Private Tales The Legend's Heir

[Solgrin]

Fingers flittered at his side as Serafina clung to him.

The touch was not an unusual one. Not for a Princess and an escort. There was no affection, but instead weariness. When strangers approached such a thing would almost been expected. Eyes flickered over towards them for a brief moment.

Solgrin could remember the woman from Sera's drawing.

Her features were more than familiar, and he felt his heart pulse in his chest.

It would have been easy to draw his sword. So simple to run the woman through and simply pull the ring from her fingers. The man at her side would have died just as easily. Cut down before he could protect the woman that accompanied him.

The temptation of it sat in his chest, but he knew he couldn't.

"Excuse us." Solgrin voiced as he continued to walk straight forward, never breaking his stride and forcing the other couple to give way to them.

It was only proper. Serafina was of a higher status.

 

[Serafina]

Sera had tried to describe what it felt like when a piece of the gem was near several times. Each time the words had felt too flat to describe the sudden rush of life that filled her or the song that echoed in her ears. It had become easier to bear that feeling with the pieces that Solgrin had - the more shards that were together seemed to calm them as though being closer to being whole was what it wanted, like it was a living thing itself. The sweet rush of power threatened to drown her with its sirens song and it was only Solgrin moving that kept her going.

She wanted -- no she needed that shard. It was an overwhelming, clawing, desperate thing inside of her.

"At least we know it's real," she croaked once they were far enough away from the other couple that she could breathe a little easier. It had been a real worry that her dreams had been planted there by one of his old 'friends' to lure them into a trap.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin clutched Serafina gently, holding her so that she did not fall over onto the ground. "I never doubted."

The Bandit Chief said confidently.

His gaze flickered back towards the woman who was now more than a hundred yards away. She walked with a careless step, her laugh barely echoing from the distance as the man by her side told her some sort of joke. Solgrin frowned.

Then his attention flickered back to Serafina.

"We'll see her at the party." He said quietly. "You'll have to be careful on how you...react."

Solgrin said. "She will undoubtedly be smarter than we think."

The woman lived in Tel Amos, after all.

 

[Serafina]

Sera pressed her back to one of the trees and put a hand against her chest as though she had had a fainting spell in the oppressive heat. Other women seemed to be doing the same though the sweat wasn't running down her face quite so bad as theirs despite being from the far North. They were probably getting their first snows back home, she thought with a tightness in her heart. Perhaps she could write a letter to her father... just to let him know she was alive and well.

"I won't be caught as off guard this time," she grimaced up at Sol then shook her head faintly. "At least she was too wrapped up in herself to sense me," for that was how the gem worked. Like called to like. It might even mean she felt herself drawn to herself and Sol at the party though she wouldn't know why until they had the ring. Kip had been teaching her slight of hand tricks, she just hoped it worked.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin nodded. "Not surprising."

He said as he looked towards the couple that had just passed them.

"They are rather wrapped up in one another." The Bandit Chief did not recognize the man that she was accompanying, though from his dress he had gathered he was someone of importance. Likely far above her station.

He mused for a moment.

"Are you ready to play their game?" Solgrin asked. "It won't be easy."

Even for the short time they would be there.

 

[Serafina]

"Not really," Sera sighed and fanned herself a little harder though it had nothing to do with the oppressive heat. Her eyes slid from the path to Solgrin’s face and she grimaced at the determination in the set of his jaw. If she failed he would just kill the woman and anyone else in his way to get that shard of the gem. She had to do more than try; she had to succeed.

"But it'll work. I think if I make any small slips they'll go unnoticed - people seem far more interested in themselves," and Nyx had taught her well enough not to make any large blunders. Truth be told she had probably been taught enough to not make even small mistakes; Nyx had been a harsh and thorough teacher. Sometimes Sera even dreamed about fan language. Shaking herself to pull herself together, she pushed off from the tree and looped her arm back through Sol's to continue the walk.

"I think that man with her might be her brother - their eyes are the same - but there seems something a bit... more there," blackmail was how the elite here seemed to get what they want. If they could find some dirt on this woman they could make her give them the ring.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin considered the words for a second. His eyes closed as he tried to remember the couple. Lips thinned, and then he looked at Serafina with a quick nod.

She was probably right.

They had little coin left after the purchase of all the dresses and armor. Putting on this particular illusion had not been a cheap endeavor. Buying any sort of information was likely out of the question, so they would have to happen upon it in another way. It was a day yet until the party, that would be helpful at least.

"Best we set a few of the others on it." He said with a frown, stroking at his beard in consideration. "I think you…"

He smiled. "I think you and Violet should attend the theater."

Yes. That would work quite well. A show of their status, a bit of mingling during the intermissions. It could work out quite well, and perhaps with a bit of luck their target might even be attending herself.

 

[Serafina]

Kip sprang to mind first of all; the younger Bandit had once been a street thief before joining Sol's gang. He was still lanky enough to pass for young help and carried the dishevelled urchin look off well despite his broadening shoulders and growing muscles. He'd once told her round the fire he thought of her like a sister and she'd been surprised to find she had returned the sentiment. If they asked him to do this he would leap to it with an unrivalled enthusiasm. She was about to suggest as much when Solgrin made his own suggestion.

Sera tripped over a rock and flushed crimson at her mistake, brushing her skirts in a flustered manner.

"The theatre?" she had seen a play, once, when they had visited the large city they paid tithes to. She didn't think the theatre here was in the streets where people clamoured trying to get to the front though.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin immediately reached out to catch Serafina, even if she didn't really require the assistance.

If he hadn't done so it would have looked strange, and in truth...the reaction was natural. Like he were catching himself. Lips thinned for a brief moment as Sera brushed herself off quickly, smoothing her skirts with a flustered tone.

"A play, or at least a show of some sort." Solgrin explained as he gently let her go, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed them.

"There's always one going on." He explained. "And only the richest can afford them."

They had enough coin for that at least.

A smile touched his face for a moment. "Though you'll have to try to act unimpressed."

 

[Serafina]

Sera looked at him grimly though from afar it would probably appear as though she were scolding him over a trifling matter.

"Why would you go to a play if you were going to just... hate it?" she asked softly and then shook her head as though she had disapproved of something else he said. It was a hard thing keeping up the two conversations but Nyx and Violet had trained her well. She might have been a clutz and shy about her role at times but she wasn't doing a completely awful job of it.

"It would be nice to see a show though," she brimmed with excitement at the prospect and had to focus all her efforts on not beaming ear to ear. "And gossip. Maybe there is a way we could share a box with someone important."

 

[Solgrin]

He nodded. "You most certainly will."

That was half the reason why they would be going. The party would go much smoother if they already had inroads, and friends would make that happen easily enough. As long as she and Violet played the game carefully enough.

"And." He added. "I didn't say you had to hate it."

Solgrin reminded. "Just be...unimpressed."

His shoulders rolled as he tried to think of a way to explain the differences. He mused for a moment, and then began.

"You're a lady of means, from a country that prides itself in the arts. This show might be good, but it's nothing like back home." Something to brag about.

 

[Serafina]

Nerves were falling away to excitement. It was obvious from the way she had begun to smile.

"I think I understand," she nodded thoughtfully. "It's like when a cook from the village over once cooked the Saintmass dinner and whilst it was good it wasn't as good as when my father does it," her and Violet had made that quiet known as had everyone else from their town. Nobody could outcook her father. Suddenly she blinked. The memory had come unbidden and so naturally it shocked her now she realised what it was and that she had said it out loud. She'd shared nothing of her past, her home, with Solgrin. He didn't care. Or... at least she didn't think he did. It was a life he wouldn't ever let her go back to whilst he was alive.

She swallowed.

"I can do that, is what I meant," Sera looked anywhere but at him and shoved down the awkwardness she felt. To avoid further conversation on the matter she steered them towards the duck pond where some other women and their guards had gathered. In a slightly louder voice she sighed and spoke.

"I wonder what a town like this even had on in the theatre worth seeing," she gave a sniff to seal the snootiness. Sure enough the conversation next to them began to quieten. "Isn't there anything else to do in this little backwater place?"

 

[Solgrin]

"Sure." Solgrin said in agreement with her analogy, smiling slightly.

It was not exactly the way that he would have put it, but if it helped Serafina to think of it in such a way then he would not say anything against it. The very fact was charming in some way, reminding Solgrin just how backwater of a place Serafina actually hailed from.

She truly would be lost in one of the great cities.

"I'm afraid not, My Lady." Solgrin said as Sera played her part and set him up. "This city is very much still growing, there is little In the way of entertainment."

That wasn't exactly true of course, but Solgrin knew his part in this as well as Serafina. "I believe the play is gli amanti litigano. You may have heard of it? I'm sure their performance will be... adequate."

 

[Serafina]

"Again?" Sera gave two quick beats of her fan - a sign of outright distress to any woman nearby watching her movements - and sighed dramatically. "Isn't there any other play these people know?"

It had the desired effect almost too quickly. The group they had stopped by numbered four women and just as many servants carrying their assorted picnic items. As Sera had begun making quite the scene they had stopped their idle chatter to listen intently instead to what it is she was saying. Almost as soon as her last rhetorical question was out of her mouth one of them, a short lady with fair skin that looked as though it might burn at the mere suggestion of the sun and a mop of ginger hair piled elegantly atop her head, glided forward with a plastic smile.

"My lady, do forgive my trespass but my friends and I couldn't help but over hear you and we quite agree, we would much rather have a new play be performed. We simply go now as an excuse to ditch our husbands and enjoy an evening with friends," her eyes slid to Solgrin then, clearly trying to determine who he was in relation to her, then quickly dismissed him as a servant and continued directly to Sera. "My name is Jasmine D'Here, if you'd do me the honour I would love to host you in my box. It's the second biggest at the theatre you know, only the Merchant Princes' is bigger."

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin didn't say anything, it wasn't his place to speak.

Instead he seemed to almost float back behind Serafina. His hand gently came to rest on the hilt of his sword, not in a threatening manner, but a gentle reminder that he was here to protect her. The ladies didn't even offer him a second glance.

A mark of just how common a role like his was in a place like this.

Briefly the Bandit Chief felt like he was twenty years younger, like he was still that young Knight wandering around the Courts and listening to the gossips of nobility. He smiled for a brief moment, letting those memories wash through him.

He didn't often have cause to recall them.

It was strangely pleasant in a way.

 

[Serafina]

Serafina looked the other woman up and down with barely concealed contempt. The other woman did a good job of trying to look appealing; straightening up her dress and adjusting her little lacy gloves just so. She let the pregnant pause stretch on just a little while longer before finally inclining her head and snapping her fan shut.

"That would be most kind of you Lady D'Here," Jasmine looked a little relieved but also liked a puffed up peacock. It bewildered Serafina that a random stranger sitting in your box at the theatre was such an honour, even if you thought that stranger to be a Duchess from a much bigger city. Her eyes flickered over the other women and before she could ask Jasmine blurted in.

"Oh, don't worry they have their own boxes unless it would please your lady for them to join us?" the question hung barely voiced between them. Sera could read the hope there and painfully she smiled.

"It has been a while since I've had a 'girls night', perhaps it will be amusing," there was a flicker of relief on the other woman's face and great, beaming smile. "I'll see you tonight then, Lady D'Here," she dismissed and turned with flare to saunter off along her path once more praying to the Saint she didn't trip again.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin watched after the moment, snapping back into the moment as he watched her walk away. "Well done."

He said quietly.

"We'll have to keep our distance." The Bandit Chief murmured quietly, more to himself than to Serafina. The Theater they would be going was familiar to him, though it's layout was clouded in a haze of years that had passed by.

He would have to send one of the boys to scout it out, and perhaps set himself up with a crossbow somewhere in the rafters.

After a moment he considered her.

"The D'Here family has been part of Tel Amos for a long time." Solgrin said. "That young woman's father tried to have me killed."

Though he didn't take that personally.

 

[Serafina]

Sera wasn't so lucky in tripping without anyone around to see it this time. The elderly couple raised their brows at her as she righted herself and muttered about needing a new pair of heels made by a professional not some country lout. They seemed to by her excuse, stopping to give her the name of their cobbler and shooting Solgrin a contemptuous look before breezing on past.

"They tried to kill you and you just let me talk to them?" she hissed when they were alone on the park pathway again. She gave him a wide-eyed stare that plainly said she thought he was crazy. "What if they recognise you? What if--?" she sucked in a deep breath and ran a hand down her face.

"This was a bad idea."

 

[Solgrin]

"If I stopped speaking with everyone that tried to kill me I would quickly run out of conversational partners." The words were meant as a joke, but there was a surprising amount of truth to them.

Solgrin had made hundreds of enemies over the years, but most of those sins had been long forgiven.

"He will no doubt recognize me, if he sees me." Solgrin said, putting a hand on her shoulder. His thumb softly stroked in place, a calming gesture that was not too intimate for their surroundings. "But It won't matter."

How did he explain this? "These people...live in different worlds. Today's enemy is tomorrows friend. He might have wanted to kill me, but I was in service to..."

His head shook.

"It doesn't matter." Not anymore. "You're not an enemy, and I'm protecting you. Thus, he won't much care, especially if he sees his daughter getting close to you."

In fact, that would likely only endear the man to all of this. "Nyx would have explained it better."

He said quietly.

 

[Serafina]

These games the nobles played made her head hurt. Nyx had explained them to her over games of chess which had always left her exhausted and wanting her bed. She just couldn't understand why people with so much would risk it all on games, risk it all to get a scrap more. Couldn't they see how good they had it? She supposed life always looked better on the next rung up and that that didn't change no matter how many rungs up you here on the ladder. Whilst they were alone she gently reached up to trace her fingers along his hand.

She quickly dropped her hand before they rounded another corner.

"Nyx would be despairing over how I can't even walk in this thing," she said softly, trying to ease the memory of sadness by thinking of something funny.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin smiled. "Aye she would be."

It was hard not to disagree with that fact. Nyx had always been a strict woman, even to those she had not actually been teaching. A pang rang through him for a moment, but the bandit chief took a breath and then shook his head. With a slow wave he motioned towards the path once again.

"We should get going, my lady." Solgrin said. "We'll not want to be late for dinner."

The show would come after, but there was some preparing get to do.

Solgrin wanted to make sure one of the boys was already in place when the whole thing began. He doubted there would be an attack, but after being caught flat footed once already he would not make the same mistake.

Not again.

 

[Serafina]

The pair walked in companionable silence on the way back to the palatial inn. The awes of the big city had worn off enough that she didn't stop to look at every other shop and instead appeared to be more concerned with whatever thoughts were buzzing through her mind than commenting on every new little thing she saw. The only time she did pause to comment was when a group of women walked past all holding curiously small dogs like babies whilst their babies were pushed behind them in prams by nurses. The dogs looked more like overgrown rats and Sera shook her head over what passed for fashion in cities.

Dinner, Serafina announced with a sniff to the page, would be taken in her suite.

Whilst they were waiting for it, and for Sol and the others who would join them at the theatre to reappear, Sera found herself alone with Violet who filled her in on her own adventures of the day.

"... And they have these things called swimming pools!"

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin made the arrangements.

There would be no surprises, not anymore. Time would not get away from him, and when the hour approached to head to the theater things were already well in place. Two of the boys were already squandered away in the crown, and two others had been sent into the rafters of the theater with crossbows.

It was as secure as he could make a public place without having a full army, and that was as good as it was going to get.

"Have you got your theater dresses on yet?" Solgrin called back to the two girls as he allowed himself a sip of brandy. He himself was back to wearing armor, polished to a shine of course and set on his chest as though it were meant to be there.

 

[Serafina]

"I look stupid!"

"It's called fashion, Sera."

"That doesn't mean it isn't ridiculous," came the grumbled reply. The next few heated words were exchanged in a furious hushed voice before she younger woman was unceremoniously shoved out from behind the changing screen. The deep blue velvet dress looked as though it were created out of the night sky itself. Tiny diamonds sparkled as she moved and caught the light giving the illusion of stars and an almost opaque train that hung from the back neckline and spilled to the floor. The dress itself was tightly corseted and bustled at the back in the latest style. Her exposed arms were adorned with long silk gloves that went nearly all the way to her armpits. Her hair, usually pinned up, had been left for the most part loose in soft waves and was pinned back with only a few strands from the front in order to keep the whole mane from getting in her eyes. A subtle diadem adorned her forehead and the deep blue sapphire that perched between her brows only highlighted the colour of her own eyes.

Her cheeks, flushed with her embarrassment, ruined the noble look.

Violet's gown was a lot more modest in a patterned cotton with longer sleeves and delicate lace gloves. From the way Sera looked at her it was quite clear she would have preferred something similar and less gaze-catching.

 

[Solgrin]

"It's nice." Solgrin commented. "I'm sure you'll impress."

He smiled, though the fury that he could see on her cheeks was more than a little amusing. A fact the Bandit Chief tried his damnedest not to show. There was an indignation to the way Sera now carried herself, though of course she would have to try and do away with that.

A hand came up to rub at his beard, hiding the smirk on his lips.

Briefly he glanced towards Violet, noting the inkling of envy. It wasn't surprising, the girl had after all been the 'royalty' of the two. Briefly Solgrin wondered just how much longer he would have to keep her around. She already could have left.

Perhaps that was a mark of her loyalty. "It's better than what you'd be wearing in Teth."

He mused with a chuckle.