Completed Templar: Why did it have to be vampire rats?

[Anastasia]

She laughed and pulled back, his knee released. "Guess you're just stuck with me then. Another drink?" She waved for it anyway, pushing forward their glasses. The bar keep came around and dropped off the key, making quick work of the rest.

She paused, then looked to him, inquisitive. "Have you... smelled a Ranger before?" It was a slightly layered question. She knew he had worked with Rangers before. Recently even. And despite the insinuation, there was no judgement in her eyes. Ana didn't have the biggest issue with Rangers either. Mostly because the only things Ana had it in her to hate were things that harmed the Allirian reach and it's populace.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul perked an eyebrow. He hadn't expected that sort of question, and in a weird way it was almost scandalous to him. Crossing borders like that...well it would have lead to an eternal amount of ribbing from pretty much everyone within the Chapter. "No."

The Commander said with a slight chuckle.

"Never been close enough for long enough." He laughed for a second. "Not without a helmet anyway."

There'd been a few brawls he'd taken part in of course, once even an actual fight with swords at the ready, but never anything so informal. It was part of the life of a Templar, crossing paths with the Rangers. A few times they had even worked together, though that was as rare as gold on the ground.

 

[Anastasia]

"Oh," she said primly, picking up her glass and adding after a moment. "I have."

She tried to keep a straight face at her lie, but her lips twitched, her eyes shone with blasphemous mirth. She glanced at him with attempted nonchalantness, trying to gauge his reaction to her chain pulling and get a sip out of her drink as she did so.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Oh dear. I hope you had yourself blessed after." He smirked back at her.

Though the Order had supposedly begun as the military arm of some kind of religion, that aspect of the Templar had fallen away decades ago. There were too many gods to follow, too many orders that worshiped different things. The mission was what mattered now.

Of course some were still devoted, but most were not. Saul didn't particularly care either way. "Maybe a salt scrub in the bath house too."

He glanced at the Rangers.

"You know they don't wash?" He wasn't sure if he was joking.

 

[Anastasia]

Anastasia nodded, accepting this a truth. "My next three missions failed and I'm pretty sure it was due to him." She shook her head, laughing a little at themselves.

"Okay, but really," she pressed, growing a touch serious as her curiosity grew. "Have you ever been with someone outside of us?" It was harmless curiosity, the woman pressing subjects they didn't often approach these days. "Any fair nobles or swords masters," she teased, referencing the fantasys the boys would confess in games of truth or chicken.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Once or twice." He admitted, something that did not come too hard.

There was no point in lying here, it would have been a breach of trust.

"When I was in Vel Anir." There was another Chapter there, and the Lord Captain had sent him in order to make contact. They had been...fierce, to say the least. Not a one of them could use anti-magic or anything of the sword, but each carried two blades and looked like they could use them. "In Elbion too."

That had been an interesting trip. "You?"

 

[Anastasia]

She grimaced, rubbing the back of her neck. "No." She pressed her lips together, looking a touch embarrassed.

"Sometimes I'll ... use a night off to ... come to tavern like this. And I'll sit here. And I'll try to talk to some of them, I really do. But I'm not like Adam-- I swear to the Gods I can take him to a tavern and he's walking off with someone within ten minutes. He just... knows what to say. What do you even say?" She looked to Saul, actually wanting an answer to that. She had no clue how to talk to outsiders. Or rather, when she tried, she failed horribly.

 

[Saul Talith]

He shrugged. Mostly because he had no other answer for her. Saul had never particularly attempted to pursue anyone outside of the Order.

They had sort of just...found him. "The armor helps."

The Commander said with a slight smile, knowing that it really wouldn't be of much help at all. Sitting in a tavern like this in Templar armor was bound to get them shanked, not laid. That was the nature of Alliria, but it wasn't so in other places. Specifically Vel Anir, though in Elbion it was a tad worse.

"I didn't do anything." Another shrug. "I was just me, and I did as I always do. I never sought anyone out."

Nor would he really.

 

[Anastasia]

She made a face at him, his answer feeling more like boast than truth. But truth was it was just an insecure spot for her, the woman wishing she was better with words and talking than the streets had ever given her a chance to be.

"Right." She swirled around her drink, realizing then she might have killed the mood they had been building. She wordlessly slid her hand to rest on his knee, knocking back that second one in a go.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul perked an eyebrow as she suddenly downed the drink, not entirely expecting her to do so. He paused for a second, watching her before he said anything else. "You probably just intimidate these fools."

The Commander gestured towards the people in the common room.

"They're used to fair maidens and tavern girls." Saul spoke with such confidence that it was almost impossible not to believe him. As though he were leading a charge into battle at the head of a hundred cavalrymen. "Not a woman who could break their face in three places before they could finish their sentence."

His tone made it clear that he admired that far more than the tavern girls.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana blinked rapidly, looking a smidgen wide-eyed and touched by his words. "...Thanks," she responded softly, her tone lifted. She watched him back for a moment before snapping out of it and adding, "Four places. The last guy I did it to, Liam counted four places afterwards."

She tapped the table as she leveled her brag, her confidence suffering nothing under his presence.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul smiled again.

Fighting was something that all of them did well. Ana had always been the best within the more unique craft of Broken-Sword, but all of them had been good at fighting.

His own prowess was with melding all of their teachings together, the blade, magic, tactics and everything else that had been taught. Despite that though they were always competing, all of them. It was a constant fact of their life, trying to one-up each other as best they could.

"He should've worn a helmet." Saul said as he downed his second drink, smirking slightly.

 

[Anastasia]

"And yet they never do," she chuckled, relaxing back besides him. The pressure of the moment slowly lifted off Ana, Saul's words helping her.

"I was just me, and I did as I always do. I never sought anyone out."

She let her hand slid off his knee, a blush to her cheek but a resolve in her chest to just remain herself here. In a momentary vulnerable need to find acceptance, she had nearly lost that. Saul was right though. She was a Templar Knight. Not a tavern fool. Other's weak stomachs be damn, she was good enough as is.


"I got a commission for a new dagger approved. 'Suppose to be thinner this time, made of this new type of metal that's extra hard," she explained, a touch ineloquent. "Smith says at the right angle, with the right force," she demonstrated, hitting her hands together in an enthusiastic showing. "I should be able to punch right through armor now."

 

[Saul Talith]

"Oh?" Ana always did have a unique way of fighting.

The other Templar sometimes joined her in that, but only a handful of them strayed away from the traditional sword and shield. It was simpler to learn and generally more useful in combat.

For her it was different though. Her skill in anti-magic and lithe form meant that she could weave through battle better than most dancers. It was something that Saul admired, and he'd told her that before. There was no secrets when it came to fighting, not among them.

They had to be the best in order to survive. It had always been that way.

"Careful not to cut yourself." He joked. "You and sharp knives."

Saul made a false grimace on his face.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana rolled her eyes, elbowing him. "Listen here, I've not done that to myself since I was, like, -" she flailed for a moment, then reached for one of their ages at the time.

"Eleven! Don't put your flaws on me!" she accused good naturally, leaning into him.

 

[Saul Talith]

"Sure." Saul said with a slight nod of his head, looking more bemused than anything else.

It was true enough of course. None of them had really managed to injure themselves since they were young. There had been a few incidents with a certain group of mages a couple months back, but that wasn't really themselves so much as provoking others to do the injuring.

Couldn't be helped. "I suppose the armor helps with that."

Saul continued to tease with a smile.

 

[Anastasia]

She sputtered at the jib, Saul finding it easier to get a rise out of her as their drinks began to set warm and true in her bloodstream.

"I could get by blade between your breast plates in ten second flat.Faster once I get that new one made," she chastised, matter of fact. "Armor has never done anything to hinder me." In came their youthful bragging, the woman jabbing at his unarmored ribs to make her point. Which earned him a smug grin.

She had gotten him out of his armor after all. Was that a round about way of showing her skill over him?

Yes.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul shirked to the right slightly as her finger jabbed into his side, a dull sort of ache striking him as her soft hit landed home. "Annnd then you'd end up with a sword in your belly."

That really was the problem with how close she had to get. Anyone fast enough could catch her, sure she would get them, but...well no fighting style was perfect. More often than not she had managed it though, mostly because the odd punch-knives she used were not something often seen on this side of the Spine.

It was funny.

They talked of this so openly, so freely, but in a few months time they very well might have to use it all. If things went wrong they would be fighting Templar, men who'd had the same training, same principals, same armor.

In the back of his mind Saul knew that, but for just one night he tried to put it out of his mind.

 

[Anastasia]

She laugh, leaning back over the counter. "You couldn't spear me. You kidding me? You'd be stuck trying to draw that unholy thing from its scabbard by the time I was on you," she dismissed with a grin.

That was not true though. He had proven on multiple occasions that he could bring a sword down fast enough to meet her stomach as she charged in. A fact she was confident no one outside the chapter could replicate on the battle field. They had grown up together, trained together, and constantly strove to best each other.

She knew exactly what she needed to do to press on the weaknesses for every one of them. And they her. But random threats on missions? She relied on surprise to get the job done. And her successful track recorded lended to confidence that was concerning unrealistic. Regardless, that confidence was needed to to get the job done.

Because if she hesitated for even a moment ...

She leaned her head into her hand on the table, sighing a bit blithely. She was relaxed, at least. "We should train tomorrow, I miss it."

 

[Saul Talith]

"If there's time." He agreed with a smile.

He was eager to get going. The letters that he had sent out would be arriving shortly, carrier birds having taken them to where they would need to go. He also wanted to be the first to arrive at Herath, mostly because he wanted to make sure they could actually inspect the place.

"If not." He began. "Then on the journey to the fortress."

They would have plenty of time then. Herath was several hundred leagues away from Alliria, almost a thousand in fact. It would take them weeks to travel there and back, not to mention the time they would have to wait for the other Chapters to actually appear.

There was still much to do in the city though, things to prepare. "I'm sure we can find other forms of exercise until then."

He said the words with a smirk.

 

[Anastasia]

She blushed, unable to stop the smile from taking over her lips this time. "It would be a shame to grow stagnant in the meantime," she allotted, glancing at him as she voiced her agreement. Her gaze was heavy with excitement and apprehension, the woman's trouble with bed partners well stated.

It did not surprise her that it would likely be multiple months until they found themselves home again, and when they did, there now stood a chance that they home they would return to would not be the home they knew. That made this moment feel all the more pressing, as if it might be the first in a line of lasts she felt the need to preserve.

Her heated look dwindled off, turning sad as her thoughts mirrored his. She looked away, picking at a callous on her thumb. "Perhaps one more drink for the road." She never drank this much, but tonight it felt like a cause to.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul raised his hand, motioning to the barkeep who happily brought them more drink.

The man was more than happy to oblige, apparently quite pleased with serving his customers their every need. The Commander supposed it was also helpful that neither he nor Ana had thrown anyone over the bar as of yet.

Mild mannered customers were always appreciated in establishments like this. "Here."

He said with a smile.

"The road?" He seemed amused. "Are we going somewhere?"

Saul teased quietly.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana grimaced, catching her slip up. "No. But we will be." He knew that she wasn't excited about it. She never voiced her opinion, but he'd know she wasn't thrilled with any of this. Ana would pick being stagnant, again and again, if it kept everyone safe and the chapter whole. She wouldn't chose the path Saul was talking. She was passive to a fault. And it might be said that if it wasn't Saul leading her, if she had been in an age group down, if their brothers and sisters didn't veer towards sharing Saul's mindset ... in a few months ...

It could have been her he was forced to cut down to leave. She would have tried to protect the chapter at all costs, because if she hadn't been one of this ten, then her unwavering loyalty would have pitted at the order itself.

As it stood, she was one of the ten. And while this was a hard path for her to go down, that loyalty was Sauls and she would do exactly as he asked. Every time. Regardless of her own mind.

Still. Tonight it required a third drink. "But hell knows when we'll have a change to drink again." She cheers at him, her worry blurring to grim acceptance as she swigged it all back.

She coughed, wiping at her mouth. "Ugh I think I forgot I hated doing that for a moment."

 

[Saul Talith]

"You were never one for drink." Saul said with a smile, though truth be told few of them were. They were a serious bunch, most Templars were. It was one of the reasons they tended not to get along with regular folk. Commoners thought them arrogant, and nobles thought them zealous.

Funny how that worked out.

"Valerie is going to stay behind." Saul said quietly, referencing the journey that they were about to take. "She knows how to keep a low profile, and she'll watch things while we're gone."

He wanted her to know that he was not fool enough to just up and leave. The others were all coming with him, including Ana, but he needed someone to watch things while they were gone. He did not want to return months later only to be met with a wall of surprises.

Valerie would ensure that wasn't going to happen.

 

[Anastasia]

"What can I say, Saul. You're changing me." That was actually meant as a good thing, though in retrospect it might sound like she was accusing him of driving her to a drink. In truth that wasn't it. The drinks were a side effect of the change, the woman unable to believe how out of character he was influencing her to be.

His influence over her was strong and she acknowledged that maybe that wasn't a bad thing. He had been more successful in the ranks for a reason. Regardless, the unvocalized stress from the position he put her in was severe.

"Hell maybe it wasn't you that needed this night out. Maybe I did." She noted, frowning at herself a little.

She heard his words on Valerie and for a moment she didn't acknowledge them, worry for her now eating away at her too. For a flickering moment she thought she could understand the stress that Saul went through on a daily basis, worrying about all these things and more.

"She's a good choice," Ana validated, swallowing hard. "They wouldn't move against her, right?" She asked hurriedly, her lack of familiarity with the politics of it all apparent in that moment.