Private Tales Things That Fall // Part I

[Livia Quinnick]

Two months had gone by since Livia graduated.

Two months since she now bore the title Dreadlord Quinnick.

Two months since she restarted her hunting and tracking for this artifact with Cenric's help.

Two months since... she last saw him.

Silas, the one she claimed that had her heart, but going away on this mission made it too easy to enjoy time away from him. She had stopped writing letters to him, not that she even sent the majority of them. No one knew where to send letters to her, and she wondered if a return to Vel Anir would be an avalanche of letters from friends and loved ones. Maybe there would be none. That, she was used to.

Her birthday had been three weeks ago, and Cenric had insisted the pair stop by a town and indulge in cake and tea, Liv's preference, to mark the start of her adult life now at eighteen.

The day after that, they were being followed again. The pair ventured on south, moving at a pace none were delighted about, but after some weeks, Livia begged for some rest. There were no more towns, no more cities. It was themselves in the elements, their gear well stocked and used, but it did not quench the young Dreadlord's instinct to keep moving. Her body insisted for this small reprieve, to slow down just a few days or else her sanity would cost her dearly.

It was well past midnight when Livia woke with a stir. Something moved beyond her tent, the brush rustling with movement. She waited a breath before deeming it was one of Cenric's vessels keeping watch, but there was a connection she had not felt in months.

Familiarity.

Livia held her breath. Surely it was a trick, that her magic kept directing her gaze to the thin flap of cloth closing her tent from the environment. Her hand reached for a knife kept at the side of her sleeping roll, readying it to strike when the time deemed it so.

This was a trick. This was foolish of him.

And Livia's anger began to brew.

 

[Silas Artesto]

The absolute nerve of her.

After everything they'd gone through together, from that first hardship of finding that poor boy's corpse hidden away in an outhouse, to coming to terms with the fact that their physical attraction towards one another had been something more the entire time. After countless missions together, helping him buy his first formal wear, dinner with her family, talks of goddamned marraige.

She'd left him behind. Without even saying goodbye.

Some part of Silas wondered if maybe he deserved it. Maybe it was karma for the games he'd wound up playing with Houri, Zinnia and Vic. Certainly his heart ached just as much as theirs had. He'd lost their friendships to keep Livia, because of all the roads he could have taken, hers was the one he'd always wind up back on. For the first time in his life, Artesto had felt as though he had something to fight for. Besides the honor of his father, or the desire to be powerful and respected.

Even if he had deserved this as some sort of punishment, he'd thought better of Livia Quinnick. He'd thought maybe, just maybe, she was better than this. Once the letters started, short, half-hearted updates and rushed apologies scribbled without much thought or care, he'd realized just how quickly and thoughtlessly she'd dropped him by the wayside. He'd helped her win that gold, attain that title she'd yearned for so desperately, and then she was gone again. Vanished into thin air.

There were a lot of things he'd felt. Fury. Sadness. Embarrassment. Betrayal. He stopped bothering trying to reply to her. The letters always came back, with a note saying she couldn't be found. So, like a true Artesto, he'd thrown himself into his own work, his missions and training dominated his life just as they had before he'd met Quinnick in the first place.

Until he'd heard a whisper, an inkling of a lead.

He'd been out on a solo mission. Nothing particularly dangerous, recon was something his powers suited him for, and Silas was often given such tasks without partners. After the first evening, as Artesto lounged at some dingy tavern and sipped on a bitter drink, he felt an odd tug from within one of his pockets. The strange little gizmo Dreadlord Henk had passed to him hadn't ever seemed to work properly, always lazily pointing one direction or the other without any clear direction.

Tonight, it was straight and true, humming with energy as it directed him to a group leaving the tavern. It could have been a trick on the eyes, some cruel illusion messing with his weary mind, but... He could have sworn she was among them.

So he'd tailed them, keeping just out of sight and earshot. A tall task considering who it was he was stalking. He was certain of it now, of Livia's inclusion, and with every passing minute he grew more... emotional? He couldn't tell if it was anger or excitement. Was he happy to see her? Or furious that she seemed so... happy, without him around.

Either way, the words that came through the thin cloth of her tent in a whisper as he flitted around outside like a bug in the wind, nearly impossible to perceive, were curt and to the point.

"Feel free to stay inside. Hide from me another month or so."

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Her fingers tightened over the hilt of her knife to fight the pangs in her chest. Livia let out a shaky breath, shutting her eyes tight to fight the stinging sensation there and waited a moment. "You are an idiot for being here. You could be killed." And not by her hand. Of course, Cenric knew of Silas for Liv had spoken to her friend about her love for the boy she left behind, but Cenric had never set eyes on the blond boy before. A voice at the back of her mind reminded her that Cenric had eyes everywhere, and perhaps he did know what Silas looked like.

She ignored that truthful reasoning.

Liv let out an irritated growl, and got up to her feet to push past the material of her tent and rise to her full height once she was greeted in the dark. The fire they had lit earlier was now reduced to soot and ash, not a flicker of any light, warmth, or life in it. But her eyes knew where Silas was, no matter how quickly his positioning changed, her magic knew him well enough to turn and finally see the outline of his face.

Moonlight filtered finally from behind a cloud, projecting a silvery gloom over Livia with partial shadows from the leaves and boughs above. It made her hair noticeable, the silver it took on after unlocking total control of her second magic was now starting from above her ears. Her natural rich brown hair was growing back, and the vision that she was gave her an entire new look. She had dyed her hair for months after graduation, using browns and blacks, and once a golden red that made her look entirely washed out, but now that herself and Cenric were tracking through unpopulated areas, there was no need to hide her identity.

"You should not have come here, Silas. I told you not to look for me."

Was she angry? Relieved? Livia could not tell at that moment. Seeing Silas after all those months, not even guilt filled her as she stared at him.

"Go home."

Silas Artesto

 

[Silas Artesto]

Only once Livia spoke back to him did Silas allow himself to be seen, his rapid movements slowing, the whipping winds he created waning to little more than a light breeze as the echoes of his movement began to fade into view, just as he skidded to a stop just on the other side of the dwindling pile of soot that had been the campfire. He didn't need what little light it would have offered to know it was her. He, who'd been convinced he knew her as well as anybody, couldn't mistake the voice.

Go home.

The audacity of her to insist on such a thing made him scoff, blowing up the blonde hair that now hung over his brow. Silas had none gone through such a crisis of identity has she, but he had changed somewhat in the last few months. Gone was the tight suit he insisted on wearing in the field, replaced by more traditional armor, supported by a strange looking harness fastened onto his torso. The boy had bulked up a bit, no doubt thanks to the extra work he'd been putting in when he'd usually be with her.

"Funny, I could say the same thing to you. Not that you've ever taken my words to heart, I'm starting to see."

That she responded with nothing but coldness only convinced him further that he'd been decieved. Now, he found himself wondering if she'd ever cared at all. Perhaps he'd been a convenience, a warm body, and little more. He wasn't so far gone as to believe that yet, but... Livia wasn't helping.

"Don't flatter yourself though, I didn't come all this way just for you. I just happened to be in the neighborhood, and thought maybe I'd see if you were still alive. Don't have much way of knowing." Silas stepped forward, trampling over the pile of smoldering ash as he approached her. He wished he had the power to ignore the feeling of emptiness he'd felt without her, or the warmth, however meager, that bubbled up into his chest as his eyes met hers for the first time in far too long. "Do humor me, though. Why am I in danger? Aren't these friends of yours Dreadlords? Or are these more criminals you've decided to go on a field trip with?"

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Her eyes never left the sight of him.

Livia was going to curse Cenric a hundred times for allowing someone this close to them when they had been running from countless others in their travels. She stood defiant, unyielding. It seemed neither of them were going to listen to one another about this, and she could feel the rising anger manifest within her.

"My involvement in this mission puts a target on my back and my family's." She leveled him with a serious look, brows furrowing deeply as she continued. The thought of her brothers and mother being subjected to the business of Dreadlords left a sickening feeling in her abdomen. "Anyone else that works with me is at risk of being killed over what we are doing. They offered me ways out multiple times, but you do not understand how important it is that I do my part and make sure this... thing does not fall into the wrong hands." Livia's face softened and she sighed, deep and long.

"You finding me is not by chance. Not truly... you have it, do you not? The Quinnick compass?" Of course he did. Before she had embarked on this mission, she had asked that the compass be given to Silas, but she was a fool to expect she was going to be suffering the entire time. "Do me a favour? Destroy it. If that gets into the wrong hands, then I am dead."

Liv did not move approach him, did not move to embrace him or allow herself a moment of warmth with the boy she thought of daily. That compass he now was in possession of was hard to destroy, and had to be done through magic. As soon her corruption magic came to fruition, it was useless against it. Protected, to ensure that Livia could not stop that spell from working and give her father the control of always being able to find her.

"You do not want me to die, right?" She asked softly.

With him here, present, she still had no clue how to word it to him that she was working against Gilram. It was not known what he would do to her if he found out her involvement in this quest, but Death was something she was beginning to accept regardless.

"Please. Silas... We cannot do this right now. My partner is going to return any minute now and he will have us packing up to move now that you found us."

 

[Silas Artesto]

It became increasingly clear, with every word that Livia spoke, that she was incapable of seeing what she'd done to him. That was what hurt Silas the most. Not the secrecy, the running away, the lack of communication. No, it was the fact that even now, standing face to face with him, she'd not the decency to at the very least tell him that she was sorry.

"Do you think I'm an idiot, Livia?" It seemed less rhetorical sarcasm and more a genuine question of her opinion on him. "That I can't understand the danger we're in? That I wouldn't be able to comprehend your role if you'd made even one attempt to explain it to me?" Gods, how hadn't he seen it before? Livia's opinion of him was hardly different from so many others, aside from the fact that she actually had his loyalty. "No, I'm just that dumb Silas, chasing skirts and thinking with my fists. Isn't that right?"


Silas spread his hands to either side of him, perhaps giving the most exasperated shrug as she sat there, justifying to him why she'd been in the right to abandon him, to leave him in the dark without even a goodbye. "You say we cannot do this right now, but you've no intention of ever seeing me again. You decided that, instead of talking to me, confronting the pain of leaving me, you would vanish in the dead of night. You decided that the pain would be mine to bear, for the both of us."

That she did it with a straight face, with the nerve to be angry at him for daring look for the one he'd considered the love of his life... It made him question who he'd been smitten with for so long.

"Please. Silas... We cannot do this right now. My partner is going to return any minute now and he will have us packing up to move now that you found us."

"Your partner?" He gawked, the lines of his face twisting as those handsome features that had gotten him into so much trouble bent and contorted into some kind of tear-stained, disbelieving rage that could've solved his lady problems for him. "I'm supposed to be your partner! We were supposed to do this together!" Silas made no attempt to lower his tone, as he jabbed a finger toward her. "But you're so damned obsessed with being important, so needy for everybody's approval, that you took the first chance given to you to leave me behind if it meant making a name for yourself. All so you didn't have to just be Livia anymore."

Her damned obsession with her father, the damage her mother had done on her psyche, it was all to blame for this... for this... self-important little snob sitting in front of him.

"You want this compass so badly?" Silas retrieved it from his coat, unmistakable in it's design. It almost seemed he'd been keeping it polished to a shine with how it glimmered in the dim light of the moon. "Take it." Artesto tossed the compass towards her in disgust, sneering as it hit the ground with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dirt as it tumbled forward. "I spent all this time with a broken heart, crying myself to sleep over you. I finally get a chance to speak with you, to see you again, and you insult me. Tell me to leave and never come back. Fine."

Artesto swallowed his tears, swallowed the grief that wracked him as the reality of things truly set in. She didn't deserve to see him weep for her.

"I'll leave you to your super important work, and your crippling inferiority complex. Obviously, there's no room for me in your life, anymore."

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Expel. Corruption practically leapt from her, released by her lack of control on her emotions.

She infuriated her. Always had. Even prodded and baited her to admit she loved him. Those had been words she regretted to admit, for everything had gone wrong after that.

She had said those words to him and yet he kept the company of other girls. Her friends.

He made her look a fool.

"Perhaps if you stopped stifling me with your presence I would have room to breathe! Can you blame me for taking this chance away from everything you left me with after we found out? I lost all my friends because of what you did! I went to save your life when you were trapped. I would not struggle writing you letters to tell you why I had to go if you had not brushed it all off so easily when I told you I still loved you!" No. No she would not apologise. She would no longer say words he wanted her to say so that he could feel better. "I could not even tell my family! My brothers! The less people in my life know what I am doing, I know they are protected."

She fumed, her eyes falling to the compass in the dirt. How many times had she thrown it like that? Had tried to destroy it herself but it never made a scratch? As long as she lived, it would live too.

"Go on," she snarled, "fuck off and chase more skirts."

There was anger in those eyes of hers, turned dark from the dying embers in the fire at her side. She glowered, angry he had come to her, had wanted her to tell him things she swore she would not tell a soul.

Even now, she chose not to tell him that the biggest threat to her life right now was Gilram. Perhaps without saying the name out loud would give Silas a chance of survival.

"I should have never wasted my time on you."

Silas Artesto

 

[Silas Artesto]

It was an absolute cop out, and Silas surged with frustration at the nerve she had to invoke the names of the other women who'd showed interest in him. That she would throw her rescue in his face as if he owed her for it, like she had any doubt he would have done the same in the blink of an eye, even now. That Livia, who herself had fallen into the arms of another at the first calamity to happen without him in her reach, would now lecture him on loyalty was a joke too cruel to be funny.

"Funny, that." He barked, "You're so bent out of shape about me flirting with other people when you're the one who couldn't keep her damned pants on the second I wasn't looking." He could have had his fun with Zinnia and Houri, could have asserted himself in a way that would have ended with a bed and a late night. That hadn't happened though, and Quinnick was too damned blind to see why.

"I had to wait around for you, let you decide what you wanted to be to me. Hoping and praying you deigned upon me the blessing of being something a warm body to get you off when you needed to destress."

The boy threw his hands up, stepping back and away from the ruined fire, the color on his cheeks nearly as red as the still smoldering embers in the dry wood. She wanted him gone? Truly? Fine. She wasn't worth the ache she was causing him. Not when it was so crystalline that she couldn't accept a shred of accountability for herself.

"I didn't want you to suffer for my actions, but I didn't make your friends do anything. I didn't even know they were your friends, because you wouldn't fucking tell me. If that's what helps you justify this, though, me being the bad guy? If you really think you're so god damned special that you get to make choices for your family? For me? I'll leave you to your... whatever you want to call this."

Finally, he turned his back, only allowing the tears to find his cheeks when she could no longer see them. To hell with it all then. It had been stupid in the first place, to think she'd ever change for him. To think she'd change her mind. Silas reached for the small pouch tucked away in his breast pocket, underneath his armor, and tossed it into the embers behind him. Waste of his own time, effort and money.

"Have fun saving the day, Hero."

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Livia allowed Silas to talk, only due to the matter than she was much too angry to get a word in to all his woes.

Her face was an ever present fury, and those once vibrant olive colour to her eyes now darkened despite the embers giving a soft light. That warmth had never reached her face, had not lit up the fire raging in her gaze. Livia was glad to have a level of control on her corruption magic, knowing that if Henk had not guided her to the very pit of it's well, she would not know the graveness of such an ability. Each day she had harnessed it, had made sure she would not make a mistake...

But gods did she want to feel it's wrath so that her anger could be manifested into something.

As Silas walked away, Livia could not help herself to give another jab.

"I never wanted this in the first place! You made me say I loved you!" Had forced the words to be said before she knew for sure she was ready for it. Ready for what those words would mean to him.

But she felt something severing between them, felt the freedom coming to fruition with each step Silas took leading away from her. A weight had lifted from her, the anxiety of penning another letter to him no longer on her mind.

Just like that, Silas understood what it was Livia had wanted... he was just the stronger person to admit it and confront it.

Silas Artesto