Private Tales Built to Break

[Zephyrine]

Spring seemed to be in full bloom longer out here, or perhaps Vel Castere has been blessed with warm days and crisp nights. It meant all that resided here were in better spirits, and there was plenty of places for Zephyrine to find a quiet spot and cool down from her busy schedule. Every day she started a run with the Dreadlord she learned was called Davi after hearing the Lieutenant address him on few casual occasions they were leaving the forge and he was coming to collect her like clockwork to finish the day with more training. But Zephyrine never complained. It was not in her to voice any when she had been taught not to during her solo lessons at the Academy.

For the first two weeks, her body ached in a way that had her thinking she was not fit, but it only meant she had not pushed herself hard enough now that they began integrating her with the rest of her class.

Davi and Sam at least were pushing her to be better, and soon enough, she began to produce results.

There was still a week left before she had to begin returning to the Academy, another few weeks travel that she knew she would now continue her running and physical training to keep her strength she had worked on these past few weeks.

Zephyrine came to a stop after slowing her pace, standing and walking aimlessly as her hands rested at her waist and she began to catch her breath. Still, Davi was quicker than her, but each day she pushed herself that extra mile to try and keep up. She liked training with him. A man of little word, perhaps one syllable here and there, but she learned a lot more than she did doing all this alone at the Academy. Even Dreadlord Sol had given her an incredulous look when she said she was enjoying her sessions with the quiet Dreadlord.

 

[Davi]

"You could have kept going."

As usual Dreadlord Nevvaro's tone gave nothing away as to his true feelings. He could have been telling her off or enquiring whether she was sick and if that was why she had stopped. He turned back from the few paces he had been ahead of her to walk by her side instead. There was a thin layer of sweat over his bare chest but otherwise no hint that the five miles they had already run had had any impact on him.

In an unusual move for Davi, however, he followed up on the comment.

"Are you looking forward to returning to Vel Anir?"

 

[Zephyrine]

"No." She admitted.

Yes, she could have still kept going, just as the burn of her muscles was feeling good, but her head had been too clouded with thoughts.

"I like it here. It's disciplined and no distractions." Similar to her solitary lessons before the Proctors began lumping her into the main classes with the rest of her peers. Some had thought she had died during the Revolution for they had forgotten all about her. Training and learning here in Castere had been the kind of attention and study she enjoyed most, and there was no bullshit tests and exams to determine one's rank level upon graduation.

Her facial features settled into a frown, head drooping slightly to moodily stare at the grass beneath their worn boots.

And the Academy was no longer the same anymore. Despite her two friends still at the Academy, awaiting her return, Zephyrine had no other reason to return.

 

[Davi]

Davi nodded in quiet understanding. The Academy had been some of the darkest years of his life. Malnourished, mistreated, parts of his body broken and left to heal deformed. That was not even starting on the mental scars he still bore. It had taken six months for him to reach the point he would not break out into a sweat when he saw a messenger approaching the gates, knowing no news would ever come to request his immediate return. Sam had kept her word and Davi was free.

Whilst he did not think his young charge feared the return to the Academy for quite the same reasons, he could still empathise.

"Graduation is not far," he pointed out gently.

 

[Zephyrine]

Graduation. It warranted a grim attempt of a smile, and more than one sentence.

"I know. I'm ready for it." She shrugged, moving to sit on the grass to undo her laces to her boots. When one was successfully pulled off, she sighed and stared at the remaining boot. "Or at least, I'd like to think so. I can't help but feel I am missing so much..."

And that was one of the driving reasons she asked for this education in Vel Castere. To learn a skill she need to know to better understand her magic, something the Proctors would have favoured if the times hadn't changed. It would be beaten her to the breaking point, but Zephyrine only knew how to get results from putting herself through the worse conditions she was taught as a child.

"Dreadlord Caddel. It's going to be an adjustment."

 

[Davi]

Ah Kress she was sitting down and taking off her shoes. She definitely wanted this to be longer than a bit of encouragement. Suppressing a sigh and cursing Sam, he joined her on the grassy slope.

"Adjustments can be good," he lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. At least it had been for him. Sam might have quite literally dragged him through one or two of those adjustments but in the end he had been able to see she was right.

 

[Zephyrine]

Zeph gave him a half smile as he moved to join her on the grass. She made no mention that this was the first time he was sitting down to talk with her, but even thinking of it herself made her feel conscious and odd.

And so she said nothing of the sort.

"All I can remember is that place... I did plenty of solo missions, a handful that were a team effort... and now this stint to learn to better my magic. Where did all that time go?" She grimaced. "Now I got to figure out a life that is beyond the Academy."

But Vel Castere had been slowly easing her into that mindset. Surrounded by Knights, Dreadlords, and the like, it allowed her to get a taste of how past Initiates got to acclimate outside of those walls. "I... hope I don't separated from my friends." She finally admitted.

Although that was not the only truth. There was more behind her words, that she hoped that whatever decision she made was to not let down Larkin or Kor. She was the one to make them both come together and become friends, to plan with her to leave Vel Anir and be in charge of their own futures. But without Kor making plans for it, and Larkin following wherever she would go, Zephyrine began to wonder if that was truly the right decision to make.

Lieutenant Black had said one day that Zephyrine would make a great Knight. It was praise that made her hopeful, prideful, and later that evening when she tried to sleep, all she could feel was guilt.

 

[Davi]

Davi had been eager to leave the Academy and its darkness far behind so it was hard for him to empathise with the young initiate who sat beside him. He thought of what life might have been like there if he had had a friend. Someone like Sam he could have truly depended on. Would he have been sad to leave then? He gave a soft hum.

"That, at least, is something you can control."

He was certain that even if an order came tomorrow to return, he would refuse. He would not leave Sam.

"But... distance does not always mean you will lose someone. If you don't want to."

He almost grimaced at how much he had spoken in one go.

 

[Zephyrine]

Zephyrine glanced at Davi.

He had never given her any indication to not believe in his counsel, when the few times he needed to correct her during training, he did not belittle her for making a mistake, but educated her on how to get better results. Improve, learn, grow. They were often demonstrations on his part, asking her to watch closely, to learn from him.

His words commanded the same attention, and Zeph hummed lowly.

"I want to follow my friends, but if I do, I lose a life of potential. If I don't, I lose two friends I met when I never knew I needed friends..." She had learned what if felt like to be protected, even though she outmatched them in terms of skill and strength. She could not ask them to stay, to abandon all their plans to leave. No. Zeph would not keep them caged here.

 

[Davi]

Davi listened patiently whilst she formed her words and found himself giving the odd nod of encouragement when she seemed to hesitate. Afterwards, he sat in silence for some time whilst thinking on best to word his next point.

"Why do you feel as though you cannot keep your friends if you follow what you want to do? That would suggest... they are not truly friends."

 

[Zephyrine]

Zephyrine hesitated. It was obvious given how her expression changed, how she inhaled to fill her lungs with words to speak, but the breath caught in her throat. Hesitating and doubting herself.

"If I cannot go with my friends... it is a matter of distance." She attempted to explain, busying herself with brushing bits of dirt and grass on her dew soaked boots from the run. "They would not hold it against me... but I made a promise. I never break my promises." At least she was beginning to honour her own words.

"There is much I could do to serve Vel Anir... but that's just it isn't it?" Zeph asked softly, looking to Davi with a blank expression. "It's serving Vel Anir."