Private Tales The Choice of Freedom

[Chasmine]

She would have followed him overboard if that was where he went, but watching him plunder through the seas to greet an unknowable fate wasn’t part of their plan. Chasmine would have watched regardless, simply to be witness to such wonders, but she might’ve reminded him of his broken promise before he finally found some horrible end at the hands (tentacles) of a demi-god.

The Commander was the only one with a sound head on his shoulders. Probably why he was the Commander.

“Then we might never have seen it,” Chasmine counted Edric’s thought.

A sight so incredibly, inconceivably rare to see and live to tell the tale … Edric was now part of an infinitesimally small statistic.

As the ship turned to make its desperate bid for land before it was noticed, Chasmine finally left the gemstone pinned to her companion. He’d feel the dissipation of the cold at his shoulder for the void of her presence, and though she was not presently manifested as visible he would know her location in the same way he knew where both his hands and feet were at all times.

“They will be lost to the sea,” she said to him wistfully as she moved toward the back of the ship, “I will find them.”

 

[Edric]

Edric wanted to point out that he probably would have been okay with not seeing the Kraken. Even with the awe he still felt as the creatures tendrils pulled down the last of the ship, it wasn't worth the danger of drawing so close to the thing. By his estimation they were less than a dozen miles away, and if it wanted to, he was sure the beast could close the distance much faster than their ship could get away.

Demi-god or no.

The discomfort flickering in his chest was there despite the antithetical need within him. That craving deep down which even now urged him to draw from Kalamek’s seeming unending vitality. A force of life that eclipsed even the Fae Edric had consumed.

He felt a brush of cold on his back, Chasmine’s voice echoing in his ears. He frowned for a brief moment, glancing over his shoulder more out of instinct than anything else. He found nothing there, but as Chasmine moved towards the sea he couldn't stop himself from speaking. “Careful!”

“Don't get too close!” Edric called out, not really knowing why.

Chasmine was a ghost, as far as he knew there were very few things left in this world that could actually hurt her. Yet he supposed if anything could, a being such as this might be it.

“What are ye standing around shouting at the sea for lad?!” Behind him, the Captain called his attention, and the young Rogue turned almost in an instant. His cheeks coloring for a brief moment before he cleared his throat. Head shaking as if he were suddenly rendered mute. “Get to the sails lad! Help the others before that thing spots us next!”

Edric gave a quick shout of affirmation, and then rushed to join the others sailors.

His eyes flickering every now and again to where he thought the creature still lurked. Where Chasmine now was.

 

[Chasmine]

She was gone for quite some while. A mere blip on his senses the farther away their ship pulled back toward the shorelines. To the Captain’s credit, they made it in record time and with nary an issue. Seemed once the other victim ship had disappeared beneath the horizon line of the sea, there were no further disturbances to be had.

“You have some skill on a ship,” Chasmine’s voice quite suddenly remarked to Edric from his right, though still she did not manifest. Her presence had be distantly far as a speck, and then promptly there beside him without warning.

“Is this something you and the other Initiates were taught at the Academy?” she inquired curiously. Clearly Chasmine had not been party to such classes. The Proctors really had given her very little thought.

 

[Edric]

One thing Edric was glad for about this whole situation with the amulet was that it seemed Chasmine could no longer sneak up on him. Not that she'd been really trying to do so before, but her spectral nature had made doing so far too easily. Once, while in his cell, she'd even managed to startle him while he'd been relieving himself.

An incident that had turned him bright crimson and had seen Chasmine almost completely unaware. As she usually was.

At least not he could sense when she was close, even when it was only half a second of warning before her voice once again floated through the air. That half a second though at least kept him from jumping out of his skin every time. More than once, he'd considered just how much damage Chas could do without that second, even as her ephemeral self.

The Rogue Dreadlord dipped his head in a nod as he gripped the sail ropes tight. Dragging the heavy leads towards himself until the canvas unfurled against the gusts and repositioned into the wind. “Kind of.”

Edric whispered, not wanting the other sailors to think him any more of unsound mind.

“We had a few basics.” Though they had hardly been enough to really learn anything. “But I got sent on plenty of missions at Sea, didn't really learn until the sailors on those ships taught me.”

Some of the few lessons he'd actually enjoyed taking in. “Saved my life more than once.”

He reflected, thinking about when he'd been stuck on the distant islands of the Black Bay with Noel, or when he and Kristen had been all but stranded in Cortos. Learning to work on a ship had gotten him home both times, and now? Now it was bringing him away.

Funny that. “I can teach you.”

Edric offered. “When we get your body back.”

 

[Chasmine]

The idea of sailing experience having saved his life rung a bell of sardonic humor in the ghost. As if Edric ever had to worry about something as mundane as drowning. But also the very idea of him offering to teach her anything, reiterating the promise he’d made to her, after how he’d treated her as less than a person at the Academy.

Once he’d tied off the last of the ropes in silence, when his mind wasn’t fully committed to the task, something manifested out of nowhere and dropped to the deck behind him. It bounced, rolled, then pinged as it bounced off a nearby iron supply box and finally came to a rest by his foot.

He’d find a glimmer of gold and ruby in the form of a ring.

“A gentleman on that ship was wearing this,” Chasmine’s voice said, “I suspect it is rather valuable.”

And having a few valuable pieces to barter with on their journey couldn’t hurt. It would do it’s owner no good in the afterlife, anyway.

 

[Edric]

Edric glanced down at the ring as it slowly rolled into his foot, one eyebrow popping up.

A better man might have questioned the morality of what might have easily been labeled as grave robbing, but such notions never occured to Edric. He reached down and plucked the golden band off the ground, offering it a brief inspection before he folded his fingers over the delicate metal. “Well, thatll come in handy.”

He mused for a moment before taking the ring and slipping it Into his pocket.

“See anything else good?” The Rogue Dreadlord mused, slipping the ring into his pocket. “Not that it matters much now, I guess.”

Edric said, glancing towards the distance sees where he knew the great Kraken still lurked beneath the waves. Even now the mass of life and vitality bloomed in the sea, distant as it was. He could still feel it, a ripple slowly rolling towards him. Even now a part of him wanted to reach out, a feeling he pressed down and down until it was barely a whisper.

As he waited for Chas to answer, he slowly walked towards the quarter-deck. Finally heading back towards his bunk.

 

[Chasmine]

“I was not looking for treasure,” Chasmine replied, “I was looking for their souls. That man’s body happened to be nearby. He thought I required bartering and offered me his ring.”

 

[Edric]

“Fair.” He said, rolling his shoulders as he slowly began to trudge down into the lower-decks of the ship. As he walked, his fingers slowly rolled the bend of metal back and forth against his palm. The gold quickly warming against his skin as he considered Chasmine’s words. As they stepped back down towards the crew quarters, he passed some of the other sailors who had begun a small game of cards.

Likely to distract themselves from the horror of what they had just seen.

Those suspicions proved correct when he found the crew quarters completely abandoned, no bunk or hammock filled with any of the other sailors. Edric glanced around for a moment, then made his way back to his hanging bed, practically throwing himself into the thing and sliding his hands behind his head. The ring now perched on his thumb.

For a moment he simply lay there, slowly swinging back and forth as his index ran round the rim of the trinket. His eyes stared up at the ceiling, and then seemingly without warning he asked Chasmine; “What do you think happened to my soul?”

Edric’s words floated into the air, no bite or bitterness to them, but a sad curiosity.

“I mean…” He trailed off quietly. “I must have had one once, right?”

The Rogue continued, sounding more than a little unsure.

 

[Chasmine]

Though she did not have to remain with him wherever he went, Chas had not strayed far from him aside from the jaunt out to sea. Despite her wondering nature, even Chas was aware that manifesting on a ship of superstitious sailors would not lead to anything positive.

“Perhaps it was promised to a God in exchange for a boon,” she replied in full serious tone - as serious as Chasmine Gray could get.

Her presence came to rest beside his hammock, as if she might be sitting there, and filled the area with a profound chill.

“There are many things that might take a soul … demons, fae, witches, lichs. Things like me.”

 

[Edric]

Edric frowned for a brief moment, lulling the answer through his mind. “I didn't promise anyone anything.”

He said, though more to himself than to Chasmine. His mind racing through dozens of memories in search of any bargain or deal he might have made, anything that might offer a clue. A frown slowly pulled at his lips as he remembered something.

It was not a demon nor a shade, nothing sinister. Something twisted in his gut as the memory flashed through his mind. The ethereal face of a woman, her hair as luminesce as the sun, her voice a song that even now threatened to bring tears to his eyes. His fingers furled over his chest, slowly drawing into fists.

“Maybe…” He said softly. “Maybe I'll find out at the end of all this.”

The Rogue Dreadlord mused, wondering if there was any sense into this journey at all.

Edric still had no real idea where they were going, or even why they were going. Only that he felt he needed to. His eyes flickered around the empty crew quarters, eventually drawing to the air of cold which had settled besides him. “If not, I guess something good will come of this either way.”

He mused, knowing that even if his own mission failed, he'd do what he always did; keep his promise.

 

[Chasmine]

“It may not have been you,” Chas replied, “but someone else on your behalf. Fae, demons, and witches often barter deals for first borns with the parent … though just the soul is still unusual.”

At least it was to her. Many books had been victim to her perusals at the Academy, and some of the books may have only ever found themselves useful or valued within her hands. None of them spoke of events or creatures or things quite like him. Either way, she had no concrete answers for him. A person without a soul was not unprecedented, but Edric was unusual in many ways. Not just for his unique power.

People without souls were husks. Lacked emotion and what constituted the defining traits of humanity. While Edric had certainly fit that bill for as long as she’d known him at the Academy, he had seen some curious growth over the last two years. A husk without a soul shouldn’t be able to do that … unless it was possible for a husk to form a new soul through the experiences of its life.

Now there was something to ponder on.

She reached out and touched at the center of his chest, as if laying a palm flat upon it, suffusing cold and whatever other sensation it was he now felt when directly connected with her presence. There existed no evidence to this notion - no seed of a soul sat within his mortal coil that she could see, feel, or sense.

“Maybe,” she replied, agreeing with the possibility that an answer existed for him somewhere, though she had her doubts it resided in a place so estranged from his story thus far. Seemed counterintuitive to leave, but this was his journey and not her own.

 

[Edric]

A chill ran through him, goosebumps slowly rolling over his flesh as he ‘felt’ her hand against his chest. The cold settled there, until he grew used to it. With it came that same strange calm that seemed to creep in whenever her incorporeal form melded within him. It was distant now, like this, but he felt it all the same. His chest slowly rising and falling as he considered more of her words.

“My mother believed in Anirius.” He said quietly, a frown pulling at his lips. “My father…I don't know.”

Though he wouldn't think a bargain had been struck with him either. His eyes closed for a moment, considering that face within his memories once more. “I remember…”

No, it was not a memory. Not exactly.

Edric had been little more than a babe at the time, not capable of conscious thought. Not really. Yet that face was clear in his mind, that song as crisp as any other voice that had ever been spoken. He could still remember the kindness in her tone, the way that she held him.

Slowly his head shook as he continued to speak.

“I remember a woman.” He told Chasmine. “Carrying me away when I was a baby. She was beautiful, kind. Her robes a white that I don't think could exist.”

Edric’s voice was as calm as it had ever been, but there was a hesitance to his words as he spoke. He had never told anyone of this before, had never mentioned his visit to the old woman in Vel Stratholm. What he had been told there. “But she didn't…didn't carry me.”

He paused, then opened his eyes to look where he knew Chasmine to be.

“Was that my soul?” Edric asked, knowing Chasmine didn't have the answer, knowing that he already did.

 

[Chasmine]

Silence while she listened.

Her hand slowly withdrew.

“Maybe,” she echoed. There was no sense of surety in that response.

Chasmine had helped to ferry souls to the afterlife ever since she was a little girl. She had not been able to take them from those of living. Not before their natural or fated death, anyway. There was no way to know for certain. Not unless he somehow managed to find that same woman from his vision.

In further silence her presence dissipated completely to return to the amulet.

 

[Edric]

He felt Chasmine slowly disappearing. That sense of calm and cold slipping into the amulet which hung around his neck, the chill of it settling in place as he was left alone with his thoughts.

The slow creaking of the ship boards was the only company he was left with. Though somehow, in the moment he still did not feel alone. Not because knew just a room away sat a dozen sailors, or because Chasmine was dwelling within an amulet around his neck, but because of the assurance he felt in the choice he had made.

Something would come of this journey, though he knew not what.

Perhaps he would find the answer to what had taken his soul. Perhaps he would find some hidden strength in his magic. Perhaps he would find nothing at all.

It didn't matter. It mattered that he had made the choice. That he had stepped away from Vel Anir and the plagues of politics and decisions of other men. His pain was still with him, his questions were as well, but for the first time in his life; he felt as though he were actually seeking an answer.

Not just surviving another day.




It took another week before the great harbors of Alliria came into view. Even with the Captain keeping them close to the coastline they managed good time, or so Edric was told.

As they approached the city, the Rogue Dreadlord sat within the peak of the mast on the crowd nest. Having taken his rotation of the job that morning. He'd already blown the whistle, signaling the sight of their destination, and now leaned against the railing as they steadily made their way towards the city. Sailors scurried back and forth on the decks below, preparing the ship for their arrival.

As they came closer, Edric let out a whistle. “Looks bigger than Vel Anir.”

He commented idly, leaning in and taking in the twin city.

Even from a few miles out, Edric could make out the sprawl of Alliria on both sides of the bay. Manors, towers, and homes spread out into the landscape and piled on top of one another to an almost impossible degree. Uncountable number of ships sitting idly in the harbor as dozens of rowboats flickered back and forth at an almost constant rate.

A constant bustle of activity that eclipses even the other largest cities or Arethil.

 

[Chasmine]

The only way for her to see was to manifest, and beyond any care she took to keep her presence a quiet secret between herself and Ed, Chasmine yearned to see the city she once called home. Having been holding up in the amulet for the majority of the journey, he’d feel her spill outwards to his left, the flush of her spectral self coming to reside in the close quarters of the nest right alongside him.

A ghostly young woman, barely visible from below against the brightness of the sky, looked out across the bustling city with a rare sense of nostalgic delight.

She had no idea if it was bigger than Vel Anir. The Proctors had so rarely let her leave the Academy, she had next to no familiarity with their own city. But what memories had been permitted to return to her since her death played freely through her mind. A bit broken, a lot of pieces missing, but memories nevertheless.

Chas pressed a hand against her lips to contain her awe, “I’ve never seen it from the sea like this.”

 

[Edric]

Edric glanced to his side for a brief moment as Chasmine pulled herself back into reality.

The look lasted for only a second as his gaze flickered back over towards the city in the distance. “I've never seen it at all.”

He commented idly.

Though most initiates ventured to Alliria at one point or another when dispatched on missions, Edric never had. The Proctor's had likened the decision to not sending a bull directly into a Dornoch-finery shop. He had been regarded as a hammer, and missions to Alliria hardly ever needed hammers.

From below, shouting began to echo out as the sailors called to slacken sails and ready the anchor. The ship would put itself in line with the rest in the harbor, and then those who were due disembark would be carried to the city by longboats.

Edric shifted, leaning against the railway again and looking at Chasmine.

“Do you…” He asked, considering for a second how to phrase his question. “Know where we'll need to go?”

She had wanted to see her family, but he had no idea if they knew where to start.

 

[Chasmine]

How curious. Of all the Initiates, Chasmine would have thought Edric for certain would have at least seen Alliria. Didn’t they all get sent here? She wasn’t aware of why he wouldn’t have been, and could not see any reason for it herself.

A quiet moment intervened as she watched. Still couldn’t see it fully in her state, but she could see most of it. “It’s pretty,” she sighed, “this is the best view.”

Here Alliria sat reflected on the sea, a city gleaming in the sunlight with a confectionary confetti of birds dotting the sky overtop. A bright baby blue backdrop over a stream of silver hugged against the cerulean of the waters. Then the gold of the sun’s reflection on every little wave.

“Hightown,” she replied quite simply and lifted a hand to point to the north of Alliria’s expansive sprawl, “Sommalier Avenue.”

Her hand returned to the rail, just barely able to rest upon it, “That is where my family once lived before my parents moved us to Vel Anir to find help for me. They left the manor in the care of my grandmother and aunt, though my grandmother has since passed.”

 

[Edric]

The small tidbit of Chasmine's history was the most he'd learned about her in…probably ever.

Back at the Academy Edric had hardly ever cared about his fellow Initiates, much less their history or where they came from. Chasmine in particular had been naught but a blip on his radar, not even worthy of consideration in the list of those he had considered a threat.

Now though?

Now he found himself actually caring.

A strange sort of feeling that had come to him through the months of…well, whatever the fuck Noel, Ralene, and the others had put him through. Edric's head dipped in a nod as Chasmine mentioned the passing of her grandmother, a slight frown pulling at his lips in what sympathy he had to offer.

“Alright.” He said, not having a clue where Hightown or Sommalier Avenue was, but figuring they could find it easily enough from where Chas was pointing. “We’ll head there first.”

True to his word, after the mooring of their ship and a brief word with the Captain who had taken them so far Edric and Chasmine headed to shore. Shortly after the Rogue Dreadlord was making his way through the bustling crowds of Alliria. Cutting his way through the docks, passed the lower city, and heading directly towards Hightown.

 

[Chasmine]

It would take an hour or so by foot to make it to Hightown and another short while of navigating the criss-crossing streets to find Sommalier Avenue. Eventually, through either asking passerby (Edric was receiving a good deal of odd looks given the state of his dress and his present locale) and from short interludes of Chasmine peeking out from the amulet, he found himself standing before a statuesque manor painted slate grey and trimmed in black. It stood behind a small perimeter fence that served more for decoration rather than protection. An open gateway granted him access along a cobblestone path to the main entrance.

Now that they were here, Chasmine realized they hadn’t really worked out a plan on gaining access. In fact, she was not even certain that her Aunt still held residence here. For all she knew, it could be the home of an entirely different family and all the belongings of the Gray estate had been moved.

“You… do not need to stay,” she said finally from her occupancy of the amulet resting coldly against his chest, “I can go in on my own.”

 

[Edric]

Edric felt the cold rush of the amulet against his chest as Chasmine's voice rang out. His eyes flickering down for just a brief moment as though he were attempting to look at her. “I mean…”

His gaze flicked back up at the gate, and then the estate beyond. Scanning the architecture and searching for a sign of any movement. There were no guards that he could spot, nor servants rushing around. He doubted the place was empty, but not was anyone coming to rush down and offer an immediate greeting.

“What's your plan?” The Rogue Dreadlord asked curiously. “Float in and introduce the…new you?”

There was probably a kinder way to ask the question, but for all Edric's edification in the ways of the emotional world, tact was something he still lacked. As far as he knew, Chasmine's family likely thought her still alive. They certainly wouldn't expect to see her as a ghost, and that wasn't even to mention what would happen if her family had moved. “I think it might be better if I offered a word first.”

He suggested, then paused for a moment as he took a step towards the gate.

“At least let me knock.” Edric offered.

 

[Chasmine]

Chasmine had, of course, been marked as MIA just after the Revolution’s anniversary when she went missing at the festival. Though no extensive search had been made for her, the Proctors had simply marked her as presumed dead with no further evidence to go by and even less care to follow-up on the otherwise pitious girl. She was not savvy to this, of course, but it meant that there was a chance her family had been notified at some point.

She hadn’t thought any of this through, even though she had fully intended to visit this place eventually. Chas supposed she was going to do just what he’d said, and arrive unannounced. Now that he said it aloud, it didn’t seem like the best idea.

“...perhaps you are right.”

But what would he say?

When he knocked there was a few minutes of wait before a primly dressed woman answered the door in a light blue gown that appeared as though she were getting ready to go out.

“Yes?” blinked the woman, slightly startled. She had the same wide eyes and thin build as Chasmine, but lacked the faraway-in-daydreams look about her that the Initiate had been so well known for. If it weren’t for her brown hair, she might’ve looked like a sister.

“I’m afraid we’ve moved the Soup Kitchen to the church. Our oven’s broken and won’t be fixed for another week or so. Do you need directions?”

 

[Edric]

“What?” Edric said, confusion flickering over his features as the woman began to talk to him about a…soup kitchen? He followed her glance down at his clothes, frowning for a brief moment as a string of thoughts lashed through his mind. Was that a kitchen specifically made only for soup? Why would it be moved to a church? And…

It didn’t matter.

“No.” The Rogue Dreadlord said with a shake of his head. His gaze fell on the woman, studying her features for a moment. He saw the similarities, though she didn’t have the pale white hair that he remembered Chasmine having back when she had a body. Still, things were close enough. “Look, this is going to sound a little crazy.”

He began, then stopped himself and frowned for a brief moment. “Well, do you know someone named Chasmine Gray?”

Better to be safe than sorry before launching into the whole story. With the way this woman was looking at him, he was pretty sure she’d try to have him committed to the local Asylum.

 

[Chasmine]

Confusion. Mild alarm. Greater confusion.

Who was this ruddy, scruffy individual? The Gray family wasn’t known for being entirely uptight - as a matter of fact they had a rather odd reputation among the other merchant nobility of Alliria as philanthropists and people of otherworldly business. But unannounced beggars who did not seem to have a clue were still a bit out there even for them.

“The chimney then?” she offered curiously, “Though we just had it cleaned a few weeks-”

“Look, this is going to sound a little crazy.”

That got her attention. She even looked a bit excited about it. The name drop of Chasmine grew her eyes very wide, “Why yes, she is my niece. Or… well, rather, she was. The Academy in Vel Anir seems to have lost track of our little Chasbean quite some time ago.”

The woman frowned, deeply saddened by this, “We’ve had no news since the letter last year. If you’ve come looking for her, she’s not here.”

 

[Edric]

Chasbean, he was going to have to remember that one.

“I'm not looking for her.” Edric stated plainly, a frown touching his lips for a brief moment as a strange sense fell over him. Briefly he glanced over his shoulders, suddenly feeling as though someone was watching him. After a moment he shook his head, turning his gaze back towards the woman at the door. “My name is Edric, We trained together at the Academy.”

He explained, deciding it was probably wrong to call himself a friend. “She asked me to bring you some…news.”

That was probably the best way of putting it.

As he continued, that feeling lingered in the back of his head, though he resisted the urge to turn around again. He knew this woman likely already thought him mad, and that wouldn't soon change if he kept acting like a paranoid street urchin.

“But it might be best heard sitting down.” Most people, he had been told, did not respond well to the sudden appearance of ghosts. Particularly when they were family. Edric didn't want the poor woman feinting and bashing her head on something.

He didn't feel the need to add yet another murder to his growing rap sheet.

 

[Chasmine]

“Oh,” said the woman, blinking rapidly, “OH! Why yes - please, come in!” she stepped back from the doorway and gestured for him to come in, shutting the door behind him as he stepped into the parlor and then quickly trotting past him to lead him through to the sitting room.

“It’s been so long with no news - she sent you herself? Oh, my. Does this mean she still lives? Please, Sir, we are just desperate for good news." The woman offered him a seat on a very ornately embroidered couch and took a seat on a matching chaise opposite him. Her eyes were wide and deeply hopeful.