Private Tales Havoc on the Isles of Cortosi

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer

Talus

Dreadlord
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Cortosi Coast - Coraliv

Talus looked out of the half broken window of the ramshackle cabin that lay in the harbor of Coraliv. Lips thinned as a patrol of heavily armed guards wandered passed, all of them glancing around at the sailors still going about their daily work. "Kressith. This place as more patrols than Vel Anir."

That wasn't exactly true.

Vel Anir was the most militarized city in the world and the Anirian Guard did it's job well. The only reason Coraliv could even compete was because the entire place had been on lockdown for three days now. There was good reason for that of course, and that was the two Apprentices holed up inside of the falling down cabin.

Three days ago they had set fire to an armory on the northern docks. Most of the place had burned down, and the City Guard was still searching through the rubble to try and find something of value left untouched. It was the first act of sabotage that they had managed in the city, though it would be far from their last.

Pushing himself away from the window Talus pulled the curtain closed.

"Alright." He said quietly as he walked towards a table with a map laid out on it. "Next move?"

The young apprentice asked Sierra as he stared at the map.

Their mission was a simple one, at least in words; Cause as much chaos in Coraliv as possible. The arson had been easy enough, no one was watching, but now...now things got more complicated. They would have to work for the next step, blend in, perhaps even...act. The idea sent a shudder down his spine.
 
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Sierra stood tall over the map. Arms crossed beneath her chest. Stormy grey-blue eyes squinted in the light left between the curtains being drawn. One hand became unfurled, finger tracing a line along the city.

Out of Luther and Hal, she’d been least close to Talus. It was nothing personal. They just hadn’t connected like she’d done with the other two. Of course, after that day in the library when she’d confided in the three boys and after surviving all their missions together, she felt closer to Talus than other apprentices in their class outside their group. That was something.

She did know that Talus was a capable leader. And she respected that.

Index finger stopped at a point along the map, deeper in the city. “What about the barracks? The less people left to fight our troops when they arrive the better.”
 
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He frowned. "Not a bad idea."

Coraliv was not a city with unlimited men. It did not have the same numbers as Vel Anir did when it came to military function. Most of their army was in fact more of a militia than anything actually trained. It was probably why he and Sierra hadn't already been caught.

Their training sucked.

"Another fire?" It would do the trick, but might have been too obvious for them to actually pull off smoothly. "Maybe..."

He considered. "Maybe instead of the whole barracks we just need to kill one or two inside of it."

Talus glanced at Sierra.

"Create fear. Encourage desertion." It would be harder in it's own way, but a more subtle touch.
 
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"I could stir up some fear pretty easily," she mused, looking up from the map to Talus. Being an empath was her magic strength. Feeling others' emotions was almost as easy as manipulating them.

Taking a seat at the table in a chair that had one leg longer than the others, Sierra picked up her throwing knives spread across the table and began sharpening them. "We could infiltrate. Pretend to be interested new recruits." Eyes tracked up to Talus'.

Sllck. Slck. Sharpen.
 
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New Recruits?

He considered it for a moment. That was a bit more subterfuge than he had been prepared for, but it was probably easier than sneaking into the Barracks and assassinating a few Guards. Lips thinned and slowly he nodded.

"Would work." He drummed his fingers on the table. "They're desperate for new recruits, even young ones."

Talus was not ignorant to the fact that among the wider world they were still considered children by many. Sure both he and Sierra had already killed a dozen men, but in a place like Alliria or Elbion they wouldn't be respected for much.

Still kids and all. "You see a recruiting post?"

He asked quietly, glancing at her knife.
 
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She held one knife up, the tip glinting as it caught the crack of light from the window. Satisfied, she put it on the table and picked up another. The metal handle was smooth and precise. Forged by the master smiths in Vel Anir. The set was a gift for her first kill of some runaways from Crane senior himself.

"Yeah," digging in her pocket, she tossed a wadded up piece of paper toward Talus.

"Check it out. Looks like the recruiting center opens first thing tomorrow morning. Gotta pass a PT test." Stormy-greys flickered up to Talus. "Shouldn't be a problem for us. Just don't be too good or they may get suspicions."
 
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He chuckled. "Yeah."

That was it then.

It wasn't exactly how the Proctors had described their mission, but if it worked? Who the hell cared. Infiltration was part of this game, they just had to make it look good enough that people actually believed them about what they said they were.

"Corran." They had a few lessons about impersonating other people. Dreadlords did it from time to time, though not as often as one would think. "Sailors son, dad got imprisoned by the Anirian Navy for smuggling."

It wasn't the best cover, but Talus never had much a mind for creativity. "You?"
 
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Sierra put her knives down, his laughter catching her attention. Talus was fairly serious. Maybe tying with her for the most serious out of the four of them. Luther was the least, always cracking that noble-cocky grin of his. And Hal was Hal. He had the most genuine smile except as of late.

"Okay Corran."

It would work. Simple was often better.

"Hmm," eyes slid away from Talus' face to that crack in the window. "Sarah." Would hopefully make it easier to remember. "Do you think they'd believe we were siblings?" A single, auburn brow lofted at her own question. Eyes slid back to Talus' gaze.
 
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A shrug rolled over his shoulders at the question. "I doubt they would look too closely anyway."

From what he'd seen no one was particular discerning here about the military. Coraliv was a city in desperate times. It probably didn't matter to them if siblings had different colored hair, particularly if they were trying to join up to fight the evils of Vel Anir.

"Our fathers in prison and our mother died." He commented bluntly. "We can sell that sob story."

Talus glanced at her. "Especially with you here."

Empathy magic would make it all easier, his own abilities though they'd have to hide.
 
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"Won't be a problem," she agreed quietly. She could make anyone feel whatever she wanted. Usually. "You know, I can barely remember what my parents look like." And of course, they all knew that was the point. As kids, they were essentially sold to Vel Anir. The proctors were their new 'parents.'

"Can you remember yours?" She stood from her seat and began putting the throwing knives back in their concealed places along her belt.
 
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It was just about the most personal question that Sierra had ever asked him, and the most personal thing that they had ever talked about between them.

His lips thinned for a moment. "No."

Talus paused for a second.

"Kind of." Talus couldn't remember their faces, couldn't even remember the color of their hair or what they were like. It was a little vague. He knew they'd tried to protect him at first, until he'd made the windmill collapse anyway. "I remember my moms voice."

He frowned deeply. "Not much more than that."
 
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More than she thought. She gave the slightest of silent nods to her classmate. Fingers dropped to her light armor and began unstrapping the plates, stacking them carefully on the table. There was a set of bunks in the corner. Sierra had already claimed the top.

Clad in only trousers and a tunic, she pulled herself easily to the top bunk and rested on her back, hands cradling her head as she looked up at the room's ceiling of wood and straw.

"Should get some rest and go at first light." She commented without looking at Talus. "Ever think of what house you wanna pledge to?"
 
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Rest would not come easy, he already knew that much. A part of him wanted to agree, but all he could muster up in that moment was a low grunt as he considered just what they were about to do.

His next question caught her off guard, more so than the one about his parents.

It was a well known fact that all Dreadlords swore their Allegiance to one House or another, though most of the time it wasn't openly talked about. Giving away secrets so easily would mean death for some, especially if it got back to a rival house.

Talus hesitated for a moment, then offered some honesty. "I don't know."

He frowned.

"They all seem..." The Apprentice trailed off. "The same."

At least to him.
 
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"Yeah," she agreed quietly. She didn't know yet. She hadn't been approached by any of the nobles. Nor did she exactly want to be. She wondered how high in demand she, Hal, Luther, and Talus would be. If they all graduated and survived.

Would they end up only going against each other in the end? She imagined they would all be separated, recruited to one of the different ruling families. That thought alone made her frown.

Turning on her side so her back was facing the room, she stared at the wall and closed her eyes.
 
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Talus remained silent as Sierra laid down and turned away. His thoughts remained in the same place as her though.

A part of him wondered if in the future he would have to kill his friends. Were they friends? It was hard to define them to that point in a life like theirs, hard to place them anywhere at all in fact. Lips thinned as he thought about it, his head leaning back.

Their lives were worth nothing in the end, nothing to them, nothing to the Proctors that oversaw them. It was a disturbing fact, one that set into his bones as he slowly allowed his eyes to close .

He drifted off.

It seemed like only seconds later that Talus' eyes snapped open. The sound of seabirds and the bright light of the sun on his face woke him up, a groggy sleep still hanging over him. "Sierra."

He said softly in a lax attempt to wake his companion.
 
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The girl shifted on the top bunk. Auburn hair splayed wildly across her face. Rusty-brows scrunched together along her face as her ears caught the whispered name.

"Hrrrrrm," she groaned, an arm flinging across her face.

Of course she was used to getting up early. Barely getting any sleep at all. But this morning? It felt harder for her body to leave that mattress. Harder for her eyes to fully open. The corner of her lips twitched just slightly as a very groggy voice left her throat.

"It's Sarah."
 
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"Right." Talus said with a slight roll of his eyes. "Well it's time to get up sis."

It felt weird using that word, even in jest.

He was unsure if he had sisters. He remembered his brother well enough, more than he remembered his parents in fact, but any other siblings seemed to be about as gray as anything else. Lips thinned for a moment, but his head shook.

Talus pushed himself up and off the shelf that he had been sleeping on, pulling at the leather straps of his armor and stripping down to simple clothes to appear more the simple sailors son. "We need to get there early."

The sooner they got this done the better.
 
"Okay bro," Sierra quipped back, twitching of lips hidden by her position on the top bunk. Heel of her hands pushed against her eyes one more time before she rolled over and hopped nimbly down to the floor. She made it look almost as graceful as an elf.

Sierra spent a majority of her time in scouting or sniper positions with her arrows. She was as comfortable in tall places as the normal person on solid ground.

Her armor was already off. Hands reached back quickly tying her hair into a long braid down the back, then looping it into a tight circle. Snatching the wadded-up recruitment poster from the table, she stuffed it into her pocket.

Footsteps took her to the door as she yanked it open.

"Ready Corran?"
 
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"Ever since they took father." Talus said with a grimace.

Espionage was not exactly his forte. He excelled at different things; combat, tactics, hell even college magic was a better craft for him.

Still, Sierra's plan was a good one, and he would do his best to facilitate it right alongside her. He only hoped that he managed to pull it off. Unlike her he didn't have a card up his sleeve to help him in case of emergency.

He would just have to wing it.

The two quickly made their way through the streets of Coraliv, eventually arriving at the marketplace. There were dozens of stalls, all of them selling something. Among the hundreds of vendors one stood out, a huge table with the Banner of the City hanging above it.

"There." He pointed it out. "Act sad."

Talus commented as they approached
 
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Sierra proffered Talus a stern look. As if he had to command her to act anything. Taking a breath, she slowly released her magic, focusing it on them both. It was easy to root for these somber feelings. They'd experienced them so much. Sierra still remembered when she'd first been brought to the Academy. Her little hands held out, palms up as every one in her class were given lashings of a switch.

All for crying.

The rain was pouring from the sky and Sierra remembered looking across the line at a young boy who matched her expression. She remembered feeling his sadness then and couldn't tell if it was only his, the entire class', or her own making everyone else sad.

Talus would feel a pang of very real sadness. Not too much. Just enough to make their acting look pretty damned good. She approached with him and slowly withdrew the crumpled paper, shuffling up to the recruiting table. She smoothed the paper down on the table.

"My brother and I would like to enlist."
 
The sudden sadness was almost overwhelmed by a spike of anger.

Talus knew what it felt like to have his emotions played with, knew what the sudden shift in his own mind meant. He didn't like it.

The young man had always prided himself on staying stable, on having a good lookout for what things actually meant and when to use his emotion. When Sierra inflicted something upon him? It made it hard to control. It wasn't natural, it was just a sudden burst and that made it so much harder to control.

It was the point of course, and as Sierra spoke the recruiter clearly latched onto the raw mixture of anger and despair that Talus displayed on his face.

A moment of utter silence, at least for Talus, hung in the air. He couldn't speak, too preoccupied with not lashing out to actually vocalize what he had planned to. The shake in his fist however seemed to be enough for the recruiter who cleared his throat and then pulled out to pieces of paper.

"Personal?"

It was only a single word, one that prompted Talus to finally speak. "They took our dad."

His tone was tinged with raw emotion. The man stared in silence, his eyes switching between the two apprentices before he finally nodded and pushed the two pieces of paper over the table along with some charcoal.
 
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Sierra's focus withdrew from Talus and focused on the one at the table. It was subtle, like a mist slowly rising up from the ground. A growing cloud of obscurity.

Carefully taking a piece of charcoal, she silently read into Talus' expression. She was an empath. Even without concentrating, she knew what he was feeling.

Sorry.

But she'd one what needed to be done. Even if he didn't like it. Gray-blues went to the parchment as she began filling in her information. For Sarah. Straightening, she handed off the form. The recruiter had jet-black hair pulled back into a bun. He nodded, looking over their forms when Talus was done.

"Very well. Sarah and Corran. Follow me. You'll have to pass a physical test." He looked them over quickly. "I don't see that as being a problem. From that point you'll be assigned to barracks and go through training before getting your orders. Follow me."

He snapped on his heels and lead them further into the city, behind a set of gates, and into a central training arena.
 
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The man lead them to the sorriest training yard that Talus had ever seen.

It was filled with dozens of men practicing mostly against wooden dummys and equally unskilled militia recruits. Most people did not wear any sort of armor, and the weapons they used were rusty and half broken.

As he saw them Talus wondered why in the hell they were even here if this was the military defending Coraliv. His question however was quickly answered as he spotted some of the instructors standing among the yard. Every now and again a man in full plate would be among the crop of recruits.

A cape hung over their shoulders, each of them carrying and ornate sword on their hips.

Talus remembered who they were; Cataphracts.

Before leaving for this city they had received information files on Coraliv itself. Cataphracts had held an entire page among that file, and though It had taken Talus nearly an hour to read it he'd eventually managed to absorb it completely. Apparently they were the elite of the military here, men who trained all their lives in the use of some sort of magic armor.

Each one was a fierce warrior, almost a match for a Dreadlord.

At least that was what they claimed.

Talus didn't believe it of course. He'd seen what even Third Level Dreadlords were capable. How could a man in magic armor stand up to a raging storm of fire and blood?
 
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"Alright, got some new recruits," a slightly older boy with buck-teeth wandered over. He waved at them all friendly like. In fact, Sierra couldn't help staring, eyes slowing growing wider.

The hell

Lips strained at the corners as she forced the smallest of smiles.

"Line up at the start," the older boy pointed toward a faded white line of chalk. He must've been a few years older than Hal. "They'll time you and see what you can do on the course." He pointed jollily to one of those men wearing capes in the stands. Sierra shrugged at her brother and wandered over to the line, pushing up the sleeves of her tunic. Stormy-blues did a quick scan of the area around them, spotting just one or two other women trainees. And one woman guard in a cape.
 
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Talus glanced over towards what appeared to be an obstacle course.

They had them at the Academy, though usually they were peppered with more...deadly obstacles than just a few walls and things of that sort. He wanted to scoff and roll his eyes, but somehow he managed to stop himself before any of that.

"Well, Sis." He said quietly. "This is what we asked for."

They were new recruits after all. "Why don't you go first?"

He wasn't entirely sure that if he did it first he would be able to hide his true abilities. Talus was more than willing to bet he could set a course record running this stupid course at half his own speed. Best to let Sierra set the example.

From there he could take her lead.
 
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