Fate - First Reply The Fate of Us All

[Samantha Black]

Ralene hadn't forgotten about the primary objective of their mission, but she was seeing that they were caught in a very complicated web of many different problems. As of right now they had no idea which problems were connected and which weren't. Hell, she couldn't even be sure that the Sirl girl was at the heart of it all. What if she was just an unfortunate bystander that somehow had gotten pulled into this?

There were too many unknowns, too many variables, too many potential pitfalls. They needed more information, and the Guard was the easiest place to start even if it wasn't the foundation of power in Wissburg. Her gaze set on Edric as he worked out their approach. She stashed her journal away in her rucksack while she mentally chewed on his words.

"We're going to need the intel on the Guard no matter what. We need numbers, posts, routes, shifts, routines. If the girl is being kept prisoner somewhere, there's a good chance there will be a rotation of Guards assigned to the location."

The first thread of the web they were in to pluck and test where it lead was the military. She approached Edric, closing the space so she could lower her voice even more, "Ed, you can't best everyone in Wissburg with a sword," a faint smirk pulled at her lips, "We're nobodies. You're a strong but poor nobody from some podunk town that got some training and was pretty good among the pretty average. You'll draw too much attention if you go out and put every Wissburg soldier on their ass."

 

[Edric]

A long sigh escaped him, hand raking through his hair. "I guess I don't have to be the best."

This was going to be more complicated than he would have liked.

"Just show I'm a prospect." Walking that line would be a hell of a challenge. When you trained all your life to fight, and win, it was hard not to do it. Going against instinct was near enough impossible, doing it in a way that he fooled an expert eye?

He had his work cut out for him. "See to it that someone thinks I'm worth enough to give an extra hand or two."

Undercover work was a pain in the ass. "With any luck I'll make some friends."

The exact opposite of what he had spent the last decade of his life doing.

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene's smirk widened faintly at his pouting. God forbid he make friends. This wasn't good work for Edric, to that she could readily admit. Subterfuge wasn't exactly her line of expertise either, but Ralene excelled in adaptability, critical thinking, and strategy whereas Edric excelled in efficiently killing all the things in many different ways. All Edric had to do was follow her lead and not blow their cover.

A sobering sigh filtered out through her nose as she looked up at him, lifting her hands to straighten his jacket, "Oh come on, friends aren't so bad," friendship wasn't an alien concept to her, though she chose her friends the same way she chose her enemies - with tact and, yes, strategy, "you'll get to put them on their asses eventually."

She heard the approach of a cart just beyond the door and glanced the figure of the Guard Captain as he stepped down from the bench seat, "I'll butter up the Captain for you."

"Am I interrupting?" said the Captain from the doorway.

Ral leaned up and planted a kiss on the stubble of Edric's cheek, gave him a pat on the chest--the very picture of a doting wife--and turned to greet the Captain, "No Sir, we were just thinking this all feels a bit like a dream."

"A dream?" said the Captain, stepping back as Ral exited the dilapidated smithy house.

"Well we never expected such a warm welcome, jobs, and a home so quickly. Thought we'd end up in a place like the refugee camp."

"Oh, well when you put it that way," the Captain nodded with a faint smile, "we can't hardly let good strong arms go to waste. Too much to do and not enough time in the day. So, let's take a look around and see what we'll be needing to get this place fixed up. Think you lot can stand another night without a roof and a door?"

Ral glanced back over her shoulder at Edric, "I think so. We really appreciate your help, Captain. Hope we can repay you - my husband is keen to test his skills out in the Guard."

 

[Edric]

"Oh is he now?"​

The Guard Captain said with a wide smile, glancing at Edric. The man seemed to take stock of him, nodding his head for a moment in approval. "I am, Ser."

Edric tried to remember what Ralene had said. No funny accent, no posing as anything more than a farmboy who'd done a few brief stints of training. His shoulders slumped ever so slightly as he tried to mimic the posture of some of the farmers he'd seen.

"My wife can work iron and steel, but me?" He shrugged. "I just want to give back, repay some of the Kindness we've been shown."

The Guard Captain seemed to think for a moment, and then nodded his head in appreciation. He stepped up to Edric and clapped him on the shoulder.

"No worries lad. You come to the training yard tomorrow morn', say Captain Gilheed sent you. They'll get you sorted out and see what you can do."​

Edric smiled, nodding his head. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. Donric's a hell of a swordsmen, and he'll thump you on the head a dozen times tomorrow!"​

The man let out a laugh, shaking his head.

"Alright alright. Let's get to writing that list, shall we?"​

 

[Samantha Black]

That clap on Edric's shoulder might as well have been the sound of a war boom. Ralene covered her visual flinch with a squinting half smirk. He at least didn't break character.

They spent the next few hours forming a list of needed supplies and taking what supplies Gilheed had brought with him to shore up the crumbling, burned walls of the building for the evening. He left them with a stack of firewood while his wife supplied them with jugs of water, a basket of eggs, some basic cooking implements, and a leg of smoked pork.

Ral managed to talk the man into letting them keep the horses at the smithy yard where the old smith had previously kept his. After Gilheed promised to provide her with a cart, he set off with his wife once the afternoon had aged, intending to be back the next day with a crew ready to get the smithy back into working condition.

Taking one of the water jugs back to the paddock, Ralene poured out its contents into the water trough for their horses and stood by as the pair of them sauntered over for a drink. She watched them for several moments, unsmiling and churning everything they knew through her head. Things were only going to get more complicated once they split up, but for the life of her she wanted five minutes of mental peace and to give her cheeks a rest from all the feigned smiling.

Not that she never smiled, but this was breaking the bank.

Ral rubbed at her cheek and glanced over at Edric, "What are you thinking on our lost cousin?" They needed to get that story straight, too.

 

[Edric]

Edric was leaning against the wall of their 'home', watching as Ralene watered the horses. Though his gaze didn't truly seem to focus on them.

Instead his thoughts were on the very thing Ral asked him about just a few seconds later. Close enough to it anyway. Wissburg was turning out to be a far bigger mess than the Proctors had anticipated. Most other Initiate's would have been in over their head, and Edric was pretty sure the two of them were close. Not that he would ever admit it.

"Can't be too clear." He said with a frown. "If we give an exact description and they're holding her we're fucked."

The people here were fanatics, but they weren't morons. "I have an idea though."

He thought back to the file they have been given about the girl. "Blue eyes, platinum hair, names Aludra."

It was a rather vague description, but one he suspected would work. Aludra was not who they were looking for. In fact it was not the name of a Sirl at all, but the name of a Dreadlord who had once served the Great House.

A fact that Edric was aware of because the woman had once approached him for recruitment alongside another of their Dreadlord's.

"It's not a common name in these parts, and she might recognize it if we get a few people to ask around for us." Perhaps that would be the best play if she was out there, having her come to them.

 

[Samantha Black]

"Aludra..." Ral rolled the name over her teeth for a moment. She was well versed enough on prominent Dreadlords to recognize the name, but she wasn't privy to the fact that one of that name had served House Sirl. Ralene didn't get approached for recruitment into the noble houses because of her last name. Everyone assumed she'd be taken in by her own house. Blood with blood. Legacy, honor, and all that fucking warm homecoming jazz.

Everyone assumed wrong.

She lifted a hand to scratch at one of the horse's ears, pulling small burrs free it had collected from grazing on the scrub grasses left in the paddock.

Blue eyes. Platinum hair. Aludra. She could remember that. Didn't feel the need to ask after where he got the name from or if it was, in fact, in reference to the Dreadlord. If Edric thought it was a good idea, she'd roll with it.

"We should find a way to send a report back," her brows furrowed over the determination she'd come to after leaving the refugee camp, "they should know what's going on here."

 

[Edric]

"Not easy." Edric said, pointing out the obvious.

There was not a single chance of sending a human runner, and he figured that most messenger birds were probably in the hands of the Church by now. Wissburg had been locked down for all sense and purpose, part of the difficulty of all this.

He raked a hand through his hair again, frowning. "Is there a rune?"

All students at the Academy were taught the basics of Rune Magic, even Edric knew some, but none that would help them here. With Ralene it was a bit different of course, and he wondered if she didn't know something they could device.

"Otherwise, we might have to steal a pigeon." Then the story of the great Pigeon Heist of Wissburg would flow into the ethos of legend.

 

[Samantha Black]

"There's a spell I could use ... but it would give us away in an instant. It's not quiet or discrete."

Stealing a pigeon was perhaps the next best option, but Ralene refused to believe it was the only option. "There's no way they aren't sending out carts for supplies. Someone has to be going to neighboring villages to collect all these refugees. Maybe I can get on the list for a supply run ... for smith supplies. There wasn't really anything left in the smithy for me to work with."

 

[Edric]

Edric nodded. "Plus none of them will know what to get you anyway."

It would leave him alone in the city, but they didn't really have much of a choice.

Ral was right, they needed to get at least some word back of what was going on in this place. Otherwise they risked more Dreadlords being sent and potentially killed. A frown touched his face at the thought, realizing something.

"I haven't..." Hrm. "I haven't seen anything that could kill a Dreadlord."

He commented. "That tree had what...eight?"

Edric shook his head. "But so far we've just seen guards and priests."

None of this was adding up.

 

[Samantha Black]

The horse shoved its nose at Ral's chest and she turned to lightly bop it back in return on the forehead, "Rude."

"I haven't...I haven't seen anything that could kill a Dreadlord."

A glance was given his way, one that was not without a hint of visible concern. She'd not forgotten about the tree, but it had been far from at the forefront of her thoughts. Eight dead Dreadlords. Not Initiates. Fully fledged, trained, seasoned Dreadlords. She scowled at the image of it burned in her memory.

"We have to be ...so careful."

An unknown threat wasn't something they could underestimate. Not with the proof of its power hanging from eight ropes on a tree. Ralene idly stroked at the horse's neck before pushing away from the fence and moving closer to Edric. "We should stay in for the rest of the evening. Drawn enough attention to ourselves for the day... and you need a shave, I kissed nothing but stubble earlier. Need to make you presentable for the Guard tomorrow."

A smirk, Ral playfully whacked him in the stomach as she stepped by and into the house, "Now where'd you put our blades..."

 

[Edric]

Edric ran a hand over his stubble. "I think it makes me look mature."

The Dreadlord said with a shrug.

He did agree with her other points though. The two of them were faced with a literal mountain of problems. Half a dozen things could get them killed in a day alone, and he was almost certain that another half dozen sat right around the corner.

They simply didn't know enough, simply lacked for information. His head shook slightly as he followed her into the house.

Though it took some convincing, Edric did eventually relent to Ralene's demand that he shave. It was as he sat in the chair, Ral wielding a blade to his throat, that he thought of just how amusing this all was. "A year ago it would have suited you to cut my throat."

He commented wryly.

"One less chance to die on that tower." The final test, where two Initiates faced one another in order to graduate. "I still can't believe how much things have changed."

 

[Samantha Black]

"A year ago I wouldn't have had a choice."

A year ago opportunity was the secret killer. Edric never would have agreed to allowing her anywhere near his throat with a blade and, frankly, Ralene wouldn't have allowed him such close proximity. Sharing a bed? Abso-fucking-lutely not. Given the chance to slit his throat while his guard was down? Ralene would not have hesitated because she knew in a direct fight against him he had the upper hand. Most of the Proctors had believed she'd be one of the finalists on the tower, but the bets were split between them both.

"I never enjoyed killing our classmates," she continued, carefully drawing the blade up along his neck, "I always thought it was a waste." Killing for the chance to live another day was no way to live. Especially when some of the smartest Initiates that could have brought so many more things to the table past graduation were dead because they simply were overcome by the more powerful magic of their rivals.

"But I will put myself in solitary every single time if it gets me out of attending a fucking Dance..."

She smirked, leaning so he could see, then rinsed the blade off in a bowl of water to move to the next section of his neck, "Too bad I missed seeing everyone all dolled up. I bet you look good in a suit."

 

[Edric]

Edric scoffed. "Wasn't so bad."

He said with a shake of his head.

There had never been much of a cause for him to kill any of his classmates. He agreed with Ralene it was a waste, and he'd always had enough self-confidence in his own magic to know that he would best whomever he faced on that tower.

Even blades in the night had never much bothered him. After what the Proctors had put him through Edric knew well that it would take more than a knife to kill him. Yet that attitude had still been pinned to everything.

The Paranoia. The Fear.

No one wanted to get close. No one wanted to misjudge.

"It ended early." He said with a shrug, everyone by now knew why. "And I let Meredith know that if she touched me with those creepy little fingers I'd break her spine."

That had been rather rewarding. "Guess not all the changes are so bad."

Edric remarked quietly.

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene's smirk persisted. Of course she heard the whole story ... and at least about a half a dozen variations thereof. She didn't particularly care to know the truth, it didn't make any difference to her. Despite her own unsavory encounter in solitary, she would have dealt with a visit from her father any day over being forced into a dress and made to dance.

"I heard you saved her," she replied, lofting a brow as she rinsed the blade again and stepped around to his side. A hand lifted to take hold of his chin, tilting his head for a cleaner angle. The blade carefully scraped along his jawline, "never took you for heroics."

But now, of course, Meredith owed him. There was always an angle at play.

"My father decided to grace me with his presence the night of the dance. Looked at me like I was some savage beast that'd eaten his little baby girl. What the fuck did he expect?"

 

[Edric]

"Hero is a bit of a strong word." Edric commented. "More like I didn't wasn't Sable blubbering in my ear for the rest of my life."

The other Initiate had practically begged.

Edric had never much been one to pay attention to the...relations of other Initiate's, but even he'd caught there was something between Meredith and the Giant. "I think they're fucking."

He commented dryly.

As Ralene spoke of her father Edric slowly tipped his head in a nod. She had mentioned her family once or twice before. Friendships were rare in the Academy, but they had always respected one another. Perhaps that was why they let their tongues be a little looser.

"I hope you told him to fuck off." Edric commented. "We are what they made us."

 

[Samantha Black]

"Fuck you about sums up my end of the conversation." Her lips pricked in a look of displeasure, "He tried to equate my presence in solitary to delinquency. He didn't have a fucking clue. Even Proctor Amoto thought he was an imbecile..."

Though Amoto wasn't exactly a kind man and likely thought most people were imbeciles, he just didn't openly state such things very often. He'd been pretty open about his thoughts after the man had left.

"Would have been better if he'd just never even bothered," she sighed, sloshed the blade through the water again and moved on to his face, "I preferred thinking I'd just been thrown away. Never had a reason to form much of an opinion of him before. Now I can't help but hate him. If he thinks for one minute I'm going to bring glory and honor to his fucking name or house..."

 

[Edric]

Edric considered for a moment, letting the words sit in the air. There were few in the Academy who were 'lucky' enough to be attached to a noble name. As far as he knew it was only Trix, Liliana, and Ralene. Only the last one was actually from a Great House.

Only the last one was anyone Edric had any respect for too. "Not like you need him anyway."

The Initiate said as he tilted his face for her, letting Ralene slowly drag the edge of the blade over his skin. A frown pulled at his lips, fingers softly drumming against the arm of the chair.

"Not like we ever needed anyone." Edric commented dryly.

His own parents had given him away, no, thrown him to the Proctors once they'd found out who he was. Despite all their beliefs, despite the mercies of their god. He'd been little more than a horror to them in the end.

A wry, almost mocking smile touched his face as Ral's blade stilled on his throat and he tilted his head to look up at her. "After all, we Initiate have each other now."

It was hard not to laugh.

 

[Samantha Black]

He was right, she didn't need Walter Banick to make her own way in this world. Ralene had no intentions of getting sucked into the games of the noble houses, nor of helping restore House Banick to its former glory. So far as she was concerned, her future remained with the military and if she had any say in it at all, the name Banick wouldn't be tied to her honors or achievements.

A frown had fixed itself on her face as she fell into silence, letting Edric do his thinking while she worked at the stubborn areas left behind.

Not like we ever needed anyone.

He wasn't wrong. Before the revolution they'd been raised and trained not to need anything but themselves. A year of change in the rules wouldn't do much to alter that independence. Ralene held on to it, fiercely so, but she found she did not resent the changes that had allowed the Initiates a reprieve from the constant backstabbing and killing.

It wasn't so bad, getting to know those she'd literally grown up with beyond their preferred mode of survival, the reach of their arm, and the magical powers they employed. In a way, these new opportunities into relationships offered up a whole new set of challenges and to Ralene, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It allowed the pecking order to shift, even if those that had already been on top didn't move much... if at all.

Mirth pulled at her lips, "Maybe we do," she eyed Edric dubiously, as unconvinced of those words as he, "but soon enough that won't matter, will it?" After graduation, after being ranked and scouted, after recruitment into noble houses or the military ... after all of that was said in done, where did that leave them? On their own again. That wasn't even accounting for the ones that decided to leave and pursue careers or lives beyond Vel Anir.

Ralene thumbed blood from a small nick on his chin - couldn't be helped, the damned oaf kept moving - and watched it stitch itself back together. Edric was like her, he didn't need anyone else. Regardless of what he chose to do in the end, he'd be just fine. She stepped away from him and moved to rinse the blade one last time in the basin, tossing a rag at him to wipe his now cleanly shaven face down, "What will you do?"

 

[Edric]

Edric caught the towel without a second thought, rubbing it against his face to rid himself of the lather. A frown flickered over his features as she asked her question.

"I don't know." He admitted quietly.

This wasn't the first time he'd been asked the question. The conversation had crept up on his mission with Noel too. In the months since then he hadn't really...decided on anything at all. It seemed things always changed too quickly for him to settle on one thing or another.

"I had a plan." He said quietly. "Before the Revolution, but now..."

His head shook. "I'm not so sure anymore."

Edric knew that he could do pretty much anything. He was powerful, strong. The Guard would want him for their own purposes, some of the Houses might too...though he knew it would never happen openly anymore. Exile was a choice, he'd never want for much with his skills.

There was so much he could do that it just seemed overwhelming.

Before the Revolution he had wanted freedom, craved it. Now? Now it seemed such a cheap thing.

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene listened to him, unsmiling, and considered his words while the silence fell between them. Blade cleaned, dried, and safely tucked back into its sheath, she tossed it back on the bed so he could sleep with it under his pillow as he had been.

"We never expected to have a choice," words spoken at length. Busy work took over her need to remain active; moving to the fireplace to stack fresh firewood and strike up the flames for the evening. If they'd had a choice at all, it had only been between what entity of Vel Anir to serve. Now? Now they could leave.

Simple as that. Leave and never return. Elective exile.

"It's one of the things about the revolution that never made sense to me," Ral stooped by the fireplace and stoked the flames with kindling, "they spent all this time crafting weapons and yet they'll willingly give them up if that's what we choose?" Her words were quiet like his, wary of anyone outside overhearing.

"That doesn't add up."

Seemed to her, Vel Anir wouldn't want to give up its most powerful weapons for the off chance that an exiled Dreadlord could be used against it.

 

[Edric]

Edric rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "I've never understood any of the politics."

He had never much cared.

Before the revolution Edric had fully intended to run. That was why he had trained so hard, why he'd fought to be the best of the best. He'd known they would come after him, and he'd known that he would have to kill whoever followed in his wake.

It was the only reason he'd tried to be the best in their class. The only reason he'd ever actually cared. Running had meant freedom, it had been a choice. His choice. Now that was gone. Taken from him by the hands of people he'd never met or spoken to. People he would likely never meet.

"Before everything…I was being approached by House Sirl." He commented quietly. He knew that Ral was from Bannick of course, but he'd never much cared. Mostly because she hadn't. "I half wonder if that's why I'm here."

He said with another shrug. "Like you said. I doubt they'd just throw their soldiers away."

Even reduced the Great Houses could still pull strings. "We'll always be useful."

 

[Samantha Black]

Ralene lowered herself to sit before the fireplace, angled so she could continue to stoke the flames and help them take while still being able to look at Ed while he spoke. This may have been her first chance in a long while to talk to him like this. At the academy they were often ships passing in the night, one returning from a mission while the other was going out. The rare times they were present together often ended up in sparring matches.

Class study.

There were always eyes and ears watching and listening. It was nice to speak openly with him, even if the threat here was much more real should their words be heard.

"I think my father hoped he would find me willing and eager to be recruited into House Bannick. But I was never destined for a House, the military scouted me early. Commander Warren worked some deal out with Mars." Ral didn't know quite how she felt about having her future planned out for her - it was a bit like an arranged marriage. Her life was set and she'd never had a say, but since the beginning that had always been the expectation.

"At first it was kind of nice, knowing I didn't need to play the game of politics to get into a House. I just had to keep up with the Commander's expectations. But since the revolution," she tore a loose piece of kindling apart idly, tossing pieces into the catching flames, "I haven't heard a word."

She glanced back over at Ed, "What about Sirl now?"

 

[Edric]

Edric frowned for a moment as Edric mentioned the Guard.

He wondered if that had become almost...normal when Talus had joined them. Before that there had been rumors, whispers, but the man had opened a floodgate of Dreadlords joining the Guard when he'd taken his step.

The Initiate wasn't entirely sure why the thought even bothered him. "Not a word."

Edric said with a shrug.

"I figured they had just decided to cut their losses, play nice while the Republic was still new." That had made sense to him, and honestly the idea had even been a relief. He'd never wanted the attention of the Houses, or anyone else for that matter. "But this mission..."

He trailed off. "I don't know, Ral. I'll never pretend to understand the fucking games."

A shrug rolled over his shoulders.

"They turned me into a killer." Edric said quietly. "Not a politician."

 

[Samantha Black]

So, silence on his end, too. That was ... telling, but she wasn't sure of what, exactly. Edric was the best of them - Ral would never openly admit it, but she knew it. So did the rest of them. With his powers and abilities, it would be an absolute shock if Edric didn't immediately make Archon status after graduation. Every house should want him in their ranks. Hell, so should the Guard.

So why had only House Sirl made the move to recruit him and why the sudden abandonment?

And how the hell did what was happening in Wissburg tie in?

Brow furrowed, she heaved a long, deep sigh and tossed the rest of the kindling from her hands into the flames before pushing herself to a stand.

"Listen Ed," Ral approached him where he sat, voice still carefully quiet, "I don't know how the hell we ended up in this fucked up situation, but I do know two things. One: the two of us have the highest number of successful missions out of our entire class and we're not going to fail this one. And two..." she leaned down and looked him strongly in the eyes, "you are much more than just a killer, you just haven't had a chance to prove it yet."

Ral tipped her brows at him to make the point, eyes narrowing as she studied his face, "Also, I give a damn good shave if I do say so myself."

Smirk.