Private Tales Something Amiss

[Kaska]

Kaska snorted. "Of course not. But don't think for one second I'm going your men a reason to gut me when your back is turned." She uncorked her waterskin with her teeth, kneeling down before him. "Stay still, lemme just fuss it out." She dribbled the water over it, running the blood away with what was no doubt concern in her features.

For herself, clearly. Didn't want to be stabbed.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul perked an eyebrow at the comment. Apparently the rivalry was considered just as bad on the Ranger side as it was on the Templar. Fancy that. He smiled for a second.

"A cut wouldn't do that." Though if he didn't return at the same time as her they probably would have killed without much hesitation.

Loyalty. That was what that was called.

"They're not all idiots." He commented, then paused for a second. "Well, mostly."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska rolled her eyes. "Shut it or I'm going in for stitches." She gently probed it, frowning and debating if that would indeed be how far she'd go.

If just to get a nudge in and see him squirm.

He had underestimated her!

 

[Saul Talith]

He frowned, but didn't say anything.

A part of Saul couldn't help but wonder what they would have said in the old days. Templar and Ranger working together was strange enough, but one tending to the other? Sacrilege. During the war there were tales of this sort of thing happening, ceasefires and the like, but they were just stories.

So everyone thought anyway.

"Why did you join the Rangers?" He asked quietly.

Everyone had their own reasons. Most people in the Reaches idolized Rangers, they were the stalwart defenders of the innocent. Templars? Not so much.

 

[Kaska]

Kaska blinked at the question, her brows pulling in as she gently cleansed his wound again, trying to see if she could wait out the bleeding.

"I was born into it," she said simply. "Trained my whole life."

 

[Saul Talith]

"Parents in the Rangers?" He smiled slightly.

That wasn't too uncommon in the Templar either, though hadn't happened in quite a while. Templar Marriages were still...frowned upon in a way, even though relationships weren't. It was an odd arrangement, one that he himself didn't quite understand.

Perhaps left over from the old ways when they had all been celibate. A horrible time, that.

He glanced at her. "Or given up?"

There was no shame in that, it had after all been what he'd gone through. Similar enough anyway. His parents hadn't want to give him up willingly, but they'd done so all the same.

 

[Kaska]

Her lips pursed. She pinched the wound, stopping the bleeding and slightly reprimanding the suggestion that she had been unwanted. Of all the faults in her upbringing, being unwanted was not among them.

"Parents," she snuffed. "My father is a Major, it was ... permitted," she further explained, having no desire to defend the legitimacy of her parents dedication to the rangers. Marriages weren't unheard of either for rangers, rather they were.... highly impossible to maintain. Their numbers were high enough and the assignments numerous and short term, maintaining any sort of connection without also disintegrating ones dedication was.. a challenge. Unless you were a Major. Those tended to stay mostly in place.


Is was a coincidence to boot. Saul had likely not only met her father, but dealt with him at more than one occasion or event.

They new each other on a level most templars and rangers didn't, her father one of the long term rangers in residence in Arillia. .

 

[Saul Talith]

He perked up slightly. "Really?"

Saul was not into the politics of Alliria itself, that was handled by one of the other Commander, but he'd met all five of the Majors that the Rangers held among their rank. It was not too uncommon that he needed to discuss strategy with one or two of them at a time.

Especially when it came to who would be taking on what problem and where.

Things at times got rather...argumentative, but there wasn't really too many issues that had ever brought them to blows. Once or twice...but he was pretty sure there weren't any hard feelings.

"Which one?" He asked with a smile. "I've met them all."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska grimaced, pausing for a moment.

Either she was trying to clot his wound, or searching for words. She did not make it obvious as a moment of silence passed before she answered. "Berlaire," she replied briskly, her tone sharp for a daughter naming her father.

"Its not clotting. I'll need a stitch or two."

She released him to go for the wrapped sterilized needle, thread already prepared.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Ah that jackoff." Saul said the words without ever even realizing what he was doing, stopping himself straight away after and coughing for a second.

"Sorry." He said sheepishly, quietly. "He's alright compared to some of the others."

True enough.

In his experience the man had a high opinion of himself and the Rangers, but he'd proven himself reasonable enough to work with the Templar before. That alone marked him above one or two of the others, something that was an extreme bonus in Saul's book. Particularly in times like this.

 

[Kaska]

She paused, a smile cracking across her face before she could even catch it.

No one had ever spoken about her father that way to her.

She hadn't realized she'd like it.

"..Yeah," she replied dryly. "That jackoff." She pressed her lips together, unable to banish the smirk as she gingerly started the first stitch.

"It's alright, you know. You can say what you really think about him. Gods know I do. He's a piece of work, huh?" She glanced up, amused by his likewise impropriety.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul rolled his shoulders, sending a slight ache through the wound that now sat in his side. He frowned for a brief moment, glancing down at the cut for a few seconds before he shook his head and looked back up at her.

"He's not the worst of them." The Commander wasn't about to pull any punches about the man, not anymore anyway.

If Kaska wanted him to be candid then he would be candid.

"Pain in the ass nonetheless." He mused. "Almost punched him in the face once."

The Commander chuckled. "Leane stopped me from doing it."

Probably would have started a war over it. The situation had been a frustrating one though. An entire village had all but disappeared, Templar had been sent to check it out only to be turned away by a force of Rangers thrice their number. When he'd heard about it Saul had practically thrown a table.

 

[Kaska]

"Pity," she mused. "S'been a while since he's seen any real action. Coulda done him some good to be knocked down a notch or two."

She blew on the injury, as if a gust of cold breath could soothe it as she briskly pushed the needle through for another stitch. Then Another. She moved briskly, clearly having some level of training.

 

[Saul Talith]

Goosebumps rolled across his flesh, fingers tightening for half a breath as the needle slid into his skin.

He'd never quite enjoyed being sown up, in fact he was pretty sure that nobody did, but this wasn't all that bad. Apparently Kaska had a more gentle touch than many of the other Templar. Somewhat surprising really. "I'm not eager to start another war."

Saul said quietly.

"Mostly because we'd lose." He could admit that, even if it was somewhat painful.

 

[Kaska]

She softened, glancing up. "..."

She quickly finished it off, tying it up and biting off the thread with her teeth.

"Well if you all fight like that." She doused it with water again.

"Two hits and you're out." She smiled up at him.

 

[Saul Talith]

"You do realize we fight as heavy infantry?" He smiled, it was a pleasant, false sort of smile. The kind one might give a child. "Full plate-mail."

Most Templars wouldn't strip off their armor until every enemy within a hundred miles was dead. "If I'd been wearing that your sword wouldn't have done a thing."

Arguing about what ifs was never wise, but he felt it applied here.

"I know that Rangers don't have the best training but come on." He flashed her that same smile again.

He knew that some of them wore plate too, though it wasn't as complete as what he and his men wore. At least from what he'd seen.

 

[Kaska]

She rolled her eyes, Drying him off with her tunic and applying the slave. A few quick motions had him bandaged as well, patting chest and sitting back on her heals. "Keep telling yourself that, big guy. Here." She handed the water.

"Drink."

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul took a small sip of the water, though in truth he hardly felt like he needed it.

"It's always just a numbers game." That was something the Templar told themselves, mostly because it was just about the one solid excuse that they actually had.

The Templar War was so long ago that no one really remembered what tipped the scales. It could have been numbers, it could have been betrayal, or it could simply have been that one side was better than the other.

"Quantity over quality." He shrugged. "Simple math."

This was a typical talking point when discussing the war.

 

[Kaska]

"Is that what you told yourself when we kicked your ass?" She mused, packing up the supplies into her belt again.

"Mind you, you told me you train for fighting like that. Back track all you want, whatever keeps your men off me at night," she jabbed, a teasing glint in her eyes.

 

[Saul Talith]

He perked an eyebrow. "My men wouldn't touch a Ranger with a ten foot pole."

That certainly wasn't true but he wasn't going to let her know that.

"They know what kind of diseases you lot carry." He made a false face of disgust, though he was just teasing of course.

At this point they were all growing a tad more comfortable...maybe too comfortable really.

 

[Kaska]

"Oi!" She hit his chest, right in the spot. "Don't make me stab you again. I'll have you know we're considered desirable among the men of Alliria," she snuffed. "Unlike you soulless swaths. Do you even know how to fuck?"

 

[Saul Talith]

"Sure do." Saul said with a smile. "Notorious for it in some circles."

Not really.

The Templar were still rumored to be celibate in most of Alliria. That wasn't at all true of course, it just so happened that most of them didn't suddenly flee out into the city while wearing armor to get laid. Mostly it was done on the downlow, out of the eye of everyone else.

There was no reason for it, save for privacy. Everyone looked at a Templar, no one looked at the guy in a regular tunic. "We're just more selective of our partners than our mud eating cousins."

Those cousins of course being Rangers.

 

[Kaska]

Her expression soured in an instant, his words hitting a major sore spot. "It's not like we have a choice, you know. Our lives are not conductive to connections."

 

[Saul Talith]

He shrugged.

"Try being part of an Order that burned down half the world." That was a bit of an overstatement of course, but close enough to the truth that most people would probably agree with it.

People had always loved the Rangers, at least on this side of Arethil. They were the darling group. Templar? Not so much. Most commoners saw them as something dangerous, and most Nobles saw them as a threat to power. It was one of the sources of contention.

He leaned back slightly, fingering the wound on his side absently. "It's just straight up impossible unless some noble lady happens to like your armor."

 

[Kaska]

"Humph," she mused, seeing his point. Neither of their lots were easy. She begrudgingly could glimpse that now, and didn't know how she felt on it.


She opened her mouth to talk to for a moment, before closing it and struggling to catch her next words.

"Do they often... die, in your field? The ones you sleep with."