Fable - Ask Pinnacle

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And for this, Zael didn't need a long moment. Not at all.

He smiled a little, banishing some of the melancholy in the air, and said, "Yeah. Now that's somethin I can do."
 
Seeing Zael smile in turn brought out a smile in Yuna.

"I'm glad, Zael. I'm glad."

Her hands each in a slow motion went to grasp one of his wrists and to lift up his arm and place his hand atop her head. She hadn't meant for things to get so sad, but now, with that little bit of encouraging energy from Zael, she felt empowered to further dispel that melancholic air.

"Can you fix my hair?" she asked, doing some encouraging herself with her tone, subtly inviting him back to feeling well.

After all, the day was supposed to be a promising one. An exciting one!
 
"Good thing your hair is short," Zael said, taming the runaway strands with his fingers, with the heel of his palm. "Doesn't need much fixin."

A throaty laugh then, as once again the thought resurfaced of how their hairstyles had switched over time.

"Maybe I oughta cut mine. Finally. I had short hair all my life, all up until recently. Man, it's easy; not a lot of care needs to go into it."
 
"Well I like it!" Yuna said, beaming now. "I think you look better with longer hair."

And it was a lot more volume for her to run her fingers through, as she had done a little—though not as much as she would have liked—just a few minutes ago. Not that she necessarily needed to say that out loud.

"And! Don't forget! With longer hair, you can use it to hide your eyepatch if you need! You know, for when you're off doing that super secret stuff for the Rogues."
 
"I reckon you've got a fine point there."

Yeah, his eyepatch had the tendency of marking him out very easily. The most recent example, heh, thank Kress, was benign, and that was when Magi spotted him out in the Port Bazaar during all of the Giftmas festivities—she even called him Eyepatch Man. Well, the shoe did fit, didn't it?

Thinking Yuna's hair was well enough fixed (again, short, even the most vigorous ruffling couldn't perturb it too much), Zael stood from the bench and said, "Come on, let's go. We got an elf and a summoner to convince."

They planned it out as well they could. Now it was time to see if all of that calculating paid off.

No small statement to say that his future turned on whether or not Gier allowed him to prove himself or rejected him outright.
 
THE COLLEGE​


With the Department of Acquisitions actively recruiting volunteer freelancer types, and with Yuna's presence, they were able to secure Zael a pass into the College. Yuna, naturally, puffed herself with pride and took all the credit for Zael's provisional entry. Ah ha, we're bound together at the wrist, you can't go anywhere without me now, I'm your escort! Zael just grinned, said, you're wrong, we're bound together at the neck, and then he reached over and put her in a headlock and walked along with her head so cradled in the crook of his arm until the odd sight and Yuna's insistent protesting drew enough attention that he let her go. Well, said Yuna, bound at the neck, you say? Let me try! And then she tried to jump up and get a firm headlock onto Zael but he shrugged off her attempts each time.

Laughing, their spirits quite raised from the somber point they had reached back at the candle ship bench, they entered the College proper from the courtyards.

Zael looked a bit lost—who could blame him, the College was massive!—but Yuna guided him along through the seemingly labyrinthian and never-ending halls. Once you got used to it, really it wasn't so bad! Probably wasn't all that different from actual land navigation. Not that she would know; when she and Gier and Herrim had traveled to Grishino for the eventual mission into Rostok, Gier had done all of that, all of the maps and stuff. Maybe enrolling into a class in divination in her next year would be useful for skipping navigation, ugh—such a chore when traveling.

But enough about that, she didn't need a map or divination to find her way to the Study Hall Gier and Herrim would be found. Lots of the College Study Halls had adjoining private rooms, typically used for groups of students engaged in some sort of project or activity together, and Yuna had asked to meet with them in one such room, their usual spot. They had agreed. So, they better be there!

Standing outside the Study Hall, Yuna stopped and turned to Zael.

"I know you're going to want to explain yourself, but...uh...how do I say this? Maybe let me do the, um, introductions. Yeah, 'introductions', let's call it that."

A gentle way to put it. An exchange of names was not what was going to be on the menu, here. More like a heaping helping of Yuna (and maybe even Herrim too) pleading with Gier to calm down and to just listen for a moment.
 
Zael didn't know if would ever get completely used to it. Yeah, sure, this was only his second time within the actual College itself, and perceptions as ingrained as the ones Zael had didn't change overnight. But...the entire atmosphere of the College versus the Academy courted this alien sense of wrongness, like it just couldn't be true, like he was walking through some kind of dream that was near perfect in its likeness to reality save for one infinitesimally small but seditiously significant element that was persistently off.

Most of all, the looks on the faces of the College Students imprinted on him the deepest. Threatening a delve into the poignant if he compared the Students too much to Initiates, the Students nevertheless all looked to be possessed of such inner happiness, with a light of life in their eyes appropriate for their age, that same light having been smothered out of their counterpart Initiates down south in Vel Anir.

Maybe one day, when he was an old man, pushing ninety years old or something, and he was talking to his great-grandkids, they would have no idea what he was talking about if he were to wax on about the old days, because Vel Anir, the Academy, the Dreadlords, all of it will have changed so much. Maybe one day. Yeah. Fight for that day. Choke destiny out until that day became less a vague potential and more a firm reality.

Yuna stopped him outside the Study Hall. Spoke to him.

"Butter him up good for me," Zael said. "And sprinkle some pepper on too if he gets too feisty."
 
"Is that how you like your toast? Noted!" Yuna said, reaching up and booping Zael on the nose and giggling. Then she swiped a hand down in front of her face, literally said, "Serious face," cleared her throat, and forced a more serious demeanor upon herself.

Things were all fun and games right now, standing outside the Study Hall, but once they were in that room with Gier and Herrim? Yuna swished her hands over the proverbial crystal ball in her mind and foresaw that no forcing would be necessary. A lot was on the line here, and not just for Zael really.

"Just stand outside the door to the private room. I'll give you the signal to come in. Okay?"
 
"Okay."

In they went. A fair few students sat scattered around at the tables within the Study Hall, none of whom gave any special notice to their entry. Magical etchings on the walls and the ceilings kept the whole of the Hall well lit, and the smell of parchments and was in the air. Along the walls, spread out, a few doors. One of which was ajar.

Yuna walked toward that one, and Zael stood outside. He could overhear everything. The typical stuff you would expect. Hey guys, from Yuna; cheerful. Pleasantries from Gier and Herrim. Then the obvious question from Gier, curious but a little cautious. What's this all about, Yuna? Yuna, then, with the preemptive placating. Gier, do you trust me? You know I wouldn't do anything stupid or crazy. I'm not like Delios, that dope. So you trust me, right? And then Gier, of course, in his uncertainty instinctively raising his guard some, evident in his tone of voice from there on out.

This continued for a little while, some back-and-forth among Yuna, Gier, and Herrim. Until at last Yuna said, "Well, I've got just the thing to give us an edge."

And that was Zael's cue. Stepping into the room, Zael made sure to the close the door. Prudence, right?

Zael got a look at them: Gierliadel, with his long and luscious silver hair and elven angular features; Herrim, with that quill-thin goatee and parted haircut. Both of them went dead quiet when they saw Zael. Surprise was probably the mildest way to describe their faces.

"Been a while," Zael said.

"What the hell are you doing here," Gier said flatly, and with a not-so-subtle stab of accusation.
 
"Gier, Gier," Yuna said, standing strategically between the elf and the Dreadlord, her hands up in a pleading and pacifying manner, hovering over the former's chest. "Remember what I said? Remember? That you might think this would be a bit iffy?"

"A bit iffy??" Gier smacked a palm to his forehead and, as if the force of it were responsible, spun around half way and then turned back to face her. "Surely you jest! This is more than merely 'a bit iffy', Yuna!"

"He betrayed us!" Herrim said, thrusting out a hand toward Zael to punctuate that hard 'b' he placed on the word betrayed.

"Okay, first of all—"

Gier threw his hands up into the air and rolled his eyes. "Oh, here she comes again with her lists."

"Hey! Could you just listen to me? Ten minutes, Gier. Ten minutes. That's all I'm asking. If you still don't like the idea of this after ten minutes, then you can walk right out of this room. Fair? All's fair?"

Gier glanced back at Herrim. Herrim, for his part, seemed to be making his own considerations, what with his brow furrowed and his contemplating eyes aimed in that corner, now that corner, now back at Gier. Finally Herrim said, "Let's hear them out."

Gier sighed. Looked back to Yuna and said, "Ten minutes. Go."

Yuna started again like she hadn't been interrupted, "Okay, first of all, it wasn't even all that bad. Hey. HEY! Don't look at me like that! Ten minutes! Like I said, not that bad. Zael and Ollie didn't try to kill us. They helped us fight all those Skitterers, and they helped us kill the Stalker of Minds. They left us the carcass, too! Was it a little scummy for them to leave us? I'm not a Lying Lucy, of course it was. But it wasn't their fault! Not really. Look, we all know how the Anirians are—but those are the ones who are still a part of their...Kingdom or Republic or whatever it is now. Point is! It's not like that anymore with Zael!"
 
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"I left that life behind," Zael said. "I don't take orders from the Republic anymore."

Gier wasn't buying it. "How convenient. So who do you take orders from, then? I hear you Anirians wither and die without them."

First time Zael had heard that slander, but, damn, wasn't entirely wrong, was it? Vel Anir was chock full of bootlickers, and Zael could rattle off the list of them from his own class at a moment's notice. To Gier he said, "I'm here because I choose to be."

"Bullshit," Herrim said, supplying the profanity that might well have jumped off of Gier's own tongue if his human friend hadn't beaten him to it. "Who do you work for?"

"You familiar with Anirian events?"

"There are far more interesting things to study."

"Well, succinctly put, there's the Republic and there's the folks who don't like the Republic. I'm with the latter."

"Really? Fascinating," Gier said, not fascinated in the least. "What manner of trouble do they have you stirring up in our fair Elbion?"

"Our fight, my fight, isn't against you at all."

"And that's supposed to convince me? Your fight in Rostok was not against us, yet that did not stop you from using us to your advantage."

"Would you have been able to find and kill the Stalker yourselves?"
 
"You know he's right, Gier," Yuna said. "The three of us just wouldn't have been enough. We should have had more students, maybe even a Maester or two with us. We underestimated the Stalker. We needed Zael and Ollie."

Zael stepped in to have his say. "We needed each other, truth be told. Me and Ollie wouldn't have been enough to find and kill the Stalker, neither. It was your theory that got us on the right track, Gier. It was me that got us underground quick and fast through that well. It was Herrim who kept all those Skitterers at bay when we fought the Stalker, Ollie with that damn sword of his who delivered the killin blow, and Yuna who fixed our masks after the fight."

"And Zael and Ollie killed a few of the Skitterers on their way out...you know, a few. They didn't leave the whole horde for us to deal with." As they escaped with the Burning Heart, but Yuna didn't add that part.

"Yet you didn't feel the need to be forward with us. To negotiate terms out in the open."

"Oh come on, Gier," Yuna said, feeling that she ought to tackle this one; if Zael answered, it might be more provoking than placating. "You know for a fact that you would have never agreed to give up the Burning Heart. You practically left a trail of drool from here all the way to Grishino thinking about it."

"I..." Gier composed himself, fixed his robes, and stood straighter, "I did no such thing."

"It's called overstatement, Gier. But you know you wouldn't have agreed to trade the Burning Heart. And then in your stubbornness, we never would have teamed up, and then Herrim would never at least have the Stalker's carcass. Isn't that nice, Herrim? You got what you wanted out of the whole deal. Maester Shikishimi was really impressed when you had that thing hauled in, wasn't she?"

Herrim, his indignation temporarily subverted, blushed a bit and said, "Yes. She...ahem...she was impressed, yes."
 
Zael gestured to Herrim. "And how me and Ollie did it was the only way to make that happen. Otherwise, like Yuna's sayin, none of us would have gotten anythin. Hell, maybe none of us would even be alive. I ain't sayin what we did was without flaw. But the facts stand as they are: you got the Stalker's carcass, we got the Burnin Heart, and we're all alive."

After a moment, Gier spoke, changing his angle of attack back to an earlier point. "So, you say you're not with the Anirian Republic, but how are we to know that? How are we to know whether or not another lie is being played?"

Zael pointed up at his eyepatch. "Courtesy of the Republic's 'care'."

Herrim snorted. "That might just be for show."

Zael, without hesitation, flipped up his eyepatch to reveal the cavity where once his right eye had been, and both Gier and Herrim grimaced, their eyes narrowing in revulsion to the sight. Gier said quickly, waving frantically, "Fine, fine, it's not for show! Put it back down!" Zael did, and Gier pressed, "So it is real. But you could have gotten such a wound anywhere."

Zael shrugged. "There really is nothin short of me marchin back to Vel Anir and gettin strung up in some gallows to prove I'm tellin the truth here."

"Then I will humor you: since you have chosen to be here, and are supposedly not under orders from your Republic or from 'the folks who don't like them', tell us why. Tell us why you are here."

"Man's gotta eat."

"Please."

"It's part of it, that. The Department's payin well for this. But you're right. That's not all of it."

"What is the rest?"

"I want to do this right. Last time, I wasn't even thinkin, just followin orders." Zael shook his head. "I ain't that man anymore, Gier. I make my own choices now. And I want to make it up to you, to Herrim, and to Yuna."

"I severely doubt that."

"Can't a man turn over a new leaf?"
 
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Herrim, equally as doubtful as Gier still, said, "This isn't like Rostok, Zael. It's not just the five—well, four—of us. You said it yourself, the Department's hiring on freelancers; this expedition is that big. So, really, even if we put matters of trust aside, what kind of a difference would you, one man, even make? Taking matters of trust into account, it's simply safer for the College not to have you along."

"Ah ha!" said Yuna, her finger shooting up into the air again. "But that's where you're wrong, Herrim! Especially as it pertains to you, and Gier, and yours truly, the Student of blindingly incandescent beauty, me!"

There it was. There it was! Gier, ever so slightly, angled his head in a curious fashion. "What do you mean?"

"You know how I know people?"

"...Let us say it is so," Gier allowed.

"You know how I have ears everywhere?"

Herrim, with the rare cheeky tease, said, "No you don't, you just have big ears."

"I DO NOT HAVE BIG EARS!" Yuna cleared her throat. Sniffed. Tried again, "You know how I have—oh fuck you, Herrim, I do not—!" She drew in a sharp and petulant breath through her nose. "I heard some things about the expedition, okay? That's what I was trying to say!"

"We will be told of these things later in the day ourselves," said Gier. "The Department is hosting a Planning Session this evening. Or have you forgotten?"
 
"Yeah, and you know who's gonna be there? One Jurgen Grinko, captain of a mercenary company, all of whom have been hired on for this expedition."

Gier fashioned a defense in which he himself didn't seem to have much confidence, "...This is not entirely out of the ordinary. The use of mercenaries—"

"It's a whole company, Gier. Not just a gaggle of hired swords. A whole damn company." Zael huffed. "I mean, hell, they're hirin on said gaggle too, what with those freelancers. A merc company, freelancers, and we haven't even got to the College personnel yet. Now you tell me, why do you think the Department needs that many men? Ain't your mages enough?"

"They are enough," Gier said indignantly. "I tire of you Anirians and your ceaseless boasting."

"Gier, I'm serious, I ain't puffin up my chest here. There's a reason why the Department's doin what it's doin."
 
"And I know what that reason is," Yuna extended her hand and her forefinger. "If you pull my finger I'll tell you."

Herrim snorted, snorted again, and then clapped a hand over his mouth to cover up his escaping laughter. Gier took it all more seriously, his face stolid, and he said, "Yuna, I am not falling for that one again."

"Oh come on, I'm not gonna fart this time! Promise!"

His curiosity winning over his annoyance at Yuna's games, Gier reached out with a sigh and obligingly pulled her finger.

And thus, without the addition of flatulence, did she dispense the knowledge: "Our magic is going to be fucked."

Did she know that for certain? No. Like she had said to Zael, she didn't know the exact nature of the Department's worry. But better to take the risk and play it up in order to convince Gier not to squeal on Zael. They'd all find out what the deal was with the magic on this expedition during the Planning Session anyway, and it probably would be something bad.
 
Gier, in his shock, didn't yet let go of Yuna's finger. "...What?"

Good. This was what they wanted. Gier had been thrown off of his pedestal of (rightful) anger and was now swimming in the pool of more alarming concerns. Gotta keep up that momentum. "You heard that right, Gier. Department's worried about the use of magic. So it ain't even a comparison of us Anirians or you Elbioners—got some kind of great equalizer sittin pretty where this expedition is headed."

Still with a heavy dose of being flummoxed stifling his speech, Gier staggered out his response, "...Surely...the Department has accounted for this."

"Yeah. That's what the footsloggers are for. If magic is fucked, heh, all steel needs is an arm to swing it, right?"

Herrim nervously washed his hands, churning them one over the other before himself. "The Department didn't mention anything like this."
 
"Duh, Herrim. At least, not to us they didn't. Probably because they have it in mind to keep all the Students back or something." Yuna raised up his hands and flailed them about in dramatic, mocking fashion, "'Oh, it's too daaaaaaaaa~ngerous to let the Students go in! Going to Rostok was fine but this is toooooooo~ much!"

"That sound good to you two? Sittin at base camp until it's deemed 'safe' for you to go where the real interest is?"

"Yeah! And you know what? I say 'boo!' to that! Boooooo~! I don't want to sit at base camp!"

A bad angle to take on Yuna's part, because Gier was snapped out of his stupor and he replied to her flatly with: "You did not even want to go into Rostok."

"I did so! Kind of! I said monster hunting is stupid, not that I didn't want to go into Rostok! That whole venture helped me out with my grades in the end, didn't it?" Gah! Another bad angle to argue from! Time for a hard reset! Yuna flapped her hands about dismissively and said, "Look! Gier! You know as well as I do that sitting at camp will be boring. Borrrrrrrrrr~ing. I'd say you know that more than I do, actually! Don't you want to maybe join the Department of Acquisitions one day? Twiddling our thumbs at camp won't help with anything, and certainly not that!"

She didn't know if that was true or not, but she took the gamble with it anyway.

And it seemed like it worked? Gier considered everything for a moment, and then said, "I...well, no, sitting idle at camp is not something I would like to do."
 
"So how about this," Zael said. "I train you, Gier. You, Herrim, and Yuna. I can even get you some swords—armor, you're on your own, that's harder to come by. But I train you three for all the time we have between now and the expedition and you get a good claim to warrant gettin in on the action."

Sharp as Yuna said he was, Gier picked it up instantly. He crossed his arms. "And we arrive at the crux of things." He regarded Zael sternly for a moment, and then said, "What is your ploy here?"

"Don't got no ploy—I'm not playin at anythin, Gier. What I said is what I mean: I'm here for the coin, and more over, to make amends."

Gier's mouth turned in a sour downward angle. "Understand how difficult it is to trust you, Zael."

"I know."

"That's all you have to say for yourself? 'I know'?"

"That's all I can say. We've been over the whole of it, Gier. Rostok went the way it did and that's in the books now." Zael shifted his stance, becoming more relaxed, more receptive to whatever Gier's final judgment might be. "We can talk about what I can do for you all day long, but, really, what this all comes down to is exactly what you said: trust. You trustin me to be a better man than I was yesterday."

At this, a silence came to permeate the room. Gier was deep in thought, a hand cradling and rubbing his chin; Herrim was shifting his gaze from Zael, to Yuna, to Gier and back again in a slow procession. Yuna, with an uncharacteristic quiet patience, stood with her arms behind her back and her weight rocking back and forth from the tips of her toes to her heels. Zael, for his part, kept a steady regard on Gier, awaiting his answer. It all came down to this. If Gier said no and went to the Department to report what Zael did in Rostok, then it was over for him.

Finally something broke the silence.

"It's been about ten minutes," Herrim noted quietly.
 
Come on, Gier.

Come on, come on, come on!

Yuna tried not to display the feeling of this too overtly on her expression, but her sleeves were used to wearing her emotions, weren't they?

Stretching that previously agreed upon ten minutes out now to eleven, or maybe twelve, Gier at last made some forward motion. His hand fell from his chin and he stepped toward Zael and dropped a hand onto his shoulder.

"You had better not make me regret this, Zael Castomir."

Yuna in all her abrupt excitement pumped her arms into her sides, said through teeth clenched with joy, "Yes!" and then quickly banished all of that and composed herself and looked to Herrim. "So what about you, Herrim? Can you give Zael a second chance too?"

Herrim stroked the edges of his thin goatee with a thumb and forefinger, and after a small moment gave his answer. "Yes. Yes, I think I can do that."

Just like I thought! came Yuna's interior congratulations for herself. If I'm not the smartest Student in the whole College, then my last name isn't Fairweather! Ah ha!
 
Zael gave the elf a hardy nod when his hand touched his shoulder. "I won't, Gier."

Both Gier and Herrim, then, made motions to exit the private room and go into the Study Hall proper. The former said, "Then I suppose we'll all reconvene at the Department's Planning Session tonight. Don't be late, Yuna."

"Geez, why does everybody always think I'll be late to stuff?"

"Because you have a proven record of such," Herrim poked as he passed by her on the way to the door.

"Oh come on! A few minutes late to class or something isn't really late late! That doesn't count!"

Each chuckling to their own degree, Gier and Herrim left the private room. Zael smiled. Certainly went better than he expected, them leaving in such relatively good spirits. He wasn't a pessimist or anything, not by a long shot; he didn't scorn the notion of hope or have some dark and gloomy outlook on the world. Quite the opposite, in fact—Zael constantly looked for ways to bring out the good from the seemingly bad. Kristen Pirian often threw around a saying from her mother that Zael liked: "Sunshine is never more than a day away."

But if there was anything that had changed in him from when he was an Initiate to now as a Rogue, it was this: he harbored a healthy portion of realism now. Life came with some hard choices, alright, and everybody learned that the hard way.

Which was why he wasn't looking forward to what he had to do next. This was going to be the worst of it.

"Hey Yuna? Can we talk?"

"Delighted to, Firebutt!"

Zael smiled again.

"Not here."
 
YUNA'S ROOM​


Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!

Yuna could barely contain her giddiness. What was this now, what was this!? Swords and sails, she wasn't expecting anything like this to happen! When Zael said that they ought to go to her room—her room!—she couldn't even talk right for a minute, tripping and stumbling all over her words. But the thrill of surprise and anticipation flowed through her veins and made her shoulders shiver once, twice, thrice as they walked through the College halls and toward the Dormitory Wing. What was he going to do? What were they going to do? Oh the possibilities were endless! And Heidi BETTER not be in there, or, if she was, she better be the one to sleep like a rock this time!

Yuna's thoughts happily skipped down the avenue of fancy and fantasy like this. And when they arrived at her dorm room she couldn't get the door open fast enough! Turned out, Heidi wasn't inside, just like Yuna expected, so that was great! She and Zael had the room allllll~ to themselves.

Humming an innocent tune, strutting an innocent strut with her hands stretched out behind her and her chin turned upward with whimsy, Yuna waited until Zael had closed the door before she whirled around with an airy grace to face him.

"Sooooo, what's the occasion, Zael? What'd you want to talk about in an oh-so-private place?"
 
Zael didn't waste any time. Just got right to it.

Because the truth needed to be out.

Zael reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the letter that had been resting there, waiting, since the earliest hour of the morning.

And he handed it to her.

"Read it," he said.
 
Completely heedless to Zael's hard and grave demeanor, Yuna took the letter and said, "Aw, for me? A late Giftmas present? You shouldn't have, Zael—I love poetry!"

She unfolded it.

And read it, her eyes scanning over its brief contents, merely eleven words. But over the course of those eleven words, and especially as she read them over and over once more, Yuna's countenance went from happy, excited, and eager, to a slow and dawning shock and alarm, to dismay, and finally...

To anger.

She slammed the letter into Zael's chest.

"You asshole!" she growled. And then she yelled, "YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"
 
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