Private Tales The Legend's Heir

[Serafina]

Serafina said nothing but there was a sadness to her eyes as she set the plate in his lap and walked back to her chair. It didn't matter how far they might have come as people she still didn't trust in him there would ever be an end. For a start, he still refused to tell her what it was he needed to do to feel free, but secondly she could feel how this bond was growing between them. Or, to be more precise, the bond her magic was creating between it and the gem to keep themselves safe. Perhaps it would disappear if a new keeper of the gem was chosen or if he died but she wasn't sure it would if they both lived.

Solgrin wouldn't let anything tie him down and if he felt that the bond did he would kill her to rid himself of it.

"I think I will travel when it is over, see some of the places these books are about rather than just read about them," her fingers trailed over the covers as she stood with her back to him and fought to keep her emotions under control.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin nodded, feeling the trickle of emotion through that odd bond that had to form. "Then do so."

He said encouragingly.

"Alliria, Elbion, the Spine." Solgrin did not lie when he told her she would be free. One way or another, he would eventually be gone. The Bandit Chief had no idea how long the curse would let him last, how long he could go with the toll unpaid.

Yet it would eventually take him.

He knew this fate.

"See whatever you desire." Solgrin told her. "You'll know enough by then."

Enough to survive on her own.

 

[Serafina]

Closing her eyes, Serafina took a deep breath and pulled the robe she was wearing tighter around herself.

"Yeah, I'm sure I will."

It was a problem for another day, thoughts for another day if it even came to pass. There was no sense in planning anything until she knew more. Dreams would only hurt her more. So she rolled her shoulders and sat back down in the armchair opposite, casting the whole thing from her mind. Instead her eyes went to the untouched plate on his lap and raised a disapproving brow.

"You need to eat, I already cleared out the kitchen so this is likely all there is," she tried a half smile but let it fall when it didn't reach her eyes. "I heard the others came back safely... if the mages are gone how soon till we have to leave?"

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin did begin to eat, albeit slowly. "A few weeks still."

There was no doubt in his mind that Civel would try again, but it would take him time to gather more mages or make his way up the mountain. He would have to post sentries along the way, create signal fired to ensure they would have forewarning.

"We have time still." He assured her. "Don't worry about that."

Solgrin leaned back in the chair. "That's my concern."

He would keep her safe, just as he had promised.

"When we do leave, we'll head towards Tel Amos." The City that she had seen the woman in. "You might actually enjoy it there."

He mused.

 

[Serafina]

Serafina bit down on the inside of her cheek when he dismissed her concerns in an arrogant manner that seemed to be the staple of noble men. She might not have known much of the world but she liked to know the basics of where she was going, when she was going, who was trying to kidnap her for the ancient magic that lived inside of her. Small things, really.

"It'll be nice to be able to walk around without a broken leg," her voice was a little drier than she intended as she turned her face towards the fire but her mind was wandering to the woman in her dreams now. Another slice of the gem would mean even more power to try and control. A step closer to having it complete and embarking on the true mission.

A mission she still didn't know.

"What's it like?" Sera asked after a prolonged fire and turned her gaze back to him.

 

[Solgrin]

For a few seconds Solgrin remained quiet. Considering how to best explain. "Tel Amos is a...noble city."

That perhaps fit it best.

"Old. Many traditions and passions that are deeply ingrained in society there." The Councilors of the city claimed to be the oldest government in Arethil, though Solgrin had his doubt about that fact.

"It's beautiful, in it's own sort of way." He mused. "Tall towers, white marble palaces. Even the slums are made of stone."

Something that could not be said of many places. "Things are very rigid, though if you have enough coin...you can pretty much stand next to the Dukes and find no problems."

 

[Serafina]

Sera brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on top of them. Despite the shadows under her eyes they were bright and interested in what it was he had to say about the city. It sounded more like the type of thing she had read about than the last few places they had visited, though perhaps that was to be expected when one travelled with Bandits. A faint, tired smile ghosted across her lips; it was so rare to get a descriptive response out of Solgrin that she enjoyed when it happened. She also enjoyed how he actually looked as though he were actually looking forward to going himself.

"It sounds wonderful," a soft sigh, the type young women often gave when they were lost in their dreams.

"Do you have a plan for how to get the ring off of her?"

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin did not want to completely destroy what little innocents still clung to Serafina. Telling her that he was going to simply walk up to her and slit the woman's throat would likely not give him a good response.

Best to keep that part of the plan hidden. "I have a few friends in Tel Amos still."

Most of the nobility despised him in that place, but his actions there had made a few people very rich. The City had once been a rival to the Kingdom Solgrin had served, and though they had not forgiven his own rampages through the city...a few saw the benefit in making him a friend.

They would help him, though he could trust none of them.

"We'll have a measure of safety in the city at least." For a little while. "From there...We may have to attend a Gala."

He shrugged. It depended on the situation inthe city once they arrived.

 

[Serafina]

"A Gala!?" The young girl sat up a little straighter and her arms tightened about her legs. In Yarrrin the closest they ever held to a gala was the seasonal dances in the town square. Violet would go to the gala in the nearby city once a year at yuletime but servants weren't allowed to attend.

That thought drifted through her mind and dampened her excitement.

"Can... I go?" In a bitter way she didn't think there was much difference really between her old life and this one. Someone had always been in control of what she did.

 

[Solgrin]

"Of course." Solgrin said immediately.

Of only because her presence there would make it that much easier to find the gem. Plus he would not deny her the small joys she could find in this life. Opportunities needed to be taken and the binds needed to become tighter before the gem was whole.

Gilded cage or not, small treats had to be dropped through the bars.

"Tel Amos is famed for them." The nobility in the city was far, rich, and needed any excuse that came wandering to throw a party. Solgrin had no doubt that there would be a Gala or Ball or whatever else fancy name they tacked onto it. "If we're lucky, she'll be hosting one herself."

Though with how things were going so far, he doubted their luck would suddenly appear.

More likely they'd find Civel there already waiting and Solgrin would have to cut his throat. Still, he didn't mention that thought to Serafina, letting her live in her small world of fantasy.

 

[Serafina]

It was no small fantasy that Serafina found herself daydreaming about now. She imagined everything she had seen Violet experience but bigger and grander, more suited to an old city like the one he described. Gold-leafed carriages being pulled by perfect snow white horses, footmen to open doors and help ladies down from their carriages, a swathe of beautiful and elegantly dressed people all talking with one another. Food, wine, music... It was evident on the softening of her face how caught up in the idea she was and the unfocused way her eyes had gone.

The whole notion was so far from her reality that Sera wanted it more than anything.

"It sounds wonderful," and just like that her reluctance to leave was gone. Perhaps things wouldn't be so bad away from here - maybe he had changed, she most certainly had. An amused smile curved her lips up as she looked at him and teased, "will you wear a suit?"

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin chuckled. "No."

He had attended more than one Gala in his time, though never truly welcomed. It had always been a necessity. Marius had more often than not been the one to drag him there, mostly just so he could have Solgrin intimidate someone.

"I'm not a noble." Neither was Sera of course, but the people there wouldn't know that. "You'll be able to fool people, but they know my face."

That was the plan of course, make her appear a noble. "I'll be wearing armor."

He was a soldier, always would be.

"Nicer than the usual sort, but not a suit." He told her.

 

[Serafina]

"Me? A Noble?" Now it was Serafina's time to laugh.

She couldn't really talk about the Tel Amos nobility but from those that she was used to, she didn't think she came anywhere close to looking like one. Let alone sounding like one or acting like one. Still the moment was doing good to ease her concerns and direct her thoughts away from the reality of the future to this playful part. The tightness to her expression was gone and even though tiredness was evident she looked relaxed once more in his presence.

"I think I would be better off in the armour," Sera managed to say it with a straight face before bursting into another series of giggles at the expression on his face; she might have been getting better with a bow and arrow but she was no warrior.

 

[Solgrin]

He smiled briefly, not wanting to ruin her joke with the knowledge that in Tel Amos women were not allowed to fight.

The City was old, and with that came traditions hundreds of years old. The Nobility, and the people for that matter, clung to those traditions desperately. A woman fighting was seen as almost abhorrent. Silly, by Solgrin's own notions, but it was an important piece of Tel Amos.

"You'll do fine." He assured her.

"When we get closer there's a few who can teach you some things." Solgrin said. "Lilien is from Tel Amos."

She had been a maid servant to one of the families, swooped up by Solgrin and his warband after one of their visits to the city.

 

[Serafina]

"Lilien?" Sera blinked. Now that did surprise her. The woman had been one of the more terrifying when Sera and Violet had first found themselves in the group. She hadn't been nasty per see but she hadn't been warm and it had taken quite some time for her to warm up to the two girls. Serafina couldn't imagine her as being a maid much like she had, tip-toeing meekly around nobilities, curtseying and keeping her eyes down. She was like a wild flame now and far from subservient. She'd seen her punch Norbit when he had attempted to pinch her arse at the dance.

"Your group... just keeps surprising me," still not our group, Sera wouldn't feel apart of the Bandit clan for quite some time yet.

 

[Solgrin]

He smiled slightly, lips curling at the end. Solgrin could understand her confusion, the Bandits were...varying to say the least. From the outside looking in they must have appeared as cuthroats, killers, murderers, and not much more than that.

"They each have had their own lives." Solgrin told her.

It was obvious of course, they were human beings, but perhaps their outter appearance, their nature, made it easy to forget that. "Most joined to leave lives they didn't want."

He told her.

"Others to find something new." A shrug rolled across his shoulder. "Some to just experience life."

 

[Serafina]

"I just assumed they had left with you... were a part of your army..." Sera said shyly and lowered her eyes in embarrassment. It was a naïve thing to have assumed but he was right to think it was their outward appearance that had let her think that. They were so gruff and harsh - or at least had been when she had first been thrust into their midst - that it was hard to imagine any of them as anything other than Bandits.

The fire crackled in the silence that followed.

"This is nice," she said softly after a while and turned her gaze back to him. "You... talking to me like I'm a human being," her emotions tangled in the web have magic may have meant she felt things for him but she always knew what she was.

 

[Solgrin]

"A few, but not most." There were not many left from his army, and some had left throughout the years. Solgrin did not generally keep people by his side who did not want to be there, at least not if he could help it.

Serafina was a different story of course. She had to be there.

When she next spoke Solgrin raised an eyebrow. He could well understand the words, especially coming from her. How she was placed in all of this must have been confusing for her, particularly with how he treated her in the beginning.

"It is." He agreed with a nod of his head.

What else was there for him to say on the subject?

 

[Serafina]

Serafina let the silence stretch once more as she gathered her courage. What she said next were words she had wanted to say for the past two weeks as their relationship had changed from the owner and pet to more like a... a partnership. It had to be when it came to the magic for both their sakes and whilst she might not have liked it she would admit that it was better than having it yanked from her.

"I know... That I mean nothing more to you than a..." her eyes searched around the room as her brain raced for the right word. "Tool to use on your mission. I see the way you look at me sometimes... but, I am a person. I have feelings," she swallowed slowly and tried to ignore how pathetic it sounded to her own ears. Her arms tightened about her legs. "I don't like that I'm here - that you took me from my home and won't let me go - but I can see that if it wasn't you it would be someone else. Maybe those three out there or perhaps an entirely new contender. I don't know if they'll be worse, or better, but I'll still be the same. Caged," she didn't dare meet his eyes as she spoke and focused instead on picking at the thread on her nightdress. "I won't try and run anymore, but could you... could you at least try not to..."

Another, shuddered breath.

"I just want to be treated like a person."

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin stared for the longest time.

He had always been a harsh man. Not necessarily cruel, evil by some standards, but always harsh. The measures he'd taken, the roles he had assigned himself had never been easy. It was his lot in life, what he had taken upon himself.

Even now, all of this. It was not because he got some twisted joy from it, because he was some narcissistic demon that simply sought his own vices and nothing else. He did this because he had to, because he needed to.

Did he need to be cruel now? Evil?

No.

"Fair enough." Solgrin said eventually, nodding his head. "I will try."

He paused for a few seconds, letting the air sit empty, then he added. "Such things are not...easy for me."

Emotions, showing his colors. He was a pillar, a soldier, not always a man.

 

[Serafina]

"I know."

By the Gods did she know and she knew that she couldn't ask for him to change entirely for her too. When he didn't expand on plans or brushed aside her questions with the barest of explanations she bit her tongue and kept her head down though it pained her to. In the end she didn't need to know - not all of it, not really. In some cases she suspected it would be better if she didn't know.

"It would have probably been easier for you if I was a young farmhand or a boy used to that... way of things. But I'm not," she couldn't help who she was. "I just want some... tiny bit of your respect and not to feel," she took a breath and closed her eyes. "Like you wished you could slit my throat and take the magic for yourself."

 

[Solgrin]

His rebukes had never been kind, not with Sera, not with anyone really. The people in his Band had learned that lesson early on, before anything else was taught in fact.

Serafina didn't want to be a tool, she was in essence asking to be one of the Band. Even they were treated the same, but he understood what she meant. It would have been easier if he could take the magic himself, it would have been simpler if he could simply do all of this own his own.

Not just for him, but for her.

"I will take greater measures." He told her after a moment. "It's not that I wish to slit your throat and be rid of you."

Solgrin said with a frown, that was framing it wrong. "I wish..."

He considered.

"That it were not a necessity." He gestured to her. "Any of it. I'm not some monster who takes joy in all of this."

Though he was sure many would disagree, point out things he had done in his past, the moments where he had laughed in the midst of cruelty. He was no saint, no hero, but no demon either. Not in his minds eye.

"I do what I must, to finish what I can in the time I have left." He said plainly, the first time he had spoken of any limit on his time.

 

[Serafina]

Now it was Sera's time to simply stare for a while: this was the most human she had ever seen him.

"I didn't mean..."

Truthfully, she had believed he would have slit her throat and done so happily, so to hear him say he wished he had not had to do any of what he had... It jarred with the only idea she had ever had of him. A part of her even felt bad for assuming the worst; he had never given her a hint that he enjoyed what he did. Sometimes she had wondered it because he just did it so well, so effortlessly. Though maybe that was down to the fact she was just not used to soldiers and their mannerisms. Guilt weighed heavy on her heart as she stared at him and the tired look on his face. He wanted this over as much as she did.

Slowly, Serafina unfolded herself from her seat and crossed the distance to kneel at his feet.

"Then let me help. Let me in, let me share this thing you insist on shouldering on your own..."

 

[Solgrin]

"No." The answer was stark, sudden, but a mark of him.

He was not a man. He was something else. A cursed statue. A mark upon this earth, a blight that slowly spread out and destroyed. That was the life that he had consigned himself to, that was the life that he chose to live and lead.

That was how he would die. "Not now."

He bit off the words slowly. Giving an inch, a small bit of himself that he could offer.

"Not yet." It was too soon, and the weight he bore was his to carry. Perhaps in time he would feel differently, but he would not throw his responsibilities onto others. Not when he had carried them for so long.

Gently he touched her cheek, his thumb stroking over her skin. "Not until I'm ready."

Not until things were right.

 

[Serafina]

His answer broke her heart.

In a sweep of lashes her eyes closed and a single tear rolled down her cheek. No matter what she said or what he assured her whilst he kept his cards close to his chest and heaped the responsibility onto his shoulders alone, he would continue to treat her as a tool. She knew it, deep in her heart. This mission whatever it was would drive him till his final breath and the rest of them would be helpless to do anything but watch. Some men were like that, Violet's mother had once told both girls. They pulled you into their current and swept you along in the rush. It was all you could do to keep your head above water and not drown.

Despite the pain Sera turned to kiss the inside of his wrist. For a while she lingered there and then she stood up.

"I'm going to bed, you should get some sleep too," the last 24 hours had been exhausting for them both.