Fable - Ask Grains of Death and Sand

[Vittoria Larrainth]

- Fabien 'King' D'Amour -
- Marcia -​

---

There was something healing about soaking in the sun's light and warmth; how the clouds were not strong enough to hinder it's reach upon the earth in which they stood on. It provided clarity as they stood atop a flat roofed terrace, overlooking the streets ahead. Vittoria was not one for loose fitting clothing, but out here in the Empire, the climate had called for it. At least they had made it to a non-descript town south-east of Ragash, the last city they had been in. They could have stayed in the city for it was small, yet populated enough they could weave in an out of view. The buildings were taller, towering above the other cities and towns they had visited with their precious cargo.

Acquiring him had not been easy.

A Dreadlord that had gotten lost into the reserves and faded into the background, he was the type not needed by the Dreadlords except by those of the Healers banner. When efforts to find him lead them to a point on the map too far to reach, it became the job of three capable Initiates to undertake this menial task.

Vittoria only wished the third to herself and King was not Marcia.

Begrudgingly, the three of them worked together without many faults. Perhaps enough that only once did King and Vittoria exchange glances, their expressions surprised that all three of them got through a day without complaint.

Finding Dreadlord Heller had been an easy feat. The runes Vittoria used almost like clockwork guided them beyond Ragash, leading the trio straight to the smokey interiors of the lounge he had been occupying. Five days had passed since then, and the Initiates keeping an eyes out behind them.

"Honestly," Vittoria sighed and turned away from the sun, "why you would choose to reside here is baffling. Especially if you have powers in the Empire wanting to hunt you down." She directed her words, carefully veiled, to the Dreadlord that lounged in the shade provided by the taller building next to the rooftop they were on. He was near ten years older than the Initiates, dressed in Kaliti finery, and he slowly turned his head to Vittoria.

"Furthermore, we have a deadline to meet and return you back to Vel Anir to answer your summons. None of us here particularly want to fail a mission." It was as stern as Vittoria would get. The added fact they all had to work together to get back to Anirian territory and evade anyone that wished to snatch the Dreadlord back into their hands had not been on any of their cards. It meant their original approach of stealth could turn into defensive. It could attract unwanted attention.

Vittoria looked to Marcia, sparing her a glance before looking to King.

But the Dreadlord merely smiled, looking smug. "Jealous none of the Empire cares about your magic?"

 

[Marcia]

Where Vittoria stood in the sun, Marcia stuck to the shade.

She was crouched down, appreciating the brief respite from the constant cautious surveillance required on their mission. As far as Initiate assignments went, it was hardly a taxing, action-packed affair. No, it was a tedious slog comprising primarily of travel as the temperatures gradually climbed into stifling, uncomfortable territory.

Only as uncomfortable as her company.

Initiate Larrainth and D'Amour. Smug, loathsome, merciless arseholes cut from the same callous cloth, barely toeing the line of human decency. Her tormentors in chief. She'd broken more of her bones than Marcia had pairs of boots, and he'd been the one to give her that wicked scar over her eye.

Vindictive pricks.

Being stuck with one of them was bad enough, but to get both at once? Unsupervised? It was a scenario begging for disaster. In retrospect, that was probably the point. The mission itself was to be mundane; the real task was self-control in the prevention of Initiate-on-Initiate violence. Otherwise, why pick them? This was a job for some of their more average peers.

So far, there'd been little issue on that front, with Marcia cutting a more withdrawn figure than usual. She was still recovering from resistance training with Proctor Urahil, at least mentally. The girl only anticipated torment of a physical variety, not deep-rooted insecurities ripped to the forefront for painful scrutiny. Shit that the Initiate didn't even realise had been in her head this entire time. She'd barely been able to give Vittoria as much as a sustained glance since, choosing to shut up instead and get on with it.

Dreadlord Heller, once they had found him, had added a sprinkling of antagonism in her stead.

Still, it was satisfying to hear anybody talk back to either one of the pair, and when he questioned the worth of Vittoria's magic in the eyes of the Empire, Marcia couldn't help but snort to herself.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Pale skin and silver hair had not exactly been conducive to keeping a low profile in these parts. King had worn similarly loose-fitting clothing to the others among the group, having been forced to shirk armor in the favor of Kaliti stylings and a hood. The baggy pants alone made him feel ridiculous, and the heat was practically unbearable.

"How anyone manages to live out here is beyond me. Utterly hellish."

Of course, the Terrible Two's little tagalong was not exactly making affairs any more fun. And if the ever-present scowl on the girl's face was anything to go off of, she wasn't enjoying things either. Good. At least she was keeping quiet.

*Snort.*

Sigh. Mostly quiet. King shot her a glare before looking to their quarry.

"I wouldn't be running my mouth if I were you. Much smarter to be an unknown quantity out here then to attract Imperial eyes." On cue, King's eyes wandered to their surroundings, scanning the streets below and other rooftops for signs of potential pursuers. "I don't much care for the stories I've heard about the types the Kaliti employ."

There really was no telling exactly whom or what they might come up against. The Empire was a nightmarish soup of different species, all traipsing the streets in something resembling harmony with each other. King couldn't wait to get away from the place.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria chose to ignore Marcia.

It had worked for the most of their travel into the Kaliti Empire, but now it merely felt as if it were the easier path to choose in terms of making it back to Vel Anir without fault.

Her eyes stared at the Dreadlord, whom did not flinch at her scrutiny. He shrugged, turning his gaze elsewhere. "I've been out here for near two years as a spy. Not a good one, mind you. I learned to keep some peace at least... but I really was serious when I said some powerful people are in need of me. Hence those that are following us."

They had not come to death blows just yet, but Vittoria was not about to draw first blood when their mission orders were to keep things under wraps.

"More important than Vel Anir?"

The Dreadlord scoffed, meeting her gaze. "Especially more important. A man has to eat and sleep out here, and I don't see the Vel Anir coins coming all this way into my pocket."

Vittoria pursed her lips and turned back to the sun again. "Regardless, we have our orders."

Once the sun went down, and the cover of darkness was upon them, then they will continue onwards. Secure transport that will take them as far into Anirian territory as they could before horses became the better option for travel. Out here, camels seemed to an easier mode of steed, and with the night, they should be able to endure the cold desert trek.

Pulling her scarf back over her head, Vittoria looked back to the gathered group. Her medium complexion seemed to darken these past few weeks under the sun, a light spattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Such colouring will return to her ntaural complexion once Vel Anir wrapped them back in the cooler climates. "Shall we vote on looking for food while we keep our heads down?" The others did not seem to embrace the heat as she did, and perhaps a cover of shade would do them some good, especially King.

 

[Marcia]

Still crouched, Marcia scowled as the Dreadlord mentioned 'powerful people' and 'being followed'. The thought made her skin itch as if it wasn't bad enough to be in the friendly company of enemies; there was the potential that it could get worse. Fucking great.

"Fuck that," she commented with her usual grace, finally standing up in her light clothing fit for a local child, appearing more like the little sister of the group than one of the Initiates. "I don't want to linger; let's press on. Keep on the move."

They could carry on a while longer; were they not supposed to be made of sterner stuff?

She had decidedly not tanned in the same manner as Larraint; instead, swathes of her face that had missed the cover of her head scarf had turned furious shades of scarlet. "Unless you're going to faint?" Marcia added, looking to D'Amour in a spiteful challenge as she folded her arms across her chest.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Yes, yes, the adult was a self-interested prick and as close as one could feasibly come to being a deserter without actually crossing that line. No surprise there, really.
"Really earning that Third Level status, aren't we 'sir?'"

King stretched his arms and yawned, glancing lazily at Marcia. He didn't tan well, but he'd covered up and kept to the shade nicely enough for the most part. Miraculously he'd managed to avoid the horrid sunburns that threatened to consume the little firebrand.
"No, my Little Ladybird, I am rested, hydrated, and ever more capable."

He looked back to Vitt, unfortunately feeling the need to agree with Marcia. Gag.
"That said, something tells me that the 'powerful people' won't much care what time of day it is, or whether we've had a proper meal or not. I hate to admit it, but we should probably get going. Better to grab something for the road and move while we can."

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria tilted her head and shrugged one shoulder. "I suppose we continue. Cover as much ground as we can."

The sooner they were out of the Empire, the better she would feel about carting this Dreadlord home.

---

It was somehow hotter on the ground despite the white stone streets that blinded them in the fading light. It turned the bleached stones into a sea of orange warmth, so bright it could be mistaken for embers.

Vittoria instructed Dreadlord Heller to take the lead, intending on watching his back and reacting fast enough to bring him down if he tried anything to jeopardise their journey home. He had not asked either of them what their magicks were, but the Initiates had not asked about his either when they were given a briefing in their missive to keep an eye on him.

There was every chance he could be a traitor, and sending Initiates would be seen as an insult to Heller.

If she had to agree, those that chose them three for this extraction mission had thought ahead. Vittoria was an obvious choice for efficiency, King capable of the sword and versatile with his amplification. Marcia... Vittoria loathed to admit that the smaller Initiate perhaps was the sneakiest of them all. There would be no way to truly hide from her if Heller chose to abandon them.

So many pieces of glass glimmered in the gentle breeze, the town known for their unique stained glass arts. From wind chimes, to shop front windows, there was no reflection in which Marcia could not choose from.

"Turn right." Came her gentle direction. Heller, to his credit, listened. What they were met with once they had turned was a small group several feet away, walking the opposite direction they were. Vittoria tensed, recognising their gaits as something more inclined to training to fight.

She did not risk turning around to see King or Marcia, to warn them. Vitt hoped they were able to see what was coming, even as the crow parted to make way for them.

Marcia Fabien 'King' D'Amour

 

[Marcia]

The unbearable heat persisted in their trek through the town's streets, unrelenting in its pursuit of baking them alive. It only served to pull the cords of tension that kept Marcia's burning face taut with frustration, eyes squinting in the glare of the light. What a miserable place.

Dreadlord Heller's quip about powerful people had dug its heels into her mind, helping breed an uncomfortable paranoia that kept the girl a little more alert and cautious of shadows in her peripheral vision.

Right on cue.

Marcia was not oblivious to the sight of the approaching bodies and the manner in which they moved towards them—scratching at that itch of paranoia. Limber limbs. Practiced feet. Checking all the boxes of those whose bodies were trained to move well. Coincidence? Perhaps. Moving towards them? Absolutely.

She didn't overreact, slowing her pace to drop behind her group and letting their bodies obscure her short stature. Wordlessly, Marcia sidestepped out of formation and into the crowd that had made way for them. If there were trouble, she would strike unseen from the sidelines.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Well, that didn't take long. A group that moved like that would be difficult for an untrained eye to pick out, but not for someone who knew what to look for. They could've just been an unrelated merc band, of course, but there was no need to take chances. No need to do anything drastic yet, either.

"See you soon, love," King said beneath his breath, loud enough that Vitt would be able to make it out but not so much that anyone else might.

Of course, glancing over his shoulder, Marcia was already gone. Slippery little brat, that one. King wasn't nearly so adept at making himself unseen, but a nearby stall served as an excellent physical obstruction for him to slip behind before ducking into an alleyway. No sooner had he done so did he break into a sprint. A couple of quick turns and he would be able to get behind the advancing group and observe from there.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

Vittoria did not turn to see her classmates disappear, but she knew their presence were quick to vanish as she had predicted. In her peripherals, she knew Heller was aware of what came towards them. With the tanner complexion the Kaliti sun had left her with, and her dark hair falling past her hood, she passed for a citizen enough to go unnoticed, but she kept her head down to keep them from clocking her Anirian features.

Heller's steps hesitated, and Vittoria cleared her throat. He continued, although she could see it in his body language that he only did so begrudgingly.
They were going to make it, until someone walked into Vittoria's path too late for her to anticipate. The collision brought the attention of the guards, but as Vittoria rounded onto the person that had cut her off, she found no such person.
"You! State your name!"
Vittoria flicked her gaze, seeing that the guard had stopped before them, and looked to her and Heller both.
At least both of them understood and spoke Kaliti.
But that was not the plan Vittoria had in mind. Her hand clutched the cloth at Heller's back, pushing him to run one way and told him in Anirian to move. Gods above had blessed them since he obeyed, giving the Initiate no trouble. The two were quick, gaining several seconds of surprise to put distance between both parties. Vittoria had started to think this would be a lucky escape, if it were not for the throwing stars that shimmered past her and found purchase in a cask of wine.
She gritted her teeth, setting her jaw as she forced herself to continue instead of turning around and unmaking the whole lot of them.

"Keep going! We can lose th—" But a sharp intake of breath stopped her words. She could feel one of the throwing stars had struck her arm, pain streaking through her arm and chest as she kept running, her arm's momentum giving her moments of grief as she tried not to lose her running pace.

Marcia Fabien 'King' D'Amour

 

[Marcia]

Instead of sprinting to safety, Marcia blended in with the onlookers, who gawped at the sudden flurry of movement and shouting from her compatriots. Great. She tugged on her headscarf, pulling it down a bit further to obscure her roasted face from being spotted as the odd one out.

With eyes cast downward, the girl caught sight of the woman's bracelet next to her—an ostentatious golden cuff with a magnificent reflection. It was good enough, provided that the stranger didn't move.

In a second, Marcia's soul was split, her mirror image diverging from its place in the world, and it began moving in the opposite direction of the chase. Being in two places at once was a bizarre sensation and overwhelming if you allowed it to be. She had spent too many solitary nights focusing on being able to control both bodies, finding it more important than the litany of social events her peers partook in.

Not that she had been invited in the first place.

She saw her mark, a short and wiry fellow drawn out from a storefront by the commotion, and with little hesitation, her reflection, unseen by the mundane eye, ran at him and, with an almighty shove, pushed him through the marvellous stained glass window behind him.

A distraction to pull away guards from their pursuit.

Breaking eye contact with the bracelet, which moved as the woman beside her did at the sound of shattered glass, Marcia left the scene, wandering in the direction Heller and Larrainth had sprinted off in.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

Just as planned, King rounded the back street and found himself ahead of Heller and Vittoria on the thoroughfare once more. Only, what had just before been the potential for chaos had now manifested fully. Kaliti citizens screamed and fled as what was now clear to be town guards pursued the Dreadlord and initiate. The unmistakable shimmer and singing of projectiles being flung was what put King far more on edge.

So Heller was important enough that these soldiers would put the common folk at risk? That would make things more difficult. It meant that taking hostages as a last resort was likely not a viable option. Unfortunate.

Then, a loud shattering of glass. One of Marcia's diversions, surely. Helmets of brass moved off through the panicking crowd to investigate. Good. That meant less to get rid of in order to clear a path.

Just two pointy brass heads jutted up from among the rabble standing between where King had come from and where he was now. Their focus was on what was coming, not on what was behind them. It just so happened that King was what was behind them.

The boy moved as quickly as he could, diving through fleeing Kaliti commoners until he met with the caped and armored backs of the guards. This was going to be loud, but it wouldn't matter if it meant that all four Anirians could escape. King placed a hand on the far side of either guard's head, stood tandem as they were, and moved to slam them together.

Amplify.

The two helmeted heads smashed together with enough force to create a great *gong*, and in short order both men were either unconscious or dead. King didn't care which.

 

[Vittoria Larrainth]

"Fucking hells!" Called out Heller, looking as if he'd be sick at the sight of the star embedded into the Initiate's arm.

"Do not slow down." Vittoria's own speed increased, as if she had been holding back. She paid brief attention to the efforts of Heller keeping up, but the weapon in her arm had found a muscle that hurt with each second she ran. The Initiate turned her mind off from it, chastising the Dreadlord again for bringing attention to it.

"I can fucking heal it if we just stop. Make them stop, Larrainth!"

"No!" She gritted her teeth, needing to do this mission without drawing much more attention to them. "Leave it to King and Marcia. They can handle them, but I need to keep you secured and hidden."

But Vittoria touched on her magic slightly, causing the stone paving behind them to crack large enough to trip the guards and commoners alike.

At long last, they lost them. A run down building could be seen, and Vittoria pulled the Dreadlord towards it with a bloody hand. "In here." No one saw them enter, not when the commotion was left in their wake and garnered every eye in the busy street.

Vittoria breathed heavily, doing her best to ignore the agony flaring in her arm. From her pocket, she retrieved a mirror, facing it in a window that faced the street they had just ran down. A signal, a flag, calling to Marcia and King of where they were hiding.

 

[Marcia]

It was simple now, well, at least for Marcia, who kept her head down and followed the trail of chaos that the chase had created.

Any disorder was guaranteed to draw the eye of the public, no matter if it was safe or not. People were predictable like that, nosy, and it was through the gathering bodies that the girl could pass through as the anonymous and harmless silhouette of a child, one of the few occasions in which her short stature was beneficial.

The trail continued, speculating voices leading to torn-up stone in the street that had very evidently hampered the pursuit. Some guards had lingered behind here, attempting to diffuse flared tempers from civilians who had gotten in the way. It was the perfect opportunity to swipe an unattended basket, no doubt filled with strange ingredients and spices for that evening's supper.

It was the perfect accompaniment for a dutiful, deferential daughter doing her errands with her head down.

She'd almost missed Larrainth's signal were it not for a careful watch out of the corner of her eye, half-obscured by the head scarf. A quick check over the shoulder that she wasn't being followed and Marcia joined them in the abandoned building, immediately pulling the scarf back to reveal her expression of gritted teeth and furrowed brow.

"What the fuck was that about?" The Iniate hissed, unsure what had drawn the guards' attention in the first place.

 

[Fabien 'King' D'Amour]

One more solid distraction ought to do. King just needed the right position to do it from. Thankfully the guards eyes were all on the street.

King ducked back into the alleyway from which he'd come and quickly climbed a rope ladder that had been hung from one of the buildings. Once atop he reeled his hands back and clapped, pouring his amplification into the palms of his hands. A sharp and deafening crack like thunder echoed through the streets below, sending more of the civilians into chaos.

Eyes searched for the source of the sound, but King was already gone. A familiar flashing signal called his attention away.

---

King slipped through a back window of the building Vittoria had chosen to bunker down in. He pulled his hood back and wiped his brow, sweat long having drenched him.

"Mind that temper of yours, Marcia. We all came out fine, didn't we?" he said as nonchalant as ever.

Then his eyes caught sight of the blood on Vittoria and his face fell.

"Oh, bollocks."