Private Tales The Death of Innocence

[Houri]

Houri's trepid smile towards her friend and the small squeeze back soon vanished when her sister, probably justly, exploded. The younger girl shrank back into her seat.

She has a point. What if they lock us up again? Vayu whispered.

NOBODY WILL LOCK US UP AGAIN, snarled Ahdvi.

"Nobody is going to lock me up again," Houri repeated firmly and Jiya turned back to her with wide, bewildered eyes. The younger Luana jutted her chin out in determination. "They were wrong. I'll prove them wrong. Ollie's going to help me," and with Ollie nothing disastrous had ever happened.

 

[Olvir]

Ollie cringed inwardly, but he didn't object to Houri's words.

He knew what he was doing. Knew that in theory letting Houri go back to the Academy was...wrong, but it was where she wanted to go. Who were they to take yet another choice away from her? Besides, things were different now, things were...better.

At least that was what Ollie tried to convince himself of. "Jiya..."

Olvir said, standing. "Miss Luana?"

The words sounded wrong, so he corrected himself again.

"Jiya." It was a tad informal, but he'd known her since childhood, and this moment hardly called for formality. Slowly he rose, grimacing as his leg pierced with pain. Then he hobbled over to Jiya, his voice kept low. "I've already taken away one choice from her...don't do that again."

He implored silently. "And...The Academy is better now, I have friends there..."

Sort of, anyway. "I know what they did was...well, but it'll go better this time."

 

[Jiya Luana]

Heads would roll. That was all Jiya could think as she stopped to stare at her sister - her baby sister - and the thoughts of what they would have done to her in an Asylum ran rampant through her mind. It had been horrific enough to discover what they did to them in the Academy, let alone a... a prison? Ollie had described it as. And for what? For being injured? For being a little broken? Oh yes, Jiya was not quick to anger but nobody, nobody hurt their family.

Her hands had balled into painful fists that caused her nails to dig into the soft pads of her palm. Seeing how eager Houri was at the prospect of returning, she tried to calm herself before replying but her finger still jabbed towards Olvir with more force than she'd have liked: it wasn't his fault after all.

"If I find out they so much as raise their voice at her, I will be holding you personally responsible Olvir Weiroon," the storm seemed to punctuate her words.

 

[Houri]

Better?

Friends?!

Houri stared at Ollie as if he had grown another head. That wasn't the Academy at all!

Maybe he's just lying so Jiya lets us go, Mithrine pointed out which made the other voices pause. Yes, that had to be it. The Academy wouldn't be encouraging Dreadlords to make friends, friends were a weakness. Apart from Ollie, but she could keep that secret so he wasn't hurt to hurt her. Solemnly she nodded along with Ollie's words then winced at Jiya's.

"I'll... I'll stay tonight," she offered. The Academy was three days ride from the city and the hour was late after all. "We can have dinner, you'll stay - right Ollie?"

 

[Olvir]

Ollie was about to object, but then simply nodded his head in acceptance.

If he was supporting Houri in making this decision, then he would take on the consequences of that action. A slow breath left his lungs, chest falling as he nodded again. "She'll be alright."

He said quietly, though it was hard to tell if he was reassuring Jiya or himself.

His head turned towards Houri as she invited him to dinner, or rather, told him he would be staying. For a moment he had to hesitate, knowing that his father would have heard he was back in the city and that this mess would grow quickly.

"Yes, I will." Ollie answered finally, deciding that he would wait out the current storm and tackle the political one coming tomorrow. "If that's alright?"

He said, turning to Jiya. Knowing that he would very likely need her help in the coming days.

 

[Jiya Luana]

Jiya glanced between the two and felt her shoulders slump with a sigh.

"Yes, of course you're welcome to stay for dinner," they reminded her so much of how they had been as children. Back then they had both been agents of chaos and giving their parents more than a few of the grey hairs they sported now. It seemed little had changed but their height - when had Houri got so tall?! She picked up a tiny silver bell and rung it twice. Not long after did the butler appear with a deep bow.

"Master Weiroon and my sister will be staying for the night, and for dinner," she added.

"Very good My Lady," he bowed again and left.

"You've probably made his night," she said with a small sigh. "I tend to just eat in the library, no doubt he will set the table for you both."

 

[Houri]

Houri grimaced a little at the thought of a formal dinner, but even she could remember how good Mistress Lavell's cooking was. Hopefully the old cook was still with the family.

"I didn't think he would still be alive after all these years," Houri admitted with a whisper. Linton had been butler for her father when she was a young girl, had been there the day she was born and that of her older brothers. She had played many pranks on Linton over the years, including one where a whole cream cake had been propelled into his face, though it had been intended for Mas.

"I should clean up..."

Jiya was still staring off into space, a worried look on her face, but she snapped out of it at Houri's words.

"Yes, yes of course you're both soaked," the storm still raged outside and she frowned at the window as if she had forgotten all about it and wondered where it had come from. "There's guest rooms you can help yourselves to - I'd offer you your old room Houri but I don't think you'd fit in the bed anymore," her sister looked so sad Houri wondered if she should hug her. Instead she took Ollie's hand and tugged him gently to the door.

"Come on Ollie."

 

[Olvir]

Ollie had not been inside the Luana estate for what felt like a decade. He knew it was likely a little less than that, but the feeling was more accurate than not.

Things had changed.

He could remember running down the halls, fleeing from some servant or another. Always skulking and always wondering with Houri what those doors which had been deemed 'off limits' kept hidden. Now it felt smaller, for some reason.

Just like most things did.

He smiled as Houri pulled him along.

Outside the patter of rain was still going, but no longer was the storm a hurricane. Instead the soft patter of rain resounded as it struck windows and roof tiles. Echoing through the building even as lantern light lit their way. That went surprisingly well.

He thought to himself as they walked, the sword almost instantly retorting in his head.

The Girl should have been allowed her vengeance.
​

A frown pulled at his lips in silent condemnation of the voice.

 

[Houri]

It felt odd walking down these halls again and her steps slowed as memories rose unbidden in her mind. Of Ashur chasing her, of her father carrying her to bed after she had fallen asleep in his study watching him write. She half expected the ghosts to materialise in front of her and her heart hurt with the knowledge a ghost was all she could hope to see now. Tears threatened again but there was none left to fall. She felt wrung out.

Stopping before the door she remembered as her old room she nudged it and peaked inside. Sure enough, as Jiya had said, the room had not changed since the day she had gone to the Academy with its small bed and flowery decor. Perhaps their mother had hoped to use it for the daughter she had now. She shut the door.

"I think the guest rooms are this way," she said, unable to keep the sorrow from her words. On the next wing were indeed several guest rooms. "I'll go see if I can find you some spare clothes," perhaps something remained in her brothers room...

 

[Olvir]

Ollie followed along with Houri, staying quiet as he watched his friends relive small pieces of her past.

A roil of emotion tool him as they continued through the Luana House. In truth he was unsure how to feel about the whole thing. Whether or not he had done the right thing when it came to any of this, if Houri would be happier.

He supposed only time would tell. "You know."

Ollie said softly, looking around even as Houri tried to step away to fetch him some clothes.

"This is still your home too." He said quietly. "Maybe we just have to drag one of the beds from these rooms into your old one."

His hand waved towards one of the many doors around them.

Yes. The girl must reclaim what is rightfully hers. It begins with the bedroom, and ends with the blood of the fathers killers.​

Ollie tried not to outwardly sigh as the Sword gave it’s unwanted opinion in his head.

 

[Houri]

Houri grimaced at the suggestion.

"It's Jiya's home, it's not mine. The Academy is my home," it had been since she was five. Though, by her maths, she had now spent nearly as much time in the Asylum as she had the Academy. But spending time somewhere wasn't what had made it home.

Manners, Minthre warned.

"Thank you, though," Houri added awkwardly then turned and walked off towards the rooms her brothers had once occupied, shaking her head and speaking to herself. "Stop it. We're not going to just..." her voice faded as she turned a corner.

It took a while to find something she thought might fit Ollie, by which time servants had also appeared to run a warm bath in the room Ollie had selected. She knocked on the door before poking her head round.

"I found some clothes!"

 

[Olvir]

For a few moments Olvir watched Houri walk away.

He found himself still questioning everything. All that he had done the last few days and more. Lips thinned before he turned around and stepped into the Guest room.

Cleaning himself up went quickly. Mostly stripping out of cold wet clothes and finding a towel, waving away the servants who tried to run him a warm bath. That could come later. The cold hadn't quite set into his bones for reasons he couldn't understand, and a bath in the Luana household just felt...off.

"Oh." Olvir said, walking over to the door and pulling it open just a bit. "Thank you."

In truth he probably could have sent for his own clothes from the Weiroon Estate, but then this entire debacle would become even worse.

Now was hardly the time for anyone to ask why Olvir needed his clothes while staying at the Luana estate. There would be enough problems in the coming days without adding to it. That much he was sure of.

 

[Houri]

Nudity was something initiates quickly got over; when you shared a dorm with five others it was going to happen sooner or later. It was easier to just get over the childish squeamishness early on. So Houri didn't really batter much of an eye at Ollie's state of dress when he opened the door, though her eyes did wander before pulling into a tight lipped frown at the odd scar. She didn't like to see her friend had come close to such injuries.

"They might be a bit big but I'm told guys don't care too much about how they look," she handed over the bundle of shirts and breeches. It looked like she'd put her hands in the trunk and pulled out a bundle at random.

"Do you need anything else?" she pushed a still damp strand of hair out of her face.

 

[Olvir]

"Thank you." Ollie said to Houri as he grabbed the clothes through the crack in the door. A brief smile flickering over his face.

He glanced down at the random bundle of clothes, pretty sure there were three pairs of pants and only a single sock within. A frown touched his lips briefly, but he decided it wasn't a big deal. His boots had been about the only thing that hadn't been soaked through somehow. "I'm good."

Ollie assured her.

"You should get yourself cleaned up too." He told her. "I'm sure one of the servants can find you some clothes."

It would hardly be proper decorum if he started to poke around this place.

 

[Houri]

Houri blinked at him and then down at herself looking almost surprised to find she was covered in mud and soaked through.

"I think I saw someone running in and out of the room next door..." she started then shrugged. "If you need more clothes, Ashur's room is just round the corner, first door on the left. I'm not sure what else me--" Houri broke off when a maid appeared with a short curtsy.

"Lady Luana, your bath is ready."

Houri glanced at her friend with a pained expression.

"See you at dinner," she sighed and trapsed after the woman with begrudging footsteps

 

[Jiya Luana]

Once they were dressed and made their way downstairs, they would find Jiya had been correct in assuming the elderly butler had taken the excuse of company to run wild. The long banqueting table was set with candles and plates and so many knives even Jiya was looking at a few dubiously, attempting to remember what they were all for. He'd coaxed the servants to put on their best livery and he himself stood smartly to welcome them into the room.

It was hard to miss the pleased smiled on his face.

"Ah!" Jiya sounded relieved when Ollie arrived first and put down the mysterious fork. "Ollie, I hope you don't mind I had your men set up in their own rooms. They didn't look to keen to go home without you."

 

[Olvir]

Ollie stepped over towards the table, taking what would be his place by the laws of Anirian Decorum. "Ah, yes..."

He said slowly. "I road off from them in quite a bit of haste, I imagine they would be a bit concerned."

A frown touched his face. He hated to think he'd stopped Trik and Oscar from getting home to their families. It would be all they would think about. He'd have to excuse himself from dinner a bit early and see them off. Expecting them to stay was something his father would do.

But both men were still likely nervous about the idea of a Weiroon alone in the Luana Estate.

The old ways weren't too far forgotten, and even if he was Houri's friend and Jiya knew him...the paranoia of a dozen generations was hard to wipe away.

"Thank you, though." Olvir added, grabbing the back of his chair as he waited for Houri. "I hope they didn't cause too much trouble at the gate."

 

[Jiya Luana]

Jiya laughed and shook her head, motioning for him to take a seat whilst she took her own at the head of the table. Despite Linton's best efforts she hadn't let him set their places half way down the long table and instead had kept Houri to her immediate left and Ollie to her right in the seat befitting a visiting nobles son. That had been impressed upon her with quite some firmness.

"Not at all, I think they were relieved to find Houri hadn't..." she paused trying to remember the exact phrasing. "Fried you, I believe they said," the smile vanished and concern replaced it. "Ollie... tell me honestly. Is my sister ok? Your men told me a bit about where you found her... and her... quirks."

 

[Olvir]

Ollie hesitated a moment more, glancing towards the door and still wondering if he should wait for Houri. Then after a moment he decided that insulting his host was the worse breach of protocol and began to take a seat. "Houri is..."

He frowned for a moment.

"She'll be okay." The words felt like a lie, though he didn't know why. Ollie trusted his friend, knew that she could...well, keep it together. "That place, what they did..."

His head shook. "She just needs...time."

Olvir said with all the confidence of a man facing the gallows. "We have to trust her."

He finished, knowing that anything else felt wrong.

 

[Houri]

Before Jiya could answer, the doors opened and Linton announced the Lady Houri Luana, and promptly pretended to ignore the tongue she stuck out in his direction. From somewhere she'd managed to find a pair of breeches and a shirt which she seemed far more comfortable in than the riding dresses the innkeepers wife had provided her with. She all but threw herself into the remaining chair and gave them both a smile.

"I'm starving!" she clapped her hands in excitement which sent the maids leaping to bring out the dishes. "Oh I forgot they did that..." she grimaced and lowered her hands. Jiya tried not to smile.

"It's okay, I keep forgetting too. I say something out loud to remind myself to get something, and they sneakily go about doing it." For a brief moment, the sisters seemed to forget the weight of grief between them as they shared a smile, before it dawned on them the reason why Jiya had had to get used to things. Why there were only three of them at the table.

Rain continued to patter on the windows, though not as strong as it had before.

"So.... Ollie you said you had friends at the Academy?"

Happy space, happy space, happy space.

 

[Olvir]

Briefly, Ollie couldn't help but wonder how many of these sorts of dinners had taken place over the course of Vel Anir.

A Weiroon sitting with two Luana's in their estate.

His ancestors would be screaming, warning him that he was about to be poisoned or assassinated. That he was going to make a fool of himself and how shame would be brought to the family. Yet oddly enough, he hadn't felt safer in days.

How the times changed. "Wh-Oh. Yes."

He said with a smile.

"Two of them, actually. Alistair and Zael." Ollie had no idea if Houri would know them, having no real understanding of how the Academy structured classes or tutelage. "Both of them were sent as escorts with me when I went abroad."

The young noble explained. "Both saved my life."

 

[Houri]

"I... remember Zael," Houri said slowly with a puzzled look on her face as she tried to recall the memory. They were like faded paintings and often hard to conjure into being but she was certain the blonde boy that swam to the forefront of her mind was the boy - no, man - Ollie now spoke of. Either way she made a quiet note of their names to give them a clean death if the opportunity presented it; for Ollie.

"I don't suppose many of them are left from my year group - they must be close to graduation?" Her head tilted. The Proctors never said it out loud but it was an obvious thing the less enemies stood atop the tower, the easier the final test would be.

Jiya almost choked on her wine at the casual manner in which her sister discussed the murder of children, but Houri just patted her hand sympathetically. There was no question in her mind whether she would survive or not.

 

[Olvir]

Ollie frowned for a moment, not entirely sure how to explain...well anything around all this.

The Academy was hardly an open book, and many even among the nobility didn't quite understand how it all worked nor the customs to which the Dreadlords kept. The only reason Ollie knew was because he had asked, Jiya? She was the head of a Great House. That came with knowledge most were better off never learning. "I don't know."

He said honestly.

"Zael told me that things have changed." Though he hadn't exactly been forthcoming with details, not that Ollie blamed him. "But just how much or how I couldn't tell you."

There was a long pause, and he frowned. "Vel Anir has changed, but the secrets...they never really go away."

Perhaps that was just built into them. How Vel Anir worked even now.

 

[Houri]

MORE CHANGE?! Boomed the thunderous voice inside of her mind and igniting that rage that seemed to simmer always just below the surface.

What could they have changed about the Academy? The Proctors would not have let them, surely...?

It makes no sense!

Calm down everyone, he isn't a student. This Zael could be lying!

Yes. Yes! He's a dirty liar.

LET US KILL HIM.

Houri hadn't realised she'd been holding the fork quite so tightly not that tiny forks of lightning had been slowly crackling off the ends, melting the silver and allowing her to bend it until suddenly the searing heat of it burnt her palm and made her drop it.

"A lot has changed it seems," she said flatly before the doors opened and the food began to arrive.

 

[Olvir]

The food came, and it didn't do much to ease the quiet tension that was still hanging in the air.

Olvir leaned down and quietly ate some of his soup, gaze flickering every now and again back and forth between the two Luana sisters. "It's not all bad."

He suggested quietly, though he wasn't entirely sure how to translate that to Houri. For a brief moment he thought, scanning back through long forgotten childhood memories. Then one came to the forefront, his lips parting in a smile.

"Mr. Delridge owns a bakery now." Houri would remember, or perhaps not, Mr. Delridge. The house baker of House Weiroon who had often sneaked them treats during various gala's and events. "Him and his daughter."