Private Tales Something Amiss

[Kaska]

Kaska crinkled her nose. "Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll just bleed out on his own?"

While she had been the one to agree to the Templar intervention, it was turning out to be a prospect she was dreading the more she thought about it. She gave a heavy sigh. "Are there even any chapters nearby or would I have to sail to one?" It was already understood that she would be going to do this fetching herself. The Templars didn't just come on command and she was suspecting it was a task Lia wouldn't depart to one of the others.

Clearly, Kaska was best for the job of ambassador. ...Clearly.

 

[Lia]

She glanced around one more time and then looked towards Kaska. "The closest one is in Alliria."

Which would actually be fairly easy to get to. All that they had to do was sail down the rest of the Sayve and into the bay, then move along the coast to Alliria itself.

Once more faster than riding.

"I doubt the Lich will bleed out." She added dryly. "Given that I suspect his blood isn't much use to him anyway."

The other Rangers seemed to shiver oddly enough.

 

[Kaska]

"Alliria," Kaska breathed, taken aback. "Lia, that's far." Suddenly recruiting them seemed like a much harder task than she thought walking into this. In way, it made her write off depending on their help at all. Odds are, once the lich became aware of their presence, he wouldn't give them time to broker and plan. If he was in a bad enough state, he'd simply run. And if he wasn't, he'd attack.

Either way, if Kaska wasn't with them for that ...

She shook her head. "We'll have to just do it ourselves. That's too risky."

 

[Lia]

"By ship it is only about five days." If the wind was in your favor anyway. "The way back should be just as fast, perhaps a bit slower given you'll be with the Templar and they have a propensity for...acting more slowly."

She frowned for a moment, shaking her head.

"We will only get the Templar if there is more than one Lich." Lia reminded the girl. They could more than handle the one, with two holy weapons and those arrows...she was confident of that, but if there was more than one?

"If there's two...or gods forbid three." She breathed. "It would be too risky not to get The Templar."

The other Rangers stared at her, some nodding slowly, others clearly not liking the idea of bringing the Templar in no matter what.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska frowned, looking deeply disturbed.

"Let's get a move on then. No time to waste." She pushed past them all, worry in her gut as she tried to not think too hard on the finer aspects of this mission. It was unlike her to get stressed over one, it was unlike her to care if they succeeded. But she couldn't help how the thoughts kept spiraling through her mind.

Oh gods, Lia was rubbing off on her. Not killing this lich was not an option.

 

[Lia]

Lia nodded to the others. "Sarah!"

The Sergeant called out to the Elf perched atop the tower, motioning with a twist of her hand that she was sure the woman would see. There was a reason she made the best scout of them all. Though Lia hardly understood why, Elves seemed to just be...better at some things than Humans.

It was a species thing of course, she wasn't entirely stupid, but the reason for it? She had absolutely no idea. Perhaps they were more magical in a way. Lia honestly had no clue.

"I'm beginning to think you care." She mused to Kaska with a smile. "Next thing you'll be offering to train recruits."

A smirk touched her lips.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska shot her a look of indignation. "That's not my job," she bristled, as if the insinuation was an insult to her very breeding. "I don't care. I just don't want to see you dead. I owe you, you know." She crossed her arms over her chest, her expression otherwise closed off.

She was beginning to care.

 

[Lia]

"Of course of course." Lia said with a slight smile, knowing that wasn't exactly the whole truth of the situation.

Perhaps Kaska was growing a heart.

Amusement floated through her, something that seemed to jump from person to person as all of the Rangers joined back up into one unit. They trudged through the forest, for what seemed like hours. Night had fallen, and moving through the woods would have been difficult without Sarah at the head of the party.

"There's the cove." It was hours later that Lia spotted the ship. "Let's get back before we die of hypothermia."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska shivered, brushing past her and taking quick steps down. She had said nothing to the woman, her arms remaining crossed over her chest the whole way down. Sarah in particular got no kind looks from her, Kaska bursting into camp and collapsing to her knees before the fire with a shiver.

Food was served out, murmurs of greetings giving by those around them.

See. Slow.

 

[Lia]

Another day passed, then another.

They surveyed three more fortresses in that time, each one of them empty. The Fourth had been occupied, though not by the Lich. Some Merchants had apparently thought the fortress was something worth sitting on, and after a large scare by the Rangers everything had been settled.

It was after the fourth day that Lia and Kaska found themselves sitting on the deck of the ship. "I don't know. I prefer a man with more...creativity."

She said absent mindedly.

They were now on the sixth Fortress, this one built by some Lord who'd had a high opinion of himself. Lia wasn't looking forward to it, if only because she'd heard some of the mosaics were...raunchy.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska blinked from her thoughts, her eyes on Thier without realizing it. "What?" She asked, a slight blush slipping to her cheeks as she felt caught in her thoughts.

 

[Lia]

"Don't worry about it." Lia said with a smile.

There was still much to think about. They had explored five of the thirteen fortresses but it seemed to her as more time when on things became more and more difficult.

She couldn't help but feel an odd sort of tension about her, things were becoming more dire as the days passed.

"Just go over to him already." She waved a hand. "Not like we care about that sort of thing anyway."

Sure Lia wouldn't do that sort of thing, but plenty of other Ranger's did.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska frowned, picking at her cuticles as she looked down to the ground. "I know." She said, a touch defensively. "I just-" She paused, looking away with a hesitant grimace.

"I'm not sure it's wise."

She hadn't talked about it before, but despite the weeks that had been put between that morning after the inn and now, she was still struggling with what they had found at that manor. She couldn't put her finger on why it kept making her pause, but sometimes it was as simple as when she looked to Thier, she abruptly pictured his face contorted and his body...

The desire melted away.

 

[Lia]

Lia thinned her lips for a moment, pausing as she glanced at the other Ranger before she looked back at Kaska. A sigh passed her lips.

The Sergeant wasn't exactly the best person to ask for relationship advice, in fact she was about as awful at that sort of thing as any human could conceivably be...but Kaska was her friend. One of the few she had and she wanted to help the girl as much as she could. "Well."

She began slowly.

"Wait until after the mission then." Wisdom often came with time, at least that was what she thought. "We'll be in Alliria, things will be more relaxed."

 

[Kaska]

"Maybe," Kaska allotted, though her tone suggested she didn't have much faith. There were still nights where her dreams soured. Where sleep did not come easy and she'd wake up in cold sweats, more disheveled than she'd ever care to be seen as. It felt never ending. Like the consequences of her mistakes would follow her to the end of her days.

She was being melodramatic, of course. But she was a pessimist to a fault. Even when it brought nothing but her own misery.

She cleared her throat, trying to move on from her thoughts. "Is there anyone waiting for you back in Alliria?"

 

[Lia]

She glanced at Kaska. "You mean..."

Her eyes wandered towards Thierfor a moment.

"Not in that way." Lia said quietly, though she didn't sound as though she were trying to hide the fact. Nor like she was ashamed of it. Lia had never much focused on relationships, not once she'd set herself upon the path. "Not enough time, and honestly I think men are intimidated by me."

She rapped her knuckles against the armor. "Plate-mail scares them."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska snorted, smiling a little wryly at Lia. "Here's a thought. If we make it out of this alive-- you let me dress you. Just one night-- just one bar. You know if you soften yourself up a little .... you're actually pretty." She shrugged, resting her arms on her news.

"And some men like a strong woman. They get off to it," she whispered, conspiratorially.

 

[Lia]

"You and my sister." Lia said with a roll of her eyes. Her sibling had often asked the same of her, in fact had done so more than once before she'd actually joined the Rangers. It was something that annoyed her more than anything else.

Though it was hardly the end of the world.

"If you can manage to land the killing blow." She was referring to the Lich of course. "I'll allow it."

Lia didn't sound like that would be happening. It wasn't exactly that she was a gloryhound or something like that...but this was personal to her. This Lich had endangered her life, taken her friend, nearly crashed her career.

She wanted to kill it.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska grinned, highly confident that she could manage just that. "Well with these arrows, I can out range you in a heart beat." She grinned, nudging Lia.

She stretched out, thinking back to all their times fighting together, one theme coming to mind. "Why... don't you use a bow, by the way? Thinking back on it, I've never even seen you pick one up. It's strange, it's theoretically better than sword, better suited to our scouting at the very least. Doesn't seem like you to let a skill drop..." She glanced at her, a brow raised.

 

[Lia]

Lia had never really excelled at using a bow. The teachers had always told her she could have done better if she'd tried, but...well she'd just never tried.

"I like the sword." The fact was simple, and true, though it didn't really answer Kaska's question. She frowned for a moment, tapping her knees in thought before she answered. "I started practicing before I even joined the Rangers."

She explained. "My father hired tutors and I've always been good at it."

Naturally skilled they had called it.

"Wasn't the same for the bow." She shrugged. "I have a crossbow, it's with my things."

 

[Kaska]

"Yeah, but a crossbow isn't-" she bit her lip, catching herself before she cattily finished 'a real bow'.

"Efficient," she finished carefully. "Takes too much time to load, they could be on top of you by then." Her voice was soft, trying to not be sharp or accusatory. She fell silent for a moment, considering. "...How old were you when you picked up a sword?"

With Lia's skills, she expected an answer similar to hers-- 5. Maybe 6. Nothing beyond 7, that was so late to start.

 

[Lia]

She considered a moment. "Ten?"

No, that was when she had said she'd first wanted to join the Rangers. Her father...well her mother had not allowed her to pick up a sword until two years after that, though she'd secretly began to practice with a wooden replica behind everyone's back.

Her sister had tried to blackmail her with that information.

"Twelve." Lia corrected herself. "That was when I first started my lessons anyway."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I was never good with a bow, couldn't line up my hands with my eye...it felt weird."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska gaped. "What?" She asked, a touch too loudly, drawing everyone's attention. "You're tugging my chain, there's absolutely no fucking way-- I've been training since I was five. At twelve, I could best any of the graduated recruits. There is no. Fucking. Way. you've been doing this for only. Ten. Years. "

Lia could best them all.

 

[Lia]

"Natural talent." Lia insisted with a slight frown.

There were few things that she was good at, but she was good at them. It was a mark of pride for her. The abilities she had were few, but they did well for her.

"You know I don't brag." Generally. "Why would I try to lie to you about this?"

She shook her head.

At twelve Lia could most certainly not have disarmed first year Rangers, she had struggled to wield a sword for quite some time in fact. Eventually though she'd found her way, and from there it had been easy enough to get better.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska was talented in her own right, but only due to diligent training done her whole life. If she had started at twelve? It would be a whole different story. So how Lia had accomplished to not only achieve her own level, but to go beyond? She stared opened mouth.

Kaska slowly shook her head. "It took me seven years to best a first year Ranger, Lia. Seven. With daily lessons, being the top of my class. Seven years. And at ten, you're what-... Have you tested for Sword Master, yet?"