Private Tales MentOREship

[Mieri]

For a few seconds Mieri couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.

A pit formed in her stomach, and she realized that she had been wrong. Very wrong. The overseer had kept something back from them. Would another punch, a broken rib or a snapped finger made him give up his daughter?

She had no idea, but it didn't matter. Espe-

Lips thinned. "Fuck."

The curse passed her lips in an instant as the realization of what this actually meant struck her like a ton of bricks. She looked up at Noel, wondering if her mentor had come to the same conclusion as her. If the man's daughter had been a Dreadlord, that meant she very likely had ties to one of the Houses, and to other Dreadlords.

Both of which had never known about Urstholm before the Revolution.

Both of which would have an extreme interest in funneling the unique ore found here and using it for their own purposes.

Charlotte seemed to let out a laugh. "Seems your little girlie here understands the implication."

 

[Noel]

Oh no. Oh kress no.

It should've clicked sooner but it took Mieri's simple utterance for it to set into place for Noel. If this wayward Dreadlord was funneling ore for one of the Great Houses that would be bad. A member of the nobility making a power grab would certainly be concerning, although it would be something the Guard (and possibly the other houses) should be able to snuff out.

But there was a far more dangerous possibility. A possibility she didn't wish to entertain without proof. "How did it happen?" She demanded, "how exactly did this Dreadlord return to Urstholm?"

The cheery laugh vanished into a shake of her head as Charlotte took another drag of her cigarette. "I wasn't there to witness it myself but the story he told me was the girl just showed up one day. Few months after the revolution. Said she was running from something and asked for his help."

She flicked the butt of her cigarette out into the night air and continued, "so, Caius asks me if I've got a spot for her in ore refinement. Says she can be security for the stuff and help run product. That's when it all starts going missing. Tiny amounts but we keep meticulous records."

"Right... right after the revolution?" A nod of Charlotte's head and a shrug of her shoulders followed. "Her name. And where to find her."

"Her real name is Amelie, though she uses the cover name Leonie," the plump women craned her head to look out into the street and then finished in a low voice, "she's shacked up with Eustache on the edge of town. He's a sketchy fellow, we always assumed he was helping her smuggle the stuff."

With that Noel bid the woman farewell and let her go on with her night before turning to the redhead in her charge. "I think," she started before swallowing and looking up at the star-dotted sky. Thinking for a long moment she finally finished her thought, "you should leave. Head back to the Guard and report what's happening while I confront this Amelie. This job is about to... it's about to get very, very, dangerous."

The allomancer had felled a Dreadlord once before but that was with Edric's aide. She wouldn't have the benefit of that sort of power coursing through her, she wouldn't be able to kill this woman from hundreds of yards away, and there was no way of knowing what sort of magic Amelie specialized in. Mieri had to report back to the Guard, it was the only way to keep her pupil safe and the only way for them to know that Gilram had gotten his hands on the very ore required to create Black Guard armor.

 

[Mieri]

"What?!" Mieri said, the obstinance clear in her voice almost instantly. "No!"

Orders were Orders of course, they had to be followed. That had been beaten into all of them since day one, quite literally. An Initiate or Dreadlord didn't argue with their orders, but Noel hadn't exactly given her an order.

Besides, she'd always been quite good at bending them anyway. "You can't do this alone."

The words fell from her mouth before she even knew what she was saying. A hand almost instantly coming up to cover her mouth as she realized how the sentence might be taken. Fingers slipping away from her lips as she clarified.

"I meant." She took a breath. "I mean if you confront this woman and she's powerful you could die."

Mieri clarified. "We don't know anything about her!"

There were many Dreadlords in Vel Anir. Too many to keep track of. Some earned ire and acclaim through their magics and deeds, but others floated well below recognition. That didn't make them any less dangerous though. Some of the deadliest among their ranks preferred to stay unknown. What if this woman was one of them?

"You can't go alone." Mieri restated, a firmness in her voice as she continued to argue.

 

[Noel]

There was truth to what she said and although Noel would never admit it she wasn't too keen about facing a Dreadlord she knew nothing about alone.

Simply put, she was a slave to duty and honor. She was bound by her role as a Dreadlord to confront this woman and she'd simply deduced the most logical conclusion for the highest chance of success. Not personal success, but the success of Vel Anir.

"I can't have my pupil dying," she finally stated after staring at the short girl before her. "And death is a very real possibility."

A long, low, sigh emerged from Noel's lungs. "Fine. You can come. But we need a plan and," she caught Mieri's eyesight and stared directly into the girl's bark-colored eyes, "if things get dicey I need your word that you will run."

It wasn't a message the Proctors likely ever gave. Running away was the antithesis of the Dreadlord way. But this situation was different, if the knowledge of what was going on here died with the pair of them it would be a waste.

 

[Mieri]

"Right, I will totally do that." Mieri said, not realizing that she had pointed out to Noel just how bad she was at lying. A fact which was clearly on display as she spoke in that moment.

Running away simply wasn't in her repertoire.

Backing down wasn't.

More than once that fact had come back to bite her in the ass. Not the least of which was in the practice yard at the Academy. She was hardly the best nor most powerful of her peers, and time and time again she had risen when most would have stayed down. A fact which lead to myriad of broken bones and injuries over the years.

It would be no different fighting a Dreadlord. There was no way in hell she'd leave her mentor hanging. "Lets go get this bitch."

The pugilist said with a smile. "And then maybe throw Caius out a window."

It would only serve him right.

 

[Noel]

Mieri truly was an awful liar. Still, it was reassuring to know that her pupil was loyal enough to stand with her even if things got sketchy. She was pretty sure she could keep Mieri safe. Unless, of course, the Dreadlord they were hunting could incapcitate (or kill) Noel in a heartbeat. But in that scenario they were doomed before this task was even undertaken.

As the initiate continued she nodded and smiled, "might need to throw Caius out of three or four windows." He could've saved them a lot of work had he just been honest from the start. "Alright, here's the plan..."



The pair arrived on the edge of town to a one-story home made of cobbled together stones with mismatched colors and sizes. Noel approached and knocked on the splintered wood that they called a front door, it swung open to reveal a man with a scruffy beard and a scar that interrupted one of his bushy eyebrows.

Eustache, the man who was likely smuggling for her. He looked the part of a ruffian, that much was certain. "Yeah?" he spoke in a half-interested voice.

"We're here to see Amelie." As she'd explained to Mieri in her plan they would forego pretense and simply use their target's real name. The one only a select few should've known.

Immediately the color washed from his face and his disinterested demeanor shifted to one of apprehension. "We weren't expecting folks for," his lips shut and he turned to look over his shoulder, "we got a visitor," a loud call to whomever was residing in the domicile.

 

[Mieri]

Mieri did her best not to look as tense as she felt.

She tried to remind herself that she had been on missions like this before. That she had fought tougher opponents and faced greater unknowns, but the truth was...she hadn't.

During the revolution she had cooped up in the Academy, unaware of what was transpiring. Unlike Noel she hadn't been there on Graduation day, and unlike Corvus of Zaire she hadn't fought Edric or...any of the other Dreadlords who had joined the side of the Rogue Archon.

Sure she had practiced, trained against her peers and been put in the dirt by a few Proctors.

But fighting a full fledged Dreadlord?

That was something all-together different. This woman had the same training as them, and then years of practice and fighting under her belt during the old ways. There was no telling what she was capable of, what her magic was or even what she could do with it.

So Mieri simply steeled herself, a calm quiet mantra repeating in her head.

A voice called out from behind the scruffy looking man. "Who?"

Seconds later, Mieri caught first sight of her. Amelie stepped forward. She wore clothing not too disimilar from the others in town, yet almost immediately Mieri could tell she wasn't one of them. The way she walked, how her eyes flickered back and forth.

There was a sense of readiness about her, as if she knew any moment things could go to disaster. The same that Mieri thought she herself carried.

 

[Noel]

The cloaks that Noel and Mieri wore fluttered as a light breeze touched them. It wouldn't do too well at hiding the fact they wore armor underneath but perhaps it would disarm Amelie long enough that she wouldn't immediately pick up that they were-

"Dreadlords?" A brunette-colored brow rose on the woman's face as she looked Noel over before her vision shifted towards the shorter of the pair. "No," her voice suddenly filled with a sinister glee, "one Dreadlord and one Initiate. Interesting."

"Yes."

She didn't mean to but Noel took in a breath. As much as she tried to hide it she felt uncomfortable and Amelie's relaxed demeanor only made her more uncomfortable. "If you deduced that we're Dreadlords than you know why we're here. See, we were sent to..."

A finger moved upwards and the allomancer raised a hand assuming they were about to be attacked. "Don't do that." Their foe's voice was calm, soothing almost. "Don't lie to me and don't try to fight me."

Something was off. It was like the woman was able to predict what was going to happen next. She'd heard of Dreadlords possessing precognition so perhaps that was the magic this woman possessed. Not too much of an issue, Noel should've been able to fell a precog fairly easily unless they also had some other form of magic to bolster it.

"No. You can't best me, Noel Schwarz."

Noel froze. Hairs stood on her arms and the back of her neck. Amelie didn't have the magic of foresight she was...

"Yes. A mindreader. Among other things. Trust me, manipulating a bit of metal isn't going to be enough." A smirk grew on the exiled Dreadlord's face as her companion Eustache let out a nervous laugh.

"Amelie, you didn't tell me you could read minds. I thought you only-"

In a flash a dagger sliced through Eustache's jugular before Amelie dropped the blade and let it crash into the ground. The man that had been standing one moment fell to his knees and clutched at the wound in his throat, gasping for breath as he died.

Noel took a step back, placing one arm in front of Mieri as she did to force her pupil backwards.

The telepath tilted her head in a faux confusion. "Relax. I dropped the blade. Why don't you girls come inside, have some tea, we can talk about your options." Her palms opened and that terrible, terrible, smirk reappeared on her face. "Or... if you want to die then you can try to fight me. Your choice." She looked upon Mieri as a snake looks upon the rat it's constricting, "you don't want to die, do you Mierin Taras?"

This had been a terrible miscalculation. Noel had gotten herself, and her pupil, into a far more dangerous situation than she had anticipated.

 

[Mieri]

Mieri's fingers balled into a fist almost immediately as the woman stepped forward and cut the throat of her own companion. The wraps around her hands tightening as she nearly darted forward to punch the woman in the face.

Then Noel's arm flickered in front of her, and Amelie spoke.

Her features seemed to pale with every word that tumbled from the woman's lips, her thoughts running a mile a minute as she continued on. Never did she offer either of them any threat, never did she speak about killing them or even fighting.

Yet it was implicit.

Mieri could see it in the way the woman carried herself.

How she looked at them as a Dire Wolf might a Silver Retriever Puppy. It was as though to her, Mieri and Noel constituted absolutely no threat, like they weren't even worth registering. It was almost as though she were amused, and when finally she said Mieri's name the Pugilist couldn't help but pale.

She wanted to speak up, she wanted to hold to her usually boisterous nature, and yet the words were caught within her throat. For the first time in her life, for the first time ever, Mieri felt fear running through every vein in her body.

Slowly, her head shook.

No, she didn't want to die. "Good, so come inside."

Amelie said, stepping from the doorway and seemingly ignoring the pool of blood that was forming upon the floor. She gestured for the two girls to enter, and Mieri seemed to freeze. Caught between obeying, and simply running away. Her fingers reaching out to tightly grasp Noel's arm.

She wouldn't run. No. She couldn't leave Noel.

 

[Noel]

Noel's face paled, her vision blurred, and her surroundings seemed to spin. Everything she'd worked for was coming apart. Her life, her legacy, was over. From now until the end of time she'd be known as a failure.

The one thing that snapped her out of the cycle of self-loathing were the fingers that gripped upon her arm.

She faked a smile, "it's alright," she looked upon the terrified initiate before her with optimism, "I won't let anything bad happen to you."

It was a lie. One that Amelie picked up on and responded to with a snicker. But despite the falsehood Noel reached over and gave her mentee a squeeze upon her shoulder and a wink. "I have a plan."

There was no plan, it was another lie.

"Eustache was stealing gold from me, he didn't know that I could read minds so I can't be too fussed," apparently Amelie decided to allow that lie to stand without a retort, "didn't really care about the gold if I'm being honest."

The ex-Dreadlord placed a kettle upon the hearth whilst she grabbed a few teacups, saucers, and grabbed a single loaf of rather poor quality bread. Placing each set-piece upon the table that Noel and Mieri found themselves guided towards.

"Let her go." Noel stated plainly as soon as their foe sat down. "She's not a threat to you. Let her live."

Amelie flashed that same wicked crow smirk she wore before. "No," her tone was short and her answer quick, "I'm not going to harm either of you but I'm also not going to let you simply walk away."

The mindreader before them interlocked her fingers, grinning from ear-to-ear as she studied her two new prey, "You've found me out. I killed Eustache. I'll have to leave." In her mind Noel had imagined that evil people would speak in an evil way. Listening to Amelie talk so clinically, so deliberately, was almost more disturbing than her imagination had processed. "But I could use more of the ore."

The kettle whistled loudly to alert the trio that the tea was ready but for now Amelie ignored it. "You two are going to help me steal more of the ore. Then you're going to help me transport it to the resistance's depot."

Noel reached under the table and grabbed ahold of Mieri's hand. "No."

Her singular word was spoken as bravely as she could muster as the brunette sitting across from them stood up and moved towards the still whistling kettle.

 

[Mieri]

Mieri's heart was thundering in her chest, her pulse racing to the point that she could practically feel it. Every time Amelie so much as looked at her she felt her breath catch, as if somehow the woman had stolen it away from her.

For once, she was utterly speechless.

There was no happy quip, no cheerful taunt, nothing that she could force herself to say. Her mouth was dry, and it felt as though her throat was on fire. Her breath held, and only released when Noel's fingers wrapped around her hand. The gentle touch seeming to snap her out of reality.

Amelie only smiled. "Now now, don't be too hasty, Noel."

Slowly the Dreadlord stood, walking calmly over to the Kettle and pulling it from the fire. Turning on her heel and wandering back towards the two girls as though they were having a civil conversation.

"If you don't help me." Amelie began as she elegantly poured the boiling water into Noel's cup. "I'm going to have to kill you both."

The metalbender would feel Mieri tense at the threat. "And then break every single useless little person in this town to do what I need instead."

Amelie looked up at them both for a brief moment, smiling that wicked smile of hers before she moved to pour Mieri's tea.

"It'll be a mess." The Dreadlord mused. "But, needs must."

Sitting herself down, Amelie placed the kettle on the table, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knees.

 

[Noel]

She felt her pupil's demeanor shift, felt her tense up at the threat of murder, and Noel gave the younger girl's hand a small squeeze while listening to everything the vile creature before them stated. Hanging on each syllable, studying the very way she poured the water into their teacups, analyzing her posture as she crossed her legs and settled in so casually.

Options. That was what she'd said they'd discuss but the options presented to them seemed to be betrayal of Vel Anir and allegiance to Gilram or death.

Thoughts flowed through her head as she pondered the possible alternatives. Perhaps a quick strike, thrown out randomly, would take the woman by surprise. Perhaps they could try running. Perhaps the thing before them could simply read minds and everything else was just a bluff.

Amelie sighed. Loudly. "You can't kill me, Noel. You can't run."

Noel's eyes hardened, her jaw tightened, and she looked at the exiled Dreadlord with rage across her face.

"I can hear every wayward thought. Not just that, I can dig into your hippocampus. The part of your limbic system that records memories," she picked up her teacup and held it up to her lips, "those are a bunch of fancy words to explain how your mind works, little ones." That grin came across once more as she exhaled and blew steam from the rim of the porcelain mug that was decorated with painted flowers.

She paused for a moment and took them both in. "And it's not just memories either. Your deepest fears," a flash of everyone leaving her played in Noel's mind, she assumed something similar flashed in Mieri's mind's eye, "your greatest hopes," Noel being named an Archon, "your greatest trauma," Rachel's bloodied and mangled body flashed before her.

"But the mind doesn't just control your thoughts and memories my dears," she sipped at her tea and showed a joyous expression, "this tea is hot and fragrant and herbal and I know all of that because my mind tells me it is so."

Then everything in Noel's vision went black. Her arms went limp and she slumped over. "W-what, I can't see anything I," she tried to raise an arm, tried to fire off the synapses in her brain that triggered movement in her muscles, "I c-can't move my arms."

The gears in her head raced at full speed. She tried to keep herself composed, tried to focus her thoughts, but the panic was beginning to overtake her. She couldn't move her arms or her legs, she couldn't see anything, the only thing she could do was vocalize her abject horror. "Get out of my head!"

Amelie laughed. "So, I take it you two will listen to my plan?"

 

[Mieri]

"STOP!" Mieri heard herself shout, but it was a distant and pained thing. Kept apart from her as Amelie bored into her mind.

Her chest rose and fell with quickened breath, she could taste bile on her tongue, and sheer panic ran through every single bit of her. Unlike Noel Amelie had not taken her faculties from her, not yet, but she hadn't needed to. After the images flashed through her mind, after she saw the moments in their head, all semblance of the front Mieri usually put on was utterly gone.

The chipper cheerfulness was replace by fear and terror. Dread at the very core of her heart.

All she'd needed for that was to see Nolan's face, bloody and broken, and the Dreadlord knew that. There was no need to push Mieri further, for her will was not like Noel's. It wasn't iron that would not bend, only break. "Stop!"

She pleaded again.

"Please." Mieri begged, her hands folding over Noel as if she could somehow protect her mentor. "We'll do it."

Tears streamed down her face. "Please, just stop."

Mieri sobbed.

 

[Noel]

Every fiber of Noel's being wanted to move. Wanted to motion in the direction of Mieri's voice as she begged, pleaded, for it all to stop. Her spine and shoulders, the one part of her that still felt the sensation of touch, felt Mieri fold over her. It brought her some modicum of comfort as the allomancer debated all of the ways she could still try and kill Amelie.

"I'd love to stop but," Amelie stared at her nails absent-mindedly, "your mentor here has other ideas."

She would kill this woman. Kill everything she loved and touched and free her and Mieri from this hell. It was the first thought that flashed in her mind until she got herself under control. Until she focused her heavy breathing into a steady pace. They'd do as she said, if for no other reason than to get Mieri to safety.

If only because Noel finally realized she had no other choice.

Without a single word spoken a smile formed upon Amelie's crooked face. "Excellent. Then the three of us are in agreement."

In an instant Noel's vision returned, she could feel her limbs once more, and a loud gasp echoed in the small home as the sensation hit her.

"The three of us are going to take a walk towards the silos," the exiled Dreadlord stated while taking another sip of her tea. "Do as I say and neither of you will have to worry any further."

Noel didn't bother taking a drink of her tea. She stood, gripping ahold of Mieri's arm as she did so, waiting until Amelie began to lead them out of the home to wipe one of the tears that ran down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed towards the initiate under her charge.

 

[Mieri]

When Noel grasped Mieri's arm, she would find that the Initiate was violently shaking. Adrenaline poured through her veins, and like a scared gerbil her chest rose and fell with rapid shallow breaths. The hairs on the back of her neck standing up.

She nearly jumped when her Mentor grabbed her, put so on edge by the woman now holding their proverbial leash that she nearly crawling out of her skin.

Mieri shook her head just the slightest bit, her tongue still feeling as though it had been dragged through a mile of sand. She knew that anything she said, anything she thought, would cross the Rogue Dreadlord's own mind. That enough made her insides churn. "It's...it's not your fault."

She wanted to say that it was okay, that they would get out of this, that they could overcome this challenge like she had so many others.

But Mieri didn't know if that was true.

Amelie terrified her more than any big monster she had fought, more than any of the Proctors at the Academy. This woman wasn't just dangerous, willing to kill them, but her magic rendered her all but entirely useless. Mieri felt small, smaller than small.

"I'm...I'm sorry." She whimpered to Noel, unable to keep the shame from her voice. "I can't...I don't want too...I don't want to die."

Not for this.

 

[Noel]

"It's alright," her voice was tight and quivering but the words were spoken as calmly as she could muster. Noel's own heartrate was elevated, a piece in the back of her mind telling her to run, worrying that she'd lose her sight again, worried she'd die before she could even process what was happening.

The mentor pulled her pupil in and hugged her tightly. "You aren't going to die. We're going to be alright. I promise."

For her own sanity she chose to believe Amelie. For Mieri's sake she chose to believe Amelie. Though the truth was she had no idea if she were telling the initiate the truth. This creature they had found themselves ensnared by would've killed both of them as easily as Noel could've squashed a bug.

The mentor released her pupil, even as she continued to shiver in her arms. They had to move, she didn't wish to test the exiled Dreadlord's patience although she ensured Mieri stayed close to her as the two exited into the night right behind the woman who'd just tormented them.

---

They arrived at the two massive silos where the town of Urstholm housed their grain. The things were made of wood and iron and towered over the three women as the light from Amelie's torch caused their shadows to dance against the structures.

Amelie walked slowly, deliberately, over towards Mieri. Eyeing the girl as if she were barely worth the mindreader's time. "Take it." She handed the torch over to the redheaded initiate before turning her gaze to Noel.

"Noel, you're going to break both silos opened," her vision fluttered back towards Mieri, flashing that traumatic image once more in the pupil's mind, "Mieri, you'll light the exposed grain, and the silos themselves, ablaze after I depart."

Her grin could be seen against the torchlight before she pressed her lips together and purred, "and please know that I will be watching."

With that Amelie walked off towards a storage house where the refined ore sat. The allomancer took in a breath and exhaled as the ex-Dreadlord moved further and further away. "This is all of their food. It's meant to last through the winter." Noel shook her head.

No, she'd made Mieri a promise. She couldn't back out now. "After you light the blaze we flee. Get as far away from Urstholm as we can." She didn't wait for a reply, Noel used her magic to rip two gaping holes in both silos as a sea of grain rushed out of them.

Once the fires started the entire town would be rushing to salvage whatever they could whilst Amelie made off with her ore.

 

[Mieri]

I won't leave her. I won't leave her. I won't leave her. The chant continued in Mieri's mind over and over again. Repeating ceaselessly even as Amelie directed them. It was like a prayer, a way to stop herself from giving into the overwhelming fear that coursed through every single vein in her body.

Her fingers tightened to white as she grasped the torch, looking meekly away from the Rogue Dreadlord as she barely acknowledged her existence.

Shame threatened to nearly overwhelm her, bile filling her throat as she thought about what she would say to anyone who would ask what had happened. There would be no souvenir this time, no present for anyone back home.

The first time ever.

For some reason that made tears crawl down Mieri's face once more, and as Noel stepped forward to rip open the silo she quickly wiped them away. She looked over her shoulder briefly, watching as Amelie drew further and further away, and then as the grain spilled free she took a breath. "We'll..."

She said quietly.

"We'll tell the Guard." Mieri said as she tried to justify this to herself and Noel. "We'll tell the Guard and they'll help."

The Republic wouldn't just let these people starve, they wouldn't. Right?

Mieri thought as she threw the torch onto the grain.

 

[Noel]

"We say nothing," Noel's words rang out as soon as the flames erupted from Mieri's thrown torch. "We give our report to Commander Ephraim," her liasion with the Black Guard, "we are honest with him and no one else."

She'd seen enough of Vel Anir to know that the Republic would likely frame the entire thing as a solo action committed by Amelie. There was no chance she was going to let her pupil admit to committing a terrorist act to anyone but the one person in authority that Noel felt they could trust.

"We need to leave. Before the townsfolk arrive," they couldn't risk a single one of the villagers seeing them.

She grabbed her pupil by the hand and tried to pull her along. "The Guard will feed them," she was fairly certain that was true. Urstholm had too much strategic value for the town to be lost. Although she knew that every single citizen that lived here was about to be in for an awful few months. Caius himself was likely going to wind up in prison, if not worse.

The pair only got a few paces out until a voice resonated in both of their head's, it was quiet at first but it built into a grand crescendo that dominated their thoughts so loudly it felt almost as if her eardrums hurt hearing it.

"Nicely done, ladies. Give Ephraim my regards."

Noel caught Mieri's face with a paled look, the fear mounting. "I'll see you both again. Very soon, I hope." The allomancer didn't wait around any longer. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, keeping her pace contained only so she could ensure that Mieri was still with her.