Private Tales The Legend's Heir

[Solgrin]

Solgrin shook his head. ”I’m not really sure yet.”

Truth be told, The Bandit Chief wasn’t sure about half of the things he had now promised to do. None of it would be easy, and there was a reason that Einar hadn’t simply gone after his daughters remains long ago. He frowned for a few moments, running a hand over his beard.

”The Estari are…” Lips thinned. ”Dangerous.”

That was of course an understatement. ”What they take, covet. They see the body as sacred, and once someone binds themselves to their hive it is difficult to ever set them free.”

They would have to be careful, incredibly so.

”First we meet up with the others.” He told Serafina. ”Then we head north towards the main Temple.”

From there they would have to figure out the rest, but it had to be done carefully. Taken step by step. He would not lose a dozen to save one.

 

[Serafina]

Sera nodded quietly and let a comfortable silence fall between them as the horses walked on. From the way her brows were knitted together it was clear she was mulling over what he had said carefully.

Einar set a good pace with the horses, a mix of a steady canter, trot and periods of walking. Every few miles he had them dismount to give the animals a break but they were usually mounted and off again. She'd never seen the Northman so... animated. He had always done his job before but now there was a fire in him and it was evident in everything from his appearance to his actions. Everyone did.

"What happened?" she asked, finally, when the pair found themselves near enough alone during a stretch of walk. "This sudden change you... you were pretty set on your plans. What did that... what changed?"

 

[Solgrin]

"I'm tired." He said quietly.

It wasn't going to be a sufficient answer, Solgrin already knew that. Serafina had always been inquisitive, even when she had not been so free. Now, now it would be much worse likely. There was much in this world that she still had to learn.

"I've been fighting my entire life." He said quietly. "Always for something...I didn't actually want."

The Bandit chief said. "First for Fame, then for a King, then for power, then for vengeance."

His voice grew a bit more stern.

"I've lost friends, lovers, every person I have ever trusted." Slowly he turned towards Solgrin. "So I'm done."

His gaze swept away from Serafina, turning towards the others. "After I pay my debts."

 

[Serafina]

Sera watched him whilst he spoke and frowned every now and then at a certain word or the tone of his voice. She didn't say anything though, not even when he had finished speaking and had gone on to look at the band with such an intent look it was a wonder none of them turned to see who was boring daggers in their back. He had said as much to her before about wanting to die and be done with it all. It had broken her heart to hear it but she hadn't been able to argue against his reasonings.

The only thing that had changed was his sudden loss. It was the only way she could think to describe it. He sounded... alone.

She drew her horse closer so she could put a mittened hand on his thigh.

"Not everyone. You've not lost everyone."

 

[Solgrin]

He glanced over to her, a frown touching his lips. "No, not everyone."

Solgrin agreed quietly.

The curse that kept him alive, the thing that ate him from the inside out and yet healed every wound had hung over him for nearly a decade now. He had made the choice to take it upon himself, had come to the decision then.

He did not regret it, but it had always been a weight sitting upon his shoulders. Now that weight seemed gone. The time he had left driven to a different purpose. Vengeance had been his life when he'd claimed the curse, and now...now it simply wasn't.

Perhaps a part of him had died in that room, with his friend. Or perhaps the thousand deaths he should have suffered by now had simply caught up.

 

[Serafina]

Sera gave him a tight-lipped smile and then slowly retracted her hand to leave him to his thoughts. She didn't move her horse away though, offering her company in whatever way he wanted to take it for the rest of the journey.

It took them the whole day to make it back to the others where they had left them and their warm fires were a welcome sight after a day in the saddle. The smell of freshly roasted hog made more than a few groan and hurry to dismount and tend to the horses. Sera winced when she dropped to her feet and pressed a hand to her side as her broken rib throbbed. Her horse stamped a hoof impatiently but she took her time untacking so as not to jar the wound more.

 

[Solgrin]

The others were welcoming, stoic at first, and then gradually in disbelief as the state of how things would be now rolled over them.

Most could not believe what they heard, a few had to step away, and yet all of them came to understand. These men had been with Solgrin for years, they had seen his sin, his prowess, the weight that he had carried on his shoulders.

They were loyal, if not just as broken as he.

In the end there was no arguing, no one trying to break the mould. They understood what this meant, what would come to each of them. "Einar first."

Solgrin announced to the gathered, all told just sixty three men.

The wargs were back now as well, penned directly opposite the horses in the camp.

"The Estari." There was a few sharp breaths, but no one offered any opposition. "Any ideas?"

The Bandit Chief asked.

 

[Serafina]

Sera had found herself a large rocky outcrop to sit on top of so she could see over the heads of the tall men and women gathered before Solgrin. Maria had welcomed her as part of the group and that knowledge was slowly seeping through the others, but she didn't feel as though she quite belonged. Not yet. Too many still glanced at her the way they had before and she made tiny little fires dance across her palms to remind herself she didn't have a collar anymore.

She wrapped her arms around her knees as Solgrin ask his question of the crowd and buried her cold nose in the thick fur of her hooded gilet.

"What about a trap? Lure them out?" one of the men asked.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin frowned for a moment, thinking on the suggestion. "Maybe."

The idea wasn't a bad one, thought difficult to pull off.

"The Estari do not venture far from their temples as a rule." He did not expect his followers to know much about the Cult, few people did. They were insular, and Solgrin only knew of them because of his own run ins. "We would have to coax them with somethign significant."

He said with a scratch at his beard. "Even then we would only tempt a few."

The Elders would remain in the Temple, they always did.

"But it might be enough." The Estari were not warriors after all, just necromancers. Dangerous, but they could be overcome.

 

[Serafina]

There was a general murmur as people began to discuss how exactly they thought they could lure a necromancer out of the shadows.

"We could leave dead bodies!" someone shouted and a few took up that call

"Then when they come to get it--"

"-- Don't be an idiot, they'll know that's a trap, we need to --"

"--Well what do you suggest then?!"

"--We should just torch the church!"

Sera tried to keep up, her eyes flickering between each person that spoke but the singular voices began to fade into a general drone of people arguing with one another.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin broke in. "Quiet!"

His voice boomed.

The people within the circle immediately became silent, more than used to such a command. The Bandit Chief reached up, pinching the bridge of his nose. One by one he went through the plans he'd heard shouted, cutting them down or adding to them.

It took time to organize everyone's thoughts, more time to impress how this Temple was not some small village or city without a watch. Those that guarded the Church were mages, necromancers, and the dead swarmed the field around it.

Even if they could not be seen.

"There is a town nearby." He said with a frown. "If we take it, and cut off supplies to the Temple it might draw their eye."

Necromancers might have summoned the dead, but they still needed to eat.

 

[Serafina]

"Fire's draw people out too," a Bandit not far from where Sera was sitting muttered low enough that not everyone would hear him but loud enough that she could. She thought his name was Billy. He hadn't been one of the Bandits who had showed her any kind of warmth and that didn't seem about to change despite Maria apparently telling them she was to be. He turned to her with a sickly gap-toothed sneer that made her feel cold. Nobody had told her of course but she was certain he was the man who had started the fires that had eaten half her home and distracted the townsfolk for Solgrin to come and steal her away.

She tore her eyes away and hugged her knees a little harder.

The rest of the group seemed to be discussing how to take the town.

"But how do we get her?" Einar asked in what he clearly hoped would be a calm tone but there was a tenseness that underlined it.

 

[Solgrin]

"By breaking in." Solgrin said as he nodded quickly. New age, new tactics. It would take time for them to get used to it, time for them to understand. Most of these men and women had suffered loss of some way, and some had taken that loss by burying themselves in a way of life they hadn't thought possible.

Einar knew his daughter was dead.

They all knew it. That was the way of the Estari. The bodies were kept deep within the Temple, tucked away until they were needed or could be raised. That was why attacking the place wouldn't work. "We don't need to destroy."

He explained.

"We need to outwit." This time, at least. Every situation would be different. Every promise gone. "We'll have to break into the Temple when their eye is turned."

Solgrin paused, looking at Einar. "One of the priests will know where she is."

He did not add what else he knew about the Estari, what he knew would happen, but it would not help any of them now.

 

[Serafina]

Einar gave a sharp nod and turned to walk away. It seemed most of the discussion was over with the majority of the bandits agreeing with the plan to attack the town. Sera scrambled down from the rock as quickly as she could as people started to leave and weaved her way to Einar to set her hand gently on his arm. He stopped and looked down at her with a scowl which vanished when he realised who it was.

"I'm sorry lass, I just... I en't the best company right now," he tugged his arm free and she stepped back with a nod trying not to let the pity shine too strongly in her sea-foam eyes.

"I just wanted to say... I will help anyway I can Einar," he paused and then offered a rare smile.

"Aye, and it means a lot lass," he bowed his head then strode off. Sera sighed as she watched him go.

 

[Solgrin]

As the others dispersed for their nightly routines Solgrin stepped up behind Serafina.

"Einar never thought this day would come." He explained quietly, watching as the Northmen quickly made his way towards the edge of the camp to spend some time with the Wargs. Solgrin frowned for a moment, then looked towards Sera.

"It was his wife who brought their daughter to the Estari." Solgrin said quietly. "She was sick, and she thought they would save her."

It was a naive thought, one brought forth from simple desperation. "Einar didn't know until it was too late, and by then..."

Solgrin trailed off.

What was a man to do? What was a man to do but fall into the ravages of another life. The face of such betrayal, the loss of a daughter. It had been too much to bare. Even for a man of such strength.

 

[Serafina]

Sera bit back the tears which swelled in her eyes as Solgrin told his story. She watched him too, as he went about the wargs and gently placed hands upon their heads. The monstrous creatures raised their snouts and some offered the tough man a lick or two. Accepted. One of the pack. Sera turned away to look up at Solgrin earnestly, the unshed tears refracting her eyes into perfectly cut sapphires.

"I mean it, I'll help anyway I can," her shooting was good - decent - but she was still no fighter and now that the magic was her own she would have to learn all over again how to wield it herself. Before, she had only been able to do so if she had surprised him and wrestled away control or if he had allowed her. This was a new way on her new path and she was both excited to take a step upon this road and afraid.

"What do you want me to do?"

 

[Solgrin]

A shrug rolled over his shoulders. "Truth is I don't know."

What was the point in lying to her?

"We'll take the town, but even that's a gamble." Slowly he cast a glance over towards Einar, then to some of the others milling in the camp. "The Estari aren't stupid, they've survived a thousand years against threats much bigger than us."

He frowned. "But I'll keep my promise, one way or another."

They would just have to roll the dice.

"When we get to the town, when we see the Temple." He told Sera. "Look for opportunities."

Ones that he might miss.

 

[Serafina]

Sera pursed her lips and nodded. She didn't like that he didn't know. Solgrin was always determined and sure of his next step and of what he was doing and she had drawn strength and comfort from that. Of course she was grateful that he told her the truth but it unsettled her.

"Is this what it's always like?" she asked quietly and glanced to the men settling back down to their campfires to discuss further what had been agreed. "Meetings like this?" she had spent the last near year in the dark and told only what she needed to know or what involved her. She felt like she had crossed the divide but it added to her unease. Where did she belong in this band? Billy wasn't the only one here who still looked at her as nothing more than a prize their chief had won in battle.

 

[Solgrin]

"Meetings?" Solgrin chuckled.

"No." He shook his head. "They were never like this, because they haven't existed."

The Bandit Chief said with a frown.

It was perhaps hard for Serafina to understand. She came from a different world. A place where people had choices, even when they were trapped in some way. The idea perhaps had never even really presented itself, kept from the core of things.

"It's not how things worked." Solgrin explained. "Before I would say how it would be, and that was how it would be."

He frowned. "Most of them...aren't used to anything else. A lot of them came because they didn't want to choose anymore. Because they didn't know what to do, but I did."

It would take time to change that. "Even Einar."

He added quietly.

"These are...broken people Serafina." Solgrin looked down at her. "Every single one, in some way."

 

[Serafina]

Well.

That most certainly hadn't been what she had expected to hear and she wasn't sure if it should have been a comfort or made her more tense. If every one of them were finding shackles being removed then what would it do to them? For the ones who had wanted that and for those who more importantly needed it? It was hard not to look in Billy's direction.

"Can I stay with you?" she blurted out and then turned crimson and rubbed at her upper arm awkwardly. "Tonight... I mean," she continued awkwardly and this time she did look at the others who were lingering in their groups and muttering in quiet tones so as not to be overheard. "Maria told them but I... I would feel safer with you," she winced at the irony.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin's features softened for a moment.

There were many promises that were yet left to fulfill. Some to his men, some to those whom he had harmed on the way. He was not ignorant of that, he knew it better than anyone else in fact. "Of course."

The Bandit chief answered simply.

He wouldn't deny her that safety, as ironic as it would be coming from him. If it was what she felt she needed, then there was no doubt that she would have it. "But."

Solgrin offered quietly.

"Perhaps on our journey there." He offered. "You should find a way to make sure that you do not need me at all."

He would not deny it to her of course, not ever, but they both knew that he would not always be there. That those days might be sooner than expected.

 

[Serafina]

In that moment Sera hated what she was. The creature he had made her. When had she gone from fearing and fighting him to craving the safety of his presence and not being able to imagine a life without him? Even with the power safely in her own hands once more she thought of herself as weak and vulnerable. If a bandit slipped a knife to her throat in the night or tried to touch her when she didn't want to be touched she could incinerate him now. She knew it. Could feel it.

But there was a block of her own doing standing in the way.

"Perhaps," she croaked and looked away from him in shame. Did he see it too? How lost she was now without the bonds? "I said I'd help Maria with dinner," she said roughly and then moved off through the crowd to where the cookfires were being lit.

 

[Solgrin]

He glanced at her, a small tinge of pity running through him.

Sera's was not the only life that he had ruined. Far from it.

That was a fact that would always sit with him, it was why he deserved the fate that was now bound to him. He had no doubt of that fact, not in the least. It was why he stepped towards that abyss happily, why he was so joyful for it.

There was no question he deserved it. "Of course."

He said with a nod.

"I'll be here." Waiting, thinking, pondering on what would come next.

 

[Serafina]

Sera brushed away the tears in frustration as she walked over to where Maria was getting the fires started. The medic didn't ask any questions when she saw the younger woman but instead set her to work chopping, dicing and peeling the vegetables needed for the broth that would accompany the roasted pheasants the hunters had caught. It was the type of job she needed to do and she fell into it before she broken. Sera found she wasn't the only one either amongst their group either who had sought out a meaningless chore to try and make sense of what was happening.

The result was a feast of food. Some of their group who played an instrument pulled them out to accompany it and slowly, bit by bit the worries and doubts faded into a nervous determination.

Sera found Solgrin an hour into it with two plates and passed one to him wordlessly before sitting down beside him.

 

[Solgrin]

Solgrin took the plate, looking down at it.

Once upon a time this would have been considered a feast for the men, and he supposed it was even now. A smile touched his lips for a brief moment, fingers tightening on the small bit of carved wood before he placed it into his lap.

He didn't move to eat. "When I was a boy."

The Bandit Chief began softly.

"I was born in a village, just outside of the capital." For a moment he paused, then continued. "I grew up in slums. No food, no water, nothing."

He didn't want to garner sympathy, he never had. It was almost as though he were living in a memory, recounting it. "You had to take what you needed. Seize it. I think that's where it started."