Private Tales The Mountains Ahead

[Kasim Areth]

"I don't think the tents will be necessary." He commented as he stepped up behind her, trying his best to remain standing.

He had collected his sword from where he'd dropped it as well, and as he stepped into the small camp Aviana had set up he grabbed his scabbard. The blade slipped back into place, and slowly he placed it against one of the smaller rocks on the beach. He would have to finish carving the rune into it soon.

The weapon would be much more useful once it was done. "We can't sleep here. Too close to the village."

Kasim didn't want to risk the wolves finding them. He had no idea how their tracking ability compared to that of regular Wolves, but he had to assume it was about on par, if not better.

"Unless..." He smiled at her. "You had something else in mind."

 

[Aviana Sabel]

Her cheeks flushed at the suggestion and she glanced at tent she'd already put up, and then to the one that she'd started to set up. It had purely been out of habit to put up both of them, as she wasn't entirely certain just how Kasim wanted this play out; and she definitely didn't want to make the mistake of assuming he'd want to share a tent with her.

She knew that Kasim was in no shape for anything apart from a kiss. He could barely stand. "Probably best we wait for 'something else' until we're somewhere a little less exposed then." She remarked teasingly; immediately starting to take down the tents.

"Though, we didn't catch any fish yet. Which was... the main reason why we stopped."

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim smirked but didn't say anything to her first comment.

If he hadn't been so worried about the werewolves he might have told her to just leave the tents up, but they were only half a days ride from the village. It simply wasn't enough distance for them to just leave it alone. For all he knew the wolves were already tracking them in their mortal forms, and Kasim didn't want to make it any easier for them.

At least the gates to the deep road would provide some protection. Heavy stone doors that could be locked if necessary. Not to mention the fact that most creatures wouldn't even go inside unless they absolutely had to. ”Oh right.”

Kasik said as he leaned over and grabbed his pack.

For a few seconds The Jester dug around in his things, eventually pulling out another small stone disc. The thing was smooth and flat, though there was no rune inscribed in it. Instead there was one painted on its top and bottom in a careful intricate mirror.

”Throw this in the river, and then get ready to grab some fish.” He told her offering the disc. ”The rune is written in Kivren blood. It'll stun the fish around it.”

Though not kill them, just make them easier to grab.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

Rolling up one of the tents as she walked over to him, peering down at the rune in his hand with an intrigued expression.

"It's not going to... explode or something is it?" She raised a brow, setting the fastened piece of equipment off to the side so that she could clip it to the saddle later. As much as she thought an explosive rune would be fun, she didn't want to create so much noise as to draw attention to the area.

She took the small disc from him, turning it over in her hands so that she could get a closer look at the intricate lines that were painted on the surface. It would certainly be some time before she was able to scribe a rune that was so detailed, but she was committed to at least familiarizing herself with the general layout. She didn't have to be able to replicate a rune to be able to recognize it; and if she stumbled across a trap she didn't want to unwittingly set it off.

Her gaze flicked up to Kasim's, smirking. "Grab the fish? Mr. Areth, I am shocked that you would resort to such an inefficient method. Have you never used a cast net?"

 

[Kasim Areth]

"It won't explode." Kasim reassured her. "It will shatter once it hits the water, but it won't hurt you."

Couldn't if it tried. The rune was particularly about stunning small animals, and Kasim had created it specifically with hunting in mind. Most of the stone discs he had carried were that way, made so that he could use them for one thing or another without being too flexible about it.

He leaned forward slightly, shifting within the sands.

"I don't really have room for a net in my pack." He commented wryly.

Kasim always tried to do the best job he could with what he had. There was always a way to do things with the Runes, as long as you were smart enough. "Besides, I'm not really a fisherman."

 

[Aviana Sabel]

Aviana sighed dramatically and chuckled, shaking her head slightly.

"Fortunately for you, I am." She grinned back at him and spun on her heel to go rummage through her own bags, muttering to herself as she did.

Every child learned how to fish in Minaris, as it was the primary source of food for the small city-state. Sure, there was some farmland set aside on the island, but that space was limited and the capricious weather could prove difficult to predict. Water was a way of life for her people, vital to their very existence.

After a few moments of searching, she exclaimed triumphantly and pulled a tightly packed net out from the bottom of a bag with her free hand and held up the disc with the other. "Let's combine strategies, shall we?"

 

[Kasim Areth]

"Sure." Kasim said shaking his head slightly.

It was odd that she would have a net, but then she was from an island nation. Vel Anir had severla ports beneath it's sway, but Kasim had never bothered to learn how to fish from any of them.

His method had always been just to use the runes. It worked out well enough, if causing a little bit of collateral damage. It had never really mattered all that much though, mostly because he could simply just preserve whatever he hadn't needed at that exact moment.

"We don't need the whole river though." He teased her. "Just a few."

The bruises on his skin ached slightly as he spoke, something he tried to hide.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

It wasn't her net. In fact, the entire saddle wasn't hers. Most of the equipment that was packed away inside the bags belonged to Kieran. Practical survival supplies were packed away inside one of the bags, which where she had just scrounged up the net from. Tucked away inside the bag was also a flint and strike stone, a compass, an assortment of small knives, the alchemy pouch (which was running dangerously low on components), a few fresh bandages, and a flask with some sort of alcoholic drink that Aviana had yet to try.

"Right. Just a few." She held a hand over her heart and she smiled. "I won't bring back any more than that."

Before he could offer to help, she turned on her heel and trotted back to the river. Kasim needed to rest. No matter how prideful he was, or how much he tried to hide it, she knew that he was in pain. He had winced when she just barely brushed her fingers across his chest, she could only imagine how painful it was to stand or move.

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim didn't argue, instead he remained in place where he sat and closed his eyes. He found that staying awake was somewhat difficult, though he knew it would be quite some time before he could actually sleep.

Of course, he knew that the tiredness was not due to lack of sleep, but rather the magic that had ravaged his body. The toll had been much greater than the bruises on his skin implied. In reality what he needed was a bed for the next week, food enough for an ox, and a bath every day.

That wasn't in the cards though, not right now.

He would still heal, but it would be slower. The Jester could only hope that their journey over the next few days would be easier than it had been.

It'd help to get some rest inside of the gates tonight. Especially if he was a tad...warmer than usual.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

Aviana's brief adventure down to the stream was rather uneventful. The concept of using magic to fish seemed rather unsportsmanlike, even if it did come from a rune that someone took the time to carve. She pulled the rune from her pocket and glanced down at it, drawing her arm back to toss it into the water; but she paused and looked over her shoulder towards Kasim.

The jester was seated in their half broken down campsite, and his eyes were closed. Using the rune was all well and good; it would have sped the process up considerably, but she likely would have finished within just a few minutes. Watching Kasim finally catch some rest, and looking rather peaceful while he did so, she decided to give the man an hour to relax.

Besides, she needed some time to clear her head and reflect on everything that had happened in the past 24 hours. The disc was tucked back into her pocket and Aviana unfurled the net.

Her keen eyes peered into the water, watching the shadows of the fish dart about beneath the surface. She twisted her torso, holding the net in both hands, before she whipped around and cast the net into the water. The net expanded moments before it impacted the surface and splashed over a small school of fish. She felt the weight catch on the line as she hauled the net back in, with a small smile on her lips. It was nice to do something simple.

She returned after she'd caught six fish in total, one of which was large enough to feed both of them. It was a decent haul, considering that she'd only been fishing for an hour.

Erodin had wandered over to the campsite as she was walking back, Kasim's horse idly following along behind.

"Kasim? You awake?" She asked quietly.

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim was indeed awake. Sleep, as much as his body craved it, was fleeting. He made sure to keep himself up, knowing that if he slept it would likely be for quite some time. So he simply stayed up and mused on the rest of the journey ahead of him, the runes that he would need, and the sword sitting beside him.

He knew it would be important in the coming months, knew that he had to finish the rune he'd half carved into it.

"I'm awake." The Jester replied simply, opening his golden eyes and shifting his weight just a little bit forward so that she could see. For some reason he did seem to look better, if only slightly. Kasim glanced at the fish that she had caught, smiling.

At least they wouldn't go hungry.

"We'll have to preserve some of those." He commented. "Luckily, there's a Rune for that."

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"I never doubted for a moment that there wasn't." She remarked with a warm smile.

"Did you want to take care of that now or after we get to the gates?" She asked with a raised brow, setting the catch down on a nearby rock.

Not sure what else to do with herself, Aviana clasped her hands together in front of her torso to keep herself from fidgeting. It was an old habit that she had picked up during her time at court, as she was prone to fiddling.

The sun was high enough that her clothes were starting to dry, and the breeze was helping in that effort. Her hair was no longer dripping wet, but was still a little damp. It would likely stay that way for several hours, unless she took the clips out of her hair to let it fall over her shoulders.

 

[Kasim Areth]

He shook his head. "Best to finish everything now."

That way if there were any surprises they at least had something to go off of later. He wanted to be prepared, and thus he quickly reached into his pack and drew his dagger. Preparing the fish wouldn't take long, and using the rune to preserve them would go quick as well.

"You cook one." Kasim bade her. "I'll take care of the others."

That way they would be done faster.

He reached back to his pack and pulled out a small bag of something, offering it to her. "Seasoning, from the west."

 

[Aviana Sabel]

She raised a brow, taking the small pouch from Kasim with a slight tilt of her head. Cooking had never been her forte. Quietly clearing her throat, she turned back to the bag where she had procured the net from and stuffed it back inside. Once that was tucked away, she pulled out the bundle of leather that covered the knives.

With that in hand, she grabbed the largest fish and took it over to the fire. She settled down onto the soft sand and laid the fish down on a flat rock, using it as a cutting block as she set about de-boning the fish. From there, she cut the remains into long strips of fillets.

Dubiously, she opened the bag that Kasim had given her, and she sprinkled the seasoning over each fillet. Each piece of meat was then affixed to a stick and hung over the flames to cook. She'd cut the fish thin enough that it wouldn't take it long to cook, but still thick enough to have flavor.

While she worked, she would occasionally look over to the jester to see what he was doing.

"I'm surprised that there isn't a rune to cook something." She said teasingly.

 

[Kasim Areth]

"There are several dozen." Kasim explained as he took a large stone from nearby and dragged it over. It was a rather painful process, and he let out a series of grunts as he pulled the thing along.

"But." The Jester said with a loud sigh. "They're complicated, depending on what you're cooking, how long...all that."

With a quick flick of his knife he deboned and cut the fish that was left over, giving a soft carving into the rock before he placed the meat there. "Some scholars actually think that was how Rune Magic began."

He shrugged as he placed the first peace of meat onto the rock, the Rune springing into life as the meat suddenly shrunk and turned into a dried sort of jerky.

"Starting fires, cooking." He repeated the process. "The Simpler things."

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"I'm curious as to how people figured out that runes existed in the first place." She mused, turning the sticks idly while the fish cooked. The fat that dripped from the meat sizzled every so often as it onto a coal, and the warm aroma of a cooked meal soon filled the air. Aviana was almost proud.

"Did someone just.. draw a pattern on the ground and it blew up, or something?" Her question was made mostly in jest, but she couldn't help but picture some poor soul accidentally destroying something, or hurting himself in the discovery. Unless it was an art so old that its origins had been lost to passage of time. Which was more likely the case.

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim shrugged. "How did people first learn to speak?"

The question was one that he would have liked to answer, but there was simply no way that he could. The histories did not go back that far, and he was no scholar in the first place. He was sure that the mages college in Elbion had a guess, but he doubted it was anywhere close to correct.

"I don't think anyone knows the real origin." He doubted anyone ever would. "Sort of like no one knows where Blood Magic came from, or any one of a hundred Disciplines."

Some said Demons, others said the Naga.

Really though, no one knew. His family used the practice, at least a variant of it, and they had no idea. His father claimed that House Varik had invented it but...well Kasim knew for a fact that wasn't true.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"Mmm... I suppose that's true."

She was quiet for a few minutes, tending to the fire and the meal that she was cooking for them. While she waited for the meat to finish, she reached behind her head and pulled the clips out of her hair; then tucked them away inside the sleeve of her tunic. Her long hair fell down her back; and a few of the strands around her face caught in the breeze, which caused them to dance about her features.

"My father never taught me about blood magic." She said quietly, carefully broaching on the subject of her family. Now that Kasim knew about the egg, there didn't seem to be much need to hide who she really was. She wouldn't go so far as to outright tell him, but she wouldn't avoid talking about her origins. "I mean, he obviously taught me that it exists, but nothing more than that. He was gifted with Arcane magic, so that is much of what my studies focused on when I was younger."

Her mouth quirked momentarily to the side and she sighed, pulling one of the pieces of meat off the fire that had finished cooking. She set it off to the side, leaning against another rock, to let it cool.

"Of course, most of those lessons stopped once it became clear that I can't actually piece a spell together."

 

[Kasim Areth]

”Blood magic is…” Kasim frowned for a second, and then slowly continued. ”Unpleasant. “

He decided that it would be best not to go into further detail. Aviana didn't know that he had saved her life through such power. Particularly given that it had all been fueled by the sacrifice of a hundred others. The idea made his stomach turn, and he couldn't help but frown for a few seconds until he managed to catch himself again.

Looking up at her he smiled. ”Magic can be...unfair.”

That was certainly true.

”I'm one of the more gifted in my family. Always had a knack for it.” He was not bragging, just stating a simple fact. ”But my twin brother couldn't even snap a twig.”

It had been a cruel twist of fate really. A grand example of how magic simply didn't care who you were or what you wanted.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"That's a good word for it. Unfair." She murmured, pulling another stick from the fire and setting the meal off to the side.

"I'm the only child. So... my father had quite a lot of hope riding on me. On top of me being a daughter, instead of a son." She made a soft scoff sound in her throat, looking down at the fire for a moment. "He would have liked you." The remark was fairly lighthearted as she raised her gaze back up to meet his own. The blood that marred his eyes was still jarring.

"Not sure if my mother would have though." She added in a teasing, playful tone. Outwardly, her mother likely would have despised Kasim. But in the privacy of the family quarters, Aviana imagined that the Aegis would have admitted that she found him quite charming. Her mother had told her many things within the warmth of the secluded room. Like how she could "sense" magic hovering about Aviana, but it had yet to manifest, that her father just couldn't see it.

Aviana reasoned that it was just her mother's attempt at making her feel better.

She shifted the topic back to Kasim, taking a small breath. "But. You're telling me that there's two of you?"

 

[Kasim Areth]

Kasim wasnt so sure Aviana was exactly right about her parents. There were part of him that many thought were improper or downright lowly, though on the flipside he'd never met a Noble that he couldn't charm.

They were usually painfully predictable.

Not to say that Aviana's parents fell into that like, but he wasn't so sure that they didnt. Perhaps that was due to his own prejudice, the memories of his father and the nobles back in Vel Anir. One couldn't really blame him too much, they were what he had grown up with and surrounded by. It was a wonder that Kasik turned out the way he did.

He could have been like any other noble.

His head shook slightly at the thought of that horror, though also at Aviana's last statement. ”There was.”

It was a subject he did not often talk about, not to anyone. Even admitting it out loud was difficult. The last time he'd spoken of it was in anger, when someone had pushed him beyond the brink and he had merely screamed it at the top of his lungs. Talking about it was dangerous, it was another connection, another thing that someone could link to his family.

”He died.” Kasim explained, with just a hint of despair creeping into his tone. ”Shortly after I left.”

There was more to the story, much more, but he would not go into it now.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

Aviana fell into silence for a moment after Kasim divulged that his brother had died. While she had never lost a sibling herself, she was capable of empathizing the pain that came with losing a family member. Her nose wrinkled slightly at the somber turn of the conversation, she hadn't intended to dredge up painful memories.

"That must have been difficult... I'm sorry that you lost him, Kasim." She murmured gently, wanting to reach over to him but she was too far away. A strand of hair was brushed out of her face with one hand, while the other took the last of the four fillets off the fire. The meat sizzled quietly as she set it down on the rock next to her.

The anguish in Kasim's voice was evident, and she could see the discomfort on his face. Even though she wanted to ask him more about his brother -- what his name was, what he was like; she decided it would be best to keep the topic away from the sensitive subject for now. Trying her best to channel her father, she carefully steered the conversation away from Kasim's brother.

"Magic is fairly rare in Minaris, usually it is passed down from generation to generation in certain family lineages. Legends tell of powerful mages who could warp the minds of others; or create impassible walls of mist, causing unwelcome travelers to wander endlessly in circles; others were skilled in a different, more natural and elven form of magic. Druids who could sing to dragons and tame the skies. Though that practice has been lost for generations." She mused quietly.

"My father can trace his lineage as far back to the great arcane battle mages that first helped to found the city -- Spell Weavers they called them. He obsessed over genealogy. Books upon books of his family history lined our library walls." She paused for a brief moment and picked up one of the charred sticks with a seared fish fillet still impaled on it. She leaned over to offer it to the jester with a warm smile.

Talking about the history of her home was both soothing and upsetting at the same time.

There was no pressure for Kasim to share anything himself. If he felt compelled to tell her more, he would in his own time. "You should eat while it's still warm."

 

[Kasim Areth]

”I think you'll find that most people on the mainland know next to nothing about your home.” Kasim said with interest.

Minaris was a place he'd heard of before, but truthfully knew absolutely nothing about. He was sure that it was the same for many people all around the two main continents for Arethil. It might not have been true for some of the Sailors in Alliria, but he would bet against that too. The isles were a mysterious place to most. Including those who were well educated in the ways of the world.

Kasim was testament to that.

With only a brief smile Kasim reached out and grabbed some of the fish. It would be their last chance to actually eat real food. There was no game within the deep roads, at least not any that he would be willing to go after. At least the fish was good, and of course the spices helped increase the flavor even more.

”History is always...slanted.” Kasim commented. ”My own families is twisted to greatness, but hides a dozen facts of our past.”

He shrugged. ”Sometimes I think it'd be easier to be as long lived as an elf.”

For him, even a hundred years passed was ancient history.

 

[Aviana Sabel]

"Different challenges arise, I'd think." She murmured, taking a piece of fish for herself and she quietly nibbled a few bites.

"My mother has..." She paused, tilting her head slightly to the side as she tried to puzzle out the numbers. "About... a hundred and twenty years on my father. And she isn't even a full-blooded elf. I'm a little shocked to see how few half-elves there are here on the mainland. Almost everyone where I'm from is mixed in someway. Of course, some bloodlines lean a little more strongly in one direction or another."

Her eyes turned to Kasim and she mustered a small smile. "History is written by the victorious using the blood of the fallen. That's the expression, no?"

She'd never agreed with the sentiment, finding it appalling and brutal. Nevertheless, it was hard to argue against the validity of the statement.

 

[Kasim Areth]

That seemed more odd to him than anything else, the mixing of races. Where he was from that had been all but outlawed for centuries. If an Anirian even attempted to marry an elf they very likely would have been executed, or worse.

It was strange, very strange. Kasim couldn't even really fathom it. The idea was so foreign he couldn't help but wonder if Aviana was exaggerating just a bit. Even the few elves he had met were rather against...fraternization with the likes of humans. That was another thing he knew for sure. Still, he supposed that different cultures had different values.

”I'm sure the elves tell it differently than we do.” He was sure most commoners did too, but Kasim wasnt about do add that.

Aviana thought he was a good man, and for some reason he didn't want to entirely tarnish that image.

”Back home people like you are…” He frowned deeply. ”Uncommon.”

That was a nice way of putting it. ”I only met my first elf...three years ago?”