Private Tales The Siege of Salesia

[Kristen Pirian]

VEL NUMERA​

"Mayor Caspian."

"My Lady," said the same, bowing before her. "You summoned me?"

Kristen sat presently in the office chambers of the Pirian Manor. And though she now was the Lady of Vel Numera, some heavy memories accompanied this very room, this very seat. Ill memories. Her cousin Fyris, the previous Lord of Vel Numera, murdered right here; the blood had long been cleaned from the desk, yet in her mind's eye, that image could never truly be cleansed. And who was his murderer? Duresh, the very man who had at Garron and Walter Banick's bidding kidnapped her so many years ago, and who had thus with his own hands played his part in orchestrating the Battle of the Blades, claiming the lives of many fine Anirians.

Her business today dealt with an ill memory. Not the one concerning Fyris and Duresh—mayhap that would come some other day, and the chance to bring the latter to justice would arise. This ill memory harkened back to Kristen's earliest days as an Initiate. It harkened back to a certain jail visit. It harkened back to Edric, the most eminent of Initiates in her first class, the one both overtly and quietly acknowledged as being the most formidable among them all.

Where her cousin Fyris was dead, rest his soul, here now, perhaps, could something be done to save a life that was well imperiled. Perhaps...for it remained to be seen if she still lived. Hope was needed, the belief that it was so. Not only for the sake of an innocent life, but...as well...for there to be some resilience to the wishful light that Edric might not wholly be the monster Kristen thought him to be.

In all that death...was there yet life?

"Have you spoken with Captain Rennil?" she asked.

"Yes, I have, my Lady." And he then reported what Kristen wanted to know: a list of House Pirian's Stormguard, of those who were either stationed in Vel Numera itself or Vel Salvus or anywhere near enough for a timely arrival. What Kristen had in mind would require capability, of course, but trust and loyalty most of all. Caspian had also gotten from Rennil brief descriptions of each of the Stormguard, their temperaments and the like, for this Kristen had requested.

One of the names out of the many mentioned by Caspian caught her attention.

"Blair Rennick," she said slowly, this as she was engaged in some last moment consideration. And then she came to make the decision. "Yes. Could you send for her, Arnold? I should like to speak with her as soon as possible."

With a parting bow, he said, "Very well. It will be done, my Lady."

"Thank you."

And when Mayor Caspian had taken his leave, Kristen stood and went to the window. She looked out at the afternoon sun, crowning the vivid blue sky.

May hope be rewarded, she thought, and then went on to contemplate the danger that lay ahead.

Blair Rennick Fabien 'King' D'Amour Edric

 

[Blair Rennick]

"You're slacking today."

Blair's pout turned into a frown, then a scowl as she repeated the same mistake in the training ring. She bristled to make her frustrations known, had turned her back and tried to gather herself before turning back to her brother who had insisted they spar today.

He only gave her a pointed look, not one to repeat himself as he waited for her to talk. "I'm not sleeping well." She grit out, dropping her gaze.

"The dreams?" Octavian asked.

Blair only nodded. Her first death witnessed before her eyes. A small unit had been transferring goods from a checkpoint before an attack wiped them out. Herself and only a small few were able to be healed, some died from infection before help could come, but Blair spent two days staring at dead bodies before she gathered enough strength to move. No one had given her a hard time about it. A few somber looks full of understanding, and ghosts flickering in their glazed eyes.

"It isn't as frequent now." She said quickly to appease her brother, to make it be known she could endure.

And thankfully, she was summoned by another.

She parted ways from her brother, left him with the mess of training weapons to deal with, and followed to a horse waiting for her.

Blair had seen the Pirian home only a handful of times, but each visit seemed larger and grander than the last. The last time was to escort a Dreadlord on business, but this time, she was wanted by none other than Kristen Pirian.

The Daughter, well loved and well respected, Blair had often compared herself to the now Dreadlord, but she didn't attend the Academy like Kristen. Didn't have so many to educate on magic... and she always had to remind herself that her own ability to manipulate and create ice was not as strong as a Dreadlord was capable of. She wasn't a Stormguard because of magic, but because of her reliable strength.

Kress. She was nervous.

Blair took a mere moment to collect herself before rapping her knucles against the wooden doors, the summoner behind them. Nudging the door open, she poked her bright blonde head through the space and quickly spotted Kristen.

Stepping fully past the door and shutting it behind her, she bowed at the waist and greeted, "Lady Pirian."


Kristen Pirian Fabien 'King' D'Amour

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen was still standing when Blair entered. She turned as the door was shut, smiling in genial reception as Blair bowed and greeted her.

"Stormguard Rennick."

But she would drop the formalities. For was it not appropriate, considering what she had in mind? No official venture of House Pirian nor Anirian Guard would this be, no.

"Blair," she said. "Please, have a seat."

Kristen took her own seat at the Ladyship's desk in the office chamber.

"How do you fare this day? Are you well? Tell me, if you will, of what is good, and what is perhaps ill."

Captain Rennil's assessment, as delivered by Mayor Caspian, was one thing, but Kristen endeavored to come to know Blair personally, to gauge her character for herself. After all, should Kristen deem her the one upon whom she would call for aid, they would be depending on each other. Indeed, their lives would be within one another's hands.

Blair Rennick

 

[Blair Rennick]

Hesitation overcame her, but as soon as Kristen made to sit, Blair felt rather rude not acknowledging the request. She cleared her throat to give her time to think of what to say as she crossed to the offered seat, but any words that were about to leave her lips stayed in her throat as Kristen asked her questions with such fine words, she felt dulled in comparison.

Her brows furrowed in a look of earnest, softening her face as she settled on an answer.

"Everything is in order, and my duty here is not too taxing on me." There, simple, vague, and a sufficient answer. She allowed a small triumphant smile, proud to hold her own in the company of the House she served. As a child, she thought being on the Stormguard meant something heroic, something grand, but after all she went through, Blair was glad to prove she could handle the duties and expectations to serve in the Pirian Stormguard.

"And yourself, Lad— Kris... Kristen?" It took everything not to wince, to speak her sentence without too much fault despite her hesitance at dropping the formalities.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

The blade of informality, so to speak, turned upon Kristen. And yourself, Kristen? She would speak truthfully on it, despite the trying nature of it all. This was what she wanted, after all. Openness.

So with a wan smile she said, "If only I could entreat Aionus to permit me a small favor: more hours in the day, at least for a time. I have beyond even my most demanding estimations much to do in the wake of my return to Vel Anir, hardly an item lagging in importance behind its fellows. Rest does not come easily, for I fear at the setting of the sun that I have not done enough, and perhaps could have done more. Yet I must choose that which must be done, or requires my attention, first."

Gods, this was to say nothing of Alistair and Zinnia, for she had yet to part from the busyness of her House to appropriately reunite with them!

"Some things, however, cannot wait."

Kristen slid one of the parchments on her desk across and toward Blair.

"The Navy recently spotted something...concerning, to me."

The parchment was but a simple newsletter delivered by courier, one of the ways in which nobility stayed informed. Upon it were items arranged like notes, with concise details about this or that happening around the whole of Vel Anir, like a written form of word of mouth. Only one of these items, at the very bottom, concerned the Anirian Navy. It read simply:

— The Free City of Salesia is under siege by Cortosi forces.

Blair Rennick

 

[Blair Rennick]

Blair leaned in. As a sickly child, she had a better understanding of her letters than her brothers and sisters ever did when they had been her age. It was said she could decipher even the most unrecognizable of scripts, but still, Blair read the each note with speed and understanding. They all seemed rather mundane; concerns that need not their swift attentions, or better yet, responsible by any other Great House than that of the Pirians she served.

She had been about to hand the parchment back across the desk, until the last issue caught her eye and her attention. Her hand paused. Her gaze speared into the dried ink there.

Alertness was in her eyes, exhaustion weighing at her eyelids but were weak against the news of a siege.

"This is not the first time the Cortosi have been active." She stated, retracting her hand now and reclined into her plush chair. Blair chewed at her bottom lip, eyes falling back to the note as if it could change before her very eyes. "I thought I heard a company had been sent out to... deal with them."

But now, it seemed such efforts had gone ignored.

They were playing with fire... or perhaps there was another reason altogether. Blair looked to the Lady seated on the other side of the desk. The seat of power, at least that was what Blair thought of the very picture of Kristen there. The Daughter returned.

"What significance does Salesia have?" Came a question of caution.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"None," Kristen said. "None, to Vel Anir. None, to the Guard or the Navy. None even to House Pirian."

Kristen set her hands primly down in her lap, and sat straight in her chair once more.

"Yet it is in Salesia that I owe a debt. There it is in the heart of that city that I have a matter unresolved; a matter whose resolution I promised to the very man by whose actions the debt was incurred. We are bound in this, the three of us: myself, that man, and...an innocent woman, who may or may not already be dead. She may have been killed years ago, when I was an Initiate. I do not know. But now that Salesia is imperiled, I am bidden to act toward the fulfillment of my promise. I wish to see if this woman yet lives, and if she does, to save her from the cruel fortunes of war."

Kristen studied Blair for a moment.

"In this endeavor there shall be no aid nor recourse. If I were to ask my father Neil, or my Uncle Tobias, or any of House Pirian in a more official capacity, I am certain they would deny me—out of love and concern, if for nothing else. And why not? This seems on the surface a foolhardy endeavor in which to commit Pirian-sworn men. And in a sense, I do agree, for it is not a matter for Vel Anir nor the Navy nor House Pirian. It is a personal matter of mine. If I must see to it alone, then I will rise to honor's demands."

Kristen, then, rose from her seat. She rounded the desk and stood beside Blair. All the trappings of formality and hierarchy were gone, from her posture to her expression to where she now stood.

"I have not brought you here to command you, Blair. I wish merely to ask you, shed in this moment of my stature as Lady, as one woman to another, and giving to you all freedom to decline without fear of reprisal or ill regard: will you join me in this venture? Will you join me, that I might not do this alone?"

Blair Rennick

 

[Blair Rennick]

Blair frowned.

Beneath the facade, her thoughts began to muddle as Kristen spoke of a debt. The promise, the importance, all unique to that of the Pirian standing beside her. And that her gesture to stand by her side, towering over her, Blair had no other choice than to lift her head to meet the gaze of a determined young woman. The kindness, the goodness, that expelled through her lips and asked Blair to journey at her side, her thoughts muddled again with I can do this...

"I am no Dreadlord." She blurted. A quick series of blinks and Blair cleared her throat. She pushed back her chair to stand, but even at her full stature she was still looking up at Kristen. "I mean to say, yes, of course. I accept not out of duty to your House but as someone that wants to see more in this life... but I cannot help but think of the disadvantages."

Her smile was weak, nervous manifesting in the twitching at the corners of her mouth as they did not quite reach her eyes. "I will defend by your side, Kristen Pirian, but surely there are others that would be willing to join this cause? You have friends that could help, no? There is plenty of ground between us here and Salesia..."

It was a bid to call for those better than Blair. More capable, as her own uniqueness with ice manipulation could not compare to that of anyone Kristen knew by attending the Academy.

Before her, Kristen would see a soldier ready, but human enough to worry and be intimidated by the journey ahead.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"I do," said Kristen. "Yet timing and circumstance conspire against me. I am not the only one who has her duties and obligations taking her to and fro. Could I, perhaps, spend the time tracking down such friends to aid me in this cause? I could, and despite their busyness, I've no doubt that they would come to help. Yet with each friend gained time will necessarily be spent, and there is no telling if or when the Cortosi will choose to assault Salesia's walls."

Even if she could summon any number of Pirian-sworn men, and if all the eminent names of capable friends coming to her mind were all conveniently available at little cost to time, Kristen judged a smaller, less conspicuous and more mobile group would be better than a larger force. She did not intend to batter her way through the Cortosi blockade, but to employ stealth in the same manner she and Edric had done in the past.

"It seems that you and I will have to suffice."

Blair Rennick

 

[Blair Rennick]

Still, there was something lacking, something overseen, and it nagged at her. Blair shifted her weight onto either foot, hesitating to answer Kristen as her mind began to think and think and think.

If she could not call upon her friends, then perhaps Blair could provide something or someone...

And suddenly, her features lit up.

"The Academy is not far from the road leading to a port, is it not? If we were to make a stop, I know an Initiate that could be suited to our personal mission." Her mother was in fact the cousin to this Initiate, but the Rennicks and the D'amours were not so close to keep up with either family. In fact, Blair never met Fabien. It was said they could pass as siblings, and seeing the D'amours from a distance a handful of times, she could see the resemblances.

Blair grinned, the first sign of her formalities ceasing. "If I was to pick someone to play on our team, he would be a good team player."

Of course, she did not know of Fabien's personality, just information of his magic, and the idea of how the three of them would prove as an immeasurable force.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Presented now with this curious new possibility, Kristen paused as she pondered just who Blair might have in mind, and her expression gave all the outward signs of this inner consideration. Who could it be? Guesswork after only a moment came up wanting, for she'd a small pool of guesses from which to even pull. The Academy, of course, housed magically-inclined children and adolescents from all over the Republic, and it was difficult enough to even come to know the true breadth of one's own class. A class behind or above, with whose members you would have virtually no common interactions on missions, in training, or in academic pursuits? Banish the thought of keeping an accurate roster.

She knew of the relation between the Rennicks and the D'Amours, but surely Blair did not mean Evangeline? She could not possibly, unless she had grievously misspoken when she said Initiate, and furthermore when she said he.

So Kristen, at a loss, came to ask, "Who have you in mind?" And then a perhaps more pertinent question introduced itself, and she spoke it: "And how might we secure him from the Academy? We cannot make an official mission request."

Blair Rennick

 

[Blair Rennick]

"Fabien D'Amour, of course." Blair answered with a large smile, shaking her head a few times, as if she was softly chastising the Lady Pirian for not knowing. "I figure, since Proctor D'Amour teaches there, we may ask of her this small favour in allowing him to accompany us?"

There was a thought, a wonder, running through her mind as she came up with this idea. That Fabien's own ability to amplify could help her, allow her to do more than encasing things in ice. Kristen was Academy educated, as is Fabien, and they were taught how to be weaponised.

Once, she had fashioned a blade made from ice. It was crafted so nicely, so unforgiving, but wielding it begged of a swordswoman that knew how to reinforce her magic. Her trainer chipped and cracked it within a few moments, and Blair tried several times after that before giving up.

Perhaps her decision to aide Kristen in this promise, in this favour was selfish, but she need not reveal that to the Dreadlord.

"I am alright to lie." She offered. "Just to make things easier in getting them to agree to our request..."

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Ah, Fabien!"

Like many a name heard but the person himself not met, Fabien D'Amour had receded to a more shadowed and dormant section of mind. As it was in the old way, Fabien like all the others had been taken young, and Kristen had not even a faraway childhood memory of speaking with him, playing with him, nothing of the sort. Snickerdoodle! She might have even seen him at the Academy! She might well have seen him from afar or passed right by him and seen his face and mayhap heard his voice and recognized neither merely because she knew no such personal details!

She'd come around to telling Blair this, either as conversation allowed or during the ride south to the Academy. Well, if nothing else, it would be lovely to finally meet Fabien in person.

The matter of securing his assistance, however, was presently at hand.

"We may not need to...bend the truth so much. Not if we entreat Proctor D'Amour, as you say. Merely do we need to arrange for 'a quick word' with her, something of the like. I believe that Proctor D'Amour will be understanding to our cause, and will be able to handle the...ahem, 'flexibility of truth' on her end concerning Fabien's assignment."

Blair Rennick

 

[Blair Rennick]

Blair's smile turned sheepish. Perhaps it was a bright idea to keep things truthful, for there was that morsel of fear and doubt that there would be consequences for lying to a Dreadlord.

"Right... then..." She cleared her throat, looking about the room as she bought time to think of what to say next.

Her pale eyes looked up to Kristen, her shoulders rising in a shrug. "Shall we make preparations to leave?" Time was of the essence, and there was still a journey to travel to Salesia... unless Fabien did not mind using his magic to their advantage to cut their estimated arrival considerably.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Yes," Kristen said. "I will be ready within the hour. And Blair?"

Kristen touched her arm, as a comrade-in-arms would another.

"Thank you, for this."

* * * * *

THE ACADEMY​

Days of travel preceded their arrival, and it was all Kristen could do to hope that Salesia still stood, that the serving woman had not survived that night with Edric only now to become a casualty of war. She prayed to Aionus every day that her endeavor not be in vain. Merely did she ask for the veritable chance to rescue the woman. Kristen felt in the deepness of her heart that this was owed to the woman, for was it not Kristen herself who assented to Lady Lorel's request, thereby placing herself, Edric, and the serving woman directly on the path to disaster? The wish for redemption, therefore, played no small role in what drove Kristen onward.

And so the land finally gave way to the familiar grounds around the Academy. Soon enough that very day, Kristen and Blair rode up to the gates themselves. Rather would Kristen have went years instead of months before seeing those gates again, but this was not about her.

A brief exchange with the Guardsmen on duty at the gates followed. Kristen inquired of Proctor D'Amour, making light of the matter, and asking only if she could spare "a moment of her time". The Guardsmen assented, at least to deliver the message and let the Proctor decide, and one of them jogged off to find Evangeline.

Kristen had dismounted from her horse, and stood by Blair, waiting. To her in a private voice she said, "Now we shall see."

Hopefully they would not be victims of rotten timing, showing up when King was already dispatched on a mission elsewhere.

Blair Rennick Evangeline

 

[Blair Rennick]

Blair's eyes were fixed on the views offered by the freedoms of riding a horse for this journey. She had not been able to travel all too much outside of Vel Numera, only to visit the other Stormguard campus and other towns nearby. The Stormguard had listened intently, as best she could over the beats of hooves hitting the road, as Kristen informed her of towns, places, landmarks along the way.

To see the Academy for the first time had made Blair wonder what her life would have been like if those Proctors certainly had taken her to train here when she had been a sickly child. They had thought she would die first of natural causes before seeing to the fundamental lessons taught to Dreadlords in training. Blair had grown stronger, but even that had taken her years of working every day to overcome her frailty.

"You were trained here?" She whispered loudly as she turned to see Kristen dismount and come to her side. "This is the Academy?"

It was both beautiful and cold, as if the stone were tableaus of strict details to show how well funded a place like this was. A haven for striving to be better, a promise to become all powerful.

Blair would have been killed her first lesson here if fate had changed all those years ago.

She could ask hundreds of questions about this place, about what her training had been like, or even more questions about magic. It had been at the tip of her tongue the entirety that Rennick had been in Kristen's presence, for it was not common that she got to spend time with anyone with an inkling of magic... but to ask those questions meant offering herself up to be seen, assessed, and Blair already knew she should improve before even thinking about considering herself to be anything adjacent to a Dreadlord, or even Initiate.

Kristen Pirian Evangeline

 

[Evangeline]

Clack-clack, clack! Clack-clack, clack!

Ten minutes had passed since the Guardsmen had been sent for Proctor D'Amour, and find her they did. The familiar, three-pronged gait of cane and heels sounded out upon the Academy's floors as Evangeline drew near. Evangeline herself followed soon after, her usual well-kempt hair and uniform lending her the aura of professionalism that she so preferred to keep.

Even still, there was a fire that lit behind her icy eyes as she spotted Kristen, that slight limp in her step picking up in pace as she grew ever closer to the grounds that the young lady and her Stormguard companion had been waiting. Evangeline came to a halt in front of them, practically bristling, and leaned on her cane.

"Dreadlord Kristen," she said with barely restrained pride and a smile she could no longer hide. Her eyes shifted to the other young woman. The unmistakable feathered, iron frames mounted to her back denoted her role, and the similarly colored hair and eyes revealed her lineage. At that age, she could only have been-- "And...Cousin Blair?"

Evangeline quirked her head ever so slightly, intensely curious, but still quite excited to see family in both of the young women before her. Icy blues slid back to Kristen once more.

"The Guardsmen only gave me the barest of details on your arrival. What brings you both to the Academy?"

Ever the professional.

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Blair whispered to her while they waited.

"I was..." And here Kristen gave a wan smile, for the memory was a wistful one, "...much a different person, then."

From being lost in the desert with Edric, to her first taking of life in the frozen reaches of the world, to the crucifixion of her own cousin Redoran, the "Darling Daughter" who had entered the Academy emerged as—

Dreadlord Kristen.

To hear her title from Evangeline was never tiring, and it made all the hardship, all the sacrifice, worth it. Kristen well could be as she was at fourteen years of age, before the Revolution and before any hint of enrolling into the Academy had illuminated itself—delicate and brimming with innocence. And there was goodness in that, to be sure. But though Kristen had lost something as she passed through the crucible of the Academy, she had also gained something, and nowhere was this more apparent than in the likeness of Evangeline. She had become more like her.

Kristen glanced about, and indeed where they stood by the gates of the Academy they were afforded an acceptable degree of privacy. "Evangeline, it is good to see you. Though I wish this could be more of a social call, I instead must come straight to the point, for both you and I have little time here, and Blair and I have smaller time still at large.

"I am on a personal mission—to Salesia, of the Cortosi Coast, if you have heard. This mission, though it will be dangerous, is of great significance to me. In this endeavor speed, stealth, and smallness of numbers is required. Blair has come to lend me her aid, and she has made a suggestion to which I assented, for I cannot rely upon the official backing of the Anirian Guard, or even House Pirian."

Kristen lowered her voice.

"Are you able, with due discretion, to allow us to speak with your nephew, Fabien D'Amour? That we might entreat him to join us on this mission?"

Blair Rennick Evangeline

 

[Evangeline]

Evangeline had half expected a hug, but she was not upset by the lack of one. They were to be peers now, and the girl was clearly here on business. Kristen held herself respectably and professionally, and for that Evangeline could feel only more pride.

"It is good to see you as well, Kristen," she began to reply, getting pleasantries out of the way. Then she listened to the request being made of her. Her brow furrowed. Salesia? Fabien? The Pirian Proctor looked a tad bewildered.

"My brother, actually..." she sounded back in a hushed tone of her own. Her eyes shifted to Blair, then back to the young Stormbringer. "Kristen, what is this about? Business in Cortos that you can't rely on your own House for? This sounds rather...clandestine, if I'm being honest. I know you're not on probation any longer, but I'm concerned nonetheless."

 

[Kristen Pirian]

My brother, actually...

"Goodness! My apologies!" Oh, what more clear way to signal that she hardly knew Fabien! Through some fault of memory, or some rogue impression stealing into the place of the correct one, she had very much thought Evangeline to be the aunt of Fabien. 'Twas hardly the first faux pas Kristen had made, but certainly one whose attending embarrassment outstripped the size of the mistake.

Back, quickly and quietly, to the matter at hand.

"Were I to ask my father, I know that he, with heavy heart, would say no. He would not see the matter as I do. And as for the Guard or Navy, to intervene in Salesia with their military capacity would be to aggrieve Cortos, which the Republic is not keen on doing."

She would have to come to it, and explain in brief the true purpose of this dangerous venture she and Blair were embarked upon.

"Evangeline...do you remember, in my second year, when I had been assigned on a mission with Edric into the deserts of Amol-Kalit? The story is as I've told in my report at the time, save for a detail...which I omitted at the time." The succinctness of those reports precluded it, and even if she had included it, it would have been seen as inessential to remark upon. "While infiltrating the Oren Manor, Edric and I had been spotted by a servant woman. She cowered in a corner. I tried to direct Edric's attention away. But he saw her, or sensed her. He rushed to her and tried to choke the life from her. And so I...attacked him, in a bid to save her life."

Kristen shook her head, looked down and hard to the ground as one recalling some distant horror. For, as the report concluded, the massacre of House Oren ensued.

"I do not know if the servant woman survived that night. Yet I must discover her fate. And if she lives, then I feel I am compelled to save her from her embattled city, lest war, ever the callous master, claims her."

She looked heavily to Evangeline, and said, "I know not her name...but I know that I owe her this. I must see it done."

Evangeline Blair Rennick

 

[Blair Rennick]

Never had Blair felt so foolish for having the very words on the tip of her tongue to dissolve upon it the moment Proctor D'Amour called her cousin. Such acknowledgement had struck her with a pride she had felt as a child, determined to overcome her illness and become strong like Evangeline. Of course, they were cousins once removed, but their fathers held a friendship and connection that kept both families in the same circles.

None of the other D'Amours had called her Cousin before.

She was glad for Kristen's ability to keep her cool and explain the situation at hand. It gave her moment of reprieve to settle herself, to listen to Kristen reveal the importance of this woman in Salesia. She had not asked for this clarification, but hearing what had happened pulled at her sense of justice. Blair, too, would like to think she would go to the aid of another, but never had she been given the opportunity.

Blair cleared her throat, ready to speak.

"It would be unfair of us to ask for your aide, Proctor D'Amour," she began with a sheepish smile, "but Fabien is skilled in combat and his magic. I am sure he will do your — our — families great pride in standing with Kristen."

But of course, they may very well leave this place without him if that were the decision.

She had no doubt there were many capable and perhaps willing to travel with Kristen and Blair, but were they loyal to House Pirian?

 

[Evangeline]

Evangeline waved off the minor mistake, easily forgivable. The D'Amour siblings had not spent much time around Kristen, and so the confusion made sense.

Kristen had grown and matured much in the few years since she'd come to the Academy, but she had not lost sight of her ideals. In fact, she clearly clung to them more strongly than ever. Such things made Kristen who she was, and while Evangeline was glad that she had not lost sight of herself, well...it remained to be seen whether or not indulging such quests would be her ruin or not.

Evangeline chewed her lip thoughtfully, eyes searching the ground for a proper answer. Her gaze shot up to Blair as she added in her piece. After a long moment she sighed.

"Well I can hardly let the two of you go by yourselves, can I?" she acquiesced at last. Kristen was likely to go whether Evangeline disapproved or not. Kress, she was likely to go even if Lord Tobias himself said "no" given how she was describing things. Besides...Evangeline wanted Fabien to get time on missions that didn't involve the negative influence of that Larrainth girl.

"At this hour I'm sure Fabien is in his dorm. I won't make him go, but you can ask him yourselves. Knowing him, he'll jump at the opportunity to get out and about."

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"And that is all we ask, Evangeline. In no other way would I have Fabien accompany us than by his own will."

She glanced with her eyes alone to the Academy's gates, and to the Guardsmen standing sentinel thereabouts. To forge a credible excuse for what was sure to be an extended absence for Fabien, it would be best if Kristen and Blair were not so blatantly seen speaking with him.

"Shall you have him meet us in Pinewood Lake?" A village quite nearby the Academy, and one so often frequented by Dreadlords, Initiates, and Proctors that hardly any special note would be taken of them, so commonplace would it be for them to be "passing through", so to speak. "There we can pose the question to him in more fitting environs."

Blair Rennick Evangeline

 

[Evangeline]

The proctor nodded her agreement with a polite smile. Then she pursed her lips. Right...this truly was clandestine, then. Off the books.

"Let it be known that I don't approve of this...but yes. I will tell him," she agreed. She turned on her heel to begin the walk back to the Academy dorms, but stopped.

"And Kristen?" she said, glancing back over her shoulder, her tone very much that of the disciplinary aunt. "The three of you had better come back alive. All of you."

 

[Blair Rennick]

There was no doubt as to the authority that Proctor D'Amour exuded, but it went beyond that the moment she turned to look over her shoulder and speak directly to Kristen. Of course, none of them wanted graves dug and their families distraught over their cold bodies, but Blair felt a shiver pass through her.

She was not going to be a burden, she was not going to rely on them keeping her alive.

But she never saw a lick of combat outside of the training ring.

"Right. You lead the way to this lake..." Blair smiled, although the ingenuity of it did not last long until her face fell, withdrawn by the expectation placed upon them.

It unnerved her, really put into place the unknown laid before them.

Kress, Fabien better agree to come along...

Kristen Pirian