Private Tales Something Amiss

[Kaska]

Kaska stood up abruptly, knocking her chair back and leaving it to clash heavily to the ground behind her. The collision echoed, drawing in the attention of those that may be near as she growled in her commanders face. "What.So you think just because I fucked that guy I threw away my life?"

She was inches away from Lia now, glowering down at the woman in the first real physical challenge she had ever given her before.

 

[Lia]

Lia let out a sigh, slowly straightening herself and looking Kaska directly in the eye. They were almost exactly the same height, with the other girl having maybe an inch or so on her. Still, Lia was built with a bit more bulk on her form, something that reflected mostly in her arms.

Sword work did that for you. "No."

Her tone was that same stone calm. It probably wouldn't help the situation, she knew that. Her mother had always hated her for that tone, and so had a few of the suitors she'd had. During an argument it generally didn't help when one side sounded emotionless, calm, while the other burned with passion.

"But you didn't help yourself either." That tone stayed. "You took a dagger, and stabbed it into your foot."

Lia frowned for just a brief second. "You can still walk with a dagger in your foot, but it's more difficult. It'll be even more difficult if you keep adding daggers."

The comparison was simple really. The more fuck ups there were, the harder it was to continue on. So why invite any fuck ups at all? That was her philosophy.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska made a face, stepping back and practically tossing her arms up in frustration. What the hell!

"You're impossible you know that?" She accused, her angry energy rippling through her body, shaking out into her unsteady hands. Unlike Lia, she wasn't good at regulating her emotions. She had been. As a child. But once they were unstoppered it was like she had lost all control of them and her mild temperament became a memory.

That version of her was hard to picture here, the woman looking like she was ready to hit the first thing that moved for truly no good reason.

"Why can't you just. Be normal for once and- And fight with me! Why can't you just yell!"

 

[Lia]

"Because it wouldn't solve anything." Arguing and screaming at the top of your lungs was all well and good, but resolution rarely came with a raised voice.

That was something that she had actually learned from her father. Merchants did not scream and yell when they made their bargains, they spoke and conversed, they got their points across and articulated as best as they could. Why would arguments be any different?

Her mother hadn't seen it that way of course, but her father had always been a greater influence in her life. Something she was thankful for now. "I've told you before I have a goal in mind."

She tapped her knuckles against the map.

"This helps me with that goal." She pointed to Kaska. "Fighting with you doesn't."

As she spoke Lia turned away from Kaska. "Now you can help, as a friend would, or you can continue screaming."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska deflated, looking very put out by the woman and her inconsiderateness.

She tossed her hands up a few times, struggling to recover from the moment. "Well you could fight with me like a friend, it would make me feel better," she grumbled to herself, bending down and picking her chair.

"But noo," she mocked, her voice resigned yet childish. "You have the mission, bah."

Despite her still vocal protests, it would appear as if Lia had defused the exchange. Kaska rolled her eyes and shoved the papers she had been working on in Lia's direction. "My findings," she dismissed, crossing her arms.

 

[Lia]

Lia glanced at the papers, longer than another person would have.

If Kaska watched her carefully enough she would noticed that Lia hadn't been lying about her...problem. She stared at the papers, her eyes squinting slightly, her lips pressing together. There was understanding, though it took her a moment more than it would have anyone else.

"I see." She said quietly after a few minutes, finally understanding. Her expression softened slightly, and she nodded her head as she threw this new knowledge into her plans.

"It must sustain itself somehow." Lia parroted what was on the papers. "If it has a Master then he or she likely does it."

If not...it would need to do something else. "What if there's more than one?"

She asked Kaska quietly.

 

[Kaska]

"Then we're dead," Kaska stated bluntly, holding Lia's gaze. "And I was right after all."

Which was starting to feel like a firm possibility. Liches were serious business. They didn't just appear, they came from somewhere. And they were a threat to everyone, especially if it had the presence of mind to go after Ranger artifacts? Where did it even get that information?

Why weren't the uppers being upfront? It all kept coming back to a fact they were missing, a fact she couldn't help feeling like someone around them already new. And it would change everything.

"...Do you have someone at home you trust?" Kaska asked, her voice turning low.

 

[Lia]

"My father." She stated simply.

There was nobody else really.

Her sister of course, but she was a bit of a fool, same went for her mother. When it came to business like this her father really was the best bet. It helped that he was also intelligent, and supported her whatever path she had decided to take in life.

Trust built trust. "Why?"

She asked curiously.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska paused, then chose her next words carefully. "..."

She glanced around, then murmured very softly. "You should write him two letters. One, detailing whats occurred. The people involved. And what you think. The second ... telling him not to open it unless you don't come home." She glanced around again, revealing the depths of her pessimism.

 

[Lia]

"He would open both letters regardless and send the City Guard." Lia stated flatly. She trusted her father, but the man would move heaven and earth to make sure either of his daughters were safe. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd contact Dreadlords if he had.

Not that they would really listen to him.

Still, she understood what Kaska was getting at, and she didn't want to disappoint the girl entirely. She was a pessimist, there was no arguing that...but caution had it's benefits. Taking a slightly, she glanced at the map and the fortresses that she had circled. "The Templars."

Lia broached the subject quietly.

"If we call on them..." The girl glanced at Kaska for a second, seeing if she would understand.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska nodded, satisfied with that at least. "It's something to keep in our back pocket. Feel it out as we go." She wasn't keen to jump into asking for help from them herself, but with her uneasiness coming from within the rangers, Kaska wasn't opposed to reaching out if it got Lia out alive.

But only then.

It was good to have a backup plan.

"But Lia ..." She looked to the woman, narrowing her eyes at her. "Swords or not, Templar or not. If it turns into a suicide run I'm not past drugging you and claiming credit for saving your ass out of there." No risky business from her this time.

 

[Lia]

"I'm not going to die." Lia said in that same even tone of voice. "That would defeat the purpose of all of this."

She tapped her knuckles against the table again. "If we can't do it..."

This time it was her turn to look around the room, peering around for anyone that might be listening. They had already mentioned them, but she thought it best to bring it up again.

"We get the Templar, like we discussed at the grave." It would pain her, but she'd settled her mind on that at the very least. "But I'm not coming back here with that thing still running around."

That was something she absolutely refused to do.

 

[Kaska]

"Drugs," Kaska repeated, firm on that too. She pulled out her chair and sat back down, grumbling as she reached for her last book.

"You can start on that pile if you want. They're dense but you never know. Information seems to be tucked away sporadically in them."

She plucked a quill out of her hair, wetting it quickly and tracing her finger back to her page...

 

[Lia]

"Templar." Lia repeated simply, her voice firm.

That Lich was going to die, even if she had to compromise her own values to do it. She wouldn't do something foolish, she wouldn't run to her own death, but she'd practically beg for reinforcements if she had to.

Her dignity was not worth that monster being let free on the Reach.

After a few more moments of studying the map Lia wandered over towards the books in question, grabbing them and slowly opening to a few pages that Kaska had marked. She frowned as she looked at the tiny script, her eyes already squinting as her head began to shake.

That was what the final two days were like, studying, planning, until they finally were ready to leave.

 

[Kaska]

Well. That was what the days were like. Lia could do nothing to predict the knock that came rapping merrily at her chamber the next night.

The girls had departed an hour back, bleary-eyed and stiff from a day of hard chairs. Lia would open her door to find Kaska smiling conspiratorially at her. The girl was done up with just a smidgen of-- was that pink powder on her cheeks?

She certainly smelled better, her leathers left behind for a fresh cotton set that even had a little bit of embroidery around her blouses sleeve. It wasn't over the top. But it was pedestrian gear for sure.

She shoved right through, going straight for the woman's wardrobe. "You got anything with lace?"

 

[Lia]

Lia perked an eyebrow. "No."

Not here anyway, something Kaska should have been aware if. Lia had never been to this fortress in her entire life, and what clothes she had were wither supplied by the Rangers or brought with her on their trip.

None of them had lace.

Back home she owned a fee dresses and the like but they were hardly suitable for Ranger work. Besides, she didn't exactly feel like wearing something of that sort would be very well looked upon by the Rangers in the fortress, or those that commanded it. "Why?"

She demanded.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska huffed, blowing hair out of her face and slouching off her cloak. Under it was a pack which she opened carefully.
We're going to the village down the road for a drink." She looked up at Lia and winked, the arrows poking out of the top of her bag.

"I heard they had some eccentric folk. Cute boys. A bard. A priest. Can you imagine them all together in a room? Get a few beers in me and you'll see..."

 

[Lia]

Lia was about to smack the woman across the face and ask if she was even capable of learning a lesson. Then she opened the bag, spoke of a priest, and the dots came together in the Sergeants head. Her lips thinned for one brief moment but then she slowly nodded.

"I see." Kaska wasn't trying to have a party before their mission, she wasnt falling into the same mistake as before. It was good thing, because Lia would have throttled her until she'd have to stay home the next day and skip the mission.

"I suppose." She began carefully. "It would be alright."

Lia had never been one for parties. Even when the Rangers sent her to certain engagements in Alliria she had never really enjoyed going. Still, without being able to use the Claymore they would need another holy weapon in case she failed at killing the lich.

A priest was their best bet.

She just hoped he worshipped and actually useful god.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska grinned. "Good. Figured you'd have nothing on you, so I brought you this!" She pulled out a dress, lace on hems and a defined waistline making it another understated, yet overtly pedestrian piece. It would be noted that kaska got the nice pants and blouse.

"Quick, quick, put it on. I've still got to do something with that hair of yours."

She was enjoying herself. No doubt about this.

 

[Lia]

"No." She said simply.

She would play with this little ruse, but not that far. Lia wasnt about to bandy around in a dress. They weren't going to a ball with the Allirian Merchant Council, they were going to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere.

This wasnt the place for silk and lace.

"I have a coat." She told Kaska. "It will do."

She batted Kaska away before she could even reach her hair. "My pins will also be fine. We're going to a village, not a Gala of the Great Houses of Vel Anir."

They were still surrounded by Rangers too. She wasn't going to lower herself that way. Not out here.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska frowned but relented, sensing she had gotten as far as she could with the woman. Which was pretty damn far, in retrospect.

"It's not a gala piece..." Kaska murmured, petting it. "I couldn't fit one of those into my pack."

It begged the question how much outfits were actually in that pack of hers. The answer was four. A spare traveling set. Her current outfit, and the dress. She rather felt it spanned all the occasions.

"Usually the nobles give me a piece if they require I wear one of that." She huffed, pulling from her musing. "Very well, fine. But at least wash your face, you're going to get pimples." She folded up the dress and gingerly tucked it back in, saying goodbye to it until another time.

 

[Lia]

Lia let out a sigh. Wondering something quietly to herself as she stood and headed towards the wash bin at the other end of the room. She frowned for a second, scooping up some of the water and splashing it on her face before she turned around and looked at Kaska.

"Would you rather do that?" Her voice was not accusing, simply curious. "Live the life of a Noble daughter? Going to galas and parties, socializing?"

Lia had always found it to be dreadfully boring. Compared to being a Ranger it was a nightmare. "Instead of being a Ranger?"

She had never really thought about it before, but Kaska must have been practically forced into this.

The notion for some reason made her deeply uncomfortable. Perhaps it was because her own parents had given her so much freedom to choose, and without that freedom she would have been one of those nits talking about how many boats her husband owned and what pretty dress she was going to be wearing. The thought made her feel I'll.

 

[Kaska]

A pit formed in Kaska's stomach. She fiddled with her pack ties a long moment before surprising herself and answering truthfully. "I don't know. But. It would have been nice. Maybe. It could of been," she murmured, near incoherent. She turned around, shouldering her pack again.

"I'm not naive, I've been around enough to see their pitfalls as well, but. I don't know. The option- ah- the choice, it all just sounds a little appealing. ...Is that wrong?" She asked, her voice tight and her expression imploring.

She didn't know why it mattered, but LIa's response to her did. And at the moment, she was braced for the worst. She did often make it a point to be a stupid, selfish girl. And likewise, she expected people to respond to her that way. A few weeks of withdrawing her claws didn't change that.

 

[Lia]

"No." Lia said, a soft smile touching her face. "My sister chose that path."

There was no judgement in her tone, though she did sound somewhat amused.

For a few moments Lia paused, unsure of how to continue. She didn't think there was anything wrong with being such a woman, nor did she really think that those women were really as powerless as many people thought. Though many men would not admit it, there were more than a few wives in Alliria that were the true power in their relationships. Her father had told her as much.

In Vel Anir it was much the same, though there anyone in politics had to be as ruthless as the person besides them.

"There is a certain appeal to it." She mused for a second, then looked at Kaska.

For a second she said nothing. Then carefully she began. "If its...something you'd like...there is a path to it you know."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska laughed, short and abrupt. "No there's not. Have you seen me? I'm not even a merchant's daughter. I'm descended purely from rangers, there's nothing in me but battle and- ...charity." She spoke the word like a curse.

Rangers depended on the kindness of those around them more often than not to keep their supplies level during missions. They could survive in the wild well enough, and it helped curbed the low income life a ranger chose. But to her it painted her bloodline a far cry from those in noble houses, where the wealth ran deep and charity was given, not taken.

"I trip in heels," she exclaimed, as if that explained everything. A noble lady she was not.