Private Tales Through the Mists

[Thren]

"Terrible." Thren said plainly, without any hint of amusement or jest. "Great liar though."

Again his tone remained neutral.

He might not have been a good story teller, but he knew the way soldiers thought. He'd been surrounded by armies for most of his life. Sure he was the sort to only fight for money, but what gave men true cause to fight? What gave them a reason.

Justice.

It was those who thought they fought for justice, for good, that were always the most zealous. He had seen it twisted in many different ways. In the hunt for monsters, in rebellions against barons. It was always those who thought themselves just who fought the hardest.

What was Keyleth’s cause if not just?

If they spread the word through merchant's and peasants it would do half the work for them. They just had go make sure that Keyleth looked the part. He had a plan for that as well, though he didn't bring it up just yet. Now wasn't exactly the time for such things. "Don't worry, before you know it you'll have men kneeling before you in droves."

This time he did sound amused.

 

[Keyleth]

Keyleth tossed her head back and laughed at the barbarian's remark about men kneeling before her. Many had bent their knee before her since the demise of her late husband, but for an entirely different reason. Those men had sought to use her station as a means to promote their own, to propel themselves to the highest seat in Minaris without having to do anything but bed the Aegis of the throne.

She wondered how many of the sniveling nobles that fit such an unfavorable description were still alive. Even then, none of them deserved such a gruesome fate. Minrasin politics had been twisted over the centuries, but they could be mended... a sundered city and eradicated people could not.

Her chin raised ever so slightly, shoulders pulling back. Even in the tattered armor and grime of days spent on the road, she still managed that maintain her regal confidence.

"I will take whatever army we can muster. Though I will make one request... this tale that you're going to weave. If any ask, and I am sure that someone will, tell them that Minrasin widows do not take new husbands. I've no desire to attract opportunists seeking to expand their reign."

 

[Thren]

"Never crossed my mind." Thren said with a small smirk towards her.

It wouldn't fit the image anyway.

She was right in that Nobles would inevitably seek her hand, it Keyleth needed to show that her devotion was to Minaris itself. Not some outlander or anything else that might get in the way of her retribution.

Thren was no politician, but he knew how soldiers thought.

Keyleth would not appear a puppet to anyone. She would be what her army rallied around, what they called to in their desperate times. It was the way that she would build her army. Though a frown touched his lips for a moment as he broached something. "You may need to offer people a place in Minaris when this is done."

He told her.

"Soldiers will fight for money." The Barbarian continued on. "But they will die for a home."

And do much more for a good one.

Thren knew Keyleth did not mind Mainlanders, at least not him, but their relationship was…special. The Barbarian did not know how she would feel about this.

 

[Keyleth]

She smiled back at him, dipping her head once in response to the tentative remark he made.

"If you find me soldiers willing to go to war for Minaris, then in my eyes they are already Minrasin. Any who would fight for this cause will be welcome to stay, if they so wish." She said warmly, swiping aside a branch with her spear to clear their path.

This was something she'd already considered when she realized that she would need to build an army away from the city itself. If she could find men and women willing to follow her cause, to follow her into a battle that was not their own, she would welcome them with open arms.

 

[Thren]

He nodded, more than glad to hear the words she spoke.

Thren knew of more than one Noble who would have tossed the people fighting for them to the side after things were said and done. He had never thought Keyleth such a person, and he was glad to have his thoughts confirmed by her.

It certainly made this easier. "Grand."

The promise of a home could do much to motivate even the most desperate peasant, particularly those who lived beneath rulers that they did not like nor admired. It was an important factor in the raising of armies, one that couldn't be underestimated.

A frown touched his face.

"You mentioned..." A long while ago, back on the island. "A daughter."

He had a vague memory of the conversation, brief as it had been. "Do you know where she is?"

Could be helpful.

 

[Keyleth]

Her mouth thinned to a sharp line when he asked about her daughter. For a few moments, Keyleth walked along in silence, swatting any stray brush aside with her weapon to clear her path through the dense forest. Had anyone else asked the question, she would not have given an answer at all; but the barbarian had proven his loyalty to her, she felt she could trust him

She took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled it in a heavy sigh.

"Yes. Aviana. I haven't the faintest idea as to where she is now. I had her flee the city with a guard when the Nagai first attacked. That was... so long ago now. I don't know if she's even still alive." She murmured that last few words in a low voice, dropping her pale gaze to the forest floor as she walked.

"Why do you ask?"

 

[Thren]

Thren shrugged. "People like Princesses."

Even those in places like Vel Anir were often hailed for their innocence and great beauty. People found them sympathetic, and that was truthfully what they needed most.

They could paint Keyleth Tobe a strong warrior Queen, make her the image of justice and displaced royalty. It would take them far, but a Princess at her back looking innocent and Cute? Most peasants would about lose their bloody mind with that.

Thren knew because he'd seen experienced soldiers do it.

"Is there a way to track her?" He asked. "Magic?"

Thren had heard of magic like that, but such things weren't exactly his area of expertise. He knew less about magic than he did about politics.

 

[Keyleth]

"There may be a way, but I gave her a trinket to protect her from scrying. And... my own abilities were pushed nearly to their limit traversing through the mists." She explained, shaking her head.

Truth be told, Keyleth wanted nothing more than to find her daughter. She glanced at the barbarian out of the corner of her eye and then she turned to step in front of him, pressing a hand against his chest to stop him. There was a slight frown on her lips.

"I want to find her... if we can." She said softly, her voice terse with strained emotion.

 

[Thren]

”We’ll add it to the list, I suppose.” Thren did not sound too surprised by Keyleth’s words. In an odd way he had sort of been expecting it for a little while now.

They were on the continent after all. He glanced down at the hand pressing against his armored chest, his eyes sweeping upward for a moment to catch Keyleth’s own. His expression was blank.

”Liadain is big, Epressa twice as large.” He told her. ”Even if we know where she is, it will likely take months to reach her.”

Thren did not have children, so perhaps he did not understand the urgency, but he did want to paint a clear picture for Keyleth. ”We can do our best, but there are no guarantees.”

A harsh thing to say to a mother simply seeking her lost child.

 

[Keyleth]

The blank expression the barbarian offered Keyleth stung, but she hid the pain from her expression. She couldn't blame the man for his indifference, but that did little to make up for the fact that she'd expected... more.

Her hand fell from his chest and she turned away from him to continue through the forest.

She understood now that she'd been internally struggling with her decision to send Aviana away. Guilt and worry plagued her, but it was easy to ignore if the topic was never broached. Those emotions briefly bubbled to the surface when the Mainlander asked about her daughter and now she was having to beat them back into submission.

Thinking of Aviana was dangerous.

She wanted nothing more than to toss her responsibilities aside and to expend all her efforts in tracking down her daughter... but she knew Minaris needed her. She could not abandon the city to a gruesome and oppressive regime, to chase after selfish desires.

It went against her every instinct as a mother to leave her child to the wilds of the continent. But what else could she do?

"Of course." She said tersely, elongating her stride slightly to pull ahead.

 

[Thren]

He recognized the pain, but he did not know it.

Thren could not.

He supposed that he could compare such a thing to losing Larik, but even then at the end of the day he was a Hound. A weapon of war. It wasn't the same thing as carrying something and bringing it up. Keyleth was a stoic woman, but even she could not carry such a burden without show.

Nevertheless Thren knew that he couldn't do everything.

"It's that." He called after her. "Or you give up on Minaris."

One or the other. "You can't do both."

Which meant more to her? Finding Aviana was a monumental task, perhaps more so than raising an army. Like a needle in a haystack, no worse, a needle in a stack of needles.

 

[Keyleth]

When he called out to her, she was still grappling with her emotions, coming to terms with the facts of what lay before her. Anger was her immediate reaction. It boiled in her belly and then the heat seared through her veins.

She wanted to scream at him in that moment.

But she couldn't.

Not here. It would attract some beast, no doubt.

Several paces ahead of him, she came to a stop. The blunt end of her spear stabbed into the soft ground underfoot and her grasp tightened on the wooden shaft until the leather grip creaked under the strain.

"You think I do not know that?" She said to him. Her voice low, wrought with heartache and yet flat at the same time.

 

[Thren]

Thren shrugged. "You might know it."

The Barbarian did not mean to press Keyleth, did not mean to break her or be cruel. He was simply a man of realities, of decisions that had to be made. Trying to do two things at once would only end in the failure of both.

"But." He began. "You've not made the decision."

A simple truth. "I will help you either way, but you have to decide."

He paused.

"One wayg or the other." The lines of his face creased. He did not like doing this.

 

[Keyleth]

"There is no decision to be made. Not any more." The woman said flatly, her voice now devoid of emotion. What more could she do or say?

Her heart ached, silently shattering within her chest into a a thousand pieces. She was abandoning her daughter for a second time. That's what this felt like. She could not think of another way to describe this situation.

Minaris had greater need for her than Aviana ever could. But as a mother... it destroyed a part of her soul. She wanted to weep, but she buried the sorrow deep, hiding it away from the barbarian and herself.

"Come. This army will not assemble itself." She said in a quiet voice, lifting her spear and continuing on through the dense jungle.

 

[Thren]

Thren glanced at Larik for a moment, lingering behind Keyleth for a brief moment until he slowly shrugged.

The emotion was not lost on him, and he did not enjoy forcing Keyleth to make it, but it had to be made in the end. His head shook, and then quickly he fell into step behind the Aegis of Minaris.

From there they moved quickly, and in relative silence.

Before The Barbarian knew it they had gone nearly a dozen leagues, the sun slowly setting in the distance and the jungle beginning to grow dark. One hand already rested upon the dagger settled on his hips, fingers tightening and relaxing. "We need to find a place to camp."

He called to Keyleth.

"Too dangerous to move at night." At least for now."[/color]

 

[Keyleth]

When she heard the mainlander speak up behind her, she turned slightly to look over her shoulder in his direction. She felt more than a little guilty. He'd only been trying to help her, and she'd been rather cold to him for the past several hours.

She took a breath and then exhaled softly, walking back over to him.

"You're right. Wouldn't do us any good to wander aimlessly in the dark." She ran her hand through her hair.

"Won't don't exactly have a tent or any bedrolls."

 

[Thren]

He shrugged. "We can make do."

It would have been nice to get comfortable, but out here in places like this that wasn't always going to be a possibility. Cover was the most important thing.

Out here in the wilds weather could go from clear skies to rain in the snap of a finger. Not soft rain either, but monsoons that lasted for days at a time. "Look for tree roots."

He told her.

"Big ones." The Barbarian offered her a smirk, as if he was holding back some sort of clue.

 

[Keyleth]

Finding a large tree in a jungle such as this was not a difficult task; however, finding one with a root system adequate for their needs was. It took Keyleth nearly half an hour, but she managed to locate an enormous tree. When she tilted her head back to look up, she couldn't see the top of the tree through the thick canopy.

The roots were large enough that two horses could have walked side by side across the arches as they rose up out of the ground in some places. It was truly a magnificent find.

She gave a quiet whistle, trying to call the mainlander and his hound to her location. Easier to do that than to raise her voice and shout.

When they arrived, she grinned slightly at the barbarian, standing on top of one of the roots with her hands on her curved hips. "Is this big enough?"

 

[Thren]

"Never heard that question before." The Barbarian grunted.

Thren recognized the roots, they were of a true called the Canura. It's sap was poisonous to many animals, though luckily not to humans. The great trees were all over the wilds, and it was said in ancient times they had been used to build great ships.

The Barbarian only knew that because he'd listened to a natives story about them once.

It had been a pleasant tale.

"Good enough for a home." Thren said. "Maybe two."

He chuckled.

 

[Keyleth]

She slid down the root and came to a stop in front of the barbarian, smiling softly up at him. "I did not realize that J was seeking out a home for us. I should have looked for something a bit more cozy, perhaps."

She looked to Larik, lightly running her fingers over the top of the hound's head.

"Should keep the three of us warm and dry, however. Which is more than we could have asked for."

 

[Thren]

He smiled. "A home is what you make of it."

That was what he'd always been taught.

The Siruk did not really have any permanent 'homes' of any sort. By nature they were a nomadic people, moving from one place to another as frequently as the wind blew across the land. Thren had never really like being stationary.

Made him antsy.

"Not too dry." The Barbarian said at her with a smirk.

 

[Keyleth]

Her expression mirrored the barbarian's smirk and she shook her head, turning to make her way back through the roots of the tree. "I suppose we'll find out then?"

Underneath the outer extremities of the root system, Keyleth found a raised section that would keep them off the ground and shielding from any unexpected rainfall. She slipped her bag from her shoulders and set it down on the relatively flat surface, glancing around with an almost awed expression. It was truly breathtaking how colossal the tree was.

"Well, it sure beats a corpse filled ship." She mused, glancing up to the barbarian.

 

[Thren]

"Suppose we will." Thren said as he whistled and called Larik over.

The hound ran over, quickly lopping himself into place and finding a place that would be comfortable for him to sleep. Thren observed him for a moment, smiling before he glanced over towards where Keyleth had placed herself.

"I'll find us some firewood." He told her. "Try not to get carried away."

The Barbarian said, his face kept completely straight as he looked between the two of them and turned towards the jungle.

 

[Keyleth]

She chuckled quietly to herself, shaking her head. He made it easy for her to think about something else other than her heartache and crushing responsibilities. It was ... refreshing to be around someone who didn't seek to use her to gain power, or to hold it, as had been the case with her late husband. The two of them never had a loving relationship together.

Her eyes followed the barbarian as he sauntered off. She didn't even know the man's real name. They'd endured so much together and yet they were both content with where they stood with one another -- lack of names to call one another seemed irrelevant.

A smile touched her lips as she watched him.

Things were different with the Mainlander. If she and Leonell had made a good team guarding the throne of Minaris... she wondered how much she and the nomad could accomplish together.

She reached over and pat Larik's head. "C'mon. Let's see if we can find something a bit more comfortable to lay on than just wood, hm?"

Standing up and grabbing her spear, Keyleth turned to venture further into the tangled labyrinth of roots to find vines and fallen leaves for the three of them to sleep on.