Private Tales Gone Dark

[Lumen]

The last of her clothing discarded, she began tugging on the desert garb. Significantly lighter than the armor she wore even the leather padding she had on nearly all the time when her armor wasn't. It was strange to feel so...unrestricted.

"Okay," she called. "I'm dressed." A small guess that he might want to know. She couldn't see it but the clothes made her seem like her actual age. A young girl from Arethil and not raised to be a fine-tuned weapon, though Lumen saw herself more as a shield, from before she was ten.

"I think we should talk about how we met. Come up with a story. Share more about each other so we can keep things as close to the truth as possible." Finally turning, her eyes went to find his own.

"Like, what's your favorite food?"

A seemingly easy question to start with.

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Had Lumen not spoken to the state of her dress, Caeso would have waited until a few definitive moments had passed since the last rustling of fabric ceased to turn about. And it was subtle, the tiny surprised furrow of his brow, there and gone when he caught sight of Lumen in the desert clothes. Was it truly so easy? To shed their weapons, their armor, and appear so unassuming? Was it the same for him, his build notwithstanding?

Nevermind it.

"Pork," Caeso said with little time spared for pondering. It would not do to be overly intricate in their fabrications.

Though a smirk did touch his face. "Or perhaps I should have said sweetrolls or honeycakes. The Allirians do fancy their sweets, or so I have heard."

Caeso placed on the hand on the central table in the room, leaning on it slightly.

"As for how we met, certainly it should not be omitted that we are of sound means. Well-to-do, but perhaps not from nobility," Caeso flung his free hand dismissively, "or whatever passes for nobility in Alliria. An arranged marriage gone well, perhaps."

Lumen

 

[Lumen]

"I took you more for a steak man," Lumen said with a small smile of her own.

Just as quickly she shook her head to his strategy.

"Under strain or pressure it will be easier to repeat truths or even half truths. Pork versus honey-cakes then."

A small nod.

"Maybe from a family of merchants who are new to the scene? Raw materials for armor or wine? We can't be too well off or those we meet might question not knowing our family names." And for a moment, she looked intently at him. As if she had a secret to tell or ask.

Arranged marriage.

Is that what was in Caeso's future? It was strange how the thought made her feel.

Lips parted.

"My favorite food is apples. Specifically the green ones," her voice was quiet but sure.

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Therein lay the balance: being well off enough in their story to have the means to afford some lavish trip like this, but not so prominent as to draw suspicion or leave loose threads. The massive distance between Alliria and Annuakat was helpful, making it less likely for the desert-dwellers to have familiarity with Allirian personages, but they couldn't rely on that. Not when so much was at stake.

The reason for Lumen's quieter tone, in what context was available, was lost on him. He thought in a puzzled way that she found some form of shame in liking green apples over red. Odd, but everyone had their peculiarities.

"Fair enough," he said. "And as to our purpose for the travel, aside from it being a lover's retreat, it is to visit and see the beauty of the Gardens of Narmaka. That should suffice, I believe."

Lumen

 

[Lumen]

She nodded. “That should work. Now for names,” she strode over to him. Fingers reached out, brushing some lint free from his clothing on his broad shoulder. Slow movements as if she was attempting to touch a wild wolf. Chin lifted slightly, her eyes meeting his own as she stopped close to him.

“Jane and Charles? Edward and Bella? Peter and Mary Jane…Darcy and Elizabeth?”

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"The first one, Jane and Charles. As far as I can tell Allirians tend to fancy pedestrian names of that sort."

One thing they, or more pertinently he, would have to get used to for the duration of this mission was the attending closeness which came from their guise. They were supposed to be selling the idea that they were lovers. Certainly a far cry from anything they were explicitly taught (or anything that was even remotely encouraged) in the Academy, that was for sure. But it needed to be done. Ultimately meaningless, he himself had only just said.

So as Lumen stood close, looked up at him, he made the effort to keep her gaze—and not in a combative way, as he was far more accustomed. He had to learn to tease out a certain tenderness to make sure the subtleties, or more specifically the lack thereof, did not give them away in Annuakat.

He was intending to go on to conjure up a family name for himself and put it forward, but there was an impetus now, thanks to the shoulder brushing and the eye contact, to bring up something more crucial.

"Lumen, I want to assure you that what I will come to do, I will do solely for the mission. This is, I am sure you will agree, a highly unorthodox task assigned to us. I shall not be crass, taking indecorous and excessive advantage of the situation, as might some of our less scrupulous peers."

A pause, giving him just enough time to wonder why he felt the need to say all of that.

Still, he said, "This I felt important to make clear."

Lumen

 

[Lumen]

Hand stilled on his shoulder. Eyes capturing his own as she felt arrested by the earnesty in his words. She finally answered.

"I know."

Voice quieter than it had been. Then a repeat of what she'd said earlier.

"I trust you."

Another breath.

"Thank you for saying it. My actions will be the same. For the mission. We'll figure out what happened to your kinsman," she said more firmly. And then her hand fell away from the touch it had maintained. A half step back from his taller figure.

"Are you ready Charles?"

A small quirk of one corner of her mouth as her head tipped toward the exit of the room.

 

[Caeso Diemut]

THE SEARUNNER​

The Searunner wasn't a particularly unique name so far as vessels were concerned, but this was the ship that Major Ramstel had gotten them passage aboard. A medium-sized craft, it looked as though in addition to the the eastern cargo being loaded, some men and women of Kaliti birth were also preparing to board as well. A queue had formed while the dock laborers were getting the last bits of cargo up the gangway; a sailor had his hand out to the queue, having them wait for a moment, as he hassled the laborers to hurry up, complaining that the seas would turn foul by the time they got done.

"Now then," said Caeso in hushed tones as they approached the queue, "to do as the common man and common woman do."

Given it was Caeso Diemut who said it, one might think he meant it along the lines of nobility and lowborn. But no. Perhaps it was something in the mildly uncertain character of the words, but it was fairly clear that he meant it along the lines of Dreadlords and everyone else. Though he was not like Fennec having only ever known the Academy, instead having had some good formative years in his childhood spent with this family, still the rift whose breadth was the span of a decade or more had its debilitating effects. The chasm of time spent within those dour and insolating Academy walls eroded, despite the efforts of his father's correspondences, an ability to easily relate to those who were not within the same fold.

Caeso would rather have preferred a day of grueling spars, despite the brutishness of it all. But such longing was in vain, he knew. He was here, now, and he needed to rise to this challenge. The weapon he needed to be today was not that mighty warhammer, but the fine dagger.

They reached the back of the queue. Ahead, plenty of the passengers were chatting away excitedly. The group of three women directly ahead of them were going on about how "exhausted" they were and how they were glad to finally be going home to Annuakat.

Caeso draped an arm onto Lumen's shoulders. For the sake of appearances.

And not a moment too soon, as one of the Kaliti women happened to glance back at them. "Oh, are you two traveling to Annuakat as well? Have you been there before?"

Lumen

 

[Lumen]

Now then, said Caeso in hushed tones as they approached the queue, to do as the common man and common woman do.

Lumen couldn't help the side-eyed glance at Caeso. For some reason, she had a hard time believing he could do this. Actually pull off acting like a non-noble. Able to be casual with her. And color herself surprised with that arm of his around her shoulders.

The touch far more intimate than she'd ever admit. Perhaps it was the lack of armor between them. Just these thin layers of casual clothing.

"No," Lumen admitted and gave them a warm smile,her arm casually snaking around Caeso's waist. "We just um, got married and we're going there to celebrate."

"Oooo, congratulations! That's so exciting," one of the Kaliti women crowed. The other with a big smile on her face as well.

"Sooo, how did you two meet?" The other eagerly asked as they all shuffled closer to the gangway.

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"At a ball, if you can believe it," said Caeso, putting on a cordial smile in return to the Kaliti women. "I haven't seen the likes of one in the Inner City of Alliria, but I imagine, Outer City or no, our wealthier fellow-citizens wouldn't have thought themselves too out of place amongst our modest gathering."

He put on a wistful expression. Thinking of his actual home, his family, returning there and to them after he graduated from the Academy helped tremendously in this regard.

"Truth be told, I was sick of these sorts of affairs, no matter how much my father stressed their importance, and I spent more time under the night sky than under the ballroom ceiling. But this is where fate loves to do its most magnificent work, isn't it? That is, when and where you least expect. It was that very night I saw—truly saw—my lovely Jane. Brighter than the moon and all the stars was she, and I confess, I was smitten before hardly a word was spoken between us. But can you believe I feared for the longest while telling my dear father and mother? To my surprise, they in fact rejoiced in the love I had found and fully endorsed our wedding; and here our two families are now bound together by our marriage, and the future looks bright."

It was actually quite easy to come up with the whole story off the cuff as he did. All he needed to do was imagine everything which would be considered absurd within the walls of the Academy, and pick and choose which of these suited his crafted narrative best.

The effect was striking and conspicuous. The two Kaliti women, so engaged in the tale and all smiles and blushes, almost missed the sailor calling for them to step forward. He had to do so twice to get their attention.

Caeso gave knowing (and fleeting) glance to Lumen. An easy first test of the façade.

Lumen