Completed The Noblest of Deeds

"You won't need to. Vogel has made an enemy of both the Banicks and the Pirians, two great houses that rarely agree on anything. Combine that with Councilor Berrenger and several others that will be on our side and it is unlikely that he will ever receive another commission of any note."

Alistair smirked at the idea. Vogel might remain in the military, but he would likely be demoted with no real chance of progression. Alistair understood a man like him well. To him, that would be more painful than just being banished. It would ensure that he could never advance in the ranks without even the option to become a mercenary...perfection.

"You don't have to decide now, but I would think of something else."


Kristen Pirian
 
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"I hope so, Alistair," Kristen said. "I want to trust in the new axles the Republic has placed upon the carriage of Vel Anir. Will they turn toward justice? Or will they grind to a halt, leaving Vogel untouched? I wish dearly for the Republic to function well without some intervention on my part, having to grease those proverbial wheels with this unorthodox favor."

The roof of the Banick Estate was peeking out now over the tops of the other buildings as they approached.

"Nevertheless, I believe you are right. I shall not be overly hasty with my favor."

She needed to extend that trust to the Republic, yes. But, as well, if some dire ordeal arose in the future, unforeseen as is typical for such sudden misfortunes, she might need that favor.

Alistair Krixus
 
Alistair wished he could say he was so confident in his statement because of his trust in the Republic, but it was almost the opposite. He was putting faith in the pettiness of the people that controlled the Republic. What were laws and justice when in the face of an angry person in a position of power?

"Time will tell."

As he spotted the beginnings of the Banick Estate, all of the exhaustion of the day was beginning to gather on his shoulders. The adrenaline that had pushed him throughout the day was beginning to wear off.

"This might be the best sleep of my life."


Kristen Pirian
 
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Kristen laughed aloud, a giddy release of all the pent up tension that had accumulated over the course of this night—perhaps the single most eventful night of her tenure thus far as an Initiate.

"You speak naught but the truth!"

And, most certainly, Kristen did not believe that entry into the Banick Estate tonight would be as easy as walking right through the front door—but here they were. She did not believe she would be resting her head for the night inside the Estate either, let alone in the same room (with the fluffed pillows) as she had in preparation for the Canal campaign—but here they were.

Strange bedfellows, as the saying went. Vogel's actions had brought the two of them together in league with Walter Banick, and it was now Vogel who threatened the stability of the Republic. Strange bedfellows indeed.

Kristen wished Alistair a good night.

She was barely out of her armor, only just having lain down upon the bed, when sleep found her. Just like Alistair said.

Almost. Her dream was not pleasant, for she was back on the Isle of the Blades.

Alistair Krixus
 
DAY TEN OF THE SIEGE


Kristen could only hope that Vogel's strategy was a cautious one, more in line with the traditional idea of a siege. Ostia Anir had food reserves to last for a year, maybe two if all was rationed strictly. No such rationing had yet been implemented though, suggesting that Walter did not anticipate Vogel waiting it out. The siege-works his force was constructing outside the walls might not be just for show.

Still, anything that bought them time.

Presently she and Alistair were having lunch at a local diner just on the periphery of the main market. While plenty of grain-based foods were available, the only meat was that which had been salted and preserved; no one had yet looked upon their horses with a gluttonous eye for fresh meat. A short ways away, the Canal Tenements with their tall swooping roofs were visible over the rest of the market buildings.

"In moments of doubt such as this," Kristen said, poking at her porridge while she rested her chin in the palm of one propped up arm on the table, "I question my aspiration to the political body of Vel Anir. I've no doubt that men like Berenger are struggling mightily to do what is right. And yet? What is he faced with? Staunch opposition, I'm sure, from those whose hearts and minds align more closely with their own indulgent ambitions rather than selfless service to the people who elected them and to the country whose office of state they occupy. Men like Vogel himself, as it so happens. I shudder to think what ruin he could bring if by godsforsaken chance he were ever to be elected."

She sighed.

"Yet it remains, even in this new age of the Republic, that to live and do what is right is a ceaseless uphill battle."

Alistair Krixus
 
Alistair absent-mindedly stirred at his own meal as he looked in the direction of the walls of the city. In his mind, he saw Vogel's siege weapons and soldiers under his command, and he imagined them marching on the city as they spoke. At any moment, Alistair expected to have to go running off towards the walls with some extraordinary emergency. In fact, it felt strange to just be sitting here having a much-needed meal.

"That's how it always has been and how it always will be. It's a lot easier to do wrong than it is to be good...That's why everyone loves writing about the good guys in stories." Alistair had always found it strange that there were not more books about bad individuals. Of course, that was when he was young before he started reading history books.

"You will do good in the political arena, and you will be needed. If people like you or Berenger are not in politics then you will leave people like Vogel to do what they wish..."


Alistair shuddered to imagine the headlines if they had not been here.

Banick family disgraced as Commander Vogel sacks Ostia Anir. Walter Banick dead along with thousands of rebel soldiers and citizens. It is being called the Ostian Massacre.

Thankfully, that would not be the case. At least, not for the moment.

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good man to do nothing."

Kristen Pirian
 
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Kristen couldn't help but smile at the compliment and the vote of confidence, glancing up for a moment to say, "You are a veritable repository of uplifting adages, Alistair."

She took in a breath through her nose, and let out it slowly. Still she played with her porridge more than ate it.

"Yes. Were it not for Berenger, I imagine Vogel would have left Walter with no choice but to fight until the end. Ostia Anir would have been taken, the dead on both sides will have amounted to ghastly proportions, and no one would have thought anything of it. Yet another battle, wholly 'unavoidable,' added to the annals of Anirian history."

She looked up again from her porridge. Set the spoon down in the bowl and crossed her arms on the table.

"I am no longer afraid to draw the sword; further still, I know that there are a good many times were such is in fact the unavoidable consequence. I accept what I am being trained to do as a Dreadlord."

Her eyes twinkled with a gleam of hope, and she openly allowed for it.

"But I hold that equally important is forbearance—knowing when not to draw one's sword." She thought of ten days ago, Walter's confession. "Even if—especially if, I daresay—it is difficult."

Alistair Krixus
 
"I just read a lot." Alistair tried to waive off the light compliment given to him.

Kristen's next comments only made him agree more with his recent inner thoughts. They had just saved a lot of lives and stopped a blood bath from occurring...Alistair has been on countless missions for the Academy, but he often finished feeling like the blood-drenched weapon that had laid waste to enemies. It was rare that he got to feel like...a hero.

"That...is a new phenomenon. I meant the knowing when to not draw the sword bit. I suppose it is a direct result of the new Republic. Let's hope it stays that way."

As much as Alistair liked the post-revolution Vel Anir, he was under no false pretenses. Just as easily as the revolution had been enacted, a counter-revolution could easily occur that changed everything back to the way it was before.

"You did good keeping control of yourself...I don't know if I would have been able to do it. Your control likely saved this mission."

Kristen Pirian
 
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Let's hope it stays that way. If only they had a couple glasses of wine, they could have toasted to it. It would have been a mild toast to be sure, likely the sentiment could be refined and expressed with more poetic elegance, but Kristen agreed all the same.

Your control likely saved this mission.

"And here I am, poised to mirror your own words and chew on my own a little." A humble softness in her features preceded her words next, "Had you not been there, Alistair, I do not know if I would have been able to do it. Emotion is a powerful, powerful thing, sometimes enough so to lay waste to one's own guiding principles."

She looked down into her porridge again.

"I suppose I dreamed of it: that moment of sublime revenge. I wanted it for a long time, even though Dominic Foresend, the Warlord, perished in the Battle. So it became formless and unfocused. Awaiting a villain at which it could 'righteously' strike."

Her expression tightened with shame. And out came a confession of her own.

"I...wanted power...so that I could hurt people. So that I would never feel as weak and helpless as I did on that island."

Alistair Krixus
 
Alistair was silent for a long time, continuing to stir his breakfast. He had never wanted power, as much as he had had it forced upon him. However, it had been forced upon him at such a young age that he could not imagine a time when he did not have it. For all the shitty things his father had done, it had ended up being the one saving grace Alistair's entire life.

"I think that is reasonable. You wanted power to hurt people, but a specific kind of people, those that would hurt the weak and the helpless. I would say that automatically makes you better than 60 percent of the population."


Another bout of silence followed as he tried to think of what else to say.

"I was there looking at the situation objectively as someone who never experienced the issue. For you to have gone through all that and still held yourself back...impressive."

The worst part about all that was that he and Walter were a lot alike. In fact, when he had first met the man, he had prided himself in knowing that he was like this man who had gotten so far in life...Would he do something like that? Would he kidnap a child just to see how the family would react? That seemed...cold.

Kristen Pirian
 
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His words were meant to be encouraging, and perhaps in the later sunshine of the day they would be. But presently Kristen didn't very much think herself to be better than much of the population. She thought her motivation to be selfish, and she was not proud of it. To her it was akin to a beautiful plant spawned from a tainted seed.

Though, mayhap with the accrual of good deed after good deed performed with her power, that proverbial taint of the seed could be cleansed and all could be well.

For you to have gone through all that and still held yourself back...impressive.

She looked up from her porridge. The tiniest tinge of guilt made her lips twitch.

"I wanted power so that I could hurt people...but I did not want to hurt you." A long moment of reckoning. "That moment of sublime revenge was simply not worth it, if such was the cost."

She tried for a smile, thinking in that moment that it was a rather brave thing of Alistair to do. Maybe not specifically for how 'dangerous' she herself was, but if it had been someone else? Another Initiate, much stronger, in Kristen's shoes? Brave indeed, the act itself, even if who Alistair opposed was not in this case very intimidating.

"It bought me the time I needed to reconcile my emotions with my principles."

Alistair Krixus
 
Alistair nodded with a soft smile, Kristen was so different compared to their fellow initiates. It was rare to have an initiative that did not grin at the idea of fucking someone else over. "Then, thank you."

He fell back into a moment of silence as it was difficult to reconcile with someone like this when such recent events were...traumatic to say the least.

"Either way, we all get to give in to our selfish desires every now and then...just matters when you act on them."

He mumbled the last part as the words he sputtered out suddenly hit too close to home. He had been so busy trying to get out comforting words that he had not noticed the metaphorical wall that he had run into.

All he could manage was another soft smile that he clearly did not put his heart into as he went back to eating.

Kristen Pirian
 
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Kristen caught on to the unease the fell like a descending bedsheet over Alistair there at the end. To what he could be referring, Kristen could not say. She only knew that his smile did not quite reach his eyes. Mayhap it was a dreary tale from the old way, a selfish desire of his own enacted upon some Initiate who had wronged him.

Kristen went back to eating as well.

When her bowl of porridge was nearly gone, she said, bringing the subject back around, "I will persevere in my political aspirations. This doubt will set like an evening sun."

She finished her porridge quickly.

"First, however, it would be wise to gain experience in Ladyship." And she had in mind just the petition to make to Father.

"You have a Lordship of your own in which to attend upon graduation, Alistair. All of House Krixus is your inheritance."

Alistair Krixus
 
That last comment seemed to bring back some mirth, or at least focus on the subject. His eyes grew annoyed as he thought of the recent ledgers that he had discovered at his home.

"That is not saying much, unfortunately. House Krixus has been falling apart in recent years. We have no governmental positions to speak of, and nearly no land. My family owns a small track partially outside Vel Anir, that is mostly in disrepair, but is home to a few cousins, uncles, and aunts. My...father's business was failing for months in secret. When I am done paying off debts, the only business we have left will be the small apothecary shop with no one to run it. I-"

He stopped himself as he began to realize that he was about to enter a very long rant if he had not already entered one. The simple matter was that House Krixus was noble in name only. The only real asset that Alistair was aware of was his future Dreadlord career. Potentially, the apothecary could be saved, but that would not save the small estate that house many of the Krixus extended family.

Alistair suddenly looked very tired and defeated, as he leaned back into his seat with a sigh, and mumbled under his breath. "Not to mention the baby."

Attempting to change the subject he focused back in on Kristen, "I can not wait to hear exploits of your success, Kristen. I have little doubt that you will do House Pirian proud."

Kristen Pirian
 
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Kristen listened to the woeful state of House Krixus. My, certainly there was much to salvage. And what a dreadful time for the loss of his father! All of this Alistair was saddled with—the debts, the disrepair of the sole title of land, the fledgling apothecary business—in addition to his efforts to become a Dreadlord. His Lordship would not be an easy one.

I have little doubt that you will do House Pirian proud.

"I hope so," Kristen said. "Though hope is sweet like a dessert, something more tangible must be for the main course, so to speak. I plan on petitioning my father for a tenure of Ladyship over Vel Numera. It is a rather large holding of House Pirian's, and it has been a tradition to allow for Pirian scions to hold Lordship or Ladyship over it for a time. Though I doubt any inheritance of land will be mine, the experience I think would serve well for my aspirations."

Alistair Krixus
 
Alistair smirked at Kristen's ever creative analogy. If it was like that then-House Krixus would be starving. Then again, the House now had friends that were well-fed, so he would eat at the scraps for a time, anything just to survive.

"Yes, I can see how that will be useful. I will come and visit when I can to see how you are doing."

For some reason, when Alistair's picture Kristen's lands in his head. All he could picture was a place with a giant church and everyone was as nice and polite as Kristen...It sounded insufferable. One Kristen was great, but hundreds might make Alistair lose his mind.

Kristen Pirian
 
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"Oh, that would be wonderful," Kristen said invitingly. "It shall have to wait until I am graduated, of course, but I would be honored to receive you officially as the Lady of Vel Numera."

She smiled broadly. Reached across the table and gave his shoulder a small and playful nudge.

"Lord Krixus."

Distinct emphasis on the title. Trying it out for size. And, in Kristen's opinion, reflected openly in her eye's bright gleam, she found it to fit well on him.

It went unnoticed by Kristen's conscious mind that in so making plans for a couple of years in the future came the implication, the engraved resolution in those otherwise innocent words, that, yes, they will survive the assault looming over Ostia Anir. They would not perish here.

But her unconscious mind did not miss it.

Hope. Sweet like a dessert. Nourishing to the soul.

Alistair Krixus
 
"I look forward to it." He said with a light grin.

Lord Krixus...he wasn't sure how to feel about that. Technically, it was his title now. However, all he could see when he heard that was his father's face...while he skewered him with his blade.

The soft smile never dropped from his face, this time, as he kept his composure as took a sip from his drink.

"Then I suppose it is a done deal Lady Pirian."


How ironic, his dad had wanted him to make allies with Great noble houses for years, but it was only upon his death that many of those alliances came to fruition.

"After all, friends should look out for each other."

Kristen Pirian
 
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"Yes," Kristen said, her smile pleasant and as warm as her heart. "They should."

* * * * *

DAY TWELVE OF THE SIEGE


What awoke Kristen on the morning of the twelfth day was not the peeking of the dawn's light through the curtains, for the only evidence of the rising sun this early was the slow crawl of pink to the east and the meager brightening of the twilight. It was not the knocking of a Banick servant on her door, for no such knocking came this day, again because it was just a touch too early, just before the usual time Kristen wished to be roused from her rest. It was not even the first sounds of battle themselves, for distant enough were they that it was only a mere suggestion muted to a near nothingness by the walls of the Estate.

No, it was the last three footsteps a poor messenger would ever take. She heard them, eyes opening slowly, her heart not yet seized by any manner of alarm, though the urgency of those hurried footsteps laid the first brick to build the house of concern. When the messenger banged on her door—THUMP, THUMP, THUMP—and then threw it open without even waiting for her acknowledgement or without care to whether or not she was decent, that was when the alarm truly set in.

Kristen bolted up in her comfortable bed inside the guest room, head vacating those fluffed pillows with haste. She was clutching her blanket close to her chest as if it were a kind of shield. In seeing the look of terror on the messenger's face, Kristen was keenly aware that she was wearing only a nightgown, and not one single piece of her armor.

"MY LADY PIRIAN!" the messenger shouted. Another messenger behind him had thrown open the door to Alistair's guest room at this time. "The assault has be—!"

The messenger vanished in a sudden hail of catastrophic debris. The roof above him caved in, an enormous catapult payload crushed him, and the floor upon which he was standing exploded in upon itself. Kristen yelped in surprise and turned her head away, bringing her arm up as splinters of wood flew in a barrage through her room and dust choked the hall.

A gigantic hole in the Banick Estate now, from rooftop to cellar basin. A direct hit from Vogel's artillery beyond the city walls.

And not the only one. Before Kristen could even leap out of bed, another strike, this time hitting inside her room. A boulder-sized hole burst open in the ceiling, then in the floor, and immense thunder sounded from the ground level as the summoned stone crashed through all the way to the basement.

Kristen's bed jolted from the initial impact.

And it began to slide and tip, as it was poised right at the edge of the termination of the floorboards. Wooden groaned and creaked and snapped.

Kristen cried out, scrambling as her bed was slowly tipping over in a desperate attempt to leap over the side and onto sturdy floor and relative safety.

Alistair Krixus
 
Alistair was usually an early riser, it gave him time to do some light readings and prepare for anything that could occur during the upcoming day. It was for this reason, that Alistair was fortuitously awake when the bombardment began.

At first, he had disregarded the noise, while he tried to finish cleaning some pieces of his armor. In response to not being paid attention to, the jealous bombardment proceeded to send a boulder right through his room, completely destroying his bed. A few feet to the right and it would have been Alistair and the desk that were no more.

He cursed as he scrambled towards the chest at the end of the bed. It was still there, although dangerously close to falling through the floor. It did not matter, he had to get what was in that chest.

As he sifted through its contents, Alistair could feel the chest beginning to slide. At the last second, he found what he was looking for. It was his runesaber and a pair of leather bracers.

By now, Alistair could hear the commotion going on throughout the manor. He rushed over and shoved on his boots. That left him with his boots, some basic leather pants, a nightshirt, his bracers, and the runesaber. It would have to do.

He opened the door to chaos and the sounds of people running in terror. Alistair rushed over to Kristen's room, whose door was already open.

"Kristen? We have to go!"

Upon rushing into the room, he spotted her in her bed.

Kristen Pirian
 
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The bed was toppling over the edge, the yawning hole of the boulder's impact seeming to swallow it up like a snake eating a plump rat. Down below the chaos and hazard of ruin: broken boards and shattered bricks and a sprinkling of glass.

Now at a full diagonal, the bed was tipping over with a startling rapidity now. Kristen was clutching the sliding mattress, the frame, scrambling as though she were a sailor on a sinking ship.

"ALISTAIR!"

She gave herself to as powerful a lunge as her awkward position on the tumbling bed could allow for. The bed tilted completely and disappeared down into the hole and there would come a crash as it landed in the basement below, atop the disintegrating summoned boulder.

Kristen caught the edge of the hole in the guest room floor, slipping and sliding backward as there was nothing to firmly grasp. Her arms disappeared. Her head. Only her hands remained visible to Alistair. She was dangling, hanging on, bare feet swinging wildly above the broken debris below.

Alistair Krixus
 
Alistair's eyes grew wide as he scrambled forward on his hands and knees, not wanting to be knocked over by any sudden jolts. He reached out and grabbed Kristen's forearms, pulling with all of his might and then some.

He grunted with effort. The manor was still falling down around them as more and more boulders continued to slam into the building...If this was what the manor looked like, then what did the walls look like? They needed to hurry up. Another boulder smashed through the wall. Ok, let's get out of here first.

Alistair pulled Kristen up as fast as he could. His shoulders were being stretched to the point that he felt like they were about to dislocate.

"I've got you. Let's go." He tried to smile in confidence.

Kristen Pirian
 
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Hooves pounded along the southward road to Ostia Anir.

The Messenger and the Guardsmen surrounding him were all pushing their steeds to near total exhaustion, pushing themselves to near total exhaustion. All through the night had they ridden, so close were they now to their destination. The Messenger, his armored escort, all of them knew the importance of the orders they carried. Councilor Berenger, Lord Neil Pirian, and several other members of Parliament had all impressed this import upon them with great severity and solemnity.

The first hints of dawn were banishing the dark of night, and in the rising dimness of the morning did they press on.

It was just a little bit further. If all went well, they could have the orders delivered into Commander Vogel's hands before the sun fully revealed itself above the horizon.

Yet, to a man, they all silently worried that it could be too late.

* * * * *​

Commander Vogel sat atop his horse, observing as his siege towers docked against Ostia Anir's walls. Artillery barrages from within Ostia Anir were returning indirect fire: most of it struck empty field; one shot toppled a siege tower and killed the men preparing the disembark from the ramp; another shot hit squarely in a formation of men rushing toward one of the many erected ladders.

Vogel, however, was more concerned about his own artillery. The Republic had granted him the best Dreadlord for the job: Caern Reedus. Not only were his gifts perfectly suited for it, but he was an excellent engineer. Caern was a man who used both the magical and the mundane in concert to his advantage.

Presently, Caern was touching the ground, his eyes rolled up into the back of his head. "Direct hits upon the Banick Estate, Commander Vogel."

Vogel smiled smugly and his shoulders shivered with excitement. "Good...good. Maybe the snake is now without its head." Even better if the bombardment killed some of Walter's Dreadlords. And even better than that if the bombardment killed that insufferable Krixus boy and the Pirian harlot.

Caern stood, and his eyes returned to normal. He summoned another boulder into a readied catapult beside him with his geomancy and gave the nod to the crew operating it. Then he said to Vogel, "If not, the chaos will be just the opportunity your agents need."

Vogel's smile broke open into a vainglorious grin. "Yes. Hmm...the Republic will see a sound victory here today."

And for himself? The rank he had coveted and been denied for so long.

* * * * *​

Kristen clutched eagerly to Alistair as he pulled her up. She crawled away from the edge of the hole once she could, not wishing to tempt fate by lingering too close for too long.

"With haste!" she said, pushing herself up to her feet.

There was only a momentary thought spared for her armor, her weapon. But there was no time. They couldn't afford to stay here while terrifyingly accurate artillery fire was raining down on their heads. She would just have to find a better solution to her armor and weapon woes later. For now, it was all she could do to simply run in her simple nightgown and bare feet.

Out of the room, jumping over the hole that had once been her door. Down the hall. All the way and while, the Estate shook again and again. It seemed like they were less inside of a noble manor and more inside of a cavern ready to collapse in on itself.

On the balcony walkway above the grand foyer, both sets of stairs had been destroyed. The balcony itself was creaking and groaning, only just holding its structual integrity.

"Blessed Aionus!" Kristen said. She looked to Alistair. It wasn't a terribly long drop, no, easily could they do it without hardly a risk. But the floor of the foyer was littered with so much jagged debris that Kristen's feet would be cut to ribbons if she tried to run through it.

There were options. But they needed to pick fast.

Alistair Krixus
 
As they moved through the destroyed grounds, Alistair hurried along with Kristen, but his eyes kept glazing over for seconds at a time. Every time his eyes glazed over, his frown only grew. He had placed his runic eyes throughout the city, including on the walls in the past days. His eyes did not paint a good picture.

When he zoned back in on the situation, they were standing at the ledge. They were out of time. Runes flared up over his body as he jumped from the ledge and landed with the light crunch of glass beneath his boots. He looked up at Kristen and held out his hands indicating for her to jump.

"Just jump. I'll get you out of here, and then we can find you some boots."

Kristen Pirian
 
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Now was not the time for the intrusion of demure, noblewoman sensibilities. They did so intrude, yes, plaintively stating their case in her mind with protestations the likes of But what if someone should see you? and This would send a rather forward message, allowing him to carry you so, would it not?

The sounds of falling debris, of the walls and floors buckling and breaking throughout the whole of the Estate, did stout work in tandem with Kristen's resolve for drowning out her misplaced sensibilities.

"Right! I trust you!"

And, without any further delay, Kristen jumped.

Alistair Krixus