Private Tales The Sound of Steel

[Kaius]

"Could you now?.." Kaius asked somewhat bitterly as she commented on Arwyl's apparent care. Kaius knew he cared, and Arwyl knew it was mutual, they'd just always given one another a hard time. He smirked in amusement. "Care and respect are two separate things. Respect is something he is greatly lacking in. For someone who had everything ripped away from him he acts like a spoiled child." he huffed.. "But I didn't say he doesn't care."

After he'd scrubbed the blood and dirt from his skin and hair, Kaius let his head fall back to soak in the water's heat and he listened to her with an uncomfortable amount of guilt as she commented on the beatings he'd given out. He'd let it go too far and he knew it. He caught the brief flicker of her gaze and frowned gently.. "Lass if you think I hate the Anirians any less than Arwyl or any of those men you're mistaken. Trust me, I have plenty reason to want to see them burned to the ground and if I had a stable army at my back I'd happily see it done. But I don't have a stable army at my back, and the small band we do have are at risk of dwindling away even more every time we do something as stupid as attack wagons or ambush caravans." he growled in exasperation. Why nobody else seemed to get this was beyond him.

He let out a huff and closed his eyes.. "I was under the employ of his parents. He was just a boy when they sacked the kingdom. We had no warning, they came whilst we slept, in numbers we couldn't compete with. And with fire." Kaius rubbed at his face and tried to chase the images from his mind. "Word spread across Falwood, and the fires burned for weeks. Other cities closed their gates to us, worried that the same fate would befall them if they let us in. So we wandered, and I raised him in the forest along with what few of us survived." he stretched, reaching fora towel and wrapping it around his waist as he stood and waded from the bath..

"That's enough story time. I can't remember the last time I slept.." he muttered grumpily.

 

[Arwyl Minras]

"Above? From the trees?" he asked. "We would need to get an ambush group in place quickly and well hidden.

"Vance knows skirmish tactics well. His men are disciplined. They won't be drawn into chasing out of formation. How wide is this plateau? We'll need to guess their route and place the archers."

Arwyl hadn't really believed she would help. It was one of those schemes that Kaius normally laughed at, all words and no action. Their help made it real. Arwyl thought of the atrocities Vance had committed and felt his resolve hardening.

"It'll be rough. They won't retreat quickly. Need to break them into little pieces and grind the smallest ones down. If they have any battle mages they have to go firs."

 

[Riley]

Her frown grew more and more as he spoke. Jaw set. She'd been sent on missions almost as horrific as what he described. Head bowed and she remained silent. She was sorry but saying it seemed empty and disingenuous. She could feel her own anger boiling up inside her and frustration. Frustration at being one person. A part of her wanted to stomp out of this place and charge head-forward back to the capitol. Take them on by herself.

Tear the Academy apart.

Burn that all to the ground.

Hell, if she could she'd do it wearing nothing but this towel.

Anger first and then shame. Because she knew her own sins. She looked down at her cleaned palms, droplets of warm water drifting off them. They'd never trusly be clean.

Fingers clenched into fists and she stood, keeping her head turned from Kaius. "Thank you...for sharing that," she said, her voice strained. "Sleep is a good idea. I'm going to get some goddamned clothes." Without waiting for him to get out, she strode from the bathhouse. She didn't want him to see the look on her face. The strain there. The anger and shame.

She had nothing to lose.

Fighting with them?

She might as well make it count.

She ignored the looks and raised brows. The few snickers as she approached a woman of the princess' court with her bare feet and mostly bare skin. "Got any spare clothes anywhere?"

 

[Sylmara]

"They have Dreadlords." Theirs was an energy she could not ignore.

The Falwood, the life within, told her stories of those who walked within it. The Dreadlords were like a cancer, impossible to ignore and tainting everything that they walked upon. In a strange way she could feel them even now.

It made her uncomfortable.

"They will be dealt with first." She told him. "Through Filven, and my own magics."

Her lips pursed. "Perhaps some of yours if they remember how to use a bow."

She mused for a moment more, trying to remember what she and the Captain had discussed. After a moment she turned to Arwyl, those odd eyes watching him more closely.

"There are maps of the Plateau, and Filven will know more than I. Strategy is not my...forte" She explained. "Unlike my brothers I did not fight in the war, I can only serve in other ways."

Admitting that was difficult for the Princess, but she decided to do it all the same.

 

[Kaius]

Kaius glanced behind him, his brow slightly furrowed as he heard the strain in her voice and he opened his mouth to speak but before he could she had already left. His head fell back with a groaned huff to himself as it seemed he'd put his foot in it.

Some of the others were already piling into the bath house, some of them avoiding his gaze, some of them giving him a pat on the back as they passed. Riz gave him a full bear hug that picked him up off of his feet a little. Kaius made his apologies which were quickly accepted, and he commended them on their team work and went over the pointers that he'd made mental notes of.

"Rest up. I've a feeling we'll be needing it.." he rubbed at his face and turned to leave without bothering to dress. "And not even the gods can help any man who wakes me." he muttered.

He didn't remember the walk to their sleeping quarters, but he stood staring down at the bed he hadn't managed to sleep in the night previous, and he collapsed onto it to fall instantly to sleep.

 

[Arwyl Minras]

"They can use bows just fine, but also axes when the armoured men are broken up to be attacked. We can deal with tactics later but I should be clear on one thing. If they hold their formation and keep it tight we should kill the pack horses, raid the baggage and retreat. Find another place to try again. Attack at night. Harass them until the weak consider desertion. Can't always fight honourably."

There were many details to be worked out, but if she was taking charge of the men here without much experience in strategy then it was one item they needed to be agreed on. They didn't have the tools to take on disciplined foot knights in a fair battle on good terrain. His group would fight dirty when they needed to and it was not for cowardice.

 

[Riley]

Spare clothes were offered to the human girl. And it only reminded Riley of how much she didn’t have. The spare packs of things she’d stashed around the forest were a long ways off. She’d only just gotten a dagger and axe from the weapons cash. She’d given up a lot to break away from Vel Anir.

Clothing. Income. Her freedom.

Then again, she’d never really had her freedom. She couldn’t help but feeling like she was caged here. At least when she’d been on her own she could do as she pleased. As long as she stayed away from the Anirian authority. In this court?

She felt restless.

Grinding her teeth, she went back to their quarters. At least she’d been given pants and a tunic. Not a dress. Fingers pulled her dried hair back, trying it with a leather cord. Sitting on the edge of her mattress, she saw Kaius sleeping soundly on the far end of the room. She tugged on her boots, knowing she wouldn’t be able to wait around here forever. How was hiding here sticking it to the Anirians?

 

[Sylmara]

"No, you can't." Sylmara agreed with a slow nod of her head.

Though Sylmara had never fought in a battle herself she had watched plenty of them. The Falwood was her eyes, her ears. During the last war she had watched much of what had happened, had always ensured her eyes were fixed on her brothers.

She had witnessed the brutality, see what both sides had done to one another. The Princess was not naive enough to believe that there would be any honor in fighting the Anirians.

"I am prepared for whatever comes." She assured Arwyl. "And to take whatever council both yourself, and Kaius have to offer."

Though Filven had been rather...reticent about such things.

The Captain had preferred to fight the old Elven way. From afar and with as little possibility of the Anirians getting close as possible. Yet from what Arwyl had told her...that might not work here.