Fable - Ask What Happens After

[Soleil Verdane]

Soleil Verdane was also in the main courtyard. She paid no special mind to the returned Initiates from the senior class, their faces marred with such various emotions or the willful concert to conceal such, nor to the Initiates of her own class or younger, they who seemed bemused or trepidatious or concerned or mayhap just annoyed by the lockdown. She seemed detached from the presently tense atmosphere of the Academy. Or perhaps it just didn't bother her. Or couldn't.

Instead, she observed what grabbed her attention the most.

The Black Guard. They were everywhere. They were like statues, yet their helmets made them faceless, denying them even the slight bit of humanity. She had been going about, looking here and looking there, but each and every one of the Black Guards seemed to be the same. Uniform.

As if they were one, but many.

Finally, in the courtyard, she walked right up to one of them. Looked up at him/her. Smiled.

"Why here?" she asked, her tone chirpy and friendly, an imitation of a woman she had seen who asked a man a question and gotten a precise answer quickly. "Intimidation?"

 

[Sable Pembroke]

Noel explained and Sable nodded along. That all seemed rather straight forward and standard. Dreadlords as Blackguard wasn't wholly sensible, but working with them must have been something they did fairly regularly. On top of that, Noel didn't seem to bear any ill will against the runaways.
"We're in accord; Gilram and the escaped proctors need to be stopped once and for all. Our classmates just need to be brought to their senses." He agreed with her. "I'll be happy to do what I can to help."

Zael's enthusiasm hadn't let up, and that was great. Sable met him with a smile -- right up until that last sentence, that assertion of Kimble's death. His brow furrowed into a frown. The devil was always in the details...
"About that...I overheard something during the debriefing and...well, that might not be true."

Sable sighed deeply, certain that the information he'd just put forward would not settle well with Zael. It didn't sit right with him, either, but he hadn't really had much of a chance to actually consider the report until now, only let it play around in the recesses of his subconscious.

"Neither Proctor Innes nor Kimble's corpses were recovered at the scene, and...well, Innes' whole thing is regeneration...I had smashed his skull in, but that isn't saying much. If Innes managed to get to Kimble before he was fully dead, that means Kimble..."

Sable trailed off, his fists clenching at the thought. He didn't want to finish the sentence, as though doing so would make it manifest. The last thing any of them needed to deal with right now was that...

 

[Samantha Black]

Davi looked at the offered belt and realised that that was the first time any initiate in the Academy had offered him something without there being some hidden agenda behind it. They had been taught since they were young that nothing was free in this world and that there was no such thing as a gift. But what Ralene offered in that simple gesture showed that in just one year that teaching had fractured. Even if it was just a little bit.

What else had fractured? What more could fracture?

Davi took the belt with a slight smile and tied it about his waist.

Thank you, another two words he had not uttered in these halls. Now, lets get some food.

Thank you.

Two words she could likely count on one hand the number of times she'd heard spoken by a fellow Initiate her entire life here at the Academy. It leavened the expression on her face just enough to be noticed behind all the bandages, but she was grateful he didn't let the sentiment linger in the air too long. If he'd been expecting a you're welcome in return, it wasn't likely to happen.

Food, on the other hand...

Would wait for just a few moments longer. As they passed a junction of halls, Ralene spied the telltale flash of violet. Even if Zael had figuratively spat in her face for ... everything she'd done, Ral was nothing if not a woman of her word. Her steps slowed to a stop and her neck craned to spy Everleigh at the far end of the side hall, "You go on. I'll catch up in a few."

She wasn't about to get between Davi and a meal.

Turning on her heel, Ralene's boots pressed on down the hall, in pursuit of purple.

"Everleigh!" she called to her, though her voice was so hoarse it likely sounded more like a bellowed croak. She hastened her gait, though not by much. There was no emergency here other than her own gnarly hunger.

"Zael - he's alive, and awake."

Everleigh Ebersol Davi

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Green apple in hand, Everleigh was prepared to head over to the infirmary, regardless if Zael was awake or not. In truth, she just needed to see his face— hopefully with more color on it. While out in the public, despite wanting to frown, Everleigh made sure that she kept her stoic mask on. Not a single twitch or a blink too fast.

Beginning to walk assuredly towards the hall that would lead to the infirmary, Everleigh paused to peer over her shoulder to see Ralene making her way to her. A sight that had never needed to come into existence before, but yesterday had changed plenty. So instead of walking away from Ralene, Everleigh met her in the middle of her path.

“Thank you.” The words were clear and concise, but they sounded insincere. Her dull violet gazed lacked emotion, and the words fell like pebbles dropped into a lake. Everleigh cleared her throat, and tried again. “Thank you for… taking care of him when I couldn’t.” Everleigh wasn’t sure if this sounded much better but she knew with her heart swelling, unseen by all, that these words of gratitudes would always be expressed, even years later.

“I owe you.” As fast as it had came, it was gone and Everleigh pivoted on her heel. Heading towards the infirmary, her long violet braid looking like a scorpion’s tail swaying behind her.

Ralene

 

[Samantha Black]

You and Zael both, Ralene thought but did not voice. She watched Everleigh depart and once she was alone in a hall, Ral released a weary sigh.

A short while later she stepped into the mess hall. Running nearly on auto-pilot, she'd collected herself a sizeable plate of food and had almost left the hall completely as she typically did. Stopping short of the eastern doors, Ralene's gaze shifted to the careworn figure of Davi off eating at a table all by himself.

It wasn't pity or compassion or anything of the sort that drove her to join him. It was the sense of kinship she'd developed for the Initiate over the last year.

Ral sat down across from him and wordlessly tucked into her food.

 

[Davi]

There were not many in the Great Hall the initiates had dubbed the cafeteria. He recognised a few; Lilianna, Trix, and Alistair arriving almost at the same time as he. But like him they seemed interested in keeping their own company and they barely exchanged more than nods even after all the horrors they had collectively faced.

His mind drifted as he ate back to Ral. She had saved his life and something ate at him at having left her to go after Evie. The distrust of the other initiates after years of bullying was a hard thing to shake and though he did not believe he would be able to hold much against a student who could wield toxins, he found himself thinking he would at least try for Ralene.

It was almost a relief when she sat down opposite and relieved him of those niggling concerns.

He watched her for a moment having finished the most of his meal before raising a unkept brow.

"Sorted?"

Ralene​

 

[Samantha Black]

Ral lifted an eye between bites, having been silently powering through her meal as she usually did. Meals weren't really considered a luxury here - the Academy had always ensured they were well-fed when they weren't being trained for starvation. Malnourishment did not make for strong Initiates, and Ralene topped the charts when it came to consumption of food among her peers. Needed to support her burden of brawn somehow.

A nod as she chewed and then swallowed, reaching for her tankard of water.

"With any luck that will be the last I see or hear from any of them. So long as they don't decide to clap me in irons, I'm leaving tomorrow to join Captain Holstag in the Knights..." and then it occured to her that she had no idea what Davi's plan had been for after graduation.

"What about you?"

 

[Noel]

Noel stood there, stoically, as Zael spoke and before she had a chance Sable gave his two pence as well.

It was good that Sable agreed with most of her logic but one of Zael's comments concerned her. "We'll do as the Republic asks us," she said while staring down the bed-ridden Zael, "we are not vigilantes." They were Dreadlords, or at least, they would be in a few days when the title was officially bestowed upon them.

That was important. Their wayward classmates weren't Dreadlords. They might never attain such a title. They were a ravenous mob content on overthrowing the rule of law. It was why they needed to be shown their wrong-doing, and why Gilram needed to be killed.

There was one thing that Noel cringed at though and it was Sable's utterance of the possibility that Proctor Kimble was still alive. "Leave Kimble." She said softly. "Gilram is our first threat and target. We can address Kimble when the time calls."

Distractions were precisely that, distracting. They needed to focus on what mattered. What was important. And for now the most important thing that Noel could think of was the fate of their former classmates who were in the hands of some madman bent on overthrowing Vel Anir.

 

[Davi]

What about you?

It was an innocent enough question though it made Davi pause with the fork halfway to his mouth. Before, they would have been thinking about which House to pledge themselves to based off who offered the most lucrative deal. Whether that was through physical money, opportunities to progress, or something more sinister, Davi had had more of a concrete idea of who he would have thrown his service behind. But now... He'd spent months trawling through the different regiments in the Guard he could join and the future had suddenly seemed to... wide. There had been a tiny spark born with the revolution that he really could just do whatever he had wanted...

Nobody had ever asked him before though.

Realising he was staring like an idiot he finished the mouthful of food and then used his fork to chase a carrot across his plate; he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes as he spoke his truth.

"I had thought about becoming an Anirian Marshall," being in a posting away from this life had been appealing, and being responsible for some small town, caring for them, it would have given him purpose. It was nothing so grand as the knights, Ralene no doubt thought him a fool.

 

[Samantha Black]

Should have been amused about the idiotic stare, but Ralene was finding humor hard to come by today. She kept eating, deciding to at least not let his silence sour her appetite. When he did finally answer, she didn't respond immediately.

She did think him a fool and she shook her head to say as much. Ral stabbed into the hank of steak on her plate and sliced off a sizeable piece, "You're too smart to be a Marshall."

He'd get bored of a tired little village far too quickly. She pointed at him with her fork and piece of steak, "You could be a Knight. A title and job far more fitting your skills."

 

[Davi]

Davi's lips compressed into a thin line.

"You're not the only one to say that," he said dryly. Without an offensive form of magic like most of his peers, Davi had applied himself quiet and with great dedication to the sword. Their swordsmaster had been absolutely dismayed he intended to pack himself off somewhere remote where he likely would not need to use those skills very often.

"The Knights, though?" he looked doubtful. "That's for people like you, not me."

 

[Samantha Black]

"You're not the only one to say that."

"Because it's fucking true," she minced no words on her opinion of fact, raising a dark, pointed brow at him as though he were a fool for believing anything else, "one month and you'll be bored out of your damned mind in whatever backwater village they put you in."

Some other Initiate might have read him the riot act about how he hadn't spent his entire life struggling against all odds of death to get relegated to janitor duty. Kristen might've seen the honor in sacrificing his skills and education to protect the small people, but Ralene saw it for exactly what it was: a fucking waste.

"The Knights are for those who have honed a specialized craft and can put it to use for missions that the regular Guard can't handle. That's you and your swordsmanship," Ral openly eyed him across the table, "that's you and your changeling powers. You'd be a valuable asset to the Knights."

"One-hundred silver pieces says I can convince Holstag of it in ten minutes or less."

 

[Davi]

Davi wasn't sure he had ever seen that amount of silver in one place before and a part of him worried she was serious about her bet. His brows pulled together throwing his eyes into their shade.

"Not everyone see's being able to... do what I can as a craft," he stabbed at a piece of food and examined it like one might a skewered bug. "It's too close to what the elves can do, too inhuman. I doubt you could convince any General it was worth the spitting and superstitious mutterings to have me along for the ride."

 

[Samantha Black]

Ral straightened in her seat, gazing across at Davi with the certainty of a woman who very rarely, if ever, lost her bets.

"Then take the bet," she replied, "if you can't afford it in coin, pay it back to me in missions."

 

[Davi]

Davi gave her a wary look. The type of look one gave a dog you had just seen bite the hand of the last person who had tried to pet it, but were still weighing up whether the risk was worth the potential reward. Oh, he was most certain the decision would bite and take its pound of flesh. But...

He could always be a Marshall in a few years.

With a grunt he held out his hand. A silent bet.

 

[Samantha Black]

She took his hand with the same calculated intent she employed in battle strategy. Regardless of his doubts, Ralene felt confident adding him to Holstag's roster would only work in her favor.

"Meet me with your things at the stables tomorrow morning at daybreak and be ready to leave. If they haven't put me behind bars before then, they can come find me out in the field."