Private Tales Those Fallen

[Saul Talith]

There were two or three people on deck, all of them watching the ships around them and clearly acting as sentries. Saul waved to all of them, offering a quick salute as he followed Ana below deck and towards the ships mess.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs he bli ked rapidly, lips turning to a frown as he found himself with the same issue. A hand came up and he gently rubbed his eyes. "Bloody ships."

The curse came quietly, though didn't slow him down any.

Doing his best to avoid bumping into anything, or anyone for that matter, Saul and Ana quickly headed towards the back of the vessel. There he could smell the scent of fresh oatmeal cooking, something that seemed to waft through the lower levels of their ship. One more doorway and a gathering of fellow Templar appeared.

Most of them were dressed in simple tunics, though a few wore the trademark armor of their Order.

Saul smiled as they were suddenly accosted with a host of greetings and minor cheers.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana separated from him then, leaving him to his greetings and duties as she went to take a seat beside Leane. She was soon to be seen murmuring things with the woman, Berrick leaning in from behind them and squeezing her shoulder as more words were exchanged.

Myrelle stood up and fetched food from Greggor, giving Saul a long look up and down as they found themselves at the food pot.

"You look well rested," came the heavy observation.

 

[Saul Talith]

"The Captain has a comfortable bed." It was true, technically speaking. That of course wasn't the whole reason why he had slept well, but it was enough of the truth that Myrelle wouldn't really want to question him any further.

Which was of course the point.

"Any word from Owin?" He asked, quickly jumping over the subject. "I may need you and some others to go out into the city."

His lips thinned. "We need more information before we make our next move."

Again, this was all true, but Myrelle knew Saul. She would be able to tell he was clearly trying to pull her away from the subject of the night before. Whether or not she'd go along with it would of course be an entirely different story.

 

[Anastasia]

Myrelle said nothing, her gaze remaining heavy as she let Saul squirm for a moment.

She knew what he was doing. She was also one of the only ones to naturally take note of the two that were missing last night. Them coming down together confirmed it for her. And while she was unaware of the magnitude of what she had glimpsed at, she had noticed something. As they all would come to doing, when given time.

For now, Myrelle only suspected a flickering rendevo. Harmless. Not unheard of. Enough to make her lips quirk in amusement, keeping her teasing to herself.

"Aye, aye, captain." She grabbed two bowls and started to the group. "No word yet, I was going to go check on him if he wasn't back soon. Is there anythign in particular you are looking for?" She handed a bowl to Ana, sitting cross legged across from her.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul shook his head. "Nothing in particular."

Again he was just trying to pull attention away from himself and Ana. Though the others would already have figured it out... Most of the people in this room most certainly had not.

It was them that concerned him.

" The City Watch...i need to know what they're doing." Other than that? "Owin will know everything I need for the Compound."

At least he hoped so.

A frown settled on his face as he sat himself down opposite Ana. They would have to be careful now. The next move might be either sides last. Things were heading to a breaking point, Saul needed it to break their way instead of Arrawaith's. The vault had tipped things in their favor. Now they just needed a final strike.

 

[Anastasia]

"I will feel out my contact in the Watch, then," Myrelle concluded, eating her breakfast with a healthy appetite. "He's trustworthy, he can give me some insight."


Anastasia took smaller bites, slowly growing pale as the burst of recovery was burnt through yesterday. Adrenaline, she acknowledged with a grimace. Always got them through the important stuff. She shove this off, silently grateful for the slow wait that would be today.


"What about our people he still has?" Ana asked, looking up.

 

[Saul Talith]

It was a good question, and one that Saul didn’t quite have an answer for just yet. A part of him wanted to reassure, and a part of him wanted to just blurt out whatever came off the top of his head, but he knew doing both would likely just unsettle everyone at the table.

“I don’t know yet.” He said quietly, stabbing at his food with the spoon in his hand.

There was much to still be considered. Those that had sided with Arrawaith would have to be pulled down...but if he could avoid combat with all of them then it would be for the better. As for the people he held?

They were a different problem.

“He won’t execute anyone.” He couldn’t. “Not this close to Alliria.”

There was still laws after all. “But...I’m afraid he might try to take them elsewhere.”

 

[Anastasia]

Looks were exchanged.

“I will try to reach Will,” Valerie concluded, deigning to risk her own neck by risking her own contacts inside the Templars themselves.

“No,” Anastasia snapped without thinking, eyes widening in fear. “Val, if they catch you!”

 

[Saul Talith]

A frown flashed across his features. They needed contacts, but Ana was right. If they caught Valerie they would take her, that much was more than true. His head shook slightly. “If you think it’s worth the risk…”

The Commander trailed off for a second, catching himself.

“I won’t stop you.” Briefly he glanced over to Ana. She was right, and Saul was more than loath to let anyone else walk into the enemy grounds. His fingers tightened for a second around the spoon. “But you have to be careful.”

A breath filled him. “We...we don’t know for sure what his next step is, and if I’m right about him moving the others away from the city then…”

Then the next step likely would be execution.

 

[Anastasia]

Ana gave them both sharp looks, her breakfast dropped and forgotten. “Have you lost it? That’s too far. No. Myrelle, tell them!”

Myrelle slooowly sat back, then shoveled a purposeful heavy bite in her mouth.

Ana sputtered. “Saul!” She turned her rare fury to him, it’s presence only surfacing when one of them was in danger.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul looked at her, the frown on his face clearly evident. “We need more information, Ana.”

That was certainly true. They were buggered without knowing what was going on and it would be rare to get an actual look into what was happening with Arrawaith. They were on a dangerous precipice now. Close enough to victory that he could taste it, but just far enough that it could all still be shattered.

Risks were worth taking now.

“Val can pull this off.” He glanced at her. “If she’s careful, and we need to know what Arrawaith is doing with the others.”

Especially if he was taking them out of the city. “Once we know, we can make our next move.”

If they acted without that bit of knowledge they could very well put the others in danger.

 

[Anastasia]

She looked between them, her anger glaring. There was nothing that could be said, though. Despite her roaring protectiveness pumping through her, there was rational enough thought for that.

There was doing what they had to do for a mission, and then there was just stupid. This, to her, was just stupid.

She made a noise of anger and pushed her bowl away, standing up. She ignored the searing burn in her abs and left them to their meal, not even understanding her strong reaction herself as she felt herself practically storm away.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul let out a sigh as Ana stalked off, frowning for a brief moment.

He felt a hand pat him on the shoulder, Myrelle leaning over and whispered something in his ear a second later. The Templar Commander shook his head, taking a few bites of his food before he finally pushed himself up and off the table.

A part of him could understand Ana’s anger, after all he was the one who ultimately had to make the decision. He didn’t like it, but he knew that he needed to do what was best for all of them.

Otherwise none of them would survive in the long run.

Without a word he stood and headed out of the mess-hall, following after Ana.

 

[Anastasia]

She was easy enough to find, it was a ship after all, she couldn’t go far. She paced inside the room that she had been given to recover in, her hands shaking at her side and her face pinched in thought.

She felt his presence and turned on him as he entered, her hair wiping sharply around her. “I don’t want to hear it.”

 

[Saul Talith]

A shrug rolled over his shoulders.

There wasn’t really much to say on this topic in the first place. He hadn’t ordered Valerie to do it, just that he didn’t forbid it.

They needed information, they needed to know how to move next. Most of all though they needed to get off of the bloody ship and back to their rightful place on the shore. Arrawaith was an obstacle, one that needed to be overcome before they could get on with the rest of their lives.

Saul didn’t want power, he didn’t want to rule the Templar or be in charge of Alliria. He wanted to bring his order together, unite their purpose and bring an end to the fracture. In order to do all that they needed to take the next step. “Okay.”

He simply said as she stared daggers at him.

 

[Anastasia]

She blinked at him, not so much shocked by his behavior, it was very much Saul after all. Rather, she didn’t know how to respond to it. She was angry, dammit! Why come if he wasn’t going to fight with her.

“... Kay,” she said back, frustrated. She turned and paced a little more, trying to gather herself.

“If she dies-” she threatened, turning back on him again.

 

[Saul Talith]

“Valerie will be fine.” Saul said as he put his hands up defensively, apparently waiting for Ana to strike out at him. “She knows whatshe’s doing.”

They all did.

Though some were better in a fight than others, none of their number were slackers when it came to holding a sword. Saul would have wagered on pretty much any of them versus any of the other Templar. “Plus, she’s valuable to someone like Arrawaith.”

Unlike the rest of them Valerie had connections throughout the city. She knew many of Alliria’s most influential by name, often attending their parties and other functions.

“She can get what we need.” Hopefully.

 

[Anastasia]

“And if she doesn’t? And if she isn’t?” Ana followed up. “Saul, these aren’t like the wicked we usually deal with. These are our people we’ve been killing. We’re killing our people.” She shook, the burden of that near suffocating for a moment.

“They know us. They know our weaknesses, and they know we’re coming. This is dangerous, this is far more dangerous-”

 

[Saul Talith]

"That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid." Saul said, his tone even. "The more information we have the better we can avoid fighting, the better we can avoid other Templar."

He didn't want to kill anyone, certainly not other Templar. "The only one who has to die is Arrawaith."

The one who started all this.

"We're not marching in there and attacking. We're not breaking into the facility and slitting throats." His fingers tightened. "We're gathering information so we can finish this as quickly and as painless as possible."

 

[Anastasia]

She shook her head and turned away, her eyes stinging. Maybe she wasn't good enough to be a Templar, came the small voice of doubt in the back of her mind. She had been able to do all the tasks without much moral trouble up until this point. Evil was evil and she had to protect others from it.

But this?

And watching the ones she loved flirt with death in a way their training could never truly prepare them for? Being a Templar meant being a warrior, not fighting a political war. She wasn't built for the latter, she was abruptly realizing. And there was great shame and frustration in that.

"Your words use to reassure me so much. Now, I don't think there's anything you can say that will make me be how you need me to."

 

[Saul Talith]

"What else would you have us do?" His voice raised just a bit, though he managed to keep it under control for now.

Saul had never been good at regulating his emotions, never been good at keeping himself in check. Passion was what had brought him to where he was today. It had seen him rise through the ranks and push further and further. Always the next step, always doing what had to be done.

That was who he was.

"Sail away?" He growled slightly. "Leave Alliria and our home to Arrawaith?"

The idea wounded him. "He'll tear apart the compound, sell off that he can, execute our friends and call them traitors."

Inside of a year there would be no Templar within Alliria, only Arrawaith's private little army. They would survive, sure, but everything he'd work for his entire life would be lost. Their home would be lost.

"You can't have it every way Ana." His fingers tightened. "Every single person on this boat, every one of our friends, every one we grew up with knows what they're doing. None of them are being forced to act, none of them are doing anything against their will."

The Commander sighed. "They know the danger, they know the risk, and they're more than willing to take it because they want to fight for what's theirs."

 

[Anastasia]

His words felt like slaps to the face, the woman indeed wanting it every way. Every and any way that preserved those she loved and the life she wasn't ready to let go of yet.

They had lost everything. How could they all let go so quickly? How could they all change pace and become- become completely different people than the ones she had known? The question, while unfair in truth, was raw and biting to her, eating away at her. When she turned back around, the look she gave Saul showed she barely recognized him at all. Or rather, she wasn't ready to yet.

"I need air," was all she said, pushing past him and moving for the upper deck.

 

[Saul Talith]

Saul didn't follow this time.

Their viewpoints were too different on this. None of them had changed, not Leane, not Myrelle, and not himself. They were simply following the tenants of their will, doing what they knew had to be done. None of them had chosen this fight, it had been thrust upon them.

The Old Man had left them without a clear heir, had left them directionless. Arrawaith would have destroyed their way of life, taken the Chapter apart piece by piece and changed everything.

None of them could stomach that.

Neither could they stomach leaving. This was their home. It was where they had grown up and what they had defended for their entire lives. Though many in Alliria did not like them, it was still their city. They couldn't just walk away from that, none of them could.

None of them had changed. They'd simply accepted the reality of the situation.

 

[Anastasia]

Hours later, when Myrelle and Valerie were already gone and Edwin was distracting Saul with plans in the cabin, she left. She slipped onto a rowboat meant for supplies at the last moment and went back to shore with the ones on board. And no one asked questions, no one thought it was weird or otherwise questioned the move. She had never acted out of Saul's awareness before. Though in truth, Saul had never been in total control over her before. And when she snuck out, he was usually involved.

But she left. And as nightfall came, she didn't return. And into the next day, at dawn, at the rowboat occupied my Myrelle and Berrik anxiously hoping she'd show up to take it back in... she didn't show.

 

[Saul Talith]

Every returned eventually, everyone save for Ana.

Saul stood in the cabin with the other seven, each of them scattered around the room. Edwin, Myrelle, Leane, Owin, Valerie, Berrick, and Greggor. All of them were about as stern faced as could be, most didn't wear their armor, though one or two did. Myrelle looked ready to cut someone's throat.

"Where could she possibly have gone?"

"Did they take her?"

"She had to have left the ship on her own."​

All of them argued back and forth about where Ana went, their words terse and tense. Saul stood by the massive window at the back of the cabin, staring out towards Alliria and scowling slightly. He had been listening to them argue for nearly an hour now, his nerves growing short and shorter. "Enough."

Saul said, loud enough to cut them off.

"Arrawaith doesn't have her. Owin saw the prisoners he took and she wasn't among them." He frowned. "Myrelle learned they're being moved day after tomorrow...and she would have heard if Arrawaith caught her yesterday."

His throat tightened slightly. "She has to be in the city somewhere."

But they couldn't search without the chance of being caught.