Private Tales Read between the lines

[Talus]

"Well..." Talus said in a low voice. "At least we're not kindling."

That was a small comfort, in some way.

He stepped just a bit closer to Zana, knowing just how well Dragons could hear. His voice dropped even lower still, and he quietly whispered. "What was that about Ancients?"

Talus had always wondered where the title 'Archon' came from, though he doubted there was any true connection. Language was always a strange thing, not that he knew much more than the average person. Though the Dragons certainly seemed to.

"This whole thing is very confusing." He added quietly.

Wondering just how many more strings there would be.

 

[Zana]

"I don't know," Zana admitted as she kept her eyes trained on the dragons deep in conversation. For such big creatures they could speak as quiet as mice. "Do you think it has something to do with..." she gestured. It couldn't be a mere coincidence the dragons knew of something called the Archon's and now it was Archon's who tried to twist the dragons?

"Maybe Nassau discovered something... I can't think of him having an interested in dragons before all this started, perhaps this is what triggered it."

 

[Talus]

A shrug rolled over his shoulders. "I don't think a title created three hundred years ago matters all that much now."

Talus said softly with a shrug.

"Nassau's magic has always given him control." At least from what little he actually knew of the man. His abilities were powerful, the envy of many of his peers. There was a reason Nassau had almost never stayed in Vel Anir.

Jealousy was a powerful motivator to ones enemies.

"But, I think you're right." Talus agreed. "He must have found something more, otherwise why take this step now?"

Not before.

The answers they needed eluded them, he just hoped that the dragons would know something.

 

[Zana]

Too many questions and not enough information. It frustrated Zana as was clear from the frown on her face. Whilst she liked puzzles, she never enjoyed ones she couldn't solve. Certainly not when going unsolved meant they hurt more people. What was Nassau's plan? What was he searching for or trying to achieve with the dragons? Had he truly taken on a partner? What we the next step?

The cave trembled and her thoughts were dashed as the dragon returned to stand before them. Zana got the impression he was as troubled as her.

"My brothers have agreed given what you have told us to share with you what we know..." He paused, tongue flicking from between his teeth. "There are... five of our brethren that have been missing. If you believe this... Archon you speak of is responsible then we shall help you find the other three in the hopes they are not yet dead."

 

[Talus]

Well, that was a good sign at least. Not having to spend months scouring the mountains and the lands by themselves would be a boon he couldn't deny.

"Thank you." Talus called up to the great Dragon, his voice ringing out. A long pause rang within the room, and he frowned for a brief moment as he considered. "One of the Dragons was without wings."

The former Dreadlord said. "But a Dragon nonetheless."

An expression that Talus could only describe as 'troubled' flickered over the great beasts face. Lips curling back in a snarl, and eyes narrowing as he stared at Talus with no small amount of suspicion. After a moment his voice boomed out.

"Our kin, but not of the mountains."​

The answer came, and the implication was clear. "Four."

Talus said softly.

"He has four Dragons." That they knew of. Kress, they had trouble with one, and if the others got too close..."If you find them, stay away."

He begged. "Tell us, and we will free them for you. Getting close could be dangerous."

 

[Zana]

Zana glanced to Talus in surprise; she hadn't thought to ask that question herself. It threw the whole situation into a darker light. Four of the mountain dragon kin, and then how many of this wingless dragon sort? Or from further afield? She had read of many species to the West that differed largely to the type so common here and with Portal Stones, feasibly, Nassau could travel to most places in the known world.

"We should not fear the human, it is the human who should fear us," snarled the dragon and the others behind him roared in agreement. The noise was deafening and made her want to cover her ears.

"Please... he is far more dangerous than he looks," at a first glance most would dismiss Nassau as a aged merchant, certainly not a threat of any kind. But looks were deceiving and they had already cost one city their lives. "You're going to have to trust us."

 

[Talus]

For a few seconds the words Zana and Talus offered did not seem to sink in. The Dragon's lips pulled back and a snarl rolled from it's throat. The sound rumbling through the chamber and seeming to reverberate through the human's chests.

Despite their alliance Talus could not feel the flicker of unease that drew through him.

Fingers tightened into fists, and he took a slow breath as he tried to calm himself. After a moment the Dragon took in a deep breath, it's eyes flickering between the two humans. Then, slowly, it spoke once more. Words relenting.

"Two months, little humans. We will find our kin and stay our hand, but two months hence..."​

It did not finish, but Talus understood the meaning.

He glanced over to Zana, wordlessly through the bond speaking to her. Best we can hope for.

It was a narrow span of time to find one man as powerful as Nassau, but it would have to do. The Dragons were already stretching their will, and Talus would not be the one to argue further. They would have to speed things along, and ensure Vel Anir did it's part.

 

[Zana]

Zana didn't outwardly nod but down the bond travelled her sense of agreement. There was nothing more they could do here and, truthfully, getting their help in searching for the lost was more than Zana had dared hope for. The next few minutes were of her describing their home should the dragons have need to bring them news urgently, else they could pass the information on to the dwarves who would send it to them. Strangely, she felt no sense of fear in sharing the coveted location of their home with the dragons. It felt... right. Perhaps it was the visions she had had long ago of their babes upon a dragons back.

Once they were back through the stony wall and inside the mansion once more Zana slumped into the chair.

"One man in the whole world... how hard can that be?" with a grimace she poured herself a drink.

 

[Talus]

There was a part of him that was woe to give out the location of their home. He knew it was a ridiculous thing, knew the Dragons were the last to try to drag them into more things. But he still could not help the protective knee jerk that came over him when Zana offered.

Nevertheless, once back through the stony wall and after weaving through the great Dwarven city Zana and Talus found themselves in their home once more. "Well we have Dragons."

He said quietly.

"And the resources of the Great Houses." Not all of them would join in of course, but most would contribute something. They had much to make up for, and something like this was a good way to rehabilitate ones image.

A fact that he was sure would not be lost on any of them.

"It will take time." He admitted. "But we'll find him."

Lips thinned before he added. "We just have to narrow down the search."

 

[Zana]

Zana couldn't help but smile up at her husband; when her mood was all gloom he had a way of putting things into perspective in such a way that she could see a small glimmer of light.

"Yes... narrowing it down," that was what they needed to focus on now. And for that they needed eyes and ears across Arethil, not just Vel Anir and the Spine region they had come to call home. She said as much to Talus as she poured him a glass too and took a small, considering sip of her own glass.

"I have a few contacts I think I could ask to help - from my time in Amol Kalt, and Alliria," her family there would be happy to help, and perhaps they would know people too. "This is quite a big operation, setting up a... well a... communications network across the world."

 

[Talus]

Talus nodded in slow agreement.

"No doubt it will fall apart the moment it's all done." Maintaining something like that with this amount of people was nearly impossible. They were bringing together Dragons, Great Houses, Dwarves, and random folk.

All of it would be slated to find Nassau, but controlling it? He doubted they would even be able to sift through all the information they were going to get. "We'll need to be careful."

He said quietly.

"Not everyone involved can be trusted." Talus reminded softly. "And if Nassau finds out..."

The man wasn't anyone's fool. He knew what he was doing, and there were the other Rogue Archons too, not just the ones working with whom Zana and Talus sought.

 

[Zana]

The very thought of what they were talking about was... daunting. It was certainly not what Zana had envisaged she would be doing with her 'retirement'. There was definitely a certain irony to the fact that despite leaving House Luana - a House known for its information gathering - she would now be creating her own network of the same such ilk.

"We'll make sure to hide our tracks as much as we can. Run them through different channels so it's hard to track..." through people that were... disposable should Nassau catch wind and decide to interrogate them. Those they trusted needed to be protected too, as well as their family.

"But... we can do all of that from our home," a genuine smile smoothed her features. "I think it's time to go home."

 

[Talus]

A nod tipped his head. "It is."

Rest, at least for a few days. They had earned that much on their little trip so far. No doubt the coming months would be a horror of activity and fighting.

Talus doubted that Nassau was working with only one other Archon. The man would likely have a few dozen disciples at least, and if not that then simple soldiers. He had risen to his position not just because of his magic, none of the Archons had.

They were all intelligent, ruthless, and careful.

No one who could be dubbed a fool would have been called an Archon.

Yet in the moment it didn't matter. Talus knew better than most that sometimes one had to put problems to the side and simply enjoy life. An everlasting climb up a mountain wasn't sustainable, and never had been or could be.

That was where the Academy failed.

So he would gladly have time with his family. Time away. Time with no problems except what was caused by his own kids.

 

[Zana]

Four months later...​

"Mama!"
"Mama!"

Zana's tiredness slipped away when she spotted the two children haphazardly tottering their way down the path that led from the front of their house through their estates. Even Zandor seemed to perk up with his golden ears suddenly pinning forward. The buckskin gelding began to jog the rest of the way eagerly anticipating some treat for his heroic return. Grey, who had been loping behind suddenly sprang forward with a bark.

The twins had reached the gate Talus had now repaired three times due to their wayward magic but Grey reached it a second later, knocking the pair over with a restrained gentleness and covering their faces in his form of kisses. Lyra and Alec squealed in equal parts delight and horror. Zana watched the scene with a full heart as she dismounted and untacked her horse with the babes distracted. Once he was back in his paddock, she turned to scoop up her children in her arms and cover them in her own kisses.

"Have you been good for your Papa, my darlings?" she asked in between each kiss. A set of green and a set of blue eyes looked at her with the same amount of innocence making Zana laugh all over again. "I didn't think so."

Standing, she held one small hand in each of hers and walked back towards the house as the twins babbled in the half speech of infants. Though she listened her eyes sought out the familiar face on the porch.

 

[Talus]

When Zana looked up at the porch to try and find a familiar face, she would find that a full half of it was missing.

Not destroyed, mind you, just entirely missing.

Standing on the end that had apparently not been taken out of reality itself was Talus. There was a small cup in his hand, and he leaned against the railing. A smile lay on his face, despite the piece of his house that wasn’t there. ”I see you made it safe, my love.”

He said with a smile.

”Unlike my house.” If they could have whistled, it was likely that both of the twins would have in that moment. Their eyes were pointedly focused not on their father, deciding instead of entirely glom onto their mother and what she might have brought with them.

They were both used to this of course. The twins magic had a tendency to…run away from them. Even now when they started to have an understanding things were still complicated. Talus and Zana tried to guide as much as they could, and in times like this there were punishments…but never anything too harsh. That was only reserved for when they did something on purpose.

Stepping off the porch Talus began to make his way to his beloved. Leaving his cup on the teetering railing.

His arms wrapped around Zana as he reached her, a soft kiss planted upon her cheek. ”I missed you.”

The former Dreadlord whispered.

 

[Zana]

Zana tilted his chin back towards her and took his lips with hers. Soft and sweet, full of the love and yearning she had felt these past two weeks away.

"I missed you too," she murmured back and then glanced over his shoulder to their ruined house. Grey had already loped up the stairs of the porch to find his usual spot and the twins, bored of their parents whilst they stood doing grown up things, had run after the poor wolf to fuss and pet.

"Do I want to know what it was this time?"

 

[Talus]

"I don't know." Talus said honestly, shrugging his shoulders as he shook his head. A couple of days onward and he still hadn't quite figured out what exactly had happened.

"One minute it was there-" He said, reaching up to scratch at the beginnings of a beard. "-Then there was a very bright light as Alec giggled and...poof."

He shrugged again. "The porch was just gone. Wood cut better than any saw I've ever seen."

It wasn't a magic that he had ever seen. Sure there was fire, there was lava and lightning, other destructive magics that could incinerate and zap things pretty well. Something like this? Well, it had been so clean that he'd at first thought the porch was just invisible.

In the bag of tricks the Twins had so far dug into, this one was certainly interesting. "Nobody can ever know how strong they are."

Talus said out loud, though it had been meant as a thought to himself.

 

[Zana]

As Talus explained they walked over to the missing part of their home so Zana could see for herself. She let out a low whistle as her fingers ran over the sharp cut. They would have to blunt it in case they hit their heads as they ran around, she thought idly. Unless it reappeared before then.

Hearing the concern in his tone she turned back to him and caught his hands in her own.

"I'm not sure we can keep this hidden my love. As they grow... people will notice. We can't keep them here," as much as she would love to. This estate was safe, there was enough wards around it that even the dragons had been too wary to land directly inside and the dome Zana kept around the house was ironclad. With her magics restored it was a simple way to syphon off some of her power so it didn't drive her mad.

But it could quickly become a cage.

"Hopefully this little one won't be as much trouble," she mused and put a hand over the slight curve of her stomach.

 

[Talus]

"Mm." Talus thrummed in his throat.

He did not want to keep his children trapped and bound. He did not want them to have the same, or even feel a flicker of similarity between his own up upbringing and theirs. They needed to be free, they needed to be able to choose.

Lips pressed to a thin line, but he let out a sigh.

"One can hope." Talus said as he reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. His head shaking. "How was your trip?"

They had years yet before the twins were even half-way grown. Until they were ready to leave the nest there was real no point in talking about this, though in the back of his mind Talus already knew that if he couldn't protect them; then he would simply have to teach them to protect themselves.

With a smile, Talus let his hand fall, softly coming to rest on Zana's skin. "Nothing surprising, I hope?"

He prodded gently.

 

[Zana]

Zana let out a sigh as talk turned to work.

"They're certainly... promising," it took her a while to arrive on that particular word but once she had said it she stuck with it. They were promising. They were just also... "They're so different, Talus. Even in a couple of years. I can never remember being like them at their age, it took losing my soul and finding you to..." she glanced at him then looked away; a part of her was still ashamed of what she had been for all those years - the perfect, mindless weapon.

They walked back to the intact part of the porch and finally climbed their way back to the house. Grey was stretched out on his bed snoring away and the twins were inside from the sounds of laughter echoing down the corridor. Zana smiled despite what they were talking about.

"I think they will bond better with you than me," she grimaced. "I'm just so old," she sighed dramatically.

 

[Talus]

Talus nodded slowly along in understanding. He knew exactly what Zana was talking about, what she meant. Their twins had a life that was so vastly different than what they had been used to growing up that it was almost unthinkable.

Gently his fingers tightened slightly on Zana's skin as she spoke. He did not blame her in the least for the slight sliver of doubt and fear he felt through the bond.

They were good parents, or so the villagers below and his dwarven family said, but sometimes he too wondered. Where they capable of this? What would it be like as the twins aged? What would those challenges bring and could Zana and Talus meet it as they had so far?

Doubt was natural, it had to be.

That was what Talus told himself. "No."

He said softly, gently kissing her forehead.

"It's because I'm a better cook." The jest slipped from his lips, but through the bond Zana would be able to feel his love and support. That unabashed emotion of simply being there. A rock for her to cling to.

 

[Zana]

A pained laugh was startled out of her at the joke and she decided to say no more on the matter. Sloan would have told her she was being ridiculous too, all whilst clearly being the twins true favourite.

The comfort of being home was enough to unwind the tension in her shoulders and her thoughts turned instead to the reason she had had to leave in the first place.

"The trip went well," they entered the Great Hall as their dwarves family had taken to calling the kitchen and living area that was the center of their home. Zana longed for a glass of wine but settled for some freshly squeezed orange juice instead; she was fed up with goats milk. "I think the candidates show promise. I know we asked for help and a team but... some of them are still kids," she glanced over to the twins who were happily playing with what appeared to be bubbles.

"We have a few from the newly graduates class too," and they both knew the horror they had been through, the tortured scars that would have left on their souls.

 

[Talus]

A hand slowly raked through his hair. "Maybe kids is what we need."

He regretted the words almost as soon as they were out of his mouth, head shaking as he slowly wandered over to one of the plush chairs in the Hall.

"I mean." Talus clarified before Zana called him out. "I don't want to put them in danger any more than you."

His beloved knew better than most just how much Talus hated the Academy. How much he hated the Houses, and how much he hated the fact that they had left such a system in place. If it had been up to him, Talus would have torn it all down.

Which was, of course, a part of why they had to leave in the first place. "But, to be honest."

Sitting himself down he let out a sigh, glancing up at Zana. "I'm more likely to trust them than someone who used to serve House Virak."

 

[Zana]

That old rivalry and hatred flared to life as soon as the name was out of Talus' mouth. Zana grimaced into her cup as she tried to force it down with the techniques a calm and gentle trauma healer had talked her through in the aftermath of the revolution. Virak was deserving of a healthy level of disgust and hatred, but not the levels that had been drilled into Zana since the age of six.

She steadied her shaking hands with a deep breath then walked over to join her husband.

"I suppose that's true, but they haven't been out of the system for long," Zana frowned. "There's a lot of... There's a lot of anger in these children, Talus. I'm worried that that might blind them in a fight. Did you hear about Archon Gilram?"

 

[Talus]

Talus found not a flicker of shock when Zana told him of the Initiate's anger.

He still wished they had torn down the Academy, ripped it to pieces and ended the barbaric practices there all together. It was a mar of the Revolution, but at the time his voice had been the only one to call for such a solution. "Eras?"

The former Dreadlord asked, shaking his head as he thought of the Archon.

"I heard." In an odd mix roil of emotion, Talus thought of the man that at one point he'd called a friend. The older Dreadlord had sided with the Revolution during the outbreak, though now Talus could better understand why.

In an odd sort of way, the two of them wanted many of the same things.

He frowned for a moment.

"Not ours to deal with." Talus remarked. "One Archon is enough to worry about."