had to say and the tea she was drinking, he was clearly finding this interaction refreshing compared to the usual banter with his self absorbed son. Where the girl had burned herself drinking the tea right away, he began to put a bit of cream into his cup. Slowly he stirred it as she spoke.

"You are confusing society and people. People are part of society and society needs people, but they are not the same thing. Society tells us what we should value and how to act and what is right and wrong. People are individuals and selfish creatures." Hector responded and ended his last words by tapping the side of his cup with his spoon gently. A taste test followed then a deeper drink after that.

"Now do not mistake me saying selfish as meaning it is a bad thing. To be happy we have to be selfish. To understand others we need to understand ourselves, which is a selfish act. Because of this we are capable of great good and great evil. Society is nothing more than an attempt to sway our selfishness towards good." Hector was rambling again. He was also turning into a philosopher. Was it due to his idleness of late as all the Cass family could do was wait for enough coins to come in to get their plan on rebuilding started? Had he lost his merchant edge? Hard to say. At least he was enjoying his tea.

Autumn Whispergrove

=======

Finally! The carriage had made it to the embassy and it seemed there was guards. Made sense. If Acteon was such an important person as an Anirian noble he would want guards while in a foreign city as well. For now he knew where he was going and the waiting needed to begin.

For an hour or two, Acteon just sort of wandered around in about a three block radius of the embassy. He got himself a quick bite to eat, drank a pint, and got a feel for the current market of goods. Honestly it was rather idle and relaxing. Too bad it was time for him to head over to the embassy.

Arriving back, Acteon took in a deep breath then slowly exhaled it. He took on a very smug and cocky look on his face. Swaggering up to the gate, he knocked on the iron as if the guards needed to be alerted to his presence. He then leaned against the wall.

"Sorry to come a knockin' Anirians, but I am here to speak with a female knight. Never got her name, but tell her that her absolute dream has come to fulfill our destiny of meeting once more." Acteon called out so that all of the guards could hear him as well as anyone passing by. He was playing a fool and hoped to turn this embassy entryway into a stage for his little play.

Elise Virak

 

[Autumn Whispergrove]

It made sense, the things Hector spoke. It resonated easily in Autumn's brain as truth. That society helped direct us towards a median of selfishness and selflessness. Giving value to something that could be easily shared among all of man. Then it was up to the people themselves to dictate what they did with that basis. She stared for a long time into her tea, and took another sip. This time much less hot. A more tolerable temperature.

"Then it is people that make me so angry." She said solemnly, not looking from her tea. "It is people who hoard what society dictates as valuable. And make it so others may not live happy or long lives." She looked back to Hector, a look of confusion and worry on her face. "But, why? Why is it that people thrive over the suffering of others? The absolute condemnation of fellow members of their own species? What does it take to have someone's world view become so skewed?"

Autumn thought back to the home she lived in in Vel Anir. When Thorne's wife was alive and still her nanny. Her parents who always made time for her despite their nobility and their business. Thorne himself so willing to throw his life away to make sure she was safe. All she ever knew were people who had boundless kindness in their hearts.

Until she met the Dreadlords.

The thought brought an expression of rage upon her face. Tea cups in the shop began to rattle for reasons unbeknownst. The charm on the door was swinging wildly. The air inside would begin to feel heavier and i was plain to see on the faces of the patrons; they'd all felt a shift in atmosphere. Yet, she knew she needed to calm down. She took a deep, long breath and all felt normal again.

The thought of those bastards just made her so belligerently angry.

 

[Elise Virak]

The Guards stared at the man from behind the wrought Iron Gate, their faces entirely impassive. One briefly glanced at the other, his armor shifting for a brief moment before he regarded the crazed man.

"No."​

It was a simple answer, and also probably the only one you could expect from an Anirian Guardsmen on his post. The Soldiers had often been distinguished as the finest in the world, trained from an early age and standing as one of the few professional armies in Arethil.

Neither of them seemed like they had time for any nonsense.

"Unless you have an appointment no one enters the Grounds of the Embassy. If you wish to send a missive we'll be happy to take a letter. Other than that, leave."​

As the Guardsmen answered Acteon he would notice a slight commotion behind him.

The crowd shifted, opening up as a Commissioner of the Allirian Watch suddenly walked out from between the jostled men and women. He wore armor made of leather, carried a slight rapier like sword, and tucked a bound book beneath his arm.

He stalked forward, clearly making his way towards the Embassy.

 

[Acteon Cass]

"Who is to say what is wrong or skewed?" Hector responded to Autumn Whispergrove right away. "Only the gods, or so the more religious would say. I know I can not. To live is to suffer and to struggle. We all work against our own struggles and suffer doing so. If the world existed solely of just I then there would be no worry of others. But others do exist. They also struggle and suffer, and their's comes into contact with my own."

The older man needed a drink. It was likely not the best place to pause, but there was never such a thing as perfection.

"When our struggles come into contact we can either work together, work against one another, or ignore each other. The clear 'correct' choice would be to work together and the clear 'wrong' choice is to work against each other. But life is not so simple. How does one help with a struggle that is entirely personal and internal? What if helping you makes my own struggle worse? Am I to sacrifice myself for you? Where is your sacrifice for me in that situation?" Hector went on. This was a deeply philosophical discussion. It was also likely one not expected from a man who spent his life as a merchant of Alliria of all places. But he always had a fondness for these sorts of subjects. Riddles, philosophy, theology. To explore the mind and soul was more of an Elbion thing yet it was a path he was instinctively drawn to.

"There is no correct choice. There is only the best choice in the moment. To ignore the suffering of others is cruel, yet if you are not in a position to help it would be best for both of you to do so. To help others requires your struggles in that area to be over and for you to be in place of excess. To work against others can be seen as wrong and vile and evil, yet giving others something to fight can inspire them to overcome. There is as much good as there is evil in everything. To be selfish is necessary. To be selfless is suicidal. One has to figure out when it is best to be either and there is no one true solution that exists."

========

The guards were being stubborn or perhaps just were tired of the foreign place. Acteon could understand, but it also was causing them to be in his way. Killing them or sneaking into the embassy would just make matters even worse for him. Anirians were rather backwards people in his opinion but they had strong arms and long memories. A minor slight now could lead to major problems for him in the future. So instead of impulsively making matters worse, he needed to come up with a solution.

And the solution presented itself rather pompously. The Commissioner of the Watch was making their way to the Embassy. Acteon smirked to himself as he already moved onto the next act for his little play. This new character would be perfect for his scheme.

Acteon held out his arms wide with a friendly smile as he stepped out in front of the commissioner. Speaking loudly so as to draw the attention of the people around them on the street Acteon said, "Commissioner Sterling! How good it is to see you!"

The older man who still had some youth in him despite his age scowled on hearing and seeing his fellow Allirian. "Cass. What in the name of the gods brings you to the Anirian Embassy?" Before Acteon could even respond the man already had a hand up to stop him from speaking. "Never mind. I do not want to know. I never want to know what you are up to. I feel sorry for your poor father that he has to hear about it."

"Now that is a cruel way to address your former subordinate." Acteon said making a hurt look. "I am here because my little sister accidentally stepped out in front of an Anirian carriage and one of the guards here accidentally stole a package after flirting with me."

"Wait, your sister? Accident with the Anirians? Stolen after flirting? What in the name of Alliria are you involved with this time?" Commissioner Sterling responded shocked and dazed by the sheer insanity of the situation he was hearing.

People in the crowd on the street began to stop and listen. An outrageous tale straight out of an Allirian drama was being told to the Commissioner of the Allirian Watch in front of the Anirian Embassy. No one would believe it at the tavern tonight when they told it and they definitely wanted to be able to tell the whole thing. Acteon internally smirked taking note of this. It was what he wanted. He wanted a scene that would force the Anirians and the Commissioner to tread carefully while he did not.

Elise Virak

 

[Autumn Whispergrove]

She let the man go on a while. He spoke very intelligently and it showed her a lot she hadn't considered before. It was very easy for people to say 'I help the weak!' but much harder to put these words into actions. Especially without consequence. The opportunity to do good without lash back came once in a blue moon. Autumn hadn't even considered how little good she'd done in this life thus far.

Of course. You're selfish. Thinking only of yourself

But, so what? Her struggle to survive was dire. Even as Hector stated, selfishness is necessity. That her necessity to stay alive did not determine her to be a bad person. And the realization of this helped her a lot more than she would be able to put into words. Some of the vile thoughts that always intruded her head just... sounded weaker. Like she'd finally found a weapon to kill off a part of her brain that told her she was worthless all the time.

Autumn giggled, knowing full well it was a bit out of turn. "You're smart." She said with a bright smile. "I very much enjoy talking to you. I'm sorry that you had to be caught up in all of this."