Private Tales Full of Nothing

[Villam Regis]

He didn't have an extensive knowledge of the history of the Void Rune, but judging from how Vazia embodied its namesake even six hours after being away from it, Villam gathered that the influence it held over her was quite strong. Even he started getting uneasy after an hour apart from Passion, it wouldn't shock him in the slightest if Vazia was affecting the world around her after six.

There were a few more screams, cries, and hushed, unintelligible whispers that found Villam's ears as he left Ferreira back towards Old Town and the Tower, but they seemed dimmer, and far less aggressive. Perhaps the closing distance between Vazia and her stone was lessening the severity? This wasn't an exact science, and something they as a society still knew relatively little about.

"We're almost at the Tower now. Would you like to go in with me? I understand... if you do not wish me to leave you alone out here." Usually it would be her element, but fear and darkness were a dangerous combination, and the sun had long since vanished behind the hills. Vazia still appeared troubled, and Villam held firm his grip on her, tilting his head to meet her gaze. "It's frightening, when you begin to feel who you were seep into who you are now..."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

Vazia blocked out the screams and whimpers that echoed inside and outside of her head, focusing on the closing distance between her and her stone. She was a fool for thinking she could go without it, but some part of her wondered when she had become so dependant and wrapped around it? Villam beside her seemed so much more real and alive, and it had taken her a whole six hours to feel even a bit alive but no more real. Where had her soul gone? Lost somewhere in the void, she supposed.

They paused, even closer to the tower. The screams were now mere whispers, reaching for her with long shadowy fingers. Vazia ignored them.

To feel who you were seep into who you are now...
Vazia looked at Villam, surprised at how close to home he had hit. But she supposed she was nothing special or different- most of the guardians all had past lives that they had had to abandon to take up their mantle.

"I will go inside with you," she replied, recovering a bit of that empty control she was famous for. She was afraid of what would happen if she was here alone with her mind, even as the whispers faded. One thought was all it would take for her to lose herself in the void. If there was anything left to lose.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

The intensity of the changes the stones had put them through may have been different, but Villam could still empathize with Vazia-- He knew that lingering fear, that looming shadow of memory hanging over your head when the magic released its grip on you. With a knowing nod, Villam kept a hand on her shoulder, anchoring her so that she did not feel complete isolation as he pushed open the massive doors of the Tower wide enough enter.

The entryway was eerily quiet at this time of night; there were the sounds of footsteps and soft voices around them, but they seemed almost ghostly when they echoed through the spacious rooms of the ancient building. Most would have begun to turn in for the night, those still celebrating would be doing so at the bars and taverns across Valenntenia.

Luckily, they didn't need linger long; Villam knew this place well, and he led his comrade up one of the winding staircases that hugged the rounded wall of the entry hall, leading up to the dias they'd seen Solomon speaking from that morning.

"With luck, merely being inside the tower should help you to feel better." Villam muttered, "This place was built by the ancients, out of the same stone our runes were carved from." At least, that's what they were all taught. Villam may have been disillusioned as to the Guardians in some ways, but his faith had never wavered.

The trip to Solomon's chambers were quiet, intruded upon only by the odd housekeeper giving them sideways glances as they trudged across freshly mopped and waxed floors. Soon they stood outside of the velvet doors to The Absalon's quarters, and only now did Villam pull away from Vazia.

"The old man won't be asleep yet. He reads for hours before he dozes..."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

Villam kept his hand on her shoulder and Vazia did not shrug off his touch. The pair walked into the tower, whispers and footsteps echoing in the shadows. There was the soft sound of a girl crying but Vazia knew only she could hear it this time; it seemed to resound inside of her head instead of mingling with the other sounds in the shadows. She knew it was not the stone this time, but her own memories sitting up, blinking sleepy eyes. Vazia pretended she couldn't hear it.

They walked past the spaces where Vazia had normally gone, passing the housekeeper, who gave them strange looks as if wondering what the two Guardians were doing, wandering the tower in the middle of the night, away from all the celebrations. Vazia pretended she didn't care.

They stopped outside the Absalon's doors, and Villam stepped back, dropping his hand from her shoulder. He said something about Solomon reading before bed, but Vazia did not respond. She turned her head to look at Villam and maybe it was the lighting but her eyes seemed to be blue instead of their empty white but if he blinked they would be white once more and it could have been a trick of the light. Vazia pretended she didn't know.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

Villam had begun to push open the doors to his Fahter's chamber when he turned once more to check on Vazia. The last thing he needed was for her to slip back into another panic attack within the walls of the Tower. Not only would he be chastised for bringing her so close to the Absalon while exhibiting instability, but it wouldn't help her when it came to her evaluation tomorrow.

The woman standing behind him, for the briefest of moments, looked almost like a total and complete stranger to him. It wasn't that anything had drastically changed about her, hair still as white as bone with skin pallor to match. Vazia's eyes though... he could have sworn he saw their actual hue hidden within the milky white, if only for a second.

It was enough to bring him pause. Some small part of him, a kindling of curiosity buried in the back of his mind, wanted to meet the actual woman inside of Vazia, wanted to know what she was like, how she spoke, what she thought of this place, these people...

Villam had to brush away such desires. Vazia had made it clear her past was off-limits, and she was trusting him to help her now. To withhold that held to satisfy his own curiosity would be a breach of both her trust and her privacy. There was too much respect between them for that.

Instead, he offers a smile before turning back to the door and pushing it open.

"Old man! Need to speak with you for a minute."

Walking into the room, Villam's words are met with silence. A glance towards the fireplace shows no sign of the Absalon in his usual reading chair. The young Regis brings his hands to his hips, huffing at the emptiness of the room before giving a shrug and waving her in.

"Might be out having a drink. Come on, your rune is in the back here..."

Villam gestured towards the pedestals lined up behind his father's desk, some with runestones resting atop them, some empty; Vazia wasn't the only one who required proximity, it seemed. Her stone rested among them, silently beckoning her arrival.

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

She stopped outside the door to the Absalon's room, wondering if she might get in trouble for encroaching on his private space. She hoped Villam knew what he was doing.

But it seemed Solomon was not there. His room was empty as Villam walked in. Her gaze immediately went to her stone, which rested on its pedestal. If it had had a face, Vazia would've bet money her stone was smirking at her. Villam waved her into the room and she walked in slowly, keeping her gaze on her stone.

It seemed to flicker in and out of appearance, a dark blur sucking in the light around it. She walked around the desk and picked the stone up off the pedestal; the smooth facets of it were both cool and warm in the same moment. As soon as her fingers touched it, a soothing silence washed over her and she let her eyes drift shut for a moment as she relaxed.

She opened her eyes and turned to look at Villam. She slid her stone into her pocket and it took a moment before she was willing to let go of her stone. It was still in her pocket, it's weight against her leg, reminding her of the vast emptiness of the world.

"Thank you."

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

It only took Vazia seconds to retrieve her stone from the pedestal, but to Villam's eyes, the scene played out at a fraction of the speed. The energies of a stone so closely bonded to its wielder were so powerful a force you could see it warp and twist the air around it. The slab of enchanted rock, so ordinary in appearance, seemed to draw in reality itself, tugging at the seams of existence as though it would pull Ferreira back to her rightful place.

And Vazia, in turn, slid across the floor like a phantom in the dark. He'd pondered what she'd been like before the Void had claimed her, but now he saw that such a woman existed no longer. There would always be the void, and it would always be at the forefront of Vazia's being. It was sobering, and somewhat somber to witness the cause and the effect reunite before his eyes.

Wordleslly she reclaimed her stone, her very essence, and slid it away. In an instant she seemed to return to the Vazia he knew well, those brief glimmers of emotion sinking back into the recesses of her psyche, suffocated within the void. Regis crossed his arms and nodded in response to her gratitude, looking about somewhat awkwardly.

"Wasn't about to watch you suffer. I... suppose we should go then?"

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

There was a bit of awkwardness about Villam, and Vazia vaguely wondered if she had done something to bother him. She shrugged the thought off as she moved back across the room to stand closer to Villam.

Suffer... She supposed she had suffered, once, but it didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Even tonight, without her stone in hand, she hadn't really suffered. Or if she had, she couldn't remember. She had her stone now. She resisted the urge to grip it tightly in her hand and left it in her pocket.

"Yes," she replied cooly, blinking white eyes slowly.

"Should we be worried that the Absalon is not here?" she asked. She had said we, but really she wasn't worried- she just thought it couldn't hurt to bring it to Villam's attention. Solomon was Villam's father, no matter how that bothered Villam, and if something happened to the Absalon, it would certainly spell disaster or at least chaos for the rest of the Guardians as well.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

Villam let out a small click of his tongue, rolling his eyes at the question of his Father. No, even his detractors didn't dare attempt to lay hands on him, and even if they did, the old man was more than capable of taking care of himself. Deceptively strong, that geezer. "No, he's probably out with Stella, or perhaps Konstantin. He doesn't handle losing Guardians well."

Villam turned slightly, looking at the soft leather armchair that sat by the dwindling fire. There had been a time in which he would perch himself on Solomon's lap each night, pleading for a story about their predecessors in that very chair, albeit not in this Tower. "He's sentimental, sometimes to his detriment."

If The Absalon was indeed out for a drink, it would be some time before he returned. With that in mind, he turned back towards Vazia and crossed his arms over his chest. They'd been interrupted before, and the brief excursion that interruption had brought them had given him a moment to think not only about what she'd asked, but how he'd answered.

"You asked me earlier what my passion is. I told you it was change. That's not untrue, but it's not the entire truth." He admitted, his eyes sliding to the space between them, smaller than it had been a moment ago. Watching the blank expression on the Void Guardian falter, seeing the faintest hint of life within her only to be snuffed out in short order... it brought pause to the troubled young Regis. "My passion is to live, without the boundaries and restrictions imposed upon me by others. My entire adult life, my Father has constrained himself to his post, to this lonely tower. I will not do the same."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

She listened and watched as Villam rolled his eyes about his father, claiming he was sentimental. She raised an eyebrow, thinking those were awfully bold words coming from the Guardian of the Passion Runestone but she didn't press it.

He returned his gaze to hers, curiosity flickering within. He brought back her earlier question. So he wanted to be separate from his father. Rather unfortunate for him, considering how closely the two worked and how everyone else viewed them, but she understood what he meant.

"That is all well and good, but what about the boundaries and restrictions imposed upon you by your stone?" she replied softly after a moment, considering the man before her.

 

[Villam Regis]

Villam's expression tightened, and his head shook at her question. It was true that being a Guardian placed certain restraints upon him, duties that he was required to fulfill to maintain the power that the Passion Rune granted him. It granted him no small amount of conflict, that constant tug of war between duty and desire. He'd be a liar if he claimed otherwise, however tempting it was.

"I don't know. If I'm being honest, I haven't figured it all out yet. I'm... conflicted." His hand drew up to the stone hidden in his jacket, palming it with a grimace. "This stone has changed my life. I know you feel the same, tonight I've seen that firsthand. Sometimes I loathe the things that it has given me, but.."

Villam seems to mumble the end of his sentence, turning his back to Vazia and looking towards the Absalon's desk. No, he did have something figured out, he just didn't like to speak it aloud. There was one way that he could uphold his duty while still keeping his freedom, but it required embracing the one thing he'd been running from for nearly his entire life.

"Who knows? Maybe I'll succeed my father, try to make a few changes."

With a shake of his head, he seems to clear the thoughts from his head, turning and walking toward the door. "Come on, I've kept you too long and I'm certain you've better things to do than listen to me. Let's get out of here."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

She had touched on a sensitive subject, it seemed. Now he couldn't seem to look at her or meet her gaze anymore and she thought sometimes she ought to keep her mouth shut and her opinions to herself.
She could tell by the way Villam acted and spoke that he most definitely did not want to succeed his father as Absalon.

"You would make a wonderful Absalon," Vazia said to Villam's back as he moved towards the door. She meant it, and believed it to be true, and hoped he would take it as a compliment rather than an insult.

Come on, I've kept you too long and I'm certain you've better things to do than listen to me. Let's get out of here.

"Better things?" she replied. "Like what?" she was genuinely curious as to what Villam imagined her doing when she was alone, or not fulfilling the duties of her stone.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

"You would make a wonderful Absalon,"

If ever a sentence could bring about so many mixed emotions at once. Villam stopped on his path back to the door, and nearly felt himself wince at the... compliment? Yes, he supposed that's how it was meant. Turning his head halfway back to Vazia, Villam speaks back to her. "I... Thank you, Vazia."

As much as he wanted to argue, getting a definitively stated opinion like that from her was something he hadn't expected. For whatever reason, Villam found it difficult to argue with her or attempt to turn the compliment around. So he took it, and as she continued to stand still, not moving to follow him out, he turned around to face her again.

"I don't know." He replied to her question. "You're a hard girl to read, you know. Don't seem the type to want people prying into your personal time." Villam shrugged, sliding his hands into his coat. "Do you... not have anything better to do than to listen to me complain?"

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

Vazia watched him. She noted the wince at the compliment, and the flickers of emotion in his face that suggested an internal argument. All of this she found quite interesting; she had found that those who least wanted power were the most suited for it. She guessed this was also true in Villam's case.

She blinked at Villam as he replied to her. "I could read a book," she said in a deadpan voice. She wasn't exactly lying- she could read if she wanted to. She just never really wanted to either way.

"Not really," she replied to his question. She didn't necessarily mean it as an insult, it was just the truth. She had not been doing anything else when she had been approached Villam, and she didn't have any pressing matters to attend to. Even still, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to be alone yet, after the stone had seemed so eager to mess with her.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

Well... Villam would have been lying if he'd claimed to expect an ordinary answer out of Vazia, and he hadn't taken the time to consider that maybe being the Void Guardian didn't leave one with a breadth of hobbies and interests.

Perhaps they were more alike than he'd thought. That another beside him felt so empty and disenchanted was both sobering and sad, but if Ferreira's simple response brought him any solace, it was that perhaps he wasn't as crazy as he thought he was.

"That so?" It almost got a laugh out of him, how nonchalantly she could say such a thing to him. At the very least, he shook his head to hide the growing smile on his face, walking past her towards the door. "I guess that means your schedule is empty enough for a drink then? After tonight, I think I could use it."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

Vazia watched curiously as he seemed to hide a smile. What had she said? But then he said he could use a drink and she found herself nodding and following Villam out the door of the Absalon's office.

She didn't know how late it was, but she could still hear the citizens of Valentennia celebrating outside. She wondered just how many Guardians they were celebrating the return of, or if they were just happy to have an excuse to party.

Any bar they went to would be full of people, and Vazia glanced at Villam as they walked, wondering if he considered this or if he just really wanted a drink badly enough that others wouldn't matter.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

Villam offered no elaboration on his invitation for a drink, but the soft sound of Vazia's footsteps behind him spoke of her acceptance of his offer. The Passion Guardian did not lead her down the many staircases that would take them out of the Tower and back into town as she might expect, though. Instead, he turned and headed down a small, narrow hall cluttered with cleaning supplies that wrapped around the Absalon's chambers, so tucked away in the shadows that one could scarcely notice its presence if they weren't looking for it.

The small passage culminated in a dead-end, only a small ladder propped against the wall. Without a word, Villam reached out and grasped the first rung, climbing the wooden ladder up to the ceiling, whereupon he pushed his palm against the grey stone above and moved it out of place, dislodging the roof over their heads enough to allow him to climb out and on top of the Tower.

It wasn't a place often traveled, nor was there much to see, beyond the incredible view of the city from the Tower's edge, lit up with life on a night of celebration like this one.

"I used to come up here when I needed to be alone. Would sit on the edge and stare out at the town to calm myself down." Villam spoke as he dusted himself off, walking slowly over to the edge in question. A small chest sat against the rampart, and Regis knelt to open it, pulling out a couple of opaque bottles. "I still keep some drinks up here, in case I have a rough night." Turning around, he holds out a bottle of whiskey for Vazia.

"I'd say tonight counts. Join me, won't you?"

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

Vazia followed him, intrigued when instead of making his way back out of the tower, he turned down a narrow hallway and went deeper inside the tower. She made no comment as the hallway ended, with a ladder leading up. Villam climbed the ladder and moved a stone tile and came out on what appeared to be the roof.

Vazia was very much intrigued now as she followed him up onto the roof. The cool, night air was refreshing, and the sight of Valentennia from above was pleasant to look at. Vazia glanced at Villam out of the corner of her eyes.

"I should've known you meant drinks on the roof," she said softly, what might've been a smile on her face. She took the bottle he offered. She sat down on the edge of the roof, her legs dangling over the side.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

Villam let out a playful scoff as he opened the bottle in his hands and took a small swig of this whiskey inside of it, letting it tumble about in his mouth for a moment as he sat beside Vazia and planted one foot on the ramparts to anchor himself.

"Is that so? Keep a girl company for one night and she suddenly thinks she knows you." He joked, nudging her with an elbow before he tilted the bottle up for another dose of spirit. Villam hadn't sat up here and drank like this in quite a while, actually. He'd been too busy, to the point where he'd only barely made it back for Homecoming. With Dorian's death and the difficult night that the pair of them had dealt with, he'd earned this.

The fact he had company was an unexpected bonus.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He broke the moment of silence, setting his bottle down beside him and leaning further out over the edge, looking down on the moonlit city they both called home. From this high, you couldn't feel the tension, sense the worry and uncertainty that had taken hold of Valenntenia. "Sometimes... I get a little jaded. When I come up here I remember why this place is so important. Why I fight for this city."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

"It is easy to tell some things about a person," she said, raising her own bottle to her lips. It was not the best whiskey but it warmed her insides. She did not say it was hard to tell some other things about a person, but she did not need to- Villam certainly already knew; Vazia herself was nigh impossible to read, and even Villam himself was not an open book.

She nodded at his question, her eyes cast across the lit-up city of Valentennia. She had never seen it from up here, but it certainly was incredible.

She was quiet as Villam spoke. "Why do you fight for this city?" she asked, turning her head to look at him. Her bottle sat beside Villam's, momentarily forgotten.

She wondered vaguely if she should share something; Villam had told her so much about his inner turmoil and he still knew nothing about hers. Well, not nothing- he had heard the screams.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

Villam didn't like to think he was easy to read, but then he'd spent more time with Vazia in one night then he had with any of the other Guardians in quite some time. In a way, he felt that maybe he'd seen more behind the curtain of Vazia's mind than any of the others too.

Vulnerability wasn't something that came easy to the Passion Guardian. Even as he sat beside Ferreira, his bottle clinked rhythmically against the edge of the tower in a nervous tic, the only outlet for the anxiety he felt. Was he lacking in emotions, like Vazia? Or was it that he'd become so single minded in his mission to enact some sort of change that he'd forgotten the importance of stopping to enjoy these small moments?

Ultimately, her next question would answer the one he'd just asked himself.

"My mother loved Valenntenia. It was her favorite place in the entire world." Villam murmured. It wasn't often he spoke of his mother, the Absalon's late wife. There was a sadness, a pain in his voice with every word. "When I see the city lit up like this... It makes me feel like maybe she's still alive through it. If Valenntenia is all that's left of her, then I have to protect it. At any cost."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

Vazia was quiet a moment after he spoke. She knew the barebones story of Villam's mother; she had died in childbirth. And yet Villam spoke of her as if he knew her, and perhaps he did, through hearing stories from his father, stories from the people who knew her, and even just that feeling, that connection that a mother had with her son. Vazia knew that only too well.

"Valenntenia is not all that is left of her; she lives in you," she replied softly, after a moment of silence.

She knew there was nothing she could say to ease that pain and sadness in his voice, across his features, but solidarity was important. He had shown it to her as well, leading her back to the tower and to her stone, helping to ease her own pain, even if it took a different form.

After speaking, Vazia was quiet once more. Perhaps the silence and emptiness of the void would ease his pained mind, as it had done for her years ago.

Villam Regis

 

[Villam Regis]

"Valenntenia is not all that is left of her; she lives in you,"

Villam's head turned to look at her, his mouth opening in both surprise and some vain attempt to respond to what she'd said. Nothing came. Slowly, his parted lips slid shut, and the Regis heir merely stared at Vazia. Nobody saw him as his mother's son. Only as Solomon's. In the minds of the people, her memory had mostly faded. Often Villam felt as though he was the only one who still carried her in his heart.

It shouldn't have been a surprise, that Ferreira and her void would see beyond that. She was different, unaffected by the opinions of others, and decisive in the formation of her own. She followed the beat of her own drum, and nobody else's.

"She would have liked you."

Villam knew it to be true, and he raised his drink to it as a fact before downing the rest of the bottle.

"Explains why I do."

Vazia Ferreira

 

[Vazia Ferreira]

Vazia wondered for a moment if what she had said upset him, but then the longer she looked at him, the more he seemed surprised and moved.

She was still quiet as he finally responded, finishing his drink as he did.

He liked her. She was sorely tempted to ask him why but she knew that she likely shouldn't press it. She couldn't make him think about it too hard, else he might change his mind. No one (save for Villam now) liked her- she unsettled everybody she met, always bringing up uncomfortable truths they did not care to hear. They did not like her not as much for the things she did; moreso how they felt in her presence- how she made them feel. It was a miracle in and of itself that Villam could tolerate her, let alone like her.

Her face stayed blank as she took a hearty gulp from her own bottle. The alcohol did not seem to affect her at all; if it did she hid it very well.

Villam Regis