Fable - Ask Shedding Skin

[Samantha Black]

It occurred to Ralene as Davi spoke that she knew rather little about him. Or, simply, that his words were making her aware of this fact that was otherwise true of the majority of her former classmates. There were so few she'd made any effort with and she wasn't certain if that was a personality flaw or not. Hinging on how much it truly mattered in the long run (it didn't, so far as she knew it was unlikely she would have to deal with any of them again) she supposed it wasn't worth spending much time contemplating.

Her eyes narrowed in thought as she untied the mare and lead it off toward the stables, sifting through her memories that involved Davi. While she'd likely beaten the boy to a bloody pulp more times that she cared to remember, the few instances that stuck out were those that centered around his powers. Shapeshifter. Usually such a frowned upon gift, but Ralene thought it an appealing prospect. Davi could look like whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He could have used it to his advantage to escape years ago - take the form of a Proctor or Academy clerk and no one would have been the wiser.

She envied him the option to be whoever he wanted. He didn't have to live in the shadow of his family's name.

Sniffing away a grimace, Ral lead her horse through the open bay doors of the stables and walked her back to a set of empty stalls, "I lived there for about a year shortly after I was recruited for the Knights by Commander Bailiir. I think I was around ten years old. Holstag wanted to get me inducted into the ranks early, haven't been back since."

She pulled the tack from the mare and set it off to the side then grabbed a handfull of straw to scrub over the horse's back and loosen the sweat-slicked coat.

"Why didn't you ever leave?" Ral asked rather bluntly, pausing to look at the boy over her horse, a hard gaze settling over curiosity, "Your abilities would have made it easy to slip away."

 

[Davi]

Davi wondered - not for the first time - what it would have been like growing up in the Academy had he known he had a place somewhere afterwards. Some in their class had been headhunted for Houses from a young age, though of course the Revolution had dashed those hopes, and others - like Ralene - had already been earmarked for other ventures. The Proctors hadn't thought Davi would survive long enough to graduate and certainly not beyond that. It had given him very little motivation to try. The only reason he had was some twisted hope if he kept proving them wrong they would find and carve out some small rock for him to live out his days on being useful.

He shadowed Ral in untacking and tending to his mount lost in those thoughts when she asked him the most stupid question he had ever heard. He looked over the gelding's back with an odd expression. The type of expression someone gave to a lunatic who had asked them if the sky was blue.

"Because of the rune...?"

 

[Samantha Black]

And that look earned Davi one back. A most quizzical brow larked at the tone.

"...what rune?"

Davi was not a rune mage and, frankly, she'd never seen him use them or even heard him talk about them. The rune he was referencing she was, indeed, intimately familiar with - but not one she'd given an iota of thought for several years.

 

[Davi]

Did she not know?

For some reason, the thought the other initiates hadn't been branded made him feel far angrier than the graduation hell they had just faced. He had been prepared, somewhat, that it might happen. But branding only certain initiates? His jaw clenched.

With jerky movements he yanked his jacket off, tossing it over the stall, then unlaced enough of his shirt so that he could pull it to the side enough to show the glowing, golden rune.

"They deactivated it when the revolution happened, but the Proctors said it wouldn't vanish for several years," he watched her eyes as he spoke. "If I ran, it was like a shot of paralyser. You're telling me you didn't have this? Others didn't have this?"

 

[Samantha Black]

Ral's lofted brow slowly furrowed as he spoke and then something clicked. With a slight tilt of her head, she dropped the straw in her hand and stepped away from the stall for a closer look. Dawning recognition shifted across the young Dreadlord's features.

"Fuck me, I haven't seen one of those in years," his was slightly different from some others, but at the end of the day they all served the same function: made it excruciatingly difficult to run away.

A smirk then took her lips, as if she knew a rather amusing inside joke. And she did. Ral turned and pushed the sleeve of her right arm up, revealing the faded brand on the meat of her shoulder. It didn't look like Davi's though, and it was quite a bit more aged than his.

"They put that shit on me the day I dropped. My father wanted to ensure they didn't lose me. A lot of the noble families do that with their kids in here so it's easier to keep tabs on us. Jailbroke it when I was twelve. Shame," she added with a shake of her head at Davi, "could have broken yours too if I had known about it."

 

[Davi]

Of course... Her magic.

Anger had always been a hard emotion for Davi to let go of. It had been the glowing embers that had fuelled his strength for most of his life. So whilst Ralene's explanation made the tension leave his jaw, that anger still simmered below the surface. Now the thought had entered his head that these runes hadn't been given to everyone, it was hard to shake. Noble kids made sense to track but what about the rest? Though, he begrudgingly admitted as he shrugged his shirt back on, it would be a smart move for them to do to all initiates. Vel Anir didn't want to lose such a powerful resource.

"What's done is done" he said hollowly and went back to scrubbing his horses back. It was gone now, that was all that mattered. "They don't do it to the kids now. I've checked."

 

[Samantha Black]

"Or they've gotten better at hiding what they're doing."

If what happened at their graduation day wasn't proof enough of just that, Ral didn't know what was. Clearly the revolution had only made things pretty on the surface, while underneath they were just as ugly - if not uglier. Either way, Davi's reaction clearly communicated the soreness of the subject and she filed that new knowledge away carefully.

"You want, I can cover that scar up with some ink when we get some downtime in Castere," Ral offered as she returned to bedding her horse in for the night, "make it disappear for good."

 

[Davi]

The shocking revelation that Ralene was an artist was enough to bring Davi out of his anger spiral and he glanced up at her with both brows raised. For once there was no attempt to cover the surprise; another small hint of trust.

"I didn't realise you were a tattooist," it felt like something that would have spread around the initiates. He only knew of a few other Dreadlords who had gone on to that trade since the revolution. If he had been better at art it was a discipline he could have seen himself doing. "If you have the kit... I wouldn't say no. Though I have no idea how it would transfer when I shifted..." he mused. The rune came with him but that was a thing of magic.

 

[Samantha Black]

"I do my own ink," Ralene replied, though it occured to her that Davi was not among the select few that had seen her naked in the last few years or understood the nature of her ink. The alchemical runic formulations that littered the canvas of her flesh across her body had grown significantly since the boys and girls had shared the bath halls.

"Well, everything I can easily see and reach. Alistair does the rest," at least he did. The next epiphany of her new life meant she'd have to find a new person to take over ... or she'd be making a lot of trips down to visit Alistair Krixus any time she needed anything done.

As for how the ink would react to his magic? Her brows raised in intrigue, "I don't know either, could be fun to find out."

Stepping back out of the stall and tying up the rope, Ral stretched and nodded toward the barn exit, "Come on, you're going to wear that goat's hair off its back you keep scrubbin' like that."

 

[Davi]

Davi decided to reserve judgement - and permission to ink his skin - until he had seen her art. The fact Alistair did it too was an interesting nugget of information he quietly stashed away; Dreadlords were meant to be friends with one another now but gathering information on each other for later use was a hard habit to break. He glanced down at the straw in his hand and then at the door with a grimace.

"I think I would rather spend more time with this goat..." said goat apparently couldn't care less about spending time with Davi. His nose was already firmly shoved into the bucket of oats he'd set down. "I'm not really a... conversationalist."

 

[Samantha Black]

"Seem to be holding your own with me just fine," Ral raised an easy brow at him, "the monks don't talk much, but suit yourself."

Far be it from her to make him go if he didn't want to. Making his own choices and path was the whole point of this excursion, wasn't it? Well, at least up until the point that he had to start taking orders. Ral gave him one last backward glance before making her way out the stable doors and down the main road.

 

[Davi]

Why did she keep catching him off guard like that? Davi frowned. He hadn't expected her to extend an invitation to the monks; back in the house it had sounded like she would have preferred to go alone. And Davi did like books...

Muttering, he threw down the straw and then trailed after her.

 

[Samantha Black]

Smugness wasn't quite the right word for the emotion elicited by the sound of his boots following her. She paused purposefully to let him catch up, even if he was able to track her there really wasn't any need for it. Ralene had no intention of making him feel like an afterthought - he was joining her team. If anything, she wanted him to feel like family.

A quiet look when he caught her was all she gave before continuing on her way.

The old keep had once been a well-used Anirian outpost, but larger settlements brought under the Anirian banner had since replaced its need. With no further contingents to fill its halls, the small city of Vel Draza handed it over to the monks who had instead populated it with study, quietude, and knowledge. It sat on its own in the hillsides just north of the main thoroughfare, a short hike up an overgrown cart path.

Ralene looked upon the granite walls with a certain fondness when it came into view, "Spent plenty of my off-hours here between missions with Captain Holstag. Lot of things here you won't find at the academy."

It was here she was introduced to a series of journals written by Ser Heron Blare who had spent his rather eventful life traveling the lands surrounding Vel Anir and even much farther beyond. She'd shared one with Henk on a mission to Maraan, and another with Elias when he'd shockingly shown an interest in reading.

"There's a monk here named ..." Ral paused, brow furrowed in thought, "don't think I ever actually got her name - anyway, last time I was here I asked if she knew of anything in here about ancient runes or alchemy. I'm hoping she's turned something up."

 

[Davi]

"Do you think they'll have anything on shapeshifting?"

Davi winced. He hadn't meant to ask the question out loud - even to his own ears it sounded pitiful. That hope in his voice. The longing. He sounded like a lost... well, like a lost pup. Elbion had been his most fruitful adventure in regards to turning up information on his unique gifts but it usually related to skin-walkers or werebeasts. As far as Davi knew his family had been human. He was human. He was certain the Proctors had tested that multiple times.

"I've never really had... anyone who could explain how to do what I do."

 

[Samantha Black]

"I'm not sure," Ralene admitted after a beat to think and a short glance his way, "but it can't hurt to ask. Their collection is ...mm..." what was the right word?

"Eclectic." To sum her experience here thus far, she'd found some pretty weird shit mixed among the common and mundane.

They reached the entryway, flanked on either side by crumbling stone walls well past any reasonable means of providing defense. The portcullis grid of the open archway sat off to the side like a humble beggar, rusted and hosting a family of Morning Glory vines. Following a footpath between piles of stone and rubble, Ralene's gaze caught the first of what she remembered to be at least a dozen monks occupying the old keep. He wore plain grey robes and a belt that clinked with a key of rings, marking him as one she knew to be named Markim.

"Hail, Markim," she greeted and offered a small, wane smile when he rose from where he stooped by a raised vegetable garden bed.

"Hello Black," the man replied, "I was wondering if we might see you again before you made way for Vel Castere."

"I'm checking in on a request I left with ... well I don't know her name."

Markim nodded, his brow tightening in recollection, "Agatte set some things aside some time ago. That may be for you."

"Is she around? I'd like to take a look."

The man frowned and quietly coupled his hands at his front, "Agatte passed away not long ago. Fever she picked up from some travelers that came through our town. Many here became ill with it, including the Captain. Agatte did not overcome." Markim's gaze filtered to Davi with some curiosity but he did not probe.

There was a moment of shared silence that hung between them that Ralene broke by clearing her throat, "This is Wolf. He's joining me in the Knights. I was hoping Agatte could look for something for him as well in your library..."

"A young brother has taken over Agatte's role," Markim looked off toward the inner main building of the keep and motioned for them to follow him, "his name is Rolan. He is quite invested. What were you looking for, Wolf?"

 

[Davi]

Eclectic suited Davi just fine. He found the corners of his lips tugging into a slight smile at the thought that maybe, after all his searching, his answers might have always laid here: some dusty monastery on the edge of a cliff. He hadn't even known one existed here or he might have looked sooner.

That nickname again...

He had been studying the small patches of carefully curated earth trying to blend in with the background as to allow for the pair to have a private moment. But now he cast a sideways glance to Ralene before settling his gaze on the monk.

"Anything you might have on shapeshifting. Not skinwalkers, or were monsters, but the magic of shifting." To the monk's credit he did not show any outward signs of startlement. Perhaps collecting the weird and wonderful meant when one of them appeared it was just another Mardi.

"I don't recall off the top of my head, but Rolan would know," the monk replied, his slippers making a quiet hush hush noise across the flagstone floor.

 

[Samantha Black]

Markim and his slippers lead them into the old stone building, along a route Ralene could have walked in her sleep. It was nice being back here, a place she'd grown fond of spending time in that had nothing to do with war or battle or the Dreadlord initiative. Here Ralene had been given the freedom to use her time as she saw fit.

Some days that meant lazing about under an old oak tree near the gardens, working on a personal project or mending leather goods. Other days it saw her spending hours among the stacks of the library. Holstag caught some flak for it, but he'd never let the criticism reach her ears.

"Rolan," Markim spoke up as they entered one of the side chambers.

A young man wearing the monk's cloak with his hood drawn looked up from where he sat straight-backed at a table. His eyes were bright green ... curiously bright for a human.

"This here is Black and Wolf, part of Holstag's crew. Agatte set aside some things for Black some time ago and Wolf is looking for something particular. Please assist them in whatever they need."

Rolan stood from his chair and gave the older man a short bow, "Yes Sir. I believe I remember a collection set aside with a note. Wait here."

Markim didn't linger and hush-hushed off back to his routine without so much as a word. Ralene did not seem to mind or really even notice as she moved to look over the shelves of Rolan's present work.

"You know," she remarked idly while pulling an old book off the shelf to leaf through the pages, "I feel kind of bad I never knew Agatte's name."

 

[Davi]

Davi was so busy frowning at the monks retreating back he almost didn't catch Ralenes words. His mind was busy turning over the man's odd eyes. Odd eyes that reminded him of his own with that inner glow. It couldn't be though, that would be too...

"None of us were sure if we'd last the next week, learning names seemed a little pointless," he'd done the same. It was only a month before graduation he'd asked what the cooks name was, or the quiet cleaning maid who seemed to understand he liked his things untouched. Davi tore his eyes from the empty doorway and instead glanced about the shelves that seemed to line every bit of wall space in the room. It made it feel cramped in a way that made it cozy. Letting his senses draw him he took another tome from a shelf and flicked through.

 

[Samantha Black]

"Do not touch those!" Rolan was back much more quickly than Ral had expected him to be, so used to the measured pace of the older Monks who never seemed in any hurry.

He was, in fact, much faster than anticipated. The book was snatched from her hands before she could blink, quickly and carefully closed and then replaced to the shelf, "Have you no respect for the property of others?"

"Oh," Ral's brows shot upward in surprise, "sure, my bad." She elbowed Davi to put his away as well.

"Agatte let everyone run rampant in here with these books. It was a mess. I am not Agatte," Rolan sniffed defensively as he watched Davi with a sharp gaze, "please refrain from touching anything."

Quite invested indeed. Markim hadn't missed the mark with this one.

"Did you find what she'd set aside for me?" best to just move on to what she'd come here for.

"Yes," Rolan blinked and collected himself before indicating a small stack of two books and a scroll he'd previously set down on an empty table, "Please take care, they are very old."

Bemused, Ralene decided not to cop an attitude for once. Holstag wouldn't stand for it if he ever found out. "Thanks, can you help Wolf here? He's looking for anything to do with shapeshifting."

That earned Davi a different sort of look from the young Monk, "Shapeshifting ... like a werewolf?"

 

[Davi]

Davi jumped then scowled at himself for not having heard the monk approaching; just because he felt safe did not mean he should let his guard down. Still, he could respect a person who valued their books in such a way and so he hastily put the book back where he found it.

He drifted over to look at the stack Ral had been given and had picked up the scroll when the monk turned to him. There was something about that look that made his hackles rise.

"No..." Davi frowned. "I... I don't really know what it's like..." he grimaced and then, after a thought, he shifted. First it was into a perfect copy of the Monk, then Ralene, then his signature wolf before back.

 

[Samantha Black]

This wasn't Ral's first rodeo when it came to watching Davi shift, but it was the first time she'd seen him take her own form. The young dreadlord's brows disappeared into her hairline - but it was less to do with shock so much as it had to do with appraisal.

Damn she looked good.

Rolan, however, held an expression within his hood that looked as though Davi had just thrown one of his books to the floor and began to stamp on it. Had the older Monk still been standing there he might've guffawed at the state of Rolan's sudden loss of words. Rolan was never short on words, for anything.

"You," he said finally as he lifted a hand to point at Davi with borderline accusatory directness, "you are human, and you can do that?"

Amusement filtered across Ralene's face and she slowly reached her hand back to the chair behind her to pull it out and take a seat without even looking.

"That - that is not human magic."

 

[Davi]

Davi flinched as though he had been slapped across the face.

He's barely better than an ape. We should kill him now, it would be a mercy...

He took a physical step back away from the accusatory finger. He had always known there was something wrong with his magic, something that made him more like those trained half breeds the Academy had kept hidden from the world, but it was another thing to hear it from someone else.

"I don't know what it is," he said with as much calmness as he could manage. "That's why I'm asking if you have anything I can read."

 

[Samantha Black]

"Well I do," Rolan retorted and reached up to snatch his hood off his head, revealing two tall and pointed elven ears, "it's magic of the wylds. Of elves and the fair folk your people-" the young monk withdrew his hand as a startlingly strong vibe of fuck-around-and-find-out began rolling off Ralene like steam.

She was staring at the young monk in a silence that no longer spoke of amusement or the casual comfort with which she had been comporting herself just moments ago. No, she looked like a trap ready to spring.

Rolan grimaced, remembering the words of Markim and the other monks. The old ways were dead. Acceptance started in every moment he was tested. The young elf tore his gaze away from her and let his linger back over Davi, "I may have something. Wait here."

Ral watched him go with a coiled intensity that faded only once his figure had disappeared through the doorway. When she looked back to Davi she settled back into her amusement, "Have you done me before and I didn't know about it?"

Loaded question.

 

[Davi]

Davi thought he was going to be sick.

Fair folk...

He tried to search the memories of his past, of the faded images he had of a mother and father who had loved him dearly. Had one of them been elven? Partly? That he didn't know anything about his own blood irked him and drove the sickness into a souring, churning mess in his stomach. Did that matter now in the new world order? Did it matter to him? He'd always told himself he was a Dreadlord and not a Forsaken, that it was a cruel jape made by Proctors but...

"What?" He'd sat down on the edge of the desk without realising and he pushed himself off to pace the office. There was a wildness in him that told him to run till these feelings no longer mattered. "Yes. Well, in public," his cheeks heated. "It takes a while to perfect a form and the longer I get to study it the better... I know most of our classmates faces. Charon was the hardest."

 

[Samantha Black]

With Davi's existential crisis happening with his back to her, Ral remained oblivious to his troubles. Though she was aware that he took issue with his gift, the intensity and horrified nature of it escaped her knowledge. An empath she was not.

But there was no missing the shift of color in Davi's cheeks. She always had loved making others squirm. Smugness spreading to her eyes, it faded at the mention of Charon to be replaced by something more akin to disgust. For more reason than one.

"Not surprising," she remarked and decided to quit that topic altogether for the sour taste now filling the back of her throat. Leaning in to turn her attention to the two books and scroll set aside for her by Agatte, she picked the top book up and brushed her hand across the cover to clean it of a layer of dust, "more surprised to find an elf working here. Wonder where they picked him up..."

"They did not pick me up," Rolan corrected her promptly as he walked back into the room with a single book in hand, "I... deigned to offer my archival services after witnessing how terribly it was needed here."

Ral wasn't sure that pause gave much credence to his story but it hardly mattered.

"This is a book of notes taken by Doctor Erwin Crane on his experiments performed on elves and fae," Rolan proffered it to Davi with a look of distaste that nearly matched the one Ralene had made moments ago, "many sections cover his findings on their various shifting abilities."