Private Tales The Failure of Nobility

[Edric]

Edric stared at Kristen.

He really was the worst fucking person in the world that Kristen could have experienced this with. Even Noel would have been better, she could at least have looked at this problem as something to solve. For him...this was just fucking hopeless.

How the hell was he supposed to motivate her? How the fuck...a breath flowed into his lungs, and he did the only thing he could think to.

Without thinking, Edric slapped Kristen across the face.

"Stop it." His voice was stern, commanding. This was, without a doubt, probably the worst way to go about this. But Edric didn't know another way. He lacked for Empathy, and what little he did have was...well it didn't matter right now. "We don't have time for that, Kristen."

He told her. "Nothing is easy. Life isn't easy."

His voice still carried that same sternness.

"But it doesn't matter right now." Edric continued. "We don't have time for you to hit this wall. We don't have time to stop."

His hands reached down, grabbing her collar and lifting her up to her feet. "You want to know what makes us strong? Why we do what we do? Because we've spent our whole lives jumping over hurdle after hurdle."

As he spoke he still held her, staring into her eyes. "Time to jump over yours."

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen's head whipped to one side with the force of the slap. Her body spasmed with a meek shock. With her head lulled to the one side, downturned and hanging near lifelessly from her neck, twin strings of mucus swung from her nostrils and dangled in the open air. She couldn't stop crying. As Edric spoke, Kristen, in that tiny and choked voice, kept muttering over and over, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

He lifted her up to her feet, and the only thing keeping her upright was that hand which held her collar.

He was staring at her, into her eyes, but hers weren't meeting his.

For a long moment, full of harsh, unrestrained weeping, Kristen was barely in a place to say anything at all save those few strained apologies. In time, a trembling arm raised up and she weakly dragged it across her face, wiping away the mess clutching at her cheeks, her lips, her chin. She coughed, sobbed, and wiped at her face some more. Gingerly she put weight onto the backs of her heels and tried to stand under her own power and somehow managed it, now that the absolute worst of it was past.

Her eyes were a fiercely agitated red, and she with a resurfacing of embarrassment hid them behind a hand and turned away from Edric. She struggled for a breath and found one. Found a few more.

At last she said, "If the worst happens...if there's no other choice...leave me. Don't let me get you killed. If only one of us gets to live through this, it should be you. It has to be you."

She turned around slowly, gaze looking up at Edric from a head bowed in shame. A tiny flickering smile, through all of the sorrows pulling the rest of her features tight, accompanied her next words.

"You earned it."

Edric

 

[Edric]

There was another loud smack as Edric slapped Kristen in the face a second time.

Most people ordinary folk would probably have shouted at him. The Maesters of Elbion would have been abhorred, but Edric had only ever been taught one way to teach; violence.

It was the only way that he thought Kristen would make it through this. The only way that she would survive this ordeal. "I don't need you to be a sacrificial lamb, you fucking twit."

Edric cursed.

"I need you to be here." He was half an inch away from strangling her. "I need you to do what I know you can do."

His lips quirked in a growl. "If I think you're dragging me down I'll kill you myself."

Another harsh truth, he didn't nee her permission.

"But until that moment comes I need you to be useful. I need you to be strong." He told her. "So do it."

His breath didn't shake. His words didn't falter. "You're a noble. You're a fucking step above us. So act like it. Be like it."

Edric growled.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Unprepared, Kristen spun around when the slap landed and she fell down to her hands and knees in the wheat field. She let a pained groan and a whimper. A fatigued sob worked its way out from her throat, and more would have followed had she not needed to spit blood out from her mouth. She had bitten her tongue.

"You don't need anything from me. I need you."

She flopped over onto her rear once again, supporting herself with her arms, looking up to the monolith of Edric before her. Undeniable fear laced her expression, this atop the sorrow and this atop the tiniest tinge of awe.

"To what good does my Pirian blood amount? Look at me." She wiped at her face again, pulling away tears and mucus and a small dribble of blood from her lips. "I am ashamed that I am not your equal."

She expected more physical retaliation: a slap, a kick, rough hands tossing her about. But she made no attempt to guard herself. A familiar serenity blossomed across her face, and of all the things she had said to him, now or across the entirety of the journey, this was her most resolute belief, and clearly was it spoken so.

"The Academy is the best thing that has ever happened to you, Edric."

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric stood there, stoic, hands at his side.

As Kristen spoke, as she reasoned with her place within the world Edric couldn't help but frown. A trickle of sympathy flowed through him. He could see how impossible this was for her, how hard it must have been. Kristen had entered a world she simply wasn't meant for.

He could empathize with her. He could understand it. In that moment he wanted to be kinder. Wanted to be better. Wanted to be someone who could actually help.

Yet all of that went way at the drop of a hat.

The moment she said that last line. The moment she looked at him and spoke that most resolute belief Edric saw red. Rage boiled in his chest. Anger. Indignation. He was taken back to that room. Transported to the Academy. Memories flickered over his mind.

Thoughts of torture. Reminders of death. The Abyss that he had been forced to over and over again. The people he had murdered. The lives that he had taken every time they pushed him further. Edric's fingers curled, and like a viper he lashed out.

His fist connected with Kristen's face in an instant.

He launched himself atop her in an absolutely brutal assault. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME!?"

Edric shouted, his words ringing out.

"WHAT I WENT THROUGH!?" He struck her, again and again. No regard. No patience. Nothing but unleashed raged. "HOW MANY TIMES I HAD MY BODY MUTILATED? MY SKIN FLAYED, MY EYES GOUGED, MY THROAT SLIT?!"

His voice shook with rage, tears flowing down his face. "HOW MANY TIMES I DIED?"

There weren't any question any more, his fists slowed, Kristen little more than blood and bruises.

"I had to...I had to...So many people...women, children...just because they wanted..." Edric sobbed. "I came back...so many times...knowing it was at the cost of a life. Stolen. Taken. Because they were curious."

His hands shook, his body quivered as he pushed himself off her, stumbling back. "That place...my life...you have no idea what the fuck you're talking about."

 

[Kristen Pirian]

When it was done, Kristen just lay there, spasming infrequently. Her face was unrecognizable. Teeth were caved in, her nose shattered, cheeks swollen to the point of devouring her blackened eyes. The blood was everywhere. A tapestry of red demonstrating Edric's fury colored her face entire.

Her breath was ragged, phlegmy, and her chest convulsed as she coughed up a new spurt of blood, and on that crimson track sailed four of her teeth. They dropped from the side of her face to the ground of crushed wheat stalks.

She couldn't make any expressions, she couldn't say any words.

Wind from the plains gently swayed the field of wheat to its gentle whims. A cloud drifted over the sun, casting a cool shadow down upon them.

Slowly. Ever so slowly, with what scraps of strength she could muster, Kristen raised a quivering hand. It only parted with the ground some scarce few inches, but it was enough. Her hand was moving. Flexing. Tensing. Closing in on itself. Her fist clenched.

And her thumb pointed up.

Then her arm dropped limp to the ground, the gesture gone with the moment and into the past.

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric stared down at the bloody pulp of Kristen's face.

Tears still flowed down his face. Knuckles dripped with blood, whether Kristen's or his own Edric didn't know. A long, ragged breath dragged into his lungs, palms coming up to press against his eyes. He rubbed away the tears, letting out a soft sob as he pulled himself together. "Fuck."

He swore quietly.

"Fuck." Edric said again, glancing around to make sure that no one had come into the field. When he didn't hear anything, The Initiate quickly pulled himself to his feet. Quickly he grabbed the woman's robes from the floor, wiping blood from his face, his hands...and then suddenly stopping.

A frown flickered over his features as he looked to Kristen, and then at his hands. He glanced at the knife on the ground, then back to the beaten Noble.

Lips thinned.

Crouching down Edric plucked the knife, taking in a deep breath he slowly stabbed the blade against his chest. Long slashes were drawn over his torso and through his stolen close. Cuts deep enough to mark out the edge of a blade.

When he was done he tossed the weapon to the ground, blood soaking his clothes. Lips thinned, and he stepped over towards Kristen. Wordlessly he picked her up, and with a surprising gentleness lifted her over the saddle.

Then he grabbed the reigns, heading back towards the road.

He stepped from the Wheat field, and onto the road, making sure that no one saw them beforehand. Then slowly he began to walk towards Sene, leading both the camels and the horse. As he drew nearer to the city he began to shout. "Help! HELP ME!"

His cries echoed out, Guards and citizens turning their heads.

"Help!" Edric shouted again, one of the guards instantly running towards him.

It was near a day later that Kristen would wake. That she would find herself not on the side of the road in a field of wheat, not within a prison, but instead on the comfortable mattress of a Inn. A slight breeze pressed through the room, the pleasant scent of potpourri wafting along with it.

Her wounds were not completely gone, but far better off than they had any right to be. Cracked bones had been mended, cuts had been helped to close, and the ache of pain was soothed. All a gift from Edric, a bit of the life he could steal returned to Kristen.

Though whether given because of guilt, or another reason was impossible to tell.

Edric sat on the large windowsill at the other end of the room, his own body half covered in bandages from the wounds he'd inflicted upon himself. In his lap was a book, though he had never much been fond of reading.

The story he had told to get them here had been simple enough; bandits on the road. Two simple farmers caught out on their travels, saved only by a lady of the Solar Choire who had bravely interfered in their coming death.

It had not taken long to convince the Guards, and even less time to bring one of the Radiant Church's Priests to his side. It had been the latter who gave him the coin for the Inn, to which Edric had quickly added by selling both the camels and the horse.

The coin was no fortune, but enough.

That was what Kristen would wake to. Though whether she would want to wake at all Edric didn't know.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen opened her eyes. Slowly the world filtered in.

She lay in the bed, staring up at the ceiling, vaguely with the awareness that between the wheat field and this room there had been a gap bridged by swirling dreams.

A hand trailed up her stomach, her chest, her neck, crossed the threshold of her jaw and touched at her face. The tips of her fingers glided over what once had been shattered bones and broken skin. A tenderness of bruises still existed.

That hand came to rest, covering one side of her face from jaw to brow.

A quiet bliss befell her unhidden eye.

And she whispered, "That's the way..."

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric heard Kristen move and mutter, though not what she said. The book in his lap shifted slightly, and he glanced into the room. A frown touched his face, and for a brief moment he felt a strange sense of awkwardness.

Lips thinned, and then he stood up from his place on the window sill. "I got us into the city."

There was no apology as he stepped over towards Kristen's bed.

Just besides it was a similar twin, and there Edric sat himself down. A slight flicker of something rushed over his features, but it was quickly replaced with a marble mask of stoicism. His book fell onto the sheets, hand coming up to rake through his hair.

"There's river boats to the sea, some that will even take us up the coast." The Innkeeper had been kind enough to tell him that, after a few coins had slipped his way. "But I thought it best to wait until you were up and walking."

Less questions, he had figured.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Movement, and Kristen turned her head on the pillow only just enough to see that Edric was there, that he'd gotten up from the window sill and crossed to the adjacent bed and now sat there. Her hand slid off of her face.

I got us into the city.

She smiled. Faintly. "But of course."

Kristen wiggled herself gradually into sitting upright, back against the headboard. Her hands came to rest in her lap. Once up, once looking at Edric a touch more properly, she noticed the book in his possession. She stared at it flatly for a moment, thinking it odd. Then she looked up when Edric spoke.

And nodded.

Afterward, her nose wrinkled. She bowed her head and sniffed, but it was hardly necessary. The potpourri could only mask it so much. Her clothes, arming doublet and pants which had born the weight and stifling heat of her armor for at least half of the journey, were filthy with dark stains and had about them a sandblasted wear. The dip in the oasis had only helped so much.

"I smell horrid," she said with a rueful smile. "Though precisely as I ought after days of hard, desperate travel, I suppose."

Something was missing from the looks she had been giving Edric upon waking. Something that had been present in differing measures all the time before.

Fear.

Edric

 

[Edric]

"You do." Edric confirmed. "But that only helped us."

The Initiate remarked, not noticing, or not caring about the lack of fear in Kristen's eyes.

There was no sense of awkwardness to him. Edric knew what he had done, and there was not a single ounce of regret in doing it. There never would be, not with him. "They think we were set on by bandits."

He explained.

"Even bought that the woman...and Inquisitor as I understand it, was the one who saved us." Thus finding her belongings on them had been a boon, and not something that could come to later hurt them. "There's a bath downstairs, just ask the Innkeeper."

Edric told Kristen. "When you're ready we'll head to the docks and get out of here."

Something he'd rather do sooner than later.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

He was quite practical in his thoughts on the matter, Edric was. His mindset was one forged for the accomplishment of whatever task lay before him. Like a proper Dreadlord ought. He had survived on his own, carrying her weight along with him. Why she was not dead and gone like that Inquisitor she could not say.

It was true. What she had said. All of it. And this she would stand by. He didn't need anything from her. Her Pirian blood amounted to nothing when it truly mattered. And most of all, the Academy was the best thing that ever happened to him.

She was hoping that it could be the same for her, too.

"I believe I shall do that: inquire of the innkeeper for a bath." She threaded a hand through her ponytail, felt the strands between her thumb and fingers, looking a touch displeased by it. "It's more than just rejuvenation for the body. It aids the spirit as well."

She brought her hand back down to her lap.

"Have you had anything yet to eat?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

A part of him wondered.

Had she simply broken? Had she simply splintered enough that the fear simply slipped away? Had he imparted that same splintered lesson as the Proctor's?

Lips thinned as he considered the thought, but it was quickly swept away with another revelation. Perhaps this meant they would survive. Perhaps this meant that they could actually make it. Maybe she would stop doubting herself. Maybe she would just act.

Maybe Kristen would be what he finally needed her to be.

"No." He admitted.

"I haven't eaten since the oasis." Not in the way normal man would think of it. "That hasn't really been on his mind."

Edric may have lashed out at her. May have beaten Kristen into half a pulp, but there wasn't a need to be rude to her. He wasn't Jaxan. He wasn't Liliana or one of her little chess pieces. He'd never hated Kristen, or any of the other runts.

Just thought them a waste.

Perhaps that would change.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Oh." Kristen paused. "Well, after I've finished with a bath, perhaps we could. I do not know if you are as famished as I am, but I for one would not want to faint on the way to the docks."

She tossed aside the sheets and the blanket which covered her, and swung her legs out to the side of the bed.

"I know you must be eager to be done with all of this."

Her boots were beside the bed. She reached for them, pulled them close, and slipped them on one after the other.

"As am I."

It was the single most driving feeling she could harness, the foremost weapon she could wield to combat her doubt, her nervousness, her trepidation: that desire to return to the Academy, that fantasy of seeing their faces. Mayhap she would actually see them--in time. But to return to the Academy, in stark defiance of whomever wished malice upon her, was a victory she would gladly take.

She couldn't do it without Edric. She wished she could have, but she couldn't. Yet all she needed to do was not drag him down, not as she knew she had done out in the wheat field. Because the next time, she wouldn't wake up.

Boots on, ready to head downstairs, she sat upright again. "I shan't be long. I promise."

Edric

 

[Edric]

"Good." Edric said with a slow nod of his head as Kristen made her way out of the door and headed to the baths.

For a brief moment he stared after her, lips pressing together in a line.

After a few beats of the heart The Initiate pulled himself back onto the bed. Hand sweeping for his book and collecting it. He brought it in front of his eyes, cracking open the page he'd been on and once again beginning to read.

It was a moment of peace.

A brief flicker of quiet in a journey that had been nothing less than a cacophony of chaos.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

A white film of dried sweat with tan swirls of Cortosan dust floated lazily atop the surface of the bathwater, the clinging filth of their journey scrubbed clean from Kristen's body. A few moments ago, prior to stepping into the tub, it had been perhaps the grimiest she had ever felt. Mother would have been horrified to see it.

Yet, now, it didn't bother Kristen. Swept away on an arresting flight of thought was she. Her arms dangled limply over each side of the tub, her head was lulled back and she was staring near vacantly up at the ceiling. Her lips were slightly parted.

"It's about what's fair," she whispered.

A hand drifted to her face. She touched it. The ghost of bruises, broken bones, fractured flesh.

"It's about what's fair."

* * * * *​

True to her word, she wasn't long. Kristen returned, her arrival preceded by a gentle knock in the room's door before she stepped through the threshold. Her clothes were still the same--there wasn't much that could be done about that--but her hair was still a touch damp and she was looking overall refreshed.

She stood with her heels together, arms straight and hands held before her, unconsciously a model of noble stature even now. She smiled warmly.

"Shall we?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

The book snapped shut.

A part of him wished he could have said that he'd enjoyed it. That it had imparted some metaphysical knowledge upon him, but the last few hours spent reading felt like they had been all but wasted.

He didn't doubt that Noel and Eleanor gained something from their studied, but Edric was a man of experience. He drew his practice from the field of battle, from the walls that he faced ahead of him. Not the pages of books he passed through.

With no prompt he stood from the bed. "Yes."

He told Kristen without a second of hesitation.

"Grab what you need." Edric told her. "They gave us some clothes, but I have the gold."

He weighed the pouch in his hand. "Let's get the fuck home."

Edric was tired of this place, this journey. They deserved to make it. Deserved to cut through all the bullshit and horror they had faced.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen glanced over to the small table in the room and noticed that, yes, Edric had gotten some clothes after he'd sold the mounts and while she was out. She would pack them in the supply satchel--who knew if another grievous, Sibyl-inspired turn of fate would require a quick change of clothes--opting not to change into them now. Enough time was spent on her bath, would be on their meal, and her worn arming garments were still serviceable enough, and not completely the stark image of a weary ragamuffin.

She crossed the small gap of the room to the table and collected her satchel. She slid her mace into its holster on her belt. Her book of verses she clipped likewise to her belt, the familiar weight and balance of both something of a comfort.

Once done, Kristen turned about smartly to face Edric.

"Yes. Let's..."

Her chest rose as breath settled into her lungs, and some manner of struggle played out behind the look in her eyes. She let out the sigh. One of relief. Perhaps for how the struggle went.

With just a hint of grinning abashment, this for the knowing disregard of the decorum she had always conducted herself with, for the enjoyment of the little devious thrill that came with stepping over a line one had always been told she ought not, Kristen gathered her resolution.

And said, "Let's get the fuck home."

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric was almost positive it was the first time he had heard Kristen swear, and he couldn't help but smile as she said the words. "Lets."

He agreed, jerking his head towards the door.

Instantly the Initiate turned on his heel, pulling the satchel over his shoulder as the two headed out from the Inn.

Sene seemed surprisingly quiet as the two Dreadlords made their way through it. There was not a shortage of soldiers, and near every corner of the street had a preacher of some sort, yet things seemed almost ordinary. People made their way through the streets, markets operated, and most folk seemed more than happy with how things were going.

It was an odd sort of curiosity, and Edric couldn't help but wonder if the Radiant Church had changed much at all.

Not long after leaving the Inn, Kristen and Edric arrived at the docks. Four ships made their homes at the various berths, their sails marking them out. "No Anirian ships."

He noted unsurprisingly.

"That one is Allirian." Edric said with a frown. "Probably Merchants...they might take us to the coast at least."

The other three he did not recognize at all.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen's fears of pointing, accusatory fingers being leveled Edric's way at every turn evaporated quickly enough as they progressed through the streets of the foreign city. Rather, she was taken in by the sights, the first true instance of a departure from Vel Anir and all of her holdings. My, everything was so different here. The shape and style of the buildings, the materials of which they were constructed, in many respects they were like monuments born of the very earth she and Edric had just trekked across, the clay and the brick and the stucco all children of those vast, rugged plains and scrublands. Smells of unfamiliar food wafted into her nose, many which featured spices that threatened to seize her up in a fit of sneezing and teary eyes should she inhale too deeply of their aroma!

At last, and with nary a trouble to impede them, they arrived at the docks, the wood beneath their feet stretching out far and wide in either direction.

Edric was right: no Anirian ships.

That one is Allirian.

"Oh!" Then, as if she felt she were adding in to their conversation with facts Edric already knew and was simply putting voice to them, she said, "And that one bears the crest of the Empire of Amol-Kalit, specifically that of the capital city of Annuakat--certainly of no benefit to us! And that one there, oh, they've come far. That's a dwarven banner. Belgrath. Father always said that only soon-to-be-dead pirates attacked dwarven ships--I can even see some of the Arragoth Marines aboard. And that ship farthest to the east...hmm...ah yes, now I remember. An obscure one, that is. South's End, right at the tip of The Spear. A harsh outpost, from what I understand."

Most surprising and delightful, that all of the dull facets of trade she had been taught and had gleaned from her father and from some of her cousins translated now into something of immediate worth. But surely this was nothing Edric hadn't already studied and taken a test on in one of the Proctors' more academic-leaning classes.

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric glanced at Kristen as she revealed a font of knowledge. Suddenly he found himself once again glad that she was at the core of all of this. Knowledge of such thing escaped him, hell, it probably would have fallen short for a lot of apprentices.

The fact that Kristen knew was a value he couldn't even describe. "Hrm."

Lips thinned for a moment as he considered what she had said, gazing at the other ships. Kristen was entirely right that the Kality vessel was no use to them at all, but the other two? One had to pass Anirian lands to get to the Spear, and Belgrath?

That was half a world away.

"Least we have a fall back if the Allirians won't take us." A part of him wanted to go to the dwarves first, but it was a naive and childish notion.

Edric had never met a dwarf, never even seen one in person. Yet he had read they were great warriors, that their people could fight for days on end without tiring. It was a silly thing, but even Edric had such notions still.

"How about you do the talking?" He said as he began to walk. "Might work out better."

When he'd done this with Noel the two of them had ended up in a fight. Best not to try again.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"R-Right. A good fortune it is that three of the four ships are going in generally the correct direction."

They started walking. Hopefully, they need not be placed into a position whereupon they discovered the likelihoods of each vessel for allowing them passage. If the Allirians took them straightaway, and they among the other two seemed at naked reckoning to be the most pliable to their request, then no bothering of the dwarves nor the South Enders would be necessary.

How about you do the talking?

And this now rested on her shoulders. Yet sat in the same saddle as her nervousness was her quiet drive to prove herself. To be, in her mind, of some actual use. To find a measure of redemption for what happened with the Inquisitor.

"Very well," Kristen said. "I have some sense of Allirian culture and demeanor. Perhaps my time spent at various Pirian-hosted soirees will prove to be an unexpected boon in this regard."

The trade vessel loomed large as they approached, and they passed through the forest of shadow upon the docks that were the towering masts of the ship. Dockworkers were hoisting up crates stamped with black seals of a number of different Sene-based guilds. A team of sailors working a pulley lifting up the heavier set of barreled goods had a mate next to them, saying "Easy...easy..." in a booming voice that seemed to carry across the whole of the harbor.

"It's no secret that I am terrible at lying." She said it almost in the manner of a confession--a paltry confession, but a confession nonetheless--as if it were something shameful. "I...shall depend upon you if such improvisation is needed. Is that alright?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric nodded. "That's fine."

He told her quietly, though added.

"But you shouldn't have to lie." Much. "Alliria is an Anirian ally, or, well whatever the fuck they call it."

Kristen would of course know that Alliria and Vel Anir were not actually allies. They were trading partners, and some Houses had connections there, but the two nation states did not have any sort of military agreement. A fact Edric would have known had he actually paid attention in class at the Academy.

"Just be honest. We're headed to Vel Luin, Willing to pay some now, more when we get there." Once they arrived they would be able to grab a Proctor or something to get them more coin.

They weren't full Dreadlords just yet, but they still had some authority. Taking some coin to pay for their journey wasn't going to be a big deal.

Edric knew that from experience.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Even with Edric's reassurances, so treacherous was their position in Sene that Kristen felt a reluctance battling against her natural inclination to tell the truth. For perhaps the first time in her life (post being caught in a series childish escapades involving sweets from the kitchen) she felt the mighty temptation that lying would be better than being honest.

Just be honest.

The irony certainly wasn't lost on her, how the two had switched sides at this metaphorical table. But, yes, Edric did have a fair point. Alliria and Vel Anir did have good relations with one another, and the Allirians would have no cause or suspicion to report their presence to the Cortosans.

"Okay," she said, letting out a slow exhalation through her nose. This was a simple transaction. Easy. Father had done much larger negotiations with ease. The servants of House Pirian went to market and did these on a daily basis. Routine. Simple.

Kristen approached a group of three sailors close to the gangplank. Their shirts barely contained their strapping physiques, and all were in various degrees unshaven. The three of them were watching the pulley crew hoisting up one of the barrels they'd attached, and there was a stack of barrels yet on the dock to be loaded.

Kristen cleared her throat. The three sailors all slowly leveled their gazes on her (or up at her, as it were), apparently irritated at first that someone had the gall to interrupt their "work." Upon seeing Kristen though, the looks of annoyance fled from their expressions. One among them openly looked her up and down, taking his time to do so, eyes lingering wherever they pleased. She did her best to ignore it, despite the uncomfortable shiver that ran down her neck.

"Hail to you, sailor, and good morning. I hope that we can be well met. My name is Kris--" like a woman who had stopped herself just short of falling off of a ledge, Kristen cut herself off there, leaving her name shortened. It was the truth, just not...the other syllable of truth, "--and this is Ed."

"Uh huh," said the sailor who'd looked her over. His voice was gruff, and he wasn't quite meeting her eyes. His gaze was on something lower. "Moloch Fairgraves. But since I like you, you can call me Mole."

The two other sailors made surreptitious comments to each other, one letting out a quiet, amused snicker.

"Oh. Well. Mole it is." She figured it best to simply get straight to the point. "We would inquire about purchasing passage to Vel Luin, if indeed your--"

"Sure. We've got room for one lovely girl." Then Mole looked up to Edric, crossing his arms and flashing a joyless smile. "Sorry big guy."

Kristen felt that clammy sensation bubbling up beneath her skin, that harbinger of shrinking away from adversity. No. Not this time! Think about seeing their faces. Think about walking back through the Academy gates. You want this, you need this!

With a newfound firmness, Kristen asserted, "No. That is unacceptable. It must be for the both of us."

But Mole simply gave a resigned shrug. "Captain's orders. We're tight on space and supplies." He had said it casually enough, but still it had the undertone of contrived bullshit. Then, to Edric, "Look at those arms, boy, can't you swim your ass to Vel Luin? What do you need a ride for? Or are you gonna make the lady swim?"

Edric

 

[Edric]

Edric stared at the man, his eyes cold and jaw set.

There was something at the very heart of him that hated men like this. He wasn't entirely sure what, perhaps because it reminded him of the Proctor's, the dismissive nature that some of them tended to. The mockery that they came up with.

It was made all the worse by the fact that Edric knew he could snap the man's neck in an instance.

Slowly he glanced towards Kristen.

The look he gave her was not one of threat, not towards her at the very least. He said not a single word to the man, but the intent behind would be utterly clear to his fellow Initiate. After the time they had spent together Kristen would know him well enough.

Edric was more than willing to break every bone in this man's body.

"Kris" He said plainly. "Perhaps we should try another ship. This one doesn't seem to want the extra coin."

There was an edge to his tone, barely holding back.