Private Tales The March of Progress

[Vass]

Vass was about to open his mouth to offer another rebuke, but before he could offer an answer the tent flaps pulled open.

Inside stepped a figure that Ahsoka had not seen before.

He was a tall man, though still slightly shorter than Vass. His face was decorated with a myriad of scars, one eye completely turned to utter black. He turned towards Vass as he stepped inside, the young boy scrambling up to snap off what could have been described as a salute.

"Chatting with the locals, eh?"​

Vass again found himself cut off before he could answer.

The man gestured towards Vass to sit back down, and then turned towards Ahsoka.

"Alright, I need you to tell me what happened. I got the a theory, guessed the half of it, but I need to know more."​

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka dropped her wrists back to her lap when the tent flaps opened. Vass had wrenched more words out of her because of her temper than she had ever intended on saying. She berated herself quietly as the young human snapped off his silly gesture of respect. So was this one of the Commanders? Perhaps she should plant a kick between his legs too. When he finally turned towards her she gave him a flat, cold stare and compressed her lips into a thin, pale line.

Then proceeded to sit in absolute silence.

What more was there to say? They were the invaders. They had taken her land. Her people would kill them or die defending what was theirs. It seemed simple black and white to her and if they were all like this boy she doubted anything she said would make a difference.

 

[Vass]

The man looked towards Vass, then towards Ahsoka. He raised a single eyebrow as though in question, which was only followed up by an answer of a shrug.

A head shook, and then a loud sigh echoed through the room.

"Look, we were brought here under false pretenses."​

The man told Ahsoka. He squatted down in front of her, deciding apparently that she posed no threat or simply capable of defending himself. He looked her in the eye, or at least attempted to. His expression was simple, though he seemed tired.

"We were told there was bandits in this area, men raiding villages that needed defending and would stop the building of a town."​

Vass scoffed.

"Obviously, that's not true. So what's the truth?"​

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka's spine stiffened when the man crouched in front of her and she unconsciously pushed herself back to put space between them. It wasn't that she was afraid - her people would never be afraid of outsiders! - it was just that she had a healthy amount of wariness for them. After she'd seen what they'd done to Tsula and the countless others who had never come back from scouting or hunting trips. Her dark eyes studied him carefully, weighing every word he said as though it would decide his fate, and then her face twisted with a fury when he relayed what it was the city-makers had called them.

"This is our home," she decided to keep it short and simple, outsiders were not the brightest. "The land belongs to us. We were here before they were born. Before their people existed, the Tsi'gali were here. We will defend it as we have done for centuries and if you do not leave, you will die too," she tilted her chin in defiance.

 

[Vass]

"Okay."​

A succinct explanation, if not an inelegant one. A frown touched the man's face for a brief moment, and he looked back at Vass as though the boy would have some sort of answer. A shrug was the only thing he got, which caused another sigh.

Slowly the man rubbed at his face. Consternation practically glowed from his form, as though he were not entirely sure what to do or say. Lips thinned for a brief moment, and then he shook his head.

"Well I have some bad news for you."​

He explained.

"The King has called for more men, an army from the Baronies. About twenty thousand if I understand correctly."​

Vass tensed as the man spoke. Twenty thousand? That was near five times the men that they had now. Enough to crush this entire place and burn it to the ground. How was the King even paying for something like that? How many promises did he have to make.

"That's not a threat, you understand? Not from me. I'm just trying to paint you a picture of what you'll be up against, and I want you to know that before we continue here."​

 

[Ahsoka]

For the first time since she had been taken, Ahsoka looked uncertain. Twenty thousand was more than her people could handle on their own and would the other tribes even join with theirs? They feuded amongst themselves almost as often as they did with outsiders. Perhaps even more. Outsiders were a common enemy but there were some who would seek to get an advantage by siding with them. Her mind weighed up all the variables and found them still, in the best case, unfavourable.

But the uncertainty was quickly replaced by wariness as the man spoke of threats.

"Continue... what?" she frowned.

 

[Vass]

"This conversation."​

He explained.

"I don't like being lied to. I like it even less when the pretenses are practically the opposite of what I was promised in the first place."​

Vass looked up at his commander, frowning slightly. It wasn't hard to figure out what the man was getting at, and in truth he couldn't think of an argument against it. The Red Hundred were mercenaries, but they were not monsters.

Most of those within the Band didn't want to be slaughtering children and burning villages. They were soldiers. They fought for honor, for the thrill of battle, for the honor that a truly worthy foe brought them. Not...land grabs.

"So I am asking again, please. Explain your situation."​

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka lapsed back into silence.

Seconds turned into minutes as she stared back at the man opposite her in quiet contemplation. If she trusted him and told him he could very well use whatever she said against her people. But if she didn't trust him and kept her mouth shut was she damning her people? She ran over what she wanted to say a million times and examined it from different angles to make it air tight and keep it vague enough that no details would betray her tribes position whilst providing enough colour to tell him the truth.

"I spoke the truth of the situation before," she sighed and fidgeted in discomfort. The longer she stayed in one position the more her cuts and bruises and broken ribs hurt. "This is not the first time this King has come to these lands. Last time it was under the pretence of peace and co-existing. We do not like Outsiders but the land is plentiful here and there was enough to share. But the King grew greedy and begun to want more," her eyes never wavered from the man in front of her and neither did her hard glare. "He sent men to burn our homes, kill our young and elderly, and force us from our lands when we refused to sell it. As though the earth could be bought by gold," again there was disgust in her voice.

"So we retaliated. We fought them back and destroyed their forts that encroached on our lands. And now they have bought you to protect their cities they have no rights to build here on the land where our grandmothers died at their sword."

 

[Vass]

Vass scratched at his chin.

He had never much liked fighting for Kings. His own home was a Republic, at least nominally. The rich had power, but only in so much as the people gave them. There had been more than one revolt when dock workers were underpaid or sailors didn't get the coin they were promised.

Arenholm had a careful balance of power, one that suited most folk just fine. It was that example which Vass took for much of the world, though as he'd come to see more lands he understood it didn't always work that way.

Apparently out here that was no exception.

"I see."​

The Commander said with a frown, then slowly leaned down. A blade flicked into his hand, seemingly appearing from nowhere. He just leaned forward, and then cut Ahsoka's bindings.

Vass made a strangled noise in his throat, hand reaching out, but he said nothing and simply settled back against the tentpole. He knew better than to argue.

"Then you are free to go, under one condition."​

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka's ears pricked up when the blade appeared. Whether it meant death or the slicing of her ropes, both were a release in their own way. She was worrying over what she had already said and the sooner she was out of this tent dead or alive the better for her and the better for her people. She even seemed to raise her chin to expose her throat until he cut her bonds. Her eyes instantly flickered to the tent flap. The calculations of how quickly she could get there before he changed his mind were obviously racing through her mind and she cast another, quick glance in the direction of her things too; would she have enough time to pick them up and run?

All this happened in less than a blink when her eyes were back on the man in front of her. She resisted the small smug smile she would have given Vass when he let out his strangled noise and instead settled on giving the general in front of her a withering look.

"I do not make bargains."

Bargains had gotten her people into this mess in the first place. They should never have let them share this land.

 

[Vass]

"Right."​

The man said with pursed lips.

For a few seconds he considered, glancing back towards Varo. The Commander had always been the thoughtful sort, smart. Vass had come to trust him over the last few years, if only because the man had proven more than once to be capable.

"How about a hostage? Do you take those?"​

If he'd been drinking water Vass would have spat it over the entire room. "What?!"

The boy demanded, utterly aghast.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka's eyes followed the Commander's to the reddening face of Vass. There was a small flicker of pleasure at his clear horror but she kept it from clouding her mind. Instead she folded her arms over her stomach and returned her attention to the more dangerous one in the room.

"You want me to take a spy back to my home?"

One of the main reasons the King hadn't been able to wipe out her people were because they didn't know the location of their home. Deep within the forests it took someone who knew how to read the right signs, or someone who was born there, to find it.

 

[Vass]

"More of a hostage...plus negotiator."

Vass couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. There was doubt on his face and utterly shock to his features. He trusted this man, but the very suggestion of this was absolutely insane. Surely the man had to see that, understand it. "No, Captain, you ca-"

"Look I don't like being lied to, and I don't like shit birds like that king getting a win."

The Captain explained further.

"So we're going to make a new deal, but to make that new deal we need to talk. And presumably you don't have the power to do that."

He stared at Ahsoka for a few moments, but of course already knew she didn't.

"Solution is pretty easy. I send Vass with you, he makes a new deal with my authority, everyone walks away happy. You can even blindfold him the entire time."

A strangled protest left the young mans throat.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka's brows knitted into a deep frown as she pondered the options. She didn't have the authority to make a deal, but neither did she have the authority to take an Outsider into their home. Especially an enemy. Vass was more likely to have his throat slit with a hood over his head before he could utter a single word about a deal. But the very thought of a deal was... tempting. At least, she could see the positives to having an army at their backs rather than in front of them.

She glanced between the two men and then pursed her lips.

"I will sleep on it," and consult her chief. Perhaps they would rather come here or have the discussions on neutral ground.

 

[Vass]

Vass seemed to scowl.

This moment couldn't have been real. He trusted the commander, the man knew what he was doing, but literally walking him into a trap? That seemed utterly insane. He wanted to argue, but a part of him objected to even that.

His mind kept getting pulled back to that moment in the Underdark, what he'd experienced there. What the commander had taken them out of. It was enough. It was a bridge of trust.

"You don't have time to sleep."​

The Commander cut in.

"By nightfall my men will be watched like hawks. He's willing, are you?"​

Vass watched as the commander turned to him for just a brief second, his expression stern. That was a moment of hesitation, a brief second. Then the young man nodded his head.

If this was the best course, then he would do it.

 

[Ahsoka]

Which secret did she reveal? Her home, or that her people's ancient ability resided with in her? It was a secret that she kept from others of her own kind let alone outsiders. But taking him back to her home... Her fingers clenched and unclenched. Either way she would be breaking a law. Eventually she sighed and her shoulders slumped. She supposed she could drop him off in a bit of forest and fetch someone out to him before taking him into the city itself...

"Fine," she stood up in one fluid, sudden movement and in two steps she was picking up her gear. The belt went on first quickly followed by bow and quiver. Ahsoka shot a dark look in Vass' direction and a not too friendly one at the Commander. "He will return when the Elders have given him their message," and with that she grabbed a hold of the young lad and hurled him to his feet.

 

[Vass]

"Oh good. A field trip." It was hard to ignore the sarcasm in Vass' words.

He was not pleased about this, but he would go along with it. The Commander had never lead him wrong, and the one time Vass had questioned him it had ended in the death of three of his friends. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

"Good. Vass knows how to get out of Camp. He's done it before."​

He seemed to freeze for a moment, as though he were a school boy just caught by the teacher. "I-"

"Get her out, follow the direction, and read this."​

The commander pulled a scroll out from the inside of his coat pocket, shoving it into Vass' hands. It was written in common, but coded. That was the norm with the Red Hundred. To anyone that didn't know the code it simply looked like a love letter.

A very raunchy love letter. "Alright."

He said with a nod, turning back towards Ahsoka.

"Let's go." Vass motioned as he scooped up his sword and tightened his armor.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka muttered something under her breath in her own tongue but she followed Vass out of the tent flaps without further debate. Once they were beyond the camp then she would assert who exactly was in charge in this unlikely partnership.

The people in the camp seemed far more tense than they had earlier. Before they had ignored them all but now they stopped in their actions to watch them go by if only for a few seconds before continuing on as though they had not seen a thing. Clearly the sneaking part of this plan was mainly to avoid outsider eyes, not those of the rest of the Band.

"What is your name?" she asked as they walked, her eyes drinking in every little detail to report back.

 

[Vass]

"Vass." The answer came swiftly, the word terse.

He wasn't annoyed with her, not really. Ahsoka couldn't help this anymore than he could have. Both of them were trapped in situations they likely would have wanted to avoid on any other die. Yet no choice remained other than to go ahead.

As much as neither of them liked it. "Yours?"

The looks they received did not escape him. There was no nerves behind them, there never were when it came to the Hundred. Instead there was concern. Worry for what would happen, for him. Vass knew that, but he would never say it.

"That way." He said, pointing to the left. "We'll have to cut around the main camp."

Mostly because...well, she wasn't hard to spot.

 

[Ahsoka]

"You couldn't pronounce my name," Ahsoka replied dryly. The human tongue just couldn't make the right musical notes the elves could that were required for her name. Most names in fact in her culture. Those of them that dealt with the outside world had taken on muted, duller versions of their name for ease when haggling. "But you can call me Ahsoka," her fingers clenched and unclenched around the curved dagger she wore across the small of her back. The looks screamed danger and she hadn't quite worked out whether the danger was from them or the Kings men beyond.

Perhaps surprisingly the elf kept up with ease with Vass' stride and so they made good time to the edge of the Hundreds camp. Seeing the treeline free of men was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the young elf and she breathed out a sigh of relief.

 

[Vass]

"Fair enough." Vass wasn't about to argue back on his pronunciation skills. It had taken him weeks to learn how to say the names of some of the Red Hundred.

In all fairness though some of those names had been meant to be spoken with two tongues. That was the trouble of being in a mercenary outfit like the Hundred. They were so varying and far flung that culture clashes were more common than not. It was sometimes all that could be done to keep one person from accidentally insulting the other.

Most of the time problems like that were dealt with swiftly, even kindly, but more often than not at least one person received a punch to the face.

Vass had more than his fair share of black eyes.

"Not that way." The young Mercenary said as he reached out and stopped Ahsoka from making a b-line towards the forest.

"They watch the treeline." For very obvious reasons. "We have to run along the edge of camp, then cut by the right then by the Ridgeline."

From there they would be able to double back and enter the forest unseen.

With a quick heel turn Vass began to head in the direction he'd indicated, his gaze flickering back for only a moment to ensure that the Elf hadn't decided to ignore his advice and run straight to the forest.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka threw the forest a mournful look.

She supposed he was right but then again her people had slunk from the trees without the majority of them noticing. A point she would have to dig for information about - who had raised the alarm? - but then again Vass was not one of them. He had not the grace nor the patience to learn to be as they were. With an audible sigh of discontent she followed.

"What will they do to your people when they do not find me?" Clearly they had known she was somewhere in the camp. There might not be evidence when they searched but that conviction would remain and it would fester, cause doubt and suspicion. They were dangerous emotions for a cornered animal to feel.

 

[Vass]

Vass considered the question as they walked. "It depends."

Games like this were not particularly his forte. He wasn't a high born, and thus politics escaped him most of the time. He'd only been with the Band for two years. During that time he'd learned a lot, but...well that sort of stuff still escaped him.

"There's no proof you were ever there." At least not technically. "And they won't turn their blades on us."

At least so Vass thought. "The Hundred have a contract, but we could be fired, or...well..."

Lips thinned.

"Or they'll just send us into the forest for your people to slaughter." That was if Vass and Ahsoka didn't reach them first.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka pondered that insight in silence as they walked.

It was comforting at least that Vass thought her people would slaughter his, albeit morbid. But she was not cocky enough to believe it would not be without a lot of causalities among her people. No doubt when they were in a weakened state the King would send in this new army he was summoning to wipe them from the face of the earth. Then both her people and this "Hundred" would lose.

"You should have killed me, it would have been simpler," humans never seemed to go for the simple option though. Their minds worked in over time probably because their lives were so short but it meant that they didn't always think things through logically.

 

[Vass]

"Won't hear any argument from me." Vass said with a shrug of his shoulders. "But the Commander never much liked being fucked with."

That was something he'd learned early on.

The Red Hundred were not like many other mercenary band. They had a purpose to the jobs they took, a reason. It was almost always a good one, though from what he understood there had been splotches of black within their history. Not that anyone was eager to talk about that. "I suppose we'll see what comes of it."

He said, glancing over to the elf as they reached the ridge line.

"Not like anyone can see the future." Vass commented, motioning towards a dip in the earth that would take them into the small canyon below.