Private Tales Something Amiss

[Kaska]

She nodded primly, pleased. "Very well. But you drink at least a little. Unless you're a light weight, I refuse to be on uneven footing with the likes of you holding something so dastardly over my head." She held it out, certainly looking different in this light. Younger. More carefree.

She smiled encouragingly.

 

[Saul Talith]

He grabbed the drink. "Only a little."

Saul meant it too.

Above everything else he was a soldier, and tomorrow they were marching into a battle. A drink here and there the night before was fine, but so much you were half occupied with not throwing up? That just wouldn't do, especially going against something like a Lich.

Taking a swig from the small container, he stretched slightly and took a deep breath.

"Alright then." His voice was a rasp. "Deal them out."

 

[Kaska]

"Thatta boy." She handed him his cards, picking up her own.

Kaska was not drunk herself. If there could be one thing said about her, it was her ability to regulate her intake and maintain the level of sobriety she cared for. Nothing more, nothing less. She had had enough to be loosened, but all her thoughts and facilities remained solid. A sparse sip here and there would maintain it.

She wasn't irresponsible anymore. There would be no repeats. She swore it.

"So tell me Commander. How did you get in with the Templar?"

 

[Saul Talith]

"They took me off the streets." Saul said the words without missing a beat, no shame held in his tone.

He shifted the cards in his hand, moving them slowly and organizing with a subtle touch. After a second he looked up at her and continued his story.

"My mother and I fled from Vel Anir when my father was killed." She might as well know the whole story...plus it would make her pay less attention to the game. "She didn't make it."

Saul wasn't a good liar, but he could distract her as they played. "Left me on my own until one of the Templar plucked me out of the gutter."

He placed down a card.

 

[Kaska]

It worked. She paused, her eyes softening as she scanned him for a sign of a lie. Now that he knew of her father, he could very well know of her mother. That didn't seem the case though, his expression genuine.

"... My condolences," she murmured softly. She picked up a card. She put down another. She swallowed for a moment, then found herself confessing something she never chose to talk about before.

"...My mother died when I born. Didn't make it. So I... Can fathom a guess what that must have been like."

 

[Saul Talith]

A shrug rolled over his shoulders, expression never really changing. "I don't remember much about either of them."

Exploiting the death of his parents in order to win a card game seemed somewhat...cheap, but hey, this was for important stakes. As far as he was concerned this was all fair game. He had mourned the loss of them more than once during his life, and Ana and the others had helped.

"I found my place in the world." Saul continued. "I got to choose my family."

Ana, Owin, Leane, all the others. "Not many people do."

Another card.

 

[Kaska]

She didn't have much to say to that.

He was clearly more confident in his identity and place in the world, a fact which left her mildly self-conscious and vulnerable. He had known his mother after all. And she still had her father. As far as worst outcomes went, he had it in the bag.

She frowned at him, wondering how he didn't carrying more of a cross like she did.

She picked up a card and put it down.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul played carefully, conservatively, mostly because he had absolutely no other way to play. This game was half confusing and half disorienting to him.

"So." He began quietly, still looking to distract.

The Commander figured that just about the only way that he was going to win this was if he could actually manage to distract her enough that she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. Eventually he would just win from playing the better cards at the right time...

Wait that was how you always won.

"Ever wanted to be something else?" He asked. "Sailor, Princess, merchant?"

What else did women do..."Seamstress?"

Ana would have hit him for that one.

 

[Kaska]

She snorted. "Is that what your woman templars dream of being? Seamstresses?" She tsked, shaking her head.

"No. Nothing like that. There's is nothing for me to be except what I am. There was no 'sign up here' option in my life."

Except that wasn't all entirely true, a voice told her in the back of her head. Lia had given her another option. She could chose to walk away. She bit her lip, keeping this sensitive information to herself as she played another card.

"....Vel Anir, huh?" She hedged back, picking up on his tone.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Yep." He offered another card with a smile. "My homeland."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders. Some of the older lads had made fun of him for that during the training. None in his little group of course, they had all respected one another too much for that, but others had.

"From a Minor Noble House." One that had been eradicated.

That was the reason for their flight.

"I've only been back once." He sorted his cards. "Hence the noble lady riding me like some sort of war stallion."

 

[Kaska]

Kaska sputtered, the comment catching her by surprise. "Is that so?" She laughed, clutching her cards instinctually to her chest to keep herself from revealing them as she rocked in place, a heat forming in her gut.

"I take it you didn't like it there much if you haven't gone back," she teased, a glint to her eye. She withheld from taking her turn, forcing him to answer out to her jab instead.

 

[Saul Talith]

A shrug rolled over his shoulders. "It was different than Alliria."

Vel Anir was different from any other place he'd ever been. Saul had never crossed the Spine, but he'd been to Elbion and even traveled to Cerak'At'Thul once. The latter had been a terrifying experience, and they'd only gone because of the rumors surrounding a mission at the time.

Still, not a place he would return to. "There's a tension to the air...a danger."

He frowned.

"The Templar there were different too." Though not in the way the rest of the city was. "Bigger, less...flexible than us."

Saul chuckled to himself. "Their Lord Captain would definitely have punched your father."

 

[Kaska]

She laughed, rocking in place. "Well then, I can take comfort in the fact he probably already has," she primed, grinning to herself as she played her turn out.

"You know, I don't really think a sip puts you at my level. Another, please," she ordered, flickering her fingers at him like he was a inferior.

 

[Saul Talith]

"She." He corrected.

Galina was a fierce woman, capable of going toe to toe with a troll and not even blinking. Her attitude was the size of a mountain, though given her surroundings that was hardly surprising. While Saul had to contend with politicians, she had to contend with mountain lions.

It took quite a bit to be an independent force in Vel Anir, even more so to actually stay independent in any meaningful way. They'd managed it though, something Saul was thankful for. "One more."

He agreed, playing his card at the same time as taking a sip.

The Commander knew she'd be watching him instead of the card.

 

[Kaska]

And she did, licking her lips as they cracked into a wider grin.

"I have to say, Templar, you're a lot more accommodating than I expected." She glanced at her cards, but made no motion to play, once again holding him to talking to her.

 

[Saul Talith]

He glanced at her, placing the small container on the ground besides his leg. Fingers deftly replaced the small plug in the top of the bottle. "I told you, we're not monsters."

As much as their rivalry split them apart, Saul had long ago realized that both Orders were essentially trying to do the same thing. Templar worked on a Grander scale against the darker side of Arethil while Rangers dealt more with small. They both wanted to do good.

Just in different ways.

"We just want to do what we're good at." The Commander said honestly. "Without anyone getting in our way."

Which was where the problems came from really.

 

[Kaska]

"Yeah, well. You should have a talk with Lia when I get you to her. Something tells me you two would hit it off right and proper," she drawled, finishing out her hand.

"She wants to be our commander one day. The one at the top," she clarified, a touch condescendingly. "Gods, if there was anyone that could make that happen, she'll move heaven and land just to make sure the people of Arillia are safe." She spoke as if the woman was a goody twoshoe, but clearly, that wasn't the true opinion she held, her tone softer than she realized.

 

[Saul Talith]

"She's the one who sent you to get us?" That alone was impressive enough for Saul.

Any Ranger that could put aside their own ego long enough to get a Templar was...well had to be something.

Saul wasn't entirely sure that he could have done the same if the situation was reversed. Calling on the Rangers would have been...difficult to say the least. He wondered briefly who this woman was, though he realized in the end it probably wouldn't matter all that much. "She must trust you quite a bit."

He glanced back towards where everyone else would be.

"I get the sense you're the one she put in charge." Saul put down another card. "Not the lad."

 

[Kaska]

"Well," she drawled, considering her next words carefully. "...That's because this was all my idea," she revealed, speaking the words carefully. "If anyone should risk their neck rallying you over, it seemed fitting it'd be the Major's daughter. Politics," she grinned, tugging his chain.

"Kill me and see the hell that unleashes on all of you!"

She tossed her hand down, revealing her play. She raised a brow at his, eager to see where he stood.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul didn't react for a second, only considered as he looked down at his cards. A free hand came up to run over his mustache, slowly trailing for a few seconds before he finally spoke.

"Who would even know we did it?" The Templar asked, his face impassive.

He waited to play the card in his hand, giving dramatic tension to the moment.

"A slit throat, a nearby well." He shrugged. "They'd never find you. Killed by the Lich on the way to Alliria. Taken by bandits. Perhaps swallowed up by the leviathan that dwells in the sea."

That had been a rumor in Alliria for as long as the city had existed. Nonsense of course, but there were always stories of massive creatures of the sea ready to swallow up whole trade fleets in one go. "Do remember who you're talking to."

Saul said as he placed down the final, and winning card.

"We're experts." And he, the leader of the experts.

 

[Kaska]

"Ooh, bullshit," she curse, huffing quite a bit. "You didn't drink enough," she accused, pointing a finger at him. "Aw, fuck." She sat back, rubbing her face as he gloated before her.

"Luck," she excused, seeming to take it well, considering.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Gameplay." He countered. "Strategy."

The Templar bragged.

There were few talents he had. Luck wasn't one of them, bluffing wasn't one of them, but he'd always been good at talking. Ana had said that he had a way of demanding attention, and the others agreed. It was why he'd become their leader, why he'd made rank in the first place.

A small ability to draw a person in. "We'll find some parchment, an inkwell too. Do you have a personal seal? It must be something like your fathers..."

He mused out loud to himself.

 

[Kaska]

She pulled her head from her hands, looking pinched and forlorn. "Not for public eyes," she reiterated firmly.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Of course of course." Saul waved a hand dismissively, probably not sounding very reassuring at all. It wasn't like he was going to rush straight to Ranger headquarters after this. They had some Lich killing to do still, and that was more important than a bit of Pride.

Mostly.

"It'll go in a drawer somewhere." He said, clearly lying. "Rolled up and forgotten."

A gilded frame, hung on the wall of his office.

It would look good there.

 

[Kaska]

She leaned forward, her hands on the cards in the space between them as she spoke. "You know what? I don't care. It's just a piece a paper. It'll wither. But I? I got a mark on you that's never going away." Her attention flickered intentionally down his side, her tone turning velvet and thick.

"Suck on that, Templar."